Chapter 213: A Very Expensive Way of Dynamite Fishing

An hour later, Hans stood on the upper level of an old port administration building overlooking the northern harbor.

Felix had chosen the position because it gave them a clear view of the first exclusion sector without putting anyone near the waterline. Several Vanguards occupied the roads below, while Missile Infantry and other ground elements covered the exposed ramps and loading areas.

Farther inland, the twenty-four Hellhammers had already separated into their assigned firing positions.

Hans looked through a pair of binoculars.

The first sector appeared completely ordinary.

Dark water moved between two cargo berths. Debris floated near one of the damaged piers, and an abandoned fishing vessel leaned against its moorings farther inside.

"Are you really sure anything’s still there?"

"I’m not, Commander."

Hans lowered the binoculars, slowly shifting toward Felix. Felix continued looking toward the water.

"That’s why we’re shooting it."

"That’s an excellent reconnaissance doctrine, don’t you think?"

"It gets better when you have twenty-four artillery tanks."

Felix raised his communicator. "Artillery group, Sector One. Begin the first pattern."

The acknowledgements came quickly. Several seconds later, the first Hellhammers fired from behind the lower city.

Hans heard the reports roll across Saicine before the shells reached the harbor.

The first struck near the middle of the marked sector.

Water erupted between the two cargo berths, followed by another impact farther toward the damaged fishing vessel. The rest spread across the shallows instead of concentrating on one point, throwing columns of water high above the piers.

Hans raised the binoculars again and saw nothing but water.

Another group of shells landed farther across the sector. The water near one of the loading ramps suddenly churned.

Hans shifted his binoculars.

Something dark rolled near the surface before disappearing again.

Another disturbance appeared farther out. This one moved quickly toward the deeper channel.

The first creature surfaced again, part of its body twisting above the water as it tried to leave the shallows.

The Vanguards below opened fire.

One shell struck beside it and lifted water across the ramp. A second hit the exposed body.

Missile Infantry followed.

The creature was soon swallowed under multiple explosions.

"We got our first catch, Commander."

Hans followed the wake as it moved away from the docks. Another artillery pattern landed behind it.

Two smaller creatures broke the surface almost together. One floated on its side for several seconds before sinking again, while the other thrashed through the disturbed water and moved toward the harbor mouth.

Hans kept the escaping creature inside his binoculars as it crossed beyond the disturbed shallows.

"You’re not finishing it?"

"That defeats the point, Commander. If it wants to leave the harbor, it has my blessing. We’ll leave that problem to the navy."

"I’ll point them your way if they have complaints."

The wake continued toward the outer channel while another appeared farther east, both taking almost the same route into deeper water.

Felix glanced at the harbor chart beside him.

"They’re using that route again."

"What’s so special about it?"

"Their escape plan. The fishes are specially attached to it."

Another pattern struck Sector One. Several minutes of bombardment produced two more surfaced contacts and another retreat toward the same channel, but the activity near the cargo berths weakened quickly after that.

Felix raised his communicator.

"Sector One complete. Shift to Sector Two."

"That was fast."

"We’re clearing the area for your staging operations, Commander. Not the clear the ocean."

"Let me guess, that’s the navy’s job too?"

Felix chuckled, leaving no reply. The next sector erupted shortly afterward.

...

By noon, four sections of the inner harbor had been worked over.

The first produced the most kills. The others increasingly produced creatures moving away before the bombardment could settle into a full pattern, and several contacts abandoned the shallows without surfacing long enough for the shore positions to engage them.

Felix seemed perfectly satisfied with that.

The creatures were learning, but so were they.

Every retreat added another line to the harbor chart, and most of those lines eventually converged toward two deeper routes leading away from the docks. The water around the cargo berths and northern repair slips had grown considerably quieter.

The quiet lasted for several minutes.

Hans kept watching the outer harbor while Felix updated the marked routes beside him. Most of the disturbance had shifted beyond the cargo berths now, with only occasional movement appearing around the deeper channel.

A moored freighter moved.

Its bow shifted several meters before the lines pulled tight against the pier.

Hans lowered the binoculars.

"There you are."

Felix had already turned toward it.

The ship settled, only for another broad swell to roll beneath its hull.

"That one’s been avoiding everything we’ve thrown near the shallows," Felix said.

"Smart one."

"Or fat enough that it doesn’t really care."

The freighter moved again.

Anything that passed underneath it remained deep enough that the surface showed little more than displaced water and the strain running through the mooring lines.

Hans looked at the routes marked across the harbor chart.

The smaller creatures repeatedly used the same channels when artillery drove them outward, but the large contact seemed perfectly comfortable staying somewhere beyond the effective bombardment sectors.

Felix folded the chart.

"That’s where the Engineers come in."

Hans glanced at him. "I was wondering when your improvised part would appear."

"They weren’t particularly happy when I asked them to make depth charges without having depth charges."

"That sounds reasonable."

"They complained while building them anyway."

Felix led Hans toward the opposite side of the observation level, where several photographs showed one of the surviving cargo cranes near the deeper harbor approach.

Steel frames had been assembled underneath it, each carrying sealed demolition charges and enough weight to keep the package below the surface.

Hans studied the image.

"You’re lowering explosives into the channel."

"More accurately, we’re leaving explosives where the fish keeps running."

"That sounds considerably less advanced. What about our ships passing by then?"

"They’re command-detonated, Commander. Nothing explodes unless someone tells it to."

Felix tapped another photograph.

"Once we’re done, the Engineers pull them back out."

"I can understand why they’re complaining now."

The charges were not meant to hunt anything. Engineers had selected several points along the deeper routes already revealed by fleeing contacts, using the surviving cranes and dock equipment to lower the weighted packages into position.

The large contact moved again near the freighter.

A broad swell rolled through the channel before disappearing toward one of the marked routes.

Felix unfolded the chart.

"That’s close."

Hans raised the binoculars.

Another disturbance crossed farther along the channel, large enough to pull floating debris behind it.

The first charge waited several dozen meters ahead.

Felix lifted his communicator.

"Engineering. Stand by on Charge Three."

"Charge Three standing by."

The wake continued. Hans watched the water rise around the marked position.

Felix’s eyes locked in. "Charge Three. Detonate."

Water climbed above the surrounding piers before falling back across the channel. The freighter rocked against its moorings, and something dark broke the surface beyond the blast.

Though only a part of it appeared, it had shown enough.

The body stretched far wider than any of the creatures driven from the shallows earlier, its back rolling through the water before disappearing again.

A second wake immediately turned toward the harbor mouth. Hans tracked it through the binoculars.

"The target is still moving."

"A fast one too."

Felix lowered his communicator. The creature continued outward. Nobody fired as it escaped since that was exactly the plan.

Hans watched until the disturbance faded into deeper water.

"Looks like your improvised depth charge worked."

"One of them."

Felix looked toward the remaining marks along the channel.

"I’d prefer not to find out how many it takes to kill that thing."

Hans lowered the binoculars. "We don’t need to. That’s the navy’s job."

The harbor behind it was already considerably quieter.

Later that afternoon, one of the expedition’s PCVs moved down from the northern staging area and deployed behind the secured waterfront.

Its construction zone covered the port district, the nearby industrial yards and enough inland ground for the facilities Hans had already placed into construction.