by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 51
Billy went over the plan with his commanders. He preferred simple plans, and this could not get simpler. The obvious drawback is any enemy units away from the camp could surprise the hell out of them, so he broke his five thousand super-quads into companies. After the initial attack, most would patrol along the perimeter.
Billy remembered the friendly casualties at the Summer Slaughter. “Remember to close your eyes or two hundred thousand bombs will render you a blind target. And make sure you use your ear protectors if you don’t want to go deaf. We don’t have cloud cover to conceal our approach, but at least we have starlight to see their huts.
“After we wipe out the camp followers, fan out in squads to hunt down those who escaped. If things turn to shit -- and we are in Russia -- this estate will be our rally point. Stay out of their camp because thousands of the wounded will live long enough to kill you while playing dead. Let the Russians work for whatever the corpses offer. What we want is in their vault.
“Grandma, I want you in charge of the super-quads. Moqali surrounds himself with his best quads, so they are yours.”
Everyone stood up and looked at each other for doubts. Billy radiated confidence.
“How many balls does he have?” Tiny asked Blade, who looked at him bewildered. “We’re gonna attack a few million enemies, and Red doesn’t even look nervous. With him around, I’m never the biggest guy in the room. He makes me feel tiny.”
That made Blade smile. “He only has two, but they’re so huge they can turn on a lesbian.”
“Speaking of which, I wonder how Bear is doing.”
The Russian and Scandinavian divisions arrived early. Billy feared sentries waking up a million quads in time to swamp them, but the Mongols seemed oblivious to them as they formed a “blanket” maneuver at maximum altitude, then dropped in a controlled freefall.
The advantage of taking the time to spread themselves out was that they fell uniformly. They could not afford to hit some areas twice and others not at all. The valley was shaped like a banana, so they formed the blanket accordingly. Instead of faster fliers arriving sooner, and getting slower units blasted badly, everyone fell at the same speed since they only used their wands to control their spacing.
From maximum height, Billy could gleam the first beams of light over the horizon. The farther they dropped, with their arms and legs spread out in an X-shape, the darker it became. Their eyes adjusted to the starlight in time to spot the round dots where the enemy slept. The huts stood out against the white snow like big zits on pale tits.
Billy dropped with the super-quads over the enemy headquarters. He spotted a messenger about to leave, looking up at them more confused than alarmed. A few wands below started shrieking, but much too little and much too late.
Then, at five hundred meters above ground, Billy vented his famous scream to begin the bombardment.