The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) by Bob Lee

Author:Bob Lee [Lee, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-07-04T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

One month later …

“Joon-bee! Mog-pyo! Hwa-jai!” A volley of fire erupted, sending bullets flying across the Moon’s surface.

“Hwa-jai, Hwa-jai,” Another two volleys spewed their destruction at the targets. At least a few projectiles hit.

“Good. Now have them reform, Li Xiansheng,” commanded NCO Wong.

“Position two, on my command,” Li Julong said reluctantly. “Execute.” He could not believe that he had been railroaded into becoming the second in command of the military drills. The general had gone back on his promise. Every fiber of the scientist rebelled at commanding men to shoot firearms, but he had no choice if he was to avoid punishment.

The third row of three Koreans rushed to reform. Those three, who had had their backs braced against the second row to negate the recoil of their rifles, turned around to face forward. The middle row of four Koreans who were standing now knelt, leaning their backs against the legs of their comrades. The front row of three Koreans who had been kneeling stood and scurried to become the third row in the rear. They leaned their backs against the second row. Their function was to brace the formation while covering any threats from the rear. The two front rows were now ready to commence their bombardment.”

“Joon-bee! Mog-pyo! Hwa-jai!” the NCO barked, giving the ‘Ready, Aim, Fire’ command in Korean once more. Another fusillade of bullets spewed towards the targets. As before, with such a mass of projectiles, at least a few found their nearby objective.

“Now, have them move to the next enemy,” Sgt. Wong told Julong through their helmet radios.

“Dragon formation, form up,” said the chief scientist. The Koreans who were kneeling stood, and the ones in the back faced forward. They all took their guns and slid them into bags and closed them up to protect them against the invasive Moon dust. This only took a moment, and Julong yelled, trying to be a bit more convincing this time, “To the next location!”

The three row formation scurried towards the next set of targets. They did not require any ‘hup, two, three, four,’ or ‘left, right, left’ chants. Their formation running and Taekwondo martial arts forms practice of the last month had allowed them to perfect moving as one. The Koreans all hopped from their left foot to their right in sync, looking in their spacesuits like a group of demonic Pillsbury Dough Boys in motion. The chief scientist brought up the rear, carrying the spare rifles, which were also contained in bags and tied in a giant cluster on his back. “And they also made me a glorified pack mule,” Julong thought in disgust. As the formation reached a position close to their next target, he said, “Halt. Assume position three.” The scientist was huffing and puffing, but after a month of this he at least was no longer on the verge of collapse. He pulled the quick release tab and the bagged spare rifles slid to the ground.

The three rows of Koreans unpacked their rifles and the kneeling and standing rows prepared to fire.

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