It grabbed at his legs as if trying to prevent him from moving away from the safety of the lander. Cobb thought that both the humidity and heat must be high, but his anxiety and exertions exaggerated its effects. He could feel the sweat running down his neck and back. He was drenched in a matter of moments. He ran to his left about fifty meters from the lander and hit the ground facing in a southerly direction. He realized he could only see about two feet in front of his position because of the grass. As he lay there, he spotted an inchworm calmly moving along a stalk of grass less than a hand's length from his face. The scene broke him out of his automatic mode, and he stared at the worm making its way up the stalk. For some reason, he found the scene reassuring.
He waited for about twenty seconds to make sure there were no laser bursts in his vicinity, then rose to a kneeling position. As he looked around, he could see the other four landers setting down in the middle of the clearing and disgorging soldiers like his. He could make out a dark line of trees about a hundred meters in front of him stretching for about three hundred meters to his right and left. Flipping a telescopic monocular in front of his left eye, he began to study the tree line in detail, looking for movement. But the contrast between the bright sunlight and the dark shadows of the trees made it very difficult to see beyond its edge. He switched to infrared and looked again. This time he saw a few red spots moving in the trees, but before he could say anything, Sarge barked, "Squad B2, report."
Cobb responded before the Sarge's voice had faded from the intercom, "Movement on IR in the tree line at four o'clock. Four or five images."
Sarge said, "Don't fire; just watch them. They’re probably civilians. There aren't supposed to be any enemy soldiers in this area."
Cobb wondered, why take the chance? He could take out all of the figures, trees or no trees, from this range. He didn't like to take risks and didn't have any problem with killing civilians, especially Kirrian civilians. As far as he was concerned, all Kirrians were the enemy whether armed or unarmed. The Alliance kept putting its soldiers at risk because they wanted to win over the planet without destroying its resources. A dead planet wouldn't do them any good; it wouldn't be profitable. The Alliance will keep sending soldiers to get killed or maimed until they either control the planet or destroy it. Cobb really didn’t care which. He just wanted to get it over with, as quickly as possible. The way Cobb looked at it, he had two jobs. First was to stay alive, and second was to kill Kirrians. It seemed to him that shooting the figures in the trees satisfied both those goals. But he held his fire. Cobb was a good soldier and obeyed orders, even if his instincts said otherwise.
Cobb's apprehension was justified by four short bursts of laser fire from the direction of the figures he'd spotted in the trees. Two of the bursts were high and passed overhead without hitting anything. One burst was low and lit up a line of burning grass as it passed about ten meters to Cobb's right. The fourth burst hit the side of the lander Cobb's squad had just evacuated, but did no noticeable damage thanks to the lander's dissipation field. From the bursts, Cobb could tell that the enemy was using T500 series laser rifles, which were about two generations behind the weapon he was holding. They were just as lethal as his was, but they were less powerful and took longer to recharge between bursts. He knew they wouldn't be firing for another five seconds.
Cobb shouted into his Com, "Well, if they are civilians, they're civilians with laser rifles," and he fired a three second burst that swept across all the red-lit figures in the trees without waiting for orders. His burst was immediately followed by bursts from fellow soldiers on both sides of him. This series of laser bursts hit the trees, which instantly superheated and exploded into balls of flame. Dozens of trees went down from his squad's combined fire. Cobb was sure that he had hit what he had aimed at. Even if he hadn't hit the target directly, the falling trees, wood splinters, and flames would finish off anything left alive. A large cloud of smoke rose from the tree line and was transformed into grotesque shapes by the wind. Cobb heard the high-pitched whine from his gun as it recharged. The smattering of fires prevented him from getting a good IR reading from the tree line, so he couldn't confirm that their shots had taken out the enemy. He waited for something to happen.
He didn't have to wait long. He heard a person scream over his external sensor that drove his heart into this throat. He had not seen a laser burst and could not make out who had screamed. His COM was set to squad level, which meant that whoever screamed was not in his squad. As he turned to look back toward the other landers, one was being hit with what could only have been a laser cannon burst. As its dissipation field overloaded, bolts of electricity played over its surface for a few seconds before the laser penetrated the hull and pass through the lander like it was paper. Cobb knew that anyone still inside would have been instantly burned alive. At least it was a quick death. He could tell the burst came from the side of the clearing opposite his position. His own lander and the high grass blocked his view of the source. If there were laser cannons on the other side of the clearing, then Cobb knew they had run into more than just local militia. Seconds later, two more landers were hit and dispatched in the same manner as the first.
Cobb knew they were in deep trouble. Sarge's voice came over the intercom.
"Stay in position until I tell you to move."
He heard Kamal, one of the newbies near him, say, "What the hell’s goin’ on?"
Cobb responded, "Looks like we've put our foot in it."
Sarge cut in, "Shut up. Stay off the line unless you’ve sumtin’ to report."
Now Cobb could see rifle and cannon bursts sweeping down the line of their troops, setting large sections of the clearing on fire. Cobb's squad was on the extreme southern flank of the company's position, and all the laser bursts were coming from the opposite side. Cobb realized that the fire that had come from the tree line directly in front of him was solely to distract them long enough to bring the laser cannons to bear on the landers. He'd seen this tactic before, and it was usually very effective. It also meant they had walked into an ambush. Cobb knew their only hope was to pile back into the last two landers and get the heck out of there.
Cobb wasn't the only one thinking this. Captain Stiffler's voice came over the intercom.
"Everyone back into Landers 3 and 5. We've walked into ........." There was a screech on the line and then silence. Cobb recognized the sound as that of an open mike being melted. The Captain must have taken a direct hit by a laser cannon.
Kamal was about 20 meters to his left, and Cobb could tell that he was ready to panic. Kamal stood up and turned to run back toward their lander. He had taken only two steps when Cobb saw the red light of a laser rifle play across his chest. Instantly, the clothes on Kamal's torso burst into flame, and steam shot out of his mouth. Cobb knew Kamal was dead even if Kamal’s brain wasn't aware of it yet. The bright red glow of the burst stopped after a couple seconds, and the body collapsed into a smoldering heap. Cobb hadn’t really known Kamal, but he'd seen him around. In truth, Cobb hadn't taken the time to get to know him. In this environment, it was better to keep the number of friends one had to a bare minimum. Cobb wasn’t sure why Kamal’s dissipation field hadn’t slowed the laser burst up long enough for him to get out of the way. It seemed to pass directly through without pausing. To Cobb’s thinking, the situation just kept getting better, and he’d only been there a few minutes.
The Sarge's voice sounded in his ears.
"Squad, everyone back to the lander and keep it low." Cobb started moving back toward the lander in a crouch. But he had barely begun to move when his destination was hit with at least two cannon bursts and exploded in a ball of flame and flying metal. A piece of the lander bounced off Cobb's helmet and knocked him onto his back. It hadn't penetrated, but it had made his ears ring. He realized that if it had hit two inches lower, it would have gotten him right between the eyes. Then again, if had been two inches higher it
would have missed him altogether.
His intercom was not damaged because he now heard Lieutenant Martin's wavering voice in his ears, "Doghouse, this is Red Dog One, over." Hearing this, Cobb knew the Lieutenant was broadcasting to the whole company instead of using a closed line back to home base, which would have been SOP.
"Red Dog One, this’s Doghouse. Over."
The Lieutenant responded in a high-pitched voice that belonged to a man ready to panic.
"We're being cut to pieces. We've walked into a trap. The captain's dead, and all the landers are out of commission. We're being overrun. We need extraction right now. Over."
"Roger that, Red Dog One. You're in danger of being overrun. Help's on the way. Over."
Something in the voice of the dispatcher did not sound right. Repetition of the word "overrun" triggered a memory in Cobb. He had heard of a situation similar to this once before but could not put his finger on it. All he knew was that he had to get out of there right now.
He had returned to kneeling position after being hit. He now dropped his rifle and sprang into a run. He headed in the direction of the tree line that he had helped destroy less than five