Part 6 (2/2)
Grant offered a single nod and sent the tank on its way with a simple, ”All right, troop. Carry on.”
The last of the reserve units had arrived and were a.s.sembling in the middle of the street. Grant rushed to them and ignored a salute from the sergeant leading the group of twenty.
”Sergeant, all of our forces on this street are to your north. You and your team are our rear guard. Watch our a.s.ses for any Minith trying to get behind us. But be ready to engage enemy to the north. When we need you to move up to the front, you'll know. Questions?”
”Where are you going to be, General?”
Grant aimed a thumb back over his shoulder. ”That way, soldier. Everyone is that way.”
He clapped the sergeant on the back before gathering Conway and her team and rus.h.i.+ng off again.
Grant continued to receive radio updates and issue orders to the pilots and ground commanders as he made his way to the front lines. He had lost communication with t.i.tan and the Telgorans, and struggled to reach them so he could alert them of the ma.s.ses of Minith waiting ahead.
When he did reach them five minutes later, t.i.tan, the Telgorans, and every other soldier, pilot, and driver already knew. Grant watched with dread as the flashes of red that represented Minith incoming fire grew from the occasional to the constant. They had reached the initial wall of the enemy, and their advance had slowed to a crawl.
The crawl quickly became a stall when two of their tanks were destroyed by a heavy concentration of Minith fire. The enemy had learned that their weapons, useless against the tanks when used singly, were very effective when grouped together.
The advancing infantry recognized the threat and redoubled their efforts to defend the final tank. But the result was inevitable. Scores of enemy weapons were successfully turned on the armored vehicle. When it exploded, the remaining wave of infantry and Telgoran dindin warriors were left naked and vulnerable.
The jet pilots did their best to make up for the loss of the armored ground units, but the battle had s.h.i.+fted. The same concentration of enemy weapons that took out the tanks now focused on the fast, but low-flying, carriers. His pilots were swatted from the sky with ease.
From a distance of forty meters behind the lead elements, Grant watched helplessly as the enemy quickly chewed up his forces. The reports he was receiving from the units on the next street over were no more positive. The numbers of Minith they faced were just as great.
Grant finally acknowledged it was now just a matter of when they would die, instead of if they would die.
His anger raged. Not at his forces, not at the Minith. But at himself. He should have sent the infantry carriers ahead to the governor's residence when he had the chance. His p.i.s.s-poor leaders.h.i.+p and desire to give all his forces a fighting chance had done just the opposite. Instead of giving them a chance to survive, his decisions had doomed them all.
They had failed. He had failed.
”Come on, Conway,” he yelled to the sergeant. She and her squad had protected him well while he struggled to pull out the victory. Now that victory was not a possibility, the only thing left to do was enter the fight. ”Let's kick some Minith a.s.s.”
Grant put his reengineered legs to work and sprinted for the front lines.
Becka Conway nodded and looked behind her. Her team was lagging, so she slowed briefly and allowed them to catch up.
She had wondered when the general would finally concede. She had to give him credit, though. His efforts had prolonged the fight, and had allowed the army to punish the aliens longer than she would have thought possible.
Another of the carriers was. .h.i.t, and exploded overhead. The sergeant looked up as a boiling cloud of fire and metal began raining down. Without thought, she dropped to the street and curled into a tight ball of fear and resignation.
So this is how it ends.
But it didn't end. The searing debris crashed around her with a wrenching whoosh of heat and sound. When the rain stopped, she looked up and found herself surrounded by burning pools of fire and twisted metal. A sear of pain bit at her right arm and she quickly beat out the flame that tried to eat through the sleeve of her jumpsuit.
Surprised to be alive, she jumped up and wound her way out of the maze of debris. Once free, she looked around and took stock. She immediately noticed Private Haas, the youngest member of the team, on his knees to her left. He was leaning against the building, looking shocked and frightened. His mouth hung open as he stared in dismay at the burning wreckage. She followed his gaze; saw what he saw.
”d.a.m.n.”
Broken, burnt bodies were clearly visible amid the rubble. She tallied the numbers and accounted for the entire team.
”d.a.m.n.”
The sergeant was trying to get her head around the loss when one of the blackened corpses raised an unrecognizable head and opened its eyes. Against the scorched black visage that remained, the two orbs seemed like large marbles of white. She watched in horror as the soldier looked around, found her, and locked onto her gaze. The depth of understanding, fear, and pleading in those eyes was infinite. Conway was filled with an overwhelming desire to take away her soldier's pain. But that was an empty desire, incapable of being fulfilled.
A tear escaped and Conway dropped to her knees. She had never felt so helpless. She was wondering what to do when a bullet ended the trooper's pleading.
Haas lowered his rifle and turned to look at his sergeant. Conway nodded. The private had done the right thing. He had done what she could not.
”Let's go, Haas.” The sergeant shoved her feelings away and stood up. She repeated the general's words to her. ”Let's kick some Minith a.s.s.”
Without waiting for the private's response, she turned and ran toward the battle line. She spied the general ahead and angled toward him.
She fired her weapon at the alien targets in front of her as she ran. There were so many, she couldn't miss.
Patahbay had never known such glory or such pain. Every time a weapon took out one of the enemy, he rejoiced. Every time one of the Family fell silent, he ached.
Only a handful of the Family remained, along with the human called t.i.tan. The human had proven his loyalty and bravery. Time after time, he had protected one of them with his weapon and, on several occasions, with his hands. The Family reached s.h.i.+ale during the course of the battle. They bestowed Honor upon him and, although he could not share the ma.s.s mind, he was now one of them. Just like the general.
The human weapon was no longer working, so Patahbay wielded his staff. The agsel shaft felt right in his grip and he swung the heavy weapon in a blur toward the enemy standing before him. The alien was too slow to prevent the blow, and Patahbay rejoiced once more.
Before he could rejoice again, he felt the familiar tingle in his mind. The Waa were reaching out to the Family.
The Family accepted the instructions and turned away from the enemy. Patahbay located t.i.tan and the general and rushed toward them.
There was not much time.
Conway fought like the possessed. When Haas went down seconds after reaching the front line, she was left with only two goals-two thoughts. Protect her general and kill the Minith.
She was doing a remarkable job at both.
Then the startling sight of a Telgoran warrior racing in her direction caught her attention. It took her focus away from the fight for only a second. But that second was long enough.
When she turned to gape at the Telgoran, a Minith soldier stepped out from behind a pile of rubble and fired his weapon.
General Justice crumpled.
Patahbay saw the general fall, but did not slow. There was no time.
The human soldier nearest to the general fired her weapon, and the alien's dark purple blood splattered across the building behind him.
Patahbay rejoiced, scooped up the general, and continued running. He knew without looking that the remaining Family, including t.i.tan, would follow.
He also saw through the eyes of the Family behind them that the female soldier was giving chase.
<script>