Chapter three, No matter what

Narrator: Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

September 21st, 2th year of the 3rd Era of the Hyperiums Protectorate.

Sergeant First Class McNeil: Command, this is Devil One-Niner in position, I say again, Devil One-Niner in position, over.

Command: Roger that Devil One-Niner, you're clear to engage the enemy at will, over.

SFC McNeil: Affirmative, Command, Devil One-Niner out. Alright Daq, just point 'em out.

Staff Sergeant Daquicker: Hoo-ah. Shit, you hear that McNeil?

SFC McNeil: Yeah…up there, look, Azzie troop transport. Alright, contact Com-

Radio: This is Red Dog 7, we've got an Azzie troop transport moving towards our position, we need back up or extract and we are at bunker bravo-seven, over!

Command: Roger that Red Dog 7. Devil One-Niner, you're the closest unit, get over there and provide sniper cover for Red Dog 7 Eh-Ess-Eh-Pee, they're 3 klicks due east of you, over!

SFC McNeil: I don't see them Command! Over.

Command: They're under attack by more than 4,000 Azzies! They are due east of you, find them, no matter what, damn it! Command, out!

SFC McNeil: *Sigh* let's go Daq.

We were snipers, which meant we had our ghillie suits on, it would make running that much harder, but we had to move, if we didn't get there in time, Red Dog 7 would be over run. Hell, they were probably already being overrun right now. So we got up and ran down the hill, ghillie suits, weapons and all. According to Command, they were three klicks east, but the average pace for a Soldier, in light combat gear, was 4 Km's per hour, and that was at a brisk walk. We had full combat gear, enough food for two weeks each, and moving through a thick jungle. The only thing we had going for us was that we weren't moving at a brisk pace, we were hauling ass. The two of us, miraculously, made it to Hill 233 overlooking the clearing bunker bravo-seven was in, in 40 minutes. For some reason unbeknownst to us they had still not attacked. The bunker had been built into the side of a mountain, and the Azzies had the other three sides surrounded. It must've been demoralizing for the Azzies too, there were almost a hundred bodies around surrounding the bunker. They must have been the original defenders, cleared out by Red Dog 7, a single platoon.

SSG Daq: We got a plan McNeil?

SFC McNeil: Yeah, we wait until they attack, then we start with picking off the officers. No need to let them know we're here just yet.

As if on queue, they launched their first wave. Which was probably a third of their force. Each troop transport carried a battalion, but there was a regiment and a battalion here, these must have been reinforcements. The Azzies had about 300 feet of open ground to cross, but RD7 had already realized that. Our guys had planted land mines which exploded as the battalion was half way across, MG's in the bunker opened fire. The land mines killed almost a third of the battalion, the MG's were causing more damaged. I amplified the zoom on my M182, .60 Caliber Suppressed Sniper Rifle to 25x. The combined casualties from the landmines and MG's had stalled the Azterk advance, which meant the Azzies, instead of advancing took cover behind the collapsed trees, this obviously wasn't a clearing too long ago. I took aim on an Azterk Officer, they were easy to distinguish due to their blue uniforms as opposed to the red of the enlisted Azzies. I put the crosshairs over his – it's throat and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked back into my shoulder and the bullet flew straight and true. A .50 Caliber round literally causes the head to burst at distances up to 1.2 Kay's. This was a .60 Caliber round at less than half a Kay. The head, along with half the torso exploded, spraying the Azzies around it with blue blood and grey brains.

SFC McNeil: Scratch one.

My spotter, SSG Daquicker, had a .30-06 (thirty ought-six) Sniper Rifle, he opened fire, dropping two more officers in quick succession. After being hit by the landmines, the MG's and now that their Officers were beginning to drop like flies, they were really looking scared now. I searched the clearing and found what I was looking for. The enemy Battalion's Commanding Officer (CO). He was shouting orders but not many of his troops were listening, they were cowering for their lives. Daq was still dropping targets, Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) alike. I put the crosshairs over his torso and pulled the trigger, his torso exploded, covering his aides in more blue blood.

SFC McNeil: One more.

SSG Daquicker: I'm at 6 man, you better catch up.

I shot the Battalion 2IC (second in command), when an officer ordered the retreat, but they had no respite yet, they had 150 feet of open ground to cover, some of them had almost 300 feet to run, the braver. Even as they were retreating, RD7, kept up the MG fire, and we kept up the sniper fire. By the time they made it to relative safety, more than half their Troopers were dead or dyeng on the ground, depending where they were hit, the wounded would suffer slow painful deaths, but that was nothing compared to what they did to our men and the Xillors.

SFC Mcneil: Red Dog 7, go to UHF (Ultra High Frequency) secure. This is Devil one-niner, we're at your 9 o'clock providing sniper cover. Acknowledge, over.

Red Dog 7: Acknowledged Devil one-niner. Was that you guys who dropped those officers? Over.

SFC McNeil: Yeah, that was us. Didn't think you'd notice. Over.

Red Dog 7: Couldn't miss it. Listen, we've still got some mines left over. Can you guys cover us while we place 'em? Over.

SFC McNeil: Roger that. Send your guys out when you're ready, we got your backs. Over.

Red Dog 7: Thanks. Alright, Shellington, Leon, Kennedy, and House, grab the mines, get out there and plant them along Phase lines Bravo and Charlie. Pretend you're searching for wounded or something. Hoo-ah? Good, on three. One…Two…THREE!

The four men he picked ran out and began taking fire immediately. One of them went down, IFF (Indicator, Friend of Foe) listed him as a Corporal Leon. The one listed as PFC Shellington went back to check if Leon was still alive. He wasn't, he took a bullet in the throat which pierced his spinal column. Shellington grabbed his mines and joined Kennedy and House at Phase Line Delta. The two of us were doing what we could to cover them, just as the bunker was. Daq dropped another two hostiles, I dropped three. That, combined with the MG fire, convinced the Azzies to keep their heads down. The three Red Dog's made it to Phase Line Bravo, and under the guise of looking for wounded soldiers, began planting the mines. The Azzies kept taking potshots at them, and whenever one of 'em popped their heads up, we shot 'em off.

Daq and I figured that they probably know there were snipers, they just wouldn't know where though. Anyways, I told Daq to go and plant some claymores to cover us. These particular claymores were filled with 500 small, Cyanide-covered, tungsten carbide balls. They were designed to cause extremely painful injuries to lots of targets, the cyanide was a quick acting poison, they would die shortly thereafter.

The three men were now placing the mines at Phase Line Charlie. I dropped another stupid bastard who was foolish enough to fire at our guys. Kennedy and Shellington were running back to Phase Line Delta, House wasn't. He leveled his M5 and shot Kennedy in the back. Seeing Kennedy fall Shellington dove behind cover, as House switched to full auto and kept shooting at Shellington. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Shellington was yelling something, but I couldn't make out what though. House ran out of ammo, threw his M5 to the ground, turned tail, and began running toward the Azzies. I was about to give him one in the temple, but Shellington beat me to it; he shot the bastard between the shoulder blades.

Shellington ran back to the bunker feigning right while going left, zigzagging left and right and ran into the bunker. Both sides stopped shooting; things were quiet now, aside from the screams of the dying and the wounded. Now that there was no more shooting, I scanned the battlefield; bodies littered the trenches, some dragging themselves to their individual lines. It was times like this that I was glad to be a sniper and not one of the Infantrymen down there. Things suddenly changed. The claymores detonated, and I heard rifle fire, Daq was in trouble. I picked up my M182 and ran to where the rifle fire was. I saw Daq leaning against a tree, or what was left of one. I heard a grunt of anguish and he slumped to the ground but he kept firing. I ran and dropped to one knee beside him and opened fire on the Azzies.

"You alright?" I asked him.

He was not. There was a bullet in his stomach and leg, his death would be painful.

"Come on!" I shouted as I tried to pick him up.

"No. You go on, regroup with that platoon." He coughed up blood. "I'll hold them off as long as I can, hurry up." He sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

I was speechless; I tried to say something meaningful. "Thanks" was all that I managed to say. I turned and ran to the right of the hill, going towards the left flank of the bunker. There was more rifle fire from behind, Daq started yelling a war cry, and it was abruptly cut off. I stopped and looked behind me. Daq was dead. I started running towards the bunker again.

"Red Dog 7, this is Devil-One-Niner, I'm coming in from your 9 o'clock followed by Azzie forces, I need covering fire!" I shouted into my throat mike.

"Roger that devil."

I got to the clearing and that's when I smelt it. It was the smell of blood, death, of soldiers who cried for their mothers that soiled themselves it was pure unadulterated horror. I saw the rifles in the opening of the bunker that looked towards me. I ran into the clearing towards the bunker and the Azzies opened fire, filling the air with depleted uranium bullets. I knew I was going to get hit, I just hoped it would be quick and painless. There was gunfire from behind me and the men at this side of the bunker opened fire at the arses chasing me. Amazingly, with at least 1,000 weapons firing at me, I made it to the bunker, the door opened and I tripped over a rock in front of the door. It saved my life. They closed the door and I saw the wall filled with bullet holes, those would have been in me if I hadn't tripped.

"You made it just in time Devil. Look." He pointed towards the clearing. I picked up my M187 and saw where he was pointing. The Azzies were launching another attack. "I'm Lieutenant Lazarus, you?"

"Sergeant First Class McNeil, Sir." I told him.

"We're gonna hold out until extract arrives, eta is 1 hour. Let's hope we can stay alive that long, eh Sergeant?"

I didn't say anything. I knew we would be dead long before then, or so I had thought anyways. There were 28 men left in this platoon, 29 with me, against at least 2,000 Azzies. Numbers didn't matter though. We would fight until we were dead, or until we got extracted. Surrender was not an option; they tortured prisoners, better a quick bullet to the head then torture. The mines were detonated. It was the loudest, biggest explosion I ever experienced. The smoke cleared, the wounded on the ground before the explosion were killed, and soldiers in this wave were now dead and dying, Azterk soldiers of course. Hundreds more were dead, yet it was still a hopeless defence. They had sent two companies to flank the bunker, the two companies that had engaged and killed Daq, and the hit the bunker from the left flank at the same time the rest of their battalion hit the front. RD7 opened fire with everything they had, they hoped that the mines would have stopped them, but they didn't.

One Soldier was thrown back, he was clutching at his throat where a bullet had ripped his jugular open yet missed his spine. He coughed up dark, red blood, blood was spilling on the floor in pulses, the last few beats of his heart, there was blood covering his face now. He just looked at me and we made eye contact, his eyes asking me to put him out of his misery. His body shuddered once, then twice, and he stopped moving. His arm fell to his side; I was still looking into his eyes when I realized that would be all of us if we lost. I went to where he was standing and put a bullet into another officer. I had started shooting as if my bullets alone would win the day; I hardly noticed when the Lieutenant's head was snapped back, blood covering the left side of my face, he collapsed to his knees and then the floor. 26 men were still fighting.

"If we don't get help soon, there's not gonna be anyone left to extract" Shellington yelled, he was right, but we had nowhere to go. We were cornered.

Two more men, who were guarding the left, were thrown back, one was cursing, the other wasn't, he was probably dead. The other stood up and started shooting again, his rifle on the parapet, with his arm hanging limply at his side. It seemed they all knew if the fire started slacking they would all be killed. 25 left. I joined the left flank and fired the last three shots in my M187, dropping three Azzies, I picked up a discarded M5 and the ammo from the man who had just died and started firing with that. They were coming down the hill, I shot one in the knee and the bastard started rolling down the hill, he tried to stop himself, but as he did that, his outstretched foot hit a rock, and like pole vault, stood him up and the stump of his other leg hit the ground at high force as he came back down. I could almost hear him scream from down here.

They stopped at the bottom of the hill and started shooting into the bunker from there. Another Soldier fell back from the parapet, blood spraying into the air, falling on another body. 24. I dropped the used mag from my M5 when one of the soldiers covering the left flank pulled the pin on his grenade. He was halfway through throwing it when a bullet blew through his elbow, he dropped the grenade.

"Scatter!" I yelled as I jumped from the wall.

No one heard me over the sound of gunfire, I turned back as it exploded, killing 6 men and blowing a hole in the wall. 18. Shrapnel cut my cheek, making a long gash into my mouth, I could taste copper. The Azzies saw their chance and ran towards the wall, the rest of us realized what was about to happen. We put our backs to the wall in the mountain. They were 50 feet from what was left of that side. And then the gunships came.