A Warrior's Home by Craig Martelle & Scott Moon

Author:Craig Martelle & Scott Moon [Martelle, Craig & Moon, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

***

Thaddeus Fry saw the turret stop. He couldn’t hear what was going on inside the tank. The noise of battle drowned out even the sound of thought.

He dodged to the side because it was disconcerting looking at the business end of a high-powered plasma weapon. He jumped on the tank, grabbed the dead tank commander, and yanked him out. Thad threw the man’s body over the side. Maximus’s bloody face appeared in the cupola.

“All taken care of?” Thad yelled into the opening. The pig-dog nodded and disappeared inside.

Thad went feet-first through the opening. Two bloody bodies were within. The first was at the foot of the ladder, and the colonel made quick work of stuffing him up and out. The driver wasn’t going to be so easy. Thad crawled inside, found the driver’s hatch, and popped it open. He couldn’t leverage himself around the corpse, so he had to inch the man’s body upward and through the opening. The sounds of battle slowed.

He hurried back to the cupola and looked out. The surviving tanks were on the move. TerroCom soldiers were running in full retreat. Mortar rounds landed ineffectively.

He jumped back inside. The tank had not yet fired its plasma cannon. It was fully charged and ready to go. Thad put his eye to the scope and started sorting targets, farthest to closest with least amount of turret movement in between.

He hadn’t been a tanker during the war, but he was in Melborn Ground Forces property. He was familiar. He hated that it was killing his people.

He centered the first target and fired, then walked the main weapon backwards, killing the targets before they could rotate their turrets and finish him. He spun the turret and fired without stopping. The enemy never had a chance.

Nine burning tanks later, he finished his three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin.

“I’m glad you didn’t have to drive, Max,” Thad told the pig-dog. “And thanks for saving my life.”

Thad keyed his microphone. “All hands, the enemy tanks have been neutralized. Get your asses down here! I’m in the only tank not burning so don’t kill me. Platoon leaders, report casualties ”

“First platoon, fourteen dead, six wounded.” The man sounded defeated. They’d been too close when the tanks counterattacked.

Thad kept his reply short. “Roger.”

“Second platoon, five wounded.” Thad breathed a sigh of relief. Third and fourth platoons reported no fatalities as well. Fifth platoon had also been on the wrong end of plasma cannons. Eighteen dead. Fifth platoon had broken and ran when the tanks opened fire. They’d been wiped out. Only the platoon leader and the soldier next to her had survived, and only because she tripped the man when he tried to run and jumped on top of him to stay low.

Thad started to climb from the tank, but incoming fire drove him back inside. He swung the turret around and saw enemy soldiers running toward him. He fired. The plasma cut a path through the men. The survivors scattered, running for their lives. TerroCom soldiers cut them down one by one.

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