Chapter 143: Against a Hundred Thousand More - VIII

The additional swarms did not change the result.

Missiles continued rising from both formations. Airburst warheads opened above the streets, tearing holes through the larger clouds before they could descend. The insects that reached the armored lines crawled over sealed hatches and external optics, but they could not enter the troop compartments.

The Bastions shifted whenever one vehicle lost visibility. Another took over its lane until the affected cameras cleared.

Below them, the ground battle continued.

Vanguard shells struck the deeper intersections. Guardian APCs swept the road mouths. HE missiles and forty-millimeter grenades broke apart the concentrations behind them, while the Machine Gunners and rifles handled whatever crossed the wreckage.

Red markers continued disappearing.

"Remaining contact count?" Hans asked.

Matilda reviewed both engagement areas.

"Below five thousand. Most remain inside the central parking structures and the eastern shopping blocks."

Far fewer than when the operation began.

The infected had also lost the Screamer directing them in the open. Groups continued leaving the buildings, but they no longer divided as cleanly. Some crowded the same road mouths. Others entered lanes already covered by the Bastions.

South One and South Two cut them down as they came.

Flight Operations kept Falcon Two over the eastern roads and Striker Two above the southern approach. Raptor One remained on the outer circuit in case another enhanced contact exposed itself.

"Falcon One to Golden Eagle. Swarm emergence points concentrated around the central drainage line. Several connect beneath the parking structures."

Hans shifted the feed.

The helicopter’s camera followed a row of storm drains disappearing beneath the shopping complex. No roots or membranes showed aboveground, but every insect cloud had emerged somewhere along the same underground route.

That was the first useful lead Falcon One had found.

Hans looked toward Bastion One’s marker.

With the surrounding concentrations reduced, moving Kimmy had become less reckless.

Before he gave the order, Striker Three entered the channel.

"Enhanced Spitter exposed. Upper parking ramp."

The creature leaned beyond the broken barrier.

Another marker accelerated across the rooftops.

"Leaper moving west."

It cleared one building, crossed the pedestrian bridge, and continued toward South One.

Both enhanced contacts had left cover together.

"Finish them," Hans said.

Matilda opened both platoon channels.

"South One, South Two. Enhanced contacts exposed. Eliminate them."

The Spitter fired first.

Another green projectile crossed the northern road, aimed toward the Guardian GIs behind Bastion Six.

The deployed soldiers remained in place.

Bastion Six moved across the firing lane and caught the projectile along its side armor. Acid spread across the plate while the Guardian GIs continued firing over it.

A HEAT missile rose from behind South Two.

The Spitter withdrew from the broken barrier, but the missile had already locked onto the exposed section of its body. It turned above the parking ramp and struck before the infected reached cover.

The explosion tore through the upper level.

Its marker vanished.

Farther west, the Leaper cleared the pedestrian bridge and landed on the roof of an office building overlooking South One.

Striker One turned toward it.

The Leaper jumped again before the Apache could fire. It crossed above the avenue and dropped toward Bastion Two, arms extended toward the soldiers positioned behind it.

The Guardian GIs shifted their shields upward.

Grenades burst across the Leaper’s path.

The first explosion threw it away from the APC. Another struck as it twisted in the air, tearing one leg apart before it landed among the abandoned vehicles.

It still moved.

A Sniper round entered its shoulder and drove it against the road. The second passed through its head before it could rise.

"Leaper eliminated," South One reported.

Hans watched both markers disappear.

The locations of all five enhanced infected remained marked across the district.

"Keep their remains separate from the ordinary bodies," Hans said. "Send the combat records to Tyrus and ask what he needs."

"Understood," Matilda answered.

With no known mobile enhanced contacts remaining aboveground, Matilda released Raptor One. Flight Operations routed the fighter back to the Airfield while the helicopters remained over the district.

The ordinary infected continued entering the firing lanes around them. Without the enhanced contacts breaking the formations apart, the remaining thousands lasted even less.

Vanguard shells reached the deeper streets.

Autocannons swept the road mouths.

Missiles and grenades followed wherever the infected gathered again.

Promotion notices continued as the contact count fell. Several minutes later, fewer than two thousand markers remained.

Most of the remaining markers stayed beneath the central parking structures. Smaller groups occupied the nearby shops and office buildings, though none attempted another coordinated push.

Hans watched the roads between South One and the drainage line.

Bodies, wrecked vehicles, and pavement damaged by shells and acid covered the route. It remained obstructed; enough infected had disappeared for South One to advance while its rear elements continued holding the prepared line.

"Secure the approaches to those drains," Hans said. "Move South One toward the drainage line."

Matilda opened the channels.

"South One, advance to the central blocks. South Two, maintain your line."

Both platoons acknowledged.

Big Rhino’s tracks crossed the bodies filling the western avenue while the Guardian APCs followed through the spaces left behind. Infantry advanced along both sides, clearing storefronts and the entrances nearest the road before the rest of the formation passed them.

The Guardian GIs left their deployed positions in intervals. Some remained behind to cover the road mouths while the others moved with the advancing squads and established new firing points farther ahead.

Missile Infantry kept their launchers raised toward the parking structures.

South Two continued reducing the groups along the eastern roads. War Elephant fired into the lower parking entrance when several hundred infected attempted to leave together. The shell struck inside the ramp and blocked part of it with concrete and bodies.

Bastion One followed South One through the western avenue.

Kimmy remained seated beside Yunera as the APC moved over the damaged road. Johannes, Evelyn, and Marcus watched the shared feeds near the front of the troop compartment.

"Falcon One to Golden Eagle. Western drainage entrance visible."

The helicopter’s camera shifted toward a service alley behind the shopping center.

A storm grate had been forced upward from beneath.

Black insects continued crawling around the opening, but no swarm rose from it.

Hans enlarged the feed.

Something pale remained caught between the bent bars.

It resembled a strip of flesh stretched too thin across the opening. Black veins ran through its surface and disappeared beneath the grate, while insects crawled over it before joining those scattered along the alley.

The tissue contracted around one of the bars, then relaxed as more insects emerged from below.

"Bring Bastion One to the drainage entrance," Hans said. "Oracle will inspect it."

Matilda opened South One’s channel.

"South One Actual, secure the western drainage entrance. Bastion One will move forward once the area is clear."

"South One receives."

The formation adjusted around the service alley.

Guardian APCs covered the wider road while infantry entered the surrounding shops and checked the upper windows overlooking the entrance. Scouts moved through the alley first, followed by an Attack Dog that stopped several meters from the grate and growled at the opening.

No other infected emerged to surprise them.

The pale tissue continued tightening around the bars whenever the insects moved beneath it.

Big Rhino remained near the avenue, its cannon facing the parking structure. The Guardian GIs established firing positions behind the vehicles while the Missile Infantry watched the rooftops and drainage entrances farther along the block.

Bastion One advanced once the nearby buildings were cleared.

Inside the troop compartment, Kimmy turned toward the front before Anton spoke.

"Something is beneath us."

Yunera tightened her hold on Kimmy’s arm.

"Can you tell what it is?"

Kimmy remained quiet for several seconds.

"No. It is farther away than the last one."

Hans heard her through the open channel.

"Can you use what Falcon One found?"

"I need to be close to it."

The answer came without hesitation.

Hans looked at the alley through the APC’s forward camera. The grate lay beyond the line of bodies and broken pavement, surrounded by insects that had yet to leave the ground.

"Secure the entrance first," he said.

Matilda passed the order to South One.

The soldiers nearest the alley began clearing the remaining insects away from the grate.

The insects around the grate disappeared under rifle fire and short bursts from the nearest Machine Gunner.

Bastion One lowered its ramp.

Yunera stepped out with Kimmy beside her. Anton followed with two soldiers from his command element, while South One’s nearby infantry covered the alley and the openings above it.

Kimmy stopped before the grate.

The pale tissue had tightened around the bent bars again. Its surface trembled whenever movement passed beneath the road.

Yunera kept one hand around Kimmy’s wrist.

"Ready, sister?"

Kimmy nodded.

She crouched and placed her fingers against the exposed flesh.

Her shoulders stiffened.

The tissue contracted beneath her hand. Black veins darkened across its surface before spreading farther beneath the grate.

Kimmy drew a sharp breath.

"It’s connected."

Hans leaned toward the open channel.

"Where?"

"Below the central parking structure. Deeper than the drainage line."

Her fingers remained pressed against the tissue.

"I can feel chambers around it. The insects are moving through them."

Another tremor passed beneath the alley.

Kimmy’s expression tightened.

"There is one body in the middle. Large. It is producing them."

Hans looked toward the parking structure.

The tactical display showed hundreds of markers beneath it, scattered through the lower levels and the drainage routes connected to them. One marker remained deeper near the center, surrounded by the others, but the display could not identify what it was.

"Can you locate the chamber?"

Kimmy kept her fingers against the exposed flesh.

"Yes. The connection passes beneath the drainage line and turns toward the center of the structure."

"How far?"

"I cannot tell exactly. It is deeper than the tunnels we entered before."

Hans watched the black veins beneath her hand.

The previous Hive had spread through the industrial sector until its flesh became part of the surrounding structures. This growth was smaller and more concentrated, but the insects, the coordinated infected, and the enhanced contacts had all remained around the same underground area.

That did not make it another Hive.

He did not know what it was.

"Do not follow it any farther," Hans said.

Yunera pulled Kimmy’s hand away from the tissue.

The black veins faded beneath the pale surface. The flesh loosened around the grate, though movement continued below it.

Matilda studied the route Kimmy had described.

"South One can secure the drainage entrance. The parking structure still has infected beneath it."

Hans nodded.

"Hold the entrance. Clear the remaining contacts before anyone goes underground."

Matilda opened the platoon channels.

"South One, secure your current position. South Two, continue clearing the eastern blocks."

Both platoons acknowledged.

Kimmy remained beside the grate while Anton’s soldiers closed around her and Yunera. Beyond the alley, the remaining gunfire continued across the commercial district.

Hans kept the drainage route marked on the display.

Somewhere beneath the central parking structure, a large infected was producing the swarms.