>>5259621>>5259844>>5260016>>5260080You place two targeting markers - one atop the church and the other next to the northern warehouse. By collapsing two of the largest underground entrances detected in your survey before that , you would be able to prevent- or at least slow - any reinforcements from crawling out from the cavern system beneath the town.
Servo motors whine as the barrel of your artillery gun angles elevates to accommodate your firing solution. One thump. The ammunition carousel cycles. Another thump. Two rounds shriek towards your designated targets, moving at slightly differing trajectories to ensure simultaneous impact.
Half a second before detonation, you give combat drone 4 permission to engage the two scouts it had been shadowing for the past seven minutes. The fight is remarkably one sided. There is a rush of displaced air as the drone crests the treeline and chooses an optimal attack vector for its inbuilt R27 MMG. Neither scout has time to respond. By the time they finish turning their heads to track the approaching drone, their torsos have already been pulverized by a narrow burst of teflon-coated needles.
Groups of villagers meandering through the town recoil visibly from the death of their compatriots, but it is far too late. The first artillery round detonates ten meters above the roof of the church, generating an expanding cloud of liquid accelerant and metallic nanoparticles. Then, the cloud ignites. A massive wave of heat and pressure rips through the surrounding area, razing the church down to a foundation of burnt stone. Villagers close to the impact point simply disappear in a flurry of disarticulated limbs, while those further away suffer catastrophic internal injuries from the concussive blast. Clods of dirt and brick are thrown hundreds of feet in the air, raining back down once the blast wave finally dissipates into the surrounding woodland.
The second artillery shell hits with similar effect, pulverizing one of the warehouses and heavily damaging the other. Spinning fragments of superheated metal join the spray of brick and mortar emanating from the blast point, confirming your suspicion that the structure was serving as some kind of clandestine vehicle bay.
