Cherubim's Call, page 34
She gripped his shoulder and tried to smile. “See ya on the other side,” she replied.
Kodiak watched as Moreau passed Garza and continued until coming to a stop beside Morgan. She then lifted her rifle and provided overwatch, looking up towards the mortar pit. Kodiak, Griffin, Redner, and Mendoza were all that was left on their side of the road. Kodiak wanted to get to the other side and start figuring out what his next plan of attack was going to be. He turned to Mendoza. “I’ll go next, you come after me, and so on,” he said.
Planting his feet into the mud, Kodiak kicked off and ran as fast as he could across the open area, passing Garza and sliding in next to Moreau and Morgan. The smoke was dissipating, and he held up his hand for Mendoza not to cross, but it was too late—much too late. Mendoza had already made it to Garza’s position and was in the process of bounding over to Kodiak when he was struck. It happened in slow motion, something Kodiak thought only happened in the movies, but he saw everything. He watched as the beam of blue plasma streaked across the opening, out of the fading white smoke, and into the back of Private Mendoza. The beam of deadly blue light then exited his chest and splashed across the ground.
His body slammed down between Garza and Kodiak’s position, and soon, more enemy fire came in their direction. Kodiak stared at the lifeless corpse of the man that had been with him for the past two days, the man who’d had his back both in the forest and in that stupid overturned Puma, as his blood leaked onto the mud. Shock had its grip on Harrison Kodiak for a moment, until Moreau smacked the back of his head.
“What the hell do we do now?” she shouted.
Kodiak looked over to Moreau and then back across to Garza, who was huddled underneath the concrete barrier that separated him from the Zodark fire. “Throw more smoke,” he ordered.
Morgan took her last smoke grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the middle of the road. Eight explosions blasted into the air, basking the area with thick white smoke, concealing Garza and the others from the incoming fire. The Zodarks had become wise to the smoke as bolts of blue plasma continued to punch through it, and Garza kept his head down.
“Can you get to us?” Kodiak shouted over to the trapped soldier.
“I don’t know, man, I don’t know!” Garza shouted back.
Kodiak turned to Morgan and Moreau. “I need covering fire. Switch to the laser setting and pour it into the smoke, and don’t let up until Garza is here with us.”
He echoed the same orders over to Redner and Griffin, who had yet to cross, and they nodded in acknowledgment. Kodiak stood from behind the barrier and sprayed the smoke with automatic fire, lighting up the smoke in hues of blue. The sustained fire was immense from all five guns on both sides of the road as Garza got to his feet and sprinted to the safety of the stairway.
Whether it was out of fear of being left behind or not understanding the orders that Kodiak had given, Griffin got to his feet and bolted across the road, firing his weapon wildly through the smoke as he ran. He had almost made it to them before a stray plasma bolt slammed into him, spiraling his body into the ground, where it lay still. Redner was smarter as he stayed where he was.
“Don’t cross,” Kodiak shouted to him. “Try and link up with Sergeant Casper or Nelson—we got this.”
“You sure?” Redner called back.
Kodiak held a thumbs-up and turned to head up the stairs. He keyed his mic. “Hall, this is Apollo One-One Alpha. We’re coming to you.”
Chapter 47
Hall
Mortarville, Combat Outpost Legion
ROCNE-South, New Eden
Kodiak’s voice in Hall’s ear was all he needed to hear. He turned to Red. “Some guys I know from First Platoon are coming up to help out. We just gotta keep holding on till then,” he reassured her.
Red was gripping her side after a plasma bolt had taken her in the flank last time she’d poked her head up from the sandbags. She was alive but in severe pain. Gunfire erupted from behind the rocks as Jackson and Richards got in contact with the Zodarks who had them pinned down. He had no idea how the fight was going, and the volume of fire was no indication of who was coming out on top.
“All Apollo units, I’ve declared broken arrow. An orbital strike has been called in on the following coordinates: Golf Papa one-niner-two-eight, tree-niner-two-one,” a female voice announced in his ear.
“Good copy, out.”
He looked over to Red. “Is that the XO?” Hall asked in disbelief.
“Captain Striker must be doing as bad as I am,” she laughed through coughs.
Hall ran over to his mortar terminal and found the coordinates of the drop. It was being angled toward the far side of the river, where the Zodarks had come from. He had to hand it to the XO—she was doing everything in her power to avoid wiping out the entire outpost in one strike.
“We have a really big round coming in thirty seconds, Red. Just stay down and hold on.”
Hall lifted his head over the lip again and saw a Zodark dashing from behind cover toward them. He raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger, and railgun rounds slammed into the beast and toppled it down the hill until it came to rest against the sandbags in front of him. He brought the rifle over the top and fired a burst into the top of the beast’s skull before trying to find a new target.
The new target was another Zodark who was much closer than its partner. The beast leapt over the sandbag and swung its blade down toward Hall. He parried the strike with his rifle and tried to roll out of the attack, but the weight the Zodark was applying toppled him onto his back. He scrambled with his feet to try and get some distance before raising his rifle, but the Zodark was on him. It grabbed him by his armor and lifted him high in the air.
The Zodark’s fist was clamped down hard on Hall’s throat and he kicked his feet against the brute, gasping for any air he could get, but his windpipe was closed shut. His vision blurred and began to darken when a fine mist sprayed him in the face. His body hit the ground hard, and he scrambled to his feet.
The Zodark lay dead on the ground at his feet, a hole in the back of its head. He grabbed his rifle and looked over to Red, who was smiling at him, but Hall just looked on in dismay as a third Zodark climbed the wall and buried its sword deep into Red’s chest.
Her cries of anguish mixed with his cries of rage as he emptied what was left inside the railgun magazine and only let go of the trigger when he heard the weapon run dry. His rifle fell to the ground, and he fell to his knees. That Zodark was dead, but so was Red, a smile still on her face as her head bent low toward the ground.
The gunfire above the hilltop was still going back and forth but was much more subdued than a few minutes before, and he had a feeling that, just like Red, Richards’s and Jackson’s time on this planet was ending. He grabbed his rifle one more time and inserted his last magazine into the magazine well. Three more Zodarks crested the hill and raced toward him. Hall stood on the sandbags and fired into the group, watching one spin to the ground in pain as the others continued pushing forward. The first raised a sword that it had in its hand and Hall fired a burst at close range into the monster’s face. He turned to fire at the next, but that Zodark had been wise. They both fired their rifles at the same time, and both collapsed onto the ground.
Hall’s back slammed into the mud, and he gasped for air. He tried to sit up, but every time he told his body to do something, it didn’t respond. His neck still worked, and although blurry, his vision was still there. He looked down and saw a smoldering hole just below his chest. He was hit bad. It was weird, though; he didn’t feel any pain. He was frustrated his body wasn’t responding to what he was trying to do, which was to escape the hill. Strangely, no pain washed over him.
A loud roar broke through the storm clouds and a bright white light blinded Hall just before he was plunged into darkness.
Chapter 48
Kodiak
Mortarville, Combat Outpost Legion
ROCNE-South, New Eden
Kodiak and what was left of his team bounded up the stairs, slipping on every other stone as they tried to get to the top of the hill as fast as possible. More gunfire erupted overhead as the mortars continued to fight, but it was slowing, and he feared they were down to their last soldiers. The call had come over the net that an orbital strike was incoming on some location nearby, and he figured if it was right on top of him, he might as well save his friend first.
As they came around the final bend, a blinding white light flashed across the sky. Kodiak and the rest fell to their knees and threw themselves into the stairs and mud, hiding their faces in the ground, but the light continued to push through. It faded in seconds, but a tremendous heat swallowed him like he had been placed in an oven and left to cook. The heads-up display on his visor crackled and warnings flashed across it, but he ignored the ringing. The visor’s HUD flickered and disappeared.
Just when the heat subsided and he thought the worst was over, the ground began to shake violently. Kodiak tried to hold on to the rocks he was next to, but the man-made earthquake threw him around the stairs. Garza tried to stand but lost his footing and fell. Kodiak tried to yell, tried to warn the rest to stay put, but he could barely hear himself think, let alone get the words out of his mouth. What Kodiak later realized was that the shockwave from the orbital strike had slammed into the outpost, and Garza, who’d tried to stand again, had been thrown into the air and over the edge.
Kodiak prayed. He prayed harder than he had ever prayed before in his life and promised whoever was listening that when the war was over, he would find a quiet little farm in Texas and live in peace the rest of his life. Almost as if a higher power had heard him, the ground settled, the shaking stopped, and the noise disappeared.
Without thinking, he got to his feet and shouted, “Follow me,” to whoever was still with him.
They bounded the final couple of steps and entered Mortarville. To his right was a destroyed mortar gun with the bodies of its handlers strewn across the ground. None of them looked like Hall. He pushed past camo netting and found the other gun system tipped over on its side with rounds covering the floor. A staff sergeant lay dead over in the corner and a young woman with a blade in her chest was smiling but also dead. That was when his eyes fell on Hall.
He was lying on his back, eyes wide, with a plasma bolt wound to his chest. “Hall?” He heard his voice crack. “Hall?” he asked again, shaking his friend.
Hall’s head just wobbled back and forth as Kodiak shook him, but he didn’t move, didn’t blink, and didn’t breathe. Kodiak’s heart broke in two at the sight. He hadn’t made it up the hill in time, and the mortars had paid a heavy toll. He looked around at all the Zodark bodies scattered across the area and shook his head in disbelief.
“I’m so sorry, Bear,” Moreau said as she touched his shoulder.
Kodiak’s body went numb, and his shoulders sank. “Me too,” he whispered, looking at Hall.
The sound of rocks rolling down the hilltop to his front spooked him and his team, and they all raised their weapons toward the noise. A Republic soldier bounded down the side with his hands raised, his rifle hanging on his chest. His nameplate read “Jackson.”
“Whoa, I’m friendly,” he called out to them.
Kodiak lowered his rifle. “Where the hell were you?” he screamed.
“Whatya mean? I was flanking with Sergeant Richards—didn’t Hall tell…” His voice trailed off as he looked down at Hall’s body.
Kodiak saw the pain in his eyes and softened his words. “Where’s Sergeant Richards?”
Tears fell from Jackson’s eyes as he knelt next to Hall and placed his hand on his chest. “We almost had them when the orbital strike hit. When the dust cleared, he was dead. So were the Zodarks.” He looked up at Kodiak. “Did we win?”
For the first time since getting to the top of Mortarville, Kodiak thought about the orbital strike and ran to the sandbags overlooking the valley and outpost. The sight he was met with was devastating. The entire valley was blackened and on fire; the forests were flattened down to stumps, and the river no longer existed. Day had slowly turned to night as thick black smoke from the impact zone blacked out the sun.
Sporadic fire continued in the outpost below, but there were far more Republic guns going off than Zodark guns. Above them, Republic fighters screamed through the sky, strafing Zodark ground units that were trying to escape across the river. Some of them split off and engaged Zodark air units that had arrived much too late to the party, and they were shot down with ease. He watched one of the strange-looking vessels break apart and slam into the ground where the river had once been.
He turned back to Jackson and the others, and with as much confidence in his voice as he could muster, he said, “We need to head back down, find our platoon leader, and report in. They’re mopping up the straggling units.”
“Wait, that’s it?” Moreau asked. “We won?”
Kodiak sighed, looking at Hall. A tear ran down his cheek. “The battle is over, but I’d hardly call this a win.”
********
Forward Operating Base Edwards
ROCNE-South, New Eden
24 Hours Later
Reinforcements from Belus Company replaced the men and women of Apollo at what remained of Combat Outpost Legion shortly after the battle. Kodiak had gathered his gear and made sure all of the surviving members, his friends, had climbed on board the awaiting Osprey. He had taken one final glance at the outpost before the doors closed. Columns of acrid black smoke climbed into the sky, blocking out the sunlight. Soldiers from Belus Company were offloading from vehicles, some standing in shock at the destruction of the compound. Before the hatch closed, he thought he spotted a familiar but unwelcomed face.
Even as he stood in formation twenty-four hours later, he wondered if he had indeed seen Skaggs. Leaving the outpost was still a haze in his mind as his brain tried to compute what he’d been through just one day before. If it was Skaggs he’d seen stepping out of a Puma, that meant he’d sadly survived the Zodark offensive.
The nondenominational chaplain had said, “Death is a part of life, whether warm in your bed surrounded by family or alone on a battlefield in the heat of combat. What matters are the actions we take in between now and death that will define us and who we were forever.”
The chaplain stood at the head of the formation as they said their final farewells to the fallen. On both sides of him stood rows of rifles, bayonets affixed, anchored into a stand with helmets on top of the buttstocks and a single dog tag hanging from each of the rifles’ grips. Behind the rows of rifle memorials, pictures of the fallen members of Apollo Company faded in and out on a projection behind the chaplain.
The bodies were already aboard transport shuttles, headed to the ships that would take them home. With Captain Striker dead, First Lieutenant Gallagher, who’d survived the battle, had taken over as acting company commander. Standing next to her on the elevated platform with the chaplain was the company first sergeant, Kirk, who looked just as bloodied as the rest of them.
The picture of Aiden Hall flashed on the wall, staring back at Kodiak. It was a picture of a happier time. Then, as suddenly as Aiden appeared, he was gone, replaced with the image of another fallen soldier. It almost felt like a metaphor to Kodiak. We’re here for but a moment in time…and then we’re gone, he thought privately before another thought formed in his mind. I may not be long for this world, but I assure you, the world will know who Kodiak Harrison was.
When the ceremony was over, they broke formation and mingled amongst themselves. Out of the seventy soldiers in First Platoon that had landed on New Eden, only forty-two remained. That made it easier to find the ones he was closest with. Morgan, Moreau, Moore, and Redner were the only ones from Kodiak’s basic that had survived.
He looked back up to the projection as another image of Hall appeared. The picture had been taken the first week they’d arrived on New Eden. All of the graduates from his basic training class that were put in Apollo Company had gotten together for a party. Garza and Mendoza had grilled steaks, Moreau and Hall had somehow managed to find a stash of liquor, and Sims had found a radio to play music. When the party had died down and everyone had started to head back to their barracks, Kodiak and some of the others had gathered around a fire. Moreau had taken a picture of Hall staring into the flames, a grin on his face. Hall had changed since basic—he smiled more.
“War’s not fair,” Moreau said, standing next to him as she stared at the picture of Hall.
Kodiak looked at her. “And it never will be.”
He didn’t know what else to say. It was all still very raw.
Moreau grabbed his arm softly. “We’re gonna lose a lot more before this is all over.”
Kodiak put his hand over hers and tried to smile. “You’re correct. Doesn’t mean it’ll be us. We’ll keep our heads down and drive on—and, hey, if we somehow make it out the other side, drinks are on me.”
“Bear, if we ever make it out of this war alive, I’d probably just marry your ass because we’ll be old by then.” Moreau laughed and squeezed his arm lightly.
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Kodiak replied.
When the memorial ended, the two of them walked a short distance away from the others. Standing near an empty field used for physical training, Kodiak held her hand.
She interlaced her fingers with his and squeezed tightly. Together they stood as the sun set behind the forest-covered mountain and they looked into the approaching night sky. A dark moon covered in veins of pulsating lava glowed in the waning light of dusk.
“I heard a rumor that we’re headed there next,” Moreau said, pointing to the moon with her free hand.
“You mean the glowing ball of death?”
She laughed before saying, “I was told the Zodarks have a resistance force on New Eden’s moons. Someone’s gotta snuff ’em out.”
