If the target had been a full up gunship with a globular protection system and laser firing arcs all around, it might still have hit the rocket and knocked it off course. It was a standard shuttle, though, without that kind of protection. A loud crack sounded in the air as the rocket struck home.
“Let’s get going, Ivan!” Jonah yelled, waving for the scout to follow.
Ivan nodded and collapsed the tube, then came running out of the clearing.
“I’m not sure I destroyed it,” the Russian said.
“Doesn’t matter,” the colonel replied. “You hit it. As long as it comes down behind us, I’m happy.”
They ran for another six minutes, almost a mile further on, to the top of the pass and into the forest of the plateau.
“I’m picking up three more on audio!” Xou shouted.
“Any coming in ahead of us?” Jonah called back, looking up at the canopy and straining his eyes to see if he could pick them up.
“Two heading down to the battle site, one on a possible course to cut us off.”
We can’t get everything we want, the colonel reflected, sucking in a breath.
* * *
“We’re under attack!” yelled the voice over the comm.
The voice was coming through a storm of static. There was no video, which frustrated Mmrash, who wanted to see what was going on for himself.
A loud boom sounded, something the microphones in the sergeant’s helmet could handle, and it dissolved into more static.
“What was that?”
“They just hit the side of my line with some kind of explosive shell. I lost the two warriors in those positions!”
Lrator was shouting even louder now, and the commander thought the sergeant’s hearing might have been compromised by the blast, despite the hearing protection conferred by the helmet.
“We’ll be there in four minutes!” Mmrash shouted back into the comm, wishing he had a high-altitude hypersonic transport. The gunship could get up to ten times the speed of sound, but this low, in these atmospheric pressures, and with the trees and other ground clutter below, that was just asking for trouble. Still, he looked over at the pilot and indicated with a hand motion that he wanted more speed. The pilot didn’t look happy with the decision, and Mmrash made a more emphatic hand signal.
“They took out the other side of my line,” Lrator said. “They have some kind of smoke in the air that’s showing our lasers. It seems to be diffusing them, as well!”
“Just hold on. We’re…”
“Setting off last defense line. I only have a couple of warriors still alive. I…”
Another explosion sounded, followed by a further burst of static, then nothing.
“Lrator!” Mmrash shouted, looking frantically at the signal graph hanging in the air over the control board. “Lrator.”
“First shuttle will be over them in three minutes,” the pilot said, his voice calm, almost distant.
“How long until we’re there?” the commander growled, his anger rising over his panic.
“Seven minutes.”
“Get us there faster!” he roared.
The pilot’s ears twitched in a combination of anxiety and acceptance. He pushed his throttle lever forward, and Mmrash was pushed back in his seat as the gunship accelerated up to three times the speed of sound.
“Three minutes.”
The commander growled deep in his throat. Though it galled him that they couldn’t get there faster, it would have to do.
Two minutes later, the comm came to life, the Tri-V projecting over the control board showing the sergeant in charge of another squad.
“We’re over Lrator’s deployment site,” came the voice of the sergeant as his face looked out of the Tri-V. The image changed, showing what the warrior was seeing. The tops of trees, more or less, with gouts of black smoke rising through them. “No contact with Lrator or his people.”
The sergeant’s face came back, then he looked off, an expression of surprise on his face. “What’s that?”
“We’re hit!” shouted another voice, as the view from the one sergeant switched to that of another. This one didn’t have surprise on his face, but shock, and his ears were twitching in a pattern of panic. “We’re going down!”
Mmrash dismissed the image of the squad leader in the crashing shuttle and switched to an image of a map showing the icons of all the shuttles. One was still almost a hundred miles away, in the process of landing to pick up its squad. Another was getting into the air, just under a hundred miles distant. The first shuttle that had contacted him was located right over Lrator’s position. Or was that the position of Lrator’s corpse, and those of his people? His gunship was almost to the site of the battle. The last shuttle—the one that had just transmitted—was indicated as losing altitude and coming down several miles south of the pass, out of the action.
“Can you pick up anything in the forest?” he asked the pilot.
“No, sir. The foliage is just too thick. I’m trying to run an odor sensor, but all the smoke is overwhelming the system.”
“Sergeant Kkrall,” ordered Mmrash, pulling up the Tri-V of the other shuttle closest to the battle site, “set your people down right here.” The commander indicated a point on a second Tri-V, one with the local map, transmitting the info to the sergeant. “Get ready for them to run into you. I’ll have the other squads come up behind them.”
The squad leader acknowledged and the Tri-V went blank.
“I want you to put a spread of rockets into the forest here, here, and here.” Mmrash pointed to three areas on the Tri-V.
“A pair to each point?”
“Sounds good,” Mmrash said, twitching his ears in approval. “After that, circle around and we’ll see what we can flush out.
“Sergeant Nlorn,” he ordered next on the intercom to the crew compartment, “get your people ready for deployment. When I give the order, I want you to be ready to move immediately.”
Mmrash disconnected before the sergeant could acknowledge. If the sergeant wasn’t ready when the order came, he’d tear a strip out of his hide.
“Firing,” the pilot said. Two rockets flew out of the pods and angled down into the forest, followed moments later by massive fireballs. The forest wasn’t dry, and was normally hard to set afire, but not with these incendiary rockets, which torched a score of trees each, starting a conflagration that spread, generating its own wind. A firestorm, the Humans called it, and though the Xlatan had never heard the term, they understood the concept.
“Next group!” the pilot yelled, and two more rockets flew out, repeating the performance.
“Last group.” Two more went out, and another acre of forest went up in flames. Now there were three spots of roaring forest fires, spreading quickly. In seconds, two of them had combined into one, and it didn’t look like it would be long until the third joined the party.
“Let’s see if they can escape that!” Mmrash said with a laugh. If he’d timed it right, the flames would force the Humans into his blocking force. If he got lucky, they’d be burned to death, and his search parties would recover their charred corpses.
“Weapons loadout?”
“We have eight more rockets, sir.”
“That should be enough,” the smiling leader said, looking over the map, trying to determine where the Humans might flee to, and where he might be able to set up another burning trap.
* * * * *
Chapter Nineteen
“What the hell?” Charley yelled as the flash of an explosion, followed by the concussion wave of a blast, washed over the company.
From the sound, they could tell it was a heavy warhead, or a couple, impacting some distance away. A wave of hot air followed on the heels of the blast, never a good sign.
“They don’t have a clue where we are,” Joey said after a short laugh.
“They don’t have to,” Jonah said, hoping he was wrong about what the enemy was up to. When the second set of blasts, these w
ith enough time in between the reports for the Humans to tell there were a pair of them, came about two miles away, the colonel knew his first guess was right.
“How flammable are these woods?” Jonah asked, looking over at Xebraferd as he hopped forward with a quartet of his warriors.
The Kalagarta was out of breath, huffing in air while his gill slits opened to their full extent. The Kalagarta weren’t distance hunters, and they were already starting to wear down.
“They are not very flammable,” said the Kalagarta chieftain, stopping for a moment, his head drooping, “but I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Jonah groaned and continued to move forward. No matter what was going on, they needed to get out of here. The crackling of fire came from the distance, along with the smell of smoke on a quickening wind.
“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to continue this way, sir,” Ivan said after a cough as the smoke grew thicker. “I’ve sent the Yamashuris to scout out a path around the fire.”
The only problem with that was the open areas, the paths through, could be changing quickly. Maybe too quickly for them to make it through.
The wind was picking up, and the smoke was rolling in with it. People started coughing. No one was getting enough air as it was, running as they were. Now it was worse.
“Masks on,” Jonah ordered, pulling his own out of the pocket on his chest and fitting it over his mouth and nose. A breath started the air flowing, a mixture of tanked and filtered gas. The tanked air wouldn’t last long, but the colonel thought if he needed it very long, he’d never need it again.
The crackling of flames grew louder, and Jonah was able to make out the fire burning through the forest ahead. The Kalagarta were croaking loudly now, and the undertone reminded the colonel of coughing. Looking over at the nearest Kalagarta, he saw that they were going into respiratory distress, as was their Xlatan prisoner.
Sparks were blowing in the wind, while the high branches of the trees around them flashed into flame. It became obvious they couldn’t go forward, and going back, they were likely to run into the soldiers of the Xlatan, and with the possibility they’d be running into an ambush. Probably exactly what the enemy had planned.
“Everyone, move back!” the colonel yelled. He didn’t want to go back, not with what he was sure was waiting on them, but he also didn’t want to burn to death. That burning death was coming at them, and fast.
The company and their Kalagarta allies stumbled away. The Humans could move faster but weren’t about to leave their friends behind. They were running the risk of being overtaken by the flames, and the colonel had to wonder when the first of his people would break and run, or when he might do the same.
Jonah kept moving, pushing the coughing Kalagarta ahead of him. If the enemy fired more of those rockets into the forest, they could surround his party with impenetrable fire. Hell, they might be surrounded and cut off any second by the flames already working their way through the forest. His heart was beating quickly from the exertion of the past hour, along with the fear of burning to death.
“Colonel,” yelled a woman’s voice, coming through the smoke, “this way! I think we’ve found an out!”
Hotaru Yamashuri came running into view, her breathing mask in place. She pointed back the way she’d come and waved the other hand in the air to attract attention.
“Over this way. Asuka found what looks like a sheltered way out of here.”
Jonah wanted to ask questions, to know more about this path the couple were proposing they follow. He hadn’t the time. They either moved now, or continued back until they were caught by the flames or ran into a Xlatan ambush.
“Everyone,” he yelled out, making an instant decision to trust his two team members, “this way! Move!”
The company started to follow, those who couldn’t see or hear what was going on being led by others. The Humans were careful to make sure their Kalagarta allies followed, grabbing them by the hands and leading them.
The fire was threatening from the right as they moved. Jonah thought they’d be engulfed before they reached safety and was beginning to doubt his decision. The heat was terrible, even painful. Trees exploded as their sap reached the boiling point. A tree fell with a crack, coming down in the center of the company, forcing some to go around.
“In here!” Asuka yelled, coming into view through the smoke, waving his katana in the air to catch the attention of anyone who couldn’t hear him.
“This way!” Jonah shouted, engaging his comm at the same time and hoping the enemy wasn’t in the right place to triangulate.
The mercenaries stumbled by into the dark opening in the side of the hill. The Kalagarta and the Xlatan were blinded by the smoke, while the mercenaries were able to see through it with their enhanced vision visors.
“Not another damned cave,” Joey groaned when he saw where they were heading.
“If you want to try and outrun this thing in open country, be my guest,” Ivan said, slapping the younger mercenary on the back.
Jonah wanted to put his boot in Joseph Many Bears’ butt. This was life or death, and from the animals that were hooting in terror and running for their lives, it was going to be death for many in this forest. A couple of mugra ran by, heading into the flames in their panic. The last the colonel saw of them, both were on fire, screaming in pain and terror, and running blindly to their deaths.
Waiting until everyone was inside, Jonah followed the last of his people through the entrance. Smoke was filtering in, and it didn’t seem like that much of a refuge to the colonel. Compared to the hell that was outside, though, it was paradise.
“This way!” Asuka shouted, moving ahead and pushing on. “There’s a natural water lock ahead, and an extensive cave system beyond.”
“How extensive?” Jonah asked, catching up to the scout so he could see where the man was leading them.
“I didn’t get much of a look, sir,” the ninja said. “All I can tell you is it widens out, and it looked like it was going on for quite a distance. Here we are.”
The cavern ended in a pool of water, and Jonah doubted the utility of this hideout, thinking his man had led them into a cul-de-sac from which there’d be no escape. They wouldn’t be able to leave until the fire burned down, and then there’d be no cover out there to hide them.
“Follow me,” Asuka said. The ninja took a deep breath and dove into the water with little splash.
Should have asked him how far it was through the water, the colonel thought, shaking his head. He looked back at his people, some of whom appeared hesitant to go into the pool. The Kalagarta had no such qualms, and three of them were immediately into the pool and gone.
Lead, you idiot, Jonah thought, taking a breath and diving in himself. While he didn’t enter as smoothly as the athletic ninja, he was sure had hadn’t done too badly. It took a second to orient himself, then he was stroking through the water. It seemed to take a long time to swim to the other side, until he reached up and his hand broke the surface. As soon as his head had done the same, he activated his helmet light, and noted that he’d swum a good twenty yards further than necessary.
“Sorry about that, sir,” Asuka called out, treading water closer to the wall of the cavern. “I should have warned you.”
“Yeah, you should have. Just make sure everyone else knows when they can surface.”
Six more Kalagarta came swimming up, staying submerged until they got to the shallows. To them, underwater was just as good as land. Better, actually. Some stayed in the water, submerged, while others walked onto land.
“It is very dark,” said Xebraferd, looking around.
“No outside light getting in,” Jonah said, breast stroking toward the shore, bringing his helmet light nearer the natives, who had low-light vision, but not in total darkness. “Maybe we’ll find some phosphorescence further in.”
The first of the Humans after the colonel came up, followed by many more, until almost all of the Human an
d Kalagarta people were in. The last to surface was Manny Fernandez, pulling their sputtering Xlatan captive along with him.
“I get the impression the cats aren’t very good swimmers,” Manny said as he pulled the prisoner along with him, holding the cat’s head out of the water in a classic rescue carry.
“Bodies are too dense to float,” Dotty said, swimming alongside the pair.
“I’m guessing he’d rather be in the water than out in the fire,” Charley said, pulling himself out of the water. “And damn, was that cold.”
Now that it had been mentioned, Jonah started to feel the chill of the water and the cold of the cave as the pool absorbed all the heat.
Charley made it out of the water and fell to the ground, breathing heavily. As more people got out of the pool, most turning on their helmet lights, the details of the cave became much clearer. It reached back to the limit of the light, at least a hundred yards. Ivan started that way, waving for Joey to follow.
“We have something to do, Charley,” Jonah said, standing and walking over to where Manny was sitting next to their prisoner. “It’s about time we gather some intelligence on our enemy and his compound.”
Jonah activated a module in his helmet computer, hoping that the price he’d paid for it would be worth it.
“Now, Xlatan,” he said, looking down at the alien, his helmet spitting out words that sounded like a cat fight. “It’s about time you paid us back for sparing your life. Or not. Either way, I’ll learn what you know.”
* * *
“I don’t think anything can survive that,” the pilot said, maneuvering the gunship around and over the sea of flame.
Mmrash had to agree, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance. Not after having dropped the ball the first time he’d thought he’d killed the Humans.
“Any sign of the Humans?” he asked over the comm. He now had three full squads deployed at that end of the pass, while he retained the one in reserve on his own ship. The Xlatan from the crashed shuttle had joined the two that had been dropped off, walking the distance from their wrecked carrier.
When Eagles Dare Page 22