Dark Omega

CHAPTER 29 - THE GREAT REDEEMER

Haides got bored waiting in the stairwell. Lasar wasn't going anywhere, so the boy slipped up the stairs, all the way to the top. Hash, the other sniper, didn't look pleased to see Haides, but Luca waved him over. Haides scurried across the roof, keeping low, and dropped down next to Luca.

"I remember hearing Sarge tell you to stay with Lasar in the stairwell," he whispered.

"New orders," Haides replied.

Luca chuckled and explained their position: enemies were gathering nearby, close to two hundred, according to his guesstimates. He figured it had to represent the bulk of the fighting men available to the Khiones.

"That's quite a few," Haides said.

"Quite," said Luca, sounding none too happy. "More than twice what we planned for. They've grown big. Fast."

Haides was equally surprised by the large turnout. He had heard Luca and Sarge discussing enemy numbers earlier, and Sarge believed the Khiones couldn't have more than a hundred men—tops—under their banner.

"Fucking understatement," mumbled Hash. "We're in some deep shit now."

"Just keep watching them. Let me know if anything happens," came Luca's calm reply.

This wasn't normal behavior for the insurgents. It was by avoiding stand-up fights with the Coalition they had been able to grow. The Khiones usually operated in small groups, struck from hiding, and then faded away. They engaged in sniping and used improvised explosives to make movement difficult for the Coalition troopers. Luca called it 'asymmetrical warfare.' The rest of the GIs called it 'terror.' Haides wasn't sure which was the better word, but the point wasn't lost on him: when you must fight, do so on your terms, not the enemy's.

This gathering of forces was a new development. But then again, this wasn't a normal situation. Haides's squad had taken a good long piss at whatever authority Preacher Ramush had managed to build up, both with his own followers and other Akakian survivors. If he didn't act quickly and decisively, neither his men nor anyone else would ever take him seriously.

"Luca, I have movement," Hash said. "Looks like they are about ready to go," he said and handed Luca the binoculars.

"Not quite," Luca replied after assessing the situation. "They are about ready, but they are holding. Waiting for something." He turned to Haides. "Go sit with Lasar, boy. And I mean it this time," he added.

Haides wandered down the stairs again. He checked on Lasar, but the soldier had fallen asleep. No point sitting around doing nothing, so he went to check on Mazzo's team. They weren't doing much except waiting. None of them wanted Haides around, so he went back up to the fourth floor to see what Roverto was up to.

Rat had persuaded Roverto to make some improvised barricades to protect their flanks and rear. He seemed convinced the enemy would find an alternate route into the building and fall them in the back. Roverto didn't share his concerns but had agreed to put the man at ease. They didn't seem to mind Haides's presence. Shiloh patted him on the back, and Rat called the boy 'his little canary' and gave him a candy bar. It had been a long day, so Haides curled up behind one of the barricades and fell asleep. Good soldiers sleep when they can.

------

They came at Squad Haides's holdout right before dusk.

Their officers must not have believed them to be sufficiently skilled to carry out a night-time strike. They compensated for the lack of darkness with a liberal dose of suppressive fire and home-made smoke bombs, plus a fully functional Phalanx AFV. The Phalanx was an armored fighting vehicle optimized for close-quarters assaults and urban combat.