As the narrow track got steeper, Malikkas glanced round warily, staring out across the distant paths below, the narrow ledges seeming to cling to the sheer rock faces as the route fell away below, his eyes seeing for some considerable distance and noting the freezing fog forming below them further down the mountainside.
Turning and striding on further, the Herrakian realised there was possibly a small plateau ahead, his pace increasing as he considered the group could take a short rest whilst he calculated how far the Morgons were behind, the pursuers seeming now to be further back as he observed the empty paths below.
Walking quickly into the level clearing he glanced round, a small cave entrance to the right, with the path continuing upwards ahead, a sheer drop to the left falling away into the thick fog that now hugged the rock walls below.
Advancing further, he stared into the dark cave entrance, the opening sufficient to allow one person to enter at a time, the darkness seeming to extend back some distance and offering sufficient shelter for all. Turning, the bedraggled group trudged over the brow of the track, Malikkas indicating to the cave mouth, ‘Get a little rest…I will go back and see where the Morgons are…’ He indicated to the SAS soldier to come with him, the young man nodding willingly as the other tired huddled figures shuffled towards the dark entrance.
The halftrack engines whined as the armoured vehicle bounced sideways on the rutted track, Riaz grimacing as Shino lurched into Debra by her side. Having returned from the medical outpost to Rangara, they had immediately set out with fresh orders from Captain Dugachard, the commander keen for them to investigate if any other Silakians were hiding in the mountains or had returned to their base in the deep cave.
Shino settled herself back in her seat, blushing as the other five soldiers grinned across at her, their visors set down in preparation for a speedy exit should more Silaks be sighted. As the tracks ground over rocks and fallen branches, the quad gun spun round above, the whir of mechanics filling the rear compartment as the occupants glanced up warily.
Tregan cleared his throat, his voice firm, ‘When we stop, we move out in combat formation…advance under cover of the quad guns and clear the buildings…there may be some Silaks in hiding…’ He glanced across the expectant faces staring at him, ‘I want them as prisoners unless they fire at us first!’
Riaz raised his hand curiously, Tregan nodding at him to speak, ‘Did they find anything on the Silaks we sent to the medical unit?’
The Trevakian nodded, winking at Debra, ‘The medics went very quiet and called for the doctors and specialists…it seems the Morgons had implanted something in the Silakians’ heads…the other halftrack we came back with is transporting the remaining two prisoners back to base.’ He smiled warmly, ‘Apparently we will receive some reinforcements to assist in rounding up the Silaks in the area…six soldiers in all! They will return with the next halftrack later today…there will be regular runs now as S.I. troops are moving to the medical centre after our discoveries...’
Riaz eyes strained in confusion, ‘S.I.? Who are they?’
Tregan grinned, ‘Special Intelligence…they have a small base at Morasat…perhaps only twelve soldiers, but they respond to anything that may provide a breakthrough to the war…it is rumoured they have close links with the Military Science Division. Some talk of the two being linked or joined together, perhaps the S.I. even being a division of Military Science, but they are both very secretive, so I suppose we may never know…’
Riaz nodded thoughtfully, ‘Very secretive…especially if you don’t know!’
He grinned deviously as Tregan’s eyes widened, Debra leaning forward to glare at him, ‘Don’t be so disrespectful…they are secret unit, that’s all you need to know!’
Riaz lowered his eyes in embarrassment as the other soldiers chuckled silently, his cheeks flushing as he whispered, ‘Sorry…’
Shino smiled widely at his uncomfortable response, her tone mocking as she giggled, ‘Mummy has told you off!’
Debra spun round, her eyes narrowing, ‘That’s enough from you too! This is a military reconnaissance mission…not a day out for you two! Get serious, and quick!’
The engine roared once more, the driver’s muffled voice coming from the front compartment as the halftrack slowed then braked hard, ‘Bodies on the road!’ The quad gun above whirred round rapidly, the gunner staring out from his open hatch at the sight ahead, his concentration having been on the rocks on either side. The occupants of the rear compartment grabbed their rifles, their frames tensing as the adrenalin soared.
The rear doors creaked open, the soldiers jumping down into the thick snow and dropping to crouched positions, their weapons raised. Tregan prodded Riaz’s shoulder, his voice lowered as he slipped past him, ‘You come and cover me…’ His tone raised to a hiss, ‘The rest of you keep alert…two to the rear and the rest cover us from the front of the vehicle…’
The two slipped along the side of the carrier, their camouflaged uniforms gradually transforming into paler white and light blue dabbled effect with grey background, their visors dimming slightly in the contrasting light from the back of the carrier as the helmets vibrated.
Nearing the front of the armoured vehicle, Tregan slowed, his body lowering further as the soldiers behind followed his lead. Raising their rifles to eye height, Tregan and Riaz stepped swiftly from the sides of the carrier, the guns jerking from side to side nervously as their heads spun back and forth.
Shino and Debra dropped to their knees at the side of the halftrack, the Philippine gasping as she stared out across the blood splattered snow. Across the track ahead lay ten or twelve bodies, the Silakian grey uniforms stained crimson from the close quarter bullet wounds. Three bodies lay propped and crumpled against a rock face on the right, their heads dropped across their chests with blood soaking their tunics.
Tregan indicated for Riaz to wait, the asian officer hissing after him, ‘The Morgons do this?’
The Trevakian shook his head, lowering to crouch before the nearest casualty, the Silak shot through the throat and chest, the gaping wounds now congealed, the lifeless skin pasty and pale. Tregan grunted, turning his head to look back at the soldiers and carrier, ‘This one was executed at close range…the three next to the wall shot from a distance…probably a firing squad. The others were probably ambushed, this one and the other three surrendering…’ He sighed, ‘From the looks of it…they died late yesterday.’ He slowly rose to his feet, glancing further up the wide path before turning to look at the expectant soldiers, ‘Clear the track…I am not moving further without the quad guns…’
Riaz rose reluctantly, two other Trevakians moving forward as they slipped their rifles over their shoulders, silently volunteering for the grim task ahead.
Lieutenant Malikkas knelt carefully behind the rocky outcrop on the bend, his breath held as he stared into the thick freezing mist below. Straining his eyes and ears, he searched for a sign of the pursuing Morgon patrol, his senses heightened with the rising adrenalin as he heard the faint sound of clicking and tutting below, the enemy commander whispering to his soldiers as they progressed slowly upwards through the fog.
Having left the SAS soldier higher up the path, Malikkas had crept down to find the enemy position, his cautious curiosity rising as he considered why the Morgons were progressing so slowly. Shadows moved through the thick mist, his eyes straining to see the lead figure as the soldiers slowly climbed below, their figures some two hundred metres further down the track.
Then the first soldier moved into view, five more silhouettes behind him, Malikkas turning and slipping backwards behind the rocks as he ran half crouched back up the path, the turn on the ledge concealing him from the enemy behind as he gasped for air, waving at the figure above the young British soldier turning to run back up the slope.
As he ran, his eyes scanned the terrain for anything that could form a basic or rudimentary weapons, his head shaking at the barren and unforgiving ledge, the snowflakes begi
nning to fall heavier as the temperature dropped further.
Reaching the small plateau, he ran to the cave opening, glancing inside briefly as the SAS soldier crept into the darkness, his voice encouraging the others to come out quickly, the Herrakian running towards the path that rose further into the mountains.
Pushing his body forward, he jogged up the steep incline, gasping as he neared another, more level section of the path, his frame slowing to a brisk walk as he felt the pain from oxygen deprivation sweep through his legs. Lowering his upper body, he gasped for breath as his hands pushed against his knees, his eyes glancing from side to side across the rocks and then to the sheer drop to the left.
The path stretched onwards, seeming to rise at an even more steeper incline, Malikkas shaking his head as he realised the group would not be able to progress much further, the dwindling oxygen levels and biting cold probably posing too taxing for their bodies.
His head turned and stared across the void to his left, the wind beginning to whistle across the rock faces on either side, snowflakes swirling around his frame as he gulped for air, sighing as he considered there was nowhere to go but up, and little chance of success in a fight against their pursuers below.
Malikkas’s eyes drifted across the rock face to his right, scrutinising the jagged stone for possible footholds or ways of climbing the face, his head shaking in despondency as he realised the option did not existent.
Startled, he spun round, the young soldier breathing heavily as he neared the crouched Herrakian, his eyes sparkling with excitement, ‘C-come quick…in the cave…there’s a passage!’
Riaz dropped to one knee before the makeshift barricades on the track, his assault rifle held tightly to his right eye as he glanced around, Tregan lowering next to him and staring out over the snow covered field ahead. A bitter breeze enveloped their figures as other soldiers dropped next to them Debra and Shino lowering to the far right side as they scrutinised the barren terrain.
Several large mammoths stood at the far end of the field, their long shaggy hides glistening with moisture as their snorting caused plumes of condensed air around the pack. More bodies had lined the track as it descended at a slight decline towards the upper pasture, the Silak bodies frozen and contorted in death, many with their discarded weapons lying nearby, spent bullet casings dotted across the greying snow.
Tregan raised binoculars to his eyes, scanning the landscape as he spoke at a hiss, ‘The battle seems to have been a fighting withdrawal…here are only Silakian bodies, so it’s probable they were fighting each other…or unable to kill any of the enemy.’ He sniffed as he lowered the glasses, the halftrack grinding to a halt behind, ‘If there are Morgons here, then they are well armed!’ He glanced down at the barricade of empty supply crates and resin pylons before them, ‘We remove these and advance behind the halftrack…keep our heads down!’
The armoured carrier roared forward as the last of the boxes was removed, the upper quad guns whirring as they moved from side to side, the soldiers advancing half-crouched behind the rear doors as the cumbersome vehicle edged into the field. Riaz’s nervousness was escalating, his chest tightening as he glanced at Shino, the young Philippine nodding solemnly in understanding as she whispered, ‘I am scared for the animals too…’
The large mammoths snorted loudly in the distance, startled by the new arrivals, a male bull roaring as the herd began to move away slowly towards further herds, the younger animals pushed behind the outer adults by their mothers, several shaking their matted coats in nervousness. Riaz observed there were no animals in the lower part of the field, his heart pounding as his head twisted for the ominous sight of a fallen mammoth, a relief clearly evident in his eyes as he winked at Shino, ‘They are ok…I can’t see any dead ones!’
As the halftrack turned slowly on its tracks, Shino glanced out from behind the armoured hull, her eyes straining as she glanced more bodies across the grey landscape, crimson blood trails stretching away towards the ram shackled barn in the distance, her voice a chilled hiss, ‘They are in the barn as before…will they surrender?’
Tregan bit his lower lip, grinding his teeth, a reluctance to attack an enemy hidden in buildings rising as he slammed his fist on the rear armoured plate of the halftrack in front, the vehicle jolting to a halt in response.
Raising his voice, he moved to the side of the vehicle, the soldiers staring at him in expectation, ‘We will fan out across the snow when the carrier gets nearer. Stay down and keep alert…do not fire unless we are fired upon…the animals are frightened enough already and we don’t want a stray bullet hitting them.’ The soldiers nodded warily, the Trevakian banging the back of the carrier twice with his fist again, the tracks spinning before gaining traction, clumps of snow thrown up by the churning weight onto the troops behind.
The quad gun motors whirred again, the armoured cupola moving around once more as the soldier above shouted down into the rear cabin, ‘Pull up…movement ahead!’
The carrier jolted again, the driver braking hard and slipping across the passenger seat, his rifle extended to thrust through the firing slot. Tregan slipped along the side of the halftrack, straining his eyes towards the darkened building ahead, more side planks of the barn being thrust aside as a lone figure struggled from the structure.
The Trevakian raised his rifle instinctively, his voice a commanding hiss to the soldiers behind, ‘Move out into the snow…stay down and cover the barn! Shino…to me!’ The soldiers ran out from behind the carrier, dropping into the snow and raising their rifles pensively, their eyes staring at the dark structure ahead and on the lone figure that slowly and carefully stepped through the snow towards them.
Flakes drifted to earth around them, Tregan’s jaw tensing as Shino dropped next to him, her snub barrelled machine gun raising as he hissed, ‘Tell him to come forward…to raise his hands!’
Shino shouted, her voice broken with adrenalin with the brief Russian words, the figure ahead stopping abruptly and slowly raising his hands to either side, the rifle slipped from his shoulder and falling into the snow.
Stepping forward, the figure gradually approached, an eerie silence descending as the soldiers realised the man’s grey uniform was torn and smeared with blood. Some twenty metres away, he dropped to his knees, his hands rising to his head as he called out, Tregan’s eyes narrowing as he whispered to Shino, ‘What did he say?’
The young Philippine lowered her rifle, her eyes widening as her excitement grew, ‘He says they surrender…’ The knelt figure shouted some more, his voice strained in pain as Shino spoke softly, struggling to translate, ‘He says they are free…that some went mad…maybe insane, I am not sure…that they were going to kill the animals and he and his men stopped them. That the bad Silaks are dead.’ She hesitated, listening to the figure some more as the man shouted desperately, ‘He asks for medical help…he has six badly wounded in the barn, I think…two or three dead. There are more dead…he says they did not…’ Her voice trailed off, a gasp coming from her lips as she listened some more, ‘There are some dead civilians further down the pasture…they were attacked on the path this morning as they came to feed the beasts. They came as we did not…one is over…’ She glanced across frantically, following the pointing arm of the kneeling Silak, the prisoner bowing his head in misery and dismay.
The Philippine struggled upwards, a whine of frustration coming from her lips as she lunged to the right, Tregan caught by surprise and running forward, Riaz rising and sprinting after his colleague, his warning shouts going unheard, ‘Shino…stop! It’s very dangerous!’
Debra pushed herself to her feet, gasping at the twinge of pain across her shoulder as she ran after them, the other soldiers rising to advance as Tregan shouted warily, ‘Secure the prisoner! Advance on the barn with me! No shooting!’
Shino was gasping for air as she sprinted, her assault rifle discarded and falling into the snow as her small figure ran as fast as she could, her body shaking in rising fear as s
he neared the area the soldier had indicated to. Passing three blood splattered dead Silak bodies in the snow, her head jerking from side to side, a whimper came from her lips as she glimpsed the depression in the ground, the hollow occasionally a pond in warmer months providing much needed water supplement for the mammoths.
Dropping to her knees in horror, she stared into the lowered ground, the snowflakes swirling around her small frame as it shook, tears flowing down her cheeks. Riaz stumbled behind her, his chest heaving in the poor air as he drew level, his head dropping as he lowered slowly next to her, an arm sweeping round her trembling shoulders and pulling her to him as the petit figure sobbed uncontrollably. Debra struggled towards the two kneeling figures, her pace slowing despondently as the sight beyond gradually came into view, her head turning away as tears of remorse filled her eyes.
Two still bodies lay in the hollow, one cradling the other in death as if to alleviate the final pain and suffering, the chilling corpses of a mother and her daughter both shot several times, a trail of frozen blood leading back across the snow towards the lower path. Next to the still and lifeless bodies, a tattered bag lay broken open, a number of square baked heavy grain biscuits and meal laying half covered in snow, an innocent young child’s homemade meagre gift of treats for her favourite mammoths.
Chapter Twenty Four: Alexion One Situation Report
David Bland stood next to Admiral Shadian, the senior officer’s uniform smeared with dust, deep scratches across his combat helmet from an explosion on the upper decks. Two soldiers knelt before them in the large landing bay, a small number of engineers working feverishly on three damaged fighters at the far end in a desperate attempt to make them fit to fly once more.
A small group of officers watched the two Station reservists as they raised the newly delivered weapons, their eyes staring down the sights as they aimed across at some empty ammunition crates at the far side of the wide transport bay. Shadian nodded to one of the officers, the woman stepping forward and raising her voice, ‘Fire when ready!’
Zaxon B: The Final Struggle (Galaxies Collide Book 4) Page 22