“There’s no one else...” she said, rising again, and flying just at treetop level.
“Yes, there’s the other two guys, and the lighter, look,” Hunter said, pointing down, where the lighter lay, partly on one side on a pile of pushed up dirt, firing something up toward two copters racing in at it.
“Damn,” Lori said, moving ahead, accelerating toward the lighter, telling Eagle One to defend it.
The HiE lazer flashed, scoring hits, one copter turned on its side, then upside down, and smashed down into some trees that way. The second rose upward, turned left, and dropped from sight beyond the forest.
The illi-illi chirped at them, and Eagle One said, “The pilot says to let him off at the lighter, he can help them fight.”
“OK,” she said, coming to a rapid stop next to the lighter. The illi-illi hopped out, ran to the lighter, and slipped inside as tracers flew in and dirt erupted around it. “Where...?” she started to say when Eagle One jumped upward, swinging around, firing into the tree tops not far away. Something exploded there, and two air cars dropped in and out of sight, and flew up again. “Up, get up, higher,” she said to Eagle One, not sure who was who.
The screens showed blips off to the west, everything clear around them for the moment. Lori stopped at 300 meters, looking around. The downed lighter lay toward the eastern edge of an irregular clearing, a brushy meadow in the midst of wooded terrain. To the west, an oxbow from a lazy river lay fringed with a 30 meter tall band of trees surrounded the meadow on three sides. To the east, behind them, a forested hill rose, a bump in the terrain. Woods seemed to stretch off in all other directions. Here and there, pillars of smoke rose from the sites of wrecked aircraft, she presumed, including one of theirs.
“Status,” she said to Eagle One.
“Additional bandits on approach from the west,” and the screen shrank to show two groups of a dozen or more aircraft heading their way. Rather quickly, she thought. “Ground vehicles are approaching from the west.” Lori saw thin roads indicated on the terrain map in the right screen, with lines of bright dots on them. “Friendly hagazzii on route from orbit, and points northwest and south.” A further shrinking of the view showed their reinforcements some ways out, but moving in fast, very fast. Not so many, though, maybe five, six at most. It’d have to do. Lori was glad for the cambots overhead, providing real-time info for Eagle One.
The remaining two illi-illi air cars flew up to her and stopped to either side. “Eagle One, tell the illi-illis well done, good flying, and that we will now attack the approaching aircraft, the northern group first, then swing around, and get the south group from the rear.”
“Ready, they say.”
“Can you slave them?”
“Negative.”
“Then let’s go,” and Lori pushed the sticks forward, and they jumped upward and raced toward the approaching enemy. “Hunt, watch the left group for me, let me know if they change course, or anything.”
Arrowheads of missiles launched appeared immediately, and the three hagazzii began firing HiE lazers, and the illi-illi sent missiles of their own out, too. “Hot shit, I didn’t know they had any of those on board, great,” Hunter said. He added the other group held a steady course.
The three hagazzii flashed through the attacking aircraft, jet fighters of some sort, not very maneuverable, at least not as maneuverable as the off world air cars. Half disappeared in spectacular explosions, or dived to the ground after losing a wing or a tail, then three more as the air cars swapped ends, and hit them from behind. The air cars swung right, still facing east, arcing back in a high-G turn that brought a groan from Hunter, and raced forward again, after the second wave. This group saw them coming, and scattered, and Lori and the illi-illi took off after individual bandits. Lori blew one apart immediately, as the sky filled with darting aircraft, smokey lines from fired missiles, and two more orange blossoms of exploding aircraft.
Eagle One said, “Help arrives,” and Lori saw the welcomed appearance of blue dots on the battle screen. She told Eagle One to return and take up a low station over the lighter, pleased to see on the way in the twin 50's chasing off another helicopter raking it with machine gun fire. The copter flew off, trailing smoke, and she saw, with satisfaction, it hit the trees on the far side of the river.
“Friends ask what to do,” Eagle One said.
“Tell them to chase down and kill every aircraft they see in the area, and any more that approach. Send one to check on the ground vehicles on approach, friendly or not. Then return, patrol this area.”
“Acknowledged,” and Lori watched the action on the screen, blue dots darting here and there, chasing down and destroying the orange blips, one by one. But one of the blue dots vanished, too, close by, and Lori saw the debris falling toward the trees at the north end of the clearing.
“That was a Kobi ship, I think,” Hunter said.
“Damn,” Lori said.
Eagle One jumped as a missile sailed by, and another. It let them go, did not fire, let the others deal with the nearby bandits.
“Call Morales’ lighter, if you can, Eagle One,” she said.
“No response,” it said.
With the action over, she thought, Lori drifted slowly toward the ground, and landed next to the lighter. “Hunt, take over, stay in the command chair, be ready for anything.”
“Where are you...”
“I’m going to talk to Morales, see what the hell’s going on. Be right back.”
She stepped onto the ground, to see it covered with tiny, white flowers, not a centimeter high. “This is like living snow,” she said, regretting crushing such beauty. Other flowers bloomed all over the meadow, she noticed, bright spots of yellow, orange, blue and crimson in the faded thin, tan stalks of last season’s vegetation. Morales met her at the lighter, opening the personnel door in the rear ramp. He stepped out, looking beat up, disheveled, a white bandage circling his head. Two cambots drifted out behind him, one staying low, focused on them, the other flying a little higher.
“You’re here a little ahead of schedule, weren’t due for hours yet,” he said, in his bantering style.
“Yeah, well, heard you were having a hell of a time, so thought I’d join the party.” He grimaced. “What the hell happened?”
“Lori, I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “Complacent...let my guard down, damn, I outta be shot...”
“Forget it, not your fault. Tell me what happened.”
Shaking his head again, and looking away, over her shoulder, he said, “We were inbound, everything had checked out, I’d even thought of telling the illi-illi no need to come with us...Man, glad for having them. Anyway, we’re just about there, drifting down, slow, to impress them, you know, when Sialia, the Anawoka says, ‘Why are you landing in a military zone?’ That was puzzling, we were headed for the park preserve, I thought, and saw ahead, in a clearing, a couple of tents, and some ground cars parked around them. Anyway, he says the map says that it’s a military base of some sort, there, west of that river, the Dire Dawa. Here, where we are now,” and his hands gestured downward, “is the park. Over there, it’s military. So I slowed down the approach, began a slow circle, and scanned the area. Gees, Lori, it was swarming with weapons, vehicles and stuff all over, in the trees, in the ground, in bunkers, everything hidden, camouflaged, you know. I had no radio contact here, another warning I ignored, so began to lift up and away while I called someone, and all hell broke loose. They threw everything they had at us, which the computers saw before we did, and got us the hell up and away, but we still caught a missile or two.” His shoulders slumped, he added, “Or three or four. One took out my co-pilot, she’d dead.” Lori saw the agony in his eyes. He looked up at her. “Next thing we know, we’re fighting off a squadron of attack helicopters, thank god for the illi-illi, or we’d be all long gone, they kept them off of me, but,” and he shook his head once more, “we couldn’t lift, get away, could only make it this far.” Again, he added, “I’
m real sorry, it’s all my fau...”
“I said, forget it.” The other air cars, four in all, had returned, and they all landed.
A bigboy ran over to her, said, “We saw military ground vehicles on the roads over there, across the river, and fired in front of them, they stopped, and everyone of them ran off into the woods.”
“OK, thanks,” Lori said, bothered by the report for some reason, but she didn’t know why, and turned her attention back to Morales as the bigboy ran back to his air car. A small boom sounded, like from far away.
“This is shot,” he said as they faced the lighter. “We can abandon it, burn it, whatever.”
“No, I’m not leaving any military technology on this planet. We’ll have to lift it, and the two air cars we lost, too, nothing...”
Another explosion sounded, much louder, much closer, in the woods, near the river’s bank. They turned to look, saw trees toppling, shit flying all over, and starting to fall back in an expanding pattern, which faded before it reached them.
“Who’s watching...Hunter, get someone in the air, get a patrol up,” she yelled, and yet another low boom sounded.
“How the hell we gonna lift this pile of junk?” Morales said. “We got nothing that big here, not even the big boys.”
“Strip out what we can, then we’ll, well, can we get two, three lighters, use slings, something?”
Morales considered it. “Yeah, well, maybe. Probably. Sorry, I’m not thinking too clearly right now...”
“I know. Maybe we got time, we’ll...”
A windstorm or something approached, a screaming sizzle, Hunter yelled something, and the sound whistled overhead, and a shell crashed into the woods a bit beyond them, kicking up another huge cloud of debris, and toppling trees again. This time, Lori saw dark bits flying at them, wondering if she should duck, but everything missed her and Morales, though the lighter gave a few loud “Pings” where it took a hits.
“Artillery!” Morales said. “We’re being shelled.”
Lori shouted, “Hunter!” Turning to the air car, she asked, “Is anyone up there watching? Are we getting shelled?”
“Eagle One says we are...”
A series of booms, collectively louder, interrupted her.
“They’re firing for effect!” Lori shouted. “Hunt, get up, get in the air, get everyone in the air,” she yelled, as they heard a thousand storms approach. “Now!” she screamed, and jumped into the lighter, followed by Morales. As he slammed the door, she saw Eagle One lifting, and the other air cars jumping skyward, too.
Morales grabbed her, none too gently, shoving her down into the lowest recess of the lighter, the lower left side, where the wall met the floor, all askew in the crashed craft. He lay on top of her, as he yelled to the rest of his rest of his crew to get down, and cover their ears. A ruffled Anawoka hopped between two lockers, and made itself small. The illi-illi on the twin guns clamored down, huddled next to another, and they both turned into a tight black ball nearby. The other two humans secreted themselves on the floor, too. With one eye, she watched the monitors showing the scene outside, two from the cambots, one now quite high.
The screaming outside peaked, and abruptly stopped, as the ground shook, and a solid tidal wave of noise assaulted their ears. The lighter seemed to jump around, Lori saw the sides shake and bulge, things flying apart, the few remaining lights go off, and all but one of the screens go dark. The one remaining screen, from the high cambot, now at 300 meters or so, showed impacts all around the lighter, scattered in a pattern over the meadow, and beyond, into the trees. One hit the river, sending up a tall, white geyser.
The land hits sent dust and smoke and shrapnel driving all over, turning the clearing into a shredder of sharp steel. Lori heard it hitting the lighter, and stuff continued to fall onto it after the immediate impacts.
Her radio screamed her name, Eagle One and Hunter calling her.
“We’re all right,” she said. “Find the guns. Find the artillery, and take them out now, don’t let them reload.”
“We’re on it, Eagle One has a fix, we’re all going in, but the air force is coming back again, too.”
“Get the guns first, then the aircraft.”
“Roger.”
“I’m sorry,” Morales said, sitting up and leaning against the angle of the wall.
“Morales, you say that once more, and I’m gonna give you a kick in the ass,” Lori said, looking at him as she stood up. She peered closer, trying to see him in the dim light. “You feeling OK?”
“I’ve been better,” he said, holding his head.
A flashlight appeared, she took it and shined it on Morale’s face. He flinched back, blinking his eyes as she flicked the light over them. She dropped the light, said, “I think you’ve gotten a concussion. We got to get you out of here. Anyone else hurt?”
“We’re all banged up,” a female voice said. “It was a hard landing.”
Emergency lights came up, pale, scattered. She saw the whole crew looking one step from going limp. In the forward corner, the crushed body of the dead illi-illi still seeped yellow-green fluid. The Anawoka tried to fluff its wings, only raised them part way, and stopped. Outside, more low booms showed the guns were firing at them again.
“Another shelling, brace yourselves. Shit,” Lori said, pulling Morales down next to her in the corner of the lighter.
Again, the ground shook, and this time a ferocious explosion sounding like it was nearly overhead sent splinters of steel through the duraluminum armor of the lighter, shredding parts of the kevalor padding, and ricocheting around inside. Some hit soft flesh. A human screamed, and stopped. Something cut Lori’s left upper arm, but she clamped her mouth shut, and said nothing, just slapped her hand over it.
“Air burst,” Morales said. “Who’s hurt?”
“Sally. Her legs,” a male voice said.
Morales got up, went forward, to minister to his crew.
Lori called Eagle One on her radio. “What’s happening with the guns.”
“Found several, and am in the process of destroying them. More are on the move. Shall we attack?”
“Status of air craft?”
“Incoming.”
Shit. “No, go after the air craft next.”
“We’re coming back to get you,” Hunter said.
“OK,” Lori said. To the crew, she said, “They got the guns, but more are on the way. And more planes, too. It’s not over. Get in your body armor, everyone who isn’t. How’s the lighter’s guns?”
“The starboard 50's OK, the other one’s jammed in the dirt. Lasers are, too.”
“How much ammo you got for the 50's?”
“Not enough.”
“Soon’s you can, get out and dig them out. I don’t think this is over yet.” Looking at the Anawoka, she said, “Can you get the radio going?”
“We shall. I am Sialia.”
“Good. If you can get a radio working, call the other lighter, see where the hell it is, tell it to get a move on. Then try to call King Angara, see if he can tell us where the Command Center is for this Vorkyta base. Then call the bigboys, see if they have anything handy with a hell burner on it. I’m going back outside.”
While she was talking, the illi-illi brought over a dressing, and carefully wrapped it around her bleeding arm. She nodded, opened the door, and peered outside. Dust filled the air, drifting along, obscuring anything beyond ten meters. Above, Eagle One approached rapidly. She stepped out, the illi-illi and another crewman followed with shovels, headed forward to work on the guns.
As Eagle One landed, and she walked to toward it, she noticed not a flower remained, everything blasted flat, or blown away. Fires raged here and there in the woods all around them, adding their smoke to that of the shells. A couple of shell holes nearby showed how close the artillery had come.
Hunter said, “Oh, gees, Lori,” seeing her bleeding arm.
She waved him off, motioning him out of the pilot’s seat, and said,
“Status of aircraft?”
Hunter started to say something, but Eagle One said first, “Other friendly hagazzii are keeping them at bay, they have not approached. Your status?”
“Slight wound to left arm. And my ears are ringing. Damn. OK, lets go hunt some FOs.”
“What?” Hunter said, buckling his harness as Lori lifted a meter, and flew off west.
“Forward observers. That artillery isn’t shooting blind, someone’s telling them where the hell we are. How many guns you get?”
“Six.”
“There’s more, somewhere.” She flew off into the trees, dodging stout trunks, slipped across the river, and headed into the forest on the other side. She hadn’t gone 100 meters before small arms fire began hitting them, and Eagle One said, “Weapons everywhere. Shall we attack?”
“No. Call the lighter, see if they got a radio going, and tell them company’s coming on foot, ETA, what, what’d you say, Hunter, till they cross the river and swarm the lighter?” She rose through the branches of the trees, began flying at their top.
“Dunno,” he said, looking out and down, holding up the FN rifle, anxious to put it to use, though the firing slacked off and stopped as they rose. “Maybe 20-30 minutes. No more, probably depends on how fast they can swim that river.”
“Right. Twenty minutes, Eagle One.”
“Roger.”
“Where are you going?” Hunter asked.
“There,” she said, pointing to a hill well to their left. “But I’m taking the long route.”
She ducked into the trees again, telling Eagle One where she wanted to go, and let it guide them a bit further west, then south, and finally back east again, keeping below the tops of the trees, twisting and dodging. They crossed one road, saw no more bandit soldiers. The ground began rising before them, and Lori popped up out of the trees, and quickly flew toward the top of the hill.
There, beneath a heavy drape of camouflage netting, a small detachment faced the clearing, small radios and tracking devices nearby. “Damnation,” Lori said, immediately sending an energy sphere into their midst.
T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6) Page 60