As Traveler sat down on at a far table inside the bunker, he glanced at his watch. By his count, the Russian barrage had continued 10 minutes longer than usual. The enemy commander probably believed the Archons were caught unaware and wanted to be sure they were destroyed. Traveler looked around the cramped bunker and sighed. His Pioneers looked exhausted, but all of them were active. Some were cleaning their SCAR A1 assault rifles while Cpl. Richwood and his spotter Pvt. Jameson were carefully disassembling their M120 50. Caliber Sniper Rifle. Others were painting over their body armor's scratches with the 9th Airborne's traditional colors, Black and Red. A small group of privates had grouped around Sgt. Alonzo as she read from a newspaper she had received two days ago from her family back in Texas.
"-but due to heavy loss from last week's battle of Beijing ," Alonzo recited, "Our Japanese allies have been stopped only 35 miles inland. Whether this delay is temporary or fatal to the invasion of China is yet to be determined but President Becerra is confident that-"
Over in the far corner, Sgt. Riggs was giving a lesson to the new "bone-driver" Pvt. Terry on how to correctly use the APE-1A2, the JSF's own exoskeleton system. Sgt. Riggs used to be a bone-driver too, before a bullet had hit a hydraulic line in his own exoskeleton, causing his system to glitch, forcing his right leg in a 90 degree angle the wrong way. Weaken by that, Sgt. Riggs still walks with a limp, barring him from exoskeleton service for probably the rest of his military career.
Traveler realized the shelling had stopped. Not a normal, slow tampering off that signals the end of most barrages, but a quick, unnerving silence. That could only mean one thing.
"Up! Line Up! Quickly!" Traveler ordered.
All around him, the activity increased tenfold. Rifles were quickly reassembled, Pvt. Terry's exoskeleton purred as he fully activated it and the platoon's four Sergeants lined their squads up next to the door.
Traveler ran to the bunkers thick metal door and looked out through a small glass slit in the middle of it. As he thought, Spetnaz Wolves were taking up positions around the bunker entrance in crumbled out buildings. Sometimes an artillery barrage is simply meant to keep the enemy's head down long enough for the infantry to move in. Hopefully however, these Wolves believed that it was only Archon crews in the bunker, not a fully armed and armored Pioneer platoon.
Traveler turned around to look at his troops.
"Ok, here's the plan." Traveler began, "Sgt. Riggs, your squad is first out the door, guns blazing. I think the guys out there are expecting the Archon's crew, so make sure you give them a shock that'll keep their heads down. Pvt. Terry, keep you minigun spinning the entire time, you hear? Sgt. Alonzo, Sgt. Wilhelm, and Sgt. Connell, after Sgt. Riggs's gets the Russian's heads down, I need your squads to take up defensive positions around Rigg's squad. As soon as we have superior suppressing fire, Connell's squad and Terry will start the mop up with me. Understood?"
"Sir, Yes, Sir!" all of them yelled as Rigg's squad lined up at the door, the other three squads grouping behind on the other side of them.
Traveler stood by the door, his hands on the large handle. He looked at Terry's eyes, wide with fear, excitement, and pure adrenaline.
"You ready?" Traveler asked.
As a "yes" Terry simply revved his minigun up.
"Alright!" Traveler yelled, "1, 2, GO!" and he pulled the handle quickly, pulling the door open.
Terry was out the door, his minigun snarling as it chucked out bullets at an amazing rate. The rest of Riggs squad fanned out behind Terry, adding to the wall of lead being thrown at the Russians. Almost as if acting off the same mind, every green-helmeted Russian ducked. Traveler yelled over the minigun's roar "Ok, let's go!"
The three other squads, including Traveler, rushed out the door in two files. As each Pioneer cleared the bunker, their rifle was raised, firing rapidly. Unlike other JSF bunkers, there was no defensive trench around this bunker's entrance, forcing the platoon to find their own cover. Rigg's squad was firing from a gravel wall around a particularly large artillery crater while the other three squads formed a semi circle around that crater.
Terry was standing at the edge of the crater, firing widely at the building ruins the Russians were taking cover in. A bullet pinged off the side of his ammo bucket on his back. Terry swung around; firing in the general direction the shot had come from.
As Traveler reloaded, he ran up to Connell, yelling to be heard, "Form your squad up with me!"
Connell gave a nod and got his men up as Traveler crouch-ran over to Terry. Traveler tapped Terry's helmet and screamed into Terry's ear "I'll direct, move with me, don't stop shooting!"
Traveler kneeled to fire some more rounds and direct Connell to make a wedge with his squad, Terry at the tip. "Suppressing fire!" Traveler yelled to other squads, as he grabbed Terry's collar and pushed him forward. In little more than 15 seconds they reached the ruins and in only two minutes, even though it seemed like two hours to Traveler, they had cleared out every Wolf hiding among the rumble.
There were no prisoners. Traveler liked to think that if any Russian threw their guns down and hands up, he would take them prisoners, but in reality, in close quarters combat like that, with such a powerful weapon, there wasn't even a chance for a thought of mercy to pass through the Pioneers.
Traveler never realized before how the human body will rip up like raw hamburger meat if hit with a minigun burst at close range. As he reflected on that, his hands shook so much he couldn't light his routine "Survived another Skirmish" cigarette. He had to call Alonzo over to light it for him. She was the only one he really trusted to keep his hand spasms a secret.
