The Wolfpack fanned out and went high. A volley of hypes struck the bug ship but to no apparent affect. The crew of the bug ship seemed to ignore the attacking ships until a hype with a low yield nuke struck the ship. The yield was dialed too low to destroy a shielded bug ship outside of the atmosphere.
AWACS North Group captured filtered images of the ship being pummeled by the blast effect. The ship’s shielding shimmered and sparked after the detonation, even buckled to a point. Shielding or not, a lot of bugs must have died from the concussive impact. But the ship was intact.
The Bad-Ones coordinated their FLaSh laser attack with moderate success as satellite images revealed several ragged holes with small amounts of escaping atmosphere.
One of the DEW-Pulse Laser Canons from the bug ship activated. It was orders of magnitude more powerful than the relatively low power FLaSh system of the BAD-Ones. The BAD-Ones were the first to rupture and explode. All the remaining aircraft took evasive action. To no avail. It was a systematic slaughter as a second PLC from the bug ship joined in, firing directed energy moving at the speed of light.
Here’s some audio from a B-1R assigned to the high-altitude interdiction force, operational tag Wolf Song. “We’ve lost our F22 and the avionics support. Let them all go John; we won’t make it through this.” Wolf Song ripple fired all munitions. The final two missiles were hypes with nukes. Those hit the bug ship shielding in a one, two punch. The ship disintegrated in a caustic plume.
High-pitched sirens started to whine from each of the remaining bug ships, a call for the marauding bug squads to return to their ships. Bad timing for the bugs. All that armor had rolled in from the high desert and taken position behind the hills within easy range of the nest ships.
As the bugs congregated in groups near their ships, an incredible bombardment of artillery shells and missiles rained down all around them. Some bugs headed back to human populated areas. Other bugs ran for their ships, though few of those made it. Much of the ordnance was decidedly anti-personnel. The satellites were down, but there were still plenty of eyes in the sky. Drones and re-tasked communications satellites. The attacks were well coordinated. Bugs died by the score.
***
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP.
Source: Declassified paragraph of a debriefing report, The Battle for Los Angeles, Angelic Response.
Then the fliers, the flies, streamed from the nest ships. The nest ships aren’t all that large. They must stack the flies like cordwood. They poured from the bug ships by the hundreds. The look was like a cloud of gnats that suddenly disbursed with phenomenal acceleration. The carrier task group had moved in close by that time to provide support for that very situation.
They unlimbered their rail guns and powerful pulse laser canons. As the flies came up over the hills our laser equipped tanks fired. Anti-aircraft guns opened up. F/A-18F Super Hornets took to the skies from the carriers to join the waves of squadron flights moving in from the north and east. The flies returned fire with real rail guns. Their laser canons were true Directed Energy Weapon systems <DEW>. Our guns were, just, pitiful by comparison. It wasn’t close to an even match.
END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
BURBANK TANK BATTALION TWO. NetToUs. Embedded Journalism with Live Reporting at The Battle for Los Angeles.
NetToUs. “This is Jonathan with NetToUs, embedded in a freaking Abrams M1A3 tank. Embedded is a good literal description too. It’s cramped in here. This version can have a three or four-member crew. Since it has the auto-loader system, they gave me the fourth seat, and promised I wouldn’t have to load any shells.
“We are part of a platoon of four tanks. This tank is not lead on the mission, so I’m hoping the tank commander will have a few seconds to chat. With that, here I am, pulped in with the tank crew of a freaking Abrams, sharing the grind with three of the guys making this thing happen.
“And it is for sure happening. The tank is rocking as they pound the Burbank bug ship position. It’s a long shot, but not a problem with the tanks super-bore system. For this mission, the brass wanted all the fire power they could muster. Here’s the gojo.
“The bugs were out doing their evil ... stuff ... but got called back to their ship after our Air Force blew one of their mother ships to atomic dust. As the bugs have been scurrying back to their ships, these guys have ... been ... just ... whomping them.
“Sargent Hansen is driving. Sargent Riddley is the gunner. The tank commander is Lieutenant Murphy. He said I can call him Murph as long as we keep it our little secret. There’s only 20 million of us in on the secret, so keep it on the hushbye.
“So, Murph, what you hitting those evil &!t@#$ <expletive deleted>, oops, uhhh, what are you hitting those evil monsters with?”
Lieutenant Murphy. “Well Jonathan, we’ve got the latest in the super-bore configuration, firing HVP, uhhh, hypervelocity projectiles, with anti-personnel ordnance. Those are cluster munitions that we normally wouldn’t use anywhere near a civilian zone. Heck, there are conventions and such, that, well. Uhhh, never mind.
“Let me assure our guests we’ll be doing a really thorough cleanup to find any UXO, uhhh, unexploded ordnance. You know, after this is done. Hold on Jonathan. What Riddley? Go to Bravo Charley and try that.”
NetToUs. “Thanks Murph. Yeah, it’s a mess out there. A lot of bugs are going down.
