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.Two probes, blown away from the series of secondaries, were pushed towards thehill while the soldiers on it were still cowering on the ground and trying todig into the soil with their fingers.They instantly detected the nearestmetal, which happened to be the same scatterable mine, and lifted it in theair.The probe on the right of the line of view happened to win the brieftug-of-war and lifted the half pound orange device to its base, ripping themetal from within.The metal was glued in place along one of the faces of the tetrahedron.Assoon as the mine impacted on the surface of the probe a small packet ofsuper-glue was ruptured, gluing the mine to its surface.The metal, whenremoved, opened a channel between two otherwise nonreactive chemicals.However, when they came into contact they immediately detonated, causing thesurrounding C-4 to detonate in sympathy.The explosion tore the winning probe to bits, sending more metal scything inPage 159ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlevery direction, and the detonation and flying shrapnel ripped apart the wingof the accompanying probe, hurling it to the ground.The swarm and the soldiers recovered at about the same time.For just a momentboth groups seemed to pause, as if to take stock and a breath.Then Shaneopened his mouth."Open fire!"Each of the potato gun "catcher" rounds was designed much like the scatterablemines.As they flew through the swarm, the probes, sensing metal, swooped downand caught them, pulling them into their metal embrace and then.died.After a bit of aiming, each of the potato gun firers stopped bothering andjust threw the rounds towards the reduced swarm.Those that missed the swarmentirely were often picked up by probes while they lay on the ground, actingmuch like the scatterable mines.The probes were going absolutely frantic.Here was this huge target of metaland.at every turn there was MORE! Of course, the "more" was theirfellows being blown to bits, but they didn't seem to care or even notice.Theywere flying all over the place, picking up bits of metal, reassimilatingprobes and.dying.Each of the potato-gun firers only had five magazines and they expended themin less than three minutes, reducing the swarm to a bare thirty or soindividuals.Of course, the probes were assimilating the metal flying aroundthem very quickly, but it took a bit of time to "twin." When one started totwin it tended to float upwards away from the fray.Each of these Shane pickedout and had Nelms target with his 7.62 BDL sniper rifle.The rifle firedstandard ceramic rounds, although he had a packet of "super rounds" if heneeded more range.But at this range he was ignoring his scope and firingunder it over open sights.The probes entirely ignored the ceramic round butthe rounds did not ignore the probes.One round of 7.62 was more than enoughto take down a probe.He got most of the "twinners" and those that he missedCady directed the carbine teams to engage.Twenty, then ten, then only six probes were left, all of them trying to breed.The carbine gunners, Nelms, and Cady with his minigun took care of them withonly two managing to twin and those two staying in the area to assimilateuntil blasted apart by the sergeant major.With that probe down, there were no more functioning probes in sight.Just atwisted field of shattered metal."Damn," Jones said, standing up and looking out over the "battlefield." "Wewon." He paused andthat didn't seem to be enough."WE WON!""Yeah, we did," Cady said, looking out at the masses of twisted metalscattered around the tundra."But they got our wheels.""Alien bastards," Nelms shouted."You killed our Humvee!""Boss," Mahoney said, quietly.He'd set up his laptop, then taken a place inthe line, but as soon as the fighting died he'd hurried back to his belovedelectronics."What?" Shane asked, somewhat loudly.His ears were still ringing from thedetonation of the case of mines."I think we've got a live one out there."* * *The probe was upside down, lying sideways on another much more damagedboomerang.The only probe was missing the tip of one wing, but the wing looked.odd.The wing narrowed towards the tip, then flared outwards to a jaggedbreak."It was breeding or whatever," Jones said, bending down and prodding the thingwith his carbine.It was shuddering and sparks were shooting off the exposedinterior but it couldn't seem to fly."There's something seriously wrong with it," the sergeant major said,Page 160ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlfrowning."Yeah, Top, it can't fly," Jones pointed out."More than that, shit for brains," Cady replied."It's sitting on a big hunkof metal and it's not tearing it apart.""I guess we're going to find out if they can repair themselves," Shane said,his hands on his hips as he surveyed the trophy."Top, bag and tag this thing.If we've got to dump some of the pieces out, we'll do it.Mahoney!" he yelled."Sir?" the specialist called from the small hill where the rest of the teamwas still waiting."Any sign of more of 'em?""Negative, sir," the specialist called back [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]