There was a slight pause as nearly half a minute ticked by. I didn't have to consider the situation for more than a few seconds to figure out what was going to happen next, but I spent the rest of that time, like anybody faced with the possibility of sure death, trying to talk myself out of it. I was a performer, one foot planted on solid platform and the other hovering over the tightrope. My foot descended, and I could feel how thin the wire was even through my orange drab combat boots.
"Alright... Beem, hand over a couple HEs. Oates, leave your carbine and prep the launcher." I put down my own rifle. It wouldn't be much use.
"Uh, someone also needs to call this in to Actual, and that downed dropship too. Probably just full of deaders but we've gotta check it anyhow to be sure."
"Careful, Gav." Artoka offered sincerely as he passed me the hand grenades.
I hung them one at a time from the pockets of my combat vest by the spoons. I didn't need to look at his face to see that he knew as well as I did why this needed to be done. Cricket was busy calling Actual and didn't look worried; Beem was grimacing, and Toric was solemn as ever. No one offered any objections. Not even Oates, who had gone from beet red to ghost white as he fiddled with the Avenger's guidance package. I hoped he wouldn't vomit.
"Alright; come on dude, let's get stuck in." I grabbed Oates and he finished slinging the launcher across his back without saying a word. He came along well enough.
We climbed the 10 or so meters to the top of the hill, then went prone as we came onto the peak so we could be sure that the IFV was still in the same spot. Sure enough, it was, but Cricket was wrong about it being an IFV. Half wrong, since it did have a troop compartment, but it was armed with four 20mm autocannons. Without taking my eyes off the vehicle I reached out with my hand to touch Oates, who was beside and slightly behind me. I pushed him gently and together we backed down a meter, then I faced him.
"That's not an IFV."
"Sorry...?" It was the first time he had spoken. His voice was deeper than I expected.
"It's an anti-air emplacement. The fans have been removed from the main engine. That must've been what killed that dropship. It chewed into them right as they were decelerating. I doubt there was much they could've done. That means that whatever shot us up is still around, but we'll take care of that later—"
I got up, my leg partly extended beneath me and my toe planted on the slope to keep myself from rolling down it, and pulled one of the HE grenades. Oates pushed himself up and pulled the launcher around from behind his back, then shouldered it gingerly.
"Hey Oates." He looked at me.
"Um, yeah corporal?" His voice quivered.
"I'm not a corporal— Er, acting corporal I guess. It doesn't matter. Look, just take a deep breath, buddy." He inhaled and let it out slowly.
"We're gonna be okay. Get a lock and shoot when the grenade pops. Can you do that?" He didn't look any more sure of himself but he nodded anyway, and we stood up together.
We came over the top running, or as close as we could approximate to it on the reduced gravity of this planet, but slowed as we reached the opposite slope, which we found to be nearly as steep as the side we were on before. Oates dug in his heels and flopped onto his rear, and I stopped looking at him as soon as I saw his head duck behind the launcher's scope. My eyes locked on the IFV—it still wasn't moving!—and I took a few more steps down the slope as I prepared to make my toss. Grenade in one hand, I grabbed at the pin with the other. The movement was mistakenly exaggerated and I wobbled, then lost my balance entirely as the ground gave beneath my boots. I managed to yank the pin out, but I was struggling to stay upright. More sand slid under my feet and I staggered. A curse fell from my mouth before I dropped face first into the sand. I rolled once and came back up smoothly, the grenade thankfully still clutched in my hand, but the damage was done, I had wasted precious seconds by falling.
I heard the mechanical whir before I saw the emplacement's turret track towards me, sand was still falling from my eyes and helmet, and my heart dropped into my stomach. "Fuck!" I opened my fist and the striker lever spun away and landed somewhere at my feet. Did Oates see me fall? He should've shot if he saw me fall—
"Shoot!" I hollered desperately as I threw the grenade somewhere in the armored vehicle's direction. I didn't see nor care where it landed and I started clambering back up the hill. I remembered something and opened my comm.
"OATES SHOOT IT!" I screamed. There was a detonation, it sounded hollow, and it was followed by another, bigger one, and I swear I could feel the heat on my back. In the same moment something hit me in the back of the head and I fell down again. I stopped moving and decided to lay there. I heard sand shifting above me.
"Hey!" Oates. He sounded excited, so I pulled my face out of the sand for the second time and looked up at him. He was beaming.
"We're not dead, Oates?"
"No, man. Look!" I rolled over. The vehicle was a smoking wreck. The top of it was torn away. I was feeling very confused.
"Uh, did you shoot it?" I couldn't tell if his launcher was loaded by looking at it.
"No! You took it out with the grenade!"
"Really? Wow." We sat there and watched it burn for a little bit.
[Cover:None] [Frags:10 Smoke:9 HE:4]
Gavin | Assistant Leader | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Healthy STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125] AM-00 Missiles [2]
Toric | Squad Gunner | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Healthy STA:Rested | PP.3 Squad Automatic Rifle [500]
Beem | Rifleman | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Wounded STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]
Artoka | Rifleman | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Wounded STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]
Cricket | Grenadier | MC:Stable EXP:Recruit PS:Healthy STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle w/GL [120/4 Rifle Frags]
Oates | AT Gunner | MC:Stable EXP:Recruit PS:Healthy STA:Winded | HK.1-B Carbine [150] Avenger AM-00 [1]
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Topic: [SG] War for Mars (Read 11017 times)