were being used for largely static defense, hovering close to bases like this one. Still, it was better than getting no warning at all. Chen peered over Liang's shoulder and saw six jeeps kicking up dust as they approached the base.
Something didn't seem right to Chen. From all he had heard, the enemy was not so stupid as to walk into overwhelming firepower. Liang barked into his radio.
'Get the two gunships in the air. I want them obliterated before they get within RPG range.'
Another display showed the footage from both helicopter gunships as they took off and turned towards the approaching vehicles. The radio crackled with another transmission from the drone operator.
'Sir, I have three more jeeps coming in from the opposite direction.'
Chen had a sinking feeling in his gut. They had two gunships at their base and should theoretically be able to deal with such a threat, but he had heard of too many bases being overrun. Part of him told him to get to his chopper and get out, but he could not abandon his troops when they were under attack. He heard Liang speak in little more than a whisper.
'It's the witch. She rides with them.'
Chen's attention snapped to the display and he saw a close up of one of the jeeps, and standing there was a young woman with her fair hair streaming behind her, her eyes covered by dark glasses. The other jeeps seemed to have only a driver, with the cab behind covered in what appeared to be canvas.
'Sir, she cannot be killed. I have heard so many comrades…'
Chen shut Liang up viciously.
'Comrade Major, you are the ranking officer in charge of this base. Weakness and superstitious babbling will not help your men. Decisive action will.'
Even as Chen said the words, he had to admit that he too felt a stab of irrational fear. It was one thing to fight men who could be killed and to hunt mindless Biters, but it was quite another to fight an enemy who supposedly could not be killed but could fight like the best trained soldier and handle the most sophisticated weaponry. This witch had been leading the enemy to victory after victory and now she seemed to be bearing down on him. Liang was so focused on the jeep carrying the witch that he paid little attention to the three jeeps that the drone had picked up.
'Pilots, fire at will and aim at the third jeep from the left. That's where their leader is'
The drone operator screamed out.
'Sir, those three new jeeps are firing SAMs…'
His transmission was cut short as the screen relaying footage from the drone was filled with static. A second later he heard calls for help from the two gunship pilots who reported multiple SAM trails headed towards them. Chen watched in impotent fury as the gunships tried to evade the incoming missiles, and then their display screens were also replaced by static. Liang seemed to be on the verge of panic having just lost the edge in firepower he had. In his panic and anger, Chen snapped, all trace of civility gone.
'You idiot! Stop staring at those screens. We still have our eyes and our weapons. Come on to the deck and get binoculars.'
Chen walked outside and saw through his binoculars that the jeeps had stopped and all of them had their canvas covers removed, revealing multi-barrel rocket launchers of the sort that were carried underwing by Red Guard helicopter gunships. Chen's lips tightened.
'So that's why they've been reported to be so interested in picking dry the wreckage of the choppers we lose.'
He had no time to admire the ingenuity of the enemy as one of the jeeps fired. He saw a flash of light and six rockets streaked towards the base. It was an inaccurate weapon, but at such close range, they did not need pinpoint accuracy. Three rockets exploded short of their target, but three arched into the base, exploding in the grounds outside, sending Red Guards scampering for cover. Chen looked down and saw several men lying bloodied after the strike.
Liang was screaming at his men to open fire with the Gatling gun emplacements. Chen shouted at him to shut up.
'Liang, they are out of range. They have clearly thought this through better than you.'
Liang blanched as Chen walked back into the command center, trying to salvage the situation the best he could.
'Order everyone into the underground shelters. They can fire all the rockets they want, but they can't get us there. If they try and close in after that, we still have a fighting chance since they only seem to have a handful of men and we have more than two hundred fully armed soldiers here. Liang, get on the radio and call in an air strike.'
Chen knew that any air strike would be at least fifteen minutes away, but he wanted the men to feel that the initiative still lay with them. That was when one of the guards on the perimeter wall wailed on the radio, the fear in his voice apparent. The words he said robbed Chen of all the fight he had left in him.
'Sir, Biters are coming in from all sides. Hundreds of them just popped up from tunnels! What do we do?'
***
Chen went back to the deck and froze at what he saw. As far as the eye could see, there were Biters walking towards their base. Each wall had a remotely controlled gun turret and he shouted for one of them to open fire. He heard the familiar buzzing sound as the gun turret fired, cutting through the front ranks of the approaching Biters like a scythe, tearing limbs and bodies. He could see some of the undead monsters still try to crawl towards the base as the others behind them stepped over them and continued approaching the base. Just then, two more of the jeeps fired rockets. This time, their aim was better, and most of the rockets slammed into the base. One tore a gaping hole in the front wall, destroying the gun turret, while others hit the inside of the base, and Chen dove for cover as the helicopter he had come in exploded in a giant fireball.
He crawled back inside, feeling the skin on his arm burn from a near miss from shrapnel. Liang was staring at him open-mouthed.
'Sir, they are on the radio.'
Chen heard a female voice on the radio.
'Red Guards, surrender and I guarantee that you will be left alive. Fight us and you will be destroyed without mercy.'
Chen had heard enough stories about other bases that had received similar messages. Some had fought till the end, but others had surrendered to be looted of all their weapons and equipment. The survivors brought back tales of horror that spread further fear and discontent in the Mainland, and uncomfortable questions about the nature of the enemy and the war they were really fighting. The Central Committee had initially reacted the only way it knew how-to sentence the officers and troops to long stints in labor camps to build back their `revolutionary fervor'. But that had only further sucked dry the supply of battle hardened troops. Which is why fools like Liang were now here.
Liang seemed to be on the verge of total panic and grabbed at the holster on his belt.
'Sir, we cannot let those monsters take us!'
Chen sighed. It would sound brave to talk of fighting to the end, but then he saw the frightened faces around him. Young men, many with families back in the Mainland, fighting a war that now had no clear agenda, far away from home, against an enemy whom they had been misled about. General Chen had always been a good Party Man but he could not let these young men be slaughtered for no purpose. He would surrender and take accountability for it, and plead that the soldiers had wanted to fight, but he had overridden them. He knew that he would not survive long in a labor camp, but perhaps it was time he finally did his true duty as an officer-to his men, not to his masters back in the Central Committee.
He grabbed the mike from Liang and spoke, noting the horror in the Major's face.
'I agree, but we will surrender to humans. Ask those monsters to hold back.'
He asked all his men to put their weapons away, and then walked to the deck. He saw that the Biters had indeed stopped and wondered how this witch exercised such control over what were surely mindless brutes and monsters. The jeeps closed in on the base, and he saw black-clad men disembark from them and enter the base, assault rifles at the ready. The witch was among them, her blond hair marking her out from all the others. The black clad men fanned out across the base and gathered the Red Guards outside in a group, herding them into a room
