by Aidan Colyer
Their own line advanced firing on the retreating troops cutting them down as they fled. The infantry had lost most of their transports and were desperately fighting a withdrawal. Roland switched out to tier one ammo again and fired at them taking those with rockets and grenades first. Their squad was moving across the line and joining up with the advance. The amount of firepower that was being levelled at the infantry wiped them out in short order. The armoured column stopped advancing with only a couple of tanks still firing shots into the dark. They stopped firing too after only a few shots. Roland surveyed the burning wrecks of the battlefield and then noticed the enemy weren’t fading out.
Chapter 18.
“Oh shit,” Roland exclaimed flicking the switch on his scope to infrared.
“What is it?” Watts asked.
Roland played his scope across the battlefield and baulked as the rebels emerged from the sand. None of the infantry were aware, and the rebels hadn’t fired yet.
“Turn on infrared.”
“Oh, shit indeed,” Watts replied.
Roland keyed his comm and called the commander.
“Commander, the rebels are about to attack. Over.”
“I can’t see them here, over,” the commander replied.
“Trust me, they are there. Over.”
An explosion burst through the middle of their lines. Roland heard feedback through his comm and almost ripped it away from his ear.
He changed channels.
“Ochre rebels attacking switch to infrared. Over and out.”
Roland checked he had tier four ammo in and lined up on one of the emerging rebel squads. He fired hitting one in the chest and making them stagger. He fired again hitting them in the same place and finally felling them. The others started to fire into their lines. The return fire was sporadic with only their squad able to see the enemy. Another one of their tanks exploded. Its turret flew into the air and came down on the gravtrack next to it tearing the side of its armour and destroying its tracks. Roland found his own squad and was about to tell Lawry to abandon their APC when it exploded flipping into the air and landing on its side. Roland found the source of the rocket and started to fire in earnest. He managed to fell three members of that squad with Watts taking another four. The rest of their squad was advancing and firing on them and managed to wipe them out. He watched as the other rebel squads started to reach their lines. They didn’t have a chance. Without a commander, there was no-one to order a general retreat either. Roland commed Webb.
“Webb, put a general retreat order out on the wideband.”
“Under whose authority?” Webb replied panic tinging his tone.
“I don’t care, use the sarge’s for all the good it will do just get them out of there.”
“I’ll do it.”
Roland went back to firing at the rebels as they hit the dismounted infantry. All the tanks had been destroyed now. Those that avoided being blown up by rockets were destroyed close up with grenades. The explosions were less impressive but just as deadly. Roland aimed at one of the rebel’s grenade belt. He fired missing it and hitting them in the chest. He swore and fired again this time scoring the hit he was after. They exploded taking out three other rebels and two of their own infantry. It couldn’t be helped. They needed to take out enough of the rebels to force them away and force the end of the battle no matter the cost. Roland noticed that he wasn’t racking up points for hitting the rebels as he searched for another target. He hoped it was just the rebel inhibitors as this was tearing through his best ammunition at a staggering rate.
Webb called the general retreat multiple times. He used the sergeant’s authority for the call and it was having the desired effect. The still working gravtracks were reversing hard. Their infantry running to jump on their sides as they moved out. Their top guns were firing wildly in the general direction of the rebels. They took out some of them but more by luck than by design. Roland reloaded again noticing how low his tier four ammunition had become. As he slammed the magazine home a burst of fire tore into the rock above his head. He squashed himself down and tried to find the source. Another burst came in across the boulder in front of him. He found the rebels that had targeted him. They were moving forwards laying down covering fire. Roland squeezed off a couple of shots taking one down before being forced to slide back. Watts had to do the same.
“What now,” she said sweeping her magazines into her pack. Roland did the same while he tried to think.
We go down and run left. Hopefully, they will expect us to run towards our lines. Watts nodded and jumped down from the boulders. The rebels were still firing at the position they had been in. Perhaps their cloaks were good enough to hide them if the rebels couldn’t tell they had moved on. They burst from cover running as fast as their legs would carry them. Shots bedded themselves in the sand near them while they ran. Perhaps he was wrong about the cloaks Roland thought as a shot hit his leg and pitched him sideways. Watts spun around and a shot slammed into her chest. She fell down next to him.
“That hurt,” she said tearing at the buckles on the side of her armour. It had only been a glancing shot thankfully. Roland’s hadn’t though. He could feel the blood soaking into his trousers as he dug down into the sand. More shots hit around them as he threw sand to the side. He gave up digging and swung his rifle around. Hitting the full auto switch he aimed in the vague direction of the squad. Watts joined him as they unloaded their entire magazines at them. The incoming fire faltered for a moment and then a few choice shots slapped into the sand around them. Roland looked down his scope and saw one of the rebels arch over backwards as they hit him with multiple shots. A grenade burst in their midst and they turned to face their new attackers. Roland tracked the rest of the squad running up towards them shooting indiscriminately and throwing grenades. They made short work of the squad before heading towards Watts and Roland.
“Are you guys hurt?” Bywaters said as she slid in on her knees.
“My leg is hit,” Roland replied rolling over and moving his cloak out of the way. The others formed up around them taking pot shots out into the dark. Lawry wasn’t with them. Watts scrambled up and reloaded her rifle. Her armour hung loose from her shoulders as she aimed out into the darkness with the rest of the squad. She fired rapidly as Bywaters bandaged Roland’s leg.
As soon as Bywaters was done, Roland pulled himself into a crouch and reloaded his rifle. He followed the other's shots and found a target. He started to pick off any of the rebels that were heading anywhere near them.
“We can’t take them all on,” he said as he slammed in his final magazine of tier four ammo.
“We need to move then. Let’s go,” Murden said standing and heading off into the desert. They all followed her firing as they went at first. Slowly they gave up firing and just ran. Roland was falling behind his leg becoming too painful to put weight on. Bywaters slowed and threw his arm over her shoulder.
“We need to get far enough away so I can heal you up properly.”
“Yes, we do,” Roland replied through gritted teeth. He could see his stamina bar running dangerously low as the sun rose over the horizon. Watts ran to one of the stacks of boulders nearby and scoped the rear of their line. She turned to them a few seconds later.
“I think we are clear. We need to rest.” Her breath came out in short ragged gasps. Apparently, the healing she had received still hadn’t hit through to her stamina. Roland Was in full agreement with her and they all headed to the boulders sliding in under the edge of the largest one. They sat back drinking water and trying to control their breathing for a few minutes. Bywaters had her device out and was running it over Roland’s leg.
“I think we are far enough away now. It’ll be slow but it should still work.”
Roland felt the muscle in his leg start to knit together. It was almost as if the bullet was being pulled back through sideways and without anaesthetic. He gritted his teeth and swallowed a growl of pain. It took five minutes for the
wound to be healed but it seemed like an eternity.
[You have been healed. You have a 3 hour cooldown time.]
Roland dismissed the notification and thanked Bywaters.
“What now?” Webb asked resting on his comm set.
“We need to carry out our orders,” Murden said.
“Are you crazy?” Clark replied incredulous. “There are six of us and every time we hit the enemy we get ambushed by the rebels. We can’t fight them.”
“She is right,” Watts chimed in. “I am out of tier four ammunition and that was all I had that was effective.”
“I’m out too,” Roland said adding to the dissent.
“The orders still stand. We are light infantry so hit and run is our forte. We need to cause as much damage as possible. Our new plan of attack is to find enemy squads and shoot at them for one magazine then move on. We use the grenades and Mellors’ launcher to take out their APC’s. Most importantly we rely on our stealth. If the rebels can so can we.”
They all looked down. None of them wanted to carry on, but she was right. The only way out now was to win by casualties.
“How do we do this then?” Roland said standing up and testing his leg.
“Webb can you access the map data still.”
Webb’s eyes glazed over as he accessed the data.
“I can but it is glitchy.”
“Okay, can you zoom in on the area and tell me if you see any outlying units?” They waited as Webb fiddled with the map.
“Got it. Anyone got paper or something.”
Bywaters fished a small notebook and pencil out of her pack and handed it to Webb. He stayed looking at the map for a little while longer and then closed it down. He sketched a rough deployment map on the paper and handed it to Murden. She looked it over and then looked around them.
“Okay, we can hit several of these targets. If we move across their lines out to the far side, we can work our way up and hit each unit in turn. We shoot until the rebels arrive or we use a full magazine. Make every shot count though. Hopefully, the rebels will turn up and mop up any remaining units so they don’t follow us.”
She stuck the piece of paper in her top pocket and looked over the squad.
“This is going to be difficult but I think we can pull it off. Let’s move out. Mellors and Watts you two are on point as usual.”
They gathered up their equipment and moved out. Roland took one of the stim tablets and passed another to Watts. She took it and washed it down with some water. They pulled up their hoods and moved out into the bright sun of the desert.
It took them an hour of searching before they spotted the first unit. They didn’t bother scaling the rock formations this time instead they buried themselves in the sand and took aim. Their target squad had an APC but nothing else. That worked well in their favour. Roland had handed his rocket launcher off to Clark as they advanced so she could hit the APC. Roland waited until Watts gave him a signal and then fired. He took the first enemy in the face and moved on to the next one. He took his time making every shot a hit. The enemy was able to hunker down which made it difficult but not impossible. By the time, they had shot six of the enemy the rest of the squad had managed to sneak close enough to use the rocket launcher. Roland watched as Clark fired tearing the front off of the vehicle. It slewed round and crushed one of the enemy soldiers under its bulk. The rest of the squad rushed in and fired. Watts and Roland emerged from the sand and ran forward to get into a better position. The stims had stopped the desert heat from reducing their stamina but the running ate into it fast. They stopped part way out from the target squad’s position and watched as the others finished them off. They made it to the position in time to see the enemy fade out. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and they moved out further to the west of the enemy line. Murden pulled out the paper and crossed off the first of the targets she had selected.
Perhaps they could do this after all Roland thought as they made their way out into the desert.
Chapter 19
They turned to the North as soon as they were at extreme range of the burning wreck they had left behind. Roland turned on his infrared and played his scope across the scene. He couldn’t see any of the rebels so switched back to the normal sight and checked the way they were heading. He caught sight of a dust trail in the distance heading towards them. They kept moving as Roland kept an eye on the trail. It wasn’t moving towards them but moving towards the unit they had destroyed. Roland knelt down behind a small sandstone pillar and followed them as they drew closer. After a few moments thought he waved Clark over to join him.
“Do you have any more rockets?”
“Yeah, about five. Why?”
“Do you think you could hit that APC?” Roland handed her his rifle, and she squinted through the scope.
“We need to get closer to its path and wait for it to pass us. I should be able to hit it in the rear when it passes us fairly easily.”
Roland took his rifle back as she held it out to him.
“Let’s do it.”
Roland got up and started to make his way towards the position they needed to be in. The others stayed behind with only Clark staying with him. They took up positions to cover them. Once they were in place, they lay down and Clark loaded a rocket into a launcher she had put together. Roland helped her cover her cloak in sand and then retreated a short distance covering himself over too. They waited as the vehicle approached and then passed them. As it tore across the sand, Clark stood and took aim. She fired and struck the rear of the vehicle in the centre. The doors at the back blew inwards, and the APC kept going as fire jetted out. Roland sighted into the back of the vehicle and fired at the driver’s chair. He hit it square and watched as the APC came to an abrupt halt. Clark ran back to the squad as Roland watched to see if there were any survivors. After 5 minutes of waiting, Roland decided they had all been killed and emerged from the sand. He jogged back to the rest of the squad and they set off again further up the line. They came to their next target after another hour of walking. Watts had spotted it first and pointed it out to Roland. They had approached and used their scopes to work out the best method of attack.
“They have no APC,” Watts said as they searched the surrounding area.
“They might not have transport but there are enough of them for it to be a full platoon,” Roland replied as they watched.
He saw something he didn’t want to. They had a unit of suits with them.
“They have suits. I have marked three.”
“I’ve got another two,” Watts replied.
“Think we can take them before they find us?” Roland asked switching his tier one ammo out for a tier three magazine. He hoped it would be strong enough to take them out as their armour seemed to be worse than the rebels.
“Only one way to find out.”
Roland radioed the information back to Webb and dug himself in.
“I’ll start on the right,” he said. He saw Watts shift her aim.
“Go,” she said and then fired. Roland fired and then switched targets firing again. They both hit the centre suit at the same time sending them sprawling backwards. Two of the suits got back up, and they fired on them taking them out. It was too late though as one of the enemy soldiers was pointing in their direction. The enemy turned a heavy machinegun in their direction, and the sand churned up in front of them as heavy calibre rounds stitched a line across the ground. Roland switched out his magazine for a tier one magazine as quickly as he could. The enemy knew the direction but hadn’t found their exact position yet. He lined up on the gunner and fired hitting them in the arm. The loader took over and Watts shot him in the chest. The other heavy weapons were being brought over to fire in their direction. Watts and Roland concentrated on the gunners and loaders as they worked their way forwards. Small arms fire came towards them as they pushed forward. One of the shots glanced off of Roland’s helmet making him duck down. He continued to fire until his magazine was empty. As he rel
oaded and lined up another shot, the rest of the squad broke cover and stormed forward they all threw grenades, which blasted through the enemy’s position. Roland held his fire trying to keep a bead on the likely return fire elements. A fusillade of fire followed the grenades as the squad moved forward. Watts had stopped firing too and was waiting. As suddenly as the assault began the gunfire stopped, and the squad retreated. Roland lined up on one enemy soldier who was quick to react and shot him before he could bring his rifle to bear. Watts shot another one, and the rest kept their heads down presumably not wanting to meet the same fate. The squad fell back past them heading towards a series of sandstone pillars. Roland and Watts crawled backwards and then ran to join them. They all hunkered down behind the series of pillars. Watts and Roland sighted the enemy unit again and relaxed when it was clear they weren’t being followed.
“Let’s move up to the next target,” Murden said they all took a quick drink before heading off. It took less time to find the next target. Roland aimed his rifle at the position and saw they had a pair of armoured cars with them. He moved back and grabbed Murden.
“Let’s skip this one there are armoured cars.”
“Okay let’s move up.”
The next enemy units they found were dug in close together. This one lacked armoured support, but this was clearly the core of the company they had been fighting. Roland looked over their positions and saw several layers of defences. An armoured tent stood in the centre with a mast next to it. Roland assumed it was a command tent and moved on to check elsewhere. While this was an HQ position, they didn’t seem to have much in the way of armour and suits. They counted the enemy assets which totalled a full squad of suits and three APC’s.
“You think we should skip this one too?” Roland said turning to Watts.
“I think we hit this one. The further we go on the more enemy armoured units we are going to encounter. The number of troops here could tip the balance.” Roland looked out over the camp again. She wasn’t wrong. If they lose their command, then the others may retreat and regroup creating confusion and opportunities for us.
