Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

loose. He had been clear in his instructions. Do not let the transports in the air. That’s where the firepower was. Take out the pilot first. Cripple the ship. Then mop up the others.
    The men moved fast and efficiently. The transports remained grounded. Formics fell. It was over in less than ten seconds.
    When the smoked cleared, Wit stepped up into the transport. There were dead Formics at his feet, their blood on the floor of the ship thick like syrup. Wit took video of everything. The flight controls, the switches and levers. He had no idea what anything did, and he did not experiment. He did the same outside. Every inch of the machine.
    His preference was to get the aircraft into human hands for examination, but that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, once they documented as much as they could, they fired two incendiary grenades and burned the vehicles.
    Then they headed south, sticking to secondary roads and avoiding people as much as possible. As they went, Wit updated their site. He explained the new “kill, bait, and ambush” strategy: Take out a few infantry Formics, then lie in wait for the transport to collect them, and hit the corpse-recovery team. He stressed the importance of hitting the pilot first and avoiding the transport fire. He uploaded video, photos, and directions of attack—it was best to rush the transport from behind and slightly to the left or right, giving you a clear shot of the cockpit where the pilot was positioned as soon as possible. Attacking from the front was suicide.
    Wit then checked the site’s forum. He already had five different media requests for interviews. They all wanted the same thing: the face behind MOPs, the human-interest story, the juicy details that would set the ratings on fire.
    Wit’s typed response was the same for all. “Who we are is irrelevant. Help the effort by broadcasting what we’ve learned. Show the vids. Share the tactics. Invite others in the fight to share their tactics, too. Focus on saving lives instead of offering useless entertainment.”
    Some would honor his request. Most wouldn’t. What did they gain by playing the same vids as everyone else? They wanted exclusive content. They wanted exposés on MOPs, bios of its members, photos of loved ones back home.
    Wit programmed the forum to filter any future media request and reply with his rote response.
    Soon there were other posts as well. Anonymous messages from Chinese soldiers. Some expressed gratitude. Others shared information they had gleaned.
     
THE FORMICS DON’T SEEM TO USE RADIO. WE CAN’T DETECT ANYTHING. THEY DON’T SEEM TO RECOGNIZE OUR RADIO EITHER. OR IF THEY DO, THEY DON’T SEEM TO CARE.
     
THE FORMICS HEARING IS ODD. IT’S NOT ACUTE LIKE OURS. IT SEEMS TO BE BASED MORE ON PERTURBATIONS IN THE AIR, WHICH THEY CAN DETECT. LIKE BATS.
     
THE MIST IS LETHAL WITH ANY CONTACT. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BREATHE IT IN. WE’VE LOST MEN IN GAS MASKS. BUT THEIR WRISTS WERE EXPOSED, OR THEIR NECKS. THAT’S ALL IT TOOK.
    Wit posted every tip onto the main site to give it more visibility.
    Then he read the last forum entry. It was a spam post, offering life insurance. There were misspelled words and bad punctuation. It was not unlike the millions of other spam posts out there clogging the nets. Except … it was different. Subtly so. It took Wit a few minutes to decipher the code. He then entered the code into his browser and waited. The screen went white. Then a command appeared: READ THE POEM ALOUD. A Shakespearean sonnet materialized on screen.
    Voice recognition, Wit figured.
    He began to read the text aloud. He hadn’t finished the first stanza, when the poem disappeared and a vid began. Colonel Turley of the U.S. Delta Force—and current member of Strategos—faced the camera. It was a prerecorded message.
    “Since you’ve cut off all communications with us, Captain, we have no choice but to reach you by other, less-secure means. You should know that a majority of Strategos is calling for your court-martial. Some are calling for your head. You’ve illegally used MOPs funds. And you’ve forced our hand. If we admit to the Chinese that we sanctioned your insertion, we’ll take a serious beating in the Security Council for ordering an unauthorized, unlawful military act. If we deny that we sanctioned your insertion, then we look dangerously inept and incapable of controlling rogue operatives. We order you to turn yourself in and allow the Chinese to extradite you. Your