Chapter 59 - Burn, Burn, Burn

Ivy didn't know when she'd last slept.

The mobile command centre was a feverish place that clanged with noise and never-ending voices. The stream of comms between the commanders and the thousands upon thousands of soldiers fighting beyond the walls was constant, and she could hear the rolling boom of northern artillery.

They'd been firing since she got here, and they hadn't stopped.

In the end she just tried to block it out, focusing her world on the small slivers of metal scattered on the table in front of her. Ryke gave her what she needed; the rest was up to her. She, alongside a team of Engineering Cadre weapons experts, now hunkered down in the bowels of the command centre, digging through the human arsenal to find a weapon that could turn the tide.

Ryke was already back out there, in thick of the killing like he always was. Ivy could feel her fingers trembling at the thought of it, but jammed those feeling back down her throat. Focus. The quickest way to get him home in one piece, would be to put an end to the Crawlers and their masters.

Easier said than done, though.

Whatever these damned things were made of, none of the usual suspects seemed to have much effect. High concentrations of hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, sodium hydroxide and nitric acid had all given her a big fat nothing. Different combinations of various solutions didn't have any more success – no matter what permutation she used, the stubborn plates held up against all of it.

Trying to actually examine the structure of the stuff didn't help much. Even under a microscope the metal was strangely opaque, and their computers couldn't make heads nor tails of its molecular structure.

Another mixture of vicious chemicals touched one of the scales. Ivy watched as the concoction snarled and bubbled, eating away at the protective surfaces all around the sliver of metal. As the reaction died, however, the alien armour remained unharmed.

Spitting a foul curse, she rolled her chair back from the table, tugging off her thick protective gloves and take a gulp of water from her canteen. She could feel the pain beginning to start behind her eyes, lack of sleep and dehydration beginning to get the better of her. She knew she needed to rest, but she couldn't tear herself away.

Someone had to finish this.

Ivy allowed her eyes to close for a moment, taking a moment to just breathe and recentre herself. There were plenty more compounds to try. Something would work. It had to.

A sudden bang and flare of light made her almost fall out of her chair. She let out a squawk of surprise and just barely caught the side of the table to stop herself from falling. Smoke belched through the room and an alarm blared. A cascade of cursing from the other specialists erupted.

"Sound off!" the Arms Sergeant roared.

"Secure, secure!" Corporal Valero spluttered from the far side of the room, raising a hand. "Countermand, sir."

The burly sergeant lurched over to the alarm controls, slammed the toggles and punched in his command code to secure the room. After a quick, heated comms exchange with one of the command centre's operators, he rounded on Valero, his face crumpled with anger.

Ivy twisted to look as well, and saw her comrade rolling back in his seat, waving away the cloud of smoke around his work station with one heavily gloved hand. He was coughing for breath, but seemed to otherwise be unharmed.

"What in pissing Rivers was that?" she demanded.

"Sorry, but I think... think I've got something!" Valero blurted out between coughs. He beckoned her over.

Blinking furiously, Ivy scrubbed at her eyes and stumbled over to his work station, leaning in over his shoulder.

Valero put down his tools for a moment and stifled a yawn. Then he took a slug from his canteen of coffee. Everflowing she wished for a gulp of shiner right now. She looked down at the table and saw that the four metal scales that he'd been given to test had fused together, coils of stinging smoke rising up out of them.

"What did you do?" she breathed.

"It was just an idea." He looked up with a breathless smile. "I tried thermite."

"Didn't we try that already?" Ivy's brow furrowed with confusion. "Just flashed too quick to make any impact. It was just like hitting it with an explosive."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I was just running through the tests." Valero pointed at the molten scales. "Copper thermite. It didn't do anything to an individual piece, but when I fitted them together..."

"Copper thermite," she repeated. "That's what did that?"

"Yup."

"Bloody Lords." She squeezed her fingers against her eyelids, trying to think. Then she nodded to herself. "Do it again."

Darting across the room, she gathered up her own scales then brought them back, dumping them across the table in front of him. Valero removed one glove long enough to reposition his protective goggles securely, then nodded, arranging the scales together in front of him.

As though magnetised, the slivers of armour clicked back together of their own accord. They'd discovered through their painstaking trial and error that, once peeled off from their host, the metal shards could be pulled apart and rearranged with relative ease, but the more of them that connected, the harder it became to break the bonds again.

"Ready?" Valero looked up at her.

She nodded.

With painstaking care, Valero sprinkled a small amount of the powder onto the scales. This time she was ready for the flash that accompanied the violent reaction, but she still couldn't help but stake a step back, wincing through the blast goggles.

When the light faded and the smoke cleared, Ivy looked down to find that the small collection of alien armour plates had been completely melted together. The shine remained, but the edges were dulled and mangled, like they'd been welded. A few seconds passed, then she reached forward to pick up the little slab.

Turning it between finger and thumb, she let out an impressed whistle.

"Damn."

"I'm not sure what it is," Valero said. "But when the thermite is applied to a connected section it seems to react and fuse the whole thing."

"It must be the tech itself," Ivy mused. "It actually spreads the reaction so fast that it ends up fusing itself solid. A single scale just absorbs it." Frowning, she put the piece back down, then stepped over to a nearby work bench and picked up a hammer.

Testing the weight of the tool, she nodded to herself, then brought it slamming down on top of the fused section.

It shattered, flinging the armoured segments in all directions. Ivy's mouth dropped open in excitement. It hadn't been exactly what she'd had in mind, but it was a lot better than nothing.

"By the Lords!" he gasped. "I... I mean we would need to combat test it, but if this works the same way-,"

"We could shatter all that pretty armour." Ivy looked down at him. "Better make some calls, Valero. I think we're going to need a lot more of this stuff."


*


The enemy had slowed, but they had not stopped. Casualties on both sides had been horrific, but General Bosede and the commanders did not back down.

And Ryke didn't want them to. The line had to be drawn somewhere. Crescentscar was as good a place as any. His Dreadnought was still running, stripped and patched with fresh armour plating and coolant, and loaded with as much ammo as it could carry. The rest of HK-Rupture joined him in the hurricane, battered, scorched and dented, but still fighting.

He was acutely aware, however, that he had some of the best pilots on offer, and only that skill had kept them alive. Even then, close calls were happening practically every minute of every engagement. Ryke knew in his gut that their luck could only hold out for so long.

His gauntlet triggered, sending a fresh trio of charges into a floundering alien in front of him. It's head section lashed down at him, ramming the Dreadnought's thick front armour with enough force to send him staggering backwards, amber alarms screaming across his front plating.

The charges detonated a moment later, blowing a hole in the creature's right flank. Its eerie, gargling shriek of anger threatened to overwhelm the audio filters as it stumbled backwards. The weapon in its hands twisted towards him.

It flashed.

He moved, just in time. The heat of the shot melted the right edge of the Dreadnought's head section. He felt a white-hot burn against his ear and alarms screamed at him. Sensor clusters and cameras died in the miniature inferno, but the structural integrity of the mech remained intact.

The alien lurched backwards, blood leaking from the hole in its flank as it disappeared into the mob of Crawlers pressing forward from behind. More shellbursts tore open the enemy ranks further back, filling the valley of Crescentscar with more corpses.

He could feel the ground shifting unsteadily beneath the feet of his mech. Between the attempted tunnelling of the Crawlers, the counter-mining of the Brekkan sappers, and the never ending hail of artillery shells, the entire stretch of land was starting to come apart at the seams.

The enemy line receded again, a constant undulating mass. More lashes of heat scorched the human line from the alien weapons, burning through armour and bodies with ease. Ryke thanked the Riverlords that the aliens themselves were so few in number. Nothing in the human army could stand up to a direct hit from one of those shots. He stepped back, allowing his squadmates to join the hail of return fire.

"SC-1 – Lockjaw," Colonel Hackley's voice burst over the comms. "Come in."

"Lockjaw – SC-1, go ahead," Ryke barked as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

"Status?"

"Still here, ma'am. That's about all I can tell you." He crunched down on a hydrocube from the Dreadnought's dwindling internal supply, feeling sweat dripping down his cheeks from the heat. "What can I do for you, Colonel?"

"Got a new toy to test out on our friends," she explained. "But we need a live fire test. Now."

"In the middle of this?!"

"I'm afraid so, Sergeant. Asset is en route to your location now – callsign Welder."

Ryke quickly glanced to the HUD again, searching until he spotted the tiny blip of blue that matched the callsign, moving at a rapid pace into the front line.

"Copy, got it on the HUD."

"I'm going to need you to clear a path, sergeant."

"What exactly are we delivering?"

"New rounds that should be able to deal with that armour plating. But we need clear line of sight to test this. You with me, Vannigan?"

"Yes, ma'am! Send them in." Ryke switched his comm to the squad-wide, a surge of adrenaline hitting his system. "Lockjaw – all units! On my lead. Friendlies coming in, looking for a target."

"No shortage of those, Sarge!" Fenix shouted as she back-stepped, pivoting left and right as she fired off the slow-firing backlash rounds one at a time.

"We're talking a real target," he answered, watching on the HUD as the other Hunter-Killers slowly coalesced around him in the mayhem. "Find me a bug, and let's squash it!"

"Copy, copy," Kim declared. "On my lead, Lockjaw, got a fresh body bearing 029°."

"Lockjaw – Sharps! Copy?"

"Copy, Lockjaw."

"Friendly inbound packing new hardware. We're leading them in – cover our flank."

"Copy that. Moving now."

Charpente's mechs began carving their way to the right, moving between a screen of tanks, militia emplacements and heavy Scout skiffs.

"Haunter, your lead," Ryke ordered. "Haze, with me. Deadbolt, Riptide, kick left and right. Avalanche, Two-Step, tight on my lead with suppressing fire. Scythe, rearguard – make sure none of those crawling bastards get behind us and escort our package in. Sound off!"

The responses cascaded through the comm, and HK-Rupture formed up in readiness. A moment later the mysterious "Welder" emerged from the human battle line.

The vehicle that appeared was not what he'd expected. Neither a fast moving scout, nor the bulk of a northern tank, a bulky, Brekkan militia truck, with big traction wheels and its rear section stripped down to accommodate a hastily mounted, high calibre cannon.

"Welder – Lockjaw," a gruff male voice crackled over the comm. "We are loaded and ready. You got a target for me?"

"Ready and waiting," Ryke answered. "Pull in behind us, stick close to Scythe on your approach. We'll give you a window."

"Copy that. I just need a clean shot."

"Mind if I ask what you're firing?"

"Better to show you than tell you, Sergeant. If it works, you'll know."

"Copy that." Switching back to his pilots, Ryke braced himself. "Let's do this people!"

They advanced again under the covering hail of tank fire, shells ripping deep into the enemy line as Kim led the way, her nimble Raptor dancing and twisting to keep out of the firing line of the enemy weapons. Crawlers thundered forward to meet them, and the mechs of HK-Rupture plunged forward like a spear. Charpente's supporting unit slammed in from the side, dragging more enemy units into the fray.

Ryke saw the glint of the alien armour, and turned his Dreadnought towards it.

There were two of them, the aliens moving as a pair, their big legs battering out a command rhythm to the mass of Crawlers around them, oblivious to the shells that exploded around them. The armour scales shimmered dismissively as flame and shrapnel washed over them.

"Welder, stick close!" Ryke shouted, pummelling a Crawler out of his path with three shattered limbs. "You're only going to have one shot at this."

"That's all we need, Lockjaw. Primed and ready."

Satisfied, Ryke pressed on. Scantlin moved with him, with Fenix to their right, blasting away with her cannon at anything that moved. On the other flank, Preese strafed, with the Goliath mechs pounding shots from their heavy cannons to the each side to keep the Crawlers from overrunning them.

A flash seared out and he heard Kim scream.

Blades slashing wildly, he ripped another Crawler's carapace open and shunted the thing aside, to reveal her Raptor mech, its left arm reduced to molten slag. Coils of smoke rose into the air and the Hunter-Killer stumbled drunkenly.

"Haunter, back, back back!"

Ryke launched himself forward as a Crawler lunged for his stricken comrade, putting his Dreadnought right into its path. The huge weight of the creature slammed down on top of him, sending the reactor screaming.

"Haze, rip this thing!" he bellowed as he spread his feet to hold the Crawler up. It's legs and tail smashed at his armour, sending fresh damage indicators blazing across his display. Several plates pulsed red – critical failure.

"Got you, Sarge!"

Scantlin hit the Crawler in the flank like a wrecking ball, and sent it rolling away, the right side of its carapace caved in and spilling gore. Ryke staggered as the weight disappeared, pivoting to face the first of the aliens that came trundling into the fray, its weapon snarling with a fresh charge.

A shell from one of the Goliaths caught it in the abdomen, but it barely registered the blast, setting its legs wide and aiming right at him. He tried to move, but the Dreadnought's response was sluggish, the left leg servos damaged.

"Target locked – firing!"

The call from Welder burst over the comm. He didn't see the cannon fire, but he saw what happened when its payload struck. The right flank of the alien's carapace flared a sudden, blinding, white-hot light that briefly overwhelmed the Dreadnought's visual filters. When it cleared, he could see the alien twisting and stumbling. The legs of its right side moved awkwardly; stiffly, its head section thrashing left and right.

The armour along one side no longer shone and rippled. It looked solid.

"Payload delivered," Welder roared. "Lockjaw – somebody hit that sucker!"

"Servo damage," Ryke shot back.

"I'm on it!" The call came from Fenix De Lunta. Her Riot mech burst free from the melee, sprinting at the stricken alien. It didn't even see her coming, still grappling with whatever the munition had done to its outer armour.

By the time it finally noticed her, it was too late.

Her warblade was already cocked back to swing, and she leaned her Hunter-Killer's full weight into the blow, slamming it into the alien's flank.

It was as though she'd struck a pane of glass. He watched, dumbstruck, as the entire right side of the alien's armour simply shattered, sending glistening shards of metal in all directions and revealing the body beneath. He glimpsed a thick, leathery hide that heaved and undulated horribly. Something bristled across its surface, and Ryke saw something that look like gills open and close, a greenish tinge shining between the gaps.

"Holy Riverlords," Fenix yelled. "It works, Ryke. Drown me, it works!"

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top