EDEN (The Union Series) (29 page)

I barely heard the
end of his sentence. Without warning, a hail of darts punched through the
smoke, striking the ruined launcher in a shower of sparks. Enemy were firing
from further up the tunnel.

‘Shit!’ Myers
stumbled as the rounds passed millimetres from his visor. Instinctively I
gripped the fabric of his daysack, yanking him back from the tunnel just as a
chunk of earth was hacked away from where his head would have been.

‘Delta, move into
cover!’ Puppy yelled, as he tried to get his fire team out of harm’s way
somewhere behind me.

‘Fucking hell,’ Myers
exclaimed over the noise.

‘Shut up,’ I yelled
angrily. ‘Get down!’

I crouched as low as
I could, pulling Myers down with me. If a dart struck the walls of the burrow
it would simply embed itself, but every time they struck the metal launcher
they ricocheted in random directions.

The roar of enemy
fire suddenly intensified, but just over the noise I heard something solid
rolling along the ground in front of us. I strained to see what it was through
the thick smoke, before finally recognising the familiar shape. My eyes
widened.

‘
Grenade
!’

Myers saw the grenade
lying virtually at his feet, and with a surprised yelp he kicked it away from
him, sending it bouncing across the burrow - but still in line of sight to us.
There was nowhere to go ...

‘Get down!’ I
hollered, and with my hand still grasping at Myer’s daysack, I drove him to the
floor with all my strength, pinning him to the ground just milliseconds before
the grenade detonated. I knew that the lower I got him the safer he was,
because the detonation would send most of the fragments upward at an angle.
There was no time to worry about myself.

The shockwave hit me
like a brick wall, rattling every bone in my body. My head snapped backward
with the sudden blast of dust and debris that instantly blackened my vision. My
headset bleeped frantically, and red icons flashed on my display in warning,
but I had no time to read what they said. I knew what was coming next.

How I managed to lift
my battered body away from Myers I don’t know, but I shuddered at the
flashbacks of my battle through the warrens of New Earth, as I gritted my teeth
and prepared for my last stand.

Two Loyalists stormed
through the tunnel beside us, their weapons spraying wildly into the smoke as
they sought to kill any survivors of the blast, but they hadn’t expected me to
be right next to them.

I thrust upward with
my bayonet, the evil blade piercing through the nearest man’s flank and driving
into his diaphragm. His momentum took him onward, tugging at my rifle before
the blade came free with a sickly squelch. Continuing his charge into the
burrow, the second soldier didn’t even realise his comrade had been stabbed
before I shot him square in the back, sending him tumbling to the ground.

A third soldier
stumbled into view, probably trying to stop himself having realised that the
counterattack wasn’t going to plan - too late - he met the same fate as his
friends as I fired another two rounds into him.

I poked my rifle
around the corner into the tunnel, and using its camera to aim, I fired a long
burst of automatic, hoping to drive away anymore Loyalists attempting to
attack.

‘Myers!’ I hollered.
‘Get here, now!’

There was no
response. I looked behind me, only to see the trooper staring at me from where
he lay on the ground. His mouth opened, and then closed again.

‘Don’t just lie there
fucking staring at me! Get up!’

‘You’ve taken frag,
Andy!’ he shouted.

I fired another burst
and stepped into the tunnel, smoke and dust swirling about me, ‘I don’t give a
fuck!’

Red warnings still
flashed in the corner of my visor display, and suddenly I realised what they
were saying: my respirator seal was broken. I coughed, as if my body suddenly
realised that it was breathing nothing but toxic smoke.

Myers arrived beside
me. ‘Andy, you …’

My temper boiled
over. ‘Attack, you fool! Go! Go!’

I propelled the young
trooper up the tunnel, then gripped Skelton by the arm and drove him
afterwards.

I dropped to one
knee, coughing as I fumbled with my respirator. Something
was
wrong with
it; smoke was quickly filling behind my visor, stinging my eyes.

I heard Yulia’s voice.
‘Andy, are you OK?’

'I’m fine,' I
growled, managing to stand with my free hand steadying myself against the
burrow wall. 'Let’s go!'

Hands gripped at me,
stopping me from moving.

'He's not fine,' I
heard Puppy say. 'He's taken frag!'

My clouded mind
couldn't understand why Puppy wasn’t attacking. We had repelled the enemy
counterattack and now we needed to maintain the momentum - we needed to attack!
Why didn't they understand?

'Go!' I urged, but it
came as little more than a whisper as I collapsed, my visor smashing against
the ground.

'Man down!'

I had heard those two
words so many times. They filled me with dread every time, waking me from my
sleep as they echoed through my nightmares. This time it was different - the
man who was down was me …

'Who is it?' A voice
demanded as hands rolled me over onto my back. I blinked in confusion, unable
to comprehend what was happening around me. Ghostly figures glided past me
through the clouds of smoke.

'Let’s go! Charlie,
get back here and stay with him!'

'Roger!' I recognised
Myers’s voice as he leant over me, his hands running over my body, 'Andy, stay
with us, mate! I'm just checking you over!'

I couldn't read the
red warnings that still flashed on my smashed visor, but it suddenly occurred
to me that something was really wrong. By pushing Skelton to the ground I had
somehow spared him from the shower of grenade fragments, but I hadn't been so
lucky.

More figures drifted
in and out of my vision, most likely another section sent down by the boss to
keep the underground offensive going, I presumed.

'He's got a crack in
his visor!' Yulia said suddenly in alarm.

'Yeah, I see it.'

Hands ran over my
head, pushing it to and fro as my vision dimmed.

'Don't patch it, it's
too big! Here ...'

Somebody removed the
visor screen from my respirator.

'Search for bleeding
while I do this.'

It suddenly occurred
to me that I was probably going to die, but instead of fear I felt almost
relieved. I remembered a few of my old platoon sergeant's last words before he
died on New Earth:
I’m tired, Andy. Let me go ..
. I was tired, I
realised,
so very tired
. For me, living meant suffering, and that was
it.

'Let me go,' I said,
but it came out as a slur. My vision was virtually gone. Not long now, I
thought, and I relaxed my muscles, embracing the end. My men were well trained.
Some were young and naive, but they could handle themselves, and they had a
strong leader left behind. They would get by without me.

'What did he say?’

'God knows.’

'He's got so many
wounds, mostly around his shoulders. Minor lacerations. Looks like his armour
stopped most of it.’

'Patch him, don't
forget to check his back. Come on, Andy, not here. Stay awake!'

Something clicked,
and there was a loud whirr from my respirator motors. Cool air breezed against
my face.

A hand shook me
roughly. 'I've changed your visor, Andy. I'm just going to inject you with
antidote - you've been exposed to the atmosphere for a good minute or so.'

I felt something
touch against my leg, and then I heard a click and a hiss as the auto injector
stabbed into my flesh, administering antidote to counter the effects of the
Eden’s atmosphere.

'Shit the bed, he's
taken a lot of frag, none of it bad, though.'

'He's a proper hard
bastard, ain't he?'

A hand patted my
shoulder, just before I lost consciousness. 'Don't worry, mate, you'll be fine.
We've got you.'

A wave of sadness
passed over me as I realised that my suffering would not be coming to an end so
soon. Quick to identify and treat my wounds, my fire team had managed to save
my life.
Not today, Andy, not today.

I regained
consciousness when I felt myself being dragged back out of the burrow by my
daysack straps. Myers and Skelton grunted with the effort to pull me up the
steep slope, cursing and swearing as they went. Cold air kissed at my neck as
we finally returned to the surface, and the two troopers left me beside the
smoking burrow entrance, quickly scanning the battlefield for threats. Yulia
was with them, watching me intently.

I frowned. ‘What?’

She said nothing, and
I propped myself up on my elbows to look around me. The battle raged on, as
several more burrows were taken by the platoon nearby. After our initial shock
attack, the platoon had begun to systematically work through the objective,
with a section suppressing with darts and missiles, while others assaulted into
the tunnels like ferrets sent to catch rabbits.

I picked myself up,
ignoring the throbbing in my head. ‘Where’s Puppy?’

Skelton saw that I
was on my feet, and he rushed over to me in alarm. ‘Andy, lie down, mate, take
it easy!’

‘I’m fine, Skelton,’
I replied irritably. ‘Calm yourself.’

‘You’ve taken a lot
of frag, Andy,’ the trooper said, looking me up and down, his face creased with
worry.

I looked down at
myself. True enough, I had indeed been hit by several grenade fragments. The
top section of my armour was riddled with holes, although the gel inside had
solidified on impact to protect my vital organs. Elsewhere I hadn’t been so
lucky, with bloody patches around my shoulders and arms. I felt around with my
fingers, finding where fragments had managed to puncture my armour and break
the skin. My combats had reacted to the wounds, swelling automatically to apply
pressure and then administering clotting agent to stop the bleeding.

I tapped my datapad,
bringing up my vital readings. It flashed red at me, warning anybody that might
read it that I required urgent medical attention. Apparently at least one piece
of shrapnel had penetrated deep into my shoulder, and I was bleeding
internally.

‘It’s worse than it
looks,’ I lied. ‘I’m good to crack on.’

‘We’re about to extract
you,’ Myers argued.

I held up my arms
angrily, flinching with the pain. ‘Where to?’ 

As if on cue, the
sergeant major spoke on the net. ‘One-One-Delta, this is Two-Zero, confirm the
situation with your casualty?’

Now that our attack
was in full swing, the sergeant major had allowed Mr Barkley to lead from the
front, and assumed the role of the platoon sergeant. Hopefully he hadn’t
already queued up a dropship to extract me. I was in the battle, one way or the
other, until the end.

I didn’t allow time
for Puppy to respond to the message. ‘One-One-Charlie, the casualty is me. I am
walking wounded, and am good to continue.’

There was a pause.
‘Confirm walking wounded? I was told that you were high priority …’

I shook my head,
though the sergeant major wasn’t there to see it. ‘I am walking wounded. I
would know, after all!’

‘That’s good, crack
on for now. When there’s a suitable lull we will re-assess. One-One-Delta
acknowledge.’

‘One-One-Delta,
roger,’ Puppy replied, sounding slightly annoyed at his sudden step back down
from command.

Yulia was still
staring at me. I asked Puppy over the net where he was, trying to ignore her
interest.

‘I’m just at the
second burrow entrance,’ Puppy replied. ‘Reference my mark …’

A blue crosshair
appeared ahead of us, and Puppy waved his arm as additional confirmation.  I
gave him a thumbs-up.

‘Roger. We’ll wait
here until One-Zero wants us again.’

‘No worries.’

I ordered Skelton and
Myers to spread out, and then turned to Yulia, seeing that her eyes were still
fixed on me.

‘What?’ I asked her
irritably.

‘You are badly injured,’
she said quietly, so that the other two troopers couldn’t hear. They were more
interested in the battle, as the platoon assaulted the last burrow.

‘I can see that,
thank you.’

She persisted. ‘Your
injuries are worse than what you told them. They couldn’t read your datapad in
the smoke, but you have seen it.’

I frowned. ‘How do
you know what my injuries are?’

Her eyes, cold and
harsh, pierced through her darkened visor and into mine. ‘I can see you, Andy.
You are in great pain, in here.’ She patted her armour where her heart should
be. ‘You don’t care if you die.’

A missile whooshed
through the trees nearby, momentarily lighting us with the glow from its rocket
engine. It detonated somewhere under the ground, and somebody shouted a string
of commands in the distance.