Black Market Merchant

Chapter 147: Artillery
The Hunters were charged with crossing over the napalm smoke and using flairs, mark out where the Twisted were fewest. Then the AI tanks would follow the Hunters towards the marked directions to dampen the flames using their treads. The ICADS would follow immediately after, flanking the special weapons artillery trucks. In this military procession, not a single weapon had stopped firing at the Hoard.

56 watched all this robotic verse monster warfare unfold from the slightly uncomfortable trailer bed while floating towards the black wall of billowing smoke. After passing by, he saw that there was no obvious direction that could be considered to have the fewest Twisted. The napalm fire and smoke had attracted every Twisted with in sight. Twisted had fully surrounded the perimeter of the flames screeching and bellowing with malicious intent.

Moments later the Hunters came to the same conclusion as 56. However, they had to advance. So, a green flair was launched dead center of the weakening napalm flames. AI tanks quickly advanced three abreast, plowing through the smoke and then into the crowding Twisted creatures. Many creatures were unable to dodge the sudden appearance of the speeding tanks and were crushed. While other Twisted clamored up on top of the tanks and tried attacking them. They stabbed, thrashed, and gnawed at every tank part they could reach. Yet the armor easily held up to their attacks and the tanks rolled onwards.

Hunters took their time picking off Twisted attacking the tanks from above. Occasionally a Plains Strider would charge out from the dusty clouds and plow into a vanguard AI tank. Their horns would puncture the tanks at times; however, this would only happen because the AI tanks sensors were being overloaded by the sheer number of heat signature targets. In response to being hit, the tanks immediately locked on to the Plains Stride and fired. From point blank range there was not a single Twisted that could withstand a tanks attack. Once the ICADS 18’s joined in the attack, the first responding Twisted were quickly subdued.

”These ICADS are quite impressive. Though not quite as strong as the AFR forces. Still, compared to human soldiers, one ICADS 18 is worth ten soldiers.” 56 thought looking down the barrel of his long laser rifle.

He watched as an ICADS 18 singlehandedly split a Night Hound in half with its tungsten/ carbon steel sword. While simultaneously shooting at a pack of Logos Cutters charging at its feet. It’s reactionary time and accuracy were nothing to scoff at.

The city’s attack force didn’t have to travel far through the dust and swarming Twisted, just close enough to launch the special weapons. The Hoard Mother had been steadily advancing on the city the whole battle and now it was only two kilometers away from the plasma wall. The entire time the Hoard Mother had been advancing the first group of Hunters had been fruitlessly attacking it. All they had to show for their efforts was a single eye of the Hoard Mother that was severely damaged and bleeding dark blackish blood.

Once again Dixon received another message on his wristwatch. ”Attention to all Hunters. Pull back from the Hoard another and prepare for impact. The cities artillery will be doing mass bombardments until the special weapons are ready. You have one minute.”

56 looked towards the Hoard Mother to see the dozens of Hunters darting frantically around the creatures massive swaying head and neck. From this distance it was hard to see why they were fighting in such an odd manner. At first, he thought it was because of the occasional artillery strikes, but those were mainly striking the Hoard Mother’s back and legs.

56 raised his rifle to look through the scope. He was slightly surprised by what he saw, Logos Cutters had been clinging to the body of the Hoard Mother. They could be seen coming out from the shimmering brown hairs of the mammoth Twisted Mother, like fleas on a dog. Then as the Hunters drew close, the Logos Cutters would kamikaze themselves and try leaping onto them.

”These actions are clearly not normal for any creature to do. The Hoard Mother has to be controlling them somehow.” 56 thought to himself. Then he spoke to Orville. ”Orville, be sure to record how the weapons attack and affect the Twisted. It might come in handy later.”

”Rodger Boss 56!” Orville cheerily replied.

Hearing the message, the Hunters readily retreated from their skirmish with the Logos Cutters and the Hoard Mother to regroup with the assault forces. The Hoard Mother, however, seemed too careless about whether or not the Hunters were there fighting it. Yet when it saw where the humans were retreating too, and that a large number of its prey was getting dangerously close, the Hoard Mother swayed its bus sized head to give a low toned rumbling response.

At first 56 and the Hunters thought it was going to attack them. But rather after the rumble stopped the Hoard Mother looked back towards the city and continued marching. The odd response confused many of the Hunters but seeing that there was no incoming attack returned to firing on the Twisted still assaulting the tanks and ICADS.

Below, the special weapons artillery were gearing up for a strike. They were now moments away from the strike zone. The ICADS and AI Tanks were easily holding off any Twisted and it seemed that they would strike soon without a single Twisted being able to stop them thus far.

Several non-combatant robots were quickly rushing around the Liquid Nitrogen rockets, double checking the liquid and that the temperature was not rising. If the heat was too high, then the freezing wouldn’t work, and the plan failed. It seemed to 56 that it was going to take some time to figure this problem out to be used more practically against moving targets.

That is when another nerve-racking sound coming from the Hoard Mother’s direction came. Everyone looked curiously to see four monstrous new Twisted types coming closer wading through the dust. The dust had kept them obscured until now and this was not good for the attacking force. They were nothing like those Twisted they had encountered before.

”Are those Devils Kodiak?” Dixon shouted in shock.

”Devils Kodiak? Are those some mutant bears?” 56 asked re-raising his rifle scope to look at them.

”That’s what they used to be, but their only similarity now is their face and teeth. Look and you’ll understand.” Dixon replied. He then started fervently tapping away at his wristwatch. ”I have got to report these. Even if we take out the Mother, these beasts would still be a horrible thing to deal with and we Hunters can’t handle them. I have dealt with one before from Hover Bike and was forced to retreat. It’s not something I want to face again.”

56 adjusted the scope and brought the new Twisted into his view. This new Twisted was about three to four times larger than any bear alive. Standing at approximately six and a half meters the Demon Kodiak was in its own right a monster. No wonder Dixon seemed worried by them. He too didn’t feel inclined to face one either.

Just as Dixon said, only the head and long canine teeth still resembled a bears, along with some patches of brown matted fur. Where there was no fur, only blackish scarlet leathery skin remained. Covering most of their backs, the Demon Kodiak’s had porcupine quills that looked to be easily at the most two meters in length.

Its front legs were squatted inwardly, like a frog legs and the back legs were now bent completely out of its once natural shape. Instead of running it also hoped like a frog and caused depressions in the ground in its wake. A strange sight to be sure, but entirely capable of destroying anything it might land on.

”Can’t the AI tanks handle them?” 56 asked looking away from the Twisted.

”Probably not, to be honest.” Dixon replied while focusing solely on his watch. ”That’s why I am reporting them so our reinforcements can be authorized to be deployed.”

”Reinforcements? What kind of reinforcements can come all the way out here and handle those beasts if tanks can’t?” 56 asked scratching his head.

”I thought you said you were in the military? Don’t you know about Military Mechs?” Dixon asked pressing one final button before looking over at 56.

”It was a long time ago.” 56 said giving a shrug. ”But go ahead and enlighten me.”

”Military Mechs are just as they sound. Gundam Humanoid giant robots created to fight. Though now the A.I.’s control many Military Mechs, they still can’t compare to human piloted Mechs.” Dixon explained. ”Basically, it’s like the pilot inside the Mech becomes a larger version of themselves to fight. Using the electromagnetic field flight capability’s and Advanced Electro-transfusion Reactor Cores and other Core variants, they can move the huge Mechs in spite of gravitational restrictions to move just as their human selves can. The Mechs are only as good as the technology and physical skill of the pilot inside.”

”You sure know a lot about them.” 56 said repressing his excitement. These sounded just like the machines he had read about from comics and anime. ”Did you ever pilot them?”

”Me? No, but I am the mechanic for our group. Tammy is our pilot and Sam is the technical expert.” Dixon replied with a bit of pride in his voice.

56 was about to ask more about the Military Mechs when suddenly a horn sounded from below them. The Special Weapons were now ready, and they had to redouble their efforts to keep the Twisted out from the firing process. The best news they had so far was that it now looked like the Demon Kodiak’s were going to be arriving too late to stop them. The unsuspecting Hoard Mother was broadsided and made for an easy target. 56 was watching with great fascination now and Orville was impatiently bobbing around waiting for everything to unfold for him to record.

Without warning the two Liquid Nitrogen artillery trucks launched their entire payload. All eight rockets were launched out one after the other, like bats out of hell, and went screaming towards the Hoard Mother’s side. The Hoard Mother turned to see what was going on, but by now it was too late.

”Ka-boom!”

All eight rockets struck home! At first the explosions were fiery and shook the Hoard Mother violently, nearly knocking it over. The body of the Twisted was hit near the base of the neck, middle set of legs, three spots on its torso and once near the base of its three tails.

Unlike the former artillery strikes, this one visibly hurt the Twisted. However, that was not all that happened. The liquid nitrogen had splashed onto its thick outer skin and appeared to be spreading deeply into its flesh. The Hoard Mother appeared to be in great pain and writhed in anguish. It’s nearly impenetrable skin was no match for the far below zero cold of Liquid Nitrogen!

Then it was now the third artillery’s turn to strike. The eight tungsten tipped rockets were aimed high into the air to provide the right arch to build up kinetic energy as it returned to strike its targets. Then it fired them all at once with blinding speeds that couldn’t be followed by the human eye.

The impact took much longer to strike than the Liquid Nitrogen rockets. In fact, the wait felt like ages! It was fortunate that the Hoard Mother was in too much pain to move, otherwise, the tungsten rockets would have likely missed.

”Ka-boom! Crash!”

The tungsten rockets struck the frozen areas of the Hoard Mother with nearly three times the power of the former rockets. The impact drove the titanic sized Twisted crumpling to its knees, followed by a massive plum of dust whoosh out from the shockwave of the impact. Even from this fair distance the crashing and tinkling noises, of which immediately followed the tungsten rocket strikes, was the sound of the deeply frozen areas of its body breaking like glass. This exposed the insides of the creature and left behind irreparable damage to its body.

This now proved that a Twisted Hoard Mother was going to be defeated without using a nuclear bomb or poisons!

”All Hunters advance! Use your Armadillo armor buster bombs to destroy it from the inside!” An urgent message relayed to every Hunter. ”A follow up artillery strike will happen before you arrive to further break up the frozen flesh. Additionally, the Demon Kodiak’s will be engaged by the Military Mech forces. They have been approved for combat.”

”That was amazing! Let’s go Dixon! We can’t waste a moment!” 56 shouted, but his urging was unneeded as Dixon was already turning the accelerator to the hover bike forward. There was no need to tell Dixon twice. This was going to be the highlight of his career, if not life!