That announcement brought his attention back to the present, and Eric quickly noted that they had indeed been spotted quite clearly. His HUD showed at least a dozen hot spots moving fast in the column’s direction. It may have been his imagination, but they looked pissed for some undefined red blobs on a computer display.

“Lock them in. Let them get closer,” he ordered. “Excaliburs, stand ready.”

The Excalibur armored artillery vehicles were among the most powerful but also most vulnerable assets in his convoy. They were heavily armed and armored, but due to the size and weight of each Excalibur, they were slow and unable to fire on the move like the Abrams M7 MBTs. That made them sitting ducks just when they were being employed, but their firepower made them absolutely invaluable.

“Excaliburs copy,” the major in charge of the artillery group acknowledged. “Coordinates locked in. Ready for TOT.”

“Abrams, watch their backs,” Eric ordered. “Mobile Armor, you’re with me. We attack the second the TOT lands.”

Both groups acknowledged the orders as Eric led the Mobile Armor squads out, pushing the vanguard ahead of the group as the main battle tanks took up guard positions for the armored artillery vehicles. The Excaliburs shuddered to a halt, their stabilized cannons the only part of the big machines that weren’t shaking as they planted themselves and lifted the big barrels high.

“Excaliburs ready.”

“Fire,” Eric ordered.

A sonic boom shook the dust off the armored vehicles as all the networked cannons fired as one. The cannons were already dropping as the round left the bore, and they all boomed again a split second later. Then a third time, and a fourth, before the fifth and final shot roared out on an almost flat trajectory that shook Eric’s team right through their armored suits as it passed barely over their heads.

The TOT, or Time On Target, barrage was one of the most useful and lethal tools in the toolbox of the artilleryman. The idea was to fire rounds at different angles and speeds so that every single shot arrived on target at once, thus eliminating the chance of the enemy being able to duck for cover after the first shot landed. It was a process raised to an art form by modern artillery, which could land dozens of rounds on a target zone within the same second.

Another incredibly lethal technique, though a great deal harder in some ways and certainly more dangerous, was commonly known as Shock and Awe. More technically, it was referred to as “Establishing Battlefield Dominance” by Western militaries, and it basically amounted to an ever-increasing refinement of tactics first perfected by the Nazi war machine during the Second World War.