Joined In Battle

by Toby Neighbors

  “That’s your decision to make, Captain Blaze. We stand by ready to assist you in every way possible, over.”

  “Thank you, Admiral. For now, we’re recharging the shuttle and preparing for the possibility that the crawlers might return. We will stay in contact. Lieutenant Chappelander, we’ll set out to find the survivors at first light, over.”

  “Roger that,” Chappelander said.

  “Very good, Captain. Command, over and out.”

  Dean switched back to the platoon channel.

  “We’ve got more than ten hours of darkness left to deal with,” Dean said. “I want to be ready if these creatures come back.”

  “We should have an advantage,” Chavez said. “Our weapons surely have a greater range than their quills.”

  “But we don’t know if our weapons will penetrate their shells,” Dean replied. “And unless we kill them as they approach, their shell-covered bodies will provide cover for them as they move closer and closer.”

  “I ain’t scared of no crabs,” Adkins boasted.

  “Why would you be? You’ve had them for so long,” Ghost replied, eliciting a few chuckles from the Heavy Armor Specialists.

  “The best tactic would be ground-based explosives,” Tallgrass said. “Either pressure-activated or remote-detonated.”

  “True enough, but we have two problems,” Dean said. “First, if we use that type of ordinance inside the outpost—”

  “We’ll blow it to pieces,” Landin interrupted.

  “Exactly,” Dean said. “And if we go outside to set them up, we’re vulnerable to attack.”

  “Surely we can provide cover for Sergeant Tallgrass and Corporal Landin,” Owando said.

  “No doubt,” Adkins exclaimed.

  “We have no way of knowing that,” Dean said. “We know almost nothing about these creatures. The locals said they couldn’t see them until the crawlers were right on top of their position.”

  “But the locals didn’t have night vision, infrared, and ultraviolet capabilities,” Ghost said. “I don’t like the idea of just waiting around.”

  “I’m with him,” Private Cody Loggins said. “If there’s a fight coming, I want to be prepared.”

  “From a tactical standpoint, we’re in the best position now,” Dean said. “This outpost provides cover. There’s no way those creatures can get inside without us knowing.”

  “But once they do, how much damage can we deal them before they overrun us?” Chavez said.

  “That remains to be seen,” Dean said. “But I’m not sending anyone outside while it’s dark unless we have to. Instead, I think our best course of action is to prepare this hangar for a fight.”

  “You think they’ll come in here?” Harper asked.

  “They’ll have to if they want to destroy the radio,” Dean replied. “I know we’d all rather be getting some sleep and planning for a simple rescue operation, but we can’t be caught unprepared if something shows up looking for a fight. We are Force Recon, and nothing in the galaxy is going to get the best of us—not when we have the time and the means to prepare ourselves. Whatever these creatures are, they will rue the day they met us.”

  “So, what’s the plan, Captain?” Chavez asked.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Dean replied.

  Chapter 16

  The only door to the outpost that wasn’t barricaded was the large hangar door. It was a big, heavy folding door on a powerful winch system that could be raised or lowered either with an electric motor or manually. Dean simply locked the big hangar door down by twisting a small lever that latched the door to its guide rails and took the winch system offline.

  There wasn’t much to use in the room for cover. Without the vehicles it was built to house, the hangar was essentially a large open room. Dean planned to fight the crawlers near the double doors that led from the outpost into the hangar. If things went according to plan, the crawlers would have to come down the central corridor of the outpost to reach the hangar, and Dean planned to concentrate his platoon’s fire down the hallway until it became necessary to fall back. Then again, things rarely went as planned in battle.

  Tallgrass and Landin were busy setting concussion charges along the floor. They weren’t powerful charges—Dean didn’t want to accidentally blow up the entire hangar with his platoon still in it—but if they were attacked, he wanted to be ready. Chavez was monitoring the vid feeds from the MSVs, and the night was half gone when the first signs of trouble appeared.

  “Captain, I have movement,” Chavez said.

  Dean immediately brought up the vid feeds from the MSVs on his battle helmet’s view screen.

  “I don't see anything, Staff Sergeant,” Dean replied.

  “No, they’re hard to see. They just blend into the ground,” Chavez replied. “But the motion sensors are lighting up.”

  Dean brought up the vid feed from the MSV that was in front of the main entrance. Most of the picture was dark. The outpost had lights mounted above the entrance, but they only gave a small circle of light. Dean could see the ground and the darker shadows of the evergreen trees in the distance, but nothing else. And then, almost like a glitch in the vid feed, the ground seemed to jerk.

  “They’re playing it safe,” Dean said.

  “Moving in short steps and staying low,” Chavez agreed.

  “Anything from the other MSVs?”

  “I’ve got movement alerts on the south and east sides of the outpost.”

  “Loggins!” Dean called his Fast Attack private to his side. “Bring the MSV on the west corner closer to the main entrance. I want to see what happens. Then remove the safety on the MSV at the entrance and slowly roll it forward.”

  “Yes, sir,” Private Loggins said.

  Dean watched the vid feed as the MSV near the front doors to the outpost rolled slowly forward. The shells of the crawlers looked exactly like the rocky, moss-covered terrain. They sloped up gently at first, and even at close range the creature seemed like nothing more than an undulation in the ground. Suddenly, without warning, the creature moved forward. Dean saw a flash of movement, followed by complete darkness—then the feed went dead. From the other MSV monitoring at a distance, Dean saw the explosion. The crab-shaped creature was flipped into the air and the ground around it became a flurry of activity.

  “We have bogeys!” Dean announced. “Static, Eagle, Beak, Pistol, Hot!”

  Normally with a Static formation, the HA Specialists formed a straight line, their shields facing the enemy and overlapping slightly. But Dean’s platoon was near the hallway that led to the hangar. The double doors were propped open and only three of the HA Specialists were needed to fill the space. Owando took the center position, with Adkins and the Swede on either side. The other three HA Specialists—Wilson, Kliner, and Carter—waited behind the platoon, ready to join their fellow Heavy Armor Specialists if the platoon was forced to fall back.

  Loggins and Harper were just behind Owando and Adkins, their EMR rifles trained down the long hallway. Chavez and Dean were several steps behind them, and the demo team of Tallgrass and Landin were even further back. Ghost had taken a position high up on the rear wall of the hangar. He sat easy on a thick beam in the rafters, his long rifle aiming across the hangar and just over the heads of his companions.

  Dean continued to watch as the crawlers swarmed like ants when their hill was kicked. It was impossible to count them as they moved in and out of the ring of light by the front entrance. Dean had been certain that the creature that attacked the MSV must be dead, but unfortunately, it didn’t appear that the crawler’s thick shell had even been cracked by the concussion charge in the small drone.

  “Holy shit!” Adkins declared as the creatures ripped the doors off their hinges at the main entrance.

  His platoon couldn’t see the entrance, but the sound of metal being violently torn by the powerful creatures echoed through the outpost.

  “Steady,” Dean urged his platoon. “They’ve given up on s
tealth, but they’re not getting past us.”

  “Looks like we could have used more charges,” Chavez said. “No sense in us being cautious if they’re going to tear this place apart.”

  “Too late for that now,” Dean said, hoping he hadn’t made a tactical error in choosing the hangar as the place to make their stand. If the creatures pushed them back from the hallway, it would be a vicious fight without any terrain to lend them cover.

  “Can they get in from the south side?” Harper asked.

  Dean could tell the FAS Sergeant didn’t like being in the dark. Normally, she would have her own MSVs monitoring the enemy, but her battle armor didn’t allow her to tap into her partner’s vid feeds.

  “There’s a doorway there,” Chavez said.

  “It’s a heavy steel door and we welded it shut,” Tallgrass said. “They’ll need a torch to cut it open.”

  They could hear crashing and banging as the creatures rushed into the outpost. Dean watched on the vid feed, trying to get a feel for the number of creatures attacking them. They were still coming into the building when Owando called out.

  “We have visual,” the HA Sergeant said.

  “Harper!” Dean ordered.

  Using the Electro Magnetic Railgun rifle, she fired a single shot at the lead crawler. The hallway was only wide enough for the crab creatures to approach one at a time. Dean had hoped the hallway would be a deathtrap for any of the crawlers trying to reach his platoon, but he didn’t have to wait for Harper to report the failure of her shot. The entire platoon heard the tungsten metal slug ricochet off the creature’s shell.

  “No joy,” Harper said.

  “Hit the bastards low,” Chavez growled.

  “Firing,” Owando replied.

  The HA Specialists opened fire with their utility cannons. A hail of flechettes poured down the hallway, and the platoon heard the crawler screech in agony as several shots found their way under the shell.

  “They have to lift their shell to move,” Adkins said, as another of the crawlers scurried over its fallen mate.

  Harper’s rifle popped again. The launching mechanism sounded more like a plastic hammer hitting a twenty-penny nail than a weapon firing, but the projectile found its mark just as the crawler was climbing over the highest section of the first creature’s shell. The second crawler didn’t cry out; it just jerked backward and slid down to the floor.

  The battle in the hallway lasted nearly ten minutes before the crawlers realized they couldn’t get past the Recon platoon’s deadly gunfire and stopped sending creatures into the corridor. Dean was certain the crawlers were searching for a new way into the hangar.

  “They’re moving out,” Chavez said.

  “Circling the building,” Loggins said. “Should I engage?”

  “Negative,” Dean said. “Remove the safeties on those drones, but we need eyes outside more than dead crawlers. Keep your distance.”

  Dean had yet to fire his own EMR rifle, and doing nothing made him antsy, but he pushed down his emotions and took stock of their situation. He didn’t think the crawlers could get into the hangar through the big folding doors, but he was trained to prepare for what an enemy might do, not just what he thought they would do.

  “Let's fall back,” Dean said.

  “You sure, Captain?” Adkins said. “I can snuff these little monsters for a week right here.”

  “They’re too smart to keep getting themselves killed in that hallway,” Dean replied. “They’ll find another way in.”

  “We should have welded the hangar doors,” Tallgrass said.

  “Hell, these walls aren’t thick enough to offer much protection,” Ghost said from his nest in the rafters. “They could bust through any of them.”

  Dean knew his sniper was right about the hangar walls. But he had been watching the crawlers, both as they came down the hallway and via the MSV feed near the entrance to the outpost. He had a sneaking suspicion that ramming their way into the hangar wasn’t something the creatures were built for. They had incredibly strong pincers—terrific strength as they hooked onto something and pulled—but he hadn’t seen them rush forward with confidence. He got the feeling they preferred sneaking up on their prey.

  “Loggins, turn your MSVs so we can see the outside of the hangar,” Dean ordered.

  “But, sir, shouldn’t we—”

  “Are you questioning a direct order, Private?” Chavez suddenly shouted. “Your only response is to be ‘yes, sir’ or I’ll stick my boot so far up your ass, you’ll taste shoe leather for a month.”

  “Yes, sir!” Loggins replied quickly.

  The hangar walls were constructed of a simple, nondescript metal siding on top of a metal framework. The only weak point in Dean’s opinion was an exhaust venting system opposite the hangar doors, with pressure vents and bundles of piping attached to the thin, metal wall.

  “There,” Dean said, pointing to the wall that was to his right as they backed all the way across the hangar to where Tallgrass had outlined their escape route with thermite. They were just under Ghost’s position. “That’s where they’ll come in.”

  “How the hell does he know that?” Landin asked.

  “It’s his gift,” Adkins said. “Always trust the Captain when the shit hits the fan.”

  “Loggins, move those MSVs. I want eyes on that southern section of the wall,” Dean ordered. “Two drones. Move the rest to cover our escape route back to the shuttle.”

  “Yes, sir,” the Fast Attack private said.

  “Tallgrass, we need to fire that thermite at a moment’s notice.”

  “It’s ready, Captain,” she replied. “I’ll see to it myself.”

  “Good.” Dean had to switch to the command channel for his next order. “Command, this is Wolfpack. Do you read, over?”

  “Loud and clear, Captain,” Anders replied. “What’s your status, over?”

  “We have engaged the crawlers, sir. Their shells are resistant to our weapons, but so far we’ve been able to hold them off. Unfortunately, our position here in the outpost is untenable. We may need to dust off in the shuttle at speed, over.”

  “Roger that,” Chappelander said. “I’ll begin preflight, but I can’t fire the engines until the charging cable is disconnected, over.”

  “We’ll see to that,” Dean said. “How much time do you need to get us in the air once we take care of that cable, over?”

  “Three minutes,” the operator said. “It takes time for the atmospheric jets to spool up, over.”

  “We’ll make it work,” Dean said, trying not to let his frustration show. Stand by, command, over.”

  Dean changed back to his platoon channel and took a deep breath. He knew they were in for a nasty fight, but it was unavoidable.

  “Alright people, here’s the sit rep,” Dean said. “Once the crawlers find a way in here, we hold them off for as long as we can, but we don’t take any chances. This isn’t the fight to spend your life on, so I don’t want any heroics. On my order, Tallgrass will ignite the thermite. Then we haul ass to the shuttle. Staff Sergeant Chavez will disconnect the charging cable. From that moment, it will take Lieutenant Chappelander three minutes to get the bird in the air. We can’t take a chance those creatures might disable the shuttle, so we have to hold them off. We lose the shuttle, we’re screwed. Everyone understand?”

  They acknowledged the order, then settled in to wait and see what the creatures on Lars would do next. Dean only hoped they weren’t smart enough to attack the shuttle before they found a way into the hangar. If that happened, Dean’s platoon would be stranded on the planet until another EsDef ship could reach the system, and Dean didn’t think they would survive another night on this alien world.

  “What the hell are they doing?” Loggins asked.

  “They’re inspecting the outpost,” Dean replied. “Taking their time finding a way in.”

  “It ain’t natural,” Chavez said. “They look like animals but they’re damn smart.”

/>   “Smart enough to find a way in, that’s for sure,” Dean said. “Let’s just hope they aren’t smart enough to trick us into a trap.”

  “That’s not very reassuring, Captain,” Adkins said.

  “I’m not here to make you feel better, Corporal,” Dean replied. “Better make sure you’re right with the man upstairs. We could use all the help we can get right now.”

  “I wish they would just get it over with,” Wilson said. “I hate all this waiting.”

  “The longer it takes them to make their move, the better off we are,” Dean said. “There are no reports of these creatures attacking during the day time.”

  “Why the hell not?” Adkins asked.

  “Either the heat or the light,” Tallgrass said.

  Dean considered his Demo Sergeant’s analysis and decided he should have brought the plasma ammo for the HA Specialists. He knew he needed a plan to hold off the creatures until sunrise, but he felt like he was back in school, only he hadn’t studied for his exams. Perhaps it was the lack of rest over the past thirty-six hours that he’d been awake, or maybe it was just the tactical situation he found himself in, but he couldn’t shake the sense of fear he felt. It was as if something bad were about to happen and he couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t even see where the danger was coming from. All he knew was that his platoon was in trouble, and he had to find a way to save them.

  Chapter 17

  An hour passed before the crawlers made their move. Dean used the time as best he could. There were no vehicles left in the hangar to use as cover in a fight, but there were plenty of tools, including bright, halogen work lights. Dean’s platoon was in a semicircle near the wall that Tallgrass had outlined with thermite. The Heavy Armor Specialists formed the front line, with Harper on the right flank and Loggins on the left. Everyone else, including Ghost who had come down from his nest in the rafters, were lined up just behind the HA Specialists.

  Beyond the platoon, Dean had set up nearly two dozen halogen lights. They were taken off their stands so that the caged bulbs sat on the floor, facing away from the Recon platoon. Beside Dean was a toggle switch, which would power the bright lights on. Everything that could have been done had been done, but it didn’t keep Dean from wondering if he’d missed something.