RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

Matilda changed the channel back to the Raptors.

”Raptor One through Four, continue strike runs. Keep the same distance and vary your approaches.”

”Raptor One copies. We still have plenty to share.”

”Three copies. We’ll make sure it gets some.”

The four fighters widened their turns around Grefort and separated again. They had only spent one air-to-ground missile each. More waited inside their bays.

At the Airfields, additional Raptor pairs were already armed and sitting on standby, but Matilda left them on the ground. There was no reason to crowd the airspace while the first four still had weapons to use.

Back on the ground, the first MLRS batteries had reached a different limit.

Their twelve ready rockets and six System-reserve rounds were gone.

The attack had started before the ground-force noon refresh for a reason. The launcher batteries could spend their first ammunition cycle, receive one supplemental replenishment from the new logistics network, and keep firing.

Noon would restore them again naturally and reopen the supplemental allowance for another cycle afterward.

Hans understood the idea when Matilda laid out the timing, but seeing it happen was different.

Mule One rolled into Salvo One’s prepared position while the empty launcher stayed pointed away from the Core.

Four enclosed allocation cradles occupied the rear of the resupply vehicle.

”Salvo One confirmed,” Mule One’s commander reported. ”Beginning transfer. Time for another round, boys.”

The Field Replenishment Allocation had already been prepared for that specific launcher by one of the Ammo Depots. There were no rocket pallets to unload and no crew gathering around the empty tubes.

The two vehicles only had to stay in position while the System handled the transfer. Ninety seconds slowly ticked into completion.

Around them, the Hellhammers kept firing.

Farther away, other Mules were already servicing the remaining launcher groups across Kingswell, Aldermere and Rushfield.

Salvo One’s status changed when the transfer completed. Twelve rockets returned to the ready tubes.

Six more entered the System reserve.

”Salvo One has been serviced! Moving to next unit!”

Matilda heard the report and changed channels.

”Salvo batteries, rejoin the fire mission as soon as you’re ready.”

”Gladly.”

Above the Core, Raptor One began another attack run.

”One beginning my run.”

”Let’s see who’s gonna get blocked, Raptor One.” Raptor Two replied.

”Tab’s on me if I lose.”

”That’s a deal. Don’t get hit by twigs out there.”

The fighter accelerated toward its release point while Raptor Two widened several kilometers behind it.

By now, there was little left of the Tree’s original canopy.

The upper growth had been reduced to thick, uneven sections clustered around the center, with broken branches hanging across nearby buildings and entire portions of the outer root network lying motionless in the streets. Whatever survived was either pulling toward the trunk or lashing at anything that approached it.

Raptor One released another missile, then quickly broke away.

Two branches snapped upward and crossed into the missile’s path, but another Hellhammer shell arrived first.

The impact blew one branch apart and knocked the other away from the center.

Raptor One’s missile passed through, exploding against the upper trunk.

”Lucky shot. You better save that tab for the Hellhammers, Raptor One.”

Raptor Two commented while following from a different direction.

Then came Three and Four.

The four fighters never approached from the same side twice. They accelerated toward their release points, sent another missile toward the center and turned away before the Tree could do anything about the aircraft themselves.

Some of the missiles never reached the trunk. Branches intercepted them in the air or threw themselves across their paths, and explosions flashed above the Core as the Tree sacrificed more of its remaining growth.

And when others got through—

One struck along the western side and tore another opening through the thickened bark. Another exploded among the roots packed around the base, throwing sections of hardened growth across the surrounding streets.

The Tree answered by thrashing harder.

An enormous branch swept through two damaged fifteen-plus-story buildings and brought part of them down around the trunk. Roots tore through intersections as they pulled inward, dragging pavement, vehicles and chunks of ruined foundations with them.

It had stopped looking like a Tree defending itself.

Hans watched the entire center twist around the same fixed point while artillery continued landing through it.

”Have you ever seen a tree pull down a huge building like that? What’s the size again, fifteen, twenty stories high?”

Johannes remained silent. Not in his wildest dreams would something anomalous as this Tree could do that.

”I don’t think it has many other options, Commander.”

The renewed MLRS batteries joined them. Salvo One fired another full rack. Other launchers followed across the four approaches, and the sky over Grefort filled with rocket trails again while the Hellhammers maintained their slower rhythm underneath them.

The Tree tried to meet everything, but there was too much arriving at once. Fresh growth appeared across one wound and disappeared under another explosion before it could harden.

Another branch grew across the exposed center, only for two rockets to tear through it seconds later.

The upper mass began losing shape. Instead of a continuous canopy, broken sections rose from the trunk at different angles while the gaps between them grew wider with every barrage. Several roots had been severed completely, leaving their outer sections scattered through streets the Tree had once covered.

Matilda brought up the precision-strike channel.

”Launcher One. Cell Three.”

The crew had been waiting.

”Cell Three ready.”

”Fire.”

The missile left its cell.

Matilda did not stop there.

”All Launcher batteries, continue precision strikes against the central mass. Stagger your launches through the saturation pattern.”

Acknowledgments followed from the remaining PSML crews.

Launcher One’s third missile climbed over Cinderrow while new launches appeared farther around Grefort.

Several surviving branches snapped toward the first precision missile, but the MLRS barrage had already forced most of the upper growth apart.

Wood, darker tissue and pulverized material burst outward through the surrounding ruins while several of the roots nearest the trunk lifted from the ground and fell back in pieces.

The sound that followed was no longer the steady hum from earlier.

It rolled across the Core in broken pulses while the Tree continued smashing everything around itself. Even when the Tree intercepted something, destroying the projectile cost it another branch or another section of root.

Hans could see less growth rebuilding now. The Tree still regenerated, but the process had become uneven. Some damaged sections thickened quickly while others stayed open, and the outer roots that had been abandoned earlier were no longer being replaced at all.

Its Radar marker had gotten smaller over time.

Johannes watched another section of the upper trunk disappear behind an explosion.

”How long are you planning to keep this up?”

Hans looked at Matilda. She was already listening to another logistics report.

”Until it’s dead.”

As they shifted back to the battlefield, they watched the Tree rip a root from the ground and curled it around the trunk.

”Persistent bastard.”

Matilda’s attention shifted when Flight Operations entered the channel.

”Command, Phantom flight approaching the Grefort operating area.”

Hans looked toward the System’s air picture. Four aircraft were coming in well outside the Core.

The Raptors were fast enough to appear and disappear between attack runs, but the incoming bombers moved differently. Phantom One through Four approached at high altitude with plenty of distance between themselves and the Tree.

Matilda checked the airspace around them before looking toward Hans.

”The Phantoms are in position, Commander.”

Hans kept his attention on the four aircraft.

”What’s their ordnance?”

”Phantom One through Three are carrying saturation loads. Phantom Four has the Heavy Strategic Demolition Bomb.”

Hans looked back toward the Tree. Three bombers meant a ridiculous amount of five-hundred-kilogram explosives before the fourth aircraft even dropped its own—twelve tonnes of it.

Matilda arranged the sequence for a reason. The first three would keep adding to everything already falling on the Tree, stripping away any branches and roots it could still throw over itself.

Phantom Four only needed the opening afterward.

”Send them.”

Matilda keyed the aviation net.

”Phantom flight, commence attack.”

”Phantom One copies. Beginning approach.”

”Two copies.”

”Three copies.”

A moment later, the last aircraft answered.

”Phantom Four copies. Holding.”

The four bombers adjusted their formation far above Grefort.

Phantom One through Three spread apart as they entered their attack lanes, leaving enough distance between each aircraft that their drops would reach the Core several seconds apart.

Four stayed farther behind.

Inside Phantom One, the Mission Systems and Weapons Officer watched the release corridor settle across the battered center of Grefort.

”Attack line confirmed.”

The pilot kept the bomber steady.

”Bomb bay.”

The doors opened underneath the aircraft. Twenty-four bombs waited inside.

”Sequence ready.”

”Release.”

The first bomb dropped away.

More followed behind it at measured intervals, forming a long descending string while Phantom One crossed high above the outer districts.

The bomber never needed to point its nose at the Tree or dive toward it. Its flight path and release timing did the work.

Phantom Two and Three began releasing from their own lines seconds later.

From the Raptors’ altitude, the strike looked considerably different from their own missile runs.

”That’s a lot of presents,” Raptor Two commented.

”You jealous?”

”Only a little.”

The first bombs soon reached the Tree. Branches snapped upward from what remained of the canopy, and one bomb disappeared against a thick section of growth before detonating above the trunk.

The interception accomplished very little. Half a tonne of explosives still went off directly over the Tree.

Another bomb passed several meters away from the branch that tried to catch it. Then another came behind that. And another.

The first line of explosions walked across the western side of the central mass. Branches vanished inside expanding clouds of dust and fragments, while several bombs reached the roots and surrounding streets before exploding.

Phantom Two’s string arrived before the Tree could even finish the first.

More branches swung upward, crossing into some of the falling bombs and missing others entirely. Airbursts tore through the upper growth while the bombs that slipped past them struck lower, sending broken wood, concrete and darker tissue through what remained of the surrounding blocks.

The Hellhammers kept firing through it.

A heavy shell struck one side of the trunk while another series of bombs came down from above, and Raptor Three added a missile from the south before breaking away again.

By the time Phantom Three’s drop reached the Core, there was barely anything resembling the shield that had covered the Tree earlier.

The third string fell into a center already hidden behind overlapping explosions.

Several bombs burst across the upper trunk.

Others landed among the roots packed around its base, and one sequence tore through the eastern side where the precision missiles had opened the growth earlier.

The Tree thrashed through all of it.

Branches struck at empty air between detonations. Roots ripped loose and slammed across the ruins while fresh growth pushed through openings only to disappear under the next blast.

Through the window, Hans could no longer separate individual impacts.

The center of Grefort simply kept exploding

.Johannes stared through the repaired windows. He truly wondered where did Hans managed to get all this heavy ordnance.

”Commander, did you rob an airfield nearby?!”

”Take a guess.”

Johaness’s brows twitched.

Far above them, Phantom One’s bomb bay closed. The reserve cycle began.

Two and Three followed shortly afterward while the aircraft cleared their first attack lines.

Phantom Four stayed behind the formation.