RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) (20 page)

‘Yes, sir.’ My reply was wooden.

‘You’re still a Lance Corporal, is that right?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘The first thing I’ll do when my company return to
Helsinki is contact battalion headquarters to see that you wear a rank that
befits your role. Since I doubt that anyone will argue, you should consider
yourself a corporal once you return to Paraiso.’

I swallowed hard. This definitely wasn’t how I
imagined my next promotion.
What was the OC thinking?

He held up a disarming hand. ‘I appreciate that this
isn’t the best time to be talking about my intent to have you promoted . . .
and it’s not intended as a gesture to cheer you up. This is, rather, my way of
expressing my faith in your judgement, and in your qualities as a leader.’

I said nothing for a moment. Somebody had been
speaking with the OC about the civilians I had killed, and he was using a field
promotion as a way to say
we still trust you
. I glanced at Yulia. It was
she who had told him what had happened, and presumably she who had told him
that I had taken it badly.

Corporal Kamara gave me a gentle nudge, urging me to
break the awkward silence.

‘Sir,’ I acknowledged flatly.

The OC gave a small nod, then turned his attention
to the sergeant major. ‘If you need anything, then ask. My company might end up
far away, but we will remain stood by to mount up if you need us.’

‘Understood.’

‘Let me know when you’re ready to go. God speed,
Recce Platoon.’ With that, he clambered out of the trench and disappeared back
toward his headquarters.

Nobody said a word about my upcoming promotion. Instead,
the sergeant major proffered his datapad. ‘Let’s get these orders synced.’

We took advantage of our live network, downloading
our orders without the need for optical cables. I didn’t have the time to study
the finer details, but I quickly added the fresh overlay to my digital map,
checking to see where our ops box was situated. We had been given a strip of
land just beyond the border, over a hundred kilometres from east to west, and
almost twenty kilometres from north to south. It was an enormous area for our
relatively small platoon to cover, dotted with suspected enemy burrows, warrens
and forward operating bases.

‘Obviously I don’t have time to prepare a proper set
of orders,’ the sergeant major said as we all studied the maps on our datapads.
‘For the moment, focus your attention on the insertion phase of this op. We’ll
dismount from our dropships close to the border. From there we’ll make best
speed northwards, where we’ll set up a platoon harbour. The lads can then get
some rest while we take the time to come up with a plan of action. I make no
apologies, it’s a sketchy set of orders at best, but we’ll have to make do. Any
questions, bearing in mind I’ve barely even glanced at these orders myself?’

There were none.

‘Good. Get back to your sections. I want this admin
battle won in the next ten minutes. Consider your sustainability when stocking
up on kit. I have no idea when our next replen will be. Go.’

With a wave of the sergeant major’s arm, we
dispersed to our sections, fighting our way through what was now a flurry of
activity as fresh kit was repacked and expended items were replaced.

‘B Company’s been generous,’ Puppy said on my
return, pointing to a pile of rations, ammunition and equipment stacked on the
edge of the trench near to my section.

Troopers helped themselves to the pile, stocking up
on what they needed and discarding what they didn’t. Water reservoirs were
topped up using plastic bottles, ration packs were stuffed into daysacks, and
critical kit was laid out at every man’s feet, ready for Puppy to inspect.
Inspections were a life-saving stage to any battle preparation, even to
troopers of our calibre. It wasn’t because we didn’t trust each other, nobody
was going to intentionally leave something behind just to save himself the
weight, but we were all exhausted, and the risk of making a mistake was far
higher than normal.

I looked at the pile of kit. ‘B Company can always
get more when they go back to Helsinki, I guess. How long until you’re ready?’

‘About five minutes,’ he replied. ‘I just need to do
a final check to make sure we’ve got everything.’

‘No worries.’

Puppy gestured back to the pile of ammunition. ‘I
never got the chance to ask you what ammo you needed, so I just used the
section net to work out your totals. There should be enough ammo there to put
you back up to pre-deployment levels. If not just let me know.’

‘Cheers,’ I said with a nod.

‘What did the sergeant major have to say?’

I shrugged. ‘Not much at the moment. Nobody’s had a
chance to read our orders yet. I’ll brief you what I can on the dropship.’

‘What’s the score with Weatherall?’

I frowned, glancing at the newest addition to our
section. The B Company trooper looked up from his daysack, knowing that he was
being discussed.

‘What about him?’ I repeated.

‘Are we taking him with us, or giving him back to B
Company?’

Puppy had a fair point. Weatherall wasn’t one of ours.
He had been given to us temporarily to replace a previous casualty. There was
every chance that B Company would want him back.

I nodded toward Weatherall, directing the question
to him. ‘What do you want to do?’

The trooper shrugged. ‘I’m happy to stay.’

He didn’t want to stay, and he certainly wasn’t any
“happier” than the rest of us. Weatherall had endured a particularly bloody
introduction to our platoon, but he felt duty-bound to remain with us.

‘Stay then,’ I decided. ‘If B Company ask, though,
you’re going back to them.’

The trooper nodded, knowing that his fate was
sealed. ‘Roger.’

Of course B Company would never ask for him back.
There was no way they’d take manpower from us just before we went back behind
enemy lines. Though inexperienced, Weatherall was still a trained drop trooper,
and we were better with him than without.

‘I’ll keep him in my fire team, Puppy.’ I said.
‘He’ll bolster my protection when I go in for recces.’

Puppy nodded. ‘Understood.’

As I turned to walk away, Puppy reached out and
patted my arm. ‘You OK, mate?’

I looked back at my 2ic, considering whether or not
to lie and say everything was fine. It wasn’t though. Everything was far from
fine.

I let out a deep, sorrowful sigh. ‘No, mate. I’m not
OK . . .’

He looked concerned. ‘You wanna talk about it?’

‘No. Not now.’

He searched my eyes for a moment. Finally, he
nodded, realising there was nothing else to be said. There was no time.

‘OK,’ he said.

I stepped over to where the pile of kit perched on
the edge of the trench, then set my daysack down next to Myers. The young
trooper busied himself swapping his scanner battery with a fresh one, kissing
his teeth as it refused to detach without a fight.

Busying myself with my own equipment, I kept my mind
focussed on preparing for my upcoming mission. Puppy was more than capable of
administrating the section on his own, which gave me the time to quickly sort
myself out and then study our orders as much as I could before the call came to
mount up.

Myers grew angrier as the battery still refused to
come away from his scanner. His fingers clawed at the catches that held the
device together, the movements becoming less co-ordinated as his frustration
peaked.

‘Myers!’ Puppy called, having noticed the young
trooper’s struggle. He crouched beside him and reached out to help.

Without warning, Myers threw the scanner to the
ground. ‘Fuck it!’

‘Oi!’ I snapped at him. ‘If you break that we’re not
getting another one! Get a grip, you tube!’

‘Who gives a shit if I break it?’ Myers shouted,
throwing his arms up in the air. ‘What’s the point? What’s the point in any of
this?’

‘I don’t
fucking know
!’ I seethed through
bared teeth, my hands clenching into fists. ‘But if you break that kit, I’ll
fucking beat you to death with it!’

Myers rose to the threat. ‘Yeah? Why should I care?
You’d be doing me a favour!’

‘Alright, Myers!’ Puppy moved between us, raising
his voice as he realised that our argument was about to turn violent. ‘Calm down!
That scanner’s a life-saver. If you break it then we’ve lost it for good!’

I glared fiercely at the young trooper, willing for
him to give me good cause to follow through with my threat.

Myers uttered something unintelligible, then sobbed.
Responding instantly to his comrade’s distress, Puppy placed a comforting hand
on his shoulder.

‘Come on, mate,’ Puppy said soothingly, as Myers
lowered his head, placing his visor into the 2ic’s shoulder. ‘It’s alright.’

‘It’s not alright, though, is it?’ Myers cried. ‘It
never will be.’

I watched my 2ic embrace the sobbing trooper, my
body still shaking as adrenalin pumped through my veins, urging me to take
action. After a moment I realised that the rest of the platoon were watching,
having ceased their frantic packing to see what the commotion was about.
Ignoring their curiosity, and the trooper crying beside me, I began replacing
my expended magazines with fresh ones.

Puppy tended to Myers, telling him that we were all
feeling the same way, and that the boss wouldn’t want us to fall apart in his
absence. It was all pretty standard, but it was enough to calm the young
trooper down.

Nobody was going to comfort me, though. I didn’t
deserve it. I didn’t deserve anything.

I had killed a child. And worse, I was
going to be promoted for it. Just like Bhasin.

9

Europa

To contents
page

The previously sporadic firing intensified across
the plateau as B Company’s dropships approached. Realising that the Union
troopers were leaving, the Militia knew that the FEA would soon be on their own
and had taken the opportunity to deliver one final blow. Soon they too would
need to withdraw, retreating from Cellini village in order to help protect
their province from the upcoming invasion.

Their attempts to disrupt our extraction were
outmatched instantly. Vulcan cannon spraying the village below with ruthless
abandon, our fleet of dropships quickly overwhelmed their opponents as they
descended onto the hill, lowering their ramps to receive their human cargo. Hot
smoke billowed from the dischargers mounted on their stubby wings, screening
the entire hill and obscuring them from the Militia. It didn’t matter that the
dropships themselves couldn’t see into the village, the four gravtanks which
complimented the company were somewhere nearby, using vantage points to pick
out targets for everyone else to engage in a similar manner to the crosshairs
we created on our net.

There were eighteen dropships in total, four for
each of the three rifle platoons, two for B Company’s headquarters, and a
further four empty dropships provided for our platoon. As they came in to land,
the combined noise of their weapons became deafening, merging together to form
a single roar that shook the world around us.

‘Stand by!’ the sergeant major warned above the din as
he spied the dropships meant for us.

Braced against the trench walls, each section stood
poised to break cover, all of us knowing that our extraction needed to be
rapid. I placed my boot onto an exposed rock just above knee height, ready to
use it as a foothold to speed my exit from the trench.

Despite the enormous firepower of the dropships, we
knew we were particularly vulnerable, with no idea of how the Militia might
react to their sudden arrival. We suspected that they had virtually no anti-aircraft
capability, but none of us wanted to hang around to find out.

Looking over the lip of our trench, I saw troopers
running through the smoke that drifted across the plateau, rapidly extracting
from the hill as one. There was no fire support coming from any of the three
platoons, instead they were using the dropships to cover their escape. It was
time for us to do the same.

The sergeant major swept with his arm toward where
our dropships waited. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Puppy, lead off!’ I called.

‘Moving!’ My 2ic scrambled out from the trench,
leading his fire team toward the waiting dropships. It was important that he
led the extraction, since it was his fire team that needed to load into the
crew compartment first. My fire team would load last because we needed to be
first out.

One by one the section extracted from the trench in
a single file, each man stopping only to help his comrade climb out.

Griffiths gripped Myers by the hand and dragged him
upward, turning to run once he was sure his comrade was on his feet.

Myers then reached out to help me.

‘I’m fine,’ I said gruffly, ignoring his hand. I
thrust against my rocky foothold, and exploded out of the trench in one fluid
movement.

Seeing that I didn’t want his help, the young
trooper turned after the rest of the section, and I followed close behind.

Leaping over the tops of trenches and weaving
through scattered craters and debris, we sprinted toward the four aircraft. Though
none of the nearby gunfire was directed at us, it spurred us to run faster,
desperate to escape the seemingly hopeless battlefield. Puppy had already identified
our own dropship and headed straight for it, bounding through the smoke ahead
of me.

The ramp hadn’t even touched the ground before my
2ic reached our dropship. He leapt onto it and then stood at the mouth of the
crew compartment, hurrying the men inside. Boots slammed against metal as the
section bounded up the ramp, piling into the compartment beyond.

‘All in!’ Puppy informed me as I reached him. He
then pushed his way into the compartment and found his seat at the back.

I took his place on the ramp, ignoring the commotion
inside as I turned to check that the other sections had loaded safely onto
their own dropships.

I spoke over the platoon net. ‘One-Zero, this is
One-One. That’s my section loaded.’

‘One-Zero, roger.’

As soon as the sergeant major responded, I stepped
into the compartment, quickly taking my seat closest the ramp. My headset
automatically connected to the dropship intercom, signalling its success with a
beep and a flashing green icon on my visor display.

‘Last man in!’ I announced to the dropship crew,
reaching for my straps.

‘Roger!’ was the reply, and the craft instantly
began to rise from the ground.

Myers took my rifle from me, stowing it in its rack
whilst I finished connecting my straps.

‘Cheers.’ My thanks were icy.

We all leant forward to catch a final glimpse of
Cellini village before the ramp closed. FEA soldiers scurried across the hill beneath
us like angry ants over a disturbed nest, hastily preparing to defend
themselves against the Militia. They had always known that we were going to
leave them, but I doubted they expected such a sudden departure.

‘Do you think they’ll hold on?’ Wildgoose asked,
just before the ramp closed with a dull thud.

‘I don’t know,’ I replied gloomily. ‘Cellini’s not
important anymore, so maybe the Militia will just walk away . . .’

The dropship lurched forward suddenly, banking hard
as it accelerated away from the hill.

‘We’ll be throwing this thing about a little,’ our
dropship commander warned in his thick Dutch accent. ‘Don’t be alarmed, we’re
just trying to shake off any launchers on the ground.’

He wasn’t joking. It certainly wasn’t my worst
dropship ride, but it definitely wasn’t pleasant. The pilot threw the aircraft
one way and then the other, rocking us like the helpless passengers of a tiny
boat in a storm.

‘Is this guy taking the piss?’ somebody complained
as we were tossed against our straps.

‘I’d rather feel sick than get shot down!’ Puppy
replied.

‘Speak for yourself!’

None of us handled the ride well. I could tell by the
strained expressions that were visible through the visors of the troopers sat
across from me. There was no shame in feeling queasy, though. I don’t think
anybody could handle such g-forces with any form of grace, but as long as a
trooper wasn’t sick, didn’t shit himself, piss himself or cry, then he was
considered to have kept his composure.

My visor flashed, alerting me to fresh information
sent over the platoon net. A quick glance at my datapad revealed a series of
grid locations marked by the sergeant major, including our drop off point a few
kilometres south of the border and a potential harbour a similar distance to
the north.

‘All call signs, this is One-Zero.’ The sergeant major’s
voice spoke into my headset. ‘I’ve just sent a series of grids relevant to our
insertion. On my call you will move immediately from the drop off point as
individual sections. I’ve provided you with three separate routes, along with a
rendezvous point where we will meet again prior to occupying our patrol harbour.’

I studied the information on my datapad, trying to
ignore the erratic manoeuvring of the dropship. Staring into the eyes of the
trooper across from me was bad enough, but trying to stare at a datapad screen
with the contents of my stomach being thrown in every direction was something
else.

Sure enough, there were several waypoints sited
between the drop off point and the potential harbour, marking three different
routes. Rather than patrolling across the border as one large body of men we
would separate, each section finding its own way. Infiltrating in such a way
decreased our chances of being detected, but only by a small degree. Much more
importantly, it gave us a greater chance of finding a safe way through, which
could be communicated to the rest of the platoon if necessary.

‘I will attach my headquarters onto One-One
throughout the infiltration,’ the sergeant major continued. ‘One-Zero-Bravo
will attach himself to One-Three. One-One and One-Three, acknowledge.’

‘One-One,’ I answered, causing a few of my men to
glance at me inquisitively. They knew I was receiving orders that almost
certainly affected them.

‘Net silence is to be maintained throughout. You are
only to break net silence if you believe you are already compromised, or about
to be. I will use tight beam relay to communicate any changes to our final
rendezvous or the harbour location itself. One-Two, acknowledge.’

‘One-Two.’

I looked up from my datapad, unable to look at the
screen any longer for fear that I might be sick.

‘What’s the plan?’ Puppy asked from the far side of
the compartment.

I realised that all eyes were on me. Everyone was
anxious to find out what was happening, especially since the situation seemed
to be changing so rapidly.

I relayed the sergeant major’s plan to my section,
forwarding the grids to them. There weren’t any questions, but then I was
hardly surprised given the constant g-forces.

‘We’ve got eyes onto the drop zone,’ the dropship commander
announced after a few minutes. The dropship began to slow, circling in a wide
arc. ‘You’ll be pleased to hear it’s very quiet here. We’re not picking up
anything.’

‘I’ll believe that when we’re on the ground,’ I said
harshly, causing everyone to look at me. I then remembered that they couldn’t
hear our conversation. ‘They’re saying the drop zone looks quiet.’

Puppy laughed bitterly. ‘Here’s hoping!’

‘I can’t see any way of dropping you directly onto
the ground,’ the commander warned. ‘You’ll need to use ropes, I think.’

‘Roger.’ I looked at my men. ‘We’ll need to descend
by rope.’

‘Get the rope out!’ Puppy ordered.

Myers obeyed, reaching up to detach a coiled rope
that was fastened to a metal arm on the compartment roof. He passed it to me,
double-checking that one end remained securely fastened onto the arm above our
heads.

‘Rope’s secure,’ he confirmed.

We suddenly lurched toward the front of the
dropship, our straps straining to hold us in place as the aircraft decelerated
rapidly. Wind gusted through the compartment as the ramp lowered, revealing a
spectacular view of the forest canopy in the late evening sun. Clouds on the
horizon glowed blood-red, contrasting starkly against the dark greens of the
canopy. Like a shower of meteors, another salvo of bombs streaked across the
sky.

‘Prepare to dismount!’ I shouted, releasing the
straps from my shoulders. I retrieved my rifle from its rack and slung it to my
back, making sure it was well out of the way so it wouldn’t hit me on my way
down.

Whilst the rest of the section followed suit, the
dropship fell toward the canopy, only arresting its descent once its ramp
brushed against the highest branches.

‘That’s you good to go!’ the commander said. ‘Good
luck!’

‘Let’s go!’ I ordered.

Myers swung the arm out so that it held the end of
the rope away from the ramp, and as he did so I stood up with the coil in one
hand, leaning out to make sure I had a clear descent. Sure enough, the dropship
pilot had managed to manoeuvre himself above a gap in the canopy. Satisfied
that the way down was safe, I cast the coiled rope toward the forest floor.

As soon as I saw it strike the ground, I grasped the
rope and then leapt out into the air. Controlling my descent with my gloves and
boots, I slid down through the canopy, reaching the ground in seconds. Knowing
that the rest of my section would be following close behind, I quickly stepped
out of the way moments before Myers landed.

My section automatically spread outward in a
circular formation, assuming all around defence. Each trooper took whatever
cover was available, taking up aim into the forest. There was no need to get
comfortable, however, for we weren’t going to wait any longer than we needed
to. As soon as the sergeant major was with us we would move off, quickly
distancing ourselves from our dropship escort.