Threshold of Victory

by Stephen J. Orion

  “The 56th Armoured came down last week. I’ve been here since January and I know that hill is defensible, I know the ground south of it is mined, and I know the crags north of it are damn near impassable; all of which means it cannot be encircled.

  “I know these things because forty-eight hours ago I was part of the force that lost nearly two hundred men capturing it. So you tell me, Captain, are you really in a position to pull rank to support a plan made an hour ago by a man who did not live long enough to appreciate the situation we now find ourselves in?”

  Yelsin opened his mouth then checked himself. “Alright Lieutenant, I’ll concede the point. We weren’t ready for this, and we’re coasting when we should be acting. I need time to get everyone prepared to move out so it’s a withdrawal instead of a rout. Can you buy me that time?”

  “In other words, thanks for the advice but can I get the hell out of your command centre now,” Lieutenant Rease smiled and gave a crisp salute. “Yes, Captain. Thank you for hearing me out, Captain.”

  With that she back-pedalled to the door and stepped out once more into the madness.

  ****

  Things were surprisingly quiet on Warhorse One. The lifter was safely removed from both the original battle in Box Grid’s streets and the new one that now raged above it. Tarek was listening to the combat chatter from the Undying, watching over them using the HUD magnifier.

  His palms had begun to sweat. Every time there was a close shave, he felt the sudden urge to bring his own craft into the fight, however useless that might be. The Undying were fragmented and almost entirely defensive against superior numbers. Mauler AA guns from the surface had opened fire, flickering tracer rounds sweeping across broad arcs of sky as they tried to pin down the nimble Snowhawks. Even Eternity’s flawless skills were clearly being taxed as he raced from ally to ally with just enough time to spoil a Mauler’s kill shot before he was called away somewhere else. Just minutes ago, he and Clumsy had been split up, and both had nearly been shot down when they tried to converge on a Bug trailing Madness instead of dealing with their own pursuers.

  But there was method to the squadron’s efforts. They left no openings to their enemy, minimised their own risks, and covered each other’s backs relentlessly. Half an hour passed and despite a gruelling dogfight against superior numbers they still hadn’t lost a single craft. Silver was beginning to think they might set a record for ACM endurance, certainly by now the only thing preventing fatigue errors would be the auto-inject stims on their suits. He found himself forced to admit that, however romanticised Eternity’s 0-loss ideal seemed to be, the pilots appeared altogether determined to live up to it.

  It was a little later that Charlie flight jettisoned their bombs and descended to join the fight. Carrying the heavy ordinance, they’d have been no match for a fighter, but without the weight they were able to balance out the Mauler’s numerical advantage.

  Of course, those munitions were intended for use on the anti-air batteries. The rest of the squadron carried one or two ground attack missiles each, but they wouldn’t be enough to deal with all of the AA sites and, in a way, Tarek was delighted with that outcome. Flying the Lifter through full-fledged air-defence would be suicide, but avoiding the output of one or two guns would be a nice reminder to the brass that he was better than a cargo pilot.

  So far, the battle on the ground had taken up little of Tarek’s attention. Walters and Arcadia Control had both been providing overhead recon, so it was unlikely a flight sergeant’s input would carry much value. Indeed, the first time he heard one of the ground pounders speak, it was on the Undying’s comm channel. Static laced every other word as explosions spoiled delicate comm waves, and the sound of gunfire in all calibres was a rhythmless din blanketing the entire transmission.

  “Lieutenant Rease, Box Grid Outpost,” the voice introduced itself, “to the aircraft overflying my position. Be advised we are relocating to a more defensive position at grid foxtrot five.”

  “Box Grid, this is Undying, presently engaged over your position,” the reply was Eternity’s, so calm and confident you wouldn’t know he was in a corkscrew dive as he spoke. “We confirm your relocation and are proceeding to clear fighters and AA so we can safely extract your force.”

  “Copy all Undying, we’re just glad you’re here, but please don’t allow the house entertainment to distract you for too long. Our new position will still have only limited tenability.”

  Tarek directed his HUD magnifier to the ground and attempted to locate the people he was supposed to be picking up. He found them spread out between the city and a fairly flat-topped hill to the east. Some trucks, light armoured vehicles and a large number of infantry had already taken up position on top of the hill and were rapidly digging in. About sixteen arcoms were bounding up the slope to join their comrades, their position screened by only five platoons of tanks engaged in mobile warfare on the plains.

  He switched to the intercom channel and waited until he heard a break in Walters’ conversation before saying: “Sir, I have a concern.”

  “Yes,” Walters answered simply.

  “I see dozens of vehicles down there, and we seem to be the only ship up here. I don’t see how we’re going to get these people out.”

  “Fleet control is working on that now. We may have to evacuate the people and abandon the equipment.”

  “Copy,” Tarek answered with more confidence than he felt.

  By weight, the Warhorse could carry almost three thousand soldiers in full combat gear, but surface area was a limiting factor. People didn’t stack particularly well, and cramming everyone in shoulder to shoulder was a huge risk while in flight. The Arcadia had a contingent of small shuttles; surely they would send some of those in if it came to it.

  As he pondered the circumstance, he turned his attention back to the ground. The mobile forces were most of the way to the hill, and the plain behind them was littered with the corpses of those who hadn’t been quick enough. Shells of trucks and APCs, gutted tanks and even an arcom with its chest caved in lay abandoned in the field. Closer to the city, the Mauler dead were massive corpses, the huge wounds it took to bring them down were all too large on the magnifier, and Tarek was quick to sweep onward.

  The living force of Maulers was now lurking in the city limits, engaging the tanks from cover with their bulky rifles and crude mortars. It seemed they were quickly growing in number and doing a tally of the enemy he could see, both living and dead. Tarek was staggered.

  Where were they coming from? How could the ground force have ever considered this area secured with battalion or more of these monsters was waiting in ambush? How did you miss a force that large?

  Chapter II

  This moment

  Mortar Hill

  Planet Grimball, Bryson System

  19 April 2315

  As the Maulers once again withdrew to the city limits, Rease took a moment to assess their position. This was the second full-scale assault they’d endured atop Mortar Hill, and they were running out of ammunition fast. Too few supplies had been salvaged for the original strong point, and of that, too much had been destroyed before she’d convinced the Captain to relocate.

  Their one grace was that the few Mauler aircraft that hadn’t gone to engage the Undying had been brought down by the limited Constellation AA weaponry. With that threat gone, her defensive position was almost absolute, given more supplies, she figured they had a solid chance of eliminating the entire hostile force.

  But as always, the one thing you needed most was the thing that was running out, and amid the ruined edges of Box Grid the enemy was building up again.

  Rease switched back to the Undying’s channel. “Box Grid to Undying, how are you progressing up there? We are losing combat effectiveness and require extraction ASAP.”

  The answer came from the same cocky pilot as before.

  “Box Grid, the enemy air defence remains too thick at this time. First, we have to clear the fighters, then
the AA. We have a combat heavy lifter on standby to pick you up the moment that happens.”

  “I appreciate your situation, Undying, but I think we’re closer to being overrun then you are to defeating the enemy air cover. Are you able to provide an ammo drop or release two aircraft to provide close support?”

  “All my assets are committed, Box Grid. We are coming for you, just hold out.”

  “Yeah thanks,” Rease snapped as she cut the channel. She shook her head and then opened a private line to the command vehicle. “Captain Yelsin?”

  “Speaking,” the officer replied.

  “The Navy doesn’t seem like it’s going to be much help. They still haven’t made a dent in the enemy air cover, and it sounds like our ‘evac’ is just a single heavy lifter.”

  “You’re not telling me anything I’m not painfully aware of, Lieutenant.”

  “Well… I have a new plan, if you’ll hear it.”

  “Not like you to hold back, Lieutenant. Put it out there.”

  “Well it’s a kinda crap plan, sir, but it’s a kinda crap situation. I say you unload all spare supplies and use anything fast enough to outrun a Mauler as a transport for the wounded, the non-combatants, and then any foot troops. While they go further east, the arcoms and any infantry that don’t fit will stay and hold the line here.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing, but I’m not keen on running out on you, Lieutenant.”

  “Well you’re welcome to grab a rifle and take a knee if it’ll ease your conscience, but we don’t have much time to make this call. I think we can weather maybe one more attack, and then we’ve had it. If we split our force, we buy a second chance for some of it, and if the flyboys do come through, then they can evac the rear guard.”

  “Alright, I’ll get them organised, but I expect you to be on that heavy lifter if you have to go up there and land the damn thing yourself.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Rease answered and switched to the channel for the extended arcom company that had become her command. “Okay folks, we’ve just confirmed with the fleet that they have only enough space to evacuate the arcoms and some foot dismounts. That means our vehicles will be scampering away to the east very shortly. I want you to be on the watch for enemies trying to flank to the north or south. It’d be ballsy of them to try it, but you know how hopeless those tank boys are when we’re not around.”

  “Sir, we’re all pretty low on rounds,” Hollands, her acting sub-commander, called in. “Are we going to be able to hold with half our support pulling out?”

  It was moments like this that Rease was thankful there was no vid feed on their communication systems. She steeled herself and keyed the mic. “Extraction is imminent, Sergeant. That’s why we’re pulling the mobile assets now. Are you with me?”

  “We’re with you, Luperca,” Hollands answered, a call that was shortly taken up by the rest of the unit.

  And I’m sure you are, Rease thought using her magnifier to pick out the distantly orbiting heavy lifter. But who’s with you?

  ****

  “Okay boys and girls, it time to take this up a notch,” Eternity was saying. “We’ve been dancing with these guys too long, so it’s time to take a load off. Everyone except Fury and Edge, I want you to jettison your ground attack missiles immediately.”

  Kelly was tight on Eternity’s right when he spoke, and she saw the ground attack missiles detach from the aircraft’s wings, falling away to the ground like rain. Bereft of the weight, his fighter was visibly more nimble, cutting away to the left faster than she could follow and making a gun run on a surprised Scarab.

  With her own finger over the jettison button she paused, the reasoning sounded good, but something nagged at her about it, and she checked the chronometer. It was past midday, they’d been engaged for over an hour and that meant they were fast approaching the no-return point on fuel, to say nothing of the overdose point for the combat stims. Dumping the weight would buy some minutes, but they’d have to turn up some quick results or Fury and Edge would have to drop everything just to be able to return to the carrier.

  For all the work they’d put in here, Kelly wasn’t keen on the Undying failing their first mission. She punched the jettison button and swooped in on the Mauler that Eternity had damaged, a blaze from her guns shredding away its engines and sending it tumbling end over end to explode in the side of a concrete building below.

  ****

  He heard her voice over the comm.

  “Bagged that Scarab, coming around high and back to you, Eternity.”

  It was her first kill, but she didn’t sound elated, just pressed.

  Tarek shared her lack of enthusiasm. Since the arcom lieutenant’s first appeal for help, he’d been monitoring the ground engagement with a chill sense of certainty. While the Undying fenced with the Mauler aircraft, the people on the ground were moving minute by minute towards a total massacre.

  Despite it all, they were fighting with a passion he had never seen at the academy, making the Maulers pay heavily for every inch of ground, every life they took. When they sent most of their vehicles away, Tarek realised they’d lost all faith in their Navy colleagues to pull them out. He’d heard the lie their lieutenant had told them, and whether they believed it or not, they were fighting a heroic rear guard action that was going to end only one way. He wanted very much to make that lie true, they deserved for it to be true.

  Tarek keyed the internal comm on his headset. “Walters, I had a thought.”

  “Go ahead.” If the man was irritated by the second interruption he gave no sign.

  “Most of the Mauler AA weapons appear to be concentrated over the southwest corner of the city, more or less beneath the engagement. I think I could get us past the remaining guns and take a shot at picking up those survivors.”

  There was a pause, and it didn’t sound happy. When Walters came back the tone of his voice confirmed his disapproval. “This isn’t a Snowhawk, they don’t need a great volume of guns to shoot down something that can’t evade.”

  “I know it’s a risk, sir. But have you been listening to what’s going on down there?”

  “I’m trying not to.”

  “Well they’re dying,” Tarek stated firmly. He was pushing his luck and he knew it. “Every minute we wait, lives are being lost.”

  Walter’s sigh came through the headset. “Do yourself a favour and turn it off. You’re going to give yourself a complex about something you can’t change.”

  Tarek knew he should leave it there, but he saw an opportunity – this was something he could change, a chance to use wasted talent to do something that mattered. Not caring was easy, he’d done a lot of that, but that was a life he was trying hard to leave behind, and if he didn’t make a stand now, he never would.

  So he tried again. “But what if we could?” he insisted.

  “That’s my assessment to make, Flight Sergeant, not yours,” Walters said. “Now turn the damn radio off, and focus on what you’re supposed to be doing.”

  “Sir, your assessment is wrong.”

  Silence in his headset told him he’d gone too far.

  But when Walter’s voice came back he wasn’t shouting. Maybe that was worse. “Trust me, kid, I’ve captained lifters since you were in school, and I’ve seen plenty of pilots; pilots who were even better than you think you are. So we’ll both take my word on this. Now sit down, shut up, and if you’re really lucky, I won’t mention this to the CAG at your first review.”

  “Sir.”

  It was the short ‘Sir’ that meant ‘yes’ when you didn’t want to give your CO the pleasure of hearing you agree with him, and right now Tarek didn’t agree with him at all.

  Jackson was saying something that sounded almost brotherly, but he wasn’t listening, his attention was back on the engagement below. The Maulers were charging again, and the arcoms no longer had the firepower to stop them from crossing the plain. Tarek had long ago identified the wolf-styled machine that belonged to th
eir leader, and it had discarded its rifle, perhaps empty, perhaps jammed, and was now using a sidearm. She was uncannily accurate with it, but the weapon didn’t have the range, and the Maulers were already scrambling up the hill before she could start picking them off.

  “Fleet Artillery, this is Box Grid,” the Wolf-Lieutenant – as Tarek had come to think of her – was speaking on a new channel, not the local airspace channel but that of the warships in orbit.

  “I need a land-smack package at grid Echo 5, request immediate delivery, how copy?”

  The pause was only momentary before a young sounding officer answered. “Box Grid, this is Arcadia missile control, you are inside the error margin of that strike.”

  “Fleet, I’m against the wall here. At this point some friendly fire means we might die. If you do nothing we definitely die.”

  “I’ll have to clear it with the Captain.”

  The Wolf-Lieutenant didn’t have time to answer. The first wave of Maulers had reached the top of the hill and were forcing the arcoms into a point-blank engagement. Infantry positions and abandoned vehicles were trampled underfoot as the Maulers emptied their rifles and then resorted to using them as clubs.

  One of the arcoms closest to the Lieutenant was swarmed, gunning down two before the third reached it. The lupine arcom spun its pistol to intervene, but the shot was a rare miss, grazing the meaty back of the monster at it smashed into its prey and carried to the ground.

  “Connor!” The Wolf-Lieutenant’s voice exploded over the comm.

  Her arcom bounded across the battle field, emptying out the last rounds of its pistol to rip great gouges of flesh from the creature’s flank. The injuries were fatal but not before the beast was able to hammer its trench mace down again and again on the pinned machine.

  “Connor! Connor sound off!” the Wolf-Lieutenant’s machine skidded down on its knees, discarding the pistol to shove the dying Mauler aside.