The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (92 page)

Rupert was also taken care of. His wound was cauterized by the laser and he was already taking his own position in the line. He could see the pain on his face but they were all used to pain. Their profession made sure of that.

He turned and noticed the civilians moving away. He hoped that they would be far enough to avoid what was coming their way.

A moment later they heard a strange war cry in the distance and then the shout as warriors started running towards them.

A moment later Smith activated the mines.

A second later it seemed like in the distance the whole jungle erupted as the well placed C-4 exploded.

Burak was shocked as he saw almost a hundred warriors die in a second. His XO looked at him.

“This must be the group that killed those cohorts sir.”

“It would seem so. Send two battalions in a quick attack and take the third and flank them.”

His XO nodded and went to his task immediately.

Kelley looked in amazement as hundreds of strange looking wolf like creatures attacked. They were tall all were more than two and half meters tall. As soon as they rushed laser canons started firing.

Every human soldier stayed low. The armed Illians and the other races did the same. Explosions littered the rear, several exploding among the civilians.

The humans opened fire as soon as they noticed the strange creatures attacking. The sound of fire was tremendous.

Burak watched in amazement as his troops were met by a hail of fire that shredded their bodies. As he noticed it he cursed.

The humans were using projectile weapons. That was not in his report. And that fire was well coordinated. To well controlled. He was facing professional soldiers not rebels.

He knew that he will have to commit his entire brigade in this attack and use the reserve as well. He gave the order and then joined his own troops.

“Sir we have movement on our right I think they’re trying to flank us.”

Rhodes looked at Sanders. He knew that if they flank them they are dead.

He turned to Sheppard.

“Take Erikson, Miller and Haskins and stop the bastards. Roberts you go too and cover their side.”

They all just nodded and immediately started moving there.

Before him the space erupted once again as the attackers hit the second mine field and the claymores.

“Jesus how many of the bastards are there?”

Kelley looked at Jenkins.

“A brigade at least. We must have killed over three hundred so far and they are still coming.”

Kelley nodded.

He heard the fire as the men Atkins sent opened fire on the flanking column. He noticed that several of the Illians were dead. So was one of the furry creatures that were constantly moving with the Sicarians. His body was riddled with holes. He noticed the two sicarians staying in the back and keeping a constant rate of fire.

“Time to move.”

He gave the signal and as he did everyone started an orderly retreat. They were moving two by two constantly covering the others as they moved. In front of them they could see the aliens approaching. He didn’t know what kind of creatures they were but they had courage.

As they moved he noticed Mitchell taking two hits to the chest. They knocked him down but he stood up fast. His armor stopped the hits but he knew that one more hit would be fatal.

He kept firing.

He noticed Sheppard and his men retreating. Miller was limping on his left leg.

“Hold the line. Hold the fucking line.”

As he kept firing he noticed Rhodes taking a blast from their cannons. He was thrown two meters in the back and hit a tree. He could see that he was dead.

“Shit…man down. Man down.”

Smith was immediately by his side. He just checked for vitals and seeing he was gone took his dog tags and striped him of his weapons and pack.

Before he could issue the order to move again Roberts took several hits that went through his armor and in to his chest. He died a moment later in the arms of Mitchell.

Mitchell repeated the process on him taking his dog tags and weapons, anything that would identify him as not from this place and started retreating.

“Move out.”

They all followed the order and started retreating.

Burak watched in amazement as the humans kept firing in order and retreating. He noticed Samak and his battalion, or what was left of it advancing. Five humans were retreating before them. As he watched one of the humans took a direct hit to his head. He was dead before he hit the ground. The others stopped for a second stripping him of his gear and then continued.

“By the gods they are amazing.”

He felt that amazement as he watched them fight. He knew that they were doomed but it was really impressive. He lost almost six hundred men and he had many wounded and they scored only three kills among them. He could see many dead Illians and even Macassi but it was the humans that were the most interesting. He knew that tactic of fighting withdraw.

He was suddenly surprised as several of the humans advanced and threw objects forward. A moment latter explosions littered the front ranks of his troops.

A second later as they were retreating, a second group did the same towards Samak’s troops.

He saw a bomb explode close to him and he saw his second in command die.

He could see the hesitation of the rest of the battalion. They lost more than half of their troops to reach this far. But the hesitation lasted just a moment. Then they pressed the attack.

Atkins saw Haskins go down. The shot blew a hole in his head. Sheppard stripped him in a second and started retreating keeping constant rate of fire as he did.

They were down three men already. Even as he thought of that he saw Kim taking a hit to his leg and on in his shoulder. One of the Illians ran to him and picked him up and they both started retreating. As they did Kim noticed one of the Illian children and a young girl hiding in panic behind a fallen tree. He turned towards the Illian pointing to the child.

“Take them and go I will cover you, move behind me.”

The Illian looked at him and seeing his face just nodded.

He picked the child in one of his hands and grabbed the girl.

She screamed as he did but as she saw his face and Kim she rose and started running. Kim picked up his rifle ignoring the pain and opened fire.

He turned behind him and noticed the Illian retreating behind him.

The rest of the teams were coming back orderly. He could feel his wounds were slowing him down but he knew that if he stops he was dead. And he knew that he had to provide cover both for the rest of the men in his unit as well as for the two civilians he saved.

He noticed the girl stopping and looking at him. She was young no more then seventeen years. He didn’t know her name but he had to admit she was beautiful. He met her gaze and as he saw her green eyes he smiled.

He didn’t know if she saw that smile but it didn’t matter.

“Run, just run.”

He turned as in his thoughts he urged her to go and kept firing. The aliens didn’t rush any more. They were advancing slowly firing constantly and forcing him and the rest of the men from all the teams to look for cover. He noticed one of the fallen aliens that were part of the group a centaur like creature that fell as the laser cannons exploded before rise among them. He knew that there was no way to help him. He didn’t know his name he just knew that he called his race Acadian. He looked for a moment at the humans and his three eyes met Kim’s.

A second later two of his friends rose as well.

“Runnn humans wee will holddd thee lineee”

A moment later they pulled out two knives and two pistols in their four hands and attacked the aliens near them. He could see them taking multiple hits but they still fought. They had thick skin that acted like armor.

Kelley noticed the Acadians creating confusion among the attacking aliens. He gave the signal for retreat as they gave them the signal to retreat.

Several of his men concentrated their fire on the flanking group. The rate of fire stopped them cold.

Dickens and Kelley opened fire with the bazookas they carried blasting two swats of warriors and forcing the others to duck and look for cover.

That gave them the opening they needed and they all started to retreat faster.

In the distance the Acadians plunged among the aliens tearing them apart. Several of the creatures seeing that their laser guns didn’t work took out long swords and attacked them with that. By the time they killed them more then forty of them lay dead.

Kim watched in fascination as the Acadians stalled the aliens advance.

Just as he was about to sign a victory he saw Miller taking hits in his chest and stomach. Sheppard was beside him in an instant but all he could do was watch his friend die.

“Shit boss… never… saw …it coming.”

Miller took out his dog tags and handed them to Sheppard.

“Take…care…of..”

He never finished the sentence. Sheppard took the dog tags and then he stripped his gear. He closed his eyes and retreated.

“I will Thomas, I will”

He knew of his friend’s final wish. It was for his children and his wife.

They all started pulling back as they did Sheppard saw Kim limping. He was covering a human girl and an Illian soldier that was carrying a child.

As he watched Kim took four hits to his chest. Before he could fall he took several more. One hit struck the Illian behind him. The human girl noticed them both fall and ran back grabbed the child and started running.

Kim felt the hits all over his body he felt them penetrating the Kevlar and the reactive armor. As he fell he watched the Illian fall in the distance. He saw the girl grab the child and run back.

He forced his last strength and took the rifle and leaned to the trunk of a fallen tree.

He noticed one of the aliens looking at Kelley as he shouted orders. Something in his movement gave him the inkling that that must be one of the enemy commanders.

“Got you…you fucking bastard.”

Burak saw the human he thought was the human commander shouting orders. He started to raise his rifle giving orders to the men around him to do the same.

He never saw the fallen human aiming at him.

He never saw the bullets that blew his head of and killed three of his men, and forced the rest to take cover.

Kim smiled as he saw the enemy commander fall. He noticed the instant confusion in their ranks as he killed him. He could feel his strength leaving him and felt the last blast in to his chest just as he saw Johnson running to him.

The last thing before his eyes was the face of the girl he saved, and her green eyes. He died with a smile.

“Johnn”

But even as he yelled Johnson knew that it was too late. He could see the scorch marks all over Kim’s body.

All that was left was to repeat the same thing that the others did. He noticed the smile on Kim’s face as he took out his gear.

“You died good you bastard. You died good.”

He closed his eyes and joined the other surviving men.

They kept firing and retreating.

Arnes was among the first to arrive at the base. He noticed the soldiers running and taking positions. They could all hear the firing and the explosions in the distance.

They saw him and the commander recognized him.

“Delegate what are you doing still here?”

Arnes inhaled and looked at Garth. The base commander looked back.

“General you must send men forward. The alteran scouts are fighting there stopping the troops that were supposed to attack you.”

“What scouts? I thought that the human scouts left.”

“These are not the ones that came before the council. There are three other teams that saved all these people back there. You have to help them.”

One of the Illian soldiers ran forward towards the artillery posts and started giving them coordinates.

The humans manning the artillery didn’t wait for orders and opened fire a moment later.

In the distance Arnes heard the explosions as the artillery found its mark.

Garth issued order immediately and a battalion of soldiers ran forward. Several of the soldiers that accompanied his group joined them.

Kelley watched as they all crossed the small stream retreating under fire. As they did Rupert was the last one to fall. He got hit in the back just as he turned.

He was the sixth casualty. Flint was wounded so were Johnson and Sanders.

He knew that they had no chance. They killed scores of the bastards, by free guess they must have killed more than a thousand, but there were simply too many. And they were all coming forward.

He looked at Ellis.

“I guess this is it.”

“Yeah…But before we die we’ll take them all with us.”