Spartan Guile: An Orion Porter Novel (Spartan Trilogy Book 3) by Toby Neighbors

Author:Toby Neighbors [Neighbors, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Mythic Adventure Publishing
Published: 2019-01-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

“All units, we are a go,” Captain Kole said, signaling our phase of the attack to begin.

“Ready to light it up, Polaski?” I said.

“Recon is always ready,” she replied calmly. “Fire in the hole.”

I watched as she toggled the thumb trigger on the Sharps LRRG. The plunger snapped forward so fast my eyes couldn’t track it. It hit the stoppers on the end of the rifle with a pop, and a second later an explosion rocked the jungle near the road the Marine engineers had cut. Fire rolled up and out, filling the impact zone with dark smoke. I heard trees falling, and the aliens at the edge of the tree line that wasn’t under fire slunk back into the shadows.

Polaski seemed not to notice or care. She quickly loaded another thermobaric round into the rail gun and fired. The second explosion seemed even larger than the first. I felt the ground beneath me shake, and there were several land slides.

“Alpha platoon,” Staff Sergeant Droksney shouted, “move out!”

The Marines started down the hill, moving toward the smoke-shrouded blast sight. Part of me wished I was going with them. I wanted to see what was left of the jungle around the road, and help organize the defenses, but my job was to stand overwatch at fifty meters up the mountain. I had a squad of ten Marines, and we were slowly following the main group. The ground continued to shudder, as if the planet was in pain. Over the comm-link, I heard reports of rock slides and tremors from the other squads who were in reserve positions around the crater of the volcano.

The smoke was beginning to clear at the base of the mountain, although several trees were still on fire. I could see a large debris field on either side of the road. The soil was torn up from tree roots that had been pulled up. There were charred logs, piles of blackened wood chunks piled around the few trees still standing, which had been stripped of limbs and leaves. Droksney was barking orders, and his Marines had already begun moving the larger chunks of debris.

“Set up here,” I ordered my squad.

We had no cover, but I didn’t think we really needed any. We were out of range of all the natives’ weapons, but our assault rifles would easily reach to the trees at the base of the mountain.

“Report any sign of movement,” I said. It was an unnecessary order, but I reminded the Marines anyway.

Half of my squad watched the tree line to the right of the jungle road. The other half watched the left side. I was looking from one to the other, but there was no sign of the natives which had been clearly visible moving among the trees a few moments before.

“No sign of hostiles,” one of my Marines reported.

“It won’t stay that way for long,” I warned them. “Until the rest of the platoon has their defenses in place, we’re the only cover they’ve got.

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