being breached.
The second time they didn’t make the same mistake; they
split their forces evenly on the two sides of the spur, but the lack of force
concentration did them in. The two groups, unable to support each other, were
both beaten back, again with heavy losses.
There was a brief lull, probably while they brought a fresh
unit up to attack. When they had reinforced they charged us again, and the
last two assaults came close to taking our position. The enemy commander sent
a small group against the left side of the spur, just enough to demonstrate and
prevent a repetition of the lieutenant’s flanking maneuver while the main force
concentrated against the right. They came at us twice that way, but our lines
barely held, reinforced at the last minute by arriving reserves fed in squad by
squad.
Things quieted down for a few hours, giving us the “night”
respite between our Earth days. We had more troops arriving all the time, and
we finally got the orders to pull back. The entire company was being rotated
to the reserve to rest, replaced by a fresh unit that had just marched up.
I was positioned between Corporal Vincennes, my team leader,
and Harden and Quincy with the SAW. Harden had been the team’s lead SAW
operator since before I got to Tombstone, and he’d been through four partners
since then. It was considered something of a jinx posting, but I escaped
because of my marksmanship ratings in training. I hadn’t gone through sniper
school, but the lieutenant wanted me as an informal sharpshooter rather than
managing Harden’s ammo feed. So I stayed in the line on a standing order to
try and target enemy officers and non-coms if I could identify them.
“Hey, Sam, how’s it going over there?” Harden and I had
become pretty good friends. Most commanders probably would have forbidden this
type of chatting over the com, but the lieutenant believed the unit was a
living organism. As long as it didn’t interfere with vital communications, he
encouraged limited banter.”
“Not too bad. I’d say we held pretty damned well.” He
paused, and I could hear him taking a deep breath. Not a bad use of a couple
million rounds of ammo.” Harden was a little bloodthirsty; he’d lost a brother
in the service and I don’t even know how many partners. I didn’t know it then,
mostly because I’d had no one close to me since my dad died, but you get that
way if you lose enough people. We’re professionals, but that only goes so
far…enough pain will make any of us into vengeful sadists howling for blood.
“Yeah, we did ok.” I was a little more circumspect. I
wasn’t all that comfortable with the killing yet, and I found it hard to
rejoice as he did in the enemy dead. After all, most of them were just
conscripts with no choice in the matter. The Caliphate was pretty rough with
its recruiting; it was a theocracy and a dictatorship that made the Alliance
look like a big happy family. Its recruiters could pressgang just about anyone
except the clergy and the nobility.
“Just ok? It was a shooting gallery, baby!” Harden was
overstating things. We did give the enemy a bloody nose, but it was hardly a
walkover. We were pulling back with 31 troops; we’d gotten here at full
strength with 50. I couldn’t get over the losses, even if we did inflict
almost ten times that on the enemy.
“We lost a lot of friends today, Sam.” My voice was soft; I
was trying hard not to sound like I was scolding him.
“Yes, we did.” His spoke more slowly, his tone darker. I think
he got the point. “But it could have been a lot worse…a lot worse. If we’d
been overrun, the whole unit could have been wiped.” He paused, and sighed.
“But we did pay the price.”
“Yes, we paid the price.” The last of our wounded had been
evac’d, but we were leaving seven dead on the field. I thought quietly to
myself for a few seconds then I shifted my
The second time they didn’t make the same mistake; they
split their forces evenly on the two sides of the spur, but the lack of force
concentration did them in. The two groups, unable to support each other, were
both beaten back, again with heavy losses.
There was a brief lull, probably while they brought a fresh
unit up to attack. When they had reinforced they charged us again, and the
last two assaults came close to taking our position. The enemy commander sent
a small group against the left side of the spur, just enough to demonstrate and
prevent a repetition of the lieutenant’s flanking maneuver while the main force
concentrated against the right. They came at us twice that way, but our lines
barely held, reinforced at the last minute by arriving reserves fed in squad by
squad.
Things quieted down for a few hours, giving us the “night”
respite between our Earth days. We had more troops arriving all the time, and
we finally got the orders to pull back. The entire company was being rotated
to the reserve to rest, replaced by a fresh unit that had just marched up.
I was positioned between Corporal Vincennes, my team leader,
and Harden and Quincy with the SAW. Harden had been the team’s lead SAW
operator since before I got to Tombstone, and he’d been through four partners
since then. It was considered something of a jinx posting, but I escaped
because of my marksmanship ratings in training. I hadn’t gone through sniper
school, but the lieutenant wanted me as an informal sharpshooter rather than
managing Harden’s ammo feed. So I stayed in the line on a standing order to
try and target enemy officers and non-coms if I could identify them.
“Hey, Sam, how’s it going over there?” Harden and I had
become pretty good friends. Most commanders probably would have forbidden this
type of chatting over the com, but the lieutenant believed the unit was a
living organism. As long as it didn’t interfere with vital communications, he
encouraged limited banter.”
“Not too bad. I’d say we held pretty damned well.” He
paused, and I could hear him taking a deep breath. Not a bad use of a couple
million rounds of ammo.” Harden was a little bloodthirsty; he’d lost a brother
in the service and I don’t even know how many partners. I didn’t know it then,
mostly because I’d had no one close to me since my dad died, but you get that
way if you lose enough people. We’re professionals, but that only goes so
far…enough pain will make any of us into vengeful sadists howling for blood.
“Yeah, we did ok.” I was a little more circumspect. I
wasn’t all that comfortable with the killing yet, and I found it hard to
rejoice as he did in the enemy dead. After all, most of them were just
conscripts with no choice in the matter. The Caliphate was pretty rough with
its recruiting; it was a theocracy and a dictatorship that made the Alliance
look like a big happy family. Its recruiters could pressgang just about anyone
except the clergy and the nobility.
“Just ok? It was a shooting gallery, baby!” Harden was
overstating things. We did give the enemy a bloody nose, but it was hardly a
walkover. We were pulling back with 31 troops; we’d gotten here at full
strength with 50. I couldn’t get over the losses, even if we did inflict
almost ten times that on the enemy.
“We lost a lot of friends today, Sam.” My voice was soft; I
was trying hard not to sound like I was scolding him.
“Yes, we did.” His spoke more slowly, his tone darker. I think
he got the point. “But it could have been a lot worse…a lot worse. If we’d
been overrun, the whole unit could have been wiped.” He paused, and sighed.
“But we did pay the price.”
“Yes, we paid the price.” The last of our wounded had been
evac’d, but we were leaving seven dead on the field. I thought quietly to
myself for a few seconds then I shifted my
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