Chapter Sixty – Callsigns

Chapter Sixty – Callsigns

“We need a new minority to pin things on. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to blame trans people or the gay. I can’t think of any new group to marginalise though. We have a few options, but none of them fit all of our criteria:

Ideas?”

–Internal Memo from Rep. G. Tean, 2031

***

I jumped into the Fury next to Gomorrah and then settled into place. Around us, the borrowed vans were starting to rise from the road, and the interceptors were already in the air, flying circles above.

There was surprisingly little talk as we got ready. I half-turned in my seat and checked out the bomb-launcher in the back of the car. Gomorrah had just installed it, and it was basically just a bigger, more complex version of the bomb-dropping device we’d installed in the vans. There was an opening to place grenades into, so that’s what I did.

“Right, we’re going for longer-lasting things. And they need to survive the drop. Resonators are my go-to area-denial. Gomorrah’s dropping fire. What else?”

Perhaps explosives that are proximity-detonated? They can fill any gaps in the line, and when an antithesis tries to go around the fire left by Gomorrah’s payload, they can detonate.

“As long as they don’t go off when a person’s nearby, that’s not a bad idea,” I said.

That’s easy to arrange. Might I suggest some nyanpalm as well? It’d be a shame to have created a whole new kind of flammable weapon only to leave it unused.

I sighed, but she was probably right. “Yeah, that’s not a terrible idea. Let’s load this sucker up.”

Points Reduced from 37,854, to 37,764

That stung a bit. Not so long ago I was in the 50-thousand point range. But that was before buying loads of food, more equipment, mounts, bomb-dropping devices and literally thousands of bombs. Oh, and some spatulas.

If everything I purchased (spatulas aside) got used to murder aliens, then I’d be back to where I was before, and probably past that.

Gomorrah opened the driver-side door and slipped in. “Is it loaded?” she asked.

“At one hundred percent,” I said. “We’ve got bombs for days.”

“Not really,” she said more seriously. “We have enough to cover something like a four hundred metre stretch. Each bomber… van we have can cover another hundred or so. But the shoreline is several kilometres long.”

“Right, we’re going to have to bomb and return,” I said. “Unless you want us to do all the work from here? We can refill in mid-air, the vans can’t, can they?”

“They can,” Gomorrah said. “It’s a big purchase each time, but I can do it from here. I asked Atyacus about it. There’s… rules about summoning items and where they appear. You can’t buy an item and have it appear too far from where you are, but the vans should be able to fly into range.”

That wasn’t something I’d ever thought about. I’d have to annoy Myalis about it later. After all, buying a grenade and having it appear inside the nearest alien would save me having to throw the damned thing.

“Alright, I think Intel-chan’s keeping a digital eye on our bomber’s loadouts. We’ll know when one of them hits empty.”

Gomorrah nodded once. “Are we ready then?”

“Let’s hit it,” I agreed.

Gomorrah brought the Fury up with a sudden lurch and I hung onto the little strap above the door.

With a flick of a switch on my augs, I connected to the main communication channel being used by the bombers and interceptors. I supposed that that would be my job from now on. It wasn’t like I could do much while Gomorrah was driving us around.

“Ah, this is God’s Righteous Fury, we’re airborne. The rest of you can start climbing. We’re going to circle overhead, then head out to the shoreline for our first run. Intel-chan, you got the coordinates?”

Intel-chan’s voice popped onto the channel. “Mapped out and sent to all pilots. Have fun! Pilots, all call signs, check in.”

“This is Nutcracker one, climbing,” one of the pilots said. I matched his location on my map, each van having an IFF. The vans had been numbered, but now their names were changing to match what the pilots were calling themselves.

“Rear Ender two, coming in hot.”

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“Cockpit Crusher three, rising.”

“Gorilla four, ready to ooga some boogas.”