“Tur-Kam, Commander. Borer units landed and functioning.”
“Acknowledged.”
That would be the fourth anthill. I checked the View Screens to confirm the operation. The fourth anthill had only three accesses to seal, so it was logical they would be the first to begin the actual attack.
“Heem, Commander. Borer units landed and functioning. “
“Acknowledged.”
Fifth anthill. I hastened to obtain visual confirmation from the View Screens. This was a relatively difficult task. As I have noted, the view-input units were mounted on the flyers, and the flyers were far from inactive at this point.
As the Borer units were landing, the flyers were drop-placing the Surface Thumpers, a job calling for precision handling of the machines. More often than not, the View Screens afforded only a close-up view of the ground flashing by at high speed as the flyers raced to complete their mission.
There had been some debate as to whether the Surface Thumpers should be dropped prior to or simultaneous with the landing of the Borer units. If we had dropped them earlier, it would have given the flyers more time to perform the maneuver. Our utilizing the simultaneous drop gave the Ants less time to counter the move.
“Zah-Rah, Commander. Borer units landed and functioning.”
“Acknowledged.”
First anthill. Hopefully, by now the Ants would be in utter turmoil. Even if they had anticipated our attack, they should have had no forewarning as to its format. Without advance knowledge of the Borer units, they would have had to expect a direct assault on the tunnels. Our move of sealing the surface tunnels and collapsing others should have introduced an unexpected element into their defense plans.