by J E Loddon
“It should at least take them a few minutes to realise you’re not covering them any more,” Liberty said, trying to reassure Antonia. Antonia just shook her head in frustration.
“We’re trapped,” she said. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
“We can try to move further around the ridge?” Casper suggested.
“We wouldn’t get more than a few meters before they cut us down,” Liberty replied sadly. “There’s no cover over there. Just get ready. Our only chance is to shoot our way out of this. As soon as they get close enough, open fire.” We all tensed, keeping our eyes peeled, mostly on the soldiers to the South. They were within range now, but were holding behind a particularly big mound of rock.
“Milo,” Liberty whispered. “Get ready to throw a grenade as soon as they appear from behind that mound.”
“Someone else would probably have a better chance of getting the throw on target,” I reminded her.
“You’re as capable as anyone else,” she insisted. “And you’re the only one with any grenades left.”
“What?!” I replied. “What happened to all your grenades?”
“We had to use them to destroy the enemy transmitter,” she replied.
“What enemy transmitter?!” I asked her.
“The one we were sent here to check out,” she replied. “It was some kind of giant antennae. We strapped all the grenades together, then set them off at the base of it.”
“You destroyed the target?!” I asked incredulously. “We were just sent here to observe it!”
“Now isn’t the time Milo. Get ready with that grenade.”
“I really think we should consider moving before we get completely trapped,” Casper insisted, sounding panicky.
“We’re already trapped,” Liberty pointed out. “Our best hope is to delay this for as long as possible, and hope the transport gets here soon.”
Reluctantly, I pulled a grenade from my belt, and got into the best position I could to toss it towards the rock to the South. I glued my eyes to the spot that I was to throw it at, waiting for a sign that the enemy was ready to move. There was a sudden flurry of gun fire from above. I was so startled. I almost dropped the grenade. I looked up, and Antonia had climbed up the ridge again.
“Toni! I said get down!” Liberty yelled up at her.
“They’re trying to cross the swamp,” Antonia said through gritted teeth, as she slid back down. “If I don’t discourage them, they’re gonna get on top of us, and then we’re dead.”
“Toni’s right,” Tasia agreed. “She and Casper need to keep going up to provide suppression fire. We’ll have to cover them from down here, make sure the other two groups don’t shoot them down.”
“We don’t have enough ammunition to keep doing that,” Liberty pointed out.
“Yeah, and I’m not sure the group to the South is still behind that rock. I haven’t seen any movement, and every time I watch a fixed position, it bites me in the ass. They could be anywhere.”
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Tasia replied. “Toni’s right, if they get across that swamp to the top of the ridge above us, we’re just sitting in a bowl. We’ll be dead within seconds.” Liberty sighed, and paused for a moment.
“OK, OK,” she said finally. “How long will it take them to cross that swamp?”
“Under normal circumstances, probably no more than a minute at full speed,” Antonia replied. “With equipment and caution slowing them down, we can’t afford to wait more two minutes between barrages.”
So. That’s what we did. Roughly every two minutes, Antonia and Casper climbed the ridge to unleash a volley at the enemy soldiers, to push them back to the edge of the swamp. At the bottom, the rest of us laid suppression fire down on what we still believed to be the position of the other two groups, one to the South, the other West around the ridge. I wasn’t convinced they were still there, knowing that if you stared at one spot too long, you were going to get surprised from another direction at some point.
After about a half hour of that, we were down to single numbers as far as ammunition went. The hostiles hadn’t rushed on our position, which I was relieved, but very surprised, about. They had to know we would run out of ammo at some point, of course. They also must realise, though, that we were awaiting pick-up. This being the case. I’d have thought they’d want to take us out before that happened. With not enough ammo left to keep up our current system, and with no sign of extraction, we were facing the possibility that we’d have to relent to Casper’s urge to move away from such a confined position. We hadn’t seen either the Southern or Western groups since we’d started the two-minute system, and if the enemy were moving to get into better positions, that might be our only opportunity to also switch ours. We debated it for a minute, but then we were out of time. The group across the swamp could be only moments away from reaching the ridge above us. We got ready to move. Tasia had decided that our best course of action would be to head to the rock to the South that the hostiles had been using as cover. If the enemy was still there, our movement straight towards them might at least take them by surprise. If they weren’t, then it was a good point from which to fire our last remaining bullets at the group approaching us from above when they reached the ridge.
As we were about to move, though, a miracle happened. At first, I thought the sound was some sort of vehicle that the hostiles had gone to get in order to blast us out of our hole. As I saw the look of elation on Liberty’s face, gazing up at the sky, though, I realised. The low rumbling sound was the transport coming to extract us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
We watched as the transport appeared above us, then started to lower down to the base of the dry swamp. We heard fire coming from that direction, and had to hope that the group of hostiles above us hadn’t gotten all the way across the swamp, or they’d be between us and the transport. As the ship descended out of our sight, our immediate instinct was to run up to it.
“Wait a second,” Liberty ordered. “We need to give it time to get low enough, so we can minimise the amount of time that we’re a target.”
“If they blow up the ship, though, we’re not going anywhere,” I pointed out.
“It’s armoured,” Liberty reminded me. “This is what it’s designed for. It should hold up for a while.”
“If it doesn’t leave first,” Casper muttered.
We waited a few more seconds, as long as we dared, then set off to scurry up the ridge. Gunfire rang out, though, and dust and stone kicked off of the slope above us. I turned, to see that one of the group of hostiles was firing at us, having moved around further to our East. Casper shot off a few rounds at them, but we didn’t have nearly enough ammo to hold them off long enough to get up to the top of the ridge. Not if we wanted to be able to shoot our way past any enemy soldiers that were up there waiting for us. I remembered the grenades. The hostiles were no further away than they had been when they were to our South. Without over-thinking it, I pulled a grenade from my belt, and armed it. I cooked it for a few seconds, so that the enemy wouldn’t get too much warning before it went off, then lobbed it in a high arc at their position.
The grenade blew before it hit the ground. I cursed myself for having cooked it too long, but then realised that with the blast at face height, it would serve to better mask our ascent up to the ridge. Liberty looked at me in surprise when she saw the grenade going off, but I was already scrabbling up the ridge.
“Go. Go. Go.” I shouted. Despite my head start, Antonia and Casper soon passed me on the way up. I saw them reach the top, then heard Casper curse. He started firing his last rounds, and Antonia turned towards the hostiles I’d temporarily blasted, and aimed her rifle at them. I began struggling towards the top, but a strong shoulder pushed me up, as Liberty used her momentum to give me a boost. We straddled the top of the ridge, and I could see why Casper had been dismayed. The enemy weren’t quite between us and the ship. There was, though, two groups firing on our position. The
original group at the West of the swamp, at the nose end of the transport, and another at the East of the swamp, at the tail end. The run from our position to the ship was like a shooting gallery. The crossfire would tear us apart. Casper was doing his best to try to keep the enemy soldiers away, but he was having to shoot one bullet at a time. I got another grenade from my belt, but both groups were to far away from me for it to be particularly useful.
“How many grenades do you have?” Liberty asked me, grabbing my arm.
“Two,” I replied, “but they’re too far away, it’s pointless.”
“We don’t have to hit anything,” Liberty told me. “We just need to kick dust up in the air. It’ll affect visibility for a few seconds. We just have to make those seconds count.” I looked at her doubtfully. The swamp wasn’t really dusty, the surface was hard and cracked. I opened my mouth to protest, but the sounds of gunfire suddenly intensified. I look towards the sound, convinced the end had come, then stared in momentary shock. A group of Galactic Division soldiers were coming out of the transport, shooting at the enemy. They must have been one of the other cadet troops, having already been extracted from their own mission.
“Now! Now!” Liberty ordered. We all dropped over the lip of the ridge, and started to run for the transport. Bullets shot across our route from all directions. I pulled a grenade, and sent it skittering along the ground towards the group at the nose of the transport, hoping Liberty was right, and that it would kick up some dust. I didn’t look to see though, and just continued across. My legs ached with the effort. Antonia and Casper reached the transport first, and with no ammo left, could only cower behind the hatch at the ramp. Tasia reached the other group of Division recruits next. As I arrived at their position, I turned to look to see where Liberty was. As I did, I saw a metal cylinder flying through the air, arching towards the ground a few meters away from us.
Realising what it was, I grabbed the cadet next to me, and pulled him to the floor with me. As I fell to the ground, I caught sight of a flash, and a thunderous boom echoed around the swamp. My impact with the floor, and the sheer volume of the explosion, stunned me. It took me a second to gather my wits, then I joined the cadet in getting back up again. Suddenly, I felt something wet splash across the left side of my face and eye. I wiped at it, then went to help up the cadet, who had stumbled back down again. As I reached for him, though, I saw what had made my face wet. My glove was covered in crimson fluid.
For an idiotic split-second, I thought it was some sort of soup, and I stared at it, bemused. Then the realisation kicked in. I suddenly went cold. Blood. I was bleeding. I’d been shot! I froze, then tried to work out whereabouts I’d been hit. I couldn’t feel anything, but I knew from stories that was what sometimes happened. But no, I wasn’t numb. My legs still ached, my shoulders still hurt, my lungs still burnt. I looked down at the cadet next to me. That’s when I saw it. Blood running from his shoulder. It hadn’t been me. A bullet had found its way through a join in his composite armour. I crouched down, put an arm around his waist, my head under his arm, and pulled him up to his feet. I was lifting him at the shoulder that had been hit, which I knew must be agony for him, but I had to just get him back to the transport.
I dragged him a few yards, every step knowing that my sluggish pace would probably mean I would be the one shot down next. As we neared the ship’s ramp, with everyone shooting away at the hostiles around me, the cadet took some of his own weight, moving towards the transport under his own power. With my arm still around his waist, I looked around to see if there was anyone left behind us. One of the other cadets was still further out, shooting away frantically at a group of hostiles. The ones who’d pinned us down before we climbed the ridge had now reached the top themselves.
I was about to yell to the cadet to fall back to the ship when her throat exploded. Blood and flesh shot out of the front of her neck, and her knees buckled as she began to fall to the floor. I let go of the cadet I was carrying, and took a step towards the newest casualty. She was laying in a crumpled heap, blood running from her throat. I turned towards the transport to ask someone to help, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry her very quickly on my own. I saw Liberty looking directly at me, screaming something.
“…lo, leave her. Get into the ship!” she shouted. I looked at her in bewilderment. Couldn’t she see the girl bleeding out all over the dirt? I started beckoning for her to come over, for anyone to come over. But no-one moved.
“I need help!”, I shouted. “Someone help me with her!” Liberty was still screaming at me to leave her. I locked eyes with Antonia, who started moving towards me. I felt a momentary twinge of relief that I wouldn’t have to brave the hail of gunfire on my own, but then Liberty grabbed Antonia’s arm, holding her back. Antonia struggled to try to extract herself from Liberty’s grip, but she wasn’t nearly strong enough.
“Get on the ship!” Liberty screamed again. I glanced back across at the body. Bullets were still flying from everywhere, kicking dust off the ground, pinging off of the hull of the transport. With no way to get across to the cadet and drag her back without getting torn apart myself, I had no choice. I reluctantly turned away from my dying comrade and sprinted towards the transport, then up the ramp. The sounds of gunfire faded as the rest of the Division soldiers fell back up the ramp, and it started to lift. I looked back out towards where the body was, but I could no longer see it.
The hatch began closing, and the floor shifted beneath my feet, as the transport began it’s rapid climb up towards the upper atmosphere. I dropped to the ground into a combat take-off position, switching my rifle into safety mode. As I lay on the cold hard floor of the shuttle, I looked across at Liberty laying nearby. She was grim-faced and thin-lipped. Antonia was next to hear, a furious look on her face. I wanted to scream at Liberty, to ask her what the Hell she was doing, but the sounds of the ship’s rapid climb would have just drowned that out.
The ship started to shake as it reached the upper atmosphere. I realised I could hear shouting, and looked around. The rest of the cadets were lifting the other injured soldier over to the treatment table, blood dripping from his shoulder onto the floor of the transport. I started towards to help, but with five people holding him, there was nothing for me to do anyway. I felt light-headed. Black spots began to appear before my eyes. I looked over at the seating area, then staggered towards it, desperate to sit down and strap in before I passed out. I reached the nearest chair, and fell into it, hooking myself in. The ship’s medical officer ran into the room, and towards the treatment table to take over. Once she’d strapped the injured soldier down, and tethered herself to the treatment bed, the rest of the cadets grabbed seats, just as the gravity began to disappear.
With a start, I looked across to the ramp area. Luckily, Liberty and Antonia had anchored the rifles that had been left there, and were struggling to get to the seats. I slumped down into my chair, the ship rattling around me as it began its acceleration.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“What the Hell were you thinking?!” I screamed across at Liberty. Having left the pull of the planet, the ship had stopped its violent shaking, and I could finally hear myself think. “We just left her there!”
“What was I thinking?!” Liberty shouted back. “You moron. You put us all in danger.”
“I put us in danger?” I yelled incredulously. “We just left a girl back there to die!” I couldn’t believe she was angry at me! What was going on?
“She was already dead, Milo,” she replied. “There was nothing we could do for her.”
“You don’t know that,” I retorted. “You can’t possibly know whether she would have lived or died. And now we’ll never know.”
“She couldn’t possibly have survived an injury like that,” Liberty said. “No-one could have saved her, not under those conditions.”
“We have medical officers on board,” I shouted back. “That’s what they’re here for, to save wounded soldiers.”
“
And that’s what she’s trying to do,” Liberty said, motioning to the medic working on the shoulder injury. “She’s trying to save that boy’s life. He has a chance. The other soldier would have died regardless, if you and Toni had even managed to survive getting him on board,” she finished. I thought about this. I had no idea if she was right or not, but I couldn’t believe it wasn’t worth a try. I looked across at the injured cadet, and realised the other members of his team were staring at the argument between myself and Liberty. We were arguing the toss over the lives of their teammates. Liberty followed my gaze, then reddened when she saw that they were listening to us. She released herself from her harness, and pulled her way over to sit next to me.
“Look. I know how you feel,” she said. “Do you think I’m happy about leaving a teammate behind?” she asked. “I’d hope you’d know me well enough by now,” she said. “We are fighting a war. People are going to die, there’s no way to escape that.” She sighed. “She gave up her life to save ours. She’s a hero. It’s tragic, and those who know her will be devastated. But one woman died so the five of us can live.”
