Chapter 22: [Operation Black Vulture]

Celer, Silens, Mortalis

█/██/██, 06:00, Brewster, Cape Cod

A team of four Force Recon operators walked through the ravaged town of Orleans on their way to Eastham. Most of the houses were damaged or destroyed from a recent battle. Their shoulder patches read 1st Force Reconnaissance Co I QA-MEF. Covered in dark brown and black multi-spectral camo, which looked like a ghillie suit, they trekked toward their destination, which was a destroyed Horus machine somewhere between Mill Pond and Salt Pond Bay, about 11 kilometers east-northeast.

All the trees and grass of the land had already been devoured by the swarm, which was then advancing westward along the cape to greener pastures. What was left of the land was a dark soil with bits of debris from houses and other buildings strewn across it. The wooden parts of the various buildings had either been destroyed by bombardment or devoured by the swarm. The frontline was about 80 kilometers west of their position then. The USRC had pulled back a few days ago to draw the swarm away from the cape. The four operators had been inserted by HALO jump over Mashpee 45 minutes ago during twilight, the cargo door having opened to a rising sun. The command had ordered them to be inserted sufficiently far from the downed Horus to avoid being targeted in their descent by the surrounding KPs, each of which were standing guard around the destroyed queen according to air reconnaissance. Although they had their advanced camouflage, which would have likely allowed them to be invisible to the KPs, 1st FORECONs commanding officer had wanted to take every precaution for the sake of the success of the operation.

There were few ACA3s and FSP5s remaining on the cape, the rest having gone westward since the destruction of the Horus. At the moment, the operators were in view of Cape Cod Bay8 and the sandy shores as they walked quietly, their camouflaged rifles pointed downward. The dark soil of the land silenced their footsteps. In the light of early sunrise, which illuminated the clouds over the eastern horizon, they saw hundreds if not thousands of small, black cylindrical protuberances sticking above the waters of the bay as far as they could see. They all headed westward in unison. Some of the cylindrical protuberances would approach the shores of the cape near their position and, on landing and eventually discovering that there was no more vegetation left over to refuel with, continued trekking westward on land. All the while, the four operators were invisible to the occasional ACA3.

Whenever an ACA3 treaded close by, particularly within 20 feet of them, the point man would lift his cybernetic right arm slowly in a fist, signaling the others to halt. They kept radio silence, although they did have their radios with them. Some Aces would pass by close enough for the operators to see the bits of seaweed stuck in the crevices of their matte black bodies and the dents and damages from battles that had occurred on the other side of the Atlantic. The most recent one that had passed them had the bones of some large fish stuck on its tail.

Strewn among the plain dirt fields that they walked through were dozens of mostly complete human skeletons still clothed in their tattered military uniforms. The cybernetic limbs of the dead soldiers laid with the skeletons, some covered in dents or holes from shrapnel. DEW rifles laid beside the remains. Some of the bones, particularly skulls and ribs, had been crushed by advancing Aces.

At the moment, they passed by a group of three destroyed MRB tanks in their dug in emplacements. Silence suffused the place. Each had multiple points of penetration covering their surfaces. One had its large turret detached entirely from its chassis. The upper portion of the skeleton of one the crew was sticking out of that turretless chassis. Its skull seemed to be gazing at the operators. Its jawbone was lying beside it. These were all the dead and destroyed of half of C-Company from the 1st Battalion, 5th QA-Marines. They had fought from Southeast Asia to Europe. They had survived so many hard battles, but it was their turn to waste away.

As they walked in view of Cape Cod Bay, they would occasionally glance at the ACA3s swimming in droves toward the shores of Plymouth. No doubt, a Horus machine was waiting in the sea, breeding endlessly as long as the supply of biomatter in the waters lasted. The USRC command was fortunate to have a relatively intact Horus on land away from the frontlines and without the concentration of swarm bots that would hinder the retrieval mission. The small team was tasked with retrieving the processor from the Horus' quantum processing module. A week ago, they had trained with a QPM from a previously disassembled USRC Horus, so they knew what to do to quickly and safely retrieve the processor from the destroyed Horus in Eastham.

They continued walking in silence, one behind the other, occasionally halting whenever an ACA3 passed close by. All the while, that spectacle of Aces swimming in the bay toward Plymouth never ceased. The wide bay was dotted with those black cylindrical protuberances as far as the eye could see.

—06:45—

The four operators were then about one kilometer away from Site Green and could see the top of the laid-out Horus above the houses and buildings of the town of Eastham. Dozens upon dozens of Aces were crossing the outer cape (i.e., from Provincetown to Eastham) in a westward direction, having come from the Atlantic Ocean. They were all heading for Cape Cod Bay to swim toward Plymouth. Occasionally, an ACA3 or two could be seen walking on top of the metallic carcass of the Horus. When they passed the houses and buildings preceding the field in which the Horus was located, the team saw six KPs forming a wide circle around their downed queen. In that defensive state of theirs, their C-RAM abilities were amplified, which would negate any airstrike save for the highest degree of saturation fire, which had been ruled out by the command to avoid the likelihood of damaging the intact quantum processing module and because the air force was needed in the large scale battles about 80 kilometers west of the cape.

To deal with the sentinels, the operators had been equipped with M12 DEPRs (Directed Energy Precision Rifle). They had extensive reconnaissance and sniper experience against the swarm from their time in Asia and Europe and from before 2055 in past operations both military and, particularly after 2055, mercenary in nature.

Taking up separate positions on a long hill about 0.75 kilometers southwest of Site Green, the four operators set up their hard-light projectors, placed their rucksacks in front of themselves to support and steady their long rifles, and laid in wait. They simply observed through their scopes the bots around the inanimate Horus and adjusted their scope dials to account for the distance. For two hours they waited. They were waiting for the rest of the Aces from the Atlantic to cross the outer cape and leave just the six KPs and the repair crew. It was a long wait, but they had waited longer before. Occasionally, an Ace would pass close by one of the operators on its trek toward the bay.

They knew that repairing a Horus was no quick task for the bots, so they didn't fear that the small repair crew would revive the queen any time soon. Also, the airstrikes that had destroyed the Horus had been supplemented with a direct EMP strike to fry the inner components that had been previously protected by electromagnetic shielding. That complicated repair efforts even more. Add to that the fact that Horus machines that were destroyed or disabled far behind the frontlines or in a position exposed to air attack were given less priority than their concealed or frontline counterparts.

—08:48—

When the last of the Atlantic Aces passed by and after 15 minutes without any more of them crossing the outer cape, they patiently aimed their rifles at the KP sentinels. They aimed for about 20 seconds before firing in near unison, one after the other. The loud shots broke the silence.

Naturally, their shots hit the core processing units of the KP sentinels, disabling them without nudging their chassis one bit. Almost immediately afterward, the two remaining KPs rotated their upper bodies toward the hill from which the operators had fired from, orienting their rocket pods to a 45° angle. They couldn't spot the snipers directly, but they possessed gunshot detectors, which could determine with moderate, but not pinpoint accuracy the position of a hidden shooter. As the operators aimed calmly at the two remaining KPs and two Aces, the KPs fired a rocket barrage at their positions. Five of the rockets landed about five yards away from the point man, but his hard-light projector shielded him from the shrapnel. The other rockets exploded further behind or in front of them. After another ten seconds, the four fired in near unison once again. With that, the four remaining bots were disabled. The two KPs that had been shot last seemed to exhibit a robotic analog of rigor mortis in that their top-mounted rocket pods were still poised to shoot skyward.

With perfect composure, two of the four FORECON operators, including the point man, rose from their prone positions, slung their rucksacks on their backs, and picked up their hard-light projectors. They walked side by side toward the Horus. The dark soil of the barren land silenced their footsteps. All was quiet. The large clouds drifted slowly overhead against the early morning sky. The other two remained in their positions to provide overwatch should more Aces show up from the east. As the retrievers neared the scene, thunder rumbled in the distance. Heavy clouds could be seen in the distance to the northeast. It was then 08:52.

—09:15, Site Green—

The two operators at Site Green were standing beside the Horus' quantum processing module, which was level with the dark soil of the ground. They had just placed and detonated high-explosive charges on the disabled KPs and the repair ACA3s. At the moment, they were working on removing the thick cover that concealed the processor, the retrieval of which was the purpose of the operation. Their rucksacks and DEW rifles were laying on the ground. The task wasn't as simple as removing lithium batteries from a drone. They had to drill through a nearby component to deactivate an internal locking mechanism, then work to remove the titanium cover. They had been advised against drilling the cover of the processor directly to avoid damaging it.

On retrieving the processor successfully, the point man gave the OK gesture to their overwatch, placed the processor, which was about 14 inches squared, into a black bag, then placed high-explosive, timed charges across the important parts of the Horus, especially in the compartment which had held the processor. Afterward, they headed for a clear field about 50 yards to the northwest of Site Green. Shortly, the two that had provided overwatch rejoined them.

"Angel 1, we have the package, over," said the point man, a 1stLt Meir, into his aug.

…

"Copy Vulture 4, relay your position, over."

One of the operators that had provided overwatch, a 2ndLt Kim, who had been temporarily assigned to 1st FORECON Company from the QA-Marine Raider Regiment, set up a beacon nearby.

After about five minutes, their extractor spoke to the point man again.

"Vulture 4, we are 15 mikes out, over."

"Roger Angel 1."

—09:41—

While they were sitting beside each other in the barren field, a gray pod from the extracting aircraft landed by parachute 20 feet north of their position. A wire trailed from the pod to the aircraft flying overhead. The team would be extracted by RAES, or the rapid aerial extraction system. The aircraft flew in a wide circle with the pod at the center of that circle. Meanwhile, the four operators retrieved the vests and flight helmets from the pod and hooked themselves securely to the rope, checking to make sure that his buddy in front of him was securely hooked too. Then, they put on the flight helmets. Afterward, they each gave each other the OK gesture with their right hands.

"Angel 1, we are good to go, over."

…

"Roger Vulture 4. Egressing. Hang tight."

As they watched the aircraft break from its circular flight path and head southwestward, the rope tugged on them all and lifted them from the ground. They dangled one above the other as they were taken away.

About five minutes later, they were still suspended by the rope and were flying over Plymouth, where they could see the swarm advancing westward. The whole of Plymouth seemed to be covered with Aces, each of which looked like black, moving specks from their altitude.

Twenty minutes later, they were flying, still suspended by the rope, over the frontlines south of Providence at an altitude of about 5,200 feet. Below their feet, a squadron of USAF/USRC fighter jets flew in a northeasterly direction, firing standoff missiles at a group of KPs west of Barrington. The KPs were firing salvo after salvo of rockets into the sky toward the USRC's defenses, but immediately directed their next salvo to intercept the squadron's missiles. Elements of the 1st Marine Division were fighting below them that morning.

On flying over the Providence River about eight miles south of Providence, the operators spotted from 5,200 feet a lone Horus swimming swiftly through Greenwich Bay. Its unearthly, metal limbs moved like those of the legendary kraken in those dark blue waters. Countless ACA3s were disintegrating the vegetation on the western banks of that bay as if preparing the land for their queen.