Warsong (Hunter-Killer #2)

Chapter 38 - Demons Should be Seen, and then Killed

The seismics were going berserk.

Brackenshaw felt a sense of awe as she examined the tactical display in the skiff's lower level, taking advantage of the brief lull in combat to try and get to grips with just what in the Everflowing was happening down here.

There were Scraegan readings all around them, forming a huge, blistering ring around the main thrust of the human army. She knew with a grim certainty that the Crawlers they currently bludgeoned their way through were just a small part of the swarm that infested the Labyrinth. Without the Scraegan warbands there would have been no chance of them even reaching this far.

And even now it was still hard going.

The Dreadnoughts and Scraegan elites had ploughed on ahead, massacring anything that got in their way as they escorted the bomb towards its destination, but the Crawlers were trying to cut them off. Groups of them broke through the Scraegan cordons to savage the convoy from all sides. Some of Vanyr's armoured companies had collapsed whole tunnel sections, even trapping themselves in with the Crawlers to keep the main thrust of the attack safe. Combat engineers detonated hastily deployed charges to slow down their foes, destroying the makeshift passages that the arthropods created with their churning bodies.

Casualties were rising. The battle map made for grim reading.

"Sarge, need a rotation!" Corporal Hynan yelled from the deck above. "Running dry up here."

With an effort, she pulled her gaze from the tactical display, placing a hand to her earpiece. "Copy that, we're on our way!"

Exhaling hard and taking a gulp of water, Brackenshaw nodded to the troopers around her and mounted the stairs again, racing up onto the skiff's deck to relive the soldiers who were burning through munitions at a horrendous rate.

With practised speed the scouts switched positions with those already at the firing rails. She thumped Hynan on the shoulder guard as she came up behind him and he didn't even look at her as he unlocked his rifle and bolted for the underdecks to resupply. Brackenshaw slotted into place and took aim.

The stock of her rifle whacked back against her shoulder as she fired, sending another armour piercing round crunching into the carapace of a Crawler. The thing snapped at her skiff as they whipped by, missing them, and opening the door for a Scraegan to emerge behind it with a furnace cannon charging. A white hot blast was quickly followed by a screech and the hiss of scorching flesh.

Another enemy down. She'd lost count of how many dead and dying Crawlers they'd left in their wake. The tunnels stank of gun smoke, the burnt scent of furnace cannons and the cloying fog of death. Fire licked the walls; carcasses of Scraegan, Crawler and human alike formed a grizzly pyre.

"AC-3 – Command, multiple hostiles on our flank," a grim male voice barked over the comm. "Turning to engage, but we need support. We're strung out."

"Copy that!" Hackley snapped. "SC-21, HK-Rupture, break off and redeploy to AC-3's position."

"Copy, on our way," Brackenshaw shouted back.

"HK-Rupture, moving to cover!" called the Hunter-Killer officer. "Deadbolt – SC-21, run interference. We're still engaged; we'll get to you as fast as we can."

"Copy that, Deadbolt." The skiff turned and Brackenshaw couldn't suppress her apprehension. She'd gotten used to working with Vannigan, a known quantity she could rely on. His second officer was perfectly competent, but she simply couldn't give him the same level of trust.

Biting her lip, she tried to shove that thought out of her mind. No sense, worrying about it now – they had a battle to win.

They swept back along the length of the human line, passing a dozen different battles as the humans and Scraegans fought to hold back the tide. Crawlers leapt high to land on top of tanks and armoured vehicles; some were shot out of the sky, only for their forty ton bodies to go crashing into the middle of human formations with almost as destructive an effect.