The firing had ceased, and the' town lay quiet. The troops were now deployed around the buildings, but the activity of the animals had ceased. There had been no attacks for the last ten minutes. Still Collins had M60 machine guns placed on each of the buildings in case the animals returned.
'Report, Mr. Ryan,' Collins said as he gained the roof of the Broken Cactus.
Ryan, looking dirty and bloody, stepped forward, holstering his nine millimeter as he did. He looked a lot older than he had this morning.
'We lost at least ten state troopers.' He cleared his throat and looked around and lowered his voice. 'Twenty-five or thirty of the airborne troops, we haven't had a chance to count yet, but I think I've only counted ten or so left.' He looked at Fielding, who just clenched his teeth. 'They fought like hell, Colonel, trying to get these people to safety. The state men also, they didn't die for nothing. God, Jack, maybe twenty or twenty-five civilians were taken in the first assault, mostly the remaining reporters, and... it's just a god-awful mess.'
Fielding removed his sunglasses and harshly rubbed his eyes. He turned from the devastation of the town and slapped Ryan on the shoulder. 'Isn't much like the navy, is it, son?'
Ryan lowered his eyes and shook his head.
Billy was standing behind Collins and shifted positions looking at the faces of the survivors, and that was when he saw his mother. She was treating one of the soldiers leaning against the building's waist-high false front.
'Mom!' he screamed, and ran into her arms.
Julie reacted immediately to her son's voice and gently laid the soldier's head against the wall and ran to her son.
'Oh, God, I was so worried about you, baby, are you alright?' she asked, crushing him into her chest.
Gus, who was carrying Mahjtic under a sheet he had removed from his cot, smiled. The small being mentally felt the relief flood through the old man.
'What about these animals?' Collins asked, unzipping the vest armor from his chest, letting in some needed air.
Ryan looked from his boss to Sam Fielding, then reached over and patted Billy on his head. He looked into Julie's eyes a moment, seeing the relief she was expressing because she had been near a panic during the operation to get everyone up top. Then he looked back at Collins.
'They're straight out of a fucking nightmare, Major. Fast, strong, and you're damn lucky the freakish bastards stopped their attack and went away, because these sons of bitches can jump. They took down one of the news choppers from almost two hundred feet.' Ryan stepped closer and whispered to Collins and Fielding so Billy couldn't hear. 'They're definitely eating the ones they take, Major, we all saw it.'
The hookup between Washington, Event Group Center, and Chato's Crawl had been hot for the last ten minutes. Niles was holding his own against the top military leaders of the country in defending the actions of the 101st and his ground teams.
'As I stated, Mr. President, there was nothing that could have been done to change the outcome of this first engagement. The animals hit us while the ground teams were still in the process of evaluating the situation.' Niles paused for a moment. 'The tunnel assault elements are being organized now.'
The president turned to face the director of the CIA and air force general Max Hardesty, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
'Okay, I'm sticking with Compton and his team as to recommendations on how to fight these things. Now, and most importantly, Operation Orion will only be ordered as a last resort. Understand, gentlemen, no nukes unless you have my specific authorization.'
All the directors of the national security staff nodded their compliance.
'Now, what does Major Collins need to'--the president held a finger up--'one, rescue all the civilians in that town?' He held up another finger. 'Two, what equipment can we rush in there to help fight these damn things?' Then he held up a third finger. 'And number three, what course, other than nuclear weapons, can we use to contain these things if they escape the valley?'
General Hardesty stood and went to a large back-projected map of the western United States.
'Mr. President, we have brought in elements of the Seventh Aviation Battalion from Fort Carson, Colorado. They just arrived on-site.' Hardesty drew a line down from Colorado to Arizona. The plasma in the screen reacted to his finger, and a red line traveled the length of the map from Colorado to the Superstitions. 'We will have ten Apache gunships on station in a little over an hour. They will provide cover for the four MH-53J Pave Low Ills that have just arrived from MacDill in Florida. They will be used to airlift the civilians from the town. Collins and Sam have come up with a plan to lift them directly from the building rooftops. The Pave Low is basically a huge flying gun platform with large enough cargo facilities. We believe four will be enough to evacuate all collateral personnel out of the town.'
'What about containment?' the president inquired.
'There we are committing a number of F-15 Strike Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons for use in ground assault. They will be loaded with type-N Bunker Busters and standard cluster munitions that should give the burrowing bastards something to write home about. If we have to, we can ring the entire valley with bombs. We are scraping anything we can package, Mr. President, and will have more as soon as we can get them online. We are also airlifting a squadron of Paladin tanks for cover if and when the tunnel teams go in.'
'What about the special troops Mr. Compton has asked for?'
'They just landed outside of the town and are being airlifted to the site by Blackhawk. The best we have, sir. Major Collins will have a strong element of Delta and Third Rangers to add to the Group's tunnel and mine teams.'
The president turned and looked into the camera. 'Mr. Compton, I know this is a lot to throw at you, but what have we learned from the crewman of that saucer?'
Niles pushed his glasses back up on his nose and looked into the camera.
'With maybe only two or three of the offspring killed or wounded, that leaves approximately ninety-plus healthy ones, not counting the adult, which hadn't been present at the attack that we know of. The surviving crewman assures us if we can kill all the young and then get to the mother in another'--he looked at the clock on the wall--'nine hours, we can avoid having to deal with another, even larger hatching cycle, as each surviving animal will give birth to another hundred young.'
'And if even one of the offspring survives?' the director, CIA, asked.
'It starts all over again,' Niles said.
The president looked from each of his highest advisers, then back into the camera. 'Mr. Compton, you are to take complete control of the visitor, and Major Collins and your Group are still in charge of everything underneath the soil of that valley. Tell Major Collins to kill the bastards, Niles.'
Julie watched as the giant MH-53J Pave Low Ills of the Third Special Operations Squadron circled the town. She felt somewhat safer after she noticed the large rotary cannons sweeping the desert below from the side doors and rear ramps. Also crisscrossing the town were ten AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters with their lethal load of sixteen Hellfire missiles, and seeing the chin-mounted M230 thirty-millimeter chain guns moving and covering the area around the buildings at least gave the survivors the illusion of safety. Above even them were hordes of streaking fighter aircraft. Upon their arrival, the few surviving townspeople and news crews gave a loud cheer.
But Julie's mind was somewhere else. She looked at the injured soldiers and civilians spread out over the rooftop of her once quiet and out-of-the-way bar and grill, their awful wounds being tended to by army medics, and bit her lower lip as she made a fateful decision.
'Mom, what are you doing?' Billy asked, trying to catch up with her retreating form. 'Lieutenant Ryan said to stay put.'
She quickly walked to the small trapdoor that some of the fleeing patrons had used to access the roof. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, but they were still staring skyward as the giant twin-turbocharged helicopters started making their run for the rooftops.
