Chapter 49: Andermark's Squad

All I could do was stare at Andermark.

A bit of a pickle?

This was a bit of a pickle?

Dozens of people were already dead within moments of the fight starting! Three people from the squad were already dead, the lieutenant was MIA, our platoon was cut off from the rest of the army and we were way out of position! The entire plan was going up in flames around us and this was a bit of a pickle?

Was Andermark insane?

Judging by his grin, yes, he was.

"That's…an understatement," I managed, through dry lips, and Andermark nodded.

"Where's your squad? Where's Alexei?" He ducked down as bullets whizzed by overhead. I pointed to the bloody slabs of meat that were the remains of Alexei's body. Andermarks grin slipped and his face fell.

"I'm sorry," was all I could say, "I know you two were friends."
Andermark held up his hand to cut me off, silencing me.

"It's all right," he said, ashen faced, "we've long come to terms with death. He wasn't my first friend to die, won't be the last," Andermark muttered, sniffing. He didn't look alright, but then again, who would in this scenario?

"We need to do something about this mess," Andermark said, tearing his eyes from Alexei's corpse, "or else we're going to die here."

Andermark fired a few shots over the top of the wall with his laspistol, taking down three rebels with three well placed headshots. Damn, that was some fine shooting. Cadian accuracy, I guess. It was comforting to be around someone competent. Perhaps I'd be safer here?

"What are we going to do? The enemy have more guns then us!" I said, and Andermark nodded.

"More guns, more men, more firepower, better positions…right, we need to cut them down to size. We have…what, thirty…forty men here? Half our platoon is stuck down the road, the rest are dead. Right, we need to get those guns silenced, uh…let me think. Alright, I've got a plan, but I need to get a vox to get the others coordinated. Ok, vox, vox, were is Christef? Damn boy has my squad's vox."

"Where is your squad?" I asked. Andermark glanced behind him.

"Must have moved into the ruins. We got split up by that missile turret. Same thing happen to you?"

"Yes sir. My squad is down the road, along the other edge of the ruins," I told him. Andermark nodded.

"Right, well, without Alexei, you have no sergeant, so from now on, you and your squad are with me, that clear?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" I replied. Andermark slapped me on the shoulders.

"Good lad. Alright, let's get to sorting this mess out. You need to get my squad and bring them here, yeah? Find Christef with the vox, tell him he needs to get the other squads ready. Tell 'em we're going for a Cadian push, yeah?"

I had no idea what a Cadian push was, but I suspected it might involve a forward charge, which would be stupid given the circumstances. However, I had also been ordered to gather up a scattered squad and help them pack to this position…alone. This was going from bad to worse. But as it stood, the fate of half the platoon, and maybe this entire battle, depended on me being able to help Andermark get everyone coordinated. No pressure, right?

Gulping, I nodded, clenched my rifle tight in my hands, and sprinted, low to the ground, into the ruins. I jumped over a dead body, a Practican, and dove into cover when a sniper round shattered a wall right behind me. I crawled forward and found myself next to two familiar faces, Ziya and Adat, both pale faced and wild eyed.

"What are you doing here?" Ziya said, flinching when a las shot flew overhead. It seemed we were out of the enemies direct line of fire here.

"Andermark told me I needed to find Christef. He's trying to coordinate a counterattack. Where is he?"

"He's in the ruins, with the rest of the squad," Adat said. He wasn't even holding his rifle, and his hands were shaking terribly. He looked like he was shell shocked. He wouldn't stop blinking.

"We need to get him back to Andermark, understood? We have to fight back properly, or else we're all going to die!"

"I know, but the enemy has us pinned down? How can we advance?" Ziya hissed. Adat trembled, lips quivering. I had to stop and think. How could we make it? I'd barely made it so far and had almost a dozen near missed already. How could we make it? It'd be a close call no matter what…the best we could do would be to run as fast as we can, get the squad, and get back.
I realised they were both looking at me expectantly. Since when did everyone have such high expectations of me?

"We run fast, and pray to the Emperor that we make it," I said firmly, grabbing Adat's rifle and shoving it into his hands, "so get your guns, and get ready to run!"

Ziya nodded, composing herself, but Adat only shrank further into the wall. Feeling a sudden surge of anger, which was quite odd, I must admit, given my own fear, I grabbed Adat and slapped him across the face.

"Come on, you either stay here and die for sure, or take a chance and only risk dying! You have to choose, man, come on!" I yelled. Adat blinked, as if he was coming back to reality, staring at his surroundings as if for the first time, then looking at the gun in his hands as if he were dreaming.

"I…dropped this…" he said. I nodded. I think he might've thrown it away, but whatever kept him going.

"It doesn't matter. You have it now, and you'll need to use it. We have to go, now!" I said. Ziya looked at Adat with an expression that was hard to understand. Concern? Empathy? Disgust?

It wasn't the time to worry about that, now was the time to act. We had to move. As if emphasising that point, the wall buckled and cracked when the sniper began shooting wildly at our position. Fist sized holes were pierced in the concrete where the rounds penetrated the barrier between us the and the enemy. The sniper couldn't see us, but it won't take long before he could.

"Go, go, go!" I said, getting up and running into the ruins, not waiting for the others to follow. Either they came with me, or stayed behind and died. It was up to them. They knew what they had to do, and if they didn't do it, what was I able to do? They had to make this decision themselves.

Pushing into the ruins, I ducked under a ruined doorway and entered a rubble strewn storefront. I don't know how long this city had been under attack, but it didn't look like it was too long ago that this place was once operational. There were still boxes lying all over the floor, posters of smiling models showing off the latest dresses this season, soaps and perfumes lining the shelves, and even some mannequins and clothes racks still sitting untouched in the corner of the store.

The modernity of the shop was disconcerting with the reality of the situation. Aside from the differences in aesthetics, it could've been a shop anywhere on Earth. It was…off putting, to say the least.

"Woah, woah, woah, we're did you come from?" One of Andermark's soldiers said, crouched behind an overturned table. It probably wouldn't do much if it got shot, but it seemed the enemy wasn't able to hit us in here. That was a relief.

"Andermark sent me, he's back out on the streets, said he got cut off from you lot. You need to get back to him, bring Christef with the vox, so we can coordinate a counterattack."

The soldier nodded. He looked as if his mind was on the game. I nodded his shoulder padded was chipped, as if he'd been shot, and he had a discarded powercell next to his feet. He was missing a grenade. So, it seemed there were some fighters out here after all.

"CHRISTEF? CHRISTEF, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, THE SERGEANT'S STILL ALIVE!"

Woah, they thought Andermark was dead? What happened to them?

There was no time to find out, we had to move, and quickly. I could the enemy approaching our position. There was scrambling from all over the store as the squad came out from their hiding positions, underneath rubble, underneath piles of mouldy clothes, behind the register, from behind doors and racks…it seemed they'd made it into the ruins and then hidden themselves away when they realised they had no orders. I can't say I blamed them.

Christef crawled out from behind the register, his vox unit strapped to his back, still in working condition, mercifully, lasgun in hand. We were about to head back out into the ruins and towards the street when the wall blew open and a group of rebels surged inside.

"KILL THEM!" I yelled desperately, my heart leaping into my chest. If Christef died here…we were fucked. Fortunately, the squad was quick to act. The man next to me was already firing before me, spraying into the soot and dust kicked up by the blast. Ziya and Adat formed up next to me, and the rest of the squad bathed the opening in lasfire.

The rebels seemed to be caught off guard, as if they didn't realise there was so many of us in here. They raised their guns, sleek black machine guns, and fired back. Bullets whizzed through the air, and two of the squad went down. One was hit in the chest, and dropped to the floor, groaning, and another was hit in the eye, and was slain instantly.
The rebels were swiftly cut down by lasgun fire before they could take down anyone else. A few people rushed over to the injured soldier, whose flak armour had saved him. Grunting in pain, he was hauled to his feet.

"Come on, we have to move," I hissed. More rebels would come, they wouldn't let us go without a fight. Sure enough, the wall was blasted down entirely, and the storefront was ripped to shreds a moment later as the heavy bolter turret panned across the shop. Huge 30mm shells ripped into the walls, blasting giant chunks of masonry apart and throwing up a giant cloud of dust and grime. One of the squad was hit by a bolter round and was ripped in half, literally, as the shell went through his body and tore his entire torso off in a spray of blood and bone. Someone screamed.

Christef crawled through the fire towards the doorway were I was crouched with Ziya and Adat. The man I'd met near the entrance grabbed him and hauled him towards me, turning to keep the rebels from advancing into the shop by spraying his lasgun at the entrance.

"Harrot, now's not the time for heroics!" Ziya yelled, and I was inclined to agree.

"Let's go!" I said, wincing when another one of the squad went down from a heavy bolter round to the chest. Another was shot by the sniper, and toppled over instantly. Almost half the squad was gone. We needed to move, and quickly.

"We have to get back to Andermark, and quickly," I said, pushing Christef behind me, "we have to get Christef back there. Make sure there's no nasty surprises waiting for us, guys," I told Adat and ZIya, who nodded. Harrot was stepping back as the rebels kept inching closer to the entrance. How many were there? Surely they'd be losing numbers charging into this shop? At least a dozen of them lay dead or dying at the entrance. Surely that'd whittled them down a bit?

Another one of Andermarks squad made it through the door with me, Jahan, I think his name was, and then it was just Harrot and some girl I didn't recognise. She was about to run towards us when the sniper took her down in one clean shot through the heart. She dropped without a sound onto the rubble strewn floor. Harrot closed his eyes and muttered a quick prayer, and then pushed me through the doorway, shielding us with his body.

"You'll gain nothing by dying here, buddy, let's go," I said, urging him to follow me. Harrot said nothing, but eventually took a few steps back, still firing his lasgun to ward off the encroaching rebels, but it seemed they'd learnt not to risk assaulting the shop. A pile of their bodies attested to the cost of that. Harrot nodded, reloading his lasgun.

"Those rebels have to pay," he said, "they have to pay."

I nodded, agreeing. So much death, in so little time. It was ridiculous. Someone had to pay.

We pushed back through the ruins, running back to the streets, back to Andermark, doing our best to avoid the sniper that had hounded us this whole time. Shots whistled by as we returned into the open, back out onto the streets, where Andermark was waiting, crouched behind a huge pile of rubble. He saw us coming and waved for us to get down.

"This all of us?" Andermark said, beckoning Christef closer. Ziya nodded, wiping away some tears.

"Nothing we can do about them now, but we can do something about us, and everyone else whose still alive. Christef! Get here NOW!" Andermark shouted. Christef obliged.

"I need you to get the rest of the platoon on the vox and say that everyone who can is going to push those rebels out of the ruins. A Cadian push, alright? Tell them that, a Cadian push. Is that clear? Cadian…push."

Christef nodded, and began fiddling with the box equipment, trying to get the rest of the platoon to listen in. Gunfire whistled by, and Andermark returned fire from his laspistol. I realised he had a plasma pistol strapped to his hip. It seemed like that would be a lot more efficient in this situation, but I wasn't going to point that out.

The rest of the squad took up positions alongside Andermark, and began returning fire. Christef was still fiddling with the vox, pushing the headset to his ears, trying to get the right signal. He kept muttering and hissing when he got no replies. I hoped he was actually trained for this stuff. Oleev hadn't gotten much training with the vox, and was only chosen because Alexei thought she had a loud, clear voice. I hoped he knew what he was doing.

A grenade went off on the other side of the rubble pile, and debris slipped down the side. Andermark threw a grenade over the top in retaliation, and there was a scream on the other side of the pile before it went off. A stray arm was briefly seen cartwheeling through the air on the rebel side.

"Come on, come on…" Christef said, "I just need to talk to someone…ANYONE!"

There was a moment of dreadful silence in which I feared the vox was broken, before a crackling voice came through it.

"This…this is Private Oleev, who is this?"