Blue and Red: Stories From Shanxi
The Battle of Hunter Hill: Day 4
Corporal Actaeus Endurani
"Under the cover of a day's worth of shelling, Colonel Atticus repositioned the legion. A straight-on assault wasn't going to work, not until we took those robots of theirs out of commission, so we were staging a diversionary strike to allow a team to infiltrate and sabotage them.
"We didn't have enough power cells to set up a proper creeping barrage, but we kept the mortar fire up, stopping just before the assault. A pause in the shelling would alert the humans and give them time to prepare for the impending attack... but on that day, that's what we wanted."
Corporal Dennis Nicholson
"When the shelling stopped, we knew we'd run out of time. We had the Tommies fired up, the Cycloners suited up and ready to go, and the mortars quickly repositioned to hit predesignated kill zones. We even had the laser turrets on some of the Grizzlies switched to manual.
"The rest of us stuck with our laser rifles and prayed it was enough."
Corporal Actaeus Endurani
"The thing about kinetic barriers is that they do crap against lasers. I speak from experience. Somehow, throughout the entire first assault, we never really got a good look at the rifles most of Hill 120's defenders were using.
"On day four, far too many of us found out the hard way. I was one of the lucky ones. I was moving alongside a Tyrus, using it for cover against the heavier defensive fire, when I got hit. The laser ignored my shields and cut through my hardsuit right here, along my hip. I didn't feel it at first - my leg just went limp, and I stumbled - but after a few seconds of confusion, the pain hit.
"It burned like nothing I'd ever felt before, but it actually saved my life. I was still on the ground, shaking the pain off and trying to find the rest of my section when everything in front of me exploded."
EOD Specialist Janet Ruckman
"Tango Nine is an equally terrifying and wonderful thing. We EOD specialists share a saying with the combat engineers: 'There is no problem in the human condition that cannot be solved through the proper application of sufficient quantities of high explosives.' The Zentraedi really liked that one, back in the day, so I hear, and it's gotten pretty popular among krogan too.
"The Tango Nine we rigged combined with the mortars' predesignated kill zones slaughtered dozens, maybe hundreds of turians that day and blunted the assault."
Corporal Actaeus Endurani
"That whole operation was a colossal waste of time, lives, and ammunition. The plan was good, in theory, and the infiltration team had managed to do some damage, but it just wasn't enough to cripple the destroids and give us the opening we needed to take the hill."