“Bat One, this is Bat Three, we need to hold, my third company just found a big nest,” Matt called out over the radio and Bruce gave a long sigh, lifting his left arm up because the radio was still too loud in his helmet for Bat Three. The fact his suit could monitor thirty different channels simultaneously was a bit overwhelming to Bruce.

  “Copy, Bat Three,” Jake called back since he was the first over the regiment. “All battalions hold until cleared.”

  “Bat Three, just call in air,” David barked over the radio.

  “It’s right beside a bridge we need, fuckwad!” Matt screamed over the radio and Bruce quickly tried to bring up the correct menu to turn the volume down. Behind Bruce, Carl and Ted were looking out the sides manning miniguns and Bonnie was at the rear manning a M240 with a water jacket. Many of the belt fed weapons now had water jackets, thanks to Joe, to keep down on barrel damage.

  Carl and Ted tried to ignore Bruce as he waved his hands in front of him searching menus. Feeling movement, Carl turned to see Bonnie moving to help but he stopped her and tapped his forearm so he was only communicating with her.

  “You jump in and show him again how simple it is… and Bruce will have you pushing this MRAP all the way to Fort Hood,” Carl warned. It was only ten a.m. and Bonnie had already interfaced with Bruce’s suit five times. It was how Bonnie navigated the endless menus so effortlessly that seemed to piss Bruce off. Since they had been with Bruce so long, Ted and Carl swore at their suits, even though they didn’t have much of a problem navigating the system. They did it to show unity with Bruce; they hated their suits operating system, just like he did.

  “He needs to know,” Bonnie replied, looking at the back of Bruce whose arm movements were becoming much more tense as he surfed menus in his HUD (heads-up display) on his visor, a sure sign Bruce was getting mad.

  “He can hear every channel he needs to and if he wants help, he’ll ask. I know you want to help but trust me, computers hold a grudge with Bruce because he swears at them and beats them.” Bonnie never turned to look toward Carl because in the suits you couldn’t see a face. “The boss will figure it out or he’ll ask for help but I’m just warning you, you show him one more time how simple it is and Bruce will spin off on your ass.”

  Taking Carl’s advice, and not wanting to push the MRAP, Bonnie gave a sigh and moved back behind her gun.

  “You motherfucking communist piece of shit! Give me the menu I need to turn down Bat Three's volume!” Bruce screamed. Normally, if one screamed in the suit, no matter how loud, it couldn’t be heard, but Bruce had several radio channels open. Every battalion commander, Prometheus, and those in his rig were just a few who heard it.

  “Dad, Bonnie can show you,” Jake called over the radio, making Carl cringe and Ted groan.

  “You shut the hell up with your communist suit or I’ll have everyone tape a fucking knife to their rifle to clear the countryside!” Bruce shouted back, waving his arms faster, tossing all the open menus on his display off so he could start over. Suddenly, Bruce stopped waving his arms and they saw his head moving and knew he was watching something on his screen moving about. “Natasha, get your ass out of my suit!” Bruce bellowed.

  “Is it me or did that sound fucking weird?” Ted snickered and really liked the suits because he could talk to Carl and Bonnie without the boss hearing.

  In a converted semitrailer packed with computers and following Prometheus six miles away, “Bruce, you’re in the wrong directory,” Natasha offered as she tried to figure out just where in the hell Bruce was in the menus. Scanning quickly, Natasha couldn’t remember many of these files and wondered how Bruce even pulled them up.

  “No, I’m not! It was right there an hour ago when I turned down the volume for Bat One! This fascist sack of shit suit moved it just to piss me the fuck off!” Having never dealt with the evil, or asshole Bruce, Natasha turned her link off getting out of Bruce’s suit.

  As Bruce started going through menus again, Matt came over the radio talking in a low voice since his volume was up in Bruce’s suit. “Bat One, area is done. Bat Three ready to move,” Matt called out in a voice just above a whisper.

  “All first regiment units continue to the next forward line,” Jake replied in a normal tone since his dad had fixed the volume for his channel.

  Carl looked out over the land and was thankful it was cold. Blues moved more now in the cold than they had done before, but they weren’t fast and clearly still didn’t like the cold which was fine with everyone in Omega. They were all behind their mounted weapons but were holding their Caiman rifles. So far, only a few clusters of blues had charged units in Omega that had to be cut down with heavy guns. Several thousand had been taken down with rifles, but most were being dealt with by a blast from Bruce’s past: MRAPs with flame throwers.

  The four original flame units built by Joe that first winter were hauled out to the line and thirty-six more were made. Spread out among the regiments, they were pulling up to locations blues were using and torching them. Unlike that first winter, all the blues didn’t stay inside as vehicles approached, but most did. The few that did come out to attack were quickly cut down as the flamer unit pulled up and lit the structure.

  Omega was spread out over a twenty-mile-wide front with the railway line at the center and they were clearing a path for trains to move without having to wade through blues. Columns of smoke rose behind them like signposts marking the demise of a pack of blues.

  Like Bruce, Carl loved his suit because he wasn’t cold, but there were others that weren’t wearing suits who were having to operate in the cold. Lifting his gaze up, Carl gave a shiver at Spartan One a mile to the south of them, hovering in the air at two thousand feet. A Blackhawk was coming in to land and Carl felt a bit sorry for the crews up there. “She’s tough,” Carl mumbled and turned his head just enough that he could see Bruce at the edge of his screen.

  Watching Bruce hold out his middle finger flipping the heads-up display off, “I sure hope he can’t break his suit,” Carl said.

  “Bruce can break anything,” Ted stated with confidence and Carl had to acknowledge, Ted was right.

  ***

  Ten miles north of Palestine, Dani was in her cupola also glancing at a tablet, but hers only displayed her fourth battalion. Bringing up her menu, Dani tapped the air and lowered her father’s voice as he cussed his suit, the Cyber Ninjas, basically everyone who he thought was responsible, including Mike. It seemed Bruce was convinced the Cyber Ninjas were moving his menus around to fuck with him or Mike was pranking his ass.

  It wasn’t unnoticed that nobody, not even Stephanie and Angela were stepping in trying to reason with Bruce. Like the others, Dani knew when Daddy was acting like this, just let him be until he cooled off. The only person who would wasn’t here anymore and very rarely did Debbie confront what she referred to as Asshole Bruce.

  Dani glanced back at Buffy manning the right side of the rig. She was behind the minigun but like everyone, was holding her rifle. The Caiman looked really big when Buffy held it compared to the others. One thing Buffy didn’t like was she couldn’t drive in her suit and she wasn’t taking it off to drive.

  Dani was proud of Buffy and that Buffy had understood the why. True, it was only after Dani snuck Buffy out to drive in her suit that Buffy found out it really was very easy to rip a steering wheel off. Thankfully, Dani had Mary and Bonnie following them in another truck and they left the one Buffy broke. To make sure it wasn’t found with the steering wheel ripped off and to hide the evidence, they pushed it into a pond.

  Just looking at Buffy, Dani knew Buffy was bored and that was almost as terrifying as a bored Bruce. “You good, BB?” she asked.

  Scanning her area, “Yeah,” Buffy replied in a depressed tone. “I’ve only shot sixty-one blues in two hours. This is bullshit.”

  “Momma, I don’t know how, but Daddy cheated on you,” Dani mumbled. Only one rig, or MRAP, in her entire battalion had even used a belt fed gun since they pulled out and that was only because they got too close to the building one of the flamers was getting ready to torch. Nearly a hundred blues poured out, but were promptly mowed down in short order. The rest had been taken by single or short bursts from rifles.

  Dani liked shooting them with her rifle, as did Buffy. Buffy just wanted a target rich environment. The last time Dani wanted that, fucking blues crawled up walls, so she would deal with blues as they showed up. “How’s Julie been doing?” Dani asked, trying to get Buffy to think about anything else besides boredom. Julie was the only kid Buffy hung out with. Marty didn’t count because he just tagged along, but Dani did feel a bit sorry for Marty. There wasn’t any doubt in Dani’s mind, that boy was in love with Buffy despite his age.

  “She’s doing okay,” Buffy answered with a giggle. “She was mad at Jimmy because he won’t let her fly by herself.”

  “I’m taking Jimmy’s side on that one,” Dani confessed. Dani, like the other kids, was qualified to fly planes and helicopters now and she agreed with her dad, choppers were much harder. So far, only David hadn’t taken the classes and Dani wasn’t surprised because David really didn’t like heights.

  “I took Jimmy’s side too and Julie didn’t like that much.”

  All the rest of those Buffy hung out with were adults. Most were in Omega or the command group. Of all those Buffy spent time with, two stood out, Ted and Carl. Those two were buddies to Buffy. “How did Ted’s and Carl’s wives act when they told them bye?” Dani asked and Buffy shifted to face her.

  “Why would they tell Melanie and Monica bye?”

  “Buffy, we are out in the field,” Dani sang out.

  “Duh,” Buffy replied in the same sing-song tone. “Dani, Melanie is commander over Spartan One. Monica is over the Apaches on Spartan Two. Steve said Monica can make an Apache do things that even he won’t try.”

  Somewhat startled that she didn’t know that, “Oh,” Dani mumbled. “When did that happen?”

  “When did what happen?” Buffy responded.

  “Never mind,” Dani said, and it just confirmed Buffy was more adult than teen. But since she somehow had Bruce’s DNA, that canceled much of the adult out. Before Buffy could continue, one of the company commanders called out.

  “Bat Four, this is company two, we have a large nest and request a flame unit,” came over the radio.

  Tapping the air to only speak on that frequency, “Copy, second company. Sending a flame unit,” Dani replied, then changed frequencies and sent one of the flame units. Still in the background, she heard her father cursing his suit.

  “I’m proud of Bonnie for not trying to help,” Buffy admitted.

  “Yeah, we have to tell her,” Dani agreed but was surprised because Bonnie always tried to help her dad, even if he didn’t want it. “What do you think of Sandy working on Prometheus?”

  “After Stephanie talked to Sandy, she’s doing really well,” Buffy replied.

  Sandy wanted to learn how to operate air like Stephanie, Angela, and Nancy so if she was needed, Sandy could do it for Gene. Like everything, Sandy went overboard. On her first call for air support, Sandy instructed the pilots on the glide path, angle of attack, direction, and optimum attack height for each run. Dani knew she hadn’t been the only one to look off in the direction toward Prometheus each time Sandy did that.

  After the sixth time, Stephanie came on the air and told the pilot to just gun the blues down and then pulled Sandy off the air. Stephanie explained to Sandy she didn’t have to be that specific but Dani was impressed because each time, Sandy had been correct on the information she had relayed to the pilot, and Sandy wasn’t a pilot.

  Unlike the first time Omega rolled out in force, it was air calling in ground forces. Helicopters were roaming about and taking out blues, but mainly they were calling in ground units to burn out occupied buildings. One thing that hadn’t changed was blues congregated in large packs inside big buildings when it was cold. Instead of using ordnance or butt loads of ammo, choppers would just request a ground unit to come in and torch the blues.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out the clan could only make so many magic bullets. Just one of God’s Mowers, when fully loaded, carried a large chunk of a day’s worth of production and could burn through half a million rounds in thirty minutes. No unit ever wasted ammo even before magic bullets but now, troops were stingy with the bullets unless a tsunami of blues were coming. Then Dani corrected that thought, or blues started climbing buildings like Spiderman.

  “Can we move off on our own to kill some blues?” Buffy asked.

  “Sure, you tell Dad I’m turning over Fourth Battalion to someone else,” Dani offered.

  “Screw that!” Buffy shouted.

  “Yes!” Bruce cried out over the radio. “I knew it was there! Now I want everyone to stop moving my menus!”

  “Will you tell Daddy nobody can do that on a read-only operating system?” Buffy asked.

  “Not even on a bet,” Dani informed her. “He’ll figure it out like he always does, but I think learning the menus for the suit are going to push him a bit.”

  “I’m betting Daddy will break his suit if he can’t find the correct menu a few more times,” Buffy predicted.

  Thinking about how tough the suit was, Dani was about to object but stopped. Coming to the conclusion her dad could break anything if he wanted, Dani just agreed silently. To date, there had not been any big problems with the suits. There were problems like a glove would quit working, a helmet would freeze up, and other small things. Even Dani’s right boot had frozen up a week ago.

  The Cyber Ninjas just printed her a new one and before recycling, tore the old one apart. Like ninety-nine percent of the other problems, several specks of dust were found that had gotten trapped when her boot was printed. They were doing all they could to make the clean room where the suits were made cleaner, but it was nearly impossible.

  Watching the flame unit rush past, Dani grinned in her helmet. One thing they had plenty of at Hope was napalm. Storage tanks of fuel that hadn’t been treated were now just hauled back. There wasn’t a doubt in Dani’s mind, the napalm they made at Hope would’ve been banned by every nation on the planet. It was gelled fuel like all napalm, but was much thicker and had more added to it, like oil, thermite, and even ground-up charcoal.

  Hope made it for napalm canisters the planes dropped because blues fucking hated fire and Dani couldn’t fault blues for that. There were even Blackhawks that had bomb racks added because Hope had plenty. One gallon of the napalm weighed fourteen pounds and if lit, could burn on its own for over ten minutes, but it burned very hot. Napalm drops had been done in pouring rain and still caused fires to engulf structures. There were only two versions of aluminum canisters made, a five-hundred-pounder and a two-hundred-and-fifty-pounder. A plant in Hope was turning out a hundred of each every day. The plant could turn out more, but that was all Nancy, Stephanie, and Angela would allow it to put out since the plant had been going for nearly a year.

  Many wanted to limit production further and use the manpower and material elsewhere, but Bruce wouldn’t allow it. Dani understood why. If worse came to worst, Hope could build a wall of fire to stop blues.

  “Why didn’t we use the flame units last winter?” Buffy asked.

  “You really have to ask?” Dani scoffed.

  Thinking for a second, “Yeah,” Buffy answered.

  “Burning was too easy on the blues as far as Daddy was concerned. He wanted the blues to know we were killing. Those he set on fire, he wanted them to fear him and not the fire,” Dani answered.

  “Oh, yeah,” Buffy mumbled because she didn’t like to remember her daddy like that. Hearing the chain gun of an Apache to the south, both turned to see an Apache hovering and unloading on something with its thirty millimeter cannon. After a few hundred rounds, a steady stream of red streaked out as the Apache cut loose with the minigun mounted beside the autocannon. “I like the upgrade,” Buffy voiced.

  Watching the stream of red end and the Apache move south in a slow hover, “I hope that was a large pack to justify dumping that much out,” Dani said, which did shock Buffy and the others in the rig. Bruce was very adamant; no ammo is to ever be spared to kill blues. No commander could punish or demote a trooper for using too much ammo or they would face the wrath of Bruce. Waves of blues were preferred to be faced than the wrath of Bruce.

  “Daddy probably called that in on his suit,” Buffy offered with a giggle which caused the others in the rig to laugh, but Dani didn’t even smile because she could see that.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was late afternoon when Bruce looked off a bridge over Killeen, Texas and was feeling much better. The wall that surrounded Fort Hood stood tall to the north. They weren’t going to stop at the fort, there wasn’t a need to. Bruce had been down several times to check on the fort, and Daryl and Eric. When told why they were chosen to run Fort Hood both had understood, and it turned out they were very good at running it.

  Omega had stopped to refuel and grab a meal since Killeen had been pacified but wasn’t cleared of blues. Sweeps were still done weekly and blues were found that had snuck back in. Daryl and Eric had pushed patrols out fifty miles in every direction so compared to the rest of Texas, the blues were thin there.

  Turning around and looking at the base of the bridge, Bruce saw a pile of rotting blues. Unlike the area around Hope, they were very far behind on removing the bodies and once again, Bruce loved his suit because he couldn’t smell the corpses. Blues still smelled like rotting sewage, but dead and rotting ones stunk worse. “Man, this summer is going to suck ass here,” Bruce predicted and couldn’t help but shiver at the imagined funk that would permeate the air.

 

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