by PP Corcoran
Sue shifted her weight gently to one side to ease the growing cramp in her tired legs, careful to avoid the sharp thumb-sized thorns protruding from what felt like every branch of her hiding place. Her jacket sported many tears where the thorns had caught when she had scrambled in to avoid a group of K’Tai soldiers who had passed along the narrow animal trail Sue had been following. Sue tapped a quick series of commands into her wrist comm, the integrated projector sprang into life, and a 3-D map of the area hovered in midair. Another series of commands highlighted the position of the mine and her current location. A note by her location informed her that the wrist comm was unable to secure a satellite fix. Looked like the K’Tai had disabled the global positioning system, and with it disabled, that meant the wrist comm was working off dead-reckoning; its internal mechanism had followed her every twist and turn, but Sue couldn’t guarantee that it was 100 percent accurate. Well, it will just have to do, won’t it. The small device informed her that she was some fifty-two kilometers southeast of the mine. Damn, she didn’t think that she had traveled so far east, she was nearly into the Yentoff Valley complex that ran from the most easterly peaks of the Scraggy Mountains all the way down until it transformed into gently rolling hills and eventually settled into a wide, flat plain bordering on the Polaris Sea. The cabin she had sent the kids off to was almost directly northwest of the mine, and with some trepidation she keyed in its location. The blinking red dot at the very edge of the map only confirmed her fears. The cabin was the biggest part of 200 kilometers away; add in the fact that she would have to take a circuitous route if she wanted to avoid her K’Tai hunters, and she could double the distance. 400 kilometers through rough terrain, filled with God knew how many K’Tai soldiers out for her blood. Not good, Sue, not good at all.
The wind gently carried the sound of steadily approaching footsteps. Hurriedly Sue deactivated the holographic map, bringing her bulky K’Tai pulse rifle up to her shoulder. The footsteps were getting closer, and Sue concentrated hard as she tried to identify individual footsteps and get a rough number of how many enemy soldiers were bearing down on her position. Something odd struck Sue about the steps... They were not as heavy as before... either the K’Tai had lost a considerable amount of weight, or those approaching footsteps were human. Let’s not take any chances here, Sue cautioned herself.
Out of the growing daylight the first shadowy figure appeared. From Sue’s position, she could only make out the bottom half of the torso. The dirty combat pants and boots could only have belonged to a human. Still, Sue held her place. Just because these guys are human does not make them friendly. A second set of legs passed, then a third, and they continued to pass her by until she counted nine in total. Each figure was separated by a seemingly random distance from the next, however, Sue recognized combat spacing when she saw it. Each person was separated from the next by a few meters to prevent the whole group getting bunched up and making themselves an easy target for the enemy. Random intervals were employed because the eye was naturally drawn to things that were the same distance apart; nothing in nature was equally separated. On the plus side, whoever these guys were, they had at least rudimentary training. However, they were headed in the same direction that the K’Tai had gone a few minutes before. If I warn them, then I compromise myself, and who knows what these guys are up to. Then again, if I don’t... Sue’s conscience got the better of her. As the final set of legs vanished from view, Sue crawled clear of her hiding place and set off down the track after them, wondering how she was going to attract their attention without getting herself shot at in the process.
She need not have worried, for as she rounded the bend that the shadowy figures had passed only moments before, a seemingly innocuous line, easily missed by the unwary, half hidden by the rutted animal hooves, crossed the track in front of her, freezing Sue in place. Maybe thirty centimeters long and perhaps five across, it was well hidden and Sue nearly passed it by without a thought. However, as Sue had just reminded herself, nature abhors straight lines. Only something made by thinking beings would be so straight. And in this case, that thinking being had to have been K’Tai, for the humans that had passed wouldn’t have had the time to place anything in the ground and hide it so precisely.
Sue scanned the surrounding undergrowth for any sign of activity. Finding none, she bent down and cautiously scraped away at the soft ground with the blade of her pulse rifle. There, just a few centimeters below the surface was a thin, silvery wire. Sue traced the wire till it disappeared off the side of the track into thicker undergrowth. Using the blade to push away a tuft of grass, she discovered a green and black colored cylinder about the size of her palm. Leaning in close, the unfamiliar alien writing on its side confirmed Sue’s suspicions. This was indeed K’Tai, and then its purpose struck her like a bolt of lightning. It was a trip sensor! The K’Tai had placed it here to let them know if anyone was coming along the track, and the only reason you would want to know that was if you were already waiting in ambush! The trap may have been for her, but it was the nine people that had passed her that were about to run slap bang into it.
Sue jumped to her feet and began sprinting down the track in the direction the nine had gone. She had only made it a couple of paces before the peaceful dawn was ripped asunder by an eruption of deafening pulse rifle fire, bringing her headlong dash to a halt. The K’Tai had sprung their ambush and it was very close. The answering sound of human weapons fire intermingled with that of the K’Tai. However, Sue was under no illusions that any commander who was even half decent would have placed his troops in ambush positions that gave his prey virtually no opportunity to escape, and if the previous day running from the K’Tai had shown Sue anything, then it was that the K’Tai were good soldiers.
Breaking into a sprint, Sue’s legs pumped up and down, getting her ever closer to the sound of firing. Adrenalin flooded her system, bringing all her senses to their peak, muscles feeling like they had been electrified. Halting her mad dash when she judged that she was only a few tens of meters from the ambush site, Sue paused briefly as she listened, hard trying to identify which side of the track the ambush had been placed on. Satisfied she had located the source, Sue veered off to left side of the track, crashing through the thick brush, the branches whipping at her body, roots trying to snag her feet, not caring how much noise she made. At this point, there was no chance the K’Tai could hear her over the sound of the firefight. Ten paces in, she turned sharply right, now running parallel to the track, the sound of gunfire close enough it battered at her ears. Breaking through a particularly thick bush, she screeched to a halt as, there, a scant meter before her, lay a dozen K’Tai prone on the ground, all firing in the direction of the track. In a purely instinctive action Sue’s finger pulled and held the trigger of her oversized pulse rifle as she laid down a withering fire on the K’Tai soldiers, who were completely unaware of her presence on their unprotected flank.
300 high velocity blades of super-hardened composite spat from Sue’s pulse rifle, tearing through body armor and shredding the flesh and bone it was never designed to protect at such close ranges. The K’Tai soldiers danced like depraved puppets as the blades struck, piercing the armor and losing a goodly proportion of their velocity so that when they had passed through the hapless soldiers’ bodies they no longer had the momentum to exit the armor on the other side; instead, as the laws of physics dictated, they rebounded to pass once more through their victims. Even when Sue had exhausted her weapon’s magazine, the bodies continued to move of their own volition until the blades had given up the last of their energy.
Sue slipped her now empty magazine out, dropping it to the ground, and replaced it with a fresh one as an eerie silence fell upon the scene of devastation. Without a second glance at her victims, she took the few steps required to reach the track. It was a scene of utter carnage. What had been living, breathing human beings had suffered the same fate as the K’Tai that had died at Sue’s hand. Their uniforms, if that had bee
n what they were, were torn to pieces. Where the armor worn by the K’Tai had gone some way to keeping their bodies intact, these humans had not had the benefit of armor. The mottled green and brown of the trees and bush was now awash with the bright red color of blood. Sue placed her feet carefully, trying her best to not step on anything that may have been human as she began the gruesome task of at least checking if any of the hapless victims had survived. Even if they had, there was nothing Sue could do for them, except maybe find a med pack with something strong enough in it to make their last few moments bearable. Of more importance at this point was supplies. Looking around, Sue judged that each of the bodies must have been carrying a pack, and where there was a pack there was every chance of finding food and water.
The next few minutes were spent moving from body to body, checking each pocket and pack for anything which in any way might prove useful. One of the first things she did do was swap her K’Tai pulse rifle for a more fitting human weapon. Sue examined her new toy. An M89 caseless assault rifle and 100 round magazine with integrated high capacity charge. Slinging the rifle, she unclipped a thigh holster from one of the lifeless bodies. The holster contained a dull black P391 PIN pistol. Standard marine issue, the PIN had a completely self-enclosed cartridge that worked just as well in atmosphere as vacuum. Its ten-millimeter slugs were coated in specially hardened composite that made it a very effective armor piercer at close range while still carrying a hefty punch at ranges out to fifty meters. The fact that the weapons were standard marine issue and not militia caused Sue’s brow to furrow in puzzlement. Sue was not aware of any marine units being based on Agate, so where had these guys come from? No time to wonder about that just now, she needed to get the hell out of Dodge before anymore K’Tai came looking for their now deceased comrades. Hoisting a pack on to her shoulders into which she had stuffed water, food and spare ammo for her newly acquired M89 and PIN, she turned to head in the direction of the Yentoff Valley system when a cold, hard voice spoke to her from behind.
“Put the rifle on the ground, lady, or I’ll drop you where you stand.”
With exaggerated slowness Sue did as she was told, silently cursing herself for being so preoccupied that she had missed her unseen opponent’s approach. Allowing her rifle to slip to the ground, she craned her neck to sneak a peek behind her and her eyes fell upon the biggest marine she thought she had ever seen, filling the whole of the narrow track and easily matching a K’Tai for size and build, the rifle in his huge hands looking like a toy. Toy or not, it was pointed steadily in her direction and the cold look in his eyes told Sue that he wouldn’t flinch to use it.
“Hey, I’m on your side, marine,” Sue said with a throat that was drier than it should have been.
The huge marine’s rifle didn’t waver a fraction from Sue as he scanned his fallen comrades, and Sue could see the muscles in his neck tightening. Sue nodded in the direction of the K’Tai ambushers.
“I couldn’t warn them in time but I killed the ones responsible.”
The marine gave her a disbelieving look. “You and who else? Where’s the rest of your friends? The lieutenant will want to speak with whoever is in charge.”
Now Sue was starting to get annoyed. “There is no one else, soldier boy. Just me, and I don’t have time to chit-chat with your lieutenant. The K’Tai will be here soon.” Sue hooked a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the dead K’Tai. “And I for one don’t want to be here when they discover the bodies of their friends over there.”
For a moment, the marine was startled by the sudden strength in the slightly framed woman, and his brain was still trying to compute her claim that she managed to kill a group of heavily armed enemy soldiers as, from around the bend in the track, came a line of a dozen marines, weapons at the ready. The first two marines skirted past Sue and took up post further along the track, while a third stopped beside the large marine who still had his weapon not now directly aimed at Sue, but in a position where it could be brought back into aim if required.
You’ll be the lieutenant, thought Sue as she rapidly assessed him. Average height, broad shoulders, probably worked out a lot. A small smile creased Sue’s lips. These marines were all the same. They thought being able to lift heavy weights was the be-all and end-all. Her ears picked up the short, sharp whispered conversation with plenty of shoulder shrugging taking place, and Sue guessed that the officer was also second guessing her story. These boys will never learn. Another few disbelieving glances came in Sue’s direction before the officer cleared his throat and approached Sue.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but DeWitt here tells me that you are responsible for that there pile of dead K’Tai. Now, I’m not doubting your version of events but maybe you…eh misinterpreted what happened and…”
Sue cut him off with a voice that was cold as ice. “I killed them. Me. A little old school teacher, and I don’t care what you believe because I have family who need me and I need to move and I would suggest you do the same.” With that she bent down and retrieved the rifle, making to walk off, not caring that DeWitt’s muzzle was now aimed squarely at her back.
The lieutenant was momentarily taken aback by Sue’s actions and scrambled to catch up with her. He had just placed a hand on her arm when the high-pitched sound of an aero engine flying low and fast reached them. The lieutenant was still trying to locate the sound as a K’Tai drone streaked directly overhead at treetop level, the ordnance hanging from its stubby wings promising vengeance. Sue’s rifle was up and firing as the drone disappeared, the engine note changing as the drone carved a wide arc in the sky as it circled back.
“Take cover!” screamed Sue as she pushed the hapless lieutenant behind a fallen tree and crashed down on top of him, as the space that she and the lieutenant had been standing a split second before was filled with pulse cannon rounds. The drone circled around for another run, but this time as it closed on them the marines were ready, and it was met with a solid wall of M89 fire. The drone was hit and veered sharply off course, but not before a missile leapt from beneath its wing and flashed toward its target, impacting with a loud explosion, the pressure wave carrying the thousands of deadly antipersonnel ball-bearing sized munitions that had been packed into the missile’s body, shredding and flattening all before them.
Marine DeWitt was the first to pick himself up from the forest floor, the ringing in his ears overpowering the crackle of the fires and the moans of his comrades. DeWitt felt a sharp pain in his left leg and it felt wet and sticky with blood. Ignoring his own wound for the moment, he looked around and saw other marines beginning to pick themselves up and dust off the debris kicked up by the air to ground missile as they moved to tend to the wounded. Of the lieutenant and the woman there was no sign. Ignoring the pain in his own leg, he ran over to where he had last seen them and found the woman sprawled on the ground, her prostrate body half covering the lieutenant, who was trying to free himself from the tangle of arms and legs. Gently DeWitt lifted the unconscious woman off him and sat her upright against the fallen tree, giving her a brief but thorough examination. Her face was white as a sheet and she was bleeding profusely from a deep gash over her left temple. DeWitt retrieved a field dressing from his belt and pressed it hard against the wound. The blood clotter embedded into the field dressing stemmed the flow of precious blood and the antiseptic seals around the dressing edges halted the spread of infection. What was of more concern to DeWitt was that Sue had not reacted as he had lifted her. Not a good sign, thought the marine as he reached into a pouch on his utility vest and extracted a med scanner, with practiced movements he thoroughly checked her body for secondary injuries. The small machine beeped as it completed its scan and DeWitt examined the display before making an adjustment to its parameters and running it more slowly this time over the left side of Sue’s skull. When he had completed his scan, the marine’s face creased in a thoughtful frown.
“Well?” demanded the lieutenant.
“I don’t see any secondary woun
ds, but she has a few fractured ribs down her left side, probably from impacting the tree, and a nasty looking contusion above her left temple which the med scan reckons is a skull fracture, with bleeding to the brain, and without the right equipment anything I give her could do as much harm as good. The ribs need a bone weaver, which we don’t have. As for the head injury, I can keep her unconscious and give her a dose of Disavol which will stop the bleed and relieve the pressure on the brain, but she needs to get to the Doc, sir.”
The lieutenant looked at the closed eyes and pale face of the woman who had undoubtedly saved his life. It was at least five days’ travel on foot through enemy territory to the mountain retreat that was going to be the new headquarters of the battalion. Carrying an unconscious woman along with them was only going to make that harder. The lieutenant caught sight of the marines that had been ambushed by the K’Tai and the mangled bodies of their attackers. Sue could have stayed hidden and let the K’Tai go on their way, but instead she had chosen to risk her own life in a futile attempt to save his marines. He owed her.
“OK, school teacher, it looks like you’re coming with us. Break out a litter, DeWitt, and get her ready to move while I check on the rest of the platoon. It’s a long way to the mountains and if the K’Tai could find us with one drone, then they can find us again. We need to hustle.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Claviger