Chapter 10

Day 521, Boston Massachusetts, Falling Skies Universe, November 12th 2011

Sergeant Brightmoon ducked behind the bombed out farmhouse, the moonlight glinting off the matted material of his armour as he scanned the area for threats. They'd checked the place out earlier in the afternoon, but he'd had the mantra 'always double check' beaten into him during training.

"North clear" His second in command said a moment later over the comm-net, quickly followed by two other voices, "South clear", "West clear".

"East Clear, come out Buzz" he said, finishing the check.

Standing up Brightmoon rolled his neck, he still wasn't use to the restrictive helmet, as the remainder of the section came out of the small wood near the farm house. They'd chose the area for it's remoteness and the fact it was a high point. They'd considered one of the taller buildings in the bombed out Boston, but the massive Alien ship hovering over the city had quickly made that plan unworkable.

James Phillips, Buzz to his friends and comrades, trotted out to the centre of the small fenced off yard. He was a big man, a little over two meters tall, and massing one-hundred and sixty kilograms, and if there was a gram of fat on his body, it was hiding very well. One of the few members of the new army that was neither from a 'primitive' world nor former military. In fact he had been an honest-to-god Rocket Scientist before the Zombie Apocalypse claimed his home world.

The large man dumped the large backpack he'd been carrying on the ground and quickly went to work assembling the device. First he extended several large tubes and snapped them together into a single whole. Fully extended and attached to it's tripod mount the tube was a little over three meters in length, wide enough to easily fit a basketball down it's throat. Next he pulled out three dart shaped objects with fins on their tails, looking for all the world like stubby mortar shells, and laid them on the grass next to the launcher.

"Good to go Buzz?" Brightmoon asked, watching in approval as the rest of the section broke off to form a perimeter without needing orders.

"Almost Sarge," Buzzy replied, his voice completely at odds with his appearance, soft, almost like that of a small child, "just need to double check the settings on these things, we've only got three, and it's not like we can ask Lord Alexander to pop back over and grab us the spares"

Brightmoon frowned under his helmet as he watched Buzz tap away at the control panel on the small box attached to the launcher. The big man was unfortunately correct, with their leader out of action, they were limited to what supplies they had on them, and whatever they could scavenge. He didn't want to think bad of his leaders, but someone had seriously screwed up somewhere along the line. He could only hope it wouldn't cost them too much before the end.

"Right," Buzz said as he stood up, "we should be right to put them up in their pre-planned orbits"

Brightmoon nodded and triggered the section wide comm channel, "Right boys, we're about to light the fire, so get ready to move the second they go up, we don't want to be here when they drop a KEW on this place" A chorus of replies came over the comm-net. "Whenever you're ready Buzz"

"Roger that Boss" Buzz said, Brightmoon could hear the smile in his voice, and tapped a series of commands into the command console on the launcher, "Launching One!" he yelled just before ducking down and covering his head with his arms. Brightmoon did the same and there was a bright flash and a terrible roar, overwhelming the sound and light damping gear in his helmet, as a small object flew out of the launcher at terrific speed.

Brightmoon tracked the object for a moment before the orange glow vanished in the night sky. The Sergeant reached into his belt pouched out and pulled out a thermal detonator.

"Launching two!"

"Launching three!" Buzz yelled for the third and final time, repeating the same procedure as another object hurtled it's way into space.

Brightmoon was waiting for the third call, "Go! Go! Go!" he yelled into the comm as he tossed the primed thermal detonator towards the launcher, taking off at a flat run with Buzz as they moved towards the woods.

They men of the section were more than a kilometer away when they felt more than saw the Alien's response to their activity. The ground heaved and Brightmoon struggled to keep his feet as the shockwave from the Kinetic weapon impact passed over him.

"Don't think they liked that much huh Boss?" Buzz asked as he picked himself up off the ground.

Brightmoon grinned under his helmet, "I think they'll like looking for those stealthed microsats much less"

***

Lintos cursed as he threw himself behind cover. A blast of whitish blue energy smashed into the ground where he had been moments before.

"Contact Front!" The young scout screamed into his communicator, leaning out behind the ruble and firing off a burst of blaster fire.

"2-5 Report!" Sergeant Westriver demanded of him over the comm-net as more blasts struck the ground and building around him.

"Two mechs! Fuck! Make that three mechs and a half dozen skitters that I can see" Lintos winced as a ball of hot plasma flew right by his head. "Die you fuckers!" He yelled as he sighted on the nearest six-legged Alien and fired off a three round burst. The blaster bolts ripped into the beast, one shearing off a leg completely, and the other two striking it in the upper body making a charred ruin of it's torso.

"Hold on Lintos, we're coming."

"I hate being a fucking scout" Lintos snarled as he hunkered down, back to the wall, hugging his weapon to his body, as the fire on his position redoubled. He'd been a hundred meters ahead of his section scouting and turned around a corner, only to find himself face to face with the ugliest spider he'd ever seen. On instinct he'd put a burst of fire into it, ripping it apart. Unfortunately the act had drawn the attention of the Alien's comrades.

A quick look that nearly cost him his head showed the large two legged robotic walkers were keeping their distance, providing long ranged fire support, as their six-legged buddies moved like demented insects over the ruined ground in a mad rush towards his position.

"Incoming!" Antaros' voice crackled over the comm and the night lit up as the rest of the section arrived.

"Let's see how you like it you bastards!" Lintos yelled in celebration as he watched the spiders get ripped apart by targeted fire. One of the skitters got hit by at least eight separate blaster bolts at the same time. It's body dissolving into a fine mist.

The scout sighted down on one of the mechs, so far unharmed, and switched his blaster to full-auto. No-one was sure how much fire would be needed to bring down one of big metal bastards, so standing orders were to go with overkill. Bracing the blaster against the ruined wall, Lintos squeezed the trigger and sent a stream of death towards the mech. The first few bolts seemed to stagger the large robot, doing little more than charring the finish, but Lintos estimated that the fifth hit on the same spot did the job. The mech's chest armour blew apart in a spectacular fashion, just before the entire thing went up like a bonfire.

"Not so tough now are you?" He taunted the Aliens as he looked for another target, only to spot another of the mechs, this one looking like it's ranged weapons had been blown off, charging right at him.

"Oh shit!" Lintos screamed as he scrambled back, letting loose another stream of blaster fire. The robot jerked as it was hit and Lintos thought he'd got it, only to have his rifle's ammo indicator flash at him as the weapon clicked empty. The mech teetered dangerously, swaying side to side like a drunken bullock, before righting itself and beginning to stomp towards the scout at a breakneck pace.

Lintos dropped his rifle, letting it fall against the leather strap over his neck, his hand going down to his pistol. He drew his sidearm in one smooth movement, flipping the safety off in the same motion. Taking a double handed stance he started firing.

"Come on, die you bastard!" He snarled as kept pulling the trigger. The mech started to slow down as the much less powerful pistol bolts started to do their job, finally coming to a stop less than two meters away from Lintos, slowly toppling over.

Lintos started to sigh a breath of relief until he saw sparks playing across the armour of the machine. "Oh hell!" He yelled and started to run.

He made it a few steps before the mech turned into a fireball.

***

"Owe. My. Fucking. Head" Alexander moaned as he struggled back to the waking world.

"Alex? You right there lad?" Clayworth's voice was like nails driving into his temples.

"No. I'm not fucking alright, some bastard is breathing too loud... oh that's me" Alexander choked back the urge to vomit, and tried to turn toward Clayworth, only to find he couldn't move. For a brief moment he was consumed with panic before he realised he was still wearing his armour, well most of it, his helmet and left arm section had been removed.

"Here let me" Tommo, the resident medic, said as he helped the younger man sit up, before assaulting him with a pen light.

Alexander forced his eyes closed, vainly swatting at offending man.

"Hold still, I need to check your responses. You've been out for four days" Tommo said, grabbing hold of Alexander's head firmly.

Alex bravely endured, if you consider whining and whimpering brave, the inspection, before asking, "What's our status?"

"As well as can be expected, we've got a fairly good idea of the local forces, alien and human, and the microsats are giving us a better understanding of the situation on a larger scale. It really looks like those bastards gave this place a right hiding" Clayworth said, giving his report in a detached professional tone, but Alex could hear the undercurrent of rage in his voice.

"Any contact?" Alex asked as Tommo started to check his pulse and blood pressure, the old fashioned way despite the perfectly good medical sensors the armour.

"None with the human forces, we've been avoiding them, waiting for you to wake up." Alex grimaced at hearing that, he felt a flush of shame, "None of that boyo, I should have listened to you, it was my fault for pushing you too hard, you tried to tell me" Clayworth said forcefully, leaning in.

Alexander nodded then grit his teeth as pain shot through his head, "What about the Aliens?"

"They hit the microsat launching site just as we expected, friendlies were all clear, so everything went to plan there" Clayworth paused, "one other contact, Section 2 walked right into a skitter patrol, backed up with a trio of mechs"

Alexander felt his pulse jump at the news, "Anyone hurt?"

"Nothing serious, one of the lads got hit full on when a mech went up, the armour took most of it, thankfully" Clayworth said quickly, "we cleared the Alien's clocks right and proper, got them all"

Meanwhile Tommo was finishing up his examination, "Things look good, not that I have a clue what was wrong in the first place beyond the symptoms, you should be ready for active duty tomorrow, but I'd strongly recommend keeping your transits limited like you were doing before, I was worried you were going to stroke out before I put you under."

Alexander winced, "Trust me mate, I've got zero intentions of doing that again". The younger man glanced at Clayworth, looking for the professional soldiers reactions, finding nothing but approval in the grim features.