by Aidan Colyer
“CM to Ochre. Assault the position. Watch out for the APC. Over.”
“Message received CM. Ochre over and out.”
Roland tucked the comm away again and crept to the edge of the rocks. He looked out as far as he dared getting a glimpse of the APC billowing black smoke from where the turret once sat. Its hull stuck into the sand at a rakish angle confirming it as knocked out. He lay down and crawled further out. The squad with it had only lost one member from the explosion but were still disoriented. He fired on them, which made them move quicker. As they retreated away from him, fire came in from Murden’s team cutting them all down. Roland took his chance and jumped up running towards the burning APC. He crouched next to it and aimed his rifle at the foxholes and other APC. The squad shifted to fight against Murden and were laying down a large amount of fire. He took a few shots at them before moving forward again and crawling through the sand. It didn’t take long for the rest of the defenders to be overwhelmed. Roland made the final dash into the foxhole while slinging his rifle. He pulled his pistol out and nodded to Murden. She pulled out hers and they slowly advanced to the second APC. They had left the hatch open, so they moved to the sides. Murden counted down from three and they stormed inside. The vehicle was empty.
Roland cursed and kicked the bench next to him. He stalked out of the vehicle as Murden watched him go.
As he walked out into the sun, the others arrived with the rebel prisoners in tow. Lawry stacked the enemy bodies in neat rows stripping them of all of their equipment as he did so. Clark joined him leaving Bywaters and Webb to keep an eye on the prisoners. The rebels didn’t even attempt to run. They merely sat on the edge of the foxhole staring at the squad as if they were bored at a beach. Roland lifted his mask and spat dust onto the desert floor. He walked up to the spot where they had left Watts. He looked around to see if there was anything that would show what had happened. That’s when he found the footprints. He followed them out away from the foxhole and looked off into the distance. He pulled his rifle round and used the scope to look in the direction they were going. All he could see was desert and rock formations. She must have moved out. He didn’t know why or how far but she had gone. He smiled. She was as stubborn as he thought.
Chapter 15.
Roland returned to the camp and grabbed the equipment that had been set aside for him. They had swapped his old armour out for a set from one of the dead enemies. Considering the damage it had taken at their first objective he thought that was probably a good idea. He shrugged off his cloak and took off his mask before belting the armour on. The ochre colour was jarring against his pale grey uniform but better to look bad and live then die for fashion. He pulled his cloak back on and retrieved his helmet. He tied the comm back into its lining and clipped the mask in place leaving it in place as he added the rest of his kit to his webbing.
The others had retrieved quite a bit of extra kit from the enemy bodies. Lawry was festooned with grenades of all types. Clark had taken a ton of ammunition and a couple of pouches that looked like they contained tools. Bywaters was raiding the medical kit inside the APC while Webb watched the rebels. Roland poked through the leftover kit and grabbed himself a replacement anti-tank tube. He also took a second pistol and as much spare ammunition as he could find. Once they were all equipped, they piled the rest of the salvaged kit into the back of the APC that was still useable.
“I think I know where Watts is,” Roland said as they all assembled around the APC.
“Where?” Bywaters asked looking up from her medical bag that was now straining to open itself.
“She left the position and tried to walk back to the village. She could have made it but I’m not sure with the heat out here.”
“We drive in the direction you think she went,” Murden said ushering them inside the vehicle. Roland took the spotters turret and racked the slide on the heavy machinegun. Lawry revved the engine and a cloud of black exhaust smoke spilt from the rear of the vehicle. He called up to Roland to find out the direction he needed to drive. Through a series of shouts and gestures, Roland got them on the right track. They started to pick up speed as they raced back towards the village.
Roland was thankful for his mask as the sand kicked up by their tracks swirled into his face. He scanned the area as they went. He couldn’t see the tracks anymore but that was due to the speed rather than them, being absent. Or at least that is what Roland hoped. As he slewed the gun to the side a bullet ricocheted off of its mounting. Roland ducked down and tried to work out where the shot had come from. Another shot hit the inside of the cupola and ricocheted into his back sending him forwards and smashing his face off of the rim. He felt blood running down his back and dripping from his mask as it ran down from his nose.
The second shot had confirmed the direction for him and he shouted for Lawry to stop the vehicle. They skidded to a halt blasting a cloud of dust and sand up around them. Roland peered out again trying to see where the shot had come from properly and was rewarded with a bullet tearing through the side of his helmet. He dropped back into the interior of the tank holding his ear that was now a bloody mess.
He grabbed his comm.
“CM this is Ochre is that you firing. Over,” he waited for a second as he heard another bullet hit the hatch above him.
“I repeat, cookie monster is that you? Over.”
The comm crackled to life.
“This is cookie monster, where are you? I have an enemy APC close by and would appreciate a helping hand. Over.”
Roland heaved a sigh of relief and sat down in one of the cramped seats.
“We are the APC cookie monster. Over.”
The firing stopped.
“So, who did I hit?”
“That would be me,” Roland replied gingerly touching the remains of his ear.
“Sorry about that. I could still do with a hand though. I think shooting has re-broken my shoulder.”
“We will be over as soon as we can. Stick up a signal of some kind.”
“Will do. Over and out.”
Roland crawled through the interior of the APC to get to the transport area. The rebels were crammed into the seats at the far end hunched over so their heads didn’t hit the roof. Murden looked at Roland and nudged Bywaters. Bywaters looked up and noticed the blood running down his face. She grabbed a handle and moved towards him.
“What the hell happened?” she shouted over the noise of the idling engine.
“Watts saw us and I decided that wearing enemy armour on top of an enemy APC was a good idea. Thankfully, her shoulder is messed up, so she didn’t get a good hit.” Bywaters stopped unrolling one of the bandages and looked at him.
“Watts is alive?”
“Yeah, I told you she would be. We have to go and pick her up though. She needs your attention again.”
Bywaters smiled as she tied the bandage around Roland’s head. He winced as she pulled it tight but tried to keep still. Once she was done Roland grabbed his rifle and moved to the hatch again. He stuck his head out and used the scope on his rifle to find Watts. She had put her rifle upright and had balanced her helmet on the end as a signal. Roland relayed the information to Lawry he turned the APC on the spot and drove towards her. Roland dropped his rifle back into the APC and pulled himself higher out of the turret. As they reached the rocks, Lawry manoeuvred the vehicle so that Watts could climb down onto its top. She appeared at the edge and threw her kit down to Roland. He grabbed it and stowed it on top of the APC. He turned back as she shuffled closer to the edge.
“You need to catch me.” She shouted over the sound of the engine. Roland climbed out of the turret and held his hands up as she jumped. She landed on the edge of the APC and rolled grabbed her pulling her close to stop her falling.
“You can let go now.” She said.
Roland hastily let her go.
“Sorry. I err.”
“It's fine I’m glad to see you too.” She punched him on the arm and then picked up her ki
t. Roland helped her climb down through the turret of the APC and into the back where the others sat.
Bywaters was waiting with her med kit out and pushed Watts into a seat. She checked the dressings and then discarded them applying new ones.
“We need to get going,” Murden said to Roland. He lingered for a second more before moving to the front of the vehicle and shouting to Lawry that they could go. The vehicle lurched forcing Roland to find a handhold. He wanted to go back and check on Watts but they needed someone in the turret. Pulling himself through the APC he climbed up into the turret and used his scope to see how far they were from the village. They were still too far off for him to see it so he kept a lookout for the mesa they had climbed over to get to the desert. Roland held on as they smashed through small dunes and slid over soft areas that didn’t give the APC any grip. It was past midday when he spotted the mesa. He climbed back down into the vehicle and let Lawry know they were still headed in the right direction. He headed into the back where the others were sitting. Everyone held on tight as the vehicle jolted and rocked. Watts gritted her teeth every time she was thrown forwards. He gave her a thumbs up and she shook her head. He moved over to Murden and leant in close.
“We are coming up to the mesa. We should probably ditch the vehicle this side of it. If Watts shot at us, you can bet that the others in the village will and they have bigger weapons.” Watts agreed and Roland returned to his spot in the turret.
It took them only a short time to reach the base of the slope. Roland kicked the back of Lawry’s seat and told him to cut the engine. The noise died down and then cut. Roland’s ears were still ringing from the noise. The quiet somehow seemed empty without it.
Clark swung the back doors open, and they all climbed out.
Everyone stretched glad for the space. They stood around and drank water for a few moments while Clark and Lawry looked through the equipment they had stashed in the back.
“We need to find a way to haul this back to the village,” Lawry said trying to stack the equipment up.
“How about that netting there?” Murden suggested pointing to a net behind the seats in the back. Lawry climbed back into the APC and drew his knife. He cut the net free and threw it outside. They all helped to place the equipment onto the net and then tied the ends together. Lawry and Clark picked an end up each. Roland moved out to the front while the others kept an eye on the prisoners. They still weren’t speaking. Roland hoped they had a way to get the rebels to give up their information when they reached the village. They needed that intel now so they could end this battle quickly. They climbed the shallow rise to the top of the mesa. It was the early afternoon now, and they were already hot from the cramped conditions of the APC. The extra equipment was draining his stamina at a rapid rate. Roland took it easy knowing Watts was still struggling. They walked across the Mesa and looked down into the village. Everything seemed normal. They had parked the tanks and gravtracks up next to the destroyed buildings and dug in. There were others milling about between the buildings and they descended the slope towards the artillery.
“Halt who goes there.” Rang out from the edge of the village.
Roland looked around for the source of the challenge but couldn’t see it. He shrugged. “3rd squad 4th platoon light infantry returning from patrol.”
“Come forward.” Roland walked towards the edge of the village and two troopers from the armoured unit came out from behind a sandbag wall. They lowered their rifles but eyed him suspiciously.
One held a hand up while he was still a little way out.
“Hold it. Why are you wearing enemy armour?” Roland looked down and realised he had pulled his cloak back because of the heat. His entire torso was covered with the ochre armour they had taken from the enemy at the APC. He looked up again and removed his face mask.
“It’s a long story.” As Roland spoke to the soldiers, they raised their rifles and aimed behind him.
“Halt all of you.”
“It’s fine we have prisoners for the captain,” Roland replied holding his hands up to show they were empty.
“We don’t know about that. Do you have proof?”
“Well, we have prisoners and are from the unit attached to yours,” Murden replied coming to stand next to Roland.
“Don’t get smart with me,” one of the soldiers said aiming at her.
“Roland comm the captain please,” she said in a bored tone.
Roland did as she said explaining the situation.
“All done sarge,” he said as he pulled the comm away from his ear.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t drive in then.”
“I can’t disagree there,” Roland replied.
They waited with the guards aiming at them for what seemed like hours in the baking sun. Roland drank water freely knowing they could purchase more when they got into the camp. The Captain approached them from behind the guards with the lieutenant trailing in his wake. He touched the guards on their shoulders.
“It’s fine I sent them out on a mission. Stand down.”
The guards slung their rifles and headed back to their sandbag wall.
“So these are the prisoners?”
“Yes,” Murden replied.
“Great, bring them to the HQ building I think we need to have a little chat.”
Chapter 16.
Roland sat in the lee of the HQ sipping a fresh bottle of cold water. They had taken Watts to the infirmary with Bywaters to find out what they could do about her shoulder. The others were sitting around while Lawry laid out in the sun with his head resting on his hands.
“He will regret that later,” Clark said kicking her boots off.
Roland chuckled. “Especially while we have devices that stop the medical equipment from working.”
Clark smiled. “This should be good for a laugh. About those devices though. Surely keeping hold of them is a stupid idea. If we get ambushed we are sitting ducks without respawning.”
“We need to work out how to get them back to the HQ. Or dismantle them here to work out what tech they are using,” Murden said walking up and sitting on a crate of water they had liberated from the tankers. She opened a bottle and took a long drink. She glanced over at Lawry. “He knows we don’t have any burns kits left doesn’t he?”
Roland and Clark grinned.
“Remind me never to go to sleep near you two in the future,” she said shaking her head. “Anyway, once the interrogation is done, we will probably move out and take the fight to the rebels while hitting the enemy troops at the same time.”
“What makes you say that?” Clark asked.
“Well, it’s what I’d do. We need to end this battle quicker. There are four days left and we are losing troops on the northern objectives for zero gain. If we move up to help them we have our objective taken behind us and end up in the same predicament. Our best bet is to win by casualty rates. The enemy won’t be expecting us to hit them hard and the rebels will help us at first.”
“Makes sense to me,” Roland replied as the door to the HQ opened. They all craned their necks round to look at whoever had exited. It was the lieutenant. He saw them looking and walked over. Murden chucked him a bottle of water from the crate she was sat on. He drained the bottle in one go and crushed it before dropping it to the side of the wall.
“Well, that was utterly pointless,” he said sitting on a fallen chunk of masonry. “They won’t talk to us about anything worthwhile. They keep claiming to be fighting a just fight against our evil rulers and some conspiracy bullshit. Apparently, we are just puppets of the evil ones who haven’t got the power to do anything so don’t need to know more than we do.”
He reached past Murden and grabbed another bottle from the crate drinking it at a slower pace than the last one.
Roland shook his head. “What are we going to do now?” he asked looking at the lieutenant.
“Only thing we can do. We take out as many of the enemy as possible and try to end the batt
le.”
“Told you so,” Murden said standing up. “I’ll get the troops in order. Oh, we have an APC on the other side of the mesa. Any chance we can get some paint to change its markings?”
“I’ll send the tankers techies round to help you get it ready. You take the unit you had. We will fold the rest of your squad into one of the infantry units that were hit bad in the village attack.”
Roland stood and brushed the dust off of his trousers. He had replaced his armour with a spare that didn’t make him look like an enemy. His newly acquired pair of pistols sat in holsters on his sides and had picked up a variety of grenades to add to his small arsenal. Loaded up for battle walked over to the infirmary.
The smell of antiseptic wafted out of the tiled building as Roland pushed the door open. It was quiet with no staff or patients apart from Bywaters and Watts who were at the far end next to the medicine cabinets.