Something in their posture, something is the tiny movements in their leading edge, triggered a certainty that the mass assault was only moments away.
“Get ready!” Esther passed as she jumped up and ran up the slope to the peak where she could see most of her entire AO.
Esther was ready to call for the FPF the moment the Hands moved into the assault. It should break up some of it, but they were spread out too much to stop the attack. And if things got too hot, she needed that massive Final Protective Fire to allow her to punch out and make the run for the coast and the RHG boats, so she held her hand, not willing to commit just yet.
She’d told Lieutenant Spiros that she thought their chances of survival were 25%. In her heart, she knew they were much less. If they didn’t smash the assault, the RHG boats were six klicks away, and even if some of them could break through the assault and survive a running retrograde, the Hands undoubtedly had fighters there who weren’t going to simply sit by and allow them to commandeer the vessels. Constantine still wanted the break for the boats to be their main effort, but Esther knew their best chance, as poor as that was, was to beat back the assault.
Three thunks sounded off in the distance, followed by three more. It was on.
Esther saw the first rank of Hands start to move just as her Gnat feed failed. Gnat 3 and 7 went down almost immediately after. The Hands must have been simply spraying the sky with their energy weapons, and on full dispersion. That wouldn’t be effective against any sort of protected troops, but against the tiny Gnats, it was evidently enough.
Orders were being shouted, and around her, Esther could feel a collective sense of determination.
In the southern AO, the 40mm field gun fired, and a moment later, mortar rounds started landing. At least four hit within the perimeter, and soldiers fell. Two were short, and they had to have landed among their own fighters again. Her battle position wasn’t large, but Marine mortarmen would not have missed with six rounds. Four landing within here battle position where the soldiers were either dug in or hugging the ground were bad enough, but upright and in the open, the assaulting Hands would have been much more vulnerable.
The short rounds had been on the eastern slope, and Hands appeared over the edge of the northern AO’s perimeter. They were immediately cut down by First Platoon, but more kept appearing. Micro-grenades started detonating, and the wave faltered.
The short rounds hadn’t stopped all of the assault from the east. Second Platoon began to fire, first a few shots, then more and more as Hands scrambled up. Esther brought up her M114, sighted in, and dropped first one, then a second.
The field gun opened up again, but Esther didn’t have time to pull Merl or Lyle’s feed. As long as she could hear it, then she hoped that meant the southern approach was still held.
Soldiers from First were dropping under the onslaught, but more of the Hands were falling, creating a barrier for those below to surmount. Chris was throwing grenade after grenade in machine-like frequency, while Doc was popping Hand after Hand with his big Grayson, the combat shotgun tearing off limbs and creating gaping holes in bodies that were charging moments before.
“Bug, pull your men and reinforce Chris,” she passed.
Beside her, Constantine was sitting, cooling firing round after round. Several rounds pinged on the rocks between him, but he never faltered.
Somehow in the heat of the battle, Esther saw an RHG grenadier as he leveled his launcher at her and fired. She instinctively started to duck away, but the grenade whizzed past her head to disappear somewhere to the west of the mountain.
From below the perimeter, a siren sounded, followed by three or four more. There were 20 or so Hands within the perimeter, and all of them wheeled back and bolted. Most were cut down, but a few jumped over their dead companions and disappeared back down the hill.
Shots followed them until Tim yelled, “Cease fire, cease fire!”
Someone shouted out, then another, and within a few moments, cheering filled the battle position.
“Did we win?” Constantine asked, looking up at Esther with a confused look on his face.
“Back to your positions!” Esther screamed, jumping down from the peak. “Give me a head count!”
They hadn’t won, she knew. As massive as the assault had been, it was only a probe, done to determine their posture and weapons. The assault could have succeeded if it had been pressed, she thought, but she was grateful they’d pulled back. And she was grateful she hadn’t fired the FPF. That was still in her pocket.
“Head and ammo count, now!” Tim shouted.
Esther looked around her. There were at least 40 bodies of the dead and seriously wounded just in the north and east AO. A good many of them were Hellenic soldiers. All of her team’s avatars were a healthy blue, but the brigade had taken a hit.
“What’s your status?” she asked Merl.
“We took a missile hit. The gun’s still operable, but the team is KIA. Me and Lyle had to man it.”
Esther hadn’t noted the incoming missile in the heat of the fight, and that was part of her mission as a commander. If she had a company of Marines, she could have sat back and monitored the battle, giving orders as needed, but things were desperate, and every trigger mattered.
The count came in. First Platoon had nine KIA and nine WIA, three of them being out of the fight. Second had six KIA and four WIA, two being combat ineffective. Third had four KIA while Fourth was at full strength. The force was down to 51 effectives, and ammunition was running low. The RHG had taken heavy losses, but they probably still had well over 250 combat effective fighters to throw into the next assault.
And there would be another assault, Esther was sure.
Chapter 37
“What do you think?” Esther asked Tim.
“It’s your call, Ess. As for me, I just don’t know. Our chances aren’t good either way. Maybe a few of us could break free and hide out, but that’s about it.”
Constantine, Captain Athanasciou, and Master Sergeant Kang had asked Esther again about attempting to break out. She’d stressed that option was a last-ditch effort if they were totally overrun, but she had to acknowledge that if they were going to attempt it, they should do it with as much strength as possible. Still, she felt their best chance was to retain the high ground and limit the frontage that the RHG could attack. She knew that Constantine disagreed with her decision, but he wasn’t pushing the issue.
That attack was coming soon, she knew. The first assault had broken off almost an hour ago, and except for the occasional shot by Bob, the top of the mountain had been relatively quiet. Twenty-one of the Hellenic soldiers were ziplocked, both KIA and WIA, waiting in stasis for an attempted resurrection or regen. Ten of the KIA were so dismembered that resurrection was not an option.
The dead Hands were pushed to the edge of the defensive perimeter and down the slope. That had been a necessity as well as an opportunity. Private Jillian de Marco had suggested that they could make use of the bodies, and Chris had brought the idea to Esther. She listened and immediately agreed, wondering why it took one of the least-experienced soldiers to come up with the idea.
The RHG fighters all wore their normal gray and tan cammie-patterned uniform blouses and gray skulltops. The rest of their gear could be haphazard. Private de Marco had suggested that a few of them don the blouses of the dead Hands and get pushed over the side as just so much carnage. They could then listen and watch for signs of the next assault. With all of her Gnats now off-line, Esther had embraced the idea. Four soldiers had volunteered, and they were now scattered among the dead on the slope below the perimeter.
Technically, donning an enemy’s uniforms was against the Harbin Accords, but technically, Esther didn’t give a rat’s ass about that at the moment.
Esther looked up at the sun. The day cycle was five hours gone. Nightfall would be in another hour-and-a-half. If the assault didn’t materialize by then, she might reconsider the break-out, but she didn’t thi
nk it would get to that.
She was right.
One of the volunteers scrambled back over the perimeter, almost getting shot in the process by another soldier.
“They’re moving again,” he said, breathing hard. “Most going to the south, but some look like they’ll hit the slopes again.”
“Good job, Mason,” Constantine said.
“How many to the south?” Esther asked.
“More than a hundred.”
Esther closed her eyes, trying to put herself in the enemy commander’s shoes. The push to the south could be a feint to pull soldiers away from First and Second Platoon’s AOs. The trail had been costly to the RHG, but still, it was the quickest way to reach the summit. The Hands could move that way, but then quickly backtrack along the trail.
If this were a nice, geometric summit, she’d just ring her troops around the crown, right along the collar where the slopes became steeper. But while the east and north formed half of a rough circle, the west was a sheer cliff, and the slope dropped to the south, creating a summit of two levels. She could pull back the perimeter to the south, but that would leave the trail open and uncovered. The three chokepoints along the trail were natural places to defend, and even if the RHG was aware of that, there wasn’t a lot they could do about it.
If all her platoons were still at full strength, she’d feel more comfortable shifting forces, but First and Second had been hit hard, so she left Bug and his tiny Fourth Platoon augmenting First.
There was firing from below, and a moment later, Private de Marco came tumbling over the wall of dead bodies.
“All of them are moving. The attack’s coming.”
“That’s it, then. Let’s do this,” she passed on the team net.
She waited for the thunk of outgoing mortars as she climbed the up the jutting rock that formed the peak again. This had become her personal battle position. The rock’s two extra meters didn’t seem like much, but it gave her a good view over First and Second Platoon’s AO as well as Third’s down to the closest choke point. Her hand rested on the bottom stone of the cairn left by tourists who’d climbed the mountain over the years—none probably realizing that the same summit would someday be a bloody battlefield. Amazingly, despite the incoming, the 30 or 40 rocks still lay on top of each other. The concussions hadn’t knocked them down.
Hell, if I run out of ammo, I can chuck these at them, she thought.
Esther could hear movement, and Tim inched forward, looking over the edge. He ducked back as a volley of fire tore through the air.
“Now!” he shouted to five soldiers who each threw their grenades. Four seconds later, explosions boomed, followed by battle cries from the throats of 250 Hands.
No mortars landed, but another missile hit just on the other side of Esther’s perch. The soldiers of First and Second opened fire as the first of the Hands tried to clear the dead bodies at the perimeter.
To the south, the field gun fired. Unlike before, the gun fired again five seconds later, followed by yet a third shot five seconds after that. And Esther knew this was the final push. The Hands weren’t going to let themselves be rebuffed.
Beside her and one step down, Constantine was back to his mechanical firing mode. He had more ammunition than most of his troops, and he seemed bound and determined to expend it all.
A wave of eight or nine Hands poured over the perimeter, firing wildly while the soldiers picked them off. Rounds hit on either side of Esther, and she joined the firing, dropping at least one of the RHG fighters. As soon as the last one of the initial wave fell, another ten were coming over the edge. A soldier threw a grenade at them, but it bounded up against a dead Hand, and the corpse absorbed most of the blast.
The field gun fired again, then Lyle passed, “Merl’s down, and we’re out of ammo. We’re pulling back to Pine.”
Esther pulled up Merl’s bios. He was in shock, but it didn’t look too deep. He should be functional.
Pine was the second coordinating point along the trail. Esther couldn’t see it—she wouldn’t be able to see anyone until they reached Maple, which was the bend in the trail 40 meters away.
“Merl, you OK?”
There wasn’t an answer.
“Lyle, how is he? His bios aren’t that bad.”
“Not good. I’m sending him back now.”
Two Hands emerged through a crease in the perimeter. One of them saw Esther and charged. He was armed, but he wasn’t firing. Esther wondered if intended to try and snatch her or Constantine, but that was a casual thought as she shot him in the chest, then as the second came to a halt and stood there looking stupid, she shot her as well.
With more of her soldiers falling, there were more gaps in the perimeter, and RHG fighters were making it through into the battle position. Fighting had devolved into hand-to-hand combat in places, and the soldiers weren’t always coming out on top. She caught a glimpse of Doc blasting a Hand almost in half with his Grayson, then swinging the big weapon in an overhand arc to crash onto the head of another Hand who was grappling with a soldier.
“I’m out of ammo!” a voice cut through the cacophony of battle.
Esther knew she’d be hearing more of that. They hadn’t started out with a normal combat load, and the fighting was rapidly using up what little they had.
Esther still had ammo, so she started picking off Hand after Hand, debating if she should switch and order a breakout. That would leave Lyle and those soldiers with him exposed, though.
Three more Hands rushed her position. Constantine whirled around and took out two, but the third one juked to the left, firing a small hornet.
A hornet was the generic term of any number of hand-held anti-armor personal rockets. They might be a little light for a main battle tank, but they’d do a number on even a Marine in a PICS.
If he hadn’t been diving to the ground as he fired, Esther was sure she’d be toast, but the little rocket shot through the space between Constantine and her. Esther shot the man before he could try again.
The unmistakable whine of an aircraft enveloped the peak, and Esther’s heart fell. It was too late for a breakout if the RHG controlled the air. They’d saved their final surprise for the last.
Expecting a strafing run, Esther brought her M114 to bear, a fly against a lion—and her mouth dropped open. Obviously coming in for a landing, the UFSGS Manta was an amazing sight.
Esther wasn’t the only one who’d expected to be strafed. Hands and more than a few soldiers were diving out of the battle position and down the slope.
The main hatch opened, and Petty Officer Krüger looked out, holding one of the ship’s rifles. She spotted Esther and shouted out, “HF-I 9200.”
It took a moment for her to realize what she was saying, but then she immediately instructed her AI to switch to the band and frequency.
“That you, Senior Chief?”
“Sure is. You need a ride out of here?”
“Damned straight. How many can you take?”
“Probably twenty. Sorry, it won’t be more, but I’ll be weighted out as it is. But get aboard now. There’s a shitload of bad guys all around you.”
“Who is—” Constantine started to ask.
“No time. You’ve got to get out of here,” she told him.
“All of the WIA, on the ship! Now! Move it!
“Tim, give me security. Kang, get 20 to go. You’ve got 30 seconds!”
They probably had less than that. It wouldn’t take long for the Hands to figure out this wasn’t a Wasp or Experion.
“Krüger, we need your ships’ rifles, all four,” she shouted, forgetting for a moment that she was now on the Space Guard ships’ net and could have just passed it.
The petty officer nodded and ducked back inside
Shocked or not, Master Sergeant Kang got his people moving. Within ten seconds, he was directing people to pick up the ziplocked WIA and haul them to the Manta. Hope gave people wings, and they rushed. Most of the other soldiers were l
ooking back at the ship, probably calculating whether they’d be able to fit onboard.
There was a single shot, and one of the soldiers fell. Tim shouted and bounded forward, firing on full auto.
“Eyes front! That’s where the enemy is!”
“I told you to get onboard,” Esther told Constantine.
“Not unless all my men get onboard first.”
“You don’t have a choice. You’re too important to your people.”
“No one is more important than another.”
“Bullshit. You can make a difference. You can let your father know just what your planet is facing. You accepted my command, so I’m ordering you to get onboard,” she said.
He looked at her for only a moment, let out a deep breath, and made his way to where the Manta, as small as it was in comparison to other ships, dwarfed the small battle position.
“What’s going on?” Lyle passed. “Some of the Hands have pulled back.”
Not all, Esther realized as more fire erupted from the southern AO.
“We’ve got the Manta here, ready to take us off,” Chris answered.
“No shit? All of us?”
Chris looked over at Esther, who shook her head.
“No, Lyle. Sorry about that. Not for us.”
There was a pause, then “Understood.”
The loading was taking too long, Esther knew. Krüger had reappeared with the four ships’ rifles and passed out three to eager hands, keeping one for herself. Two more of the Manta’s crew were on the mountain, trying to hurry the process.
Esther hadn’t even got close to the point where she would have been teaching the brigade how to withdraw while under pressure, and if the Hands recovered from their surprise quickly enough, it would all be over. A withdrawal under pressure had to leave soldiers in contact while others withdrew. The perimeter couldn’t be abandoned at once, which despite Tim’s best efforts, was pretty much what was happening. Focus was on the Manta, not on the mass of RHG fighters still just meters away.
Esther's Story: Recon Marine (The United Federation Marine Corps' Lysander Twins Book 2) Page 25