Chapter 5
Riley was already banking.
“Second group moving west of the vehicle line,” she said. “Marking with cannon. Do not move past green smoke.”
The sergeant grabbed the radio from Dayne’s loose hand.
“Tusker Zero-Four, this is Sergeant Cole. We copy. Friendlies holding. God bless you, ma’am.”
“Stay low, Sergeant.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Dayne stared at him.
The sergeant didn’t give the radio back.
That was the moment the colonel understood.
His command voice had stopped mattering.
Survival had outranked him.
Riley came around again.
The A-10 rolled through the smoke, wings tilting, engine roar swallowing the battlefield.
This time the enemy tried to run.
They did not get far.
A second burst tore open the ground in front of them, cutting off the riverbed and forcing them back from the wall.
Then rockets hit the abandoned trench line beyond the outpost.
Fire flashed.
Smoke rose.
The attack broke.
Within minutes, the battlefield changed.
Not because Dayne ordered it.
Because Riley saw it.
She guided medics to safe lanes.
She directed wounded soldiers away from collapsing cover.
She warned a pinned squad before a technical truck could flank them.
Every time her voice came through the radio, men listened.
Not because she shouted.
Because she was right.
“North tower, stay down.”
A round struck the tower rail one second later.
“Medic team, move now.”
They crossed the open dirt just before smoke swallowed the path.
“Sergeant Cole, pull your wounded behind the second wall. I’ll cover the riverbed.”
Cole didn’t hesitate.
“Moving.”
Dayne sat against the dirt wall, breathing hard, watching soldiers obey a pilot he had mocked in front of them.
Then the truth cut deeper than the shrapnel in his sleeve.
She was not saving him because he deserved it.
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She was saving his men because they did.
Read Part 6 to see what happened when the battle ended and Dayne tried to rewrite the truth.
