Despite her defiant words, Rúna knew bravado alone wouldn’t save them. Facing the newcomers, she asked their NCO, “You got any heavy weapons or explosives?”
The sergeant nodded. “Got a coilgun, but we only have a couple rounds for it.” He turned and whistled, waving one of his people over. “Liên! Front and center!” A dark-skinned young woman ran up to them with a heavy tube perched on her shoulder.
A coilgun was an unexpected godsend. The Valkyries had only a handful in their inventory; they were temperamental pieces of equipment that used electromagnets instead of explosives to fire specialized rounds. They used a lot of juice, needing to be recharged after every few rounds, but they were one of the few weapons they had that were portable and had even a prayer of slowing down a tank.
“What about you?” he asked her.
Now it was her turn to flag down someone, signaling Yendrick to join them. He jogged over immediately. “Tell me you’ve got some toys left in your goodie bag,” she said fervently.
“There’s some HE left,” he admitted, “maybe enough for a satchel charge.”
“You’ve got two minutes,” she snapped.
“On it,” he gulped, racing back to his gear and digging through his ruck, as she turned back to the sergeant.
“Find a suitable spot for Liên here, and get ready,” she told him. “They’re bound to have scouts out in front, so we need to draw them in.” She pointed to Kai’s position. “We’ve got arty on standby. Soon as he’s got eyes on, he’ll bring the steel rain.”
Another high-pitched whine and grinding of metal jerked their heads back around. “... and we’ve just run out of time,” she swore. “Go. Wait for our signal.”
The pair nodded and hurried off as she raced for her position, tuning into the squad freq. “Get ready,” she ordered. “Nobody fires til I give the word.” Hunkering down as best she could, she glanced over at Arthur. “Wait for the tanks, pump out High Explosive until you run dry, then switch to Incendiary.”
“Yes, corporal,” he whispered, clutching his launcher with white knuckles as they settled in to wait.
It was only a couple minutes later that Becca hissed over the coms, “I’ve got movement. Fifty meters out, ten o’clock. Looks like skirmishers.”
“Hold your fire,” she warned them, willing the enemy to come closer.
Moments later she saw them herself. A ragged line of troops appeared out of the scrub, moving far more casually than she would have expected. They looked confident… in fact; they looked overconfident. Dialing up the magnification, she recognized them as Zaitai. That surprised her at first, as they were little better than an undisciplined mob and fared poorly against seasoned troops, but with tanks backing them up, and the way they’d sent the other units running for their lives, it suddenly made perfect sense.
The enemy must have galvanized the Zaitai units with an easy victory, using tanks to smash their way through friendly lines. Now they were employing them as shock troops; if there was one thing you could count on from the Zaitai, it was savagery. Their plan was as brilliant as it was horrific; the tanks would pulverize anybody who dared to stand their ground, while the Zaitai would slaughter anyone who ran just for fun. Win-Win.
Rúna sighted in on one of the enemy warriors, tracking them as they moved across the terrain. The noise of the tanks drew steadily closer, near enough now that she could just make out their silhouettes in the gloom. There had to be at least half a dozen that she could see, and they were heading right for them.
For what we are about to receive, may Holy Mother Terra make us truly grateful, she thought wryly, reciting the ancient quip favored by those on the receiving end since long before space flight. She shot a quick glance up and down the line. She didn’t dare wait much longer; any nearer and they’d be spotted, or worse, one of her people would crack under the pressure. Closer... just a little closer, and…
“Fire!” she howled over coms, opening up with her rifle and dropping her target with a quick burst. The others were mere milliseconds behind her, the heavy drumming of Tawfiq’s machine gun knocking the enemy scouts down like dominoes. Up and down the line, the Valkyries opened up with everything they had. A few of the Zaitai returned fire, but their earlier cockiness meant they were now off guard and vulnerable.
The tanks behind them, however, were a different story.
Too late, she realized her error. The Zaitai weren’t skirmishers at all; they were bait. Even as they were cutting them down, the tanks’ engines roared to life and surged forward. “Kai! We need arty now!” she screamed into the mic, as the first metal behemoth entered the clearing. It looked grotesque to the human eye; sloped high to the back on massive tracks, with a barely discernible gun port resembling a deep gaping maw.
Tanks were rare among the various mercenary units. They were expensive to build and transport, difficult to maintain, and seldom did the tactical situation warrant their use. Most outfits didn’t bother, focusing their efforts instead on other weapons. These had to belong to the Legion, she deduced, in the split second after it appeared and slewed around in her direction.
Something shrieked past her, slamming into its tracks and exploding in a blinding flash. It had to be Liên’s coilgun, she couldn’t imagine anything else making that sort of impact. The tank actually appeared to rock back slightly from the force of the blast, the treads now making a horrific screeching sound as it struggled to move forward. It wouldn’t be going anywhere, not without extensive repairs.
Nothing, however, was wrong with its gun.
A brilliant beam of light exploded out from the tank’s nose, slamming into the heath that Third squad occupied. Afterimages blinded her, despite her helmet’s best efforts to protect her sight. Rúna blinked hard, trying to clear her vision, and when she looked again, half of their positions had been burned away. At the temperatures the particle beam reached, it reduced their bodies to ash. Not even bone remained. Fires had already started in the surrounding brush, as the tank readied to fire yet again.
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“Arty is inbound!” Kai shouted in their ears, “Danger close!”
Wrapping her arms around her head, she hugged the ground for all she was worth, while rounds filled with high explosives began detonating all around them. What little dirt they’d scraped out in the brief time they’d had to prepare offered scant protection to them now. It vaporized the Zaitai mercenaries still out in the open, and while there was also no protection for the tanks, only a direct hit would take them out. She could hear the enemy armor fighting to escape, but their squad leader handled the incoming rounds with the skills of a virtuoso. Every time the tanks tried to move from their position, the artillery shifted with them. Great gouts of earth were torn from the land and hurled into the sky, only to rain back down upon them as the explosions went on and on and on.
But when the artillery finally ceased, four tanks remained.
They were battered, their armor dented and scorched, and at least one more was missing a set of tracks and was immobilized. Two more burned like infernos, making for dangerous obstacles while those still functioning fought to navigate through the pockmarked field.
There was no way to stop them. None.
“Fall back!” she shouted, grabbing up her rifle and rucksack before yanking Arthur to his feet. “Move! Move! Move!” she screamed, shoving the private ahead of her.
The rest of the squad… and the survivors of Third… needed no further encouragement. They raced for the rear with Kai on their heels as the tanks surged forward. The enemy smelled blood in the water as they charged, intent on ending this conflict with a single bloody drive all the way to the ocean. One tank fired again, missing them by a hairsbreadth, the heat from the beam weapon scorching their clothing and singing their hair.
“Veer right!” Kai roared at them over the radio link, “Veer to the right!” A quick glance at her HUD display showed a blinking icon, one of the cache points they’d set up a few days before. She didn’t know what was waiting for them as they ran for their lives, but right now she wasn’t about to ask questions.
“You heard the Sarge!” she howled, as they altered course and made for the beacon. They’d tried to hold the tanks back, thrown everything at them they could, but they hadn’t been prepared for that kind of armored attack. Her mind flashed to the terrified soldier she’d sucker-punched, and just how quickly the tables had turned. Going from the relief force to fleeing in full retreat in…
She stared at the display.
… seventeen minutes. They’d held them off for the length of a lunch break.
Fuck.
Another tank fired, as two more from Third were incinerated, dying before they had a chance to scream. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Yendrick double back towards the enemy, a heavy satchel dangling from his hand as he made a beeline for the nearest armored vehicle.
“Yendrick!” she howled, skidding to a halt.
“GO!” he shouted back at her, whipping the bag around above his head like a sling as he readied himself for the throw. With one last heave he let the satchel charge fly, before turning and sprinting for safety.
She watched as the improvised bomb sailed through the air, landing on an armored plate beside the troop compartment. It was a perfect throw, a thing of beauty, with Rúna holding her breath as she willed him to get clear in time.
The charge exploded as the tank ground to a halt. She saw his teeth flash white in victory as he raced to catch up… just as one of the other tanks fired. The blast flipped him up in the air, end over end, before crashing back to the ground a few meters away.
“DOC!” she screamed, sprinting to his side and pitching him onto his back. His limp body lolled, resisting her efforts, as she shifted her grip for better purchase. She latched onto his shoulder and reached for his thigh to roll him over, only to come up empty. She tried again… only to screech in horror as she realized his left leg was missing at the thigh.
Doc Svoboda landed beside her moments later, immediately diagnosing his injuries. “Grab his arm,” he ordered while taking the other, “we can’t stay here.” Rúna grabbed onto his wrist and pulled it around her neck, holding on tight as they lifted him up and dragged him away, making for the rally point.
She spotted Kai and the others waving them forward as they drew closer. “Come on!” he shouted, hopping over the low parapet the Sappers had thrown up for the cache point. He joined them in seconds, helping to hoist him up as they carried him to safety. Once they were behind the undersized wall, they set him down, as Doc ripped open his medic bag and got to work.
There was no time to waste spent worrying or mourning, not with that armor bearing down on them. She quickly scanned the crates of ammunition stacked around them, looking for something they could use, only for Kai to shake his head. “Just grenades and reloads for the rifles,” he told her, “but we’ve got reinforcements inbound.”
“When?” she demanded, pointing at the enemy. “They’ll be here any second!”
He started to reply, only to be drowned out by the whine of turbofans roaring up the draw. A pair of Centurion APCs roared past them, spitting out missiles as fast as they could fire. One tank exploded, but the others spat out energy beams in return, reducing one of the armored personnel carriers to a fireball while the second ran for cover. The two remaining tanks veered off to the right, seeking better cover as long as there was still a Centurion in the area, while behind them one of their wheeled vehicles gunned its way up the trail, braking hard as the driver slewed the truck around before coming to a rest.
A disheveled lieutenant jumped out of the back, followed close behind by at least two more squads of Valkyries, several of them lugging heavy tubes. “Get on the line!” he shouted, as she and Kai ran to meet up with him.
“We’re still pulling in other units, but its hit or miss,” he told them, as the fresh troops began taking up their positions. “If you’ve got wounded you better load ‘em fast, it’s headed back for the rear.”
“Doc!” Rúna shouted, “get Yendrick on the truck ASAP!” Becca moved to help him, the pair carrying the still unconscious PFC to the vehicle where others pulled him on board. The medic pounded the tailgate with his fist, signaling the driver who immediately tore off, spitting gravel as they ran for sanctuary.
A Gunny was already taking charge as the trio took cover beside them. “There’s still two tanks out there,” she told the senior NCO.
“... that we know of,” Kai amended. Rúna grimaced but couldn’t disagree.
“Right,” the Gunny nodded, before turning to her troops. “Load tubes!” she ordered.
The gunners knelt and hefted the heavy recoilless rifles onto their shoulders, while the loaders came behind them and shoved the bulky missiles into the rear, locking them in place before stepping aside. They waited, nervously scanning for their targets, when the pair suddenly crest a small rise off to their left, having circled around their position.
“Shift left!” the Gunny shouted as the gunners hurriedly repositioned themselves, tracking the two tanks as they rolled forward. “Steady... steady... FIRE!”
A wave of missiles streaked out and slammed into the tanks, as well as the ones that missed impacting into the nearby terrain. Both tanks burned glaringly, one of them exploding and sending a pillar of smoke and flames high into the air as the ragged survivors cheered. Kai and Rúna managed a brief hug until Doc touched her elbow.
“... Yendrick,” she realized. “Is he…?”
“The energy beam cauterized the wound, but other than that?” The medic shrugged. “He was still alive when I put him on the truck. That’s all I know.”
“Damn it,” she swore, closing her eyes tight to block out the pain. Kai suddenly jerked his head, tapping his helmet as an update came in over the radio. His expression when he returned was grim.
“The Ixi and Zaitai just crested the ridge, and broke through the line,” he said wearily, “and we’ve got reports of more Legionnaires hitting our flanks.” Their eyes met. “Orders are to retreat.”
She felt as if she’d aged a century in the blink of an eye. “How far?” she asked quietly, as the others pressed in.
“Two kilometers,” he said, hefting his rifle. “Clock is ticking. They’ll be on us soon.”
Rúna nodded dully, and even that minor effort taxed her. “Is this a retreat, or a rout?” she asked dolefully.
Kai looked away and didn’t respond.