Blue and Red: Stories From Shanxi
The Battle of Hunter Hill: Day 5
Sergeant Tertius Carhos
"I served with the 132nd Mobile Artillery Battery on Shanxi. That's exactly what it sounds like: a high-mobility field artillery unit. We use a mix of self-propelled guns and rapid deployment towed artillery - four each to a battery - to provide long-range indirect fire support.
"After we hit dirt side on Shanxi, General Thierix ordered several units to stay in reserve, including the 132nd. We were holding position with the auxiliaries and field hospitals. Now, the blood and gore wasn't too bad. I won't say it was easy dealing with it, but our training prepared us for the kind of damage bullets and bombs can do, at least intellectually.
"We had nothing to prepare us for the constant smell of burned turian flesh.
"Now, burns do happen in combat - incinerate omni-tool modules, flamethrowers, incendiary ammo, incendiary explosives - but there was something more... pervasive about it on Shanxi. Those who died instantly were the lucky ones. I saw soldiers who were cooked alive in their hardsuits by multiple glancing blows, others whose hardsuits were melted and fused with the flesh underneath.
"So when the call for artillery support came from Colonel Atticus, we jumped at the chance to get our licks in. Technically, Atticus didn't have the authority to command the 132nd, but Captain Timmaeus felt assisting the 96th at Hill 120 fell within the guidelines of General Order 17 and ordered us in under his own discretion."
EOD Specialist Janet Ruckman
"We were screwed.
"We pretty much had that figured when the turians hauled out the real artillery and started shelling us seriously on the fifth day. The Tomahawks were tough - no doubt about that - but even they couldn't take sustained shelling from heavy artillery, and they weren't the most nimble mecha around.
"Fortunately, the fold-comm repairs were almost complete by then. By our best estimates, we only had to hold out for another day or two - three tops - and the cavalry would be on the way.
"Not that that was much comfort to us."
Corporal Actaeus Endurani
"Keep in mind, most of this is second-hand. I was one of the walking wounded - minus the walking, given the injury to my hip - and shuttled back to one of the field hospitals to recover at the time. Remember, we didn't have medi-gel back then.
"But when the colonel brought in the 132nd, the destroids were naturally the top priority. They took a beating before they were finally destroyed, and then it was a creeping barrage to cover the advance. Excessive, wasteful, and overly cautious even by the most conservative standards, but it worked. By the end of day five, the legion had secured the perimeter around Hill 120.
"After that, though, there was still the tiny matter of actually getting inside."
Corporal Dennis Nicholson
"Urban fighting ain't got shit on tunnel fighting."