Meanwhile, the fusion gunner in squad Wayne lined up his weapon and took a second shot at the rearing big bug in front of him. He timed his shot to perfection and hit the weaker underside of the beast with a concentrated beam that bored right through it. As it fell to the ground, sergeant Wayne shouted to the rest of the squad to withdraw back behind the defensive wall.
The big bug on the left, facing squad Autry, also reared up and seemed to shake itself as if preparing to charge again. But, as it did so, corporal Cooper fired another round at it. The missile exploded against the thick armour on the beast’s shoulder, tearing a large chunk of chitin from its body. But he was not as luck as the fusion gunner and the beast remained upright, seemingly unhurt.
The swarm of slinkers advancing up the centre raced forward into the ruins dircetly infront of squad Wayne. From his vantage point at the top of the shrine. Lieutenant Robinson saw the slinkers advance and radioed Wayne to warn him. Rather than simply turning to run, the ranger squad turned their guns on the emerging slinkers and fired a volley at them as they steadily stepped back towards the protection of the sandbag wall. The big bug to the rear of the slinkers also began moving forward and reached the cover of the ruins sheltering the slinkers.
Squad Autry continued to fire on the bug in front of them, but even the plasma rifle did little more than irritate the creature.
Behind the alien line, the brain bugs began to advance. First the brain on the left floated towards the critters that were creeping along the road. They seemed to jump as it approached them and leapt forward firing a hasty volley from their strange weapons as they did so. A stream of grub like things burst from their cone shaped guns and sprayed the walls around squad Autry. Fortunately, despite the enormous number of grubs that were launched, no one was injured, but the men did stop firing and began checking themselves to make sure there were no grubs attached to them.
Fortunately, corporal Clarke already had his heavy machine guns pointed in that direction and only had to make a slight adjustment to fire a long burst at the critters. Four of them were shredded by the heavy calibre rounds and the remainder fled to the safety of the nearby ruins.
The slinkers that were already hiding in those ruins shuffled about as the critters pushed through them, but remained close to the ground to avoid the attention of Clarke’s heavy guns.
Squad Bogart now turned from the bug to their left and began firing at the slinkers to their right to cover the withdrawal of squad Wayne.
Another brain bug drifted forward towards the big bug and slinkers hiding in the ruins in the centre of the battlefield.
Platoon sergeant Flynn noticed that squad Autry had stopped firing and could see them patting themselves looking for grubs. He shouted to sergeant Bogart to have his squad fire at the slinkers in front of Autry to make sure they did not use the lull to launch an attack. He then yelled at squad Autry, ordering them to ‘get back on the line’.
The remaining big bug, on the right, marched slowly down the road towards the imperial line, all but ignored by the imperial soldiers who were already engaging nearer targets.
Squad Cagney maintained their fire on the slashers to their immediate front, but their fire was having little effect. The slashers could be seen leaping and bouncing behind the rubble ready to spring at any moment.
Corporal Gable was working his guns across the line of aliens in front of him. He fired a long burst at the slashers and caught one as it emerged from the rubble, vaporising it.
The third brain bug reached the protection of the ruins behind the slashers and critter.
Corporal Grant fired his missile at the big bug that was slowly moving down the road toward him. Once again, the thick hide deflected the missile, causing nothing more than a flinch. Corporal Stewart’s gunner fired at the big bug in the centre, but this round also simply bounced off its hide.
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