GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 19 ... Plus 32 Hours and counting, Overlord

War Clan William, eager, fearfully chomping at the bit, moved out silently into the night. Hundreds of invisible Special Forces glided wordlessly, effortlessly amongst them. Above, unseen and just as silently, hundreds of Polrobs skimmed towards their unsuspecting targets.

The first to die were the pickets. Meant to keep watch for any un-anticipated event, they nevertheless died in their numbers with un-anticipated regularity until an over-eager warrior woman made the mistake of setting off a perimeter alarm that had sirens blaring their harsh and strident noise for all to hear. The immediate detonation of a claymore mine put an abrupt end to her recriminations as flares shot up into the night sky and illuminated the immediate area with its otherworldly shimmering light.

The fight began. Short bursts of laser fire erupted from every direction. Bodies crumpled. Shouts, screams of wounded and dying. Stunned and disorientated soldiers erupting from their sleeping bags were laid waste from above before they could get a finger onto a trigger. Half destroyed and gutted buildings were entered where long and sharp swords cut the life from confused defenders screaming for help on comm sets suddenly awash with more screams. Tanks jerked to life as crew members piled into them. Switches were flicked and sudden harsh light illuminated the immediate area around each tank that had the defenders as well as their attackers blinking as they hesitated.

Inside the tanks, the crew gaped in astonished awe at the half naked women that had attacked them. The glint of a sword. A rolling head and the killing commenced.

"It's a damned lot of women." shouted the driver of a tank who gunned the tanks electric/H²O 350.5 liter engine.

"What's a damned lot of women?" asked the machine gunner as he checked the load on his weapon. "Rotary locked and loaded... Fuck!" for the first time he noticed that it was only the two of them in the tank. "Here. What happened to Michelson and Pieter's?" he asked. Glaring down at the driver in his seat. The driver turned and looked up. "A bunch of fucking women wearing skirts attacked us with swords man. The whole fucking camp seems to be in the crapola. And don't ask about Michelson and Pieter's ok. They were behind you. Right behind you." he turned back to his visual plate and stared in wonder as he caught a glimpse of a pair of naked thighs as they clambered onto his tank. "Shit."

"Seems we have somebody hitching a ride," the gunner looked up. His eyes following the loud scuffing sounds of the woman . The tank was sealed shut and short of a direct hit by anything larger than a 235mm Howitzer shell, the hitchhiker was plumb outa luck. They did not call these tanks the Corrupters for nothing. "Crap with that. Give me some targets." He jerked a lever and the turrets servo motors whining as its long 155mm barrel swung down from its vertical position. Placing his gunners helmet over his head, the internal situational screen lit up and in its green glow he saw the outlines of buildings and moving figures. The sharp, short bursts of laser fire caught his attention but he could not discern enemy from foe. For that he would have to wait.

The driver having vacated his chair in a rush, darted over to the battle-ops-computer, flipped a switch and waited impatiently for the thing to run through its prelim diagnostics. "Ok. Hang on. This is going to take some doing. Got one. Another. Fuck you. Got you. Here comes three." He said breathlessly as he punched the keyboard. Three targeting crosses depicted themselves on the gunner's situational screen and he immediately jerked the machine guns trigger three times. There was no time for satisfaction on a job well done as more and more thin white crosses appeared. Suddenly the tank rocked on its air cushions and the driver cum plotter was slung to one side. "What the hell was that?" He groaned as he wiped blood from his face. Struggling to get up from where he lay wedged between his seat and the tanks hull, he made it half way when the tank was rocked again. The sound that reverberated through the tank had him clench both hands awkwardly over his ears. It was as if somebody had taken a gigantic sledge hammer to the hull. "Get us out of here," he screamed forgetting for a moment that he was the driver. Something butted his head from behind and he swatted at it only to have it butt his head again. Turning around, he did a double take as his eyes registered the gunners dangling blood drenched arm, his eyes followed it upwards to the slumped body entangled in the safety straps that neither of them had thought to use. With a mind gone numb, he stared at his seat and tried to think of what to do. That thought never had a chance of becoming a reality as his whole world abruptly became a nightmare of sound, flames and shrapnel.