Champions Vol. 01

Just when he finished tucking his wedding tackle back in; he heard soft footsteps behind him. Turning his head he saw the vague outline of a humanoid shape creeping towards him from the darkness. As he began to turn the rest of his body the figure rushed him, swinging something in its outstretched arm towards his head.

THUNK.

"Ow, fuck," David gasped, reeling away from the pain that blossomed in the side of head, under his helmet.

Stepping to the side he reached for his nearest weapons, the fighting knife on his kit and his pistol. Whoever it was that had just attacked him had swung some kind of club into his head, and if he had not been wearing his helmet there was a good chance his brains would have been oozing out of a gaping hole in his skull right now. Instead he was just dazed, and a little woozy.

His vision blurred from the strike, David saw three attackers set themselves for another swing at his head. Reacting instinctively, he snap fired his M9 in their general direction. Four shots rang out as he tried to hit at least one of them with his hasty shots. All three reacted identically; they all initially jumped at the sound of the pistol shots, and all fell backwards howling in agony. Shaking his head David cast a quick healing spell on himself; and as the fog lifted from his brain he realized that his blurred vision and brain trauma had tricked him. The three attackers had been an error of his faulty vision, there was only one of them.

Reaching up he flipped down his NODs and turned them on. Searching the surrounding darkness he was greeted by a few surprising and unfortunate revelations. First, the figure that had just attacked him was a man with a club, second, he was lying on the ground bleeding from two gunshots, and third, he had A LOT of friends.

Cursing his stupidity at not using his NODs during the perimeter check, he realized that a group of over thirty people armed with clubs, axes, spears, swords, and knives had been sneaking up on their campsite under the cover of darkness. The one that had attacked him was the closest to him, and his pistol shots had momentarily surprised the rest, shocking them into immobility. But they were now starting to move again.

"Shit," David cursed, stowing his pistol and knife. He would need both hands for what he planned to do next. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit..." he continued cursing as he backed away as quickly as he could in the darkness, swinging the Mk48 from his back and flicking off the safety.

***

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

"What was that?" Laurena asked groggily. She had just drifted off to sleep and was struggling to awaken again.

"David!" Sapphire gasped. More rested and alert than her companion, she reacted to the distant pistol shots by bolting from the bed and grabbing the M4 from where it lay on the floor. Pulling back the charging handle far enough to confirm a round was already chambered, she released it and tapped the forward assist with the heel of her palm. Returning her right hand to the grip she reached down with her left and snagged her utility harness, ignoring her shoes and coat in the rush to help her love.

"What's going on?" Laurena asked again.

"David just fired his pistol," Sapphire yelled back, racing for the opening of the tent. "He needs us."

Finally awake enough to realize what was going on, Laurena leapt from the bed and began looking for her staff and pistol.

They both were shocked into immobility when they heard a long burst of machine gun fire. Then another. Then a third. Then a fourth. Then silence...

***

David barely had time to raise the Mk 48 to his shoulder before the nearest opponent was upon him. He didn't so much aim as point the barrel at the man's torso before squeezing the trigger. A long burst of 7.62 mm 'freedom' spewed from the end of his weapon, and the charging man was blasted away from him. Searching the darkness he noticed two more behind that one and quickly sprayed them with a burst of fire as well. They both dropped, one silenced the other screaming in agony. Further beyond them he heard more screams, and he figured that some of the stray rounds from his bursts must have intercepted others.

Scanning the field before him he noticed three clumps of four to five men charging him, as well as a ragged group of others behind them. Aiming at the closest cluster to his position, which were about thirty feet out and closing fast, he squeezed off another long burst. Sweeping from right to left, he caught all five men in that group with the fusillade. Continuing his rotation to the left, he sprayed another burst into the second group dropping three of the four before he heard a heart stopping sound.

Ka-chunk.

"Fuck," he cursed. Reaching forward with his firing hand he pulled the charging handle, yanking the bolt back until it locked. Returning his hand to the grip he squeezed the trigger and prayed for a miracle.

Ka-chunk.

"Motherfuckingsonofabitchgoddammit!" he roared in fury. Of course the one time he needed it to work the damn thing would fuck up on him. Swinging it around his torso on the sling to rest at his back again, he drew his pistol and checked the position of his enemies.

The first three he had engaged were down, and did not appear to be interested in getting back up. The same was true of the first group of five he had dropped. The second group still had one standing, and a second was trying to rise again, apparently hampered by a leg wound. They weren't getting any closer though. The third group was still charging, and they were only twenty feet out now. Backing away from them carefully, David fired his M9 at this group.

He was no expert when it came to firing his M9 with NODs. In fact he had never done it before. So the fact that stopping all four men in the last group took the remaining eleven rounds in his pistol...was good enough in his book.

Looking past the quartet, David noticed that the once ragged group behind them had closed in on his position, and some of them seemed to be pulling bows from their backs.

"Fuck," he cursed, then turned back to the tent, and ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

*** Chapter 37: Trial by Fire ***

132357APR13 DW

East of the Field of Woe, Erosius

Running across an open, expansive, and well maintained lawn is easy. Running in a generally open and overgrown field is challenging but possible. Running in it at night, with a full kit, a Mk 48 on your back, monocular night vision, and a hoard of pissed off people behind you without tripping or turning an ankle is damn near impossible. David still managed to cross the seventy-ish meters to the first trip line without incident. Hopping the first trip line, he continued running the twenty meters toward the second and yelled out, "Sapphire, Laurena, we've got a whole lot of assholes incoming!"

Looking up long enough to see that both women were out of the tent and armed, he looked back down in time to hop the second trip line, and finish his sprint the last ten meters to their side.

"What's going on?" Sapphire asked him as he arrived.

"Bad guys inbound," he gasped out, trying to catch his breath. "Right behind me and closing fast."

He no more than finished this proclamation than all three heard the bells on the first trip line start ringing and growls of feral rage emanated from the direct he had come in.

"Fuck," he groaned. Thumbing the mag release on his M9 he reloaded it quickly and turned to engage.

Sapphire moved to his side to get a clear line of fire, and knelt into the crouched firing position David had taught them. Raising the M4 and looking through the optics, she couldn't spot any targets in the darkness. Thinking quickly, she called up her magic and cast a ball of light into the air, twenty feet above the trip line that had just rang their enemy's arrival.

As the light flared to life, David reached up with his off hand and flipped up his NODs. With the light spell they were useless now. As Sapphire began to aim at the people that were exposed by the sudden light, he quickly assessed the situation.

It looked like there were well over thirty people out there. Only a handful had breached the first trip line, and they were about to tangle in the second. Three had tripped over the first, and were beginning to get to their feet. They were dirty, unkempt, dressed in a mixture of threadbare clothing and animal furs, and had wildly savage looks in their eyes and upon their faces, bordering on insanity. There also seemed to be a few women scattered about in the advancing group, but they so closely resembled the men that there could have been more that he thought. The horde was charging their position, and now that the silence of the night and cover of darkness had been destroyed, they began howling in rage as they came forward. He noticed only a few in the group had bows, and none seemed to be able to see well enough to engage them yet. He murmured a quiet prayer of thanks that Sapphire was smart enough to set her light so that it illuminated the enemies' position, and not their own. Assessing the situation and comparing it to the skills and weapons that they could bring to bear, he laid out a quick battle plan.

"Sapphire, take out the bowmen first. After than start with the closest targets, and work further out as you go. Your sector of fire is from the 10 o'clock to the 2 o'clock. Laurena, move to Sapphire's right and cover the 2 o'clock to the six. I got the left side. If they get within striking range maintain your spacing, switch to hand weapons, and don't let them get between us. No guns in close. We can't afford to get hurt." David explained, thankful he had taught them clock positions and sectors of fire during their training. He hoped that all the training and drills he had run them through would be enough. This was about to be a baptism by fire.

Laurena nodded, and circled behind Sapphire to protect the right flank. The only confirmation he got from Sapphire was the report of the M4 as she set about her work. Good enough, he thought grimly, as he raised his M9 and began to engage the first few runners that had gotten tangled in the ten-meter trip line.

Sapphire had spotted a bowman as soon as David began giving out orders. She steadied her breathing and her aim, but her hands started to tremble as she thought about what she would have to do. More people would die today. More people already had. She didn't want to kill these men and women. Why can't they just leave us alone? she thought. Then David's last remark got through her troubled mind. "We can't afford to get hurt." No, we can't, she thought. We can't let them hurt us.

Her hands steadied and she centered her targeting reticule on the bowman again.

I won't let them hurt us, she thought, as she fired her first round.

Laurena was scared. She did not wish to harm anyone. She certainly did not wish to fight for her life this night. But she had a duty. Even if he were not the Champion, David was still a good man, and worth protecting; and Sapphire was her friend. She had no desire to inflict pain and death upon these misguided people, but she would do what she had to. Her new friends had risked their lives to protect her before, and they were doing the same thing again now. She could do no less...she would do no less.

Hardening her resolve, Laurena raised her pistol and waited for the attackers in her sector to get within range. She did not have to wait long.

David had already shot three runners tangled in the first trip line when the ranks closing behind them began to jump over it. The sectors of fire he had called out were for Sapphire and Laurena's benefit, not his. He had more than enough close quarters training and situational awareness to engage any target in any sector without a risk of friendly fire. He could hear Laurena starting to fire as well. He had no idea if she was hitting anything, but the simple fact that she was shooting was a good sign. He had wondered if she would have the courage to do so at all.

As he started firing faster, he was counting down the number of rounds he had left. He had been trying to track Sapphire and Laurena's rounds as well, but it was just too much for him to maintain on top of tracking the enemy. Sapphire had fired at least half her magazine and Laurena had to be close to empty. With three rounds left in his weapon he dropped his stabilizing hand and began to draw his third magazine out, getting ready to reload. He had been using controlled pairs on his targets, and had dropped six targets so far. One of the larger men had taken two rounds center mass and kept coming, so he put a second pair in the man's face. That stopped him.

Firing off his last round at a woman that was trying to circle around them on the left, he yelled out "Loading," and dropped the now empty mag from his M9. He slapped in the next magazine and thumbed the slide release, chambering the first round. Scanning for his next target, he fired two rounds into a man that had crept towards their flank, and had just cleared the trip line at his 9 o'clock. He had trained the women to recognize that the report of his pistol firing was the only notification they would receive that his reload was complete.

"How we doing?" he called out.

"I'm good," Sapphire replied calmly.

"There are too many of them," Laurena said, fear in her voice.

Looking to her sector he saw that a group of three - two men and a woman - had cleared the ten-meter trip line and were closing on Laurena.

"Shift fire right," he yelled quickly, adjusting his aim to her sector and engaging the first target he could. Sapphire hesitated for a heartbeat, and then cast a hasty spell. The remaining man and woman were thrown backwards, and crashed into a pair of trees, hard.

"Shit" David muttered, he had forgotten about magic. "New plan," he called out. "Sapphire, hand me the rifle and push anyone that gets too close back. I'll take out the far targets."

Handing the M4 to David quickly, Sapphire pulled her pistol and began sending bursts of telekinesis to trip or push back any of the attackers close to the ten-meter trip line. Holstering his pistol and shouldering the rifle, David sent two quick pairs of rounds into targets that were closing in on his position from the left.

"Loading," Laurena called out, dropping her spent pistol magazine and loading a fresh one from her belt.

Firing another pair of rounds into a shambling hulk that was charging in, David felt the bolt in his rifle lock back, magazine depleted.

"Loading," he called out, then went to one knee, and executed the fastest reload of his life. Scanning the area he took a quick count, and realized they were slaughtering the enemy.

What he had originally estimated as over thirty opponents now seem closer to forty - over fifty with the ones he had killed and/or wounded out on the perimeter - and they had already killed or wounded over half of them. He shook his head in amazement. With those casualty numbers the enemy's morale should have been broken. They should run away by now. Instead the remaining stragglers were a seething mass of howling rage and insanity. They continued to charge in, either unconcerned with, or oblivious to, the fates of their fallen compatriots. It was madness. Worse, only the mortally wounded were staying down.

David knew that the 5.56mm rounds in his M4 and the 9mm rounds in their M9s were made to be wounding rounds. They could kill, but they were more likely to simply wound the enemy in a manner that would take them out of a fight. As long as the gunshot wound was not to a handful of vital areas the person would survive with proper medical care. Sadly, their attackers seemed to be ignoring all but the most damaging wounds. The shots that stopped them were head and heart. Even now, he watched a man struggle to his feet, knowing that he had put two rounds center mass into the guy earlier.

Shaking his head in annoyance, David thumbed the rifle's selector switch from semi to full auto. It was time to lay on enough hate to drop the fuckers permanently.

Sapphire was getting tired. She had begun using her magic to throw backwards anyone that crossed the ten-meter trip line, often targeting trees or other runners with her captives' projectile bodies. Unfortunately, that had started to tire her rapidly; so she shifted to tripping them up, and pushing them sideways into their compatriots. She had managed to keep them back so far; but there were so many, and they just kept coming. As she heard David switch from controlled pairs to controlled bursts, she began coaxing her magic again. She reached out and lifted the high-strength cord of the trip line, and began to wrap it around the legs of the fallen but rising enemies nearest it. It was an imperfect solution, but if she could keep them down just a little longer, they might still have a chance.

"Loading," Laurena and David called out at the same time. The acolyte had kept her head so far, and was performing admirably. Unfortunately, her aim was abysmal. She had already burned through four pistol magazines. "Last mag," the Erosian woman called out, worry in her voice.

Reaching down to her utility harness that she had dropped at her feet, Sapphire pulled two of her three remaining pistol magazines out. Sending a powerful burst of magic to push back the charging groups in her and Laurena's sectors, she handed both mags to Laurena.

"Here," Sapphire said in a hurried and tired voice. "You're doing great, keep it up," she added encouragingly.

Laurena took the ammunition and nodded her thanks for the reassurance, grateful for both.

"Loading," David called out again. He was burning through his ammo much faster now, putting four to six rounds in each target. It was a damn waste, but now most of the ones he put down now stayed there. He had already burned through four of the six rifle magazines on his vest, and he was loading the fifth now. Completing the reload, he immediately targeted a woman rushing towards him and fired a burst into her chest.

"How are we doing?" he called out, shifting his aim to the next asshole.

"I'm getting tired," Sapphire called out wearily. "I can't keep this up much longer."

"I ran low on ammo," Laurena added, "but Sapphire gave me two more mags." She punctuated her remarks with a burst of fire from her pistol.

"How many do you have left?" David asked, shooting two more bursts into a charging pair to his 10 o'clock.

"Loading," Laurena called out. A few moments later she added, "Just one more after this one."

"Sapphire?" David continued his ammo check.

"Half empty one in the pistol and one spare on my harness," she replied grimly.

"Shit," David mumbled under his breath.

Scanning the area he noticed that there were still about twenty attackers moving towards them, but thankfully most were wounded in some way. "Keep up the pressure. We're almost through this," he reassured the ladies.

His immediate sector clear, David shifted his fire into Sapphire's pouring bursts of 5.56mm 'attitude adjustment' into six of the nearest attackers. The pressure on her front temporarily relieved, Sapphire shifted her aim to help Laurena, dropping two more - one of them permanently - before her pistol was empty.

"Loading," she called out, dropping to one knee and fishing her last pistol magazine from her harness. "Last mag," she added as she slapped it home and thumbed the slide release.

Deep within his brain, in a portion not currently focused on fighting for his life and the lives of the women beside him, David congratulated himself on spending so much time training the ladies in loading drills and battlefield communication. Another, slightly larger, portion of his brain was proud at how well they had applied the hard training in the last few desperate minutes. They were performing better than some of the soldiers he had served with. The rest of his brain was scrambling for a way out of this mess.