The Drumlin Field: A Military Sci-Fi Adventure (I, Soldier Book 4) by Craig Martelle

Author:Craig Martelle [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Craig Martelle, Inc
Published: 2025-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – WALKING ON EGGSHELLS

The truth can be harsh. It can also be relative.

Yellow was out of hand grenades, as were the remaining four soldiers in his section. They couldn’t move forward and they couldn’t move back. Enemy soldiers had snaked in behind them, preventing their retreat while maintaining pressure to stymy their continued attack.

“Got ‘em where we want, Yellow!” Wheel Two shouted. “No matter which way we shoot, we’re going to hit something.”

Yellow wasn’t taken with the idea. He thought the camp had been empty and the soldiers were headed the other way. He hadn’t planned on getting surrounded. The way ahead was fraught with danger. Too many Skinnies were between his section and the incoming HFP. Mark 71s were lighting up the first hill of the drumlin field. The humans wouldn’t come racing over the hill like Beau had. They would pound the area beyond with rockets and grenades, then attack when they controlled the entire frontage.

The Skinnies would wither under such an attack, but there were still two lines of Skinnie soldiers between them and Yellow plus one behind.

It was grim and getting grimmer.

“End run?” Yellow suggested after firing a furious volley over top of the nearest hill.

“Better make it soon,” Wheel Two replied.

“How about now? No time like the present.” Yellow pumped his fist in the air. “End run, people. As fast as you can.”

“Compliance,” came the low replies.

Yellow crouched as he ran, even though the hilltops were over the soldiers’ heads. He didn’t want a Skinnie soldier making a quick and casual look to see them. At the end of the hill, they found it wasn’t to the ground but about half the height. It was lower but not ground-level. They’d have to go up and over, be exposed longer than they wanted. The hills to the right were steep, but not unclimbable.

Yellow never hesitated. He turned hard and sprinted over the top, highlighting himself as he bowled a Skinnie soldier out of the way by ramming his shoulder into the enemy’s vulnerable mid-section. He kept running, up and over the next hill. The last row of Skinnies was more prepared, and the firing began, but Yellow was moving too quickly for them to draw a bead on him. The other four soldiers bolted past, one after another. The third went down. The fourth tried to help him up, and that pause made him a solid target. The enemy soldiers turned his armor into a fully ventilated casket. He toppled, and the third soldier fell with him.

Yellow hit the ground and threw himself against the hill with the Skinnies on the other side. The HFP was coming at a full run. Ten sections wide, running like skirmishers in a straight line from north to south.

They weren’t within range of the Skinnie needle guns, but the drumlin was in range of the mortars. Rockets raced skyward. Volley after volley.

Concussions rippled through the drumlin field. The wheel soldiers didn’t have to be accurate. They only had to drop their rockets somewhere over the first hill.

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