Suddenly, there was a series of blasts right under the lead ships. It must have been some sort of laser or particle beam weapon dependent on line of site. Had the enemy positioned these all over the planet, or had they just been unlucky?
They took out almost half the fighters before they went over the horizon. Now it was the CLAC’s turn. They had already lost orbital speed and were committed. There was only so much maneuvering they could do during the entry phase. There was a glow around his CLAC. It juked, and his stomach churned. He moved his mouth over to the puke tube, but since training had been so intense, and the medication they provided so effective, he did not need it.
Third platoon’s CLAC took a hit from the beam weapon and soon was rolling and burning. Its pod containing the platoon ejected. The flight deck ejected separately. His ship juked even more violently as the computer digested what had happened and took the craft on an even wilder ride.
The ship jerked hard, different from its usual movement, and even through the enclosed helmet, he thought he could hear the scream of the wind and he felt his suit inflate. We’re hit, flashed through his mind.
Another few seconds and they would be through the dangerous part of the entry. Only he did not really want to slow down. Speed is life!
The beam weapon shifted to targets behind him. Each time they hit a ship, one target became three as the escape capsules blasted free, one each for the two squads and one for the flight deck. That will give them something to contemplate.
Then from even farther back came the missile response. The beam weapons had already been targeted. The blunt-nosed entry explosive weapon would be on target in only a few minutes.
There were no more beam weapons left at this point. He knew that Intel would be digesting this soon. We’ll be ready next time. Up until now, we did not know that they even had beam weapons.
His CLAC shook violently, and he had the feeling parts were flying off. He changed his screen. They were leaving a trail of parts from the ship through the sky. When are we going to eject?
The first wave had been decimated. The ground attack aircraft were already over the target and blasting what was left of it and getting more fight than they had expected. Apparently, the enemy had dug in better than Intelligence had thought.
He could hear and see reports coming in. Apparently, the missiles had been effective in shutting down the weapons. Either that or having one target become three was demoralizing.
Then they were blasted clear. All three capsules continued to maneuver in such a way as to take them as close as possible to the target landing zone. Only two ships had not gotten all three pods clear.
The escape pod stabilized and the g’s built up. They continued to slow. The second wave was catching up and would soon pass. They looked in good shape.
A new set of blips appeared as enemy fighters arced over the horizon. It looked as if they had been launched into a suborbital trajectory and were now reentering and would intercept them soon.
One of the picket ships opened up with its lasers. The approaching fighters were sitting ducks, but there were lots of them. As they sank back into the atmosphere, they began to maneuver making it harder for the gunners to sight on them.
Do the approaching fighters have beam weapons? How could they get them on small ships? Surely, they had missiles. They did. Gunners on the second wave opened up with antimissile defense and stopped most of them. A couple got through, and there were more escape pods out.
The second wave would have to carry the battle. Now here comes the third. He could not see if the beam weapons were used on them. He changed frequencies and eavesdropped. He was so intent on following the battle that he did not notice the alarm.
Only when the rows ahead of him suddenly ejected did he come back to his own situation. They had been hit; he gritted his teeth, and everything turned gray as he was shot straight up and away from the now tumbling escape capsule.
The sky was full of acceleration couches and the bodies of men. Suddenly free of his, he arched his body with his hands at his side to surf the high altitude air. A tumbling couch with someone struggling to free himself flashed past him and was gone.
He arched over just a bit more and tried to fly like a ski jumper. Get near the target zone. There was no feeling of falling; in fact, he felt like he was lying lightly on something as he decelerated. He was not nervous anymore. He was at peace drifting through the sky. There were a couple of guys off to his right and one fairly close to his left.
This latter seemed to be tumbling as though unconscious. See if I can get near him. Raising one arm slightly he began to move over to the tumbling man, it was Habib. Denver reached out and grabbed him, which sent them tumbling out of control. Taking both hands, he finally got them stabilized.
Denver realized he was falling behind the others and would land short. If he pulled his chute now, Habib would land way short. If he stayed with him, at least they would be together.
Suddenly, a warning flashed. Pull chute, pull chute, pull chute ran across his vision along with the words. He reached over and yanked Habib’s, waited a couple of seconds and pulled his own.
He felt as if he had come to a stop. He had never liked the jerk when a chute opened. Arching hardback, he could see his chute was okay. Reaching up he took hold of the maneuvering lines and began a 360-degree turn. He could see Habib above him, still limp. In the distance, he could see some other chutes. All were ahead of him.
There goes my bonus. Making his best guess about the direction of the wind, he maneuvered into it and bent his legs. Near the bare red ground, he pulled both lines, lightly landed, and promptly fell over on his face.
“Hope nobody recorded that.” He was up and looking around. No sign of immediate danger. He pulled himself free of the chute and found cover. Habib floated down and hit hard not a hundred meters away. Quickly he got free of the pressure suit, folded his chute, and scrambled over to where Habib had hit.
Habib looked unconscious. He quickly hooked in his data recorder to the man’s medical terminal. He soon had a readout. Heart rate was okay, and there was brain activity. Must have hit his head on the way out.
He shook the man. “Habib, wake up.” No response. He quickly set up a com link and began to send data automatically on the whereabouts and health of the injured man. That done, he removed Habib’s chute.
A double beep in his right ear let him know someone was on the horn, and he was getting good data. He then switched over to a tactical screen.
The second wave was on their way in. Not much left of the first, but some got on the ground in the landing zone, LZ in legion speak. Satellite showed enemy moving to intercept. He wondered if pounding them from orbit was as effective as the high command had hoped.
The com came alive. “Okay soldier, we got your signal and are five minutes out.”
“Thanks, any chance you guys can give me a lift to the LZ?”
The pause in answering seemed to take a bit too much time. “We don’t have any instructions on what to do with you. What’s your situation?”
“I’m in good shape. We got hit on the way in. My buddy is unconscious, but I’m good. We are about 10 km from where some action is about to occur. I need to get over there. Any chance of giving me a lift?”
A voice cut in. “Rescue, get the injured man out of there. We will pick up the other one. Soldier secure the area. We are ten minutes out.”
“Yes, sir.” He did not see anything, but got quickly to his feet and moved to some high ground nearby.
Rescue got in and took Habib, leaving him about the loneliest man on the planet. When the lander arrived, he was surprised to see how big it was. It looked like a praying mantis carrying a fat bug. The door opened, and he pounded in.
He immediately recognized the officer. The man had visited him in the hospital. “Hello, sir.”
“You again?”
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“I guess so. We got hit pretty hard on the way in and everyone was ejected.”
“Sit down. We’ll get you back to the fight in no time.”
He switched to his squad’s tactical, “Anybody out there?”
“Smith, where are you?” demanded his squad leader.
I’m about 10 km back. I got Habib out on medical; then I hitched a ride in a command lander. We’re airborne and will be with you soon.”
“Okay, I’ve got two guys from the squad and am picking up some from other units as I go. I’m sending you my coordinates.”
Moments passed; the coordinates came up on the display. “Okay, I’ve got you. I’ll see how close they can drop me to your location.”
“Where did you say they are?” barked the officer. “Sure we can put you down not too far from there.” He turned back to his tactical screen.
“Okay, Sarge. They will drop me off near you.”
There was no answer. “Sergeant Ricon, you copy?”
“Smith, we stumbled right into them, there are lizards everywhere! The -15’s ain’t doing shit. It just pisses them off!”
“Sir!”
“I heard.” The senior officer keyed in, “Sergeant we are one minute out.”
He switched to intercom. “Captain, I want you to put us down right there. Drop us off then get airborne and give us some cover.”
“Yes, sir.”
The moving map with landing site marked came up on the screen between the pilots. Moments later the huge chopper set down behind a ridge and detached the command vehicle. It lifted away and swung around where the legionnaires were locked in close combat and losing fast.
Once free of its transport chopper the track took off up over the ridge. Smith could hear the topside gun already, its Gatling gun 120 mm rounds shaking the entire vehicle.
“Smith, see what you can do with the side turret.”
“Yes, sir.”
Smith was up through the access way and had the hatch open. He was not ready for what he saw. The legion’s soldiers had been pushed up against an embankment with no way out and were outnumbered with more lizards on the way.
There were several lizards on the ground but more legionnaires. They had held them off with grenades as long as they could; now they were using bayonets.
He charged the .50 caliber and began to even things up a bit. He heard the .50 on the opposite side open up. Smith could not see the other gunner, but knew more lizards were coming from that side.
One lizard attacked the track trying to get up to where Smith fired short bursts. Smith brought the gun around and shot him point blank. The fifty had plenty of effect on these things.
The track stopped in front of the soldiers, blocking them from immediate attack. The chopper had swung around and started chewing up enemy troops with missiles and with the 120 mm Gatling gun. It was over quick.
“Sir, I need to join my squad.”
“Do it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Denver hit the ground and quickly found Sergeant Ricon. He was down, one leg pretty chewed up but still in charge.
“Sarge!”
“Oh, get the hell away from me. I want to know the number of casualties and their status. Move it!”
“Right Sarge.” Glad to see you too.
It was a mess. Two guys looked in pretty good shape and were still rendering first aid. “Who you guys with?”
“Second platoon, B Company,” the first answered.
“First platoon, A Company,” answered the second. Then he added, “Not much left of the first wave, huh?”
“No, not much. I’m going to look for others.” As he stepped away, a hand grabbed his ankle. It was a lizard. He turned and fired point blank into the revolting creature.
“Those things don’t do much good,” said Sergeant Ricon.
“Well, I managed to finish off this one.” He quickly found the rest of the survivors and got them over to the track. He was surprised to find the Colonel on the ground helping with the wounded.
“Smith, I can’t stay. We’re two km from the action, and we’re getting chewed up. I’ve got to get an aid station set up and start evacuating the wounded. Secure this area till these men are picked up. Then get the rest to these coordinates.”
“Yes sir.”
The track ran up under the chopper, reconnected and was off.
The wounded were fixed up as best they could be and drugged, twelve of them in all. There were several fatalities. He and the other two men laid the bodies out in a row for pickup.
“What are we supposed to do?” asked the legionnaire from B company.
“Our orders are to secure the area till these guys are evac’ed, then hump it over to where they’re setting up an aid station. I’m going up on that rise to see what it looks like around here.”
He quickly made his way up to the top of the little rise. He could not see any other enemy troops. He brought the tactical situation up on his heads-up. The battle was not going well. The second and third wave had made it to the LZ. Then an incredible wave of Reptilian fighters charged them. They charged for over a kilometer before making contact. They did not try to hang back and shoot. They just ran in. The reports were not making any sense.
The enemy pushed the second wave back. The only thing that stopped their total destruction was the heavy firepower on the tracks that came in with the third wave. It seems the -15’s just did not pack enough punch, but the heavy tracked and wheeled vehicles evened it up. It was still anybody’s guess how this would work out.
The only thing that was clear was that they were getting nowhere near the objective. Instead, they were fighting for their lives. He switched to his company’s frequency and tried to find his platoon leader. No luck. Then his company commander cut in.
“Who are you and what is your situation?”
Smith quickly brought him up to speed. “You guys got in closer than we did. We’ll be there in fifteen. Any idea what those lizards were doing out this way?”
“No sir, but I think I see some equipment not far from here. I’d like to check it out.”
“Do so and get back to me.” He was gone.
Smith found what looked like a radio dish on some sort of vehicle. Looks like they were trying to install it when our people wandered up on them. I’ll have to check to see why they didn’t show up on tactical.
Might be something here for Intel; he marked the spot for them on his combat computer. He returned to where the two soldiers were watching over the wounded. “What happened he asked?”
“We were headed toward the LZ when suddenly these guys charged out of the bushes. You should have heard them howling. That’s what gave them away.” It was Private Gonzales from A company.
“They just rushed us with axes.”
“Axes?”
“Yeah look.”
Denver walked over to one of the bullet-ridden bodies. Sure enough, there was a huge ornate battle-ax with clean lines. Someone had put some effort into this. What was more disturbing, the lizard still had what looked like a rifle strapped to his back. Up until now, he had not paid them much attention.
While the surrounding field was full of bodies, there were nine right up against the embankment. All had gone into battle with their rifles strapped to their backs. He had not heard of anything that crazy since the First World War. He reported his findings to his CO.
While he waited his curiosity got the better of him. He went and rolled one of the lizards over. He might have been wearing some sort of body armor. Denver pulled the rifle off his back. It was long and heavy. It had a stock, and all the lines were smooth. There was an area that might hold a trigger.
“You aren’t planning on shooting that thing, are you?” asked Gonzales.
“You want to try?”
“No t
hanks.”
“See if you can find some ammo.”
“Okay, let’s see.” Gonzales fiddled around with some of the alien’s kit until he found what could be cartridges.
“Whoa! What are these guys planning on shooting, elephants?”
“Let me see if I can shoot this thing,” said Smith cautiously.
“Well watch where you’re pointing it.”
“Good idea.”
“Wait a second.” It was the other soldier. “Let me video it. This should be good.”
“Man this thing’s heavy and long. Hope I can hold it up.” He shouldered the weapon and felt for the trigger.
“Can’t seem to get anything to move.”
Gonzales reached up and levered something. “Maybe this is the safety.”
Almost instantly, the weapon discharged knocking Denver flat on his back. Eventually, the men stopped laughing. When he could speak again, he said, “I’ve got an idea.”
* * * *
The aid station had been established right behind the fighting, about 600 meters from where a rough line held against the onslaught.
The CO was not too sure about Smith’s idea of using the enemy’s own weapons against them. However, under the circumstances, what could it hurt? Smith had picked up three of these elephant rifles on steroids.
Only heavy aerial bombardment and the mounted weapons held the Reptilians back. They were insane with rage, and they were many.
“Captain,” it was a senior officer. “Deploy your men. Be prepared to defend the aid station.”
“Yes, sir. Looks like we are out of the fight for the time being.”
“Sir, we’ve got something,” said a soldier.
The soldier handed the CO the tactical screen. They did have something. Over on the left flank, the enemy had broken through and headed right toward them.
Hell Fighters from Earth Page 24