The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (74 page)

_____________________

“
Alice? Alice, can you hear me?
”
someone was gently patting her face. She took a muzzy swipe as her eyes opened. Rob and Damien were both leaning over her. They were inside one of the frontline
’
s dugouts.

“
Doc, you okay?
”
Rob asked.

Before she could reply there was another explosion nearby and all three of them were showered with dirt. As the dust settled she levered herself up onto her elbows and looked around blinking as she tried to gather her thoughts. There were a lot of people in the dugout, mostly the marines but in the gloom she could make out a few of her own people.

“
Am I bleeding?
”
she croaked.

“
Don
’
t think so, Doc,
”
Rob replied.

“
Then I must be fine,
”
she grunted trying to roll onto her feet.
“
Anyone else bleeding?
”
she asked.

“
Another one of our new guys, Alice,
”
Damien said gently pushing back down.
“
Shrapnel in his arse. He
’
ll live but he isn
’
t going to be sitting down for a while, which is what you should be doing. You were out cold and I
’
d be stunned if you don
’
t have at least a mild concussion.
”
Damien glanced at Rob and smiled slightly,
“
We
’
re both bigger than you so I
’
m pretty sure we can make you.
”

Alice
’
s profanity was blotted out as something exploded over them. Dust streamed down from the ceiling.

_____________________

When the flicker of the little red light slowed, then stopped, most of the lights in the cavern were switched off for the first time in months. The marines waited silently in the darkness, each man and woman alone with their own thoughts. An hour, then another crept past with no movement. Then the little red light started to flicker again.

“
For fuck
’
s sake,
”
someone muttered and every one of them heard it.

“
Do they need some help over there?
”

“
What? You got something better to do?
”

“
Yeah, hot date.
”

“
Christ, some chick is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
”

“
Who says it
’
s a chick.
”

“
Screw you all!
”

The explosion was deafening. Bits of rock flew into the cavern and dust billowed inwards blotting out everything. No order was given as every marine present hunkered down, their eyes glued to the sights of their weapons, waiting.

The dust began to settle, revealing a breach into the heart of Douglas large enough to drive a truck through. From beyond it came a light, wobbling as if it was being carried. Then a creature stepped through - straight into a hail of small arms fire.

“
Sir, they
’
re in,
”
Gillum reported without pause as he dashed into the office.

“
The Brigadier?
”
Eulenburg asked as he jumped to his feet.

“
In the command centre, sir.
”

Chevalier was watching a bank of monitors impassively as Eulenburg hurried in.

“
Sebastian?
”

“
Better than I dared hope,
”
Chevalier replied to the unasked question.
“
It was mostly miners and a handful of soldiers. They were destroyed almost immediately. The assault teams are now advancing into the enemy positions.
”
He gestured towards the monitors, each of which was displaying feed from an individual marines
’
helmet camera.
“
They
’
ve run into only light opposition so far. Most of the enemy seem to be worker constructs with little combat capability. We
’
ve destroyed a lot of those and taken a number of large pieces of mining equipment.
”
One of the screens whited out for several seconds.
“
And the new plasma guns are proving very useful.
”

“When is far, far enough?” Eulenburg asked as another screen whited out for a moment and a little tiny ‘got
‘
im!’ came from one of the speakers. “We know so little about the wider caverns…”

“When they run into any kind of significant opposition, then it is time to stop and retreat to the most defensible point behind them. Which means a choke point. They’d passed through several already,” Chevalier replied without taking his eyes off the screen. “Resistance is certainly beginning to stiffen.”

On the screens a major firefight had erupted. One of them went blank and another was showing a static close-up of the floor. Then abruptly all the screens went blank.

“Sebastian, what is happen
…
” Eulenburg started to say.

“Jamming, it must be jamm
…
” Chevalier began rising from his seat, just as the floor started to shake.

_____________________

Alice’s head spun when she sat up sharply but this time neither Rob nor Damien tried to stop her. They’d felt it too - a shaking that was nothing like ordinary shellfire. Alice was last out of the dugout. Outside everyone had felt it. People were looking around and a few even risked sticking their heads above the parapets to see beyond.

“Earthquake?” someone shouted.

“Can’t be,
”
Damien called out. “Whole area is…”

“War! Look at War,” Rob shouted, pointing at the small hillock, for months the site of one of the plateau’s laser batteries.

Alice spun round to look. It was perhaps two hundred metres from the section of the line in which she stood so she could see clearly as the whole side of the hillock begin to slide away. as the landslide gathered pace. She watched dumbfounded as the battery crew abandoned their equipment and the whole huge machine tilted and then tumbled down the mountainside. More and more of the mountain was collapsing, prompting soldiers to climb out of their trenches and run for their lives. Many weren
’
t quick enough and were swept away. Stepping onto the parapet Alice looked as the landslide thundered downwards and through the Nameless positions below.

“
Oh Christ,
”
muttered Damien,
“
Oh Christ, Oh Christ, Oh Christ.
”

“
Now what do we do?
”
Alice asked Rob quietly as the shaking stopped.

“
I don
’
t know Doc, I really don
’
t know,
”
he said in a bewildered voice.

_____________________

Four C was in a state of uproar the likes of which hadn
’
t been seen since the first Nameless assaults. Eulenburg heard none of it as he instead stared aghast at the main display in Four C. For six months it had shown a red line circling the plateau just where it began to slope down the mountainside. Now that red line was broken. He had been desperate to believe that it was some kind of massive equipment failure but the camera and reports from the surface told the same story. Over a kilometre of the frontline and several big chunks of the second line simply weren
’
t there any more.

“
We need to
…
We need
…”
he started to say before coming to a halt.

“
The assault force is gone,
”
Chevalier said from behind him,
“
all seventy of them. The troops at the breach report the whole thing has caved in.
”

“
What happened?
”
Eulenburg asked without turning.

“
I don
’
t know.
”

“
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON
’
T KNOW!
”
he spun and shouted into Chevalier
’
s face.

“
I don
’
t know what happened, Alfred. I just don
’
t know.
”
Chevalier looked at the main display,
“
and right now it is not even important. We have to seal up that hole in the front!
”

Eulenburg glared at him for a moment then strode away.

“
Order all the units surrounding the breach to move in, dig in wherever they can. The formations beyond them are to extend their frontage to maintain contact. Just get troops across that gap!
”

_____________________

“
Listen up!
”
the Company Commander shouted,
“
We have been tasked with moving into, and digging into, that gap in the line. Grab all available ammunition and entrenching equipment. We move in five minutes!
”

As he passed Alice grabbed his sleeve.
“
What about us? Seventeenth work party, Corporal Peats.
”

The officer gave her a blank look for moment,
“
You
’
re coming with us. We
’
ll need a few extra hands on deck.
”

“
Cheers,
”
muttered one of her squad.
“
Really seriously, cheers.
”

Damien said nothing but looked equally unenthusiastic.

“
It wasn
’
t as if we weren
’
t going to get roped in,
”
Alice said matter of factly as she pushed them after the marines.

The Nameless must have been as surprised by the landslide as the defenders were because for the first hour there was no response. The defenders swarmed frantically over the breach trying to repair the damage. But the landslide hadn
’
t left them with any soil to dig into. Soon Nameless missiles started to arc down on them, while below armour and infantry began to mass, then advance. The defenders had only managed to dig a few foxholes and were driven back into their support lines.

Alice cursed beneath her breath as she tried to loosen the straps that held the marine in his armour but her fingers couldn
’
t get any purchase. All the while bright red blood pulsed out through the hole where his breastplate had failed to protect him but now stopped her from getting at the wound. Further down the shallow trench a machine-gunner let off a long burst. Yanking loose the casualty
’
s bayonet, Alice sawed her way through the offending strap. It was too late though. It had probably been too late from the moment he was hit.

“
Can we go now?
”
the last remaining member of her squad whined. The rest of them along with Damien were making their way back to the support line, along with a good chunk of Rob
’
s squad.

“
Only when we
’
ve got someone to carry out of here,
”
she snapped back at him.
“
Now either grow a pair or shut up!
”

“
Armour!
”
someone shouted.
“
We have incoming armour. Bring up the gun! Bring up the gun!
”

A pair of marines came running down the support trench with a heavy weapon and set it up on the parapet.

“
Clear!
”
one of them shouted before firing. Somewhere beyond there was an explosion.
“
Reload, reload!
”
the gunner shouted as he sighted his weapon on a second target. Then abruptly Alice found herself flat on her back with her ears ringing. Levering herself up on her elbows she blinked to clear her eyes and looked towards the heavy weapons team. They were gone. So was the entire section of the trench they
’
d been in. Debris was still landing and not another living soul was in sight. There was a smell of explosives and blood,