Ranger

by William Stacey

  "We in any danger?" Huck asked.

  Ylra smirked. "Been in danger since the moment we arrived, but this beast has already eaten its fill." She glanced at the partially eaten carcass. "Unless we interrupted its dinner. If that's the case, it's hungry and angry."

  "You're full of optimism," Leela said.

  Ylra sniffed. "Welcome to Faerum."

  They moved on, seeing no further sign of the sher-cat. By early evening, they reached the edge of the forest. True to his word, Gevn Ap had taken them to the savanna.

  Dusk fell across a series of open, grassy hills for kilometers ahead, bordered by thick woodland in the north and west. On their right, less than a kilometer away, the wide green river ran in a straight line. Opposite the river, like a wall, was the cliff of the Serpent's Spine. And there, less than two kilometers to the north, they saw the dark stone bridge. On the other side of the bridge, a narrow pass cut through the cliffs of the spine. A kilometer past the bridge, the river twisted once more, looping back on itself, like a coiled snake.

  Huck joined Alex then touched the side of her helmet. A few moments later, she swore. "Shit."

  "What's wrong?" he asked.

  She stared at him for a moment. "Use your vision-enhancement mode. Touch the two indentations below the power switch on your helmet. Left zooms in, right zooms out again."

  He reached up and fumbled with his fingers until he found the indentations she spoke of. The moment he touched the left indentation, his vision zoomed in on the stone bridge, and he saw right away what had disturbed Huck. Arrayed in ranks before the bridge was an enemy army, a force of hundreds of boggart warriors standing behind prepared defenses.

  "Shit," Alex parroted.

  Alex stood beside Huck, looking over the intelligence operator's shoulder as he flew the UAV in a circular pattern over the bridge and its defenders. The boggart warriors stood behind their wooden barricades, arrayed in a defensive posture, but they only defended the near side of the bridge. The pass through the spine was empty.

  Captain Shapiro spit out a wad of chewing tobacco. "Must be a couple hundred. How'd they know we were coming?"

  "Closer to two fifty," Huck said.

  "Just boggarts with a handful of trolls in support," Alex said. "Where are the elves?"

  "Still more than twice as many of them as us," Ylra said. She stood nearby with Leela. "Boggarts are tough fighters. And they can move back into the water and fight just as effectively as they can on land."

  "Doesn't matter," said Shapiro. "If we use the war rigs to provide suppressing fire then roll through their left flank, we'll scatter them. We can be across the bridge and into that pass before nightfall."

  Alex looked at Shapiro then Huck. "You're thinking about a hasty attack?"

  "I am," she admitted, staring at the monitor. "Although it would be so much easier if we could open a gateway on their flank. But even the old-fashioned way, we can still rout them." She pulled out a field message pad and jotted a plan of attack on it, marking the bridge and the pass. "We drop rucks here. This'll be the objective rally point. We move 1 Platoon to our left flank to provide security then move the war rigs forward to that hill there and call it a firebase." She glanced up from her pad, pointing to the hill a kilometer and a half ahead of them. "From that hill, the war rigs will have direct fire onto the boggart defenses. They use the miniguns and grenade launchers to provide suppressing fire. Then we swing 2 and 3 Platoons to the right flank of the bridge and assault. 2 Platoon can fight through the objective while 3 Platoon seizes both sides of the bridge." She looked at Shapiro then Alex. "Thoughts?"

  "I think it's a good plan," Shapiro said. "Close with and destroy the enemy."

  Alex pointed north, to the woods several kilometers away and the wide loop in the river. "Can you send the UAV north, scan those woods?"

  Huck looked at the UAV operator. "Do it."

  The soldier guided the UAV away from the bridge, flying it over the defenders before heading north over the bend in the river then speeding on toward the forest two kilometers farther away. "Looks like the same thick forest canopy, can't see anything," the operator said.

  "Go infrared," said Huck.

  The operator depressed a button, and a moment later, the screen went dark with scores of bright-white flares in the woods, horse-sized life forms arrayed in columns, and smaller person-sized figures moving among the horses, hundreds. The operator sat back and stared in surprise. "Damn," he whispered. "Sorry, ma'am."

  Huck turned to Alex. "Cavalry. Good call, Ranger."

  "Kelpies," said Ylra. "They were expecting us, laying a trap. We attack the bridge, the cavalry takes us from the flank or even behind."

  "Bullshit," said Shapiro. "They're on the wrong side of the river to be of any use. They can't flank us."

  Ylra shook her head. "They're kelpies. They can run over the water."

  Shapiro stared at her, his mouth open. "You're kidding."

  "She's right," said Leela. "They crossed the Peace River that way and caught us in the open. Would have had us if Alex and Recce Squadron hadn't arrived just in time to save our asses."

  "Well, we know they're there," said Shapiro. "That can't work twice."

  "Don't be so sure," said Alex.

  "What are you thinking?" Huck asked.

  "They've beaten us here. How? Why?"

  "They're fighting a civil war," said Ylra. "Maybe those boggarts aren't even the queen's forces."

  "You think they're just guarding the bridge?" asked Shapiro. "Like it's key terrain or something?"

  "Maybe," Ylra said. "Grandmother's hairy tits, I don't know."

  "Then they're not even here for us," Shapiro said. "Nothing changes. Hit 'em hard, ma'am, and we'll scatter them."

  "Then why hide the cavalry?" Alex shook his head. "No, this feels wrong. For all we know, there may be hundreds of cloaked mages waiting for us to commit." He faced Huck. "I think we should find another way."

  "There is no other way," Ylra insisted. "Not without boats and enough rope to climb the spine."

  "If there were invisible mages, they'd show up on IR," Shapiro insisted. "Starlight shows up on IR when she goes invisible."

  "The magic doesn't always work the same way," said Leela. "They don't create the same shields I do, and they can't do telekinesis at all. Their invisibility might be different."

  Shapiro snorted. "That's a guess."

  "It's all a guess," insisted Alex. He met Huck's eye. "Let's pull back and wait for Liv's gateway rig to recharge. Deep Terlingas has remained hidden for years. What are a few more days?"

  "But the queen has Kargin," said Ylra. "He will tell her about the city. He may have already done so. Maybe the queen knows of Deep Terlingas and she's sent an army into the Char. This force might be here only to delay us. We need to warn my people."

  Huck sighed. "How much longer before we can open a gateway?"

  Ylra shook her head. "A few days at least."

  Huck rose, snapping her field message pad closed, and stared across the hills, her hands on her hips. First Sergeant Martinez joined her, saying nothing, her constant angry gargoyle.

  "What do you think, Santiago?"

  He cleared his throat in a growl. When he spoke, his voice was crushed gravel. "You know me, ma'am. When in doubt, kick 'em in the teeth."

  Huck nodded. She turned to her XO. "Captain Shapiro, consider this a warning order. We're attacking in ten minutes."

  "Snow White, give us cover," Huck said to Boko, kneeling beside her and watching the bridge to their front, a kilometer away.

  The mag-sens nodded and closed her eyes, her arms held out before her. Within moments, clouds of thick fog drifted over the terrain, hiding the bridge.

  "All call signs, move now!" Huck ordered over the radio.

  The three infantry platoons and seven rigs, including Liv's gateway rig with its arm-mounted needle launchers, moved out at a light jog, using the fog to cover their movement as they headed for their starting positions for
the hasty assault.

  Alex and Leela stayed with Huck and the Strike Force headquarters personnel, as well as the still-guarded Veraxia, watching the assault. They had left their rucksacks in the jungle behind them at Huck's objective rally point, grouped together by platoon for quick retrieval after the fighting. All the soldiers carried now were the weapons and ammunition they'd need for the fight.

  Alarm horns blew from the bridge as the boggarts realized something was moving in the fog. They had reacted quicker than he would have thought, taking up positions behind their barricades, certain they'd be safe. They wouldn't be.

  The effective range of the miniguns and automatic grenade launchers was just over a thousand meters. The boggarts' crossbows could reach at best a hundred meters. These boggarts had never faced twenty-first-century weapons and had no way of knowing how badly they were about to take it. He almost felt sorry for them.

  With their augmented limbs, the war rigs were much faster than the other troops and reached their firebase first, the hill facing the bridge. Nor did the rigs' heavy weapons require setup. The moment the soldiers in the exo-suits pointed their weapons at the enemy, they were ready to go. With their weapons trained on the woods across the river where the kelpie cavalry was hiding, 1 Platoon moved behind the hill. If the cavalry crossed the river, 1 Platoon would light them up. Next, 2 and 3 Platoons moved to their line of departure on the left flank of the boggart defenses. Alex's pulse raced as the platoons prepared for the attack. Huck's plan was simple, but simple was what you wanted for a hasty attack. Simple worked best.

  "War rigs, this is Sunray. Weapons free," Huck ordered.

  The miniguns opened fire first, sending streams of 7.62mm death to shred the wooden barricades and the boggarts hiding behind them. Then the war rigs with the automatic grenade launchers sent volleys of explosives arching over the defenses, exploding behind them. Even from this far back, they could hear the boggart screams.

  "Oh my God," whispered Leela, staring wide-eyed at the carnage.

  "They can run away," Alex said, hearing the callousness in his voice. It was a hard thing to give up hate.

  "Boggarts are brave," Ylra said. "They won't run easily. This is gonna be a slaughter."

  The two assaulting platoons surged forward, breaking down into their fire teams, assault groups, and sections. The fire teams supported one another, with one team firing while the other advanced. As the platoons moved forward, the war rigs kept the boggarts suppressed with constant fire. It would be hell for those boggarts and trolls, like nothing they had ever experienced.

  "War rigs, this is Sunray. Shift fire left thirty degrees. Shift fire left."

  "This is War Rig 1. Shifting fire left. Acknowledged."

  It was hard to see from here, but as the assaulting platoons reached the enemy, the war rigs needed to adjust fire to the left, away from the boggarts, to minimize the risk of friendly fire on the platoons as they began their assault. The boggarts wouldn't know that, though, and they'd still hear the barrage of gunfire going overhead, not realizing they were no longer under effective fire. They'd still be hiding when the assault force took them in the flank. There was a psychological effect when hit in the flank or the rear. It was far more terrifying than a direct frontal assault. And it worked like a charm.

  As the assault force hit the enemy's flank and assaulted through the objective, the boggarts broke, fleeing in the opposite direction. Within seconds, the lead elements of 3 Platoon were on the bridge, moving across it to secure both sides, while 2 Platoon pushed through the enemy barriers. Grenades detonated among the defenses, followed by aimed shots. Scores of boggarts and trolls fled along the riverbank, running away to the north—right into the war frames' enfilade fire—while others leapt into the river, disappearing from sight in a moment.

  Alex heard the 2 Platoon commander come over the radio. "Sunray, this is 2-A. Limit of advance. I say again, limit of advance."

  "2-A, this is Sunray. Roger that. Secure the objective with a hasty perimeter and stand by for battle damage assessment in two mikes."

  "2-A, two mikes. Roger. Out."

  "Acorn. " Huck's voice came over the radio net once more. "Any movement on the cavalry?"

  "Acorn here," answered the sergeant in charge of the intelligence team. "That's a negative, Sunray. The enemy cavalry is still hiding in the trees. They don't want any part of what we're laying down."

  "Ack. All call signs, weapons hold. I say again, weapons hold. Let the stragglers go."

  As the shooting stopped, the headquarters staff and augmentees cheered. In fewer than three minutes, the Strike Force had succeeded once again, and the bridge was theirs. Huck had made the right call.

  "That's it?" Leela asked. "It's over already?"

  "That's it," Alex answered, helping her to her feet.

  Nearby, her guards beside her, Veraxia stared at the devastation, an unreadable expression on her face.

  Ylra hawked and spit. "I'll give your people one thing—you're great at fighting from a distance."

  As the wind blew the stench of explosive residue, blood, and cordite in their direction, Alex grunted in agreement. He threw his backpack over his shoulders and helped Leela with hers. The headquarters staff picked up their rucksacks and readied themselves to move forward. The assault platoons would return for their rucksacks later. Alex and Leela joined Ylra to say farewell to an astonished Gevn Ap. He'll have a tale to tell his friends.

  Ylra and the redcap placed their palms together then touched foreheads. A moment later, the redcap darted away, back into his jungle.

  "Let's go," Ylra said, grabbing her rucksack and throwing it over her shoulder.

  Alex and Leela joined Huck and her command staff near the bridge. Up close, the stench of blood, feces, and smoke hung in the air like a charnel soup. The minigun rounds had cut right through the boggarts' log barricades, setting fires and leaving piles of sawdust and broken shards of wood to soak up the boggarts' blood. The damage from the automatic grenade launchers had been even more devastating, ripping boggart bodies apart. More than a hundred boggart and troll corpses lay scattered among the wreckage of their barricades. A handful of boggarts still were still alive, and Dr. Ireland and her medics treated them, but they had no need of prisoners, so after treatment, Huck allowed the survivors to walk north on their own, carrying those who couldn't walk.

  The Strike Force hadn't lost a single soldier or even suffered a twisted ankle. This hadn't been a battle—it had been carnage. Alex stood in place, staring at the dead. He had hated boggarts for so long, but now he felt… dirty.

  An entire platoon of Huck's troops held the bridge, with its soldiers split on either end. First Sergeant Martinez was issuing instructions to the sergeants about retrieving their rucksacks and the route they'd take through the pass. The six soldiers in the war rigs stood in a group near the bridge, laughing and smoking cigarettes.

  Alex examined the bridge. Solidly built from the same seamless black stone that the dark elves used in their fortresses, the abutment rose from the bank, with a series of arches along its length. Stone parapets three feet high ran along its sides. River slime coated the buttresses and piers. Across the river, a narrow stone pass wide enough for two wagons led into the steep canyon walls. The top of the canyon walls looked down upon the river and bridge with a commanding view. Alex stared at the cliffs, unease growing in his gut.

  "What are you thinking?" Leela asked him, shifting the weight of her rucksack so it rested higher on her shoulders.

  "That we should secure the high ground before moving through that pass."

  "It looks steep. Even I'd have a hard time climbing that."

  "From this side. Could be a path on the other. But we don't need to go up there just to take a look, not when we have this shiny new technology." He saw Huck with her XO and several of her staff, including two young platoon leaders, the Intelligence sergeant, and the grizzled noncom who supervised the engineer detachment. He knew from experience there were
a thousand details to take care of in the minutes following a firefight and hated getting in her way, but as busy as she was, he wasn't certain she had considered the cliffs.

  As he approached, she was ordering the engineers to rig the bridge for demolition, which made sense. There was no point in letting the elves follow them into the Char. She stopped talking at his approach. "Ranger?"

  "The pass," he said, pointing across the bridge. "With your permission, I'd like to send a UAV over those cliffs."

  "Shit," she said, her face going pale. "I should have thought of that."

  "I'm sure they're clear, but best—"

  "Best be certain," she agreed. Huck's gaze flicked to the Intelligence sergeant. "Do it. Take care of that right now."

  "Yes, ma'am." The sergeant sped away.

  "Thanks, Ranger," Huck said.

  He nodded. "Hell of a textbook hasty attack, Major Armstrong. They never knew what hit 'em."

  He turned away as she carried on speaking to her people and rejoined Leela, who was now standing with Ylra, Boko, and Liv near the riverbank a hundred feet north of the bridge. All four women stared at the loop in the river and the trees hiding the kelpie cavalry. If the cavalry moved now, they'd come under direct fire from the platoon securing the perimeter. Had it been a fair fight, they'd have tried to spring their ambush while the Strike Force was engaged. But it hadn't been a fair fight. It had been another massacre, the Strike Force's third now. The queen is gonna be pissed.

  "Everything okay, ladies?" he asked.

  "Just watching the woods," said Ylra. She was smoking one of her cigars, and smoke hung about her head. "But they're not coming. The fae are no fools. They won't throw their lives away after we gutted their boggarts." She sighed. "Pity. We still got lots of ammo."

  "We may need it yet," Alex said as a UAV rose into the air. It climbed as it went across the river, heading for the cliffs.