Hotston fought the exhaustion washing over him. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept, and his eyes felt as though they were covered in grit. Jaw-cracking yawns came every few seconds and he was forced to slap himself in order to stay away. They were roughly two klicks out from the alternative EP, Clark keeping them updated. The iColonel had been especially pleased to hear from them since they’d been separated during the withdrawal from the village.

Someone had let off a mini-nuke, his team had destroyed an enemy headquarters and vehicle depot, and there’d been a pitched battle at the objective village. Small units of 49ers, as well as still-trapped units of the ECAF were still running all over the French countryside, and the ChinKor forces were running around like headless chickens trying to fight an enemy which completely had them on the back foot.

‘Jesus, just take a fucking nap,’ snapped Ani Brun, the driver. ‘It’s an officer’s prerogative. You’re no good to us if you can’t think because you’re so tired.’

Not an officer, Hotston thought as his eyelids closed.

The next second there was a bright flash, intense heat washing over him and a crescendo of noise.

STUNNED!

‘What the fuck?’ he wheezed, trying to shake off the pain that exploded in his head.

Voices filled his comms channel and his scrambled brain struggled to focus on what was being said.

‘Shut the fuck up!’ screamed a voice he recognised. Everything was blurred, too hard to understand and his whole body ached.

‘Fight through! Clear the ambush,’ ordered the voice.

Hotston slapped the quick-release button on his restraints. There was a split-second of weightlessness, great confusion, and then he slammed into something hard and unyielding.

‘Wha?’ he groaned, gasping to replace the air that the fall had forced out of his lungs.

‘Hottie!’ He recognised that voice, and the huge hands which grabbed the handle on the back of his combat armour and hauled him out of the LAV. Noise flooded his ears as they finally cleared from the effects of what must have been an explosion. ‘Snap out of it.’

A meaty paw slapped his helmet, rattling his brain so hard he was certain he’d have a concussion on top of whatever concussion he already had. But, paradoxically, it did remove the STUNNED effect and his head cleared somewhat.

‘What happened?’ She shoved him hard, and a pulse shot slammed into the LAV where his head was. Molten armour splashed his suit, and he flinched as a kinetic round punched into the ground at his feet.

‘Ambush. One armoured vehicle, plus a platoon of dismounts. We hit a mine. I was thrown clear,’ Winnie said. His head snapped towards her at that. She looked awful. One of her pauldrons was gone, the flesh beneath it raw and bloody. The rest of her combat suit was just as bad.

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‘You good to go?’ he asked, frowning at the sight of his friend.

‘Not really. Not got a choice though,’ she let loose a long burst from her heavy pulser. ‘Fuckers.’

Hotston looked for Hill. Not seeing him, he popped his head down and looked inside the LAV, which he finally realised was upside down.

Dammit! Hill’s position had taken the brunt of the blast. What was left of Hill hung from the driver’s seat, the rest of him splashed over the interior.

He blink-clicked his tacmap open, cursing again as he saw fewer friendly icons than he’d expected.

‘Watson, how are your people?’

‘Five KIA, three WIA. We can’t fight through, the IFV is disabled. They’ve got us pinned!’ Only an idiot could have missed the stress and fear in her voice.

‘Tag every target you can, got any drones?’

‘Fuck all!’

He risked a look over the LAV to where the IFV listed on one side, all of its wheels blasted. Smoke rose from the engine compartment, but it didn’t look like it was going to burst into flames just yet.

Watson and her people were all crammed behind the sides of the IFV, only a couple of them able to pop around the front and rear to let the odd shot off.

Turning to his left, he saw a shallow water ditch running parallel to the road for as far as he could see.

‘Winnie, can you get into the ditch and crawl 50 metres?’

She paused, checking the ditch before answering, ‘Yup. Plan?’

‘Get along the ditch, then set up the heavy pulser. On my signal, lay down covering fire and I’ll get Watson and her people to get into the ditch.’

As he spoke, he marked the position he wanted her to take on the tacmap, then sent instructions to the platoon as a whole.

‘Go.’

He popped up over the sill of the LAV and let a couple of shots off towards the ChinKor position. They seemed to be reluctant to push their advantage, and he worried about whether they were trying to hold him and his people in position until reinforcements could arrive.

‘Shit!’ Hotston cried out as a storm of incoming fire hammered the LAV. ‘Winnie, how you doing?’

‘Nearly there,’ she puffed. ‘Ditch is good, about 4 feet so you little people should be able to fit in it fine.’

‘Watson, throw out smoke left and right of the IFV. As soon as Winnie opens fire, leg it for the ditch.’

‘Roger that,’ Watson snapped.

‘Firing!’ Winnie’s words were accompanied by a stream of heavy pulser fire that stitched its way across the ChinKor position. They were laid up on a slight rise behind an old wall. Shards of stone exploded into the air with every hit from her pulser, and in an instant the enemy fire slackened.

‘Watson!’ shouted Hotston.

‘On it!’ Red smoke appeared ten metres from each end of the IFV, spreading quickly. ‘Moving!’

Watson and her people sprinted en-masse to the ditch, pounding past Hoston and dropping down into the stagnant water at the bottom. Taking one last look to make sure there were no stragglers, he followed.

‘Move along! Set up a fire base here!’ he marked the tacmap. ‘First squad, move to the second marker I’ve just placed. As soon as you’re in position, open fire. We’re going to pepper pot our way out of this fucking mess.’

ChinKor fire blasted through the smoke, its components designed to not only block the vision of human eyes, but also any HUD elements that a soldier might be equipped with. Even so, blind fire could be surprisingly effective fire. And effective fire didn’t necessarily mean they were taking casualties, but that the fire was accurate enough to suppress them.

‘Firing!’ First squad let rip with every weapon they had.

‘Second squad move!’ Ordered Hotston as he and third added their own fire to the ChinKor position.

Second squad crouch-ran along the ditch as quickly as they could. There was an explosion in the ChinKor line. Bodies and debris cartwheeling through the air.

‘No-ones ever going to believe that shot!’ Yelled Winnie. ‘Hit a launcher! Killed 5 with that! Got an officer!’

The ChinKor fire slackened considerably. Hotston was starting to notice a pattern wherein if an officer was killed, their subordinates would often lose the ability – or will – to fight. Not something he’d noticed during the Great Retreat, but then they were technically in the ChinKor rear, so maybe they weren’t facing the best.

Long may it last, he thought. Checking his HUD, he saw that whilst he’d been sleeping they’d made good progress towards reaching the EP.

‘We’re a klick away from safety people, hustle!’