Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 16 - Knock, Knock

It became quickly apparent that the human deployment had not gone unnoticed by the Scraegans.

After Colonel Hackley's scouts swept the area they remained on station, skiffs performing long looping patrols, scanning repeatedly for the tell-tale seismic readings that indicated a Scraegan force. It was a matter of minutes before they found them.

"SC-1 to all units," Hackley snapped across the wide-band. "Confirmed seismic readings. Three Scraegan patrols on station approaching the entrance."

"Copy that," Aggather replied. "Warlock, Thresher, deploy mines."

Ryke exhaled long and slow, acutely aware that he was about to plunge headlong into the biggest land engagement with the Scraegans in decades. They eased up onto the rise, flanking out from the two squadrons edging forward to drop their seismic charges on top of the Scraegan patrols to bring them to the surface.

Specialised mortar-like launchers fixed to the shoulders of several mechs thumped as they discharged, lobbing the whirling, sharp-toothed bombs in long arcs out onto flats of the base approach. They hit the ground and disappeared in spiralling whorls of churned sand and pulverised rock, the heavy teeth dragging them deep into the ground. Ryke kept his eyes locked on the dusty craters where they'd landed, counting down the seconds.

The detonations boomed outside the armour of his Hunter-Killer, sending a shockwave through the ground that vibrated up through the link skin and shook his bones. Geysers of smashed earth exploded into the sky and huge destabilising cracks spider-webbed out from the blast points. Seconds later he saw big dark shapes scrambling out of the shattered earth.

Sensitivity to sonic blasts was one of the few real weaknesses humanity had managed to exploit. Disoriented by the mines, the shaggy, armoured beasts dragged themselves into the light, roaring their guttural language to one and other as they tried to regroup. From his current vantage point Ryke could see over thirty Scraegans scattered cross the flats.

"All Goliaths," Aggathor roared. "Let's show the Scraegans how a Hunter-Killer knocks! I want that entrance turned to dust. All Raptors and Riots – move and engage, keep the enemy off our heavies."

Acknowledgements rattled through the comm in a crisp deluge from commander to commander, Ryke adding his voice to the list before switching to his squad-wide net.

"Everybody, watch your spacing," he snapped as his squadron joined the massive skirmish line of heavy mechs thundering down the rise towards the Scraegan force. "Keep it quick and clean until the Goliaths do their work."

A volley of bass thunder ripped from the top of the rise as the Goliaths opened fire, their stabilisers locked, allowing them to unleash the full fury of their shoulder mounted artillery pieces. An instant later a dozen massive shells slammed home against when they surmised was the door of the Scraegan complex. Massive sheets of rock disintegrated under the bombardment, the doorway sloughing off the shattered masonry like a mudslide. More shells followed, cratering the rock face as the Goliath pilots fired at will.

Tearing his attention from the bombardment, Ryke instead focused on the sizable Scraegan defence force that they were hurtling towards. The hulking betas in command of the packs bellowed and snarled at their subordinates, trying to reassert some kind of order, grabbing some of them and pointing towards the onrushing mechs.

Some of the Scraegans gathered their wits quicker than others, and pricks of blue light flared up and down the line a furnace cannons began to charge up.

"All Goliaths, give me one suppressing volley on the Scraegan line!" Aggathor shouted.

A fresh flurry of acknowledgements filtered through the comms and an instant later a storm of shells landed amongst the Scraegans. At this range the odds of a kill shot were extremely remote, but several were knocked down by heavy shells, their cannons firing at half-charge into the surrounding sand and grit. Plumes of pulverised rock burst into the air as other shells tore up the ground around them.