Future Battlefield, Tanks Versus Aliens, Excerpt From HARM

This is an excerpt from my short story HARM, which is about the first combat use of a HARM (Humanoid Assault Reconnaissance Machine) mech against the alien Blue Newts.  The story is about the final production prototype machine being sent in to support a company of conventional battle tanks and infantry to stop an enemy advance.  I have a short story, a novella, and a novel all set in this same Exocrisis Blue universe.  For more information, please visit my Publications Page.

In this scene I wanted to show how conventional forces could fight advanced alien war machines.  The conventional forces are composed of main battle tanks, quadrapedal combat walking robots, and powered infantry.  There is no air support as the anti-aircraft lasers used by the aliens have been very effective.  In fact, the pilot of the mech which shows up too late to affect the battle was a shot down close air support pilot.  I was aiming for realism with extrapolated tech on both sides of the battle.

Photo by kanegen.  Used under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Bravo Company was well dug in along the most likely line of approach to Huntsville.  Captain William Ericson had his tanks dug in on a narrow front flanking both sides of a highway overpass.  His ready to eat meal pack was only half eaten, forgotten due to the rapid planning he had been doing with his platoon leaders.  His three platoons of main battle tanks (MBT), for nine tanks in total, were hull down, only showing their turrets behind tank-sized firing pits dug for them by the combat engineers earlier in the day.  Each one utilized the natural cover of shrubbery and active camouflage netting to conceal their location from visual and thermal detection.

His M3A3 tanks were not a match for a spider-mech in a one on one fight even though they had been upgraded to the new 130 mm smoothbore guns.  Even their bulky ablative armour add-ons would only take a single hit from the alien beam cannon.  The extreme engagement range for the 130 mm gun was about 2500 metres, but he knew the chance of getting a kill on a Black Widow spider-mech were non-existent at that range.  They had to get the range down to 1500 metres to get good kills.  On the other hand, the alien beam cannon could kill a tank at 2000 metres with a far longer extreme engagement range that could even engage aircraft.

Ericson wasn’t in the best defensive position, but it would do as the flanking copses of woods and gullies would work for him.  At the same time, it wasn’t a likely ambush position, and he was banking the aliens wouldn’t think so either.  The tanks were going to be the hammer for the attack, but he would need to guarantee the spider-mechs would enter the anvil. To bait the spider-mechs in he would use one of his two platoons of robot combat walkers.  When the tanks engaged the aliens they would be the opening hammer.  The other walker platoon, concealed in the northerly copse of woods, would to hit the Newts from the side.  From the southern side, a platoon of battlesuit infantry would strike at the same time to complete the ambush.  

The plan looked great, he just hoped it would survive contact with the enemy.  Originally, X-14’s long range coilgun was supposed to begin the engagement, but things hadn’t worked out.  Still, it was good news that X-14 had knocked out two spider-mechs as there were two less to worry about.  He knew X-14 was coming in, but he also knew it wouldn’t  make it for the opening of the battle in time.  Its primary weapons would have been a great asset.  As it was, the battle ahead was going to be bloody.

Specialist Sam Winston called up to Ericson at his commander’s position from his gunner’s seat.  “Think the plan’s gonna work?”  

Ericson looked down at Sam.  “I think we got a good chance,” but Sam could tell he was putting the best spin on it.  After all the LT couldn’t be a defeatist or it would be game over already.

“We’ll get ‘em.  I’m going to put a sabot round up their butt,” Sam replied with bravado. “They must have butts, right?”

Ericson, gave a slight laugh at the half-hearted humour.  He pulled out a rumpled picture of his wife and his two daughters from his pocket.  I’ll be back to see you, he promised himself.  He had not seen them in months, but at least he knew they were safe.

***

The Blue Newts had sent a trio of moth-like reconnaissance drones ahead of their advance to observe for enemy activity.  As the drones approached they managed to see a half dozen combat walkers on the highway scrambling to cover, but that was all they saw. Shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles from the advance pickets of battlesuit infantry shot them down before further observations could be made.  The infantry then bounded in powered hops to new concealed firing locations from their old positions.

The trap was set and a little luck would not hurt, Ericson thought.  He suddenly realized his throat was quite dry and took out his canteen for a quick swig.  Yes, he thought again, a little luck wouldn’t hurt at all.  “All units.  Prepare to engage according to the plan.  Let’s get these guys.”

Now that enemy units had been spotted, the spider-mechs slowed and spread out into a skirmish line that was almost a kilometre wide with seventy metres between each mech.  Their turrets  panned from side to side.  They had seen the robot combat walkers.  The walkers were normally no match for them, but there could be other enemy units nearby.

The command data net had gone passive so units wouldn’t give themselves away via radio emissions.  A few furtive reconnaissance RPVs flying low at extreme range provided partial data feeds that his whole command observed.   His own units with good positions could visually observe the advancing alien units to supplement the feeds but kept radio silence.  Looking through his tank’s periscope Ericson could see that the spider-mechs at the ends of the advancing line were very close to some of the concealed units.  He prayed that they would remain unspotted and that his men kept their cool.  Half of his unit was made up of green recruits, as casualty rates had been horrendously high, but the newbies had been spread out with the veterans to stiffen them up. 

A great deal of his plan depended on the combat walkers, a military innovation introduced in the 2030s.  The walkers were autonomous, quadrupedal robots with a weapons mount on the back of their thick stubby bodies.  They were approximately the shape and size of a horse with a sensor array where the horse’s neck would be, and stood on narrow legs that allowed them to traverse most rough terrain.  While a tank company had only 10 tanks, including the command tank, they had a swarm of 18 combat walkers to support them.  Two special transporter vehicles would both remotely control and transport the walkers. The walkers acted in the hybrid role of a light fighting vehicle and infantry support for the tanks.  Every walker was armed with a machinegun that could be supplemented by either anti-tank missiles or a chain gun.

Sweat was beginning to form on Ericson’s brow and he was sure everyone else was just as tense.  Watching the tactical display count down the distance between the Newts and the camouflaged tanks was nerve wracking.  While he couldn’t see Lieutenant Nguyen, who commanded the robo-jockeys, he had fought with him before and knew he’d do his job.  When the Newts had advanced within 2000 metres of the tanks the six combat walkers rose up on their legs from their prone positions and each fired an improved anti-tank missile on the same central walker.  They then ducked back down, popped smoke and fell back towards the overpass directly behind them.  The missiles were self-homing and contrails of smoke showed them closing the distance as supersonic speed.  

The air was suddenly full of laser flashes.  The Newts had data-linked fire control that multiplied the lethality of their machines by synchronizing their weapons to act as a whole.  Their beam weapons now worked together in an anti-air capacity.  Four of the missiles exploded in mid-air.  The last two missiles struck the targeted spider-mech dead on.  Great balls of flame erupted on its upper, frontal armour where the shaped charges detonated, trying to burn through the molecular armour.  Both warheads left great blast marks on the surface, but black smoke only boiled out of one of them, where one warhead had penetrated.  However, the mech looked like it was still quite functional as it and a number of the other walkers returned fire through the smoke.  Their shots hit the empty ground that the walkers had vacated.  The advance of the spider-mechs picked up as they tried to close the range on the walkers.  

Each combat walker had one missile remaining. They continued to run for the cover behind the overpass, their weapon mounts traversing to the rear.  Emerging from a depression in the ground they fired again at the same spider-mech.   Lasers flashed again at the missiles. Five more exploded in mid-air, the sixth staggered the damaged spider-mech, but it still didn’t go down.  The lasers then targeted the escaping walkers which were running flat out at 30 kph.  The combat walkers didn’t have much of a chance.  Four out of the six walkers disintegrated into metal flinging fireballs while the fifth and sixth walkers managed to dodge and clear the corner.  

1800 metres…  1700 metres…  Three more of the combat walkers popped up over the top of the overpass shoulder and fired another barrage of six missiles.  The damaged spider-mech had already fallen behind and took  two more hits. This time it stopped all movement, but continued shooting.  Return fire on the walkers was fierce.  One more walker exploded with a direct hit.  The last two walkers popped more smoke and ducked back down behind cover.   1600 metres… 1500 metres…  The spider-mechs relentlessly closed in. 

Ericson saw that the range was good.  “All units, engage your targets!” His own command tank surged forward to expose the turret over the top of the overpass embankment to add additional firepower.  He had also been using the overpass embankment for cover. “Gunner.  Fire at will,” he ordered.   

All nine MBTs open fire within a second of each other.  The open woodlands was filled with the roar of 130 mm cannon fire and the pulsing cracks of the enemy beam weapons.   Each of the  enemy mechs was hit by the initial barrage, brilliant explosive flashes from the impacts lighting up each mech, but they withstood the attacks.  Laser fire began stabbing back at the dug in tanks.  Flashes of light, the explosive vapourization of ablative armour blocks indicated direct hits on several of the tanks, but the ablative armour held.   

Before the autoloaders on the tanks could complete the loading of the second rounds into the gun breaches, dozens of anti-tank missiles streaked out from both the north and south woods.  The battlesuit infantry platoon and other combat walker platoon were engaging the spider-mechs from the flanks.  A second set of 130 mm discarding sabot penetrators fired off just 7 seconds after the first set.  They were at the maximum rate of fire for the guns.

The battle became frenetic, with the air filled with laser fire, missiles, and tank shells.   A flanking spider-mech suddenly exploded from either an armour piercing round or a missile hit – no one was sure.  A tank exploded, multiple heavy lasers burning through the ablative armour and the composite armour underneath.  Infantry fired grenades from their launchers and emptied magazines of ammunition into the spider-mechs. More anti-tank missiles fired off.  The combat walkers fired off their second wave of missiles then engaged with machineguns.  Machine guns had little affect on the spider-mechs, but they could damage sensors, and distract the enemy.  Spider-mechs had their primary beam cannon, but they also had a secondary laser for use against softer, non-armoured targets.  These rapid fire guns began firing back at the combat walkers and infantry, suppressing and killing them.  

Another spider-mech exploded, then two more tanks.  Smoke filled the air from burning wreckage, burning trees and brush, and all of the explosions.  Yet another tank exploded, it’s turret hurled up into the air.  God, that was Zawadski’s tank, Ericson thought to himself.  Zawadski’s wife was now a widow, but he didn’t even have time to think her or even his own wife as events were moving too quickly.  The alien spider-mechs kept coming, attacking, and were breaking out of the ambush.  The range was now down to 900 metres.  Two more  spider-mechs were damaged and limping, but they kept coming.  

Nothing breaks these guys, he thought.  We need more firepower.  He was strangely calm – beyond fear now that combat was underway.  This was a battle the tanks wouldn’t be able to disengage from too easily due to the speed of the alien mechs.  The battlesuited infantry might be able to escape as they could use the woods for concealment, but the tanks would win or die on this battlefield. 

“Gunner.  Target mech right,” he yelled, feeding coordinates at the same time.  A spider-mech was targeting them.  

His tank rocked from the recoil of  its main cannon.  “Sabot. Away,” the gunner called out. 

At the same time, his tank was rocked by a direct hit on the turret from the alien’s main beam.  Ablative armour erupted in a incandescent blast cloud, absorbing the high-energy pulse.  It suddenly got warm inside the tank.  Looking through his viewfinder, he could see smoke billowing out of the alien mech from their hit.  It fired at them again, but missed.  “Driver, back us up.  Secondary fire position,” he ordered.  

Suddenly, a half-dozen, laser-guided artillery rounds directly struck the spider-mechs.  The forward observer had called in the fire mission and infantry with laser designators guided them in.  Huge explosions from the 155 mm artillery shells knocked the spider-mechs off balance while blowing off legs and sensors. One more spider-mech went down, but it was trying to get back up. The artillery had bought them some time, breaking the enemies momentum, but it would be temporary.  After firing one salvo, the artillery would need to scoot to a new firing location as the aliens also had counter-battery fire.  Even now, specialized support spiders further in the rear would be firing off homing missiles to try and kill off the artillery units. 

The two sides were now just over half a kilometre apart – 600 metres – too close.  The lasers stabbed out again. Tank guns fired.  More vehicles exploded.  Two more tanks and three of the damaged spiders were destroyed.   That left only three tanks and five attacking spiders.  Only two of the spiders were still undamaged.  All the main weapons were very lethal at this range.  The tanks had launched smoke grenades and were firing as they backed up into new positions.  Ericson’s tank and a couple of re-armed combat walkers were back up on the overpass shoulder trying to provide fire support.  Fire from the woods had slackened considerably after being heavily suppressed by enemy fire.  Both the combat walkers and the infantry had expended their missiles and had taken considerable losses in the fight.  

Even as Ericson watched, a beam burned through the turret armour of another tank which exploded in a brilliant fireball.  His tank fired again.  This time one of the damaged spider-mechs blew apart, collapsing down on its now limp legs.  

His tank was suddenly hit by a hammer blow that knocked the breath out of him.  A laser blast had blown a hole in the front left of the tank’s body.  The interior filled with thick acrid smoke while the power went dead. A fire suppression system went off filling the lower interior with foam.  “Sam, Evan, you guys okay?”

Sam, the gunner, called back, “I’m okay.  Think Evan’s dead though.  The blast caught him, and there’s blood everywhere. Smoke’s getting thick.”

“We gotta get out,” Ericson replied, “tank’s history.” He turned around and opened the turret hatch.  He climbed out and helped to pull his foam soaked gunner out of the burning tank.  They would have to run for cover.  The battle would be over soon as it was one tank against four mechs.

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I hoped you enjoyed the excerpt from the short story HARM.  Please check out my other work on my Publications Page.  I also have a post about writing mecha science fiction here.