by Aidan Colyer
“Sarge a question.”
Murden turned to him and he beckoned her away from the rest of the squad. She came up to him realising that it was something to keep quiet. He pressed the stim into her hand.
“Take it but there is something else.” She eyed the squad and put the tablet in her mouth.
“I can see their front line. Their minimum is tier seven. They are set like a full command too. There is no way we can hit them to take someone. Is there any way we can pretend to defect and then corner one?”
Murden’s eyes opened wide as the tab kicked in.
“No. if we take one in the camp we can’t get them out. We get shot we are done. However, there is another idea. They go out to hit the local units here. We set up a fight and they will appear same as last time. If we can start that and the rest of us sneak in behind we should be able to capture one.”
Roland looked at the rest of the squad. They mopped their brows and squeezed their eyes shut while drinking water.
“We can only do that if we give the whole squad the stim tabs.”
“I don’t like it but I don’t like any of this. We do it and let Bywaters know she can’t take any. We need her as fresh as can be.”
“I’ll sort that.” Roland replied as they returned to the squad.
He walked up to Bywaters and checked others weren’t listening.
“Can you access your menus?”
Bywaters eyes unfocused and she wobbled.
“Yes, but I can’t do anything with them.”
“Crap” Roland said.
“What’s wrong?”
“We have a plan but you need to not have the stims. If you do, we can’t rely on you to be awake for us to get back.” Roland whispered leaning in to her.
“Oh, don’t you worry you guys don’t have medic stims, we get certain benefits on our profiles. I can take them and last longer.”
Roland heaved a sigh of relief. This might actually work. Then again, he hadn’t asked Murden how they would set the ambush. He stood giving Bywaters a wink. She slapped his leg as he moved off.
“Sarge a question?” Roland said as he walked up to Murden. She looked up from where she was crouched next to Lawry. Roland fished out his stims and dropped them in his lap.
“Share them around one each.” he grabbed Murden by the arm and pulled her away.
“Mellors I could take your stripe for that,” she hissed.
“I could have all of yours for the whole situation. Now what exactly is the plan?”
Murden looked down and then back into his face her lips straight as a die.
“You couldn’t get my stripes for this. This is orders. You bait them. We go in after and clean up. Same as every time before. Webb has their positions now so we can do it. I understand your anger Mellors but don’t try that again if you want a promotion.”
Roland let go of Murden’s arm a cold rolling down his spine with the sweat from the heat.
“Sorry sarge.”
“As I said. This time only.”
Roland nodded. He sat and checked his rifle. It was as clean as it could be. He checked the rest of the squad and found his pouch of stims. He stood and walked over to Bywaters. Murden was standing next to her. Bywaters looked at Murden and she nodded. She held out the bag and Roland took it.
“Three clicks.” Roland said setting his mask back in place as he walked away.
He began jogging and watched his stamina bar. It stayed at the level he was at. He carried on making sure his hood was up as he worked his way towards the enemy. When he reached the pile of boulders, he was heading for he stopped. Without the boulders this would be impossible he made a note to thank the programmers for them. He knelt and sighted along the enemy line finding his target. Another single APC and squad. He worked his way to the top of the rocks and curled himself into the worn channel on its side. He lined up on the squad. Once he was done, he pressed his comms.
“CM in position ochre to advance. Over.”
Roland waited for the reply tracking the enemy squad as they switched watches.
“Ochre to CM start firing. Over and out.”
Roland tapped his comm to send a click and then made sure his rifle was secure. He fired and took the first member of the squad through the head. He lined up a second enemy soldier and fired. They went down too. He waited before his third shot watching the squad scramble to fill their positions. He then picked out those with scoped rifles and those set up in defensible positions before picking them off. It was not long before the rebels arrived. As soon as they fired, Roland stopped and aimed at them. He hit his comm twice to signal the rest of the squad and then opened fire. His first shot at them hit one of the rebels in the back of the head sending them flat on their face. Aiming at another rebel he fired again sending them pitching forward too.
That is when they noticed they were bracketed. They started to retreat and Roland kept firing to take them down. His shots were hitting chest armour now, and he needed three to take them down with that kind of hit. He concentrated and kept firing. He finished his first magazine and switched them out. As he lined up again he saw the shots come in from the rest of the squad. It was a torrent of fire. The rebels stopped retreating and stayed put. Half were firing at the enemy and the other half were firing at his squad. One of them worked out his position and fired on him too. He found them by their muzzle flash and ended that line of attack. They were getting low on members so he switched out to a tier one magazine and focused on the enemy squad. He picked them off one by one as they put their heads above the sandbags. His accuracy had improved, and he hit all but two again as they had moved to cover themselves with the APC. Switching his aim to the rebels he saw only two left standing. None of them had faded out because of the devices. He hit his comm.
“Ochre; be advised there are only two targets left. Assault and stun. The enemy have been neutralised. Over.”
“Message received CM cover fire on their retreat is appreciated. Aim for wounding shots. Over.”
“Message received ochre CM covering. Over and out.”
Roland lined up on the knees of the rebels and fired a few short bursts. He had the tier one ammo in so knew he could fire and not kill if his shots went astray on the rebels. It took the whole magazine to keep them in place and take their knees out. He stopped firing as the squad moved over them using the stun weapons to hit them when close. The green light they gave off overloaded the screen on his infrared for some reason so he switched it off and carried on aiming with his basic setup. The squad took the two left prisoner and pulled them towards the APC. His comm buzzed.
“CM this is ochre go to APC. Over and out.”
Roland packed up his kit and left the position. He crawled down the edge and jogged to the APC. He reached the squad as they hit the sandbags and jumped into the defences slinging his rifle. Roland pulled his pistol flipping the enemy bodies with his foot. He had done his job and found them all dead. By the time he had confirmed the kills the whole squad was in the foxhole next to the APC. They stood around the two rebels with weapons aimed.
Roland moved first and tore the helmets off. They were out for the count.
“Guess we are here for the night” he said looking up at Murden.
“Mellors is right. Shifts for the watch. Lawry and Clark take the first one.” She slung her gun and grabbed the first of the rebels. She threw them inside the APC. Roland followed her lead with the second one. The rebels weighed more than he thought they should considering how thin the amour seemed to be. The density had to be high, or they had manipulated yet another line of code. Roland crawled in after them scanning the inside of the vehicle. It was cramped yet the back compartment was sparse with foam seats and little else. Roland flipped the rebels over and tied their hands. He left them and went to the foam seats lying down on them. Not wanting to get caught out, he set his alarm for an hour before dawn and then lay down. The hard base of the seats poked through the foam but Roland didn’t care anymore an
d fell asleep quickly.
A loud shout woke him. He checked his menu alarm, and it showed an hour before his alarm was set to wake him. Worried something had happened he grabbed his pistol from its holster and rolled from the seats to the floor. He raised himself into a crouch and looked forward. The rebels weren’t where he left them. He slammed through the vehicle almost braining himself on the scope and emerged into the night. The rebels were outside standing in the foxhole with all of the guns pointed at them. Roland lowered his pistol and walked up to the first one.
“We have limits. We also have questions. You will answer them.”
She spat in Roland’s face. He wiped it off and flicked it to the floor. Gripping his pistol, he rammed it into her stomach felling her.
“As I said. We have limits.”
Chapter 14
The rebel stood up slowly. Their armour taking a lot of the strain if the whirring of the joints meant anything.
“What are your questions, killer?” she spat through clenched teeth.
“You tried to kill my friend while we covered your squad why?” Roland lied.
The rebel laughed at him.
“Cover that wipes out a squad isn’t cover at all.”
“Snipers who wipe squads aren’t to be toyed with either.” Roland was up in her face now. They stared eye to eye. He expected Murden to pull him away any moment now, but he felt no hands. They were leaving this to him.
They stared at each other neither moving.
“We have questions and you are going to answer them. So sit down.”
The rebel stared at Roland for a second longer and then sneered before sitting down on a sandbag.
Roland unslung his rifle and held it behind him. He didn’t see who took it but it left his hand. Reaching up he undid his cloak and let it fall. He pulled his mask free and dropped it to the floor.
“Why are you shooting at us?”
“You shot first.”
Roland couldn’t argue there they had.
“Why are you attacking the enemy?”
“They need to be stopped.”
Roland turned and cracked his knuckles. Bywaters grabbed his arm.
“Don’t do it.” She whispered in his ear before squeezing his arm and then letting go.
He turned back to the rebels.
“You almost killed my friend. You have to answer for that...”
The rebel cut him off with a laugh.
“Almost killed a friend,” they scoffed. “Think of all of my friends that have actually been killed by your enemy and by your unit. Not to mention your nation. They starve us and tell us there is no work when we don’t meet those standards. Our almost kill is nothing compared to the thousands your army has killed.”
She glared at him. Roland’s anger rose. He grabbed the collar of her suit and lifted her. Surprise swept across her face.
“You aren’t the only person the governments destroyed, they have killed my friends the same as yours. Those friends don’t turn up here and kill innocents by removing their respawn. Get some perspective.”
He let go dropping them into the sand and turned grabbing his rifle. He walked to the other side of the APC and sat where he had left Watts. Roland leant back and closed his eyes. He hoped Watts was okay. There had to be a way for him to contact her. It took a few seconds before he realised what he needed to try. He hit his comm.
“CM one to CM 2. Over.”
He waited and then repeated the message. There was no reply. Roland worried even more than he had been. He got up and paced around the foxhole he was in. He could hear the rest of the squad on the other side of the APC asking the rebels questions. They weren’t getting any replies though. Eventually, Murden walked around the APC to find him.
“We need to move out soon. The night should cover us. Do you think you can track us back to the command post?”
Roland nodded.
“Yeah. We must have left a trail on the way here so I can follow that. Ask Webb to pick up the directions from the map and we can set out as soon as we are ready.”
Murden returned to the other side of the vehicle. Roland took deep breaths to calm himself and then followed her around to the other side of the APC. The squad was all set to move already. Lawry and Clark had a rebel each. They had tied their hands behind their backs and gagged them. That was a good idea Roland thought. Webb walked up to him when he returned.
“We can head out to the east which is that way.” He pointed off behind the vehicle they had taken. “It should lead us far enough out so we can head north and pick up the trail from there.”
Roland slapped him on the arm and then turned to go. He reset his sand mask and pulled his hood up. He kept a look out as they moved forward. There hadn’t been any enemy behind the line as far as he knew. The rebels were another matter though. After an hour of walking, Roland put his infrared goggles on and stopped to check the surrounding area. They were still alone thankfully. He carried on but didn’t remove the goggles. The chance they could be jumped by the rebels was too high now. Not being able to respawn was also something they needed to factor in to their plans. Despite the desert being littered with enemy and rebels the night passed without event as they trekked quietly out to the east of the enemy lines. As the sun started to rise, Webb came up to the front.
“We should head north soon but the sergeant wants to call for a rest first. We need our stamina set to the maximum for the day ahead.”
Roland picked out a rock formation that had a decent overhang and headed towards it. They reached the formation as the sun peaked above the horizon. He removed his goggles and sat down against the still cool sandstone. The others joined him and they shared water without speaking. Bywaters checked the rebels and gave them some water. They needed them alive so letting them die of thirst wasn’t an option. After a short time, Murden called for them to move out again. This time Roland took them north. As they went, he raised his rifle and scanned the horizon. It wasn’t long before he spotted the APC that they had left Watts at. He moved to the closest pile of rocks and climbed to the top to get a better view. He could see the APC and next to it another APC. There were troops in Ochre uniforms milling around and their equipment had gone. Roland swore and clambered down from his perch. He stopped the rest of the squad.
“The enemy has taken the APC position we left Watts at.”
There were a few looks and Bywaters put her hand on his shoulder.
“I say we hit them hard. If we can take them out along the edge of their force and then move out towards our base, we should deal enough damage.”
“That’s all well and good Mellors but that isn’t what our orders are. We need to leave them to the rebels. If both groups hit each other than we can get the benefit without the damage.” Murden replied.
“I know sarge but we need to see if they captured Watts. They might have her and be doing who knows what to extract information.”
“He is right,” Webb replied. “We need to make sure they don’t have her or rescue her if they do. It is only one unit, so it isn’t going to majorly impact our plans. Plus, I could do with getting my armour back.”
Lawry and Clark agreed with him.
“Practicalities then. What do we do with the prisoners?”
“I can take most of the enemy squad myself. It’d only take a couple of you to finish them off. Plus, if we can get that APC we can make it back to our lines quicker.”
“Fine. You have convinced me. Set yourself up and then call us in when needed,” Murden said checking her gun.
Roland ran back to the rock formation he had used as a lookout. From there he looked for the other rock formation that this whole debacle started with. It wasn’t too far off. He pulled his cloak around and ran towards the rocks keeping as low as possible. It didn’t take him long to make it to the formation and creep around the back. He climbed up carefully and tucked himself in against the boulders. Flipping down his bipod, he took aim at the enemy squad. He couldn’t find W
atts anywhere. If they had her, she would be in the APC then. He picked his targets carefully and set the rifle‘s range before he fired. He worked his way out from the difficult targets firing continuously until he could no longer find anything worthwhile to shoot at. The bodies that lay strewn across the position weren’t fading out. That meant that Murden had moved in close ready to assault the position. He waited before calling them in. His hunch was right as another APC came driving up and disgorged its troops. They didn’t fire at him straight away, which was good. His position was secure at least. He waited until the APC emptied and started to fire again. After the third shot, the enemy returned fire with their long range weapons. The rock chips stung as they hit his exposed flesh making Roland flinch. He carried on shooting managing to take down half of the new squad until the return fire got too much. The squad from the APC advanced towards his position keeping low and covering themselves with their APC which was firing at him too. The larger calibre rounds tore larger chunks from the rock as he slithered backwards. After a moment’s thought, he realised that he still had his anti-tank weapon. He unslung it and set it up. He crawled forwards again and received a hail of stone chips to his facemask as he lined up the shot on the APC. The squad advancing was close to the vehicle. He hoped that this worked. He lined up on the base of the small turret and fired. The rocket flew out leaving a contrail showing his exact position. He didn’t wait to see the hit so grabbed his rifle and jumped down from the ledge onto the soft sand below. He heard the explosion and the large calibre gun stopped firing. That was something at least even if he hadn’t destroyed the vehicle. He set up his comm and called in.
