Soul at War (8 page)

Pistols cracked in the darkness,
firing at incredibly close range; blades catching the muzzle flash
making them glitter in the night. Bodies swarmed around me and I
realised that it was Burns' unit coming in to finish the
job.

"Come on Shap, finish the job!" He
yelled, but my mind was mush. Warm fluid was trickling down my leg
and the whole scene just looked hellish. I was so dazed that I
hadn't noticed an ARC trooper rising with a blade creeping across
the dead towards me until his head burst open, splattering my face
with brain tissue. I turned and saw Brand still looking through the
scope.

"Gather weapons, ammunition, whatever
you can find and make for the rendezvous point," cried Burns who
was walking between the troops, urging them to dig deep and get as
much as they could carry.

"Thanks," I said as Brand came up
beside me. "I lost it there for a sec."

I slung the shotgun in favour of one
of the ARC automatic rifles simply because there were no shells to
be found and I was down to my last seven. I was able to grab four
sickle shaped magazines and two smoke grenades plus a number of
8.45mm rounds for Brand's rifle.

"The irony, using their own munitions
against them," she said, pocketing the heavy shells.

Then we were on the move again, now
down to ten men. Three had fallen in the vicious hand-to-hand
battle and Burns was counting the remainder. Sergeant Phillips
stood beside him, Wulfgar, Green, Walker, Brand, Tekoa and myself
gathered round. Two troopers, Misch and Thompson were still picking
at the bodies of the fallen.

"Right, we move now. Pair up and
spread out. It won't be long before reinforcements arrive," Burns
said as he took point himself. The night was in now and provided us
with cover at least. The forest became a disorientating mess of
black pillars and noise, animals chirping away and birds fluttering
amongst the leaves. It was enough of a trial to hold back from
firing at everything that moved.

"At least we'll have taken a lot of
them with us by the end." I'd paired up with Green, Brand moving to
the front to make full use of the thermal scope.

"You seem confident that we're going
to die here?" I replied. He laughed and so did Tekoa and Walker
behind us.

"Why? Do you think a miracle is going
to happen between here and that tomb of a last stand the lieutenant
wants us to take?"

"We've made it this far."

"Fifteen of us didn't." Tekoa
said.

"I'm not going to surrender to death.
I'm going to make him work for every minute he takes from me. I'm
going to fight to the end, knowing that it's in our hands whether
we get off this rock or not. Yes the odds are against us, but how
you die is up to you." The team went silent as we plodded on in
darkness, the shadows closing in around us.

*

The outpost loomed up on us shortly
after leaving the forest. It was a clear night and both moons shone
like bulled buckles on parade and the temperature had dropped
considerably. The building itself looked like a concrete box
sticking awkwardly out of the top of a short rise, a radio antenna
on the top waving in a gentle breeze.

"Phillips says it's the farmers only
means of communication to the city," Tekoa said, giving us the
tourist’s guide.

"How far is the city?" Asked
Brand.

"Over twenty seven miles now that
we've detoured to here." I could see Burns and Phillips approach
the entrance, spreading the remaining troops out to cover them.
Burns took the door in with a swift kick and jumped out of the way
letting the Sergeant move inside, M4B raised and ready. After a few
silent moments he came back out.

"Clear. Everybody in, Tekoa, Green and
Brand on the west wall, Shap, Wulfgar and Misch on the east. Spread
out and take three hours a piece."

“Great, another building ARC will be
expecting us to stop in. Might as well have vid linked our position
to them.” muttered Brand as she took her post. Sadly, she was
right. I wasn't sure what Dan was thinking at this point and my
earlier questioning of his decision had met with a chilled
response. It wasn't like him and I suspected with so many of his
men dead he was feeling the weight of that responsibility now.
There was no need to, it hadn't been his fault where we'd been
dropped. Still I knew the feeling all too well.

The building was a single room with
only a small toilet cubicle on the north wall. There were rows of
desks down the left had side, chairs on the right.

"Everything’s empty," Burns said,
pulling out a drawer from a cabinet. "That means this place was
evacuated. Which means that the people knew they were being
invaded, which also means this happened a while ago - our
communications with them are either out of date..."

"Or doctored," I said.

"I can't believe this," He shouted and
slammed a fist into the thin steel of the cabinet. "We're right in
the middle of enemy territory."

"Are we assuming the city has
fallen?"

"There's only one way to find out."
Tekoa was stood behind one of the desks with a small digi com box
in his arms. "ARC will figure out that we've gone here. They'll be
on their way - might as well try at least."

"We've nothing to lose," I said. Burns
gave the nod and Tekoa began to work the controls. Burns motioned
me to one corner of the room away from the others.

"For the first time in a long time I
thought this was it - the command I wanted. A command that wasn't
just training exercise for fresh-faced troopers. A command that
might actually make a difference. Now I've got half the team dead
and we'll be joining them soon." Burns' face was twisted in
desperation and fear. “What the fuck am I supposed to do,
John?”

“Lead. The worst thing you can do
right now is question yourself. You'll undermine the team and put
lives at risk.”

“I've fucked it up John. People are
dead. Good people.” he hissed.

“We didn't pick the drop site
and our intel was shit.
Fact.
You know better than to blame yourself for this.
But what I will say is the longer we stay here the more at risk we
are. This site is too predictable. We need to keep
moving.”

I could see Dan pulling
himself together. I knew he would, he wasn't weak, he just needed
the facts putting out there plainly. “What do we
know?
”

“Comms are down. We can't
raise the Avalon or the Midian for evac. Our only hope is that the
city hasn't fallen and we can use their comms to call for
assistance.”

“Then you have your plan,
Lieutenant.” I said. Dan put a hand on my shoulder again but this
time it was in thanks. Then he turned to the remaining members of
his unit.

“We move out. We can't
stay here, ARC will be on us shortly and we need to continue to our
only hope and that's the city of Dothon. Pack up and be ready to
move. ASAP.”

"I want another pop at 'em, sir. One
for Tash. She went down at the farmhouse," Walker said.

"Ten for me, I owe Mally. He went down
in the forest." Green this time.

"I've got a score I want to better,"
Brand added. We looked to Dan who just shrugged.

"I think you're all nuts."

There was a loud squeal as the
digi-com came alive.

"I've got a signal, Lieutenant," Tekoa
said. "It's definitely coming from nearby."

"How near, soldier?" He turned up the
volume. Then our hearts sank.

"CLOSING IN ON OUTPOST FIVE. POWER
SOURCE DETECTED. GO TO RADIO SILENCE."

*

At every available opening there was a
trooper. At the doorway one of the desks had been dragged across
and served as cover for Burns, Tekoa and Phillips. Brand had
crawled up through the roof hatch used to adjust the antenna and
was led on the roof. Walker, Green and Misch had moved to the west
wall and me, Wulfgar and Thompson were on the east.

"Save your ammo, keep it short and
controlled. Then withdraw to the north wall. Knives at the ready,
people," Phillips whispered.

"Good luck and give 'em hell," Burns
finished, just as the first shadows began to walk across the
moonlit field.

Wulfgar opened up with his machine
gun, cutting a swathe through the night. Shapes fell down and hot
brass showered me. Rounds began slamming into the concrete and
overhead Brand's rifle spoke in accurate succession.

The whole building began to shake,
dust falling from the ceiling as it was hit from all sides by
sustained firepower. I blasted a trooper who'd made it close to the
wall and Thompson took out another two charging from the left while
Wulfgar struggled to fix his jammed weapon.

Shots began to penetrate the concrete
and Thompson went down screaming, his leg severed at the hip. I
felt his blood splatter across the side of my face but I couldn't
risk turning away to help him. They were coming in thick and fast
now and Wulfgar was still fumbling with the machine gun.

Wulfgar began to yell at them just as
he got his weapon back up, a guttural noise, which for a second
scared me more than ARC. Then he yanked on the trigger and let lose
a deadly hail of rounds. I got down from the hatch and tried to
help Thompson, but it was too late. He was led in a pool of
lifeblood and his face was lifeless and still.

Wulfgar's shoulder vented a thick
spray of blood as a slug passed straight through it. He didn't even
move, just kept his gun blazing away. I got back up to the hatch
and added my fire to his, taking down three ARC troopers pulling up
a rocket launcher. The tube dropped and released a white hot round
into the sky.

The west wall fell. The whole place
was bathed in light and dust as a rocket exploded on its surface.
Walker and Green were thrown across the room like rag dolls, Misch
took a chunk of stone through his stomach and fell down in two
halves.

Wulfgar and me dropped and began
firing out of the breach as the ARC troopers began to flood in.
Burns was pulling Walker out of the way; Brand dropped from the
roof hatch and dragged Green into the toilet cubicle. ARC men were
clambering over Misch' body to get past but Wulfgar emptied the
last of his ammo into them, cutting them up into pieces. I threw
him my machine gun and unslung the shotgun with its seven shells.
Together we charged forward, dropping at poor Misch' corpse and
taking down two more troopers on their way in. Brand was firing too
and her large calibre rounds streaked golden lines through the
smoke filled room on their way to their targets.

Then it stopped.

Everything went quiet and we thought
we were finished, that they'd managed to bring up some heavy
equipment to blow up the entire building. Burns clambered to the
nearest opening and looked out.

"They're pulling back," he
said.

"They're gonna blow us up!" yelled
Brand who was cradling Green as he led on the floor.

"Wait, I can hear something," I said.
It was a thumping sound, steady and getting louder. Then the fields
were washed with silvery light and the trees began to sway
violently as it dropped from the sky. ARC machine guns began to
fire randomly at whatever it was and were met by the monotone cry
of a twin laser cannon. Invisible beams of super heat ripped into
the forest, trees began to fall and the screams of dying troopers
were drowned out as the vessel began to land on the western side of
the building.

"Jesus Christ - it's one of ours!"
Cried Walker when he spotted it. The hulk of a ship settled on the
grass and its hatches blew open. Six heavily armoured troops burst
out and took up covering positions, another trooper waving us
inside.

"Hurry, get in!" He yelled. Burns and
Phillips lifted Walker and carried him up the ramp. Wulfgar took
Green on his broad shoulders while me and Brand dragged the bodies
of Misch and Thompson, Tekoa following behind. As soon as we were
all inside the ship lurched upwards and banked right
sharply.

We sat there in silence, staring at
each other. The relief had overwhelmed us, but now it was turning
into depression and sadness. Sadness because of the seventeen
people who hadn't made it this far, who somewhere out there were
rotting in a farm house, in the forest or even on this ship. One of
the troopers began to tend Wulfgar's wound, another wrapped up my
thigh where the ARC knife had sliced into it. I looked at Burns
from across Thompson's body and his eyes caught mine. He began to
shake his head as the tears streaked down his face. I looked at
Walker, Phillips, Green, Tekoa, Wulfgar and Brand. All had
glistening lines running down from their eyes.

The pilot of the craft turned slightly
in his seat. "Lieutenant, we're approaching the city walls
now."

CHAPTER 7

The city of Dothon was like a crown of
concrete and steel that had been constructed in the middle of a
huge open field. Surrounded on all sides by an immense wall, the
place looked more like a fortress than a holy city and its central
church had a spire that clawed up towards the heavens. Surrounding
it were simple dwellings made of ornate stone with red tiled
rooftops arranged in streets like that of an old English town. From
several hundred feet in the air I could see the early risers making
their way in and around the gardens.