“Five light wheeled assault vehicles, it looks like there's also a transport truck, if they brought everyone in by this and the boats, maybe forty men at most. Wait.... I see Ambaris. He's in the middle of the courtyard, directing the men that are nearby. Heaven and stars, if I only had a sniper rifle!”
Jensen holds up a hand in understanding. While the Gauss round from a powerlance would easily cover the distance from where we're crouching to the middle of the courtyard, without magnification and the ability to steady the end of the lance better, it'd be nothing more than random firing, and that won't work. “Another time. Anything else?”
I shake my head. “Nobody else that looks important.”
Jensen gives me a grateful nod. “You get that, Tauren? And remember that hover tech might not work here.”
“We got it, and don't worry, I don't plan on using hover tech for our assault.”
Jensen blinks, surprised. “Wait, what do you mean you don't plan?”
“My brother in law is in a fight. I'm not exactly sitting on my ass for this one, Jensen. And don't argue with me, I don't have time for it.”
Jensen gives me a worried look, then nods in acceptance. “Understood. If I were you, I'd come in from the northwest, with a pincer movement coming from the east.”
“You have got to think more... three dimensionally, Jensen. Okay, we have enough imagery, we've adjusted satellites to give us a live feed, get to safety. The heavy equipment hits in thirty minutes.”
“What's that mean?” I ask as Jensen puts his communicator away. “Any idea?”
“Nope, but I figure something's going to drop from the sky. You said that hover's negated up to five thousand meters, right?”
“Roughly, it depends on the halnocite concentration, but five thousand meters has always been the safety margin I've been taught. Are you thinking missiles?”
Jensen shrugs, not worried about it and focusing on our safety right now. “Perhaps. I know that the army's got some missiles and rockets that can thread a needle if you give them enough imagery to use. Tauren might just decide to pound the fort into dust.”
We scurry down the ridge line towards the river, hoping to get to our boat and get away before the fight starts. When we get close, Jensen holds up his hand, and we drop down behind cover. Sticking my head around the rock I'm behind, I see what he saw. “Shit.”
“Yeah, shit,” Jensen whispers. Thirty meters away, we can see the river, and our boat. And the other boat, with ten men on it and around ours, investigating and calling to each other.
“No weapons, skipper!” one of the men yells to the boat captain, who's obviously pissed off. Just around the bend I can still see the smoke rising from whatever damage the mines did to the other boats, but obviously at least one has gotten past our trap.
“No shit, you idiot! You think royal troops are just going to leave weapons behind? What do you see besides that?”
“A flexi, and a couple of ration packs and wrappers!” one of the other men yells back across the water. “And an empty crate!”
“Then it's no bigger than a squad, probably a three-man team!” the boat skipper yells back. “They can't fit more than seven or eight in that boat!”
“What do we do?” I ask Jensen, whispering. “Ten men and a boat, I'm not seeing great odds for us.”
“I agree,” Jensen says, looking around. “Okay, you know how to low crawl?”
“Like a snake,” I whisper back. “Low and slow.”
“Exactly. Back up, around the rocks there, when we get another thirty meters’ distance we bounce. I'll contact Tauren as soon as we can.”
I nod, checking that my powerlance is set for Gauss and on safety. Gauss rounds are silent, and we need stealth more than anything else, and I don't want to accidentally trigger anything while I move. I look over at Jensen, who's making sure everything he's got is strapped down. “Ready?”
Jensen gives me a thumbs up. “Still willing to follow me to the heaven and stars?”
I grin, reaching out and taking his hand. “More than ever.”
“I'll cover you first. Go.”
I slide backwards, turning slowly on the ground to make sure that I don't scrape over any branches or dead leaves, anything that might make a lot of noise and give us away. The hydrosuit both helps and hurts my crawling, it's so slick on the outside that I feel like I'm gliding on a light layer of oil, but I'm constantly aware of the fact that I'm on brown ground, surrounded by brown and green, and wearing pitch black that apparently dirt doesn't cling to.
I reach a tree and get behind it, getting to a knee and waving to Jensen, who follows me. He shimmies backwards for two minutes, each second of which is a tension filled nightmare to me, I keep expecting the boatmen, who I can still hear talking to each other, approaching. They're not experts, it takes them a while to organize, but they are starting to come to a decision.
Jensen gets to another rock and gives me a thumbs up. “Good. You okay?”
I nod, giving him an OK with my fingers, and take a deep breath. Down at the water, we hear the boat captain yell out again. “Fan out, and secure the area! These fucks blew up two of our boats, I want their fucking heads!”
“Sounds like fun,” I mutter to myself, getting to my knees. I look at Jensen, who climbs to his feet. He's right, this isn't the time for crawling anymore, and since we can't really see them, we can start to run, crouched over to keep as low a profile as possible while still moving silently.
Using hand signals, we make our way parallel to the river, staying silent as we try to find a place we can hole up. Tauren's attack is late, they must have run into problems, and I'm getting nervous when Jensen holds up his hand for us to stop, and he points.
“There. We hole up there,” he whispers, pointing to a cleft in a rock face. “Let's hope this doesn't take long.”
“Looks cozy,” I joke softly. “Sure you're not just trying to get me into a tight space with you?”
Jensen smiles, shaking his head. “I think we don't need a tight space. Just a quiet one.”
Chapter 12
Jensen
Kelbara blushes while grinning at the same time at my comment, and I wonder what I'm thinking. Actually, I know exactly what I'm thinking, and while it's strange and weird, I enjoy it too. If I'm going to be attracted to her, if we want to go down this path, then so be it. I'd rather be open about it and quick on our reflexes than slowed down by wondering and getting my ass shot off. I let Kelbara take the lead towards the cleft in the rock, walking a little more relaxed. Suddenly, a crash comes out of the cleft, and a tree buck, one of the local wild animals that stands almost two meters tall and goes about two hundred kilograms, comes charging at us, bellowing through its massive snout in deep, echoing tones that sounds like a trumpet.
“Shit!” Kelbara grunts, jumping out of the way just as the tree buck’s massive hooves pound the ground right where she'd been standing. The tree buck is quick, turning practically on a point despite its massive size, and I raise my powerlance, firing once. The Gauss round is silent, but my aim's slightly off, and instead of blowing the buck's head off, it glances off the thick neck, piercing a tree and causing the truck to explode from the force of the needle hitting at hypersonic speeds. The tree buck bellows, wounded but not killed, and I'm reminded the great drawback of Gauss rounds on certain targets. Wild animals, like crawcs or tree bucks, are heavily protected, with huge body systems that aren't as affected by the same weapons that would kill a man. The reason the crawc died when I shot it on the boat wasn't the hydrostatic shock that a man would die from, but that I put four needles through its torso, enough energy that had no place to go but to crush the heart and internal organs.
I didn't do that to the tree buck, and it snorts, bellowing again as it sees me, lowering its head to charge. Kelbara fires though, three Gauss rounds hitting it in the flank and pulverizing the spine and rear legs. The buck collapses, screaming a final call before the massive injuries cause it to bleed out
and it dies.
The next sound I hear is the cracking of wood, and I realize that the tree that I shot is about ready to collapse. I hurry over to Kelbara, helping her off the ground. “We've gotta move!”
I take the lead, running hard as I hear the cries from the men on patrol, and I know that our lives depend on speed and avoidance right now. I slow up just enough to make sure that Kelbara stays with me, she's in tremendous condition but her short legs are something she can't avoid. We run, rounding the side of the ridge and coming towards a slightly shallower slope that tops out at a hill maybe fifty meters higher than the rest of the surrounding terrain
“Uphill!” I grunt, pointing with my arm while I turn to provide cover. Kelbara moves, her legs churning on the slope while I look for pursuit. I can hear them, they're getting closer. Whoever they are, they're better disciplined than the first patrol we ran into, there's no calling from one to another, just the rustle of men moving through the trees and woods, not enough to get a clear shot on anything.
I turn and sprint up the hill, hoping that I can get over the top before anyone gets to the bottom. It's both the advantage and disadvantage of being on top of a hill. From the hilltop, Kelbara and I could reasonably fend off a dozen or more attackers, we've got the firepower. However, in gaining that height, my ass is literally in the wind, my back exposed to anyone who wants to take a shot at me.
Kelbara and I reach the top without getting shot however, and I flop down behind a rock, gasping. “Okay... less gymnastics, more running!”
Kelbara starts laughing, and I understand. We're being chased by mercs, we're both scared out of our minds, but we're alive, and that feels good. “Can we call for help?”
I pull out my communicator while she covers us downslope, making a frantic call. “Tauren, this is Jensen.”
“We're ten minutes out, what's wrong?” Tauren's voice comes back.
“We've been discovered, could use some evac help. Got anything you can send down?”
“Everything's on the way. Hold on, Jensen. If not, Audra's kicking your ass, got it?”
“Got it. Hold out, pray for no ass kickings. Get here ASAP. Sending up a beacon of my location, Jensen out.”
I close my communicator, giving Kelbara a glance. “Ten minutes. Think we can do it?”
“We can,” Kelbara says, her eyes full of trust. “I believe in you.”
A small *ping* sound erupts off a rock near us, a furrow being ripped in the surface, and we know our pursuers are closer in. I look down slope furiously, hoping that we can stay under cover and return fire. “I'm going to use tracker darts,” I tell Kelbara, who's studying the forest intently. “Cause some havoc. Keep your lance on Gauss rounds.”
“Gotcha,” she replies as I adjust my powerlance. The tracker darts aren't as useful in the forest, there's too much stuff around, but each dart is tipped in a powerful explosive. They were created for urban environments, not this sort of fighting, but that doesn't mean I can't use them. I adjust the normal dart settings, which deactivate the darts after the small propulsion units have run out of power, and instead set them to explosively self-destruct if they don't find anything, a hack that only officer model lances can use. I point downslope and fire four darts in a spread pattern, not even waiting to see the results as they shoot out.
“Three... two... one,” I count to myself, and a series of four explosions rocks the air, something that sounds so out of place in the quiet. It's one of the things I've imagined so many times, watching the old data on Mogar's computers of human wars back on Earth. With Gauss weapons and hovertech being everywhere on Tamaria, battles have become silent compared to what they used to be. There's no rattle of machine guns, grinding of gears, or scream of jet engines. There's mostly silence, the sound of people moving, and the beat of your heart in your own ears. Even when I was training for the Arena and the Blood Moon Games, there was more noise than this from my opponents.
This time though, the four explosions rip through the air, and I hope causing our pursuers to pause. I check the time readout on my powerlance, there's still four or five minutes before Tauren's forces get here, and a lot of things can go wrong in four or five minutes.
“Again!” I grunt, rolling to the side and sending another five darts out in a fan pattern. I've only got three more in this lance, then my other if I want to keep this up, but it just might be enough. I see Kelbara getting to her knees to fire in assistance, but a bad feeling comes over me and I leap across, shoving her out of the way. “Get down!”
When I go to roll back, an explosion hits near me, and I'm sent cartwheeling through the air. I know what happened even before I hit the ground, it's the boat. I didn't hear any sound, so it must have been either a large caliber Gauss or railgun round, and considering I'm not dead I suspect a railgun, they don't hit with quite as much force at a distance. It must have hit the rock that Kelbara was using for cover, I thought at nearly half a meter thick it'd be enough. I hadn't thought of a blind shot from the boat.
I bounce off the ground, groaning as something snaps in my left leg, and I can feel blood start to trickle out of me. My Lancer armor saved me, but just barely, it's already hard to breathe and I'm sure I've got some sort of internal injuries. Still, if they saw that, the mercs have to be coming.
“Jensen!” Kelbara screams, scrambling to me even as a hail of Gauss rounds start bouncing off the ground all around us. “Jensen!”
“Get.... to... cover!” I groan, trying to drag myself towards a shallow ditch in the hilltop. “Orders!”
“Fuck your orders!” Kelbara says, grabbing me by the armor and dragging me towards the rock that she was hiding behind. “I won't leave you behind!”
Kelbara gets me behind cover and I try to roll over, but I'm so weak, barely able to keep my eyes open as Kelbara takes my other powerlance and sticks both arms out, firing blindly down the slope in rapid fire. Her angelic face is streaked with blood.... whose blood is that, is she hurt? I can barely think, and there's a rippling series of cracks as something happens down the slope. I'm so tired.... I roll onto my back, looking up into the beautiful blue sky, totally clear except for a single black streak that's going across.... wow, that's going fast. I wonder what it is, maybe a bird of some kind?
“Jensen!” Kelbara yells into my face, and suddenly I'm looking into her beautiful green eyes. She is beautiful, and I wish I'd told her before the past few days.
“Beautiful....” I whisper, reaching up with a shaky hand. “So beautiful....”
“Stay with me Jensen!” Kelbara screams, slapping my face. “Stay with me, I won't lose you!”
“Won't..... lose.....” I whisper, blinking. I see a few more flaws in the sky, a series of black dots that start to grow. Something's dropping out of the sky, I wonder what it is?
“Jensen!” Kelbara screams again, slapping me. “Stay awake, love! Stay with me!”
Love? I must be hearing things, because I swear she said love, and I force myself to focus, to fight past the haze of the shock and concussion as Kelbara fires again. She's a Valkyrie, my beautiful blond, green eyed, pink skinned Valkyrie, her armor glistening black as death in the morning sunlight as she fires again and again. One of the powerlances goes empty and she drops it, picking up one that had been mine and firing again, not stopping but instead screaming a battle cry out as she challenges our enemies to take her.
“Come on, you merc fucks!” Kelbara screams, firing another stream of Gauss rounds. “You want to see a fight? I'll bring your asses a fight!”
“Kelbara......” I whisper, reaching towards her. The black dots above us are getting bigger again, and I can hear screaming from down the slope. Then..... what is that?
“YES!” Kelbara screams, thrusting a hand in the air as she looks out at something I can't see. “Jensen, hold on, they're here! The attack force, they're here!”
“My... warrior princess,” I whisper, giving her a soft smile. “You're beautiful.”
Darkness creeps into t
he edge of my vision, and my eyes close. “Jensen, don't leave me!”
“Not... just... so tired....”
Chapter 13
Kelbara
“Jensen! Jensen!” I cry out, trying to shake his shoulders. This time though, there's no response, and I lean down, listening as he breathes. He's a mess, his left leg flops out at a sick, ugly angle, and there's blood pooling underneath him. But I can't stop firing, we're nearly overrun.
The sound of approaching vehicles causes the men below to stop firing though, as someone somewhere decides that defending the fort is bigger than getting two people on a hilltop. I can hear the mercs calling to each other, and I slide back, reaching for my field medical kit. It isn't much, Lancer armor isn't exactly made for storage of huge amounts of stuff, but I pull out my pressure bandage and start examining Jensen for wounds.
“Come on Jensen... where are you bleeding?” I whisper to myself, desperate. There's so much blood already, he's got to be bleeding out, and if I can't slow it down, regardless of if the attack is successful or not, I'm going to have a dead man in my arms.
I can't lose him, not like this, not so soon after we started to come together. Three months of wanting to talk with him, of trying to work up the guts to say that I don't care if he's human and I'm Tamarian, that I admire him. Not after the months of watching him from afar, not daring to get closer. I was too caught up in who I used to be, and who he used to be, thinking there was no way he'd return affections to a former slaver. But I won't lose him now. Not now, not when there's a chance, the chance I felt when we've kissed.
There.... I feel the puncture, it's in his back just under the edge of his armor. I'm guessing it has to be a shard of rock, but I can't just reach in and yank the fucking thing out, I have to apply my pressure bandage and tie it off, trusting in the elastic threads of the tie to keep enough blood in Jensen's body to be able to keep him alive.
Red Planet: The Revolt (Tamarians Book 2) Page 10