“Not really,” she replied. “I’m kind of too excited to put my head down.”
“Well, there is a spot in the engine room that’s not too cramped,” said Sheridan with a boyish grin on his face.
Tarina reached over and gently patted his cheek. “Not now. Save it for the honeymoon.”
“What if we don’t get one? What if we’re sent to different parts of the fleet after the wedding?”
“Then I guess it’s going to be a long time before we consummate the wedding.”
Tarina walked away leaving her husband-to-be shaking his head.
“Way to go, stupid, you should have proposed to her after the mission,” muttered Sheridan to himself.
Chapter 18
The lights in the crew compartment switched on, waking up a couple of Marines who had just dozed off.
Wendy’s voice came over the ship’s speakers. “All hands, this is Captain Sullivan, we are coming out our jump in three-two-one. Jump complete. Stow away any unpacked gear and prepare for landing.”
Sheridan and Cole were up front in the cockpit looking at an image of the old mining post on the ship’s computer. There were a dozen aged buildings still standing next to a tall mountain.
“I’m not reading any power signals coming from the complex,” said Cole. “Nor are there any heat signatures on the thermal scanner. This place looks deserted.”
“So did Ke-12 and that simple mission nearly cost us all of our lives. Widen the search. See if there’s anything within one hundred kilometers of the mine.”
Cole adjusted the scanner. “Same thing. There’s nothing alive down there.”
“What about their ship?” said Sheridan. “Is there any sign of it on the planet’s surface or in orbit?”
“I can assure you that it’s not up here with us, or I would have detected it when we came out of our jump,” said Tarina.
“What about the far side of the planet?”
“Michael, we’re receiving telemetry from two Kurgan satellites still operating in high orbit. Trust me, we’re the only ship out here.”
“Same for the mine,” said Cole. “There’s nothing down there but a bunch of old buildings and rusted machinery.”
Sheridan drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “I hear what you’re all telling me, but my gut tells me to be wary.”
“I agree,” said Cole. “This is the last reported location of the search team. I doubt they would have gone somewhere else without informing their superiors.”
“Michael, what do you want us to do?” asked Tarina.
“Let’s drop out of orbit and land on the open ground just to the west of the mine. I’ll take Alan and the squad of Marines with me to check out the complex. Kabar can remain here with you in case a Kurgan ship spots us and decides to come nosing around.”
“Okay, strap yourselves in,” said Tarina. “The descent though the atmosphere is going to be a bit choppy.”
“What do you mean by choppy?” asked Cole.
“We’ve got to fly through a nasty-looking storm, so I’d say there’s a good chance some of our passengers are going to throw up their breakfasts,” replied Tarina.
Sheridan let out a groan as he reached for his mouth guard and popped it into his mouth.
Wendy pressed a button on her console. Her voice boomed throughout the ship. “All hands, strap yourselves in; this is going to be a rough ride.”
“Okay, let’s do this,” said Tarina as she brought up the nose of their ship for reentry. The shuttle began to shake and vibrate as it flew through the planet’s atmosphere. The heat shield on the undercarriage outside of the ship turned bright red as it reached 1,500 degrees Celsius.
Next to zero-gravity combat, the thing Sheridan hated the most was dropping from orbit onto a planet. His hands were gripped so tight around his chair’s arms they were turning white. It was the feeling of not being in control which bothered him the most. Once they were on the ground, Sheridan would be back in his element. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shuttle’s speed flash up on the window in front of Tarina. They were traveling at close to Mach twenty-five. Sheridan did the math in his head to take his mind off the drop and determined they were flying in excess of 30,000 kilometers an hour.
All of a sudden the ship dropped. Sheridan’s stomach felt as if it were trying to escape out of his mouth.
“Sorry,” said Tarina over her shoulder. “We’re okay. We hit a pocket of turbulence that wasn’t on my scanner.”
“You’re doing well,” said Sheridan. “Just get us on the ground and I’ll be a happy man.”
“Just another couple of minutes and we’ll be through this storm. After that, it’s smooth sailing all the away to the mine.”
Sheridan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He started to count back from one hundred and twenty in his head. Sheridan felt a tap on his arm and reluctantly opened his right eye. It was Cole, smiling as if he were having a great time.
“Hey, sir, did I ever tell you about the time we dropped from our transport ship to the surface of Ker’Almos?” said Cole.
Sheridan shook his head.
“It was during my first year as a Marine. I was all of eighteen years old, and this was my first drop and my first combat mission. The landing craft we were in was a hunk of junk. At about twenty thousand meters from the surface, the side door opened all on its own. The cabin instantly decompressed. If we hadn’t been strapped into our seats, we all would have been sucked out to our deaths.”
“I’m not following. How does this relate to our drop?”
“I’m not finished. The next thing we knew, the ship’s engine began to crap out. So there was only one thing left to do.”
“What’s that?”
“Grab a parachute and out the door we went.”
“If you’re trying to cheer me up, you’re not.”
“Are you sure?”
Sheridan looked about and saw sunlight coming in through the cockpit window. They were out of the storm. “You rotten bastard; you did that deliberately.”
Cole smiled and nodded.
“How come you’ve never told me that story before?”
“Because I just made it up.”
“Sounded real enough.”
“When you’ve been in as long as I have you’ll be able to BS with the best.”
“Gents, we’re coming up on the mining complex,” announce Tarina.
Sheridan glanced over at Wendy, who was reading the information on the ship’s scanners. “Anything new to report?”
“No. It still looks dead,” responded Wendy.
“Not the word I would have used,” said Cole.
“Buck up, Alan; you’re not afraid are you?” teased Wendy.
“If you’re not a little bit scared, you’re nothing but a fool,” he said, unbuckling himself from his seat.
Sheridan placed a hand on Tarina’s shoulder. “Okay, land on the first flat spot you can. Alan and I are heading back to suit up.”
“Will do and be careful out there,” replied Tarina. Her eyes never left the controls as she slowed their shuttle down to land.
Sheridan placed his helmet over his head and locked it into place. His survival suit was self-contained and had enough oxygen for thirty-six hours before needing a new tank. He picked up his assault rifle and switched it on.
“Sir, we’re good to go,” said Cole in Sheridan’s earpiece. He turned around and looked at the six-man squad of Marines. Like his, their suits were a dull grayish-green color. Four men carried rifles while the last two had automatic weapons.
“Okay, people, listen up,” said Sheridan into his mic. “We’re looking for a group of humans who were reported to be here on this planet. It’s been several weeks since anyone has heard from them, so their chances of being alive are slim. Still, stranger things have been known to happen. Keep your weapons on safe, and if we run into a spot of trouble, do not fire back unless given the order to do so. Are there any questions?”
“No, sir,” replied the Marines.
Sheridan opened the side door and stepped outside. On the heads-up display inside his helmet, he saw the temperature was a cool five degrees Celsius. The heater built into the fabric of Sheridan’s suit detected the change in temperature and kicked in to keep him warm. The landscape was barren and devoid of any plant life. Tarina had brought them down less than two hundred meters from the mine.
“Okay, spread out and keep your eyes peeled,” said Cole to the Marines.
Sheridan walked toward the nearest structure—a shed with a massive mining drill parked outside. The front doors swung back and forth in the wind.
“Sir, let the Marines check the buildings,” said Cole.
Sheridan stopped and waited as two men ran past him and poked their heads in the doorway. While one covered, the other moved inside with his rifle at the ready.
“Building clear,” reported the Marines.
With Cole right behind him, Sheridan walked into the shed. The floor was covered with sand. Metal chains with hooks on them hung from the roof.
Sheridan shuddered. He thought, not again. He keyed his mic. “Captain Kabar, this is Major Sheridan; do you read me, over.”
“This is Kabar, I read you loud and clear.”
“Captain, I know what we were all told before we left the Intrepid, but I want the truth. Was this planet ever used by the Imperial Guard?”
“Sir, if it were, I’d be the last to know.”
“That’s what I thought, Sheridan out.”
“I’ll have Staff Sergeant Johannsson search the other buildings,” said Cole.
“Tell him to pass on to his men to be careful and to not touch anything suspicious-looking,” said Sheridan.
Cole nodded and headed outside to find the squad leader.
“Is something wrong, sir?” asked a young Marine.
“I hope not,” responded Sheridan, even though in the pit of his stomach he knew something was amiss.
The search of the other buildings took less than thirty minutes. They were all empty and looked like no one had stepped foot inside them in decades.
“The mine, sir?” said Cole, looking toward the tall arched entrance dug into the base of the rocky mountain.
Sheridan nodded.
“Okay, Marines, let’s go,” said Cole.
“Jones and Rodriguez, take point,” ordered Johansson. “Everyone else spread out. I want a good ten meters between people.”
The light from the sun faded as they walked into the mine. One by one, the Marines switched the lights mounted on the sides of their helmets and the forestock of their rifles on. The ground soon sloped downward at a steep angle. After about one hundred meters, the tunnel leveled out but was blocked by a ten-meter-high steel door.
“Check to see if there are any signs of life on the other side of the door,” said Sheridan.
A Marine with a handheld sensor walked forward, placed the device on the metal door, and switched it on. A holographic image of what was on the other side appeared in the air. Aside from some old mining tools and a couple of chairs, there was nothing else to see.
“Open it,” ordered Sheridan.
Staff Sergeant Johannsson opened a panel on the wall and flipped a switch to open the doors. Nothing happened. He tried a couple more times before saying, “Sir, there’s no power left in the mine to open the doors.”
“Thermite?” suggested Cole.
Sheridan nodded.
“You’re up, Safar,” said Johannsson.
“Yes, Staff Sergeant,” replied Safar. Quickly pulling the pack from his back, Safar removed a shaped charge and spread it out on the steel. “I’m going to arm the thermite, so everyone, please step back fifteen meters.”
Sheridan moved back a few paces and watched as Safar activated the charge and walked back to join the rest of his squad. Five seconds later, in a bright flash, the thermite ignited. Sheridan’s glass faceplate darkened to protect his eyes. The survival suit he was wearing protected him from the blistering heat as the thermite melted a hole through the steel. The metal fell like rivers of lava as it was consumed in fire. In less than half a minute, a hole large enough for a man to walk through had been created.
“Give it a minute for the chemical reaction to stop and for the metal to cool,” said Safar. After seeing what the thermite had done to the door, no one was in a rush to get even so much as a drop of the chemical on their suits.
Sheridan edged forward and shone the light affixed to his rifle through the opening. His heart raced when he saw footprints—a lot of footprints—leading deeper into the mine. “Someone’s been here.”
“Why didn’t we see any tracks before now?” asked Johannsson.
“Because the wind and the sand on this side of the door would have erased them in a matter of hours,” responded Cole.
With an eye on the molten metal, Sheridan bent down and stepped through the hole. The tunnel was pitch black. He shone his light into the darkness. In the distance, the tunnel gave way to a large cavern.
“I count at least two dozen different sets of tracks,” said Cole. “Some are wearing military-issued survival suit boots. The others look like Kurgan army boots.”
“So the search team was here,” said Sheridan.
“Staff Sergeant, carry on down the tunnel and be careful,” ordered Cole.
With two men in the lead, the squad proceeded toward the cavern. Everyone was on edge. With their weapons tight into their shoulders, they were ready to react in an instant. They stopped at the entrance of the cave. One of the Marines took a small metallic ball from a pouch on his belt and threw it up into the air. A second later the ball lit up. It hung in the air illuminating the ground below. Apart from a handful of broken shovels tools, the cavern appeared empty.
“Carry on inside,” said Sheridan.
“What does the motion tracker say?” Cole asked Johannsson.
“We’re the only people in here,” replied the Staff Sergeant, checking the sensor strapped to his wrist.
The squad spread out in a wedge-shaped formation with Johannsson in the lead.
“Sir, I think I see something,” called out a Marine.
“What is it?” said Sheridan.
“There’s a wide hole in the ground.”
Sheridan and Cole ran to the Marine’s side and looked down into the hole. There were stairs cut into the rock.
“Light it up,” said Cole.
The Marine nodded and dropped a ball flare down into the hole.
“Jesus,” muttered Sheridan when he saw the body of a dead Kurgan warrior at the bottom of the stairs. They were wearing helmets like Sheridan’s people.
“What do want to do, sir?” asked Cole.
“Well, we haven’t found our missing people up here, so I say we go below and look down there,” responded Sheridan.
Cole looked at Johannsson. “Leave two men up here to guard the entrance. Everyone else, down the stairs and keep a sharp lookout!”
At the bottom of the hole, they found four more Kurgans. Their helmet faceplates had all been shattered, leaving them to die gasping for air in the planet’s toxic atmosphere. What troubled Sheridan was the fact that their exposed flesh looked like it had been nibbled on. Goosebumps broke out on his arms. They weren’t alone in the dark.
“Friggin’ rodents,” said Cole as he examined the gnawed face of a Kurgan.
“Yeah, but how big?” said Sheridan, shining his light all around.
“Ten to one, whatever’s down here with us doesn’t like bright lights. As long as we keep the world around us lit up, we should be okay.”
“Sir, there are more bodies back here,” reported Johannsson.
When he saw the pile of Kurgan remains, Sheridan shook his head. “What the hell happened down here?”
“Whatever happened, happened fast,” observed Cole. “I think the ones by the stairs were the last ones to be killed. They must have realized they were going to die and tried to
make a run for it.”
Sheridan got down on one knee and examined the bodies. There were no gunshot wounds on any of them. All of their helmets had been smashed open. Sheridan got up and looked around. “Harry was here. Only he could have done this. Come on, let’s find the search team and then get the hell out of here.”
“Major Sheridan, you need to see this,” said Johannsson.
“What is it?”
“Sir, I don’t rightly know.” replied the staff sergeant.
Sheridan and Cole walked to Johannsson’s side. He was holding open a door. Inside was a room lit up by a flare. There was a single table in the middle of the room. On it was an opened case that once held the deadly Alpha Virus.
“Well, I guess that leaves little room for doubt that Mister Williams was here,” said Cole.
“Yeah, but where’s the virus?” said Sheridan.
“You don’t think he gave it the Kurgs, do you?”
“No, I don’t think so. Perhaps like us, the Kurgans heard Harry was here and sent a team to seize the virus and as we can plainly see, it ended badly for them.”
“Sir, I’ve got movement behind us,” reported Sergeant Nez, the assistant squad leader.
“What have you got?” asked Cole.
“There are multiple signals moving slowly toward us from a side tunnel,” replied Nez. “They’re not man sized. I think they’re some type of indigenous lifeform.”
“Light them up,” said Sheridan.
A couple of seconds later, a flare lit up the dark. On the ground were four grotesquely fat, two-meter-long worms with purple skin and large maws filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. The light didn’t seem to bother them as they inched forward.
“They’ve got to be blind,” said Cole. “I think they’re using the heat from our bodies to hunt us.”
Sheridan took one look at the rows of teeth and said, “Kill them.”
Two Marines stepped forward and fired several short bursts into each of the predators until they lay still on the ground.
“Are there any more of those worms on your scanner?” asked Sheridan.
“No, sir, it looks like we got them all,” replied Nez.
“God, I hope so,” said Cole. “Those things gave me the creeps.”
Insurrection (The Kurgan War Book 6) Page 9
