“I’ve been away a long time, and I want some payback, so point me in their direction, and I’ll give ‘em hell.”
Chandra turned to Silva.
“Form up the Company, Sergeant. We fall out in ten.”
Before the Sergeant could bark his orders, a wing of enemy craft rushed overhead, strafing pulses of energy across the base. Jones did not even flinch as the others ducked for cover. Debris from a nearby building was thrown across the street and landed at their feet. Chandra turned to see Jones stood tall as if nothing had happened. She could already tell that he had lost his reason to live. He was still just a shell of the great man he used to be.
“They can’t be far now,” she said.
“2 ^ nd Inter-Allied! Form up! Form up!” cried Silva as he brushed aside debris and got to his feet.
Thirty minutes later they lay in the trenches once again. They were at the back this time, owing to their part in the earlier battle. The lines of human defences were almost silent as they watched the enemy cover the last few kilometres. Friendly artillery roared in the distance and overhead but was far enough away it seemed like little more than background noise. They could see the forest before them flatten as the huge enemy tanks rolled through what they believed to be an impassable natural barrier.
Thunder rumbled in the distance as heavy rain clouds appeared to follow the enemy to their position and water began to pepper their helmets. The ferocious bombardment before them was causing some trees to catch alight, but the rain quickly extinguished them. The tanks behind their trenches opened fire when the enemy came into range. Their guns roared as they fired one volley after another.
The troops could see the forest being torn apart for kilometres in either direction, but they could still see the slimmer of movement and rustle of trees as the enemy continued to advance.
“How can they keep coming?” asked Blinker.
“They’re like machines,” replied Monty.
Chandra could already feel the fear that was rife in the ranks. Nobody expected to be able to hold what was coming for them.
“They aren’t machines! They’re creatures just like us. They can be killed, they can be broken, and they can be defeated!” she yelled.
The Company stayed silent, hearing other officers shout similar words of encourage in languages they couldn’t understand. The trenches were five lines deep, spanning as far north and south as Chandra could see. But in all of their lines, the position they stood in seemed to be the focus of the enemy advance more than any other.
“We can’t hold here,” whispered Silva to Jones.
“Maybe not, but maybe it doesn’t matter anymore,” he replied.
Silva turned in shock to see the Captain’s deadpan face. He could see that he no longer had any reason to live. He looked down at the oncoming enemy with a hatred he had never before seen in any man. Jones was the only one among them who was not afraid. He was not tense, and he was in his element. It was in this moment that Silva realised the Captain’s purpose there. He wanted to go down fighting. He wanted to commit suicide in the only meaningful way he knew.
The Sergeant wanted to grab and Captain, there and then, and beat some sense into him, but he knew it was too late. The he began to wonder, Maybe Jones is right, and maybe there is no purpose to it all anymore. Jones turned to Silva and stared into his eyes.
“You promise me one thing, Sergeant.”
“Anything…” he replied.
“Whatever happens here, you make certain Taylor isn’t left in that cell to rot when the enemy rolls over the base? I don’t care what you have to do, and I don’t care who you have to kill. You get the Major out, you hear me?”
Silva thought about it for just a moment. The fear of death seeped away as he thought about the Major. For the first time in weeks, he thought himself thankful to be free. At least he could affect his destiny. Silva could see the fear and dread in Jones’ eyes that another one of them would be left in the clutches of the enemy.
“You have my word, Captain. You have to know that we did everything we could to get you back.”
“I am well aware of it, Sergeant, and never think I hold any of you guilty for what happened to me and Walker. That was beyond your doing. Now let’s be sure it never happens again. You saw that camp, and you have some idea of what went on there. You be certain to put a gun to your own head before you ever have to face that. Better still, go down fighting.”
Silva reached forward and slapped his hand down onto the Captain’s shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sir, and neither are you. We’re back together for the first time since Amiens. Together we are unstoppable.”
“But we aren’t together, Sergeant, not yet. Taylor is the back bone of this Company.”
Silva gritted his teeth as the smile was removed from his face. He hated to think of the Major locked up just a few kilometres away. He turned as he heard the sound of crashing trees grow nearer.
“They’re almost on us.”
“And all we’ve got are these fucking peashooters,” replied Jones.
Silva missed the liveliness that had inhabited Jones at even the bleakest of times. That light within him had been driven down deep inside and he knew it may never come out again.
“ARMALs at the ready! cried Chandra. You are free to fire at the four hundred metre mark!” she shouted.
“Did you really lose all your gear for rescuing me?” asked Jones.
Silva nodded.
“When Taylor found out you may be in Metz, he went to Schulz with a plan to get you out. The General expressly forbid him from going through with it. That night he did it anyway. The General’s been making us pay ever since.”
“Christ, all this for me, was it all worth it?”
Silva turned with a look of shock.
“Don’t blame yourself for this. This is Schulz’s doing, and someday he’s going to know about it.”
Chandra had heard half of their conversation and turned to look at Jones as he waited calmly with his rifle in his hands. He noticed her gaze and turned to return a smile. She saw there was some glimmer of the original man in his body, but it was deeply buried. Getting Jones back only made her remember how important it was that she secured the release of Taylor.
“Good to see old faces back, Major?” asked Parker.
“Bet your arse. Taylor’s next, and don’t you forget it.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Major.”
They lowered themselves into their trenches as the enemy breached the final wall of the forest, and their tanks rolled across the barren and war torn plain. The energy pulses intensified as their positions were pounded by enemy fire. Their trench works protected them from most of the incoming fire, but the aerial attacks and artillery bombardments still tore trenches apart along the line.
After a long wait, the Major heard the troops of the first trenches open fire as the enemy came into range. It was only a minute later that the second trench opened fire. She crawled back up to the trench shelf to survey the scene and gasped as she saw hundreds of enemy vehicles and thousands of Mechs advancing towards them.
“My, God!”
She felt her lips were dry, and her throat was sore. Her breathing stopped for a moment as she realised that they couldn’t hold. Parker crawled up beside her and had much the same reaction.
“What the fuck are we going to do?” she asked.
Chandra shook her head in astonishment, but she had no answer. Explosions erupted along the lines of the enemy as the artillery bombardments continued, but they continued to pour from the forest in a seemingly never-ending column.
“Prepare to fire!” she cried.
The first of the enemy forces were now less than a kilometre from their trench and in range of their rifles, but not of their effective penetration. Campbell had already opened fire with his high-power rifle, but it was doing little to scratch the numbers pouring towards them. The Mechs and vehicles were already laying down fire on the move, and the trenches were getting ripped apart.