Galaxy of Heroes

The sergeant major briefed his squad. Alpha fire team would lay down a base of fire. Bravo fire team would flank right and assault the bunker. Spade and Professor Mahlis would stay back with alpha team, while Sergeant Major Rupa would lead the assault.

“By the numbers,” Rupa said to his troops. “No time for second best. Copy?”

“Copy that, Sergeant Major,” the squad said in unison.

Rupa and bravo team moved out to the north, quickly and expertly.

Spade and Mahlis followed Sgt. Shard and his three-man fire team as they skirted the edge of the ravine. Pvt. Phleg stayed close to Mahlis. Alpha team rifleman Pvt. Zay walked slowly, scanning their right flank. On the left flank was their gunner, Pvt. Chank, who swung his oversized CX-1049 from the left to the right as he moved between boulders.

Sgt. Shard signaled for them to get down. The squad low crawled in a line and took cover in 30-meter spaced intervals. The enemy bunker was 300 meters out at their 12 o’clock.

They lay motionless as a drone passed overhead. Spade could see five Diocons through the aperture in their bunker. Their red eyes glowed in the blackness of the moonscape as their heads swiveled, searching the plain for movement.

The swirling colors of mighty Roga appeared behind the peaks of the Craggy Mountains.

“Fire!” Sgt. Shard said. “Give ’em all we’ve got!”

The fire team’s CX-649s spit out a fusillade of fire at the bunker. Pvt. Chank’s CX-1049 hit the bunker with thunderous blasts.

The Diocons returned fire with blasts from their armonium cannons. Then their crew-served weapon opened up, raking the moonscape with walls of exploding metal.

Spade kept his head down under a tremendous firestorm that kicked up huge plumes of rock and ice. A curtain of deadly shrapnel whizzed only centimeters above him.

Suddenly, Professor Mahlis stood up and ran for the rear. He stumbled and fell only to get up again and continue running.

“Down, you idiot!” Sgt. Shard shouted.

Pvt. Phleg stood and ran after the professor. Phleg caught him from the rear and threw him behind a boulder, but in the process was struck by a round from an armonium cannon.

The round took Pvt. Phleg’s head clean off. Phleg stood headless. The vacuum of Naos sucked his innards out through his neck in a geyser of blood and guts. Phleg’s blood and guts froze instantly and spattered about on the ground. His body fell backward and landed with a shudder in a cloud of dust.

The remaining squad members kept up their rate of fire, blasting away at the bunker. They then shifted fire to the south.

Spade watched to the north as Rupa and his squad arose from the moonscape and sprinted toward the bunker’s vulnerable flank.

Two Diocons emerged from the bunker’s rear door and aimed their cannons at the assaulting squad.

Rupa’s riflemen, Pvt. Hett and Pvt. Gango, hit the dirt, while Sgt. Major Rupa, Sgt. Boke, and gunner Pvt. Reep continued their charge.

Sgt. Boke took a round in the center of his chest. His arms, legs and head ripped away from his body in a flash of fire.

Hett and Gango blasted away at the two Diocons, knocking them down with direct hits.

Rupa and Pvt. Reep sprinted up under fire and took cover against the side of the bunker. Hett and Gango reached the bunker and backed against its rear wall, keeping their weapons trained on the rear door.

With Reep covering, Rupa reached around and tossed a grenade through the bunker’s front aperture.

The grenade exploded, rocking the moonscape with a powerful shockwave and spewing flame from the front aperture. The bunker’s rear door flung open.

A Diocon soldier staggered out the open door. Hett and Gango immediately cut the Diocon to shreds with slashes from the bayonets that protruded from their fists.

Rupa and Reep ducked into the bunker’s rear door. Spade could see the flashes inside as they systematically executed the Diocons with quick bursts from their weapons.

Sgt. Shard stood and signaled for alpha fire team to move forward. “Private Zay, you’ve got the professor,” Shard said.

“Roger,” Pvt. Zay said.

As they moved across the open ground, three drones rose from the horizon and raced above the moonscape toward them.

“Go, go, go!” Shard shouted.

The fire team sprinted for the bunker as the drones fired off a barrage of missiles that exploded around them.

Pvt. Zay disintegrated inside the blast from a missile strike.

Pvt. Chank stopped in his tracks amid the explosions and aimed his big gun skyward. With three quick bursts, he brought down the drones, which crashed against the moon’s surface and cart-wheeled over the rock and ice.

Sgt. Shard and his remaining fire team entered the bunker. Alpha team was already inside. Rupa was seated atop the smoking metal carcass of a Diocon soldier. He was scanning a database through a charred and cracked display screen.

“I was wrong,” Spade said to Rupa. “The old soldier survives to fight another day.”

“I’m old, but I’m not rusty,” Rupa said. “Status check.”

“Private Zay and Private Phleg killed in action,” Shard said. “Professor Mahlis, Pvt. Chank and the human are alive.”

“Sergeant Boke killed in action,” Pvt. Gango said. “Private Hett and Private Reep are up.”

“Roger,” Rupa said. “Private Gango, you’ve got bravo.”

“Roger that,” Pvt. Gango said.

“We must move quickly, Sergeant Major,” Professor Mahlis said.

“Roger,” Rupa said. “Human, you’re back on point. We’ll follow you up the ravine.”

“We’ve revealed our position,” Spade said. “The ravine is a no go.”

“Lead us up the ravine, Captain,” Professor Mahlis said. “Time is of the essence.”

“A kill team on the ridgeline could pick us off one by one,” Spade said. “That’s if the drones don’t get us first. If we lay low and move around the backside of the ridgeline, we might have a chance of surviving this mission. I know the terrain. It will be slow, but there is plenty of cover back there.”

“Captain Spade,” the professor said. “I am a student of Diocon standard operating procedures. The enemy is currently occupied with the possibility of a frontal attack from the Craaldan main body. They will send a reconnaissance platoon here to investigate and will determine that the size of our force is insignificant, and that their priorities are elsewhere. There will be no kill team on the ridgeline. Now quit stalling and take us up the ravine.”