Crucible

(9/2/2610)

D-day +161

Last Year of the Expansion war

"Sir, you need to wake up" Kali snapped  her fingers in front of the Captain's face

"Huh, wut?" The tall lanky man tried to sit himself upright.

"Sir, please don't move, your gunship was shot down and you've been injured"

Kali pushed his shoulders back onto the stretcher "you were hit in the head, we've injected you with nanobots but we need you to answer some questions to test your cognition"

"Um, shoot" the pilot rubbed his eyes as he obviously struggled to gather his thoughts."

"What's your name, rank, branch and serial number?"

"Captain Uh William West, Unity Army Air Assault, and 7865 umm 5693200

"Do you know where you are?"

"Crucible, somewhere in the western content"

"Can you tell me how you got here?"

"I crashed"

Kali tried her best not to roll her eyes "I mean specifically, sir"

"Oh, my wingmate and I were on our way back after a fire mission when we picked up an interceptor on radar. We dove and hugged the ground till we came over a ridge and blundered into a trio of Expanse gunships hammering some poor bastards. We downed all three with cannons before some son of a bitch nailed both of us with long range SAMs*." The Captain looked panicked and tried to sit up again "Oh god where's Rhapsody, she got hit too is she alright!?"

(*Surface to Air Missile)

Kali effortlessly held the man down again "she's fine sir, in much better shape than you, now would you please hold still!"

The Captain finally went limp "Ok"

Kali looked at the medic standing over them "well Charon? What's the verdict?"

He looked up from his reader "scans are clear, The shrapnel didn't hit anything important, if there's any brain damage it's buried too deep for me to find. I'm going to make a recommendation for a deep scan later, but for now he's cleared."

Kali sat back and let out a sigh "you can sit up now sir."

The skinny Captain pushed himself up "I feel like someone drilled a hole in my head and shited in it."

Kali grinned slightly had the man's crassness "You're not far off sir, not that last bit though, we practice proper medical hygiene here." She picked up the shattered remnants of his flight helmet from where it had been discarded, there was a bloody metal rod jutting out of it to the left of the silver captain's bars "That pointy bit there was in your head."

"Oh" Captain West did his best not to look at the helmet "So um what unit is this?"

"This would be 2nd platoon, Golf Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 23rd division, IX Corps, Army South, of the 651st Army group."

West rubbed his bandaged head "The 651st huh? So you're super soldier." his face lit up in alarm "Wait, last I heard the 651st was one of the units surrounded in Necropolis."

"That's correct sir, welcome to the Necropolis pocket."

"So I'm stuck, shit." He reached into his pocket to check his comm unit and pulled out a shattered mass of broken circuits "so um what's the situation in these parts"

Kali out her own unit and pulled up a map of the area "This is the Necropolis defense perimeter, there are about 3 million of us from the 341st, 54th, 651st Army groups as well as the better part of the 14th Panzer Army, are being bottled up by some 10 to 12 million expanse troops, we would have been overrun weeks ago if not for our terrain advantage.

She ran her finger along the mountain range on the southern edge of the map "This is the Bel mountain range, we're in this area, it's full of passes and gaps but till the past couple days it's been relatively secure" her finger landed on the blue-green patchy area to the north "this is Mut's marsh, things have been touch and go here but ultimately the area just too damn rough for the Expanse to make any real progress." Kali moved on to the open area to the east "The Stepps over here is where both sides are really concentrating their efforts, it's basically one giant nonstop armored engagement. Our panzers have a mobility advantage that has kept the Expanse on the back foot, but they have so many damn tanks that it's all we've been able to do is make their advance as slow and expensive as possible

she pointed at a small dot on the coastline to the east "This is the Necropolis, it's a mostly automated general manufacturing facility that has been providing 'just' enough supplies to keep us in the fight. Unfortunately it will run out of raw material in about 72 hours and we won't last very long after that. Fortunately a relief force is fighting their way to our position, and they claim to be only 48 hours out, but they've been saying that for a few days now. " Kali put her comm unit back in her pocket "If we lose the perimeter the Expanse troops tied up here will be able to turn around and drive for the land bridge connecting the Eastern and Western continents cutting our forces in half and ending any hope of holding the planet."

"But that's someone else's problem." Kali pointed towards the mountains to her right "in local news the 10th armoured division is about twenty kilometers that way. They just launched a counterattack to retake Balan gap from two Expanse tank divisions, somehow they succeeded but they're in bad shape and at about 40% strength, still they managed to get a few Panzers to us but we can't count on them for further help." She turned around to face the mountains to left "thirty kilometers that way is the SD XLV 'pacification' Corps" Kali stopped and spat in the dirt at the mention of the SD.

"They're a totally green unit, like all those security dicks, not good for anything more complicated than rear security or counter-insurgency stuff but they should have been able to hold a fixed position against an Expanse infantry corps. Except, that the commander went off his rocker and started reading his personal manifesto over the net to 'inspire' the troops. He was relieved, but not before enemy signal intelligence was able to trace his blabbing back to every command post and relay in the unit. They hit them with a massive hypersonic missile volley targeted at their command structure. Last I heard some poor Colonel was in command of the entire corps."

"And that brings us back here" Kali gestured at the valley they were standing in "This valley is supposed to be held by a SD battalion but in confusion someone pulled them from the line and they didn't get replaced. By the time command realised the mistake we were the only ones they could find to fill it. Unfortunately for us the Expanse still had a reserve, and they've sent a full battalion to roll us over, no telling when they'll get here."

The Captain looked pale "It seems I chose the wrong valley to crash in" Kali patted him on the shoulder,

"welcome to the infantry sir, now if you'll excuse me I need to go make  preparations."

"You're never that polite when you're thinking about a fight, something special about the pilot?"

Kali didn't bother to look up "We'd all be dead if those two hadn't taken down the gunships, I felt some degree of responsibility."

"You're being overly optimistic, they still outnumber us ten to one, we're in for a rough time today."

"I hadn't thought about it..."

"Is that so, cause you've been staring at that busted panzer for five minutes."

Kali ran her eyes over the pockmarked armoured hull and the shattered turret and the painting of a female puppet in a frumpy gown holding a nail studded stick, underneath it was labeled Judy. "How they hell did it come to this Nyx, ten years, over a billion dead, hundreds of warships shattered, and it all comes down to sixty two of us sitting at one end of a valley and six hundered of them at the other. We could have done this from the start and saved everyone the trouble"

"It all comes down to us, really? That's a bit dramatic."

"That's what Marshal Volk said when she called. We have the dubious honor of being the culmination of the war, If they get through this valley we lose the pocket, if we lose the pocket we lose the continent, if we lose the continent we lose the planet, if we lose the planet Expanse fleets will be resupplied and crack the Unity open like an egg."

"Okay enough of this." Nyx hit the release on Kali's helmet and yanked it off

"Nyx what are you-"

"Shush"  Nyx put her hands on either side of Kali's face and turned it to her own. Kali had a close view of her full lips and gentle, kind oval shaped face, but mostly she noticed her albino white skin and hair and cherry red eyes.She really was an exotic beauty, Kali would honestly have been turned on if Nyx hadn't been... well Nyx. "You need to break out of this funk Kali, focus on the tactics and this valley, leave grand strategy to someone who gets paid more than you, or you know someone that paid at all. You were made platoon leader because you are more clever and ruthless that the rest of us put together, and I'm platoon sergeant cause I've been playing mother to these hellions for twenty years, we've got a few dozen of the toughest bad-asses on the planet and a pair of mark VI panzers.

Those Earthys are about to stick their heads into a meat grinder like they wouldn't believe and I wish like hell I could see the look on their collective face before it gets turned into ground beef. Now stop thinking about our odds and get out there and be the full metal bitch I know you can be."

Kali blinked in surprise, Nyx wasn't really one for pep talks "Who exactly is in charge here?"

"Not sure, all I know that I used to rock you back to sleep when you were eight and having nightmares"

"That's a low blow, but you're right, we need to get back to work" she grabbed her helmet and started walking back to the line fortifications "Where are we at?"

"Well managed to get two of the APCs* running again but the other two were junked with G-pulse missiles, the same goes for your friend Judy back there."

*Armoured personnel carrier

"So two APCs and two panzers, that should be enough... barely, go on"

"We managed pulled two heavy autocannons from the gunship and one from Judy and put them in the bunkers, they can knock out light armour at about 350 meters and have 300 meter light of sight so we should be good there, that still leaves us a gun short on the right side so I put the weapons squad there like you said. I hope the grav lances will make up the slack, but I doubt it."

"Can we pull another autocannon from one of the other panzers?"

"Not without blowing a giant hole in the turret, no."

"Damn, what about second squad, are they in position?

"Yes they should be good to go whenever the rest of us are."

They came up another panzer, this one free of holes and with a male puppet  jester named Punch painted on it "Well we should hurry up, I would hate for them to get lonely out there."

Nyx pursed her lips and looked thoughtful "Speaking of lonely, have you been seeing anyone lately?"

Kali's left eye started to twitch in annoyance "Hell's teeth Nyx get off my back."

"You didn't meet the other pilot but she seemed like your type, short, dark skinned, intelligent, a really nice ass."

Her eye started twitching more violently "and you expect me to what, exactly?  Seduce and make love to her in the next five minutes?."

"I would say yes if I thought you could seduce to save your life, I just don't want you to be lonely."

Kali pulled herself on top of the panzer and hit the hatch with the butt of her railgun "If I survive this I promise I'll go on a date or something, now hush we have work to do."

A short, broad, bald man with a mustache pushed open the hatch and stuck his head out "what can I do you for Lieutenant."

"I need a ride to the party Sergeant, care if I come with you?"

"Yes ma'am, we've got room in the turret,"

"Thank you Sergeant, I'll try not to make any trouble,"

Kali heard a ding and a name appeared in the corner of her vision, her radio woman was calling her. She answered "give me some good news Zaqar."

"Ma'am I just got off the horn with the local interceptor squadron and they said they can't provide a missile strike, The enemy has brought more air units forward and from what I heard they're barely keeping up the air cover."

"That is not good news." Kali was silent for a moment before remembering her manners "thank you Zaquar, keep seeing if you can find us some help."

"Yes ma'am"

Kali ended the call and turned back to Nyx "did you hear that?"

"Yep, that certainly makes things more complicated."

"Being blown up by the enemy is hardly complicated."

Corporal Mario Yepez really didn't like Private De la Garza. It's not that he was a bad person, he actually seemed quite nice, it wasn't that he was a bad soldier, the man did what he was told, it was that the private was without a doubt the stupidest person in the entire Earth Expanse. Take now for example, he had done exactly what Mario had told him, the fighting position he had dug for the two of them was flawless, armpit height, grenade sumps at the bottom, good concealment, and good line of sight. Yet the idiot was standing next to it in full view, helmet off, smoking. The Corporal took in a deep breath and approached De la Garza "Private what exactly are you doing."

The man gave him a puppy like grin "I finished the hole early so I took a smoke break while I waited for you to get back."

Mario closed his eyes and struggled to keep his anger in check, this man did not deserve to reamed just because he was stupid, no matter how much Mario wanted to. "Private did it occur to you to take your break in the hole."

The puppy like grin turned into a puppy like frown "Umm no Corporal it didn't."

Sometimes Mario just wished he could put this man out of his misery before The Unity did. Then his head exploded.

Mario blinked and stared through the film of bloody pulp covering his visor, had he done that?

Then the whole world turned into a blur of red and pain before a sudden jarring impact told that he had hit the ground. His jaw hurt.

He heard footsteps behind him and he closed his eyes, maybe they would think he was dead.

"Limit."

"Limit."

Mario opened his left eye and saw the two figures that had just assaulted though his position, the one on the left was broad and tall and the one on the right was short and slender.

"Apollo, check for life I've got security."

"Yeah yeah Sol I know what to do, it's not like I haven't done this a million times."

"You sure about that? Cause that was one hell of a sloppy shot you just made."

Mario watched at the short one took a knee with her weapon at the ready and the tall one turned around and started walking towards him. He closed his eyes again.

"It's this damn gyrojet carbine the barrel is just too damn short, and the whisper rounds certainly don't help, I wouldn't have been a problem it I'd used the Mjolnir."

"Yeah, and the magnetic spike from a railgun would have telegraphed your location to everyone within two hundred meters, now just make sure they're dead."

"Okay, okay fine."

Mario twitched violently and groaned as he felt the tall ones boot press down on his crotch.

"Um sis."

"Oh my god brother, is he still alive? You are literally the worst."

"It's fine I'll take care of it."

Mario stared down the barrel of the tall one's carbine as he pressed it against his helmet.

"Don't you dare, you know how Kali feels about double tapping."

"Well then what the hell do you want to do with him?"

"... we take him with us, he's injured and we might get some intel from him-"

"The Earthy have medics, and he's not going to be doing much talking without his jaw."

Oh, that must be why his jaw hurt

"-and because you forgot to mute your external mike before we left and you've been leaking intel to him since we got here."

"...Shit."