Sheridan nodded. He couldn’t imagine fighting the war with anyone else. Cole had become more than a mentor and friend to him. He was the closest thing he would ever have to an older brother.
Wright looked over his shoulder into Eskola’s eyes and brought up a finger to his lips. They stopped moving and listened. In the downpour, it was near impossible to hear anything, but somewhere in the jungle canopy was an odd whirling sound. It took Wright a few seconds to see where the noise was coming from. Just ahead, hovering in the air, was a gray drone. It was the size of a giant bat and had three rotors built onto the vehicle’s triangular body. Attached underneath of the UAV were two slender missiles.
Wright cursed his luck. He thought they had given their pursuers the slip when they found a way out of their cavern and into the jungle. It was only now that he realized the Kurgans had always intended to flush them out into the open so their drones could find them.
All of a sudden, a red dot appeared on Wright’s chest. As fast as he could, Wright reached behind him and pulled Eskola with him to the muddy ground. There was a bright flash followed by a loud explosion as one of the drone’s missiles struck the ground where Wright had been standing only a second before. Before the UAV could adjust its aim, Wright and Eskola brought up their pistols and opened fire. With their weapons set on automatic, the sound of the bullets striking the drone was like hail hitting a metal roof during a storm. With smoke coming from its fuselage, the UAV banked over to the right and fell to the ground with its engine perforated by more than a dozen holes.
“That was too close for comfort,” said Eskola as she changed the magazine on her empty weapon.
“You can say that again,” said Wright. He tried to stand but found he couldn’t move his legs. Wright tried once more. It was the same. He was numb from the waist down.
Eskola saw what was happening and tried to help Wright stand. She grimaced when she saw a pool of blood beneath the colonel. Eskola bent down to examine his back. Her stomach dropped when she saw how bad his injury was. “Colonel, you’ve got a fragment from the missile lodged in the small of your back.”
“Andrea, I can’t feel my legs,” said Wright. “I think I’m paralyzed. You’ll have to go on without me.”
Eskola shook her head. “Sir, there’s no way in hell, I’m going to leave you. Besides, I can barely move myself.”
“God damn it, Andrea, I’m ordering you to leave me!”
“And I’m going to have to ignore that order,” she replied, getting down on her knees so she could take a hold of Wright’s flight suit. Eskola dug her good foot into the slippery ground and hauled back. Slowly, Wright’s body began to move. Pain radiated out from her injured knee. Eskola gritted her teeth and kept going until she could go no further. She laid Wright down behind a fallen tree and collapsed on the wet ground with him.
“Is the rescue beacon still operational?” asked Wright.
“One second,” she replied as she took the pack off Wright’s back and opened it. Eskola brought out the palm-sized device and checked it. “Yeah, it’s still working but it’s almost out of power.”
“How much time do you think we have left before it dies?”
“If I’m reading the power meter right, I’d say no more than three or four hours before the battery runs dry.”
“Andrea, I’d rather not lie here in this muck. Please help me sit me up.”
Eskola sat Wright up and wiped the mud from his face before sliding down next to him. With a forced smile on her face, she said, “Aren’t we a pair?”
“It doesn’t have to end this way. You can still get away. Take the beacon. Hopefully, someone will detect its signal before it’s too late and rescue you.”
“Colonel, your fate will be my fate. I’m not leaving your side and that’s all there is to it.”
Wright shook his head as he unzipped a pocket on his flight suit. He reached in and pulled out a small disc. “Andrea, this is the flight data from our ship’s computer. If you get a chance to escape, I want you to take it. Make sure the information contained on this disc gets back to our people. It may help them understand what happened to us before we were fired upon by the Kurgans.”
“Let’s worry about that when the time comes, sir. For now, we’ll lay low here and hope the Kurgans pass us by.”
“Andrea, they know by now that they’ve lost one of their drones. They’ll be coming to investigate what happened to it. If we’re lucky, we have an hour. After that, all bets are off.”
Eskola rummaged through Wright’s pack and grabbed four full pistol magazines. She handed two to Wright and kept the others for herself. “We both know the Kurgans aren’t too kind to Terran military prisoners. I don’t intend to be taken alive so I can be raped by a Chosen soldier before being murdered in one of their prison camps.”
“If it looks like we’re done for, I’ll do us both,” said Wright as he patted her on the arm.
Eskola sat back against the fallen tree and let out a resigned sigh. Whether she lived or died was out of her hands. She closed her eyes and thought of her lover and prayed that she would one day get to hold her in her arms once again.
21
“Standby. I am cutting the jump engine in ten seconds from now,” announced Wendy on the ship’s intercom.
Sheridan popped in his mouthguard and grabbed the restraints holding him tight in his seat. He had bitten his tongue one too many times in basic training, so he carried his old football mouthguard with him when he deployed.
Wendy continued, “Five-four-three-two-one.”
In an instant, the transport ended its jump inside Ka-11’s atmosphere. The ship rocked from side to side as it plummeted toward the ground. In the cockpit, Tarina engaged the vessel’s sublight engine and took control of their fall.
Sheridan felt his stomach flip as the ship came to a gradual halt in mid-air. He unbuckled himself from his seat and removed his mouthguard. On a screen near his seat was a computer-generated image of the jungle barely three hundred meters below them.
“I don’t see a spot big enough for the ship to sit down,” said Cole.
“Neither do I,” replied Sheridan, knowing each second they hovered in the air was one they could be spotted by the Kurgans with their scanning devices. He reached over and pressed a button on the wall. “Tarina, how far away are we from the rescue beacon?”
“Less than a kilometer,” she replied.
“Okay, take us down to treetop level. We’re going out the door.”
“I’ll get the ropes ready,” said Cole.
Sheridan grabbed his rifle and slung it over his back. He pulled a pair of gloves onto his hands and moved over to the door just as it slid open. Hot, humid air rushed into the cabin. Sheridan looked down and saw a green carpet being bombarded by the rain.
“Watch out, sir,” Cole said as he attached a thick rope to a metal arm on the side of the ship. He kicked the rest of the rope out the door and watched as it quickly disappeared into the trees.
“I’ll go first,” said Sheridan as he reached out and took a hold of the rope in his hands. He wrapped his feet around the cord. Sheridan detested heights and closed his eyes. A second later, he slid down toward the trees. Water-soaked leaves and branches swatted his body all the way down to the ground. Sheridan had just let go of the rope and stepped to one side when Komada appeared through the canopy and joined him.
“Get your squad to establish a perimeter,” ordered Sheridan.
Komada nodded and turned to sort out his men as they came off the rope.
The last man down was Cole. He dug out a handheld device and pressed a button. The rope on the ship detached and fell to the ground. “Hide it,” said Cole to one of the MPs.
“Good luck. We’re out of here,” said Tarina in Sheridan’s helmet earpiece. Before he could reply, the transport ship jumped away.
“Sir, I’ve got the beacon’s signal,” said one of the MPs holding a tracking device in his hand.
“Okay, yo
u take the lead, followed by myself and Komada’s squad,” said Sheridan. “Sergeant Celms will be next. Master Sergeant Cole will pull up the rear. Keep the chatter to a minimum. This jungle is so thick that there could be someone less than a meter away from you, and you’d never know it.”
“Sir . . . sir, the rescue beacon has just picked up a friendly call sign,” said Eskola to Wright, enthusiastically.
“How far away?” asked Wright.
Eskola turned the device so Wright could see it. “It looks like it’s less than a klick away.”
“Thank God for that.”
Through the mud on her face, Eskola smiled. “We’re going to make it, sir.”
All of a sudden, a face appeared over the top of the fallen log and looked down. Wright’s combat training kicked in. Without hesitating, he brought up his pistol and fired off a shot straight through the surprised Chosen soldier’s chin. The bullet shot up into his head, killing him. Another man stuck his head over to see what had happened and met the same fate.
Eskola flipped the safety off on her weapon with her thumb and, like a jack-in-the-box, popped up from behind the log. Her eyes widened when she saw three Chosen warriors less than a couple of meters away. They were so close Eskola didn’t need to aim. She pulled back on the trigger and fired off a burst into the men before ducking back down behind cover.
“How many?” Wright asked.
“Three,” she replied. Eskola looked down at her hands and saw they were trembling. She felt sick. She had never killed a person before at such close range. Firing off missiles was one thing. To actually look into the face of the person she was about to kill was another.
“It was a recce patrol looking for their downed drone. Once they figure out their men are dead, the rest of the Kurgan force will come our way.” Wright looked into Eskola’s eyes. “Please take the beacon and get away from here while you can.”
She hesitated. “Colonel, I can’t. You can’t stand to defend yourself, and I’d never make it more than a couple of dozen meters before I collapsed. No. We’ll wait here together until help arrives.”
“Okay then. Lay me down so I can see under this log. I might as well be useful.”
Eskola picked a spot and dragged Wright to it.
“This will do,” said Wright as he looked underneath the fallen tree at the bodies of the three dead Kurgans lying on the ground.
It was a now a race to see who would arrive first.
The thick jungle made moving fast all but impossible. Sheridan was growing more impatient with each step he took. He knew the man up front leading them was doing the best he could, but that didn’t stop him from wishing the Marine would pick up the pace.
Cole’s voice spoke into his headset. His voice was tense. “Sir, we’re not alone.”
“Kurgans?”
“No, sir. I don’t think so. Private Maclaren has picked up several large signals moving parallel to us.”
Sheridan keyed his mic. “Can he tell what they are?”
“Negative. All his tracking device can tell us is that we are being followed.”
“Where are the signals?”
“About thirty meters off to our right.”
Sheridan’s mind was a whirl. The intel brief he read before landing didn’t specify what kind of fauna there could be on Ka-11. The last thing he needed now was something else to worry about. “Master Sergeant, have the men keep a sharp eye out for any movement in that direction. Until they close in on us, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll just have to remain vigilant.”
“Right, sir.”
The sound of an explosion followed immediately by automatic gunfire somewhere in front of him made Sheridan turn his head.
“Sir, that noise is coming from the direction of the beacon,” said the Marine, guiding the patrol.
Sheridan swore under his breath. “Screw stealth. Pick up your pace. I want to get to our people as fast as we can.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the Marine. With one hand held out to block the branches and the other holding the tracker, the young Marine began to run as best he could. The rest of the party followed close behind, nipping at his heels.
The sound of gunfire increased by the second. For every Chosen soldier they shot down, another one appeared out of the jungle to take his place.
“Heads down!” yelled Wright when he spotted a soldier aiming a grenade launcher at the fallen tree.
Eskola ducked down a split second before the grenade struck the ground a meter in front of the log, sending a plume of dirt and debris up into the air. Before the man could reload his weapon, Wright cut him down.
“How much ammo have you got left?” called out Wright.
“I’m on my last magazine,” responded Eskola. “I’ve got maybe twenty rounds left.”
Wright looked over at his navigator and said, “Take only well-aimed shots from now on.”
Eskola nodded and stuck her head over the log to fire at a Chosen warrior rushing toward the barricade. It took two shots in the chest to stop the man.
With luck and ammunition in short supply, Wright knew they had a minute at best before they were both out of ammo.
“Come on, come on,” said Sheridan to himself. The steady sound of small-arms fire mixed with the occasional explosion drove him on. As long as there was gunfire, there was still hope, no matter how faint, to rescue the downed flight crew. The Marine guiding the team toward the gunfire must have sensed Sheridan’s unease and picked up his pace. In seconds, they were bashing their way through the thick undergrowth.
“Master Sergeant, those things, they’re moving closer,” said Private Maclaren.
Cole looked over the Marine’s shoulder and saw seven objects on the scanner’s viewscreen turn and close rapidly with them. He turned to face the jungle just as the trees parted. Cole’s heart skipped a beat when a flightless bird, covered in greyish-brown feathers and twice as tall as him, burst forth and charged toward him. He brought up his rifle to fire but was hit from behind by another bird. Cole went flying through the air and landed on the ground. His weapon flew from his hands and landed well out of arm’s reach. He hurriedly drew his pistol and aimed at the underbelly of the beast that had plowed into him. With a loud squawk, the bird opened its massive beak and lunged down at Cole. With his pistol on automatic, Cole fired a long burst at his attacker. The beast jumped back. The feathers on its stomach were covered with blood. Cole brought up his arm, took aim at its head, and fired off another burst. The bird staggered toward Cole before tumbling to the ground, dead.
Nearby a man cried out in pain.
Cole turned to see Maclaren being lifted up off the ground with his right arm trapped inside the beak of one their attackers. He got up on one knee and aimed his pistol at the bird. He couldn’t fire for fear of hitting Maclaren, who was being thrown side to side in the air by the beast. A second later, with a loud snap, the bird closed its beak and severed the hapless Marine’s arm from his body. He fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
With nothing to block his aim, Cole fired. He hit the bird squarely under its chin. Feathers and bone flew from the hole blasted out the back of the beast’s head. With a wet cry, the bird fell backward and hit the floor of the jungle. Its feet twitched for a couple of seconds before it finally expired.
Cole ran to Maclaren’s side. Blood pumped out of the wound with each beat of the man’s heart. The young Marine’s face was turning ashen. He was going into shock. Cole looked up to call another man to come help with Maclaren, but swore when he saw they were alone. Everyone else had fled into the jungle when the birds had attacked.
Sheridan couldn’t see what was happening behind him. He could hear panicked screaming and firing. A terrified man burst from the trees. He was one of Komada’s soldiers. Blood covered his face and uniform. He ran right past Sheridan and kept on going.
“What the f—” said Sheridan, just as Komada and the rest of his men came barreling down the narrow path. Barely ten paces behind them w
as one of the birds. Its beak was covered in blood. Swept up by the fleeing mob, Sheridan ran for his life.
From behind, a man screamed as another bird grabbed one of Komada’s soldiers and pulled him to the ground.
Sheridan fought to control the fear gripping his body and mind. He tried to find Komada among his men to tell him to stop and fire at the monsters when they burst out into a clearing. If Sheridan thought his day couldn’t get any worse, he was wrong. He came to a sliding halt right in the middle of a Kurgan company headquarters. There were at least a dozen Kurgan officers and Chosen soldiers standing in the open. The Chosen uniforms worn by Sheridan and Komada’s squad help to confuse the Kurgan captain in charge of the operation. Before he could demand to know who they were, Sergeant Celms and two Marines stumbled into the mix. No one seemed to know what to do. Everyone stood there staring at one another. Sheridan broke the stalemate by bringing up his rifle and killing the Kurgan captain. He spun on his heel and turned his rifle on the dead officer’s second-in-command. Self-preservation took a hold and the men fired at each other at point-blank range. Soldiers from both sides fell. All of a sudden, five birds sprinted out of the jungle. Terror gripped the survivors as the beasts brought down three men and tore at their innards.
“Run!” screamed someone in Kurgan.
It was like a dam bursting. Sheridan’s men and the Kurgans turned on their heels and ran away as fast they could from the beasts. In seconds, they crashed right into the rear of a Chosen platoon trying to get to grips with Wright and Eskola. Sheridan knew he had lost control of the fight. It was sheer mayhem. In the wild and bloody melee of Marines, Kurgans, and the predator birds, it was every man for himself. Sheridan saw a Chosen warrior with a crimson banner trying to rally his stunned comrades and shot him down. He stepped away from the fight and placed his back against a tree. Sheridan got down on one knee and started to fire at anyone he didn’t recognize.
Ghost Company Page 12