Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 15 - Hit Them Where it Hurts

The plan might not have had universal support among the various branches of Brekka's military, but Hackley's proposal had been a thorough one, convincing Brekka Command that the operation was worth the risk. With that final nod passing down the command chain to the unit commanders at Stamm Basin, Ryke and his squad mates found themselves in a briefing room with the largest gathering of Hunker-Killer pilots he'd seen in once place at the same time. Hunter-Killers didn't move in big units normally – the Scraegan threat was too widespread for that – but now a massive force had been assembled to deliver nothing less than a hammer-blow.

More than sixty pilots filed into the seats, most of them from Brekka, but he spotted at least two distinct units – one in gold-black livery and another kitted out in mud-red fatigues – that must have been reinforcing units from cities further north. He'd never bothered to check up on the different uniforms the various cities employed – there had seemed to be more pressing things to do at the time – and now he found himself wishing he'd taken the time. He felt somehow guilty not knowing where these men and women had come from, given they'd be fighting side by side before long.

There would be time, he reasoned, as the last few pilots settled into place, a hum of easy conversation filling the air as they waited. While everything seemed settled at a glance, Ryke noticed the sly, almost contemptuous glances flashing between some of the Brekkan veterans and the newcomers from the north.

"Big happy family, eh?" Jarrko chuckled alongside him, clearly having noticed it too. "Think these northers have ever seen a Scaegan?"

"Until a couple of weeks ago you hadn't either," Ryke reminded him, settling back into the seat to wait. "Besides, it's about time they started putting some of their people on the line down here."

"Now there's some truth."

Ryke frowned. The faint animosity simmering in the room didn't really surprise him, but it still made him a little uneasy. The only city far enough south to be at any threat from the Scraegan incursions, Brekka had naturally become the hub for human military efforts, but he knew people rumbled in discontent about the lack of sheer manpower that the cities to the north contributed to the fighting. They helped in other ways – raw materials and munitions – but it was Brekka who put its people into the grinder, shedding blood to keep the rest of the human population safe.

The chatter subsided when Lieutenant-Colonel Aggathor entered the room, his bulky frame trudging across the slightly raised stage to the lectern where he turned his blunt, brutish features to the seated pilots. All eyes locked onto their commanding officer, the one who would be leading them into the fray.

"Hope everyone had a good breakfast," Aggathor began. "Cos we've got a long way to go on an empty stomach." Thumbing the control in his right hand he brought screen to life behind him, showing the southern portion of the continent. At the top of the map section Brekka stood, and spilling down from in were the smaller human settlements. Red rings marked Scraegan attack locations while the towns still holding out were marked with blue.

The screen zoomed and panned, moving far to the south of Brekka, past the intact settlements and even past most of the destroyed ones too. Ryke felt his stomach tighten. Wherever they were going, it was deep in Scraegan held territory, a lot deeper than humans had gone for years. All that remained of their culture down there now was ruins.

The map location solidified to an area of around ten square kilometres which would be their operation zone. A gleaming blue reconstruction of the battlefield sprang to life, the triangular ridge of sandstone that the scouts had identified now quantified down to the millimetre by the modelling schematic.

"This is our target zone," Aggathor told them flatly. "The scout cadre companies will move ahead of us and verify we have a clear drop site. Mammoths with then deploy along this rise overlooking the compound." A series of green globes pulsed into life where the Hunter-Killers would be disembarking. "HK-Warlock will take point at the centre. We know from long range seismics that there are Scraegan patrols that rotate through this sector, so we're going to land right on top of them."