deadly stream of projectiles. But I needn't have been worried. Our unit was well trained, and the gun operator knew perfectly well we were advancing below his field of fire. Still, it's an unpleasant feeling.
But the support fire was doing us a world of good. With three auto-guns firing full out, whatever enemy troops were on that ridgeline were more worried about grabbing cover than shooting at us. My troops made it almost to the top before we took a casualty, and I think the other squads had similar luck.
That luck changed just as soon as we reached the top. The enemy fire was still sporadic, but I had one trooper wounded. Wells. Her armor was holed and she had a pretty serious leg wound, but the suit had patched her up enough to stabilize things. She wasn't going to walk out of here, though, so I told her to find cover and wait for evac.
Then the command coms went crazy. First it was Major Greene, who had taken charge of the entire assault brigade. Her voice was calm and firm, but I could hear the exhaustion in it. "Enemy activity south of the complex. Infantry with armor support advancing. Cain, Warren, Stanton - I'm commandeering your support elements in the town."
Great. So I'd lost Jax's team and my fire support. I had seven troops left, including myself.
Next on the com was Lieutenant Gianni, who was now in command of our company. "Activity on the right. Large numbers of infantry advancing from the wooded areas."
I looked over, and at first I couldn't see anything. But then I could make out the figures moving forward in the darkness. I cranked up my visor to amp 20 and told my AI to clean up the blurry image as much as possible.
It was infantry, all right. Not powered infantry, just troops wearing simple body armor. Probably militia. Hundreds of them. Charging the ridgeline off to the right of my position.
And dying. Dying in huge swaths as our troops raked their lines with fire. Their armor, weight constrained by the need to carry the load under their own power, was no match for the high velocity fire of our nuclear-powered mag-rifles. Our shots tore them to pieces. I even saw a couple who virtually disintegrated as they walked into multiple fields of fire.
They returned fire, of course, but their guns didn't have the atomic power source ours did, and they needed pretty much a perfect shot to penetrate our armor. Still, I suspected some of their shots were finding their mark.
I had my six troopers deployed to receive an attack, and we were just waiting for the enemy to reach our fire zone when I got the fallback order from Sergeant Barrick. So whatever damage the enemy had managed to do, they must have taken out Lieutenant Gianni.
"Alright, let's move. We're pulling out. Odds fall back 500 meters, evens cover." I was the second in line, so I stood fast and took some very long range potshots at the approaching militia while the odds followed my order and scrambled down the ridge.
"Ok, evens. Let's go. One thousand meters. Now!" The other two evens and I raced down the ridge, stopping when we reached the edge of the town and turning to give cover to the odds.
I wanted us back in the town as quickly as possible, so we wouldn't be withdrawing under serious fire from the militia. But the squads on each flank were lagging us, so once I got everyone back to the edge of the complex I formed a firing line so we could provide support as they pulled back.
The squad on our left made it back just after we did, but it was clear that the troops on our right had been heavily engaged along the ridgeline and were having a tough time breaking off. I was just about the request permission to move back up and try to flank the militia attacking them when the recall signal came.
It was code white recall, which was a directive to withdraw immediately to the extraction area. I knew what to do from training, but I'd never actually experienced a code
But the support fire was doing us a world of good. With three auto-guns firing full out, whatever enemy troops were on that ridgeline were more worried about grabbing cover than shooting at us. My troops made it almost to the top before we took a casualty, and I think the other squads had similar luck.
That luck changed just as soon as we reached the top. The enemy fire was still sporadic, but I had one trooper wounded. Wells. Her armor was holed and she had a pretty serious leg wound, but the suit had patched her up enough to stabilize things. She wasn't going to walk out of here, though, so I told her to find cover and wait for evac.
Then the command coms went crazy. First it was Major Greene, who had taken charge of the entire assault brigade. Her voice was calm and firm, but I could hear the exhaustion in it. "Enemy activity south of the complex. Infantry with armor support advancing. Cain, Warren, Stanton - I'm commandeering your support elements in the town."
Great. So I'd lost Jax's team and my fire support. I had seven troops left, including myself.
Next on the com was Lieutenant Gianni, who was now in command of our company. "Activity on the right. Large numbers of infantry advancing from the wooded areas."
I looked over, and at first I couldn't see anything. But then I could make out the figures moving forward in the darkness. I cranked up my visor to amp 20 and told my AI to clean up the blurry image as much as possible.
It was infantry, all right. Not powered infantry, just troops wearing simple body armor. Probably militia. Hundreds of them. Charging the ridgeline off to the right of my position.
And dying. Dying in huge swaths as our troops raked their lines with fire. Their armor, weight constrained by the need to carry the load under their own power, was no match for the high velocity fire of our nuclear-powered mag-rifles. Our shots tore them to pieces. I even saw a couple who virtually disintegrated as they walked into multiple fields of fire.
They returned fire, of course, but their guns didn't have the atomic power source ours did, and they needed pretty much a perfect shot to penetrate our armor. Still, I suspected some of their shots were finding their mark.
I had my six troopers deployed to receive an attack, and we were just waiting for the enemy to reach our fire zone when I got the fallback order from Sergeant Barrick. So whatever damage the enemy had managed to do, they must have taken out Lieutenant Gianni.
"Alright, let's move. We're pulling out. Odds fall back 500 meters, evens cover." I was the second in line, so I stood fast and took some very long range potshots at the approaching militia while the odds followed my order and scrambled down the ridge.
"Ok, evens. Let's go. One thousand meters. Now!" The other two evens and I raced down the ridge, stopping when we reached the edge of the town and turning to give cover to the odds.
I wanted us back in the town as quickly as possible, so we wouldn't be withdrawing under serious fire from the militia. But the squads on each flank were lagging us, so once I got everyone back to the edge of the complex I formed a firing line so we could provide support as they pulled back.
The squad on our left made it back just after we did, but it was clear that the troops on our right had been heavily engaged along the ridgeline and were having a tough time breaking off. I was just about the request permission to move back up and try to flank the militia attacking them when the recall signal came.
It was code white recall, which was a directive to withdraw immediately to the extraction area. I knew what to do from training, but I'd never actually experienced a code
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