by Wilson Harp
“No,” Curtis said. “We don’t know if they would all come out, and if they did, whoever went in would be trapped most likely.”
“What about ambushing one of the patrols,” Grieg said. He had been a special forces operative in the Norweigan army. He had not revealed that until Alex saw his sword and wings tattoo one day. Alex had worked with several FSK groups before India and knew they were a top notch outfit.
“I don’t doubt we could take out a few of their patrols,” Alex said. “But we aren’t really sure how many there are.”
Grieg nodded in agreement. Alex could tell he really wanted to kill some Otina. He took his capture personally.
“What if there is another access tunnel somewhere?” Manny asked.
Alex did not want to go through another hamster course again, but it was an interesting idea.
“Have you seen any panels that might look like they can be removed, Gunny?” Curtis asked.
“Not really, but I haven’t been looking for them specifically. Next recon out I’ll pay better attention,” Alex answered.
“Grieg, next time Alex goes out, back him up. I want to see if we can spot another access tunnel,” Curtis said.
“I’ll be waiting by the door,” Grieg said. He grinned like he was a kid on Christmas morning.
“Gunny, five minutes before the next patrol,” Adams said.
Alex nodded and went to the room with the access tunnel. He stripped down to his t-shirt and boxers and headed down the tunnel. He heard the patrol passing as he removed the access panel in the storage room and then quickly made his way to the holding cell.
He punched in the code and lowered the field. Grieg hopped out of the room and smiled again. Alex motioned to the corridor that would swing back around to the barracks and Grieg followed him.
They rounded the corner and Alex pointed at the open doorway a few meters ahead. He felt a tug on his sleeve and saw Grieg pointing at a panel on the ceiling. It was slightly smaller than the other ceiling panels, and was painted instead of glowing.
Alex made a basket with his hands and Grieg stepped up. Alex watched as he lifted the tall Norwegian the extra few feet needed to reach the ceiling.
Grieg pushed on the panel and it lifted up. He smiled down at Alex and then pulled himself up into the crawl space. He moved in up to his waist and then waved back at Alex.
“Great,” thought Alex. “He’s not going to fit.”
Grieg dropped down to the corridor and motioned that the space was too small for him to crawl through. He signaled that he wanted to lift Alex up.
Alex sighed and stepped into Grieg’s hand. He reached the ceiling easily and lifted himself into the narrow entrance. It was actually a little roomier than the access tunnel under the holding cell and he had no problem pulling himself completely inside the ceiling. He motioned Grieg to stay there for a second and replaced the panel. A little effort allowed him to turn and look to where this duct system headed. If he was correct, it would lead directly over the room that he believed was the barracks.
He pulled himself forward and looked down the area he had to crawl through. He would have to be careful not to make noise, but he was pretty sure he could crawl at a fair pace. If Adams was right, he would only have about twelve minutes to crawl forward, twenty four minutes to crawl backward, and then less than a minute to get back to the holding cell.
He pulled the panel up, and set it aside. He motioned to Grieg that he was dropping down. Grieg stepped aside and Alex hit the ground softly. Grieg helped him stand, and Alex motioned that he wanted to be lifted again.
Once he was at the ceiling, he replaced the panel and dropped back down.
He and Grieg slipped around the corner and punched in the bypass code to lower the force field.
Captain Curtis waited just inside the door. “You are back quick, any problems?” he asked.
Alex smiled and shook his head. “No problems at all, Captain. Grieg here has eagle eyes. Spotted a panel on the ceiling just around the corner. The space is too narrow for him, but I should be able to traverse it just fine. It crawls out over the barracks, and if I am judging the direction and distance correctly, it might pop out either in the hangar or real close to it.”
Most of the humans had gathered around to hear the latest reconnaissance information. When they heard the good news, they smiled and high-fived each other.
“This is good news,” Curtis said as he turned to look at everyone. “But we aren’t out yet. We only suspect that the hangar is beyond that room. Just like we only suspect that there are a few Otina who hold this base.”
Alex nodded. He had a plan for getting out, but plans often had a way of collapsing because some information was missing or erroneous.
“We can wait until the next patrol goes by and try it again. Grieg, we need to teach you the bypass code in case I get stuck up there. I don’t want you out in the cold,” Alex said.
“That’s a good idea. If you do get stuck up there, we will wait for three patrols before Hu goes out and we mount a rescue,” Curtis added.
Alex nodded. “Hu, you need to learn the code as well, then.”
The three men went over to a bedroom and Alex showed them the side of the bed. Alex had asked the Pelod to describe the panel precisely and then he had used the metal tab on his pants zipper to carve a copy to practice with.
Alex ran through the sequence three times and then let both men try it over and over again. He was almost satisfied that they had it when he saw Adams step into the room.
“Five minutes until the next patrol, Gunny.”
Alex stood and nodded to the young Australian. He looked down at the two men studying the drawing of the panel.
“About 15 more minutes, Grieg. Then I will be at the front door.”
He waited for the Norwegian to nod in acknowledgement and then headed to the access tunnel.
Nine minutes and a few seconds later, Alex keyed in the bypass code and Grieg stepped out of the holding area. They walked around the corner and Grieg lifted Alex up to the panel in the ceiling that would be the next phase of the recon assignment.
Alex pulled himself inside the small crawlspace and placed the panel back in place. Grieg would position himself by the door to the prison area and Adams would signal him when another patrol would approach. Alex hoped that he would be back before that occurred.
The small tunnel led Alex above the room that he was sure were the barracks for the Otina stationed in this complex. He had only grabbed a few glances into the room, but he had seen Otina sitting and talking as well as a few leaning back against what looked like high inclined beds. The Hedali preferred to sleep that way as well, so Alex was pretty sure that the Otina had their main living quarters directly between the holding area for prisoners and the most accessible exit.
The area would likely have been easy for an Otina to move through. They were shorter and slimmer built than humans, which was an advantage in a gun fight. Alex knew that advantage first hand. There were several times in the Indian war when he knew that he was being targeted by a marksman. He just ran for cover as fast as he could and often the rounds were missing him by centimeters. A bigger man would have been struck.
He was always one of the smaller marines in any unit he had ever been in. In basic, he was harassed the first few days by a few of the other recruits. They seemed to think that a smaller build meant that you were less of a marine.
The first day that Alex was put up against one of the bigger recruits with pugil sticks, the harassment stopped cold. Alex was a fitness nut and he had quickness and agility on his side. But the physical attributes weren’t what made him a warrior. It was his will power. Sheer determination and a willingness to go beyond what he was capable of was what made him a lethal force.
As he squeezed through a tight area of the crawl space, Alex once again wished he had not developed such an adventurous spirit. But this had to be done. Curtis seemed a fine officer, but he couldn’t have fit through the ac
cess tunnel under the holding area. Hu could, but was he willing to risk his life to escape?
Alex knew that death was better than imprisonment. He had been imprisoned before. The only reason he had not tried to escape from Leavenworth was because he knew he deserved to be there. But every day that he sat in his cell, he thought about escape. He had planned out where he would go, what he would do, and who he could contact to make his way easier.
But he hadn’t moved. He wasn’t going to bring shame on his mother and sister by breaking out of prison. He also didn’t want to turn his back on his country, his fellow marines, and his oath. But he thought about it every day.
The narrow tunnel widened about three meters beyond his entry position, and he noted that there looked like a wide pipe angled downward. He imagined that was the pipe that provided whatever nutrients were provided by the air system.
Alex thought about tampering with the air ducts. Would the Otina die before they realized what was happening? Would the prisoners survive? That, Alex decided, would depend upon whether the air supply was connected or separated. If it was connected, then was it just coincidence that the nutritional needs were the same for the humans and their captors?
Alex shrugged past a tighter area as he noticed the space dip down. He hoped it wasn’t a large drop or he would have to work back to the entry point. He was also cautious to be careful not to drop his knees, feet or hands too heavily as the noise might be heard in the room below him.
He eased his way past a pipe and looked down to a dropped area that was about a foot below the main passage. He was sure that the drop indicated the crawl space had cleared the room below it and would end in another access panel.
He shifted until he could lower his head to see further. The access way ended about a meter after the drop, and he saw an access panel like the one he crawled up through. He moved forward and was relieved when he realized that he would have enough room to turn around. This crawl was tighter and more complicated than the one under the holding area and he had not looked forward to trying to maneuver backwards in order to get out.
The panel sat on the bottom of the passageway. Alex lifted it cautiously and looked down into an empty hallway. He expected as much. He slowly lowered his head below the level of the ceiling and looked around. Not far from where he was, he saw a doorway.
Alex twisted until he could get a good angle on the doorway. It had a blue energy field blocking it, but he was sure it was a hangar. The only problem was that he did not see a ship.
The sound of footsteps drew his attention and he sat back up into the crawl space. He placed the panel back in position and waited. The footsteps travelled directly below his position. When they continued on without pause, he let out a long, quiet breath.
Alex twisted around and crawled back the way he came. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he reached the end of the crawl space. He opened the panel and looked down to see Grieg.
Alex nodded and smiled as the tall Norwegian looked up at him. He slid out of the crawl space feet first and felt Grieg take hold of his legs. The panel slipped back into place and Grieg lowered Alex to the ground.
The two men made it back to the holding cell to see a very anxious looking Curtis standing on the other side of the energy field.
Alex punched in the override code and the field lowered as Curtis motioned them to hurry.
“You guys had just seconds left,” Adams said. “The patrol should be passing by any moment.”
“I just hope they don’t notice the field is down,” Curtis said.
The override code would lower the energy field for about twenty seconds and it was still down as they heard the sound of the Otina patrol going past the passageway that would lead them to see the holding cell door.
The field went up just a few seconds later and the men in the room relaxed as they realized that the Otina guards had not noticed the doorway.
“That was close,” Alex said. “Next time, don’t wait so long Grieg. It would be better for me to stay up in the duct work for another forty five minutes than risk you getting caught out of holding.”
“Agreed, Gunny,” Curtis said.
Grieg nodded, although Alex knew that he thought the risk worth taking.
“Did you get a good run?” Curtis asked Alex.
“Sure did, Captain. The passage leads over the barracks and into a hallway on the other side. There is a doorway that has an energy field. It looks like a hangar.”
The men who were listening all broke out in grins.
Alex held up his hand. “The problem is that I didn’t see any ship in the hangar.”
“They have to have a ship,” Jeffries said. “The Otina here have to have a way to evacuate if there is a problem.”
Curtis shook his head. “No, I think the Otina here just have to make do. But I would guess that they have supply ships come in every so often.”
Alex nodded. “I agree.”
“So what’s the plan?” Singh asked.
“I don’t think we have a plan, yet,” Curtis said. “But I have a feeling that Grieg will get his way.”
Alex nodded.
“What do you mean?” Jeffries asked.
“We will need to figure out when the next supply ship will come and then kill the Otina, and take it,” Grieg said.
Chapter 10
K-man loaded the cartridges in the magazine as he looked out the window of his ready room. His men were finishing the final checks on their equipment and starting to head toward the debarkation room on the Platte.
K-man knew his men were worried, but he had assured them that their training and experience would allow them to overcome anything they would encounter. This raid was going to be a big one. The readings from the long range scanners indicated that this was the biggest Otina installation that Earth forces had ever run across.
“Captain, we are ready to get this mission underway,” K-man said to the video screen sitting on his desk.
“We are starting long-range bombing of their defenses now, Colonel,” Captain Gagne said. “Target should be softened shortly.”
K-man stood and started to head to the debarkation room when the piercing sound of alarms rang through the Platte and red lights filled the scooter’s hallways.
“Red alert. Combat engaged. Report to stations,” the ships intercom blared out.
K-man returned to his desk and pulled up the ship’s command and control screen. He saw the problem immediately. The Otina base had a contingent of small attack vessels and they had engaged the Berlin. Normally any base they encountered only had a handful of fighters, but this one had dozens.
Gagne had ordered the scooters to engage the small vessels as it continued the bombardment of the base. This would cause delays in getting the troops onto the asteroid and would allow the Otina to organize their defenses better.
“Lippor,” K-man said as he turned on his comm unit. “Are you in the d-room?”
“Yes, sir. We are holding in here, the crew of the Platte are running the halls.”
“Understood. Send two runners to the armory. I want some heavy lasers set up around the Platte when we land.”
“Heavy defenses?”
“I think so. They scrambled around sixty fighters against the Berlin, the scooters are making short work of them, but it gives their ground defenses more time to prepare.”
K-man heard his aide send two men to retrieve the heavy weapons.
“Sir, we are to set up a defensive perimeter around the Platte?” Lippor asked.
“Correct, Sergeant. I anticipate that the Otina will try to hit us as we disembark. We need to repel their attack and be ready to move forward in force.”
K-man shut down his comm and turned back to the command screen. He pulled up the Berlin’s sensors and watched as the Otina attack vessels were slowly destroyed. The heavy rail-guns on the Berlin were taking out the reinforced weapon positions around the Otina base, but K-man was sure that the aliens were going to aggress
ively come after his teams once they landed.
The Platte shook violently and K-man jumped to his feet. He raced down the corridor and climbed the ladder to the bridge. The bridge was buzzing with activity and K-man stayed against the wall rather than interfere. He heard calls for fire control and heard engineering giving damage reports to Captain Manning.
“Colonel,” Manning said when he saw K-man on his bridge. “We’re going to set down hard on that rock, we took a couple of decent hits and I want to get us out of the sky until we can figure out how bad we are hurt.”
K-man nodded and left the bridge. He pulled up his comm on the way to the debarkation room.
“Lippor, we are heading to the rock. The Platte has been hit, so we might be landing hard. Do you have the heavy lasers?”
“Yes, sir,” Lippor responded. “The team is ready for a delta deploy and will get a perimeter set up.”
“I am heading your way. Should be there in less than a minute.”
K-man turned off his comm and secured his helmet as he made his way to the debarkation room.
The hiss of his helmet’s seal as it activated was followed by his heads up panel coming online. He activated the comm channel for his officers by focusing his eyes on it.
“This is Kiskaliski. The Platte is landing now. She took some fire and we will be debarking as soon as we hit dirt. When each of you land, set up a delta deploy and establish a perimeter around your LZ. I expect they will come after the scooters while they are on the ground.”
“Roger, Colonel,” Captain Harding said. “I’ll have the Yangtze coordinate a landing that will give you cover.”
“Thank you, Captain,” K-man replied. “Others note that the Yangtze will be our point, others coordinate landing with Harding.”
K-man had reached the debarkation room by the time he had given the rest of the orders for the landing. The door shut behind him and Greenaway started the depressurization of the room. K-man noted that all of his men were already in position to debark in the manner they were trained.
“Colonel, we are setting down in ten seconds, it might be more bumpy than I would like, but we are going to drop you with Ramp Alpha facing the compound as planned.”