He sobbed again, this time uttering something under his breath. ‘I’m sorry! They are making me do this!’
My headset had picked up, magnified and translated the civilian’s voice for me to hear, but he probably didn’t know that. He wasn’t talking to us, I realised, but somebody else. Somebody who wasn’t there. Perhaps it was a loved one, or even whoever he called his god, but it wasn’t that which sent alarm bells ringing in my head.
A chill crept down my spine. He’s not asking forgiveness for what he’s doing, I told myself, he’s asking forgiveness for what he’s ABOUT to do.
I looked him over. There was something funny about the way he tripped and stumbled through the undergrowth, as if he was off balance. His waistline appeared abnormally wide in contrast to his thin limbs, and his groin area was wet. He’d pissed himself.
‘Proxy bomb!’ I warned over the section net, my voice almost turning shrill with alarm.
‘Shit!’ somebody gasped, as the gravity of the situation became clear.
Proxy bombers were suicide bombers who didn’t want to die. They were forced to carry out their ghastly act by all means of coercion, often by the controller holding their family to ransom. I had heard of them being used before, during my pre-deployment training on my voyage to Eden, but I had never seen it with my own eyes.
Everything pointed to that scenario. The civilians were clearly under duress, and several of them appeared to be carrying something around their waists which altered their gait.
The closest civilian was now less than twenty metres away.
I fired one last warning shot over his head. ‘STOP! Fucking stop now, or I swear I’ll shoot!’
The civilian still didn’t heed my warning. Why would he stop? He knew he was a dead man anyway.
There was nothing left for me to do. With pained reluctance, I pulled the trigger, shooting the man square in the chest. He didn’t make a sound as the dart snatched him backward, and he disappeared into the undergrowth.
‘Bomb burst!’ I hollered.
None of us had practiced the bomb burst drill since preparing for counter-insurgency operations on New Earth, but we all instinctively knew what to do. It was probably the simplest and yet the most sensible thing to do in such a dangerous situation. As one we turned and ran, abandoning our formation completely as we sprinted back toward the valley, trying to put as much space between us and the civilians.
It was unlikely that the unfortunate victims had the means to detonate their own devices, since they wouldn’t do so at the right time. Instead, their devices were likely to be detonated remotely by a controller watching from somewhere nearby. The knowledge that the proxy bombers might explode at any moment drove me to sprint ever faster, reaching the edge of the valley in seconds.
Just as I began to slide down the rocky slope again, my back was struck by a mighty force, propelling me forward with my arms flailing. I cartwheeled downhill, chunks of earth landing around me as I hit the ground and then rolled once more. My rifle sling wrapped about my neck, and my rifle smacked me on the visor as I ended up lying flat on my back with the wind knocked out of me.
For a moment I lay there, stunned and winded. Smoke poured from the forest where the civilians had been.
I sat up painfully, unwrapped my sling from my neck and checked that I hadn’t broken my respirator seal. I then switched to the platoon net. ‘One-Zero, this is One-One. Contact. Proxy bomber. Wait out!’
My visor display was flashing angrily, highlighting a yellow crosshair just above the bank. I cursed. Our section net was still live, and it was informing me that we had taken a casualty. My heart leapt.
‘Man down!’ I shouted, scrambling to my feet and rushing back up the slope faster than I had run down it.
My terrifying message rapidly passed across the platoon, spoken verbally and then passed on every channel so that everyone knew.
Darts cracked over my head as I reached the edge of the slope, forcing me to duck. The Militia, having waited somewhere to the rear of their proxy bombers, had opened fire from deeper within the forest. My visor didn’t identify any targets for me to engage so I assumed that they were firing blindly.
The casualty was Thapa. He hadn’t made it into the valley before the bombs had exploded, and now he lay motionless at the foot of a tree five metres away from me, pink gore glistening on his stomach. He had an open abdominal wound, and it looked bad.
Another dart snapped close by, striking a tree with a puff of sawdust. I snapped up my rifle and fired in retaliation - though I still couldn’t see the firers through the smoke.
I doubled toward Thapa, not waiting for the rest of my section. I knew that they were near. I could hear their weapons firing either side of me, causing the plants of the forest to dance and sway as they vented their fury onto the unseen enemy.
Thapa twitched when I reached him, his eyes fluttering as he came in and out of consciousness. His wound looked horrific, so bad that I had to fight the urge to retch. Something had struck his stomach in the blast, perhaps a metal fragment, perhaps a piece a wood torn from a tree, or perhaps even a bone from one of the civilians as their bombs tore them apart. He must have frozen, through fear or confusion, and so the front of his body had taken the full brunt of the explosion. Our armour was good, but it wasn’t that good.
Wildgoose arrived less than a second after I did, and without a word he reached down to grab the stricken trooper by the boot. He knew as I did that we weren’t in the best place to treat him, we needed to get him back into the valley. I grabbed the other boot and the pair of us dragged our comrade rearward, the fire from the remainder of the section reaching a crescendo in order to cover us. We slid Thapa down into the valley, continuing to pull him downhill until we were well clear of the forest above, and not exposed to anybody moving along the valley itself.
As Wildgoose began to work on Thapa, I remembered that Richelieu had warned of three groups approaching our position, including one that was using the valley itself. We were so busy dealing with our flanks, we weren’t covering the main direction of enemy threat.
‘Puppy!’ I shouted up to the bank, where the remainder of my section were all firing into the forest. There were only four of them, but two of them were mammoth gunners so they could still make one hell of a noise.
My 2ic glanced over his shoulder. ‘Yeah!’
I pointed to the east. ‘Keep the valley covered, mate!’
Puppy followed my arm, then nodded his understanding. ‘Myers! Drop down from there and cover into the valley!’
‘Roger!’ The young trooper abandoned his position, skirting along the edge of the valley until he found a suitable position to look out to the east.
I looked down at Wildgoose, who sat on his haunches next to Thapa. The section sniper had taken a basic dressing from his medical kit, and had laid it onto his thighs whilst he removed his daysack from his shoulders.
‘Hold this, mate,’ he said, and I obeyed, knowing that the man knew what he was doing.
Whilst I held his daysack, Wildgoose detached the tube that connected his hydration system to the drinking straw in his respirator. He then quickly doused the dressing with water, wringing it to make sure that it was wet, but not soaking.
‘Put that over the wound,’ he said, taking the daysack back from me.
I took the dressing from Wildgoose’s legs and placed it onto Thapa’s exposed gut. Again I had to fight the urge to vomit, as I felt the slick, bloodied organs move slightly beneath my fingers.
Having returned his daysack to his back, Wildgoose helped me to lift Thapa’s torso slightly clear from the ground, and with our free hands we both wrapped it about his body, making sure that every part of his open wound was covered.
You couldn’t push a man’s organs back inside him if they had spilled out, but rather they needed to be protected from the open air by a damp dressing. You also couldn’t apply much pressure onto the wound - for obvious reasons - which created an issue with regards
to blood loss. Our quick clot couldn’t be administered to such a large open wound either, not without risking further damage, so the need for a speedy evacuation was high. We needed to get Thapa out - fast.
‘Puppy!’ I shouted. ‘Swap with me!’
‘Roger!’
I quickly swapped positions with my 2ic, returning to the heat of battle. Now that Wildgoose had some control over Thapa, I needed to get on with my job and let Puppy do his. As second in command, dealing with and extracting casualties was his bag, leaving me to concentrate on the battle.
There were more civilians in the forest, I saw, cowering between us and the enemy. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be moving, which meant that we could fire between them with relative ease. That didn’t mean the enemy extended the same protection, though.
‘What are they doing?’ I asked as I took my place amongst my men. Enemy darts whipped through the trees, and as I watched, one struck a civilian in the shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground.
‘The bastards are using them as human shields!’ Griffiths replied, his face locked into a disgusted scowl as he fired another burst into the forest.
Through the orange crosshairs that marked the civilians as potential targets, I couldn’t see a single red crosshair, or any other sign of our adversary. Our opponents had placed the civilians to stop us moving forward for fear of another proxy bomb, but it seemed that they had no interest in closing the gap between us.
‘One-Zero, this is One-One,’ I transmitted on the net whilst my men continued to exchange fire. ‘Contact report. Attack by multiple proxy bombers, followed up by ongoing small arms shoot. The enemy are using civilians as a human shield, possibly to deter our advance as well as any attacks from the air. I am engaging from a static position. We have taken one times casualty, priority one, vital signs are on the net.’
‘One-Zero, roger,’ the sergeant major responded. ‘One-Zero-Bravo, acknowledge.’
Abs answered instantly. ‘One- Zero- Bravo, roger. I’m with the casualty now. Hammersmith- Zero- Alpha, request casualty exchange point on my mark.’
A blue crosshair appeared half a kilometre to the west, somewhere along the base of the valley.
B Company’s OC had obviously been listening intently to our predicament, for his response was just as timely, though not as reassuring. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha, I see the mark. I will have my ships look into the area. Be aware, however, that extraction from the valley may prove difficult in terms of the terrain itself. We may need to adjust your exchange point. Blackjack-One-Zero, we may need to revise your current approach to this situation . . . ah . . . wait . . .’
Even the OC wasn’t sure what we ought to do. Ultimately, though, one thing was glaringly obvious - we couldn’t advance any further. A platoon of us could take on a small fleeing force of rogue Guardsmen, but it was clear that we were now up against the Loyalist Militia as well. To make matters worse, they were purposefully mixing civilian targets amongst themselves in order to deny us freedom to engage effectively.
More firing erupted on the far bank, and then I realised that Two Section were engaging the group approaching from the south. I wondered if they were engaging more proxy bombers, or actual enemy.
Puppy and Wildgoose returned to the section, throwing themselves against the bank and joining in with the firefight.
‘Thapa’s with Three Section!’ Puppy informed me above the noise. ‘Abs is gonna start moving back with the casualties now!’
The air cracked as a burst of darts passed my head, missing me by centimetres. I threw myself to the ground, quickly changing my position before lifting my head again. I still wasn’t convinced that our enemy could actually see us, but staying in the same place would have been stupid.
One of the civilians began to stray, clutching at his head whilst he staggered through the crossfire in absolute terror. Something struck him, presumably a dart, and he fell to the ground.
‘We need to get the fuck out of here!’ Puppy shouted.
‘No shit!’ I agreed.
Everything had changed. The civilians made it impossible for us to do anything unless we were prepared to shoot them all as enemy - and even then it didn’t guarantee we wouldn’t be blown to pieces. They also removed our ability to call in fire from our dropships, making us far more vulnerable. The tactic being employed against us was sick, but it was working.
The sergeant major had obviously come to the same conclusion. ‘All call signs, this is One-Zero! We will withdraw in a westerly direction, following the valley. One-One, you will move first! I’ll meet you on the valley floor. Move now!’
‘Roger!’ I replied. I lifted my head and hollered to my section. ‘Break contact! Follow me!’
I turned and slid back down into the valley, my section following.
I could see Two Section on the opposite bank, formed into a defensive line just as we had been, with two troopers observing along the valley itself. All of their weapons were firing, as they engaged targets in all directions.
The sergeant major was waiting for me at the bottom of the valley, stood amongst the civilians my mammoth gunners had killed. His signaller was in a fire position nearby, covering out to the east, whilst Yulia knelt close by, watching impassively.
The sergeant major pointed westward, along the valley base. ‘Start heading back, best speed! Corporal Abdi will show you where to go!’
I didn’t stop to speak to Yulia, even though I could feel her eyes upon me. There was nothing to say. Instead I turned to follow the sergeant major’s outstretched arm and continued my withdrawal.
Something suddenly exploded then, on Two Section’s side of the valley, causing us all to duck instinctively. I glanced upward to see more smoke rising from amongst the trees, though thankfully I saw no yellow crosshairs marking casualties.
‘Let’s move!’ the sergeant major urged my men behind me, hastening our withdrawal.
Tiny branches ripped against my equipment as I tore through the bushes and other foliage that crowded the valley base, running as fast as I could toward the green crosshair marking Abs’ position two hundred metres away to our west.
‘Come on!’ I shouted back to my men, some of whom were dropping back. ‘Stay with me!’
We weren’t running for fear of our own lives, but for those of our comrades. Two Section wouldn’t withdraw until we had taken up our new position, otherwise we would lose our control of the high ground.
During my dash through the bushes, I came across the body of the man I had shot at the beginning of my fateful attack. He was propped up against a rock, presumably having crawled there before he died from multiple wounds to his abdomen. As I passed him, I caught a glimpse of his face, staring at me with the same cold, accusing eyes I had seen so many times in my nightmares. He was a child. No older than fourteen.
Shaking the vision from my mind, I looked back and beckoned my men with a pumping fist. ‘Hurry the fuck up! Come on!’
Abs was waiting in a small clearing along with his runner and half of Three Section. Thapa and the injured civilian both lay on stretchers at their feet. All of their chests were heaving, after having carried the two casualties by themselves. A stretcher was ideally meant to be carried by four troopers, but they had managed to carry two stretchers with only six.
‘Form up on the northern bank again, Andy!’ Abs panted. ‘Make sure you’ve got good cover on all sides!’
I quickly led my section back up onto the bank, and once we were out of the valley I had them form an L-shape again, similar to that which I had used during our advance. I noted that there were four more green crosshairs a hundred metres to my west, marking the locations of the rest of Stan’s section. Two of them were on the northern bank, and two on the southern side. It was a rather sparse rear protection, but with four of his men already soaked up dealing with casualties, it was all he could provide.
‘Puppy, make sure your last man faces out to the west!’ I ordered, understanding Abs’ demand that we
cover out in all directions. Our rear wasn’t safe, with so few men there to protect it.
Whilst my 2ic passed on the instruction to his end man, I informed the sergeant major that I was in position.
‘One-Zero, roger!’ he answered. ‘One-Two, move!’
‘One-Two, moving!’
There was a moments silence on the net, whilst the gunfire continued.
‘One-Two, break contact, and withdraw NOW!’ The sergeant major sounded furious. I assumed that Corporal Kamara had got carried away with the moment and was taking too long to break away from the firefight. To somebody outside the armed forces that reluctance to turn and run might sound crazy, but it’s surprisingly easy for a section commander to get so absorbed in the battle he forgets his senses.
The collection of green crosshairs that marked Corporal Kamara’s section broke their line and descended into the valley. Then I watched as they joined with the sergeant major and headed toward us at speed. Abs and Three Section were already moving back as well, carrying the casualties along with them.
I observed their withdrawal, my breathing slowly returning to normal. There was no longer anything to think about, since my section were static with no targets to engage. My mind began to wander, despite my best efforts to keep it focused onto the task.
I killed a child. Not a child soldier, but an unarmed, civilian child.
Memories of the moment he had flashed through my sights repeated in my head, as I questioned my actions as well as my motives. I had been so desperate to kill that I had convinced myself that the civilians were targets.
So many innocent people had died at our hands. The full horror of what we had just experienced began to sink in, threatening to overwhelm me at any moment. I swallowed hard.
‘Who are they shooting at?’ Puppy asked over the section net, snapping me out of my misery.
I listened to the nearby gunfire, relieved by the distraction. It seemed as though our opponents were still locked into a firefight, but they weren’t engaging my section, and Two Section were already past our position.
‘Nobody,’ I said after a moment. ‘They haven’t realised we’ve gone yet.’
RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) Page 14