Assignment: Avalon

Chapter Seventeen: End Game

Rand had watched Melodan's biplane chased, smoking, from the battlefield, and exchanged a glance with Artan at his side. "So much for air support," he said.

"Pilots always take too much credit for infantry victories, anyway," Artan said staunchly, but his face looked pale in the dawn light.

The missile salvo that had opened the Groundforce attack had paused during the brief air battle, but now that they had no fear of being strafed, the Groundforcers became bolder. More missiles screamed up the slope at the huddled Free Forcers, pinning them behind boulders while the Groundforcers slowly advanced. Return fire was spotty, and twice Rand saw Free Forcers raise up to fire, only to fall, screaming, as missile shrapnel took them down.

"Skyforce is coming back!" Artan shouted, and Rand, peering up, saw the planes circling.

"Into the caves!" he ordered. "They'll chew us apart if we stay out here. We'll have to fight them from the cave mouths."

"Yes, sir!" Artan passed the order on through his radio, and the Free Forcers pulled back.

Not all of them made it.

Inside the cave, Rand saw Kyla, rifle in hand, coming up the tunnel. "You should be with your brother!" he shouted to her above the din of explosions and gunfire.

"I'm not doing him or you any good down there," she shouted back. "I joined the Free Forcers to fight, Colonel!"

It was far too late to worry about protecting people, Rand thought. "Then get up there!" he ordered, and with a grim salute, she hurried on.

Rand made his way back to the infirmary, already crowded, with more wounded being brought in. They had only one trained medic, plus the two assistants the medic he'd trained himself, and their meager medical supplies were rapidly running out.

I doubt it matters, Rand thought. If we can't hold off Groundforce, none of us will leave these caves alive.

Oddly, the thought brought him a measure of peace. All choices were truly out of his hands, now.

Death is the end of responsibility.

He went back into the tunnel, unslung his rifle, made sure its magazine was full, then returned to the battle.

#

Kyla lay behind a rock just outside the main entrance of the cave, firing at the dimly glimpsed Groundforcers on the far side of the smoke-filled ravine. Bullets whined over her head, occasionally shattering on stones within an arms-length of her, but she hadn't been hit yet.

A missile slammed into the slope above her and fist-sized rocks cascaded down on her, but she hardly felt them. She fired, reloaded, and kept firing, and two thoughts kept recycling endlessly in her head, alternating with each pull of the trigger...

For Vik, she thought. Bang! For Tor. Bang! For Vik. Bang! For Tor. Bang! For Vik...

And then, suddenly, Groundforce wasn't on the other side of the ravine, it was on this side, crouched on the other side of the fang-like rocks that had once been the Free Force battlements. Rifle muzzles flashed in the smoke. Something stung her cheek like a hot bee, and she felt blood trickling down to her chin, then dripping from it.

This was better, with Groundforce on this side. Now she could really aim. She fired, saw a Groundforcer fall backward, rifle flying from her hands; fired again, and sent another Groundforcer running for better cover, only to be cut down by someone else's bullet before he made it. She aimed again...