The trip soon became increasingly more difficult to navigate through the streets. He was already starting to hit the feral ghouls who gave him no choice. The smart option would be to start the operation now but he wanted to get as much attention as he could before turning around to try to corral them towards the defensive line. They had many contingencies planned. Multiple layers of trenches, a makeshift minefield, long range destroyer cannons, even the north and south flanks were secured because there was no way all the ferals would simply follow through the gap. No doubt there would be a small handful that snuck around the sides. In addition Adam had his Power Armor and minigun in the back of the APC. His plan, once he got back to the defensive line, was to head through the back, suit up, and come out shooting. All he had to do was get to that point.
"Adam." Mira said seriously as she motioned with her head up ahead. The road was blocked. But not with rubble, collapsed buildings, cars, or anything else, but with a mass of meat. The amount of ferals ahead was so vast it completely clogged up the roads and prevented any forward movement. It was time.
"You ready?" Adam said, a serious tone himself as he pulled the APC to a stop, the Ferals in the distance slowly beginning to close on the APC, now seeing it and wanting it dead because it used to be moving. Mira took a slow deep breath and then steeled herself.
"Yes." She said resolutely.
"Fire." Adam said simply with a tone that was as cold as the sheets of ice that he fought on in Alaska.
The roar of the cannons that followed could be heard for miles. The sound of the explosions were enough to shatter eardrums of any unsuspecting people close enough, luckily no one but the ferals were nearby.
The 78 mm twin ball cannons at the front hit into the front of the crowd and splattered parts and bodies all over as the impact knocked several of the oncoming forces over. The 105mm, on the other hand, was a different story.
The elevated position allowed the 105 to be tall enough to fire into the crowd, not just at chest or eye level. The shell Mira fired skimmed over the tops of several Feral's heads before making contact with the center of the pack. The impact crater it created was immediately filled with corpses of countless ferals without delay. The explosion was a sight to see… if Adam hadn't already been desensitized to the sight of explosions from the war. Still, men like explosions, that was a universal fact. Especially explosions that expertly deal with enemies.
This had the exact intended effect he had hoped. Not only was a sizable amount of damage inflicted into the feral ghouls, but it riled them up. They were no longer shambling forward, they were running, they wanted the APC, and Adam was happy to oblige.
Throwing the APC into a hard reverse, Adam spun the vehicle around and moved with haste back down the road he came. He couldn't go too fast, lest he lose sight of the feral ghouls he had just aggroed. However he needed to move fast enough to get back to the defensive line. The sound alone would be heard by nearly every feral ghoul in the area, when you add in the crowd effect, feral ghouls following others simply because they were moving, he was on the clock. Time was no longer on his side.
As he made a tight turn, avoiding a small crowd of ferals that had ended up in front of him, he heard the telltale signs of a fully armed Vertibird beginning to fly overhead, a moment later, the sound of its two passenger gunners firing off its mounted miniguns into the crowd with reckless abandon.
Adam did not have the luxury of seeing what the carnage looked like behind him, he had to focus on driving, however Mira could, and, still in the gunner's seat, she decided to add into the carnage going on behind them.
The sound of the main cannon ripped through the air again before once more impacting the ground with a violent explosion. Mira made a small victory pose as she pumped her arm inward, clearly having hit her target.
Next was a shot from the forward gun, then another round from the forward gun, then another. Three rounds total from the 78mm guns as she helped clear the path ahead of the APC by taking out the swarming ferals that were starting to fill the streets ahead.
Adam by this point was not trying to swerve past any of the feral ghouls he encountered. He simply drove right through them. Even now he could feel his control over the APC beginning to decline a bit.The blood and gore was creating a slick mess on the tires and springs causing the vehicle to slip and slide more than he would want. However, for the moment, he still had complete control. He was confident.
The sound of the top cannon fired off a third time, met with an incredible boom once more a moment later, assumedly Mira firing into the crowd behind them again. That was the last 105 shell.
"Adam, 105 is out!" Mira said loudly as she ejected the spent 105mm casing from the tube and confirmed that there were no more shells in hiding, just as Adam had said.
"Understood, we should still have 5 or so rounds for the 78mms." Adam said as he violently swerved out of the way of a wrecked car in the middle of the road that he almost didn't spot due to the ever increasing amount of ferals.
"Adam." Mira said cautiously as she fired two more of the 78mm rounds into the crowd ahead, which was beginning to look like a sea of bodies, still navigable for the moment, but it was clear that the wall had increased to meet them. They were getting surrounded. "We aren't going to make it at this rate." Mira said, not nervous or fearful, but with a steeled tone. Adam took a half moment to appraise the situation and then stepped the accelerator to the floor, going full speed now.
"Hold on, the ride is going to get bumpy!" Adam said as he began to bowl through the sea of feral faces as he got ever closer to the defensive line. He was close now, but the horde was only growing, there were simply too many.
Mira fired off another two rounds from the 78mm cannons, buying Adam the space to maneuver and bowl through some more. However it was clear by now that the worst case scenario was about to occur. They would not make it back.
By now the APC was so covered in gore that it was hard for Adam to see out the front port. Moreover it was hard to drive because the wheels were so covered and turning was becoming more and more unresponsive. They were close, so close.
As Adam fought through the horde of ferals, his foot stepped down on the accelerator, he could feel the engine groaning, slowing, and, finally, stopping.
They were dead in the water, surrounded by a sea of feral ghouls on all sides, in sight of the entrance to the parking lot where he would find the army. They were stuck.