“System checks out. Arming now.”
“Roger.”
Helen pulled out the mortar magazine, tossed the thirty pounds of explosives in her hands, and slid it into position. Before leaving, Helen popped open the back of the magazine and pulled out the last mortar. She flipped the explosive, armed it, and put it back, upside down. That last shot would guarantee there was no recoverable Human tech left after the battle. She hit the arming switch, then got to her feet and left.
“Meteor is live.”
Helen navigated the rocks and jumped down into the gritty field, passing the dead corpse of the Elite Stellar Commandos’ first kill of the mission. Helen broke into a run, weaving through the crags and pits as the gas enveloped her. As she hurried to rejoin Trent, and then the others, Helen tried not to think of being followed by a black shape with red eyes.
***
Nathen paced back and forth slowly on the mossy turf. Already forty-five minutes had passed, and he’d had no sign of Trent, Helen, or Jonathan. The ESCs had found a perfect holding spot, nearly right on top of their rally point. Just off the Yew’s main supply road was a cliff that stretched straight down into a crevasse, which the commandos could get in and out of easily enough. It was a bad spot for engagement, since they'd be firing straight up if they were discovered, but as far as hiding places went, this was the best around. Nathen had leaned the Pennington against a rock and was pacing uncomfortably. Kyler and Calico were on watch duty, near the top of the twenty-foot crevasse. Phillip was sitting nearby, going over the maps the Sledgefast had sent them. Nathen growled and turned on his heel, unable to relax.
“They all should have been back by now,” he said, aiming his Coyote’s muzzle to the algae on the ground. “If we're not in and out of there in three hours, the planet's going to cycle and then we'll be in trouble.”
Phillip looked up from the maps, his expression concealed in his helmet. “Maybe they’re just being re-directed. You can’t get from point A to point B when you’re on point C. Have a little faith. They’re not the type to fail.”
Nathen grumbled. “True, but the least they could do is-“
The bounce of a stone made Nathen whirl around, bringing his Coyote up in one quick motion. Jonathan Harper sat overhead, perched against the filtering light like a vulture, his black armor giving him a wraith-ish appearance. Nathen lowered his aim.
“I could have killed you, Fiend. How many times do I have to tell you to identify yourself?”
Jonathan rapped his knuckles against his armor. “You’d need something a lot nastier to get through this.” The stealthist gripped the lip of the ledge and flipped over, landing on his feet in front of Nathen. “I scouted out the positions around the crater, as you directed. There were a few tripwires. I counted four Striker class anti-personnel mines, seven smaller Shrieker flare bombs, and a disrupter charge that had been disguised as a rock.”
Phillip whistled, impressed. “You’re good.”
“I'm Fiend,” Jonathan responded, coolly. “I cleared the area up to the base of the crater. The main supply road seems quiet, though I didn't get too close. Looks like most of their focus is on the bugs.”
“’Eds up,” Kyler shouted from up top. Nathen and Jonathan both looked up just as a purple aura and a brown aura dropped into the crevasse, rappelling from cable guns until they hit the floor. The cables detached from the top and retracted into their piton guns.
“Reporting in,” Trent said, snapping a salute.
Nathen saluted back. “Well?”
“Meteor is set up,” Helen said, tucking her cable gun away. “But it’s not going to take them long to figure out their sentries aren't coming back.”
“Then let's not waste any time,” Nathen said, motioning to Jonathan and Phillip, who pulled their cable guns out and fired them overhead. Helen hesitated, glancing at Trent.
“There's something else,” she said. Nathen looked back.
“What?”
“Calico was right,” Helen said, glancing up at the speaker in red armor. “They've got Warheads on the ground.”
Nathen took the news steadfastly. “How close?”
“Blasted close,” Trent said. “They're within range of the crater.”
“The second they smell blood in the water they'll circle in,” Helen said with a slight grimace. “And the rest of the Roaches will be close behind.”
Nathen crossed his arms and looked at Helen. “How many?”
“One,” Helen said with an apologetic shrug. “One that I saw. But Calico's...” Helen caught her tongue and pulled it back in, knowing she wasn't supposed to speak names. “Our transmission specified multiple sightings. There's just no knowing where the rest are.”
Nathen paused in silent contemplation for a minute. Then, the commander bent over and picked up the Pennington. He slung it over his shoulder and pulled out his grapple gun.
“We move forward with the mission,” he said, resolutely. “We get in, do our job, and bolt. We'll have our hands full enough with the Yew. We don't need to fight a Warhead today.”
Nathen fired his piton into the rocks above and buckled the gun to his belt, then hit retract. He moved up the side of the crevasse at the speed of a brisk walk, bracing his way up with his legs. When he reached the top, Kyler reached down and took his arm, pulling the commander the rest of the way out.
“ ‘Aight, Knight. What’s the plan?”
Nathen walked over and picked the map out of Phillip's fingers. He spread it as the others gathered around. “Okay. Fiend scouted out this area.” Nathen indicated the area with his hand, fingers spread. “Now, we can come up the rear of the hill here,” he pointed out with his index finger, “and hit them fast and hard.”
“The old back door technique,” nodded Kyler. “Simple, yet solid.”
“Like your head,” Phillip chuckled.
Nathen tapped the attack point twice before pulling his hand back. “If it works, we use it.” Nathen folded the map up and handed it back to Phillip. “I don't plan on dragging this assault out. I’d imagine all these fireworks we’re going to set off will attract some Insectoid attention, so let’s do it like it’s already been done. Remember. Our objective is just to knock out this crater. We won't have to destroy every tank to get that done. Anything else should be considered targets of opportunity.”
Kyler cracked his knuckles. “Tahgets of opportunity, eh?”
Nathen frowned. “No.”
Kyler bounced the barrel of his machine gun in his hand. “I was’n saying enythin, sir.”
Nathen clenched his teeth. “No, I think you were. Don't let your private passion as a hunter get in the way of this op, Buckshot. If there's going to be problems on this assault...”
Kyler threw up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “No, no, Knight. No problems. Jus’ lookin' forward to havin a li'l fun, thet's all.”
Nathen pointed at the seven-foot Paxtonite. “No going gun crazy. That's an order.”
Kyler turned away with a shrug. Nathen faced the others, all gathered together.
“We have one hour to smoke that crater and be out, starting now. Fiend, you take point. Buckshot, rearguard.”
Nathen motioned ahead, toward the looming shadow of the crater.
“Alphas, move out.”
Chapter 19
Thirty minutes later, team Alpha was getting closer to the encampment. Nathen could actually hear the sounds of Yew forces entrenching their position just ahead. The Alphas were getting to more elevated ground, and after another five minutes of travel Jonathan came to an abrupt halt. One by one, the rest of the Alphas stopped behind him. Nathen caught up to Jonathan and came alongside him. It was impossible to read the stealth expert’s expression through his helmet, but the way he failed to look at Nathen when he walked up told him that something was up.
“Fiend?”
Jonathan responded by tapping the side of his helmet. Nathen turned to the others and visually cued them to link comms. Nathen to
uched the side of his head and focused. Something activated in his mind as the alien-made comm linked with the others. Voices now somewhat trapped inside their helmets, Nathen spoke freely.
“All right, Fiend. What’s the problem?”
Jonathan turned his tinted visor in Nathen’s direction before he motioned back uphill. “Something’s moving around up range.”
Nathen glanced back in the indicated direction where Jonathan had seen movement. It took him a moment, but finally he spotted something prowling low among the reef. And he thought he knew what it was. Quickly forming a strategy, he turned back to the team.
“Activate camouflage.”
The team ducked low, taking a knee behind any chunk of stone or foliage they could find. Nathen slid back next to a polyp which sucked into its rock at his presence. Calico didn't seem to know what to do until Doc pulled on her shoulder to stand back.
“Watch and learn,” Doc said to the young speaker, pointing to the others. Nathen nodded to the team and turned back uphill, hugging to surface of the reef as he went.
Nathen held up two fingers, showing that he wanted them to work in pairs. He pointed to Helen, then to Phillip and motioned to his left. Helen’s purple helmet bobbed once in a nod, then melted into a splotchy mosaic as her active camouflage took over. She lifted her weapon and slipped off into the foliage with Phillip following closely behind.
Next, Nathen pointed to Kyler and Trent, and motioned to his right. Both ESC’s gave a quick thumb’s up as they hurried off into the forested area and quickly disappeared. Nathen pointed at Doc, then jabbed his finger at Jonathan’s back, indicating they were being paired up. Doc hefted his Casper into the crook of his arm and walked up next to the silent ESC. Nathen tapped Jonathan on the shoulder and pointed in the direction where the suspicious movement had been detected earlier, giving him permission to go after its source.
Lastly, now alone, Nathen motioned for Calico to follow him. Calico hurried forward, moving her arms back and forth to improve her balance on the uneven terrain. When she caught up, she flattened herself against the wall, like Nathen. Her red alloy stuck out like a sore thumb. Nathen, in his own white armor, took a deep breath and let it out. For a second, nothing happened. Slowly, then with quickening speed, Nathen's Genesis armor changed. The dermasuit altered first, going from black and melting into a coarse gray, splotching together like snowflakes on shadows until it was the same color as the reef behind him. The Zen alloy followed the example, changing from pearly white to rough gray, drawing in the environment around it and mimicking it. When it was done, the only thing visible on Nathen was his weapon and utility belt. He looked back at Calico, who was staring aghast. Though she'd seen the transformation, Nathen knew through her helmet she could still see his ghostly white armor aura.
“How did you do that?” she asked quietly, looking down at her own suited hands, disappointedly. Nathen turned and hushed her with a quiet wave of his hand.
“Nano skin,” he said, as if that alone explained it.
Calico clenched her hands and strained, but nothing changed. She sighed in frustration.
“Why can't I do that?”
“It takes practice,” Nathen said softly, moving to an opposing rock, displaying how his camouflage changed from position to position. “It took me weeks of conditioning before I could change at all.”
Nathen scanned the terrain, picked a spot, and pointed it out to Calico. There was a fallen chimney lying on its side roughly twenty feet ahead. It would provide perfect cover against whatever was lurking up the hill. Nathen motioned to Calico while facing toward his target.
“Be my shadow,” he said.
And then he started forward. Calico hugged to him tightly, aiming her Casper past his shoulder, trying to emulate his every move. Nathen slowed at times, picking his foot placements carefully so as not to disturb the teeming plant life around him. A single misstep could startle an entire section of the reef into hiding, and camo or not, he'd be a lot more noticeable. But nothing blew his cover, and in seconds the two commandos were at the fallen chimney.
Nathen placed a hand on his cover and scanned the hill ridge. For another fifteen yards there was reef, and then the side of the hill rose up toward the lip of the crater. From there on up, it was a small forest of fronds and algae. Just over the ridge, Nathen could hear Yew forces hard at work entrenching themselves, prepping their reinforcements and armor to eventually receive the enemy. But he didn’t see anything moving. He was about to advance when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Contact at your one o'clock, Knight.”
At Calico's direction, Nathen turned his head. Sure enough, there it was, just twelve feet away. Nathen sucked in through his teeth as he saw what it was.
“Korvos,” he said under his breath. Then, through his radio. “We've got calling birds, Alphas.”
Crouched on its rock like a gargoyle, the small, cat-sized Korvo picked at its vibrant-colored chest mane with its claws. Rotating independently on its head—like radar scanners—were a total of four triangular ears; two large up front and two smaller facing back. Its intelligent, bat-like face glanced down lazily as it clicked its retractable claws together. The small alien had a mangy, disheveled look to it, like it hadn't been groomed for some time. Nathen saw no collar and no uniform vest.
Korvos were among the smallest and most primitive of the Yew races that the ESCs knew of. They were intelligent, borderline sentient, which put them just above Mauls. A Korvo's role in the Alliance was hard to define. Nathen had read reports of them being used in fire teams, some reports said they were scavengers, and still other reports said they were just pets of the Stelkans. Physically they were the frailest and weakest, and differing reports on their threat level ranged from lethal to docile. But all reports agreed on one thing. They had a heck of a scream. A Korvo had a vocal range several decibels above ear-splitting. Since their eyesight was somewhat poor, they used a form of echolocation to navigate and communicate. The Alpha's were even harder to detect while in armor since the Zen alloy absorbed all forms of vibrations, even to an extent sound. Still, a full-out scream from the average Korvo could be debilitating and even cause a burst eardrum if the commandos weren't careful.
“Got another one,” Trent reported, somewhere in the reef. “And another. Three.”
“Nobody move,” Nathen ordered, keeping an eye on the Korvo he had a visual on. “Bayonet, give me a threat assessment.”
Helen's voice came through, clear and confident. “I don't see any uniforms, and no collars. I'm guessing this is a feral colony that they just let go.”
Nathen silently agreed. Sometimes the Yew let the Korvo's reproduce and form their own little colonies in certain areas, because they either weren't worth the trouble of training or they had better things to worry about. Korvos were reportedly good at clearing out vermin on ships and cargo containers. They had dangerous paralyzing fangs and razor-sharp retractable claws, but the main danger they posed was their stunning shriek, which for a creature of equal size was like a jolt from a stun gun. For a Human, the average Korvo scream was a bad hangover.
Not all Korvos were average.
“Does anyone see a Banshee?” Nathen asked, reaching down and pulling out his silencer for his Coyote.
“Negative.”
“Nnnada.”
“Clear on my front.”
“Good,” Nathen said, fixing his silencer to the mouth of his assault rifle.
Banshees. Every now and then there was a Korvo that decided it was better than its brood and grew twice the size of the average Korvo and triply as lethal. In feral colonies they were always the boss, the top tabby. And the scream of a Banshee was known to outright kill sentient beings. Banshees made taming the Korvos all worthwhile for the Yew Alliance. They loved to train Banshees to wear little suits that carried unaltered Splinter technology that created force bubbles around them. This kept them from getting shot before they could scream. Thankfully, to Nathen's relief, there
didn't seem to be any of those wandering around.
“Alright team,” Nathen said, poking his Coyote muzzle over the fallen chimney and scanning the area. “Let's take them down, swift and silent. I'll cover with my rifle, but try to use knives only. Don't forget, these guys are tuned to hear even our magnetic silenced rounds. Remember the Tilus Op.”
“Rogah,” Kyler said, somehow managing to hide very well.
“Blades only,” Jonathan confirmed.
“Make sure we get them all,” Nathen said, posing as overwatch in case he needed to use his rifle. “Don't miss any, or that crater is going to know we're here pretty quickly.”
“I count at least six,” Doc said.
“Five,” Jonathan corrected.
“Thank you, Fiend,” Nathen said. “Begin.”
Nothing happened. Or at the very least, nothing appeared to happen. Nathen simply sat there and waited with Calico at his side. The Korvo sitting on the rock curled its arms in on itself and sat down, lounging. A minute passed in silence, with the Korvo just sitting there and Nathen watching it. The little alien never looked up, but Nathen could see the green aura slide up behind its rock. A gloved hand reached out and scruffed the Korvo behind the ears, cutting any action short. There was never a sound as the steel needle passed through the back of its head into its brain stem, killing it with surgical precision. The hand released, and the Korvo slumped, for all appearances, just asleep.
“Clear,” Doc said, concealed once again.
“Copy that,” Nathen said, pulling his Coyote back. “Confirm all zones cleared.”
“Clear.”
“Cleah.”
“Negative,” came Trent's voice. “Contact on single Korvo.”
Nathen's rifle came partway back up. “Deal with it.”
“Can't,” Trent said. “It’s in your engagement zone.”
Prime Alpha (Planetary Powers Book 1) Page 23