Fog

     Atop the hill, during the two Kin of fighting in the plain, the only enemy forces KrutChan’s Bot encountered were of less than squad size and were easily disposed of by the Kril.  The Diarchy’s modern Special Forces were sent to conquer Pepam1150 in a flanking movement to gain the high ground over the plain below.  Krutchan was inserted into that crucial fight, as it was the key to the battle.  His mission was to hold the high ground; to TOTL all his Kril to accomplish that fact.  There were four intense courageous charges up that hill by the Dinarchy.  Even the Kril were in awe of their tenacity.  The ground-searing fire from the Toobs, the Kril artillery obliterated many of the attackers.  Eventually it came down, in some cases; to hand to hand bayonet infighting, Blasters, grenades, K-bars, swords, and fists; but the Kril held onto the position.  The Dinarchy drifted away maimed, bloodied, and in small groups of survivors.

     “Jesus Christ, it’s cold!”  XibEk griped, “This fuckin jungle fighter is freezing his ass off…”

     The North Vietnamese infantryman, wearing Russian cold weather gear, next to him agreed.  “This frozen monsoon weather is evil; I have no anger left in me.  Buddha said, ‘Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.’  I would relish a ‘hot coal’ in my palm at this moment.”

     XibEk was nodding.  “You got dat right, Mr. NVA; iffn I had some burning coal; I’d share it wid ya, though.”

     “Enemies, though we are fellow Kril now, always share their discomfort and pain.”

     “SHUT UP!  We’re tactical keep silent…no more talking!”  KrutCheebel snarled in a hoarse whisper; his Balaam bugs were thankfully heating his insides and were attacking his system again, when they backed off he would be shivering like the rest of them.

     On top of Pepam1150, silence was somber and forbidding as the Bot’s time wore on; dawn would be a long time coming in their NOW.  The wind and icy cold, by osmosis, were chilling them, from the outside in, because they could not move around.  They had to remain stationary, with no mercy from the frosty chill as the night got darker.  They could see only darkness-shadows and the white background through squinting eyes; even their tears were freezing on their faces.  The Zars had excavated fighting holes for the Kril around the butterfly perimeter on the military crests of the hill.  Digging behind the lines, the Zar had bored into the hill, below the frost line and were comfortable, away from the temperature and wind.