Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm

by Doug Dandridge

As the Colonel yelled out the last a score of Imperial Medium Infantry came out into the open, their weapons, which included several particle beams and a hyper-v launcher, all pointed at the now shock faced officer. “I don’t want to start a war between the services,” said Baggett, lowering his voice. “But by God I will if you don’t let me talk with your superior.”

  “I’m contacting her now,” said the Marine, his pale face now sweating.

  A few moments later a hard faced Asian woman in an undress uniform appeared, walking down the trail. Baggett recognized her, Lt. Colonel Cho Kwan. She was not technically in his chain, as her HQ company had been assigned to the Willoughby sector. And the determined set of her face let him know he was not about to cow her.

  “What is the meaning of this, Colonel Baggett?” asked the woman, coming to a stop with her hands on her hips, looking up at him.

  “The meaning of this, Colonel Kwan, is that you are in my sector and are withholding resources that I need, for my soldiers and the civilians we are protecting.”

  “Everything on this plateau and the caverns connecting to it came from Marine and Fleet stores,” said the officer, glaring up at the soldier. “Nothing from the Army, which has its own supply pipeline.”

  “We are not in that pipeline now, Colonel Kwan,” said the Army Officer, towering over her, leaning forward to try as use his height as intimidation, and seeing immediately that it wasn’t going to work.

  “Be that as it may, Colonel Baggett, we only have enough for our own. Sorry, but that’s a fact.”

  “I could take it, Colonel Kwan,” said Baggett, wondering if he could really order his soldiers to open fire on people who were supposed to be on the same side.

  “You could try, Colonel Baggett,” said the grim faced woman. “You could…”

  The sounds of explosions came echoing across the open prairie below the plateau. All of the military people started, then went low. They had heard enough of those sounds to know what they meant. The jungle started up again after the four kilometers of width to the grasslands. The grazing beasts on that prairie started to hoot and low, and started moving away from the jungle.

  Baggett lowered his faceplate and took a look in the direction of the sound, using his HUD to zoom in. He saw figures moving out of the jungle, firing weapons back in. There was smoke in the air, starting to obscure the view. A red beam came out of the jungle and struck the cliff a hundred meters to the north. Particle beam, thought the officer, and then watched as a series of explosions rippled among the big, horned figures that he now recognized as Ca’cadasans.

  A moment later dozens of aircraft rocketed into the sky, firing beam weapons and rockets at the sanctuary area.

  “Looks like you were found out, Colonel,” said Baggett, getting on his own link com and ordering his people under cover.

  The other colonel was yelling into a com link, her face going pale, not liking what she was hearing on the other end.

  “We’ll leave it to you, Colonel Kwan,” said Baggett, backing up, keeping his own weapon turned on the Marines.

  “You can’t leave it to us, Colonel Baggett,” cried the woman, her eyes pleading. “We need your help, or we’ll be overrun.”

  Baggett gave the woman a salute, then turned and ran down the thirty meters of steps. Something exploded behind him, sending dirt and fragments of rock into his armor. He turned to see the place where the Marines were standing was now cloaked in smoke and dust. The Colonel gave another salute and faded into the jungle, wondering about the circumstances that had turned military officers into Warlords, only looking out for their own.

  * * *

  Captain McKinnon had settled on a flanking maneuver, which made him take some time to get them in position. He had too few Marines to attack along a wide front, and assaulting a narrow front left him too open to a flanking maneuver by the enemy. With a flank attack he could concentrate his forces and watch his one flank, as he wasn’t too concerned about a maneuver in the open area. He could see that coming and react accordingly.

  It took about twenty minutes of moving through the jungle to get into place, some tense moments as Cacas were either avoided, or killed silently and efficiently by Marines with the right skills. Finally all was ready, and McKinnon keyed his com with three quick bursts of static, the signal to go forward. Two squads moved out, while the third, with the Captain and his command team, formed the reserve, and waited a few moments before following the other groups.

  Despite the noise the heavy suits made crashing through the jungle the Cacas were totally surprised. McKinnon watched on his HUD feed as the first squad came charging out of the jungle and caught fifteen Cacas flatfooted, looking in the other direction at the edge of the jungle. As soon as the Cacas were sighted ten of them were down, hit with fast moving mag rifle projectiles, or lasers and particle beams. The remaining five tried to return fire, but were cut down before they could complete swinging their weapons onto their killers.

  Second squad did almost as well, taking a few more seconds to reach the enemy platoon command group. The results were the same. Lots of dead Cacas and no Imperial casualties. The second squad of Cacas fell just as easily. The third was a little more trouble, and several of the aliens fled into the open area and fired back into the jungle. There were no Imperial casualties, and McKinnon was beginning to think they might be able to pull this off in a miracle play.

  When they hit the next platoon things began to change. Though still obviously confused, these Cacas were able to react to the flank attack with return fire, and the Marines took their first casualty, a young trooper hit by a particle beam and many hypervelocity rounds. More Cacas moved out onto the prairie and fired back into the jungle, which went according to the Captain’s plan. They were out in the open, where the people on the sanctuary plateau could see them and hear them, and the surprise of their attack was ruined.

  Finally the attack ran out of steam, hitting a line of Ca’cadasans who poured deadly fire into the Imperial Marines. The platoon was down to nineteen Marines at this time, and they were facing forty or more Cacas, with more rushing into the battle every moment. McKinnon maneuvered his reserve element back into the jungle, intending to come on the Caca line. On the way he ran into another platoon moving up, and was soon in a firefight of his own.

  “We need to keep moving forward,” he yelled over the com to Sergeant Hogan, who was with the other elements.

  “We can’t move into that fire,” yelled the Sergeant over the link, the noise of explosions in the background. “If we get up and charge we’re dead. They’ve got some heavy stuff set up here, and I think they just brought in a heavy particle beam.” The high pitched buzzing noise sounded in the background. “Yep, and it's ripping through the jungle.”

  “Well stay low, Sergeant. And return their fire. We’re going to hit them here while we still have a chance.”

  McKinnon switched over to his squad circuit and stood up. “Follow me,” he yelled, then started forward in a run. He swung his heavy particle beam rifle toward movement, ripping a beam through the armor of a Caca soldier before the male could react. A laser splashed on the Captain’s armor, luckily a light beam that did little damage. Glen shot that Caca down as well, then a third who was firing away with a mag rifle.

  “We’re going to do this,” yelled the Captain into the com, jumping through some bushes and sweeping a clearing with the angry red of his particle beam. A heavy beam of similar angry red speared out and hit the Captain in the chest, burning through the suit of powered armor in an instant. Jennifer, was the last thought Captain Glen McKinnon, Imperial Terran Marines, had, before his thoracic area flashed into ash and charred meat.

  “Retreat,” yelled Sergeant Hogan into the com. The remaining ten Marines fought a retreat from contact, a very difficult maneuver. It was a tribute to their skill that four actually broke contact and got away.

  * * *

  “We need to get further into the caverns, Doctor,” said the medic, looking n
ervously at the entrance to the complex. “The Cacas are going to be here any minute.”

  The ground rumbled under foot, and dust fell from the ceiling.

  “Any chance the Marines will be able to hold them?” asked Jennifer, not wanting to run again, and worried about her patients.

  “Not a chance in Hell, Doctor,” said the medic, watching as other medical people started carrying the patients that couldn’t move out in cryo tubes, walking the path into the connecting tunnel that went much further back into the mountain. “They have us outnumbered and outgunned. Feel those vibrations? Those are space based particle beams striking this mountain. And if they start dropping penetrators we’re screwed.”

  “And what about those Marines out there fighting?”

  “They’ll try to buy us time,” said the NCO, his eyes still following the line of cryo tubes being carried by battle armored Marines. Civilians, dependents and otherwise, were also crowding through the entrance, and there were many that had already been quartered back there that were moving further back. “Those that can will escape, some through here, the rest down the mountain and into the jungle.” The medic looked around for a moment, then whispered to the woman. “I always thought this was a bad idea.”

  “I thought you people had thought this all out,” said Jennifer, allowing the man to grab her arm and move her along.

  “Oh, it would have been a great hidey hole for maybe a hundred people,” said the Medic, moving her out of the way of another cryo tube. “But there was no hope of keeping it secret with constant landings and takeoffs on that plateau. You would have thought the higher ups would have thought of that. Even a damned stupid Marine medic like myself could see the problem.”

  They moved down the thirty meters or so of the tunnel and came out in the next large cavern, a majestic opening twenty meters high and about forty in diameter. The men in the armored suits moved the cryo tubes up another path to a side cavern.

  “What are you going to do with those patients?” she asked the Medic, uncomfortable at seeing them carried into a dead end.

  “We’re going to leave them there in hiding.”

  “But, but, the Cacas will find them and kill them,” said Jennifer, horrified at the thought of again leaving people behind.

  “Look,” said the Marine, turning to face her. “There are places down here where we won’t be able to get the suits through. We’ll have to leave them behind, and then it will become a real problem carrying those cylinders. And the cylinders themselves will be one unholy bitch to carry. We may hit places where they won’t fit.”

  “But the Cacas…”

  “Won’t find them,” said the Medic, pointing to where the last cylinder was going into the smaller cavern. “We are going to seal that spot up, and they won’t have a clue that they are there through all that rock.”

  “And if we can’t come back for them,” said Jennifer, not liking the idea the more she heard it. Two of the armored Marines moved back from the entrance, and moments later the red stabs of particle beams hit the ceiling of the cave entrance. With a rumble and a roar rock dropped down, and the men played their beams over another section, ceiling the cavern in thick rock.

  “If we can’t come back for them they die, when their power runs out in a couple of years,” said the man. “And if we can’t come back it’s because we are dead, all of us, and they would have died with us.”

  Jennifer shook her head, still not liking the idea and seeing no way out of it. Especially now that the sealing was a done deal.

  “Get back,” yelled out a Marine in battle armor, crowding through the tunnel to the outer complex. Another followed him through, and a loud rumbling sounded from the other side. Two more Marines squeezed through. “Everyone, get back to the far end of the cavern.” The officer looked over at the Medic. “Get her out of here, Sergeant, and the rest.”

  “What about the people outside?” asked Jennifer, thinking of Glen, and what he would do when he got here and they were gone.

  “Everybody that’s coming through is already here,” said the man, giving the Sergeant a glare.

  “Let’s go,” said the Medic, grabbing the Doctor’s arm and moving her along.

  They moved to the rear of the cavern while the sound of falling rocks came from behind. Jennifer stopped at the entrance to the tunnel that led to the next cavern, turning and watching the battle armored Marines playing beams over the inside of the tunnel to the outer complex, collapsing rocks into its length. Two more men in armor floated in the air, boring holes in the ceiling, then placing long rods of explosives in the holes.

  “It’s going to take heavy equipment to get through this cavern when they’re done,” said the Medic, touching her on the arm and pointing to the tunnel they needed to go through.

  This tunnel seemed spacious enough, and light panels had been bonded to the ceiling ever five meters, shedding a warm glow on the rock. The next cavern was as large as the one they had just vacated, with a sparse light that gave just enough vision to keep from running into things. It was crowded with people, and the earlier arrivals were being led into a tunnel that they were forced to duck into. The armor suited Marines, six of them, came through the entrance, and started to play their particle beams over that tunnel, again bringing a rock fall from the ceiling for the length of the passage.

  “OK,” yelled out one of the men, and five backed their suits against the edge of the cavern and opened them up, climbing out and taking some of the weapons and equipment off the suits for later use. The one still in his suit looking at the blocked tunnel. The wall of the cavern rumbled and some rocks fell from the ceiling. The rumbling grew louder, the walls and ceiling of the other cavern collapsing in on itself, making the chamber impassable. The last man opened his suit and climbed out. “Get her out of here,” he yelled, pointing at Jennifer. “Goddammit, Sergeant, don’t make me tell you again.” The man, obviously an officer or high ranking NCO, turned back to his people. “We’ll play tail end Charlie. I don’t think they’ll be coming through that, but if they do, we need to be able to buy some time.”

  “Come on, Doc,” said the Sergeant, leading her to the tunnel. “We really need you near the front, so you can set up a clinic if we need one. Of course, that’s going to be easy to say, hard to do.”

  Jennifer would have lost track of the time if not for her implant giving her an accurate account of the trip. They walked, climbed and sometimes crawled through the cavern system for over ten hours. Jennifer ended up with skinned knees and elbows, and an almost starvation level of hunger. There were dead ends and backtracks, and she asked the Sergeant one time about the aliens being able to deep radar this range and get a fix on them.

  “Oh, they can deep radar this mountain alright,” he had replied, wiping a grimy sleeve across his dirt caked face. “But this system is so extensive they wouldn’t have a prayer of guessing which branch we went through. Hell, I don’t even know where we’re going to come out, but I hope the guys on point do.”

  At the end of ten hours some words came whispered back up the line. “There’s an opening ahead,” said the Sergeant, relaying the message to the Doctor. “And it’s clear.”

  “Thank God,” said Jennifer, wiping at the moisture that was beading on her forehead with a damp cloth. “I’m tired of living like a mole down here in the depths of the planet.”

  Soon there was the cooling breeze of air from the outside, and after a short climb up a steep wall they were coming outside. Night was on this portion of the planet, though her internal clock told her that daytime approached. There were people milling about in a small clearing, and Marines tried to get them to keep moving.

  “Doctor Conway,” called out a Marine officer, hurrying up in his armored suit. “Doctor Conway. Over here.”

  Jennifer walked over to the man, wending her way through the crowd of people, thinking that this made too good a target for the Cacas, despite the heavy cover of the jungle.

  “We have wounded we n
eed you to look over, Doctor,” said the man, the rank insignia of a first lieutenant on his suit helmet. “You feel up to it?”

  Like I have a choice, she thought while nodding her head. She took that damned oath seriously, and only if she were dead or dying would she refuse to render treatment, especially in an emergency situation. She followed the man through the jungle, her eyes and ears alert despite her fatigue. There were a variety of sounds coming from out of the darkness. She really couldn’t tell what they were, but her imagination filled in the details with deadly creatures. She put a hand on the butt of her particle beam pistol, something that was always with her unless she we bathing. Glen had emphasized keeping the weapon with her, and she felt better with its substantial weight on her belt, even with the guard of a heavily armed Marine.

  They entered another small clearing in which a tent had been erected. Not a bit of light showed through the fabric, and as she entered she noted the almost airlock arrangement of the double doors that preserved the blackout outside. She was led through a ward that had patients lying on cots, many of them unconscious. All were peaceful, and Jennifer once again thanked modern medicine, which did not demand that people suffer when pain could be controlled.

  The operating room had a regular table and all the equipment she expected in such a theater, and she wondered if the Marines had planned for the contingency of their sanctuary being overrun. Knowing them, they had. She got into the sterile field and gloved, then waited for a moment as her first patient was carried in. The medic who had led her through the caverns came in with that patient and stayed, putting on his own gloves and mask in the sterile field.

  The patients started coming in, fast and furious, the worst first. Soldiers, civilians, even children, many with horrific burns. One little girl had her right arm burned off at the shoulder. Jennifer fought back the tears as she worked on the child, stabilizing her shock with nanites, then working to remove the dead tissue that might later cause complications to the regrowth process. She worked for hours, doing what should have been the work of an entire hospital unit. She did not know how much time had passed, or how many patients, but the injuries began to get less and less serious.