Armor Brigade: Armor Brigade #1 by Toby Neighbors

Author:Toby Neighbors [Neighbors, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952260520
Publisher: Mythic Adventure Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 24

They were picked up by a transport an hour after Nash died. They had run until help arrived and climbed onto the hovercraft exhausted.

“Just the two of you?” the pilot asked.

“Yes,” Cosmo said.

“Nash didn’t make it,” Dyson added.

“Sorry to hear that,” the pilot said, but he didn’t sound surprised.

They flew up and right back over the bombing site. Normally it would have been dangerous to fly over the Ma’Tis lines, but the aliens were disorganized. Cosmo and Dyson looked down through the window. There was a huge crater, the soil blackened from the heat. The edges of the bowl-shaped indentation in the landscape were littered with debris from the tank, but there was nothing else left from the massive vehicle. It had been a perfect hit, and there were bodies piled up around the scorched earth too. The Ma’Tis died on their backs, their legs curled in like spiders and their dark blood oozing into the ground.

“They nailed the bastards,” Dyson said.

“Unbelievable,” Cosmo said. “There’s nothing left of that tank.”

“I guess that slowed down their assault.”

“But they aren’t going back,” Cosmo pointed out. “There’s still thousands of them.”

The enemy lines were disjointed. Some sections had continued forward, others were spread out or even just wandering around in an aimless fashion. But there were thousands of the aliens—more than Cosmo had imagined. They were down but not out of the fight, and the sight of them made him feel small and weak.

The transport took them back to Mammoth, where they were taken into a room to remove their armor. It went into a charging rack while they were given sandwiches. Cosmo was so tired he felt like he could sleep standing up. But an officer with Captain’s insignia and the same sergeant who had sent them out the night before, were ready to brief them. Sleep would have to wait.

“Tell us what happened,” the sergeant said. “Don’t leave anything out.”

They relayed the events exactly as they had happened. Cosmo could tell that Dyson felt guilty. Nash had been trying to buy him enough time to get away from the bio-bots. They had never fought the alien swarms before. If Nash had known they wouldn’t keep coming after him—that in his armor he could outrun the strange alien weapon—he would still be alive. But they hadn’t known, and turning to fight had been Nash’s idea. No one had told him to do it. He had sacrificed himself to save his friends, and Cosmo tried to focus on the nobility of his act, even if it had been unnecessary.

“I’d say your friend was a hero,” the captain said once they had finished telling their story. “The brass might have more questions, but I think we’ve got everything we need here.”

“Showers and sleep, in that order,” the sergeant said. “You’ve earned it. Follow me, Troopers. I’ll show you to your barracks.”

They weren’t the first ones back. Half the troopers sent out were already in their bunks, sleeping. Cosmo could have curled up in the corner and slept.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.