Chapter 44: War Games Part II
The round ended with a rather definitive victory for the defenders, but I was too pissed off to care about that.
I was caked in a disgusting blend of powder, gel and sand, which combined smelt like sour milk mixed with rotten meat. It stuck to my skin, my hair, and my uniform, and I was sure I'd never get the smell out of nose. But that was just the shitty icing on the shitty cake.
Those Cadian's had fucking struck a nerve. Literally kicking us while we were down and rubbing our faces in it. I could tolerate some discomfort, but I considered my dignity to be rather untouchable. What happened had deeply angered me, I'll admit. Not just because they'd attacked my friends, oh no, that was only a part of it. I was more annoyed then anything that there was nothing for me to do. I just had to sit there and take it.
And that frustrated me more then anything else.
Yes, I know I should rightfully be more annoyed at what they did to my friends. Clauda and Prassus had received it just as bad as me, if not worse, but in this moment, my personal indignation had lit a fire within me. A fire that would not be satisfied until my wounded pride was restored.
I was aware how foolish it was. It was clearly a ridiculous thing to expect to be able to get back at them for that. A rather wretched flaw of mine, I will admit. My pride, my dignity, well, I was aware I could be rather prickly at times.
This was one of those times.
When we made it back to the squad, we found out that they too had been ambushed by a separate squad, who struck when we were split in two. It seems Ratfinch had been taken out before he made it to us, and the others got taken out the same time as us. It didn't make us feel any better.
"You must learn from this experience," Alexei said, somehow only having a single burst gel pack on his arm.
"It is critical to understand how to react under periods of stress and high tension. Clear thinking in dangerous situations can save your life."
"You didn't lead us into an ambush to teach us that lesson, did you sir?" I asked. Alexei looked at me funnily, as if he was surprised I spoke out. It was a little brazen to address him so bluntly, but fortunately he seemed to let it slide for now.
"As I said earlier, this exercise isn't about teaching you tactics or clever moves, Private," he said firmly.
"They didn't need to treat us like that. Can't you do something about that, sir?" Clauda said, pulling a long tendril of gel from her arm. Alexei just stared at her.
"Private Clauda, I did not expect such petty complaints from you. If you can't handle a little rough treatment, how will you handle a real injury? Honestly, I expected more from you."
Clauda didn't take that very well.
"She's right. Can't we at least get some payback, sir?" Prassus said. Alexei clenched his jaw.
"Have you all forgotten whose in charge here?" He said quietly. We all realised it was time to shut up and listen.
"Have you forgotten your duty? Your role? You are cogs in the machine, nothing more. The cog doesn't care how it feels or what it wants, all it does is its duty. It's job. Your job is to follow my orders. If I order you to do something, that is what you do, without question or hesitation. Your job is to follow me. You do not get the luxury of second-guessing me. You do not get the privilege of talking to me as though we are equals. We are not equals. You are my soldiers and I expect nothing but the utmost dedication to duty from you. If you think that smelling bad and having a few bruises is worth any of my concern, then you truly are unready to become soldiers. If you honestly find such a thing too unpalatable, then speak now, and I'll have you reassigned to a conscript formation. Perhaps there you'll learn some damned resilience. I see these last few months have been insufficient if your whining about stuff like that still. So, tell me, is there anyone here who feels that this is all too unpleasant for them?"
No one said anything. No one moved. It seemed no one even dared breathe. Alexei regarded us all with his cool, level gaze. His purple eyes locked with our own, his face a stony mask.
"That's what I thought. Replace your gel packs and rearm. We'll speak no more of this nonsense. We are taking on the role of the defenders, and I expect you to stick to that. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir," we said. Alexei nodded.
"You must be better," he told us.
With that thrilling talk out of the way, we reset for the next round. Alexei did have a point. If this was really something that bothered us so much, were we even ready to be soldiers? But then again, reflecting on it made me understand why it was so frustrating. Had that been a real fight, one of us would've wound up dead or wounded. If we had actually been shot, we would've been totally out of the fight, but since we were still able to move freely in the exercise, held back only by the rules, we were just forced to endure it. That's what bothered me.
Either way, I knew that Alexei wouldn't let us get our revenge, so we just had to let it slide…or wait for another opportunity. Taking up place in the bunker, we could see that it was quite a bit more elaborate inside then out. There were multiple rooms, tunnels leading out to concealed entrances, a pillbox, various turret emplacements concealed along the main wall and even a spot for mortars.
"We will take up a position on the right side of the bunker," Alexei explained, "and utilise the concealed pillbox in the forest there to our full advantage."
That sounded more enjoyable then attacking. Sitting in a concealed concrete bunker sounded a lot more secure then attacking from a bloody sand dune.
The pillbox was small, barely big enough to fit all of us in it, and had a retrofitted heavy bolter installed in it. I had never actually been this close to a heavy bolter, even a dummy one. It was a huge piece of equipment, with a frame bigger than my entire body. It looked like a piece of WW1 field artillery, a huge, mechanical cannon mounted on a rotating base.
"That's awesome," Prassus said, torn between his grenade launcher and the hulking apparatus. Alexei nodded in approval.
"Private Egeers, you'll man the gun," Alexei said, which caught Egeers off guard.
"Me? Why?" He said, then shook his head. "I mean, sir, yes, sir."
Alexei showed Egeers the basic operation, mainly how to swivel the gun properly and fire it, and said I'd be in charge of reloading it, which was really just a matter of swapping out the huge ammo belt. He told me to be careful not to get my fingers caught in the belt or else I'd lose half my hand. I swallowed nervously. That wasn't very reassuring.
Everyone else took up positions in whatever space they could find, eyeing the forest intently. Eventually, the siren went off and the exercise began. A great roar went up on the either side of the arena. That would be the attackers, then. There was some small bursts of gunfire at first, but we couldn't see anyone moving from our limited vantage point. I could barely see anything from my spot, as I was crouched by the gun, below the firing point.
A few minutes passed before Alexei identified a target. A squad was approaching the bunker through the forest, careful to skirt the pillbox we were in. Made sense, they probably knew it was here.
"Fire on that position NOW!" Alexei roared. Everyone let loose. Egeers held down the trigger and the heavy bolter kicked into action, releasing a hail of plastic cannisters. I was sure they'd be big enough to seriously fuck someone up even if they were made out of plastic. Everyone else fired off their lasguns, and Prassus let off several grenades. There was a panicked scream from the squad in the woods, which meant they were definitely Practicans. I could hear their sergeant yelling at them to return fire. Laser fire struck the concrete, one or two shots even sneaking through the gap. Alexei ordered everyone to keep firing.
The heavy bolter exhausted its ammo, and I reached to pull out the belt. It took a considerable amount of strength to rip it out, and slotting in a new one was rather hard when you were concerned about getting your fingers cut off (and when you were surrounded by people screaming and shooting in a confine space).
Eventually, I got it replaced, and Egeers started firing again. The gunfire died down a bit, and I thought we were in the clear, until something small and grey came flying through the gap.
"GRENADE!" Temond yelled, kicking it into the corner. Bad move. Instead of throwing it out, he gave it time to detonate inside the pillbox.
"Get down!" I said, grabbing Egeers and pulling him down behind the heavy bolter. Burtrus dove on top of us, trying to hide behind the gun as well, but before anyone else could take advantage of the only piece of cover in the room, the grenade went off, showering half the squad in the box with white powder.
Coughing and spluttering, everyone groaned and dropped to the floor, playing dead. Alexei tossed his gun aside and sat down with ab unimpressed look on his face. Only Egeers, Burtrus, Evet and I had made it.
"Fuck, we're still alive," Burtrus grunted.
"That's a good thing, idiot," Egeers said. Evet nodded.
"What now?" She asked.
"Keep firing," Egeers said, about to stand, but I kept him down.
"No, they think they've killed us, so they'll advance onwards to the bunker now. We'll let them pass us, then ambush them from behind."
"Is that…smart?" Egeers said, confused. I shrugged.
"I don't know about 'smart' but it's probably going to be unexpected. Look, they think they've taken us out, right? They won't be expecting an attack from behind, from a position they've already cleared out, will they?"
"Yeah, he does have a point," Burtrus said slowly. Evet and Egeers thought for a moment.
"The Sergeant wants us to stay here though," Egeers said. I looked over to where Alexei was, sitting up against the wall, arms crossed.
"He's dead. What he wanted us to do was stop the enemy, not stay here. So, if we leave this place to stop them, it won't be against his orders, will it?"
"I don't know…" Egeers said. I was growing impatient. We didn't have time to be sitting around and arguing about this, not when the enemy squad is getting further and further away!
"Come on, we can catch them from behind, we just need to leave now, before someone comes along to check!" I insisted. Burtrus nodded.
"I'm in."
"Me too," Evet said.
"What does the sergeant want us to do? Sir, orders?" Egeers said, turning to Alexei, who kept his lips pursed.
"He's dead, Egeers, he's not meant to speak to us," I reminded him.
"Oh, right, of course," he said, "well…yeah, we have to stop the enemy, don't we?" Egeers said eventually. I nodded.
"Good, we're all in," I said, "now, grab that grenade launcher and lets get out of here."
Egeers picked up Prassus's launcher, who watched it go with a forlorn look on his face, but he kept silent. Opening the door to the pillbox and creeping down the concrete tunnel to where it exited in the woods, we cautiously stepped out, rifles raised, just as we'd been taught in all those scouting exercises we did in the environment simulator.
"Alright, let's move," I whispered, moving from tree to tree, the others in tow. The sound of the battle was intense, especially around the bunker. It seemed like there was a fully-fledged assault on the walls. As we crept through the forest on the edge of the fight, I realised I had no idea where the squad we fought would've actually gone. I was about to tell everyone to backtrack when I heard familiar voices.
"Ha, a pillbox taken out with a single grenade. Honestly, it's not even a real fight at all," a cocksure voice said. I felt my blood pressure rise. It was them, that same Cadian squad that attacked us last round. I clenched my fist, and gripped my rifle tightly.
"It's them," I said, gesturing to where the voices were coming from, "the fucking assholes that got me last round."
Burtrus grimaced.
"What do you want to do?" he asked. I thought about it for a moment. Could four barely trained soldiers take on a squad of Cadian's? Probably not. But then again, we had the element of surprise…and a grenade launcher.
"We take them out," I decided. Of course we would. What else would we do?
"Yes! Payback time," Burtrus hissed. He wasn't even part of the beatings we got last round, but he was ready to fight on our behalf, to defend the honour of Practica. Egeers and Evet likewise seemed eager for a chance to fight and actually put their skills to the test.
"We all have grenades, so lets toss them in first then shoot them up to shit," I said, reaching for my belt and grabbing one of the dummy explosives. The others did the same. Creeping through the forest, trailing a little behind the Cadian squad, we waited until they paused.
"Aright, this position should do nicely. We can hit them from behind from here," their sergeant said. The Cadian's grinned, taking up spots in the treeline. As they were readying themselves, we did likewise.
"On three. One…two...three," I said, and then chucked my grenade into their midst. It bounced off a tree and rolled a little before it went off, giving them time to see it.
"Grenade!" One of them yelled out. The others scrambled. Burtrus and Evet's grenades over and undershot, and Egeers fired off one grenade before realising the launcher was out of ammo. Each grenade just missed the intended target, landing too far away or too soon, giving the Cadian's time to kick them away or roll into cover.
Each explosive went off, showering a dozen trees in powder and catching at least four Cadian's in the blast, their sergeant included. We wasted no time and started firing immediately, but we realised we'd fucked up; the clouds of dirt and powder kicked up concealed most of the squad, leaving us to fire blindly.
"Quick, move, move, move, we can't stay here, they'll know we're here!" I urged my teammates. We all got up and ran between trees. Return fire shredded the position we were just in.
Egeers had thrown aside the grenade launcher and tossed one of his own grenades into the cloud, which went off with a dull thump. There was a shout of frustration, and I saw the outline of another Cadian throwing aside their gun. Good, we got one more.
I was about to tell everyone to fire from here when a fist connected with my face.
"You fucking brats!" A Cadian roared, leaping out from behind a tree. He wasn't injured or killed, but for some reason had thrown aside his gun. Right on cue, four more of them, his buddies, jumped out at us. Evet squeaked in surprise and fired off her gun, catching one of them in the chest. He swore furiously, throwing his gun aggressively at her and storming off. Burtrus deflected the gun before it could hit her in the face, but that allowed one of the Cadians to tackle him to the ground. Another grabbed Evet from behind and pushed her to the ground, whilst one rammed Egeers into the tree.
Still reeling from the punch to my face, a second punch, this time to my stomach, nearly dropped me. I drew my laspistol, but my assailant slapped it from my hands.
"Fucking dirty little kids, think they're big tough soldiers now, huh?" He roared, kicking my legs out from under me. I fell on my back with a grunt. The Cadian towered over me, raising his foot to stomp on my face, but I was already moving. I swung my leg to the side and took his feet out from under him, just as he did to me. It seemed he wasn't expecting that, as he fell backwards with a startled look on his face. Jumping onto him, I pushed him down into the ground with all my might. I grabbed my laspistol from the dirt and was about to shoot him in the chest when his friend, who'd shoved Evet into the ground, pushed me off. They both came at me, furious scowls on their face.
"You're a rotten little punk, fucking grox-shit eating ass," they spat.
"You're the biggest pussies I've met, insulted by a bunch of kids," I shot back, which only seemed to make them angrier. They ran at me, but I still had my laspistol in hand. I fired it at their chests, hitting both of them, which paused them only for a moment.
"Think that's going to stop us?" They said, wiping the blood red gel away and advancing menacingly on me. Oh fuck, they were really serious about this. I contemplated drawing my knife, but that probably wasn't going to help much. I was about to get up and make a run for it when one of them just…dropped.
I stared at him incredulously. His buddy did likewise.
Behind him, Burtrus stood there, a branch in hand,
"You fucking piece of-" the Cadian began, but Burtrus was having none of it. He smashed him across the face with the branch so hard his visor shattered. He swung again. The Cadian was struck across the jaw. Bloody teeth shot out from his mouth. Burtrus roared and smashed up across the chin. The Cadian dropped like a sack of potatoes.
The last one left, who was still struggling to pin Egeers to the tree, watched the whole thing unfold with a look of disbelief on his face.
"You…you throne damned piece of shit," he said, slamming Egeers against the tree and knocking him out cold. Blood trickled from a gash on his temple. He dropped his unconscious body and rounded on Burtrus. Burtrus bellowed, and came charging at him with the branch, but the Cadian ducked under the swing, catching Burtrus' arm in one hand, and, in a flash of steel, drew his knife and stabbed Burtrus between the ribs.
"NOOOOO!" Evet screamed, tears streaming down her face. Burtrus paled, grimacing at the pain. The Cadian pulled the knife out and rammed it home again, and then again, each time drawing huge amounts of blood. Burtrus grunted and dropped the branch. I was already moving, a rock in my hands. The Cadian kicked Burtrus away and turned to face me. I threw the rock at him, which he dodged easily, and he stepped forward, slashing with his knife. I raised my arms to shield myself, and got a nasty gash across my forearms, the gel packs bursting, dye and blood seeping together. I leapt back to avoid his following swing and tricked to kick his knee out. He slashed widely, cutting me across the shin, I winced in pain and fought back tears. Evet tried to grab his ankles, but he kicked her in the face, knocking her unconscious.
"Forced to fucking train alongside scum like you. Forced to sully the honour of our regiment by serving alongside non-Cadians. Forced to fight alongside fucking agri-world peasants who don't even know how to wipe their own asses properly. I've had it, I've had enough, fucking enough of this fucking bullshit," he roared, swinging wildly.
I leapt back, but he cut me across the forearms again.
"Fight alongside you? No, no, I won't. You're a fucking conscript, cannon-fodder, dakkabait, Nid chow, you're…not…a…soldier!" He yelled, punctuating each word with a swing and a stab. A glancing blow to my hip sent me flailing back. There was no way I'd be able to subdue him. I'd have to run. Blood pounded in ears. My breath was ragged. I could taste the copper tang of blood in my mouth, the rotten stench of the powder and the sickening odour of the gel. What was I going to do? I had to run. I had to. I'd die otherwise.
But for some reason, my stupid brain and my dumbass body didn't seem to be in agreement. Legs shaking, I stood my ground, forcing back the tears in my eyes.
"You're scared of a fucking knife!" He gloated, eyes manic. He brandished it with increasingly wild fervour. Uh…was this guy having a breakdown? It certainly looked like it. His eyes bulging out of his head, he advanced on me, a crooked grin on his face. He seemed to be growing more deranged by the moment.
"Scared of a knife? Scared to see blood? I'll make you see it. I'll make you see blood. I'll make you look at the blood. LOOK AT THE BLOOD!" He babbled, swinging his knife like a maniac.
"LOOK AT THE BLOOD! BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD!"
Oh. Oh, shit.
Oh my fucking god. Holy fucking shit.
The dude's gone insane. He's literally insane.
No…he's fucking possessed. HE'S GODDAMN POSSESSED!
"Woah, woah, what the fuck is this!" I yelled, "you're going to kill me!"
"That's the plan!" He gurgled, biting his tongue so hard it bled. Blood tricked down his chin, and he laughed maniacally, coming at me like a rapid dog, hollering and screaming about blood. I drew my own knife. There was no other option. Just as I was about to swing, there was a deafening bang, and the man's head exploded, showering me in blood and gore and bone. I was so shocked I fell onto my ass, appalled at his sudden and violent end.
Behind him, standing there like a guardian angel clad in black and gold, was Commissar Alexandov, bolt pistol in hand. He was flanked by Sergeant Alexei and Lieutenant Quentin.
"WHAT THE DEVIL HAPPENED HERE!?" Quentin bellowed, thundering down on me. I was so stunned I didn't know what to say.
"I…I…he just went crazy and started attacking me. He tried to kill us, sir!" I managed. Burtrus groaned and tried to stand, and the Commissar rushed over to inspect him, turning him over.
"WE NEED A MEDICAE!" He roared. From the woods, dozens of other soldiers were coming out of trees in shocked silence, the squad included. It seemed the exercise had been called off. Sergeant Alexei rushed over to inspect Egeers, turning his head to the side to inspect the wound. He sighed in relief when he saw it was only a small cut, and then rushed over to Evet. He put his fingers on her throat to feel her pulse, and let out another sigh of relief. Then he turned to me.
"Sir?" I said weakly, but Alexei didn't seem to hear me. He stomped over to me with the coldest look I'd ever seen on his face.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THEIR SERGEANT! WHOSE SQUAD IS THIS! STEP FORTH NOW!" Quentin roared, looking at the unconscious Cadian's with a furious expression on his face. Alexei stepped right by him and over to me.
"Sir, it wasn't my fault, sir!" I said desperately, but Alexei wasn't listening. Clenching his fist, he drew his arm back and punched me square in the face. I was knocked out instantly, and everything went black.