Chapter 28: Ch 26. A wall of fire

I looked at the church and its surroundings.

That boy… he handled that many enemies just by himself. I heard the gunshots from the distance and by that time he must’ve been close to running out of ammo. If Ether did not notify me of a new asset then Jester would not crawl out of the building now.

He was shaking, heck, even I am shaking. Even though I saw some c* back in my early days, I still can’t process this level of death. We, two veterans, saw some action when the Caucasus was shaken by terrorism and war but this boy is just a contract soldier who enlisted for his own reasons and must’ve only wanted to drive the big metal things and fire guns for the fun of it. Ending up in the middle of a combat zone is a shock but fighting alone against all odds is both a heroism and a death sentence.

“Ca-ptain…” The boy slowly approached the vehicle.

“How are you? Need some help?” I should show him that he has nothing to fear, that there are comrades he can rely on.

“Did I… fulfill the… task…?” (J)

“You did everything flawlessly. I heard there were civilians in the area. You were the only one who could protect them. Their lives are saved due to your actions.” I may feel bad lying to him but there are some things he does not need to know. On our way I saw a number of civilians, all of them were hunted down and slaughtered.

“Come on, climb here. We need to keep going.” I gestured him to come and he started climbing onto the turret.

“I serve Russian Federation!” I could only pat him when I changed places with him.

“Lock the gun and turn off the stabilization.”

“But…!” (J)

“Jester, do it.”

“Yes, sir…” He turned off the stabilization and now the guns should not move.

“You can rest, you deserved it.” Unwillingly he tried to curl on his seat while the tank started moving.

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The bridge was blown so there is no way for us to cross the second river but if the pilot’s report is correct then there should be a ford right near the blown bridge. The enemy forces should be there as well.

“Phoenix, this is Beril-Main, do you hear me?”

“Beril-Main, mortars are loaded and ready to fire. Where is the target?”

“I marked the areas where the enemy might be, send them some presents, will you?”

“Roger, aiming the mortars.”

The tank already reached a trail to the bridge so the enemy positions must be nearby. The area around is inside a forest so I turned on the thermal sights to search around us.

“Shots fired! The shells are flying at the first target! 34 second until impact!” The area around the bridge.

“Enemy contact! Infantry!” I saw a couple of soldiers near the edge of the tree line.

Bu-bu-bum

The enemy around us started running in panic. There were some soldiers moved by the Kord but most of the enemies fled the area. They must be gathering around the bridge.

Boom Boom Boom

Boom Boom

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Boom Bo-bo-boom

“Proceeding to the next target.”

“Shots fired! 32 seconds until impact!” This side of the river.

“Slow down.” I commanded Old man to slow the vehicle down because we are in the middle of the enemy territory and it would be nice not to have my periscope jumping up and down.

“Should I…” (J)

“Rest.”

“Yes…” (J)

Boom

Boom Boom Boom

B-b-bo-boo-boom

“Firing at the last position. … Shots fired! 35 second until impact!” The other side of the river, where their main forces were.

Occasionally enemy soldiers showed up but all of them were running in one direction.

“To the bridge.”

Boom Bo-bo-bo-b-b-boo-boom

Boom Boom Boom

Bo-boom

“Phoenix, can you pound the bridge until I tell you to stop? Thank you!”

“Prinyal! ‘Bagrov, tash’I snaryadi!’ … Snaryadi poshli! Popadaniye cherez 34 secundi!” [Roger! ‘Bagrov, bring the shells!’ …  Shots fired! 34 second until impact!]

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By the time we arrived to the bridge the mortars continuously pounded anything there for at least 5 minutes. The area appeared to be worthy of a branch office of the Moon.

“Jester, don’t even f* dare looking around. Understood?”

“Yes.” (J)

Even I felt like I would need a bucket after seeing the mess there. A lot of people were lying dead after being torn apart or stuffed with shrapnel. The few survivors were wandering around in shock. They appear to be crazy because of the mortars’ work.

I was considering putting them out of their misery but I’d rather have the following soldiers deal with them. They pose no threat to us right now and we better hurry after the vanguard army forces. We already broke the encirclement of the allies so now we only needed to cross the river.

The ford ended up being deeper than we anticipated so we had to set up the underwater driving equipment, conveniently ordered via the air supply which was extended to 250 kg.

“This was only my favor, Beril-Main. This equipment is necessary for you so I ordered to deliver it but don’t expect to have an excessive mass cargo delivery the next time.” Yes, Ether…