EDEN (The Union Series) (35 page)

‘Ones will move first
on my command! They will move through the windows into the next train, and then
they will shoot! Then twos will move on my order! Then ones, then twos! Are
there any questions?’

There were none. Many
of the soldiers were engrossed in the fire fight, and I wondered if they even
understood what I was saying. There was no time to double-check, though - I had
given them the simplest method of fire and manoeuvre, and I could only hope
that it would work.

 I set my first
grenade and threw it over the top of the train.

‘Grenade!’

Without waiting for
it to detonate, I threw another at a different angle, then another, and Yulia
copied. They exploded inside the forest in quick succession, throwing up clouds
of smoke.

‘Ones, move!’

There was a moment’s
hesitation.

‘Ones, fucking move,
you idiots! Move! Move!’

Spurred into action,
the soldiers scrambled through smashed out windows and barged through carriage
doors, quickly taking up fire positions and opening fire once more.

‘Twos!’ I hollered.
‘Move!’

They bounded forward,
leaving one or two stragglers behind.

I saw red, charging
toward them like a raging bull. ‘Move, you fucking arseholes, move!’

I fired one more
volley of guided grenades over the train, watching as they hurtled toward
targets identified in the undergrowth beyond. That was the last of my grenades.
All I had left was my rifle, my bayonet, and my fists.

Yulia and I leapt
into the train.

‘Ones, move!’

Another bound, and
the makeshift platoon achieved its first foothold into the forest. Reeling from
the sudden and unexpected barrage of grenades, the Guards couldn’t stop us from
breaking out from the train and into the undergrowth.

‘Twos, move!’

Yulia and I were
amongst the soldiers now, our rifles screaming as we fired dart after dart into
the enemy. I shot a Guardsman hiding amongst a clump of ferns, and he was
snatched backward like a ragdoll by the supersonic dart.

The forest roared
with gunfire as we continued our advance for another few bounds, taking
advantage of the initial shock delivered by my grenades. The initial
organisation of the platoon quickly broke down as we engaged the enemy at close
quarters, and some soldiers took to fighting with knives and bayonets as we
drew to within metres of our opponent.

I stabbed at a
bleeding Guardsman on the ground, just as he reached for a grenade attached to
his belt. He squealed like a pig, silenced only when I stabbed at him again,
the wicked blade of my bayonet puncturing his lung.

All around me FEA
soldiers were falling, but despite the heavy casualties, the undergrowth ahead
of me danced with an overwhelming barrage of darts, ripping guardsmen to shreds
as they tried to run away from the terrifying onslaught. I couldn’t believe
that so few untrained soldiers could have such an effect, so powerful was their
determination to protect their fellow countrymen.

I heard a massive
bang and a sudden clap beside my head, and I ducked instinctively. A Guardsman
collapsed to the ground ahead of me, a massive hole blown straight through his
chest - so wide that I could see through it. He dropped to the ground in a
spray of crimson.

‘Jesus,’ I gasped,
shocked by the gruesome spectacle. What FEA weapon could have done something
like that?

Just then a sharp
pain suddenly shot across my chest, causing me to drop to my knees. My visor
display flashed red, indicating my time was finally up. I clenched my teeth in
agony, and with a groan I fell forward into the undergrowth.

‘Andy!’ Yulia shouted
in alarm, but her voice was quickly drowned out by a massive hail of darts.

This is it, I
thought, as the pain stabbed at me on the ground. The Guard had finally managed
to beat us. There was no way the small platoon of FEA could possibly hold them
off forever.

‘Get him! Quick!’ a
voice shouted.

Somebody gripped me
by the armpits, pulling me onto my back, and Myers blinked down at me with a
smile.

‘Where the hell do
you think you’re going?’ he asked, grinning wildly.

In an awesome display
of firepower, my platoon let rip from the train with every weapon system left
at their disposal, as Skelton and Myers dragged me backward into cover.

‘Fall back!’ I
shouted at the remaining FEA soldiers, and they paused, looking around the
forest in confusion.

‘Listen to him,’ Yulia
yelled, running alongside me. ‘Fall back to the train!’

As the FEA soldiers
retreated back toward the train, I saw more guardsmen moving in the forest a
few hundred metres away, disgorging from their dropships and into the
undergrowth.

‘It is Major Bhasin,’
Yulia cried, as I was pulled up to an open carriage doorway. ‘He is controlling
the Guard companies here. We will not be able to stop them.’

I glanced at the few
surviving FEA soldiers as they clambered back into the train, helped up by
Union troopers who leant out of the windows. There was no hope for them now.
Soon the platoon would withdraw, once again leaving them to die, and there was
no longer anything I could do to help. I had used whatever strength I had left
- I could no longer fight.

‘Help me get him up,’
Myers shouted, and hands reached down to grab me. Puppy was on the ground
nearby, getting his fire team to bundle back into the train. Wildgoose looked
across at me, and winked.

I did have one last
weapon in my arsenal, I realised as I was heaved upwards. I tapped my datapad,
activating my wizard kit. Blue menus flashed across my blurred vision, and with
a few lazy sweeps and a point of my hand, I directed everything the Union had
nearby to engage the dismounting guardsmen in the forest.

The reply to my
message was instant: ‘Thunder-God, roger, fire mission received! Wait!’

Mr Barker was in the
carriage, and he raised his eyebrows in alarm. ‘Lance Corporal Moralee, what
the hell are you doing?’

Yulia leapt to my
defence as I was dragged onto the carriage. ‘Trying to save people’s lives!’

‘Blackjack-One-One-Charlie,
this is Thunder-God, I will calculate that mission, but I need Blackjack-One-Zero
to confirm that grid. It’s pretty close to the city …’

Mr Barker stared down
at me angrily, ignoring the noise of Corporal Abdi’s section as they fired into
the forest. He knew that he had time to extract, but something was causing him
to pause.

Sometimes during a
battle, you can have odd moments when everything else seems to become
background noise, like the sound of heavy traffic passing you by in the street.
This was one of those moments, as all eyes fell onto him.

Mr Barkley looked
around at the other troopers in the carriage. Not a word was uttered for
several moments, though far more words were conveyed by their eyes than could
ever be spoken.

Finally he spoke.
‘Thunder-God, this is Blackjack-One-Zero-Alpha, that grid is confirmed!
Loyalist dropships dismounting troops in the open. Neutralise now!’

‘Thunder-God, roger!
Neutralise now!’ There was a seconds pause, and then, ‘Shot three-five!’

The platoon commander
looked up from me, his face contorting into a snarl. ‘RAPID FIRE! All natures!
Fix them in position!’

Missiles and grenades
fired, and darts cracked through the trees as the platoon unleashed hell,
aiming to hold the guardsmen where they were until the first bombs landed.

Puppy came running
through the train, with Wildgoose just behind, ripping open his team medic
pouch. I watched as he drew the massive needle that he would use to reseal my
internal bleeding, hooking it up to his datapad so he could use the tiny camera
on the end.

‘You shouldn’t have
come back for me,’ I said to Puppy, as Wildgoose ripped my armour away to
expose my chest.

The section 2ic
smiled. ‘We never left you, mate.’

‘No, mate.’ Wildgoose
said. ‘We just can’t run as fast as you!’ He carefully inserted the needle into
me, but I hardly flinched – I was already in too much pain to even notice the
needle.

Suddenly the train
flickered with blinding flashes of white light, followed milliseconds afterward
by a series of almighty explosions that rocked the carriages on their rails. A
cheer rang out along the length of the train as trooper and soldier alike
celebrated together, watching as shell after shell detonated on top of the guardsmen,
engulfing them with flames and shrapnel. Mixing incendiaries with high
explosive rounds, the railgun battery far behind us delivered a bombardment so
devastating that nothing could survive it, flattening an area several hundred
metres across.

I felt somebody
gripping my hand, and realised it was Yulia. She nodded respectfully at me, and
then she shook my hand.

‘Now,’ Mr Barkley
looked back down at me. ‘Can we go, please?’

Wildgoose injected
the last of the clotting chemical into my body.  I looked up. ‘OK.’

My stretcher was
placed into the middle of a clearing while we waited for the dropships to land.
Thanks to the clotting chemical inside of me, as well as the drip fed into my
arm and various other drugs, I would live. Anybody going into Paraiso hospital
with a pulse came out alive - as Gritt could testify.

My section kept me
awake during the move through the forest, laughing and joking as they told me
how Wildgoose had saved my life twice in ten minutes, first killing a Guardsman
with his sniper rifle before he managed to shoot me, then fixing my internal
bleed.

‘Technically you died
three times over the last few days,’ Myers pointed out with a chuckle. I hadn’t
the energy to argue with him. But I apologised about running away to fight with
the FEA, but nobody in the section was angry, in fact they surprised me with
their response.

‘You only did what
you thought was right,’ Puppy said, ‘and you simply did what everyone else
wanted to do.’

‘Those FEA lads think
you’re a hero,’ Wildgoose added, ‘but we know you just love a good scrap!’

Left in the middle of
the clearing as the platoon was arranged to provide protection to the landing
zone, I waited for the inevitable screaming rant from the sergeant major. Would
he wait until we got back into Paraiso, or would he unleash his rage onto me
now? I watched as he paced through the ferns nearby, looking as though he was
trying to come to terms with what had happened.

I would be charged,
of that I had no doubt, though how serious the charge would be would depend on
him and Mr Barkley. My actions risked darkening our relations with the Alliance
- dropping Union shells onto the Presidential Guard. To be fair, the massacre
in Dakar had risked that anyway, which was probably what the Guard wanted all
along. EJOC was almost certainly trying to calm down tension already, using
footage and information gathered by us to explain the events of the past few
days.

My charge could range
all the way from refusal to obey orders, right through to desertion - the
latter of which came with a prison sentence. Perhaps I would meet my old friend
Westy after all, I thought gloomily.

I stared up into the
clouds, thinking about what had happened out in the Bosque. Had I done the
right thing, or had I selfishly risked the lives of my platoon and the wider
population of Eden? I didn’t know.

‘Andy?’ The platoon
commander’s signaller stepped up to me gingerly.

‘Yeah?’

He flicked his head
backward. ‘You have a visitor.’

‘Who?’ I looked up
and saw that Yulia was stood behind him, a small team of FEA soldiers waiting
nearby in the clearing.

She knelt beside my
head, placing her rifle down onto the ground. ‘How do you feel, Andy?’

I was strapped into a
stretcher, with drugs and all sorts floating around inside of me. ‘I’ve had
better days.’

‘It is good that you
are leaving. Bhasin will be out for your blood, if he is still alive.’

I frowned, puzzled.
‘Why?’

‘Why do you think
Makito was with us? And why do you think he was chosen to go to kill you?
Bhasin wanted his son to do something honourable.’

I swore. So Makito
was Bhasin’s
son
. That explained why he had responded so angrily when I’d
insulted the major. He’d probably volunteered to take a patrol to hunt me down
and kill me. His mistake, I couldn’t help thinking.

Yulia changed the
subject. ‘You will be taken back to Paraiso? To a hospital?’

‘Yeah, our dropships
should arrive any moment.’ I paused for a second, before asking, ‘Where will
you go now?’

She lifted her head
to look into the forest. ‘I am not sure. I am very confused now, after what has
happened. I have done many bad things in my life, but I cannot murder people
like that.
My own people.’

We were silent for a
while, listening to the gentle breeze brushing against the canopy, and the
distant sound of gun fire. Something silver flashed through the sky, and the sergeant
major moved into the middle of the clearing, making himself visible to the
approaching dropships.