Blood Red Sand by Damien Larkin

Author:Damien Larkin [Larkin, Damien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space Marine Science Fiction, colonization of mars, Military Science Fiction, Time Travel Science Fiction, Science fiction military adventure, Space war science fiction, Space warrior, Space Fleet Science Fiction
Publisher: Dancing Lemur Press LLC
Published: 2021-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

NEAR THE POTSDAM DISTRICT – EASTERN SECTOR

04.56 MST

DAY 2

“Jenkins. Jenkins. Wake your lazy arse up.”

Blinking his heavy eyelids open, Private Jenkins cradled his Lee-Enfield close to him as his senses flared back to life. Feeling like he had gotten a few minutes sleep, he checked his watch to see that it had been closer to two hours. Looking up at Private Morse, he nodded his head and lifted himself up from leaning against the cold concrete wall. Keeping his head low, he stretched his tired legs. He stepped over the bodies of his sleeping colleagues and crept quietly through the shell of the gutted beerhall.

In the distance, sporadic gunfire echoed throughout the night. The strange chill in the air sharpened his senses as he pushed onwards, passing rows of fatigued soldiers stealing what little sleep they could until the next Nazi attack. Crossing the roofless beerhall, he made his way towards what had once been the front door and paused to look up and down the street.

MEF soldiers sheltered in craters made from artillery shells or behind overturned automobiles. They sat in balconies overlooking the street and behind piles of wreckage from bomb-damaged shops and apartment blocks. In the distance, what looked like muzzle flashes came from the massive ornate building in the centre of the German colony. Jenkins wondered what daredevil MEF outfit had attacked so deep into enemy-controlled territory.

“Jenkins,” Corporal Brown hissed at him in the darkness. “Over here. Double time.”

Keeping his head low, Jenkins darted towards the crater and dove in. He landed beside the corporal, and raising his rifle, he pointed it directly ahead. The street remained deathly quiet, but a curious sensation swept over him that, somewhere in the shroud of night, unseen eyes watched their every movement. He glanced back at the corporal, nodding to show he sat alert and at the ready, Corporal Brown sank back into the crater. Laying his Lee-Enfield across his knee, the corporal fought to supress a tired yawn. He lifted a flask nestled at his feet. He unscrewed the lid, and after pouring himself a cap full of tea, he sank his helmeted head into the concrete wall of the crater. When he raised the tea to his lips, a call cut over the battalion’s comm channel.

“Looks like we got movement,” Private Kelly said from the forward observation post.

“What have you got, Kelly?” Sergeant Richards responded.

“Not sure. Maybe a dozen or so people heading towards our lines. Could be civvies. I can’t see weapons, but it’s fairly dark, Sarge.”

“Sniper One,” the sergeant said. “Have you eyes on them?”

“Confirmed, Sarge,” Lance Corporal Prescott answered. “Looks like a dozen all right. No weapons that I can see, but some of them are in uniform.”

“Could be deserters,” Kelly said with a tint of hope in his voice.

“Wait One,” Sergeant Richards said in reply.

The comm channel fell silent. Jenkins’s gaze shifted from side to side, scanning the blackened street ahead, but he couldn’t see anything.

“All units,” Sergeant Richards spoke again. “We have a flare coming up.

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