This fifth painting clearly depicted Trevor and Jorge Benjamin Stone in front of the estate where they lived.
Next to the painting, the artist had etched two messages into the wall; the first message contained a solitary word: Germanitas.
A second, simpler message appeared to have been written more recently due to a shiny gleam in the letters of the three words.
SEE YOU SOON.
9. Hunter-Killer
“Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. Behold! On this side will be the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich; on this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his friends.”
— From a speech by Pope Urban II circa 1095 AD calling for a Holy Crusade
In less than forty-eight hours, General Jerry Shepherd’s 1 ^ st Mechanized Infantry Division raced more than one hundred miles from Raleigh to Wilmington without any engagements against the Hivvans who, for their part, slipped more and more into a nicely forming pocket in eastern North Carolina.
However, Shep’s race did include other entanglements that nearly slowed progress. Two trolls jumped the vanguard south of Newton Grove, injuring three soldiers. Fortunately, small arms fire dispatched the trolls without causing the army any significant delay.
In contrast, they did suffer a substantial hold up from a ‘Green Proto-Mass’ nesting at a Holiday Inn outside of Warsaw the morning of the second day. The single-celled organism blanketed a twenty-meter circumference but constantly expanded and contracted making any accurate measurement impossible and quite dangerous.
A big wad of acidic slime one relation away from the “Blob” of Hollywood fame, they were known as “Green Pudding” among the rank and file
It absorbed bullets like a fat kid eating candy. Try running it over with a car or an APC and it would work its way through the air vents or up the gun barrel and suck out the crew like that same fat kid going for the creamy filling in a cupcake.
Flame proved the best weapon against a Proto-Mass. While waiting for a flamethrower team to move forward, the Green Pudding killed two men and scattered several squads at the front of the column.
However, despite this delay, the advance retained an impressive pace, especially considering that most of Shepherd’s fighters walked in worn sneakers and loafers and carried their gear not in official weatherproof army sacks, but back and fanny packs better suited to strolling a shopping mall than marching into battle.
Along the way, he left small groups to hold key intersections and observation points outlining the bag in which the Hivvans would soon be stuck.
According to reconnaissance, the enemy remained disorganized and-generally-moving south and southwest in clusters ranging in size from squads to regiments. Aerial surveillance noted a number taking refuge in the small city of Clinton where they would face a colony of gigantic, dangerous, and highly territorial spider-ants, not to mention predatory razor-cats certain to inflict a fair number of casualties.
More of his reptilian adversaries continued southward on Rt. 701 in a raggedy column of artillery pieces and supply wagons while still more vacated an adhoc hard-point in Salemburg and retreated along Rt. 242 south.
Judging by their actions, it seemed to Shepherd that the Hivvans had not yet established reliable communications between their scattered formations and did not know where and how the human army deployed.
A communique from Gordon Knox detailed Intelligence’s opinion that the best opportunity for the Hivvan force to regroup would come if the smaller bands coalesced at the Bladen Lakes State Forest, roughly in the center of the pocket humanity hoped to box them into, and a scenario that appeared highly likely.
That suited Shep just fine. Hopefully by then the 1 ^ st and 2 ^ nd Divisions will have reached their objectives and cut off the enemy supply lines, lines already searching for their dispersed comrades.
Once those two depots fell to Shepherd and Stonewall, the Hivvans would be trapped and they would either starve or strangle in a tightening noose of artillery and air power.
As rosy as the plan sound, General Jerry Shepherd faced a bear of a problem that Sunday morning.
While Trevor and JB Stone flew south toward Blacksburg, Shep waited on the tarmac of Wilmington International Airport and contemplated his next move. The idea of investing the port city a short distance to his south did not sit well in his belly.
By all accounts, Wilmington stood in much better shape than most cities, in that it did not include an organized alien garrison and the worst of the extraterrestrial predators prowling its streets did not seem as nasty as those found in places like Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
Indeed, Gordon Knox’s intelligence teams made contact weeks ago with a group of humans who carved out an existence on Masonboro Sound along the coast.
Nonetheless, going through downtown would slow his boys and invite pest attacks from all manner of bad things.
Besides, Shepherd saw a real chance to reach Conway before Stonewall hit Dillon. That would make for great fun at the next military meeting.
Those considerations led Jerry Shepherd to a major decision certain to cause waves. He had authorized the use of two C-141 Starlifters (taken after liberating Andrews Air Force Base last year). Those transport planes sucked aviation fuel even more greedily than fat kids eat candy or take to cream filling. Considering all the air power deployed to befuddle the Hivvans (nearly 50 sorties a day), it meant Southern Command gobbled about seventy-five percent of ‘The Empire’s’ jet fuel and around 90 % of available pilots.
He eyed the two behemoths taxiing in along the primary runway from his position outside the main terminal. While doing little more than idling, their engines still dominated the air with a droning hum while the smell of fuel covered everything.
Those planes brought with them Shepherd’s plan for dealing with Wilmington. And he must deal with Wilmington. Bypassing it completely would leave a hostile-infested city dangerously close to his supply lines. Furthermore, the city sat on a key junction of roads serving as a critical hinge in the developing trap.
Besides, a cleared Wilmington could be used as a supply distribution point. In addition to the benefits its sea and airports offered, the city was a significant railway hub.
In any case, the planes taxied to a stop and, after a few minutes, rear cargo ramps opened and lowered to the pavement.
The Hunter-Killers arrived.
Trevor Stone was the only human capable of giving complex orders to the Grenadiers. However, post- Armageddon canines came in to the world better trained than any police dogs Shepherd ever worked with during a long career in old-world military and law enforcement.
They responded fast to a wide range of commands and could-on some level-communicate with their human masters through barks and whines. No detailed information, but it did not take Trevor Stone to know when a Grenadier caught whiff of a predator or heard the cry of a human being.
K9s organized in ‘Legions’ of about 500, further broken down into groups of 100 called “Centuries.” Colored collars identified the organization, primarily for the benefit of their human masters: the dogs grew up and trained with each other, becoming a large pack that worked and stayed together as if by instinct.
Human “hunters” commanded Centuries in a loose manner. If you asked a hunter, he would probably admit he just got in the way half of the time.
However, there was the other half of the time, too. Those were the times when K9s faced foes sporting ranged or heavy weapons as well as when they came against the nastier, larger predators that could easily cut through a hundred dogs in a few minutes. Things like Goat-Walkers or a pack of Jaw-Wolves or a Shadow or a Proto-Mass.
