“My Battalion is ready and awaiting your orders, Commander.”
Kelly knew the Chinese troops were eager to get into action since they arrived the week before. They were the only soldiers to come to the aid of the Lunar colony since Taylor’s mission to rescue the Prime Minister.
“Thank you, Colonel.”
He turned back to the microphone to talk to the survivors of the colony.
“All units are to be ready for combat within the hour. Be patient, be strong, and be ready. The time is almost upon us to take back our homes, over and out.”
He nodded for Lewis to stop the transmission and turned to Martinez and Chen. Martinez would never have liked giving up any authority or command to an Earth dweller, but now he would take any help he could get.
“I want to know those bastards have gone for good. I have no doubt they have left more than enough troops here to not make our life easy, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As soon as we are confident that all who are going have left, and they are entering the Earth’s atmosphere, it is our time to strike.”
“You think we can do it this time?” asked Martinez.
“I think we have a damn good chance. We’ll do this systematically. Corridor by corridor until we occupy all that is underground. I know we want the surface back, but we have to do it with caution.”
“Agreed,” replied Chen confidently.
“We are thankful of your support, Colonel, but you are likely to be the only help we see for some time, and we cannot afford to throw lives away. We paid a high price the last time we tried to move forward, so let’s do this right. Both of you ready our troops. Remind them of what we are fighting for, and the price of failure.”
“Go, go, go!” roared Chandra.
She could barely hear her own voice over the deafening explosions tearing through the base. She flinched as one struck a transport plane, and it burst into a thick ball of black smoke. Debris scattered across the ground between them and smashed into the rooftops of their billets. The Company rushed from their accommodation, desperately trying to pull on their equipment as they scurried out towards the trenches.
“So much for a rest!” shouted Hall.
“You can rest when you’re dead, Corporal!” she barked.
Silva rushed to the Major’s side with a look of bewilderment on his face. The troops of the Inter-Allied Company had been taking a much-needed spate of rest and had settled in for a few quiet card games and naps.
“What the fuck is going on, Major?” he hastily asked.
“The whole fucking Krycenaean army is advancing from Saarbrucken!”
“My God, then this wait was all about massing forces for a push?”
“Looks that way, follow my lead. We’re heading for Gate B to the west, and we have to hold!”
“I don’t see we have any other choice, Major,” he replied despondently.
She nodded with a pained grin and turned quickly, beckoning for the nearest troops to follow her. As she ran with her body held low, she could see troops and vehicles all over the base in an absolute frenzy, and as many were heading to the front line as were fleeing from it. She darted from building to building to cover the five hundred metres between them and the perimeter of the base.
Chandra could not see the front line through the scattered troops, vehicles and dust. As they grew nearer, she gained some visibility, gasping as she saw trees collapsing under the weight of the enemy tanks that were breaching the thick forest.
“Into the trenches now!” she cried.
They continued to rush forward as explosions burst all round them, and they felt the immense heat of the artillery pulses rush past. She sprinted across the open ground between the last of the buildings and the first trenches. The Major hoped her comrades were close behind, but she could no longer pause to think about it. She jumped and rolled into the closest trench, nearly knocking herself out as she landed hard in the floor beside a Russian officer.
The Company poured into the trenches all around her, squeezing in between those already huddled in for safety. Chandra shook her head to re-gain her senses and wiped the dust from her face as she looked to Silva.
“We can’t stay here. We have to get our guns into action!” she yelled.
“Not like we’ve got a lot that’ll touch them, Major.”
“That’s life. We’ll just have to hope someone else can do some of the work.”
She looked at the troops around her. Their own Company were mixed in with two other units. They all looked as scared as each other. The last few weeks had made them complacent. They had gotten used to holding their ground and forgotten how terrifying their opponents could be.
“Let’s move! On me!” ordered Chandra.
She clambered to her feet and followed the trench works further west. There were six layer of trenches constructed around the entire western perimeter of Ramstein. As they got closer to the front, they could hear the raucous grinding of the enemy tanks rumbling towards them. They were not stopped by any obstacles in the battered no man’s land that had been fought over for so many weeks.
They finally reached the front line trenches, where German infantry were frantically trying to stop the oncoming tanks with what little heavy equipment they had. She didn’t recognise any of the faces. With the tens of thousands of soldiers operating along the lines, it was rare for her to see anyone twice. She wondered how many of those she had stood beside in combat were now dead, but they were names she never knew.
“What the hell are we doing here, Major?” shouted Blinker.
Chandra crawled up the side of the trench to look down the shallow slope towards the oncoming enemy. They were still a distance away and making slow but steady progress. Artillery shells whistled overhead and crashed down into the enemy advance. She watched as Mechs were tossed into the air like ragdolls and thrown back down into the mud. The pulse cannons on the tanks fired volleys into their positions, and dirt peppered the hunkered down troops. The Major looked down at the soldiers hiding from the enemy guns.
“Get the fuck up here and start shooting!” she yelled.
She lifted her rifle up onto the edge of trench and took careful aim at the first Mech that drew her attention. The armoured creature was still seven hundred metres out, but she had to feel that they were doing something. She aimed, squeezed the trigger and watched the round bounce off the Mech’s faceplate.
“God damn it!”
She looked over at Sergeant Silva.
“We need our god damn weapons back!”
She watched as Campbell laid his huge anti-materiel rifle down and quickly took aim. He was careful to select the creature the armour had defiantly brushed off the Major’s rifle. He quickly pulled the trigger, and she turned to see blood spew from the baseball-size hole in its facial armour. The beast went limp and smashed down into the dirt. She turned and nodded in appreciation to the marine sniper.
“Get the ARMALs up here, and anything else we have got!”
Mortars fired off in sequence in the trench behind them, sending further fire forwards. The big guns roared to the east in support. She could hear gunfire and pulse weapons raging for miles. They all knew the time had come. The enemy weren’t stopped in their tracks weeks before, and they were only rallying their forces to smash the allied forces in Ramstein.
As the troops prepared what little heavy weaponry they had, the Major once again peered over the firing shelf to witness the fearsome advance. She could hear allied tanks rolling forward at their backs to join the fight. The sky lit up as an aerial strike began. She had just enough time to spot the multiple wings of enemy craft as the first pulses smashed into their positions. The vibrations threw her into the base of the trench. Lying flat on her back, the Major watched the enemy fighters rush past overhead with guns blazing.
“There’s nothing left to stop them,” stated Silva in a sombre tone.
They could hear the anti-aircraft weapons of the base blasting away, desperately trying to bring down the enemy craft, but their systems were woefully antiquated.
“We’ve lost the sky,” muttered Chandra.
“Then be thankful we’re bloody infantry!” shouted Silva.
“Not so much, we’re the ones getting shit on!” yelled Blinker.
Chandra looked over to see the cheeky grin on the soldier’s face. It astonished her that amid such a brutal
