“No, Colonel. I was admiring the accuracy of your statement,” Safir replied.
Drakon barely managed to hide his own smile. Safir, having served so long with Gaiene, had plenty of experience with comebacks. But the reminder of Conner made the smile vanish before it could form, then the bombardment arrived.
The sky fell on the base again, the overheads, the walls, and the floors trembling with the constant shock of explosions. But the Syndicate could build things well, and this base seemed to be lacking in the most common construction flaws and errors. Ground-penetrating artillery was being foiled by layers of special armor, surface fortifications were shrugging off armor-penetrating artillery, and the concussions of the high-explosive rounds were accomplishing little but to bounce around the increasingly fine gravel and dust which this morning had been the surface structures of the base.
Malin took a report, then shook his head at Drakon as more dust silted down from the ceiling. “Executive First Rank Finley, the supposed senior snake here, is dead. She was taken prisoner during our initial assault but was found dead among the prisoners, all of whom professed to know nothing about what happened to her.”
“Funny how often snakes die during assaults or when captured and left among other prisoners,” Drakon said, leaning back and looking up so he could see through his helmet’s visual sensors a stream of dust falling toward him from a small crack in the ceiling.
“A lot of them died here,” Malin agreed. “From what I have been able to piece together, that’s what allowed us to seize the base so quickly once we penetrated the fortifications. The snakes stationed at the front lines began shooting soldiers who tried to retreat, and the other soldiers took that badly enough to start massacring the snakes among them. The brigade holding this base fell apart from the inside when we punched the outside hard enough.”
“Morgan was right about that,” Drakon said.
“Yes… she was.”
Drakon gazed upward at the falling dust, wondering again what had happened to Morgan, and wishing as usual that he could leave whatever command center he was in and go to the front line. He had never liked the usual necessity of holding back from getting directly involved in the fighting, so he could focus on the big picture. It did not feel brave or right when his soldiers were fighting and dying as a result of the commands he issued. But I know I have to do it that way. If I’m not looking out for the big picture, acting like the commanding officer should act, then I would be betraying them. Who would do my job if I weren’t doing it?
Who would care about these soldiers if I didn’t?
“The barrage is ceasing,” Malin cautioned. “Surviving surface sensors see no more inbound rounds after the next volley hits in thirty seconds.”
Drakon sat up, stood up, and focused on his display. “All units, the latest barrage will cease after the next rounds land. Exit blast bunkers in forty seconds and reoccupy all outer fortifications.”
The ground shook through a final spasm, then Drakon saw on the virtual windows before him Syndicate chaff rounds sprouting their clouds of confusion in the open area all around the base.
“Hold on,” he heard Colonel Safir say to what was now her brigade. “Don’t fire until you have targets. Wait for it.”
“Stand by,” Colonel Kai told his soldiers. “Ready.”
The defenders had been able to rest during the barrage. They had been resupplied from the ample stockpiles of ammunition in the base and had eaten rations from the base supplies. Now they packed into the fortifications where many of the automated defenses had been destroyed by earlier fighting, their own weapons leveled toward the chaff clouds before them.
At both sector one and sector four, a mass of figures in battle armor burst through the murk and into full view less than twenty meters from the outer fortifications.
“Fire,” Safir and Kai said simultaneously.
The front ranks of the assault evaporated under the defensive fire at both locations. Stubborn attackers kept coming, stumbling over the bodies of their comrades, facing a storm of fire that knocked them down mercilessly.
The attackers at sector one faltered, standing still for a few moments, leaning into the defensive fire as if it were a heavy wind. Then they broke, scrambling back into the chaff clouds.
But opposite sector four the attackers confronting Safir’s soldiers kept coming, wave after wave, until their bodies began blocking the firing ports of the fortifications.
“Colonel! We can’t cover the base of the wall anymore! Their breaching teams will have a free shot!”
“The hell they will!” Safir cried. “General, request permission to counterattack.”
Malin cast a startled glance at Drakon, who had been watching the pressure build on Safir’s troops. “General, that’s—”
“A very good idea,” Drakon said. “The Syndicate troops back at their lines won’t be able to see our forces leave the base because of the chaff they laid to screen their own attack. Colonel Safir, permission granted. Sally your counterattack from sector five. Clear the base of the wall, then get your people back inside.”
“You heard the man!” Safir called. “Third Battalion, go!”
Sally ports shot open in the base of the fortifications to one side of where the masses of attackers were piling up against the base’s outer wall. The Third Battalion of the Second Brigade, with Colonel Safir in their midst, poured out, immediately pivoted ninety degrees, and hit the side of the Syndicate assault like a hammer.
The attack collapsed, many of the exhausted Syndicate soldiers simply dropping to their knees and throwing away their weapons as the rest of the assault force fled. Armored figures who must have been snakes or frustrated supervisors tried to shoot those surrendering, but Safir’s troops targeted anyone still holding a weapon and wiped them out. “Round them up!” Safir ordered. “You!” she added, shifting to an external speaker that the microphones on the Syndicate battle armor would pick up. “If you want to live as prisoners, move! Anyone left out here when we get back inside is a target!”
“General,” Malin said. “As soon as the Syndicate commanders realize we have soldiers outside the base fortifications—”
“They will order in a bombardment of that area,” Drakon finished. “I worked in the Syndicate system long enough to know how much time it takes for that system to identify new information, make a decision, and get a sudden change implemented. We’ve got at least four minutes. Colonel Safir, get your people back inside in less than four minutes.”
“Yes, General,” she replied, sounding breathless. “They’ll know better than to mess with Conner Gaiene’s lads and ladies again.”
Drakon realized that he was smiling. The Second Brigade was no longer commanded by Gaiene, but he had been in charge long enough to put his stamp on the unit, especially once Drakon’s division had been exiled to Midway and thereby, ironically, given a bit more freedom from Syndicate micromanagement as a result of being punished. For a while longer at least the Second Brigade would still think of themselves as Gaiene’s, and that was not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.
“I think Colonel Safir was around Colonel Gaiene a bit too long,” Malin said.
“It looks to me like she was around Conner for just about the right amount of time,” Drakon said.
The Third Battalion, showing little patience with laggards, hustled the disarmed prisoners inside the base and resealed the sally ports. “Well done, Colonel Safir,” Drakon said. “Make sure the prisoners are under strong guard until they’ve been individually screened for any weapons we might have missed in the rush.”