The rain had stopped three hours ago, but the mud remembered everything. It clung to boots, to wheels, to the shredded canvas of a forward observation post overlooking what the maps called Sector Seven. To the soldiers rotting in it, it was simply The Spoon—a low, swampy bowl of land between two ridges, shaped like a serving spoon, and just as useful for scraping out the guts of a war.

Silence fell, broken only by the crackle of the burning wreck and the soft, wet sound of rain starting again.

The rain turned the battlefield into a slow, sucking grave. By dawn, the surviving enemy had pulled back. The crossroads was theirs. A runner arrived at noon with word that a real relief column was two hours out.

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