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Orostan had offered such rich incentives to have it killed; it had just wiped
out a third part of this host in one volley.
* * *
"Holy Jesus!" Pruitt shouted as the storm of fire hit the SheVa. Most Posleen
units had a mixture of railguns, plasma cannons and HVMs, with the weight
thrown, generally, in the direction of the railguns.
And with the newer armors, even 3mm rounds generally bounced off. This force
seemed to be composed of nothing but plasma cannons and HVMs. The MetalStorms
had opened fire only a moment before the Posleen, but the red fans of their
efforts were dwarfed by the return fire; the fire was so intense it lit the
ground like daylight. It was not so much return fire as a wall of plasma
striking the front of the SheVa. And they were firing . . . low.
"Back us out!" Mitchell said. "Now!"
"Doing it," Reeves said tightly. The SheVa suddenly gave a lurch that did not
seem to have anything to do with the ground and the radiation alarms started
screaming. "I just lost most of my control on the left side, sir!"
"Indy!"
* * *
"Holy Mary Mother of God," the engineer said as the left front of the reactor
room seemed to open up to
the night air. She actually saw the round that punched through the number six
reactor. The black dust that suddenly filled the air was, fortunately, at the
far end of the reactor compartment. And it wasn't dust, but the black,
layered, less-than-a-millimeter-diameter radioactive beads that made up the
"pebble" part of a pebble-bed reactor.
She turned and ran for it. There wasn't much else she could do.
"Reactor breach in the engine room!" she called over the radio. "It hit the
pebbles! We're hot, sir!"
* * *
Major Chan involuntarily ducked as a storm of plasma and HVM hit the upper
section of the SheVa.
Most of the fire had been targeted at the base of the gun system but at least
one God King was firing at the MetalStorms. They had engaged with all the
forward deployable guns but with the inability to turn the main turret, they
were in reload mode before they could significantly affect the mass of
Posleen. They had killed a lot of them and cut the fire down somewhat. But not
enough.
Now the Posleen were returning the favor.
"This is not fun," Glenn said as plasma rounds rang against the turret. It was
upgraded just like the E4s but even room temperature superconductor could only
handle so much heat and the interior of the turret was starting to feel like
an oven. Suddenly she felt a lurch that seemed to come from the turret itself
Page 119
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and an odd sliding feeling.
"What is that, ma'am?" Glenn said, turning around wide-eyed.
"I think the turret rings are cutting loose," Chan replied in a totally calm
voice as the turret jolted forward again toward the two-hundred-foot drop.
* * *
"We've also got track damage on the left side," Mitchell replied as the SheVa
finally backed around the corner of the hills, taking a last spiteful blow to
the engine room as it exposed that side. The night was still alight with the
glow of plasma from the far side of the hill, however, showing that the
infantry company on the hillside was fully engaged. It was amazing they could
hold out at all; the air above their positions must be reaching hundreds of
degrees just from the plasma heat-bloom.
"I'm back in the reactor room," Indy said, her voice muffled by the GalTech
radiation suit. "We took hits in two reactors. One is just vented but the
other one scattered pebbles all over the room; it's hot as shit down here."
"This is Kilzer," the civilian said over the same circuit. "It's not track
damage on the right side, it's in the motors; one of the wheel motors is
fried. I've cut it out but we're going to be moving slow until it's fixed."
"Moving slow is a bad thing," Mitchell said. "Kilzer; Chan's turret has
slipped out of the rings or the rings have been shot away. Something like
that, I'm getting really confused reports. Get up there and see what you can
do. Pruitt, rotate the turret to let the rear Storms fire over the hills.
Reeves, park this thing behind
Bravo Company. I hope they can hold."
* * *
Bazzett huddled in his scraped hasty fighting position and fired his AIW
remotely. He had to stick his hand out into the fire but he could use the
connection to his monocular to generally aim it at the approaching mass.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there were so many of the centaurs they were
hard to
miss. The Brads were firing their 25mms in indirect mode from behind the
hilltop and that was racking up some kills, and the Abrams had braved the
hurricane of plasma to drive forward and engage direct. And, for that matter,
the SheVa was still sending its own hell over the hill, wiping out masses of
Posleen under the fans of MetalStorm rounds. But that didn't stop the almost
continuous stream of plasma, railgun rounds and hypervelocity missiles coming
at the hilltop.
In this case, "sticking his hand into the fire" felt literal; there was more
plasma coming his way than he had ever seen in his life. And as he had found
out before, while a near miss from an HVM was pretty unpleasant, a near miss
from a plasma round was damn near the same as getting hit. The heat-bloom from
a strike was lethal at four meters and fell off from there.
He was pretty sure he'd been in the "lethal" zone at least twice in the battle
so far and he was starting to wonder if the dirt on his back was burning
through his uniform. Fortunately the newer cold weather gear, including
gloves, had an outer shell of Nomex, which was probably the only reason he
wasn't a crispy critter already.
He heard the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle below in the next scrape and
shook his head; Caprano just wouldn't quit.
"Cap, dude, you're gonna get yourself killed!" he yelled. There was no way to
fire the big gun off-hand which meant the sniper was raising himself up out of
the scrape. He looked over and could see the body rise up against the light.
"I can barely see in this shit!" the sniper called back. His rifle boomed and
he ducked down as a plasma round hit just down the hill and covered them both
in steaming soil. "Got the fucker anyway!"
"Just ride it out, man!" Bazzett yelled back, spotting some movement at the
base of the hill and firing a few rounds in the general direction. With the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
Orostan had offered such rich incentives to have it killed; it had just wiped
out a third part of this host in one volley.
* * *
"Holy Jesus!" Pruitt shouted as the storm of fire hit the SheVa. Most Posleen
units had a mixture of railguns, plasma cannons and HVMs, with the weight
thrown, generally, in the direction of the railguns.
And with the newer armors, even 3mm rounds generally bounced off. This force
seemed to be composed of nothing but plasma cannons and HVMs. The MetalStorms
had opened fire only a moment before the Posleen, but the red fans of their
efforts were dwarfed by the return fire; the fire was so intense it lit the
ground like daylight. It was not so much return fire as a wall of plasma
striking the front of the SheVa. And they were firing . . . low.
"Back us out!" Mitchell said. "Now!"
"Doing it," Reeves said tightly. The SheVa suddenly gave a lurch that did not
seem to have anything to do with the ground and the radiation alarms started
screaming. "I just lost most of my control on the left side, sir!"
"Indy!"
* * *
"Holy Mary Mother of God," the engineer said as the left front of the reactor
room seemed to open up to
the night air. She actually saw the round that punched through the number six
reactor. The black dust that suddenly filled the air was, fortunately, at the
far end of the reactor compartment. And it wasn't dust, but the black,
layered, less-than-a-millimeter-diameter radioactive beads that made up the
"pebble" part of a pebble-bed reactor.
She turned and ran for it. There wasn't much else she could do.
"Reactor breach in the engine room!" she called over the radio. "It hit the
pebbles! We're hot, sir!"
* * *
Major Chan involuntarily ducked as a storm of plasma and HVM hit the upper
section of the SheVa.
Most of the fire had been targeted at the base of the gun system but at least
one God King was firing at the MetalStorms. They had engaged with all the
forward deployable guns but with the inability to turn the main turret, they
were in reload mode before they could significantly affect the mass of
Posleen. They had killed a lot of them and cut the fire down somewhat. But not
enough.
Now the Posleen were returning the favor.
"This is not fun," Glenn said as plasma rounds rang against the turret. It was
upgraded just like the E4s but even room temperature superconductor could only
handle so much heat and the interior of the turret was starting to feel like
an oven. Suddenly she felt a lurch that seemed to come from the turret itself
Page 119
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and an odd sliding feeling.
"What is that, ma'am?" Glenn said, turning around wide-eyed.
"I think the turret rings are cutting loose," Chan replied in a totally calm
voice as the turret jolted forward again toward the two-hundred-foot drop.
* * *
"We've also got track damage on the left side," Mitchell replied as the SheVa
finally backed around the corner of the hills, taking a last spiteful blow to
the engine room as it exposed that side. The night was still alight with the
glow of plasma from the far side of the hill, however, showing that the
infantry company on the hillside was fully engaged. It was amazing they could
hold out at all; the air above their positions must be reaching hundreds of
degrees just from the plasma heat-bloom.
"I'm back in the reactor room," Indy said, her voice muffled by the GalTech
radiation suit. "We took hits in two reactors. One is just vented but the
other one scattered pebbles all over the room; it's hot as shit down here."
"This is Kilzer," the civilian said over the same circuit. "It's not track
damage on the right side, it's in the motors; one of the wheel motors is
fried. I've cut it out but we're going to be moving slow until it's fixed."
"Moving slow is a bad thing," Mitchell said. "Kilzer; Chan's turret has
slipped out of the rings or the rings have been shot away. Something like
that, I'm getting really confused reports. Get up there and see what you can
do. Pruitt, rotate the turret to let the rear Storms fire over the hills.
Reeves, park this thing behind
Bravo Company. I hope they can hold."
* * *
Bazzett huddled in his scraped hasty fighting position and fired his AIW
remotely. He had to stick his hand out into the fire but he could use the
connection to his monocular to generally aim it at the approaching mass.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there were so many of the centaurs they were
hard to
miss. The Brads were firing their 25mms in indirect mode from behind the
hilltop and that was racking up some kills, and the Abrams had braved the
hurricane of plasma to drive forward and engage direct. And, for that matter,
the SheVa was still sending its own hell over the hill, wiping out masses of
Posleen under the fans of MetalStorm rounds. But that didn't stop the almost
continuous stream of plasma, railgun rounds and hypervelocity missiles coming
at the hilltop.
In this case, "sticking his hand into the fire" felt literal; there was more
plasma coming his way than he had ever seen in his life. And as he had found
out before, while a near miss from an HVM was pretty unpleasant, a near miss
from a plasma round was damn near the same as getting hit. The heat-bloom from
a strike was lethal at four meters and fell off from there.
He was pretty sure he'd been in the "lethal" zone at least twice in the battle
so far and he was starting to wonder if the dirt on his back was burning
through his uniform. Fortunately the newer cold weather gear, including
gloves, had an outer shell of Nomex, which was probably the only reason he
wasn't a crispy critter already.
He heard the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle below in the next scrape and
shook his head; Caprano just wouldn't quit.
"Cap, dude, you're gonna get yourself killed!" he yelled. There was no way to
fire the big gun off-hand which meant the sniper was raising himself up out of
the scrape. He looked over and could see the body rise up against the light.
"I can barely see in this shit!" the sniper called back. His rifle boomed and
he ducked down as a plasma round hit just down the hill and covered them both
in steaming soil. "Got the fucker anyway!"
"Just ride it out, man!" Bazzett yelled back, spotting some movement at the
base of the hill and firing a few rounds in the general direction. With the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]