Chapter 9

The report on the change in tactics was met with resistance. The top Brass was riding high on the fact that they saw the tide turning. If we were just up against the gators and the skinks they would have been right.

The Dragons, Skinks, and Gators are three different species from different planets. Gators and skinks from one system and dragons from another. The eggheads knew that much. They didn't know a whole lot more than that though. Dragons had the three genders, male, neuter, and female. Neuters were females who were not brood mothers. The soldiers were a mix of males and neuters. There was no easy way to tell them apart. Dragons laid eggs and had a very organized hierarchical society. We didn't know why that was so. The eggheads suspected it was a social or cultural thing and not biological and that most females were sterilized. The Dragons also were responsible for the insect forces and other modified organisms as well as the starships.

Gators and Skinks were only male and female. They had mates and family groups and gave birth to multiple live young. They were the ones adept at non-biological tech. The eggheads suspected that their tech was much like ours but not as advanced. They were most likely conquered a long time ago.

We had not seen many Dragons until recently. The eggheads were convinced that there were not many of them. I thought they were deluding themselves.

To cover the initial drops the air was filled with fighters first, that must have launched a million missiles clearing the skies of wasps. They also employed the new repellent we helped test. It really was not effective to bomb nests. The tunnels that the wasps used to get the nest itself were often hundreds of meters long and sometimes several kilometers. The nests were randomly located underground. To make sure you got it from orbit you had to blow a crater in the ground a few kilometers wide and almost as deep. Not a good way to keep a planet habitable. We also could not send chemical agents down the holes. Somehow the nests were always under positive pressure with air flowing out of the tunnels.

Our first priority on the surface was staying alive of course, or should be in my opinion. Our first objective was neutralizing the wasp nests.

We were moving as a Battalion, mostly, in the beginning. Major Firsk was present and calling the shots. Master Gunnery Sergeant Crosette was with him having just got back from a major medical. Soon as our boots hit the ground though, the party started. Gators and skinks poured out of tunnels. Some gators were snailed, some not. We rolled right over them and set up our deployment.

Whisky had most of the forward observer and rear guard positions. I was scouting point along with Sanchez. She was not bad at spotting chameleons, but not great either.

Amy was damn near orgasmic in her first drop as a platoon leader for Whisky 3rd platoon. I was supportive, yet made sure I grounded her when she started to float a little.

"Amy, the platoon knows its job. The less you say the better. You were great last time you lead Whisky. Do that again," I told her.

"Right. You slap me if I get carried away."

"On your bare ass maybe," I said mumbling.

"Four hours at least," she said in her, what I came to identify as, fuck me voice.

I damn near got a hard on from that. Let me tell you a hard on in Armor is not fun. Just because I had not fucked her did not mean I did not recognize it. She was fucking me with her voice and she knew it.

I think I killed my millionth lizard three days ago. I found the thought sobering. I had spent almost two years in Armor having 15674 hours and counting. The battle comp had my kill ratio and tally, the count was literally at one million five hundred and two. It was not something I had not paid any attention for years and had removed the readout from my normal display. The numbers were absurd and had overlapped another field that actually displayed useful information. I had killed with my hands, ax, coilgun, grenades, or other weapons over one million sentient beings.

How is that even possible I wondered?

"Amy, I just killed my millionth lizard," I told her as the thought depressed me. If one man can kill a million of the enemy, and there is no end in sight, that should set alarm bells ringing in the halls of our impossibly large government.

"No shit? A million? How is that even possible?" Amy said in a clearly surprised voice.

"I don't know. It just never ends."

"That is crazy. A million? I mean that is just ... I don't know. That is sort of depressing really. I'm sorry Thad. I really am," she said clearly concerned.

"I know."

After the first half dozen I shot that Sanchez missed she gave up asking how I spotted them. I tried to tell her but it was just experience. We got to the nest with little trouble. The next one would not be so easy though. The lizards were not expecting the whole famn-damily and would have more resistance in place on the next one.

On our way to the next wasp nest we met some serious resistance. A full swarm and then some were headed towards us. Weapons company started mortar fire right away when we spotted them. We made sure to highlight the crawlers and rattlesnakes on the grid.

Firsk halted us and let weapons have some time to soften them up. As soon as their crawlers started to fire, he moved us. Golf was in the spear head followed by Mike and Fox. Kilo had the rear while Whisky was running the perimeter. Normally Whisky would be in the thick of it but Firsk was on the same page as the old man and was expecting the lizards to change gears on us.

Whisky was tasked with handling the surprises for now. He had me and Sanchez looking for the lizard command to take them out if we could.

I was a little conflicted with that. Sanchez was a casual fuck buddy, or had been, and I was given the job of teaching her how to scout while I was having an affair with my platoon leader who was unaware of the history. It used to be that the drops were the complicated part of my life.

It was not that hard to spot them. All you had to do was look for the dragons. We found a fist of them in the center towards the front. Spotting the top dragon was a bit harder. We spotted a few that could be the top. They were all high ranking though.

I was the better shot so marking them all for the battle comp to track after the first shot was fired I took aim. Seven went down before they reacted. I was a pretty fast shot and the battle comp helped. I managed three more before it was just random lizards running around. We spent a few more tics getting any other dragons we saw before the rest of the battalion hit them.

The lizards didn't pause or hesitate to charge Marines. The why of it was beyond me. A Marine in Assault Armor could, and did tear right through the lizards ranks. When it was pure chaos we had a definite edge. I know I've said this before but Marines, especially Force Recon, love chaos like they love their own mothers.

In reality it was only chaotic on the surface. Just because we moved too fast and in ways that confused the lizards didn't mean we were running around like a bunch of kindergarteners on a playground at recess. The battle comp kept track of what you were doing and let you know what the others around you were doing. It made working together in a truly coordinated manner possible while keeping the lizards confused. The lizards could not even hope duplicate it and had yet to learn how to fight, other than to throw numbers at us. The battle comp is truly what let a Marine, when with a team, handle being outnumbered by ten to one or more.

The numbers game had been working in the Lizards' favor for the most part, but recently not so well. They had to throw more and more at us as we learned and got better. The tide was turning in our favor until Ridal 5. I had a feeling things were going to escalate and we were going to get bloodied in the process.

We split our focus after that, while Whisky tried to watch everything at once. The surprise came as the battalion had run through the main force. With our sniping, the lizards were disorganized when we hit them in force. Whisky was watching and flushing chameleons.

The first ball of plasma from a crawler was a total surprise. It came from a klick away. Thecrawler was not on the surface. Plasma moved slow enough though that the battalion shifted to avoid it. When three more shots came right after that, we knew something was happening. The lizards were firing into the battle not worrying about hitting their own fighters. That was new.

"First and Third, and the first squad of weapons take this grid, the rest here. Neutralize those crawlers," came Simmons's orders and displays on the battle comps.

I skipped off. Sanchez was right behind me and the rest of my team was following with Amy. There were chameleons waiting and Sanchez and I were busy ambushing the ambushers. Amy was smart now and moving like the rest of the team, not standing out. Her armor was still the modified Class VI. She'd had some more help from our Master Chief in tweaking it. Except for the drone launcher it looked almost exactly like a Class V.

Amy launched a drone to check on the area around the crawlers. It was riddled with tunnel openings. Weapons opened up with some mortar fire. Their first rounds took care of the crawler. When it went down several more popped up. Weapons was working on them and we were moving watching out for chameleons and hidey holes.

There were plenty of chameleons. There were also mines. The battle comp is pretty good at spotting them. Lizard tech gives off a certain energy field. Our Armor had sophisticated sensors which easily picked it up. The Lizards have learned that we have figured out how to spot them and are doing a much better job of disguising the field but they can't totally get rid of it. At least they can't yet.

When we spotted a mine we either detonated it or went around it and marked it. Mines were rarely effective. We made it to a tunnel and weapons sent a tunnel buster down. It detonated within twenty tics though so must not have gotten much.

The expected mad rush began. Dragons and gators poured out of the ground. With a more than pleased feeling, I noted that many of them appeared to have been caught on the edge of the blast below.

We were back to wack a mole for a while. Weapons neutralized a rattlesnake before it even got out of its tunnel. A second tunnel buster was sent down and this one made it almost a full minute before blowing. There was not much of a response from that one. We mopped up and moved back towards the main body.

The other team from Whisky had similar success and we emerged unscathed.

"Damn I love working with this platoon. What a difference from Kilo," Amy told me privately.

"Don't get cocky," I said.

"That's right. You're the one who is going to cocky with me," she said.

"Stop that. You are evil," I said.

She just laughed at me.

The rest of the battalion was still fighting. The lizards were on the retreat. We generally did not let them go and were working on them as they ran.

Firsk limited the chase, and we disengaged and turned to the next nest in our sector. He was also leery of chasing the lizards into a trap.

Twelve hours later we were taking downtime. Half slept while the other half of the battalion watched. I thought sleeping in Armor wasn't too bad, but that was not the norm. Hell probably have the regiment had never had to sleep in Armor on a live drop before. There were sleep inducers in the battle comps that would help you sleep and wake you instantly without the grogginess. It was not as good as natural sleep but it was pretty good. Even so, our subconscious knew we were in a war zone and never fully relaxed.

"This is not how I wanted to sleep with you when I imagined it," Amy said lying next to me.

"This is as close as I thought I would ever get," I said.

"I'll sleep better with you close."

"Get some sleep. This is going to be a very long mission," I said.