Nearby he could hear the sound of running water. The rendezvous coordinates were just to the west side of the stream next to a clearing. There a rocky overhang shielded a small cave, if one could call it that, which they hoped would prevent detection from above. Grasping his rifle and holding it at the ready, he slowly moved through the trees, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of danger. The snapping of a small tree branch alerted him to the presence of someone behind him, and, spinning around, he brought his rifle to his shoulder, ready to fire.
“Don’t shoot, sir,” a shaken private said, holding up his hands. “We were beginning to fear you weren’t going to show up.”
“Private Donly,” Mark said, recognizing the young soldier. “How many others made it?” Donly had been with Captain Reynolds.
“The captain, Private Richards, and Corporal Sampson so far,” Donly answered. “They’re waiting at the overhang.”
“Let’s go then,” Mark ordered. He glanced down at his watch, noting how much time had passed and realizing no one else would probably make the rendezvous.
They quickly crossed the stream and made their way to the overhang and the small cave extending about five meters into the mountain.
“Major,” Captain Reynolds said, standing up, her eyes showing relief at seeing him. “We were afraid that last weapon the Trellixians used had taken you out.”
He looked around at the small group. All looked disheveled, with their uniforms covered in soot from the blast. “What was that damn thing they dropped at the end?” He looked at Reynolds, waiting for an answer.
“I think it was antimatter,” replied Reynolds, shaking her head. “It’s highly unstable, and I’m surprised they even used something like that. It’s far beyond anything we’re capable of.”
“What about Sergeant Anderson and the two soldiers with him? Any idea of their whereabouts?”
“The sergeant was to the right of our position and closer to the blast,” Reynolds said in a lower voice. “I don’t think they made it.”
Mark let out a deep breath. So many people had died today. “We’ll wait here another two hours. If they don’t show up, we’ll move out.”
Mark sat down on a large rock and gazed out at the small stream and forest. His mind was nearly numb from what he’d witnessed. It had been like this for the last twelve weeks. City after city had been destroyed, Trellixian troops spreading out and eliminating any survivors, the human militaries making desperate stands to slow down the deadly advance, trying to give the civilians time to flee, only to be wiped out by superior firepower. Mark had lost everyone dear to him. His parents had died when the aliens hit Houston, and his sister had perished at a hospital in Dallas. She’d been a nurse, working at one of the few surviving medical centers before it had been overrun by Trellixian troops. He just prayed his sister’s death had been quick.
“What’s going to happen now?” asked Reynolds, as she came over and sat down next to the major.
“I don’t know,” Mark replied with a sigh. “There’s not many of us left. Do you know if any of your family survived?”
“I don’t think so,” answered Reynolds, shaking her head. Her eyes looked sad and her face pale. Her brunette hair was just barely visible beneath her combat helmet. “My family lived in Portland, and it was one of the first cities hit.”
“The Trellixians were supposed to be the solution to so many of our problems,” Mark said, recalling what the aliens had promised when the first ship appeared over Washington, DC. “Cures for many of our diseases, better power systems, new methods to grow food to stop hunger and more.”
“All lies,” Lisa said, biting her upper lip. “During the entire time they spoke to the world governments, they were just preparing to exterminate us. I remember speaking to my dad at the very beginning, and he was so excited about the possibility of having unlimited energy. For several years the Portland area had been subjected to rolling blackouts. He was talking about adding an addition to the house, so if grandkids ever visited, they’d have their own rooms.”
“Grandkids,” repeated Mark. “Did you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No,” Lisa replied, her face flushing slightly. “My parents were hoping that, as soon as I got out of the military, I would settle down and have a family.”
“Did you have anyone special in your life?”
Lisa closed her eyes and then slowly opened them. “Yes, Streth and I had dated since high school. I guess the two of us always assumed we would eventually get married. I was going to finish my tour in the military and then join him. He had a real-estate business and was doing quite well with it. He was in Portland when the Trellixians bombed it.”
“I’m sorry,” Mark said.
The two became quiet, lost in their own thoughts. In the forest, the sounds of insects and an occasional birdcall could be heard.
-
Two hours later Mark stood up and looked around. It was evident Sergeant Anderson and the two soldiers with him weren’t going to make it.
“Let’s move out,” Mark ordered. He picked up a small pack and slung it over his shoulders. They had left a few supplies in the cave before setting out to observe the battle, and he made sure everyone had what they needed to take with them.
-
As evening neared, they’d put quite a few kilometers between them and the destroyed base. The sun was close to setting when they heard an alien craft fly overhead and saw it land directly in front of them.
“They must have detected us,” Lisa said worriedly, as she stared in the direction the Trellixian aircraft had descended. The tall trees made it difficult to determine how close to them it had come down.
“How?” Mark was concerned. They were traveling through a small valley with towering mountains around them and no way to go around the enemy.
“Heat sensors probably,” Lisa replied. She looked over at Mark. “They may be searching for survivors from the battle.”
“What do we do?” asked Corporal Sampson, who was holding his assault rifle cradled in his arms. “Do we need to retrace our steps?”
“No,” Mark replied as he thought over their options. “We can’t go back.” Even as he spoke, he heard the Trellixian aircraft again and saw it rise in the air and vanish to the south.
“They left,” Corporal Sampson said, with relief in his voice.
“I doubt that,” Mark replied, peering into the thick forest around them. “They probably set down a squad of their soldiers to take us out and went in search of more survivors.”
“Do we fight?”
“Yes,” Mark answered. He turned to Private Donly, who was carrying two backpacks. “How many M24 Claymore mines do you have?”
“Four,” Donly answered. “They can be remotely detonated.”
The Claymore was an antipersonnel weapon specifically designed to take out enemy troops. It was directional and could be detonated from a distance. Each mine would fire four hundred steel bearings capable of penetrating body armor when triggered. Mark was certain that if he could detonate one within ten meters of the Trellixians, the projectiles would penetrate their body armor, killing them.
“This trail we’ve been following is pretty narrow,” Mark said, looking ahead of them and seeing a lot of tall trees and overgrowth, which made much of the forest impassable. “I want a killing zone set up in front of us.” He hurriedly showed Donly where he wanted the mines placed.
While Donly set the mines, the other four humans moved back a short distance and took cover behind some large boulders and a fallen tree lying partially across the trail. When Donly finished, he jogged back to Mark and handed him the detonator. Four glowing lights were visible, each designating one of the Claymores.
“Now we wait,” he told the others.
“It’ll be dark soon,” Lisa said, looking at the lengthening shadows being cast by the mountains. Already it was difficult to see far into the forest. “It’ll be hard to spot the Trellixians until they’re almost upon us.
”
The time seemed to pass by slowly as the five waited with their eyes focused on the trail and their ears listening for any noises that might indicate the approach of the enemy soldiers.
“It’s too quiet,” whispered Corporal Sampson from his position a meter to Mark’s right. “We should have seen or heard something by now.” He shifted his rifle, gazing through the night scope.
Even with the night scopes, Mark knew his team could only see about fifty meters into the forest in front of them.
“Quiet,” Mark ordered, as he thought he saw movement in the undergrowth. If he was right, the enemy wasn’t using the trail but forcing their way through the thick tangle of vines and underbrush that covered the forest floor.
“I got ’em,” said Private Donly, peering intently at a spot in the forest. “About forty meters out and to the right of the trail.”
“Crap,” muttered Corporal Sampson, clicking the safety off his assault rifle. “They’re too far away for the Claymores.”
“Let’s force them back on the trail,” said Mark, as he reached down and unhooked two flash grenades from his belt. The flash grenades would emit a brilliant light, as well as searing heat, where they went off.
Everyone got their weapons ready, knowing that shortly they would be in a fight for their lives. The Trellixians were known not to take prisoners. Corporal Sampson also readied two flash grenades, keeping an eye on Mark, so he would know when to toss them.
“Now,” Mark said, keeping his voice low so as not to attract the enemy’s attention. Standing in a low crouch, he lobbed first one grenade and then the second in the enemy’s direction. Corporal Sampson did the same.
Moments later four loud explosions echoed across the small valley, as four brilliant flashes of light and searing heat were released on the valley floor. A lot of movement could be heard in the underbrush, and then two Trellixians stumbled out into the trail, their energy rifles held at the ready, searching for a target. Both were clad in full battle armor with a helmet and protective visor.
Mark instantly pressed a switch on his remote detonator, and one of the Claymores exploded just seven meters from the alien soldiers. Hundreds of steel bearings struck the two, penetrating their armor, knocking both backward and to the ground. “Fire!” Mark ordered, as other armored Trellixians emerged from the undergrowth.
All five humans fired their assault rifles, spraying the enemy with hundreds of rounds of armor-piercing ammunition. Private Donly paused for a moment to lob two more flash grenades toward the enemy, causing one alien to stagger and go down.
Mark stopped firing and pressed another switch on the detonator, firing off another Claymore. The four had been set to form a 180-degree kill zone, and another one of the Trellixians had stepped too close. The alien was nearly cut in two by the explosion.
A sudden scream drew Mark’s attention. He saw Corporal Sampson stagger and fall to the ground with a look of shock on his face, a red stain spreading across his chest. “Keep firing!” Mark shouted. He took a deep breath and shot a quick burst at the nearest enemy.
“Our rounds aren’t causing enough damage,” grated out Captain Reynolds as she fired a dozen rounds into the chest of a Trellixian. The shots only dented the armor.
Suddenly brilliant flashes of light went off around the five remaining enemy soldiers. Mark’s eyes closed involuntarily, and he could feel the searing heat from the blasts. Flash grenades, he realized. Someone had thrown flash grenades at the remaining enemy troops. Where had they come from?
Stepping out from the undergrowth, Sergeant Anderson and two other soldiers fired their weapons at the stunned Trellixians, the only difference being that the sergeant had a weapon that fired small explosive rounds. It was his weapon of choice, and he always carried it. The only problem was for it to be effective, he had to be at almost point-blank range. He was carefully putting a round into the chest of each of the remaining enemy soldiers, who were still dazed from the flash grenades. In just a few seconds, the battle was over as he blew a smoking hole the size of a person’s fist in the chest of the last Trellixian.
Anderson handed his weapon to one of the other soldiers in exchange for a shotgun. He then stepped over to the downed Trellixians and fired a single slug into their visors. “Damn lizards!” he shouted, as he turned toward Mark.
“We thought you three were dead,” Mark said, stepping out from behind the boulder he’d been firing from, immensely pleased to see the sergeant. “You didn’t show up at the rendezvous coordinates.”
“We got cut off by some Trellixian ground troops and had to take the long way around,” Anderson replied. He was a twenty-year veteran and knew how to stay alive. He looked over where Corporal Sampson’s body lay, shaking his head. “The corporal was a good soldier. I hate that we lost him.”
“We better get out of here,” Lisa said as she walked up to gaze at the dead enemy. She took a few photographs and then turned toward Mark. “The aircraft that dropped this squad could return at any moment.”
“She’s right,” Mark said to the others. “Private Donly, disarm those other two Claymores. We may need them later.”
“It’s been a tough day,” said Sergeant Anderson as one of the privates who had come with him covered Corporal Sampson’s body. “A lot of good men and women died today.”
“We need to get the information we gathered back to the alternate command post,” Mark said.
“I don’t see what good it’ll do,” Anderson replied with a grimace. “We don’t have anything left to fight with now that the base has been destroyed.”
Mark nodded. Sergeant Anderson was right. There were probably a few scattered military units still fighting across the world, plus millions of unarmed civilians who had taken to the countryside and the mountains after the first attacks. The Trellixians would be hunting them down and eliminating the humans wherever they were found. Any type of organized resistance was just about over. The enemy had won, and Earth was theirs.
-
It took another two days for them to reach their destination. They’d been careful to stay off the main trails and roads and had even taken the precaution of immersing themselves in streams when they heard the approach of alien aircraft, to prevent detection from thermal scans. The sun had already set, and they were using their night-vision optics to travel when Mark called a halt.
“We’re nearly there,” Mark said, as he paused to allow them to catch their breaths. The others had never been to this location before, as his immediate commanding officer had brought only him to this secretive site. He suspected there might be a small research facility hidden deep beneath the mountains somewhere.
“Any idea what might be waiting for us?” asked Sergeant Anderson.
“No,” Mark replied. “I’ve only been here once before, and that was with Colonel Branson.”
“What about you, Captain?” asked Anderson, looking over at the military analyst.
“I’m not certain,” Lisa replied with a frown. “I’ve heard rumors, but they sounded so fantastic I didn’t believe them.”
“What type of rumors?”
“I don’t really want to say,” Lisa replied, looking over at the sergeant. “We’ll know what’s going on when we get there.”
“Captain Reynolds is right,” Mark said. He was beginning to think Captain Reynolds was more than just a military analyst. He wondered just how much she wasn’t telling them.
After a brief rest they resumed walking again, only this time they were ascending the steep slope of a low mountain. For several hours they struggled upward, avoiding loose boulders and areas where rockslides had occurred in the past. Reaching a huge rock that stood at the base of a high cliff, Mark stepped around it and squirmed into a small cave. The others followed closely behind.
“We need to stack those rocks up to conceal the entrance,” he told the others, pointing to a loose pile of nearby stones.
“Let’s get to it,” ordered Sergeant Anderson, as he bent down a
nd picked up a large one, carrying it to the small entrance. The others quickly followed suit, and it wasn’t long until the passageway was blocked. To anyone passing by, it wouldn’t be obvious the stones were concealing the entrance to the small cave.
Stepping back, Mark pointed a light at their handiwork, satisfied that no one would find this place. Indicating for the others to follow him, he proceeded down the narrow cave for a number of meters, shining his flashlight before him, until the tunnel opened up into a small cavern roughly twenty meters across and six or seven high. Walking over to one wall, he searched carefully for a hidden recess in the stone and then, inserting his hand, he pressed a tiny concealed button. Instantly a section of the wall slid open, revealing a tunnel with a small, monorail-like car.
“What the hell?” muttered Sergeant Anderson.
“We’re supposed to take this vehicle to our destination,” Mark explained. He had no idea where it would bring them, but Colonel Branson had told Mark that it would take them to a place of safety. More than that the colonel had refused to say, only telling Mark the eventual destination was classified.
As they stepped into the waiting vehicle, the wall behind them slid shut, hiding the small cavern from view. Mark activated the controls as the colonel had shown him and then leaned back in one of the comfortable padded seats. Almost instantly the car moved and rapidly accelerated.
“Someone spent a lot of time and money to build this,” commented Sergeant Anderson, as he watched the walls of the tunnel flash by.
“I wonder what’s waiting for us when this car stops?” said Private Donly.
“We’ll know when we get there,” replied Captain Reynolds, leaning back in her seat with her assault rifle across her lap.
For nearly twenty minutes, the air-conditioned car slid forward and down, going deep beneath Earth’s surface. Mark had no idea where the car was taking them. His orders had been to observe the battle with his squad and to make sure Captain Reynolds survived. He was then to return to this car and activate it. He’d originally thought the car might be connected to the large base he had seen so recently destroyed, but now he was convinced it led elsewhere.
The Star Cross: The Forever War Page 34