Atlas (28 page)

And now Lui would pay.

Lui launched his "Trench Coat" again. One of the three rockets went down.

Lui tried to jump, but it was too late—

Aphid took the full brunt of the two remaining rockets. I saw the mech fly forwards then roll down the hill.

It was a long, painful roll.

Lui's mech tumbled past the fleeing SKs, then continued another twenty meters, finally coming to a stop at the bottom of the defile.

Alejandro and I rushed forward to help him. We weren't going to abandon our brother there, on the slope. No MOTH ever left another MOTH behind.

The mech was a crumpled wreck, and I knew right away that it wasn't going to get up again. Not this time. As for Lui, his vitals were still being transmitted, but they were weak.

The hail of gunfire resumed, pinning Alejandro and I behind Aphid.

I heard Chief Bourbonjack on the comm now. Troop level. "We don't have a few minutes! I need a CASEVAC immediately! And where's my QRF? Goddamn it!"

"Just took out two of the rocketeers," Ghost said on the comm. "No sign of the third."

I wasn't sure that meant anything. Take out a rocketeer, and someone else would just pick up the rocket launcher.

Lui managed to pull the manual release inside Aphid, and the cockpit opened up. Thankfully the mech was facing away from the enemy, and the open cockpit provided us additional cover.

Alejandro and I hauled Lui out. Gunfire whipped past on all sides, beyond the ATLAS.

Lui was shaken, but alive. I couldn't see any bulletholes in his jumpsuit, or signs of blood, but it was possible he was suffering from crush injuries beneath the suit. That was something I couldn't treat out here. We'd have to get him to the Weavers on the
Royal Fortune
.

Lui shook his head, apparently trying to clear it. "What happened?"

"Can you walk?"

He nodded.

As the rest of squad one lay down suppressive fire, we hurried Lui to Manic's disabled mech and took cover. The SKs were coming down both slopes again, reattempting their flanking maneuver.

"Guys, I want you to fall back to our position!" Chief Bourbonjack said on the comm line.

"Roger that, Chief," Facehopper said. He looked at us. "Well, you heard the man. Two at a time. Go!"

Big Dog and Bender went first, while the rest of us lay down suppressive fire. I hurled a few grenades.

Facehopper and Manic went next.

Then finally Snakeoil and a limping Lui.

That left me and Alejandro.

I hurled the rest of my grenade loadout and without waiting for them to explode I took off with Alejandro across the open ground.

Gunfire rained down all around us. It didn't stop, not even when my grenades went off.

Alejandro was ahead of me, and I saw a burst of steam erupt from one of his jetpack fuel canisters. It had taken a bullet. The contents quickly steamed out, leaving behind a charred puncture hole.

Somehow Alejandro and I made it to the waist-high boulder where the rest of the platoon sheltered without getting shot. I took cover behind the crowded rock and aimed my rifle out along the rightmost flank. The SKs had started to flow onto the plateau now, and some of them were already taking cover behind Aphid, Lui's mech.

It must have been about twenty minutes into the gunfight by now. I was picking off the SKs as fast as I could. I just kept firing and reloading, firing and reloading. I was glad I'd taken along so many magazines now, despite all the teasing. The barrel of my rifle was burning hot. My ears were just throbbing from the sounds of gunfire. Around me, the heavy gunners had all run out of ammo, and had switched to rifles or pistols.

I glanced quickly at the health indicators on my HUD. As corpsman, it was my job to make sure everyone was all right. Everyone seemed fine. No, wait. The green bar representing Bender's vitals was dim, with a hint of red in it.

I glanced at him.

Bender was slumped up against the boulder, firing his M4 rifle at the left flank.

"Bender is your suit compromised? Are you—"

Bender's attention never left the enemy. "Don't move, caterpillar. Blood sealed the puncture. My suit's fine."

I leaned back to get a better look at him. I could see red steam erupting from his jumpsuit, near the small of his back beneath the jetpack. The steam pulsed from the bullet-hole
, probably in time to his heartbeat. His insides in the immediate area had obviously been pulled toward the puncture, sealing the outlying area and preventing suit decompression. But he was at serious risk of bleeding to death.

I made my way over to him.

"I said my suit's fine!" Bender hissed when he saw my approach.

"Your suit's not fine, and neither are you." I reached for my medbag.

"No," Bender grabbed the wrist of my jumpsuit, rather forcefully. "Shit. If you're going to do this, use my suitrep kit, man. Patch my suit. There's no time for anything else."

I stared into his eyes and saw the determination there.

"Caterpillar," he said, almost pleading. "I can hold till we reach the MDV. Come on!"

I nodded. "Okay."

I fetched his suitrep kit from the pouch in his leg, and I patched the back of his suit while he continued firing his M4.

"Now get back to your position," Bender said. "We need your rifle."

I had sealed the breach in his suit, but that wouldn't help with his actual wound. He'd bleed out unless we got that looked after soon.

"Go!" he said.

I turned away.

"And Rade." That was the first time he'd ever said my name.

"What?"

"Thanks, bro."

I nodded slowly, then loaded a fresh magazine and returned to my place on the outer edge of the boulder, scanning the area through my scope.

The SKs had taken cover positions behind both Lui's fallen mech, and Manic's now. Just then I saw an SK peer out from behind the closer mech. He held a rocket launcher over his shoulder.

My HUD displayed four bars above his head. High threat level.

Got you, bastard.

I took him out.

"Watch the flanks!" Facehopper said.

I glanced at the far left side of the plateau. Then the right. Groups of SKs were creeping forward on either side.
Again
they were trying the outflanking maneuver.

And
they were succeeding.

The rest of us started to take them out, but then rockets came in from the forward direction, from behind the mechs, and we were forced to go down. Shale erupted all around us, and the shockwaves of the explosions caused vibrations to run right through my torso. None of us got hurt during that barrage, as far as I could tell. The whole point of the rockets was to allow the two groups on the far left and right sides to move forward unmolested.

"Squad one fall back!" Chief Bourbonjack said. "Rally at the edge of the plateau. Move move move!"

As Chief Bourbonjack and the rest of squad two laid down suppressive fire, the members of squad one raced along the open ground toward the edge of the plateau. I heard the belt-whip sound of near-miss gunfire. Shards of rock burst into the air around me. I fired off a few random, unaimed shots into the SKs on my
rear flank.

Ahead of me, other members of the platoon were using quick horizontal bursts of their jumpjets to increase their speed. I did the same, careful to thrust only horizontally—remember, an airborne soldier in a situation like this was a dead soldier. It was a tricky business, firing off the jets over rocky terrain and not losing my footing, but I managed to get in two good spurts. On the third spurt I actually tripped, and ended up diving over the edge of the plateau and onto the downslope beyond.

Facehopper was already in position to provide covering fire beyond the lip, with a few other members of squad one arrayed behind him. My momentum carried me over him and the others, toward the edge, and I slipped right off the escarpment. I saw someone's hand reach out to grab me, but it was too late.

I slid down the slope. Fast. It must have been at least a seventy degree angle.

I tried firing my jumpjets, but a bunch of shale had jammed-up the nozzle. I clawed at the rock, but I couldn't get a grip. Nothing worked. The shale was chewing up my jumpsuit. I expected to lose suit integrity any second.

Miraculously, my suit remained intact, and somehow I managed to check my momentum. I'd ended up sliding about thirty meters—halfway down the slope.

I spun around, lying flat, breathing hard, and I aimed my rifle upward. The sound of gunfire had been swapped out for the staccato of my beating heart.

I tried activating my jumpjets again to get back to my squad.

Still jammed.

I was about to call for help w
hen I heard a transmission from the Chief on the platoon line.

"Squad two, fall back!"

I wasn't going to call for help now: Squad one needed all the rifles it had, to cover squad two. Besides, I was safe. For now.

S
ome moments later:

"You see Mr. Galaal down there? He's got the right idea! Take cover on the hillside!"

And so my teammates slid down the shale, using their jetpacks to control the slide, stopping at various points around me and taking shelter along the side of that steep escarpment. We all aimed our weapons at the plateau above, waiting for the inevitable appearance of the enemy. Alejandro was the closest, about three meters away on my right.

As I lay there waiting for the enemy to attack, my breath coming in spurts, my heart pounding, I was still convinced of our invincibility.
My
invincibility. The thought that we might actually lose never even crossed my mind.

Then the hail of bullets began.

I peered into my scope and picked out the facemask of an SK, peering over the edge of the plateau, his rifle aimed down at me.

I got him in the temple.

I got another SK in the chest just as the man got up to help his buddy.

I didn't feel any remorse. Couldn't. This was war. It was either those two, or two of my brothers.

I kept firing, taking down targets mercilessly. For a moment I truly believed my own bullshit. That we were unstoppable.

Then I felt this sharp, poking sensation in my lower abdomen.

I knew from my training that I'd been shot. I also knew that the skin of my gut would be sucked outward because of the pressure differential, and would partially seal the bullethole, while my coagulating blood would complete the seal.

At least, that's how it was supposed to work.

For two glorious seconds I felt no further pain.

Then it returned.

Tenfold.

This excruciating, burning sensation.

At first I thought I'd been hit with a certain illegal bullet called a helo-round: After it embedded in your flesh, the bullet sprouted six blades and started rotating lengthwise, chewing up your insides.

I bit down a scream.

Suffer in your head. Suffer in your head. Don't put your teammates in danger.

Though it probably wouldn't have mattered if I screamed: The SKs seemed to have a pretty good fix on us.

The pain increased, and I bit harder, feeling blood trickle down my chin.

I glanced down at the wound, and I realized why the pain was so bad.

It wasn't a helo-round. At least I didn't think so, because I could see this small, bubbling red mound protruding from my jumpsuit where the bullet had pierced. Pulses of red steam erupted from the bullet-hole in time to my heartbeat, just like what happened to Bender.

My insides were literally being sucked out and boiled away.

I had to fix myself up.

Fast.

I started shrugging off the medbag.

That's when I saw Alejandro's vitals take a dip.

I glanced at him. He'd been hit, too.

Worse than me.

He had a red spot on the left side of his chest, a little behind the armpit. He wouldn't even be able to reach the area to apply a suit patch. The wound was too high up on his back. He needed more than a suit patch, though: Between the pulses of red steam coming from the perforation in his jumpsuit, I could see a part of what I guessed was his lung bulging through. I'm not sure how he was even breathing.

Maybe he wasn't.

I didn't have time to properly stitch my gut. I had to repair my suit and go help Alejandro.

I slung the rifle over my shoulder and
fumbled the suitrep kit out of my leg pouch, flinching at the terrible pain in my belly. I opened the kit up and haphazardly applied the patch to the tear in my suit, right over a fresh plume of red steam.

The pain didn't go away, but at least now I was just merely bleeding internally rather than having my insides sucked out. I could feel the hot blood pouring down my hip.