Galaxy of Heroes

Spade put out his cigar and stuck it back in his pocket. He lay beside Capt. Casey with his weapon pointed downrange.

“It’s too bad you never found Dr. Zander,” she said.

“I’ll find him,” he replied.

She looked at him for a moment. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

“It’s my fate to find him,” he said.

“I thought superstition went out of fashion fifty thousand years ago,” she said.

“Don’t jinx me, Mina.”

Several dozen humans ran out from the tree line at the far end of the plain. Some wore Heliac Defense Forces body armor while others were dressed in the black uniforms of Jod’s GDF.

Shots erupted from the trenches. The rounds zipped over the heads of the onrushing humans, who dropped beneath the grass.

“Identify yourselves!” Tarvey Rigo shouted out from one of the bunkers.

A big Megalan man dressed in a black GDF uniform arose from the grass with his hands up. “Hold your fire!” the big man said. “I am Director Hatchett of the Jod Corporation. We thought the Craaldans came in peace, but they hacked my men to pieces with their bayonets. We few are the last left.”

“What were you doing on the ridgeline?” Rigo yelled out across the field.

“Let us join your lines,” Hatchett said.

“Go back where you came from!” Rigo yelled.

Rigo took aim with his rifle from inside his bunker and fired a shot. Out on the field, Hatchett’s head exploded in a cloud of pink mist. He collapsed dead in the grass.

“Jeez,” Capt. Spade said.

The humans in the grass sprinted with their heads down back to the tree line.

Storm clouds were darkening the sky above the ridge. The wail of a siren arose and increased in volume. The haunting blare howled down from the mountain peaks.

Rain began to pelt the humans in the trenches. Lightning erupted from dark clouds that were moving fast overhead toward the city.

“Well, that’s ominous,” Capt. Casey said.

The humans that had just retreated to the tree line were disconcerted by the clamor echoing down from the mountains and reemerged from the trees with their hands up. They appeared confused and undecided, not sure whether to hide in the trees or run across the plain toward the human lines.

A steady clang, clang, clang of clashing bayonets increased in tempo and reverberated down the mountainsides.

The undecided humans made up their minds and sprinted back across the plain toward the human trenches.

Behind them, hundreds of fully armored Craaldan infantry soldiers burst from the trees in full sprint. They ran in squad wedge formations. The Craaldans popped bayonets from their fists, and sliced their blades into the much smaller humans that were fleeing before them.

They made quick work of the humans, cutting them down in quick bloody sweeps of their blades. The Craaldan infantry continued their sprint over the open ground toward the trench system.

The crew-served weapons in the bunkers opened up with a tremendous roar, ripping up the field in giant explosions of black dirt. From the trenches and foxholes, small arms fire erupted and a grazing fire of glowing molten metal streamed low over the grass.

Three rockets streaked down from the mountain ridge at the bunker complexes below. The rockets hit their mark and all three bunkers were pulverized beneath thunderous explosions.

When the blasts cleared, all that was left of the bunkers were craters that burned brightly, like magnesium fires. The Craaldan infantry skillfully dodged the barrage of molten metal as they ran across the plain closing in on the trenches. The few rounds that found their marks glanced off the Craaldan mechanized body armor.

When the Craaldans reached the center of the plain, a mine field detonated. A wall of black dirt exploded upward from one end of the field to the other. Cheers arose from the humans at the sight of the mighty explosion.

But the Craaldan soldiers rushed through the blast and continued their rapid advance. They unloaded with their weapons, tearing up the ground and ripping through the human lines. Blood and guts erupted from the trenches as exploding projectiles from the Craaldan infantry weapons tore through flesh and bone.

Ghez rose up from his foxhole and charged the enemy.

“What is he doing?” Spade said.

Spade scrambled out of his foxhole after him.

“Jace, get back!” Capt. Casey yelled.

Ghez ran at a Craaldan trooper and fired his weapon at center mass, landing direct hits. But the rounds bounced off the Craaldan’s armor.

The giant Craaldan swiftly lunged forward with his bayonet, puncturing Ghez through the abdomen. The Craaldan lifted Ghez up and the blade pierced out the big human’s back.

Ghez let out an angry yell. He fired a few more rounds at the Craaldan before blood gurgled from his mouth. The Craaldan flung Ghez off his bayonet with a quick flick of his wrist, and continued onward toward the trenches.

Spade ran up to Ghez and checked for a pulse. Ghez lay crumpled in the grass, already dead.

A storm of fire streamed over Spade’s head. Craaldan infantry were swarming across the plain and entering the human lines.

Capt. Casey put her hand on Spade’s shoulder. “We need to pull back,” she said.

Spade took Ghez’s headset and put it on. “This is Captain Jace Spade,” he said into the mike. “Fall back. Squad leaders, break contact and pull your squads back to the city. Then stand by for my orders. We’ll have a better chance of holding out where there’s more cover. Copy?”

Four squad leaders replied in unison, “Copy that.”

“Roger,” Spade said. “Stay tactical. Let’s give them a fight.”

Capt. Casey pulled Spade to his feet and they sprinted with their heads down back to the trenches as the rain spattered down. The first Craaldans had already breached and had quickly skewered the humans that had stayed to fight.

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey sprinted hard over the open ground to the city. Spade was directing the platoon’s four squad leaders as he ran.

He and Capt. Casey ran down the rubble strewn streets. They linked up with the squad leaders behind the massive smoking ruins of a collapsed building. Harklewood, a Megalan male, and two former HDF infantry soldiers looked to Spade for direction. Their faces were black with soot and carried worried expressions.

Spade pointed back down the narrow street. “It looks like a Craaldan battalion is targeting this sector. This street is their most likely avenue of approach. First squad takes the west side of the street. Second squad the east. Find good cover. Third squad pulls rear security. You have our backs. We concentrate our fire as they come down the street. If they give us an opening, we’ll lift fire and fourth squad flanks and assaults through. Then we fall back and start all over again. Copy?”

“Roger,” the squad leaders said.

Spade sent them back to their squads.

“You sound like a real infantryman,” Capt. Casey said. “Like Grimes, almost.”

“I’m winging it,” Spade said. “Who would have thought all those boring stories Grimes tells would be useful some day?”

Capt. Casey and Capt. Spade ran up the stairwell of a badly damaged building and hunkered down on the third floor where they had oversight of the wrecked urban terrain.

Capt. Casey’s face was sweaty and grimy. Her short black hair was wet and dirty and her black coveralls were torn. She lay next to Spade gripping her weapon and watching as the squads moved into position below.

“Have I ever told you that I find you incredibly attractive?” Spade said.

“Like a million times,” she said. “Like you tell all the girls.”

“I was thinking maybe after this is over you and me might get back together,” Spade said.

“That’ll never happen,” she said.

A squad of Craaldan soldiers appeared at the far end of the street. The Craaldans bounded toward them, occasionally firing bursts into buildings. When they were about 100 meters away, first and second squads opened up on them.

The squads concentrated their fire on the Craaldan squad leader, scoring directs hits center mass. The first several rounds knocked him back. Another burst penetrated his body armor, killing him. He fell on his back, sprawled in the center of the street.

The other Craaldans took cover in the rubble and returned fire.

“We’ve got our opening,” Spade said. “Follow me.”

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey ran down to the street and linked up with the fourth squad leader—a female former HDF soldier. She was a wiry woman with scars on her face and arms.

“What’s your name, squad leader?” Spade asked.

“Specialist Muda, sir,” she answered. “HDF Ranger in another life.”

“Outstanding,” Spade said. “Take fourth squad 100 meters that way, then flank right on my command,” Spade said.

“Roger that,” Muda said.

“Let’s move,” Spade said.

Capt. Spade and Capt. Casey ran with the squad as they darted through side streets and through the burned out lobbies of buildings.