Jay Allan - Marines

Just before dark on our second day manning the trenchline I got my answers when Captain Junius, who was running the whole battalion at this point, came through the comlink. "Squad leaders, prepare to assault the objective."

He paused for a minute - probably interrupted by his own message from higher up - and then continued. "We're going to hit the place with a fast, hard bombardment, and then we advance. I want the lead units - Cain, Warren, Stanton, that's your squads - to move fast. Use the torn up ground for cover, but get your asses up there ASAP! You'll have supporting units right behind you, so if you get bogged down you'll stall the attack, and we'll get bunched up."

He went on for about ten minutes, giving instructions to each squad leader and reminding us at least five times that speed was the key to taking the objective. After he was done, I spent a few minutes staring out at the terrain for the thousandth time, punching up my visor to amp 10 to compensate for the failing light, and then gave orders to my team leaders.

About an hour later the barrage began. We were too close to the enemy for orbital bombardment, but we had several ground-based artillery batteries as well as the company mortar teams, and they all unloaded at once.

The night sky was instantly illuminated as rounds impacted all along the front edge of the objective. We knew the enemy was there in some force, and it was a good bet they had some ordnance of their own, but they didn't return any fire.

After about five minutes of conventional fire the batteries switched over to incendiary and smoke, and as soon as they did we got the order to advance.

The field ahead of us was a maelstrom of fire and dense clouds of smoke. The night and smoke obscured visibility, while the incendiary rounds interfered with heat and infrared guided fire.

"Let's go!" I snapped out the command, surprised at how cool and calm I sounded, and jumped over the edge of the trench. "All teams advance 500 meters and grab some cover. Remember, zigzag approach - no straight lines! And move it, but keep low."

After I finished issuing commands, I focused on getting myself up 500 meters. I ran an irregular pattern, trying to move as quickly as possible while staying crouched. The ground was a little more rugged than it looked, but it was no big deal in armor, and it took us less than two minutes to reach the first position.

There was heavy fire, but it was random and not aimed. The bombardment was doing its job, at least for the moment. Still, a quick glance at the unit status display showed I had two troopers down. The data showed both as flatline, though that didn't mean they were necessarily dead. Maybe their armor was just damaged and not transmitting life scans. Maybe.

As I moved forward I spotted a good-sized crater and headed for it, diving in as an enemy mortar round exploded way too close for comfort. The crater was about ten feet deep, and the high water table meant it was half full of watery muck.

"Teams one and three, move forward 500 meters and take cover. Team two, hold 90 seconds and advance 500 meters." I still sounded like a rock. It's amazing how much of command really boils down to some type of bullshit.

We continued to advance, and we started firing once we were within 1,500 meters. Our fire was as blind as theirs, and they had the cover of the town besides, but we wanted them to have as much to worry about as possible.

They had dug a shallow trench just outside the built up area, but our artillery had really hit it hard, and when we reached it there were only two defenders left standing, and two of my teams tore them to pieces with fire.

With all my troopers in the trench I did another quick check and was stunned to see we hadn't lost anyone else. I took a few seconds to look into the complex. I could see Stanton's squad advancing on my right, moving toward a cluster of small buildings that looked like some type of storage. I couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like they'd taken more losses on the advance than us.

There was a forest of piping and tubes in front of my squad - some type of refinery or something. Visibility was poor. The scattered fires provided some light, but interfered with infrared scanners. My suit's AI combined the infrared and visual data to give me a computer-generated enhanced image. It wasn't great, but it was a hell of a lot better than anything my eyes could have produced.

I couldn't see any enemy positions, but that didn't mean there weren't any. There was a small metal shed that looked like some sort of control building about 200 meters in, and I sent team one to take it. The rest of the squad stood fast, providing covering fire and scanning for any enemy movement.

They moved up out of the trench and started toward the building. There was some scattered fire, but nothing heavy, and within two minutes they reported back that the building was empty.

"Team two, advance to the storage tank to the left of team one. Team three, on me!" I knew there were units right on our heels, so I leapt out of the trench and ran toward a dense collection of vertical pipes that would offer decent cover and a vantage point to get a look deeper into the complex. The fire was very light, and I couldn't see any enemy troopers until I was almost up to my objective. I saw him half a second before he saw me. He was running across my field of fire, clearly separated from his withdrawing unit. I whipped around my mag rifle and fired on full auto, hitting him with at least ten projectiles just as he was launching a spread of grenades in my direction.

My shots ripped through his bronze colored armor and tore the top half of him to shreds, but not before the first two grenades were loosed. I paused for an instant to see my shots hit the target instead of diving for cover, and I felt myself flying through the air as the grenades hit just off to my left.

I could hear the fragments impacting on my armor, making a dull clanging sound . My training took over and even before I hit the ground I was watching the electric blue numerals of the damage display projected in front of my eyes. Good…nothing penetrated my armor. I was unhurt and everything seemed to be fully operational. Damn lucky. Stupid, but lucky. If I'd hit the deck sooner, rather than waiting to see my shots hit I'd have dodged the impact entirely.

I ended up face down about three meters from where I was, lying pretty much out in the open. There was a small crater about six feet away that would make a decent foxhole. I twisted my body and rolled into my makeshift cover, and then I scanned 360 degrees to get my bearings.

The grenades had ripped up the piping where I had been standing, and one torn off section was billowing a vast cloud of something that looked like sickly green steam, blocking my view of the rest of the team.

"Team three, sound off! Condition and location!"

One by one all four of them responded. They were all unhurt and in position. That's good at least. Apparently I was the only idiot to walk into enemy fire. I ordered team three to hold fast while I checked on the rest of the squad.

"Team two, report!"

The second team ran into a few defenders at the storage tank. They'd taken them all out, but Anderson had taken a hit. She wasn't badly wounded, but her suit took a lot of damage, and she probably wasn't going to be able to keep up when we advanced. I prompted my AI to display the diagnostic. No, no way she was going to be able to keep fighting. Not without major repairs to her armor.

"Anderson, fall back toward the aid station. Stay low until you get back to the trench. The fire's pretty light, but don't get careless on me now."

She paused just a second, and I knew she wanted to argue with me that she could stay with us. But if there is one thing they beat into your head it's that you don't argue with your commander in the middle of a battle.