Reinforce This (working title)

She came in hard, slipping and stumbling forward into the thick layer of mud that covered the ground. Something heavy crashed nearby, a limp body, smacking into the earth with a splash of wet dirt and grime. Overhead a wounded Kaitos transport plane veered downwards trailing fire, smoke and troopers desperate to evacuate the doomed vessel; if only to wind up in the middle of no-mans land. Heavy caliber slugs tore an uneven path along the ground in front of her, a reminder that her own position was none too ideal. With a grunt she dragged herself up from the slurping mud and drove forward, half blinded by sheets of heavy rainfall.

It was a scene of utter chaos.

The dark shadows of Castern’s city walls loomed over the killing field, sparkling with the glints of muzzle flashes. They had come up short, way short. Scores of half-buried bodies and ruined armor units littered the collapsing trench lines to the south of the city already and now they were going to add to them. She could hear voices shouting over the clamor of weapons and rain and see the momentary red bolts of las-fire streaking through the darkness and tried to move towards them. It was impossible to do much besides crawl, the muddy earth seemed intent upon holding her fast to wait for death.

A sharp whistle abruptly cut above the din and a violent blast snapped the world into a mute, darkened blur. She flopped along the ground like a discarded rag doll for a short distance before coming to rest on her back, incoherent and dazed. From an inverted vantage point she watched the streak of billowing fire that had been her transport arcing downwards until it crashed in a brilliant bloom of orange just beyond the wall. The cloud billowed out in slow motion and she felt her eyes flutter, a stifling ringing in her ears having replaced the noise of battle.

The more she blinked the heavier her eyes felt and the last thing her dulled senses registered before slipping into total darkness was a sublime feeling of weightlessness.

That smell, a sharp knife of stimuli straight into her head. A wave of noise crashed in around her suddenly, aching limbs and the weight of mud and rain soaking her uniform. She doubled over and coughed, spitting up a mouthful of grit.

‘Well thank the damned Throne you’re alive.’ A seemingly distant voice spoke and something jerked her upright, a few sharp impacts to the cheek jarring her hazy mind back into focus. That acrid smell tweaked her nose again and she raised a heavy arm to shove it away. ‘And still kicking, too. How many fingers am I holding up?’ The voice came again, nearer now as she blinked at the shadow standing over her.

‘Six, you damned mutant. Get that stuff away from me.’ The young woman listed groggily and slumped back against the side of the trench.

‘Yeah, right. Do you know who you are… where you are?’ A hand reached out to prise one of her eyes wide open and flick the beam of the stablight into it.

She flinched away from the light, raising a mud-caked hand to massage aching temples. ‘Sergeant Matsuko Suzume… and we are half-past gakked, if I recall.’ The sergeant grumbled and looked up again, the man was smirking.

Mamoru, the platoon medic, chuckled and clapped her on the shoulder, ‘Welcome back to the land of the not-quite-dead, Sir.’

The ground was restless with the crash of incoming shells and the constant streak of small arms fire from the city walls buzzed through the rainy night like a cloud of irate insects. Up and down the trench line were men shouting and clambering to return fire. Her microbead was a fit of static and sentence fragments, desperate calls for order and situation reports. Thankfully her shotgun was still slung across one shoulder.

Seeing his patient was well the medic moved off quickly to tend other wounded and Suzume switched her vox to her squad’s channel.

‘Third, this is lead, sound off.’ She winced at a whine of static in her ear, ‘Damn this thing… Kyosu! Is anyone reading me?’ With a curse she flicked the vox bead jostled next to her,

‘I’m right here, stop shouting.’ Jinkato Kyosu crouched down below the edge of the trench, a shotgun gripped restlessly in his hands. At this distance the Dragoons were mostly helpless even at full strength with at least half of the platoon being armed for close-quarters rather than ranged firefights. ‘The vox is next to useless, just like the rest of this fecked operation.’ The snide, rat-faced trooper peered over the lip of the trench.

‘Have you seen anyone else from third squad?’ Suzume leaned up to share the vantage point, immediately having wished she’d just left it to the imagination.

Before Kyosu could reply something cracked like thunder high above and they both looked up to see the trail of a missile where it gave way to a fresh plume of debris and fire spraying from the fuselage of another Kaitos transport directly above them.

‘There goes fifth platoon…’ Kyosu muttered, his features lined in orange by the expanding explosion.

Suzume shook her head and spat, ‘What in the hell happened? Why did we drop way out here?’ She unslung her own shotgun and started digging the muck out of its external creases. Kyosu settled back against the wall of the trench with a smirk.

‘First platoon’s Kaitos took a hit and Major Takafumi lost his nerve, ordered the jump. Second and third tried to peel off and come back around but second got blasted right out of the sky and third kept on going, we think they might have gotten some over the wall.’ Kyosu paused to savor the look of disdain on his Sergeant’s face before continuing. ‘We kept on going as well but, well.. you know that story I’d imagine.’ Suzume nodded and glanced up.

‘And fifth… dammit. That gakking idiot… now what are we supposed to…’ She paused mid-sentence, something was screaming and it was getting closer — fast. They both looked around for the source and suddenly something brilliant and hot slammed down on the opposite edge of the trench.

A man, charred and still burning, lay there. He writhed in pain and hollered incoherently as the rain hissed into the flames consuming him. Suzume and Kyosu sat dumbstruck for a moment before the private finally raised his shotgun and blasted the man’s tortured expression into a bloody, ashen pulp. He racked another shell, his features intent as he stared at the now motionless, immolated Dragoon.

‘Sweet bloody Emperor.’ Suzume mouthed quietly, staring at the burning man in front of her, so close she could feel the heat of the flames as they cooked his flesh away; she tried not to inhale the smell.

‘I’ve got some of the squad gathered further down the trench.’ He tilted his head, speaking in an even, sobered tone, ‘Whenever you’re ready to move just give the order.’ Suzume nodded slowly, her eyes turning away to search the trench until they spotted the distinctive shogun helm of an officer further down.

‘Get back to them and keep trying to raise the rest of the squad, I’ll be there soon.’ She racked her cleaned shotgun and moved off in a crouch along the trench, leaving Kyosu to head back to where the rest of their depleted unit waited.

The trench was a swamp. Thick, soupy mud stained with blood half-concealed fallen bodies both old and fresh. All along it men shouted and died as they desperately tried to return fire on the city’s looming walls. She saw the officer, a major, hunkered down with what she assumed was his squad and could hear him frantically yelling between his men as she approached.

‘Major Takafumi!’ She called out and offered a quick salute, ‘The vox seems to be down, Sir. What’s our situation, we need orders!’

The major spun around, looking at Suzume as if she’d just crawled out of a mutie commune, ‘What do you want, Sergeant? Can’t you see I’m busy trying to orchestrate this righteous grox-fething?’

‘Orders, sir, what are your orders?’ She repeated, ducking down low as an explosive round punched the ground a few feet shy of the trench line, ‘The vox is down and…’

‘I know the vox is down, Sergeant, I watched the vox man get turned inside out by a mortar round with my own two eyes!’ The Major cursed and rose up to snap a few shots off with his laspistol. Given the extreme range, it was quite an affectation to say the least. ‘Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and wait for orders. We’re not going anywhere until I can raise reinforcements or extraction, this drop is a catastrophe!’

Suzume’s jaw clenched. They were the reinforcements, and no one was going to come in here and bail them out, ‘Yes, sir!’ She snapped tersely and turned to bolt back down the trench. She was about halfway to Kyosu’s position when someone on the firing step called out,

‘Incoming!’ it seemed like an understatement but discipline prompted her to dive to the muck of the trench’s floor anyhow, and thankfully so.

The concussion of the blast blurred the edges of her vision and made her ears pop. A large calibre round, most likely a battle cannon, gouged a huge chunk out of the trench ahead. Water, mud and bodies flew in the air and Suzume sprang back to her feet. They were not staying here. She picked up her pace, ignoring the renewed cries of agony from those caught in the most recent bombardment.

The rain was still coming down so hard she almost tripped over Kyosu before sliding to a halt. It was better than she had expected. She counted seven troopers which meant they had only lost three so far.

‘So?’ Kyosu looked up from bandaging his forearm and Suzume shook her head gravely.

‘Hey, its the boss. Nice of you to join us!’ A trooper poised on the firing step glanced in her direction before loosing a volley of full auto las-fire towards the city walls then ducking back down to reload, ‘It’s a beautiful day here outside Castern.’ He chuckled.

Suzume wasn’t amused. ‘Stow it, Saburo. And stop wasting your ammunition.’ She cut sharply and it was Kyosu’s turn to chuckle. He turned to his Sergeant with an expectant look,

‘That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, no? Sitting here waiting for backup while we get picked off one by one?’ He tapped his shotgun on his shoulder.

‘No, Kyosu. We’re supposed to be assaulting that city.’ Suzume was gazing out across no-mans land. ‘They have tanks, hell… they have whatever we had in there. How do you think they shot down the Kaitos? Even if we were going to be reinforced we’d be dead long before they got here.’

‘Hydras, yeah, I saw them.’ Kyosu nodded and gritted his teeth as another battle cannon shell slammed into the ground just beyond the trenches, sending a slough of loose mud pouring between fractures supports. ‘So what are our orders, Sir?’

Suzume looked over each remaining member of her squad in silence before turning back to the dark, imposing facade of Castern. The glare of explosions and gunfire flashed across muddy, rain-streaked and yet indescribably beautiful features; contrasting the sheer deviltry which burned in her eyes.

‘We’re going in.’ She said simply.