I had a plan, but it dug at my weak spot. It wasn't exactly a suicide mission I had to give out, but it was close enough to gnaw at me. Unfortunately, it was the only decent idea I could come up with. "Hector, give me the four most experienced scouts."
"Garrison, Evers, Connors, and Rodriguez have the most months of service. Garrison, Harris, Connors, and Janek have the most assaults. Alvarez has fewer assaults and less time in service, but has been in two battles on worlds with extreme cold conditions. Recommendation of four most qualified candidates: Garrison, Connors, Janek, and Alvarez."
Wow. Not even one obnoxious remark. Hector was mellowing. I thought for a second before making my decision. "Ok, Hector. Put me on com with Garrison, Connors, Janek, and Alvarez. Get Captain Frost on the line too."
"Of course," came the immediate reply. "I am glad to see you accepting my recommendations. I anticipated some emotion-based need to adjust my determinations."
Oh well. Spoke too soon about Hector. "Just do it."
There were a few seconds of silence while he established the links. "You are connected with the requested parties."
I just launched right into it. "I have a mission for the four of you. We need to breach this ring of strongpoints, and we don't have time to take potshots at them in this storm. I'm going to use specials to take them out, but we need better targeting than we have. These things are reinforced, and if we're going to use warheads that won't force us to fall back from here we're going to have to land them right on the mark.
"I want you to move out in two pairs, each toward one emplacement. We're going to start popping grenades and rockets at them to get their attention, and you are going to sneak up and get close enough to hit the structures with a laser sight. You're going to have to get really close, even with a high-powered laser - maybe 20-30 meters. I want you to take your time on the approach. Crawl the whole way; don't raise anything high enough to get it shot off.
"Here's the tough part. They're going to have the same trouble scanning you as we have with them, but when you hit them with that laser there's a good chance they'll detect it. We have no idea what's behind that outer ring, but I want this whole thing to be a surprise, so I can only give you 5 minutes to get out of the blast radius. You guys crawl back as fast as you can, but at 4:45 I'm going to give you the warning, and you hug the ground as tightly as you can.
"I'm sending two companies through the gap as soon as the shockwave passes, and we're going to charge right into whatever is behind these bunkers before they have time to react. It's enough time for you to get away from the blast, but just barely. So once one of you gets the sighting on a structure I want both of you on the way back instantly."
I paused to a few seconds to let them process what I was saying. "One other thing. When you have visual and think you can get a laser spot, check in before moving ahead. We've got to get both teams in position before anyone paints the target. That 5 minutes starts when the first beam hits, so if the other team isn't in position they're not going to have time to get the spot done and get out in time. I know this is high risk, but it's the only way we can get through these defenses without getting half the battalion shot up. Any questions?"
I didn't expect any, so I wasn't surprised when there were none. Just four quick "no sirs." I had Hector terminate the link, then told Hector to get Frost back on the line.
"Frost here, sir."
"Dan, I want you to supervise the scouts. Split them into two pairs and monitor them every step of the way. I'm going to supervise the firing myself. Five minutes to the second after we get the first spot those nukes are going to fly. I want all four of those scouts to get back. Make sure they don't spot until both are in position."
"Understood, sir. Consider it done."
I cut that line and got Jax on. I filled him in on the plan and told him to have the two companies ready to get low when the warheads went off and prepare to attack immediately. I put Jax in command of the charge, but I really wanted to go myself.
Ten minutes later two platoons supported by two heavy weapons teams from the battalion reserve opened fire with grenades and rocket launchers, while the four scouts started to move forward from the line. It takes a long time to crawl a kilometer, and the next fifteen minutes was just about the longest in my life. It didn't look like the enemy had spotted any of the scouts, but that wasn't surprising. Crawling like they were the snow completely covered them. Scout suits had the best camo our technology could produce, and they also had a coating that interfered with scans. Not that any scans were worth a damn here anyway.
The team on our right, Janek and Alvarez, got into position first. Alvarez commed a quick description of the structure. It looked like a hardened plasti-crete bunker mounting three heavy auto-cannons. Shit, I was right. We'd have been slaughtered if we'd advanced straight into that fire. They had only been firing one of the guns. Clever bastards. Trying to sucker us into a frontal assault.
It didn't take more than another minute before Garrison commed that he was in position. The left structure seemed to be a copy of the one on the right. I gave Frost to go ahead, and he had the scouts paint the targets. The second the laser sights hit the bunkers the position was relayed to the mortar teams I had ready. I had Hector counting down 300 seconds, giving me a warning every 30 until the last 30 and then counting down by ones.
Without our normal scanner capability I didn't have reliable location data on the returning scouts, so I really had no idea how they were doing. I felt myself willing them forward, as if I could pull them back with my mental powers.
When Hector got to one minute I had the mortar teams arm their warheads. At thirty seconds I had him broadcast the countdown to the whole battalion.
"Twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-four…"
Had I done everything I could? Should I give those guys an extra minute to get back?
"Eighteen, seventeen, sixteen…"
No. I had to stick to the plan. If there were more bunkers behind these and we lost the surprise, our attack would run right into a meatgrinder. At fifteen I told the scouts to hug the ground.
"Twelve, eleven, ten…"
I dropped down myself. The whole battalion was prone, though most of us were far enough back to avoid the worst of the shockwaves.
"Five, four, three, two, one…"
Buttoned up in my suit in the middle of an alien blizzard I couldn't hear the shots go off. There was an eerie wait, maybe ten or twelve seconds while the rounds made their way to the target and then…
The swirling snow flared bright yellow for an instant and then vaporized.
"Everyone stay down until I give the order!" I had told them several times already, but it never hurt to make sure.
I could hear rocks and debris bouncing off the back of my suit as the shock waves reached my position. It only lasted a few seconds and then subsided. I slowly got up onto my hands and knees and looked out to see two small mushroom clouds. Hector gave me a breakdown of outside conditions. An unarmored man would have died instantly, probably first from the intense heat, though the heavy concentration of ammonia vapor and the radiation were also well beyond lethal levels.
I had Hector get me Jax on the line. "Jax, start your attack. Be careful, and monitor the heat levels. You should be fine, but just make sure no one gets into a hotspot and exceeds their suit tolerance."
"Yes sir. Attack commencing now."
This was definitely the same old Jax. He had the companies heading forward in 15 or 20 seconds, and they were moving quickly. After about two minutes I got a report.
"Major Cain, Jax here. We have visuals on the impact points. Significant craters and scattered plasti-crete debris. The bunkers are completely gone. No enemy presence, no hostile fire. Exterior temperature 923K."
I replied, "Thank you, Captain. Keep moving toward the center point. Report any structures or enemy action immediately. Continue monitoring outside conditions."