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(Page 3 of 5) Dirty Guns Part I by Charles James
 (5 ratings)
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When one team stopped, another moved. It was hard work and after only a few minutes, King could feel the sweat beads oozing out of his skin.
"Bodies," White reported. The point team was just outside a small medical building. "Dozen or so. Looks like they put up a fight."
"Survivors?" Randal asked.
"Negative," Tallman cut in. "This is old news... by a few weeks."
"Carry on," Sergeant Randal ordered. Carry on. When the invasions first came, there was time to evacuate the dead and give them proper burial. But now the IAF just couldn't afford it. There wasn't much point in losing a live man to bring a dead one home.
The only thing worse for King than seeing a pile of dead bodies, was knowing that he was going to see them. The squad advanced slowly, giving the sun time to sink further below the horizon.
"GROUND!"
King dove for shelter by the corner of a concrete stoop that led into one of the residential buildings. Grier was right behind him.
"It's a whistler," Grier whispered, looked down at his display.
As soon as the words left his lips, King heard what he was talking about. The high pitched whistle of the Rhiorc aircraft quickly warned of its presence. It was coming in from the west.
From his crouched position, King glanced up. He couldn't see any aircraft in the twilight sky, but as it came closer the sound intensified. [I]Routine patrol? Or had they seen something and decided to come in for a look?[/I]
Ahead, the turret on the K203 whirled around. All three of the vehicles, on different streets, suddenly shot.
The plasma rounds tore through buildings and continued on in straight paths into the sky. King just caught a glimpse of one the Whistlers at first. The needle-nosed aircraft peeled apart like it had been made from aluminium foil, and exploded on impact with one of the rooftops. It wasn't a violent explosion though – no plumes of fire and smoke – just kinetic energy sending bits of jagged aircraft chunks off in random directions.
Not all shots connected.
Conventional battle strategy was to first attain air superiority. Control the sky. Then you could cover any large scale land and sea movements. But the Rhiorc wanted that just as much as the Free States did and by the time people recognized them as a threat, they had the technology and resources to fight for it. As a result, there was an aerial stalemate in this war. For the longest time the Free States refused to conduct any land operations without winning the skies, and as a result, that gave the Rhiorc the foothold on the planet that they needed. By the time the Free States engaged on the land, they'd lost a lot of it.
The remaining Whistler unleashed a volley of missiles. King didn't see them coming. He didn't hear them either. All of a sudden the ground just shook. The percussive shock waves rocked his stomach. The flashes felt like someone held his eyelids open and took about twenty flashbulb pictures.
Disoriented.
The remaining Whistler broke to the south.
"Take that shot, Zero Niner," Randal called over her radio.
Grier gave King a thump on the back.
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