She flipped back to the open com. “Missile teams, fire!” Another round of warheads slammed into the ridgeline, plumes of flame and shattered rock rising against the darkening sky.
“Enemy casualties projected at 10-20.” Mystic was reporting data as it became available. The AI was receiving input from all the scanning devices in the detachment and compiling its analysis as new information came in. “Attacking forces still advancing.”
McDaniel’s swallowed. That was a surprise…or maybe not. She’d picked her position carefully, and she was sure it would be an ideal killing zone. Any enemy she’d ever faced would have been annihilated. But these things were still coming.
“Autocannons, fire at will. Pick your targets and take them down.” The enemy’s lead elements were inside the minimum range of the HVMs, and her heavy auto cannons were the next line of defense. “Missile teams, continue firing.” She had no idea how many enemy troops were still coming over that ridge, but she wasn’t going to slack off anywhere.
“Incoming fire, lieutenant.” Mystic announced the barrage an instant before McDaniels saw it on her display.
“Incoming!” She knew she didn’t have to alert the detachment – when Mystic warned her, all of her troop were getting the same notification from their AIs. But it made her feel like she was doing something. She ducked her head down and waited, the sound of her heart beating loud in her ears…she knew what was coming.
She’d been worried about the enemy’s cluster bomb weapon. The reports from Adelaide were far from complete, but the bombs had proven to be extremely effective against troops in entrenchments and fortified positions…just like the ones her force occupied now.
McDaniels had her speakers set to pump in the outside noise, and she heard the popping sounds the reports spoke of…the small explosions that broke the shells into dozens of tiny, but powerful, warheads. Her troops were positioned along a row of rocky foothills pockmarked with large outcroppings and small, natural fissures. It was virtually a natural trench line, constructed of solid rock. But the enemy warheads landed all over, falling into the gaps and behind the rock walls her troops were using for cover.
She had her comlink set to an open line, and she could hear the screams as her people were hit. The visor display rapidly updated her on status – Mystic was tied into the med systems of all her troopers’ suits. It didn’t take long to realize her people were getting torn apart. The accuracy of that enemy weapon is uncanny, she thought as another round began impacting all across her line.
“Mortar teams. Open fire…silence those batteries.” She knew it was probably futile. From the intel she had, it didn’t seem that mortar rounds hurt these guys much. But she had heavier ordnance than the line units, so she figured she might get lucky. Besides, she didn’t have a better solution. She wished they had some airpower, but they hadn’t had the time or transport capacity to bring ground-based air units to Cornwall…and with the fleet bugged out they didn’t have any atmospheric craft tended from orbit either.
Her heavy autocannons were taking down enemy targets, but the incoming barrage was wreaking havoc on her crews’ effectiveness. We’re hurting them, she thought grimly, but not enough. She was going to have to pull back.
“Missile teams, cease firing and retire to secondary position. Autocannons, maintain fire.” She breathed deeply, the oxygen-rich mixture of her suit’s air helping her to maintain her alertness, holding back the growing fatigue. She was glad she had mostly veterans. There were few things harder on morale than part of a unit holding firm while the rest is retreating. But she couldn’t lose her HVMs, and if she waited any longer she would.
The enemy was getting closer, and the cluster-bomb bombardment stopped. They don’t want to hit their own people, she thought. Of course, she corrected herself, they’re not people at all…are they?
She pulled her mag-rifle up and glanced over the lip of the rocky wall. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she could feel the droplets of sweat making their way down her bare back, despite the optimal temperature inside her armor. I’ve never been this scared, she thought, struggling to maintain her composure. “Those aren’t people at all coming. They’re machines.” She spoke softly, inaudibly to herself. Mystic heard, of course, but the AI knew McDaniels was talking to herself and didn’t respond.
McDaniels and her people had faced tough enemies before, but this was different. There was a relentlessness to these machines that was like nothing she’d seen before. A human enemy, even an elite veteran, had the same weaknesses and doubts you did. He might fight to the death, but he wasn’t immune to fear. Even veteran units broke. They fatigued. They fell back. But these things just kept coming, even when half of their bodies were shot away.
She felt a jolt of adrenalin as one of the robots came into her field of fire, and it pushed the fear back momentarily. She opened up with her mag-rifle, firing on full auto, raking the thing. An appendage got torn off…she wasn’t quite sure whether she should call it an arm. The things had four of them, whatever they were.
She saw that at least five of her Marines were also firing at the thing, and slowly they took it apart…piece by piece. Still it came forward, returning their fire and taking out two of her people. Finally, under the sustained fire of the Marines’ nuclear-powered mag-rifles, the thing stopped moving. She didn’t know if it was completely destroyed or not, but it was down and it wasn’t shooting anymore. But at least six others were moving into her field of fire.
“Detachment, prepare to fall back. Autocannons move to secondary line. Everyone else, hold and provide covering fire.” She wasn’t sure how much covering fire would accomplish against these things…they didn’t seem to pay attention to fire at all. I’ve got to give the autocannons a couple minutes, she thought…I can’t lose them. She knew it was going to cost her casualties, but she had to salvage her heavy weapons. “Pick your targets, people.” She took a deep breath. “We’ve got to hold them for two minutes.” She focused her eyes forward and opened fire again. It was the longest two minutes of her life.
James Teller stood on a rocky bluff overlooking the sea. Enemy cluster bombs were beginning to drop near his position…close enough to get his attention, but not a real problem. Not yet. We’ve got to complete the withdrawal, he thought. Most of the brigade – what was left of it at least – was retreating to the offshore islands. The Scorpion Archipelago was even more defensible than the rocky coastal areas where they’d been fighting for the past four days.
His forces had been driven almost completely off the peninsula, though for the first time the enemy had been made to pay heavily for the ground they’d gained. A few of his units had even managed to launch locally successful counter-attacks, though the gains were short-lived. Overall the entire battle had been a fighting retreat. The Marines had bled the enemy, but they hadn’t been able to stop them.
He knew he should have moved back long before – the command post had already been relocated to Blackrock Island, and he was 30 lightyears from his replacement. But he had two companies covering the retreat, and he just couldn’t bring himself to leave with them still engaged. He figured General Cain would have scolded him and ordered him back to the command post, but then Cain wasn’t there. Besides, he’d seen Cain in action and had a pretty good idea what the general would do in his situation. Teller was in charge and completely cut off from the chain of command…the decisions were his to make. And he wasn’t leaving until his last two companies were on their way.
He looked down at the shore. Most of the barges had pushed off, headed for Skarn Island, 3 klicks out to sea. Skarn was the first island in the archipelago, and the most rugged. His reserve units had spent the last three days turning it into a virtual fortress. The retreating Marines would occupy all of the islands, but the big fight would be for Skarn. If they couldn’t hold that, they didn’t have much chance on the others.