This is part 5. Click here for part 4.
My Blufor C3I chirps in my ear. I have tight-beam with my lance. I quick select “rally on my position” with the eye-track menu and blink-click it. Then I’m sending on the command override.
"All Hussar units! Independent hasty attack out of the killzone. Rally at RP Shark. See you bastards on the other side, one way, or another!"
Two surviving super hippos from my lance together with one one of second’s survivors converge one my location. Together we make a push for the RP, guns blazing. Local technicals and dug in dismounted AA batteries stand little chance against our concentration of force and violence of action. Rogers takes a bad hit from a guided anti marcher missile. But his armor holds, for now. I start to think that maybe we can pull this off. The old man breaks that illusion for me.
“LZ is too hot Smithy, we’re pulling the Egg out. Carry on as best you can, but preserve your force as the priority.”
Well fuck, guess there goes any hope of air support for now. And forget about follow on armor and infantry to do combined arms maneuver with. Good news. Looks like Kelly has most of second team at the RP already. We just need to get there.
We run into a local team of Marchers, but they’re old tech lights. We run over them with a vengeance. I light up two with a full flush from both of my six pack box launchers. One falls apart in burning pieces. I turn and leap and kick the other. It falls it to the deck. I stamp down on the head and then pierce the cockpit with my beam sword.
The beamrazor is a gift from His Majesty to me. On the occasion of my leaving his Grey Company of companions. Yeah, I’m one of the OG Johnny Rebs who helped him win back his fiancée from captivity. But that’s a different story. Rogers is messed up good now, still mobile but missing and arm and open on the side.
There’s no more targets between us and the RP and we move. Rogers limps on damaged actuators and trails smoke. We get into visual range of the RP. I notice that Kelly’s marchers are legs down behind cover, covering us.
Kelly!” I send on the push. “It’s Smithy, we’re coming into your perimeter, check fire.”
“Smithy,” she replies. “You wouldn’t listen would you? Pity it had to be this way. Too loyal to see the way the wind is blowing.”
“Kelly,” I growl. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Overhead, a second sun rises, throwing new and wild shadows. The Egg dies in a moment of stellar fusion. Second team opens up on us. Full send on everything. Rogers explodes instantly. His scream is mercifully short. I see the rest of are not far behind. “Critical damage detected in center torso. Armor low. Seek cover.” Says Astrid.
I scream and leap.
The plot thickens!