Chapter 24
Staff Sergeant Alexander Davis struggled desperately with the elf warrior, fighting with his life on the line in an attempt to buy every precious second that he could. The elf was vastly stronger than he was, not to mention quicker and more experienced. In most of the knife fight training Alex had participated in, he’d learned that usually you wanted to avoid actually going for knife to knife contact. The chances were high that if your opponent changed the direction of the cut, or the position of the blade, you would end up with your muscles hanging on by a thin strip of flesh.
He’d expected any real knife fights he got into to consist mainly of feints and flourishes, attempts to distract your opponent so that you could safely land a blow, and most likely end the fight. Instead, he found himself desperately trying to get his knife between himself and his attacker’s blade.
The fight wore on, seconds seeming to drag on for hours. Alex slowly backing up, giving the elf space. Suddenly he had an idea. If he timed it right, he could get the elf into the doorway that now had a M-2 machine gun pointing down it, and hit the deck at just the right moment, his team would light the elf up, and while it might not be enough to kill the damn thing, it might be enough to unbalance or injure the elf. Then he’d have a second opportunity to fight the elf on much more favorable terms.
Alex began to give ground slightly faster, glancing backwards now and again to judge his positioning. The elf seemed to draw the wrong conclusion and sneered menacingly. His opponent seemed to think he was growing desperate, but Alex wasn’t going to do anything to convince the elf otherwise. He needed the elf to be sure of victory, willing to overextend and step without looking. He just hoped the machine gun crew would be smart enough to capitalize on the opening he created, but not so eager that they shot him in the back.
Soon Alex became aware of the distinctive sounds of machine gun fire, and he knew that they had one more flight of stairs before he was in place. By this point, he was bleeding from several shallow cuts and scrapes along his leading arm. He decided to play up his impending defeat, hoping to keep the elf’s eyes locked on him. He allowed himself to feel the exhaustion creeping up his arm, feeling the grip on his knife begin to slip. The elf lashed out one more time, stepping forward and knocking the blade from Alex’s grip. That was the opening he’d been waiting for.
Alex let his body drop to the floor, calling out a rushed “Open fire!” on the way. He was lucky that most of his body fell on the other side of the doorway, out of range of the powerful concussive force of the repeated blasts of the large caliber machine gun. A sustained burst from the M-2 spewed hot brass and steel linkage into some of the dead computer systems inside the control room. The repeated blasts were enough to push Alex’s legs against the wall.
The instant the burst stopped, Alex issued another quick “hold fire!” before jumping up, looking to maul the elf before it could regain its bearings. Instead he found himself staring at a headless body, blood spurting rhythmically from its neck stump. The machine gun team had really outdone themselves, managing to get all 10 rounds in the elf’s head. Alex found himself slumping against the wall, relief and exhaustion momentarily taking over. Then he remembered the fight outside.
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“Get that ma deuce gun back in the window, and do what you can for the rest of the company. I’ll clear the lower stairs and be back up here. Stay on your toes.” he ordered. And then he was off down the stairs, not even waiting for the customary “Roger Sar’nt” that echoed down the stairs after him.
*******
Lieutenant Lyndis Soto realized her mistake too late. The elf forces were far faster than she’d accounted for, and had managed to close with the outward facing guns in moments. She’d decided to suit up and coordinate things from her exo-mecha. The bombers were still 10 minutes out and her soldiers were getting eviscerated in a blood bath of a close quarters battle. The massive black arrows had been the start of her problems, each one possessed a spell or ability that unleashed on the unsuspecting soldiers as the arrows struck.
A net of living vines burst off one arrow, trapping a group of soldiers trying to position a squad machine gun. Another arrow emitted a sphere of pitch blackness, obscuring her vision of what happened, but whatever it was, it’d left 12 of her men dead, with another 20 or so injured. Perhaps the oddest effect was that one arrow had struck a tank, sticking in the armor instead of bouncing off. Moments later the tank and the arrow had simply vanished.
Then the elf warriors had been among the formation, wielding their blades with seeming abandon. The thought of her soldiers last moments were enough to make Lyndis physically ill. Moments later, the slaughter was over. The elves had killed everyone they could see, and the rest were still in vehicles. Then the tide of the battle seemed to change. The elves didn’t seem to know how to get at the soldiers inside of vehicles, and as a result, they milled about in the center of the formation. Meanwhile the soldiers were all to willing to turn their weapons inward, carefully avoiding the other vehicles and dumping rounds at high cyclic rates of fire down on the elves.
The hail of bullets didn’t seem to initially have much effect, but then the teams in the ATC tower managed to get their guns back on line, and additional vehicle weapons swiveled to bare down on the elves. Under the combined onslaught, most of the enemy started to suffer the consequences.
Soon only the enemy commander and 4 others stood strong against the onslaught, the others having fallen. The enemy commander made a series of complicated hand gestures too fast for Lyndis to follow, and then the elves jumped out of the ring of vehicles, and started running for the forest. Lyndis wasn’t willing to let them go. She opened a company wide broadcast channel on her comms setup, issuing the orders that would keep the rest of her safe.
“Savage Company, this is Savage 6, fall back to rally point alpha and take route Bravo 2 to rendezvous point charlie. Over and out.”
She activated her jump thrusters and charged after the fleeing elves. This time her suit had been upgraded with a surprise. She just hoped her ideas about the ‘Ice’ part of ‘Ice Elves’ were right. Moments later, First Sergeant Cabral issued the signal to let her know the rescue operation was starting.