Read Stark's Command for Free Online

and too many, I think. Bunker's been breached."
    "Hang on," Stark repeated helplessly.
    "Sí, Sargento. Hell. Murphy's down."
    Murphy. How long's he been in my Squad? Forever. Stark stared at the situation projected before him on the command scan, trying to block out emotion.
    "Ethan, Murphy's just one soldier," Vic advised quietly. She'd been listening in again, of course.
    "Every grunt out there is just one soldier. How many one's add up to too many?"
    "I don't know."
    "Me, neither." Stark gazed up at the endless black sky overhead, the symbology on his HUD superimposed on the heavens as if a complicated and intricate new zodiac had sprung to life. "I can't let that position fall, Vic. That's not sentiment. It's got nothing to do with them being my Squad. The whole line will unravel on that flank if that hill goes."
    "You can't weaken any other point. They've got to be watching for that."
    "Maybe they are, but maybe they're already throwing everything they've got at Mango Hill and into the hole that's in our line right now. If they win at either place, they take us down. It must look like a sure thing." He toggled a circuit. "Sanch." Sergeant Sanchez, formerly one of the three squad leaders in their platoon along with Stark and Reynolds, now commanding that platoon.
    "Yes, Stark." Very calm, as if he were discussing the nonexistent lunar weather.
    "You see what's happening to Gomez's position?"
    "Of course. They are taking a great deal of punishment. We are providing as much supporting fire as we can."
    "Thanks, but you're gonna do more. I want you to strip every soldier you can possibly spare from your other two squad bunkers and get over there as fast as possible. That hill has to hold."
    "You are aware the positions we leave will not be strongly enough held to withstand a determined assault." Sanchez made it a statement, not a question.
    "I know. But everything else I've got available is committed. I can only get reinforcements to throw at that hill by robbing Peter to pay Paul."
    "Understood. I am certain I can clear the hill of enemy soldiers," Sanchez stated, imperturbable, as if he were describing a minor difficulty, "but I cannot keep it clear. There will be too much pressure."
    "I'll take care of that."
    "Then we are on our way. I will contact you when I link up with Corporal Gomez." Left unsaid was the distinct possibility that Corporal Gomez might not be alive to link up with when Sanchez got there.
    It added up to considerable risk, leaving only skeleton crews manning the other two bunkers in that sector. Even a small but resolute push from the enemy targeted at that weak point could widen the hole in the front considerably and sweep away the only troops Stark could really rely on in the bargain. But it's either that or lose anyway.
    "Grace," he called Divisional Artillery.
    "I know I'm not stopping the enemy advance, Stark. Didn't say I could."
    "I know that, and you're doing the best anybody can. No, this is about saving one position. How long to set up a barrage onto this spot?" He keyed in the coordinates of Gomez's bunker.
    "We got a unit there, Stark. Looks like more on the way, too."
    "I know. They'll be in a bunker. How long?"
    "How big a barrage?"
    "Enough to sterilize the top of that hill and the immediate area. No penetrators, though."
    "Just surface and near-surface? To protect the troops in the bunker? Stark, I can't guarantee that none of those won't have a fuse malfunction and go subsurface before it detonates. It happens."
    It happens. Stark wavered mentally again, pondering bad choices and worse choices. You'd think commanders would have enough to worry about during a battle without wondering if their weapons will work as advertised. But it's probably always been that way. I'll bet weapons designers in the Stone Age managed to screw up some of the rocks they handed out to the other cave dwellers. "We'll have to chance it, Grace. It's the only way to stop the assault there."
    "Okay, Stark. You're