The EXFIL order came too late. Pulse laser cannons from the Rosemead nest ship powered up. At that same moment the other three nest ships also opened fire. The Marines took cover in their foxholes as pulsed fire continued, directed at the troop positions, for nearly a minute. Air temperature in the vicinity rose constantly.
The transport vehicles exploded. Vegetation flared. The sandy soil turned to glass. A soldier couldn’t handle the heat any longer and jumped up, hoping to make a run for it. His battle buddy grabbed at him, only to be yanked to the side by the effect of the gruesome explosive vaporization of his friend. It was only a matter of moments before the entire Marine Expeditionary Unit had joined their companion in death.
END FILE.
The bugs didn’t think we had it in us. They expected us to drop dead in fear of them. Their pre-invasion observation of us must not have been thorough. We came at them with everything we had. And we’ll keep on coming. Our technology is not on par with theirs. But we have some teeth. Terrifying as they may be, their effort to subjugate us won’t even give us pause.
***
+ BEGIN TIMELINE DROP.
NOTE: These are excerpts from some general court-martial witness debriefing reports that took place long after the Battle for Los Angeles. I’ve made this Drop in connection with that first great battle, when these labs first began their efforts. Organic Labworks and Beats Tactical Sonic Lab certainly had important rolls in the invasion. I have my thoughts, but will keep them to myself. Solcom gave assent to the Drop.
*** Los Alamos, Organic Labworks. It’s odd that the bugs left the military satellites up for so long. We scanned to our hearts content. Perhaps they thought we only had optics. I don’t know. By the time they destroyed the local military birds we had hyper-scanned the freaking bugs right down to their DNA.
Within hours we were running bug DNA sequencing programs. A few days later CRISPR labs were churning out a wide variety of potential nastiness to combat the bugs. One lab already had early sequencing results and was working on a solution that could liquify a bug’s exoskeleton in a matter of minutes. That lab expected to have a weaponized system within a week.
We gathered all sorts of data. Some of us thought we would be talking “bug” within a couple of days, maybe a little longer since the language had some odd syntax. There was real hope of commjacking, some even thinking we’d be able to eavesdrop on their encrypted comms in less than a week.
*** Fort Bragg, Beats Tactical Sonic Lab. By the time the bugs took out the military satellites over Southern California our hyper-scans had provided enough data to design a program using Destabilizing Acoustics. On Day Five of the invasion we began to immerse every single bug nest ship on the planet with acoustics that would bend their very souls.
Did it work? Perhaps the levels were overdone a bit. We didn’t know, for example, of the berserker drugs forced on the bugs. They were already half-crazed much of the time. It is true, the level of bug atrocities began to increase. So did the number of tactical mistakes.
I think the League Tribunals will acquit those who authorized the sonic attacks. It was a new kind of war. And, who could say the use of Acoustics didn’t help to save humanity?
Besides, the scanning data provided to the various labs was so redacted. The complete scanning record should have been much more broadly disbursed. Beats Lab knew all about the bug auditory systems. Amazing capabilities. Bugs can detect, mentally process, and develop actionable information from the most minute vibrations. But we weren’t allowed to share the information with other groups. It seems as though that information could have been used by others in the military. And Beats Lab would have benefited from a broader base of scanning data as well.
END TIMELINE DROP. +
***
BUGBLAST
The bugs are being cautious with high-tech facilities, commercial and industrial infrastructure; satellites, power plants, any industrial facilities. Those must be deemed to be of a high enough standard for their own use. That has made it more difficult for them to prosecute the invasion. There are times, such as the battle for Los Angeles, they totally overwhelm our military. At other times, our forces excel. The bugs seem surprised at our resolve. Okay, that’s just the feeling I get.
People are smart, especially when under pressure. We learn and we adapt. The science guys have already built what they hope will be a game-changer bomb. It’s a nuclear device. But it is “clean” for a nuke. The yield is larger than a standard tactical field nuke but lower than a full-sized strategic nuke. And like I said, cleaner. That’s an imperative. The bomb is just right, as in Goldilocks. The Goldilocks bomb. Not too big. Not too small. Just right. The military managed to take out a mother ship with one of those bombs.
Mr. T somehow obtained the mission recordings from the Goldilocks operation, the first use of that new bomb. It’s quite the crash-course I’ve had in military-speak the couple of days. Included with the recordings was a file that had other information, such as the OPORD directive. We were able to review the ROE (Rules of Engagement); Target Intelligence information; the general Air Order of Battle; Preplanned Support. Roll was especially excited. He has already listened to the recordings three or four times.
Grandad wants to continue adding outside information to the Journal. He says it can become a comprehensive report on the war effort. I, for one, didn’t think keeping a little journal would be so complicated. It’s good practice though, so don’t think I’m complaining. Well, I might
