The Last Day of the War - Part 2

"I was wondering when they would get around to that. The next highest perch you can use is the roof of Maintenance Bay 3. We will be there in a few seconds." The Sergeant Major crawled his way to the control station of the truck and made a few adjustments to the control settings. We arced smoothly over toward the large maintenance bay and came to a stop beside it. "Let’s go Tetyana."

We climbed off the truck and began running toward the nearest side door. There was an angry yell off to the side and I turned my head in time to see a naked man throwing what looked like a grenade in our direction. I screamed a warning and dove to the ground as the grenade exploded in a bright flash above us. A warning tone sounded softly beneath me and I looked down to see my rifle registered a zero charge on both broadcast power and battery back up.

"Pulse grenade." The Sergeant Major swore and pulled me to my feet. He swore again and caught a thrown axe in mid-flight with his off hand as he shoved me behind him. He threw the axe back at its owner in nearly the same instant that he caught it. So much, I thought, for not walking the Path of Blood any longer. More men screamed and a dozen Infiltrators materialized in the grass before us and the Sergeant Major scowled thoughts of death at them. "The bastards must have infiltrated our lines before we modified the system and then waited there until now."

I wondered why they would have waited but focused my attention on attaching my bayonet to the mounting lugs on my rifle. A pulse grenade might kill its power for a short time, but it did nothing to hinder the effectiveness of steel. The fastest of the Infiltrators reached us within moments and died with my bayonet cleaved through his heart. I knew there were too many for us to last against though.

"Rally to Angel! Infiltrators on base!" A child’s voice rang out from behind the closing wall of heavily tattooed men. A few were surprised when those next to them died, but the others continued their mindless charge toward the Sergeant Major and I. The Outworlder children who had arrived with me glided between the much larger men and where they paused men fell and did not get up. I parried aside an axe and slashed its wielder’s throat. The infiltrator fell to the ground in a spray of blood and behind where he had been standing I saw the two youngest of the group, twin sisters, dancing gracefully around one of the enemy infiltrators. Neither twin was tall enough to reach the man’s vital organs, but after a few well placed slashes he fell to his knees and was finished. Within moments the ground was thick with the bodies of the dead, but not all of the bodies were large men. I tried not to look at any of the small faces lying in the broken grass.

"Cheeky bastards thought this one out…" The Sergeant Major stood next to me with his fist clenched so tightly his knuckles popped. He glanced down at the charge indicator on my rifle and scowled. Just then I heard a distant wail of many voices just beginning to rise above the other sounds of battle. Bolts of energy stabbed wildly through the air around us as an advancing line of enemy soldiers began to converge on our position. "Cover children! Take cover!"

The Sergeant major grabbed my arm and nearly lifted me off my feet as he pulled me toward our abandoned truck. He halted in midstep and swore when he saw it had settled to the ground when the pulse grenade cut it off from power as well. Behind me I heard a roaring hiss like the sound of a giant angry reptile. I turned and saw one of our hovertanks halting sharply as its braking jets brought it to a stop. The tank’s cannon raked across the enemy ranks leaving nothing that could be recognized as human in the scorched earth. The swarm of the enemy staggered forward but soon regained it lost momentum.