A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (5 page)

“Evens advance, odds cover.” Danford spoke into the comm after two minutes had passed. He knew he shouldn’t be climbing out and advancing, but he reasoned, the first wave was likely safer than the second was going to be so he could justify it. At least to himself. As he moved forward at thirty kph, he heard the odds open up on the enemy positions, or at least where they had been previously. There was still a heavy curtain of debris blocking both sides’ field of view. Danford was counting on that interference to close with the enemy. There was some scattered return fire on both edges of his advance, but nothing substantial. The enemy clearly seemed disoriented. They had gone almost four-hundred meters now with nobody down.

“Evens down and cover, odds advance.” Danford dropped behind a piece of rock that looked as if it had been blasted into the air by the explosion. He let the odds advance past him and into the heaviest part of the cloud. Just as his scanning contact with them became fuzzy he ordered them to cover and the evens to resume their advance. They continued this leapfrog all the way to the enemy line. Danford was getting concerned now, having advanced to the enemy position with extremely light casualties. The enemy fire had intensified in a couple of spots, but a rocket barrage and some mortar fire had allowed his men to rush them and overwhelm the remaining strongpoints.

“Find a good spot and dig in. Keep your eyes peeled.” Danford flipped over to Lt Hanford. “How’s it looking on your end?”

“Good sir, light enemy fire, no probing though. It’s like they don’t have the strength to do anything about your attack.” Lieutenant Hanford sounded concerned.

“Agreed, but we know they have the strength, we’ve been fighting it all damn day.” Danford contemplated that for a moment. “Watch your flanks. They might be getting ready for their own attack, letting us bleed our strength and extend our lines.”

“Yes sir, I’ve got my two rocket teams ready for them, either flank.”

Danford switched to Lt. Diggs’ comm channel. “Lieutenant, what is your situation?”

“Heavily engaged sir, between us and the rest of the battalion hitting the enemy on both sides. We’ve only got about a platoon strength unit between us and Lt Colonel Cain. He’s preparing to stage the final breakthrough to us now.” Diggs sounded out of breath and distracted.

“Be advised, we are not facing originally estimated enemy strength in our assault. The enemy has diverted most of their strength elsewhere. They must have moved underground or in small groups because our eye in the sky hasn’t called in any large movements. Estimate we have at least a battalion at large.” Danford didn’t relish the thought of the enemy having nearly one-thousand uncommitted troops to attack at the time and place of their choosing.

“Understood. Now if you’ll excuse me sir…”

“Of course. Keep me updated on that breakthrough.” Danford switched back to his own unit and connected to one marine in particular. “Gilson, I need you to pick a team of two to push out beyond the line. I need them to scout for the missing enemy battalion. I’m thinking the best place to put that battalion is on the last hill overlooking Haikou.” Danford highlighted in the shared tactical map. Since the scout platoon had lost everyone above the rank of corporal, Danford had given Gilson half the scouts to watch their flanks and the flank of their spoiling attack. She was running a shattered heavy weapons platoon already, but he knew she was more than up to the task.

“Yes sir, I’ll push them out right away.”

“And remember, I need them alive to report, nothing foolish.”

“Yes sir, I’ll ensure they understand.” For some reason, Danford suspected that there would be a number of interesting phrases and colorful language in her conversation with those two scouts. He didn’t envy them at all he thought, smiling slightly.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Sir,” Gilson came over the comm. “Our scouts report evidence of enemy activity to the east. They couldn’t get any closer, too much jamming and suppressive fire. When they launched drones, the enemy destroyed them with excessive force. Whatever they’re doing over there, they don’t want us to get a close look at. Fleet might be able to see more, but the scouts reported the entire area is blanketed by a fog that seems to be interfering with scanners.”

“Very well. Hold the line Sergeant.” Danford connected with Corporal Lisa Song, senior of the scouts he had retained under his own command for scouting the approaches to Haikou. “Corporal Song, status of the scouting elements towards Haikou?”

“Sir.” Her voice was still a little jumpy, clearly not used to reporting directly to a captain. She had been further down the chain of command when they landed, but officers and senior noncoms in the scout units had taken heavy losses and she was the highest ranking scout left in the company. “Scouts are just now reaching the outskirts of the town, no enemy blocking action. There is, however, sounds of gunfire and some sort of engagement along the waterfront. I was going to push the scouts out towards that, see if I can get a better idea of what’s going on, with your permission?”

“Proceed.” Danford was not sure what to make of that, who was fighting in Haikou?

Lieutenant Ava Kim threw herself down as the entire wall she was crouched behind was shredded by an enemy SAW.

What did you expect stupid,
she mocked herself,
when you shot at them?

She glanced at her tac display. Her unit, 3
rd
Recon & Special Action Team (RASAT) had dropped into the bay outside of Haikou about an hour ago. They had waited until their special drop pods plummeted to the bottom of the fifty meter deep bay, just in case the enemy had any sort of mobile patrol on the surface. As they emerged the squads had formed up and moved across the bottom of the bay to the docks of Haikou. She still found it fairly amusing that a spaceport happened to be on the water, giving the name a double meaning. Now, they had emerged and struck at the enemy from where they least expected. The enemy had dispersed their supply dumps to protect them from bombardment and nuclear strikes, but Kim had sent a squad against each of the three largest, while her own squad hit the command post with a full barrage of rockets. The attack was coordinated to occur at the same time as the 1
st
company nuclear strike, though those marines weren’t aware of their presence as of yet. Now she needed them to hurry up and push on the town. While the Marines had been outnumbered already, her forty-three Marines were outnumbered even worse. The enemy had far less strength in Haikou than intel suggested, but it was still more than enough to engage and destroy her small platoon. Already she had more than ten down, though she wasn’t sure if they were actually dead or if their suits had just been too badly damaged to continue reporting.

“Sue, patch me into 1
st
Company’s CO.” Lt. Kim hadn’t liked not having a name for her quasi-AI, even if it wasn’t actually alive. She found it awkward to just talk or address it as simply ‘AI’ and such. It didn’t seem to be a common practice, but she found it easier.

“You are connected to Captain Danford, Lieutenant.”

“Captain Danford, this is Lieutenant Kim, 3
rd
RASAT. We’re attacking the enemy position from the sea, sir. We hit three of their supply dumps and shot up their command post, but we’re pressed pretty hard here.” That was an understatement. She could see the enemy forces bringing more force to bear, at least two-hundred and fifty troops were along her platoon’s frontage now. They’d be able to pierce her line anywhere they wanted pretty soon. They’d still be in for a fight, however, RASATs don’t go down easy. Everyone in her unit had at least five years’ experience, five years of continuous war. There weren’t a lot of privates in this unit, that was for sure. Additionally, they were armed unlike most infantry, even other powered infantry. Each of her marines carried the standard marine rifle, but also they had a light rocket launcher with re-loader in place of the lighter infantry grenade launcher. On top of that, each squad had one suit that dropped the launcher and carried an eight pack of rockets. Finally, she had four SAWs, but these were carried by a single marine, with a special mount on the back of their armor for an auto-loading unit. If they went down, the gun was lost, but they could move faster than a normal SAW team and that was important to RASATs. They relied on speed of movement to accomplish their missions, not holding a line. RASATs weren’t intended to be put on the line, they were supposed to move and destroy the enemy in detail.

“Damn good to hear from you Lieutenant. Our scouts are just pushing into the town now and reporting the battle. I’ll start dropping mortars and rockets on their heads. I’m starting my attack in two minutes. Can you hold that long?” Danford sounded like he was on the line himself, with Kim hearing the distinctive sound of an assault rifle opening up in long bursts. The suits damped out a lot of noise, but the sound of your own rifle firing always made it inside.

“Yes sir, we’ll give them hell.”

“See you soon Lieutenant.” Danford closed the line.

“Alright marines, 1
st
Company will be extending their welcome parade in our direction in 2 minutes. When they do I want us to be ready.” Kim didn’t plan on just waiting around for 1
st
Company to come to their rescue. She was a RASAT. They didn’t hold static lines, they attacked.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Evens, advance.” Danford again climbed above the trench line, moving forward quickly without firing, concentrating only on staying low and covering the distance as quickly as possible. This time, there was enemy fire waiting for them. He saw his marines dropping quickly as the enemy guns tore into their line. Finally, he made the distance and ordered everyone down. This was going to be costly. The odds didn’t fair any better, losing a quarter of their number before they dropped. Danford had temporarily switched his mortar teams back to engaging the enemy in front of them instead of supporting the RASAT. They would have to hold out without the help until he could get there.

Across the port, Lieutenant Kim reloaded her rifle. Shifting her armored legs underneath herself, she readied to burst forth. She connected to the entire platoon with a quick command and calmly spoke a single word. “Attack.”

As one, the 3
rd
RASAT leapt forth and opened fire, closing with the enemy who had just been engaged from behind by the marines there. They didn’t move without regard for cover or lines of sight, but they also barely slowed their forward dash. One marine would bodily collide with a building for cover, sweeping the enemy positions in front with deadly fire while a comrade rushed forward to find new cover and allow them to leapfrog forward. Instead of the quick and efficient motions of a line platoon, the RASAT platoon was more like a sprint of a drunkard. To watch a single marine’s motion would be to see what looked like a stumbling and uncoordinated dash. In reality, the RASAT marines were rushing from one chosen piece of cover to another, trusting their armor to protect them from hitting buildings and other structures at a run. Taking the time to slow would only subject them to more enemy fire. More importantly, it would slow their forward advance. That was considered unacceptable to them all.

The mortar fire had slacked off several minutes earlier and no attack had come then. As a result, when 1
st
Company engaged them without the RASAT doing the same, the PRC commander had shifted his reserves to honor the threat. There was no way, he reasoned, the small force he had pinned against the sea would possibly have the strength to mount an attack, so he felt comfortable in this move. He had still felt uncomfortable about just where those troops had come from, but that was for later contemplation, if there was a later to be had. He was now regretting this choice. He only had two SAWs left to support the troops pinning in the RASATs. He was getting reports now that there was almost a platoon strength engaging his own forces, but they were engaging along a narrow frontage, barely attacking a platoon worth of his own marines. Worse, it was now confirmed they were the enemy special forces, respected for their competence across all of mankind’s systems, feared everywhere for the ferocity of their assaults and the speed of their advance. The initial attacks by them had been more careful and cautious than he would have expected, but now he was facing the unit unleashed.

Kim leapt up in the air in a long shallow jump, sailing just above a rooftop to a one story building. It was just the sort of maneuver her instructors had always told her to never do. As she crested the peak she dipped her legs and they impacted the roof, twisting her body down into the thin roof. Not designed to support a heavy Marine, the roof gave way and she fell through. Though she had planned the maneuver, sort of, she still fell in an unceremonious pile. She stopped the impulse to pop up immediately as the enemy raked the small building with fire, blowing out the rest of the windows in what had probably been some sort of office. When she didn’t return fire the enemy stopped and switched back to her surging troops. Kim counted to five and then rose to one knee, her left arm aiming out the blasted front window. There it was, the enemy SAW on this flank, just barely in a position where she could shoot between the buildings and catch it in enfilade. They had great cover from the direction of her advance, but this building gave her the sight line she needed. She sighted on the gun, her AI giving her the trajectory in less than a second and projecting it onto her HUD. She triggered the launcher, sending two HE rounds downrange in under two seconds. She then went prone and rolled to the doorway where the door was hanging at an angle from its sole surviving hinge, at least fifty percent of the door missing. The window behind her and the floor where she had crouched was saturated a moment later by at least ten rockets and grenades. The desks and other ruble in the structure shielded her just enough to prevent more than minor damage to her armor and external sensors. Rifle fire added to the carnage. The front wall groaned, then the weight of the ruined roof and the wall itself brought the entire face crashing down. Kim had no time, diving out of the doorway. She was up and running for the next structure, only four bounds away. Just as she entered the doorway, she was spun around violently. She bounced off the doorframe, caving it in partially, as fire exploded in her side. The pain took away her breath and her head spun for a moment. The AI administered a drug cocktail and the suit’s trauma control system flooded the zone with expanding foam. As that plugged the hole she used her left arm to drag herself into the room completely. A round plucked at her armored boot but did not penetrate, a glancing hit.

The enemy kept up the fire, eroding the wall with a constant stream of projectiles. Kim rolled onto her back, ignoring the flashing warnings and suit damage diagrams flashing across her display.

“Lieutenant, I must recommend that you move behind friendly forces and seek additional medical attention immediately.” Sue spoke in her usual monotone voice, but Lt Kim could swear she detected a whining quality. Maybe that was just the mild nausea and headache she still felt, even through the drug cocktail.

“No time.” Kim raised both arms, her rifle in her right arm like some oversized pistol and her launcher trained on the doorway, ready to blast the first person to try and walk through that door.

Suddenly, the enemy fire tapered off, then stopped entirely. She could tell they hadn’t stopped shooting just that they were firing in a different direction. She glanced back at her tactical display for a moment, unwilling to distract herself from the doorway for more than that. She smiled as she saw the additional blue dots on the display, 1
st
Company. Danford had broken through. Her RASAT and Danford’s marines were linking up. Another quick glance revealed that the other enemy SAW was gone as well and that there were a number of retreating red dots. They were still retiring in good order, but there were fewer than Kim would have expected. She didn’t see more than one-hundred and fifty dots. Of course, her own RASAT was down to twenty-seven, though a number of the others were probably in similar condition to herself. Indeed, she could see at least eight pulsing light blue dots, indicating units judged combat ineffective but still alive. She could see fifty more dots representing 1
st
Company, but she couldn’t get an estimate of casualties without knowing their attacking strength. Plus, she reasoned, they were probably spread beyond her scanner range. She was just a Lieutenant, after all, and not privy to the entire tactical display. Not even a RASAT had that level of access at this rank.

A figure finally appeared in the doorway, but Kim saw the warning flash up on her display even as she recognized the armor as one of her RASAT marines.

“Lieutenant!” It was her 2
nd
in command, 2
nd
Lt Jorge Ramirez. He rushed over and dropped beside her, expertly staying out of her field of fire on the doorway. He quickly removed a hard patch kit from her armor and opened it. He let the contents drop onto the floor, picking up the biggest patch and the sealant. He applied it to the breach, allowing the cold weld agent to bond to her armor. The patch was nowhere near a replacement for the damaged armor, but it would hold pressure, keep NBC hazards out, and offer improved protection over the foam. It was the best field repair possible while she was still in the suit. “We’ve broken through their lines in three places and they are falling back towards the east. Captain Danford is establishing a new series of parallel lines to the east and west. He is requesting that we form up in the center as a mobile reserve.”

“Give the order Lieutenant.” Kim liked this Captain Danford. As much as she might feel that she needed to be in the line of fire, Kim knew the best use of her people was as a mobile reserve, ready to counterattack the enemy wherever they struck. “And you’re leading any attacks, I don’t think I can keep pace right now.”

“Yes sir. Captain Danford has a casualty collection point. He doesn’t have any medical teams right now, but once they establish a line through to the other element of the battalion we should be able to get some more assets up here.” Lt. Ramirez slung his rifle and helped Kim to her feet.

“Not so fast Lieutenant. I said you were leading a counterattack, not that I was passing command. I can still hold the line and sitting in a casualty point isn’t helping anyone. We’re still outnumbered down here until we get reinforcements.” Kim had no intention of just sitting around doing nothing.

“Sir…” Ramirez trialed off. As much as he wanted to argue, he knew she was right and what’s more he knew he would have done the same in her position. “Yes sir.”