HARM

by Peter Lok

  “Yes, Sir. Over and out.”

  A moment later, a private channel from Dr. Chan pinged him. He immediately responded. “Yes, Doctor?”

  “We overheard that transmission from the general,” Dr. Chan spoke, also fixing her gaze on him. “Our work here is critical for the war effort. We are evacuating, but we will need time. Bravo Company will buy us most of that time, but they are outmatched. I’m sure they will need your help. I want you to save that convoy, but remember we are depending on you too.” Her voice then went cold. “Do what needs to be done… We will see you at the rendezvous later.”

  “I got the message,” Joshua dourly replied. They did call her the Dragon Lady after all. “Let me take care of things. Over and out.”

  Joshua then turned his HARM south east, continuing his run to cut off the rapidly advancing spider-mechs. Three kilometers ahead there was an old abandoned factory. The steel and concrete structures would make for good cover. He would be in position first for an ambush.

  His mecha crouched behind the weathered and rust streaked wall of a raw materials silo. From his concealed location, he launched a small drone or RPV to hover within a grove of trees in the area to monitor the approach of the of the two spider-mechs. The spider machines were huge with flattened and segmented bodies that were twelve metres long. They stood nine metres high on six legs, three per side, a few short for an arachnid, but the name had stuck anyhow. They scuttled up to 70 kph, and could jump over low obstacles. They were almost black in color with dots of red light covering their armoured shells. A vertically elongated, weapons blister on their back contained their primary beam weapon. This particular spider type had been code-named Black Widow as they were a very lethal, heavy combat mech.

  This was the second time Joshua had seen one up close, even if it was through his RPV's sensors. The first time had been as a close air support pilot who had run out of missiles. He had pulled a crazy, aerial maneuver to close in and kill an alien mech with a long, sustained burst of tank-killing cannon rounds, but had been shot down in the process. While recovering in the hospital, Dr. Chan had dragooned him into the HARM program as extra medical tests indicated he had a high synchronization rate with the experimental mental cybernetics she was developing. He had resisted at first, as he was a pilot, not some robot jockey, but potential of the HARM series mechas grew on him over time.

  "Drone has been detected, beginning evasive manoeuvres." After issuing the notice, the HARM's AI immediately began retreating and jinking the RPV. Laser flashes from the spider-mech's secondary lasers indicated multiple shots against the RPV. Several seconds later, the feed from the drone went dead. "Drone destroyed," reported the AI.

  That blew it. The Newts knew someone was around and he was blind now. He extended a tiny camera on his mecha’s head above the silo to see again. He could see the spider-mechs were advancing more slowly and had their primary guns pointed in the direction of the factory, but the wrong part of the factory. Readying his coil-gun he aimed past the silo to where the first spider-mech would appear. Safety off. Coil-gun in single mode, he thought. “Safety off. Single mode, acknowledged,” replied the AI. Single shot mode was the most powerful mode for the gun, but it would take 10 seconds before the capacitors would recharge for the next shot.

  He was nervous, his hands felt a little damp, but he remained steady. The front of the first mech appeared and he waited until a third of it entered his line of sight. He sighted on the center of mass in front and below it’s primary gun, the targeting programs automatically adjusting for range and other parameters. A squeeze of the virtual trigger in his right hand caused the coil-gun to kick back. One hypersonic, depleted uranium penetrator fired out of the coil-gun with a loud bang. A moment later, the slug hit with devastating power. The full power shot punched clean through the side of the spider-mech in a small explosion, with most of the kinetic energy from the projectile focused on a tiny surface of armour that was blasted apart. Inside the mech, the penetrator and spalled pieces of armour ricocheted through machinery, interior walls, bodies, and the main power plant. All the stored energy inside the power plant instantaneously burst out and the resulting explosion tore the mech in two.

  “Target destroyed,” the AI called out.

  The coil-gun was highly effective – a vast reversal from the early encounters where 120 mm sabot rounds from the M3A1 battle tanks had proven less than effective against the alien’s molecular armour. Better weapons like the coil-gun had been developed since, but they required a great deal of power for their superconducting magnetic coils to propel their projectiles at 3 km/second. Because of this only heavy tanks and the new HARMS were equipped with them.

  The second spider-mech’s sensors had noted the source of the shot and targeted the old silos. The powerful beam weapon on the mech flashed and beams punched four holes clean through the steel silos. However, Joshua wasn’t there anymore. He had already rolled and was shifting to a new position.

  Ready, flashed the coil-gun indicator. Coil-gun in burst mode, he thought. “Coil-gun in burst mode,” responded the AI. He ran his mecha in a crouch around the corner of the factory just as another burst of laser fire burned holes in the air behind him. The alien mech had come straight in while firing. Newts had never been observed to be cowardly.

  Still crouched, Joshua leaned out and snapped off two rounds. The first round left a deep gouge in the heavily sloped front armour of the mech but glanced off. The second round hit the left front leg joint to the body, destroying it, and caused the mech to pitch down a bit. Ducking back behind the corner, another burst of laser light blew molten chunks of brick away, peppering his HARM with small fragments. The alien mech continued closing, firing as it went. More corner vanished.

  Damn, this was getting too close, Joshua thought to himself. He needed to end this quick before he took some serious damage. He backed his mecha up and thought coil-gun to single mode. “Coil-gun to single mode. Gun charging,” spoke the AI. “Gun ready.”

  Readying himself, he thought, low jump, ten metres. “Low Jump, ten metres,” verified the AI. Tensing his legs, Joshua mimicked the jump and his mech leapt into the air at a forty five degree angle. He brought the coil gun up and aimed down. As he cleared the top of the building, he lined up the flattened bug shaped of the alien mech in his sights and placed the cross-hairs right on the enemy’s main turret and squeezed the trigger. He saw a flash of light as the alien fired at him, but it missed. The alien turret exploded into the air along with the rest of the mech as his penetrator punched right through the thinner top armour. The spider-mech was dead.

  The AI automatically helped to cushion his jump landing by firing the jump rockets just before touchdown. That was close, he thought. The simulations had not completely prepared him for the sheer ferocity of the aliens mechs.

  “Target destroyed. Twenty six rounds remaining. No enemy activity nearby,” confirmed the AI.

  Alien command and control nets were better than the human ones according to military intelligence. After this little skirmish, the aliens certainly knew that he was out here and that humans had mechas. Tactical on, Joshua thought. He watched the refugee convoy veer clear of the battle zone. “THX X-14”, messaged the lead APC. Moments later a very brief message appeared from General Garcia too. “GOOD WORK. BRAVO NEEDS BACKUP ASAP.”

  Content with the result, he then refocused his attention on Waypoint Charlie where the Bravo Company was about to be seriously outmatched by the remaining ten spider-mechs.

  ***

  Bravo Company was well dug in along the most likely line of approach to Huntsville. Captain William Ericson had his tanks dug in on a narrow front flanking both sides of a highway overpass. His ready to eat meal pack was only half eaten, forgotten due to the rapid planning he had been doing with his platoon leaders. His three platoons of main battle tanks (MBT), for nine tanks in total, were hull down, only showing their turrets behind tank sized firing pits dug for them by the combat engineers earlier in the day.
Each one utilized the natural cover of shrubbery and active camouflage netting to conceal their location from visual and thermal detection.

  His M3A3 tanks were not a match for a spider-mech in a one on one fight even though they had been upgraded to the new 130 mm smoothbore guns. Even their bulky ablative armour add-ons would only take a single hit from the alien beam cannon. The extreme engagement range for the 130 mm gun was about 2500 metres, but he knew the chance of getting a kill on a Black Widow spider-mech were non-existent at that range. They had to get the range down to 1500 metres to get good kills. On the other hand, the alien beam cannon could kill a tank at 2000 metres with a far longer extreme engagement range that could even engage aircraft.

  Ericson wasn’t in the best defensive position, but it would do as the flanking copses of woods and gullies would work for him. At the same time, it wasn’t a likely ambush position, and he was banking the aliens wouldn’t think so either. The tanks were going to be the hammer for the attack, but he would need to guarantee the spider-mechs would enter the anvil. To bait the spider-mechs in he would use one of his two platoons of robot combat walkers. When the tanks engaged the aliens they would be the opening hammer. The other walker platoon, concealed in the northerly copse of woods, would to hit the Newts from the side. From the southern side, a platoon of battlesuit infantry would strike at the same time to complete the ambush.

  The plan looked great, he just hoped it would survive contact with the enemy. Originally, X-14’s long range coil-gun was supposed to begin the engagement, but things hadn’t worked out. Still, it was good news that X-14 had knocked out two spider-mechs as there were two less to worry about. He knew X-14 was coming in, but he also knew it wouldn’t make it for the opening of the battle in time. Its primary weapons would have been a great asset. As it was, the battle ahead was going to be bloody.

  Specialist Sam Winston called up to Ericson at his commander’s position from his gunner’s seat. “Think the plan’s gonna work?”

  Ericson looked down at Sam. “I think we got a good chance,” but Sam could tell he was putting the best spin on it. After all the LT couldn’t be a defeatist or it would be game over already.

  “We’ll get ‘em. I’m going to put a sabot round up their butt,” Sam replied with bravado. “They must have butts, right?”

  Ericson, gave a slight laugh at the half-hearted humour. He pulled out a rumpled picture of his wife and his two daughters from his pocket. I’ll be back to see you, he promised himself.

  ***

  The Blue Newts had sent a trio of moth-like reconnaissance drones ahead of their advance to observe for enemy activity. As the drones approached they managed to see a half dozen combat walkers on the highway scrambling to cover, but that was all they saw. Shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles from the advance pickets of battlesuit infantry shot them down before further observations could be made. The infantry then bounded in powered hops to their new concealed firing locations from their old positions.

  The trap was set and a little luck would not hurt, Ericson thought. He suddenly realized his throat was quite dry and took out his canteen for a quick swig. Yes, he thought again, a little luck wouldn’t hurt at all. “All units. Prepare to engage according to the plan. Let’s get these guys.”

  Now that enemy units had been spotted, the spider-mechs slowed and spread out into a skirmish line that was almost a kilometre wide with seventy metres between each mech. Their turrets panned from side to side. They had seen the robot combat walkers. The walkers were normally no match for them, but there could be other enemy units nearby.

  The command data net had gone passive so units wouldn’t give themselves away via radio emissions. A few furtive reconnaissance RPVs flying low at extreme range provided partial data feeds that his whole command observed. His own units with good positions could visually observe the advancing alien units to supplement the feeds but kept radio silence. Looking through his tank’s periscope Ericson could see that the spider-mechs at the ends of the advancing line were very close to some of the concealed units. He prayed that they would remain unspotted and that his men kept their cool. Half of his unit was made up of green recruits, as casualty rates had been horrendously high, but the newbies had been spread out with the veterans to stiffen them up.

  A great deal of his plan depended on the combat walkers, a military innovation introduced in the 2030s. The walkers were autonomous, quadrupedal robots with a weapons mount on the back of their thick stubby bodies. They were approximately the shape and size of a horse with a sensor array where the horse’s neck would be, and stood on narrow legs that allowed them to traverse most rough terrain. While a tank company had only 10 tanks, including the command tank, they had a swarm of 18 combat walkers to support them. Two special transporter vehicles would both remotely control and transport the walkers. The walkers acted in the hybrid role of a light fighting vehicle and infantry support for the tanks. Every walker was armed with a machinegun that could be supplemented by either anti-tank missiles or a chain gun.

  Sweat was beginning to form on Ericson’s brow and he was sure everyone else was just as tense. Watching the tactical display count down the distance between the Newts and the camouflaged tanks was nerve wracking. While he couldn’t see Lieutenant Nguyen, who commanded the robo-jockeys, he had fought with him before and knew he’d do his job. When the Newts had advanced within 2000 metres of the tanks the six combat walkers rose up on their legs from their prone positions and each fired an improved anti-tank missile on the same central walker. They then ducked back down, popped smoke and fell back towards the overpass directly behind them. The missiles were self-homing and contrails of smoke showed them closing the distance as supersonic speed.

  The air was suddenly full of laser flashes. The Newts had data-linked fire control that multiplied the lethality of their machines by synchronizing their weapons to act as a whole. Their beam weapons now worked together in an anti-air capacity. Four of the missiles exploded in mid-air. The last two missiles struck the targeted spider-mech dead on. Great balls of flame erupted on its upper, frontal armour where the shaped charges detonated, trying to burn through the molecular armour. Both warheads left great blast marks on the surface, but black smoke only boiled out of one of them, where one warhead had penetrated. However, the mech looked like it was still quite functional as it and a number of the other walkers returned fire through the smoke. Their shots hit the empty ground that the walkers had vacated. The advance of the spider-mechs picked up as they tried to close the range on the walkers.

  Each combat walker had one missile remaining. They continued to run for the cover behind the overpass, their weapon mounts traversing to the rear. Emerging from a depression in the ground they fired again at the same spider-mech. Lasers flashed again at the missiles. Five more exploded in mid-air, the sixth staggered the damaged spider-mech, but it still didn’t go down. The lasers then targeted the escaping walkers which were running flat out at 30 kph. The combat walkers didn’t have much of a chance. Four out of the six walkers disintegrated into metal flinging fireballs while the fifth and sixth walkers managed to dodge and clear the corner.

  1800 metres… 1700 metres… Three more of the combat walkers popped up over the top of the overpass shoulder and fired another barrage of six missiles. The damaged spider-mech had already fallen behind and took two more hits. This time it stopped all movement, but continued shooting. Return fire on the walkers was fierce. One more walker exploded with a direct hit. The last two walkers popped more smoke and ducked back down behind cover. 1600 metres… 1500 metres… The spider-mechs relentlessly closed in.

  Ericson saw that the range was good. “All units, engage your targets!” His own command tank surged forward to expose the turret over the top of the overpass embankment to add additional firepower. He had also been using the overpass embankment for cover. “Gunner. Fire at will,” he ordered.

  All nine MBTs open fire within a second of each other. The open woodlands was filled wi
th the roar of 130 mm cannon fire and the pulsing cracks of the enemy beam weapons. Each of the enemy mechs was hit by the initial barrage, brilliant explosive flashes from the impacts lighting up each mech, but they withstood the attacks. Laser fire began stabbing back at the dug in tanks. Flashes of light, the explosive vapourization of ablative armour blocks indicated direct hits on several of the tanks, but the ablative armour held.

  Before the autoloaders on the tanks could complete the loading of the second rounds into the gun breaches, dozens of anti-tank missiles streaked out from both the north and south woods. The battlesuit infantry platoon and other combat walker platoon were engaging the spider-mechs from the flanks. A second set of 130 mm discarding sabot penetrators fired off just 7 seconds after the first set. They were at the maximum rate of fire for the guns.

  The battle became frenetic, with the air filled with laser fire, missiles, and tank shells. A flanking spider-mech suddenly exploded from either an armour piercing round or a missile hit – no one was sure. A tank exploded, multiple heavy lasers burning through the ablative armour and the composite armour underneath. Infantry fired grenades from their launchers and emptied clips of ammunition into the spider-mechs. More anti-tank missiles fired off. The combat walkers fired off their second wave of missiles then engaged with machineguns. Machine guns had little affect on the spider-mechs, but they could damage sensors, and distract the enemy. Spider-mechs had their primary beam cannon, but they also had a secondary laser for use against softer, non-armoured targets. These rapid fire guns began firing back at the combat walkers and infantry, suppressing and killing them.

  Another spider-mech exploded, then two more tanks. Smoke filled the air from burning wreckage, burning trees and brush, and all of the explosions. Yet another tank exploded, it’s turret hurled up into the air. God, that was Zawadski’s tank, Ericson thought to himself. Zawadski’s wife was now a widow, but he didn’t even have time to think her or even his own wife as events were moving too quickly. The alien spider-mechs kept coming, attacking, and were breaking out of the ambush. The range was now down to 900 metres. Two more spider-mechs were damaged and limping, but they kept coming.