Wrath of the Shaitans

by Sudipto Majumdar

  The ten remaining marines pumped a fair amount of lead into the direction of the plasma pulse. They could not see anything, but one of them must have gotten off a lucky shot for an IR halo emerged from the veil of the dust storm advancing quickly. The marines used the opportunity to further pump lead into the Shaitan, which further sent it into a death frenzy.

  The Shaitan had not yet crossed the ridge to reach the place the marines were lying flat. Its death frenzy made it lose its footing on the ridge and it plunged below to some indeterminate depth. The marines had no idea how far the fall went. One of the marines started foaming the hole on Willy’s torso while the rest kept a watch in the direction of the ridge.

  It was clear to Sarge that the Shaitans could see them before the marines could see the Shaitans. The radar was somewhere on the other side of the ridge and they had to run the gauntlet if they wanted to take the radar out. The marines did not even have the luxury of approaching slowly over the ridge. The dead Shaitan was sure to have tripped an alarm.

  There was no knowing how many Shaitans on the other side of the ridge protected the radar, but he was certain had a hell lot of them would come from behind the marines to reinforce and protect the radar very soon. Their only chance was to reach the radar before reinforcements arrived and hope to overwhelm the defending Shaitans on the other side.

  The narrow ridge and the broad bodied Shaitans could still be taken advantage of. The charge had to be quick, shocking and suicidal. That was the only hope for success. Oh well… thought Sarge, whatever happened, it will be mercifully quick either way. Sarge gathered the squad, gave the order and led the charge.

  The ridge was wide enough for one human to run comfortably and safely in suit, but not two side by side. It was a careful walk for the wide bodied Shaitans. Sarge had his SG-4 in automatic mode. He squeezed the trigger and kept it squeezed as he ran at full speed screaming with bloodlust at the top of his voice inside his suit, which no one else could hear.

  The SG-4 kept pumping out its massive caliber bullets at the rate of just under one per second, and caught the first Shaitan who was coming over the ridge to face the charging marines. Although it was a blind shot, with neither parties having detected the other, Sarge’s reckoning had been correct that any Shaitan trying to cross the narrow ridge was highly likely to get hit due to their wide bodies.

  The Sarge was however not so lucky with the second Shaitan behind the first one he had shot blindly. That Shaitan had not yet gotten on to the ridge and as a result was not in the line of Sarge’s fire. Sarge was barely 15 meters from crossing the ridge when he came into the IR sensor of the second Shaitan.

  The plasma pulse hit Sarge on his neck and right shoulder. He felt no pain as he tumbled over the ridge down into a fair sized chasm and crashed. He was long dead before that. The second Shaitan did not get a second chance to fire. The marine behind Sarge, pumped three bullets into it before its plasma gun could recharge.

  The marines tumbled and crawled the moment they crossed the ridge and spread out as they advanced. They found cover behind what looked like boxes that lay strewn around. There was firing coming out of a lone gun. The remaining 9 marines quickly surrounded the source of the plasma fire and advanced, firing blindly till the IR halo of the Shaitan came into view. At that point the Shaitan died a quick death from 9 guns eager to avenge their Sarge.

  Two of the marines with the demo kit got busy rigging up the only piece of equipment on top of this flattened peak. It was fairly easy to identify it as a radar. In fact it was amazing how much in common it had with a human radar, especially the design of the dish antenna. The problem of physics to solve was common for both the species, hence the design was similar.

  It was obvious that this peak was used as a high observation post for the radar. It was ideally suited for the purpose with its height. It was also very defensible with just a few soldiers. The only access to this place was thorough the narrow ridge that they had come. As the demo team was rigging up the explosives on the radar, the remaining seven marines dragged the boxes next to ridge and took up positions behind them.

  It was a good thing that they did because no sooner had they done so that the first plasma blast hit the box. The good part was that only one Shaitan, the foremost one could fire at a time while crossing the ridge. The humans had been the disadvantaged party when storming the place, but now they were the one with the advantage.

  With seven guns, they had enough stopping power to halt the Shaitans as they tried to cross the ridge. They could not run very fast across the ridge like the humans due to their wide body, which forced them to tuck their limbs. Still the marines decided to conserve their bullets. They had no idea how many Shaitans were waiting to storm the place. They fired alternately to put 3 rounds per Shaitan, which ensured that they stopped and slipped in their death frenzy.

  The marines had given up their radio silence. There was no point now. It helped them to co-ordinate and all of them hunkered down when they heard ‘fire in the hole’ as the demo team blasted the radar to bits. Then the Lance corporal, who was now the commanding officer of the squad transmitted the prearranged radio signal. It would register as a strong blip on the radios of the shuttle, but it would tell the pilots all they needed to know. The radar was down.

  Chapter 22

  Fiery Ghosts

  Mars

  September 2083

  Ed was having a tough time keeping track of all the marines and the positions on the HUD while keeping a sharp eye out for IR scans of the approaching Shaitans and their muzzle flash. He decided to switch over to monitoring the overall tactical situation through his neural interface, while tracking the enemy movement with his eyes. He would pay for such an overload with a massive migraine very soon, but it was better to let his head ache than to have it blown off.

  A virtual map started floating within his field of vision. It was not a schematic map like the one he had been watching on his HUD. It was as if virtual objects were floating at various distances, and as he turned his head some of the virtual objects came into view, while others went out of his field of vision.

  There were green blocks in the virtual map, which represented the last known position of one of his marines. If he concentrated on that block, it would zoom to show the photo and name of the marine. The dotted line to the green block showed the distance. Some of the green blocks were hatched, which indicated that those positions had not been updated for at least a few seconds, probably due to that marine moving out of the limited range of the virtual radio grid the marines had created with their suit.

  The hatched green blocks represented the last known position of the marine. There were quite a few of the green blocks that turned hatched and then updated back to green some distance away as the marines kept coming in and out of range of their virtual radio grid. The pathetic range of the grid would continue as long as the Shaitan jamming device was on.

  Then there were a few static yellow blocks that were coming into Ed’s view. These were the position of some of the ghosts they were approaching towards. Lastly Ed would see a glimpse of a red block once in a while, which were the known position of any Shaitan that may have been picked up by the suit of any of the marines. These few red blocks kept appearing and disappearing as Shaitans came and went out of view or were killed by the marines.

  “Demo Team 2, haul ass! You have fallen behind the rest of the line. I want you to double time towards you ghosts now!” Ed shouted. Fire Team 2 had taken a few extra seconds to place their explosives and they were now paying the price of having to struggle to reach the retreating line and prevent themselves from being surrounded.

  Ed reached his ghost. And took up his cover position next to it and waited. He had a moment so he looked sideways at the ghost and wondered. Had he come up with the most harebrained idea in the history of the marines? They would find out soon, but if he turned out to be wrong, it would end very badly for the third platoon.

  His answer came soon enough, when
the first plasma pulse struck the ghost. His gun barrel camera was monitoring the direction of the muzzle flash, but he could not yet see the Shaitan who had fired the shot at the ghost. Ed swapped the gun to his other hand and took it next to the ghost and fired in the general direction of the Shaitan, then quickly withdrew his hand and waited. Only the barrel and its camera sticking out.

  This time he saw the IR halo of the Shaitan emerge from the dust storm. Clearly the Shaitan had gotten impatient when the ghost fired back at it. The Shaitan came closer to kill the ghost better. The Shaitan paid the price with his life as Ed placed two well-aimed shots right in the middle of its bulk. The ghost clearly worked, at least for Ed. It was worthwhile lugging it all the way here. Ed got further confirmation from the open channel as marines shared tips on how they were making the most of their ghosts.

  The ghost was an idea that formed in Ed’s mind while discussing tactics with Leanna for this battle. The colonel had brought in Dr. Yusuke Matsumoto to give an idea of the conditions that can be expected in the next few days. Yusuke had mentioned that there was a developing storm that he could observe in the stratosphere.

  The dust storms on mars can vary from little dust devils to storms of legendary proportions, which rise into the stratosphere 10 to 15 Km high. Some of the largest storms can engulf the entire planet and last for weeks on an end. Since they no longer had any satellites orbiting Mars, Dr. Matsumoto could not accurately predict the weather.

  However seeing the dust storm high in the atmosphere he had felt that there was more than a fair chance that a large dust storm was brewing over the horizon, which could engulf Valles Marineris in the next few days. Yusuke had meant that weather prediction as a warning to the marines. After all visibility goes down drastically in a dust storm, while infrared is not hampered that badly.

  Humans were partial to light. They use vision as their primary sense to navigate around and fight. Shaitans on the other hand being creatures of the dark had no particular affinity to light. They could work with infrared and sound echolocation just as well as with light. This put the marines at a disadvantage in a dust storm.

  Ed however had seen an opportunity in that adversity. If the Shaitans were going to be dependent on infrared, then Ed would give them exactly that and feed them what they wanted to see. The marines had discarded the outer layer of their suit used for jumping when they had landed. The outer layer was specialized for reentry into the atmosphere and was essentially a hard insulated shell with heat tiling to resist the burn of reentry.

  The outer shell was meant to be discarded once used. Most of the hard shell would have ablated way during entry into the atmosphere and its seams once opened would not seal back. Ed however had other plans for it. He got each of the marine to retrieve the outer shells.

  The small rocket thrusters on those shells had more than 4 times the rocket fuel needed for a typical landing as a measure of safety, just in case a marine had to thrust for longer or harder than required. The rocket’s nozzles which were fed by a thin pipe to the boots of the shell were redirected and inserted inside the shell. Then using emergency epoxy glue carried by the marines, the two halves of the outer shell were sealed back. The glue would hold the two halves tight enough for the purpose that Ed had in mind.

  They had each hauled their shells on their backs through the treacherous climb down to the plains, and then placed them at chosen spots near any type of cover that might be available like a boulder or a ditch. The shells were placed in a sitting position to give them stability and present a small enough profile, and yet be targetable.

  Then they had set the control of the retro rockets on the shell to the slowest possible burn and let the exhaust simmer inside the shell, while they went off to sabotage the Shaitan shuttle. By the time the marines had returned, the insides of the shell were toasty warm. The shell was heavily insulated, so it took some time for the heat to conduct out to the surface.

  That very insulation though was going to keep the shell warm for a long period of time even if it got punctured and the cold Martian air went inside the shell. The warm shell was glowing in the infrared against the cold of Mars like a lighthouse. Each marine took up position next to a ghost behind cover. The relative warmth of the shell partially masked the relatively lower heat of the marines’ suits.

  The marines were hidden in plain sight, using the heat of the shells as a mask and a lure to encourage the Shaitans step into their parlor. Close enough for the marines to shoot and then scoot. Sometimes they would take their shell ghosts along with them and place it at another point. At other times they would simply run and find another ghost and hide nearby.

  The Shaitans were attracted towards the shells like a magnet. To their senses the shells must have looked like fiery ghosts through the haze of the dust storm, who had to be investigated and terminated. Whenever they did come near the ghosts, there was a marine waiting somewhere nearby unnoticed, to send the Shaitan back to its maker, whoever that might be.

  It was good going for a while. The marines harassed, confused and killed over a hundred Shaitans this way. However all good things must come to an end. So it was with Ed’s ‘Fiery Ghost’ strategy. There were still four hundred or more Shaitans left who had gotten wiser. They regrouped, fanned out and formed a wide line that approached en masse.

  The Shaitan line stormed in at a fast clip. Sniping at individual Shaitans from behind cover was no longer a viable option. Even if they killed a few of them, the others would overwhelm the marines. Ed sounded the retreat and the marines ran for their lives. The fiery ghosts performed one last duty by drawing out a large part of the fire as the marines retreated. There were casualties on the marines’ side though. Not all were able to extract themselves from the Shaitan charge alive.

  Ed knew that this was one race the marines would lose. Humans could not run as fast as the Shaitans. He desperately radioed Kormas base hoping against hope that somehow they would be able to miraculously listen to his cries for help over the jamming of signals. After a few seconds, he realized the hopelessness of the situation and realized that the marines would have to make a last stand and take as many Shaitans with them as possible instead of getting shot at the back.

  There was a small depression in the ground just ahead. Ed realized that this would have to do. There was no time to look for better cover. “Marines halt and take cover behind the dune at my position. Third platoon converge on me. We make our stand here. Semper fi marines.” There was a tone of finality in his voice which put the men around him in a similar state of mind. The marines were now prepared for what was to be their fate. They would however makes sure that the Shaitans paid a heavy price before that.

  The Shaitans were probably not aware that they had an advantage in being able to detect human IR signature before the humans could detect them. If they had been aware of this fact, they would have stopped the moment they detected the entrenched marine line and shot from that point. The marines would have been forced to shoot blind into the veil of dust.

  The Shaitans instead continued their pursuit, coming closer and making themselves visible to the human IR sensor, and even sometimes close enough to be seen visually. The marines started picking the Shaitans as they appeared inflicting heavy losses, but one by one the marines were also being picked off. Seven or eight Shaitans would die before they managed to hit one marine, but even with that favorable ratio, there were not enough marines to be able to stop the overwhelming number of Shaitans.

  Ed did not believe in miracles, but a miracle did arrive. It arrived in the form of a shuttle buzzing over the advancing line of Shaitans at high speed strafing the line with the heavy caliber mounted machine gun. The radar had been destroyed, and humans had the only shuttles in the battlefield. They had air superiority.

  They were still vulnerable to SAMs if they got near where one was deployed, but the shuttles could no longer be tracked and targeted from far by radar. That reduced the operational range of the SAMs drastically. It gave the
shuttle the freedom to come here to the open plains some distance from the camp where it was unlikely anyone was carrying a SAM. The shuttle was still vulnerable to fire if they moved low and slow, which is why it buzzed by low but fast, strafing its machine gun.

  The gunner of the shuttle had targeted using infrared and managed to hit a few but not enough to cause any substantial dent in the number of Shaitans. The effect on the line of advancing Shaitans however was to throw it into confusion and bring the advance to a halt.

  The IR signature of the hot shuttle exhaust was visible for a much longer distance even through the dust storm but not long enough for any of the Shaitans to get off an aimed shot at the shuttle. Effectively the shuttle had ghosted in through the dust storm, shot a few Shaitans and ghosted out. The psychological effect on the Shaitans however was profound.

  Most of them were no longer looking ahead towards where the marines were hidden behind a small dune. They were keeping their eyes above, knowing that the shuttle would buzz by again and take a few more Shaitans. This was the opening Ed was looking for. He ordered all his marines who could move to retreat and run like hell.

  Most of the Shaitans stood still, keeping their attention on the air, although they could see in all directions equally well simultaneously. They would have surely seen the marines make a run for it. A few of the Shaitans however gave chase to the marines.

  “Eagle 2 to third platoon do you copy. I am getting your IFF signals, do you copy mine?” Ed heard inside his helmet. It was the sweetest sound he had heard in a long time. “Major Bassinger to Eagle 2 we copy you loud and clear. We owe you a drink for being our guardian angel, but right now a little bit more help would be appreciated. We have hostiles on our tails which we would like to lose as we flee.”

  “Copy that major. We have your radio IFF tag, so we must be close to you. We will get closer to pick up the IR signature of your pursuers and buzz them. I have a message from the colonel however. The Kormas base is now engaged in a full-fledged battle with the 1500 Shaitans laying siege. She would very much appreciate if we could somehow hold these 500 Shaitans here and not allow them to reinforce the 1500. Eagle 2 is at your service for that task.” The pilot said.