CASE - A Fluffy Lesbian Science Fiction

"Secure the flanks, go go go!" I commanded the second wave of troops as they had just exited their shuttles. We had secured the immediate surroundings and had now a mass of boots on the ground to start our push towards the first line of defences. It was only five kilometers to the first ring of defences but that's quite a bit of distance to cover while under fire. That said, speed was still of the essence as the enemy concentration in the area was only going to increase going forward. Sitting still would turn it into a battle of attrition and against an entire planet full of mechanoids… You don't need to be a math genius to figure out who is going to come out on top of that.

I popped out from behind the tank that was second in line and popped a couple of shots to the front, taking out a mechanoid that had just climbed over some debris.

"We are going to start rolling out, Commander." The lead tank Commander radioed in.

"Go ahead, we got your back." Another two heavy blasts from my K-B0L 40 took out a mechanoid to the right of the one I had just shot. "Scout team, how's it looking?"

"Almost on location, Commander." Sergeant De Smet replied. "We did see quite a big group of them stumbling towards you."

The heavy machineguns on top of our tanks started blasting down the road in front of us. Shredding metal targets to pieces. Occasionally one of the tracers would ricochet off a metal plate or surrounding concrete and create a bit of a fireworks show. That said, those guns were very effective at deleting the group that the scouting team had reported, making the way clear for our tanks to start moving forward.

As they pushed on they moved aside debris that had fallen on the road from the massive explosions that had scarred this planet. Occasionally that revealed some signs of the previous planet's inhabitants. Bones and other parts of skeletons that had been protected from the scorching heat thanks to being trapped under rock or dirt debris. A grim reminder to their demise.

I couldn't help but think of Earth as we drove past a crushed heap of bones. This might as well have been our planet if things had turned out slightly differently in the past.

We had progressed about a kilometer after half an hour when the intensity of the enemy resistance rose quite considerably. Machinegun fire was pinning us behind the tanks while the squads on the flanks also had to take cover from a host of mechanoids that had swooped in from behind the ruins of a larger building.

Luckily our scout team was now in place to provide some explosive fire support with some of the light mortars they had taken along in their toolkit.

That did however not make me regret the physical cover that our tanks provided for us. While military manuals were divided on using tanks as cover, against an enemy like this, it did prove to be rather useful. A burst of machinegun fire from the front proved said usefulness once more as most of the lead rattled right off the front plate of the lead tank.

"Commander, how is your group doing?" I got a call from Eva, who was walking along in the cover of the lead group that just got fired at. "Any injuries sustained so far?"

"No, everything is okay over here. I've not had word of any of our troops sustaining shots. At least not shots that went through our personal armor."

"Good." Eva's reply was short.

I shot my gun a couple of times to ward off a stray mechanoid to the east before I used the lul in combat to continue the conversation. "How are you holding up personally?"

"It's stressful. I'm not used anymore to getting shot at."

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"And Gunny?" As I said that, I saw Gunny step out from behind the tank's cover to pepper an alleyway with his heavy machinegun fire. From the sound of it, there were quite a couple of clankers hiding out there.

"He looks like he is having the time of his life. He keeps close to me though to calm my nerve."

I chuckled lightly. "It's usually the way around, at least lately."

"Well, at least he can pay me back a little like this…"

"True." I saw four more mechanoids pop out from another corner to my right which I rightly ended with another volley of my heavy duty gun. The bullet count reading below five meant that it was time for my first magazine change of the operation. While I was discarding my chonky magazine and replacing it with a new one, I radioed the scout team ahead. "Is it just me or are the mechanoids increasing the pressure on our eastern flank?"

"Give us a second, Commander." As Sergeant De Smet said that, I saw a mortar shell getting launched from on top of the tower, blasting up some metallic debris about seventy meters to the North-East. "They are crawling out of the woodworks everywhere at the moment. But it looks like that's going to die down for a little bit if we manage to weather the next wave. It should be within engagement range of the assault force in 60 seconds. Concentrated along the North-North-Eastern axis. We will try to wither it down a little as well."

"Roger that." I immediately started to order my squads of marines around to place the most of our firepower on that side of the field as our tanks came to a halt momentarily to point their hulls in that direction as well to maximize the use of their machineguns.

The result was devastating. As the wave of mechanoids came within view, all our guns started to roar at once, almost sounding like a nest of dragons that just got startled in their den. With blasts of high explosive shot by the tanks their main cannons and the mortar support from our scouting team and grenadiers on the ground.

Cheers and war cries erupted over the intercoms as my squadmembers got a bit too carried away with blasting away our opposition.

"Be selective with your shots and watch your fire. Do not get too carried away." I toned them down a little. While I could understand the adrenaline getting to you in situations like this, adrenaline also results in dangerous situations getting even more dangerous when not kept in check.

"Copy that, Commander."

My words weren't cold yet as a grenade of one of our grenadiers bounced off an angled wall and landed close to a squad making up the outer right of our formation. Two marines went flying backwards because of the blast.

"Check your fire, damn it! Medic! Charlie squad got hit!" I gestured in the direction of the impact.

Eva replied immediately and efficiently. "On it." As she moved away from the cover of the tank, followed by the squad that was guarding her. Giving suppressive fire when they moved.

The rest of Charlie squad was shaken but that didn't stop the enemy from advancing in their direction.

"Delta, go to Charlie's support. Alpha and Bravo, shore up the center!"

I got confirmation from my squad leads as our teams shifted around each other a little like a well oiled machine. A machine that was continuously chewing up its metal food that got swamped in its direction until finally the concentration of enemies seemed to lessen a little.

"That looks to have been the worst of it for now." The scout team reported.

"Tanks, continue advancing. Infantry, follow along. Delta, stay close to Charlie for now." I finally got some time to look over at the situation in detail as I was focused with Commanding and fighting earlier to really pay much attention to the wounded. "Doctor, how are they doing?"

"Just a bit shaken." I could hear the relief in Eva's voice. "They can continue fighting if we give them a minute or two to get back to their senses, they can already move though. Their armor did its work."

"Alright, try to keep up with the rest of the column, I'll order the second tank to slow down till you give the signal."

"Yes, Commander."

I contacted our tank to order them as said, but after a minute it was obvious that the friendly fire barely caused any slow-downs. That being said, it was a close call that I'd rather not see being repeated. If that grenade had gone just a couple of meters further than it did, we would already have had casualties on record and the operation only barely had started. It was obvious though that the incident had also shaken awake some of the marines as the focus that I noticed all around had increased considerably. It was a wake-up call that could have ended way worse and I was full well glad that we had it now with minor consequences rather than later on which could have gone considerably worse against the better equipped mechanoids…

"Let's do our utmost best to keep that casualty list to zero. I order you all to return back to the ship alive."