Chapter 23
SSG Alexander Davis handed a can of .50 caliber BAR ammunition to the team manning the second M-2 machine gun in the ATC tower. There’d been an assault on the circle below by an odd assortment of low level creatures, but it’d been quickly repelled. Alexander, or Alex to his friends knew that meant the real attack would begin soon. He’d been put in charge of the group sent to secure the tower, and he was committed to doing his best to ensure his soldiers lived.
He’d had the machine gun teams set up atop all the computers and communications gear. The thought that there would probably never be another commercial flight again struck him. It was a bit odd to be considering such things in the middle of battle prep, but that was sometimes how it went. Often you had the most random thoughts in the silence before or between battles. It was the same on the football field. In the moments of intense action, the mind tended to hyper focus, but before or after, Alex tended to get very random thoughts.
Alex shouldered his M-7 Battle Rifle, a weapon quickly becoming near useless, and watched his sector of fire, hoping to get the first glimpse of the enemy. Fortunately one of the tank gunners seemed to notice the advancing elf force first. He watched as the heavy anti tank round went right through one of the elves, narrowly missing another in a white cloak, before exploding and sending the injured elf flying forward to impale itself on a tree branch. The sight was a bit gruesome, but it served a point. The elf had been able to stumble forward after taking a tank round to the chest. Something as tiny as his rifle’s .277 Fury had almost no chance taking the elves down.
Alex thought briefly about the Montana Knife Company blade he’d attached to his battle belt at the last second, and wondered if it’d be any more effective. Probably not. The elves looked to be armed mostly with blades and other close quarters weapons, so he probably wouldn’t even get a chance to wield the blade.
The distinctive whistle of artillery falling brought Alex fully into the present again. He issued the order to fire at will, and went to work, carefully selecting targets, aiming for the eyes and nose. If he was going to contribute meaningfully to the fight, he’d need to put all his rounds in that inverted triangle. The distinctive THWUMPA-THWUMPA-THWUMPA of outgoing .50 hate was music in his ears.
He took careful aim at an elf in a mottled cloak and leather armor, but missed when the enemy commander in the cloak motioned his target forward. The elf produced a long bow taller than Alex was, and fitted a massive javelin sized shaft to the string. Something about the material the shafts and heads were made from gave him pause, and he missed his follow up shot as well.
A coordinated salvo of fire from the tanks facing the right direction took down another two elves, after they had released their arrows. but the enemy commander motioned her troops forward, likely finally noticing the incoming artillery, and all the other three anti-tank rounds missed. The loaders in the tanks would be switching to HE or true plasma armor piercing rounds at this point, and likely aiming slightly in front of the elf line.
Alex turned, knowing his team needed to buy the tanker crews time to re-load and re-aquire their targets. He nodded at the three solders spread out in the confined room, and they quickly broke the other glass windows that hadn’t shattered from the M-2’s going off. They then retrieved two AT-4’s each and returned to their spot in the center of the tower.
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When Alex returned his focus to the battle below, he realized how badly they’d underestimated just how fast the enemy could be. There would be no organized withdrawal before the bombers arrived. The elves had managed to cross almost 3000 meters in a handful of seconds, and were already leaping over the outer ‘wall’ of tanks.
Alex knew the men and women down there were going to fighting for their lives. Even if they outnumbered the enemy 12 to 1, the elves had the advantage of experience and surprise, let alone their system enhanced healing factors, as well as greatly enhanced strength and speed. It would be a blood bath. Alex was torn between rushing out of the tower to help however he and his men could, or waiting out the bloody show, knowing it wouldn’t take long until they could begin firing down on the elves a second time without worrying about killing their fellow soldiers.
Alex wondered briefly where Lieutenant Lyndis was, and if she was fighting for her life, or still able to command the troops. Suddenly a loud crash sounded at the foot of the tower, and Alex had bigger problems to worry about. As the only soldier in the tower not manning a weapon too powerful to use in close quarters, he knew he would need to check out the disturbance alone. He quickly issued orders for one of the Machine Gun teams to re-orient on the door leading out to the stairs, before drawing his knife and sneaking through the doorway.
Before the system, Alex would have been confident of taking on any challenger stupid enough to close with him. He’d grown up on a farm in Iowa, playing high school and collage football. Eventually he’d gone pro, playing for 3 seasons, before he realized there was still something missing in his life. The army had filled that hole. The teamwork and comradery was on a whole other level, even compared to pro football. He’d already had plenty of muscle and athleticism, but in the army, he’d learned to maximize his natural talent for hand to hand combatives. He’d won the base tournament 3 years running before he’d joined the SRG teams.
He briefly remembered the first time he’d gotten in the ring with the First Sergeant. He’d learned there was a whole other level of ability, and he’d been all to eager to learn what the storied SOF veteran had to teach. Now, in spite of his 4 levels with the system, and his natural build of 6’ 3” and 280 lbs, he still worried if he’d have a chance to engage one of the attacking elves on equal footing.
Quietly placing one foot in front of the next, he began making his way down the circular stairway, hesitating at each corner long enough to control his breathing and listen for the sounds of someone approaching. As a result, he was somewhat surprised to turn a corner and find himself almost face to face with an elf warrior brandishing a wickedly curved dagger. Fortunately the elf seemed equally surprised, and in the fraction of a second that it took for the elf to realize he wasn’t among friends, Alex acted, slamming his knife into the creature's chest. The first strike skittered off the hardened leather breastplate the elf wore, but Alex had struck with enough speed and power to knock the already surprised elf off balance, allowing for a second strike. This time his blade slammed home, sinking into the elf’s chest right between the ribs where the heart and it’s main arteries connected if elven physiology was the same as humans. Unfortunately for Alex, it seemed they didn’t.
Dark blue blood flowed out of the vicious wound Alex had delivered, but it wasn’t enough. The elf had managed to regain it’s balance, and it swung wildly at him, forcing him to defend. Time and time again the elf blade slammed into Alex’s, each one resulting in a shooting pain. The creature was obviously far stronger than Alex was, but it was equally fast, if not slightly more so, and it possessed enough experience to avoid falling for the few feints he managed to get in. Things were quickly going from fucked to outright FUBAR, and alex found himself slowly retreating up the stairs to gain room. The only up side was that no other elves seemed to be involved in assaulting the tower other than the one Alex was currently engaged with. The thought occurred to him that the more time he could buy, the more likely his men above could contribute to the main battle happening on the tarmac below. That thought alone gave him the motivation to keep going.