Hellsky (Hunter-Killer #3)

Chapter 15 - We Came This Far

 "Lockjaw-Valley," Ryke growled through the comm as he stepped back, moving slowly and methodically in a firing line with the surviving mechs of his command. "We are running interference. Bug out and get to the Scouts' defensive cover."

"Sir?!"

"Drown me, you need it written down? Go! That's an order!"

Keeping one eye on the HUD as he moved, he nodded grimly to himself as the signatures of Valley's mangled Hunter-Killer squadron moved away, pounding out across the plain. After the Alpha's attack they were down to six mechs, and only Mayder Ricardo's sacrifice had ensured it didn't get any worse.

Anger pulsed through him at the flash of memory; of the whip crashing down and smashing the scout mech into the blasted sand. Ricardo's body would never make it back to Brekka. He'd be another face on the ever-growing war memorials.

HK-Rupture were not going to let anyone else die on this blasted plate of hell. Behind their line of fire trucks, troop carriers and the last dregs of the Scout Cadre flights scrambled frantically to get clear before the Scraegan hammer fell in earnest.

Ryke and his troops fought a slow, dogged retreat as more Scraegans piled into the breach, smashing through the armoured walls of the human positions like paper. There wasn't much choice – he didn't want to risk stopping their barrage of suppressing fire to withdraw any faster. Enraged Scraegans could move a lot faster than a lot of people realised.

"Lockjaw – SC-10?" he barked.

"I hear you," Brackenshaw replied. "You got to get out of there Vannigan. Reinforcements are two minutes out."

"Doing my best, ma'am." Ryke gritted his teeth; snapped off a shot at a Scraegan advancing through the wreckage of the human perimeter of the liaison post. The beast ducked with a growl as armour-piercing shells cracked across its shoulder, leaving bloody gouges behind. "But if we turn around and run we're going to get shot in the back."

"We've got secondary firing lines beyond the perimeter approach," she replied. "Just get out onto open ground and we can cover you from there."

An explosion thundered through the plateau as a furnace blast gored through a pillar a handful of meters from Ryke's mech. He lurched back sharply away from the resulting avalanche of shattered rock.

"Easier said than done," Fenix muttered.

"Sarge, I've got another signal, coming in hot from the west edge of the plateau," Kim blurted. "Pissing Rivers, they're cutting right under the base. Looks like another Scraegan pack."

Ryke looked sharply up at the HUD and swore under his breath as she pinged him the display from her Raptor's powerful sensors. A small red clump was looping around from the far side, trying to get behind them.

"They're trying to cut us off." He picked out another target through the smoke, spraying an arc of fire in the direction of the dark shape. A shell thumped out from Erin's Goliath mech, smashing a crater in another Scraegan and sending it spinning away with a howl of pain.

"We go straight backwards we're gonna run right into them, boss," Preese cautioned. "What's the play?"

"SC-10, you seeing this?"

"Everflowing – yeah, I see them."

"Any ideas?"

"Sarge!" Scantlin piped up. "I think we got another route out through the crags on the east edge. Might be the scenic route but it'll keep us from getting surrounded."