Chapter 48: Sabre Company
The plan didn't appeal to me, or anyone else for that matter, but it's what Lieutenant Quentin had been told to do. A dozen platoons were mobilising alongside some armoured regiments, supported by some light artillery and weapons teams, and were going to root out and destroy the enemies anti-air weapons that had been brought into the city. Then, our reinforcements could come in and the original attack plan would go ahead.
All we had to do was find and exterminate several dozen enemy strongpoints in an enemy held city with only a fraction of the firepower and manpower designated to do so.
Simple, right?
Pushed into a Chimera and told to man the guns (which were just lasguns), we trundled off into the enemy city. The sounds of battle were constant, and only intensified as we moved on. The explosions grew closer and closer. Within the armoured confines of the Chimera, it was impossible to tell what was going on, but you could hear it. The ones that were lucky enough to man the internal guns kept them on a constant swivel, and the gunner in the multilaser turret was receiving constant chatter from the vox. We set off in a convoy, our whole platoon, plus a few extra vehicles, moving through the streets, expecting at any moment to be engaged. The armoured transport shook more than once as explosions went off close by, and there was a soft pattering on the hull as rubble rained down from the apartments around us. We had to divert several times as collapsed buildings blocked our path, and every time we did so the vox would burst into activity as everyone feared an ambush. Alexei stood there, like he did in the Valkyrie, constantly listening to the voices, alert for any sign of trouble.
As it turned out, trouble rarely announced itself, and when the ambush struck, it was sudden and violent. We were moving down a street when suddenly there was a deafening explosion, even in the confines of our armoured hull, that shook the Chimera so badly my teeth rattled. The vox screamed.
"Missile, missile, convoy leader has been hit, enemy in the buildings, repeat, enemy in the buildings!"
"Engage targets!" The turret operator roared, swivelling around. His multilaser went off, but I had no idea what he was shooting at.
"New contact, I repeat, new contact, the enemy has sentinels, I repeat, the enemy has sentinels," Quentin said over the vox. "Get the anti-armour teams ready for combat, we have-"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off when there was another explosion, definitely on his end, as something struck his Chimera. We could hear and feel it in ours as well, the entire world seemed to shake. Quentin yelled out in pain before his vox cut out, and then everything went to hell.
"What the fuck was that, did we lose the Lieutenant?"
"Man down, man down, man down!"
"Missile turret, I repeat, missile turret, up high, someone take it out!"
"We've lost another Chimera, a damn lascannon! What? Those Sentinels have bloody lascannons!"
"Explosives, in the ground! Beware, land mines, I repeat, land mines!"
"Where the fuck is the lieutenant?"
"The damn road opened up…bastards blew a tunnel 'neath the ground!"
Our Chimera shook and rolled to one side, and fragments of metal flew around the compartment, bouncing off our flak armour. Sunlight poured in through several newly made holes in the Chimera's armour. The turret operator swivelled to face the attackers, but was suddenly blown away, literally, when a searing white-hot laser cut him in two. A lascannon ripped through the turret, blowing it to shreds and taking the gunners entire body above his hips with it. Shards of molten hot metal poured down into the cabin, and several people screamed, jumping out of the way to avoid being burnt, even if it meant pushing others aside. The armour shook as gunfire pounded it, and another dozen holes were torn in its side as an explosive went off outside.
"Fuck this, we need to get out of this deathtrap!" Alexei said, slapping the emergency exit lever. The rear exit slammed down and was immediately doused with gunfire.
"We need to go, NOW!" Alexei yelled, and so we did. Before anyone could leave, the Chimera took another hit, and was almost thrown on its side. Alexei grunted as he was thrown to the back, dazed, and everyone screamed as they flipped head over heels. I must've bumped into half the squad before coming to a stop by the door. Not wanting to die inside a tiny metal box, I simply got up and ran. I didn't think about it, I just ran.
Gunfire surrounded me the moment I stepped into the open. Lasers and bullets whizzed by as I ran from the Chimera and into the first bit of cover I could find, a partially destroyed wall. The rest of the squad flooded out behind me. Turning my head, I could see the four or five Chimera's that were ahead of us were flaming wrecks, or just about, but it seems most of the squads had managed to make it out alright.
Behind us, the rest of the Chimeras were blocked, either by debris or the scraps of other vehicles, and were trying to angle for shots. The road was curved, and I realised that this was why they'd ambushed here. There was no way to back out, the only way out was forward, into a junction that was currently being lit up by gunfire, or backwards, where a gaping hole in the road was…that must be the tunnel the enemy blew open. I couldn't see around the corner, but I could hear the fight was there as well…that must be where the Sentinels attacked from.
I ducked my head when a bullet whizzed by, and realised I needed better cover. Rolling low to the ground, I moved behind a thicker, sturdier wall, which was off the street, and in the remains of a large, ruined building. The squad dove into positions around me, or at least a few of them did, as the wall wasn't big enough to shield all of us. Before any of us could form up, a missile was fired from across the ruins, hitting just in front of the ruined wall, and once again we were sent flying. Fragments of masonry and marble filled the air, and I was nearly torn to shreds by flying rock were it not for a metal pillar, a piece of the buildings frame, which shielded me.
Burtrus dove down next to me, hands over his head.
"Fucking shit," he grunted, crouching next to me. "What the hell's going on?"
A grenade landed between us, thrown by one of the enemy lurking in the ruins. I grabbed it and threw it across the street without hesitating, where it went off, ripping a hole in the side of a building. A hail of gunfire laced our hiding spot, and our slim concrete barrier was rapidly whittled away, forcing us to huddle together. Another grenade went off nearby, and shrapnel nearly cut my neck open.
Burtrus and I had managed to recover quickly, but the rest of the squad were in a dire spot. The missile had ripped their cover in two, and now most of them had to run down the street to the next piece of cover. Fortunately, they were quick on their feet, and were running, or rolling, towards it the moment they could. Unfortunately, the enemy was also quick. Gunfire hounded them, bullets and lasers showering their position. I could only watch in horror as they raced to reach the relative safety of the other wall.
My heart just about flew out of my mouth when Clauda got hit across the chest, knocking her to the ground, where she lay unmoving in the snow and mud.
Please, not her. Please, not her. No, no, no. it can't be her, I thought desperately.
Panic rose in me, and didn't stop rising until Clauda, coughing and wheezing, crawled to her feet. Temond raced back and grabbed her, dragging her forward. Her flak armour had saved her. I could see the bullet drop from where it struck her, right in the chest. The rest of the squad had almost made it when a grenade went off, knocking them off their feet once again in a cruel display of fate. Groaning and wheezing, they managed to inch forward, and hide in the shield of the wall.
At least some of them did. Ratfinch, Desmond and Evet were dazed by the blast. Ratfinch grabbed his rifle and pushed Evet down, just as a volley of laserfire would've torn her head off. The two of them pushed forward, heads low. Desmond was not so lucky. Still dazed, he'd been thrown back by the explosion, whereas the other two had been thrown forwards. As such, when he recovered, he had a moment's or two delay as he regained his bearings. A second grenade clattered to the ground in front of him. Desmond saw it, and his face fell. He seemed to accept his face, as an odd serenity fell across him.
The grenade went off.
The front of Desmond's body was blown apart. His stomach was shredded by shrapnel, his heart pulped by the force. His neck snapped back, and bone broke through skin. His face was flayed off by fragments of metal, and his skull splintered as a piece of metal shot through his eye and out the back of his head. A sudden blast of pressure and metal, and Desmond ceased to be, shredded alive by hundreds of tiny metal fragments. He probably didn't feel a thing.
It didn't make it any easier to watch.
"Fucking hell!" I screamed, as I watched Desmonds body, or what was left of it, slump backwards in the middle of the road.
"What the shit!" Burtrus yelled.
From the flaming Chimera, Sergeant Alexei lurched forth, chainsword in hand, laspistol in the other. He fired at the enemy, yelling at us to form up.
"What are you doing, get into positi-"
A lasgun hit Alexei in the arm. A second one hit him in the ribs, a third and fourth in the eye and the cheek. A fifth and six hit him in the stomach, and another in the chest. The volley came so quick that Alexei was riddled with holes before he could finish his sentence. He didn't so much collapse as he did fall apart, his arms, head and body falling into separate pieces, ripped to shreds by lasers.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed. Alexei was just…dead. Dead, moments into our first battle. He never even got the chance to lead us. He was just…dead. Dead. Dead the moment he stepped out into the open. The rest of us had managed to make it, yet Alexei, a Cadian sergeant, was gunned down on the spot the moment he stepped foot into the fight. What the fuck was going on?
"We need to move, now!" I said to Burtrus. I fired my lasgun over the top of the rubble, spraying blindly, not even bothering to aim. Gunfire pelted our position in response.
"Multilaser turret, up there along that ledge," Burtrus said, risking a peek around the edge of the wall. Peering through the cracks in the concrete, I finally got my first look at the enemy.
Dressed mostly in white, grey and black urban camo, they looked like soldiers to me, in that they had flak armour of their own, helmets, a uniform, and rifles. Some had lasguns, others had plain old machine guns, and there were others with sniper rifles and rocket launchers. The ruins we were fighting over seemed to be a giant mall, or the ruins of one, a huge multileveled complex with open spaces on the floor and several floors above. On the higher levels of the ruins, shielded by concrete debris and metal pillars, and draped in camo netting, where several gun emplacements. There were two heavy bolters, a missile turret, and a multilaser turret. The heavy bolters were currently focused on the squads that had made it out of the head of the convoy, and now, my squad. The missile turret kept changing targets, ripping holes in the cover and forcing people to move. The multilaser turret was currently aiming at us.
I realised it was getting ready to fire a moment too late.
"Burtrus, get down," I yelled, trying to push him down, but it was too late. The turret opened fire and tore through the flimsy concrete wall we were hiding behind. I went prone, pushing myself flat against the ground, but Burtrus wasn't so lucky. Several dozen focused laser shots tore through the wall and perforated him instantly. Like Desmond and Alexei, he was killed instantly. His chest was blown up a dozen times over, so much so that nothing but a ragged red mess remained. His head slumped forward, and his rifle fell from his hands.
"Come on, NOOOO!" I said, slapping the ground. Desmond, then Alexei, now Burtrus, slain within a minute of each other? We were getting slaughtered here!
Blood pounded in my ears. Tears pricked my eyes. All I could smell was smoke, metal and blood. Covering my head, I roared into the snow that coated the ground, letting out a wave of anger I didn't know I had in me. My face felt hot, my skin tingling. I tried to find the flame, to see if it would come to me now, like it did that first time in the UTAC, like it did when I was being interrogated. I tried to feel it flowing through me, to feel it grant me strength, but nothing came. Nothing.
"ARGH!" I yelled into the sky, clenching my fists. "FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS UNIVERSE!"
I picked up my gun and got into a crouch. Who the fuck cares if I die here? No one knows me, no one cares about me, and no one will notice if I'm gone. It looked like we were all going to die here, so why not go out in a blaze of glory?
"FUCK YOU!" I roared, shooting wildly at the enemy. My shots went wide, and I hit nothing, which only made me angrier. Fuck them, fuck them, fuck them. They're going to die. I'm going to kill them.
I looked up at the multilaser, which was swivelling in position. Taking careful aim, I held down the trigger and let loose. My shots hit their mark. The gunner was eviscerated by a dozen shots, shots from my lasgun, which caused him to drop almost instantly. I felt bile rise in my throat. I'd just killed someone.
I'd killed a man. A living, breathing person. I'd ended his life. I'd just killed someone. I was now a killer.
The thought played through my head over and over again as I ducked down. I rolled to the side and poked my gun through a hole in the wall and fired again. I hit another person, and they went down screaming and sobbing. I had to shoot them again to shut them up, their crying was unbearable. They sounded like a kid, a teenager, younger even then me. Were these veteran soldiers, or recruits forced into service?
I had to put the thought out of my mind. From this little vantage point, low to the ground, I had just enough room to see several soldiers, and none of them knew where I was firing from until I'd opened fire. My heart raced in my chest, but the blood pounding stress seemed to fade as an icy coldness swept over me. My vision seemed to grow narrow, and all I could focus on was me and the enemy.
Two, I'd killed two people already. I fired another shot, and added one to the count. Three. Three people killed in two minutes. I'd gone from killing no one to killing three people in two minutes. It seemed like such an inconsequential thing, as if there was a commentator watching me do it, as if the real me was taking a back seat while someone else took over the controls, as if a perverse form of muscle memory was in charge, killing people. It might've been my body pulling the trigger and aiming the gun, but it didn't feel like me. It didn't feel like me at all.
I had to dive out of the way when the wall finally collapsed, rolling onto a heap of rubble out of their immediate line of sight, shielded from the turrets. I winced. I'd banged myself up pretty badly. What the hell do I do now? What's going on?
As if the universe heard my questions, Sergeant Andermark suddenly appeared next to be, the biggest grin I'd ever seen etched on his face, laspistol in hand.
"Well, now, this is a bit of a pickle, isn't it?"