despair at their bodies, but quickly took up the ARMAL launcher they had been preparing.
The Captain didn’t have to give out any further commands. The men around him had already begun firing with the devices and everything else that they had to hand. As he armed the device he could see Major Taylor loading the AP rounds into his launcher. He nodded at his friend before taking aim. The ground the enemy had covered surprised him, it was far closer than he had anticipated.
Hoping to fire at one of the approaching tanks, Jones caught sight of a Mech turning quickly to fire at him. He snapped the weapon around and fired right at the beast. The round landed lower than expected, at the hips of the metal suit. The explosion caused the suit to scissor as if it was hinged, crumpling into a twisted mess.
The enemy tanks had reached the traps the EUA forces had hoped would stop them. However as they drew near, huge curved blades as broad as the vehicles themselves and slung low on the hulls began to spin. They met the traps with a deafening grinding as sparks flew in every direction. The vehicles were slowed, but were cutting their way quickly through the devices.
“Hit them now!” shouted Chandra.
Every soldier in the company with an ARMAL or Aardvark stood up and took aim with no regard for their own lives. They could only imagine the horrors they would face if the enemy armour got among them. The surviving crew of the crippled tank beside them continued to fire despite the smoke bellowing from its turret.
The company fired in a frenzy with everything they had. The tanks erupted with such heat that they could feel it inside the trenches. They watched as the Mechs began to step back. They continued firing but were in withdrawal. The troops continued to fire and the snipers took down another two as they clambered out of range.
Jones climbed up on top of the tank with the least damage on their flank. He stood with no fear for his life. Taylor leapt up beside him with his launcher. He reloaded as he stepped up top, not wanting to be caught with it empty.
The two officers looked out across the width of the battlefront. Burning wrecks littered the battlefield along with hundreds of lifeless Mechs.
“Have you ever seen anything so pretty in your life?” asked Jones.
Taylor smiled. It was the first time in the war that they had seen the enemy retreat or be defeated in any number. The continuous losses they had faced made them all wonder if they would ever stop the alien hordes in their tracks. Taylor turned to see Chandra standing at the vehicle next to him.
“How does it look, Major?”
“Come and see for yourself, Colonel!”
He offered out his hand to hoist her up. She initially looked insulted at the sentiment. It was never made easy for a woman in the military, even less so for Chandra who operated in an elite unit. Taylor smiled in a way she could see was both being friendly as well as larking about. She smiled back and took his arm. Taylor hauled her up onto the vehicle where she could see the wonders before them.
For a moment she let herself revel in the victory they had achieved. Seeing the enemy crushed was the most heart warming experience since the war began. Then, as Jones and Taylor continued to gaze at the fruits of their labour, Chandra turned back to look at their own lines and felt a sickness in her stomach.
Tanks and artillery were in ruin and hundreds of soldiers lay dead or wounded across the lines. She could see similar devastation in the distance. The alien forces had attacked across a several kilometre-wide front. She estimated that thirty percent of the troops of the units she could see had been decimated. It was a brutal reminder of the losses in Brest, and a horrific insight in what was to come.
“We paid a high price for this small victory,” she said.
Taylor and Jones turned to look at the grim sight. Their smiling faces were quickly muted as they looked at the carnage on their own side.
“I hope they are losing as much as us, because we can’t keep this up forever.”
“We have no choice, Colonel. This isn’t a war of our choosing. They want our homes and we have nowhere to go, we fight or we die as a race,” said Taylor.
“Our American friend if right, Colonel. No price is too high, for extinction is the only other option.”
She nodded and turned to look back out towards the battlefield. She could just make out the last of the Mechs and vehicles retreating.
“They’ll be back soon enough, and in greater number. No one likes taking a beating and they’ll be eager to set the record straight.”
“We’ll be ready for them!”
“Captain, get on the line, we need ammunition and re-enforcements brought up immediately. I am guessing their next assault will be twice as strong as this one was. Also make sure we get plenty of water, and organise the wounded to be moved back!”
“Yes, Sir.”
He leapt from the tank to carry out his tasks. They had made the city of Paris a fortress, and in doing so they all realised what a siege it was about to become. The first of the re-enforcement detachments were already clambering over the rubble on the road from the centre of the city. They poured into the trenches as the wounded and dead were pulled out, more lambs to the slaughter.
“Colonel!” shouted Lieutenant Green.
She turned to see the man pointing at a fresh wing of enemy aircraft heading for their position.
“Into the trenches! Take cover!” she screamed.
She leapt with Mitch from the tank landing hard in the trench below, crumpling to the floor. Seconds later the first of the strafing runs began and bricks and mortar peppered their positions. They watched as half a section of re-enforcements were annihilated on the road east before they could reach any solid cover.
The strafing run was just the beginning. Moments later they were overhead and bomb-like objects dropped all around them. The defences burst into light as continual explosions erupted. The troops could do nothing but huddle in their trenches and hope for the best. The remaining tanks tried to counter the aircraft with their secondary mounted anti-aircraft weapons. They knocked out a couple of the alien vessels, but it had little effect.
Taylor could see Chandra shouting orders, but couldn’t hear a single word despite her being only a metre away. The ground shook and rumbled continuously as if hit by an earthquake. A nearby bomb struck Price, blinding him instantly and leaving his face cut and mangled, he was alive but no good to anyone. Taylor saw him moving and wailing but couldn’t hear his screams over the deafening noise.
The bombing run raged for fifteen minutes until friendly aircraft arrived to once more do battle. However it was too late, the alien planes were already returning west and the EUA fighters were forced to turn back in fear of being over hostile lands.
Taylor and Chandra stood up to survey the damage. Both tanks were now utterly destroyed and another eight men were dead in their trench, as well as many more wounded. The Colonel remembered dispatching Captain Jones just moments before the attack had begun, she could only pray she hadn’t sent him to his death. Seconds after the distressing thought the Captain appeared from behind one of the burning wrecks to report in.
He stopped and looked around at their trench for a moment. Blood trailed up his armour but it seemed it wasn’t his. He looked back to the Colonel dumbfounded.
“Sir, you had it light here, I suggest you take a look.”
Chandra clambered back onto the tank she’d been on before the bombing began. The vehicle was smouldering and she could feel the heat through her boots. Looking along the line of defences she gasped at the carnage. There were gaping holes in their defences where entire trenches had been left as ragged craters. Most of the armour on the front line was blown apart or still burning.
In the distance came the frightful sound she had been dreading. Tank tracks in vast numbers were rolling towards their positions. Still a couple of kilometres off but in great numbers, she doubted they had more than fifteen minutes before all hell broke loose. Jumping off the vehicle once more she strode to the wired phone in their trench and ripped the handset from its cradle.
“This is Colonel Chandra, get me Commander Phillips!”
“This is Phillips.”
“Sir, we’re in deep shit here! We’ve got heavy casualties. Our armour is mostly gone. Enemy is approaching in substantial numbers, I do not believe we can survive another assault!”
