The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) by Edmond Barrett Page B

a moment for her to place him. It was the marine who’d been on guard duty when she’d come back to the base on the last day of her leave.
    “ Yes, we were about to take off when … this all happened. ” She hesitated before memory threw up another note. “ I’m sorry about the ones in your unit that were on Harbinger . ”
    “ Yeah, poor bastards, ” he replied shortly.
    “ Rob! Would you stop chatting yer woman up and get a move on! ” the corporal called out.
    “ Yes Corp, ” Rob replied. Alice thought there was a slight colour in his cheeks when he pushed the shovel into her hand.
    After her first gaff Alice didn’t speak much for the rest of the day, although the work didn’t leave her with much breath with which to talk anyway. The specialist digging machine was doing the lion ’ s share of the task. It dug out a two metre wide by two metre deep groove in the earth, grinding its way through both soil and tree roots with equal ease. It didn’t dig one continuous trench however. Every ten metres it would stop, lift its cutting head and move a few metres to the left or right before recommencing. A mix of civilians and marines were left to dig the connecting passages between these grooves.
    After spending the morning as one of those guarding the workers, Rob swapped duties with a marine who’d been digging. Somehow he managed to find his way over to work beside Alice and once there, seemed to view it as his role to give her an elementary education in fieldworks. The reason the digger wasn’t doing one long trench, he informed her, was due to high explosive. By breaking the trench line into short lengths or bays, connected at right angles by short passages called traverses, the effect of an explosive bursting in the trench would be limited to one bay. It would also prevent an enemy who entered the trench from firing down the entire length. Traverses weren’t their only work: the sides had to be shored up, plus a firing step and parapet built.
    They prepared just over a kilometre of trenches that first day, and it took absolutely all of Landfall ’ s extended day. As the sun dipped towards the horizon, Alice leaned on her shovel and looked back along their handiwork. She was bone tired and her hands, shoulders and back were all aching from the unaccustomed labour. Several of the civilians had been forced to drop out of the work during the course of the day but she’d made it to the end of Landfall ’ s extended working day. That felt good. In a small way.
    “ A good day’s work, ” she said to Rob.
    “ Yep, ” he replied. His uniform was muddy but he looked much fresher than she felt. “ Of course the total perimeter is going to be, oh … about twenty K. ”
    Alice closed her eyes and dropped her head until her forehead rested on the top of the spade handle.
    “ You really couldn’t have just kept that one to yourself? ”
    “ Should have been obvious to a bright spark like you, ” he replied disapprovingly. “ Of course after that, we then have to dig the inner loop of the support trench plus the communication trenches that link the two, plus the bunkers and dug outs that will be needed. Finally, we ’ ll have cut down God only knows how many acres of trees to clear firing lanes. ”
    “ You know, I am getting really tired of this, ” she said with feeling. “ I am not a soldier and I’m not about to become a soldier. I don’t need to know all this stuff. When this is over, I’m going back to Earth! ”
    “ If it’s still there, Doc, ” Rob replied as he picked up his rifle and shouldered the spade. “ Only if it ’ s still there. ”
    Alice hurried after him.
    “ What do you mean by that? ” she demanded as she drew level.
    “ Just what do you think has happened Doc? ” he replied evenly.
    “ I’ve listened to the reports that have been released. ”
    “ Yeah well, I’ve listened harder, ” he replied. “ The Third Fleet didn’t make an orderly retreat Doc. It routed.