The heavy, little rounds were lethal killers at any range, of course, but the MX-112 was designed for the modern battlefield, not the sort of close-quarters room clearing that this fight was turning into. At short range, the weapon’s effectiveness was less than half what it could do at its optimum engagement range. Of course, the armor-piercing rounds tended to compensate for any shortcomings from a lack of a kinetic kill.

In short, it was a good thing that the squad was wearing full environmental body armor. An explosive blowback and incidental shrapnel from your own bullet was a bitch of a way to die.

“All right, boss. Looks like we’re clear,” Eddy Mehn said as he double-checked the status of the evacuations. The locals had moved fast and seemed on the ball, so they were about to have a front-row seat to a big boom.

Savoy nodded. “Thanks, Mehn. Burke…You’re up.”

“Yes, sir!” Burke said eagerly.

“Could you at least try to not sound so happy about it?” Savoy groaned.

“Sorry, sir.”

Bullshit, Savoy thought but didn’t comment. “Mehn, get those locals over here and under cover!”

“On our way, boss.”

Good. One less thing to worry about, Savoy thought as he looked around for a likely spot.

There was a solid-looking building a short distance away that looked tough enough, so he jumped over to it and checked the area behind it.

“This’ll do. Hey, Mehn, those locals got one of their ray guns?”

“Sure do, sir. What’s up?” the response came back.

“Bring ’em here.” Savoy grinned.

Mehn acknowledged the order, so Savoy turned his focus to Burke as the explosives man finished up the last-minute preparations. Mostly, it was just a lot of higher-level math, trying to work out the best positioning for the bunker busters so that the pressure waves of the explosions took out everything below in one hit. Normally, missing one or two people was hardly a mission-critical error, but the last thing they wanted to do was leave any of those creatures alive, kicking and eating.

“Can we do this and be sure?” Savoy prodded Burke. His eyes tracked the inbound carnivore drone on his HUD.

Burke raised a fist, signaling the affirmative. “Can do, boss. I’ve got data from the thermobarics earlier, and the GPR has given us a good idea of the composition of the soil and the extent of their tunnels. I could probably do it with half the firepower, but since we’ve got it…”

“Use it. Be sure.” Savoy made a fist of his own and thudded it against Burke’s raised one.

Nero Jehan grumbled as he listened to the incoming reports from all over the city.

Less than half of them were from his soldiers. The rest were routed to him from various other sectors and were almost entirely composed of complaints from the civilians.

He didn’t have time for this!