When the Devil Dances

The detonation was the equivalent of ten thousand tons of TNT, but both it and the flash of gaseous uranium and spalling would have been survivable by the C-Dec; the explosion wasn’t actually in contact and wasn’t at a particularly vital or vulnerable point. However, the compression wave was above the lander. And that drove it downward into the hard and unyielding ground. C-Decs were designed to survive much, but slamming into North Carolina mountains at over a hundred miles per hour was not one of them. Internal compartmentalization gave way throughout the ship. Not from the acceleration, but from the deceleration.

A ten pounds per square inch compression wave, strong enough to damage or destroy heavily constructed buildings, also washed across the MetalStorm tracks. But compared to the damage they took from firing their own weapons…

* * *

“What was that?” Glenn groaned.

“What was what?” Chan answered, pulling herself out of her fetal crouch.

“That last ‘bang,’ ” the gunner answered. “Did we break something?”

“I don’t know,” Chan said. “It wasn’t that bad, though. Brandon, get us out of here, we need to open up the way for the rest!”

“Ma’am, I would, but I can’t,” the driver answered. “Look at the road.”

Glenn straightened up and looked through her vision blocks then whistled. “Wow, did we do that?” The entire slope was covered in fallen trees. “Nah, we couldn’t have.”

“You sound disappointed,” Chang said scanning for Posleen. “I think the lander must have blown up.”

“And we survived?” Brandon called over the intercom.

“Either that or this is hell,” Chang said. “And I’m beginning to wonder.”

* * *

“TARGET LAMPREY SIXTEEN HUNDRED METERS!”

“This is hell, right?” Reeves shouted with his fingers in his ears; at this distance if the lander exploded there was no way they would survive. “Please tell me this is hell!”

“FIRE!”

“ ’Cause it’s gotta get BETTER!”

* * *

The round entered through the lower quadrant, but was travelling upwards at a sharp angle and missed the fuel bunker. However, it, too, exited through the rear of the ship and exploded above it. This time, though, the smaller Lamprey was effectively killed by the kinetic energy of the depleted uranium warhead passing through its engine-room. With the loss of lift and drive it dropped like a rock onto the ridge, toppling sideways and began to roll. Straight towards the stuck SheVa.

* * *

“NO!” Pruitt screamed, aiming the gun down as the SheVa rocked in blast-wave.

“DON’T!” Major Mitchell screamed, but it was too late; the gunner had already fired.

The DU penetrator had barely had time to shed its boot when it entered the soil of the mountain. Pruitt had been aiming at the Lamprey, but he had fired low and the ten kiloton round penetrated almost two hundred meters into the gneiss and schist of the mountain before detonating.

* * *

Major Ryan was still blinking spots out of his eyes when he saw the top of the mountain erupt skyward; with a Lamprey mixed into it. “GET OUT AND UNDER THE HUMVEE!” he yelled, putting words into action as he grabbed the detonator kit, kicked open the door and piled out.

* * *

The explosion was almost graceful. The round had penetrated to near the center of the hilltop and it scooped out a section of soil and rock that was a near perfect circle; eventually it would be a very nice lake. However, it was tons of overburden that tended to tamp and reduce the energy of the relatively small nuclear explosion at its core. The material closest to the antimatter detonation was simply vaporized, becoming plasma that added to the energy transfer and would eventually dissipate as gaseous silica and the other constituent elements of the rocks.

Outward from the plasma zone the rock was finely pulverized and then the condition graded outwards until in the outer layer there were rather large boulders…

…That the explosion in their center tossed thousands of feet into the air.

* * *?

“For what we are about to receive,” Major Mitchell said as the side of the mountain started to slip their way. “May we truly be thankful.”

“Oh damn,” Pruitt said. “Bad things are supposed to happen to other people when Bun-Bun is around.”

“I’ve got traction!” Reeves shouted.

“Go!” the major replied, watching the landslide building up.

“I’m going!” the driver shouted, as the SheVa lumbered up out of the suddenly widened hole. “I think the shots loosened us up!” Then he swore as the ground gave way again and the SheVa stopped abruptly. “NOOO!”

But the mountains they were traversing were old; the hillsides worn by millions of years. The slope-ripping slides of the Rockies were virtually unknown in the Appalachians; even when started by a nuclear explosion. The crumbling mountainside continued about halfway down the hill and then came to an abrupt, tree-crunching halt in a cloud of dust.

At which point, everyone started to notice the bonging sound on the top of the turret.

“I think you’re about to get your wish, Pruitt,” Indy said sourly.