Continue aboveground

The tunnel might be a good backdoor to get into the tower, but none of their vehicles are small enough to fit inside. Maybe the Humvee’s, if they are careful. But they have no way of maneuvering. If Jocelyn wishes to continue making use of her vehicles she needs to continue her progress above ground.

She heads over to the last tank and takes over as tank commander. Felicia gets to drive in one of the APC’s. Jocelyn first blows up the last tunnel in the sinkhole, then has her company retrace it’s steps a bit so it can move around the obstruction. Then she continues towards the tower.

In the meantime, Jocelyn gets inside the tank makes a call to the other commanders.

“First Company leader calling battalion leader, over.” Jocelyn says into the radio.

After a few seconds Jocelyn receives a reply.

“This is Myada speaking. What is your report, Jocelyn? Over.”

“I just lost two tanks due to a sinkhole. Similar to what happened at the base. More such sinkholes could be prepared for the other Companies as well. Be advised. Over.” Jocelyn explains.

“Understood. Second Company will make preparations to deal with other sinkholes. Over.”

“This is Third Company leader. Danger of sinkholes confirmed. Will adjust accordingly. Over.” Tamara’s informs the other leaders.

“Also, you might want to call in the helicopters and send them my way. I’m at about 6 miles from the tower now. Over.” Jocelyn adds.

“Six?” Tamara asks. “How did you get there so fast? … Over.”

Jocelyn smirks and says, “What can I say, I move like lightning. Over.”

“Acknowledged.” Myada replies. “Calling helicopters to converge on Jocelyn’s position. Over and out.”

With that Jocelyn heads back out and continues her progress.

“To bad, she’s not taking the bait.” Kirie says.

“You had a bait?” One of her two handmaidens asks.

“I was hoping she’d abandon all her vehicles and send her troops into one of the tunnels.” Kirie explains. “Instead she chooses to stick with the vehicles.”

“Is that going to mess up your plans?” Her other handmaiden asks.

“Not really.” Kirie continues. “I had planned for both outcomes.”

Kirie then lowers her binoculars and calls out, “Robin! Raven! Dove!”

Three harpies fly up to them. One of them having a combination of red and green feathers. The second with only black feathers and the last only having white feathers.

“Time to move again.” Kirie tells the harpies.

This time, instead of heading towards the tower in a straight line she changes direction every two or three streets. On irregular intervals she takes a left or right turn, then continues forward the next street over. This way, even if the towerlings plan another sinkhole, it’ll be quite likely for her to miss the street it is in entirely and outright evade the trap.

When Jocelyn almost gets to 4 miles from the tower she comes across the next trap they had set for her. Two dozen armored spiderlings. There are larger than the shooters they have been contending with so far and their chitin plating is thick. They were all bunched up at a street corner. Jocelyn noticed them only when her tank came at the crossing. She wasted no time ordering hers troops out of the APC’s and told her gunner to turn the turret and fire on them with the main cannon. The spiderling lords reacted quickly and charged at her tank. Jocelyn orders her driver to back off and lead them to the center of the crossing. The tank fires a shot and takes down one of the spiderlings. When the large spiderlings enter the crossing First Company already had a couple of grenade launchers waiting for them. Several explosions rend another four spiderlings to pieces, but then the spiderlings of course focus their attention on the troops.

The spiderlings start by shooting some webbing and drag a couple of the grenadiers towards them, like the shooters would do. But most of the spiderlings rush towards the troops. The APC’s and Humvee’s fire at them. The bullets leave tiny holes in the spiderling’s armored plating but otherwise they remain unharmed. The spiderlings interestingly ignore most of the troops, only focusing on capturing the grenadiers and flamethrowers. Then Jocelyn has her tank move to the back of the group of spiderlings and takes down another one by firing her cannon at one of them from behind.

On the rooftops above First company it wasn’t quiet either. Those roofs are packed with Hornyets. When the women of First Company first came into the street close to them, they remained still and in hiding. Now that First Company is in battle, the giant wasps spread their wings and fly off. They swarm towards the women down below and head straight for the vehicles. The human sized wasps land on the APC’s and Humvee’s and start chewing at them with their mandibles. They even attack Jocelyn’s tank and cut through its armor. The infantry react to this **** by shooting at them with shotgun and **** rifles. Many Horneyets perish and fall off the vehicles, but quickly get replaced by others.

Eventually most of the spiderling lords get destroyed, ripped apart from explosions. Only a few manage to get away. Carrying the women they’ve stolen on their backs. The Horneyets all get destroyed as well. But it took so long, by the time they are cleaned out the vehicles have all been made inoperable. All APC’s and Humvee’s have their tires chewed to pieces. Their mounted guns are destroyed as well and pieces of armored plating are missing. Same for the last Abrams tank. It’s cannon has been chewed off, the treads lie in tatters and there are enough holes that leave the operators exposed. Jocelyn looks at the remains of her tank. Then she walks up to one of the dead Horneyets and kicks its head. She already had a feeling with the previous attacks. The towerlings are not fighting like wild beasts. They are performing coordinated strikes. The first ones were testing her. Probing her strengths. This last attack was entirely focused on taking out her vehicles. Whoever is leading the towerlings knows what they are doing.

Whatever the case, the helicopters have already been called and are moving to her location. She needs to push on and reach the tower before the helicopters get there. Even if it means walking. She knows the vast majority of her soldiers are still willing to go through hell to finish this operation.

COMPANY STATUS

Abrams tanks:
Inoperable x 1

Armored Personnel Carrier:
Inoperable x 8

Humvee:
Inoperable x 6

**** rifle soldiers:
Determined x 38

Shotgun soldiers:
Determined x 41
Light infection x2

Light Machinegun soldiers:
Determined x 35

Flamethrower soldiers:
Determined x 25
Taken by Spiderling Lord x5

Sniper rifle soldiers:
Determined x 2

Grenade launcher soldiers:
Determined x 5
Taken by Spiderling Lord x 10

Nude Pistol soldiers:
Determined x 23
Absolutely Terrified x 1

Jocelyn Silver: Stressed
Arms: Shotgun, pistol

Felicia: Determined
Arms: **** rifle, pistol