The Battle of Titan

by Sudipto Majumdar

  The aliens were harder to kill than humans, and the 14 humans, just did not have the stopping firepower to stop the aliens in their tracks. The aliens would be upon them eventually in a few minutes.

  They may be poor shots at the current distance, but when they got to the 20-25 meters range, they wouldn’t need to aim. If that didn’t work for the aliens, they could simply jump on to the humans and stab them with their steel claws, like they did to Marie la Fontaine.

  He realized he needed supporting fire, which would hopefully distract the aliens and divide attention from his team. “Alpha – 2 we have been ambushed by hundreds of aliens. We are in a tight spot here and need some diversionary fire.” Alex called out.

  “Alpha – 2 acknowledges, on our way ETA 15 seconds.” Takamori replied even as the last of his own attackers had gone down and he had started towards the camp on foot. He could not see Alex’s attackers or Alpha – 1 visually. They were hidden behind the bulk of the alien camp, but he could see them on the tactical display in his HUD.

  For a moment he was tempted to jump on top of the alien camp, and take a straight line path to cross over. It was less than 2 meters in height at the edges and in Titan’s gravity he could hop onto it in his stride. Caution prevailed however, he had no idea what stepping on the roof might trigger, so they rounded the camp.

  The good news was that Alpha – 2 emerged behind the enemy, got into position and started shooting immediately, effectively shooting the enemy from two opposite sides. The bad news was that the enemy did not have a behind, or a back of the head to speak of.

  They were not caught by surprise with the first shot. They had probably sensed Alpha – 2 even before they had rounded the corner of the camp, for they started shooting at them immediately. The really bad news was that there a lot of them. Really a lot of them.

  Alex was not exaggerating when he said there were hundreds. They seemed like hundreds upon hundreds. Takamori’s initial estimate was about 300 to 400 of them. From experience however he knew that in a combat situation, bunched enemy numbers looked a lot more than they really are. They would be probably closer to 250 of them. It was still a lot of aliens to face for 28 humans.

  It was clear after a few seconds of firing to both Alex and Takamori, that Alpha – 2’s intervention in the fight had not been enough. Half had started moving towards Alpha – 2 now, but even half the numbers was enough to overwhelm both Alpha – 1 and Alpha – 2. They would run out of bullets soon. Not a single bullet was being wasted by the soldiers. It just took too many bullets to bring down an alien. There would still be too many aliens left after all their bullets were over.

  Takamori realized that they have to think of the unthinkable – tactical retreat, and abandon Cheng, Ma and Lao. He slapped his helmet com button in frustration, but said softly. “Alex, I know you are not going to like this, but we have to start withdrawing. You have to think of the rest of the marine’s lives.

  We still have a good chance to withdraw right now in our snowmobiles, we may not have it in a few more seconds. I know all about you marines’ motto of ‘no man left behind’, believe me no soldier in the world wants to leave their comrades behind. Cheng, Ma and Lao are our comrades, but so are the soldiers and marines in our command.”

  “Damn… Damn… Damn.” Alex cursed out despite himself. “Yes sir I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand the tactical situation here… And sir… you are my commanding officer because I consider you so, and respect you so, you just need to issue me the order sir. You need not have given the speech and the rationale sir. I will follow your orders unquestioningly. Alex out.”

  Strictly speaking Alex was not in Takamori’s chain of command. He commanded his marines independently. Takamori had however won the respect of Alex and the marines, just as he had earned Leanna and her soldier’s.

  Alex was thankful Leanna was not here and in danger. He immediately caught himself from thinking that way. He had to remember that whatever feelings he might have for her, she was a professional soldier, and being in harm’s way was part of her job. Yet he could not get over the protective feeling for her.

  It was hard to believe that the entire battle from start to finish had been raging for only two minutes. It seemed like hours to Alex. Two minutes was the time it took for a low flying, high speed Chinese made shuttle in Titan to turn around, and make a second pass.

  As Alex and Takamori were about to give the retreat order, they heard the whine of air flowing over the turbines of the shuttle first, and then the roar of its machine gun, as it made a very slow pass this time cutting through the center mass of bunched up aliens trying to overwhelm the humans. Damn thought Alex, he had all but forgotten about the shuttle.

  The shuttle concentrated initially on the bunch trying to run over Alpha – 1. They were more in number and closer to overwhelming the humans. There is nothing more efficient or effective than fifty caliber bullets spitting out at 800 rounds per minute rending through a mass of big fat aliens bunched up together.

  These heavy caliber bullets, with far more weight and velocity than the submachine gun bullets being fired by the soldiers, were very effective against the aliens. It took just one or two bullets to bring an alien into their death frenzy or a stupor. The alien lines started thinning incredibly fast.

  The shuttle however had made a fatal mistake. In its anxiety to kill as many aliens as possible, it was flying low and slow. The aliens’ aim was bad, but not that bad. It may have been hard for an individual alien to target a small human lying flat on the ground, but it was a different matter targeting a big fat shuttle flying low and slow overhead. A hundred guns must have reached overhead and taken a shot at the shuttle, and it was inevitable that some of them would find their mark.

  The Shaitan guns were heavy caliber. Really heavy. The Chinese shuttle was nominally armored, but with the engineering limitations of flying a shuttle in an alien world, it was not really much. The struggle to keep the weight and the fuel consumption low, meant that it was not a match for the numerous Shaitan slugs that hit and pierced its skin.

  Some went and damaged critical control sections of the shuttle. There was no bang, no smoke that came out of the shuttle. Alex knew that the shuttle was in trouble immediately as he heard the pilot shout. “I am hit! I have no attitude control. Pulling out!”

  With that the shuttle wobbled and precariously gained some height and started putting distance between itself and the alien camp. It was luckily pointed in the direction of human camp, but the way it was moving, Alex doubted if it would be able to make it.

  He felt sorry for the pilot and the gunner, and hoped they could land safely. Then he pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the battle once more. He needed to reassess the situation with the changed circumstances.

  The shuttle had done a marvelous job before it got hit. The alien lines to his front were completely devastated. Where there had easily been over a hundred Shaitans, now there were barely 20 left. He had one casualty on his side too, who would probably not make it.

  The alien slug had entered from the top of the shoulder of this marine as he lay prone and nearly sheared off his left arm, breaking collar bone, shoulder bone and all. The power of each slug was unbelievable. It came with the force of a cannonball. His mates had patched him with foam and left him on the ice for now, but he was in a bad way.

  With no shuttle to evacuate, they would have to travel for hours on snowmobile. He doubted that this marine would make it. The remaining thirteen of them were fully combat effective with not a scratch on them.

  If this had been the beginning of the battle, he was confident, he would have taken all of the remaining aliens easily without suffering any more casualties. However he had a problem. All of them were running dangerously low on bullets. It was unbelievable how many bullets they had used.

  They had gotten all their stockpile of bullets brought to Titan, stored on the snowmobile. They had to go back again and again to the snowmobile to replenish
the team. All the reserves were over, and all the bullets they had, were the ones they were carrying on their person or loaded in their guns.

  The scary part was that they had no more bullets left on Titan. They would have to get more brought down from USS Friendship. Alex and all the commanders had thought they had enough ammo. It had not been the highest of priorities. No one had thought they would be fighting a pitched gun battle on the surface of Titan!

  They had been more worried about the dangers of Titan, and its atmosphere. They focused all their attention on those issues. In hindsight, Alex should have been better prepared logistically. However what was done was done. Now they had to live with it and face the consequences.

  If the amount of bullets he had was indicative for the rest of the team, since all of them had been firing pretty much non-stop, they could probably kill half of aliens before they ran out of bullets. The aliens had shown an amazing tolerance for loss for their own kind. Most human forces will withdraw tactically if they suffer more than 10-20% loss. The aliens don’t seem to understand the concept of withdrawal. They would probably fight to the last man, or last alien in this case.

  If 10 aliens were still left alive after all their bullets were exhausted, he would not be able to overcome them to reach Cheng. Humans would be no match to the aliens in a Hand-to-hand combat, and the aliens any way would not need to resort to that. They would just shoot the humans. A single alien bullet was enough to spill all your innards out.

  There was however a curious development that Alex was noticing. There were very few bullets being fired by the aliens lately. In fact in the last 15 seconds or so, not a single alien slug had been fired at his team. The aliens had also stopped advancing. They were simply standing their ground.

  Was it possible that they had also run out of ammunition? They had expended a tremendous volley of ammo on the poor shuttle. That much he had seen. Had they in their desperation emptied themselves out? He needed to talk to Takamori about this, but he needed to check Takamori’s tactical situation. Did he need help desperately?

  Although Alex knew where Alpha – 2 team was dug in the ice from his HUD, he could not see them visually. That was not the case with Alpha – 2’s tormentors. They were standing clearly visible on the surface.

  He counted perhaps about 30 of them remaining on that front, but just like his attackers, they had stopped advancing and were simply standing ground. He could not hear any loud boom of the Shaitan weapon, so neither was Alpha – 2 being fired upon. So Takamori should be able to spare time to talk.

  “Alex to Major Takamori.” Alex called switching his com to public mode. He longed for military grade com equipment, which had chain of command communications programmed, it would have made speaking to your immediate superior or juniors a breeze. Here they had to follow the old radio protocols in public mode.

  “Takamori here, go for it Alex.” Takamori replied immediately.

  “Sir I don’t know about Alpha – 2, but our team is severely short on ammo. However I have a feeling so are the enemies. They have not fired a shot in some time, and it is unlikely that they had a change of heart.” Alex said over the com.

  “Alpha – 2 is worse off on the ammo situation. We have been fighting longer than Alpha – 1, and have expended almost everything. We redistributed our ammo, and now all the bullets we have is what is loaded in our guns. However I concur with your assessment. The aliens may be having similar issues. However it still does not give us a clue as to how to get past them.” Takamori answered.

  Alex was himself trying to figure out some tactics to get past them without having to attack frontally, when he heard Cheng’s voice broadcast in public mode. “Cheng to all. Be advised that our pursuers have pushed us along the trench into an opening to their habitat.

  We are now inside a long tunneled passage going underground, perhaps leading to their habitat. We have no choice but to proceed further inside. I believe that there should be at least another exit to the habitat. We will try to find it and get out on the other side.”

  “Takamori here. It may be very dangerous to go further inside. Is there any way you can hold your position?”

  “Cheng here. No Major. Unless you can kill the five aliens pursuing us in the next few seconds from behind, we will have to either move or die here.”

  “Alex here. That is unlikely Major Cheng. We have about 50 aliens blocking our way, and we are almost out of bullets.”

  “Cheng here. Talking about bullets reminds me of something we have learnt right now. Blades are extremely effective weapons against these aliens, especially in close quarter battle. I just used my sword very effectively against an alien who ambushed us. Even Lt. Ma’s battle knife was very effective, although the reach is a problem. We have mounted our bayonet, which makes it far better.

  One more important thing. The aliens use their claws on their limbs in close quarter combat. Gupta’s foam is a very effective protection against this, not just for patching holes, but preventing them. We have applied the foam all over our suit. If it gets punctured by their claw, the liquid inside the foam starts hardening by itself, closing it automatically. It also makes punctures more difficult. Cheng out.”

  Shortly thereafter, Cheng’s symbol disappeared from the HUD, indicating that now he was out of radio contact. “Alex to Major. Sir what is our next move?”

  “Takamori here. Ideally I would like to figure out a way to get past those aliens to reach Cheng’s pursuers. If we can’t do that however, I would like to hold these fifty here facing us. That is fifty less aliens pursuing Cheng. I am open to any ideas Alex.”

  “Alex here. I was thinking of guerilla tactics and harassment sir. We spread out and surround 360°. They outnumber us only 2 to 1 right now. We take individual bullet pot shots at them. We know that our bullets definitely bother them, even if it does not kill them outright.

  A single bullet will get an alien’s attention. It might even cause enough suit damage to make it uncomfortable. However only two aliens can rush out to meet one of us on an average, and we can support each other from either side of whoever gets rushed.

  If a lot of aliens rush towards a single person, he can make a run for it towards the snowmobile. It will leave a hole in the alien line, perhaps allowing some of us to get through.”

  “Excellent idea captain. Let us make it so.” Takamori commended Alex. It took all of them about a minute to get into position and commence on their plan. Amazingly, the aliens didn’t figure out the tactics immediately.

  The two lines started backing towards each other. Once the two lines were close to each other, someone amongst the aliens must have realized what was happening. Their response was a bit unexpected, although it shouldn’t have been.

  Alpha – 1 and Alpha – 2 had not exactly surrounded the aliens 360°. They had left the area around the alien camp open. This was not to give the aliens an exit route inside their camp, but due to the fact that if the soldier out there was rushed, then he would have nowhere to run back but inside the alien camp!

  In any case, it was thought that given what they had seen till now, the aliens would prefer to come out and fight outside and defend their camp, rather than hide inside and open the possibility of humans getting inside.

  However the aliens did exactly that. On a cue, which would have been someone commanding over the alien suit radio or its equivalent, all the fifty of the aliens started running towards their camp through the hole left in the encirclement.

  “After them! Let them not reinforce Cheng’s pursuers.” Takamori shouted. All 25 active human soldiers got up and gave chase. The fifty aliens however were not intending to join Cheng’s pursuers. They simply were looking for cover.

  All along the circular camp of the aliens was dug a trench just as Cheng had informed. The aliens simply dove into them for cover. “Halt and take cover” Takamori shouted once more. There was nowhere to take cover on the flat icy plains, but all of them lay prone taking aim with their guns.

&n
bsp; The aliens had taken cover but not fired a single shot at the humans. It was becoming increasingly clear that the aliens had possibly run out of bullets, or were on their last few bullets. Alex smiled at the irony.

  The aliens were being defensive because they thought that the humans had a lot of bullets left, while the aliens had none. He wondered how the aliens would behave if they knew the truth. Alex was about to ask the Major, what now, when Takamori spoke up.

  “Alex, I want you to take charge, while I try something only I can do. And Alex, no buts on this. I am taking your own advice and giving you an order to take charge. I need a volunteer good with the bayonet, and foolhardy enough to join me.” Takamori said with a tone of finality, which stopped Alex from arguing any further.

  “That volunteer would be me, sir. I am also pulling rank on this one sir.” It was Roberts the senior NCO in Alpha – 2. His grin may have been lost within his helmet, but everyone could make out from his tone what he implied.

  “Very well Roberts. You heard Cheng about Gupta’s foam. Apply most of it around your suit as I am doing, and mount your bayonet. Then follow me.” Takamori replied, as if he had not understood the joke Roberts had made.

  It took them about 20 seconds to apply the foam, and then both of them withdrew from the line, running back and away from the alien habitat a bit before circling and turning toward the habitat again.

  Takamori made sure his com was on proximity mode before he spoke to Roberts. “If I am not mistaken, that trench they jumped into runs all along the circumference of their camp. We are going to jump into the trench further down where hopefully there are no alien, and then follow the trench to meet the aliens.

  The trench seems wide enough for the two of us to attack side by side, but only wide enough for one alien to fight. So we try to take them one by one. If at any time we feel we are getting tired or overwhelmed or if aliens appear from above or below, we simply jump out of the trench and retrace our way back. No heroics, is that clear?”