Falling back was easier said than done. Smith, Barten, and Monroe laid in wait for the beetles that were fast approaching. Any hopes they had at avoiding combat were lost as the beetles seemed to be heading right towards them. “They seem to be tracking us,” Smith said and then looked over his shoulder. “Can they communicate?”
“It might be better to assume that they can. Maybe there is something in the screeches that carry over,” Monroe said.
Smith sighed. “Here I was hoping that we would just get to shoot some shit and then go home for a nice meal.”
“Still could.”
He shook his head. “Monroe take the left, Barten on the right. Keep your distance, and open up once we have their attention. Hopefully it will only be the two of them.”
“I’ve got the big guy at least moving in the right direction. But he’s still out of it,” Conners said.
Smith shook his head. “Don’t worry about combat, start heading back to base with him and we’ll follow.”
“What? No. I’d rather help fight here.”
“But what about Jamieson? If we take our eyes off of him and he wanders somewhere else?”
Conners grimaced. “Alright, fine. But I’m not going too far. If we run into one it’s not like I can fight it off on my own.”
Smith nodded. “Alright. Get into position,” he said and crouched down behind a tree.
Once the two beetles were close enough Smith opened fire on them. He fired two bursts, the first one landed on the beetle's head and it was slow to stand. While the other reacted in time and deflected the shots with its armored underbelly. Monroe was able to punish the slow one by finishing it off before it could stand. While the second one started to screech right away and it took some time before they were able to finally down it.
“Ammo count, mine’s 40%,” Smith said while still staring at the downed beetles.
“Jamieson’s is down to 59%, Monroe said. “And I think that mine was down to about the same.”
“36% for me,” Barten said.
There was a noise in the forest. Like something large barreling through it. The three of them turned towards it. “That can’t be good, Monroe said.
“Let's fall back to where the others are and hope that it doesn't follow after us,” Smith said.
“Don’t you want to see what it might be?” Monroe said.
“No. There’s too much risk for now. And we are going to be late getting back. I just hope that Conners knows enough to keep his mouth shut.”
Conners in fact, did not know to keep his mouth shut. “A call from command came through. I tried to tell them that we were seeing combat and would get back to them. But they wanted to know why we had continued on instead of going back to base.”
Smith sighed and then looked at Jamieson. “What did you say?”
“Nothing, we were close enough that your shots should have been picked up. So I left it at that.”
“We’ll deal with it when we get back. How are you doing, Jamieson?”
Hearing that he was addressed, Jamieson looked around for a moment. His eyes were swarming and still glazed over while his shoulders were somewhat slumped. “Feels like I’m tripping balls or something. Noises too. Something calling for me. Don’t know what it might be.”
“Alright. We’ll get you back to base and get you checked out. Just hold on okay?”
“Best that I can do,” Jamieson said. His gaze had slowly wandered back towards the north.
They took their time heading back to base at first. That was until they heard the same noise of something moving through the forest. Monroe was the first to hear it again and called it out.
“Hostiles incoming, behind.”
“It’s still far off isn’t it?” Surprised that you managed to hear it,” Conners said.
Smith stopped a moment and looked back. “Leave it. We’ll continue onto base. Maybe we’ll lose it.”
A moment later they heard anything sound off to the east, though closer than the first one. “Damn it, I hope that they aren’t flanking us,” Smith said. “Double march.”
“What about calling it into Base?” Barten asked. “If we are coming in with hostiles hot on our asses we should let them know.”
Smith grimaced. “Lets see about putting some distance between us first. I’m still hoping that they aren’t following us. Though at this point I can’t say that I have much hope left.”
They rushed through the forest, back the way that they came. One good thing about the path already being made was that it allowed for them to make good time. Though that would end once they got back to the first beetle they had slain.
“Seems like they are falling behind,” Smith said.
His statement was answered by Monroe again. “Hostile in front.”
“What?” Conners said as he looked around. “Can’t hear shit.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Monroe had her gun leveled against the remains of the first beetle that they had killed. There, standing over it, was a larger model. One that was longer, with less bulk, and more limbs. Almost like a millipede rather than a beetle. “Shoot it,” Smith said as he brought his own gun up. Barten and Conners followed suit and they let off a volley of plasma all at once.
The millipede moved quickly, dodging out of the way of the first few shots. Before getting winged by some of the later ones. It opened its mouth and screamed at them before charging. Which only brought it face to face with the concentrated fire of the squad and it finally went down.
“Would have been smart to continue dodging,” Conners said as he fired one more shot. It landed on the head region of the millipede. “Stupid.”
“Stop wasting ammo,” Smith said and cocked his head to the side. “If they weren’t chasing us before, they are now.” The noise from the north and east were joined with one from the west. Along with the extra source there was also an added intensity to the sound of their movements.
“Full run back to base. Jamieson, are you up to calling it in?”
Jamieson shook his head and tapped on the side of it. “Yeah I think. I’m feeling better. Whatever it was is gone.” As they started to move he swapped his comms pack around to this front. “Delta Squad 5 to Echo base.”
“Squad 5! Where the hell have you been? We needed you here an hour ago.”
Jamieson looked at Smith who shook his head. “We are caught up in battle. Multiple sources following us back to base. Ammo is low. We need a lift out or reinforcement.”
There was a moment’s delay before an answer came. “The base is experiencing heavy enemy presence at the moment. Reinforcements are en route to Echo Base. Do you think that you’ll be able to make it back before combat?”
Monroe looked behind them a moment. “Visual confirmed on 3 new types. Might be dangerous to engage given their mobility.”
“It’s not likely we’ll make it back,” Smith said and Jamieson relayed it on.
“We’ll do what we can. Though you’ll probably be walking back into a firefight. Save some ammo for them at least,” the reply came.
“Roger,” Jamieson said into the mic before putting the pack on his back again. “Whelp. Sorry all. Might have put us up the creek with this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Smith said. “Even if it’s just been for a short while, we are a team, and we will see things through until the end.” Jamieson was silent for a moment as he fiddled with the straps on the comms pack before he nodded.
“Alright. Let's keep moving and keep your eyes peeled for anything that might lend us a hand. Cover, machinery, explosives. Anything.”
They continued to run and were able to make good enough time. The pursuing hostiles just charged through anything that was in their way. Which was bad in that they were taking the quickest route to come into contact with them. But it was helpful as all the trees they plowed through were somewhat slowing them down. That would change once they arrived at the fields right outside of the forest.
Once they were in the open path, the harrying enemy behind, and the desire to make it back to base caused the squad to run faster than they could maintain. “I don’t know how much more is left in the tank,“ Conners said. “You losers with your point in con are going to leave me behind.” He was sucking in deep and ragged breaths of air.
“Alright. Try to keep it together for a moment more,” Smith said and lead them north, away from the direct path towards base. “There’s an old junker that we passed on the way. We’ll set up behind it and fire into the enemy.”
“But what if they dodge?” Monroe asked. “We got lucky with that last one.”
“Then we shoot more,” Smith said. Monroe’s expression didn’t change and he added, “And then we shoot even more.” She shook her head and pressed on even faster.
“Hey, what’s this? You’re finally showing your true colors and leaving me behind,” Conners said in between gasps for air. No one bothered to respond, instead focusing on the sprint in front of them.
Monroe was the first to reach the old, rusted out, pickup truck. It appeared that it might have been running the day before. And was maybe left behind after the object appeared. She jumped into the truck bed and leveled her rifle at the distant enemies. “Probably be on us in less than 30 seconds.”
Smith was the next to reach it, with Jamieson shortly afterwards. They both posted up over the engine. And Barten took cover behind the tailgate. Conners when he finally arrived clumsily jumped into the bed with Monroe and held his rifle in a shaky grip as he breathed deeply.
The enemy was closing in and Smith held his hand up until they were maybe 40 meters out. For whatever reason the millipedes were running in a triangle formation. Assuming they didn't scatter it would make for a good shot. Anything that scattered or missed the first one might land on one of the others.
Smith dropped his hand and everyone opened up all at once. Plasma flew through the air and the first millipede was hit in the chest and head while several shots went wide. Of the two behind one flanked to the north, aiming for the tailgate of the truck. While the other grabbed the one in front of it and continued to approach.
Hits continued to rain on the already dead millipede, while the one behind came approached slower. Barten and Conners switched to the one flanking and after several volleys’ Barten’s gun made a hissing noise and stopped shooting. “I’m out!” he said and looked around for something to use. A second later he had discarded his rifle for an old worn shovel found in the bed of the pickup.
“Make your shots count folks!” Smith said as he sprinted south away from the truck.
He flanked the millipede holding the dead one as a shield. With a few well placed shots he managed to damage the legs enough that it fell over while still holding its friend. Monroe switched to the one sprinting toward the back of the truck. Only it proved to be better at dodging than they were at landing hits.
Barten took an experimental swing with the shovel and decided to just throw it instead. The shovel twirled around and somehow managed to trip the new type up for barely a second. It splintered in half and the shovel head when flying. But it was enough for Conners and Monroe to land their first shots. Then it was wounded enough that it wasn’t able to dodge anymore.
While they were taking care of the flanking millipede, Jamieson and Smith were firing away at the last one which was screaming loudly. There was a shout as it tossed the dead one towards the truck causing them to scatter. But its last ditch effort was futile as Jamieson and Smith were able to quickly finish it off.
“Made enough noise that everyone from here until the next town over now knows where we are,” Conners said and tapped at his ears. “I don’t know how you two dealt with it so close as you were.”
Smith smiled. “Fire enough big guns and your hearings start to go. And that’s with the protection. I’m glad that the plasma rifles seem to be quieter. Though our enemies not so much.”
“Good job with the shovel there Barten,” Monroe said. “Things might have gotten sticky had it made it close.”
Barten shrugged. “Surprised it worked. Dodged all the shots that it did, but died to a shovel.”
“Alright. No breaks and lets get going,” Smith said as he watched the edge of the forest. The millipedes weren’t subtle at all, and the path that they took was as clear as day. “We need to move before-” His words were interrupted as another set of black objects appeared between the trees. “Damn it, move people.”
They only got several meters before they discovered another millipede crashing through the fields to the north of them. Smith belted out a quick, “Ammo!?” as they ran.
“10%,” Monroe said.
“I’m out,’ Jamieson said.
“4% Conners said.”
“And I’m out as well,” Smith said.
Conners gave a laugh then. “Got any more shovels?”