Planet Empire Chap. 2
(Southern Britain 12 hours later. The lines pushing south as the Germans make a strong landing in southern Britain and moving to further north. Captain Colt determined to take down the Kraut forces and push them back into the sea.)
The Germans had moved early in the daytime. An unexpected move. Boldly exposing their small fractured army during daylight. An open opportunity for attack. An opportunity the equally sized Allied army missed. The captain, Colt, spat at the thought.
Moving through the night Captain Colt sought to make up for lost opportunity to find another. Marching across hilly fields, he needed the stretch along with the other men. The moonlit night looked to be promising. The chill night air moved in the right direction. It came again, he could hear it.
"Yield!" he commanded urgently to the Sherman tank. Mounted cavalry and infantry came to halt as well. No one can hear the wind at least...they're not supposed to. The Sherman scooted to a halt engine off. Senses fully aware the captain scanned the horizon. A grassy hill ahead snatching his attention. 'If an ambush were to occur it would be there.' He thought to himself. A lone figure approached from behind.
"Is this the spot?" Corporal Lusos asked. Colt's right hand man had the most experience in the fields fighting the Kraus. Having come into the war early, Lusos proved his valor in many key battles. And upon Colt's entrance into the campaign the captain took the Corporal under his command. Lusos's entire division had been cut off from the supply lines earlier in the war and pushed inland. Germans made bold moves into their surviving remnants with devastating results. For months the small sect struck back at fatal blows and stampeding axis powers. Vainly, they succeeded in inflicting heavy damage but fate could not be denied. When Colt's company arrived to their location they found only the dead and dying. They had missed them by just a few hours. Through extreme measures the medic teams were able to heal a mess of a body. Hardly recognizable, the man had been holding out in an open field using his dead comrades bodies as a shield to the German machine gun fire as it laid waste to their survivors. Lusos had saved Colts company with essential advice to enemy tactics and weapons. Many of which, the Captain would have lost the company many times over.
"It appears so." Colt replied absentmindedly. Scouts took their front positions near the twenty millimeter howitzers, following the Corporals signal. Colt nodded.
The scout patrol pushed up the hill, careful not to disturb any brush. The scout troops stopped alongside the summit. Spread all along the hill sensing nothing, Lusos looked back at Colt and shrugged.
*SNAP*
Like a twig under step, scouts along with Lusos fell to the ground lifeless. One stumbled down the embankment back toward the lines. A soldier cursed witnessing their demise. "No ones that good."
"What did you see?" Colt asked quickly.
"Bottom of the hill twenty feet out, they knew we were coming." The surviving scout panted heavily, shaking uncontrollably.
"Well, they wont see this coming." Colt said coldly. "Ready the mortars!" Mortar tubes locked and clicked into place numbering thirty in all. Slowly the infantry began their ascent. "Mount ninety degrees shift longitude three. Wait for my mark." Coming to a crawl the infantry halted just beyond the hills top. "Fire!" With a dull thunk the cannons threw their projectiles with lethal intent into the night air. Five foreign explosions came in midair seconds later. The other side had launched concussion grenades throwing off the trajectory.
Realizing their aim, Colt barked orders for the infantry to move. The order came too late. Mortars landed on top of the doomed men. Severed bodies mixed with high speed moving dirt in mid air.
"...we are outside lima oscar sixty lima alpha twenty. The infantry is fallen." Kass called over the radio. "We're in shambles up here-" no reply came back. Something landed behind him. A charred mess. The mess coughed black smoke, still alive, he reached for something in his right hand only to discover the entire arm missing.
Instinctively, tank engines roared back to life. Colt ordered the Artillery team to follow the Sherman to the hill and set a wall.
The radio cackled back to life. "New orders from post sir", Kass interpreted "They say the krauts are spotted moving east... fifteen miles from here. I- it doesn't make sense." The radioman turned to reconfirm the transmission.
"Then who the hell is shooting?" Frustrated, the captain grabbed the radio and turned the dial. "Dastron, bring the tank forward and break their lines up. Give them something to fear."
"Imgonnatakeittothemaintnothingtheygonnado!" Come Dastron's reply. His words spoken so fast almost nobody could understand them. Fumes erupted from the D.D.'s exhaust. The turret swung around rapidly towards it for. Metal rubbed against metal making a daunting sound as the vehicle pressed on in a great amount of speed. The treads upturned patches of grass throwing them skyward. Explosions erupted from all around as soon as Dastron came over the hill, The M4 shook violently. "Ivegotyournumberhereitcomes!" Dastron challenged as he fired the turret. The Armored vehicle plunged into chaos.
"Mortar's ready!" Colt called from behind.
Kass looked up, "Sir we've got one of our own down there." He said remembering the tank.
A large pile of brush shifts from the bottom of the hill exposing a six barrel M61 series cannon. The gun roared to life as the eight barrel chain gun turned ripping through the mortar teams. A few had time to load but fell short of their target.
The captain cursed at the spent mortar team. "Cavalry forward!" The horses snorted in anticipation of the upcoming engagement. This was what they were bred for, the taste of blood in the misty air, taught to fear nothing. The cavalry horses dug into the ground heaving great heaps of earth in their wake. The men proved as fearless as their animal companions with bayoneted rifles drawn. Two hundred horses stampeded the hill.
Dastron guided the tank through the brush covered in raptors and foliage. "Thehellisthis?" He expected krauts but hesitated but for a moment. Turning left the Sherman buried itself into the barricade shrouding the turret. Dastron attempted to back up the war machine with little success. The gears grinned and melded under the intense pressure.
A grenade shot in through a small opening in the hull. Dastron quickly threw it back out. "Heynofairthrowingstuffinherelikethat. Cheaters...notinmyhouse." The turret swung in place aiming too high just above the gunners location a few feet away. The raptor shoved the barrel upward some ignoring it and continued.
Two more Relcs assailed Dastron from above. One took a special interest peering in through the periscope. A silver flash from Dastron's barrel in the periscope ends the raptor's curiosity. The creature kicked backwards violently off the side. Angered by his partners demise the second dinosaur clawed at the metal.
"Getoffthetank.getoffgetoffgetoff." Dastron opened the hatch "Youscratchingthepaint". Firing his large caliber pistol again sending it careening off the side in a jumbled heap. A few more failed boarding attempts before Kuse saw the M61's gunner. The raptor wore a darker black armor with a denser look to the muzzle. The black metal was covered in a yellow greenish sheen. Dastron took a shot but only receives an empty click. Annoyed, he threw the empty pistol at the dinosaurs head. The gunner hissed in response and threw an empty ammo box. Dastron quickly bucked back down into the Sherman. Making quick use of good he reemerged and tossed a few grenades behind the treads. The resulting explosions blew off the treads causing the ruins to crumble underneath and bringing the M4 main barrel backward a few feet.
The gunner snarled in response to the explosives debris and sneered at the tanks futile attempts to free itself. The raptor looked over in realization that freeing itself was not the priority. The dark pit of the barrel flashed brightly.
Horses clashed with the raptor foot soldiers greatly outnumbered. Even with the advantage height the animals were cut down quickly as well as their mounts. The first line crumpled in seconds. The noises the horses made were horrendous. Some fell missing limbs cut by the Raptors claws. Other dragged their intestine before falling. A few disemboweled completely. The shrieking emanating from the horses wails were unbearable.
Colt saw what was their end. The commander called for the runners. The captain gave them their last orders. "We're not going to last much longer here, report to station... and tell them-" the last of the cavalry fell as the lines broke. "-tell them B battery is lost- now go". The runners sprinted towards the rear forestry behind the fallen lines.
Kass became distracted by the noise. The reptile horde barreled down the hill now reached the bottom, dropping his equipment and watched as death approached.
Colt leaned forward emptying his nine mill using the stock as a battering weapon when inoperable. Even giving a good punch to the side of the open shriking maw of a relc. The creature stunned. Several more overwelming the Captain as he gave his last war cry.