In Death's Shadow

by S. F. Edwards

  “And how do you plan to do that? The turrets on those towers will tear your dropship apart.”

  “Then we tear apart the turrets first.” He motioned over his shoulder at Rudjick and Gokhead, each of them carrying a single antitank rocket on their backs.

  The Sergeant looked down and smiled. “I like the sound of that.”

  “The AT-APT has a big enough turret and we have enough heavy weapons to make quite a mess of the place before the dropship arrives. After that, we just hold the courtyard and bring the Ferine in.”

  Blazer turned to address the others.

  “First squad and I will take the lead. Second squad, I want you in trail. Armed soldiers will array on the flanks to cover the injured in the middle. We keep to cover and we get everyone out alive.” Blazer pulled up a floor plan of the facility. “This is our best route out to the courtyard. We take out any resistance we encounter and once out in the courtyard, we take out the turrets on the towers. Bear, come in”

  “Go ahead, Lead.”

  “How long for you to reach us?”

  “I’m on my way. Be there in twenty pulses. We’ll attempt to take out the AA turret closest to the gate before you get to the courtyard.”

  “Drop, Lead.”

  “I copy, Lead,” Acknit replied.

  “Time your approach to arrive five pulses prior to the Bear. Take out the other turret on your way in. Then set it down and we load up the troops and get out of here.”

  “Copy that, boss. That wasn’t in the orders was it?” Gavit asked. “The orders were just to…”

  “Cut it, Drop.” Blazer looked back at the others. Going off orders had almost ruined their last operations, but this time he had no choice. “I know this is not the original plan, but we are not leaving these soldiers behind. Let’s move.”

  Blazer led the group out of the prison block, ever on the lookout for guards and other enemy personnel. The hallway outside wrapped around one of the inner towers, and opposite the prison block stood the doors back into the main fortress. The group arrayed themselves on either side of the massive double doors. At Blazer’s signal, Rudjick affixed a breaching charge to the doors.

  From their position, Blazer glimpsed the access panel to the sewer they had entered through. Blazer’s fire team, consisting of himself, Zithe, and Gokhead, stood to one side of the doors, Marda’s fire team opposite, and half the prisoners behind each team. Blazer had to time the escape to provide maximum confusion for the enemy forces, drawing their attention away from the approaching dropship and AT-APT. Checking his clock, Blazer decided the wait was long enough and signaled to Rudjick.

  Rudjick detonated the breaching charge. The young elf had been itching to blow something up all mission. The hinged double doors vaulted open in response, crushing two guards watching from the outside.

  Zithe and Chris tossed a pair of the flash grenades down the corridor in opposite directions. The charges detonated, and the group dashed into the passageway, weapons up and at the ready. The few guards in the almost empty corridor stumbled about, dazzled by the grenades, and never even saw Blazer’s fire team before they took them down.

  Blazer led the way through the facility. Following the map in his HUD, he ran at a half crouch, downing any GF soldier who came out to investigate the earlier explosion, with no more emotion then he would a pestering insect. His team was efficient, firing only when they had a shot. Sergeant Rhind’s soldiers were not so precise, their indiscriminate fire drawing a scowl across his face.

  Blazer signaled Rudjick ahead as they neared the main doors into the courtyard. With the precision of a practiced expert, Rudjick placed the breaching charge and took his position by the door as the others formed up to storm the courtyard.

  Blazer took a deep breath, checking his mission clock and gave the signal. The blast rattled his armor as Rudjick triggered the breaching charge. The grenades that followed caught the guards outside flat-footed before the Blade Force rushed them. They downed the few guards still on their feet and signaled the prisoners to follow.

  The prisoners rushed from the doors, towards the cover of a series of concrete barriers outside, Berelius Nact in the middle of the group. That shelter wouldn’t protect them for long under a sustained barrage, so Blazer signaled Rudjick forward.

  Rudjick snatched the anti-tank rocket from his back and dove from cover. He landed on his feet between two of the wider-spaced barriers and triggered the rocket. “Rocket Out!” he screamed and leapt behind the next barricade.

  The rocket streaked across the courtyard before crashing into the double doors opposite the ones they had just emerged from. Gouts of flame exploded outwards and the stone wall crumbled, closing off passageways before more enemy troops could escape them.

  Blazer grinned, then signaled to Gokhead. The young Drashig took his rocket launcher ran out into the courtyard. He didn’t even pause as he fired at the turret closest to the approach road to the gate. The rocket found its home below the turret’s rotation mechanism. The limestone casements exploded and for a moment nothing more happened. But then, with a great wrenching of metal, the turret fell into the courtyard.

  “Bear, you are clear,” Blazer called into the link, unable to hide his gleeful excitement.

  “Copy, Lead. On our way.”

  Blazer swallowed hard as countless soldiers raced onto the parapets, laying down wild fire into the Blade Force’s cover. The weapons fire soon began to chip away at the barricades, the plasma rounds flash-boiling trapped water in the cement with explosive results. A round pierced the wall beside him, and Blazer searched for better cover.

  “Fall back to the guard shack,” Blazer ordered and motioned towards the armored guardhouse next to the main gate. Looks reinforced, it should be better cover. The group bounded back as fast as they could, laying down covering fire, just before the courtyard gate exploded inwards.

  Blazer looked up as the splintered remains of the gate hit the opposite wall with enough force to tear holes in it. Turning, he spotted the AT-APT speeding into the courtyard, its Gatling plaser cannon chattering away.

  Soldiers on the parapets fired on the vehicle, but the blasts bounced off the hull doing little more than singeing the paint. The turret of the AT-APT then swung about to engage the second turreted tower. Plasma rounds tore through the casements. Bricks exploded under the barrage, the water trapped within flash boiling. A moment later, the turret slid free of its mounts with a great sound of screeching metal and fell back onto the parapets. The screams of crushed soldiers echoed through the courtyard as the wall collapsed under the weight.

  “Drop, you’re clear,” Blazer called out.

  “Copy, inbound!”

  Troops flooded the courtyard through the breach in the wall, pouring fire onto the Blade Force’s position. The team couldn’t even pop up to aim. They had to fire over their heads, aided only by their guns’ cameras transmitting to their helmets. It was an awkward way to fire and most of their shots went wide.

  Blazer looked up for a moment when the AT-APT raced past again. He glowered at the pinholes of red light shining through the armor. We can’t stand this much longer. “Drop, ETA?”

  “On your heads,” Acknit replied as the last two towers exploded in gouts of fire moments before the dropship raced past and arced about. Its turrets cut the parapets to shreds before it angled to land in the courtyard. The dropship touched down and opened its ramps to the outrigger pods, the main fuselage still raised above the rest so that the dorsal and ventral turrets could supply suppressive fire.

  “First Squad, Second Squad, cover the retreat. All personnel to the starboard pod. Chris, get Nact aboard. Bear, take the port pod.”

  “Copy that,” Arion replied and parked the AT-APT in front of the portside cargo pod as the plaser cannon continued to pour fire into the courtyard doors.

  Blazer took one last look. Not the time to get sloppy. He signaled, and everyone rushed the dropship. First and Second squad bounded back, laying down supp
ressive fire as the rest of the soldiers ran for the open ramp. Chris led the way with Berelius Nact. A Drashig private helped push him along. Despite their best efforts, several of the prisoners fell.

  “Rhind!” Blazer called and tossed the Otlian his last plasma magazine. The sergeant dropped back but before he could slam the magazine home, a blast caught him in the side.

  Blazer caught the Sergeant before he could hit the dirt. “I’m not letting you die here,” Blazer hollered, dragging the Otlian towards the dropship.

  The sergeant raised his rifle in his lower right arm, the upper arm blasted away. He sputtered up blood as Blazer hauled him up the ramp. “Not sure how much say you have in that, son.”

  Blazer took one last look out the ramp after his feet hit the deck. Dead bodies littered the ground. A few were escaped prisoners, but the majority were those of GF personnel. He couldn’t help but smile at that. “All personnel are clear! Bear, get aboard!”

  “Already on it,” Arion replied, and the AT-APT reversed into the pod.

  The dropship rose and took flight. The ramps closed ahead of the AT-APT and rescued prisoners, before spinning about and making for orbit.

  “We have incoming fighters,” Gavit reported over the loud speaker. “Everybody strap the Sheol in.”

  En-Route to Jump Point, Dropship 211

  Marda cursed their lack of preparation as she stared into the gaping hole in Sergeant Rhind’s side. Her hands remained steady as she worked the cauterizer over the wound where his upper arm had been, but it wasn’t sealing fast enough and blood dripped onto the deck where she kneeled. If I at least had him on the med table, I could save this blood. “I need some more fresh transfusion cartridges.”

  The situation was less than ideal. Despite the cavernous size of the bay, they had not had enough time to set up the emergency medical suite after their rushed escape. That left her only the grime-covered deck of the starboard outrigger bay to work on, while Chris scrambled to expand the medical suite from the wall. If we survive this, next time we’ll have expanded the suite before we pick up.

  The Sergeant extended his good right hand to stop her. “Stop. There are others who need you more.” He pointed at several other soldiers nearby as they clung to the cargo webbing. They were injured as well, but not as critically as he.

  The faces of every rescued prisoner who died under her care in previous operations flooded her mind. “No. I’m not losing anyone this op!”

  “And I’m not going to let you waste your efforts on me. Not when there are others you can save.”

  “Don’t bet on it!”

  He swallowed hard and Marda’s eyes went wide in recognition. She reached up to grab his throat, but it was too late. Green foam boiled out of his mouth.

  She pounded on his chest and cursed his Otlian pride. “Damn it, no!”

  Chris came over and grabbed her away from the Sergeant as he convulsed and all movement stopped. “You can’t save them all, Marda. He made his choice.” She looked down at him. “Blew out his venom duct.”

  Marda nodded, watching the body. There was something missing. She couldn’t place her finger on it, but looking up at Chris, she got to her feet. “Let’s just make sure he’s the last one,” Marda commented and ran to the next soldier, still in disbelief that an Otlian would commit suicide like that.

  ***

  The dropship rocked under another blast from the Solaar fighters chasing them. The Solaars were the Galactic Federation’s primary anti-bomber interceptors, and their heavy armament tore at the dropship’s shields.

  Blazer stood by in frustration as he helped Gokhead and Rudjick set up the jump seats and get soldiers into them. “Drop, give me good news. How far to the jump point?”

  “Too far, and we just lost turret control,” Gavit called back, slamming the control panel.

  Blazer thought for a moment. What can we do? “Bear, what’s the status of the AT-APTs turret?”

  “Charged and ready to go. I was just getting ready to power it down for the jump.”

  “Negative. Drop, how fast can this crate go in reverse?”

  There was a pause before Acknit came back over the link. “If we do a full reverse, we can sustain a fifteen G burn.”

  Blazer nodded, a cold smile on his face. “Copy that. Spin us around and make a full reverse burn towards the jump point. That’ll bring the chin turret to bear. Arion, button up that AT-APT. Sync your cannon to the shields and open your hatch. Give them a big surprise.”

  “Reading your mind, B,” Arion replied. “Matt and Bichard are headed your way. I’m about ready.”

  “Clear,” Matt called. “Forward hatch is sealed.”

  “Aft hatch sealed,” Bichard reported.

  “Bear is ready,” Arion added. “Lower the ramp.” Arion whistled a pulse later. “Sheol of a view.”

  “Standby for spin,” Mikle called. “Hold on down there.”

  Blazer braced himself against the bulkhead as everyone else seized onto something solid before the dropship spun about around them. The acceleration absorbers took the brunt of the force, but Blazer had to fight the dizzy feeling the quick spin had thrown at him.

  “Your cannon is now linked to our shields,” Acknit reported. “Forward shields are full strength; give them Sheol!”

  Blazer pulled up the AT-APT’s gun camera on his arm hologram. The Gatling plaser canon flooded the view with coherent energy before twin streamers from the nose turret joined it. Blazer grinned at the scene as the two turrets ripped away the shields of the interceptor before shattering the silica-steel canopy of the craft, shredding the pilot. The interceptor careened off into space a moment later, the craft’s wingman peeling off before the telltale bump of hyperspace entry echoed through the dropship and everything went dark.

  Star System: Classified, UCSBA-13, Neurosimulation Bay 2

  Blazer breathed a sigh of relief as the cool darkness of the neurointerface helmet replaced the interior of the dropship bay. He couldn’t help but smile as he felt every muscle relax. For the first time they’d made it with the objective and every squad mate alive. The only friendly fatalities were Sergeant Rhind and two other soldiers who never cleared cover. He pulled off the helmet and looked up. He was drenched in sweat but it was a good kind of sweat. This had been their first fully successful operation. He looked around at the others. Everyone smiled, even Marda in the couch next to his. But an odd look hung over her face. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. I just got pulled out of it a little at the end.”

  “How’s that?”

  “When the Sergeant died. Really when anyone out there died. Well, you don’t notice it in a firefight as much, but you do when you’re right there attending to them.”

  What is she talking about? He had killed plenty of soldiers in the simulation, some up close too.

  “When someone dies and you’re like me, you see their spirit leave their body.”

  Blazer nodded. Right, she would see that more than the rest of us.

  “When the Sergeant died, his spirit didn’t leave his body,” she sighed, rubbing her arms as if to warm them. “They probably have this problem with every combat medium who enters these systems.”

  The technician unhooking her looked up in response. “It’s an oversight. You’re listed as a medic, not a combat medium. We’ll be sure to include it in the next go.”

  Marda nodded to him. “Thanks. I think. But sometimes it helps to get pulled out of it a little bit.”

  Blazer reached over and she took his hand, smiling back at him. Do I mention the subtle tickle I feel in the back of my head?

  Chris walked up, her legs steady. She was getting used to the system. “I got pulled out of it a little when we hit the cell block, too. The guard looked a lot like one of the guards from interrogation training.”

  Blazer didn’t like the sound of that. “Sounds sloppy.”

  “Yeah, but it almost made me blow the op, so I’m not sure that it wasn’t intentional. And
if you ever…”

  Blazer pulled his hand back from Marda and got to his feet, his face apologetic. “I’m sorry Chris, I didn’t realize.” Blazer realized now how much more conservatively Chris had started dressing after interrogation training. It was subtle at first, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her in anything but a standard uniform outside the locker room. “I thought you were still comfortable with nudity.”

  Chris shook her head. “No, not anymore,” she admitted, looking down as she turned away. As a Chamalad, she had not been raised with taboos about nudity. Earlier training had forced her to abandon that.

  Before anyone could say more, the door to the chamber sprang open and Tadeh Qudas stormed into the room. “Just what do you think you were doing in there?”

  Blazer turned to his instructor in an instant. He was not about to get a dressing down for their performance. They’d had no team casualties and no loss of the primary objective. “We rescued all the prisoners there sir. There was nothing in our orders prohibiting that.”

  Tadeh Qudas stormed into Blazer’s face. “Your orders were to rescue Berelius Nact, just Berelius Nact.”

  Blazer stood his ground, even as Tadeh Qudas’ hot breath poured out of invisible ports in his mask over him. He was not about to back down despite the way his nerves quivered under that unyielding death gaze. “Sir, the orders said no such thing. While the orders called out Berelius Nact, they made no mention of the other prisoners who were only brought in the cycle before, according to the computer system. Intel did not know of their presence. We could not move that many prisoners out through the primary egress route, so we did the next best thing, and got as many out alive as we could.”

  Tadeh Qudas remained stoic. “Eleven injured and three fatalities, and one took his own life when you could have saved him,” he went on, turning to Marda.