Chapter 8

An hour later I put my sniper rifle down. I had no more ammo; I had used it to keep the enemy honest and their heads down. Taff fired two more rounds and then there was silence.

I had two mags for my M16 and three for my UCIW. I had three grenades for the M203.

We were in the shit. There was still no sign of further supplies or our backup.

I saw a group of men on our right flank, they were moving toward a goat path that would lead them around our sangar. I loaded a grenade into the M203 and aimed.

It landed square in the middle of the men, at least three died and more were injured. The rest gathered up their wounded and ran back to their lines. To be fair all we wanted to do now was slow them down. To make them think twice about coming our way.

They would not know we were short of ammo until they attacked us and then it would become obvious.

I heard firing from Spike’s men and guessed they also had a raiding party going their way.

Over the next hour, I used the rest of the grenades. Then the sound of mortars filled our ears. They fired at least thirty rounds at us in less than half an hour. They were wide of our sangar. I knew that they would be trying to soften us up before starting an attack.

I used the comms unit to warn Spike. As I turned to look back at the enemy lines, I saw six armoured trucks starting to trundle up the road. They were armed with GPMGs and some sort of cannon. At the same time, men started to walk forward. There were bloody hundreds of them.

“Bide your time guys, don’t waste rounds,” I said into the comms unit.

A full-blown battle tank rolled out of the camp, now where the fuck had that come from, I asked myself. I saw its gun aim at Spikes Sangar and the shell landed a few yards from its defensive wall.

I gave them a few seconds to compose himself.

“Spike?” I asked over the comms unit, “Are you okay mate?”

“Yes, but we are almost out of ammo, and we have some cuts from stone chips.” He said and I heard him coughing and spitting.

“Spike, make your tactical withdrawal now mate!” I said.

At the same time, the tank fired another shell their way. I heard the explosion as rocks and dust showered the sangar.

The comms unit went dead. Fuck I thought to myself was Spike dead?

A glance at mine told me that my battery had died.

I heard my guys starting to fire down toward the advancing enemy. Men were now following the armour out of the camp and heading our way.

“Bide your time guys, bide your time!” I said to my lads.

The GPMGs on the armoured trucks started to fire. I glanced over at Spike’s sangar, another shell had just landed in front of it. It was covered in dust.

I saw Spike leading his men out of the back of the sangar. It was the right thing to do.

I heard one of my lad’s firings, I turned to see that the infantry was charging us. The tank fired at Spikes Sangar again and it scored a direct hit. Spike had led his men out with perfect timing.

I opened up with my M16, we had nothing that would dent the armour, but we could put a dent in the infantry.

“Make sure you are ready to run when I say okay guys,” I said above the din of the firing weapons.

“Yes boss!” they all said in reply. We all knew it was not the SAS way but when you are faced with huge numbers of armour and men it was daft to stand and fight.

“When you are down to one mag, get out to the rear sangar and make your way toward Spike and his lads,” I said.

I used the M16 to good effect. I nailed men with every three-round burst.

Bazza was the first to go. He dropped a mag out of his M16, and I heard another one being rammed home.

“Good luck boys!” he said as he shuffled out to the rear sangar.

Chalky white went seconds later, I knew I had one burst left, I fired at a bunch of lads that were carrying a GPMG, and I glanced at Coxie. He nodded at me and fired a three-round burst before turning and replacing the mag at the same time.

I followed him. We jumped over the wall and ran past the burnt-out wreckage of our ATVS. We heard the tank fire, and the shell landed where we had been standing just seconds earlier.

I could see Bazza and Chalky running along a goat path and further up the path, I saw Spike and his lads. I counted and saw that they had all made it out of the sangar alive.

I heard another shell hit our sangar. At least the dust would cover our tactical retreat.

Another shell hit our sangar. They would now know that if we had been in there, we would be dead or injured.

I saw Spike and his men running around a wall of rocks, it was a wall that would give us some cover. Coxie was ten yards in front of me now, Bazza and Chalky were thirty yards in front of him.

Then I saw a dozen men run around the wall of rocks, and they spanned out. Fuck. They were wearing camo gear that I did not recognise. How the fuck had they got behind us.

My lads hit the floor, I did the same and was about to take aim when I saw Spike running around the rocks. He stood in front of the men and held his hands up. He was shouting but I could not hear what he was saying.

He was signalling for us to come to him. Bazza and Chalky stood up and ran toward him.

“What the fuck is happening Coxie?” I asked.

“No idea Rosie, but Bazza shouted back to say it was safe!” he said.

We both stood up and jogged up the path. As we did so I saw another guy walk around the wall of rocks. It was a guy I did recognise.

It was Sergeant Toomo Moussa, he waved at me. He had a beaming smile on his face and an AK in his hand.

His men had taken up firing positions prone on the floor. As I got to them, I saw the rest of Spike’s team heading back around the rocks. They all had AK47s.

“Toomo, it’s good to see you!” I said and we bumped fists.

“Rosie sir, I wish I had more men, but the Major will not risk losing the capital!” he said with a grimace.

“So, you came alone?” I asked.

“Yes, I asked for volunteers and only a dozen men agreed to come, I am sorry Rosie!”

“Mate thank you for coming!” I said. I had seen the armour and the number of soldiers that were coming our way, and I knew that twenty-odd men would not be able to withstand their onslaught for long.

“We have weapons and ammo for all your men on the truck!” he said.

I followed him around the wall of rocks. There were two trucks. I saw Bazza and Chalky getting Aks out of cases and picking up mags.

Coxie and I did the same. I picked up ten mags and put them in my battle dress pockets.

There were water bottles as well and I drank from one before passing it to Coxie.

Then I heard Spike calling for me. I ran over to where he was hunkered down and whistled. It was like the film Zulu, there were hundreds of Titashian soldiers walking past our sangars and heading our way.

“So, Rosie do we stand and fight?” Toomo asked.

As he said it, I heard a noise behind us. We all turned to see what it was.

Three planes were high in the sky, as we watched the first one started to descend and I saw men jumping from its ramp. Our backup had arrived.

“They need to get their gear sorted and get to us, I figure they are two miles away,” I said.

“Then we just need to hold out a little bit longer! Spike said and smiled.

The next plane descended and again men jumped out. the sky was full of parachutes.

I saw equipment pods coming out of the plane’s rear doors but no transport. I hit the ground as rounds started to come our way. The armoured trucks were leading the charge.

I heard Toomo telling one of his men to fetch something. He came back with two LAWS rockets. The LAWS is lightweight rocket launcher and can be used to deal with armoured threats such as Armoured patrol vehicles. The LAW 66mm is a one-shot disposable rocket launcher, it would not really trouble the tank, but we could try it against the armour trucks coming our way.

I took one and Spike took the other.

“I am taking the guy on my right Spike, “I said as I got the LAWs ready for action, I made sure no one was behind me and then line up the sights. I had used the M27 LAWs before and I knew the gave a might hit.