Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 99: Drawing the line

Mia looked around as the dust and smoke cleared. She lay against a tree. Her eyes opened slowly as she stirred. Each breath invited fire into her lungs as she looked around. Soldier corpses intermixed with Cartharic corpses. Her head dropped, finding it painful to look up.

She heard gasps of breath coming from her left. A man crawling over to her. Mia’s eyes widened. "Hammond!" She tried to stand up, but her legs gave out. "Oof." She said, falling back to the ground.

"Hammond, come here." She ripped her shirt off, crawling over to the older man. "Dont talk." She said, wincing as she wrapped what remained of Hammonds left arm. "The healers are going to be here soon. We’ll make it Hammond."

The older vet grunted, looking at his arm. "Six combat tours. Ive been blown up three times now. I thought this would be my last." He groaned as he slumped against the tree.

She shook her head. More soldiers stirred, in various states of injury or pain. "First Sergeant Hammond." A Staff Sergeant said as he walked up. "The barrage took out our comman team and all of our vehicles. We can’t get in radio contact with HQ."

Hammond nodded, wincing as he used his remaining arm to push himself off the ground. "What of Echo’s commander?" He stood, but leaned against the tree for support as he gasped in pain.

Mia tried to rush over, but he waved his hand. "There are more pressing issues."

The staff Sergeant shook his head.

Hammond grunted. "Alright. Gather those that can still fight, and form a perimeter. 360 security. We will gather the KIA, and stay here. Someone with a scope, go quietly into that tree to my right. If you see any enemy troops, whistle twice. We are in no shape to move, so we won’t."

Mia surveyed the position they were in and bit her lip. "Hammond." She called quietly. "We can’t stay here."

Hammond looked up at her, noticing how open the terrain was. He then turned behind him, thinking of the positioning of the Phase line. "I don’t think we have a choice. Most of these men are wounded, some are dead. If we move, we risk leaving those that are unable to move behind."

She nodded, picking up a rifle. "You rest. I will take command of the first watch."

He slumped against the tree, nodding. "Roger that. Wake me if anything happens."

Mia guided the soldiers to set up a perimeter. Of the two hundred and ten soldiers that were in this sector, fifty of them had died in the barrage. She did what she could for those that were critically wounded, but eventually a few more had succumbed to their injuries. When it was Hammonds turn to take command, the old man patted her shoulder. "You did good kid. It’s always rough losing your own."

He then turned back to the line, barking out orders. "Powalksy, what the fuck are you doing!" The man growled at the private in question. "Get back on the line."

Powalksky looked up. "First Sergeant, my phone is somewhere here in the grass. If we can find it, we can call HQ."

Hammond paused, looking at the soldier with a half amused and half annoyed face. "I am going to ignore the fact that you brought your phone out here. Alright, take five soldiers and scan the line. Report back to me in one hour."

Powalsky nodded as Hammond pulled out another cigarette.

Hammond shook his head as he smoked. "Kids these days." He grumbled while taking count of the remaining soldiers. One hundred and fifty soldiers were left of the original two hundred and ten that were assigned to this section. He sighed.

Mia walked up. "I think we move in three days if we are unable to contact HQ."

Hammond nodded. "I agree. Remaining static is a death sentence when we are overmatched in every capacity there is. He took out his notepad, referring to a roughly drawn sketch of the phase lines he had taken a few days ago. "I think we are about thee ans a half clicks north of the next phase line. If the soldiers I sent to scout come back with no enemy sighting, we will move. Remaining static in open terrain like this is a death sentence."

Mia nodded, regarding the treeline warily. "I agree. I think three days might be too long though. I think we should move tomorrow. Since we haven’t seen cartharic forces yet, I think they are reconsolidating forces. Their doctrine when encountering forces in the forest is to regroup and then push forward."

Hammond nodded. "We move tomorrow then. I do not want to get caught by a large empire push when we have so many wounded and kia."

Mia’s ears perked up. She looked off to the west and raised her rifle. "Something is coming! Shift west. Weapons hot. Do not engage yet."

Hammond ran up to the ridge, pulling out his pistol as he and Mia got low to the ground. The rest of the soldiers did the same. The clicks of weapons rang out, filling the once quiet atmosphere before the clearing went silent wifh bated breath.

Tanned vehicles began approaching the clearing, and each soldier exhaled as they recognized the forward facing truck.

Safeties were clicked back on as the convoy stopped. Eric hopped out of his truck, barking out orders. "Maintain security. Charlie and Delta teams, overwatch on the north. The rest of you, follow me. Load the wounded into the LMTV’s." He walked up to the line, his eyes finding Hammond and Mia.

"Ya’ll look like hell."

Mia sighed and leaned into Eric. She nuzzled against him while he kissed her head. They then seperated while Eric turned to Hammond. "You will go back to the rear and get that arm looked at in Austin."

Hammond sighed. "Yeah. I think there is no saving it. It has been a full day now."

The two E-8’s sighed as a small team of soldiers ran up. Powalksy stood at parade rest while Eric patted the young soldier on the back. "Good job bud. Calling your friend and turning on location was a good idea."

Hammond arched an eyebrow as the young soldier joined the rest of the soldiers loading into an LMTV. "That’s how you found us so quickly?"

"Yeah. This E-2 from Charlie came rushing up right in the middle of a brief and put Powalksy on speaker phone. General Milano then ordered an immediate evac team. We have been running ISR pretty much nonstop for the last twelve hours, but were unable to find ya’ll because of the tree cover."

Hammond nodded, sighing as the trio got into Eric’s truck. "I guess maybe having the soldiers bringing their devices into combat isn’t such a bad idea after all."

Eric tapped the steering wheel as he listened to the reports from the other drivers. Once every vehicle was loaded, they moved out.

"Yeah... I don’t know about that one."

Josh and Justin stared at each other from across the table. The room was silent as the heroes began their exchange. "We do not target civilians." Justin growled as he looked at the map. Josh had circled a large area near esponia. "Mithrael has very clearly told us to only target the military. We outnumber and outgun them. That is the reason for the siege in the first place!"

Josh shook his head as he stood up. He walked over to Justin and tapped the map where the most recent engagement took place. "Did you miss what happened in the last battle?"

"We just got our asses kicked! We lost one hundred Llrathels, and another launcher. We can’t afford to fight nice anymore. They have a freaking carrier, Justin. A goddamn end of this world type of asset. If we do not do something different, we will keep losing more than it is worth!"

Justin shook his head. "It is regrettable that we lost so much, but those men knew what they are fighting for. Civilians do not have the same values. So what if they have the upper hand down in the valley? For five hundred years the Empire has been struggling to simply get past Esponia. We were able to take a few miles past the foothills in a single day. We do not need to involve civilians. Do. Not. Target. Austin."

Josh sighed as he looked at Justin. "I didn’t want to do this, brother."

Justin arched his eyebrows. "What are you-" his vision went dark as he collapsed, his body hitting the ground as the soldier that had stood behind him put his weapon away.

Josh nodded to the man. "Good job Hriel. Place the other hero on house arrest. As you have all seen, he is not of sound mind and does not have the Empire’s best interest in mind. Unfortunately, I think detaining him until the war is over will be the best option."