All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (34 page)

      In addition to Captain Kopinsky’s (her) tank, there was the executive officer’s tank and the company’s armored hover transport.
 
Ingrid was on watch in the turret, with an anti-personnel charge ready to go at the click of the trigger.
 
The anti-personnel charge sent out a cloud of Yestepkin energy that would kill anyone in a 35-degree cone out the front of the barrel.
 
It was a very messy round and described as having an aftermath that was not pretty.
 
Ingrid kept her hand close to the joystick and trigger just in case.
 
She could slew and fire in a 360-degree circle out to 3000 meters if attacked.

      The charges were produced in a chamber in the rear of the turret.
 
Raw plasma was generated and forced into magnetic containers according to desired type and fed out to the charger, where they were stored in the ready rack.
 
The anti-personnel charge could be set to zero range, where the magnetic seal opened as the round left the end of the tube, or any range out to 3000 meters.
 
The antitank round was contained in a longer magnetic container.
 
The plasma charge would jet out the front of the container upon hitting another tank and burn a hole into the interior, where the plasma jet would kill all inside and set off any charges within.
 
The plasma charge slowly degraded so that after an hour they were no longer effective and the magnetic containers were fed back in to the plasma charger to be recharged.
 
The charger could make rounds up as fast as the gun could shoot, so they only carried an immediate supply in the ready rack based on the tactical situation.

      Ingrid’s attention was drawn to first platoon’s position two blocks away to the north.
 
She could no longer see A-16’s tank, just a wall of black.

      She yelled down to Captain Kopinsky, inside the transport, “Sir, I can’t see A-16.”

      It was at that moment, when everyone on the ground turned to look north, that the communicator burst into life.
 
The lieutenant’s voice carried a certain amount of emotion.
 
“A-6, this is A-16, I seem to be surrounded.
 
There must be 30 to 50 bugs around me.
 
I have everyone inside and buttoned up.
 
They haven’t done anything yet; they’re just standing looking at us.
 
They don’t look happy.”

      “A-16, this is A-6, did anything happen to get them riled up?”

      “A-6, this is A-16, nothing that we did, sir.”

      Captain Kopinsky told everyone to get inside and button up.
 
He climbed up on the turret and told Ingrid to drop down to the gunner’s seat and asked what they had loaded.

      She told him an AP charge and one in the rack.
 
He told the charger to run up five more.

      He called A-16 again and was told no change.
 
He called the battalion commander and gave a situation report.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Hrata said he was sending the quick reaction force and to hold until it arrived.

Captain Kopinsky looked through the sight and saw a crowd of T’Kab just standing there, looking at the roadblock.
 
The roadblock consisted of the platoon leader’s tank, A-16, an armored hover transport with a squad of infantry, and a second tank.

      Captain Kopinsky debated whether to stay put and see if whatever spun the T’Kab up would dissipate, or move down the street with A-5 and either disperse them or light the fuse.
 
He got on the communicator and told all other company roadblocks to stay put unless he called for them.
 
He was going to wait for the QRF, form into a flying wedge and advance down the street to disperse them.
 
He asked the first platoon leader if there was any change and was told they were touching antennae a lot, but maintaining position around him.

      Calling the QRF, he asked for an ETA and what they were bringing.
 
The QRF leader responded with 20 minutes and he had five tanks and two armored hover transports with a squad in each.
 
Captain Kopinsky thought that seven tanks and two transporters should be impressive enough coming down the street.

      A-16 came up on the communicator.
 
“Something’s happening, sir.
 
They are making a noise by rubbing their forelegs together and swaying back and forth.
 
Oh, my God, here they come!”

Captain Kopinsky looked down in the sight and saw T’Kab climbing on top of the 1st Platoon vehicles.
 
They were climbing all over the first platoon’s vehicles but not doing any harm.
 
The lieutenant remarked that these were the smaller worker bugs not the bigger soldier bugs.
 
Captain Kopinsky called the QRF and told them to step on it.
 
Things were close to getting ugly.
 
Ingrid saw him wrestling with what to do.
 
Should he stay back and let them get tired of doing no harm to the vehicles or move in and possibly light a fire?

      Lieutenant Colonel Hrata called for a situation report and Captain Kopinsky told him the T’Kab were up on the vehicles with the crews buttoned up inside, but not doing any harm other than scratching the paint.
 
He said he was waiting for the QRF to arrive in ten minutes, at which time he would form a flying wedge and attempt to disperse the T’Kab.
 

      Lieutenant Colonel Hrata told him to wait for him to arrive and take no provocative actions unless lives were in danger.
 
Captain Kopinsky acknowledged the order and waited.

      “A-6, this is A-16, they are all over my vehicles, but not hurting anything.
 
There’s not a whole lot they can do to me, boss.”

      The QRF and the battalion commander showed up at the same time.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Hrata’s tank pulled up next to Ingrid’s.
 
Captain Kopinsky opened his hatch and climbed out and across to the battalion commander’s tank.
 
The QRF leader walked across and climbed up for the conference.
 
Ingrid popped up into the tank commander’s seat and started a 360-degree watch out the open hatch.
 
While the officers talked, a buzzing sound was heard, and it got louder.
 
She looked up just in time to shout out a warning to the officers.
 
A queen or drone swooped out of the sky and grabbed at the company commander.
 
Captain Kopinsky, warned by Ingrid’s shout, rolled off the turret and escaped, but the QRF leader was not so lucky.

      The T’Kab grabbed him and dragged him, screaming, into the sky.
 
Ingrid grabbed the control grip, spun the mini-turret, and lined the machine gun sights up between the wings and pulled the trigger.
 
The charges hit the T’Kab right between the wing roots and it went down, dropping the officer about 8 meters as it fell.
 
The armored hover transport rushed to get between the crowd down the street and the lieutenant.
 
They pulled up before him and dropped the tail ramp.
 
The medics ran out the back with the litter and checked the lieutenant’s condition.
 
As quick as a medic could, he put a neck brace on him, lifted him gently onto the litter and ran him into the back of the transport and back to the A Company headquarters roadblock.

      Once back in the relative security of the roadblock, the medic checked his vitals with his portable medical scanner, checked his pupillary response, and felt around for broken bones or wounds.
 
He felt and scanned a broken right leg below the knee, a broken rib, and a broken collarbone.
 
He called for a medevac ship to take the lieutenant away.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Hrata had the QRF and A Company vehicles move into a circular perimeter with guns facing out.
 
In minutes, a medevac ship landed just outside the perimeter and four soldiers rushed the litter over to the ship, then pulled back as the ship lifted in a cloud of dust and debris and flew the officer to the spaceport’s medical facility.

      Lieutenant Colonel Hrata was in no mood to be tolerant and ordered Captain Kopinsky to mount up and form a flying wedge to get his platoon leader out from under the T’Kab.
 
Captain Kopinsky first had the platoon leader power up and see if that would dislodge the T’Kab, but they hung on with their mandibles and could not be shaken off.
 
The company HQ, battalion commander’s tank and the QRF lined up in a wedge pointing down the street at the T’Kab.
 

      Lieutenant Colonel Hrata led at the point of the wedge and the dozen vehicles moved ominously toward the T’Kab mob.
 
As they got closer, Captain Kopinsky told his platoon leader to move out quickly if the T’Kab dropped off his vehicles.

      The machine guns all pointed forward at the crowd and they continued to advance down the narrow street.
 
They opened up the wedge to pass around the body of the downed T’Kab and all hell broke loose.

      The crowd backed away from the roadblock as the wedge approached and then flames burst out on the 1st platoon vehicles.
 
Captain Kopinsky yelled in his communicator for the lieutenant platoon leader to get his vehicles out of there.
 
A platoon of T’Kab soldier caste moved out of an alley behind them and fired a rocket at the battalion commander’s tank.
 
He was warned and went into a high hover, pushing the suspensor generator to the max.
 
It got the tank above the missile, but as the missile hit the suspensor field it was forced into the ground and exploded directly below the tank.
 

      The explosion lifted the rear of the tank, which flipped it forward, destroying the main gun, and the engine behind the turret.

       
Captain Kopinsky yelled into his headset, “All vehicles, suppressive fire now!
 
Let’s give the platoon leader an escape route.”

Machine guns opened up on the T’Kab and the lieutenant was able to slip his vehicles away to join the company commander.
 
Kopinsky’s group of vehicles drove abreast as they moved the crowd up the road.

      A medic rode forward with the transporter and hopped out to see to the battalion command tank.
 
The charger had been slammed into the charge rack when the tank flipped and a support bracket split his head open, killing him instantly.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Hrata had a broken arm.
 
The gunner was unharmed.
 
The driver was shaken, but unhurt.
 
The gunner and driver moved the charger’s body into the transporter, while the medic saw to Lieutenant Colonel Hrata, and the transporter quickly moved back to the wedge.

      The crowd of workers moved to the sides of the road and soldier T’Kab, on tracked vehicles in battalion strength, advanced on the group.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Hrata ordered them to bound back to his original position and Captain Kopinsky ordered Ingrid to select and engage targets at will.
 
She told the charger to make up anti-tank charges, as many as he could.
 
She fired the anti-personnel charge in the tube at the exposed soldiers riding on the T’Kab vehicles.
 
She quickly fired all made up anti-personnel charges, killing over twenty T’Kab soldiers, and switched to antitank charges.
 
The first charge pierced the hull of the lead vehicle and set off fuel or ammo, lighting up the street and slowing the follow-on tracks.
 
Captain Kopinsky told the driver to get them moving back while the QRF tanks covered them.
 
He called for urgent air support to allow them to disengage and get away.

      Ingrid lined up her sights on the next tracked vehicle in line and let loose the charge.
 
The vehicle came to a lifeless halt.
 
She brought up the next charge and the next and the next, methodically working her way back in the line even as they moved away.
 
The T’Kab vehicles fired, but their rounds went wide or they fired wildly.

      A flight of AG-122s was directed to fly in support of the beleaguered party and roared down the street, raking everything strange looking with machine gun fire and missiles.
 
The Yestepkin tank killer gun sliced and diced the formation from front to rear.
 
Trapped in the narrow streets, the T’Kab armored unit succumbed to deadly accurate tank and attack ship fire.
 
By nightfall, the roadblocks were reestablished, using the wreckage as barricades.
 
A surreal calm descended over the roadways.
 
The T’Kab had tested them and found them not wanting for courage or capability.

* * * * *

      Brad’s AG-122 was not in Ingrid’s fight; he was still on the Behemoth, as his ship was one of the last to be made flight-ready.
 
His and another AG-122 were ready and ordered to land at the spaceport.
 
As they descended through the atmosphere, leaving two fiery contrails in the early morning sky, they were redirected to assist a mechanized company in trouble.
 
Brad directed the mechanized company to turn on all Identification Friend or Foe transponders.
 
These black boxes would identify the vehicles as friendly to the fire control computer and not let the guns fire on them.