The HUD showed dozens still crawling over the hillside to the south, and others approaching to the east. Those they’d fought away from the west seemed to be regrouping further down the hillside. They’d be back. He fired at the crawling men until the magazine was empty, and ducked back behind the barricade to reload.
Then a call came over the platoon net.
“They broke the east flank, sir. They’re in the village.”
CHAPTER 34
The main street of the village had become a storm of rifle fire and shrapnel as the insurgents tried to force their way past the few Legionnaires the platoon could spare to stop them. The dirt-covered buildings that had given solid protection to the Legionnaires were now protecting the insurgents as they fought their way along the street from the barricades at the east, toward the centre of the village.
Logan crouched beside Kader at the corner of a house about half-way along the street, leaned around it, and added his fire to the thousands of rounds per minute that were heading toward the insurgents as the far end of the street.
Grenades arced over the roofs from the Panzergrenadiers at the far end of the village, and slammed down onto the street and roofs around the Legionnaires, bursting into showers of shrapnel. A grenade buried itself into the dirt roof of the house Logan sheltered behind, and showered his suit with dirt and hot metal as it exploded. He leaned round the corner again, just in time to see a burst of rifle fire from a Panzergrenadier tear apart the helmet of a Legionnaire beside the rear of the aid station.
At least a dozen red squares remained on his HUD in the village, and dozens more were moving up the hillside to the south. And those were just the insurgents the Legionnaires had targeted. There were probably more they’d missed.
“Alice, where’s the Marine LePen?”
“Forty-six minutes from firing solution.”
No chance of that. The platoon would be lucky to last ten. Whatever happened, the battle would be over by the time the assault ship could help out.
“Any ideas, sir?”
Kader leaned out around the corner of the house, and fired a long burst along the street. He was answered by a burst of rifle fire from the far end, and ducked back.
“Shoot the bastards. And keep shooting them until we’re dead, or they are.”
Logan crouched beside him, waited a second, then leaned around the corner of the building, and fired. A suit ducked back behind a building further down the street as Logan’s rounds hammered into the wall of the building in front of them.
A grenade exploded behind him, and he leaned back into cover and glanced behind him. A Panzergrenadier and a couple of Montagnards were firing over the barricades at the west end of the village.
The insurgents held both ends of the main street now.
“We’ve lost the west flank,” a voice said over the net.
“We can’t hold the entire village,” Merle said. “Fall back to the village square.”
“Let’s go,” Kader said.
He backed away along the alley, following it back toward the square.
Logan followed him, backing away slowly, and taking the far side of the alley so they wouldn’t get in each others’ lines of fire. A face appeared at the end of the alley as a man raced around the corner of the building. No suit, and an RPG on their shoulder, already loaded and ready to go.
The RPG fired, and Logan jumped back as the rocket flew his way. It hit the side of the building beside him, and exploded. The worst of the blast passed by the side of his suit, but red lights flashed on the HUD. He glanced at the suit’s arm. It sparked where the explosion had blown a chunk of shrapnel into the actuators.
He pulled it free, and tried to twist the arm. It turned, but stopped and whirred before moving again as the actuator briefly hung up.
The insurgent had reloaded, and swung the RPG to fire a second time. Logan dove to the ground and fired a long burst from his rifle. The hypervelocity rounds punched right through the Montagnard’s body armour, and blood exploded from the man’s back.
The Montagnard’s legs went limp, and he fell forward, slumping down onto the dirt near the corner of the house, just inside the alley.
Logan jogged back along the alley toward the body.
He grabbed the RPG from the ground, and glanced along the street. A Panzergrenadier jumped out of cover between the houses on the far side. Logan swung the RPG and fired. The rocket flew into the visor of the Panzergrenadier’s helmet and exploded, scattering blood, brains and metal across the street. The suit fell to its knees with only the bloody stump of a neck where the helmet used to be. It slumped back, and collapsed between the houses.
Logan pulled the Montagnard’s body into the alley, grabbed the last RPG round from its back, and reloaded. He leaned out again, but rifle rounds were hitting hard around him now, as every insurgent began firing his way.
Grenades exploded on the roof of the building behind him. He slung the RPG, and backed along the alley as fast as he could, holding his rifle at his hip.
“McCoy, get back here,” Kader said.
A face peered around the corner of the building, from the main street into the alley. Logan fired the rifle from his hip, and the insurgent ducked back. He fired another long burst, then turned and ran as fast as the suit could move.
Gunfire tore into the building on his left, just behind him. Something thumped into his left leg, and he nearly stumbled as the leg stopped moving, but he pushed harder with his foot, and the leg moved again.
Then he was at the barricade.
He ducked for a split second, bending his legs to add their strength to his momentum, then threw himself into the air. The suit flew over the tree trunks of the barricade, then landed on the far side. The claws on the suit’s feet scrabbled for grip in dirt of the square, then his right left slid out from beneath him. The RPG went flying. He slammed down on his right arm and rolled, before the suit slid to a stop.
Grenades exploded around him. Rifle fire ripped into the roofs of the nearby buildings. Logan grabbed the RPG, and crawled back toward the barricade, where Kader and others were firing into the alley beside the aid station. He clambered up into a crouch as he approached the barricade.
He popped up behind the barricade, raising the RPG above it, ready to fire. A smoke trail raced down the alley toward him. He ducked back, and crouched as an RPG round flew past, barely clearing the barricade, and passing less than a metre over his head. It smacked into the front of the building behind him. The windows exploded outward, and the door blew off its hinges, rattling down the steps to the street below. A woman screamed inside.
Splinters flew from the barricade as rifle rounds hammered into it from the alley. Logan raised his rifle above the barricade with one hand, and fired a long burst, spraying rounds across the alley. He pulled his arm back as the insurgents fired at him.
Kader fired his rifle into the alley from Logan’s left, then ducked behind the barricade as the insurgents fired his way. Another Legionnaire on Logan’s right raised his head to fire. A rifle round smacked into his helmet, and he toppled back, his suit sparking as he rolled on the dirt.
Logan pulled a grenade from his belt, and tossed it over the barricade, into the alley. He grabbed the RPG, and waited for the grenade to explode. Then raised the RPG over the barricade and looked out.
A Panzergrenadier was racing along the alley toward them, through a cloud of smoke that slowly blew toward the east in the wind, while half a dozen Montagnards fired rifles toward the barricades.
With no cover in the alley to protect them from the Legion defenders, they’d had to resort to speed, firepower and smoke grenades. Logan swung the RPG toward the Panzergrenadier, and fired. He didn’t wait to see whether he hit, as more rifle rounds hammered into the logs, and he ducked back fast.