“Keep your head down, Dotty,” Charley said.
Most of the company was now in action, popping up, acquiring a target, then firing a burst before going back under cover. A couple of Xlatan were hit and went back to cover, though it was impossible to tell how badly they were damaged, if at all. One’s head exploded, while another fell forward to land on top of the rock and lay twitching in death. The two snipers were still at work, and had good fields of fire from their height, while not yet attracting any return fire.
“Fire discipline, people,” Charley called out.
They only had so much ammo. That ammunition being metal pellets for the most part, they carried much more than they would have if their weapons had been chemically powered. Still, the weapons needed power cells, so they only had so much. That was one reason he’d ordered Graham to set up his weapon and hold his fire until ordered. So far they hadn’t needed him. It looked like the enemy had taken a half dozen casualties so far, while the Eagles only had the one wounded. With luck that would be all they had.
* * *
Within a second of each other one Xlatan soldier fell forward, while the head of another exploded. Most species would have been frozen in shock. Not the Xlatan, all of whom immediately hit the dirt, their eyes sweeping to catch a glimpse of the enemy, or more importantly, to locate cover. They were crawling within a second, and all made it under cover before any more were hit. Lrator looked over at his two fallen warriors.
They didn’t have a chance, he thought, cursing himself before all the gods for leading his people into an ambush.
“Where are they?” yelled out one of the warriors, looking up over a rock.
“Keep your stupid head down!” Krassh yelled.
“Fire at will,” Lrator called out. “I don’t care if you don’t have a target. Just put something out there.”
The warriors moved up to look over their cover, triggering their weapons and sending powerful beams out into the cavern. Some were leaving their beams on a single spot, while others swept them back and forth.
“That should keep the enemy under cover,” Krassh said.
Only an idiot would believe that, Lrator thought, shooting and ducking back down. “Don’t expose yourselves so long!” he yelled to the others.
A series of small explosions blasted overhead, throwing shrapnel downward. One warrior cried out that he was hit, but the rest of it either missed or failed to penetrate the light armor of their suits. Lrator breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed the smoke that was drifting down from above. Now their beams were illuminated in the smoke, no longer invisible to the Humans, while the Humans’ fire was coming in without a trace, save the swirling of vapor as their rounds passed through.
More of the tiny explosive shells came in, this time coming right into a group of three of his soldiers and putting two of them down. Just when he was thinking it couldn’t get any worse, two more of his people went down, one with an exploding head, the other just as dead if not as massively damaged.
They have some people up high, he thought, craning his neck but not spotting the Humans. We need to get out of here, was his next thought. But if they got up and ran, they’d only be shot in the back, an unenviable end for any Xlatan warrior.
“Give me some smoke grenades to the front,” Krassh bellowed. The other sergeant was the first to throw one out, followed by a half dozen more. In an instant the air was filled with the white vapor. It hid them completely from the enemy, the chemical compound even masking their heat signatures. Unfortunately, it also degraded their laser beams. The enemy rounds slicing through the cloud proved it didn’t stop solid objects.
“We need to back out of here,” Lrator said, waving back the way they’d come.
“We need to attack them!” Krassh yelled. “Xlatan warriors don’t run from a fight!”
“I…”
Before Lrator could finish, the other sergeant was on his feet and charging through the mist. As if that wasn’t bad enough, four warriors followed. Lrator motioned for the remaining warriors, all four of them, to follow him to the rear.
The idiot just cost us the firepower we needed to actually defeat the enemy, the sergeant thought as he ran to the rear with the others following him. As he ran, he decided he’d been fooling himself. They never had enough firepower to defeat an enemy as skilled at ambuscade as these Humans.
* * *
“Watch out!” Jonah yelled over the comm as the grenades came arching out, spraying a white vapor that soon filled the air with an obscuring mist.
The colonel didn’t think it was a gas attack, some poison or corrosive. It was most likely an obscurant. But obscuring for what purpose? Attack or retreat?
Five Xlatan came running through the mist, lasers blazing, highlighted by the smoke in the air. The company fired back, this time Graham opening up as well and sending the beam of his heavy laser into the enemy. The Xlatan didn’t get far, only a couple of steps, before they were all cut down.
Was that all of them? Jonah wondered; he was sure there’d been more. It made no sense that some would attack in a headlong charge while the rest tried another maneuver. No military sense.
“Oh no!” Joey cried out. “They got Eric!”
Jonah felt a chill go through him. He thought they’d gotten through this fight without a loss, but apparently not. The colonel half-stood in a crouch and moved down the line to Joey’s position. He found the young Sioux mercenary holding the Spaniard, cradling the older man’s head in his lap. A laser burn smoked on the coverings over Menendez’s chest, and the sound of his respirator was missing.
“Everyone stay ready,” Jonah said into his comm, still aware of his responsibility to the company, even if an old hand had just been killed. “That wasn’t all of them.”
Dotty came running over, also in a crouch, then knelt beside Eric, running a medical scanner over the chest of the man.
“He’s gone. The beam must have burned through the top of his heart and the aorta.”
Jonah closed his eyes and said a quick prayer for the Spaniard. He looked back at Joey, who seemed to be on the verge of tears.
“How’s Achilles?” he asked his medical specialist.
“He didn’t get hit in the heel,” the medic said with a slight chuckle, earning an angry glare from Joey.
“Gallows humor, son,” Jonah said, putting a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “We all have to deal with the stress in our own way. And it beats the hell out of crying.”
“Achilles will be fine,” continued the medic, a low serious tone in her voice. “Superficial burns to his right shoulder. A little lower and he’d have lost the arm.”
“Then we need to get moving.” Jonah looked over his people, all still in position with weapons ready. “I don’t want to be here if the survivors come back with reinforcements.”
“It’s all clear up here,” Asuka Yamashuri reported over the comm. They hadn’t come back for the firefight, their singular abilities better suited to scouting ahead than engaging in a stand-up fight.
“I think we won this one,” Charley said, moving over to Jonah’s position. “Too bad about Eric.”
“That’s all you have to say?” Joey yelled, standing up and looking down on the major. “Too bad?”
“It happens, kid,” Charley said, staying down and looking up at the younger man. “It happens all the time. Someday it’ll happen to me, if I don’t retire first. And it may happen to you even sooner if you take liberties with your safety by standing up in a combat zone.”
Joey looked around for a moment like he wasn’t sure where he was, then went down on a knee so only his head looked over the rocks they’d been covering behind.
“That’s better,” Charley said, turning his attention toward his boss. “Now, what say we start on our way? Or do you want to wait until that mist dissipates?”
“It looks like that might take quite some time,” Jonah said, looking at the cloud, which looked like it was going nowhere fast. “Ivan
, take Basil with you and see if there’s still anything to worry about. Take a roundabout route.”
“I know my business, boss,” said an aggrieved Zhukov. “You ready, Basil?”
“I’m going to complain to the mercenary’s union when we get home,” Paudel said with a chuckle.
“Just your turn,” Jonah said, watching as the two men took off to the west side of the cave so they could come around the enemy position on the flank.
“Come on down, Sandra, Sarah. And good job.”
* * *
“Lrator. Report.”
Mmrash was almost beside himself with conflicting emotions—anger that the squad leader wasn’t giving him the rundown on what was going on, and anxiety that he wasn’t.
“I’m here, sir.”
“What happened? What’s the status of your squads?”
“We’re down to five effectives, including myself, and one injured.”
Mmrash stared ahead in shock that the force he’d sent underground had been beaten so badly. But they had to have hurt the Humans as well. Badly. “How many of the enemy did you kill?”
“I’m not sure we killed any of them,” the sergeant replied. “We might have been able to do something, but that idiot Krassh led a charge that got himself and four of his warriors killed.”
“And why didn’t you go with him?”
“If I had, sir, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We’d all be dead. The Humans were too well emplaced, and they had weapons we couldn’t track or obscure.”
“I want you back here as fast as you can travel, then we’ll go over what you think they have.”
“You don’t want us to keep tracking them?” the sergeant asked, relief in his voice.
“It sounds like you don’t have enough of a force to take them out,” Mmrash said, closing his eyes. “I should have sent the entire platoon down there. I should have come with you.”
Of course the thought ran through his mind that if the Humans did indeed have over a dozen fit soldiers and the firepower it appeared they had, he could just as easily have led the larger force into an ambush, and he might be dead as well.
He needed to get them in the sights of his aircraft. Eventually they’d have to come to the surface, even if they didn’t continue to pursue their mission. They couldn’t survive indefinitely down there, could they?
* * * * *
Chapter Ten
“Well, this is different,” Ivan Zhukov said as they walked through the narrow passage into yet another cavern.
“It looks pretty much the same to me,” Joey said, shaking his head as he stood at the opening.
“That was sarcasm, son,” the Russian said with a laugh.
Jonah listened to the interplay with a smile. As long as his people could laugh, he thought, their spirits would continue to carry them through. He looked around the cavern. Of course it was different from all the other caverns—all four of them—that they’d already passed through. Different projections and crevices on the walls, different supporting formations. And about a mile lower than the one they’d entered this realm through. It was still quite similar, with the same colors, same minerals, and same sparse fungus-like plants. The same small animals zipped away from them as they approached.
“I wonder how big this system is?” Charley said, stepping up on a slight elevation to get a better look. “It’s like an underground world.”
“I really don’t want to find out,” Jonah said with a sigh. “I would rather just get out of it.”
“Then we have to face the Xlatan again,” complained Sandra, stepping up beside Charley. “And they have the only air force on this planet.”
“Once we’re down in the canyonlands we’ll have millions of square miles of jungle and forest to hide in,” Ivan said, raising a fist in the air and pumping it. “I like our chances.”
“Yeah,” Sandra said, shaking her head, “but we have to get down there to take advantage of all that lush vegetation. That’s the problem.”
“We’ve got something here you might be interested in, Colonel,” came the faint voice of Hotaru Yamashuri over the comm. “Asuka has run ahead a couple of miles, and it doubles back toward the canyon cliffs in a generally downward slope.”
“Can you guide us to your location?” Jonah asked, still worried the enemy might be able to listen in on their transmissions if they used the comm too much.
“Flash a light, please.”
Jonah held up his flashlight, capable of putting out millions of candlepower for hours on its charge, and triggered it, waving it in an arc. A moment later another intense beam shone from the distance.
“We’ve got you. Be there in a bit.”
The seventeen members of the team started through the cavern in tactical formation, spaced out in a line, those in the front paying attention to where they were going. The ones further back looked intently to the sides, making sure nothing out there was moving toward them. The few in the rear kept looking back, well aware that they might be followed, either by the Xlatan or by something native to the cavern. Weapons were held slung around their necks, ready to be elevated and used at a moment’s notice.
“Hold up a second,” Ivan said, holding a hand in the air. “Something’s moving up ahead. Something big.”
“Hold up!” Jonah shouted with a hand raised in the air, walking past the two soldiers ahead of him in the line, then the fifty meters to where Ivan stood.
“It looks like a big cow!” Jonah exclaimed as he took in the creature.
It really was about the size of a cow, one of the shaggy varieties that populated the Scottish Highlands. It even had the long horns curving to the sides. Differences included extremely short legs, a long bushy waving tail, and barely visible juts of bony armor. The creature took a large bite out of a mushroom head, then stood there, chewing.
A couple of smaller versions of the adult stood close by, looking over at the intruders that mamma was so far ignoring. They looked to be half-grown juveniles, and Jonah was wondering if they were going to nurse. He wasn’t sure they were mammals, or even had any mammalian characteristic outside of their fur. If it even was fur as Humans understood it.
The mother turned her head, lowered it, and regurgitated a mass of fungus material. In an instant the juveniles were on it, licking it up, each trying to get the lion’s share. Now they were ignoring the intruders. Mom took up the slack by turning her eyes to the three Humans. They were small and fierce looking, giving the Humans a murderous look.
“I really don’t like the looks of that thing,” Ivan said, shaking his head.
“Yeah,” Charley agreed, walking up to join them. “I bet it’s a hell of a fighter when it comes down to it. But I don’t think that armor will stop a magrail round.”
“We’re not in the business of killing animals for no reason,” Jonah said, looking over at his partner, “and most certainly not one with young.”
“Her apparent armament isn’t what concerns me,” Ivan said, giving a nervous glance at the cavern around him. “What really concerns me is, what in the hell did she evolve that equipment for?”
Jonah stared at Ivan for a moment, shocked at the observation. They’d only seen rodent-like animals down here until now. Nothing to be concerned about, since their predators were probably nearly as small. This changed everything.
“You think it might have wandered up from the surface?” Charley asked, his hand on the pistol grip of his rifle as he looked around.
“Be on watch for larger predators,” Jonah said into the comm. Hopefully, the behavior of this creature in front of them was an indication there were no predators currently around. The pair of ninjas wouldn’t have this weather gage, and not knowing what was around could kill them.
“What kind?” the voice of Hotaru came over the comm.
“We’re not really sure,” Jonah replied, still looking around, his eyes coming back to stare at the herbivore that was starting to act in what he thought of as an anxious manner.
“Something that can take down a large, well-armed grazer. Something big and well-armed itself.”
“Or a pack of smaller horrors?” Hotaru asked, an edge of fear in her voice.
“That too. Why?”
“Because I think I’ve spotted a half dozen of them, and they’re stalking me and Asuka.”
* * *
“We’ve already found five openings into the cavern system, Commander. And that’s just within four miles to either side of the center point.”
The center point was what they were calling the straight line from the entrance the Humans had used to go into the cavern system down to the midlands. There was definitely no guarantee they would be coming out anywhere near the center point, but they’d needed to start the search somewhere.
“There could be hundreds of openings, sir. In fact, it’s beginning to look like the cavern system is just another part of the midland surface ecosystem.”
Fascinating, the commander thought sarcastically. I really don’t care about the biology of the midlands.
“Set up drones on every entrance,” ordered Mmrash.
“And when we run out?”
“Then I’ll try to get more.”
“I’m thinking they just might stay underground, commander,” Sergeant Nlorn said. “After all, if they have a machine to compress gas, and they can eat the native life, why can’t they stay in there?”
“I don’t think they came all this way on a mission just to cut and run, Sergeant. I’m sure they’ll be coming out of there and will attempt to get to the canyonlands and our base.”
“But I thought their strike force had been called off.”
“It has,” the commander agreed, “but they don’t know that.”
* * *
“I don’t understand why we’re still going to that planet, sir. The clients voided the contract, we’ve been paid the cancellation fee, and we’re just spending money on a trip for no purpose.”
When Eagles Dare Page 10
