- Well, now we're surely fucked up, - thought flashed through Harper's head when his newfound rifle, instead of another shot, gave out a dry click.
The lieutenant did not doubt that the rest would be short, but the fact that the aliens decided to declare in their numbers in such numbers was not in his plans. Jack believed that the enemy, as usual, would send a group of imps forward, as they began to call among themselves jumpy, monkey-like monsters soldiers. The imps bind the soldiers to battle, and in the meantime, stronger enemies are pulled up, and the beating begins. The whole point of Harper's plan was that the imps, approaching the police building, would inevitably run into either the laid mines, or the fire of his boys. In any case, the soldiers would have knocked out the imps fast enough and managed to escape, mined the building before leaving.
But the demons had their own plans. A new enemy entered the battle, who was quickly dubbed the Summoner. Not only did the new species know how to summon other demons, it also moved not in the usual way, but teleported to short distances. Having thus overcome the separated minefields, three Summoners opened the portals and called the Pinkies. From that moment on, the fun began, called a short-circuit with a hard-to-kill, albeit blunt opponent. Pinky soon enough went back to hell, catching a lethal dose of bullets from the soldiers. But the Summoners continued their hellish work, exposing two called for each killed person. And, by that time, when Harper's platoon had managed to knock down nimble opponents, catching at the exit points, demons from the whole area had run to the battlefield. The first went possessed, literally with their bodies breaking the way through the minefields. And then more serious monsters, the Barons and Knights of Hell, passed into the passage.
At that moment, Harper realized that he had been fingered around like a last sucker. And now his subordinates will have to pay for his mistake. Nevertheless, the platoon still represented a serious force. One by one, three Hellknights collapsed on the broken pavement, almost immediately disappearing in flames of fire. Soon Harper was able to catch the lingering Baron, and, having interrupted his leg with a bullet in the area of the knee joint, with two shots smashed his skull. The death of large enemies, it seemed, only mocked the demons, who, spitting on tricks, burst into the main entrance. Soon, they were joined by several flying monsters that looked like a rotten tomato, and the lieutenant had to switch to new targets - the air attack performed by the newcomers was no less effective than the passage of the human's gunships. Although, unlike human creations, these freaks died after a couple of successful hits from a sniper rifle or a long burst from a light machine gun.
But small successes did not greatly influence the overall picture. Either one or another soldier with a death cry fell, struck by a well-wounded plasma shot, the impact of a broken creature's claws or a jet of acid. And the fact that the attackers had already filled with blood the whole space in front of the police station did not play any role. It seemed that the enemy was completely unfamiliar with a sense of self-preservation and such a thing as the maximum allowable loss. And since the arrival of the Barons and Knights, the situation has become quite deplorable.
Harper was distracted by the distressing howl from giving orders and examining the whole situation. In obedience to the instincts, the lieutenant literally jumped straight from the prone position to the side of his position, and, rising to a knee, rolled the edge of the shotgun from his back. In time - unknown as a pair of devils leaked onto the roof already rushed straight at him, making sounds that an ungreased sawmill would envy. However, this did not prevent Jack from catching one of the bodies sprawled in the jump and pulling the trigger.
The shot was successful. The charge of grapeshot slashed at the legs of the stranger, completely tearing off one of them and seriously slashing the other. And after a few seconds, the shot charge overtook the second imp that had landed, taking down half of its head. Death came instantly, and the body of the monster disappeared in a flash of fire.
- Wow, what a useful thing in the household, - thought the lieutenent, changing the shells in the supershotgun and at the same time, sliding carefully, approaching the legless imp.
It looks like the enemy, after amputation, had no more thoughts about the attack. The creature only slowly crawled off to the curb, howling mournfully on one note. An amazingly thick scarlet blood gushing from the stump of the fountain, generously filling the concrete roof. Jack did not feel sorry for the monster - he saw too much these days to believe that these ugly creatures of another world are capable of something other than murder. To him, they were beasts driven by instincts only. So the lieutenant did not hesitate. Confidently but carefully reaching the howling monster, Jack Harper put a metal boot up his back, and putting a hem to the ugly back of his head, pulled the trigger again.
- Lieutenant, sir! - the voice of Eriks, a staff engineer of the group, rang in the headset, - I managed to hack the police cameras. And I have bad news. Our shooting attracted the attention of almost the entire neighborhood. To a site large forces of newcomers!
The voice of a very green fighter was on the verge of hysteria. It could be understood - the guy came into the army immediately after the university, having received a position corresponding to his specialization. And the first battle in which he participates turns into hell, in thedirect sense of the word.
However, the lieutenant himself understood that if they did not immediately leave the building, they would soon become food for the demons. And, to his displeasure, Harper saw only two options - go for a breakthrough or wait for a miracle. In miracles, Jack has forgotten to believe in wonders in Colombia, so there is little choice for his men.
But, as practice has shown, miracles rarely, but happen. In this case, the miracle was expressed in the platoon of Orbiltal Froptroopers, who unexpectedly hit the flank of the monsters. Frozen in surprise, Harper watched, fascinated, at this symphony of destruction. Here is one, pushing away from a slide of rubble, in a jump, hit a burst at the head of one of the Hellknights, tearing it into pieces. The other, frozen for a second, launched a rocket from a grenade launcher, smashing several tight ipms into pieces. Baron of Hell died: one of the ODTs cut one of his knees with a grenade from a grenade launcher, and when the monster, roaring with pain, fell on his knees, tore off his horn and smashed his chin. The last sight sobered the lieutenant. Taking himself in hand, he shouted into the microphone of a bewildered platoon:
- What the hell are you waiting for?! OPEN FIRE!
And the first one executed his own command, cutting off a trifle from a submachine gun that continued to arrive ...
- Who is the leader? - asked the trooper who entered the blood-filled lobby, stamping his legs heavily.
- Second Lieutenant Harper, - Jack rose, - the acting commander of the third company of the one-hundred and twelfth mobile infantry regiment.
- Captain Flynn Taggart. The first company of the second regiment of the Orbital Droptrooper Corps. At ease, Lieutenant, - Fly said with a hand, noticing Harper picked up, - sit down.
The lieutenant sat down relieved.
- Listen, Lieutenant, - Taggart crouched on his heels. With his armor, the facial armor plate turned out to be right on the level of Jack's face, - I will say straight - the situation is grave. While it is possible to keep the enemy within the suburbs, but they are becoming more and more, and soon they will break through the environment. It will happen, most likely, in two days. So several detachments were sent to the city with the aim of blowing up the portal from which these creatures climb. We are one of these groups.
- Sir, - one of the infantry soldiers got up, - tell me, please, this hell... is it just here?"
Hope shone in the eyes of the young warrior. Probably, the guy hopes that his relatives, friends and girlfriend alive. Harper himself did not care about his father, and he answered him in return. And mom ... mom was gone when he was five. And the only person he could call a friend, now caused only disgust in his soul.
- No, men, - the captain disappointed the soldier, - this is happening all over the world. And believe me. Los Angeles is not the worst scenario. And so that these scenarios do not repeat here, - for persuasiveness, the droptrooper jabbed an armored leg at the bloodied floor, - we need your help.
Harper sighed to himself. That was what he was afraid of.
- You want us to distract them, right?
- Yes, - the ODT nodded, - but not distract them, but lead them away from this zone, - Taggart pointed his finger at the area on the unfolded map, - according to the satellites, the places around have become impassable due to destruction. The closest passage is almost from the opposite end. One Cyberdemon or the Duke of Hell (rem. non-augmented version of Cyberdemon) is able to keep us in this place until reinforcements arrive, and then we will just be crushed.
- But even if we can lead most of the retinue away, - Jack reasoned reasonably, - the guards are unlikely to move.
- We'll take care of them, - Flynn said. - The main thing is for the rest to go far enough and not be able to come to them for help.
Jack began to think. If the detachment moves quickly, almost all the surrounding forces can be pulled over. But then the fate of the company will be unenviable. Most likely, they were waiting for death, from which they have so far successfully left. Well, as they say, At length the fox is brought to the furrier.
- Captain, - Harper said, looking up, - we can pull off the enemy, but we will need some help.
- What kind of?
- First, explosives and mines, - the lieutenant began to enumerate, - second, it would be nice to find a transport, preferably armored. And thirdly, we need a connection with the gunners - when we pull the enemy away from the point, we will need to quickly thin it out. Yes, and it would be nice to survive.
-We will give you mines and explosives, - Taggart nodded, giving the order with a wave of his hand, - I can't help you with transport, sorry, we are stamping ourselves on foot. Try to get hold of on the way - probably on the streets there are several serviceable. It is more difficult with communication - we have a communication complex, and it is possible to contact with gunners from it. But it works in combination with a battlesuit, and apart from it, unfortunately, no.
- Sir, - Link said, - there is a communication tower five kilometers north. Her amplifiers should be enough to go on the air and cause strike. In any case, the place for defense is convenient, approaches to the approaches to the tower are viewed, and you will definitely hold on for a while.
The last phrase was not very encouraging, but the choice was small. So the lieutenant decided to go on foot to the side of the tower, trying to get transport on the way. That's what he said to the droptrooper.
- Okay, - Taggart nodded, - then let's get started. Attention, troopers! - he turned to his men, - we give the infantry half of everything that explodes, except for grenades and shells. I take fifteen minutes to everything, after which we are going and leaving. MOVE!
The droptroopers, of course, grumbled, complaining about a "rip-off", but they executed the order. In addition, everyone understood that in the near future, mobile infantry would have to break through to the tower with a horde of angry devils on the tail, so that the ammunition was shared. Some fighters, spitting on the ban, sneakly passed a pair of fragmentation or incendiary grenades to the comrades, with instructions to "use it for sure." Anyway, in due time everyone was assembled and ready to go out, and after a minute, only the spent cartridges on the floor, bits of first aid kits and blood leaks reminded that there was an active battle. And none of those present found out that five minutes later the first imps slowly, cautiously, entered the building. For three long minutes the guests from Hell went in search of people, and when they did not find them, they roared in disappointment and rushed on the trail of the leaving infantrymen. The hellish race with death continued.
To say that Harper was lucky is to greatly underestimate. Jack himself later thought that fate probably still existed, because it was worth a lot to pass through the half-ruined city on civilian buses and minivans, without ever encountering irresistible blockages. But to do this, having a horde of bloodthirsty monsters behind him, who had strayed from almost the whole quarter, was something of a fantasy.
However, the squad was lucky - got with minimal losses. Five were killed in the closing car, which unsuccessfully hit by the Revenant volley. The skeleton unexpectedly jumped out from around the bend and after a couple of seconds was literally torn to shreds by the continuous fire of the infantrymen, but still managed to defuse the shoulder rocket launchers.
Finally, the square appeared. The cars, braking sharply, stopped, creating a small congestion, and the soldiers, like peas, poured out of traffic. Harper, looking around, grunted rather — the place was, from a defense standpoint, excellent. The tower stood on the outskirts, and to get to the entrance, it was necessary to overcome two or three hundred meters under heavy fire. Leaving a few people to mine approaches, he and the rest of the people went to inspect the building of the TV tower.
As it turned out, there were already people in the communication center ...