Not only that, EastHem would be forced to withdraw support of our government.'
'Yeah,' Xenia said, shaking her head at the madness of it. 'I suppose. I just wish...'
'Remember,' Sanchez interrupted. 'If wishes were orifices...'
'I'd have a mouth on my pussy for life,' she dutifully finished.
A minute ticked by, the seconds passing with agonizing slowness, the tension so thick in the tank you could almost smell it. And then finally, the moment they had been both waiting for and dreading came.
'Command reports targets are in sight,' Sanchez announced. 'AT teams are engaging.'
'They sure the fuck are,' Xenia said. 'Look at the hills!'
Zen looked off to either side, at the hillsides that dotted their line. From every one in his view, the flashes of laser weapons could be seen, reaching out from the hidden trenches. Downrange, where the impacts were occurring, they could still see nothing as the tanks being fired upon were still over the horizon from ground level.
'Kill 'em, guys,' Sanchez whispered, his eyes glued to his telemetry. 'You protect us and we'll protect you.'
'Incoming!' Xenia suddenly said. 'A whole assload of it!'
Zen looked forward and saw the streaks of eighty millimeter tank shells heading in at high velocity. There was indeed a whole assload of it, hundreds of streaks all across the horizon. They flew in and slammed into the hillsides where the anti-tank gunners were firing from. Flashes erupted. Dust flew. The faint sound of concussions could be heard from the nearer hills.
'Laura save them,' Xenia said, watching in horrified awe.
'Those trenches can take it,' Sanchez said. 'Look, they've hardly slowed up their shots.'
Volley after volley of tank rounds came flying in and the explosions continued. So did the flashes from the lasers within the trenches. Another three minutes ticked by, during which Sanchez noted on the telemetry that the enemy tanks had spread out and were now zigzagging back and forth even though neither one of these actions was an effective deterrent against speed of light weaponry.
'Command reports targets are coming into range of ground level units,' Sanchez suddenly yelled. 'Get ready, Zen. Do it just like in practice.'
'Fuckin' aye,' Zen said, feeling adrenaline surging through his body. His hand gripped the firing buttons for his cannons and his targeting recticle moved slowly back and forth with his head movements, waiting for something to put it on.
'Target, tank, eleven o'clock!' Sanchez said. 'Light him up, Zen!'
Zen turned his head slightly to the left and saw the tiny white shape of a main battle tank moving across the landscape. Its laser cannon were up, its main gun was spouting fire and sending shells toward them. He moved his head until the targeting recticle covered the vehicle and then smoothly pushed the left firing button.
There was a bright flash from the spot where the target had been. When it cleared, only the bottom half of the tank still sat there. The turret was lying on the ground next to it and the entire structure of the vehicle was glowing bright red with heat.
'Holy fuck!' Zen said, grinning. 'That's a fuckin' kill! Did you see that?'
'Saw it,' Sanchez said. 'Now do it again. Six more tanks — no, eight — just broached the horizon. Fire as fast as you can.'
By the time he fired on another target, destroying it with a direct hit, dozens more of the main battle tanks appeared over the horizon. Several of them exploded as other tanks, APCs, or anti-tank crews potted them with their own weapons. At the same time, the flashes of anti-tank laser fire from the enemy tanks began to appear as they returned fire at the defenders.
Zen's first cannon finished its recharge cycle and he quickly sighted on another advancing tank and fired. He turned his head and had to wait another six seconds for the second cannon to finish charging. During that time two of the eighty millimeter shells came arcing in and exploded directly in front of their position. The tank rocked on its springs and the violent pattering of shrapnel peppering their cannon turret sounded throughout the interior. The cannon suffered no damage from this engagement since it had been designed to stand up to artillery and shell fire.
'What the fuck are they firing eighties at us for?' asked Xenia. 'Even a direct hit wouldn't cause damage to a tank.'
'Who knows?' said Sanchez. 'They're probably overwhelmed and not thinking straight. That's just fine for us.'
Zen saw the charging light for cannon two change to green. He already had his recticle on another target. He fired, destroying it. By this time cannon one was recharged so he found another and destroyed it as well. Other tanks continued to explode all over the field but nowhere near as fast as other tanks were appearing behind them, all of them flashing main guns and laser cannons. By the time cannon two was charged and ready for the next shot there were literally hundreds of tanks moving in on them.
Suddenly, from directly in front of them, a flash of light overwhelmed the infrared spectrum for a moment. There was no noise associated with it but when the spectrum cleared the entire barrier behind which they hid was glowing bright white with heat. There were two more flashes in quick succession and then one more. The barrier held but had crumbled in several places.
'Those were laser strikes,' reported Xenia, who was sitting less than a meter from the back end of the barrier. 'The barrier absorbed it. No damage to the tank.'
'Yet,' said Sanchez. 'If they get a burn-through and manage to put another shot in the hole, that's our ass.'
'Thanks, sarge,' Xenia told him. 'You really know how to cheer us up when things get rough, you know that?'
Meanwhile, Zen was listening to their conversation in his headset but absorbing little of it. He was popping off WestHem tanks as fast as his lasers could recharge themselves. The battlefield was now littered with destroyed tanks and they continued to flash and explode from all quarters as the volume of fire against them was maintained but the stream of them was endless. For every one blown up, five more would appear right behind it. Though the lead elements were the most frequent target, they continued to draw closer and closer, until some of them were less than a kilometer away.
From somewhere off to the left of them a bright light flashed, followed by a concussion. Zen immediately knew what it was but tried to bury the knowledge. He didn't want to face it.
Sanchez forced him to. 'Tank three is gone,' he said solemnly. 'Apparently they got a burn-through.' Tank three was part of their platoon. It had been in its own prepared hull-down position just thirty meters away. The crew were three people they'd known since the beginning days of the 17th ACR, people they'd trained with, had gotten drunk with, had been friends with. Now they were gone, erased in an instant.
'Motherfuckers,' Zen said, his eyes narrowing behind his helmet. Another flash of laser cannon came blasting into their barricade, this time sending concrete and sand flying into the air.
'They grazed us with that one!' Xenia reported. 'Burn-through just above the left tread. It went out the other side though.'
'No breach, no damage?' Sanchez asked, alarmed.
'We're good,' Xenia told him. 'The tread is intact, no vital systems hit.'
The spectrum cleared from the latest flashes. Two tanks were now less than eight hundred meters in front of them. Zen sighted on first one and then the other, killing them both. 'Take that, assholes,' he said with viciousness in his voice.
'Hey, sarge,' Xenia asked, 'they're getting awfully close here. Just how long are we expected to stand and fight them?'
'We pull back if they get within half a klick in force,' he said. 'But we have to hold them long enough for the dismounts to clear their trenches and pull back to the blue line.'
'There's too many of them,' she said. 'We can't hold this many tanks back!'
'No,' he said. 'We can't. They can blast through our line if they're persistent. Our plan is to make it too costly for them to be persistent.'
'We're trying,' Zen said, wincing as two more laser shots blasted their barrier — fortunately not in the same place as the previous burn through. When the spectrum cleared one of his cannons was charged. He fired again,
