Furnace (Hunter-Killer #1)

Chapter 22 - Who's Winning Now?

More than a week passed since the capture of the Scraegan, but Ryke didn't hear of any communication from the Forge. Progress reports dwindled into nothingness. After a few excited days in the aftermath of their operation, the much-vaunted break through stubbornly refused to materialise.

And while they waited, the Scraegans did not.

"Block off that intersection!" Ryke roared through the comm, the thunder of battle reverberating through his earpiece once more. "Turn them away from the civilian centres!"

The feet of his Hunter-Killer crunched against the shattered concrete of the road as he loped into position, fire hammering from his cannon at the Scraegan pack advancing up the town's main thoroughfare. A furnace cannon shot ripped overhead, missing the Hunter-Killers but blasting through the upper level of a machine shop behind them. Flame belched from the windows as the whole top floor exploded, showering the street with half-molten debris.

Ryke pressed forward, with Thaye on his left and the rookie pilot Koral on his right. Further back the two Goliaths had taken up position to give firing lines into the main streets that lead to the risen hill of the fortified town hall. In other streets the other Riot and Raptor mechs under his command had split up to plug all possible approach routes. All around them the local militia troops rushed, some of them evacuating civilians in the line of fire while others dug into makeshift defensive positions, peppering the Scraegan attackers with fire from their anti-armour rifles. They lacked the punch of the Hunter-Killer rotating cannons, but in volleys the weight of fire kept the Scraegan packs on their toes as they tried to press forward.

He intercepted a Scraegan as it rushed for one of those hastily erected sandbag cupolas, bodying it with a shunt from his shoulder shield and sending it crashing into the dirt. Thaye raked it with fire, Koral staying glued to the flank of the experienced pilot and following suit. Ryke had paired all the newcomers with a veteran – hopefully they would live longer that way.

The brute retreated, armour-piercing shots from both the Hunter-Killers and militia snapping at it. Heavy rounds from the Goliaths ripped up the main street and the latest surge of Scraegans melted back into the canyon beyond the smouldering wreck of the town's eastern gate.

HK-Rupture had been deployed south-west of Brekka in response to an urgent screech for assistance from the fortified settlement of Crescentscar Gully. True to its name, the town was nestled in the base of an arcing canyon that formed an evilly grinning slash of darkness on the planet's surface. Dug into a narrow section of the gully, Crescentscar was an easily defensible position, with walls rising up to block the narrow chokepoints on either side, littered with heavy cannons to deter the most determined attackers.

But that hadn't stopped the Scraegans from taking a crack at it. In a pincer movement with several packs thundering in from both sides, they launched an all out assault on Crescentscar, fortifications be damned.

Ryke had never seen anything like it. This was no hit and run raid. Scraegan bodies littered both approaches after wading through storms of heavy cannon fire from the walls. When they finally did hit the walls, the Hunter-Killers were waiting for them. Sheer Scraegan brutality and a blizzard of furnace cannon blasts had caved in the eastern gate, but so far Ryke and his squad had held them at arms length, using Cresenstscar's naturally narrow streets to form chokepoints.

"HK-Rupture – Squad White," Ryke snapped into his comm, taking advantage of the lull. "Status report?"

"Holding, sir!" came the shrill voice of the young woman in command of the rookie squadron. "Arlacia and Ferro-" She caught herself. "White Four and White Nine are KIA." He could hear the tremor in her voice; felt a surge of empathy for the squad leader.