Chapter 323: Silverpeak Hive - I

The fighting around the center of Silverpeak had already spread across several valleys by the time the sun climbed over the eastern mountains.

From the command vehicle, Brandon could hear little of it beyond the occasional distant rumble that made it through the hull. The actual battle covered too much ground for that.

His command display showed it better.

Golden Eagle formations were advancing from several directions around the Hive’s territory, their markers spread through industrial districts, residential slopes, old freight routes and the wider roads that ran between the valleys.

Some were already inside the areas the MDC once considered too dangerous to hold for long. Others remained farther back around secured junctions, supply routes and the bases Golden Eagle had built across Silverpeak over the past few months.

The force that first entered the city was nowhere close to this size anymore.

Reinforcements from Grefort kept arriving. The Barracks and War Factories inside Silverpeak continued producing replacements, vehicles and new units while the Engineers marked expansions on the bases behind them. Hans generously committed more resources to constructing new production facilities for Brandon’s army.

Some of the soldiers who fought during the first weeks were now spread through newer formations, while fresh personnel took their own places in the fighting.

Brandon stopped trying to count the separate movements on the main display as that was what the interface was for.

Across the broader tactical picture, the Advanced Radar covered nearly the whole of Silverpeak. Its boundary stretched well beyond the metropolitan valleys and over the roads leading away from them, while the city itself sat comfortably inside the network.

The old picture Golden Eagle brought south months ago would have looked like a small dot beside it.

Buildings were no longer vague blocks where something might be hiding. The upgraded Radar traced structures, roads, terrain and detected contacts with such clarity that larger biological masses formed visible outlines across the display.

Moving concentrations inside damaged industrial buildings remained visible as they shifted from one side to another, while groups using underground freight access appeared beneath the surface picture where the network could follow them.

The Hive’s territory was full of them.

Thousands of smaller contacts moved around the larger concentrations, with heavier signatures mixed between them.

Some gathered behind structures. Others moved through service roads or underground connections before separating again farther ahead.

None of it stayed hidden for long.

A concentration began moving toward one of the western approaches.

Brandon watched the markers change formation around it.

The Golden Eagle units facing them reacted—armor shifted toward the wider road, infantry markers spread through the buildings beside it, leaving the center open for the vehicles behind them.

Another group farther north changed direction at the same time, covering the route the infected could have used to move around the first formation.

The adjustment appeared across the map without delay.

Seeing that the situation was already resolved before it even started, Brandon enlarged another part of the city instead.

Several MDC personnel occupied the other side of the command section, their own maps and recovered city records opened beside Golden Eagle’s tactical displays.

Colonel Voroltz had offered guides who knew the central districts, old industrial routes and the areas around the Hive better than anyone still alive in Silverpeak.

Brandon accepted them, and there was no reason for him not to.

Golden Eagle could see the enemy. The MDC knew the city underneath it.

One of the MDC officers leaned closer to his display as another mass shifted beneath an old processing complex.

"Commander Brandon, please caution your troops. They are using that route again."

Brandon looked over.

The officer pointed toward the building rather than the contacts themselves.

"There’s an underground freight line beneath that section. It connects to the loading yards farther north."

"Very well."

Brandon added the information to the wider command picture. Any unit that needed it could view it and make their own judgment.

Outside, another distant series of explosions rolled through the valley. The blue markers on the western approach kept advancing.

...

Several kilometers west of Brandon’s position, the same formation was already moving.

Two Guardian APCs rolled through a wide industrial road with infantry spread between the buildings on either side.

A Vanguard followed farther behind, its main gun pointed toward the processing complex ahead while another armored group moved along a parallel road beyond the warehouses.

The infected inside the complex were visible long before any of them reached the windows.

Red outlines moved through the structure on the soldiers’ shared tactical display.

Dozens filled the lower floor while a much larger group followed an underground passage beneath it, their shapes overlapping until the Radar separated them into individual contacts again near the northern loading area.

The squad leader raised one hand. His soldiers split around the road without waiting for another instruction.

Two Army Soldiers crossed behind the first Guardian and entered a damaged office beside the processing complex.

Their new 6.8 mm rifles stayed against their shoulders as they moved between the broken desks and windows.

Three Riflemen followed through the next entrance, their M4A1s covering the street and the service alley behind them.

Across the road, the Machine Gunner dropped beside a concrete divider and set the heavier 7.62 mm GPMG against it.

The rest of the squad kept moving.

One of the MDC soldiers attached to them stopped beside the Guardian.

"They’re probably coming through the loading—"

"I see them."

The squad leader pointed toward the northern side of the complex.

The MDC soldier followed his hand. There was nothing there except a long loading building with three closed shutters and a row of abandoned trailers.

On the Golden Eagle display, more than a hundred contacts were already passing underneath it.

The MDC soldier swallowed and looked back toward the closed shutters. He still couldn’t see anything there, yet the Golden Eagle soldiers were already spreading around the exit.

"They’re under the building. Where does that freight line come out?"

The MDC soldier shook his head and took a while to reply. "Other side of the loading yard. There’s a maintenance ramp behind those trailers."

The squad leader marked the ramp, and the information entered the shared picture.

One of the Guardian APCs turned off the road.

Its driver backed between two abandoned trucks until the autocannon could cover the marked exit without blocking the infantry.

The Machine Gunner shifted several meters farther west and braced his weapon toward the same opening.

A Missile Infantryman moved behind the Guardian, his launcher already connected to the Radar picture.

The first shutter on the loading building shook. Then the maintenance ramp behind it burst open.

Several infected spilled through the opening together, followed by more shapes climbing over one another in the darkness behind them.

The Machine Gunner fired first.

The GPMG hammered against the concrete divider as the first burst crossed the loading yard. The leading infected folded into the ramp, and the next group stumbled over them before the Guardian joined in.

Its autocannon tore through the opening.

Chunks of concrete flew from the wall around it. Several contacts disappeared from the tactical display, while the remaining mass spread through the loading yard instead of continuing straight into the fire.

The infantry adjusted with them.

The Army Soldiers inside the office changed windows as the infected moved toward the southern wall.

Their 6.8mm rifles fired in controlled bursts through the broken frames, each soldier choosing a different section of the crowd.

The Riflemen farther down the road caught the ones trying to use the service alley, their M4A1s opening fire together.

One infected made it halfway across the alley before several rounds struck its chest and neck.

Another climbed over a parked car, only for the Rifleman nearest the corner to shift his aim upward and put two rounds through its head.

The squad leader barely looked at them. A larger outline was moving beneath the loading building.

"We got a heavy contact, approaching!"

The Missile Infantryman already had it selected. "I have the target."

The target pushed through the wreckage around the maintenance ramp several seconds later.

It was much larger than the infected around it, with one shoulder covered by a thick growth of hardened tissue. The creature forced its way over the bodies blocking the ramp and knocked another infected aside when it entered the yard.

The missile remained on the Infantryman’s shoulder.

There were too many friendlies moving through the far side of the engagement area, so he waited.

The Vanguard behind them fired instead.

Its cannon cracked across the industrial road. The shell crossed the yard and struck the creature below the shoulder, tearing it sideways and throwing pieces of hardened tissue against the loading wall.

The contact remained red.

The Missile Infantryman shifted his aim while a System notice appeared across his HUD.

The targeting boundary around the launcher moved outward.

Similar changes appeared across the rest of the formation.

The Machine Gunner’s engagement overlay stretched farther through the loading yard. The Guardian’s weapon solution expanded beyond the next intersection—by several tens of meters at once.

Rifle and vehicle targeting systems adjusted across the shared picture as the doctrine settled into the force.

The Missile Infantryman looked at his new firing solution.

He understood where the change came from.

"Let’s see what this can do."

The heavy infected pushed itself upright.

The Missile Infantryman fired.

The missile left the launcher and crossed the yard before the creature could take another step. It struck the damaged section of its upper body and exploded through it, dropping the contact from the Radar.

The MDC soldier beside the Guardian stared at the remains for a moment.

"What the hell just happened?"

Nobody answered for him.

The squad leader looked toward the next set of red outlines moving through the complex.

"Advance position. More targets on their way!"

The first Guardian started forward.

The Machine Gunner lifted his GPMG from the divider and moved after it while the Army Soldiers left the office through the side entrance.

The Riflemen crossed behind the APC, their weapons following the contacts retreating through the buildings ahead.

The MDC soldier fell in beside them.

"There’s another freight connection two blocks north."

The squad leader opened the local map.

"Show me."