Top Dog

1

‘If we don’t withdraw lieutenant, we’ll be cut off and truly boned.’ Top Sergeant Canis said sternly.

Alarming thumps and explosions dangerously close to the heavily reinforced pillbox rattled rocks and Emperor knew what off the fabcrete with such force it was getting hard to distinguish the hard shot with the shrapnel.

Twenty-two mainly hard eyed soldiers, mostly surviving replacement troops, watched as Top stepped in front of the lieutenants line of sight, blocking the pillboxes main firing slit. Slugs, and kicked-up dirt clattered around the unprotected opening and more than one trooper wanted to tell Top to move away but his expression stalled any rebuke as he got within inches of the officers face. An intense, ’Pull your shit together.’ glare drilling right into the LT’s eyes.

‘Secondary, sir.’

Focus swam back into the lieutenants eyes as he stepped back. Witnessing the massive enemy push into their right flank had stunned him and he cursed himself for letting the moment seize him. Turning to Hestan the vox operator, he said, ‘Contact Command if you can, tell them we’re moving to Secondary Main.’ Unslinging his rifle he moved to the rear of the emplacement and began pulling back the two heavy sliding crossbars that secured one of the exits into the swallow trench system that ran across the rugged flats behind their position.

Moving to stand directly next to the lieutenant, Top checked the charge on his own weapon and said, ‘This will be a mad dash people. The trenches aren’t wide enough or low enough for proper cover.’

While the string of platoon sized defensive positions had been properly built, the trenches behind them had only been carved shallow. So shallow in fact, it made little sense to use them as they were more like wide grooves for crop irrigation than troop movement. Something all twenty-four soldiers instantly noticed as they had made their way to this pillbox less than twelve hours ago, and that was now being flanked.

Moving various equipment attached to his harness in anticipation of an all out run, Top continued, “We’ll need to mob it to Secondary once outside. Do not…’ he enunciated, “Bunch up.”

Every soldier was now either adjusting or discarding equipment as they crowded the overly large metal door the LT was in front of. Helmets, flak vests, and carryalls thumped the deck as troops wanting to lighten their loads urgently shed what they believed they could live without to increase speed and stamina. No one dropped ammo or any weapons, knowing that if they survived the run, chances were real good a fight may be waiting at or around Secondary Main.

The Lieutenant hauled the door open as every rifle that could aimed in anticipation of contact. He hadn’t expected anything yet, and seeing that it was clear, hand signaled the first four troopers to move and scout up out of the deep recessed steps leading from the fortification.

Guns up and moving with a practiced confidence, the four troopers short-stepped up the stairs and peeked over the fabcrete lining either side. The Corporal crouching at the top hand signaled back all clear but indicated Enemy in sight, stabbing an index finger to the east. Their right flank.

Everyone crowded into the wide stairwell, heavy gauge anti-frag screening stretching the open-roof access of the bunker. The sky a brooding puss yellow and milky white lit up with intermittent flashes strobing down into the sunken stairs did nothing to alleviate the need to move away from the large low silhouetted pillbox. The sound of its front taking a beating from heavy shot and the occasional beam reaching the grouped troopers. Heavy breathing and urgent whispers adding further urgency that threatened panic among withdrawing troops under fire.

‘Steady.’ Top Canis said loudly, looking back down the stairs as he moved to the lead Corporal’s position. He peeked over the narrow stair buttress and saw heavy armor and mech walkers in the distance. Their large menacing outlines clear even in the poor visibility of perpetual twilight and atmospheric discharges. A furious battle underway as an obvious powerful enemy element engaged one of their mother units weakest positions. 823 Company, Canis knew. Though calling them a Company was a stretch as they were more a heavily reinforced platoon with just 62 troopers. If the enemy had done a better job at recon, they would have realized Top and his 23 were the real weak link in the chain and tried to pin down 823 instead.

‘Take those bastards with ya boys.’ he whispered to himself. He watched as massive amounts of ordinance was being exchanged in what looked like a two sided Mad Minute. The live fire exercise where troops throw everything they have downrange in a desperate bid to beat off being overrun.

Looking back down the stairs, Canis made eye contact with the LT and mouthed, ‘Now or never.’

Nodding back, the Lieutenant harshly whispered, ’Remember, don’t bunch up. And no firing as we leave the stairs.” He began pushing men and woman in front of him so that he was the last to leave cover.

Canis grabbed the four lead troops at the top by their tunics and motioned them to start when ready. He’d pointed to an undefined structure in the far distance to their southwest. Secondary Main.

“Spread out and run like hell.” he said, telling them not to crouch as they ran.

‘Don’t look back.’ he added.

The four soldiers bolted from the stairs and Canis motioned quickly for the next four to hurry. Telling them to run for the distant structure too. He wanted to tell as many of the soldiers as he could about where to head in case the leads were cut down. But at some point the troopers running ahead of them would obscure his ability to single out the goal, so, as the last three hustled up the stairs he simply said, ‘Follow the leader.’ and took off after those before him, knowing the three troopers would be on his heels.

The Lieutenant broke cover last. As he came up out of the stairwell it was like a cork had been pulled. The sounds of battle ragged all around and dirt was thrown up as stray rounds and spent shrapnel pattered everywhere. The odd shell roaring in to explode in a huge fireball near, or just beyond, the pillbox. Heavy mortars the officer knew.

Running hard now, the Lieutenant was nearly driven from his feet as a random slug struck his side flak plate. He stumbled and caught himself before getting back into a desperate stride to make distance, certain they’d be spotted any moment by the enemy flanking force.

He saw that most of the men did a decent job of spreading out, more than one though sticking close to his or her buddy. He couldn’t fault them, he wanted a run buddy too.

Seeing the Lieutenant looking in his direction and pushing the last three soldiers ahead of him and pointing south, Canis slowed up and veered to join his officer. Huffing breathlessly, he asked, ‘Any chance for a piggy, sir?’

The Lieutenant laughed, ‘Shit, I can barely carry myself Top!’ Pushing off the senior noncom as they met up mid stride. Constantly looking towards the breakthrough battle raging around 823’s position.

‘No worries, sir, don’t think we’ve been made yet.’

‘Matter of time.’ the Lieutenant breathlessly replied, spittle flecking everywhere.

They perhaps covered 400 yards in a sprint Canis reckoned as he was forced to slow, looking back to the pillbox. Its outline low, almost flat with the massive moons surface, nearly lost to the perpetual haze covering the industrial wastes this side of the slag-expanse.

Rellim Two sat in one of the cherry spots of this systems worlds Canis knew, its twin one of the bread baskets of an emerging empire three systems wide on the third arm. Both Rellim Two and Three had human atmosphere and near gravity, but where Three was a beautiful agri-world, Rellim Two was the mining version. Milky and pus tinted from orbit.

Looking up, he caught one of the near constant electrical displays they all had become used to among the high clouds since the invasion. The huge electrical disturbances played hell with air support and few machines above 100 feet were airborne. They were an eerie, always silent show that lit the clouds from within, brightening the perpetual twilight of the would-be terrestrial world.

A sound like that of a large angry insect zipped past Canis, cutting his recall short, and threw up dirt in a knee high geyser. The crack of a large caliber weapon following on its heels.

‘Shit!’ the Lieutenant yelled in front of him and poured on the speed as adrenaline kicked in at suddenly knowing they’d been detected.

‘Wondered when the blind bastards would spot us.’ Canis shouted out after him, doing his best to keep pace.

Canis glanced towards the incoming fire just as hard ball tracers he was certain were meant for him seemed to reach out and strike beyond him. Heavy staccato-firing signaling to him that a mech walker had taken a serious interest. He judged that another 300 yards remained to cover but knew he’d never make it in a continuous sprint.

‘Gettin old.’ he huffed out as he dug in and barreled for broke. Rifle like a leaden weight, gear slapping him from every angle, he shouted to the unknown walkers pilot, ‘You can kiss my arse!’

“Yeah, you can kiss his ass.” the Lieutenant joined in from up ahead.

Canis couldn’t help but think the Lieutenant implied the noncom was a better target but that thought disappeared as a new set of rounds started to impact the ground around him. Shit, the bastard is trying to walk his rounds into me. He veered right and away from the LT towards a thick patchy haze at ground level, attempting to throw off the gunners aim. He had a sudden new appreciation for the moons poor daylight and intermittent, often yellow, ground fog.

Top reached the thick fog in a leg leaden stumble and collapsed in a heap after pushing deep into it, knowing its mixture was strangely oxygen rich as he pulled in lung-fulls of invigorating visible gas. His breaths cutting chasmic eddies in the dense vapor. Blindly reaching for his canteen, he hurriedly popped the cap and took long powerful draws of the recycled liquid. The chemical after taste never so good.

All but gasping, he croaked, ‘Holy Emperor.’ and rolled onto his stomach. His sudden reprieve completely blinding him to anything around which suited him fine for the moment. I can’t see, they can’t see, he knew. Knowing the slag wastes gave poor heat readings at ground level, especially in the fogs.

Still breathing heavily, and doing his best to control it so he could hear anything besides the blood pounding in his ears, he reached behind him and dug out his rifle scope from his butt pack. He pushed the sliding lug cover open and attached the scope to his powerful rail carbine.

The small self-enclosed hardened scope was ideal for Imperial infantry weapons where extra carry-cases and too large attachments added weight to a soldiers already considerable load. The scope did have its draw backs though. Its range was limited and the only other view was thermal, which Canis thought was just fine as he went to a kneel and brought his rifle up, peering through the scope back the way he’d come.

He saw that the mech walker was down. The wavy reds and blacks he knew to be lots of fire and smoke was pouring from the mech, an occasional heavy caliber round cooking off. He hadn’t heard an explosion and briefly wondered who had nailed it. The heavy fighting to their east and sporadic shelling around their position too difficult to discern individual strikes unless up close and personal.

‘One for promotion.’ he whispered, pleased at the turn of events. As far as he could tell, no follow on forces were headed their way. At least not from the open flats he thought.

He stood and swung his rifle towards Secondary Main to see if he could spot anyone still on the move. All he saw was the empty missile tube of a man portable launcher in the distance sitting on its end like someone had placed it there to be seen. A thin wispy black rising from its empty casing. He didn’t see any bodies, but the ground was broken and it was hard to tell in places. He guessed everyone had reached cover alive.

‘Nice.’ Canis stated. He wanted to break vox silence but nixed that. The enemy was just as technically advanced as the Imperium, and in some ways more so, and could detect field transmissions.

Checking a second time for any pursuit and finding none, he began to jog towards the missile tube. If his count was right, they had five shots left between three tubes, including the tube he was about to pick-up. Should armor reach Secondary, and he was pretty sure it would, they’d need every one of them.