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.“Are you hit bad? Let me get you out of here.” His words were punctuated by an explosive round that blew a small crater in the lava centimeters from Schultz’s shoulder.“We gotta go, Hammer!” Claypoole shrilled, and gave a sharp tug on Schultz’s collar.He gave a grunt of pain as the small bones of his wrist ground together under the pressure of Schultz’s grip.Another explosive round hit, this time impacting with a glancing blow on Schultz’s hip, digging a crater in the armor but not penetrating the flesh underneath.Schultz didn’t even flinch.Claypoole tried to stand and take a two-handed grip on Schultz’s armor, but Schultz’s hand kept his arm too low, and he wasn’t able to get his feet under himself.Suddenly Sergeant Kerr was by Claypoole’s side.“What’s the problem here?” he demanded harshly.“We’ve got to get Schultz out of the line of fire.”“I know, but he won’t let me pull him.”Kerr looked into Schultz’s face.“Oh, hell,” he breathed.“Hammer!” he said sharply.“On your feet, Marine! We’ve got to go.Now!”Schultz finally reacted, turning his head to look at Kerr.His mouth moved as though he was trying to say something, but nothing came out.“Move, Lance Corporal.Now!” Kerr ordered.If it hadn’t been Hammer Schultz that Claypoole was looking at, he would have sworn that a tear came out of the big man’s eye.He shook off the thought and sighed in relief as Schultz’s grip loosened.Between them, Kerr and Claypoole got Schultz to his feet, and they ran, half carrying, half dragging the big man.More explosive rounds came at them, but they all missed.They got back to where the rest of second squad and the gun squad were laying down covering fire for first squad, which was in position to begin moving on the ambush’s flank.“Where’s he hit?” Hospitalman Third Class Hough, the platoon corpsman, asked when Kerr and Claypoole got Schultz into a shallow defile.Hough had his med kit ready to give whatever treatment the big man might require.Kerr shook his head.“He’s got a ding on his arm, but that’s not the problem.” He looked the corpsman in the eye.“If it was anybody but Schultz, I’d say he’s suffering from battle shock.”Hough looked at Kerr in disbelief—the Hammer suffering from battle shock?—then looked at Schultz’s face.“My God, I think you’re right.” He took a deep breath.“Get back to your squad, I’ll deal with him.”“All right, Doc.” He clapped Claypoole on the shoulder.“Come on, we need to help with that base of fire.”Corporal Pasquin, still at the far end of the left flank when Lieutenant Bass gave the orders at the beginning of the firefight, ordered Lance Corporals Quick and Longfellow to open up on the rear of the ambush.He himself began picking off the mercenaries with the weapons that looked like they might be able to penetrate the Marines’ body armor.But he was only forty meters behind the ambush line, and it took almost no time for the mercenaries to realize someone was to their rear and for several to turn and fire back with everything they had.Even armored, Pasquin had to duck low to keep from getting hit by something powerful enough to seriously hurt—or kill—him.So, after three aimed shots, his fire became ineffective for anything more than keeping the mercenaries down.And it sounded like some of them were starting to maneuver to where they could see him.He began crawling back to his men, who were doing a slightly better job of pinning down the Sharp Edge ambushers.But he had a long way to go before reaching the relative safety of two more Marines.He was almost halfway back when flanking fire began from first squad; the holding fire from second squad started seconds later.But the first of the maneuvering mercenaries were then in position to see Pasquin, and beyond him the other two Marines.Flechettes impacted on Pasquin’s body armor, and explosive rounds started coming at him.The first one to hit tore off the top of his helmet and knocked him flat.Longfellow heard the fire from the side and turned his head to look.He saw Pasquin get hit.He let out a scream and shifted his fire from the ambush line to his front to the people closing on his fire team leader.The change in Longfellow’s fire caught Sergeant Ratliff’s attention.As soon as he looked in that direction, he realized what was happening.“Dorny!” he shouted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]