[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
nice to see so we can shoot."
"Okay, okay," the civilian muttered, toggling off a switch. "It wasn't like
anybody got killed
. . ."
"Hold it here, Reeves," Mitchell called, surprised how far forward they had
traveled. They were already across the stream and on their way up the flank of
the next hill. In fact, looking in his monitor he saw that the church that
used to occupy the hilltop itself had just disappeared under a track and the
primary power lines that had once been there were now scattered across
Bun-Bun's carapace.
"Oh, no, there goes Tokyo!" Kilzer said.
"Gojira!" Reeves shouted as the main support began to tumble down the hill.
"It's one of those eternal questions." Pruitt laughed. "Who would win in a
fight, Bun-Bun or Godzilla?"
"Depends on the Bun-Bun," Pruitt pointed out. "Maj . . . I mean
Colonel
, we're in range of the Posleen, I think." His comment was punctuated with the
bong of another HVM round hitting the frontal plate.
"Major Chan, are you in range?"
"Yes, sir," the MetalStorm commander replied. "We don't really have much of a
target, but we're in range."
"Put it on the road," Mitchell replied. "They seem to be running right up it.
After your initial volley, spread it to either side, arching it over the
divisional positions."
"Yes, sir," Chan replied. "Whenever you're ready."
Mitchell opened his mouth and raised one finger just as Kilzer lifted his hand
in a halting motion.
"Colonel, this isn't strictly necessary, but I heartily recommend it," Paul
said, tapping a control. Over the intercom came a thump of drums, then the
sound of bagpipes.
Mitchell paused to listen to the music for a moment, then grinned as the
lyrics started.
"Oh, yeah, " he said, his raised finger starting to thump the time in the air.
"What is that?"
"March of Cambreath."
"You're right. Works for me.
Major
Chan!"
"Sir!" the MetalStorm commander replied, nodding her head to the beat.
"Open fire!"
CHAPTER TEN
Axes flash, broadswords swing, Shining armour's piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield, Fight Those Bastards till They Yield
Midnight mare and blood red roan, Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry, How Many of Them Can We Make Die!
Follow orders as you're told, Make Their Yellow Blood Run Cold
Fight until you die or drop, A Force Like Ours is Hard to Stop
Close your mind to stress and pain, Fight till You're No Longer Sane
Let not one damn cur pass by, How Many of Them Can We Make Die!
Heather Alexander
"March of Cambreath"
Green's Creek, NC, United States of America, Sol III
1648 EDT Monday September 28, 2009 AD
"Lord it's nice to shoot light stuff again." Specialist Cindy Glenn was a
Page 71
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
female, like her commander.
Unlike her commander, she did not consider anything about the Army to be a
career, especially not in this job.
The basic theory of the MetalStorm system was conceived shortly before First
Contact. The idea was simplicity in itself, like most interesting inventions.
Instead of putting bullets in a complicated feeding system, load them all into
the barrel, one stacked on top of another, with the propellant packed in
between. Detonated electronically the device produced an awesome amount of
firepower as literally hundreds of bullets spewed out of the barrel in bare
seconds; one device had shown a theoretical rate of one million rounds per
minute.
It was the "theoretical" part that was the sticking point. Since the barrel
was also the bullet supply, "reloading" involved replacing the entire barrel.
Furthermore, the "bullet to weight" ratio of the system was just astronomical;
it could never be considered a reasonable system for infantrymen who were
always overloaded anyway.
But it had certain benefits. After the coming of the Posleen, MetalStorm was
used widely as an "area denial" system, laying down masses of bullets that
could best be described as a "rain of lead." When stopping Posleen wave
assaults, more was always better when it came to firepower. And there wasn't
much "more" than MetalStorm.
It was also used for some specialty systems, one of which was the "MetalStorm
Anti-Lander Enhanced
Firepower Armor Combination." The weapons system consisted of an Abrams tank
chassis with a twelve-barrel MetalStorm pack mounted on top. The caliber of
the barrels was 105mm and each had one hundred rounds of anti-armor discarding
sabot loaded into it. At the touch of a button the system could spew out
twelve hundred rounds in under a minute. It was hoped that this storm of
depleted uranium, the same type and caliber of round that had originally been
designed for the Abrams to defeat
Soviet armor, would be capable of penetrating and destroying the Posleen
landers that often played havoc on defenses. Unfortunately, it did not quite
live up to its design potential.
The designers had been trying to get everyone to call it "Malefic" but they
failed miserably. The system was malefic, but only to its crew. The Abrams had
been designed with the 105 round in mind. And it had successfully upgraded to
the 120mm round, a significant increase in firepower that it nonetheless
managed smoothly. However, firing twelve hundred 105mm anti-armor discarding
sabot rounds in less than a minute turned out to be . . . one of the few
situations where "more power" was not necessarily the best thing. Crews
normally screamed as they fired. Many crew members deserted or deliberately
maimed themselves to avoid duty in MetalStorm tracks. Because when those
twelve barrels began spewing depleted uranium, the sixty-ton tanks would shake
like an out-of-balance blender. Broken bones were commonplace as the crews
were slammed from side to side in the vehicles. Most of them likened it to
being rolled in a barrel of gravel.
Despite the firepower, however, Malefic turned out to be unsuited to its
primary role. The armor on
Posleen landers was thick, the ships were large and they did not,
unfortunately, approach on the ground.
While the MetalStorm tracks could get penetration at short ranges, say down to
fifteen hundred meters or so, they seemed unable to do any significant damage
at anything other than point-blank range. And at that range, attempting to
kill a lander was suicidal.
However, the military had designed the weapons at enormous cost and even [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
nice to see so we can shoot."
"Okay, okay," the civilian muttered, toggling off a switch. "It wasn't like
anybody got killed
. . ."
"Hold it here, Reeves," Mitchell called, surprised how far forward they had
traveled. They were already across the stream and on their way up the flank of
the next hill. In fact, looking in his monitor he saw that the church that
used to occupy the hilltop itself had just disappeared under a track and the
primary power lines that had once been there were now scattered across
Bun-Bun's carapace.
"Oh, no, there goes Tokyo!" Kilzer said.
"Gojira!" Reeves shouted as the main support began to tumble down the hill.
"It's one of those eternal questions." Pruitt laughed. "Who would win in a
fight, Bun-Bun or Godzilla?"
"Depends on the Bun-Bun," Pruitt pointed out. "Maj . . . I mean
Colonel
, we're in range of the Posleen, I think." His comment was punctuated with the
bong of another HVM round hitting the frontal plate.
"Major Chan, are you in range?"
"Yes, sir," the MetalStorm commander replied. "We don't really have much of a
target, but we're in range."
"Put it on the road," Mitchell replied. "They seem to be running right up it.
After your initial volley, spread it to either side, arching it over the
divisional positions."
"Yes, sir," Chan replied. "Whenever you're ready."
Mitchell opened his mouth and raised one finger just as Kilzer lifted his hand
in a halting motion.
"Colonel, this isn't strictly necessary, but I heartily recommend it," Paul
said, tapping a control. Over the intercom came a thump of drums, then the
sound of bagpipes.
Mitchell paused to listen to the music for a moment, then grinned as the
lyrics started.
"Oh, yeah, " he said, his raised finger starting to thump the time in the air.
"What is that?"
"March of Cambreath."
"You're right. Works for me.
Major
Chan!"
"Sir!" the MetalStorm commander replied, nodding her head to the beat.
"Open fire!"
CHAPTER TEN
Axes flash, broadswords swing, Shining armour's piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield, Fight Those Bastards till They Yield
Midnight mare and blood red roan, Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry, How Many of Them Can We Make Die!
Follow orders as you're told, Make Their Yellow Blood Run Cold
Fight until you die or drop, A Force Like Ours is Hard to Stop
Close your mind to stress and pain, Fight till You're No Longer Sane
Let not one damn cur pass by, How Many of Them Can We Make Die!
Heather Alexander
"March of Cambreath"
Green's Creek, NC, United States of America, Sol III
1648 EDT Monday September 28, 2009 AD
"Lord it's nice to shoot light stuff again." Specialist Cindy Glenn was a
Page 71
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
female, like her commander.
Unlike her commander, she did not consider anything about the Army to be a
career, especially not in this job.
The basic theory of the MetalStorm system was conceived shortly before First
Contact. The idea was simplicity in itself, like most interesting inventions.
Instead of putting bullets in a complicated feeding system, load them all into
the barrel, one stacked on top of another, with the propellant packed in
between. Detonated electronically the device produced an awesome amount of
firepower as literally hundreds of bullets spewed out of the barrel in bare
seconds; one device had shown a theoretical rate of one million rounds per
minute.
It was the "theoretical" part that was the sticking point. Since the barrel
was also the bullet supply, "reloading" involved replacing the entire barrel.
Furthermore, the "bullet to weight" ratio of the system was just astronomical;
it could never be considered a reasonable system for infantrymen who were
always overloaded anyway.
But it had certain benefits. After the coming of the Posleen, MetalStorm was
used widely as an "area denial" system, laying down masses of bullets that
could best be described as a "rain of lead." When stopping Posleen wave
assaults, more was always better when it came to firepower. And there wasn't
much "more" than MetalStorm.
It was also used for some specialty systems, one of which was the "MetalStorm
Anti-Lander Enhanced
Firepower Armor Combination." The weapons system consisted of an Abrams tank
chassis with a twelve-barrel MetalStorm pack mounted on top. The caliber of
the barrels was 105mm and each had one hundred rounds of anti-armor discarding
sabot loaded into it. At the touch of a button the system could spew out
twelve hundred rounds in under a minute. It was hoped that this storm of
depleted uranium, the same type and caliber of round that had originally been
designed for the Abrams to defeat
Soviet armor, would be capable of penetrating and destroying the Posleen
landers that often played havoc on defenses. Unfortunately, it did not quite
live up to its design potential.
The designers had been trying to get everyone to call it "Malefic" but they
failed miserably. The system was malefic, but only to its crew. The Abrams had
been designed with the 105 round in mind. And it had successfully upgraded to
the 120mm round, a significant increase in firepower that it nonetheless
managed smoothly. However, firing twelve hundred 105mm anti-armor discarding
sabot rounds in less than a minute turned out to be . . . one of the few
situations where "more power" was not necessarily the best thing. Crews
normally screamed as they fired. Many crew members deserted or deliberately
maimed themselves to avoid duty in MetalStorm tracks. Because when those
twelve barrels began spewing depleted uranium, the sixty-ton tanks would shake
like an out-of-balance blender. Broken bones were commonplace as the crews
were slammed from side to side in the vehicles. Most of them likened it to
being rolled in a barrel of gravel.
Despite the firepower, however, Malefic turned out to be unsuited to its
primary role. The armor on
Posleen landers was thick, the ships were large and they did not,
unfortunately, approach on the ground.
While the MetalStorm tracks could get penetration at short ranges, say down to
fifteen hundred meters or so, they seemed unable to do any significant damage
at anything other than point-blank range. And at that range, attempting to
kill a lander was suicidal.
However, the military had designed the weapons at enormous cost and even [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]