Private Brutto and T'Phai were on watch at night when the Bugs attacked. They had been talking to each other about Max's father, Seargeant Brutto, when the motion sensor that had been set up earlier went off.
Less than two seconds later, the ground five hundred meters away opened up and Warrior Bugs began to pour from the hole, and screaming their rage at the bipeds who were there. Over a hundred Bugs surged from the hole within ten seconds, and more jostled their way up from the caverns below. This scene was repeated all over the planet, and squads who had been relaxing or playing found themselves under vicious attack by four legged horrors that didn't care if they lived or died.
The two Fleet ships in orbit immediately launched fighters to assist, but the Bugs had another surprise for them. Plasma Bugs had been hidden below planet the entire time, and were trundling to the surface. As they reached the surface, they elevated themselves and belched plasma out towards the ships and other craft in orbit. Ships that had turned towards the planet to bring their guns to bear had to suddenly dodge the incoming fire or be damaged or destroyed.
At the Roughnecks' location, they didn't know all of this. All they knew was that the ground had rumbled, and there was assault rifle fire over their heads, and grenades going off. Flores managed to get her gear ready first, and began launching grenades at the swarm of Bugs charging in, causing gaps to form in their mass, holes that were filled with more Bugs coming up from below. The other squad members were getting ready as well, and assault rifle fire intensified as the other squad members grabed their weapons and opened fire.
But standard fire would not suffice for this, as the Bugs were still pouring out of the hole they had made. Seeing them coming out of one hole gave Lieutenant Rico an idea.
"Gossard, grab a tactical nuke, and fit it to your rifle."
"Sir, won't that be a little dangerous?"
"Do it."
As Gossard attached the nuke to his rifle, Rico explained his idea.
"I want you to place that round inside the hole the Bugs are coming out of. It'll give us a minute of slack."
Realizing what Rico intended, Gossard stepped back from the rest of the squad, and began elevating his rifle, until the suit's sensors reported that he was at the right angle to hit the hole. A quick squeeze on the trigger, and a small holocaust was dropped into the hole.
"Everybody down", yelled Rico.
The onrushing Bugs noted the slackening of fire from the humanoids, and rushed faster to get in and tear them apart. But running as fast as they were, they were ill-prepared for when the blast wave washed over them, hurling them into the air like leaves in a storm. The Roughnecks had been expecting the blast, and only got knocked back by ten feet.
"Seargeant Zim, take Flores and T'Phai with you, and clean up any Bugs that got knocked behind us. We'll get rid of this batch."
"Yes sir. You two, follow Me!"
The three soldiers turned around, and began heading back through the encampment, checking for any Warrior Bugs that were still alive. Rico had chosen Flores and T'Phai because they were the best shots, and Sargeant Zim would be able to coordinate them effectively. In the meantime, Rico and the other Roughnecks had opened fre on the remaining Bugs, and were dealing with them very effectively.
In the span of two minutes, all the remaining Bugs had been wiped out, with no casualties among the Roughnecks. Reporting the attack to the Ship above, Rico learned of the other attacks. The Captain told him to wait for ten minutes until retrieval ships were done ferrying troops and replacement supplies down to the planet and back, and then there would be a command briefing that Rico could participate in.
Ten minutes later, the link was set up. Captain Morstern was in charge, so he started by having a staff officer give a full briefing to all the MI lieutenants on the ground.
"What happened was the Bugs just seemed to throw everything they had at the squads and at us. Other than that initial assault, we haven't seen any more signs of Bug activity on the planet, or anywhere in the system. Our status is as follows; of the twenty squads on-planet, three were lost with all troopers, five are down to half-strength, and of the remainder only two squads are in perfect shape. Those two are the Roughnecks and the Veltans. The remaining ten squds are all missing at least one trooper, and we are treating those troopers in medbay as we speak. Twelve more squads are on the way down to the planet to strike the sites where the three squads were destroyed.
"Fighters are also returning from their strikes on the plasma Bugs, and there were only twnty of those.
"Are there any questions?"
"Are there any estimates on the planet's Bug population?"
"None yet, but we figure that the planet does not hold many Bugs. Unfortunately, that estimate can vary from only a thousand to over twelve hundred Warriors, not including other specialized versions and genetically engineered versions that pop up on each planet. Ths number is of course, after the estimated three thousand that were killed just now."
"Are the other squads going to redeploy to help cover the Bug country?"
"That I will have to leave to the Infantry Colonel on board. Colonel?"
"We will be redeploying some of you, and the rest will be covering larger ground areas to make up for the movements. We will be sending down transport ships with Wide Area Surveillance Packs to assist in this."
With that, the meeting broke up, and the lieutenants returned their attention to their squads. The knew the colonel was still working out woh was to be redeployed, and would get back to them with their orders soon enough.
Rico turned back to his squad and gave them the current situation. There were several curious looks though, as Gossard had gasped in shock when Rico mentioned the WASPs.
"Um, sir, have the Wide Area Surveillance Pods had their engines upgraded?"
Gossard had a good reason for asking this. On Hydora, Lieutenant Razak had attempted to use a WASP to lift Gossard and Doc out of a Bug zone using the two hooks in the Pod. Unfortunately, the engine had not been up to the task, and none of them got off the ground. As more squads reported similar problems, SICON Testing had looked into the matter, and did a thorough shaking of the company that had made the Pods.
It turned out that one of the engineers assigned to the project had noted that the engine had extra power, far beyond what was necessary to lift one trooper, and had suggested that a hook system be installed to allow the Pod to carry a second trooper. Another engineer at the meeting had heard that, and realized that carrying one trooper would unbalance the Pod, and had added a second hook so one trooper could be carried on either side. Unfortunately, the Pod's engine wasn't powerful enough for three troopers, and couldn't lift very far off the ground. Once the report reached the company, the two engineers quickly redesigned the Pod so it had a far more powerful engine, and could now carry three troopers, including the pilot. A note was added in the SICON testing department to fully examine everything a company made, even if the company had tested it themselves.
As Gossard looked over the new WASP, he noted the higher power available, and smiled. If they could get the fuel tanks smaller, and the engine more powerful, they could even have full-time flying troopers. Until then, he could always try to design his own. He began imagining how to hook together two WASP engines onto a single frame, and schematics began to draw themselves, fuel consumption calculations began to be written, and . . .
The other troopers saw the dreamy look on Gossard's face, and sighed. They knew that look, and figured that whoever attracted his atttention over the next few days would be the guinea pig for his next idea.
But Rico managed to bring him out of his daydream with his next announcement. "Three squads were lost with all hand when the Bugs attacked. Several more are down to less than half strength. Most of the remaining squads are being deployed to the site where the Bugs broke out. In short, the Bugs are here, we're being left in this position, which means that we now have five times the area to patrol if we're left here, or we have a horde of Bugs to deal with if we are moved. If Bugs attack us, it may be several minutes before the rest of the squad can arrive to help.
"As such, everybody here is getting double combat loadouts. It will weigh us down a bit, but if Bugs attack, I'd rather run out of Bugs than run out of ammunition. Any questions?"
"Who were the squads that got hit hard?"
"They didn't give us that information yet. I'm sure they will, but for now, we do our jobs."
Less than two seconds later, the ground five hundred meters away opened up and Warrior Bugs began to pour from the hole, and screaming their rage at the bipeds who were there. Over a hundred Bugs surged from the hole within ten seconds, and more jostled their way up from the caverns below. This scene was repeated all over the planet, and squads who had been relaxing or playing found themselves under vicious attack by four legged horrors that didn't care if they lived or died.
The two Fleet ships in orbit immediately launched fighters to assist, but the Bugs had another surprise for them. Plasma Bugs had been hidden below planet the entire time, and were trundling to the surface. As they reached the surface, they elevated themselves and belched plasma out towards the ships and other craft in orbit. Ships that had turned towards the planet to bring their guns to bear had to suddenly dodge the incoming fire or be damaged or destroyed.
At the Roughnecks' location, they didn't know all of this. All they knew was that the ground had rumbled, and there was assault rifle fire over their heads, and grenades going off. Flores managed to get her gear ready first, and began launching grenades at the swarm of Bugs charging in, causing gaps to form in their mass, holes that were filled with more Bugs coming up from below. The other squad members were getting ready as well, and assault rifle fire intensified as the other squad members grabed their weapons and opened fire.
But standard fire would not suffice for this, as the Bugs were still pouring out of the hole they had made. Seeing them coming out of one hole gave Lieutenant Rico an idea.
"Gossard, grab a tactical nuke, and fit it to your rifle."
"Sir, won't that be a little dangerous?"
"Do it."
As Gossard attached the nuke to his rifle, Rico explained his idea.
"I want you to place that round inside the hole the Bugs are coming out of. It'll give us a minute of slack."
Realizing what Rico intended, Gossard stepped back from the rest of the squad, and began elevating his rifle, until the suit's sensors reported that he was at the right angle to hit the hole. A quick squeeze on the trigger, and a small holocaust was dropped into the hole.
"Everybody down", yelled Rico.
The onrushing Bugs noted the slackening of fire from the humanoids, and rushed faster to get in and tear them apart. But running as fast as they were, they were ill-prepared for when the blast wave washed over them, hurling them into the air like leaves in a storm. The Roughnecks had been expecting the blast, and only got knocked back by ten feet.
"Seargeant Zim, take Flores and T'Phai with you, and clean up any Bugs that got knocked behind us. We'll get rid of this batch."
"Yes sir. You two, follow Me!"
The three soldiers turned around, and began heading back through the encampment, checking for any Warrior Bugs that were still alive. Rico had chosen Flores and T'Phai because they were the best shots, and Sargeant Zim would be able to coordinate them effectively. In the meantime, Rico and the other Roughnecks had opened fre on the remaining Bugs, and were dealing with them very effectively.
In the span of two minutes, all the remaining Bugs had been wiped out, with no casualties among the Roughnecks. Reporting the attack to the Ship above, Rico learned of the other attacks. The Captain told him to wait for ten minutes until retrieval ships were done ferrying troops and replacement supplies down to the planet and back, and then there would be a command briefing that Rico could participate in.
Ten minutes later, the link was set up. Captain Morstern was in charge, so he started by having a staff officer give a full briefing to all the MI lieutenants on the ground.
"What happened was the Bugs just seemed to throw everything they had at the squads and at us. Other than that initial assault, we haven't seen any more signs of Bug activity on the planet, or anywhere in the system. Our status is as follows; of the twenty squads on-planet, three were lost with all troopers, five are down to half-strength, and of the remainder only two squads are in perfect shape. Those two are the Roughnecks and the Veltans. The remaining ten squds are all missing at least one trooper, and we are treating those troopers in medbay as we speak. Twelve more squads are on the way down to the planet to strike the sites where the three squads were destroyed.
"Fighters are also returning from their strikes on the plasma Bugs, and there were only twnty of those.
"Are there any questions?"
"Are there any estimates on the planet's Bug population?"
"None yet, but we figure that the planet does not hold many Bugs. Unfortunately, that estimate can vary from only a thousand to over twelve hundred Warriors, not including other specialized versions and genetically engineered versions that pop up on each planet. Ths number is of course, after the estimated three thousand that were killed just now."
"Are the other squads going to redeploy to help cover the Bug country?"
"That I will have to leave to the Infantry Colonel on board. Colonel?"
"We will be redeploying some of you, and the rest will be covering larger ground areas to make up for the movements. We will be sending down transport ships with Wide Area Surveillance Packs to assist in this."
With that, the meeting broke up, and the lieutenants returned their attention to their squads. The knew the colonel was still working out woh was to be redeployed, and would get back to them with their orders soon enough.
Rico turned back to his squad and gave them the current situation. There were several curious looks though, as Gossard had gasped in shock when Rico mentioned the WASPs.
"Um, sir, have the Wide Area Surveillance Pods had their engines upgraded?"
Gossard had a good reason for asking this. On Hydora, Lieutenant Razak had attempted to use a WASP to lift Gossard and Doc out of a Bug zone using the two hooks in the Pod. Unfortunately, the engine had not been up to the task, and none of them got off the ground. As more squads reported similar problems, SICON Testing had looked into the matter, and did a thorough shaking of the company that had made the Pods.
It turned out that one of the engineers assigned to the project had noted that the engine had extra power, far beyond what was necessary to lift one trooper, and had suggested that a hook system be installed to allow the Pod to carry a second trooper. Another engineer at the meeting had heard that, and realized that carrying one trooper would unbalance the Pod, and had added a second hook so one trooper could be carried on either side. Unfortunately, the Pod's engine wasn't powerful enough for three troopers, and couldn't lift very far off the ground. Once the report reached the company, the two engineers quickly redesigned the Pod so it had a far more powerful engine, and could now carry three troopers, including the pilot. A note was added in the SICON testing department to fully examine everything a company made, even if the company had tested it themselves.
As Gossard looked over the new WASP, he noted the higher power available, and smiled. If they could get the fuel tanks smaller, and the engine more powerful, they could even have full-time flying troopers. Until then, he could always try to design his own. He began imagining how to hook together two WASP engines onto a single frame, and schematics began to draw themselves, fuel consumption calculations began to be written, and . . .
The other troopers saw the dreamy look on Gossard's face, and sighed. They knew that look, and figured that whoever attracted his atttention over the next few days would be the guinea pig for his next idea.
But Rico managed to bring him out of his daydream with his next announcement. "Three squads were lost with all hand when the Bugs attacked. Several more are down to less than half strength. Most of the remaining squads are being deployed to the site where the Bugs broke out. In short, the Bugs are here, we're being left in this position, which means that we now have five times the area to patrol if we're left here, or we have a horde of Bugs to deal with if we are moved. If Bugs attack us, it may be several minutes before the rest of the squad can arrive to help.
"As such, everybody here is getting double combat loadouts. It will weigh us down a bit, but if Bugs attack, I'd rather run out of Bugs than run out of ammunition. Any questions?"
"Who were the squads that got hit hard?"
"They didn't give us that information yet. I'm sure they will, but for now, we do our jobs."