Then, watching the way the human foot soldiers studied the area, weapons ready, Aille thought he understood. Humans were not arrogant in battles on difficult terrain, as the Jao had come to be after their long string of easy conquests. The tanks sheltered the infantrymen while they, in turn, protected the vehicle from surprise attack from the flanks and the rear. He could see where it would be an effective combination, fighting in the narrow and cramped quarters of a city.
The tank had now advanced far enough into the street to come into line-of-sight of their abandoned Jao vehicle. It halted immediately, its gun mount swiveling as though seeking prey, then fired.
It was a direct hit. The vehicle seemed to erupt from inside, hatches and other pieces flying everywhere, the noise incredible. Flame and smoke poured out. Aille had no doubt at all that if there had been anyone in that vehicle they would have been instantly killed.
He flattened his ears in pain at the loudness, breathing hard. White lines shivered through his vision. Laser weapons were almost inaudible. Jao ears found extreme noise disorienting.
The tank began backing away, to his surprise. His relief also, because if it had advanced much further it would have been difficult to stay hidden from the foot soldiers.
Kralik seemed to understand his puzzlement. “I don’t think they expected an encounter here, sir,” Kralik murmured. “They were probably just changing their position to set up an ambush. These are insurgents, not regulars. They won’t want to face off with Jao troops on the open streets. They can’t have many tanks, since they must have been hoarding them for years, hidden somewhere.”
The explanation made sense. To Aguilera also, apparently, because the experienced human veteran now stood erect. The sound of the tank’s engine had faded away considerably.
“We’d all have been toast, if we’d been in that vehicle,” he said forcefully. “Not even that. Don’t ask me where they got ’em, but the rebels are using DU sabot rounds. Silly to use ’em, though, when HE would have done just fine. Your Jao vehicles have armor designed to reflect lasers. They’ll stand up to a coaxial machine gun, but otherwise they’re even more vulnerable than our tanks—uh, their tanks—are.”
“What is a ‘DU sabot round’?” Aille asked.
“It’s just a shaped piece of depleted uranium, with a casing,” Kralik explained. “The casing—that’s the ‘sabot’ part—peels off after the projectile leaves the barrel. What hits the target is the shaped penetrator: fifteen kilos of solid uranium, moving about two thousand meters a second. It’ll punch through damn near anything—even reactive armor, which you don’t have—and once it penetrates . . .”
He grimaced. “The uranium vaporizes, basically. It’s like a fuel-air bomb going off in a contained space. The resulting heat incinerates anything organic or flammable—and, at that temperature, most substances are flammable. If we’d been inside, there’d be nothing left of us but molecules.”
“Interesting,” Aille said again. “I can now see why the veterans found the weapons so terrifying.”
Although the tank was gone, the sound of the battle was intensifying. Aguilera moved out of the grove by the dwelling. A shot cracked suddenly, and he crumpled.
Aille flung himself down, along with the rest.
“Come on out!” a human voice cried from the darkness. “Or I’ll fill the rest of you bastards full of holes too!”
Chapter 24
A stream of cursing came from the ground as Aguilera tried to rise. Aille recognized some of the vernacular, but not all.
“Stay down, you jinau son of a bitch!” The voice sounded within the male vocal range to Aille, and, if he was not mistaken, quite elderly.
His guess was confirmed. “You old idiot!” Aguilera rolled over, face contorted, clutching his windward shoulder. “They’ll flatten this egg-sucking town and kill everyone in it, and for what? A goddam whale!”
“That whale just brought things to a head!” A bandy-legged man moved into sight, a rifle in his hands. His head was almost absent of hair altogether, usually a sign of great age for humans, and he did not move easily. “Now drop the weapons, or I’ll drill you for sure!”