Valor's Child by Spriggs Kal

Author:Spriggs, Kal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sutek Press
Published: 2017-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen: The Daily Grind

We didn't get much further than the southern boundary before we came under fire. Dawson was on point and he dove for cover as someone took him under fire. All of us went down and for just a moment, all I could do was hug the dirt as bullets passed overhead. They were only training rounds, I told myself, but they still hurt... and something about the raw surprise of coming under attack just took all the fight out of me.

Yet as I looked around and saw my squad, I saw they were frightened too. We were just kids, after all. This wasn't a game, though, this was training for war... and in war, we couldn't afford to lay out in the open while someone fired at us. Someone had to take charge... and apparently that someone was me.

I popped my head up and saw what I could. I spotted three of them on the ridge above us and a couple more off to the side. “Dawson, you good?”

“Yeah,” he said, “my armor caught the couple hits, scared the crap out of me, though.”

“Dawson,” I said, “you and the twins get ready to lay down some cover fire to the north.” If they fired in the direction of our ambushers, it should make them get their heads down or at least shake their aim a bit. “Wallace, Conklin, Mikuluk, and Takenata, you're with me, we're going to assault right and then move up north.” I was nervous and I hoped I'd used the right words. Sashi had drilled me on them mercilessly as well as some basic reaction drills, which she said was about all they would expect out of us.

I hope this works, I thought. “Dawson, go!” I shouted. A moment later, he and the Zahler twins others opened fire, a racket of rapid shots aimed at the enemy in general, designed to shake them up and get their heads down.

At the same time, I popped up and sprinted to the right. Ahead of me I saw the two ambushers open up, but I and the rest of my squad fired from the hip as we ran up. It wasn't accurate fire, it wasn't even what the Cadet Instructors had taught us with an assault, but it was enough to cause both of them to hesitate.

Then we were on them. I saw a girl, my age and dressed like another candidate, only a few meters away. I raised my rifle and fired, just as she did. Her training round hissed past my ear while mine somehow caught her right in the throat. I saw her clutch at the hit and stumble back, then fall to one knee.

Behind me I heard more shots and I turned to see that Takenata had downed the other ambusher as he was about to shoot me in the back. “Forward,” I shouted and pointed up the ridge. We sprinted that way and a moment later we scrambled up to the top.

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