Free Tombstone by Jay Allan Page A

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to hold their fire.  They couldn’t aim any better out of the clouds than we
could into them, but our entire front was saturated with fire.  It was clear
there were a lot of troops coming at us.
    I crouched lower as the rock wall in front of me was blasted
with enemy fire.  Shards of shattered stone bounced all around, but the
outcropping was thick enough to provide cover, and other than some rocks
bouncing loudly off my armor, I was fine.  I could tell from the chatter on the
com that 1st Platoon on our left had some casualties…they probably got careless
when they were firing and didn’t get down quickly enough.
    We got locations on two more enemy troop concentrations, and
when they all opened up we were well into a serious firefight.  Even with our
cover, we were taking losses.  I assumed we were inflicting them too, but it
was hard to tell.  All of this seemed like an eternity, but only a few minutes
had passed since the enemy launched the smoke and started their attack.
    They started to emerge from the smoke.  It was surreal
watching them move forward, zigzagging as they jogged toward our trenches. 
Their armor was similar to ours, a little bulkier, maybe, and the alloy they
used was a little different, giving the suits a darker look.  They didn’t have
the camo system we did, and their suits were dark silhouettes against the
glowing clouds as they came forward.
    Their formations were scattered, with significant gaps.  I
could see they’d taken considerable losses from our fire.  Their assault
doctrine was well thought out, and they executed it flawlessly.  One group
would find the best cover they could – low ground, rocks, gullies – and open up
on our position with everything they had.  A second line would advance,
supported by this covering fire, and find their own protected areas.  They
would then start shooting while the first group advanced.  It was a standard
leapfrog tactic, but they were so well drilled they could maintain enormously
heavy fire while leaving precise lanes open for their advancing troops.  I
couldn’t help but admire the discipline and skill, even if they were trying to
kill me.
    But we knew our stuff too, and we targeted the units moving
ahead, ignoring the covering fire.  We were taking heavier losses, but it was
still the best exchange rate we’d get; if they got to our lines and broke in
we’d lose our positional advantage…and there were more of them than us.
    There was a crack in the rock wall next to me, and I was
able to lie down and shoot through a very small opening.  It was great cover,
and gave me a wide coverage area.  They were getting close, so I switched to
semi-automatic and started targeting individual troops with 10-shot bursts.  I
didn’t have a sniper’s rifle, but I managed to take down a target just about
every time I shot.  I must have dropped 7 or 8 when I realized we weren’t going
to turn them back.
    The auto-cannon was firing full bore, but the enemy troops
were very good at using any bit of cover as they advanced.  We’d taken out a
lot of them, probably enough to send lower-quality troops feeling for their
lives, but we wouldn’t have broken, and the Janissaries weren’t going to
either.  They were weakened and disordered, but we were still going to have a
close range fight.
    If we’d had a secondary position we could have fallen back,
keeping them under heavy fire as they came over the rocky spur and eventually
wearing their attack down.  But there was nothing but open plateau behind us –
we’d be the ones caught in the clear and cut to pieces.  No…it was win or die
right along this ridge line.
    I have always found that my memories of combat are blurry,
surreal.  It’s hard to recall the time passing.  I remember this charge of the
Janissaries as something that went on forever, but it wasn’t more than ten
minutes from when they dropped the smoke until they started climbing up over
the rock wall.
    I saw