The first Phantom pair entered Silverpeak from the southwest at high altitude while the fighting below continued spreading around the Hive.
Neither aircraft approached the center directly.
Their route had been prepared before the assault began, with several strike boxes already marked across the industrial districts where Golden Eagle expected the Hive to expose enough mass for saturation bombing to become worth the damage.
Most of those boxes remained inactive. Three no longer did.
Inside the lead Phantom, the Mission Systems Officer watched the targets update through the System network as the Advanced Radar fed new movement into the strike picture.
The largest breach covered several industrial blocks.
Thousands of infected were still pouring from ruptured underground routes while more moved beneath them, climbing through the same freight and utility passages that had already broken open across the district.
Several Tier 1 contacts were mixed into the mass, while heavier signatures remained deeper underground.
The ground formations stopped outside the marked boundary, with Fires hitting continuously on the outer routes while the Apaches worked on the edges.
That left the center for them.
"Strike Box Three confirmed clear of friendlies."
The pilot checked the route.
"Three confirmed."
A second box updated farther north.
"Box Four is still active. Golden Eagle units withdrawing from the southern edge."
"They’ll clear before release."
"They better be."
The Mission Systems Officer changed the bomb sequence.
Twenty-four physical positions showed as ready inside the bay, while the remaining System allowance sat outside the physical load and waited for cycling once the first bombs were gone.
He did not need all of it for the first pass, at least not yet.
"Pattern loaded. Starting with twelve."
The Phantom continued across the mountains. Far below, Silverpeak looked almost peaceful from that altitude.
Smoke columns rose between the valleys, but the fighting itself was too small to see without the aircraft’s systems. Roads, factories and damaged districts spread beneath them while the Hive’s territory remained buried under layers of tactical markers.
The Raptor element ahead of them crossed the southern side of the target area.
"Phantom One, Angel One-One. Airspace clear on our side. No aerial contacts."
"One copies."
The lead Raptor banked east while its partner moved farther north, both aircraft staying outside the programmed release corridor.
Several Apache sections were doing the same thing lower down.
One pair remained over the western approach, their 30 mm guns cutting into infected that had escaped the first rupture zone, while another section pulled away from the industrial basin as Flight Operations opened the bomber corridor above them.
The Phantom pilot watched the range close.
"Thirty seconds."
The Mission Systems Officer checked the first strike box again.
Golden Eagle markers remained outside. MDC markers were outside as well.
And the infected were not.
"Box Three remains valid."
A psychic pulse spread from the Hive, but the Phantom crew felt nothing. Their altitude was too high for the wave to reach them.
The same pulse crossed the city below and several fresh ground formations slowed for a few seconds, but the Air picture continued updating without interruption.
"Ten seconds."
The bomb-bay doors opened. Moments later, the first weapon dropped.
A second followed beside it, followed by more in a programmed string that spread across the release pattern while the Phantom continued forward.
The weapons fell toward the industrial blocks without any dramatic turn or last-second maneuver. They descended where the plan had placed them.
Once enough bombs dropped, the bay closed.
Four empty positions began cycling from the System reserve.
The lead Phantom was already leaving the first release point when its wingman entered the next one.
"Phantom Two. Box Four."
"Clear."
"Releasing."
Another string left the second bomber.
...
The infected pouring through the western industrial breach never saw either aircraft. However, they did see the bombs.
The first impact struck near the center of the ruined freight yard.
The explosion lifted a section of pavement, infected and torn underground tissue into the air while the next bomb landed farther along the same rupture.
A third struck the processing building beside it, collapsing the concrete inward.
The fourth landed across the northern side of the yard where the infected were spreading toward another street.
The entire district disappeared under the overlapping explosions.
Golden Eagle infantry several blocks away ducked behind the armored vehicles as the pressure reached them.
The MDC soldiers beside them dropped lower.
One looked toward the industrial zone and stared as the horizon filled with dust.
"You call this a bombing run?"
He wondered if these people ever thought about danger close.
More explosions followed before the first debris came down.
The bomb pattern walked through the rupture zone from one end to the other, breaking open buildings that the infected had filled, collapsing damaged underground access points and burying several of the passages under thousands of tons of concrete and steel.
The Advanced Radar picture changed with every impact as red markers vanished in groups.
Several hundred disappeared beneath one collapsed structure.
Another concentration tried to move away from the blast zone through a service road and ran directly into the Fires boundary where Hellhammer shells waited for their arrival.
The first salvo landed ahead of them and forced the mass back toward the same industrial blocks the Phantoms were still destroying.
A second artillery group struck the route behind them, giving the infected nowhere else to go.
The Apaches moved in after the bomber pattern passed.
Two aircraft crossed low over the western edge and found the survivors spreading through streets that remained intact.
Their chain guns opened first.
Thirty-millimeter rounds walked through the crowd while the second Apache fired rockets into a concentration trying to force itself between two warehouses.
Smoke swallowed the entire street once more.
A heavier infected survived the first rocket impacts and pushed through the debris.
One of the Apaches turned slightly.
"Heavy contact. West road."
The gunner put the crosshair on it.
"I got it."
The chain gun fired.
Rounds struck the creature across the chest and shoulder, tearing sections away before it reached the road.
The contact remained active despite its grievous injuries.
"We got a Tier One, possibly."
"Give it a Hellfire."
The missile left the rail and crossed the remaining distance. A huge explosion engulfed the heavy infected.
The Apache ignored its death and continued forward, pursuing more targets.
...
The first Phantom finished cycling part of its reserve before completing the turn for another approach.
Four positions returned to ready status.
The Mission Systems Officer checked the next target package.
Box Five had become active, a target that was larger than the first.
Underground contacts were still climbing into it.
The Hive had pushed so much biomass toward the surface that the Radar outline looked less like separate infected and more like a continuous red mass packed beneath several streets.
The Mission Systems Officer stared at it for a second.
"Avenue is getting crowded."
The pilot followed the marker.
"The boys down there need their space."
Raptor One-One crossed the target from the opposite side.
"Phantom One, Box Five is clean. Ground forces are holding outside the boundary."
"Copy."
The weapons officer expanded the release pattern.
"Let’s make some space for them."
The Phantom turned toward Silverpeak again.