When Eagles Dare

by Doug Dandridge

  “Which way to the cliff?” he finally asked, looking over at Ivan. When the man answered through all the muffling face covering, he knew he’d been right.

  “That way,” the Russian said, pointing. He could have, of course, consulted his own HUD for the direction, but the scout was always aware of direction.

  Jonah looked around for a moment, taking in the terrain. It was more or less flat, with some low rolling hills to the south. Sparse vegetation sprouted here and there, enough for the grazing beasts to survive on. It wasn’t vegetation like down in the lowlands. The stalks were made up of tough ice crystals, while a slush of alcohol carried nutrients up from the roots.

  A small animal hopped in the distance on a pair of legs held close to its body, its beady eyes looking their way. The animals were also strange, with bones made of an ice compound, and a similar alcohol-based blood system. The proteins in their bodies were edible, and they could eat the flesh of Humans, those that were carnivores. The temperature differential could be a killer though, for both forms of life.

  “I think we’ll go in that direction,” he finally said, looking at a growth of larger plants the way he was pointing.

  “That’s not the fastest way to the cliff,” Sandra said, intently studying the landscape in that direction.

  “And it’s not the way they’ll start off looking,” Ivan said, nodding. “Good plan, Colonel.”

  “Then let’s get going.” Jonah looked at the ground for a second, noting that there was mostly solid ice nearby, the equivalent of rock up here. “And everyone, watch where you’re placing your feet. I don’t want to leave a signpost pointing our way.”

  Ivan started out walking at a slow but steady pace, the others falling in behind him. Jonah fell into the middle of the line, while Charley took the rear. A wind started howling, pushing at them from behind, as the cold air moved toward the cliff and the lower pressure below of hotter air over the canyon.

  After they’d gone a couple of miles and were entering what looked to be a low-growth forest, Jonah looked back. He could see nothing that would betray their path. But then again, he wasn’t looking down from above.

  * * *

  “Put us down a couple of hundred yards to the north,” Mmrash said in a growl, looking with murderous intent at the pilot.

  One day you will pay for acting like a spy, he thought, then shifted his attention back to the mission at hand. He wasn’t absolutely sure the pilot was the one that had betrayed him, but he couldn’t think of anyone else who would have had the chance. Being a member of a savage species, he felt no need to think deeply on the matter. His emotions had done the thinking for him, and he was satisfied with the answer they’d given him.

  “Why so far away, Commander?”

  “Because I don’t want to be lit up by anyone who might still be alive in there,” Mmrash said, his tone showing what he thought of the question. Idiot.

  The gunship dropped toward the ground, its fans whirring at full power and blowing up a mist of snow and ice. In the thin air their VTOL fans had to work on overdrive to move what gas there was at a high enough speed to keep them up.

  The ship bumped down to the ground harder than the commander would have wished. His teeth jarred together, and he bit his tongue. Tossing the pilot another angry glare, he unstrapped himself from the seat and made his way into the rear compartment.

  His search team, ten tough males, were outfitted for the weather on the plateau. Even their hard-muscled and furred bodies wouldn’t stand up to that cold for more than a few minutes, and the lack of oxygen would incapacitate them even sooner, so all were in environmental suits made for the conditions, gripping their rifles, and in one case a rocket launcher, in gloved hands. The commander quickly sealed his own suit and donned his helmet, then nodded for his second to open the craft.

  The air flushed out of the compartment as the pressure equalized, throwing up a small snowstorm of ice crystals. The commander grimaced as he thought about going out into the alien environment. His people were tough, but they preferred a hot, humid environment. Considering the lack of liquid water, the world outside was as dry a desert as existed on any Terrestrial planet.

  The team spread out, making sure they had enough spacing so a single grenade or other explosive device wouldn’t take out more than two of them. They all moved in a crouch to present the smallest targets, middle limbs at times touching the ground, weapons at the ready in upper arms to quickly return fire. Mmrash was next to last on the left side of the formation, not giving his status away by position, but still taking the same risk as all his people. They wouldn’t respect a leader who did otherwise.

  The commander held up a hand when they were a little less than a hundred yards from the craft. It looked dead, and most probably there was nothing alive in there. He needed to be sure. Knowing Humans, though, they might have set a trap. He wished he’d brought a few remotes with him to scout it out, but in his haste, he hadn’t thought of them, and there was no way he was going back down without reconning the craft.

  “You and you,” he said, pointing to the closest pair inward on the line from him. “Go check it out. We’ll cover you.”

  The pair he’d indicated hesitated for a moment, looking at each other. It was a breakdown in discipline he couldn’t tolerate, and he angled his weapon in their general direction.

  “I gave you an order. Now get to it.”

  The males hesitated for another moment, both looking at his weapon, then headed toward the shuttle. They didn’t hurry, but they started, and that was really all he could ask. Both moved to within twenty yards of the craft before they stopped and looked back.

  “Go on. Look inside.”

  The males looked at each other, and he could hear low growling speech. Of course they didn’t like it; they were afraid of what might be waiting in the shuttle for them. They finally decided whatever awaited them couldn’t be worse than what their leader would do to them if they balked, for, after another bit of growled speech, one moved forward, the other staying ten yards behind.

  The forward soldier looked over the hatch for a moment, trying to find the outer switch. If it was locked inside, it wouldn’t open from the outside. There was only one way to find out. The male reached for something near the hatch and pushed. The other male took a knee, weapon pointed at the hatch.

  They never got to see what was inside. As soon as the hatch started to move down, the shuttle exploded, all the fuel aboard going up in an instant. The male right outside the hatch was engulfed in flame in an instant. His body didn’t come out of the flame, only his helmet and weapon, both smoking. The other male was blown back, flying through the air for twenty yards and landing on his back.

  The rest of the team hit the ground, dropping to their stomachs and covering their heads. If the shuttle had contained powerful explosives, they might have been killed even at that distance. What went up was fuel, though, which, while explosive, didn’t have the power of real weapons-grade material. The shuttle came apart, some small pieces flying away at low velocity. The hull split, the top half flying up and turning over to crash down twenty yards away from the rest of the burning hulk.

  “Crap!” shouted the commander as he got back to his feet, walking toward the shuttle, which was putting out a lot of heat. The surviving scout had scrambled away on his hands and knees. A section of his suit was on fire, and another male ran up to push him over and help him to roll on the ground.

  It could have been worse, Mmrash thought. He’d lost one of his soldiers, but the other would probably be good enough to fight. If not, he could go back into the gunship and wait to be taken back down. He shuddered for a moment as he thought about what might have happened if they’d all just walked up to the shuttle and opened it. Most of his people would be dead, himself included.

  “Was it a spark from the hatch opening?” asked the sergeant who was his second.

  “No, you idiot,” Mmrash growled. “It was a trap.”

  “Now we�
�ll never know how many there were.”

  “Yes, we will,” the commander said, sending his second a withering glare. “We’re here to find them, and we will.”

  His subordinate was correct in one thing, though. They didn’t know how many enemies had been aboard that ship. He estimated about a dozen, maybe more, and he had no idea how many had been killed coming down. Their bodies would have been incinerated in that inferno, so he’d never find out.

  Some medium-sized animals were sitting on a hill five hundred yards away, watching the fire. After a few moments they turned and hopped off. Even at that distance the heat must have been too much for them.

  “Fan out,” he ordered his people. “I want you to find any tracks they might have left.”

  A couple of his people started to remove their face coverings and masks, and he pointed at the nearest one.

  “What the hell are you doing, fool?”

  “Seeing if I can get a scent, commander.”

  The leader shook his head, wondering once again about the general intelligence of his species. “Put that mask back on. There isn’t enough air up here to catch a scent trail; you’ll just freeze your nostrils.”

  The soldier looked at him for a second then started wrapping his face again.

  And you’ll probably pass out from lack of oxygen, he thought, growling and walking away. Not that it would do that pea brain any harm.

  “Pilot. I want you to take to the air and do a sweep to the south. If they’re on foot, they have to be heading to the cliff edge.”

  “How far do you want me to search, commander?” came the reply over the comm.

  As far as it takes to find them, the commander thought, but didn’t say. “Fifteen minutes. If you don’t find anything, come back and get us. If we don’t find anything by then, I’m thinking we won’t.”

  He also wondered if the Humans might have some shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. If his gunship was shot down, he’d be stranded up here until another craft could come up. He shivered at the thought. His suit would protect him from hypothermia. Still, just the thought of being stranded, even temporarily, was chilling.

  * * *

  “The trap has been sprung,” Charley said, a hint of triumph in his voice.

  “So it has,” agreed Jonah, watching the scene over his HUD as it was sent via short burst transmission from the shuttle. He was disappointed they’d only gotten the one. This group of Xlatan was a little brighter than usual, or at least their leader was. “And our people received their cremation.”

  The last thought saddened him. He knew it was a part of the job, but losing people was still hard. Sure, they knew the risks. They’d signed up for the job. The problem was, it was just a job. Most times their side didn’t deserve to win any more than the other side did. There was no cause, no moral imperative to put their lives on the line for. Sometimes it still worked out, and they ended up on the side of what he would term the good guys. Sometimes they couldn’t tell which side was which, all the way to the end.

  This time it looked like they were on the right side. The other side was engaging in slavery and ecological terrorism, destroying a unique biosphere. Using mercenaries like the Xlatan as their muscle was always a good sign they were evil. But there was no guarantee the side they were on would be any better. The only thing he knew about them was that they opposed the operation of the group the company had been hired to scout. That they were any better was not a given.

  Jonah shook his head. He didn’t have time for philosophical thoughts. He had a mission and people he was responsible for. He could think about the direction of his life after this was over. If he survived.

  “We have a bird in the air,” Ivan said, pointing to the south.

  “Everyone down,” Jonah hissed. “Comms off.”

  Their comm sets were short-range, unlikely to be picked up by anything over a couple of miles away, no matter its sensitivity. There was, however, no sense in taking chances.

  Everyone was wrapped in an efficient thermal blanket that would only allow the minimum of body heat out into the environment. In fact, they were too efficient, and within ten minutes they’d have to allow some heat to dissipate into the atmosphere or they’d succumb to hyperthermia. The short trees they were sheltering under would also help to mask their signature. If the enemy didn’t get a hint of them, some clue that made them hover, they’d probably be safe.

  In case they were spotted, Ivan had one of their three missile launchers extended and at hand. The thin tube only massed a kilo or so, and the missile was less than half that. It shot out at extremely high velocity and hit like a hammer, and it would surely knock the craft out of the sky.

  “Stay away, you bastard,” whispered Jonah, almost as a prayer. The gods he believed in didn’t answer such prayers, but it was all he could think to do at the moment.

  The gunship circled, flying over the stand of trees and continuing on. After a few minutes it returned on an arc moving further to the north. One more pass and it headed south.

  “They missed us,” Charley said in a low voice. “You want to keep moving.”

  “In a minute,” Jonah said, working on instinct. His heart was still pounding, the blood booming in his ears. They couldn’t afford to get caught out here by Xlatan with air support, and they really couldn’t afford to get caught on the cliffs where they’d be helpless, hanging miles in the air.

  A few minutes later the gunship was back, running on a fast sweep over the area they’d already covered. Jonah was starting to feel sick from the body-heat buildup, and sweat was running down his skin all over. When he unwrapped now, he’d be facing another problem—that moisture could freeze next to his skin.

  First things first, he thought. First they had to wait out the gunship, which had come back to see if it could catch them coming out of cover. If not for his instincts, it would have caught them trying to cross the next open area.

  The gunship turned back, heading south again.

  “I need to release some of this heat,” complained Kevin, looking over at Jonah.

  “Everyone go ahead and vent some of your heat. Make sure the opening is down toward the ground, though. I want to wait to move until I’m sure they’re not coming back.”

  “They’re not,” Ivan said a few minutes later, pointing to the west. “There they go. Right to where we would be if we’d headed straight to the cliff. Good call, Colonel.”

  “Lucky call,” Jonah replied, picking himself up from the ground and dusting the fine layer of ice crystals from his covering. “Now let’s get moving. Those hills should have some cover, so let’s get to them.”

  His people were up and moving in an instant. His being correct in his assumption of what the enemy would do was paying dividends now, as the trust level of his new people had gone up considerably.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Three

  “Keep a close look out,” ordered Mmrash as they flew slowly over the icy terrain. Even just looking down at the endless expanse of frozen terrain, despite being in a toasty warm cabin, made the Xlatan warrior shiver. “They’re going to be trying their best to stay hidden.”

  “How could they hope to accomplish that in this?” the pilot asked, waving a hand at the terrain in front of them.

  The commander grunted in reply. It looked fairly hopeless for anyone trying to move without being seen. Most of the land was barren, with a low ground cover of the strange ice-based plants that populated the plateau. There were some low trees scattered here and there, and a few larger clumps in the distance. He wouldn’t call those clumps forests, but according to the map he was looking at, there were areas that could be labeled such. A herd of grazing animals moved in the distance, cropping the ground cover as they stood on their two legs. One looked up, trumpeted, and the rest went hopping for the horizon.

  “They’ve got to be down there,” complained Mmrash, putting a pair of field glasses to his eyes and scanning the horizon.

  “Maybe only one
survived,” his second said over the comm. “He could have set the trap and left.”

  And I’m not willing to bet my hide on that, the commander thought as he huffed out a breath. If he did, and a whole party of them turned up later, the boss would not be happy. And the commander might be introduced to the inhabitant of the round hut.

  “Just keep looking,” he ordered. The sergeant and the other males were looking at screens that showed the view of the cameras on the bottom of the gunship. Hopefully they’d spot something the computers didn’t. He knew it was a forlorn hope, but he had to use all the resources at his disposal, even the idiots he commanded.

  Soon they were coming up on the cliff’s edge. It wasn’t as if it was really an edge at this point, since a small ridge rose up to separate the plain from the drop off. At other points it was a sharp edge, and legends had grown up in the lowlands about the upper regions based on the bodies that had fallen over. Most had splattered on impact, and what bone-like structures they had shattered. Some had hit updrafts on the way down for their body structures to survive impact. They were still dead, and those bodies had spawned legends of angelic beings in their heavens, or conversely of a hell above the clouds.

  There were pathways up the ridgeline leading to mesas overlooking the lowlands. The ship cruised slowly over the ridge, fans whirring furiously to keep them aloft in the thin air. The view down into the canyonlands was blocked, for the most part, by a sea of clouds. Some days it was clear enough to see to the enormous river in the center of the canyon. Today was not one of those days.

  “Well, I don’t see any sign of them,” the pilot said, swiveling his head around to look through every angle of the cockpit windshield.

  “They haven’t had enough time to get here, you idiot,” the commander growled.

  “Then why…”

  “Drop sensors on every one of those paths,” Mmrash ordered, cutting the pilot off. “If they come this way, we’ll know it.”