The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (75 page)

Then something clanked into view, an armoured vehicle clambered over the parapet, half collapsing what was left of the trench section the gun team had occupied. The turret whined as it rotated away from her, followed by a bang as it fired at something out of sight. Without taking her eyes off the war machine she wriggled backwards. As she reached the traverse a pair of centaurs dropped into the trench and looked straight at her. Alice rolled into the traverse as heavy bullets thudded into the space she
’
d just occupied. Scrambling onto her feet she ran for her life. Behind her she could hear the thump of heavy feet; there was no way in hell she could hope to outrun them. Not that she wasn
’
t going to try.

Her lungs burning she ran through to two bays without encountering anything other than bodies.

“
Get down!
”

As she hit the dirt, there was a sustained burst of gunfire over her head. Behind her came the long drawn out screams of dying centaurs.

“
Jesus, Doc, what the hell are you still doing here?
”
Rob asked as Alice raised her head.

“
Trying not to die,
”
she replied as she started to rise, then abruptly her arms gave way and she flopped back down. It had been an exhausting day and it was finally catching up with her. Rob grabbed her by the arm and heaved her back onto her feet, while another marine covered the direction she
’
d come from.

“
Why are you still here?
”
she muttered as she tried to get her feet to move.

“
We
’
ve lost the communication trench. We
’
re looking to see if we could reach the next one. I take it that
’
s a no.
”

“
No one left alive in that direction.
”

“
Sarge, what are we going to do?
”
the other marine asked.

Rob hesitated.

“
Fall back to the rest of the squad, time to move to Plan B.
”

“
What
’
s that Sarge?
”

“
Ask me again in five minutes.
”

_____________________

“
The only reason we haven
’
t lost the plateau completely is because they are feeding in troops piecemeal is,
”
Chevalier said sombrely.
“
Our troops have had to fall back to our support lines, which unfortunately means that they are too far from the rim of the plateau to gain the benefit of the killing zone we cleared. The landslide has badly broken up the ground but they have managed to get a number of armoured vehicles up.
”

“
What about our reserves Admiral? Can they not be used?
”
Reynolds asked.

Eulenburg looked back at the holo, on which the red claw continued to creep slowly inwards.

“
Admiral?
”

“
The reserves are committed Governor. I have none left to send,
”
Eulenburg replied heavily.

“
But the troops the convoy landed…
”

“
As far as I know, we have already lost the equivalent of an entire battalion today,
”
Eulenburg said with a shake of his head.
“
I would guess that by the end of the day we will have less soldiers than we did before Kite String.
”

“
My God.
”

“
We may need God
’
s help by the end of the day,
”
Eulenburg replied.

“
We
’
re going to have to pull units off other parts of the line and feed them in as fast as we can,
”
Chevalier said. I
’
ve already got the troops who were in the shelter where they broke in moving upwards.
”

“
That won
’
t be enough.
”

“
Sir,
”
called out a communication rating,
“
report from our armoured unit. Major Hassett reports she
’
s down to two tanks and one infantry fighting vehicle. She can make no forward progress.
”

“
Sebastian, based on your training and experience, do you believe we can drive them off the plateau?
”

Chevalier stared at the main display.

“
No,
”
he said after a moment.
“
Even if we could take the top of the landslide, we couldn
’
t hold it. The best we can now do is to establish a new perimeter.
”

Eulenburg strode over to the edge of the command

platform.
“
Air operations, how many planes do we still have available?
”

“
Five, sir.
”

“
Order them to arm with cluster bombs. Tell everyone on the front to dig in and hang on.
”

_____________________

There was a long burst of fire from one of the marines in the direction of the support line. When his weapon clicked he reached for another magazine and came up empty.

“
I
’
m out,
”
he called.

“
That
’
s only six rounds,
”
another marine told him as he handed the man a magazine. Along with six marines Alice huddled in what had been a mortar pit. They were regularly receiving and intermittently giving fire in all directions.

“
Men coming in,
”
came the call from outside the pit before Rob hurried in along with three more marines. He
’
d left thirty minutes earlier with four.

“
No joy Sarge?
”
one man asked Rob.

“
None,
”
Rob replied shortly as he sat down heavily.

“
Hey, where
’
s Jenny?
”
One of the marines who
’
d been holding the mortar pit had looked round and noticed they were one short.

“
She didn
’
t make it,
”
Rob replied.

“
Jesus. Bakers Bend?
”

“
They
’
ve taken it.
”

The mortar pit was now crowded with bodies, Alice felt them all slump. Bakers Bend had been one of the communications trenches for the sector until a few months before when a Nameless missile barrage pretty much wiped it out. There was still a faint depression and it had been their last hope for getting to the support line trenches.

No one spoke for several minutes until finally Rob roused himself.

“
How much ammo have we got left?
”
he asked.

“
About five full mags worth between us, Sarge, two grenades and a few smoke bombs. You?
”

“
About the same,
”
Rob said as he took a quick glance over the parapet towards the support line before ducking back down.
“
Man, that
’
s a long way.
”

“
About seventy metres, Sarge.
”

“
Do we have to?
”
Alice asked before she could stop herself. Several marines turned towards her, and then turned back towards Rob. She could see that a number of them were thinking the same thing. They just hadn
’
t wanted to say it in front of their mates.

“
Yeah we do,
”
Rob replied heavily as he turned to look at them all.
“
It looks like the bastards have been stopped from moving forward for the moment. But sure as hell our side ain
’
t moving forward either. We
’
ve on the wrong side of a new frontline. They aren
’
t clearing out pockets of resistance yet but they soon will be. If we
’
re still here when that happens we
’
re boned.
”
Off to the right a pair of burning Nameless tanks belched smoke that blew across the front.
”
Rob looked at them,
“
Wind
’
s blowing the right way and there might be enough heat in them to foul any thermal imaging. It
’
s now or never.
”

The three smoke grenades arced out into what had been no man
’
s land and immediately began to lay down a thick bank of coloured smoke that drifted towards the mortar pit. Instantly the surrounding Nameless started to fire, sending tracer rounds hissing through the smoke.

“
Okay folks, it ain
’
t gonna get any better. On my mark up and over but stay low,
”
Rob said, before glancing towards Alice,
“
Doc, you in particular stay low,
”
he tapped his breastplate,
“
try to stay in the middle of us.
”
The smoke started to roll over them.
“
Okay everyone, go, go!
”

They all lunged for the parapet and almost at once the marine beside her took a direct hit to the base of his neck that more or less decapitated him. Then she was up and running across torn ground. The swirling smoke meant she could see no more than a metre or two ahead. The marines disappeared from view but she could hear the constant whoosh of bullets all around her. It was impossible to tell how much ground she was covering. As she gulped in air the smoke set her coughing and her eyes filled with tears. Twice she stumbled and fell but always managed to scramble back onto her feet and keep moving. Then the smoke thinned and for a moment she found herself starting to exit the side of their smoke screen. Immediately she angled back into the smoke but before she could disappear from view she felt something hit her left leg. She staggered, trying to stay on her feet but the strength went out of her leg. With a final effort Alice threw herself into a shell hole.

_____________________

As the sun started to dip towards the horizon the armoured hangar doors opened and Douglas base
’
s last five Pegasus drop fighters thundered down the runway. As they reached takeoff speed they went vertical, fighting for height. The last one didn
’
t make it as a surface to air missile swatted it out of the sky. At fifteen hundred metres they levelled out and prepared to strike. Nameless drop fighters had learned to respect Douglas
’
s laser batteries but this flight could not be ignored for long. The first pair dived down on the columns of infantry and vehicles struggling up the broken slope. A single SAM battery had been hurriedly deployed near the base of the landslide and got a couple of missiles away, but not before the fighters dropped their cluster bombs, which burst two hundred metres up, each one deploying two dozen bomblets. The entire mountainside erupted in flames and shrapnel, tearing the unprotected troops apart.

As the two fighters climbed away a warning came from the ground: thirty plus enemy fighters inbound. The remaining fighters and their bomb loads would have to be protected and the first two climbed away from Douglas.

_____________________

Lying at the bottom of the shell hole Alice clenched her teeth so hard her jaw ached as she cut through her trouser leg. It wasn
’
t pain that made her clench her teeth. Her body
’
s natural painkillers must have kicked in since all she was getting from her leg was numbness, but there was still enough adrenalin in her system to make her hands shake. Finally she managed to cut away enough material to get at the wound. It was a blackened groove of torn flesh but on seeing it Alice felt a sense of profound relief. The bullet had skimmed across her thigh, but it hadn
’
t cut into muscle, a centimetre one way it would have missed completely, the other, it would have taken her leg off. The sound of fighting had been continuous but as she finished treating herself it started to get closer. Carefully she raised her head and to her horror saw Nameless troops coming her way. From behind her, fire from humans lines erupted and the Nameless troops started to duck and dive from one piece of cover to another. Some dropped but the rest continued to advance.