Gears of War by Karen Traviss

Author:Karen Traviss [Traviss, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-51954-2
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2010-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

SHAVAD, NEAR THE SOUTHWEST KASHKUR BORDER.

If the war ever reached Ephyra, then it would look like this, Adam realized.

Shavad had the same elegant, tree-lined avenues and fountain-filled squares as the Tyran capital, the same colonnaded public buildings. The style was more oriental and exotic, but the city was the heart of a modern province where people liked shopping and theaters and clean trains that ran on time. The people were just like Tyrans.

Yes, it would be just like this. And that scared him.

He tried his radio again. This time the channel was working. “Gold Nine to Control, we requested casevac an hour ago. I’ve got Gears down, a lot of them Tango-One—they can’t wait for you to finish your coffee break. What’s happening?”

It took a few moments for the controller to respond. Adam counted three incoming shells in that time, one so close that he felt the brick dust sting his eyes a few seconds later as the blast washed down the road.

“Control to Gold Nine, you’re not the only company taking heavy casualties.” The controller sounded fraught. “We’ve lost five Terns to ground fire during attempted extractions—you suppress the Indies behind the lines, and maybe we’ll have something left flying to send you.”

They seemed to be everywhere. It wasn’t just the artillery, tanks, and missiles from across the river that were tearing the guts out of the Shavad defenses. On the north side, the fragile front line of the city itself, COG ground forces were getting hit in the back from snipers and mortar fire. Adam could only think that the UIR had been slipping special forces into Kashkur for months ahead of Vasgar’s collapse.

And I bet they engineered the end of the Vasgari government as well.

“Control, we need some routes cleared, too. We can’t get the ATVs out to the north.”

“Roger that, Gold Nine. I can divert a Behemoth for you. One hour, maybe two. It’s leaving Lakar soon.”

Adam took off his gloves and spat on his fingers to try to wipe the grit from his eyes. He always hated wearing goggles, but now he was going to make a point of finding a complete helmet. His eyeballs felt scoured; his mouth was caked with dust and grit.

It had now taken him half an hour to move less than a hundred meters down the road. Every time he tried to make a dash for the next available cover—a doorway, basement steps, a burned-out truck—a hail of fire drove him back. A mortar blew tiles off a nearby roof, raining shards on him. The Indie barrage had changed the landmarks of the area so much in the last couple of hours that he had to check his compass to make sure he was still heading the right way. He didn’t recognize a single major building along the river now.

But he had to move. He couldn’t cower here all day. He took a deep breath to steady himself and then ran for it, moving in short sprints from cover to cover.

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