Jonah breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of the woman’s voice, and the plural term she’d used. The ninjas were causing havoc in the enemy rear, but he hadn’t heard from them in several minutes.
“How far are you?”
“Near the administration building,” the ninja answered.
Jonah checked the position on his HUD map, shaking his head.
“Stay where you are. I’m closer. As soon as I gather up someone else, I’m heading over.”
“Colonel,” Joey called, coming up behind White Eagle in a crouch, a blur in the smoky atmosphere, “Ivan’s down.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes, sir. Lt. Farrah is with him. She told me to seek you out, that she’d handle Ivan.”
“You did right, son,” Jonah said, picking up the guilt in Joey’s tone. “We need you in the fight. Dotty will take care of the wounded.”
A pair of Xlatan came rushing through the smoke, heading straight for the pair with lasers shining through the obscuring atmosphere. One was flung to the side, a large hole appearing in his helmet, while the other went down to his knees, hands going to his head after he dropped his weapon.
“Let’s move.”
Jonah led, letting the younger man follow to his left. His attention was straight ahead, while Joey handled the flanks, looking back and forth. The colonel checked the two Xlatan who were down. Both had faceplates covering their entire faces, leaving only their ears exposed. If he had the poisoned weapons of the Kalagarta, he might be able to take advantage of that exposure, but he didn’t see how he could use it with the weapons he had. Squatting for a second, the Human wrested the faceplate out of position, exposing the slack face of the creature. Standing back, he put a round through the face, making sure he wasn’t leaving an enemy behind who might recover.
He turned to see Joey staring at him.
“We can’t afford to let any of them get back in the fight, son, and I’m not about to take prisoners. Not right now.”
Joey nodded, and Jonah turned his attention back to the front. He wasn’t sure how they were going to win this thing, but the thought had entered his mind that getting to the administration building might be a good first step, as soon as he rescued his people by the landing field.
* * *
Kevin Graham sighted in on the shuttle that was on a slow approach to the compound. It was obvious they were searching for a target and didn’t want to risk hitting any of their own. He didn’t have that problem. It hung in the air, and with a flat-trajectory light-speed weapon, there was no way he could miss, while the shuttle didn’t know he was here.
“You’re dead,” he whispered as he pressed the firing stud. The beam was highlighted by the dust and smoke swirling through the air. It struck right where he aimed it—the starboard engine pod. Alloy spurted in sparks and glowing metal, and the engine started to flame and smoke.
The shuttle’s crew saw him—his beam pointing out his position—and the shuttle’s beam came back at him in an instant. The heavy weapons specialist let out a grunt of pain as his right leg exploded, and a wave of agony swept through him. The shuttle started to turn in the air, and Graham gritted his teeth and sighted in, this time aiming for the cockpit. Again the hit was instantaneous, this time burning through the side of the forward compartment. He hadn’t gone for it to start because he wasn’t sure he’d get burn through, and the engine was a sure thing. He must have hit something vital, he was hoping the pilot, because the shuttle immediately nosed down and hit the ground.
Should have stayed in Alabama, the gunner thought as his vision started to go black. His HUD showed his right leg was no longer there, and the damage reached all the way up to his lower abdomen. He triggered the small med pack on his suit to give himself a large dose of pain meds and stimulants. His vision cleared a bit, and the pain moved to a more distant space. He could still function, for a short time, as long as he wasn’t called on to move. And the one person who might be able to save him was in the compound, attending to other injured.
Might as well go out with a bang, Kevin thought, looking for a target worthy of his weapon. He spotted it through the infrared scope—what looked like an armored vehicle sitting on the edge of the landing field. He didn’t think his weapon would penetrate the armor, but the two Xlatan who were trying to scramble aboard didn’t have that kind of protection.
He sighted in, pushed the stud, then swung the barrel the inch needed to bring the second target into focus. That being was trying to get over the falling body of his comrade, and Kevin’s vision started to blur. He pushed the stud, sending the beam on its way with a prayer on his lips.
* * *
“Lrator. Get some people and go after whatever’s hitting us on the other flank.”
Mmrash didn’t know what was over there. There had been some kind of explosive device projector, but it was no longer firing. Most likely they’d run through their ammo. The Humans had walked in, and that had to limit what they could carry. That they still had something up there as evidenced by the beings that kept dropping from some kind of long range shots. It wasn’t a beam weapon, since whatever it was made the crack of a round flying at hypersonic speed.
“I’m on it,” Lrator called back over the comm.
If anyone could get to those Humans, it was the newly-promoted lieutenant, unless they spotted him and took out enough soldiers to make the others keep their heads down.
“Get that damned thing up and running!” the commander yelled at the two specialist troopers who were running for his one armored fighting vehicle. It wasn’t really a tank, but it was more than a personnel carrier. He doubted the Humans had anything that could blast through its high-density armor, and the heavy laser cannon it carried in its turret would destroy any of them it caught in its sights.
The crew could have entered from the rear, through the doors that provided access for the four scouts the vehicle could carry. A smattering of small explosions across those doors changed their minds, and they headed for the side away from the fire of the Humans to climb up to the upper hatches. One had gotten to the top of the hull and was starting to climb up into the turret, the other right behind, when a beam of light penetrated the smoke, burned through the body armor, and vaporized part of the soldier’s torso. The body fell, slamming into the other Xlatan. It took him several seconds to fend off the body, while Mmrash tried to backtrack the beam to find the Human who’d fired it. The second beam came in, a miss, until it swept into the body of the other tanker. There wasn’t enough contact for a clean kill. The Xlatan cried out in agony as the beam burned through a mid-limb and the soldier fell off the AFV heavily.
“That way!” Mmrash yelled, backtracking the beam. “He’s over there. Put fire down on him.”
He was losing too many people, but he still had the people to lose. The Humans couldn’t have started the fight with more than twenty people, and he knew the Syndicate had taken down a couple of them. We’ve got to beat them, don’t we? he thought. So why didn’t that thought have the strength of conviction behind it?
* * *
“Is anyone coming?” Achilles Antonopolis cried out as he ducked back from his firing position. A laser beam struck where his head had been, while three more passed over the top of the pile of tree trunks they were sheltering behind.
The pile was at least eight feet wide. The enemy could burn through them, given time and a lot of extra power packs. That had made them seem good shelter, but the two infantrymen had made a mistake by not ensuring their avenue of retreat.
“The colonel said he was coming,” Cheung Xou said, getting off a shot around his end of the pile and scooting back.
“Then where the hell is he?” the Greek asked.
Xou shook his head, studying the layout of the enemy through the drones he had floating overhead. Antonopolis had only been on one other mission with the company, and it had been an easy one. Xou had been with White Eagle for five years and had been on almost twenty operations. If the
colonel said he’d do something, he would, or he’d die trying. What worried him was that the last part was very possible on this field.
* * *
“Colonel Ramos,” Captain Melody Chu called over the comm.
“What do you have?”
“I’m not completely sure. I think something is going on down at the compound.”
“Show me.”
Ramos leaned forward in his chair as the Tri-V came to life. The globe of the planet appeared, with the image of the Syndicate frigate as seen from the Guadalcanal in the foreground. The view zoomed quickly, the surface rushing up until it centered over the Syndicate compound.
“What the hell?” Ramos pointed at a spot in the view and zoomed in further, bringing what looked like a crashed shuttle into view. Moving his finger, he slid the view over into the compound, where a pair of the same type of aircraft were burning on the tarmac.
“We’re being warned off by the frigate,” the captain said, her face appearing on another view screen, “and I’m picking up another ship entering the system.”
“What kind of ship?”
“It appears to be a freighter.”
Ramos made an instant decision. “Take out the frigate, now, and get us to drop range.”
Ramos switched the comm to contact his people, leaving the little detail of the space battle to the experts. “Get the boys and girls to the shuttles, Major. We drop in five minutes.”
The ship shook under his feet as he walked from his office and started for the bridge in a jog. Another shake, this time more violent, and he sped up into a run, his boot heels barely grabbing hold of the deck with each step. He could get to the shuttles in less than a minute, and what was going on in space was important as well.
“They might be a little tougher than we thought,” Chu said as the colonel came through the hatch.
Red lights were blinking while the drone of a klaxon sounded. The closest board showed a schematic of the Guadalcanal, small areas glowing red to indicate damage. The frigate was on the main viewer, the nozzles of lasers glowing. The enemy warship spat a missile that exploded moments after entering space, hit with one of the assault transport’s defensive lasers.
“Can you take her?” Ramos asked, feeling doubt for the first time.
Part of the frigate’s hull glowed, alloy puffed into space, and the other ship moved at an angle opposite the push of the vapor. Another part did the same, then another, just before a warhead went off close to the frigate, burning into its hull.
“Keep firing!” Chu yelled as the enemy got off another shot. The transport shook again, just before the last enemy laser blinked out.
“I’m not going to take a chance with this bitch,” Chu said, looking back at Ramos, who nodded in return.
More laser hits burned into the hull, a missile exploded next to it, and, with a flash, the enemy warship went up in a ball of plasma.
“How much damage?” Ramos asked, looking over the shoulder of the rating to see the glowing red on the schematic.
“One laser mount out. Some hull breaches over the starboard cargo holds. Some electronic shunts. Nothing we can’t fix.”
Ramos nodded, looking at the ship’s captain and reading the worry on her face. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was bothering her. “If that ship looks to be more than a match, or even your equal, I want you to protect the ship. Run and hide. You do us no good providing a spreading debris field up here.”
“Will do,” Chu agreed, relief on her face. “I’ll try to stick it out.”
“Just make sure we have something to take us out of here,” Ramos said, stepping over and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Now it’s time for us ground pounders to do our part.”
“I’d suggest coming down a hundred miles from the compound, then coming in nap of the earth.”
“Sounds good,” the colonel replied, stepping to the hatch. “See you in a few.”
I hope, he thought as he worried about the battle he was about to drop into. The plan had been for the Fierce Eagles to gather the intelligence so the Ravagers would know what they were dropping into. He could bring in all of his people in three drops. Instead, the light infantry was stuck full in, and he’d be dropping into chaos. Since time was short, he’d only be able to bring in a third of his force.
Can’t be helped, he thought as he walked through the hatch into the hangar, throwing an abbreviated salute to the troopers who had snapped to attention. The men and women were all dressed in the padded clothing they wore while inside their mechas, with serious expressions of their faces.
“Time to go to work, people,” Ramos said, heading for his assault shuttle. The rest immediately ran into their own shuttles. Moments later the outer hatch opened, and the first assault shuttle nosed out, oriented itself, then boosted toward the planet.
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Yusef!” Ahmed yelled out as his partner went down under the sweep of a laser. Beams were crisscrossing all over the field in front of the berm, forming an almost impenetrable barrier. Bodies of Kalagarta lay all over the area. The remaining warriors were close to the ground, trying to burrow into it. They were brave enough in the attack, but seeing all of their comrades going down as soon as they got close to the berm was enough to dissuade even the most courageous of warriors.
“I’m okay,” the other Human croaked into his comm. “Just got a touch on the shoulder.”
Ahmed breathed a sigh of relief. A laser hitting unprotected skin could be fatal, even if it didn’t hit a vital area. The combination of tissue destruction and heat transfer could stop the internal systems of a living being. Their camo covers wouldn’t do more than reflect the laser beam for a second or so, which could be enough for survival. The armored skin suit could also repel laser fire for a second or two. Still, it wasn’t unheard of for a second or less exposure to punch through the protection, and heavy beamers could burn through in an instant.
“We’re stuck here,” Yusef continued, lying about a dozen yards to the right of the senior mortarman.
“I don’t think they’ve seen us,” Ahmed replied, craning his neck to try and get a glimpse into the compound. From his position he couldn’t get a view over the berm, but the ten or so Xlatan on the top of the earthworks, firing their lasers, were readily apparent. “They’ve got our allies pinned down, sure enough.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I think if we can get close enough we can take those infidels out,” Ahmed said, looking over the terrain and picking out what he thought would be the best path. Some shallow runoffs, but with their camouflage he thought they could do it. “Follow me.”
Ahmed started moving at a low crawl, not the most comfortable means of travel, and one that would tire a soldier quickly. He was already tired, but there was no help for it. His skin crawled under his covering, the mercenary expecting a shot in the back at any moment. They were all but invisible, but not truly. If someone observant was looking at the blur of their outlines as they moved across the ground, they might take a shot.
May Allah protect us, the mercenary thought. From what he’d seen of the universe, though, Allah did little for his worshippers other than welcome them into paradise after they met their fate.
* * *
“Get your people over to that point to cover the field!” Mmrash yelled into the comm. “Move, damn you!”
“The men are spooked,” the NCO replied over the comm. “Something we can’t see keeps killing our people.”
“You know this? It has happened to you?”
“No, uh, no, sir,” said the hesitant sergeant, “but we’ve found the bodies of soldiers who were sliced open. Whatever they’re using goes right through our armor.”
Carbon nanotube blades, the commander thought, feeling his ears twitching in a combination of fear and frustration. As blade weapons, they weren’t of much use at most times in modern combat. Unfortunately, it seemed the Humans had found a way to use t
hem. And the effect the combination of their stealth and killing with blade weapons was having on his people was disheartening.
“I don’t care what the hell you’ve seen. The Humans are about to take the landing field, which means they’ll be able to cover in the buildings.”
“Yes, sir. We’re moving. We’re…”
The Xlatan’s words cut off suddenly, an abruptness that sent a chill up the commander’s spine. There was yelling, screaming, three voices turning into one, then that one cutting off with a squeak.
“You men,” he told the six troopers set up around his command post, “we need to move to the field. Follow me.”
Mmrash didn’t like the idea of leaving his covered position, especially if there were invisible assassins out there taking out the small groups they came across, but if he held these people in reserve too long, he risked the situation getting completely out of hand, if it wasn’t already. And if he didn’t lead them, he had no way of knowing if they’d go to ground before they accomplished anything.
Hefting his rifle, Mmrash started out at the head of the half dozen Xlatan. He moved in a crouch that was unnatural to the six-legged species, his mid limbs useless in that gait. Since it made him a smaller target, he was willing to put up with the disadvantage, and besides, he could only fire one rifle at a time anyway.
* * *
“Kill them!” Jillor yelled to the four Xlatan who’d brought the pair of Humans under fire. He himself was still having trouble even seeing the bastards, especially since they’d gone to ground by the side of a building. Whatever they were using for a concealment field, it was better than anything he’d ever heard of. As far as he could tell, they were moving without a trace or a sound. Yet somehow one of the Xlatan had spotted something, and had fired, alerting the rest of the fire team to the general location of the Humans.
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