by Mark Harritt
Mike called out, “ACE Report.” The ACE report was Ammo, Casualty, Equipment.
“Mike, this is Everett, Red, Amber, Green.”
“This is Mickey, Amber, Green, Green.”
“This is Rob, Amber, Green, Green.”
“Mike, this is Tom, Amber, Green, Green.”
Rob and Tom were watching the tunnel, making sure nothing came out to attack them from behind.
Mike had to think. He’d been battered, but he was still in one piece, “This is Mike, Red, Green, Green.”
“Bullshit Mike,” Everett said.
Mike reconsidered, “Red, Amber, Green.”
Everett didn’t say anything.
Mike listened as Ken received status reports from his team. Lot of people battered, but nobody critically hurt. Sounded like Scott Kendrik had a broken hand, and Bill Drapier might have a twisted ankle. The new body armor had saved everybody’s lives. Mike was going to let the techs know that when they were finished.
“Luis, are there any other spawn out here?” Mike asked.
“Can’t tell right now. Not seeing any thermal signatures behind the wall. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t more out in the valley. I can’t send the drone up, too much rain. The rain is decreasing sensor capabilities as well.”
Jennifer’s voice sounded over the channel, “Uh, Mike, I think you need to get up here.”
“What’s up Jen?”
“The big dragons are coming out of the forest.”
Jennifer’s voice didn’t reassure Mike. “Why’s that a problem?” he asked.
“The trees.”
“Jen, you don’t have to worry about the trees. Rob says they won’t hold a dragon’s weight.”
“What if they’re stacked on top of each other?” she asked.
Mike started cursing, “Rob, I need you to join me up top.”
“Roger Mike, lead the way. I’m right behind you.”
Mike turned to the right to run up the steps. Four bodies peeled off to run after him. Evidently, the entire team was coming.
Mike got to the top of the steps, and had to stop. The destruction was incredible. The compound wall was intact, but there were branches, leaves, and shattered tree trunks scattered across the landing. Some trees had been cushioned by others, and their intact tops projected over the chaos. Spawn bodies and entrails were strewn across the landing, cut in half by the rail guns of the mechs. The steady rain added to the chaos.
The Mechs were arrayed at the front of the landing on the other side of the destruction.
Mike started towards the front of the landing, “Jen, I’m coming in.”
“Roger, I’ve got you and the rest of the team on the display, Mike,” she replied.
“Good Lord! It looks like a tornado in a trailer park,” Everett exclaimed.
Mike stopped at the edge and looked over. The trees that hit the wall had shattered, dropping down to lay in the clearing. The clearing was just as chaotic as the top of the compound wall. Tree boles lay haphazardly across each other, creating a ramp of sorts to the top of the wall. The dragons were already at the jumble of trees, testing it to see if it would hold their weight.
Mike started cursing again. Rob stepped up next to him, looked down and said one word, “Crap.”
Mike looked at Rob, “What do you think?”
Everett stepped up and looked out at what used to be a clearing, and started talking before Rob could say anything, “We need more ammunition.”
Rob nodded, hooked a thumb at Everett, “What he said.”
Mike broadcast over the common channel, “Alright, all the ground pounders need to get more ammunition. The night’s not over. Ken, get your people out of the tunnel, we’re going to shut that down so we don’t have to worry about spawn coming through there.”
“Roger Mike,” Ken answered.
Mike motioned towards the tunnel, “Okay, let’s go get some ammunition.”
Tom was closer to the tunnel, so he led the way, “Mike, you want me to break out the Barrett .50?”
Mike didn’t even have to think about it. Mike wanted this finished. They only had sixteen rounds of .50 caliber ammunition left, but better to use it now.
“Yeah, Tom, break out the .50. And the .338 Lapua. Let’s put these dragons down.”
As they made their way to the tunnel, the bodies of the spawn increased. There was a mound of them piled up in front of the rebar cage door.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones dealing death tonight,” Everett mused.
As they approached the cage door, they could see Joe Oaks standing there with an M4.
Joe waved, “Good to see you made it through the fight.”
Tom waded through the carcasses to get to the rebar cage. He stuck out his hand and shook Joe’s, “It’s not over yet, Joe. We need ammo. Also, we need the .50 and the .338.”
Joe nodded, “Okay, we have loaded magazines. Give us the empties, and we’ll give you the loaded.” He waved toward the spawn carcasses, “If you could clear some of this out, I’d appreciate it.”
The team grabbed limbs and started dragging. Rich Stein and Craig Yee showed up.
“Where’s everybody else?” Mike asked.
“They’re coming. Murph and Joseph are helping Bill up the steps. Ken’s closing the portcullis, Scott and John are pulling security until it’s closed. Ken sent us over to get more ammunition,” Rich replied.
“I thought Scott’s hand was broken?” Mike asked.
“It is, but he can still shoot,” Rob replied.
“Send him in to have Joan take a look at it when he gets up here,” Mickey rumbled.
Rich chuckled, “Good luck with that. He won’t stop until the threat’s dead or he is. Bill’s pissed that he’s out of the fight because he can’t stand up.”
“Good for them, that’s the warrior spirit,” Everett said.
Mike pointed at the dead spawn, “Grab some. Put them over the side.”
They pulled the carcasses away and tumbled them over the ledge onto the steps.
“Hey, a little heads up would be appreciated!”
“Sorry Ken, we’re trying to clear the door,” Mike said.
The Sec team made their way to the top of the landing. Drapier had his arms over Murph and Joseph’s shoulders.
Mickey walked over to check him out, “We’re going to have to get Joan and Joel to look at that.”
Drapier cursed.
The team cleared away from the rebar cage as Murph and Joseph handed Drapier over to Will and Hank. They took him back to get him out of his body armor and take him back to the doctors.
Ken walked over, “Scott and John are coming up.”
“How did Scott break his hand?” Everett asked.
“One of the spawn bit him.”
Mickey was concerned at this news, “Did it break the skin?”
“I don’t know, maybe,” Ken answered.
“Tell him to get his ass up here, double time!” Mickey exclaimed.
“What’s up?” Ken asked.
“I don’t know about the spawn, but the adult dragons have poisonous fangs. We have to get him checked out,” Mickey replied.
“I hear you, I’m coming,” Scott replied.
He made his way to the top of the steps and walked over to Mickey, “I’m okay. I can still shoot.”
Mickey grabbed him by the battle rattle and pulled him close to the light, “Damn. I can’t see good enough through this helmet. It looks ripped. You’re done. I can’t take a chance. You need to go get your hand checked out by medical.”
“Aw, come on! Don’t take me out of the fight, Mickey!”
Ken stepped in, “Don’t argue. We can’t send you to the hospital if you’re wrong. Get in there, strip out of that. If Joan gives you a clean bill of health, you can come back out.”
Scott walked towards the cage door, mumbling the entire way. Mickey patted him on the back, “Quit yer bitchin. Get your ass in there.”
With
the two men out of the way, it was business as usual. They stepped up, and Joe started handing out ammunition and rifles. Mickey and Tom handed over their Sig rifles. Joe handed them to Latricia, who cleared them and took them back to the armory. Joe handed them the sniper rifles. Mickey took the .50 BMG as Tom took the Desert Tactical .338. They swapped their empty magazines for the full ones. Mike, Everett, and Rob swapped out their rifle and pistol magazines for full ones. They were hurrying as fast as they could, but it wasn’t fast enough for Jennifer.
Jennifer’s voice sounded, “Mike, you need to get over here, one of them is climbing up.”
----------------------------------------------------
Chapter Three
They hurried through the curtain of rain pouring off the cliff. The tops of the fallen trees swayed slowly as the dragon climbed. Bellows filled the air and rang off the cliffs as the dragons roared their challenge. The light from the ledge scattered, throwing shadows into a chaotic landscape. The team made their way back through the detritus of the fallen trees and shattered spawn carcasses. Mike heard the buzz saw sound of rail guns opening up. They hugged the side of the cliff, trying to avoid the larger debris. Mike arrived at the rail right behind Mickey, taking in the nightmare scene.
Dragons were spread across the clearing, but Mike didn’t see the Ancient. One of the larger dragons was clambering across the top of the fallen trees. The tree trunks cracked and settled as the dragon’s enormous weight pressed down. Just for a moment, Mike thought the trees might not hold the weight, but he was disappointed when the dragon kept climbing.
Blood streamed off the dragon as the incandescent iron rounds of the rail gun ripped into its hide. Instead of slowing it, the pain drove the dragon as it tried to close with and kill its tormentors. Mike watched the dragon place one great paw on a juncture of trees to support its weight
He spoke to his team, “Shoot the elbow of the left forearm! If we can break the joint, it can’t climb the trees!”
It was only about fifty yards, an easy shot. Mike and Everett opened up on the dragon first. The bullets ripped into the joint. Rob and Tom shot, the wounds increasing the blood flow down the limb. Mickey shot the .50 Barrett, and the dragon slipped as as the limb weakened. It tried to stabilize itself. The team poured lead into the leg. The dragon screamed as the joint snapped, the shattered limb breaking through the hide. The great bulk tilted to the left, and the dragon slid off into an opening made by the crossing tree trunks. It lay there bellowing, unable to extricate itself. The new position left the top of the head and the back of the neck exposed.
Mike lowered his rifle and pointed at the dragon, “Mickey, Tom, can you hit the spine?”
“Only one way to find out,” Tom said. Tom and Mickey started shooting at the juncture between the spine and the skull. Mike, Everett and Rob switched to the same area that Tom and Mickey were targeting. The dragon suddenly stopped bellowing and started jerking uncontrollably as the heavy fire severed the spinal column.
Mike felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Ken and his team. Kent talked to him over the command channel.
“Where do you want us?” Ken asked.
Mike pointed at the other side of the wall, “We have this side. Take your team and go to the other side.” Mike grabbed Ken and pulled him forward to point at the dying dragon, “We knocked that one out by shooting at the joint on the forearm. Try to cripple them before they get up to the top.”
“Roger Mike, we’ll try to take them out.”
Ken switched back to his team channel and the sec team followed him to the other side of the wall.
Another male dragon was feeling its way onto the pile of tree trunks. The trunks didn’t slip, so it levered itself up and started climbing. The rail guns shifted and started pounding the new attacker. The mass of trees didn’t shift as much with the new dragon. The bulk of the dead dragon actually stabilized the tree trunks. Another, smaller dragon, probably one of the females, moved onto the trees behind the larger male dragon. She slipped to the left, closer to Mike and his team.
“Ken, you take the bigger male on the right, we’ll take the smaller female on the left.”
“Roger Mike.”
Jennifer called him, “Mike, we’re going to concentrate on the one in front.”
“Good call Jen, closest threat first.”
“What do you want to shoot at, Mike?” Everett asked.
“What do you think, Tom?” Mike asked.
“Front shoulder, bigger target, could shatter bone. If we miss, the bullet might hit something vital,” Tom answered
“You heard Tom, aim for the shoulder.”
They unloaded on the smaller dragon. She roared as the first bullets slammed into her. She looked around to see where her attackers were. She looked in the direction where she felt the pain, and saw the muzzle flashes from the rifles. She opened her maw and thundered a challenge at Mike and his team. She started crawling in their direction. She reached the carcass of the first dragon and dug her claws into the quivering flesh, gaining traction in her rush to get to her tormentors.
“Mike, she’s not stopping!” Rob yelled.
Mike called Jennifer, “Jen, we need a little help over here.”
“Keisha, Michelle, hit the small one on the left.”
The dragon hesitated as a stream of hot iron pellets ripped into her hide. She lifted her chest up and screamed her defiance, the tentacles imprinting a nightmare image on Mike’s mind. She was only fifty feet away. Suddenly, Mike had an idea.
“Rob, Everett, Grenades! Throw for the mouth!”
Mike dropped his rifle and it bounced against his body armor as he pulled a fragmentation grenade out. Mike pulled the pin and pointed his left arm up at a thirty degree tilt in the classic pose of a solider throwing a grenade. The arm pulled back as he pitched the grenade forward.”
Three voices yelled, “Grenade!”
The spoons of the grenades popped off in the air and the ignitors lit the fuses. Two of the grenades landed in the mouth and the third bounced off the top of the dragon’s head. The dragon closed its mouth as it felt the grenades hit the front of its throat. The grenade that bounced off the head exploded first, and then the two in the mouth. The dragons face blossomed and distorted as the explosion shattered bone and flesh, blood fountaining from the explosions. The jaw hung by threads of muscle and sinew. One of the dragon’s eyes was hanging from a shattered eye socket. The dragon was dead on its feet. The dragon slowly toppled over, the limp body sliding back down the carcass of the dead dragon it was standing on. The carcass started tumbling as it picked up speed and shattered a large branch.
On the other side, the larger dragon had one paw up on the edge of the wall. Two of the Mechs were pounding it with edged gauntlets and pulse lasers as the third one emulated Mike’s tactics and was pouring pellets into the leg of the dragon. On the other side, Ken’s team was doing the same thing to the other leg. Sheets of blood were streaming off the dragon. The two Mechs that supported Mike’s team shifted fire, adding their weapons to the weight of munitions slamming into the dragon. All of the Mechs triggered their passive microwave weapon on the dragon, and it screamed as its skin felt like it had burst into flame. One of the Mechs slammed a gauntlet through the dragon’s teeth into the beast’s mouth, and then grabbed and levered the mouth open. The other Mech rammed its arm into the mouth and triggered the rail gun, incandescent iron super heating the brain and blowing the back of the dragon’s skull off.
The smaller carcass of the dragon Mike’s team had killed smacked into another, larger male that was trying to crawl up the tree trunks, knocking it back to the ground. The Mechs let go of the other dragon, and it toppled backward over the tree trunks, barely missing the same dragon that had been knocked backward.
Mickey took that moment to shoot. The .50 caliber bullet hit the dragon right behind the jaw. This sent the dragon into a frenzy. It roared and reared back, and came down on top of one of the smaller dragons. The
small female was unlucky, the male taking his pain out on her. The larger dragon bit the female on the back of the neck, along the spine. The small dragon was completely unprepared for the attack. The ferocity of the attack drove it over onto its side. She screamed as the male gripped the open throat and bit in, gore welling out of the wound, dripping around the dragon’s teeth. The female’s screams faltered and grew quiet as the other dragon shook its head, opening the throat fully, blood gushing out in a stream.
The taste of blood drove the dragon to madness. The last two dragons pulled back from the crazed dragon, ready to defend themselves. The dragon started stalking towards the other small female. She backed away, moving towards the safety of the forest behind her.
Mike didn’t think it would be much of a fight. The smaller dragon was about half the size of the big male. After seeing what the male did to the other female, Mike had no reservations about what was going to happen.
“Mike, should we shoot?” Mickey asked.
“No, let them kill each other. We need to save our ammunition.” Jennifer and Ken heard this, and passed the command onto their own teams. The shots from the landing stopped. They watched the tableau below them. Stein was taking bets that the female would survive the encounter.
The male’s head dropped, the tentacles around its head waving wildly, pulsating red to pink and back again. Its body lowered to the ground as it started stalking the female. The female was agitated, knowing that she wasn’t going to survive the attack of the larger male. Her tentacles were lying along her neck, submissive.
The big male roared as it charged, its attention completely on its prey. It leaped forward.
The forest erupted as the Ancient slammed into the side of the male. The male tried to turn on its new assailant, but it was ill prepared for the new threat. The Ancient’s bulk threw the male off balance. The male slammed against the pile of trees, trapped between the Ancient and a large tree trunk. It didn’t give up though, writhing against the larger, more dangerous dragon.
The Ancient wasn’t having it, though. The Ancient grabbed a mouthful of tentacles and shook its head, tearing the tentacles from the side of the male’s neck. A whistling scream filled the air. The Ancient darted forward and bit down hard on the front leg of the male. The snap of the bone could be heard at the top of the wall. Only then did the Ancient back away from the male. The Ancient watched the male closely.