Fiction Week

By Karl Flynn

            First Lieutenant Liu was more anxious than he had ever been sitting in the troop compartment of the assault boat. He looked around at his first fireteam, wondering what the next few hours would have in store for them. This would be the first time a Marine heavy infantry platoon would see combat. The boat’s navigator came over the intercom and brought him out of his thoughts.

            “Going hullborne in ten seconds.”

“Roger.”

Liu heard the whine of the boat’s gas turbines decrease in pitch, followed by its diesel engines roaring to life. He felt himself being pressed sideways into his power armor as the boat’s hull settled in the water and slowed the craft from just under 50 knots to 12 in a few seconds. The whine of auxiliary machinery indicated that the boat’s three sets of hydrofoils were being retracted.

“Two minutes.”

“Roger.”

Liu made his way to check on the weapons Marines on the aft deck. They were preparing their mission master UGVs to swim the last few dozen meters to shore. The assault boat was carrying two such vehicles – one with a 120-millimeter recoilless rifle, the other a dedicated cargo carrier with a multifuel generator in lieu of any armament. The mission masters always reminded Liu of something a three-year old would draw – their four enormous tires were almost as tall as the vehicle itself. The navigator came over the intercom again.

“Landing site is clear. Splash UGVs.”

Both mission masters’ diesel engines came to life, then they drove themselves unceremoniously off the fantail of the assault boat. With the starlight and half-moon, Liu watched them bob up and down off the stern through his visor without using any of his visor’s various infrared overlays. As they settled out, the mission masters started tearing at the water with the thick treads of their tires. Sergeant Lee, the senior Marine from the weapons platoon attachment, turned to Liu.

“Better get ready, sir.” Liu nodded and made his way back to the bow ramp with the Marines from weapons platoon in tow. Standing behind the craft’s bow ramp, Liu felt the boat start to slow down as its bow fell. He glanced at the local time displayed on his visor’s HUD. It read 2127.

This is it.

As soon as the bow doors opened, he hurled himself out onto the beach. The artificial muscles that articulated his 766-pound power armor mimicked his own movement, allowing him to run as though he were only wearing his cammies. As Liu ran up the beach toward the treeline, he looked to his right. About two hundred meters away, he could clearly see the outline of the second assault craft. Its enormous hydrofoils reached skyward as the rest of the Marines from his weapons platoon attachment made their way ashore. Another two hundred meters beyond them, he saw his platoon sergeant, Staff Sergeant Dalton, followed by his second fireteam pour out of their assault boat and onto the beach as the mission masters made it to shore.

As he reached the concealment of the treeline, Liu switched to his mid-wave infrared visor feed and looked back at the Marines from his boat. His first fireteam had instinctively set into security ahead of him while the weapons platoon Marines guided in the mission masters and the rest of the Marines from the beach. Meanwhile, the assault boats reversed, pivoted, and slowly headed back out to sea to wait outside the range of any crew-served weapons.

Once the last mission master reached the edge of the treeline, Liu looked to Sergeant Orr and gave him the hand signal to move. The entire platoon could recite the scheme of maneuver in their sleep, so without anyone saying a word, Orr got his fireteam moving in a column with Liu following behind. The two mission masters from weapons platoon and the ammunition carrier moved in silent drive mode behind Liu. Four hundred meters to the north, Staff Sergeant Dalton had the other half of the platoon moving in a similar manner.

So far so good.

The first road along the platoon’s route was less than 300 meters from the landing site, so the Marines didn’t bother to make a deliberate danger area crossing. Instead, they simply ran across without slowing down. Once they were clear of the far side of the road, Sergeant Orr slowed his Marines down to a walking pace. Moving slowly not only helped him maintain control of the formation and improved his security, but it also reduced their power armors’ energy consumption by over half. The nine Marines and three mission masters moved with astonishing silence considering their half ton and three-ton mass, respectively. The Marines’ power armor was powered by two interchangeable 144-pound batteries, while the mission masters could use their built-in batteries or diesel engines. In silent drive mode, their electric motors could move them for up to 50 kilometers—far longer than this mission required.

Liu felt relatively safe moving through the forest. He knew the thick canopy would block their signature from any overhead ISR asset. He also knew that armored vehicles couldn’t traverse this type of terrain, meaning the only enemy force he could run into would be light infantry. Liu, however, was hoping that they wouldn’t run into any enemy force until they reached their objective. Fortunately, the 12-kilometer movement was uneventful. There were no more roads and only a few trails between the platoon and its objective, so Liu was alone with his thoughts for most of the movement—they were maintaining strict EMCON to ensure no enemy EW asset would be alerted to their presence.

Liu watched the augmented reality display in his HUD track his progress throughout the few hours of movement through the forest. Once his HUD indicated he was less than five hundred meters from the objective area, he gave the hand signal to halt, followed by the objective rally point hand signal. The UGVs immediately stopped and the Marines around him instinctively established 360-degree security. Liu moved to Sergeant Orr, and they both departed the hasty security perimeter with Sergeant Lee to conduct their leader’s reconnaissance. After a few minutes of very slow walking, they could see the thermal signatures of air defense vehicles in the clearing. They then transitioned to low crawling, stopping a few meters before the edge of the clearing. Liu glanced at the time displayed on his HUD once again: 0117.

As they lay just inside the treeline, Liu reached over to Orr’s shoulder blade—or rather, where his shoulder blade would be under his power armor. This created a local datalink and Liu immediately saw a line projected from Orr’s weapon out into the clearing on his visor, along with Orr’s battery levels and other information about his power armor. He repeated the process with Lee. Liu looked back out toward the clearing and started scanning for targets. Liu watched the lines from the two Marines’ weapons dance across his visor as they silently tallied each HQ-16, HQ-17, and radar vehicle parked throughout the clearing. Liu was amazed at the complete lack of security.

            We really must have surprised the fuck out of them. They’ve got tunnel vision on their air defense mission and aren’t worried about ground threats whatsoever.

In a few minutes, all vehicles were tallied and Liu confirmed the target precedence established by the two NCOs. He marked their position and returned to the rest of the Marines still waiting at the objective rally point. The challenge and pass was redundant—Liu’s power armor clearly distinguished him as a friendly—but the Marines went through the link up procedure anyway. Liu got the Marines moving along with the UGVs. As they moved, Liu watched the distance to the chevron in his visor count down. Once they were 20 meters out, he signaled the weapons platoon Marines to stop the UGVs. The Marines then continued to the edge of the treeline in a low crawl. Liu’s HUD displayed 0143.

Time to wait.

Liu couldn’t have slept if he’d wanted to. The anticipation was almost unbearable. The next 47 minutes felt like an eternity to him. As soon as his HUD displayed 0230, his visor lit up with information from a datalink with Staff Sergeant Dalton.

“Red one, this is red one-alpha. All positions and geometries are getting sent to your HUD, over.”

Liu winced, wondering if activating their radios would alert the enemy to their presence. Still, there was nothing. Beyond the constant sweeping of the antennae on the radar vehicles, there was no activity on the objective. Liu checked over the geometries of fire on his HUD. As expected, everything was as it should be – a near perfect L-shaped ambush with Staff Sergeant Dalton’s half of the platoon forming the base of the L to his right.

“I have it. Everything looks good. Open fire at three-one, over.”

“Roger, out.”

Once again, the next 35 seconds felt like an eternity to Liu. His waiting was ended by the flash, noise, and concussion of two Carl Gustavs and two 120-millimeter recoilless rifles volley firing. So many weapons firing in such a small area was an awesome display of firepower. Since the enemy vehicles were at most 400 meters away, each weapon found its mark. Secondary explosions from fuel and surface to air missiles followed. Immediately after the explosions, Liu’s machine-gunners started firing at the soft skins that hadn’t been engaged yet. So far, there was still no reaction from the enemy.

I’ve got to be the luckiest Marine alive.

It didn’t take long for the recoilless rifle teams to finish the job. Assistant gunners patiently grabbed reloads from the resupply mission master and reloaded for their gunners. They kept firing until there was nothing left of the air defense vehicles.

“Cease fire, all targets destroyed!”

In the sudden silence, Liu noticed the sound of diesel engines and tracklaying mechanisms.

What the hell?

“Two by PGZ-95s, left of TRP two!”

How the hell did S-2 miss those!?

Sergeant Lee had barely gotten the alert out before the lead vehicle sent a continuous stream of 25-millimeter projectiles into the Marines’ positions. Their armor was designed to be resistant to small arms fire and could even survive a glancing impact from a heavy machine gun. A 25-millimeter cannon, however, would go straight through them. Liu saw Lance Corporal Pahlavi lurch backward as a tracer flew through his body. More tracers followed, creating an overpowering wall of sound and light.

“Everyone engage that PGZ!” The snapping sound made by the sonic booms of the massive projectiles was so loud he could barely even hear himself yell the order, despite his power armor’s built-in hearing protection. His Marines didn’t need to be told what to do, they were already reacting without needing to hear his orders. An 84-millimeter HEAT projectile crossed Liu’s visor from right to left and impacted the lead vehicle mere seconds after it had opened fire. It caught fire and clambered to a halt. Liu was trying not to get distraught over the Marine he had just witnessed get shot.

Don’t get sucked into the casualties – win the fight first.

Liu saw the second PGZ continue to advance.

“Get back to the ORP!”

The Marines started running past Liu as he switched over to his radio. “Red one-alpha, this is red one, do you have a clear shot on that PGZ, over?”

“Negative, one, he’s putting the destroyed vehicles between us and him, over.”

“Roger, out!”

Fuck!

Liu ran toward where he’d last seen Pahlavi. All he could think about was getting as many of his Marines back alive when the second PGZ opened fire. Tracers illuminated the foliage around him, then he suddenly felt himself lurch forward and hit the ground on his left side. He didn’t feel any pain, but a bright red warning message appeared in his visor.

God damnit.

“Sir!” It was Orr’s voice.

“Keep moving!” The forest around them was so bright it looked like daylight, so Liu’s HUD automatically switched to visible light mode. He managed to stand back up as more tracers flew past him. He ran in a low crouch toward the objective rally point. He realized the warning was for his battery pack, his power armor had automatically ejected both when he’d been hit. Liu glanced behind him as he continued to run. His visor increased its polarization and tint as he looked at what appeared to be two 155-millimeter illumination rounds burning on the ground.

Fuck me. Pahlavi’s probably dead, and I’m gonna run out of power in a couple minutes.

As Liu approached the ORP, he saw Lance Corporal Jimenez preparing to launch a switchblade loitering munition.

What the hell is he doing?

“Jimenez, those switchblades are useless against that PGZ!”

“Yes, sir, but they’ll keep him busy and draw his fire the fuck away from us!”

Liu was amazed by the young Marine’s quick thinking.

Good idea, Jimenez.

The switchblade shot out of its launch canister with a soft popping noise, then made its way north. Sure enough, the PGZ crew was spooked by the tiny loitering munition. Liu heard the clatter of the tracklaying mechanism go silent as the vehicle stopped advancing toward them. Jimenez immediately loaded another canister into his launcher and sent another switchblade toward the armored vehicle.

Lee saw what Jimenez was up to and hatched a plan of his own. “Jimenez, keep those switchblades coming!” Lee then turned to Liu. “Sir, I’m gonna go kill that motherfucker!” Liu couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just gave the hand signal to advance.

Jimenez readied yet another switchblade while Lee reloaded his mission master’s 120-millimeter recoilless rifle, mounted the back of it, and grabbed the UGV’s manual controls. The vehicle took off like a sprinter off the starting blocks as Lee drove toward the enemy vehicle. As Liu watched, he knew he wasn’t of much use, his visor was covered in a critical power warning. He’d only be able to move a few hundred meters at best before his power armor entered survival mode. Fortunately, Liu was once again astounded by his Marines’ quick thinking.

“Sergeant Orr, you have an ACE report?”

“We barely used any ammo, sir. My team’s three out of four. Weapons is four out of four. I’m just missing Pahlavi and his gear.”

Before Liu could respond, he heard the PGZ fire again. Liu winced, but then realized he could see tracers reaching skyward as the PGZ crew engaged the first switchblade. Shortly thereafter, the forest flashed, and Liu heard the distinctive report of the 120 firing.

“Good shot, Sergeant!” Jimenez exclaimed.

“That PGZ destroyed, Jimenez?” Liu asked.

“Yes, sir! Sergeant Lee hit him right in the turret. Lots of secondary explosions.”

“Any more enemy activity to our north?”

“Still looking, sir, but so far it looks clear.”

“Alright. Sergeant Orr, take your fireteam back up to the clearing. I saw Pahlavi catch a 25 round. We’re not leaving ‘til we find him.”

“Roger, sir. You coming with?”

“My armor’s just about done. I’m holding here until you get him.”

Sergeant Orr looked at his platoon commander and realized both of his power armor battery packs were missing.

“Holy shit, sir!” As he started to head north, he turned to Jimenez. “Jimenez, you stay here and take a look at the Lieutenant. Siyanovich and I can go get Pahlavi.”

“Good to go, Sergeant.”

Liu keyed his radio. “Green one, this is one actual. Good work with that PGZ. I’m sending my fireteam to your pos to look for echo three papa. I need you to link up with them and help them search, over.”

Sergeant Lee’s voice came over Liu’s headset. “Roger, red one, we’ll be waiting for them, out.”

As Orr departed, Jimenez inspected the back of Liu’s armor. “God damn, sir. Looks like one of those 25 rounds caught you in the back. Must’ve punched straight through both battery packs. Good thing you’re short as fuck, sir. You’re lucky you didn’t get hit anywhere more important.”

“Thanks, Jimenez. Now, can you get me those batteries?”

“On it, sir.”

Jimenez retrieved two replacement batteries from the platoon’s cargo carrier UGV. As soon as he connected the first one to Liu’s armor, the master caution disappeared and a message at the bottom of his HUD read “New battery connected: assessing power level.” The same message appeared a second time when Jimenez connected the second one.

“What’s the good word, sir?”

“My armor’s running a system diagnostic, but so far it looks good.” Liu switched to his radio. “One-alpha, this is one, I need an ACE report, over.”

“One, this is one-alpha. I’m still getting ammo counts but I’m ten out of ten on personnel and all equipment, over.”

“Roger, send it when you have it, break.” Liu unkeyed his radio, then rekeyed it. “We took one casualty. Send Doc down here with your mission master, over.”

“Roger, one, I heard your previous traffic. He’s already on his way. I’m sending him with a buddy pair for security. ETA to your pos, five mikes, over.”

You are one switched on Marine, Staff Sergeant.

“Roger, out.”

Liu’s power armor had finished its diagnostic. There was some damage to the artificial muscles in the right arm along with the gunfire locator’s microphone array, but nothing that was mission critical. Just as Liu finished clearing the damage warnings from his HUD, he heard Sergeant Orr’s voice in his headset.

“One actual, this is one-one, over.”

“Go for one actual, over.”

“We found echo three papa. A 25 round took his leg clear off, but the armor automatically applied a tourniquet. He lost a lot of blood, but I’m thinking he’ll pull through if Doc has anything to say about it, over.”

“Roger, get him loaded up on green one’s vic and get him back to the ORP. Doc’s enroute, over.”

“Roger, one, wilco, out.”

Captain Karl Flynn, USMC, is an applied physics student at the Naval Postgraduate School. He previously completed two deployments as a platoon commander in the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.

Featured Image: Art created with Midjourney AI.