“Does it look worse than you expected?” was again in the soft voice so unusual to the princess and admiral.
“So much worse. I never thought of how it would stink.”
“If you’re finished throwing up, you might want to put your helmet back on.”
That command seemed to have been shared with Captain Sung. Maybe the captain was included in all of this. Certainly, she’d been included in the horror Megan had made.
A nearby Marine provided a canteen. Two swigs from it that were spit out were followed by one that managed to stay in Megan’s stomach.
No sooner than she handed back the canteen, than her helmet was quickly back on and locked down in place. The air in her helmet stank and left her coughing. Megan toggled her oxygen and quickly vented what was around her face out to what passed for atmosphere.
It still took her several deep breaths and quite a few sips of water before she could quit coughing. Megan would have liked to vent her helmet once or twice more, but her oxygen load was small. The CO2 scrubbers were supposed to recycle her oxygen and save her from having to lug around big tanks. However, the standard equipment was not meant to work in this situation.
A combat engineer motored along the maglev track in something that looked like a miniaturize version of what lay wrecked farther down the track. The engineer controlled it; this was no time for trusting automatic controls. There were seats for twelve marines facing out from a storage area that ran down the center of the contraption. It was picking up troopers as it moved forward.
When it approached Megan’s position, it slowed down. A Marine grabbed a fresh oxygen cylinder from the stowage rack, dismounted, and trotted to set it down next to the two Navy officers. Then she dashed to catch up with her ride. Back aboard, the gal gave Megan a cheery wave, then turned her attention to what lay ahead.
Megan drained her helmet three times, using up much of her old oxygen supply, then Quinn detached the old one and inserted the new one.
“I’m showing oxygen flow and full green,” Megan said.
Behind her, the captain checked the backup readout on the bottle. “I show it full green also.”
“Megan, before you head up the tunnel,” Kris Longknife said gently, “I want you to know that you did not kill those Iteeche. Yes, you pulled the trigger, but every officer between you and I would have given you that order. We all carry the responsibility for that horror painted on the walls of that tunnel. They probably were good people, but they were serving bad leaders. They got between us and the guy who deserves to die. It’s sad, but it has happened many, many times during my time in the Navy. It will happen many, many times in yours.”
“I understand, ma’am. I’m better. I’m ready to do the job I came here to do.”
“Very good, Lieutenant. Carry on.”
A transport sped toward their position. Megan stepped away from the wall and waved it down.
The engineer slowed the vehicle. Eager Marines filled the first few seats. Megan and Quinn took the two rearmost seats and the rig sped up.
There were more fights ahead.
22
The battle topside was rapidly being won . . . by the forest fire. The humans withdrew ahead of it. What flames did to the Iteeche was not something to think about.
With the fire fast approaching, the reserve platoon was sending more and more of its troops down the rabbit hole. The last two to rappel were the LT and the platoon sergeant. As soon as they were down, the engineers set about sealing them in. They plugged the rabbit hole with a dome of Smart MetalTM, then had nanos collapse the tunnel above them.
The Iteeche would not be dropping explosives down that hole.
Of course, that left other holes. They now had a map of just where the vent holes were along the train track. The engineers sent their own nanos up those holes to find the lids and weld them shut. They were complex valves, meant to both let air in or out. For now, they could not open for anything.
Nonetheless, Megan set up nano observers. If any vent was approached, she wanted to seal it deeper down.
By now, all of the Front Door platoon was on the far side of the train wreck.
“Bird Dog 6 actual to Longknife 2. Have you got any activity further down the tunnel?
Megan stretched out her vision as far down the tunnel as she could . . . and found herself looking at the station below the target redoubt.
“Bird Dog 6, I’ve used opposition video to check the track up to the train station. It shows everything clear and no activity. However, I emphasize I’m using their video. If they’re using our video, this tunnel is empty.”
“Understood. How far down do you have actual oversight?”
“I have nanos half-way to the target.”
“Front Door, this is Bird Dog 6 actual, initiate Cobra.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Two of the small maglev Marine taxis sped down the track, picking up troops and pushing them to the front. The third one pulled up beside Megan and Quinn. “You want a ride forward, ma’ams?” a Marine asked. “I’m told they want you closer to the front.”
No one had told Megan, but then again, Cobra was equally unknown. However, considering what she’d done to the advancing Iteeche battalion a ways back without telling anyone in the chain of command above her, she really had no right to complain.
“I’m guessing we missed a staff meeting,” Quinn quipped.
The two of them boarded the taxi. It moved forward, adding more Marines until it was full, then it sped forward.
Two or three klicks farther down the tunnel, they came upon a squad of Marines humping their gear forward. They moved as if they had nothing to fear. Megan didn’t usually see Marines so optimistic this close to hostile forces. She leaned a bit off the taxi.
Ahead of her and her vehicle was a different kind of rig. Likely this was a reconfiguration of the two taxis into a completely different type of vehicle.
It still had room for twelve troopers, although they were packed in tighter on a narrower body. The front of the taxi now had a shield covering most of the distance to the bulkhead and overhead. The driver was now flanked by two Marines. They each had a hand resting on the butt end of something that probably looked a whole lot deadlier from the other side.
The armored rig glided forward, not as fast as Megan’s taxi was approaching, but a lot faster than a Marine could walk.
Now Megan realized why she was needed forward.
Her nanos were 15 klicks farther up the tunnel, about half-way to the target’s train station. The question was, what was between here and there? As the taxi caught up with the front, Megan called for a stop.
While Megan waited for her nanos to punch their way into the upper comm line on the right-hand side of the tunnel, the taxi offloaded its Marines and began to back up, picking up speed as it went. The Marines, now on foot, started hoofing it after the slowly advancing armor.
As soon as the nanos had tapped into the line, Megan tried snaking a Smart MetalTM line in and attaching it to her commlink.
This time, it worked. She didn’t have to take her helmet off and lean her bare forehead against the wall.
Quickly Megan found herself in the alien data stream. She followed it forward, taking a peek using the tunnel cameras. For the first twenty klicks, things went fine.
Then she hit a brick wall.
She made several tries to breach or climb or dig under the wall, but there was just nothing there. Her best guess would be that the line had been physically cut.
That left Megan and her Marines a good ten klicks short of the station. Very likely, those ten klicks were under total Iteeche control. Any humans who ventured into that space would face autocannons and claymores.
Megan frowned. “This is Longknife 2 to all commanders on this channel. The hostiles seem to have acquired data dominance over the last ten klicks of this tunnel. If we have to force it, we’ll have to fight for every centimeter of it.”
“This is Bird Dog 6 actu
al, roger that. Front Door, advanced up to the twelve-klick mark as quickly as you dare. Cautiously advance after that to the ten-klick mark. Wait there for further orders. Longknife 2, can you check the track ahead of our advance?”
“I’ve got my scouts out as far as I can. I’ll need four or five minutes to cover the distance to the ten-klick mark.”
“Front Door, slow down when Longknife 2 tells you to.”
“Aye, aye, sir. Longknife 2, am I still in safe territory?”
“You’ve got about ten klicks that I have under positive observation. You may advance as quickly as you think safe.”
“Advancing.”
Being lightly loaded, Megan and Quinn were able to walk faster than the Marines. They caught up with them, then passed them. Megan had expected a few quips as they passed the heavily loaded gravel crunchers, but the Marines were either too tired or too wary to joke.
The taxi, fully loaded with Marines, shot up the tunnel, but slid to a halt beside the two Navy officers. Two Marines got off, the two Navy types got on. The taxi took off with a rapid pace and ten minutes later, they were on the tail of the battle rig. It was slowing as it approached the fifteen-kilometer mark.
“Longknife 2, are you ready to check out the front?” the platoon leader for Front Door asked.
“My nanos have the next three klicks under observation. They can see farther, but I’m not counting anything as fact until I have a nano over it.” When this advance had started, the nanos were way ahead. Now, with the maglev rigs, the troops had caught up.
“I like your attitude, ma’am.” the platoon leader said.
Two marines dismounted from the rearmost seats. Megan and Quinn boarded it, and the armored rig began to cruise forward cautiously.
On her helmet faceplate, Lily projected the visual reports from the forward scouts. Everything looked quiet, but Megan knew how deceiving that could be.
At the twelve-klick mark, the armored rig slowed to a crawl. The Marines dismounted. Two of them on each side edged around the armored shield. They began a cautious walk ahead of the advancing rig. They kept well away from the snout of the rocket launchers.
Indeed, two of them carried rocket launchers of their own.
Apparently both Megan and the platoon leader were glad to have their front under observation by human eyeballs.
For a long minute, they made their way cautiously along the single rail.
Behind them, Megan heard the slight whine of the taxi arriving. Soon, another twelve Marines were walking along behind the shield. Several of them were engineers. Four of them pulled small two-wheeled carts loaded high with gear that Megan had no idea what to do with, but looked deadly, nonetheless.
As they came up to the ten-klick mark, Megan dismounted.
Again, she had her nanos snake through invisible cracks to find the comm line. Once they had patched into it and other nanos had enlarged the cracks to allow a gossamer comm line to snake in, Megan tried looking up the line.
“Bird Dog? Front Door. We are still downstream from the break. May I suggest we advance another hundred meters?”
“Roger that. This is Bird Dog 6 actual. Front Door, advance at your discretion.”
The armored rig began to move forward at the speed of a slow walk. The eerie silence from farther down the track set the hackles on the back of Megan’s neck on edge. The Iteeche had to be up to something. Two wrecked trains were a flaming datum that could not be ignored.
Still, the view up the track seemed to show nothing. They reached a hundred meters beyond their last stop. The Marines walking ahead of the vehicle went into a prone firing position.
Megan again had her nanites drill through the wall. Again, she found the cable. Again, she tapped into the line.
This time, there was no line to tap into. No comm line at all. It was as if whatever had been there had been pulled out, leaving nothing but an empty conduit.
Quickly, Megan advised higher-ups of her situation. Even as she talked, she stooped down to drill for the lower communication conduit. Again, the passage was totally empty.
Now Megan had nanites drilling for all four of the remaining conduits: one buried in the deck, one in the overhead, and two in the opposite wall.
At the same time, she sent nano scouts down the two conduits she’d examined to see what they might find.
One after the other, each of the four conduits came up empty.
“Longknife 2 here. They’ve stripped out their comm lines. I would assume that that means they have no comm access to the autocannons and the claymores. However, I would not bet money on that.”
“This is Bird Dog 6 actual. Anybody got any ideas about this?”
The net offered back only silence.
23
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do,” said the major on net. “Longknife 2, can you identify the locations of the autocannons and claymores as well as gas cylinders?”
“Yes, sir, I have them mapped.”
“Front Door, get a couple of your engineers with rocket launchers out in front, and when you have a line of sight on one of those, have them blow it out of the wall.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Longknife 2. You have any idea what you can do?”
“I’ve scouted all the way to the break in the line. It’s at the train station. I’m infiltrating nanos into the redoubt. I’ll start hunting for our Target Number One, the Planetary Overlord, and see what I can do to change his mind about resisting us.”
“You do that. Okay, everyone, let's move out very cautiously.”
So, the Marines began a slow, wary advance. Megan had Lily keep one eye on the Marines, checking to make sure every identified threat was neutralized.
Meanwhile, Megan got busy marshalling her nanites. Scouts spread out from the beachhead she’d established in the train station. She had transporter nanos pick up the eater nanos, and sent teams down the line. No telling what she’d need in the fortress.
She and Lily also put together a dozen command drones, a large construct of nanos with more computing power than most. If Megan lost control of the invasion force for any reason, these command drones would take over control of the scouts and eaters and conduct a systematic sweep of the redoubt.
Although Megan didn’t like the idea, if she did not have positive control and these drones identified the primary target, they were authorized to take him down, along with most of the people around him.
Megan had about ten percent of her forces inside the fortress when the Iteeche changed the game.
Suddenly, the conduit that Megan was sending her forces through got blocked. From the reports back, it looked like sand had been dumped in the hole and was being forced further down it.
Megan sent scouts to wind their way through the particles, however, on the other side they found a wet slurry of concrete mixed with fly ash.
“Someone doesn’t want us in there,” Megan grumbled. “Lily, send everything we’ve got up any of the conduits we can and move them past the train station and into the fortress.”
“Doing it, Megan.”
The computer sent every nano they had down the five remaining openings, but quickly, every one of them was blocked. Meanwhile, Lily had sent repeater nanos down the tunnel to establish a comm link between herself and the train station. It was just going operational when the last conduit got jammed up.
Now, Lily pulled every nano they had in the different conduits and sent them down the tunnel as fast as they could fly.
However, that soon met with a brick wall as well.
The exits from the station into the redoubt were close, locked, and welded shut.
Megan and Lily were now cut off from the several thousand nanos that were spreading inside the fortress. The Navy lieutenant would have liked to infiltrate more, but she had to settle for only 25% of what she had available.
If she wanted more in there, chasing after the great man, er, Iteeche, she’d have to blow those doors.
However, the Iteeche had no intention of letting the humans get anywhere close to those doors.
24
“This is Longknife 2, Bird Dog 6, we’ve got defensive activity just this side of the train station. They’re putting up a sand bag wall and fronting it with sheet metal.”
“You know, Longknife, I don’t think they like us.”
“I’m getting that same feeling, sir.”
“Front Door, tell your fire support to let those hostiles know that they’ve hurt our feelings.”
“Message on the way, sir.”
A moment later, smoke filled the cavern as two rockets left the launchers on the armored maglev train. A few seconds later, two more hand-held launchers sent rockets trailing after the first two.
The Iteeche likely did not think such an attack was possible. Between the two opposing forces, there was a gentle curve in the track. There was no way to see around it.
Except for the fact that the human missiles were self-guiding. They made a turn in the gentle curve and arrowed straight for their target.
Through her scouts, Megan had a ringside seat for the fun. She had Lily send the visual stream to both Bird Dog and Front Door.
The first two rockets hit the barricade, pierced through the thin steel sheets, and buried themselves in the sandbags before they exploded. When they did, shards of steel and sand flew in all directions.
The cloud of sand had hardly begun to settle when the second pair of rockets flew into it. Then, they flew right out of it. Without hitting anything, the two rockets exploded, first one, then the second, showering deadly flechettes up and down the tunnel.
Those who had been far enough away to not be blown to pieces by the first two rockets died almost instantly as the fog of needle-thin flechettes stripped the flesh from their bones.
Those farther up the tunnel suffered worse. The tiny needles were not concentrated enough or had slowed down too much to kill them instantly. Instead, the tiny metal darts buried themselves in the flesh or sensitive places like eyes . . . and the Iteeche had four of those. In pain beyond imagination, they crumbled to the ground. Shock quickly drove them to convulsions and then death.
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