Outward from the plasma zone the rock was finely pulverized and then the condition graded outwards until in the outer layer there were rather large boulders . . .
. . . That the explosion in their center tossed thousands of feet into the air.
* * *?
"For what we are about to receive," Major Mitchell said as the side of the mountain started to slip their way. "May we truly be thankful."
"Oh damn," Pruitt said. "Bad things are supposed to happen to other people when Bun-Bun is around."
"I've got traction!" Reeves shouted.
"Go!" the major replied, watching the landslide building up.
"I'm going!" the driver shouted, as the SheVa lumbered up out of the suddenly widened hole. "I think the shots loosened us up!" Then he swore as the ground gave way again and the SheVa stopped abruptly. "NOOO!"
But the mountains they were traversing were old; the hillsides worn by millions of years. The slope-ripping slides of the Rockies were virtually unknown in the Appalachians; even when started by a nuclear explosion. The crumbling mountainside continued about halfway down the hill and then came to an abrupt, tree-crunching halt in a cloud of dust.
At which point, everyone started to notice the bonging sound on the top of the turret.
"I think you're about to get your wish, Pruitt," Indy said sourly.
"What?" the gunner said, looking up as if in disbelief that they were alive.
"Bad things are about to happen to other people."
* * *
"I don't like this!" Kittekut shouted as the boulders continued to rain on the bouncing, jolting Humvee over their heads.
"Neither do I," Ryan replied equanimably. "It could be worse, though!"
"How?!"
"You want a list?" he asked. "We could be stuck in a basement, surrounded by a Posleen force that has already overrun everything in its path and with them pounding on the last door!"
"We're about to get crushed by a rain of boulders!" she shouted. "That counts as really bad in my book!" But even as she said it the worst of the shower had passed.
"Everybody okay?" Ryan asked, rolling out from under the vehicle despite the continuing rain of small debris. "And ready to walk?"
"Oh, man, it's trashed," Kittekut said, getting to her feet and looking around. "What a mess!"
Rocks ranging from pebbles to boulders large enough to have crushed the Humvee were scattered in every direction and most of the trees had been swept off the mountainside. From their perch at the edge of Betty Gap they could clearly see the SheVa gun down in the holler, apparently wedged into a ravine. A unit of MetalStorms was picking its way down the slope towards the gun. And a Lamprey, crumpled like so much foil, was well down the holler.
"It's a mess, all right," Ryan replied, keying his code module. "Dig around in the gear and find anything salvageable. A radio for choice."
* * *
"Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie," Pruitt said.
He was standing on one of the boulders, looking down at the SheVa stuck like a cork in the gully.
Gully was something of a misnomer; the small valley could have easily have contained a few single-family homes if the area was a subdivision. But the SheVa was still stuck.
"Look," Reeves said defensively. "I did my best." The edges of the gully were barely above the treads and didn't, quite, intersect the turret. But some of the boulders that had tumbled down the slope were piled on the sides of the machine. "At least I didn't blow a mountain down on us."
"I prefer to think of it as blowing a Lamprey off of us," Pruitt said. "And here's our Greek chorus . . ."
"Damn, sir," said Captain Chan, walking over to the group peering at the SheVa. "I've seen some tanks get stuck in my time but . . . Damn, sir."
"Yeah," Mitchell said, walking back and forth and looking at the gun. "I think that the big problem is the lip in front of it; it can't get any traction to pull itself out."
"We could hook some of your tracks up to it, ma'am, and try to pull it out," Reeves said.
She looked at him in amazement. "Did you actually think before you said that, Private?"
"Uh . . ."
"A Meemie weighs just over sixty tons; how much does one of these things weigh?"
"Errr, just over seven thousand," the driver admitted. "I hadn't realized there was that much difference."
She looked over at her track then up and up at the SheVa towering nearly two hundred feet in the air. Tanks made her feel small; SheVas made her feel like an ant.
"I don't think that will help, son," she said. "It would be like trying to move one of my tracks with a tricycle."
"You know, they're talking about making one of these as a close combat support vehicle," Mitchell said. "Think about how much one of those will weigh; especially covered in armor."
"Ouch."
"And, golly gee," Pruitt said with a grin. "We've proven that they can be used in mountain warfare."
CHAPTER 35
Betty Gap, NC, United States, Sol III
0829 EDT Sunday September 27, 2009 ad
"I think they're stuck, Major," Kittekut said.
"I do believe you're right, Specialist," the major replied with a chuckle.
It had taken the group nearly a half hour to travel down the hillside, during which the group around the giant weapon had performed a thorough study of the area. Along the way Ryan's small group had obviously been spotted.
As he walked around the back of the monstrous piece of machinery, a female soldier appeared out of a hatch over the treads and walked down them. After a brief moment's inspection she saluted.
"Warrant Officer Sheila Indy," she said. "Engineer for SheVa Nine."
"Major William Ryan," the engineer replied. "I'm a combat engineering specialist attached to Ninety-Third Corps. Right now I'm in charge of this motley crew. Until recently we were trying to make things hard for the Posleen."
"And what are you doing now?" Indy asked.
"We're looking for a ride; a rain of boulders seems to have destroyed our Humvee."
The warrant officer laughed and looked at him with interest. "Did you say combat engineers, Major?"
"Yep," he answered. "And it looks like you need some earth moved."
"That we do," the warrant said. "Could you come with me, sir?"
He popped the straps on his ruck and gestured at the mixed group of soldiers. "Rest; I think we'll be working in the near future."
He and Kittekut, who seemed to be acting as his shadow, followed the warrant officer around the SheVa to the front where a group of officers were wrangling over the situation. The SheVa was in a crack with both of the treads only partially on the ground—they were mostly supported by rock on both sides of the gully—and with a high mound of earth directly in front of the treads. It was this friable mixture of rock and loam, well mixed with the water from the stream, that was preventing the tank from getting a good grip. With a car the answer would be to pile branches under the treads. With a SheVa gun, that wouldn't work.
Ryan didn't approach the group of officers, but walked over in front of the gun, stooping to pick up the occasional bit of debris then stopping and pulling out his entrenching tool. He dug into the stream bank until he hit rock, then chopped at it until he had a sample; at that the sample was small. Last, he walked to the far side of the gun and got a good look at that side.