Warsong (Hunter-Killer #2)

Chapter 26 - Nothing a Bomb Won't Fix

 "The main nest occupies a cavern nearly two hundred yards in diameter," Kelso said, sweeping a hand over the three-dimensional display. "From our recon we've identified several tunnels feeding into it, but our main focus will be on the three points of ingress on the north-east edge."

Three red circles blinked into existence on the map display. Ryke leaned back in his seat, folded his arms tight and stared at his brother, not knowing what to think. The briefing room at the forward command base was packed with soldiers: thirty Hunter-Killer pilots, Scout Cadre soldiers, mobile infantry officers and senior combat engineers.

It had been a while since he'd seen his brother. After the siege of Brekka their paths had diverged, Ryke plunging deeper into the martial prowess of the Hunter-Killers while Kelso slipped into the shadows of the elusive combat support specialists. Most of them started out as coordinators, traffic controllers for the chain of command, but once you'd cut your teeth passing radio messages and fetching scorch beer, you got into the real job.

Ryke wasn't a hundred percent sure who the specialists actually answered to in the Brekkan hierarchy. Colonel Hackley, if he had to guess, but they seemed to appear and disappear as they pleased.

Something to sort out over a couple of scorch beers, he decided, trying to refocus on the briefing.

"The number of crawlers inside the chamber numbered in the region of two hundred, though a precise count is impossible at this stage," Kelso continued. "So it seems safe to assume this is a major population centre. Nothing like these numbers has been reported before. Attacks on our western positions, including Ozzmar, likely originated from this nest."

"Crawlers?" Thaye whispered, an amused smirk turning the corners of her mouth.

"We've gotta call them something," Preese replied from Ryke's opposite shoulder as Kelso carried on.

Although it had barely been seventy-two hours since his descent into the Scraegan warrens, it felt like weeks had passed. In his absence the human commanders had been very, very busy. The results of his foray hadn't become apparent until he'd trudged his way back to the safety of the human lines.

The sporadic skirmishing that had lingered from east to west along the battlefront had finally come to a halt. Both sides now squatted uneasily within firing range of one and other, but the guns remained muzzled for the moment. He didn't think any kind of lasting peace would come of it, but it appeared right now that both the humans and Scraegans had a common enemy. That, coupled with Brackenshaw's flight into the depths beneath the badlands meant that now the human army was girding up for a different kind of war.

"Our objective is simple," Kelso said, keying a fresh command into the control lectern in front of him. "We're going to take a retrofitted, quad-yield atomic mine to the centre of this nest, and detonate it."

That sent a murmur of consternation through the assembled soldiers. A hand shot up from one of the scout cadre soldiers.

Kelso nodded to the man. "Yes?"

"Sir, if that's all we have to do, what's with the strike force?" the scout asked uneasily. "Why don't we just strap this mine to one of your fancy new skimmers and send it in that way?"

"A skiff would never make it to the centre of the chamber without being detected," Ryke's brother replied smoothly. "And they have no combat capabilities beyond being a distraction. You would never make it. More importantly, though, the bomb's too big. It wouldn't fit."

He tapped another holographic key and a blossoming orange sphere flared up on the screen behind him from the middle of Crawler cavern. Ryke pressed his lips hard together and sank deeper into his seat as he watched the blast radius expand far beyond the nest itself. Kelso and his friends were not screwing around.