The Company poured into the trenches all around her, squeezing in between those already huddled in for safety. Chandra shook her head to re-gain her senses and wiped the dust from her face as she looked to Silva.
“We can’t stay here. We have to get our guns into action!” she yelled.
“Not like we’ve got a lot that’ll touch them, Major.”
“That’s life. We’ll just have to hope someone else can do some of the work.”
She looked at the troops around her. Their own Company were mixed in with two other units. They all looked as scared as each other. The last few weeks had made them complacent. They had gotten used to holding their ground and forgotten how terrifying their opponents could be.
“Let’s move! On me!” ordered Chandra.
She clambered to her feet and followed the trench works further west. There were six layer of trenches constructed around the entire western perimeter of Ramstein. As they got closer to the front, they could hear the raucous grinding of the enemy tanks rumbling towards them. They were not stopped by any obstacles in the battered no man’s land that had been fought over for so many weeks.
They finally reached the front line trenches, where German infantry were frantically trying to stop the oncoming tanks with what little heavy equipment they had. She didn’t recognise any of the faces. With the tens of thousands of soldiers operating along the lines, it was rare for her to see anyone twice. She wondered how many of those she had stood beside in combat were now dead, but they were names she never knew.
“What the hell are we doing here, Major?” shouted Blinker.
Chandra crawled up the side of the trench to look down the shallow slope towards the oncoming enemy. They were still a distance away and making slow but steady progress. Artillery shells whistled overhead and crashed down into the enemy advance. She watched as Mechs were tossed into the air like ragdolls and thrown back down into the mud. The pulse cannons on the tanks fired volleys into their positions, and dirt peppered the hunkered down troops. The Major looked down at the soldiers hiding from the enemy guns.
“Get the fuck up here and start shooting!” she yelled.
She lifted her rifle up onto the edge of trench and took careful aim at the first Mech that drew her attention. The armoured creature was still seven hundred metres out, but she had to feel that they were doing something. She aimed, squeezed the trigger and watched the round bounce off the Mech’s faceplate.
“God damn it!”
She looked over at Sergeant Silva.
“We need our god damn weapons back!”
She watched as Campbell laid his huge anti-materiel rifle down and quickly took aim. He was careful to select the creature the armour had defiantly brushed off the Major’s rifle. He quickly pulled the trigger, and she turned to see blood spew from the baseball-size hole in its facial armour. The beast went limp and smashed down into the dirt. She turned and nodded in appreciation to the marine sniper.
“Get the ARMALs up here, and anything else we have got!”
Mortars fired off in sequence in the trench behind them, sending further fire forwards. The big guns roared to the east in support. She could hear gunfire and pulse weapons raging for miles. They all knew the time had come. The enemy weren’t stopped in their tracks weeks before, and they were only rallying their forces to smash the allied forces in Ramstein.
As the troops prepared what little heavy weaponry they had, the Major once again peered over the firing shelf to witness the fearsome advance. She could hear allied tanks rolling forward at their backs to join the fight. The sky lit up as an aerial strike began. She had just enough time to spot the multiple wings of enemy craft as the first pulses smashed into their positions. The vibrations threw her into the base of the trench. Lying flat on her back, the Major watched the enemy fighters rush past overhead with guns blazing.
“There’s nothing left to stop them,” stated Silva in a sombre tone.
They could hear the anti-aircraft weapons of the base blasting away, desperately trying to bring down the enemy craft, but their systems were woefully antiquated.
“We’ve lost the sky,” muttered Chandra.
“Then be thankful we’re bloody infantry!” shouted Silva.
“Not so much, we’re the ones getting shit on!” yelled Blinker.
Chandra looked over to see the cheeky grin on the soldier’s face. It astonished her that amid such a brutal bombardment and assault, he could keep his spirits high. It was enough to make her remember her job in it all. She rolled over onto her front and pushed herself up to her feet. Standing tall in the middle of the trench, she looked at the scared soldiers lining the walls.
“This war isn’t going to fight itself! Do you want to wait here to be killed in this shithole, or give those bastards hell?” she cried.
Several of the beleaguered troops looked up at the Major. Her short stature never ceased to make her imposing.
“Come on, you bastards!”
They scrambled to the firing ledge and opened fire. The tiered trenches running down hill meant that gunfire flew over their heads from the allied units at their backs. Smoke plumes raced towards the enemy as the rockets soared towards them. Chandra knew their equipment was inadequate against the Krycenaean armour, but they could not lie down and do nothing.
Tracer fire lit up the battlefield, but it was overwhelmed by the vast energy pulses smashing into their positions. No man’s land was little more than a scrap heap and pile of rubble. Many of the craters were so large that the advancing tanks all but disappeared in the dips. A huge explosion rang out as one of them ran over an anti-tank mine. Chandra watched as the monstrous vehicle bounced a few centimetres off the ground but kept moving. Seconds later, it hit a second which finally blew the tracks off.
Further explosions sent earth blasting into the sky as the advancing infantry reached the minefield that had been laid. Soldiers across the trenches screamed out in celebration as Mech soldiers were blasted into the air. Chandra revelled in their destruction. The bloodshed of humans made her want to howl, but she cheered the slaughter of their enemies. The cheering died as massive explosions erupted around the trench works.
“They’re still coming,” cried Monty.
“They mean to roll over us,” growled Silva.
“And they bloody will, if we don’t get some damn support!”
The guns of the allied tanks roared at their backs, but it was not enough to slow the enemy progress. As they reached the effective range of grenades, the troops opened up with a hail of gunfire and explosives in a desperate attempt to halt the creatures. Chandra could make out hundreds of Mechs in their field of fire alone, and many more through the smoke to both the north and south.
“Major, we can’t hold here!” shouted Silva.
“We have to!” she replied desperately.
The Mechs increased pace as they bounced along the rough terrain on their spring legged armour, approaching a jogging speed. She leapt up onto the trench and fired on full auto at the nearest, striking it with twenty rounds to the faceplate until it smashed down into the dirt. It slid a metre uphill with its momentum. The Mechs advancing towards them were smashed down by the heavy weapon fire and sustained weapons in the line, but it was not enough.
The surviving enemy Mechs rushed into the trenches and kept firing as they moved. Chandra saw a creature leap in just a few metres from where she was standing. It crushed one of the German infantrymen as it landed, obliterating another with its pulse cannon at close range. Screams of panic rang out across the lines as gunfire opened up inside the trenches.
Bullets bounced off the thick armour of the creature. It was almost impossible to get a fix on its weak points as it thrashed around the trench, firing and crushing soldiers as if they were toys. Four of the German soldiers were dead before Chandra could even respond, but Hall was already on his feet. He climbed out the back of the trench and rushed along the top.