Chapter 12
I selected our most powerful anti-tank drone, a custom heavy lift drone fitted with an anti-tank mine. Kurgan started to carry it outside then came rushing back into the bunker. Drone coming in! He yelled, Hans is that you? Hans looked up from the screen he was watching, yeah Kurgan, that’s me, I’ll land the spotter right outside. Kurgan turned back out the door again. I lifted my FPV goggles off the charger and sat at the station.
Flying the spotter drone was similar to driving a remote controlled toy. I was sitting at the station making the drone go places. I could use the camera on the drone to look at the scene below, but it always felt like a tool that I was using at a distance. Flying the FPV was an entirely different sensation. With FPV I truly felt like I was there, flying like a bird, or hovering inches away from an enemy soldier. If I tipped the drone to the side my view was as if I had tipped my head to the side. FPV’s could fly up to one hundred miles an hour with amazing agility. Sometimes I found myself leaning or ducking my body with the motions of the drone miles away. There was nothing else like it.
I pulled the goggles over my eyes and held down the button to link them with the drone.
Kurgan said, go, and I took the heavy drone off the cradle and into the sky. I flew it out to the minefield and quickly found the turtle tank. The tank was making another pass through the minefield to clear a path around the burning troop carriers. I lined up on the small gap of the exposed track and flew it in. The track got closer and closer and then the feed cut. I knew I had hit it. Kurgan came down into the bunker carrying the observation drone. He set it on the bench and started quickly swapping in a fresh battery.
I lifted my FPV goggles and watched him, he had been hustling all morning. Sweat ran down from his helmet onto his face. I grabbed a water bottle and placed it in front of him.
I noticed he had started the day with just his helmet and plate carrier, now he wore his heavy chest armor with the groin and neck protection. I’d learned to trust Kurgan’s sixth sense for impending doom. You feel a barrage coming? He looked at me like it was a dumb question. They’re not going to push that assault knowing a drone team is close by, that wave was just a poke to flush us out. Then when dingdong missed, that gave them the perfect chance to measure our flight time. So they know how far away we are.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought, why is he always right? I got caught up on Han’s mistake and then I made one of my own. Kurgan cleaned the camera lens on the drone with a cloth and said, we haven’t caught a direct hit yet, my only worry is, what’s he gonna do when the sky starts falling?
As if he knew we were talking about him, Hans appeared at my side grinning proudly, I set the floor up 150 mm on my goggles! I contemplated how to respond. Did he want praise for doing the thing I already told him to do and he didn’t?
Kurgan just said, let’s get you armored up, we have some bad news coming our way. Kurgan started helping Hans get his equipment on and I slowly peeked out the door of the bunker. I looked to the south and saw dozens of white smoke trails climbing into the blue sky. For a second I just watched the lines grow like someone dragging chalk across a blackboard. Then the sound caught up with a ferocious noise like the sky was being ripped open.
I ran back inside. Hans had on his helmet and amored ballistic vest, A tall neck collar rose up to his chin and a groin plate hung below his belt. His arms were out and up and his legs were spread out. Kurgan knelt on one knee as he pulled a strap under the kid’s crotch. Kurg pulled the strap snug. Hans said, oww! Kurg said, perfect, and slapped him on his ass.
We got rockets incoming! I yelled. Hans, put all the monitors face down. I pointed at our station. He hurried over and did as I asked. I grabbed both radios from the chargers and kept them with me.
I heard the rockets closing in and braced for the worst, rockets like this could carry a variety of payloads. I thought about canisters of CS gas popping open and clouds of poison vapor billowing into the bunker. I visualized a white phosphorus bomb setting everything around us on fire that couldn’t be extinguished. I imagined a thermobaric warhead going off right on top of us. A thermobaric with its two-step explosion would disperse a cloud of fuel and then ignite it. The resulting fireball would suck all the oxygen out of the bunker and we’d suffocate with collapsed lungs.
The rockets started hitting and none of those things happened. Instead the rockets broke apart in the air and separated into dozens of bomblets. The bomblets were each the size of a grenade and hundreds of them peppered the ground above us in rapid succession.
Dirt fell from the ceiling and the cuncussions thundered against my chest. A second wave of rockets fell right behind the first. I thought about how much money was being spent trying to kill us three idiots. I had never felt so valued.
When he realized it was a cluster bomb attack, Kurg stood up from a crouch and yawned. Then he walked to the gun rack and started prepping a rifle. I walked over towards Hans, I half expected to find him curled in the fetal position shaking like a chihahau. I’d seen career soldiers fall apart under these heavy barrages.
Instead, I looked over the bench and found him against the wall sitting cross legged. Between his legs was the harddrive that kept all our mapping software. He had unbuckled his armor to lay it over one of the most important things in the bunker. With his elbows comfortably resting on the armor, Hans had his airpods in under his helmet and he was playing a game on his phone.
After several minutes the thudding in the ground faded away. Quiet started to creep back into our world. I pulled the grimy, earwax covered, foam earplugs out of my ears and dropped them into a chest pocket. Music I didn’t recognize was spilling out of Han’s bumping head phones, maybe K-pop? Kurg leaned against me and stared at the kid. He doesn’t even know it’s over? Yeah, and it didn’t phase him, he looks like he’s waiting for the schoolbus.
Hans must have felt us watching him, he pulled his airpods out and looked up from his game. What are you playing? I asked. He gave a crooked grin, Minecraft. I just looked at him in wonder. And that didn’t bother you at all? He paused, uh, not really. I mean, we were safe right? He put his phone away and started to get up. I said that was a good idea, protecting the hard drive. I still want you to keep your armor buckled though. The maps are important, but you’re importanter.
Kurgan racked his rifle and said he was going outside. The radio on my chest harness called. Tango Tango seven, what’s your status? I pointed at the workstation and the harddrive, slide that thing back under and get this stuff fired up, I told Hans. Then I spoke with command. They informed us a heavy assault force was moving on the position.
CHAPTER 13
The battle for the Cyclops trench was one of the bloodiest fights we had seen yet. Several platoons of tanks backed by a company of over two hundred infantry pushed on our defensive line from multiple points. I flew my overwatch drone into the battlefield and spotted six enemy soldiers working their way from crater to crater, getting close to our southeast flank. Charlie squad this is Shade, you have six mooks moving in on your nine o’clock at twelve hundred yards, I spoke into my headset radio. Copy that Shade, we’ll move to engage.
I zoomed in my camera on the enemy soldiers, red duct tape was wrapped in a band around their arms and helmets. Two hung back while the four in front took cover behind a fallen tree trunk. Charlie called me back, Shade we do not have a visual yet, what are we looking for. I responded, can you see the tree trunk about a thousand yards out? Put some heat on that.
Traced fire erupted from a hidden machine gun, pieces of the tree trunk blew into the air, two soldiers fell to the ground. The fire stopped. I said, ok that was good, two down, sweep left just a little.
From above I watched more tracer fire pour onto the two men huddled behind the root ball of the tree, one fell to the ground dead and the other started crawling back the way he had come. Did we get ‘em? Charlie asked. Hang on, one got off the tree and he’s heading back to his buddies. Do you guys have an M19 on station? That’s an affirmative Shade, we’ll get it pointed that way.
The soldier regrouped with the other two behind a rise, safe from the machine gun. I watched them pull out a shoulder fired rocket tube and try to manuever into firing position. In my earpiece I heard, the 19 is prepped where you want it? Twenty yards back from the tree on the right.
I saw the soldiers react as a short burst of 40mm grenades popped off safely behind them. I spoke into the mic. That’s it, just walk it in another ten yards straight forward. The soldier carefully edged up the dirt pile with the rocket ready to fire. Then explosions went off all around him as the grenades dropped directly on their position. All three lay motionless when the dust cleared. Nice work Charlie. Thanks Shade.
I flipped to the open channel to hear what else was happening and my stomach dropped. A message was coming through barely audible over bursts of gunfire and explosions. BANG BANG BANG, Repeat Cutlass, Cutlass, bunker six has been overrun, we are falling back BANG BANG BANG.
I looked to the map overlay and found bunker six then flew my drone in that direction. I looked down on a network of deep trenches that zigzagged through multiple junctions. Under me I found four soldiers with green duct taped arm bands, they were firing down the trench. From my view I could see eight soldiers with red arm bands gathered right around the first corner ten yards away. The guy in the lead would stick his rifle around the corner and blindly pump rounds down the trench. Another squad of red arm bands was quickly moving up a parallel trench, if they kept following it they would be able to get behind the retreating team and have them pinned.
I didn’t know the name of that team or how to reach them. Hans was busy working on a tank, and I only had my unarmed observer. I flew down and hovered above the American soldiers. I rocked the drone on its axis a few times to get their attention, then I flew just a few yards to their right. I flew the drone in tight circles over the enemy soldiers. Within seconds they started shooting at my drone so I made an erratic climb to safety. One of the Americans waved at me, then he sprinted through mud to cover the junction with the other trench. I pulled back to the trench gunfight just in time to see the guy at the corner lean his gun into the open and be struck by a bullet in the shoulder. He rolled onto his side and signaled his team to move on without him. I saw both of the other soldiers lean into him and say something. Then they ran up the trench to meet the other defender at the junction.
The enemy made another aggressive push and the lone defender ran out of bullets. I watched the injured soldier painstakingly change the magazine to his rifle. He struggled to pull the charging handle back. His injured shoulder was probably a mess of splintered bone and muscle. An enemy soldier stepped boldy into the open, sensing this was his chance, he moved quickly down the straight section of trench. Finally the injured soldier held his rifle against the edge of a wooden beam and racked the charging handle back. He flopped into the trench and squeezed the trigger.
Hovering overhead, I watched the running enemy soldier belly flop into the mud. At the other junction one American stayed to hold off the enemy advance while the last two guys ran to safety. Now I was watching the two pinned down US army soldiers fighting back to back with the enemy pushing in from both sides. The soldier with the bullet wound popped a smoke grenade and purple smoke filled the trench, obscuring him from the enemy.
At the other junction the enemy threw a grenade over the dirt wall separating them. The grenade landed at the soldier's feet and the grunt grabbed the bomb from the dirt and tossed it away. The explosion went off a few feet from him and I could tell he’d been hit with some shrapnel. He staggered and leaned against the wall. Another grenade bounced across the ground and fell into the trench next to him. He lunged at that one too and tossed it back at the enemy.
Just then I remembered the other soldier and swept the camera back to him. His body rippled with gunshots as the enemy rushed through the smoke and stormed his position. This meant they could fire on the grenade tosser, I panned back to him just as he crumpled to the ground. The camera autofocused on the fallen soldier as the enemy stepped over his body to continue pushing up the trench.
YES! Hans called out and he pumped his fist. THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT! He yelled, and pulled off his goggles. I could see he was amped on adrenaline. What’d you hit? I asked. I cooked off a tank, I think it was an Arjun.
I spun my drone in a 360, Oh shit, I panned it back. My camera was looking straight at an FPV attack drone that was looking straight at me. Hans, I said. Check this out, I’ve got a mook drone watching me. He leaned over and looked at my monitor. Try to kill it! He shouted, excited. The other drone bolted, I chased after it. The enemy pilot was hoping I’d lead him here and he could find us, I said as I tried to keep the small black dart within sight. I hadn’t chased another drone in a while.
The FPV should have run circles around my Mavic, but this one was carrying an extra seven kilos of explosives and shrapnel. With its limited speed and agility I was slowly gaining on the attack drone. It made some fast circles around a stand of trees, then shot between a gap. It flipped and shot straight past me. He had to be burning through his battery. I wondered who was controlling this other drone, was it a young Indian kid like Hans, pulling on a vape, listening to music the older soldiers don’t know?
The enemy pilot had lightning reflexes and control, but the math just wasn’t with him. You can’t add that much weight and not lose top end speed or tight turns. He was making a sweep back over our trench, preparing to kamikaze one of our fighters. The FPV pulled up just to get a better view and paused looking for a target. That was all the time I needed. I knew he would dive so I aimed below him and as soon as he dove I crashed right into the bottom of the other drone. The screen I was watching cut to snow and said SIGNAL LOST. I hadn’t wanted to lose that spotter drone, but I’d rather lose a drone than a soldier.
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