More rifle shots ripped through the trees, missing them barely, and they set off at a run once more, breaking through the woods and into the grasslands after a half hour of sprinting. Logan set an even faster pace once they were clear of the forest, knowing they no longer had the advantage of cover. More shots tracked them across the expanse and one of the militiamen was brought down.
“Keep moving,” Logan ordered as long distance shots continued to follow them as they raced toward the entrance to the Rock Maze.
Only once did Logan chance a glance behind him to see several dozen Dommies chasing after them in the distance. Right as they reached the entrance to the Rock Maze, a lucky shot from behind struck down another militiaman, so it was only three of them who made it back to Stonewater.
Dag was the first to meet them when they made it through the repaired gate doors. “What the hell happened?” he demanded.
As Logan’s breath came in rasps, he managed. “Dommies. Hundreds. Coming.”
Dag wheeled about to Annabeth Parson, the nimble and quick girl who had been given command of the radio. “Get out of here. Get to high ground and let Beaurigar know that Stonewater is under attack,” he ordered. “Everyone else to the wall!”
Parson shouldered the radio pack and sprinted through the gates. As soon as she was through, two men closed it behind her and pushed broken pieces of columns and statues against it to keep it closed. As Dag made it to the top of the wall, he heard several shots ring out and saw Parson fall to the ground in the arroyo, her body rolling into the River Rampage. Dag spat a curse as he readied his sniper rifle. Even if the radio survived being water-logged, he was pretty certain that the shot had ripped through Parson’s chest and out through the radio pack. Without a radio, it would take days to get a message to Beaurigar and the Dominion army would likely be right on the messenger’s heels. That was assuming any of them could get out of the fortress at all.
His rifle tracked the Dominion sniper and brought him down near the entrance to the Rock Maze, but there were more men flooding into the opening already, hiding behind some outcroppings of the canyon walls as they advanced. Dag could hear Pendelton firing his own rifle from the standing tower and Dag hit several more of the enemies himself, while ordering the rest of his men to hold until the Dommies were closer.
There had to be at least five hundred soldiers now making their way up the approach to Stonewater, following the curves of the canyon walls or the path of the river and using the banks for cover. Back over the canyon walls in the grasslands, Dag heard the distinctive pop of mortars being launched. He tracked the streaking projectiles as they came down and exploded in the canyon walls well away from the fortress. That was one thing, Dag supposed, that was going well for them so far. Their grenadiers would not be able to get range on them without entering the Rock Maze and exposing themselves to sniping, but that was only a minor boon when considering their current situation.
What could not be dismissed was the fact that he had less than twenty-five men and women under his command and they were near hopelessly outnumbered. There was no place to retreat from the ravine the castle sat in, so they were going to have to somehow hold their position if they wanted to see the morrow. Dag and Pendelton continued to try to thin out the advancing numbers with sniper fire, but the twenty or so that they felled were merely a drop in the Dominion bucket.
Aria and the others opened fire once the enemy was in range, but they poured through ammunition quickly and brought down only a few soldiers with sporadically accurate fire. The approaching Dommies meanwhile were raking the parapets with pinpoint shooting and keeping Dag’s soldiers pinned down as they advanced. It was the first time Dag had seen the advantage the Dominion regulars had against militia and volunteers.
“We’re not going to be able to hold them!” Aria shouted as she ducked to avoid another barrage of fire.
“We don’t have a choice,” Dag managed as the first rocket propelled grenade hit the fortress.
The world seemed to tilt sideways and tumbled as a strange sense of weightlessness took hold of Dag and the ground rushed up to meet him. He landed hard on his left hand side, sending pain screaming through his body. The concussion of another rocket hitting Stonewater blasted through the area, sending bits and pieces of their newly constructed gate door flying through the courtyard.
Barely taking the time to notice that there was a huge crater in the wall where he had been standing and distantly wondering what had happened to Aria, Dag pulled himself up to a knee, raised his sniper rifle and fired. The shot struck the chest of the first Dommie through the gate as Dag worked the bolt action on the rifle and fired again and again until a half dozen Dommies lay dead and the sniper rifle was spent. He dropped it to the ground as he rose to his feet, drawing his .45 pistol and the Sidewinder revolver. Both weapons bucked in his hands as he charged across the courtyard, firing into the breech, barely avoiding being shot by the incoming Dommies.
Where was Aria, he wondered to himself as he dove behind a fallen statue to avoid a barrage of machine gun fire. His head was starting to clear slightly, and he was able to see that most of the Miravallian soldiers had been thrown from the wall with him in the explosion. The bodies of several were visible lying on the ground, but whether they were dead or merely injured, he could not tell.
Dag fired the clip dry on the .45 and reloaded quickly, but not before a dozen men were sprinting across the courtyard to him. Rifle shots rang out from the tower and dropped several of them, buying Dag the moment he needed to ready his weapons and fire once more. Caught between two lines of fire out in the open, the Dommies were dead in a matter of moments. Dag jumped out from behind his cover and moved forward, continuing to fire as the Dominion soldiers continued to rush unchecked into the fortress.
Sniper fire was continuing to rain down from the tower, as Pendelton had shifted his focus to the Dommies who were running free in the fortress. Dag raced toward the tower as the two of them seemed to be the last Miravallians still capable of fighting. He had just arrived at the door to the tower, after dropping several more Dominion grunts, when two rockets hit the top of the tower simultaneously, engulfing it in flame.
“Pen!” Dag screamed furiously before he took off running again, avoiding the falling pieces of rock that crashed down from the tower.
Racing diagonally across the courtyard, tracked by machine gun fire, Dag managed to leap behind the ruined citadel just as a grenade exploded behind him. A small piece of shrapnel embedded itself in his calf muscle, but the pain did not register immediately. He reloaded the Sidewinder and snapped off six shots in rapid succession to fell some soldiers onrushing his position. Pulling himself to his feet once more and not understanding why his wounded leg refused to obey him, Dag half-ran half-limped toward the stairs that led to the northeastern corner of the wall at the back of the courtyard. He fired the .45 dry as he climbed the stairs, forcing the encroaching Dommies to take cover until he had spent his last round.
There had been no plan on his part as he ran, Dag was merely acting on some strange survival instinct that told him that he had to keep moving. From the top of the wall, he could see over to the courtyard where several Miravallian survivors had been captured and were sitting with their hands on their heads and Dominion weapons trained on them. He thought he saw Aria among them. Both of his handguns were empty and at least two dozen soldiers had their guns pointed at him.
Dag holstered the spent weapons as one of the Dominion officers shouted, “Put your hands on top of your head and surrender!”
Looking once more over to where Aria sat and wishing that this would not be the last time he would see her, Dag reached behind his back to pull his hunting rifle into his hands. Dominion machine guns open up full before he could pull the weapon forward and he felt a half-dozen impacts before he was thrown over the side of the wall and everything went black.
18
Alex watched as the third probe was sent against his lines by the Dominion and
was beaten back with ease once more. Cries of triumph echoed across the defensive lines while taunts and jests were hurled down into the ravine. The Dommies had not had their heart in the attack, and that concerned Alex. As much as he wanted to celebrate with his men, something did not seem quite right with the relative ease with which the Dominion forces had retreated.
The bomb boats had been a pleasant distraction as he had enjoyed watching the Dommies panic with each new appearance of a bateau, despite the fact that they had yet to send an explosive laden one since their initial attack. The engineers continued working on rebuilding the bridge that had been blown up, but Alex was left with the feeling that the Dominion was not being tied down in the ravine by the presence of the Miravallian militia. He was beginning to wonder if they were waiting there because they chose to wait there.
“Are we givin’ the Dommies a little what-for?” a familiar voice asked from behind Alex, interrupting his introspection.
“A bit, Torrace,” he answered as he turned around to find the quartermaster standing behind him with a small loaf of round bread and some dried jerky.
Torrace passed the meal over to Alex and took a moment to peruse the Dominion force as the lieutenant forced down his rations. “Makes ya wonder, donnit?” Torrace said as he removed a handkerchief from his pocket and rubbed the sweat from his brow.
“Wonder what exactly?” Alex asked in between bites of the hard bread.
“Who’s keepin’ who pinned down, ya?” he said.
“What do you mean?” Alex asked. He knew that Torrace was a lot smarter than he liked letting on and that Dag has trusted his judgment for a long time.
“It didn’t look like they was tryin’ too hard to get up these hills,” he explained in his provincial accent. “More like they was tryin’ to keep us occupied.”
“If we’re stuck up here, then the Dominion can keep advancing into Miraval without worrying about us attacking them from behind,” Alex explained. “It could be their orders were just to keep our force contained.”
“Could be,” Torrace agreed as he looked back to Alex. “Ya know, when I was a lad, a man came through town with the carnies, claimin’ to be a wizard. He put on a show, a couple o’ bits apiece to see him. Pa told me I could go with ‘im. I was amazed. Man made things appear outta thin air, made others vanish, pulled a live goose out of his knickers.” Torrace laughed at the memory before continuing, “As we walked home, I told Pa that I wanted to be a wizard and he laughed. He says to me, ‘Torrace ain’t no such thing. Just a man making you look at ‘is right hand, so you don’t ken what ‘is left is doin’, boy.’ I ain’t never forgot that.”
“So, you think that this attack through the ravine is some kind of feint, and that the real hit is going to come from somewhere else?” Alex asked.
Torrace nodded. “We’re watchin’ the right hand,” he said. “What’s the left doin’?”
“Only other way into the Crest is the Rock Maze and Dag’s there,” Alex said.
“Ya haven’t ‘eard from ‘im, I take it,” Torrace said.
“He was only to break radio silence if the enemy came upon him,” he replied.
“Aye, and if the enemy got to ‘im first?” Torrace followed.
Alex suddenly felt his appetite sour and he passed his dinner back to Torrace. “I’ve got to go find the captain,” he said as he stalked off toward the operations tent that Beaurigar had set up.
19
Markov watched with his body pressed against the top of a canyon wall as the rest of the surviving militiamen, nine in total, were manacled and herded into a group against the wall. For a moment, Markov thought the prisoners were all going to be shot, but they were just forced to a seated position while the Dominion forces secured the area. While a small contingent of soldiers began working on re-fortifying Stonewater, which they had just finished blowing apart, most seemed to be getting ready to march once more. The lieutenant had been correct, he realized- the Dommies were invading the Crest through the Rock Maze, but there was not much he could do about it now.
When the Dominion forces had hit the walls of Stonewater with multiple rockets simultaneously, Markov had been positioned at the corner of the wall. When the blast threw him upward, he had actually landed outside of the fortress on top of a canyon wall. He had only regained consciousness a few minutes before and had managed to get himself hidden behind a protruding rock formation before he was seen. He still had his service pistol, but the rest of his weapons were gone; he doubted he would have been able to do anything to help the militiamen taken prisoner anyway. Right now, he was one man against several hundred. What he really needed to do was find a way to get back through the Rock Maze and warn the towns in the Crest that an attack was coming. He was not native to the area though and he did not know the Rock Maze as well as the men born in Craven Bluffs. That was to say nothing of the fact that he would need to outrun the Dommies through the canyons, avoiding being seen or shot. Even if he did that, he probably would not get back to the Crest more than a few minutes before the marching Dominion force.
A man in a black and gray officer’s uniform with captain’s bars on his collar was speaking loudly enough next to the prisoners for Markov to hear him. “So, are you the mountains rats who blew up Belten’s Bridge?” he demanded as he kicked Aria in the ribs.
Aria cried out in pain, but nobody responded.
“What does it matter?” the captain demanded of one of his subordinates. “A rat is a rat. Take them back through the woods to where we left the jeeps and then back to Highskye. We’ll broadcast their executions so that this pisspot of a country can see the folly of resistance.”
The captain strode off, and Dominion soldiers began pulling the prisoners to their feet and preparing them to march. A chain was run through each of the manacles, locking the prisoners together before the Miravallians were escorted out of the fortress by ten soldiers. Markov was about to move and try to find a place where he could climb down the canyon wall when he suddenly tensed as he felt the cold press of a gun barrel into his rib cage.
“Not a sound, Markov,” a quiet voice whispered. “Pull yourself back behind the rock outcropping slowly.”
Markov did as he was ordered and when he was out of sight of any Dommies in Stonewater, he turned to face the speaker. A quiet sigh escaped him as he saw Sergeant Tomas Kryski staring down at him. The mustachioed Craven Bluffs militiaman had a streak of blood across his forehead and most of his sleeve was missing from his right arm, but he otherwise appeared all right.
“This way,” Kryski said as he gestured to the far side of the canyon wall.
The sergeant went first down the canyon wall, finding handholds in the rock that Markov doubted he would have been able to find on his own. After a few minutes of climbing they were in another valley and Kryski was leading him to the north, away from Stonewater as well as the southern passage through the Rock Maze that led eventually to the Crest. The sergeant remained silent for several minutes as he led them through the twisting canyon until they arrived at a small cave.
Inside the darkness, Markov could just make out another man inside the cave, his back leaning against the wall. “Well done, Tomas,” a rather weak sounding voice said. “Was there anyone else?”
“Not that I saw,” Kryski responded.
“So, the rest of our people are dead,” the man said bitterly.
“I counted nine other survivors,” Markov said as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he realized that he was talking to Lieutenant Dagenham. “Including Specialist Beaurigar.”
“Aria’s alive?” Dag said hopefully.
“For the moment,” Markov said. “I overheard the Dominion captain saying that the prisoners were going to be taken to Highskye and executed for what your squad did at Ava’s Gorge.”
“Damn,” Dag said as he started trying to pull himself to his feet, using the wall of the cave as a crutch.
“Lieutenant, you’re in no shape to go anywhere,” Kryski prote
sted.
“I’m fine,” Dag replied. “Armor stopped most of the rounds.”
“Except the ones it didn’t,” Kryski pointed out.
“A few scratches which you sewed together nicely,” Dag said. “When are they moving our people?” he demanded of Markov.
“They already set out,” he answered. “Ten soldiers guarding them, it looked like.”
“Then we need to get going,” Dag replied as he stepped out into the sunlight, limping slightly. “If we’re going to catch up with them.”
“Sir, with all due respect,” Kryski protested. “You’re in no shape to catch up with anything and quite frankly, we’ve got more important issues than nine prisoners. The Dominion is about to waltz into the Crest and no one knows. We’ve got to get a warning to your captain so he can move to protect Craven Bluffs and the other western towns.”
“No,” Dag said. “We go after our people.”
“Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way of what must be done, lieutenant,” Kryski said.
Dag’s eyes narrowed angrily. “Is there another way through the Rock Maze that will lead us into the Crest, a way the Dommies aren’t taking right now?” he demanded.
“No, sir,” Kryski admitted, a crestfallen look crossing his face as he admitted a truth he did not want to.
“The three of us won’t be able to get to the Crest before they do anyway,” Markov said. “Or do anything against the garrison being left behind in Stonewater.”
“If we get lucky, maybe one of the Dommies guarding the prisoners will have a radio,” Dag said. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”
“If we even knew where they were going,” Kryski said.
“The Dommie captain said something about jeeps,” Markov said. “Having to leave them behind.”
Kryski looked thoughtful for a moment and then started walking down the canyon. The others fell into step behind him as he said, “There’s an old road that goes through the northern part of the forest, but stops when the hills become too rocky and the woods too thick. I’d bet a breakfast that they had to abandon their vehicles there.”
Guerrilla (The Invasion of Miraval Book 2) Page 11
