Chapter 328: Against a Monster - I

The Tank turned toward them. None of the four DASF operators moved closer.

They spread instead, leaving several meters between each other while the rest of Vanguard Four-Six maintained the kill box around them.

The Guardians remained on opposite sides of the street, their autocannons tracking whenever the Tank moved through a clean firing lane, while the Vanguards stayed farther back where their main guns would not endanger the operators standing around the creature.

The Tank looked between them.

Its damaged shoulder was still rebuilding.

Dark material crawled over the exposed flesh and hardened as it spread, forming another layer across the wound while the rest of the metallic plating shifted around its chest.

The DASF leader raised his HCMAR.

"Same weak side."

The other three acknowledged with movement rather than words.

Four .338 rifles opened almost together.

Heavy rounds hammered into the broken shoulder, forcing the Tank to bring one arm across the wound while another burst struck behind its knee.

The creature roared and charged the closest operator. The operator waited until the Tank committed itself before moving aside.

Its arm turned into a blur, trying to swipe the operator away.

It was fast, far faster than anything a creature of that size had the right to be.

One moment, the creature was several meters away, and the next its arm swept through the space where the operator’s upper body had been.

He ducked underneath it, planted one foot against the pavement and drove his monomolecular blade behind the Tank’s elbow as it passed.

The blade cut through flesh but stopped against the harder material underneath.

The Tank twisted around.

Its backhand caught the DASF before he could completely clear the movement.

The operator crossed both arms over his chest.

The impact threw him through the front window of an abandoned store.

Glass and part of the interior wall collapsed around him.

One of the MDC soldiers flinched.

"Shit! You got a man down!"

The remaining three operators did not look away.

The Tank tried to follow the operator into the building, but another HCMAR burst struck the back of its damaged leg and forced it sideways.

The third DASF entered from the opposite direction.

His blade cut across the same knee that had been opened earlier.

The Tank swung toward him.

He moved away before the arm reached him, while the fourth operator fired several rounds through the softer tissue underneath the creature’s armpit.

The Tank changed targets again, but every time it committed to one of them, someone else attacked the exposed side.

The creature had enough speed to threaten any one operator in front of it, but it could not face four directions at once.

The Guardian APC on the eastern side found an opening, firing a short burst from its autocannon.

Thirty-millimeter rounds struck across the Tank’s back and lower torso before the DASFs crossed the line again, forcing the gunner to stop.

The Tank staggered forward but kept moving, turning toward the Guardian APC that hit it.

"Eyes on me, big fella."

The DASF leader stepped into its path and fired directly into the damaged shoulder. The Tank abandoned the APC and charged him instead.

The leader ran while listening to something over his radio.

For several meters, the Tank followed with enough speed to close the distance, but the leader suddenly changed direction and crossed behind the remains of a delivery truck.

The creature went through it.

Metal folded around its body as the truck rolled onto its side.

Before the Tank could turn, one Hellfire missile suddenly arrived in front of its face.

The explosion swallowed most of its upper body and threw the creature backward through the wrecked delivery truck, scattering pieces of metal and concrete across the street while the DASF leader continued running away from the blast.

"Griffon Two-One, direct hit."

"Target remains active."

"Give it another one."

The Apache passed behind the surrounding buildings while the Tank pushed itself out of the wreckage.

Most of the metallic plating around its face and upper chest had been ripped apart, leaving one side of its skull exposed while the shoulder that Vanguard Four-Six had been concentrating on earlier was almost completely mangled.

Yet something underneath continued moving.

Dark flesh contracted around the damage, followed by the same metallic material crawling back across whatever remained exposed.

The DASF leader raised his HCMAR.

"Don’t let it recover."

Three rifles opened from separate angles.

The Tank covered its head and tried to move away, but the eastern Guardian APC immediately took the opening and fired another burst across its legs while the western Guardian kept its autocannon trained farther ahead.

Before it could take half a step, an armor-piercing shell struck its back.

The Tank lurched forward as the round tore through the damaged plating and opened another wound across its torso, exposing layers of dark flesh underneath while the force of the impact drove it onto both hands.

The DASF operators spread away from it.

"Two-One, target opened up."

"Copy."

The Apache appeared above the rooftops again.

The Tank raised its head just as another Hellfire left the rail.

It released a powerful roar that forced everyone nearby to brace.

The missile struck the exposed section of its upper body.

A violent explosion swallowed the creature and blasted pieces of hardened tissue across the street, while the remaining windows along the nearby buildings shattered from the pressure.

The Tank disappeared beneath the smoke, yet its marker remained on the Radar.

"Target is still alive, Two-One."

The squad leader reported.

The MDC soldier beside him gasped in shock. "You’ve got to be kidding me! How can that thing still be alive?"

"A mutant, far stronger than your regular infected. First time seeing one?"

The MDC soldier nodded, pursing his lips.

The squad leader kept his eyes on the smoke and saw something move inside.

The Tank dragged itself forward with one arm.

Most of its upper body had been torn open, one leg barely responded anymore and the metallic armor that once covered nearly everything had been reduced to scattered plates hanging from what remained of its flesh.

Even its regeneration had slowed.

Dark tissue still crawled around the wounds, but the damage was accumulating faster than the creature could repair it.

The DASF leader watched it struggle.

"Finish it."

The operators switched weapons.

Grenades launched from their underslung systems and landed around the Tank in rapid succession.

The first explosion tore apart what remained of one shoulder.

The second struck beneath the torso and lifted the creature slightly from the road, while two more detonated along its damaged side and exposed even more flesh underneath.

Both Guardian APCs opened fire.

Their autocannons converged on the Tank from opposite directions, thirty-millimeter rounds tearing through the weakened body until it could no longer raise itself from the pavement.

The creature still moved, one hand clawing against the road. It tried to lift its head, but the last thing it saw was a missile dropping straight toward it.

Boom!

The Missile Infantryman remained still, watching that abomination of a red marker finally dissipate from the Radar.

"Target eliminated."

The squad leader released the breath he had been holding and shifted his attention back toward the wider Radar picture.

Their Tank was gone, but the rest of Silverpeak still had more.

"Vanguard Four-Six, this is Southern Command."

He opened the channel.

"Four-Six receiving."

"Reinforce the western advance two sectors north of your position. They’re holding another heavy contact near an old fabrication complex."

The squad leader enlarged the area.

A Golden Eagle formation had stopped around several industrial blocks where one large marker remained surrounded by smaller contacts.

"What are they dealing with?"

"Possible Tier Two Lasher. Multiple casualties reported. Current element has it contained but cannot close safely."

The DASF leader heard the transmission and looked toward his squad.

One of the operators checked the armor across his chest where the Tank had thrown him through the storefront.

"Don’t worry about me. That was just a scratch."

"Nobody said we worried about you."

The squad leader changed channels.

"Vanguard Four-Six, mount up. We’re moving north."

The Guardians began repositioning while the infantry reorganized around them, and the Vanguards turned toward the next road leading through the industrial district.

They barely made it several blocks when a new contact appeared on the Radar.

The squad leader slowed.

The marker crossed one street and suddenly turned toward another, covering nearly an entire industrial block before he could properly follow its movement.

"Vanguard Four-Six to Southern Command. We just got intercepted by a high-speed infected near our position."

He closed the transmission and shouted over.

"Squad, watch out! High speed infected ahead. DASFs, check the area."