could get good line of sight with more than five or six of the tower batteries and a few of them on the ground, here, here, and here.' He highlighted potential threats.
'Top and I will take the rest of the squad up the ridge farther around to our left and burn the boxes you can't get to.'
'I see, sir.'
'Good. Robots, let's get ready to move out.'
Jawbone looked over her left wing at her wingman, First Lieutenant Dana 'Popstar' Miller, then around the battlescape. There were no enemy fighters as far as her eyeballs or her sensors could see across the long, gray, flat surface of the QMT-facility asteroid. They had made several runs across the ridgeline where the groundpounders were pinned down, but they still hadn't done enough damage, and the AEMs weren't moving very rapidly. Those damned autosniper ant hills were every-fucking-where.
'Major Strong, you understand the plan?'
'Yes, sir, Colonel. We're gonna focus our attack and punch two holes in the line at your designated coordinates. We're ready when you are, sir,' Jawbone replied.
'Well, don't wait on us. Roberts, out.'
'Roger that, Robots.' Jawbone turned her mecha back around for another strafing run while trying to stay as far out of the view of those AA cannons as she could. Since the damned surface of the facility planetoid, or asteroid, or whatever the hell you'd call it, was so fucking flat, well, that made it difficult to duck the AA.
'All right, marines, on my wing, and let's hit the deck. We need to clear the way for the groundpounders.' Jawbone's mecha skimmed dangerously close to the surface, and she had to keep a close eye on the topography ahead just so a hill or a structure wouldn't manage to take her by surprise. 'Deuce, you be ready to hit those AA cannons as soon as we get those AEMs in place, because this shit is thick!'
'Roger that, Jaw. Been there, done that,' Deuce replied.
The plan seemed to work just fine. The Marine FM-12s hit the ant hills no-holds-barred. Then Tommy and company bounced up the hill quickly and professionally. One sniper system managed to survive the strafing run, but a few well-placed grenades from Bates's left forearm grenade launcher took care of it nicely. Tommy and the platoon leader crested the hill, giving them perfect line of sight of five of the eight towers. Both of them lay prone and started lighting up targets with the designators built into their HVAR sighting systems.
Once the AEMs tagged the AA cannons with laser markers, the second wave of FM-12s swooped in, going to missiles. Two of the mecha fighters screamed overhead, bobbing and weaving through the hailstorm of orange tracers out of the automated AA systems. A missile fired from underneath the wing of each of the fighters and corkscrewed through the cannon rounds right onto the laser spots designating them.
'Hot damn! That's two of those mothers.' Tommy cheered and then slid his elbow a few centimeters to his right to find another target to designate. Then several missiles were fired on the other side of the ridgeline, where Top and the colonel had gone. Those missiles hit home as well. Things were looking up.
Chapter 17
July 1, 2394 AD
Tau Ceti Planet Four, Moon Alpha, a.k.a. Ares
Separatist QMT Facility
Friday, 2:53 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
Friday, 7:53 PM Madira Valley Standard Time
'Owww, goddamn that hurt!' Jack came to screaming in pain as he tried to shake himself back to consciousness. There was severe pain everywhere in his body. He could still wiggle his toes and fingers, but his neck and back and ass hurt so bad there was no way he was going anywhere for a while. He carefully, very carefully, brought his right hand up to a breast pocket and pulled out a medipen. He slid the armored access panel up on his neck and then
