He was also unhappy about having to break his company into platoons, each guided by one of the recon Marines who'd investigated the cave, and reinforced with an assault section, to infiltrate to the cave entrance. Together, his 170 Marines were a formidable force; broken into four scattered units, they wouldn't be able to support each other immediately if they ran into a Skink force. Sure, the smaller units were less likely to be spotted by the Skinks than the entire reinforced company if it was together, but he could lose too many Marines if a lone platoon ran into Skinks.
Still, he was a Marine. He had his orders and he'd carry them out. Nobody said he had to like them.
"Sir," Enkhtuya's comm man said, interrupting his disgruntled reverie.
"What?"
The comm man handed him the UPUD. The display clearly showed first platoon, which his command unit traveled with. It also showed the movement of bodies a hundred or more meters off to the platoon's right, headed in the direction of the Haven defenses. Whatever was moving over there didn't show in infrared. He looked in that direction but couldn't see anything; the platoon was in an area just heavily wooded enough that there were few sightlines a hundred meters long.
"Quietly, get down," Enkhtuya murmured into his all-hands circuit as he handed the UPUD back. "Movement right, one hundred."
Almost without a sound the Marines stopped and lowered themselves to the ground. Two men from each squad faced to the left instead of the right to guard against a surprise attack from that direction.
"How many?" Enkhtuya asked.
"Looks like about fifty," the radioman replied.
Fifty. Hardly more than the forty-plus Marines he had. He almost wanted the Skinks—it had to be Skinks—to change direction and come at him. His Marines could score an easy victory against them. But if the Skinks encountered the platoon, his position would be compromised, and that would endanger the entire mission. Enkhtuya gritted his teeth and willed the Skinks to stick to their route.
They kept going. He waited another ten minutes, then reported the movement to Battalion HQ and gave the order to resume the march.
Each of the four units had to stop at least once while Skinks passed by, heading in the direction of the Haven defenses, but all managed to avoid detection. They rendezvoused near the cave entrance.
Captain Enkhtuya lay in the muck on the opposite bank, observing the cave mouth. Next to him was Staff Sergeant Wu, who had guided his platoon.
"Doesn't look like anybody's been here," Wu said after several minutes' observation. "Time for a closer look." He slithered away from the bank.
A safe distance back, Wu rose to a crouch and moved upstream until he could approach the streamlet out of sight of the cave mouth. Across it, he moved into the forest and zigzagged back, looking closely at the ground and low foliage and stopping frequently to listen. He reached the cave without seeing any sign of Skinks. He spoke into his helmet comm; none of the other recon Marines had seen sign either. Lance Corporal Sonj joined him, and the two entered the cave. Except for small animal tracks, the dirt on the cave's floor looked unchanged from the vid they'd taken when they left after their first patrol. They went fifty meters in before turning around and going back out.
Wu rejoined Enkhtuya and reported. "Looks clear, sir. You can send them in anytime."
"Right," Enkhtuya said, still looking at the cave mouth—it certainly looked big enough for him to get through.
The captain's feelings came through so clearly in his voice that Wu said, sympathetically, "I won't be going in, either, sir. It gets a lot smaller inside. There are spots that are just too tight for me to get through fast." Wu was taller than the captain, but Enkhtuya was wider. He knew the captain would find movment in the cave even more difficult than he had.
Enkhtuya grunted, then spoke briefly into his command circuit. In a moment his infra screen showed him the red splotches of the first of the eighty Marines who were going in. He clenched his jaw in anger and frustration, then forced himself to relax. He whispered, "Good hunting."
Lance Corporal Sonj, the smallest of the recon Marines, led the way. The cave had just as many twists and turns, rises and drops, as the previous time he'd been in it. But movement was faster because they didn't have to pause as often while men struggled with spots that were barely big enough for them to squeeze through. In good time he saw the faint glow of red light in the distance and stopped.
He leaned his head back so Lieutenant Eggers could touch helmets with him. "We're at the final checkpoint," he said when he felt contact.
Eggers, Charlie Company's executive officer, in command of the raid by virtue of being the smallest officer in the company, said, "Let's take a look," and signaled the sapper section chief, Staff Sergeant Larose, to come along. The three padded around the bend to the narrow crack in the wall. One at a time they looked through it. The cavern beyond was still filled with stacks of crates. They didn't see or hear anybody inside. Sonj and Eggers moved beyond the crack so Larose could examine the stone.
The sapper chief's examination only took a couple of minutes. "Better go back now," Larose said when he was satisfied that he could widen the crack without causing the tunnel to cave in. He stood flat against the wall and exhaled to make himself as thin as possible so the others could squeeze past. As soon as they were gone, he began pulling things out of pockets. In a minute he had several pieces of explosive tape strategically placed on the wall. He headed back to where the raiding party waited.
Larose leaned past Sonj to touch helmets with Eggers. "Ready anytime you are," he said.
"Do it."
"Aye aye."
A blast, not nearly as loud as Eggers and Sonj expected, rumbled along the tunnel, raising clouds of dust in its wake. Alarms echoed in the distance.
"Go, go, go!" Eggers shouted. He raced up the tunnel, pushing Sonj and Eggers ahead of him. Blind in the dust cloud except for the infra blotches of the two Marines ahead of him, he bounced off the sides of the narrow tunnel as he ran. He would have missed the entrance to the logistics chamber if Larose and Sonj hadn't stopped when they reached it and shoved the Marines behind them through the hole.
Only a few meters inside the chamber, the air cleared of the billowing dust and Eggers was able to see again. He raced to the far side of the vast chamber, looking around as he ran. It was exactly like the rodent's-eye vid he'd studied, save that some of the stacks of material might have been smaller. He could only guess at the distance, but the dim red lights strung out along the main tunnel's ceiling went straight for what looked like more than two hundred meters before turning. A lesser, unimproved tunnel without lights led from the chamber's opposite end. It didn't appear to run straight for any distance. The alarms were much louder inside the chamber, and they all seemed to come from the main tunnel.
On the far side, he stopped and looked back at the Marines who were still pouring through the break in the wall. He didn't have to give any instructions. They'd all studied the vid and rehearsed the raid—they knew where to go. One section from the assault platoon scaled the stacks on the near side of the chamber and set its guns to cover the main tunnel leading into the chamber. The other section did the same on the far side. The gun squads from the blaster platoons covered the lesser tunnel. The blastermen scattered to their assigned positions and started breaking crates open. Before the fighters were all at their assigned positions, the sappers were already placing charges.
New sounds intruded into Egger's consciousness: the whine of motors, the clank of treads, and shouted voices from down the main tunnel.
"Stand by for company, main tunnel," he said into his all-hands circuit.
Throughout the chamber, squad, fire team, and gun team leaders gave hurried last minute instructions to their men.
"Keep them busy, we need a few more minutes," Staff Sergeant Larose said into the command circuit.
In a moment the whining motors and clanking treads were closer, loud enough to drown out most of the shouting voices accompanying th
em.
"Vehicle coming," reported Ensign Qorn, the assault platoon commander.
"Can your guns hit it?" Eggers asked.
"Can do."
"Do it."
An instant later the chamber was filled with the booming, popping sizzles and brilliant lights of the three big assault guns. Two hundred fifty meters down the tunnel the plasma streams converged on an oncoming mover vehicle similar to the one the recon Marines had seen the supply workers use. If the Skinks who were visible on it flared, their flashes were lost in the incandescence of the blaster streams. The motor whine shrieked and stopped, and the vehicle yawed and swerved sharply. Chunks of white-hot metal broke off when it slammed into the wall. It crashed ponderously onto its side and lay half blocking the tunnel.
"Got it," the platoon sergeant laconically reported.
"Put intermittent bursts down there to discourage anybody else who wants to investigate," Eggers ordered.
"Roger."
The assault gunners began putting one-second bursts of plasma down the tunnel at irregular intervals. The sounds of motors, treads, and voices continued, but nothing more came around the bend. The surface of the rock wall at the bend began to glow, but the plasma bursts weren't sustained enough to make it slag and run.
"We're done in here," Staff Sergeant Larose reported. The sappers had placed half a dozen plasma bombs in strategic points around the chamber. When they went off, they would briefly fill the space with star-stuff, long enough to destroy most of the supplies, and damage what they didn't destroy. The bombs would also set off chemical explosives the sappers had set in weak spots in the walls in the expectation of bringing some of them down.
"Start pulling out," Eggers ordered. "Blastermen, bring your goodies."
The Marines began withdrawing. The dust was much thinner now. The blastermen of the two platoons left by squads, each Marine carrying something from the crate he'd been assigned to open. The assault platoon sergeant led one section into the escape tunnel, followed by the two gun squads with their lighter weapons.
"Set the timers," Eggers ordered.
"Aye aye," Larose replied, then relayed the order to his sappers. When the sappers reported themselves ready, he said to Eggers, "Fifteen minutes." There was little margin for error, but they were almost home free.
The sappers left. Eggers and one assault section remained, one squad keeping up intermittent fire down the main tunnel while the second rigged its big gun to fire automatically—they were leaving it behind to cover their withdrawal.
Suddenly, the chamber filled with the horrifying, ripping sound of a Skink buzz saw from the mouth of the lesser tunnel. The three Marines of the squad firing their gun simply dissolved in a mist of red. Their gun became a cone of debris scattering down the main tunnel; only the tripod mount remained intact.
Eggers drew his sidearm as he dove for the dubious shelter of a stack of crates. The gunner and assistant gunner of the assault squad rigging its gun made it to concealment before the buzz saw let out another rip that pulverized the squad leader and gun. Ensign Qorn and the third assault squad were already going out through the break in the chamber's wall when the buzz saw first fired.
"Back," Qorn shouted. "Set up!" The three Marines remounted their assault gun on its tripod, angled toward the lesser tunnel. Qorn bellied toward the edge of the stack he lay behind and peered around its corner. He immediately scuttled backward so fast he felt he must have set a new Human Space record for the reverse crawl—and he was none too fast. The entire corner of the stack he'd been behind went up in a cloud of dust, and the stack beyond it collapsed like a building at nuclear ground zero. He thought fast—he had to get his remaining gun in position to flame the Skinks he'd seen manning the buzz saw. There were four of them; he hadn't seen any others. But how could the gun get into position, aim, and fire before the Skinks spotted the Marines and killed them?
"Qorn, is that you?" Egger's voice came over his helmet comm on the all-hands circuit.
"It's me."
"You got the gun with you?"
"Third squad, yes."
"First squad, who's left?"
The second squad gunner and assistant gunner replied.
Eggers thought fast. He had himself and three other Marines left, aside from the one remaining assault squad—and only one of them was armed with a blaster. The other three carried hand-blasters.
The buzz saw ripped, and two more stacks were pulverized—the Skinks were firing randomly, hoping to hit hidden Marines.
"Qorn, how much time does your gun need to set up, acquire its target, and take it out?"
Qorn thought. This was a good assault squad and their gun was already set up. It only needed to be moved into position. "Six seconds from go," he said.
"How much of that exposed?"
"Three." The first three seconds would be movement under concealment.
The buzz saw ripped again, sending more stacks to oblivion.
"On my command," Eggers said, "Qorn and first squad, fire at the Skinks. Move fast, fire again, move, fire. Assault squad, while we're distracting them, you do your thing. Everybody understand?"
No sooner had the Marines acknowledged than the buzz saw ripped again.
"GO!"
A blaster and three hand-blasters fired almost as one. An instant later the buzz saw struck at the stack from which the first squad gunner had fired, but the gunner had already moved. The four Marines fired again from new positions as the buzz saw shifted its aim to Eggers's former position. The assault squad got its gun into position and was bringing it to bear on the buzz saw when the four Marines fired again. The buzz saw crew was shifting aim to one of those positions when its leader noticed the assault gun and screamed the command to fire at it. He was too late—a heavy stream of plasma engulfed the buzz saw and its crew before they could fire.
Another rip echoed through the chamber; a buzz saw firing from the main tunnel.
First squad's assistant gunner was the only Marine in position to quickly return fire. He twisted around on the top of his stack and rose up to sight down the tunnel. His bolt and the buzz saw's rip passed each other midway. But the Marine's aim was better—the Skink gunner flared, and the assistant gunner plummeted through the cloud of dust and debris that had been the stack he was on. That gave the assault squad just enough time to move its gun again and fire down the main tunnel. The buzz saw was out of action, and the Skinks moving up behind it were vaporized.
"Get that gun ready!" Eggers ordered.
Qorn set the remaining gun himself. It began to fire down the main tunnel on its own.
"Report!" Eggers commanded.
First squad's assistant gunner was dazed from his fall, but otherwise the remaining Marines were uninjured.
"Pull out, now!"
The Marines scrambled for their exit.
Lieutenant Eggers hesitated for a second, then raced to the lesser tunnel. There were no Skink bodies by the badly damaged buzz saw; he hadn't expected to find any, it was the weapon he was interested in. The buzz saw was too big for one man to carry through the tunnels to the outside, it would even slow down two men. The charred remnants of a bag lay on the tunnel floor next to the buzz saw. What appeared to be a spare barrel for the weapon lay in its ashes. Eggers grabbed it and raced to catch up with his Marines.
They had rounded three bends when the tunnel behind them lit up brilliantly and a wall of heat slammed into their backs. Seconds later the earth rumbled and shook. Rocks fell from the tunnel roof and sides. They ran faster.
Looks like you've got yourself a souvenir, Lieutenant," Captain Enkhtuya said when the raid commander finally exited the cave and joined the command group for a quick debriefing.
"Skipper?" Eggers hadn't brought out the spare barrel, or whatever it was, for himself. He intended to hand it over to the F-2 for analysis. If they could figure out what the weapon was, maybe they could develop a means of countering it.
"You aren't chameleoned anymore." Enkhtuya p
ut a hand on Eggers's shoulder and turned him. The entire back of his uniform was blackened. "What the hell happened to you?"
Eggers twisted his neck and looked at his shoulder. "I guess I wasn't far enough away when the plasma bombs went off. Damn!" If the wave of heat that had hit him when the bombs went off was hot enough to destroy the chameleoning on his back and scorch the material, he was lucky he hadn't been badly burned by it.
Enkhtuya had his comm man raise the battalion and FIST intelligence officers, then listened while Eggers, Wu, and Qorn quickly described what they'd found in the chamber and what they did there. It was a short debriefing. More details had to wait until they were back inside the perimeter. So would mourning for the four Marines killed during those last, manic moments.
"Saddle up, we're moving out," Enkhtuya said into the all-hands circuit. This time they were moving as a reinforced company instead of individual platoons. He hoped they ran into Skinks again—if they did, they wouldn't have to hide; now that the mission was accomplished, they could fight.
The company pulled out in two columns, far enough apart that they wouldn't shoot each other if they ran into trouble, close enough to give mutual support if one had to fight.
Halfway back to the Marine lines, the point man on Charlie Company's left column froze, then slowly lowered himself to the ground.
"Movement ahead," he murmured into his helmet comm. "Coming fast."
Seconds later his squad leader eeled up alongside him. "What do you—" Sergeant Henry began, then changed to, "Great Buddha's balls!"
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