Valkyrie

by Lucas Marcum

  Tulp stood. “Yep. Sure did. Let’s get the mines reset and get new zones planned. Deucy, call the Valkyrie. We might need their help for this next one. I think we’re about to have company.”

  As if reading his mind, his senior noncommissioned officer looked back at the building and said what he’d been thinking, “I sure as shit hope they hurry up in there.”

  -18-

  “Hide and Seek”

  INSIDE UNIDENTIFIED STRUCTURE, APPROXIMATELY FORTY KILOMETERS WEST OF FORWARD SUPPORT BASE OLYMPIC.

  1845 hours, November 21, 2247

  Turning from the bag with the remains of the young soldier inside, the two continued cautiously down the passage. The floor had taken on a slight slope and was heading down, deeper into the structure.

  Pausing, Brian motioned at something on the floor. “Well, at least one of them was thinking. Look. Willie Pete.” He poked a burnt cylinder with his boot. There were several of the expended white phosphorus canisters lying on the floor, and the scorch marks from the intense heat had left a wide burnt circle, nearly spanning the corridor.

  Elizabeth looked at the spent munitions, then behind into the green and black darkness where she knew the lethal insects were still teeming. Thoughtfully she said, “They were trying to get away from those things. That Willie Pete is pretty hot. They might have bought some time.”

  Shining his IR spotlight down the corridor, the sergeant replied, “Yeah. Well, at least we’re on the right path, and we know they made it this far. Let’s keep moving.” He set off again into the darkness.

  Playing her light around the scorch marks one last time, Elizabeth followed him down the steepening pathway. Again, they came to a cross junction in the corridor. Brian stopped, playing his light down each of the three directions carefully before speaking. The one directly in front of them seemed to continue down, the other two seemed to move out level with where they stood.

  After a few seconds, he asked, “Thoughts, Liz?”

  She considered each direction for a moment, then indicated straight ahead. “If I’m hauling ass for my life and have momentum, I go straight. Why risk getting lost? Plus, you have to slow down to turn.”

  Brian grunted. “Fair enough.” He continued straight ahead down the path.

  Playing her IR light over the wall as they walked, Elizabeth paused. “Look. The wall’s changed. We must be below ground level now.”

  The flat grey material had given away to a deep charcoal color, with visible reinforcing beams every three meters or so. The ceiling was also noticeably lower, and the angle of the tunnel steeper.

  Brian paused to look as well, and observed sourly, “Hope its stable. Last thing we need is a structural collapse. We’d be fucked this deep in.”

  The nurse corps officer considered the idea of being buried alive inside millions of tons of rock and shuddered in her armor. “Yeah. No, thanks. Let’s keep going.”

  Brian had only taken a few more steps when he froze and said, “Whoa. Hold it.” He played his light out in front of him.

  The floor of the tunnel had vanished. He shone the IR spotlight down and found the bottom about twenty feet below, with a slope of rubble leading up to about six feet below where the tunnel they stood in ended. The tunnel appeared to have collapsed into another, lower tunnel below the one they were standing in. The steep slope of rubble was littered with rocks and broken pieces of floor material. Elizabeth cautiously moved up and peered over the edge. Apart from the rubble, there was nothing they could see, apart from the fact that there were now two tunnels to choose from: the one straight across the pit from them, and the lower level tunnel, which continued straight as well.

  Suddenly, an alert lit up in Elizabeth’s armor, her suit warnings went off, and a flat mechanical voice spoke into her helmet. “ALERT: ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS DETECTED. MAINTAIN ARMOR SEALS. ANALYZING.”

  A quick glance at Brian told her that he was hearing the same warning from his suit. The heads-up display in her helmet blinked, and a block of text appeared.

  “ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS DETECTED. MAINTAIN ARMOR SEALS. PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS COMPLETED: 98% PROBABILITY SYNTHETIC CHLOROBENZAL MALONONITRILE, RIOT CONTROL VARIANT. NONLETHAL. RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION: MAINTAIN ARMOR SEAL. EXTERNAL DECONTAMINATION PRIOR TO ARMOR EXIT AS PER FM 3-2612 ‘POWER ARMOR FIELD MAINTENANCE’. IF SYMPTOMS NOTED, INITIATE TREATMENT PER MEDICAL PROTOCOL.”

  Elizabeth considered this for a moment, then said, “Tear gas. It’s tear gas. Think they dropped it as they ran? Might work, if they were out of white phosphorus.”

  Brian was shining the infrared spotlight around the rubble carefully as he answered, “It’s as good an explanation as any. Wait. There. Look.” The spotlight came to rest on two more silver canisters in the mouth of the lower tunnel.

  Squinting at the lower tunnel in the green and black of her night vision systems, Elizabeth said, “Ok. So at least one made it this far. Those are far enough down that lower tunnel that they probably went that way. How did they get down?”

  Brian shone his light around on the ceiling, then the walls, “No idea. Fell maybe? Be a rough landing. Those rocks are ankle breakers, for sure.” He stepped back, looking at the ceiling again, then the floor they stood on, then pointed at the ground at their feet. “We can anchor a piton there. If this part is solid enough to hold our weight in our armor, it’s probably ok for a piton so we can get down. Hang on.”

  Sergeant Agawa pulled a slender cylinder from his armor’s belt storage. The cylinder was about seven inches long, with a sturdy ring on the end and a pin through the end cap. Setting it on the floor about three feet from the edge, he leaned back from it, pulled the pin, and pressed a small button. There was a solid THUMP as the pyrotechnic charge went off, driving the spike deep into the solid floor. Grabbing it, he attempted to wiggle it free.

  Finding it solid, he stepped back and gestured to Elizabeth. “You first, Ma’am. You’re lighter. If it breaks, it’ll be easier to haul you back up.”

  Elizabeth grimaced, but stepped forward and attached her belt hard point to the cable Brian had attached to the now firmly set piton.

  Backing up to the pit, she looked at Brian and said, “I’m ready. And for the record, we need to find a new line of work. This shit is getting old.” The noncommissioned officer laughed humorlessly and took in the slack as she backed over the edge.

  Several seconds later, she spoke again, “I’m down. This is tricky…Oop…” There was a scrabble and motion. Brian hurriedly moved forward, calling out, “Liz! Are you ok? LIZ!” Shining the beam of the IR light down, he could see her sitting on her backside in the rubble.

  She looked up at him and shot him a thumbs up. “I’m fine. Landed on a baseball-sized rock, and my feet rolled out from under me. It’s really loose footing down here.”

  She carefully made her way to her feet, then turned to gingerly pick her way down the pile of rubble towards the lower tunnel. She’d only taken two steps, when there came a low rumble that rapidly grew in strength, shaking the floor beneath them. Brian found himself dancing, desperately backpedaling, as he attempted to keep from falling forward down the hole. Through the coms he could hear commotion and rustling as Elizabeth struggled to maintain her balance, then heard her speaking rapidly.

  “Shit, shit, SHIT!!” As the words came out, he could hear rocks rumbling and crashing together. A final buck tossed him in the air and he landed on his back, slamming his head into the back of his helmet, dazing him momentarily.

  A second later, he shook his head hard to clear the stars he was seeing and called for his partner, “Liz? You ok down there?” He could hear her groan, then more movement.

  “I’m fine. I landed on my butt and slid down the pile almost to the lower tunnel. What was that?”

  Brian shone the IR light over the ceiling and the walls, noting the tracing of dust now falling from the support beams, and answered, “I don’t know, but it felt like an earthquake. We need to get the fuck out of here. Check that tunnel
, and if we don’t find them, we call it until we get more people and equipment in here.” He paused, thinking, then spoke again, “You’re down there already, so take a look. Make it fast, and don’t go more than ten meters or so, then come back.”

  Elizabeth responded promptly, “Roger.” Using her armored gloves to sweep away the dirt and rocks that had covered her legs in the slide down the hill, she stood and moved gingerly out of the pile of debris to the tunnel. She detached the line from her waist and set it down near the entrance. Turning to the tunnel, she noticed that immediately past the expended tear gas canisters was a small, dark pile. She moved closer and cautiously poked it with an armored boot. When nothing happened, she used her boot to push it, and the pile fell apart and turned into items of dark green clothing. Specifically, pieces of a uniform. Several uniforms, in fact.

  Keying her radio, she said, “Brian, I found a pile of uniform pieces. Looks like they popped the CS to try to get those things out of their uniforms. They can’t be far now.”

  Moving cautiously down the tunnel, which was now so low she had to duck under the support beams, she moved forward alone into the green-black of the tunnel.

  ****

  Captain Tulp picked himself up off the ground and looked at Corporal Deucy, who was spitting out a mouthful of leaves and pulling his helmet up from over his eyes. The usually cheerful noncom looked shaken, but gave a thumbs up when he saw his commander’s eye. All around them, the Special Forces soldiers were trying to regain their bearings after the tremendous shaking. Spying his senior noncommissioned officer, Captain Tulp snapped. “Master Sergeant Matthews, get a head count and get the lines reorganized. That Elai response team will be here any second!”

  The lean noncommissioned officer responded promptly, “Yes, Sir!” then turned and started barking orders.

  Tulp turned back to Corporal Deucy and, reaching out, helped haul the young man to his feet. Brushing jungle debris off the front of the young man’s gear, he said, “Deucy, you good?”

  The young man grinned. “I’d say ready to rock and roll, but that joke might be in bad taste at the moment. Whatcha need, Sir?”

  Captain Tulp pointed at the sky. “Get the Valk on the line. Set up a firing plan. We need to buy time to let the rescue team get out. Also, find out what the fuck what was and if we need to worry about it.”

  The young man gave a thumbs up, snatched his radio handset, and keyed it up. “Valkyrie One, Raider Three Five.”

  Above in the orbiting Valkyrie, Captain Winters keyed the radio. “Raider Three Five, Valkyrie One-One, go ahead.”

  Corporal Deucy frowned at the tactical display in front of him and said, “Valkyrie One, we have company down here. Probably an Elai company-sized element, and we’re requesting a suppression pattern. We just need to get more time for your team inside that building. Uh…are you equipped with Tactical Support Drones?”

  Wilkes and Elise traded a look, then Winters responded, “Raider Three Five, that’s affirm. They aren’t a lot of good below the canopy, but we do have them.”

  Tapping furiously on the tactical display, Deucy responded, “That’s ok. We don’t need them below the canopy. Can you set them to fire saturation coverage in Kilo, Sierra, and Foxtrot? Also, if you have delayed cluster munitions, that’d be good too. I’m pinging you the plot.”

  Winters replied, “Roger, Raider Three Five, standby one.” The console chimed in front of Winters and he spoke over his shoulder, “Jojo, take a look. Is it doable?”

  The crew chief scowled at her displays, then nodded. “Yeah. We might not get the drones back after, ‘cause it will eat up a lot of battery power, but we can do it. Probably sustain it for ten, fifteen minutes, maybe half hour if we’re lucky. Tell him we can, but not to trigger this pattern until they really need it.”

  Winters nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Elise. “Ma’am? Any thoughts?”

  The petite command pilot shook her head slowly. “No, except to call for gunships. I’ll do that while you finalize the support plan. Let him know we only have another hour on station before we have to refuel. Also, ask if our people are ok.”

  Winters nodded and keyed the radio as Elise toggled to the Marine fighter control frequency to request support.

  “Raider Three Five, Valkyrie One. The fire support plan is approved, with two modifications. One: Don’t call for it until you really need it. We can’t sustain that volume of fire from the drones long. Two: We have about another hour on station before we have another Valkyrie take our place while we refuel. Also, the search and rescue mission commander requests an update on her personnel.”

  Below, Corporal Deucy made a few notes in the fire support plan, then responded, “As of about fifteen minutes ago, they were operational and had located one casualty. Since the earthquake, we haven’t heard from them, but it’s likely just interference from the structure. Raider Six Actual is also requesting info on that if you have any, by the way.” Winters shot a puzzled look at Jojo, who shrugged. He then looked at Elise, who was looking out the forward windscreen, looking thoughtful.

  Suddenly she pointed and said, “There. See it?”

  Ahead of them in the far distance, a streak of light grew out of the deepening night sky, leaving a brilliant white trail until it vanished. A second one followed, then a third, all vanishing near the same spot on the horizon. There was a flash on the horizon as each struck, which then rapidly faded.

  Elise spoke again, “The Navy’s using kinetic bombardment on something, and those are BIG rounds. That’s probably what’s causing the shaking. Let those ground pounders know there’s probably more shaking on the way. Whatever the Navy’s hammering on, they’re hitting it hard.”

  Under his breath Winters breathed, “Fuck.” He then keyed the radio, “Ah, Raider Three Five, be advised, it appears the Navy is hitting something up north with orbital kinetic bombardment rounds. Not sure what size, but they look big. We can see them from here. You probably have more shaking on the way.”

  Below, Corporal Deucy grimaced and responded, “Ok. Thanks for the heads-up Valkyrie One. We’ll call when we need that pattern. Raider Three Five, out.” Putting down the handset, he raised his voice, “Captain Tulp!”

  The officer turned from where he was checking on a nearby soldier. “What’d they say?”

  Deucy responded, “They say ‘Yes’ to the firing pattern, but they can only sustain it for a short time. They say to hold off until we really need it. They also say the Navy’s dropping rocks on something up north, that’s what’s probably causing the shaking, and they just saw more rounds incoming, so there’s probably more shaking on the way.”

  Captain Tulp looked at his dazed soldiers trying to get reorganized and frowned. Master Sergeant Matthews approached, with Sergeant Lopez following. Having caught the tail end of the conversation, Matthews observed sourly, “Well. This goddamn day just keeps going from bad to worse, doesn’t it?”

  Tulp just shook his head and spun to Deucy. “Ok, boy wonder. Whip out some math and tell us how long we have, and make it snappy.”

  Deucy looked down at his tactical maps, poked a few buttons, and muttered, “Figure thirty-five kiloton impact…seven hundred kilometers per hour through the rock…factor in the…” He looked up. “Sir, this ain’t much better than a guess, but maybe thirty minutes? Forty-five, tops. There’s just too many unknowns. How far, how big a rock they threw, bedrock versus soil, all kinds of variables.”

  Captain Tulp and his two senior sergeants exchanged a glance, then the young officer spoke.

  “Ok, here’s the deal. Keep people in shallow fighting positions. Get our observation posts out of the trees. We’ll stick to the holes. If they collapse, they won’t be too deep. Hopefully it hits those sharkhead fucks out there just as hard as it hits us.”

  Lopez and Matthews traded a glance, then Lopez said, “Sir, what about the search and rescue team?”

  The young officer turned to face the dark entryway, now almost invisible in the
gloom, and said, “They’re on their own, just like when they went in. If they don’t come out in a reasonable time, we’ll have to move.” He turned back to his noncommissioned officers and spoke again, “Get the low-light cameras set and check the firing sectors. The Elai are going to hit us again, and now they know we’re here.” He pointed at the dark jungle. “And this time, it’s going to be dark.”

  ****

  Elizabeth took another few careful steps forward and shone her IR light down the tunnel. Something caught her eye, and she rapidly swept the light towards it. In the center of the beam lay two bodies, leaning against a wall, stripped to their regulation underwear. One figure had its head pillowed on the other’s shoulder, as if asleep. The other was wearing an issue gas mask and had a pistol pointed at her, holding absolutely still. With his other arm, the soldier cradled the other one. Elizabeth took another step and opened her mouth to speak, when the soldier squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession.

  Diving to the floor and covering her head with her hands, Elizabeth activated her external speakers and yelled, “FRIENDLIES!!! CEASE FIRE! Jesus!”

  The thunder of the gunshots echoed momentarily, then died away. Elizabeth could hear Brian yelling her name but didn’t answer. The soldier with the pistol had triangulated on her by her speakers and was aiming right at her, but didn’t fire.

  Eventually, a muffled voice came through the gas mask. “If you’re a fucking friendly, turn on a goddamn light and show me.”

  Elizabeth clicked on her floodlights and a wrist light and pointed it at herself. She slid her blast shield up so the soldier could see her face through the clear helmet visor on the power armor. After a moment, she saw the pistol sag, then drop to the floor.

  She keyed her mic and spoke rapidly, “Brian, I got them. I’m fine, he missed. Give me a sec to check them over.” She moved forward and knelt next to the soldier. She could see his exhausted, red-rimmed eyes through the protective mask lenses. She gently reached for the soldier he was cradling to his chest. Nodding, the masked soldier released his grip, and the soldier rolled lifelessly into Elizabeth’s arms. She was pale, and breathing rapidly and shallowly.