The Winter Storm

"Colonel, hey Balta, wake up!" an all too familiar voice let out in the gusty winter breeze.
As she opened her eyes they became blurry and hazy as the minute amount of sunlight pierced her corneas. After dilating, col.Balta Baldrova could see the slightly blurred face of her annoying, but compassionate comrade, the now captain Marcus Maxwell coming into focus. His light azure  colored fur clashed with the green Order standard issued uniform, but honestly the colonel couldn't complain as her off duty uniform was her favorite color anyways, purple. Still she moaned and tried to stretch as she gave the captain a look of annoyance for him waking her up by tapping on her shoulder.
"How long have I been asleep?" She asked as she yawned.
"About thirty minutes, I moved your rifle over there so nothing would discharge it or anything. "
"Thank you Marcus, any more news from the others?" she asked him.
"Not much, things are getting too quiet around here, this isn't good..they're out there, planning something.." Captain Maxwell replied back to her.
Everything appeared calm around her in terms of sound, above and all around their dug in position the brisk December's breeze gusted throughout the forest. This eerie calmness could mean either two things Balta deduced as she listened into the frigid breeze; first, it could mean that their position hasn't been noticed by the enemy or perhaps their foes just didn't see this as an important location to launch an offensive at, however this was highly unlikely as any proper militarized force would like to use the forest themselves to break the enemy's lines by moving through it under cover. The second, and more realistic as well as dire reason was that in fact the enemy was aware of this defensive line in the forest and was preparing to push against it.
As Balta  thought of this, she  got up and stretched as much as she could  within the deep dug in foxhole that was large enough to hold both Captain Maxwell and herself within it. She moved over and grabbed her rifle before inspecting it and making sure it was clean and ready. Unlike other Order cold plasma rifles or lasers, special marksmanship rifles such as her were loaded with conventional kinetic rounds that made it better for a marksman to send a bolt into an enemies head without worrying about things such as refraction or deflection.She then turned and looked once again at the blue furred color feline.
"How is the rest of F.R.O.S.T Company?" She asked her comrade.
"Just as nervous and anxious as we are. There have been some bombing runs to the west, but thus far anything the eggheads have sent at us has been shot down. The 37th is keeping their armor busy down south.Maybe if we're lucky they're too busy indoors getting a nice mug of joe and keeping warm."
"Always the naive one Marcus, they're coming.Our position in this forest won't remain secluded for much longer. Our armored divisions will only be able to hold them off for so long. Is there any order from the Baron's child?"
"You mean Tyrenous? Yeah, he told us all to wait.."Marcus replied.
"Cowardice?" Balta asked her comrade rather boldly considering Tyrenous's rank and natural prestige among his father's loyalists officers.
"Nah, from what's going around our reinforcements are cut off. The 37th is too busy taking on all those robots and our air cover only can go so much in this weather. Until the 37th can make a break through we are stuck in this forest, good thing we at least have a position to fight them back with though."
"I should have guessed, there is no such thing as a Bradanska who is unwilling to fight, be it child or adult. The family pride and will lives on in young Tyrenous.Let us just hope his father is the one giving the actual orders and he is just following them though."She responded back to Marcus.
"It could be worse, we could be in the scorching heat you know." The blue furred cat reminded her.
At this sense of ironic humor the colonel let out a slight chuckle. While both him and herself were the type of species that were resistant to winter due to their fur, there were many soldiers within the Order who went so fortunate. As much as she agreed fighting in the scorching heat of the desert was very unsavory, Balta couldn't help but laugh at the nativity of her old friend.At this response she simply shook her head."Everything is always clear cut with you Marcus. Your nativity hasn't changed one bit. While people like you and I can take this freezing weather, our comrades suffer because of it. Do keep this in mind." She replied back to him.
"Right....sorry for being such an idiot." The cat replied as he proceeded to slap himself in the  face.
"I'm used to it Maxwell, if I wasn't I would have had you shot a long time ago..." Balta responded rather coldly with a classic Moebian dark sense of humor.
"C'mon Balta, you know you wouldn't do that.." He replied.
"Try me, anyways, perhaps at night we can preform some reconnaissance tonight? It will be comforting that we both be used in what we do best at.Some good scouting could help give us an edge into seeing what our foes are planning, and the cover of the moonlight would be excellent to take advantage of said opportunity." She simply replied.
"Right, I'll ask Tyren if we can be authorized for it." Marcus replied while nodding his head.
Suddenly they both paused as their ears perked up. Both colonel Baldrova and captain Maxwell tuned in and here the sound of hastily moving footsteps approaching them through the mud and snow. At this precise moment, both of them quickly moved into action. Balta grabbed her rifle and turned the safety off while Marcus readied his Reaper 1414 laser rifle. Both of them crawled up on their bellies side by side in the direction of the moving person. They pointed their guns in a fixed position so that the ground could take the recoil. Balta looked down her scope to discover to her surprise, and annoyance, that the person heading towards them was a 'Peace Corps' field medic with the Order uniform on and a black helmet with the lime green peace Corps green cross painted across it. The man had on a satchel and was hastily and sloppily trying to trudge towards their foxhole.
From his species he appeared to be a German shepard canine, he was a rather tall one as well. To Balta however this was troubling as his head would stick out and be a perfect target for those rival sharpshooters who lacked the morality to not shoot at the medic. Balta and Marcus lowered their armaments as he approached their foxhole.
"Hallo." The doctor said.
"What the heck to you think you're doing? Get in the hole man, I almost shot your head off!" Marcus said to him.
The doctor nodded and hastily dropped down into their dug in position. He seemed to be panting from not only the jog, but the shivering coldness as well. Balta waited for him to catch his breath before facing him in the eyes with a cold like expression.
"What is the problem doctor?" She asked him.
"Pardon mein intrusion frau colonel, but would either of you happen to have any morphine to spare? We're running low in der supplies and Ich need all the morphine I can get, and perhaps a pair of scissors."
"Yeah, hold on. I think I have some in this kit over here." Marcus replied as he nodded and opened a small compartment of his backpack.He then took out a small first aid kit and handed it over to the doctor. The man smiled as if he was just received a gift. Marcus handed it over to him and he took it while his hands appeared to be shivering.
"Danke mein freund!" The doctor said as tucked the kit into his satchel."By the way, what's your name doctor?" Balta asked.
"Kaiser, Lukas Kaiser, meine frau." Kaiser replied.
"Ah, well Kaiser keep your head down and move slowly when you get out of here. Your stature makes you an easy target. I would know." She stated as she nudged her head towards her rifle in her hands.
"Ja ja! Sorry for this, Ich just am in a hurry. We have cases of frostbite to der northern flank. Auf weidersein." The doctor said as he saluted with his left hand, and proceeded to crawl out of the hole with his satchel.
====Part 2:====
After Kaiser crawled out of the dug in pit and proceeded to hastily trudge through the mud and snow while trying to keep his head down and under cover to avoid it being shot off, Balta and Marcus waited for him to move onwards before poking their heads out of the foxhole after several minutes have passed. The first thing they wanted to do was here where the sound of any fire would come from if their foes tried to fire at the doctor, that way they could provide him cover fire. Fortunately, however he seemed to be getting out of the way just fine. They watched as he moved while this time keeping his profile as low as he can down the other side of line. Marcus had his eyes on Kaiser while Balta prompted her rifle in the forest facing east towards the clearing and the enemies supposed battle lines.
She peered down her scope as she then caught sight of something moving in the forest. Moving to adjust her focus the colonel gazed through her scope to find a silhouette in the other side of the forest. She observed the figure for several minutes as it moved and eventually disappeared into the shadows once more. All the while, captain Maxwell saw her do this and he moved back down into the ditch to speak with her.
“What’s it Balta?”
“Movement, other side of the forest, tango.”
“Scouts?” the captain asked her.
“Could be, that or just some unlucky fool who just gave away his entire unit’s position.”
“Keep em focused. We want to make sure they’re-”
Suddenly an all too familiar sound was heard in their air, a sound that every soldier dreads. In the sky a whizzing and sort of whistling sound was heard Suddenly the blood in Balta’s body rose as her limbs began to tighten, Marcus on the other hand quickly covered his dark grey Order standard issued helmet with his hands and crouched the best he could in a haste. The sound of a soldier down the battle line could be heard yelling ‘incoming!’ as within moment a burst in the air was heard as a shell fell from the heavens and hit the ground making a loud boom while shaking the ground and tossing up snow.
“Shit! They got artillery!” Marcus let out as Balta kept her started to calm her nerves from the impact.
A second whizzing noise was heard as Balta pulled back her rifle and quickly toppled into the hole. This time the shell landed close as it hit in between their hole and another one. The loud blast was deafening as Marcus covered his feline ears while Balta barely had time to do her own. Her ears began to ring as she was getting a case of shell shock.
“Keep calm Marcus! They’re trying to soften us up! If we’re lucky a round won’t hit us!” Balta told Marcus
“What?” The captain replied with his hands clenching his ears down.
After a few moments of her ears ringing, her hearing finally came back. Meanwhile, Marcus let go of his own set of ears. A third shell hit, this time it was father off from the two. Sadly, however what was also heard was a maddening scream that both could barely make out, but had no doubt in what had just transpired. They both knew a shell had hit its mark, and now for some of their comrades the war had just ended for them. Two other consecutive blasts were heard down the line, off in the distance.
“Either their artillery is missing, or they’re trying to hit our flanks!” Marcus let out.
“Get ready for them to advance! Get your weapon ready! Don’t fire until I so.”
He nodded as she was the first to stand up in the hole and once again placed her gun in the snow, this time as her body naturally fell into it and was molded around her. She peaked through her scope and sure enough, she saw them, all of them. From the clearing in the forest to the other sides she could see hundreds, if not thousands of cybernetic like Mobians with all manner of augmentation and weapon. Behind her Marcus did the same and pressed his body while moving up in the hole. He pointed his gun towards her firing line, but once he saw the advancing troops he began to shake.
Fortunately for the two they would find their enemy not charging towards their side’s positions, but instead they were moving up in a line formation. Unfortunately, however, both of them could see that they had heavy weapons teams bringing in large caliber guns. Balta moved her scope around to find a good target to shoot. In her mind, she knew that she only had one good shot to make before all hell would break loose and the enemy would spot their position.
“Get ready Marcus. Remember, always shoot the officers first!” She told him.
In the corner of her eye she spotted one, a female officer. This echidna had red fur, but also had on black leather and cybernetic quills. Balta moved the reticle of her scope over towards her while taking a deep breath. In one fluid motion, she adjusted her cross hairs up to the forehead of the officer with a cap on and without a single thought pulled the trigger. In mere seconds the round busted through her barrel as it traveled through sonic speed right into the officer’s skull. In a second the round penetrated the unfortunate echinda’s cranium as blood gushed out she fell down, lifeless.
“Now Maxwell!” Balta said as their position was exposed and soldiers around the officer turned and began to fire in retaliation straight at their position.
“Get some!” Marcus let out as he returned suppressing fire from his own armament upon the squad.
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