The Grey Chronicles Part One: New Declaration of An Old War

Chapter 14: An Unexpected Ending.

The Anarchist, en route to Onyx Seven, April of 8096 AL.

"We're going to die," Augustus stated bluntly as the color drained from his face.

"No, we're not going to die, it'll be something worse," Salem said, equally as blunt.

"Agreed," Corporal Williams added.

The twins turned to look at the younger man with raised eyebrows. They were just now noticing he'd been standing behind them.

"What?" Williams asked, "My ex-husband is in Wolverine platoon, and knowing that bitch he'll be more than happy to help your wives wipe the floor with us, he'll be glad to kick my ass in particular."

Salem and Augustus nodded begrudgingly at the younger soldier.

"Augustus, take Grizzly squadron to the south side of the mountain," Salem ordered into his headpiece, "Kodiak squad, move to the west side, Polar to the east, and Koala to the north. Set up tripwire claymores, and I want as many rows of razor wire as you can get. Leave a winding, twisting path through the wire, but booby trap it every ten meters or so with concussion mines and sting ball claymores. You can find all of this in the cave at the top of the mountain, after you've finished I want half of each squad to regroup under cover on top of the mountain. The other half I want to hide in foxholes a hundred meters down the hill. I'll program the mountain for a dozen foxholes on every side of the mountain; I want five of these to have a pair of troops in them, booby trap the others. Get moving, we have eighteen minutes! Squad leaders regroup in the hall after you've set your traps."

Twelve minutes later the traps were set; a dozen rows of wire on each of the four sides of the hill, concussion mines and claymores randomly set across the sides of the pyramid. Massive piles of magnetic pipe bombs filled with rubber sting balls sat at the top of each side as a last resort; the bombs would attach themselves to the ankles of soldiers and take out dozens of people when they went off.

King of the Mountain was a sport meant to mimic real life military operations; teams consist of a platoon separated into four, twenty-one man squadrons, each led by one of the gunnery sergeant's assistants, a sergeant. The gunnery sergeant directed the entire operation from the mountain hall and usually played the part of king. The king had a wrist pad with which he could choose the terrain of the arena at the beginning of the round and monitor his forces throughout the match. He had selected one of the three optional terrains; a mid-sized mountain with four smaller hills at each corner. The mortar cannons were set on top of the hills, and cliffs stretched between the hills. A massive blue holographic compass rose hovered above the mountain.

Salem played the role of king in this game and, surprisingly, Aela played the role of general. The general had the same job as the king, except she was to assault the mountain, not defend it. The fact that Korana wasn't playing general scared Salem, he had no idea what she could have planned. He practically pissed himself at the idea of what she might have in store for them; she was excellent at holding grudges, and expert at tormenting her husband when she wanted to.

The starting horn went off and Salem jumped back to reality. The moment the horn sounded he could hear the whistling of falling mortars; he gave orders through his earpiece.

"Incoming mortars, all units take cover!" Even as he gave the order soldiers were moving to hide behind the barricades along the mouth of the cavern. He watched his wrist pad for casualties, and after two minutes of continuous shelling he lost eight; two from the north side, four from the west, and one from each of the other two sides. Then the count changed; it read six lost on the west side, then eight. Salem noticed the pattern quickly.