“This is it!” shouted Eddie.
The two craft tore across the lunar landscape at blinding speeds just a hundred metres above the surface.
“Be ready on the guns!”
“They better be ready for us!” screamed Perez.
Eddie closely watched the heads up display in the cockpit, carefully timing their rapid drop onto the landing zone. Just a hundred metres short of the target area, and still with no sign of life, he put the thrusters on full reverse bringing the ship to a sudden and violent landing exactly where he’d been told to land. All four of the men were still doubtful of the intel and the ability of the surviving colonists to be there waiting for them.
He immediately powered down the engines to silence the scene and draw as little attention to them as possible. They could only hope that their presence had gone unnoticed but they knew that was too much to hope for. Rains reached forward and tapped the display, bringing up the under slung cameras on the craft. For a moment they saw nothing but the same boring rocks that spread as far as the eye could see beyond the colony.
“Think we hit the right spot?” asked Perez.
“We hit the right co-ordinates, that’s for sure.”
“Great, suits fucked it up again…”
Before he could say another word the ground opened between the two vessels, just metres away from the landing sleds.
“Holy shit!”
The opening was thirty metres wide and disguised the man-made structure below. On the cameras they could see a platform rising to the surface with dozens of people suited up and ready to get to work.
“We are in business, Eddie!”
He hit the cargo doors as the massive platform rose to the level of their side doors. The pilots had been ordered to stay in their seats at all times. They wanted nothing more than to greet their comrades, but they had to be ready to leave or operate weapons at a moment’s notice.
Eddie watched the screens intently, rocking back and forth with the stress and excitement of it all. Perez scanned the skies with his monitors and camera displays, sneaking a peak at the colonists every few seconds. They set on the supplies like a swarm. They were highly organised and efficient, just as the pilots had hoped, but never expected.
Rains typed into the display monitors in the docking bay, the only way they had to communicate with the colonists. His message read ‘three minutes remaining’. A man on the decking bay looked up at their cameras and gave a nod in recognition.
“They’re brave sons of bitches,” said Perez.
“What else could they be?” replied Eddie.
“What ya mean?”
“With this enemy, you either run or you fight. They had no place to run.”
“They could have just given up, accepting a quick death.”
He nodded in acknowledgement. There was no doubt that it took balls to combat a vastly superior enemy when isolated from Earth. In just two minutes the colonists had shifted half of the payloads of the two ships, an impressive feat. Desperation was pushing them to work faster than any crew back at the base.
“Any sign of trouble?” asked Eddie.
“Nothing yet, but you know those bastards, damn bitch to see them. Plus we’re exposed from every angle here.”
“Just a little longer.”
Perez’s eyes shot across the cockpit glass in front of them.
“What the hell was that?”
“What? What did you see?” shouted Eddie.
“I don’t know, maybe something.”
He hit the keyboard violently, signalling for the ground crew to shift their butts. Perez’s instincts were rarely wrong, a fact Eddie wished was not the case now.
“Be ready on the guns, this is gonna be a hot exit!”
“I never expected anything else. Riding with you is never boring, Eddie!”
Rains looked down at the screen, the colonists were unloading the last few of the crates. One of them walked up to the camera he was watching them on. He looked directly into the lens and held his thumb up with a grateful nod, followed by a salute. Eddie was as chilled out as any man could be, but the sentiment brought tears to his eyes.
He knew it would likely to be a fight to get home, but for them it was just in and out, back to a safe home. For the Lunar colonists it was going to be a war with no end in sight. He typed one last message into the display box, ‘good luck friend’.
“We’ve got incoming!” Perez shouted.
Rains took one last look down at the screen to see the man step off their docking ramp. He hammered the retract switch, knowing he could not spend a second longer considering their allies on the ground. From now on the only mission was to survive.
“Weapons hot! Let’s get off this rock!” shouted Eddie.
He fired up and put power down to all engines. The craft hopped off the surface with immense speed, lurching forward so quickly that it caught Eddie off guard.
“Whoa! Easy now!”
“They’re closing on us!” shouted Perez.
“Give them everything we’ve got!”
Perez squinted to distinguish the enemy ships from the terrain. He was forced to use the manual targeting pads, something he’d only ever done in simulation and training exercises. As he looked across the sky in his wall of monitors he gasped at the sheer number of anomalies in the sky.
“Jesus Christ! Get us the hell out of here!”
Rains could see through the cockpit window that the vessels were closing in. Perez opened fire immediately as they began to build speed. The enemy fired their energy weapons, narrowly missing them.
“Damn this is one fast son of a bitch!”
“Whoa, Eddie, yeah!”
The enemy fired once more, but it was too late. Their smaller craft, with far higher power output, were vastly superior in speed to the enemy ships.
“Didn’t think I’d see the day! We gotta get some more of these babies!” Eddie laughed.
Rain’s broad grin swiftly turned to a grimace as he thought about the colonists. They were free and clear, able to outrun their enemy, but it was a whole different story for Kelly and his troops. They could only pray that the supply drop would go some way to giving them a chance of survival.
“Let’s move!” shouted Kelly.
His helmet dome was folded back, being safe in the oxygen supplied tunnels. He could only hope that the enemy had not identified their access point to the surface, but he doubted they would have such luck. His people were exhausted and mentally hammered, but the supply drop was driving them on to give everything they had.
The Commander had already outlaid a plan for the food and ammunition to be divided between three key safe zones underground. They were all at least a mile from the drop zone. The few underground vehicles built to haul military and scientific resources throughout the tunnels were proving to be invaluable.
Since the invasion had begun, Kelly had done little but lose ground and friends. The supply drop had given him more than just hope. It had been intended to boost morale as much as provide genuine help, but it was much appreciated. He’d already been briefed on the necessity of immediate feedback on their new hardware. He knew they were being used as a test bed for the American military, but it was nothing he would complain about.
The crews sat atop the haulage trailers, many on the boxes of supplies. They smiled and slapped each other’s backs. They were celebrating a victory. In any other situation Kelly would have talked them down, made them put it all into perspective. Today however, it was the only glimmer of hope that existed for them all.
“We’ve got incoming!” shouted Lieutenant Green.
The officer peered down over the rooftop at the APCs being loaded below.
“Shit! Get rolling, now!” Jones ordered.
The second vehicle was loaded as best it could be, but the third was still empty. He looked over to a sergeant who was next to him.
“Tell these two to get rolling and back within the perimeter, we’ll follow ASAP!”
The Sergeant stared back with a gaunt expression. Jones had just volunteered for them to take the brunt of an attack for the good of the defending forces. He knew it was the right decision, but that didn’t make it suck any less.
“Yes, Sir!”
The cannons of the heavy tanks bellowed around their position as the two vehicles began to roll, their heavy tracks ripping apart the civilian streets. Jones waved back the third and last APC. Gunfire erupted on the rooftop as his men began to engage the attackers, he knew it was a dire situation, but he had a task to do. Every fibre of his body told him to join his men in the fight, but the sooner they were loaded, the sooner they’d be out of there.
The driver was nervous and rushed, missing the Captain’s command to stop. The huge steel beast smashed into the building. Bricks and motors tumbled down onto the soldiers below, crashing on their helmets. Fortunately, re-enforced armoury walls supported the structure.
“What the fuck!”
“Forget it, Sergeant, just get this shit loaded!”
Jones rushed to the crates of cannon rounds for the big guns and hauled them up with all his strength. His body was aching in every place, sweat dripped down his armour, adrenaline was the only thing keeping him going.
“Load! Load faster!”
The fire above was chaotic and desperate. The Captain knew that they’d been hit by a substantial wave of the enemy, but he would not return to the other survivors with anything less than what he had intended.
“That’s it, Captain!”
Jones swung his rifle around to his front taking it in both hands. He ran out of the building and to a corner of the structure to peer round at the unfolding battle. As he did so a huge energy pulse hit the heavy tank just twenty metres down the street. The blinding light soared through the thick armour and struck the ammunition store, sending it into a ball of flames. Black smoke bellowed from the wreck creating a smoke screen between them and the enemy.
Looking up to the ledge of the rooftop, he couldn’t see any of his men but could hear their weapons still firing. He cupped his hands about his mouth and shouted at the top of his voice.
“Evac! Now! Go, go, go!”
He had no way to communicate with the other two tanks and he wouldn’t risk any of his men to do so. He had to rely on the fact that they were observing the situation through their rear-mounted cameras. He signalled with his hands for them to pull back, hoping somebody was watching. Without wasting anymore time he turned back to the loaded APC, his men were already climbing aboard.
Green and the others from the roof slid down the ladders on the side of the building, desperately trying to escape the ferocious onslaught. There were less soldiers returning than had been sent up, but Jones knew that it was a waste of time to ask after them.
“Get onto the vehicle!”
The soldiers on top of the tracked APC hauled their comrades aboard. There were now just seventy men left in his company. As many as possible were piling aboard the final APC, though only thirty were able to fit at a squeeze.
“Get this junk moving!” he shouted.
The APC lurched forward, leaving the Captain and more than half of his men behind. He turned to look back, praying that the others had gotten his message. They could hear tracks rolling, but they were muffled through the continuous gunfire and explosions around them. Out of the smoke the first vehicle appeared.
Several scorch marks were burnt into the armour plating. The tank stopped briefly to allow many of the men to climb aboard. Seconds later the second heavy tank burst through the thick black smoke. It barely resembled the first anymore. The turret was completely missing, blown off from a huge energy pulse weapon. Smoke bellowed from the engine block and the turret ring was still smouldering.
The driver’s hatch was half destroyed and they could make out the bloody face of the distraught woman who sat at the helm. However wounded she was, she was still fighting. The men looked at the sight in disbelief. The destruction to the heaviest tanks in deployment made them all feel more mortal than ever before.
“Get on!” Jones ordered.
The last of the para company climbed aboard the scarred vehicle. There was nothing left of the two turret crew other than a trace of blood where they’d been ripped out along with the main gun turret. Through the gaping hole they could see that the hull gunner had been killed instantly by an energy pulse blasting right through his body armour and to the seat behind him. He lay slumped on the controls.
The driver was all who remained in the vehicle. Her helmet was off and blood poured from a head wound, she looked back for just a moment to see the soldiers clamber aboard.
Jones gave her the thumbs up and a nod, not just to confirm they were ready to move, but in appreciation and respect. The vehicle lurched forward with a creek. Pushing the vehicle to the limit of what it could still manage it would survive no more than a kilometre or two. Jones looked around at his comrades who had the grimmest of expressions about their faces.
The friends that they had lost were a tragic and earth shattering strike to the morale of the troops. But more so than that, they were coming to the realisation that they stood almost no chance of leaving Brest alive. The only relief was that they were giving hundreds of thousands of civilians the opportunity to escape.
Jones looked down at his hands. The gloves he wore were cut and blood seeped through from where debris had struck him. His armour was covered in a thick layer of dust from the destruction of the buildings all around him. His mouth was dry from the lack of water and smoke filled air.
As the vehicle stormed up the ruined street, Charlie looked back at the site they had left. He could see the bodies of two soldiers they had been forced to leave behind. The scene was peaceful again, the same horrible quiet that follows every bloody battle. Smoke still bellowed from the tank they’d lost. Turning a bend in the road he lost sight of the weapons depot and the carnage surrounding it.
Wanting nothing more than to forget everything he’d just seen, Charlie already knew that he never would, not for however many hours or days he had left to live. They had done everything that was asked of them, but it was at such a fearful cost.
It was not long before they reached friendly lines. The buildings around the perimeter were lined with troops from the French Armoured Corps. They watched, horrified at the sight of the smashed vehicle that they rode atop. Dozens of British troops were intermingled with the French soldiers, the few who from Jones’ division which had managed to reach the city. They had fled there for safety.
The smoking wreck of the tank came to a halt in the crossroads where Girard and his command centre were setup. The APCs were already being raided for everything they had. The British troops leapt off the vehicle as Girard and Chandra closed in. Jones climbed to the front of the vehicle and knelt down beside the wrecked driver’s hatch. The woman at the controls looked up at him with a haunted expression on her blood-strewn face.
“Captain Jones. Thanks for saving our arses, Sergeant.”
He offered his hand to the injured driver. She first looked stunned, but then grasped his bloodied hand. Jones hauled her out of her seat quicker than expected. She was far lighter than he thought, shorter than any among them and close to half his weight.
“Captain! Good to see you made it back!” Chandra shouted.
“Major, we’re a tank down, we lost plenty of soldiers out there, and whatever hit us will be coming down that road shortly!”
He helped the driver down from the vehicle, jumping down beside her. Girard noticed at the stricken driver with horror. He couldn’t find any words to say to her. Chandra looked down at her body armour, just able to make out her name under the dirt and blood.
“Sergeant Dubois, get yourself to the aid station.”
The bedraggled tank driver nodded. She could not bring herself to speak or to salute her superiors. She staggered off as commanded, still badly shaken over the loss of her crew. Jones turned back to his Major. He could
feel that she was rapidly heading into same disillusioned state as the driver. Chandra was lost for words as she looked over his bloody and filthy armour.
“Captain, well done! You’ve kept us in to the fight. I must get these supplies moving, they are desperately needed!”
Jones nodded to the French Colonel as he rushed off to organise the distribution of the ammunition they’d brought back at such a high cost.
“Jones, you are to get back on the southern perimeter. We need every soldier in the fight,” Chandra ordered quietly.
Charlie wondered if this new hell would ever be over. He supposed that death would be the only end in sight. He nodded before turning to his men and barking his orders. They glared at him in despair, not half recovered from the beating they’d just received.
Commander Kelly sat in what had become their operational headquarters. Computers had been hurriedly set up in a haphazard fashion with as much equipment as they could scavenge as time went by. Lewis sat at his makeshift comms desk. He barely knew what to do, having so little of the equipment and resources he’d been trained for and become so accustomed.
“Have you patched into the library feed yet?”
“Yes, Sir, we can now send messages directly from my station. It’s a hardwired connection though, meaning this is the only terminal which can be used,” replied Lewis.
“Understood, good work.”
Kelly turned to look at the people at his command. Many of his surviving NCOs and officers lay about the room. Few conversations took place. The excitement of receiving help from Earth had already died down. Back was the grim realisation of the harrowing lives they now lived.
“Listen up! Everyone!” he shouted.
They all turned to him, wanting nothing more than to be told that everything was going to be okay. They hung onto the Commander’s every word, praying he would bring them to victory or safety.
“The time for skulking around and scavenging what we can is going to stop. We can no longer scurry around, avoiding the trouble above our heads. We were sent new weapons for two reasons. One, to give us a fighting chance, and two, as front line testing for the U.S. military! We have an important task on our hands. We serve not just to fight for our own lives, but to help those who have done so for us!”
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