[FH] Breaking News - Chronicle of Operation Colossus 3-of-6

The battle of Lasalle Plains

Krak like to operate at night. This was well illustrated on the next day,
January 14th, when the central and northern Swabian reserve forces joined in a
pincer movement on the plateau. They fell mainly on empty territory as the
Krak forces had withdrawn ahead of them before first light, but a little
further to the east they successfully cut off the Krak withdrawal (which must
have hit some snag to be so far behind the rest of their forces). My tank was
part of the force ordered to push along the top of the plateau from the west,
and secure the area. We also had to cover the Swabian's flank as they dealt
with the aliens they'd encircled. Even as we fortified our position and the
usual assortment of traps, obstacles and mines were tossed about I couldn't
help feeling we were pretty thinly spread along the plateau and valley edge
and that we
were still vulnerable to a counter-attack. I didn't feel any safer when
Irshad confirmed that Krak reinforcements, nearly all armour and artillery,
had moved into the area.

It was early evening when the Krak started counter attacking with real force.
We managed to brave out the night, mainly by hauling ass this way and that as
the holes opened up. It had been days since we'd really slept and my eyeballs
felt like they were lined with sand. I failed in my fight with fatigue at
least three times during the night. The first time I was jarred awake when an
artillery strike destroyed the neighbouring tank; its remnants pounding down
on us like hail on my grandfather's greenhouse. The second time I was knocked
awake by Todd restocking from the ammo truck before we jerked across country
to the west. Third time was the rudest, a loud bang, like we were inside a
church bell, that threw us about in our seats, made us glad we were all
strapped in. Todd turned to me, a grin of relief on his face "Glancing blow,
just a loving peck on the cheek from your alien lovers out there." I thanked
my Lord the MDC hadn't gotten anymore intimate.

It took me a long while to settle my heart rate after that. The slightest
creak taking on ominous new meaning in my mind, as I imagined scenarios where
some critical, but unseen component had been weakened by the strike.
Eventually though the shuddering progression westward became soothing and I
dozed off. This may seem strange to those who haven't been in such a sleep
deprived state. I know some can run for almost a week with little sleep, but I
am not among them. I can manage a day or two, with the world increasingly rite
large with hallucinogenic brightness. Then, unless I remain in constant
action, my adrenaline runs dry and fatigue claims me no matter how I struggle
against it. I remember clawing my way out of this particular slumbering coma
by holding fast to the sensation of Todd shaking my shoulder and wafting an
already warmed ration pack below my nose. I gratefully took the food from him,
trying to drag some semblance of professional dignity together in front of his
grinning visage. It was hot and tasty as far as memory serves. One of those
meals that shouldn't be analysed in detail, just appreciated.

After my meal I got about acquainting myself with our new position. We were on
the southern edge of the Lasalle Plains, east of Lethbrige; a great stretching
expanse before us. The wind was slowly picking up and making the grasses
ripple. The effect was to give the sense that you were part of some great
quivering desert mirage. My mind wandered back to childhood memories of
searching for crickets in local pastures. The image was quite dashed however,
when I realised the dark shapes in the far end of the view (which had brought
to mind the chitinous targets of childhood curiosity) were Krak grav tanks,
hundreds of them. Suddenly I felt far less nostalgic and more what I fancied
cavalry men of yore felt when lined up face to face on some ancient
battlefield. As this point I wondered at my own romanticism and began to
suspect that Todd may have well intentionally added a little something to my
rations to help my nerves. I began a quick circuit of the mental exercises I
used to gauge impairment after a long day or heavy night. The whole thing
quickly became a moot point though as Irshad announced "we have the go boys,
let's move." Soon after came the order for Todd to start firing the laser at
any target that presented itself. This was a totally different fight to the
grinding, bone jarring one of a few days before when we had assaulted the
escarpments edging Vinogradov. Here we were flowing over flat land at speed,
firing on the move and dodging incoming fire with fluid sweeps not teeth
rattling encounters with terrain. The Kraks had a grand battery of twenty odd
artillery pieces lying across the low hills marking their end of the plain. In
front of them sat four brigades of
medium-sized Krak tanks (which apparently passed as light tanks for this
heavily armoured species) and two brigades of the big 'Killjoy' MBTs. That
gave me pause. Irshad must have sensed this as he murmured "Its ok boys, we've
got five divisions here with ten times the tanks, they can't face that."

"It's not that they can't, we f'ing now they can. It's will they." Jose
returned, making a vigorous swerve around a Krak shot as if to underline his
point. This terrain was well suited to the long ranged HEL equipped tanks the
Anglians had committed to the battle on the plain. By my
reckoning of the pulses on Irshad's holo-board we must have hit every
Krak tank at least once if not thrice over. Still they sat there and covered
their artillery, spitting fire back at us like enraged beetles. The battle in
miniature played out on Irshad's board made it much easier to follow what was
what. Units were represented by scaled markers correct in form but tiny and
painted in primary colours dependent on their status and affiliation.

For a long while we hung back to maximise the HEL advantage, but in the end we
were ordered to close, to destroy the artillery that was pounding our advances
over the eastern horizon. As the range closed the speeds slowed, but the
evasive course changes increased. Now we were taking the fight right in to
them, the heavier Krak tanks bogged us down fast. The situation grew tenser
with each Krak volley as their great guns were having much more effect than
our laser strikes had earlier. The sky was darkening with a mix of
thunderheads and dust kicked up by the heavy traffic and manoeuvres, but they
only served to backdrop the iridescent fire ripping over the plain. Long
neatly straight lines of laser fire making a crazy nest of angles, dotted
lines of pellet and tracer fire, exploding warheads. The deep contrasts on the
boards etched the images onto my eyes so they glowed there even when I shut
them against the onslaught. My ears also picked up the telltale whine of our
air conditioning system labouring under the effort of attempting to dissipate
waste heat in an increasingly charged atmosphere. To my over extended senses
it seemed as if our tank whined and shuddered more intensely with each
friendly marker that shifted from soft green to dead black on Irshad's board.
We had been targeted numerous times, but all had ended as near misses or
successes for our ECM, stealthing or PDS systems. The technology impressed me,
but not nearly as much as the instinctive feel Jose, Ben and Todd had for the
systems they ran. In this age of AI and VR I was exceptionally glad to be
sitting amongst flesh and blood.

We continued jostling in and out of short lived firefights as we crept across
the field. "Can you make that fold, bearing 310, behind the wreck of that
Phalanx?" Irshad queried. "Yep, but we'll be open for at least 45 seconds."
Jose cast a glance round for the confirmatory nod. "Do it." There's the nod.
"Here we go again." Todd quipped. "Incoming top... decoys away... PDS
activated." Ben's hands flicked over panels his eyes could only be scanning
peripherally as they danced between a profusion of channels on the boards to
his in front and side. "And more, we have three more incoming...PDS has it
down to one... armour has deployed... BRACE ". The deep clang of metal on
metal, then a collective exhalation as we all realised how lucky we were to be
hit by a dud. "Target locks on the SAMs at 15 and 45" Todd reported, all
serious now. "Go 15's side, 45 looks like it's already a walk" advised Irshad.
The lights dimmed briefly as the taxed systems were seconded to the main gun.
The cloud of smoke and red dust that accompanied the alien tank's
nose-dive into the plain was a gratifying sight. Jose edged in behind
cover, as much as he could, before he shared in Todd's success with a pat to
his back. Jose had chosen well as the ground to either side of our hide was
torn up, but we sat untouched. Fewer and fewer friendlies showed green on
Irshad's board. I was quietly watching Irshad weigh up our next action when
flights of pale yellow VTOLs swarmed from east and west in on the red Krak
artillery markers Irshad was so intently studying. You had to grudgingly
admire the raw courage or complete insanity of the Euri commandos fast roping
down on the arty batteries. They swarmed the positions like voracious insects.
I could just make out Euri's in close quarters with Krak monsters, who
appeared from the bellies of the immense artillery pieces. Irshad, or Todd,
dialled in closer and we got a good view of the lightly armed but numerous
Euri troopers trying to stay out of the Krak's reach, slowly luring them out
into open ground. Then a red curtain fell (or rather rose) cutting our view,
as snipers and chain guns on the VTOLs opened up on the baited Kraks. A few of
the wounded came pounding out through the curtain obviously psychotically
enraged. A decade ago when the xenowar had first begun many had fallen to
these shock attacks. Even today they were frightening, terrifying, but no
longer nearly as lethal, as we'd learned new tricks; learnt how to exploit
their rage and use it as a weapon in our arsenal. Instead of fleeing before
the charge the bulk of the Euri's went to ground spraying the alien line with
overlapping bursts of automatic fire. In the midst of this the few commandos
still on their feet tossed grenades, and what I can only guess were small
mines, in to the path of the closing alien berserkers before they also dived
to the ground. When the smoke and dust kicked up by that manoeuvre was over,
no Krak was left standing. It took another quarter hour to dispatch of the
incapacitated, done from a distance, as these monsters are lethal even when
half paralysed or with limbs missing. As the Euris cautiously moved further
into the artillery emplacements there were many repeats of that little play,
not all as crisp, but eventually all ending in our favour.

The swaying of the tank and staccato discussions never let me forget that
there were more than alien artillery men and hyped up Euri's out there. A
sudden punch to my middle and a rolling pressing weight on my lungs told me
that this time we were hit, seconds before a panel over my head showered
sparks in my hair. The fire suppression spray made short shrift of it, but
left the back of my neck and ears stinging where it shot out past the rear of
my head. I also had a dull ache in my ears, though the ringing decayed fairly
quickly. The boys remained all business, patching cuts, checking panels, doing
quick system checks. Seemed as far as the inside of the tank was concerned I
probably wore the worst of it. The outside wasn't as well off, but Irshad
assured me that a little BDAR would see us back in the thick of things within
a day.

When Jose tried moving us to a safer bolt-hole, the screeching of metal
on metal and shuddering halt as we struck fast on something made me fear that
Irshad have been overly optimistic. None of the external mounts could tell us
what we were pinned on, the undercarriage sensor array being one of the
victims of the impact. Todd volunteered to crawl out and eyeball the problem.
I had to get up so he could root round in a locker under my seat. I guessed he
was the man for the job as he'd grown
up in one of the fairly isolated agro-colonies that satellited the
bigger settlements on Piscis. Necessity would've made him master of the
improvised repair. He stood up with a spreading grin, a deep rumbling chuckle
and some kind of plasma torch. "Oh right." I stated. "Last thing we want is
for you to be making us a target by firing on them. So you're the tits on the
bull." I felt silly; my years behind a desk had dulled me more than I'd
thought! "Hey you don't have to colour up like a beet, you figured it for
yourself, puts you streets ahead of the usual vid-star we get lumbered
with." Todd gave me a friendly pat as he ducked his head and pushed past for
the rear hatch. "Is that for cutting us free or shooting Krak's?" I asked
nodding towards the torch. "Both" he winked as he put it up through the hatch
and started clambering up himself. With a grunt and a small kick he was out. I
heard him scrabble over the back of the tank. Ben tracked his progress on the
surviving surface mounts, simultaneously keeping an eye out for unfriendlies.
Todd slid off the back. We watched him move past the rear corner and duck out
of sight. Ben momentarily forgot we'd lost the bottom array and we were
greeted by a black screen. Time dragged then, Ben flipping through external
shots. Finally Todd's deep voice cut in, the ear pieces making him sound like
he was back inside with us. "Dead wheel boss, bearing and rod are half cut.
We're impaled on our own left
mid-wheel. Best option is corrective surgery I reckon"
"Make it quick." Irshad replied. A raw tearing noise vibrated up from beneath
us. It consumed the ambient good cheer. I tried scanning the screens from my
perch up back, but settled on inspecting my nails. My mother wouldn't have
been impressed. "Shit. Todd you gotta get back in here, SAMs heading our way!"
My eyes shot to the vision over Ben's head; there were five Krak flitting hulk
to hulk their etched armour creating sickening interference patterns on the
surveillance pics. They were heading directly our way. "Nearly done." Todd's
voice strained over the background of noise. "Don't dawdle, I don't know how
long I can give you." Irshad shot back. I watched the Kraks closing. They were
coming from the right, so for now Todd must be largely out of their view.
Three hulks short of us they darted behind cover, rifle fire spewing from a
crumpled form sprawled behind the dead tank's laser turret. They returned
fire, the body strikes knocked the already wounded tanker down to the ground.
Still the body fired and continued to do so for another five Krak volleys
before falling silent. I was proud of the grit that wouldn't give in to these
invaders, wouldn't just lie down. A part of me couldn't help be impressed by
the aliens though. No panic, no waste, simple bursts until the job was done.
Their efficiency in ending the threat was clinical. They were good at what
they did; you had to give them that.

While four sat back and covered the area, the Krak that appeared to be in
command, its armour more intricately etched than the others, moved out,
cautiously, approaching the body. Using its boot it rolled the tanker over.
Then with a quick scan of the immediate area it let its rifle hang down its
side and bent and cut the polyclad from the torso. Grabbing the lower end of
the bloodied torso the Krak wrenched. Having rent the sternum the monster
suddenly straightened lifting a handful of entrails into the air, the lifeless
body arching slightly beneath this horrific display. Mercifully my view was
broken then as I threw myself forward, the burning hot rawness of acid and
bile tearing my throat as I vomited into the remnants of an old ration pack. I
was shaking, weak, but the image in my mind prevented me from stopping,
uncontrollable waves rolling up my guts. Ben's urgent voice was screaming at
Todd, "Get the fuck back in here now!" "Just another inch..." "Fucking now!!!"
Todd must have got the message as I caught him on Ben's monitor pulling
himself onto the rear ladder. Fear in his black smeared face as he finally saw
the Krak approaching. The two in the lead continued running up in a half bent
crouching lope, the bloody one that had torn the tanker apart dropped to one
knee and took aim at Todd, and the last two stood in behind the end of a
gutted MkIV Striker and fired from the shoulder. Todd dove behind a pile of
packs, shovels and crates tied behind the rear hatch. Irshad desperately tried
to buy time by playing an APSW over the Krak positions. His efforts weren't
unrewarded, one Krak going down and the others pulled up short. "I'm here, but
I can't get clear to open the hatch. No purchase." A frantic Todd rattled over
the comms. Irshad's brow was drenched, his gaze fixed to the screens in front,
his hips and shoulders swivelled as he moved his fire around like he was in
some first-person shooter booth. Another Krak down, but the other two
were still firing at Todd. "Jose gun the engines, Ben cover the feeds and you
get the hatch". It took an instant to realise he meant me and then I felt all
thumbs as I sprang the harness and stumbled for the hatch. My mind was
flooded, but my fingers got it right and Todd slid down past me, shots clanged
off the hatch itself as they tried to track him in.
"Wheel's, gone, mid-left, should, be fine, if, no bounces." Todd forced
out sucking in big lung fulls as he flopped into his seat and buckled in. He
was a mess, dark with sweat, covered in smoke, grease; smudged black, brown,
grey; chunks missing from his polyclad where he'd been clipped by shots that
had passed through the packs he'd been hiding behind. The side of his comm
piece had been laid bare and it was a wonder it had worked at all. A few
shuddering lung fulls later cheery Todd was back, checking his boards and
trying to raise a banter. "Well they could have been friendlier. Speaking of
which, smells like someone's been on a bender in here. Someone get a dodgy
ration pack or has Jose's driving finally proven too much?" I could feel my
cheeks colouring with embarrassment, but Jose saved me with a flat "Don't
ask." Beyond icily calm instruction from Irshad that's the last anyone said
for a long time.

<Continued in Part Four>