Read A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) for Free Online

covered the half kilometer to the enemy lines without receiving any return fire. 2 nd company, and the heavy weapons of 3 rd company, were firing away at the edges of the blast zone, trying to encourage any enemy that may have survived to keep their heads down. The timing had been perfect and the enemy was still recovering from the blasts that impacted their line just three minutes earlier. Diggs’ AI provided a thermal overlay of the hotspots, the ones that his suit wouldn’t handle well, but otherwise left him in normal visible light spectrum. As the 1 st platoon reached the region where the enemy had been dug in to entrap them, Diggs called for a halt.
    “Cover. 2 nd Platoon, advance. Heavy weapons, advance and take up positions, even split on each flank.” Diggs could here enemy fire now, with his own marines returning fire. 2 nd platoon was going to have a tougher time crossing.
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    “Alright Lieutenant, let ’em have it.” Danford spoke calmly into his comm. Diggs and his men had become bogged down and what was supposed to be a spoiling attack had stalled. Trying to pull back across the open ground between the two former positions would be a shooting gallery, so Diggs was hunkering down and ordering his men to dig in. Danford had detached a third of the mortar teams he was going to use for his assault to give them some extra support. 2 nd Company had taken some hard losses in their heavy weapons teams and they were on the second or third crews for most of the SAWs, cutting into their effectiveness somewhat. Danford figured that with what was left of Hanford’s command and some of Danford’s mortar teams, they could keep Diggs’ company from being overrun, at least as long as ammunition held out. The fleet had made a drop earlier, but enemy AA had taken out almost half of it and so further drops were on hold. They seemed to have an unlimited supply of mobile launchers and hand-held units, especially considering the fleet hadn’t missed many of the mobile AA units once they gave away their positions.
    Danford shifted slightly as Lieutenant Hanford, who he had given all control of all three companies’ nuclear weapons stocks, had the remaining nuclear ordnance launched towards the enemy dug in between the marines and Haikou. Seemingly surprised by the assault in the exact opposite direction from the first strike, the AA hardly responded, failing to even attempt to engage the rockets. This time, instead of a single strike, the ten warheads split into two groups of four and two individual flights. The groups of four detonated on top of the tallest sections of the ridgeline, the locations best suited to creating large fields of fire in good cover for automatic weapons. One of the individual warheads detonated between the two groups, the blast channeled by the peaks and wreaking destruction in the slight valley below. The final warhead did not airburst, instead burrowing into the sandy soil in front of the enemy line and blasting tons of material into the air, creating a blinding screen of radioactive plasma and dirt.
    “Evens advance, odds cover.” Danford spoke into the comm after two minutes had passed. He knew he shouldn’t be climbing out and advancing, but he reasoned, the first wave was likely safer than the second was going to be so he could justify it. At least to himself. As he moved forward at thirty kph, he heard the odds open up on the enemy positions, or at least where they had been previously. There was still a heavy curtain of debris blocking both sides’ field of view. Danford was counting on that interference to close with the enemy. There was some scattered return fire on both edges of his advance, but nothing substantial. The enemy clearly seemed disoriented. They had gone almost four-hundred meters now with nobody down.
    “Evens down and cover, odds advance.” Danford dropped behind a piece of rock that looked as if it