RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) (17 page)

Abs answered instantly. ‘One- Zero- Bravo, roger. I’m
with the casualty now. Hammersmith- Zero- Alpha, request casualty exchange
point on my mark.’

A blue crosshair appeared half a kilometre to the
west, somewhere along the base of the valley.

B Company’s OC had obviously been listening intently
to our predicament, for his response was just as timely, though not as
reassuring. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha, I see the mark. I will have my ships look
into the area. Be aware, however, that extraction from the valley may prove
difficult in terms of the terrain itself. We may need to adjust your exchange
point. Blackjack-One-Zero, we may need to revise your current approach to this
situation . . . ah . . . wait . . .’

Even the OC wasn’t sure what we ought to do.
Ultimately, though, one thing was glaringly obvious - we couldn’t advance any
further. A platoon of us could take on a small fleeing force of rogue
Guardsmen, but it was clear that we were now up against the Loyalist Militia as
well. To make matters worse, they were purposefully mixing civilian targets
amongst themselves in order to deny us freedom to engage effectively.

More firing erupted on the far bank, and then I
realised that Two Section were engaging the group approaching from the south. I
wondered if they were engaging more proxy bombers, or actual enemy.

Puppy and Wildgoose returned to the section,
throwing themselves against the bank and joining in with the firefight.

‘Thapa’s with Three Section!’ Puppy informed me
above the noise. ‘Abs is gonna start moving back with the casualties now!’

The air cracked as a burst of darts passed my head,
missing me by centimetres. I threw myself to the ground, quickly changing my
position before lifting my head again. I still wasn’t convinced that our enemy
could actually see us, but staying in the same place would have been stupid.

One of the civilians began to stray, clutching at
his head whilst he staggered through the crossfire in absolute terror.
Something struck him, presumably a dart, and he fell to the ground.

‘We need to get the fuck out of here!’ Puppy
shouted.

‘No shit!’ I agreed.

Everything had changed. The civilians made it
impossible for us to do anything unless we were prepared to shoot them all as
enemy - and even then it didn’t guarantee we wouldn’t be blown to pieces. They
also removed our ability to call in fire from our dropships, making us far more
vulnerable. The tactic being employed against us was sick, but it was working.

The sergeant major had obviously come to the same
conclusion. ‘All call signs, this is One-Zero! We will withdraw in a westerly
direction, following the valley. One-One, you will move first! I’ll meet you on
the valley floor. Move now!’

‘Roger!’ I replied. I lifted my head and hollered to
my section. ‘Break contact! Follow me!’

I turned and slid back down into the valley, my
section following.

I could see Two Section on the opposite bank, formed
into a defensive line just as we had been, with two troopers observing along
the valley itself. All of their weapons were firing, as they engaged targets in
all directions.

The sergeant major was waiting for me at the bottom
of the valley, stood amongst the civilians my mammoth gunners had killed. His
signaller was in a fire position nearby, covering out to the east, whilst Yulia
knelt close by, watching impassively.

The sergeant major pointed westward, along the
valley base. ‘Start heading back, best speed! Corporal Abdi will show you where
to go!’

I didn’t stop to speak to Yulia, even though I could
feel her eyes upon me. There was nothing to say. Instead I turned to follow the
sergeant major’s outstretched arm and continued my withdrawal.

Something suddenly exploded then, on Two Section’s
side of the valley, causing us all to duck instinctively. I glanced upward to
see more smoke rising from amongst the trees, though thankfully I saw no yellow
crosshairs marking casualties.

‘Let’s move!’ the sergeant major urged my men behind
me, hastening our withdrawal.

Tiny branches ripped against my equipment as I tore
through the bushes and other foliage that crowded the valley base, running as
fast as I could toward the green crosshair marking Abs’ position two hundred metres
away to our west.

‘Come on!’ I shouted back to my men, some of whom
were dropping back. ‘Stay with me!’

We weren’t running for fear of our own lives, but for
those of our comrades. Two Section wouldn’t withdraw until we had taken up our
new position, otherwise we would lose our control of the high ground.

During my dash through the bushes, I came across the
body of the man I had shot at the beginning of my fateful attack. He was
propped up against a rock, presumably having crawled there before he died from
multiple wounds to his abdomen. As I passed him, I caught a glimpse of his
face, staring at me with the same cold, accusing eyes I had seen so many times
in my nightmares. He was a child. No older than fourteen.

Shaking the vision from my mind, I looked back and
beckoned my men with a pumping fist. ‘Hurry the fuck up! Come on!’

Abs was waiting in a small clearing along with his
runner and half of Three Section. Thapa and the injured civilian both lay on
stretchers at their feet. All of their chests were heaving, after having
carried the two casualties by themselves. A stretcher was ideally meant to be
carried by four troopers, but they had managed to carry two stretchers with
only six.

‘Form up on the northern bank again, Andy!’ Abs
panted. ‘Make sure you’ve got good cover on all sides!’

I quickly led my section back up onto the bank, and
once we were out of the valley I had them form an L-shape again, similar to
that which I had used during our advance. I noted that there were four more
green crosshairs a hundred metres to my west, marking the locations of the rest
of Stan’s section. Two of them were on the northern bank, and two on the
southern side. It was a rather sparse rear protection, but with four of his men
already soaked up dealing with casualties, it was all he could provide.

‘Puppy, make sure your last man faces out to the
west!’ I ordered, understanding Abs’ demand that we cover out in all
directions. Our rear wasn’t safe, with so few men there to protect it.

Whilst my 2ic passed on the instruction to his end
man, I informed the sergeant major that I was in position.

‘One-Zero, roger!’ he answered. ‘One-Two, move!’

‘One-Two, moving!’

There was a moments silence on the net, whilst the
gunfire continued.

‘One-Two,
break contact
, and withdraw NOW!’
The sergeant major sounded furious. I assumed that Corporal Kamara had got
carried away with the moment and was taking too long to break away from the
firefight. To somebody outside the armed forces that reluctance to turn and run
might sound crazy, but it’s surprisingly easy for a section commander to get so
absorbed in the battle he forgets his senses.

The collection of green crosshairs that marked
Corporal Kamara’s section broke their line and descended into the valley. Then
I watched as they joined with the sergeant major and headed toward us at speed.
Abs and Three Section were already moving back as well, carrying the casualties
along with them.

I observed their withdrawal, my breathing slowly returning
to normal. There was no longer anything to think about, since my section were
static with no targets to engage. My mind began to wander, despite my best
efforts to keep it focused onto the task.

I killed a child. Not a child soldier,
but an unarmed, civilian child.

Memories of the moment he had flashed through my
sights repeated in my head, as I questioned my actions as well as my motives. I
had been so desperate to kill that I had convinced myself that the civilians
were targets.

So many innocent people had died at our hands. The
full horror of what we had just experienced began to sink in, threatening to
overwhelm me at any moment. I swallowed hard.

‘Who are they shooting at?’ Puppy asked over the
section net, snapping me out of my misery.

I listened to the nearby gunfire, relieved by the
distraction. It seemed as though our opponents were still locked into a
firefight, but they weren’t engaging my section, and Two Section were already
past our position.

‘Nobody,’ I said after a moment. ‘They haven’t
realised we’ve gone yet.’

The enemy didn’t want to kill us, it seemed. There
was no need to risk a head-on battle with such a heavily armed and well-trained
opponent. Instead, they were merely blocking us, using the civilians to enhance
their barrier.

My stomach slowly twisted as I thought of how
effective that civilian barrier had been. We had all seen what horrors the
people of Eden were capable of inflicting on one another, but none of us had
seen innocent human beings used as a weapon before.

‘Bastards,’ I whispered under my breath. ‘Fucking
bastards.’

Myers glanced at me for a moment, having heard my
whisper, and then turned back to the forest. We waited in silence.

It wasn’t long until Two Section took their position
on the southern bank of the valley, another two hundred metres behind us. The
sergeant major then gave me the order and I extracted my section again,
scrambling back down the slope. He was there waiting for us again, but this
time he led us rearward, since there was nobody left behind for him to worry
about.

‘It wasn’t your fault, Andy,’ Yulia said to me as we
doubled through the undergrowth in pursuit of Abs and the casualties.

I didn’t reply. Ignoring her attempts to ease my
guilt, I fixed my eyes onto the route ahead. I didn’t want her sympathy, or
anyone else’s. I rightly deserved my misery.

‘They’re not following us,’ I called after the
sergeant major.

He looked over his shoulder. ‘They don’t need to.’

We stopped our slow leapfrog withdrawal, opting for
a more rapid extraction to take advantage of the lack of enemy follow up. The
sergeant major joined Two Section on the high ground to provide a mobile
overwatch, whilst my section was tasked to relieve Abs and his small work party
of one of the stretchers.

‘Take Thapa!’ Abs ordered as we approached, pointing
toward the stretcher that carried our comrade. ‘Lads, put it down!’

The troopers already carrying the stretcher looked
exhausted, but they still took care to place it down gently. Heavy as he was,
Thapa was one of us, making him the most precious cargo of all.

‘Let’s get four men on this stretcher!’ I shouted,
taking one of the handles by Thapa’s head. I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to
help carry the load, especially considering the casualty on the second
stretcher was my fault.

My fire team joined me, taking up the handles whilst
the stretcher still lay on the ground.

‘I’ll give us a bit of protection to the rear,’
Puppy said. ‘Let me know when you need to swap.’

‘Will do!’ I then addressed my fire team as we
braced, poised to lift the stretcher as one. ‘Three . . . two . . . one . . .
lift!’

We stood together, sharing Thapa’s weight equally.
Advanced materials made his equipment light, but that simply meant we carried
more of it. He weighed a tonne.

‘Let’s go!’ Abs ordered, slapping the shoulder of
one of the men carrying the civilian. They set off first, closely followed by
us.

There’s nothing worse than carrying one of your own
men as a casualty, especially when their injuries were as severe as Thapa’s. It
didn’t matter how many times I did it, it always felt awful. This time was
torture. Not only did I have the weight of Thapa in my hand, tugging at my arm
every time we clambered over something, but I had the sight of the wounded
woman ahead of me, tormenting my soul. Thankfully the painkillers administered
by Weatherall had reduced her screams to anguished moaning - though that hardly
helped.

The OC of B Company had agreed to extract the
civilian along with Thapa. If she hadn’t been injured through friendly fire
then I doubted he would have made the same decision, but I think he understood
our guilt.

As we neared the casualty exchange point marked by
Abs, a single dropship swooped low over the trees, before descending into the
valley with its rear ramp already lowered. It used its weight to crush the
bushes beneath it, creating its own landing site amongst the foliage.

A pair of medics waited within the crew compartment,
ready to receive the casualties.

‘Come on!’ I panted. Pulling the stretcher handle I
powered with my legs, dragging my men after me. ‘Last effort, let’s go!’

The two medics stepped down onto the ramp, beckoning
with open hands as the stretchers came near.

The woman was first to go on, the two medics helping
to slide her stretcher in between the dropship seats. One of them set about
strapping it down so that it wouldn’t be flung around in flight, whilst the
other leant out to receive Thapa.