I stripped the other three troops from each of those fire teams. I took two with me and split the other ten, with five on each side, hidden behind whatever cover they could find. I positioned myself and my two lucky privates along the edge of the open area. I wanted this to be timed right, and I intended to keep a close eye on things. My AI kept feeding me reports on approaching contacts. We had about 140 of our troops heading this way, and it looked like the enemy was right behind.
It was only about three minutes before our units started coming through. They were in good order and well-organized, moving through by makeshift platoons. I wasn't plugged in to the command circuit at a high enough level to track casualties in these units, but I tried to estimate. Our organization was so ersatz on this operation it was hard to tell, but my best guess was they were down to around 50% strength.
The retreating troops were moving toward the edge of the interior hillside and then redeploying to the left and right to support and reinforce my positions there. One of the pivotal battles of the campaign would be fought in that tight little ravine. That is, if the enemy cooperated and did what we expected. Unfortunately, they didn't. I was waiting for my AI to warn me about approaching enemy troops, but when it came it wasn't what I expected. "CAC formations seem to have ceased pursuit and begun to fall back."
What the hell were they up to? My mind raced looking for possibilities. The last of our units were flowing through the gap, but there was no sign of enemy activity. Then, everything happened at once.
All of a sudden it came to me...I knew what was happening. I started to order my two privates to take cover when the comlink came to life. It was the colonel, and he was yelling frantically. "Cain, get out of the gap. Withdraw now. Code Oran..."
That was as much as I heard. There was a blinding flash right in front of me. My visor went dark, automatically shutting down to protect my eyes. A second later the shockwave hit, slamming me, armor and all, hard into a pillar of jagged rock.
I was on my back for a few seconds, stunned. When I tried to move I couldn't. It wasn't more than another two or three seconds before I felt massive weight against my legs as my armor was ripped open by a huge pile of falling rock, then the wave of pain as the boulders pressed down on my injured legs. I could feel wetness; I knew I was bleeding badly. Then the burning started as the massive heat from the explosion began to seep through my shattered suit.
My armor still had some functionality, though. I could feel the injections from the trauma control mechanisms, and almost immediately the pain subsided. I could smell burning flesh, and while I couldn't feel it, I knew the suit was attempting to electro-cauterize my legs to stop the bleeding.
I was lying there in a surreal daze. All I could think was, time to pay for getting missed all those times. My dead comrades came back to me from my memories, saying, "Welcome, brother...we have kept a place for you."
I was still awake, at least I thought so, but I couldn't see or even feel anything. I couldn't move at all; my armor's power plant must have gotten scragged. Battery power could run trauma and life support systems, but it couldn't move several tons of high density iridium-steel-polymer hybrid buried under more tons of shattered rock.
Code Orange. Nuclear attack. Everything was hazy, but I knew it had been an atomic explosion. The colonel had tried to warn me, but we both realized too late. This was a huge escalation. Neither side had used nukes yet, not even during Achilles.
None of it mattered. I felt the darkness start to take me. At least I was spared the slow agony the rest of our forces were facing. I slipped away, choking on the bitter taste of defeat.
Chapter Six
Armstrong Medical Center
Armstrong Colony
Gamma Pavonis III
I woke up in a hospital bed. That was the first surprise. Not the bed, the waking up. Somehow I had survived, and to this day I'm not entirely sure how. Part of it was luck, and even more the amazing technology of my armor, which managed to stop my bleeding and inject me with enough meds to keep me alive, despite catastrophic damage to my body and a dose of radiation that could have fried a kitchen full of eggs.
Years later I found out that another big factor, maybe the most crucial in my survival, was Colonel Holm. Somehow my brutalized armor maintained its link with the command net, and the colonel could tell I was still alive on his readouts. He personally led a search team into the apocalyptic red zone to find me and pull me out.
I braced for the pain, but there was none. Of course, I thought. I must be up to my eyeballs in happy juice. Probably best that way for all concerned. I had no complaints about it. I lay there groggy and incoherent for a few minutes, maybe for a few hours. Or days for that matter; I was completely out of it. Finally I decided to take a look around, so I lifted my head. Well, I thought "lift," but my head didn't do anything. It wasn't until I tried to raise my arm, but only managed to turn my hand a little with intense effort, that I realized I was so astonishingly weak I could hardly move.
Of course, I thought. The radiation. It was a miracle I was alive at all, but I was clearly much worse for wear. I looked around as much as I could manage with the little I could move my head. The room was fairly large, with high ceilings - over 3 meters. I was definitely planetside someplace; no spaceship wastes this much volume. The walls and pretty much everything else were spotless white. There were various machines lined up next to the bed, and they were all connected to me by some type of tube, wire, or other conduit.
I tried to yell for someone, but my voice was as weak as my body, and all I could manage was a barely audible whisper. I croaked it out from what almost certainly would have been a very sore throat if I hadn't been so medicated. I didn't expect an answer, but I got one.
"Good morning, Sergeant Cain. I am Florence, your medical AI. Your condition is stable, but I must ask that you refrain from trying to speak or move. You are still very weak. I have notified Doctor Linden that you have awakened."
The AI's voice was female, soothing, and probably exactly what I would have designed for the purpose. My first impulse was to start asking questions, but I was so exhausted it just seemed easier to wait for the doctor.
I didn't have to wait very long. It couldn't have been more than a minute before the door slid open and in walked a doctor followed by two medtechs. "Hello, Sergeant Cain. I'm Doctor Sarah Linden, and I'm very happy to finally have the chance to meet you. We've spent a lot of time together, but so far I'm afraid the relationship has been pretty one-sided."
I managed to turn my head to get a better look, and when my teary eyes managed to focus, I was looking at a woman. A very beautiful woman. She was wearing a wrinkled light blue surgical uniform, but she still looked incredible. She had a very pretty face with blue eyes and the sweetest smile I'd ever seen. There were a just a few wisps of strawberry blond hair protruding from the baggy cap that covered her head, but my mind filled in the blanks, and I saw it cascading around her shoulders.
I tried to manage my own smile, and I rasped out the very best greeting I could manage. "Hello, doctor. It's nice to meet you. I'd shake your hand, but I'm afraid I can't lift my arm."
She smiled again. "I'm glad to see you've still got a sense of humor. That's a good sign. Don't worry, you'll be able to lift your arms soon enough. In fact, you'll be able to do everything you could before. You may find it hard to believe right now, but you'll make a full recovery."
I had to swallow hard to try and keep speaking. My throat was parched and it was hard to get any sound to come out. She saw that I was struggling trying to say something, and she walked over and put her hand softly on my shoulder and said, "Don't strain yourself trying to speak. You got quite a heavy dose of radiation, I'm afraid, and it caused a lot of damage to your digestive system. We can't even let you take water orally until we can get in there and fix you up, so your throat is likely to be pretty dry as well." She started to turn to leave and continued, "Try to get some more rest now, and we'll talk more later."
"Wait." I croaked like a frog, but at least I got it out. "There aren't any mirrors in here, at least none I can see."
She turned her head to look back at me. "Why don't we worry about that after you rest a bit?"
"That bad, is it? It's ok, I can take it. Really."
She didn't answer right away, and I could see that her expression was troubled. After a few seconds she tried once more. "I really think we should wait until you are stronger."
I pushed hard and actually managed to completely turn my head to face her. "Don't worry about me, doc. I'll be fine. No matter how bad it is."
She paused but didn't answer.
"Please."
She finally relented and ordered one of the medtechs to do as I asked. He headed out into the corridor and returned a minute later carrying a large, circular mirror.
Doctor Linden made a gesture and the tech stopped. "Before you look, I want you to understand that you are going to be as good as new before I let you out of here. It won't look like it, and it certainly won't feel like it, but you've been through the worst. It's just a matter of time now. Time for us to work through the procedures that need to be done to fix the damage."
I nodded, or as close as I could come to nodding. "I understand." I had to try 3 or 4 times to force the words out audibly. I couldn't move; I couldn't talk. This was starting to piss me off.
She motioned to the tech, and he moved over to the edge of the bed and held the mirror over me so I could look without having to move.
My height is 1.9 meters. In fighting shape I weigh about 95 kilos. But the shriveled, hairless thing staring back at me would have weighed 50kg at most. If it had legs. Which it didn't.
The memories rushed back. The debris landing on me, the sharp pain as several tons of rock crushed my legs, the rush of outside air as my suit was breached, searing pain as my armor's trauma control system cauterized the stumps. That's how I remembered I had lost my legs. And while I found the whole thing interesting, I didn't really care. I suspect I owed that welcome apathy to the same cocktail of meds keeping what was no doubt agonizing pain at bay.
"Don't worry," the doctor said. "Believe it or not, I was telling you the truth. You're through the worst of it. Or at least the most dangerous. You're going to make it, sergeant, and when I'm done you're going to be tearing down the walls to get out of here."
She looked right into my eyes. I wasn't sure whether she was trying to show me she was telling the truth or just making eye contact so I would stop trying to move my head around, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. "I can't promise it will be fun. In fact, I'm fairly certain you will have some pretty uncharitable things to say about your poor doctor before we're done. But you will walk out of this hospital and return to duty. I promise. But now I'm going to put my foot down with you and insist you get some more rest. We'll talk again later, after you get some sleep."
She and the techs turned and walked toward the door. The doc turned and gave me another incredible smile. "Florence, 30 ml Arthramine. Barring any change in condition, Sergeant Cain is to sleep for ten hours."
The AI responded softly. "Yes, Dr. Linden." I could feel the wave of sleep coming over me as the AI injected the drug into my intravenous feed. I wanted to say goodbye to the doctor, but I don't think I got it out in time.
She was true to her word, and as soon as I woke up we talked a bit more. We discussed my injuries and the rather daunting series of treatments I had ahead of me. It took us several sessions to cover it all, particularly since I spent half the time flirting with her. Or doing the best imitation of flirting a half-man who couldn't lift his head off the pillow could manage. I was still extremely weak, and I couldn't really talk for more than a few minutes. I couldn't even stay awake for more than 30 minutes or so.
I enjoyed our talks, but as I was able to more clearly assemble my recollections, I started to get depressed, wondering why I survived when all of my troopers probably died. Doctor Sarah tried to get me to focus on my treatments and not to torture myself about things I couldn't change, but I was determined to beat myself up. She tried her best, and I gave her a smile and told her I would stop, but we both knew I was lying.
My last thoughts on the battlefield before I lost consciousness had been of hopelessness. I was sure I was a dead man and just as certain that we were losing the battle. The enemy's nuclear attack had shattered my position and blown a big hole in our line. I was pretty sure my whole command had been wiped out, and it didn't seem like there was much chance that any section of the defense could stand.
Once I had recovered enough strength to stay awake for more than a few minutes, Doctor Sarah had a data unit brought in for me. She'd managed to get me access to the battle reports for the campaign. I have no idea how she did it, because they were classified, and she wasn't anywhere in the line of command for the Columbia operation. Nevertheless, she did it. So thanks to my kindly and resourceful doctor, I got a recap of the battle. I started to read it with some trepidation, but by the time I was halfway through I realized it was far better than I could have hoped.
First, over half my troopers survived. Everyone I'd put in place behind the rock outcroppings had enough shielding to survive the blast with only minor damage to their armor. Their positions were largely intact when the CAC troopers finally attacked. The radiation and EMP played havoc on the enemy's scanners, and they advanced into what they thought was a hole...only to run into the converging fields of fire I'd set up. By the time they figured out what was going on and pulled back, the Colonel had assembled a force to hit them from behind.