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in them." "We're okay on that, by the way," Duncan said. "We're cycling personnel through the chargers that we have. We recovered five pods including two from the first shuttle. And there are several beacons on the hills; we might still recover those. Using this shit ammo will drain the power fast if we have to maintain sustained fire." "We'll either have enough or we won't," Mike noted. "There's some possibilities in terms of resupply; we'll see what happens. Stewart, start working on ways they could have known where and when; don't fixate on one, explore all the possibilities." "All I can come up with right now is a mole of some sort," Stewart admitted. "Nothing else makes much sense." "Like I said," Mike repeated with a grin in his tone. "Don't fixate; use that febrile mind for good. Pappas, we need the defenses finished quick; we can expect a thorough-going attack soon. I want slit trenches, bunkers and movement trenches. Continuous construction until we get hit and when we reconsolidate." "Yes, sir," the sergeant major said. "We're on rock; once we get dug into it we're going to be hard to dig out." "That's why I'll expect a fast attack," Mike said. "He'll try to push us out while we're digging in. So get out there now." " 'He'?" Stewart asked. "You holding back on your intel officer?" "Always," Mike said with an unseen grin. "But in this case it's a surmise. This has all the marks of a real planned operation, one that has been planned Page 26 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html for a while, for that matter. Look at those flying tanks and the close cooperation of the landers. There is one very smart God King out there who was smart enough to gather other smart Posleen. That's our real enemy. See if you can dig into the Darhel intel files; sometimes they know one Posleen from another. I want to know who I'm facing. I want that very much indeed." "The hell with intel," Pappas muttered. "I want some fire support." CHAPTER FOUR They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose. They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they dam'-well choose. As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand, Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's day may be long in the land. Rudyard Kipling "The Sons of Martha" Near Willits, NC, United States of America, Sol III 0318 EDT Monday September 28, 2009 AD The blimp, nearly two hundred meters in length, had a giant container attached to the bottom of it. As soon as the skids on the container touched the ground the blimp released it and bounced into the air, heading back over the mountains. One Posleen in the wrong place would take it out in a second, but the nuclear fire from the SheVa had apparently cleared out the entire valley and as long as the blimps stayed low they were out of direct line of sight. The rear of the container dropped open and by the glare of Klieg lights a line of heavy equipment and troops in black coveralls came pouring out. About half of the group headed for the SheVa as the rest began widening the landing zone. At the head of the column was a figure riding an ATV. He rapidly crossed the distance to the SheVa crew and pulled the vehicle to a skidding stop. "Maj . . . Lieutenant Colonel Robert Mitchell," Mitchell said, saluting. "Colonel William Garcia," the colonel replied. He was wearing black coveralls like the rest of his unit, with a large patch on the shoulder, HC4, indicating that he was part of "Heavy Construction Brigade Four." The colonel returned the salute snappily then reached into the bellows pocket of his coveralls and tossed Mitchell a small package. "Let me be the first to congratulate you on your promotion. Those are $6.50. You can pay me if you survive." "Thanks," Mitchell said, looking at the package of lieutenant colonel's silver leaves. "What now?" "My crew is going to do a complete survey," Garcia said, turning to Indy. "You're the engineer?" "Yes, sir," she replied. "I have a preliminary survey," she continued, holding out her PDA. "Thanks." He took the proffered device and transferred the data. "Are those MetalStorm packs on top of this thing?" MetalStorm anti-lander systems were among the less successful devices tried over the years. MetalStorm was a device for firing thousands of rounds in a very short period of time. It basically consisted of a gun barrel filled with bullets. Each of the bullets was fired, in turn, by an electrical charge. The highest rate of fire available was something over a million rounds per minute. MetalStorm anti-lander systems were a 105mm, twelve-barrel device mounted on an Abrams tank chassis. Each of the barrels was loaded with one hundred rounds. The rounds were the same type as had Page 27 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html originally been carried by the Abrams as an anti-tank round, but with the MetalStorm system all twelve hundred rounds could be fired in under twenty seconds. Firing all the rounds in one ripple fire was extremely unpleasant for the crew; it had been described as being put in a barrel and shaken by a giant. Despite that, the system was fairly ineffective at killing landers. "Yes, sir," Mitchell said uncomfortably. "The chassis were . . . expended by my order." "I'm sure there's a fascinating story there somewhere," Garcia said with a dry smile. "You haven't been firing them from up there, have you?" "No sir," Pruitt replied. "They're just chained down." "Okay, we'll pull them off and lift them out with one of the blimps," Garcia said. "Hey, boss, let's rethink that." The person rounding the SheVa was apparently a civilian. He was a tall young male, heavily muscled and movie star gorgeous with long blond hair, wearing a black trenchcoat and gold sunglasses, his hands tucked deep in the pockets. He glanced up at the top of the SheVa and shrugged. "There's better stuff to do with them than just fly them out." "What are you thinking, Paul?" Garcia asked. "Oh, pardon me. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Paul Kilzer. He was one of the original SheVa designers and agreed to come along as a consultant." Pruitt was staring at the apparition with his mouth hanging open. "Riff?" he asked with a gasp. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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