While they were getting blasted at, still hiding behind that wall, Howl was still thinking, scanning the area for any possible strategy. The place were they where at were just the ruins of some advanced city. There were no skyscrapers, all buildings were either 5 stories high or less. On the left side of the building where they hid behind was a wall were they still could seek cover."I got a idea!"
Howl said eventually, "Stanley, Brock, we are goin to flank the guys ahead from the left side. Bowin, Rollo, you guys give us cover and when we're close enough to the enemy we will suprise them and you will rush forward."
"Don't we have a better plan?" Stanley asked.
"No, these guys got us pinned dow here. We have to make a move forward if we want to continue in this battle." Bowin was also looking for a strategically advanced position. Then he saw it, on the other side of the street there was another wall, this one a lot smaller.
This building was just completely destroyed.It would be a good place to take cover and he wouldn't have to share space with Rollo. He saw his squad mates talking and he didn't want to interrupt, but he liked his idea.
"Can I take that spot as cover?" He said quickly, more like he wanted as little attention as he could.
"That would be a perfect spot, of course you can Bowin!" Howl said laughing at Bowin's question. The other boys seemed just as amused but that turned serious real quick.
They hid behind the covers for a few extra moments looking at eachother, "Are you guys ready!?" Howl yelled.
"Yes sir!" Everybody responded. With that Brock and Stanley started moving with Howl leading the attack, they stepped quickly.
"I'll give you cover!" Rollo said, immediately shooting at the enemies. Bowin took a deep breath, then with all the energy he could muster ran towards that cover spot. Of course some lasers flew past him but it wasn't nearly as much as it would have been without Rollo's help.
When he was close enough he slid to it and as if it was a reflex he stood at one knee and aimed towards the top of that building, shooting.
Yes, the instincts of the boy who went through basic training started taking over. A lot came back, what war he was fighting, were in the universe he was, who he was fighting for, it all came back slowly.
The Stacks federation, a empire that spans many planets always was in competition with another empire. A greater yet dying one named the united systems of Luksano.
Both them in competition as long as can be remembered. Now that the United Systems was in decline they made a last camble to conquer a resource rich system named Unkar that was in possession of stacks.
With 400 planets it housed more than enough riches to save the United systems.
That started 20 years ago and even now there seemed no end in sight.
Back in his knees reloading his rifle, another set of shots were fired at the end of the street.
It were Howl and the rest of the squad. The plan seemed to have worked as one man at the top of the roof fell down lifeless.
Howls voice spoke through a com in Bowins ear, "Now, push forward!"
Rollo and Bowin looked at eachother determined. Both of them ran forward, shooting recklessly, but even if that was the case the enemies on that very same roof seemed stunned by the combined attack.
Now that he was closer Bowin could see that there were only two of them left.
He slid ending on his knees, looking through the scope of his rifle carefully anticipating the next move of the enemy soldiers.
They must've started feeling the heat, soon they would flee, and a head would poke out.
Just as Bowin predicted, both stood up from their cover, probably running towards hypothetical stairs in order to escape.
But at that moment like a bird diving in water to catch fish, he shot, not wasting a moment to any doubts.
The bullets zipped through the air and one of the enemies fell down as soon as he got up.
The other one managed to escape safely.
Bowin lowered his rifle, that man he just shot was probably dead. His first kill it was strange.
They scanned the street for more enemies but at least in this part of the city the combat seemed to have stopped.
Then Bowin joined his squad, they stood in a half circle with Howl in the middle. "Balls of steel after all." He said, there was humor in his voice, less in face. Bowin didn't answer, but when the silence from the squad in anticipation of an answer was to loud to ignored he stuttered out a: "…I- I don't know… maybe."
Rollo had a wide grin, He was the biggest out of all the other boys, probably able to snap everybody else in two like a pencil, "Of course you are Balls, you like that name Balls, Your Balls… Balls of steel." He threw his arm around the slightly shorter Bowin
"Not really. I don't like the name" Bowin responded, he said it like a whisper while trying to slither out of the grasp of Rollo. He was like a mouse trying to hide.
"How did you know they were going to run." Stanley said, he wore glasses, blue in color and was the only one that had facial hair.
All of these questions, Bowin wanted to run, in his old life this was a possibility. Now he could be killed, "What else could they have done, even with high ground it was obvious they lost the clash." He said it fast.
Howl nodded, "Your pretty quick on your feet ain't ya, but remember this. As long as you don't plan on deserting the battle, or intervening in plans, your free to do whatever you think is best."
"Ya asking to take cover is pretty dumb!"
Rollo said with just as big a grin as earlier.
"Y-yes sir." Bowin said kinda embarrassed. He just didn't want to stand in the way, or inconvenience the people around him. So asking the people around him what to do seemed natural.
Their break lasted another 5 minutes, their food was just some nutritious chocolate bars that honestly could fill your stomach for another few hours.
The dead body of that Luksano soldier, that lied limp at the side of the road kept drawing Bowins attention. They wore similar armor, except for the fact that their clothing was more camouflage based like the United States in Bowins old world. That of the Stacks federation was just dark yellow.
And the helmets of the Luksano soldiers covered their whole face instead of just their head.
Today Bowin killed someone, he lied on that roof just as dead as this one. Howl came to stand beside him, "Yeah when I killed my first person I also didn't know how to feel."
Bowin was startled by Howls ninja like silence as he stood next to him.
"I wanted to hate them, convince that all of them were subhuman thrash that wanted to steal our land, but the truth is…" Howl continued, he then kicked the chin of the soldiers knocking of the helmet. It was just another boy maybe aged 17, eyes rolled up looking nowhere.
Bowin put a hand infront of his mouth, he wanted to throw up. He knew that this was possible, if the Stacks federation was for child warfare who said the United Systems wouldn't be. In war it was all too common.
But now that Bowin could see the boy, who could be his brother, but strangly enough also his grandson, he felt sick.
Howl put a hand on Bowin's shoulder, "Don't you dare, now is not the time. I'm showing you cause I already figured you would try to see this on your own, your smart but equally sensitive ain't ya. Well now we gotta do this together." Bowin's head slowly turned to Howl, "It's strange how lines drawn across space determine who our enemy is and who our friend. But the truth is that this is the way it is, we're here now, in the fire, and we have to kill them before they do that to us you understand! These guys they don't exist to us you understand!"
Bowing bobbed his head, he knew this already. War is gruesome, so now he had to experience this and accept what he had to do to stay alive. "But why do you have to be so cruel about it, this is a human being!"
There was a slight hint of sadness in the eyes of Howl, but that was easily overwhelmed by passion, "Because it has to be that way."
The hand slid of Bowins shoulder and Howl left. The break was over. When Bowin turned around his other squad mates were looking back pitiful, yeah they saw the altercation, but the looked away to pretend they didn't.
The days objective was simple, take over the east side of the city, rejoin the rest of the soldiers and the ship leader Sench, then set up camp.
They scanned the area for other people, this time they all stuck together. Sweeping street to street in formation to make sure no one could catch them of guard.
About once every 5 minutes they would find enemy combatants, exchanging fire with them before they would flee. In all of those they managed to kill at least two of them.
4 hours later the sun was setting, and other friendly soldiers became more and more visible. They started joining up together until the full ship had reconvened.