by Dain White
Just in time too, because even now the winds were whipping up dust thick enough to choke out the tether lights completely. I knew that the best place to find a tether light was from the relatively known position of another tether light, preferably with a tether attached.
Mars didn’t have proper howlers like Dak and I used to experience growing up on New Turiana… but that’s a good thing, as the only thing a tether would do for you in a howler is break and join you on your flight for the horizon.
“I’m so sorry Captain”, Pauli was slurring, as he tried to put one foot in front of the other. He had been apologizing for the past ten minutes, but Dak’s capacity to be supportive apparently knew no bounds.
“Son, if I hadn’t been so coffee-deprived, I might be there beside you.” I snorted. “We knew coming in that this could have been a little sketchy, but we all needed a bit of a break. Beer is proper motivation.”
“Hold”, hissed Shorty on point.
We held.
She scooted down the ravine a bit, looking off-slope to our right, and fetched up against a boulder, digging in before sighting down her chemser into the darkness.
I caught Dak’s eye, and he shrugged – an almost impossible gesture in our suits. Yak pushed a little way up slope behind us to the lee of another ridge of rock, and kicked his way to the crest.
“What bearing?” Yak breathed on comms.
“Four-o-clock low, 300 meters” she replied softly.
We waited a bit.
“Yeah, I see ‘em”, Yak replied, “I count six… is that what you got, Jane?”
“I have eight. Two are on overwatch, flanking positions.”
We waited a bit more.
“Yeah… those are the ones I’m most concerned with, Jane.”
“I agree. They’re definitely set up for a long shot, no doubt about it.”
“We’re going to be an easy target to hit at that range…” Yak trailed off.
“What’s the situation, folks?” Dak asked cheerfully on comms. Clearly he wasn’t worried, but if I looked anything like Pauli, we were both terrified. A high powered chemser would burn holes through plating at 7000 meters, so if they had the scope to spot us, we’d be put down.
“Captain, there are six hostiles, set up in ambush near the closest structures, where they first close in around the tether”, Shorty replied. “With our mimetics and this dust, we can pretty easily get past them, but they have snipers… and we’re not going to make it past them.”
Another moment of silence rolled past while we all processed the situation. I glanced up the slope of the ravine and noticed the dust blowing off the top looked noticeably thicker.
“What are our options, Jane?” I knew he was serious. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him call her by her name.
“Well… there really aren’t any, sir, other than… Yak and I go back up and loop around, and take them out.”
He considered that for another moment, and looked back up towards Yak. “The clock is ticking, and I am afraid we’re almost out of time here. Without range to Archaea, I can’t even raise Janis to come on over and join the fun.”
At mention of Janis, it occurred to me that we were really on our own here. She wasn’t here, because she wasn’t here. We were currently divergent from her timeline. She wasn’t going to roll in and magically save the day. A bad feeling suddenly wanted to fill my bowels.
“The captain’s right, Jane”, Yak said. “In moments, we’re going to have more heat in this small, desolate corner of a small, desolate rock than we want. If the wind lifts, they’ll get skimmers out, and scan us in a matter of moments. You have to stay with them, Jane.”
She didn’t even skip a beat. “Well, get a move on, Yak. Let us know when it’s safe to move out. Don’t even bother with the ambush.”
“Are you sure, son?” asked Dak.
“No problem, Captain.” Yak replied, in a cool voice, as he made his way back up the ravine in a crouch. “Get to the Archaea, sir. I might need air-support.”
“Take care, son”, he replied, as we watched him disappear over the lip of the ravine.
*****
I broke cover cautiously, moving as smoothly as I could against the wind, stepping with a purpose and checking my flanks. This wasn’t really something I would normally volunteer for, trying to out-sneak snipers. I prefer a tight squad with close-in air and arty support.
Thanks to ol’ eagle-eyes Jane, we found, and I was set to do my best to flank, but we had nothing to fix with. I had to hope they were scope-blind, looking down the tether.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy.
A sudden movement to my right caught my eye and I pivoted smoothly and took a knee, took a breath and sighted in – and almost murdered an innocent crate, bouncing across the desert like a plasteel tumbleweed. I took another quick look, and continued moving towards the closest structure, stepping carefully up and over the staked lines that marked the perimeter of the settlement.
“Janis how copy?” I asked in comms.
“Solid copy, Yak.” She replied immediately. This close to Merriot, we were patched through the local network. “I have a solid fix on 9 hostiles within range of connected devices, Yak. Their locations are plotted at high resolution to your screens now” she added.
“OO-rah”, I muttered in response and took a quick look. With my face towards the wall, I chinned the map to my visor and got myself oriented. The third hostile Jane and I had missed was buried in deep, like a tick, on a higher position than the others. He would have to be first.
I started sliding along the edge of the nearest line of containers, staying in the depths of the shadows cast by the diffuse starlight. Even with the winds scouring the landscape, I walked as quietly as a native can. No good reason not too, and I’ve spent enough time on the stalk that it’s second nature.
“Are you in range of Captain Smith, Yak?” asked Janis hopefully.
“Sorry Janis, they’re back a few clicks around the side of the bluff, in a ravine about 500 meters away from the tether. They’re about a third of the way down the tether, I guess…”
“Understood, good hunting, Yak”, she said quietly.
Good hunting indeed. I was swinging wide, and approaching the third position from as oblique of an angle as I could. Some sort of machinery was roaring in the night off to my left, and strong arcs lit the runners of dust as they blew by, I used the cover of the sound and light to hump it down a line of containers to a large diameter pipe that ran across the settlement towards the dome.
There was just about enough room underneath the pipe for me to walk, if I bent over some. In the dark, I couldn’t be sure it was going the right way, but if I was a sniper, I’d post up somewhere along this pipe if it had an overlook. He’s either on it, or near it. It’d make a perfect exfil.
Another hundred meters or so, and I was rewarded with a perfect silhouette of a man laying prone in the lee of a stubby tower connected to the pipe. I took a quick breather, and considered my approach. I couldn’t get behind him, but if I got close enough, maybe I could see what direction he was looking, before he saw me.
*****
I really wasn’t feeling good. My visor was crusted with the remnants of my shame, and my head felt like it was full of broken glass being melted.
Every step I took pounded and crashed through the savage intensity of my headache, and my stomach felt like it was full of snakes, chewing their way to freedom.
I was never going to drink again. Even thinking it made my stomach convulse. Being trapped with the smell of my helmet was a fate worth than death, but my head made me wish for the real thing.
*****
Through my scope, I could see the mercs at the tether huddled at their positions. They were playing it cool, none of the casual swagger you’d expect from local muscle – these guys looked like pros. They were set up properly, with clear fields of fire.
I wondered how Yak was going to play this. Scanning from one sni
per to the other, I was struck by how dangerous they looked, posted up and lying in shadow. It really made me wish I had a proper gun – our problems would just be over.
As I swung my scope from one to the other, they stubbornly refused to spontaneously die, so I had to wait for Yak, and chew my cheek a little longer.
*****
I had become a void, a hole in the air sliding slowly towards the lip of the tower. Placing my hands and feet deliberately into position, I moved closer to the edge of the tower, and slowly peered down over the lip. He was positioned about a three-meter drop almost directly below me, lying across a juncture of the pipe.
I considered myself pretty lucky to see the screamer he had set up below him, and glad I didn’t get close enough to trigger the proximity field. He hid it well along the edge of one of the supports, it’s really blind luck my eyes happened to chance upon it – but it also reinforced for me that these fellows meant business. I wasn’t going up against some common hired gun, here. This was a killer.
Unfortunately for him, so was I. I also had worked myself into a pretty good position, and had a moment to consider the best approach. I briefly considered the thought of dropping down on him, and letting gravity sort him out, but I didn’t know if the other snipers were watching each other. I pretty much assumed they were.
I took the only option I had left to me. Pulling myself up in a smooth motion, I took a knee, and sighted down my railer at the back of his head. A quick pull of the trigger, and a sodiumite dart flashed at kinetic speed into the back of his helmet, ending him instantly. Almost as fast, I flattened myself back down and immediately started moving away.
There was no need to get a second look, he was done.
I didn’t feel good about it, but I was past the point where I was feeling much of anything, good or bad. I’d have time to feel later.
*****
Pauli sounded like misery incarnate, sincerely freaked out. “How long do you think it’ll take him Captain?”
As stressed as I was, it was important that my crew remain calm, so I marshaled my steeliest nerves. That wasn’t nearly enough, so I bolstered it with a wild, fleeting thought of the hot coffee waiting me at the end of this little jaunt.
As might be expected, I wished yet again for a coffee machine in my suit. That would be a proper Captain’s suit.
I smiled, “Pauli, he’s probably already done and back at the bar drinking the round he just bought for us.”
I think we were all dreading the reality of where he probably was at this moment in time.
“He better pace himself then”, added Gene dourly.
I laughed. “Yak only has one speed, Gene. Let’s hope he’s not really back at the bar, or we’re going to wish we only had a platoon of mercs to deal with.”
We all took a moment to imagine what an unrestrained Yak with a bottomless tab might look like.
It was a terrifying thought.
“Well, I hope everything is okay”, Pauli added, clearly calming down. Now he only sounded like misery, incarnate.
*****
I was working my way towards the closest of the two remaining snipers, trying to approach his position as obliquely as possible. The winds were definitely picking up now. Stepping into the open from a lee shelter was like leaning into a rushing river.
I kept my stance low, and tried my best to flow in my movements. As bad as I wanted to qual scout sniper, SSBC at Pendleton, I never wanted to a face full of rattlesnakes. Little did I know. My military career from that point on included a healthy amount of sliding on face – through just about anything.
At least this time I was only crawling through dust.
In a way, the winds were really helping me, as the occasional flying object sailing through the light pools of dust above the settlement provided enough distraction for me to slide on by… at least that’s what I hoped.
“Yak, I hate to bother you”, Janis said softly in my ear, “but we have an inbound ship on final approach at this time, with a compliment of 24 aboard.”
“What’s the good news?”
She paused briefly. “I’m sorry Yak, there doesn’t seem to be any to share at the moment.”
I smiled, despite the stress of the moment. “That’s okay Janis. I’m more in the mood for bad news, anyway.”
“Well, in that case, I have more to share.”
“Shoot.”
“As best as I can determine from pressure differentials, local winds will continue to increase” she stated flatly. “This will also result in conditions of near-zero visibility within the next 20 minutes.”
I slowly peered around the ragged edge of an insulated container, scoured into frayed strips by the winds. “It’s about that bad now”, I remarked.
“It will get worse. Please be careful Yak.”
“I will, dear, thank you.” The care and concern in her voice was touching, and reminded me that I was a long way from home, and an even longer distance away from safety.
Nothing moved across the lane I was scoping from my post at the corner, so I rotated around the corner and angled towards the next gap. Not far ahead, a low line of tanks lit with red hazards looked like a likely place to find my next target, with a great LOS to just about everywhere across this section of the settlement. If I didn’t find him there, I would definitely find him from there.
I took a moment in shadow of the next alley to let my image amps adjust to the ground clutter, and was glad I did. The screamer was even better hidden than the last one – I wouldn’t have seen it at all, if the swirling winds hadn’t uncovered a portion of it. Now that I saw it, I wasn’t sure what to do about it. As close as I was, the last thing I needed to do was kick a screamer, but it was directly along my route to the tanks.
I took a sip of water and considered my options… this looked like the best route back to those tanks. I really didn’t have a luxury of time, if I wanted to make it back. As it turned out, I also didn’t have any other options, so it was a short break.
When you can’t do the unexpected, do the expected –doing something like that on purpose is the last thing someone will expect.
I tossed a rock at the screamer and took a knee.
*****
Sudden movement caught my eye through the scope, as one of the snipers leaped to his feet and started advancing along the catwalk at the top of a long line of low tanks. I shouldn’t have been able to spot him on the move, with his mimetics, except he was passing in front of the red lights across the towers, and the flickering pattern gave him away. Below him, the pulsing flash of a screamer lit the bottom of the tanks.
I wished there was something I could do. At this range with the dust blowing, my light chemser just didn’t have the range. That didn’t stop my trigger finger from itching, but there was really nothing I could do. I watched in horror, powerless.
*****
“Yak, be advised: your position has been compromised”, Janis said, in the most understated comment in military history.
The screamer was blaring, and sounded like someone scrubbing a teacup across a chalkboard while a Belgian Malinois growled one of those deep, throat-ripping growls that make it hard to breathe. Accompanying this brutal assault, syncopated flashes of off-green light strobed deep into my eyes, bright enough to cause instant headaches and nausea even through my visor shielding.
I centered myself, forced my eyes to focus on the line of tanks, and took a deep breath. This close to the screamer, it was all I could do to breathe, but I reminded myself that pain is how we know we’re still alive. I was determined to stay that way.
Movement along the top of the tanks caught my eye, and my scope followed. Before I even had time to consider it, my finger had squeezed tight enough to crack a knuckle, and the sniper dropped into the swirling dust like a shadow.
I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will...
*****
“Captain, it looks like Yak just dropped one of the snipers”, I called out on comms.
>
“That’s great news Shorty… so why don’t you sound more happy about it?” he replied.
The flashing strobes of the screamer in my scope blurred momentarily from the tears in my eyes. “He’s been compromised, sir. The sniper had a screamer set, and Yak tripped it.” I swiveled to check the ambush at the tether. “Additionally, sir, it looks like the ambush at the tether has cleared out.”
“Well, that’s something…” he replied, trailing off into silence. It was, but it wasn’t something I wanted. My heart felt like it was breaking in half.
*****
“We have to get moving.” I heard myself say, as if from a great distance. “Our only hope of helping Yak is getting aboard the Archaea. What’s the status on the remaining sniper, Shorty?”
“Captain, I lost him. He is no longer at the same position.”
“Do you see him anywhere?”
I waited until the count of ten for a response.
“Jane… do you see him?”
“Negative, sir – he’s just gone.”
“Well, if you can’t see him, then that means he can’t see us, right?” I asked as confidently as I could.
“It’s possible… that they’re not looking this way, sir.”
“Very well… cover me, Shorty. I’m going to take a bit of a stroll.” I said, sounding far more nonchalantly heroic than I felt. “Gene, unwind your tether and pass it over. Pauli, do the same and clip to Gene. Shorty, when Pauli passes by, hand him your clip, dear.”
“Yes, sir”, she replied quietly. None of us wanted to move from the relative safety of this ravine, and the winds were tearing along at that point. Hopefully with our mimetics, and staying low, the dust will hide us. I tried very hard to not think about our thermal signature. Even with the mil-spec suits and a very low radiant heat signature, on this landscape, any heat at all is more than enough to see.