The entire force was ready.
With forced calm, I signaled the attack, and the final assault began.
CHAPTER EIGHT
There was a delay before the View Screens were activated. The first move of our assault was dropping the flyers, both the old single-Warrior and the new, larger, three-Warrior variety.
The view-input units were mounted on the underside of the flyers, and did not begin sending images until the flyers leveled off to start their attack. I could have had a visual report via the View Screens beginning the moment they were dropped from the transports, but decided the additional wait was preferable to having multiple displays of their free-fall to the planet.
The View Screens were grouped by anthill to avoid confusion in interpreting their displays. Zur and I watched in silence as one at a time they winked to life.
“Heem, Commander,” came a message. “Report view-input unit malfunction on flyer four.”
“Acknowledged,” I replied.
The report was audible because of a late development by the Scientists. To ease strain on Planetary Commanders, they had devised a unit that could convert booster-band-relayed telepathic messages into actual sound, and reversed the process to send messages. Even though messages to the Planetary Commander were sent by strike team leaders only, in an assault such as this messages were numerous and complex enough to make this new device a major aid.
We ignored the single blank View Screen and watched the others. The first assignment of the flyers was to seal the anthills, using explosives to collapse the tunnels at and around their surface accesses. Simultaneous with this action, they were to drop the Communication Disrupters. I personally placed little faith in these units, not because I disbelieved in their efficiency, but because we had no means of verifying if they were functioning properly or not. The blank View Screen gave mute testimony that not all devices were foolproof, regardless of the reassurances supplied by the Technicians. We still used the Disrupter units, however, since in a combat situation communications are vital, and any possibility of sabotaging the Enemy’s efforts to pool and coordinate information was to be pursued. I simply didn’t rely on their success in my planning.