The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 35: Extinguishing White Flames

"Gun, what is the proper setting for inflicting maximum damage at the current caliber?" Lash murmured as he smoothly moved in a tactical crouch, Truk on his hip.

"Against personnel, flechette. Against structures and vehicles, kinetic bolus," the gun replied in its tiny, sexless voice.

"Go to kinetic bolus. Prepare to target a structure."

"Acknowledged. Munition setting has been updated. Standing by," the Kali replied and Lash felt a brow lift in curiosity as it began to quietly hum.

"Gun, are you malfunctioning?" he quietly asked without slowing.

"Negative. Mag chamber is resonating to generate maximum potential energy to kinetic energy conversion," the Kali flatly replied. "Maximum conversion will result in maximum bolus delivery. Which will effect maximum damage."

"How many shots will I get before I have to let the mag chamber regenerate?" he asked.

"Four."

"I guess we better make them count, then," Truk dryly noted from just behind him.

"Yup." Then Lash was back on comms. "Tanis, pull back to the Wolf Pack's position and standby to take the elevator on our signal."

"Copy that," Tanis replied. "Repositioning now!"

As the VCG commander said that, Lash could hear weapons fire sounding from near the door. That tightened his expression. The White Flames in the server room had sufficiently regrouped, and possibly reinforced enough to try and flank them through the door. The situation had abruptly gotten a bit more urgent.

Then they were at the end of the maintenance corridor they were using to get closer to the bunker.

"Fire from cover. I will traverse fire and split their targeting," Lash said over his shoulder. "On my count. Three, two, one ..." And he stepped out into the open.

Now with a clear line of sight on the bunker, Lash began to move sideways, letting the first shot go. And nearly smiled when the Kali bucked into his shoulder with nearly the same force a standard fifty caliber long gun would as its magnetic field discharged and sent the molecular ferrite-infused slugs lancing through the air at supersonic speed.

At that speed, it was impossible to track the slug's flight. But Lash felt his eyes widen in amazement when the slug impacted to send a visible shock wave rippling both through the wall and away from the impact point like ripples in a pond. Then, before the ripples could finish propagating, Truk's shot slammed into the wall a few centimeters from the first strike and the wall bowed inward with the shockwave.

"Blessed Father of the Night!" Truk whispered hoarsely, his eyes wide at seeing what their impacts had done. He then looked down at the rifle in wonder.

"Think it could stop a tank?" he asked.

"We might get the chance to find out," Lash shook off his own astonishment to say, pumping another round into the reeling wall. And watched it blow apart as if struck by a bunker buster missile. Truk fired his second shot through the resulting hole to impact on something inside. And they watched the percussive wave wash the length of the bunker, straining and cracking the walls on either side as it passed through.

For the briefest of moments, Lash considered pumping a third round into the shuddering bunker just to make sure. Then he tapped the control panel to return the Kali to its standard configuration and almost snorted to see he had burned through nearly half of his ammo from those two shots alone.

"Go standard config, Truk," he directed, "and let's go see if we turned those humans into meat bags!"

"Copy that, Wolf," Truk said, moving his hand onto his Kali's control panel. Then they were both moving forward.