is though, the quicker we get them to our first line of defense the quicker we can start chewing them up in large numbers.'
She nodded. 'I see what you mean,' she said. 'You're the military expert. I haven't questioned you so far, I see no reason to start now.'
He smiled. 'That's the way it should be,' he said. 'In any case, that's the way things are looking outside of Eden. They look pretty much the same outside New Pittsburgh. In both cities I have the special forces teams and the Mosquitoes already gearing up for the day's action. They should start hitting them in less than an hour. At Libby and Proctor the sun is just now coming up. The latest overheads from there show thousands of engines running at the LZ's and thousands of people loading onto their armor but no movement as of yet. That will probably change within the hour as well.'
He was right, of course. By the time Laura Whiting made it to her meeting, the columns at the Libby and Proctor LZs had begun to move in as well. And, as at New Pittsburgh and Eden, special forces teams began to move in too.
Lon and his squad saw the dust cloud long before they saw the first of the WestHem armor coming down the valley below them. They were spread out atop four different hills on the south side of the valley, some forty-five kilometers from the landing ships, just outside of the effective range of the 150-millimeter guns on the ships. They were heavily laden with anti-tank lasers and charging batteries. Supporting them were two sniper teams on hills to the east and west of them and two mortar teams further south. On the other side of the valley — which was just over thirty kilometers wide at this point — was another team of the same configuration.
'What do you think, sarge?' asked Lisa as she spied the dust drifting hundreds of meters into the air and blowing towards them on the wind currents. 'They taking the middle?'
'Looks like they're going right down the old poop chute all right,' Lon agreed. Though the WestHem marines probably thought that sticking to the center of the valley afforded them protection since it was as far as they could get from the hills, it was actually exactly what the Martians wanted them to do. If they were in the middle it meant they were in range from both sides of the valley instead of just one. It also greatly increased the time it would take for WestHem infantry troops to get to the ambush sites.
'Want me to send a report?' asked Jefferson. 'I can get a good lock on the sat from here.'
'Not yet,' Lon replied. 'The Mosquitoes are already in the air, circling about a hundred klicks behind us. Let's wait until we have an actual visual on the OPFOR so we can give them exact targeting data.'
'Right, sarge,' Jefferson said. 'Standing by on the update.'
The dust cloud grew closer and closer and soon began to drift over the top of them, obscuring everything beyond twenty meters or so in the visual spectrum. The team switched their combat goggles to full infrared, allowing them to peer through the dust. Soon the ground began to shake as the vibration from thousands of tank and armored vehicle treads was transmitted along it. The shaking was hardly noticeably at first but it grew steadily more intense, to the point where you could feel it rattling your teeth and your bones. It was not a pleasant sensation.
'That feels evil,' Lisa said. 'I know it makes me sound like a girl to say that, but...'
'I'm just glad you said it first, Wong,' Horishito put in, 'because you're totally down with it. It
'Look,' said Jefferson, who was on the easternmost hill. 'They're starting to come into view now.'
They all looked and saw the tiny forms of WestHem main battle tanks appearing one by one, stretching across more than a kilometer of the valley floor.
'Wow,' said Horishito. 'Look at all of them.'
'I am,' said Lon. 'And this is only the vanguard.'
Another ten minutes went by, during which more and more tanks came into view, rumbling along at just below thirty kilometers per hour, kicking up tons of dust. The vibration of the ground grew worse, to the point that small pebbles and rocks were starting to move and roll down the hill.
'Okay, Jeffy,' Lon said. 'Send off the first report. Vanguard in sight, moving westward at approximately thirty klicks, holding to a one and a half klick area in the valley center. Tanks in front, semi-circular formation, multi- battalion strength.'
'Got it,' Jefferson said. 'Sending it off.'
When the front tanks reached the point where Lon and his squad could have engaged them if they'd wished, the APCs began to come into view. They were grouped tighter together in ranks of eight. More tanks were spread out to either side of them.
'Send another position report,' Lon ordered. 'And then start scanning for command vehicles and marking them.'
'You got it, sarge,' Jefferson said. He spoke to his computer for a second and it sent off a com laser to the satellite. He then began focusing his ESM detector on the APCs, scanning for any vehicle that was utilizing more than one radio frequency. Like with the individual soldiers on the ground, anything using more than one frequency was more than likely an officer — a lieutenant at least, possibly even a captain or a lieutenant colonel.
'Anything?' Lon asked after three minutes had passed.
'Not much chatter going on at the moment on any frequency,' Jefferson replied. 'I guess they're not very talkative. Wait... there's one.' He smiled, looking directly at the APC in question and using a finger on the kneeboard of his biosuit to put a mark on it on the combat computer. 'Got ya, you fuck.' As long as this APC remained in Jefferson's sight, it would appear as dark blue to the other team members and therefore a primary target.
'I got him too,' Lon said, watching as one out of the hundreds of APCs in view suddenly changed color. 'Wong, how about you?'
'Me too,' she confirmed.
'Okay,' Lon said. 'Looks like the program is working. Keep marking them, Jeffy, and they'll be the first through the pearly gates.'
'You know it, sarge,' Jefferson said. 'I'm getting an update from command. Two flights of Mosquitoes are inbound. One from the south, one from the north. ETA less than five.'
'Right on,' Lon said. 'The moment they finish their runs, the fun begins. Let's get the ATs charged.'
Lisa was one of the four squad members in possession of an AT-50 laser. She pushed the charge button and trained it out over the valley towards the collection of armored vehicles. She zoomed her combat goggles in a bit, pulling the images closer, and placed her targeting recticle on one of the closer APCs, noting that the range-finder read 8356 meters — just over eight kilometers. The official maximum range of the AT-50 on the surface of Mars was fifteen kilometers (assuming, of course, that one had a direct line of sight to one's target). Beyond that too much of the energy of the laser shot would be absorbed by the atmosphere on the way to the target for a burn- through of the armor to be guaranteed.
'Hey, sarge,' she said as something occurred to her. 'What's the word on this dust affecting the range? Won't it absorb more of the energy than the atmosphere alone?'
'It will absorb some,' Lon replied. 'The loss of energy should be low enough that we can still penetrate at this range though.'
'
'I know,' Lon said. 'It's more theory, but so far all of our theories have been good ones, haven't they? Just stick to the nearer targets until we know for sure.'
They waited, watching the targets rumble by, oblivious to their presence. Jefferson continued to scan and located two more probable command vehicles. They too were turned blue by the combat computer.
'The Mosquitoes should be here any second now,' Lon said. 'Once they start making their runs and the commanders start barking orders at everyone Jeffy will be able to pin down more of them.'
Less than thirty seconds later the ground started vibrating in a different manner. Sound reached them, an ominous whine of semi-rocket engines swelling up from behind. While their brains were still processing this information two Mosquitoes suddenly appeared from the hills behind them, hugging the terrain as was their habit. They passed right over the top of Lon and Lisa, clearing them by no more than twenty meters, close enough to send dust swirling off their hilltop.
'Jesus fucking Christ,' Lisa said, both terrified and exhilarated.
Even before the words were out of her mouth the two aircraft had banked out over the valley and their lasers began to flash. They banked back into the hills a few kilometers further west and disappeared. Down in the valley
