Battle Earth VI (24 page)

"They're thinning out."

"Or they've held back the next waves," replied Jones.

"Either way, this is the turning point."

He lifted his rifle onto the rampart and could see they were so close now to being within range. His finger wrapped around the trigger as he took aim at the Mech who was going to enter his sights first. Just another few metres and he could fire, but the creature was killed by a burst from the soldiers below. He was about to swear at the pleasure of the kill being taken from him, but he knew there would be so many more opportunities.

"Almost there!" yelled Jones.

A huge mass of Mechs took to a running pace, trying to rush for the trench positions. It brought them immediately into range. Taylor smiled as he shouted.

"Fire!"

He had already given them the ‘fire at will’ command, but he could not resist crying out. Volley upon volley poured from the walls into the Mech advance. It was a new layer of defences the enemy had not yet encountered, and it was devastating. In just three minutes, their lines were crippled, and they began to falter.

"Go on, run you bastards!" Jones screamed.

Just as he shouted it, many did turn and run. Cries of excitement rang out from the trenches below, followed by shouts that seemingly called for an advance. Hundreds of IDF troops then climbed out of their trenches and rushed forward to pursue the fleeing enemy.

"No! Stay in the trenches!"

None of them heard Taylor over the distance and noise.

"What the hell are they doing?"

They watched as the success overcame the troops, causing them to forget the dangers posed by the enemy. Screams rang from all around them, and they could tell a similar practice was taking place along the line. Taylor could do nothing but stand and watch.

"Idiots."

"Dead idiots," Jones added.

The enemy had retreated a kilometre from the wall when they stopped and stood their ground. From that distance, they could just make out the lines of pulses smashing into troops who had given pursuit. They watched silently as they were slaughtered in the open ground and joined the mounds of enemy dead.

"What a waste," said Jones.

It was a sign of things to come. The day passed with occasional barrages from the larger guns, but no movement from either side. Taylor and his troops slept on the wall that night. There hadn't been any suggestion of billets for them, and there seemed nobody keen to replace them. A supply of ration packs handed out in the evening was the only luxury they enjoyed.

Taylor slept well that night. The great defences provided some comfort and sense of security. He was so exhausted that he doubted he could have stayed awake even if he'd wanted to. He had seen no need to set watches. The platoon commanders were already on it themselves.

An hour after first light, the sun lifted the temperature at a rapid rate, enough to wake Taylor from his deep sleep. The shining rays of sunlight blurred his vision and stunned him slightly as he got up. As he propped himself against the wall, Jones thrust an almost fresh cup of tea into his hands. He took it gladly but still wished it were coffee.

"Thanks."

It was surprisingly quiet, almost eerily so. Only a few footsteps broke the silence. His eyes began to adjust, and he peered out to the south as he took a sip. The bodies from the trenches had been cleared, and fresh troops now occupied them. The barren space from then onwards was still littered with bodies though. He cast his gaze across to the enemy side to see they too had dug in. Trench works largely hid their numbers, and he could see for kilometres each side now that the enemy positions extended as far as the eye could see.

"They're using trenches," stated Jafar.

Taylor turned in surprise to see the alien wide-awake and standing at his side.

"What of it?"

"I told you this. When they begin to dig in, it is because their tactics are failing. The Krycenaean armies never stop attacking unless they cannot succeed."

"So they are beaten?"

"For now. Until they can reinforce or find a different way to breach this line."

"Why don't they go round us?" asked Jones.

Taylor grunted in agreement.

"Yeah, they have ships, so why fight us in open combat?"

"Because it is their way, and if they cannot beat us in open combat, it is failure for them."

"So we just slug it out here until one side is done for?" asked Jones.

"Yes."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'd like to see this ended sooner rather than later. Another army could come through that Gateway anytime and reinforce these bastards."

"Not likely."

"No? And why is that, Jafar?"

"Because Demiran has committed everything he has, and none of the other Lords would want to help him succeed."

"But they all want Earth, do they not?"

"Yes, but if Demiran wins, even with the support of another Lord, he will claim the planet his own."

Taylor laughed.

"What is so funny?" asked Jafar.

"These Lords, if they'd rallied together, they could have ended us all years ago."

Jafar shrugged his shoulders.

"So, through their own vanity and individual desire for power, they'd see nobody succeed rather than share a success? That's fucking brilliant," replied Charlie.

"I have to say I'm glad to hear it. Otherwise, we'd be in deep shit," added Taylor.

"And what if one day these Lords manage some kind of joint military pact? We'd be annihilated."

"Then pray they don't, Jones."

The enemy artillery and tanks opened fire with a fresh barrage, forcing them to duck down for cover. Taylor watched through the gaps in the rampart. The enemy was again advancing towards their walls.

"It's a God damn siege," he whispered to himself.

Their guns began to return fire, and everyone knew the next attack was coming. Within two hours of the sun rising, the enemy were once more being broken at their defensive line, but the casualties were mounting on both sides. Just as it appeared they would end the attack, as they had the previous day on Earth, a shattering explosion erupted to the west. The walls shook in their foundations and rumbled beneath their feet.

Huge chunks of metal and concrete were thrown into the air, and smaller debris even managed to reach Taylor and the others. It showered down on their helmets, forcing them to look away for a moment. When they recovered, they could see the wall had been breached. Taylor turned back to see the enemy forces were funnelling from each side in towards the hole in the perimeter. Gunfire smashed into their flanks, but it was not enough to stop them reaching the weak point. The troops in the trenches before the breach were quickly overwhelmed and driven aside.

Thousands of Mechs were pushing forwards to the breach with many more crossing no man's land to seize the opportunity.

"What do we do?" asked Jones.

"We have to go."

Taylor strolled to the inner edge of the deep walls and looked down to see a mass of troops sitting around with nothing to do. He didn't recognise their uniforms, but they were well equipped and available. He pinpointed the nearest officer and shouted at him.

"You there!"

The officer clearly heard him and froze.

"Get these men up onto the wall. There has been a breach which we have to deal with!"

The man was still frozen for a second. Taylor could not work out if he was just surprised, or if he didn't understand English. He pointed down to the group of troops and gestured for them to get up onto the walls.

"Get them up here now!"

He lifted his comms device.

"We have a breach to the west. Replacements will fill our positions. Inter-Allied follow me!"

He turned to check those around him were ready, grabbed his rifle, and leapt from the wall. He used his suit’s boosters to launch him down into the nearest opening, and then immediately jumped clear of a line of instant shelters, landing not far from where troops were rushing to fill the breach. He was surprised they could barely see through to the hole in the wall for the mass of soldiers and tanks moving up to defend it.

Taylor looked up to the top of the wall to see the breach was twenty metres wide, and the walls either side had been cleared by the debris. Nobody remained on the stretch of ramparts.

"Up onto the wall!" he shouted into his comm.

They used their boosters twice more to land accurately onto the defensive positions. He knew it was about all the power they had, but if they couldn't hold the wall, it wouldn't matter anyway. He landed first on the walls and found a dozen dead soldiers scattered across the battlement, most of them killed by the explosion and shrapnel from it.

He reached the edge where the wall had fallen just as the rest of the Inter-Allied force landed around him, either side of the breach. They filled the wall from one tower to the next, replacing those who had been killed and thrown from the position. He drew both grenades he had left and threw them into the mass of enemy Mechs advancing between the gap. Fire was rained down on the attackers from both sides, and he could see the brutal onslaught lashed on those defending from inside the walls.

A few pulses raced past their heads, but they were firing from relative safety on the wall that had stayed firm, despite the massive blast. After fifteen minutes, the bodies of the Mechs were beginning to pile up, to the extent that others were struggling to make their way through. Taylor was reaching for his last magazine, and knew the others would be in a similar position, when they began to turn and flee.

He looked back at their allies, seeing they had learned from their last experience. They fought the enemy up to the breach and stopped. No one wanted to throw their lives away. He turned back to the battlefield and took a few more carefully aimed shots until the magazine was empty. He was shooting the enemy in the back as they fled, but he felt no sympathy for them. Jafar was doing the same beside him.

All along the walls, troops were shouting and whistling. He could not distinguish one voice from another and suspected it was a mix of insults and celebrations. He could see they had taken few casualties along the edge of the wall.

"We couldn't have managed much longer than that. Ammo was running thin."

"Tell me about it," he replied.

"Still, two waves repulsed. That must mean something, Jafar."

"It does. It means we have ground them to a halt."

He rested up against the wall and watched joyfully as the enemy fell back to their positions.

"Send for ammo. We're gonna need a lot more."

The excitement of their victory soon died down as the troops along the kilometres of defences lay about to await the enemy’s next move. The day passed into night without any more than a couple of exchanges between the artillery. The troops who had survived the trenches had worked to strengthen their positions all day.

When morning came, Taylor looked down from the wall and was surprised to see Commander Phillips approaching with a crutch under one arm and his other arm in a sling. One of his eyes was swollen and cuts showed beneath it. He looked like he'd been through hell. Phillips looked out at the mound of enemy bodies still lying in the breach only metres from where Taylor had slept. The troops had begun to clear the bodies but barely made a dent in their number.

"’Morning, Sir!"

Phillips balanced on his crutch and held up his good arm, trying to block the sunlight silhouetting Taylor's figure against the sky. Taylor could see him struggling to see so jumped down onto the nearest ramp to approach the Commander.

"Good to see you made it, Sir."

"Likewise, Colonel. And you held here. I'm impressed."

Taylor looked surprised.

"You doubted we could do it?"

"If you'd asked me a week ago, I wouldn't have doubted your chances of anything, but after we got hit on the way in, and seeing what was on the ground, I thought we were done for. It was only because I was carried out that I am here now."