Triumph in the Ashes by Johnstone William W

Author:Johnstone, William W. [Johnstone, William W.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Enger was weary after days of slow progress through jungles along the river. Tomo had nothing to report, only empty forest and hundreds of crocs sunning on the riverbank. As the sun set on their third day marching toward the border of Angola, while he was becoming more convinced than ever they would never find the Rebels, the staccato distant machine gun fire startled him into a battle-ready state.

“Fan out!” he cried, waving his arm to direct his men into the jungle. Enger knew the sound of the American weapons all too well. Tomo, or one of his scouts, had stumbled into an ambush somewhere upriver.

Now machine guns began to blast from all directions, accompanied by the occasional explosion of a grenade, their noise filling the rain forest like peals of thunder. Men were screaming in pain and yelling in fear when the thump of a mortar being fired suddenly echoed from a bend in the river, followed by a terrific blast.

A New World soldier ran into the river shallows, spraying machine gun fire back and forth to the west. He fired until his clip was empty, unaware that a giant croc was swimming toward his splashing sounds, undulating like a snake in the water, using its tail to push it forward.

Another mortar round boomed in the jungle, fired at Enger’s troops from some position he couldn’t see. He did see the croc leap out of the water to grab his soldier by the leg, jerking him off his feet until he sank out of sight where he’d been standing, below white foam and bubbles.

One of Tomo’s Zulus staggered out of the forest with blood pouring from his belly. Half of his face was missing, so that when he turned his head one side of a grinning bloody skull was showing. The Zulu fell to his knees, shrieking in agony as blood pooled around him.

Another of Tomo’s scouts came back downriver in a limping run with a bloodstain darkening the leg of his fatigues. He ran a few steps more and toppled over in jungle undergrowth, but now the sounds of battle raged up and down the river, and one man’s cry was lost in the thunder of guns, mortars, and exploding grenades.

Enger turned to his radio engineer. “Call for air support. Give them our coordinates. And tell the bastards to get it here fast.”

“Yes, sir,” stammered a Belgian mercenary named Klaus, taking his radio out to begin transmission to Pretoria, where most of the HIND M24 helicopter gunships were stationed in the south. They would then check their maps to find the nearest M24s to Enger’s position and relay the coordinates.

Enger prayed they weren’t too far off, for they were in a desperate situation here. Only a chopper could maneuver along this twisting river to get any firepower directed at the enemy positions.

“Black Horse Brigade calling HQ. Send in the HINDs at—” His coordinates were drowned out by a mortar blast ripping trees and vines apart in front of Enger.

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.