Battle Earth Read Free Page B

free fall boosters. They fired up within seconds of him feeling the open air, the auto-sensors doing their work.
    Seconds later the ten marines hit the ground, their boosters ticking from the immense heat burn. They made a quick dash to the nearest building, not stopping to survey the terrain. They were more than familiar with their surroundings from endlessly studying the maps and intel of the area. Taylor knew it was only a training mission, but to treat it as anything but real combat could be detrimental to his soldiers in the future.
    Suarez hit the wall beside him, peering around the corner into the street. The buildings were derelict but still perfectly serviceable for their purposes, one of the many reminders of what a world war could do.
    “Where are the limey bastards?” asked Lieutenant Suarez.
    Sergeant Silva knelt out in front of them behind a large piece of fallen concrete from a building that previously stood in their position. It was a hell of a temperature for a combat exercise. Each marine wore a minimum of sixty kilograms of gear. Body armour technology had got progressively better and lighter, but that just meant they wore more of it. The Falcon armour system gave coverage to most of their armour, except for inner joints and a few gaps.
    “Guess it’s too much to hope for that they didn’t show up?” asked Silva.
    “You can rely on the British bastards to be there, and they’ll give you a good kick in the nuts if they catch you napping,” said Taylor.
    The Major looked around quickly surveying the situation, the one hundred and eighty strong marine unit had landed on target and in good time. It was a good start to what was becoming a gruelling day. It felt like they’d stepped out into the desert, of which the abandoned city of Reno was quickly becoming.
    “Alright, let’s move up,” he ordered.
    The throat mics added little weight to their payload but allowed them to stay in contact for up to thirty kilometres in open terrain. Looking around the empty streets there was little left to show that this had been a gambling hotspot of the state. Years of abandonment, followed by regular military training activities, had robbed it of any splendour. All that was left were the empty hulks of hotels, casinos and clubs, dust and sand filled.
    They moved along quickly but cautiously through the eerily quiet streets, there were still the remnants of abandoned cars. Taylor looked around to see his teams pouring through the old city. They moved on three parallel streets, giving as much of a spread as they could manage. Up ahead he could make out the familiar shape of the former Cortez Casino which was their target.
    The Major knelt down beside a rusted old car shell, it was so old that he couldn’t even begin to identify its model, beyond the barely visible Cadillac symbol on the trunk. He pulled out his Infopad from his webbing and flipped it open. It had an edge-to-edge display and touch screen control. The map of their location displayed from when he’d last looked at it.   Suarez huddled down beside him, his body armour slamming harshly into the rusted frame of the car.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “I don’t like it, a hundred metres from the target and no sign of resistance or even lookouts, Sir.”
    “Maybe they’re waiting inside as they’re supposed to?”
    “Not a chance, Sir, they won’t give it to us easy.”
    “Alpha and Delta swing wide, Bravo and Charlie down the centre with me!” Taylor ordered.
    Taylor could just see a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye as his teams moved forward in the adjoining streets. Their task was simple, to take the casino building, secure two VIPs and neutralise any hostiles. However the reality was that they were facing a British parachute regiment platoon from the European Union Army (EUA). Despite having numerical superiority, they were going in blind.
    “Move up!”
    He got to his feet and continued forward at an almost jogging pace