A Hard Skirmish

More about Brian's story, and another battle.

Brian put the phone to his ear; it was his brother, Steven.
"I hope this is important." Brian said, "I was just being shot at a minute ago. And you know the field telephone is for high-priority calls only."
After saying and realizing this, Brian was worried. If Steven was calling him here, it had to be an emergency.
"Brian, I just wanna let you know..." Steven's sentence trailed off.
"What?" Brian asked, expecting the worst.
"I've... I've joined the Army."
"Damn it! No! No you're not! You need to look after Anna, she's only eight!" Brian swore. He couldn't risk having both of his brothers killed.
"He was my brother too!" Steven shouted over the phone. Brian said nothing. He knew there was little he could do to persuade him otherwise. Steven had become just like him. They both had the same reason for joining; they both lost a brother, and they had nothing else left.
"And Anna is fine, the other apartment residents will take care of her." Steven added. Pangs of guilt struck Brian when he realized the HE did the same thing when he joined the Army, he just took off and left his family behind.
Brian sighed. "When do you leave?"
"I've already left. I'm on Jade now."
"Jade, huh? That's where I did my training too. Are you going to be a Guerrilla soldier too?"
"No, I'm gonna be a tank gunner." Steven answered.
"Well, good luck anyway. I don't like what you did, but I'm not going to stop you. Just one thing..."
"What?" Steven asked anxiously.
"Don't die. or else Anna might ending up joining the army too. Our family has already had enough death." He meant it. if Anna was old enough to fight, she probably would.
"You too." Steven said solemnly.
He hang up.
Brian gave the phone back to Muhammad and saw Alaska walking towards him.
"It was Steven, my brother." Brian told her, answering her question before it was said.
"He joined the fight, didn't he?" she asked.
"Yeah, even though he's thirteen, I still think he's too young. What if he dies? I'll never get over it."
"Well, both of us are sixteen, and Muhammad is even younger, the rest think we're too young too."
"We are too young," Brian laughed, "but that doesn't change our minds, just like it didn't change Steven's."
Captain James approached him. "Brian, can you carry Midori?" he asked in his husky voice.
"Yeah, I can." Brian answered.
"Good. Do that." He switched to speaking Terran, "Muhammad, take the map, and don't get shot."
Muhammad took it from him and put it in a secure pocket.
"Alright, let's move out!" the captain shouted.

It was a good thing Midori wasn't too heavy. Brian carried her on his back, holding onto her legs while she wrapped her arms around his chest. Alaska walked beside them, carrying both of their weapons as well as her own. Over the bumps of Brian's steps, Midori sang softly to herself, trying to ease her pain. The painkiller must be wearing off.
"It's alright, just another hour." he told her. Midori groaned and laughed at the same time.
"Come on, You've got to keep fighting. Remember what they said?" Brian changed to the thick Russian accent of their drill instructor during training on Jade. "No matter what happens, keep fighting! If you're wounded, keep fighting! If you're lost, keep fighting! We must show these Aliens our strength! How we refuse to die! We will make them know fear!"
She giggled, remembering perfectly. She continued her singing, this time in Japanese, and Brian looked ahead.
They were deep in the forest now, far from any sort of road. There were boulders and downed trunks among the thick trees, and cottonwood spores filled the air. It would have been a nice scene, if Brian wasn't worried about Aliens. Now, they had important Intel and couldn't risk another fight.
"Take cover!" someone shouted, and bullets and slugs cut through the air.
Brian dove to the ground, causing Midori to cry out in pain. Damn! He had forgotten about her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah." she groaned and rolled off of his back.
Brian sat up. He was behind a large fallen trunk with Midori, safe from enemy fire. He groaned when he realized that he had no weapon besides his wristblades. Alaska ran and slid up next to them, barely avoiding a trio of slugs.
"Gimme that!" Midori said, and took her sniper rifle from Alaska. Brian took his AK rifle too.
Brian and Alaska peered in unison over the top of the log, nearly getting holes bored into their faces by incoming fire. They jerked their heads back down. They couldn't see everything, but they saw enough to get a general picture of the battle.
The Aliens were dug into a trench about fifty meters away, and were very well protected while the Humans were cowering behind whatever cover they could find, sporadically leaning out to take shots.
Captain James roared, "WE CANT FIGHT THEM LIKE THIS! BREAK COVER AND CHARGE!"
Brian glanced at Midori. "Go!" she said, "I'll snipe them from here."
He and Alaska vaulted over the trunk, firing as they ran through gunfire towards the entrenched enemies. Brian soon lost sight of Alaska as he rushed towards his target, an Alien sergeant who was busy trying to unjam his railgun. He fired the rest of his clip at the son-of-a-b***h, missing every time, but causing him to sink down further into cover. Brian let loose a war-cry as he jumped down into the trench, aiming to tackle the Alien. The Alien dodged out of the way and Brian crashed into the ground. He barely had enough time to stand up before he was under attack. The Alien thrusted with the bayonet on his gun, and Brian pushed it aside with his rife. He took a step forward and kneed the enemy soldier in the stomach. The Alien sergeant wobbled only for a second before shoving Brian to the ground. Brian looked up to see the Alien charge downward with his bayonet. He threw his arms up and heard the clash of steel.
Brian opened his eyes. Without knowing, he had opened up his wristblades and blocked the stab that was headed for his chest. The bayonet had passed between the parallel blades, but the wide barrel of the railgun had stopped it cold. Beads of sweat rose from Brian's face as he fought to push the blade away from him. It was no use! The Alien sergeant was a veteran fighter too, and was stronger then Brian. His position, crouched over Brian, gave him much more leverage and the blade was coming ever closer to Brian's neck. Brian's strength almost gave way when a miracle happened; the bayonet fell from the front of the Alien's gun.

They both watched as the blade slipped off and fell harmlessly onto Brian's chest. Brian reacted first, grabbing the blade and stabbing it into the sergeant's thigh, leaving it there. The Alien howled in pain and stepped backward. Brian sprang to his feet and put all of his energy into his left arm, swinging it forward and slicing the pair of wristblades through a seam in his enemy's armor. The steel sunk into the Alien's stomach and he collapsed, dead.

Brian looked around at the trench. All the Aliens there had been killed. The rest of the squad was there, but a few were absent. Dead maybe? He scanned the survivors. Alaska, Muhammad, Captain James, and some others were there. Midori was still back where Brian had left her.

"Who'd we lose?" asked the captain.

"Enemy reinforcements!" someone shouted, interrupting any answer.

Brian reloaded his AK-201 rifle and aimed over the back of the trench. Alien soldiers were swarming through the trees and rocks. Brian and everyone else fired wildly, shooting at anything that moved. A strange whistle came from somewhere in the enemy lines, followed by an explosion near Brian.

"They're using grenade launchers! Keep your heads down!" Captain James shouted.

Brian heard another whistle and ducked right as a grenade exploded on the ground in front of the trench. He crouch-ran through the trench to the captain. There must be a whole platoon of them; they couldn't survive for much longer.

Captain Anthony James was fighting like a mad man. Shooting his semi-automatic battle rifle repeatedly without hardly any time to aim. Each bullet fired was another casualty to the enemy. He shattered visors, sliced through unprotected necks, and pierced the weaker, welded seams on Alien breastplates. But no matter how many enemies he shot, there was still more coming.

The captain ducked back behind the safety of the trench wall to reload. Noticing Brian, he called out, "Brian, Alaska, Muhammad, take the Intel to the nearest safehouse. We'll hold this position and buy you some time!" Muhammad looked over, not understanding. Captain James swore as he remembered that Muhammad couldn't speak English. He quickly repeated his instructions in Terran. Time was short; they couldn't afford any mistakes now.

"Come on!" Alaska shouted and practically threw Muhammad out of the trench. He scrambled to his feet and ran at full speed back the direction they had come. It was all Brian and Alaska could do to follow and try to keep up. The three of them passed by Midori, who was took no notice of them as she shot round after round into the enemy lines.

They left the battle far behind, but still kept running; if they were found by they enemy now, the three of them wouldn't stand a chance. They ran parallel to the slope of a tall hill, and they fought to keep their balance as their feet slipped and slid down the steep slope.

Hearing a commotion higher up the hill, Brian glanced to the side. A patrol of Aliens was shouting and pointing in their direction. Dirt flew up in front of him as they opened fire. There was an unfamiliar whirring sound and then Brian was blasted down the hill. Down, down, down he rolled; quickly losing any sense of direction. Images of trees and sky flashed past before he could comprehend them. He lost his grip on his rifle in the tangle of his own limbs. After a few seconds, Brian slid to a stop on his stomach. He kept his eyes closed, wondering if it was a good idea to open them. He did, and saw Alien soldiers coming down the hill after him. Brian pushed himself up as fast as his wounded strength would allow, only to be thrown backwards once again by the blast of the force gun. He lost consciousness and woke up at the bottom of the hill. Brian moaned in pain and frustration. He was battered and bruised all over and had no gun. Maybe he should just lie here. staring up at the sky.

NO! KEEP FIGHTING! He rolled over and with the last of his strength, pushed himself onto his knees. He brought his head up and found himself looking at a bayonet pointed right at his face

Author's Note

Better? I hope so. And guess what... it gets EVEN BETTER!
I apologize for my writing style. I'm not very good at explaining a setting. I know that I use too many "AND"s and start to many sentences with either "HE" or "BRIAN". But the story itself is what's important here, so if you can think of a better way to word or explain something, tell me and I will revise it.

Reviews

[Y.]

Better. You're getting the hang of it now, personally, I think that your chapters are too short. But, I'm beginning to really like this.
I can't think of any way to re-phrase as of yet. If I do, I shall tell you! :)