by Chris Hechtl
Bast, however, wasn't going to let it slide so easily. She flicked his tail out and tangled it with the man's legs. He went down with a howl, face first into the rubble. The man behind him stumbled as well, caught off guard then he stepped on and over the point man.
Weapon fire cracked as the Recon team caught sight of them and engaged. The second man's head exploded as he rose over a berm of debris. His body fell back in a welter of gore to spray those behind him. But the push of bodies behind them made them keep moving forward into the debris and weapons fire.
“Find cover and kill them!” a sergeant ordered, motioning his people forward. He had a whistle in his hand and kept waving the gun he was holding forward. Anyone who slowed or hesitated he looked pointedly at. They hurried on quickly.
Jethro was fairly certain the sergeant had orders to shoot anyone who didn't move fast enough, or who got cold feet. He was tempted to kill him. It would break some of the enemy's command and coordination, but he held off. He wanted to know what their numbers were like.
Unfortunately where he was and the steady stream of bodies coming around the corner made that all but impossible. It was too chaotic to plot a course through them as well as the occasional ricochets of weapons fire.
“Grenade!” Someone called out as an explosion went off behind him. He turned his head to see a rocket propelled grenade hit a boulder and smash it. Soldiers who had hunkered down behind it were flung back by the pressure wave or jumped back to avoid the sprawling debris.
“Return the favor boys!” the sergeant bellowed, pumping his fist. A corporal looked at him and nodded, then pulled out a satchel. He yanked out a trio of stick grenades and handed two off to the soldiers nearby. Then they tossed them over the rocks.
<(>~^~<(>
“Well, they seem serious. And they aren't making a lot of effort to get out of there any other way. Is that really the only entrance and exit or were these poor saps sent to hold us off while the rest escaped?” Captain Lyon asked.
“Does it matter?” PFC Oreo asked, looking at the officer.
“I suppose not,” the captain said mildly, picking off an enemy soldier by using the sensor feed from the black cat. “I think this is like a video game. I mean, we can see them.”
“And they can see us,” Oreo said, tossing him a crude video camera he'd found. The captain looked it over and then grunted.
“There are more of them I bet,” Oreo stated.
“Probably,” the captain replied.
“There are a lot of wires. We're tracing them now,” Lance Corporal W'quin stated. The Veraxin pulled a wire out and plugged a tester into it to run a line trace. He detached the probe from the tester and pointed the wand end at the wire and then traced where it went into the rubble.
“Does he have to do that now?” Oreo asked as the return fire started to thicken up.
“I'm not going to complain,” Private S'ril stated, flicking his Naga tail to spread the debris out and dig out a better fighting position.
<(>~^~<(>
Jethro frowned. He could stay where he was and just feed the Recon team intel as the rest of the Marines got set. But he had a job to do. Besides, it was rather unpleasant where he was. It meant when they started trotting out the plasma weapons, he'd be in for some friendly fire he didn't want. So, he pulled out a sensor and whisker laser patch and looked about for a place to stick it.
Bast chuffed on his HUD when he didn't find any handy place right away. She pointed straight up. He looked up to the ceiling where an electric light was dangling and chuffed. The light flickered, but it was still on. He noted there were other cables and hoses up there, some torn, others not so bad. He looked around until he found some hand holds. When a grenade went off outside the outer defenses, he acted. He reached up, grabbed the first handhold, pulled himself up, and then onward.
Bast helped him out by activating his inertial dampeners and shield emitters in his boots and altering them. When he got to the cabling, he swung out and grabbed one, then used it as a hand hold to swing to a cluster of others. He was fairly certain the braided wires wouldn't support his weight. But the clusters of them might, at least for the moment.
When he got a toe grip he let go of the first and swung so he was out and near the incoming fire. He pulled the patch off the back of his hand, stuck it to the rock, and then watched as Bast hit it with a laser. It worked so he went to move on but his foot stuck.
He turned, concerned, but it wasn't entangled. It was actually on the roof. He moved it slowly and it stuck as if the gravity had been reversed.
Bast chuffed. Her idea had worked so she made the same alterations to the grav emitters in Jethro's gauntlets. It would compromise his cloak, but it would save him from relying on his claws to move along the ceiling.
“What the …”
“I altered the gravity emitters so you can move on the ceiling,” Bast explained.
“Oh. You know, you could have told me.”
“I just did,” Bast replied.
Jethro sniffed, thought about a retort, and then thought better of it. He moved on.
<(>~^~<(>
Once Jethro's signal was out of their line of fire, Captain Lyon signaled to McAdams to bring up the heavy weapons. It was time they did a bit more than knock politely at the door the enemy had put up in front of them.
<(>~^~<(>
Jethro prowled along the ceiling, dropping patches every thirty meters or so. He made careful note of the forces in the tunnel below. There were hundreds of soldiers lined up or hunkered down. Some were checking their weapons, a few were praying. He noted a few were heavy weapons groups. He was tempted to reach down and snap their weapon's power cables but again, forced himself to behave and follow orders.
The explosions behind him told him that the captain was done with playing around. Dust and debris came around the corner, and he could feel the tremble of the explosions through the rock. “Gunny, I am getting a partial map of this facility based on seismic echoes,” Bast reported, putting up a partial map. He could see that beyond the Y ahead of him there were a lot of tunnels, going onward and downward.
He also noted that when the explosions went off the orders below changed. The sergeants and a few of the officers ordered them to fall back into side tunnels and ambush sites. A couple automated guns were set up hastily, and a creative lieutenant ordered grenades and satchel charges to be set up as booby traps to slow them down.
“This isn't over boys and girls, far from it. Keep it together and stick to the plan,” an officer said. Bast tagged him with a karat, grabbing a still and sending it on to Captain Lyon and the others coming in. Everyone she noted in some sort of leadership position, anyone also with a heavy weapon she tagged and sent helpfully along.
<(>~^~<(>
“Is it just me or is this too easy?” Captain Lyon asked as McAdam's force bound forward over their positions to take the remains of the positions the enemy had just been blown out of.
“You call this easy?” Oreo demanded.
“Kid, we're just getting started,” the Lance corporal said, to the private. “Now get with the program,” he said, rising from his position to bounce forward.
<(>~^~<(>
As they blew through ever increasing fierce defenses, the Marines were sucked off into some of the side tunnels to protect their flanks. That put less pressure on the main front. Captain Lyon and Ensign McAdams were ever aware of the possibility of a ruse, of the enemy drawing them in and then hitting them on the flanks so they didn't move too far inward until they were certain their flanks were covered.
The Recon Marines were some of the first into the tunnels with implants. They had full implants like Jethro, McAdams, and the heavy weapons teams. They scanned each area they entered but found nothing initially.
Jethro, however, was in armor. Armor designed for stealth and reconnaissance. His augmented sensors probed deeper, beyond the facade of rock. They traced the probe signal W'quin had sent out. Wires for the video ca
meras were identified, as were the wiring for the ventilation fans, lights, and supports. But other wires were unknowns.
“Gunny, cut the wires for the cameras but leave the rest alone,” Captain Lyon ordered.
“Copy that,” Jethro stated flatly. He reached out to where Bast directed him and snipped the wires with a quick snick of his claws.
Bast, however, was curious; she laid a schematic of the wires over what they could see and sense. It didn't add up. As Jethro paused to lay another sensor and relay patch, she directed his left index finger to touch one of the unknown wires. She sent a pulse of electricity through it to probe it.
It was there that Bast found the telltale signature of explosives hidden in the ceiling and structural supports. Jethro froze when his HUD lit red and Bast hissed.
“Self-destruct package found! Explosives laced through the mine and its supports,” Bast reported. She directed Jethro to a block near a ventilation duct. Wires came out of it. He went over to it slowly, then probed it with his fingers. She sent pulses through the wiring and casing and assembled a detailed map of the explosives inside.
<(>~^~<(>
When Bast's warning went out, Captain Lyon froze his forces. He looked up and then pointed to W'Quin and then to the wires above. The bug's four eye stalks looked up and then he reached up with his lobster claws and snipped through them. The Veraxin then traced the wires to a cluster that turned out to be a paper machete covered hole drilled into the rock. It was filled with clay that was keeping in some sort of explosive with a detonation cord embedded in it. The Veraxin used a probe to dig through the clay packing until some of the explosives dribbled out.
“This is serious, sir,” the Veraxin stated.
“Self-destruct?”
“Far more than that. They could just do it in one place and cut this place off. No, this is well thought out,” the Veraxin replied.
“Rip out the wiring as we go. Pull the detonation cords. Be on the lookout for more of them people,” Captain Lyon stated. “Move forward cautiously.” More Marines followed them into the tunnels but they were wary.
<(>~^~<(>
Jethro saw the wiring snake off in a different direction from the Horathians. Did they even know they were there? He had continued to cut the wires but there was no way to get to them all. The wires all went to a single source a detonation board. One most likely near a back entrance.
“We need to leave. Before it is too late. This is a trap,” Bast stated to him, ears flat out.
“Are you sure?” He asked. She cocked her head but didn't answer. “Me too,” he said after a long moment of studying her. He slowly turned and started to make his way back the way he had come.
<(>~^~<(>
An hour and a half into the tunnels Captain Lyon just didn't like where it was going. They were going on and on, deeper and deeper. The deeper he went the more uneasy he felt. He could seal the tunnels on his flanks, but there was no telling which ones were important and which were just distractions.
And the more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. Bothered him that they went into so much trouble to set up that self-destruct. Every few meters they saw more cords, more explosives. When he saw Jethro's IFF turn back without orders, he realized he wasn't the only one thinking that. Most likely the troops were as well.
“Halt. I say again, Halt. Everyone pull back,” he ordered. The point man stopped and looked over his shoulder to the others as well as the mech beside him. Captain Lyon rested his hand on Oreo's shoulder and pointed to the rear.
<(>~^~<(>
General Busche noted the time and that most of the enemy forces outside the cave had gone inside. Or at least everyone who was going in had gone in. A group of Marines were out cutting a strip for a craft to land in outside, while others secured the perimeter and watched over the wounded who were carried out from time to time. There weren't a lot of wounded she noted. Were they doing well inside? According to Captain Alegra's last report, not so much. And since the enemy was cutting off her eyes and ears the moment they found them, it was a guessing game. She only had their contact points to go off of.
She hated that she only had the long distance observation posts on the nearby hills to see the exterior as well. Hopefully they would get some fresh reserves in to help them out she thought with a slight feral smile. And soon, she added just as Captain Alegra looked up from where he was sitting. “Ma'am! Forces in the tunnels report the enemy has begun to fall back!”
“Frack!” the General snarled as she reached for the red switch.
“What are you doing, ma'am! We need to get our people out first!”
“The hell we do,” she snarled, pulling her sidearm out and pointing it at the colonel. She flipped the safety cover up and then mashed her hand down on the red button. “If we did and we waited, the enemy would be out and those that had died would have died for nothing.”
“Explosions going off!”
“Get them out!” the colonel howled, ignoring the weapon pointed at his head.
<(>~^~<(>
The retreat was going well; the enemy wasn't following Captain Lyon thought. Another thing to puzzle over he thought as Jethro got into their perimeter. The cat dropped his cloak and dropped to the ground. “Sir, sorry sir, but …”
The captain held up a hand. “Fall back,” he ordered as they felt a rumble. “Move! Move! Go go go!” he said as the entire tunnel started to rock. Explosions started to ripple through the guts of the tunnels beyond them.
<(>~^~<(>
It was a trap, rigged to blow with mining explosives, Moira thought with a detached part of her mind as the rest of her anxiously awaited news on her people. Marines streamed out of the tunnel mouth. Then she saw a familiar feline figure come out carrying a person under each arm with another on his back. A cloud of dust and flames licked at their heels.
Others near the entrance raised their arms protectively to their faces as the heat and debris slammed into them. Those on their feet were knocked about or to the ground as it moved and shook by the manmade quake.
The ground directly in front of the entrance started to buckle as the cavern's ceilings collapsed, filling their void and creating more voids for the above rock and soil to fill. Water gushed in to fill some of it, but not fast enough to stop the fall. A few of the Marines slipped and fell into the pit. The rest scrambled back and out of the area.
<(>~^~<(>
Once it was clear, Jethro jumped into the pit to rescue the injured. Bast painted their IFF signals onto his HUD. He went to the first, but it flashed crimson so he moved on. A detail would have to deal with the dead; he had to rescue the living. Those he could he thought briefly before he started digging through the rubble.
<(>~^~<(>
Moira turned her eyes on Arkangel and Lieutenant Locke. Based on Locke's expression, he was shocked and dismayed by the carnage. Arkangel, however, had seemed annoyed about being held back from going in to gather intel, but now he was even more annoyed at the total loss.
“Damn it all,” he muttered over and over. “Blast!” he snarled, taking his hat off to slam it onto the table then run a frustrated hand through his hair. “Now we'll never know, will we?”
“Know what? If she was down there? This was a trap,” Moira said.
“But … but she killed her own people down there!” Locke said, waving a hand to the screens. “Dozens, hundreds of them! They couldn't have gotten out in time!”
“No, they couldn't have. It was all a trap. I doubt she was down there. Most likely she'd doing the same thing we are,” Moira stated. “Watching from a safe distance.”
“I'm glad you didn't allow me to go in there, ma'am,” Arkangel said grudgingly. “Did we get anything? Capture anyone?”
“Capture no. I don't even know what our casualties are at this point; the computers are still getting a handle on the IFFs. The dust cloud is messing up the radio signals,” Moira stated.
“Yes, ma'am.”
“We'll have to m
ake do with what we recorded, sir,” Lieutenant Locke said, motioning to the sensor feeds from the drones, sensor pads, and Gunnery Sergeant.
Arkangel nodded, rubbing his chin. “True.”
“But I'd be highly suspicious of anything they left behind. It could lead to another trap like this one,” Moira stated.
“Also true.”
“Which may be something to consider. But not right now.” She sighed heavily. “For now, we have a duty to try to keep our people alive. You can get your people in there when there is transport available.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“I had wished on making this a clean sweep before we had to leave. So much for the wishes of an old lady I suppose,” Moira mused. They looked at her. She flicked her ears. “We do have another week or so before Major Pendeckle's forces arrive though. Maybe Lady Luck will shine her grace on us again … if it is truly her that is doing it. At this point, I'm highly suspicious of everything and anything that looks too good to be true,” she said darkly.
“Agreed, ma'am,” Lieutenant Locke said with a sigh as he sat back in frustration.
<(>~^~<(>
General Busche was not amused that the trap didn't work. She had sacrificed a platoon of her own troops plus a short battalion of partisans to bait it. A quarter of her heavy weapons had gone with them, as well as half of her remaining anti-air defenses.
“Damn it!” the colonel cursed, kicking a burn can over in his anger. “So close!”
“So close and yet so far. They failed. But we succeeded in some small ways. We'll get them, of that you can be sure. If not this time, then next. Or the one after that. At the very least we've made them cautious about following us.”
“Yes, ma'am,” the colonel said dubiously. She had just sacrificed nearly what, twelve hundred troops? All for what? A dozen enemy dead? He fought the urge to question her sanity or show such questions on his face.