Colonel Alexander Ramos, the commander of Ramos’ Ravagers, shook his head as he looked up at his second-in-command, Major Amanda Silvers.
“I have a bad feeling about this, Amanda,” he replied in his basso voice, “and we haven’t received word from Jonah White Eagle confirming he’s been called off the mission.”
“They’re probably on their way back to the station, sir. As soon as they’re back, we’ll know they got the recall order as well.”
The older mercenary thought his second had a good point. She was probably right. However, the gut feeling wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t scientific, but he’d listened to his instincts his entire life, from the time he’d been a private in a local defense unit, through his rise to platoon and company command, and through all his years running his own mercenary company. It would cost his company a lot of credits to continue what could turn out to be a wild goose chase, credits he really couldn’t afford. If he was wrong, he might be driving his company into the ground.
However, he knew he wasn’t wrong. Alexander Ramos was a good tactician, though not the best in the business. He was a good soldier, a good officer, and he made it a point to never leave someone counting on him hanging on a limb over a long drop.
“We’re going to continue to the planet and insert as per the plan,” the colonel said, looking up into the eyes of the younger officer who was like a daughter to him. “If I’m wrong, we’ll pay whatever penalty is levied for landing uninvited on a planet occupied by another species. But I’m not wrong.”
Silvers nodded, and Ramos could see the agreement in her eyes. She had to play devil’s advocate. That was part of her job.
“I’ll make sure the suits are all prepped, sir. What do you want me to tell the boys and girls?”
“I’ll think of something before too long, Amanda. Let me worry about it.”
“Probably something good, like how we don’t leave fellow Humans in the lurch?”
“Something like that. Just take care of the logistical side, and I’ll handle the briefing.”
The younger officer saluted and walked out of the chamber, leaving Ramos to study the terrain of the planet that was the target. According to intel, there were almost a hundred Xlatan warriors in light body armor, with maybe a hundred more security personnel from other species. That wouldn’t be anything for his seventy heavily-armored troopers. Their CASPers might not be the latest model, but they should be plenty good enough to take out that compound. If they could land without being shot out of the air. His only problem was inserting his force with only enough lift to take a little more than a third down at a time.
Against the twenty to thirty unarmored troops White Eagle was bringing in? It would be a slaughter. If he arrived in time, he could prevent that. If not, he’d have to settle for revenge.
* * *
“Asuka,” Hotaru Yamashuri yelled, standing on a rock overlooking the lower passage, “up here!”
Her husband ran toward her, the pack of predators on his heels. If they’d been in a proper climate he’d have had no trouble outrunning the creatures. In this frigid, atmosphere-deprived world, he was unable to use his athletic abilities to the fullest.
The beasts coming after him looked like small, shaggy wolves. Or, when she thought about it later, more like corgis with their short legs. No visible ears, which made sense in this environment, where the surfaces would shed too much heat. Less than a yard in length and weighing maybe forty pounds, they would appear ridiculous, if not for the savage-looking teeth in too-wide mouths. They had the appearance of the teeth of a shark, serrated like steak knives in multiple rows. The type of dentition that would saw through flesh with ease while locking the prey in a grip that couldn’t be broken.
“Stay where you are!” her husband yelled through labored breath. “Don’t come down!”
The breathing masks could give them enough oxygen to move at a steady pace, but running was a strain. The pair had still been able to run at a jog, but Asuka needed more than that now.
The man turned at just the right time to bring his sword around and into the neck of the leading pack member. He tried to dodge the next, something he could do with ease under normal circumstances. Wearing heavy winter clothing, carrying everything he needed to survive in two different environments, he wasn’t able to move as fast as he’d expected. The second predator jumped and hit his left forearm, the jaws clamping shut and grinding down.
Asuka cried out, more in surprise than pain. The heavy outer covering wasn’t hard enough to completely stop the teeth of the beast, but it was thick enough that it would take some time. The impact armor of his combat suit would do a better job, but it wouldn’t harden without the kinetic impact of a fast-moving round. Then another pack member hit his right leg and knocked him to the ground, where the other two predators moved in and looked for the best opening.
The hell I’m going to cower up here and watch the love of my life ripped apart by creatures that ridiculous, the female ninja thought. In her tradition, revived in Japan during the last couple of centuries, women were just as effective as men. The fear she felt at preparing to jump into a fray in which she also might become food for the creatures was fleeting. She needed to be there beside her husband, no matter the outcome.
With that last thought, she was in the air, landing lightly on her feet, wakizashi in hand. A couple of steps, and she thrust the carbon nanotube blade into the side of the nearest creature, pulling it back out in a draw cut that sliced through its spine.
The beast let out a squeal much like a pig and tried to turn to attack her. Without control of its hind legs, it fell on its side, struggling to get back up as it bled out.
Another beast jumped at her, and she suppressed the urge to dodge, realizing she’d do just as poorly as her husband had. Instead she thrust her short blade ahead, pushing it into the chest of the beast. Again came the squeal, this time followed by immediate limpness as one of its major internal organs was pierced. She flung it away, grunting and straining until it reached the point, where it slid from the blade.
The remaining beasts continued to rip and tear at her mate. Asuka let out a yell as one of them got to his flesh, and he dropped his blade, then picked it up with his free hand and pushed the katana through the predator worrying his leg. The animal squealed but refused to let go while the ninja sawed away at its neck. The katana was also carbon nanotube, and it didn’t take long to slice the head from the beast. The body fell away, but the head remained locked in place, like it was still determined to hurt its killer.
Hotaru sliced the head from the last creature, the body dropping away while the head continued to grip her lover’s arm, like a tick that didn’t need the life support of a body.
“Get them off me,” Asuka said through clenched teeth.
Hotaru dropped to her knees and started to work on the head attached to her husband’s left arm, sawing away with her ultra-sharp blade at the muscles of the jaw, being careful not to slice too far and injure her husband.
It took a few moments, but Hotaru kept at it, cutting through bone that seemed to be of a carbon crystalline structure. She worried that another of the creatures might come along and jump on her while her attention was on her delicate task. A glance at Asuka showed he was keeping watch, at least as well as he could.
“That’s one,” she said, pulling the jaws free and tossing the head away. “How bad did it injure you?”
She wanted to pull the heavy clothing away to get a look at the wound, if any. The problem was the cold. She could get a quick look, but if the damage was too great, she risked exposing him to frostbite. That could be healed, but on a mission it could be an injury that led to so much degradation of ability it could be fatal.
“Take a look at that arm while I get rid of the one on your leg,” she told him, moving down and starting the job of slicing away the head.
“That’s it,” she said, loosening the buckles on his leggings and pulling it up to get a momentary look.
“Not too bad. Your armored suit held up, and it didn’t penetrate.”
“I’m afraid the one on my forearm did much more damage,” Asuka said through gritted teeth.
“Oh my,” Hotaru hissed, looking at the area of the forearm just above the wrist, on which the skin had been shredded. The creature had gotten a grip in the open area between glove and sleeve, not more than an inch, but enough for one row of teeth to access. The woman pulled out a sprayer and set it to release what she wanted.
“I’ll do what I can, but I’m afraid Dotty will have to take care of it when we get to a place where it can be exposed for some time.”
“Is he okay?” Jonah White Eagle asked as he jogged up to the pair. The rest of the team fanned out, covering all approaches.
“I’ll live,” Asuka said with a short chuckle. “Not that I deserve my good fortune.”
“Let me look at that,” Dotty ordered, kneeling by the man’s side and pulling the sleeve away. She pulled off a glove so she’d have a bare hand for the examination. She touched the wound, examining the synthiskin.
“How does it feel?” she asked, palpating the arm while staring at the wound.
“It hurts, but not so bad as to require pain medication.”
“Skin and muscle damage, but the bone is intact,” Dotty said, running a scanner over the arm. “No apparent nerve damage.”
“I was lucky,” the ninja said, looking up at his wife. “Lucky to have a partner who wouldn’t listen to me.”
“I couldn’t stand there and let you die,” Hotaru said, shaking her head. “We’re partners in all respects, and partners don’t let each other down.”
Dotty covered the arm with the winter clothing again and wrapped some extra cloth she carried in her bag around the area where the clothes had been ripped, insulating it.
“Damn, it’s cold,” the medic said as she pulled her glove back on.
“Let’s get moving,” Jonah said, looking ahead. “And everyone keep a sharp lookout.”
“I’ll be glad to get out of this place,” Joey said, kicking one of the canine-like beasts.
“I hate to tell you this, youngster, but the open midlands won’t be much better,” Ivan said.
No, Jonah thought. We need to get over the midlands as fast as possible. Until they reached an environment they could function in at full capacity, they were at a deadly disadvantage.
* * * * *
Chapter Eleven
“So, where’s the tube we descended?” Jonah asked, looking over at Ivan, who had been keeping track of their progress.
“About twenty-one miles to the east,” Ivan said, “and two and a half miles up.”
Just about perfect, the colonel thought as he looked out over the landscape, standing in the mouth of the small tunnel that led into the massive cavern system.
The ledge plateau seemed to stretch to the north forever, though it was only about sixty miles at this point. It ran for over a thousand miles in either direction, though, and gave them thousands of square miles of area to hide in. Real plants grew here, shrub-like trees that had adapted from the lowlands to the heights. Undergrowth choked the ground of some of the dwarf forests. This vegetation was green, taking advantage of the abundant sunlight falling on the ledge. The ground cover was lush, providing abundant food for the grazing animals.
“They must use the same antifreeze as the plant things up above,” Charley said, motioning upward.
“So, the animals are all drunk on alcohol?” Graham asked, looking at those animals in a way that indicated he was using the zoom function of his visor.
“I’m sure they have a way to filter it out,” Ivan said, squatting down and studying the closest animals. “That, or they find a way to use it themselves.”
There were actual herds on the plain. Hundreds of the large herbivores they were now calling buffalo, mostly cows with some bulls, larger beasts with longer horns. There were several hundred juveniles hanging near the herd, and many small babies staying close to their mothers. Other species intermingled with the buffalo, some with the look of shaggy antelopes, fur hanging almost to the ground as insulation. None of the creatures had noticeable ears. It must have been an evolutionary struggle back and forth between hearing and retaining heat. Hearing was important for survival, and large ears could channel the sound in this thin air. But heat retention had won out.
“Looks peaceful,” Sandra said, standing beside her boss just within the entrance.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Ivan reminded her, pointing toward a group of animals lying at the edge of a small woods, looking for all the world like a pride of lions. They were larger than the predators they’d faced in the cavern. One yawned and displayed similar shark-type teeth in much larger jaws.
“Reminds me of Africa,” Amobi Kabir said.
“Your homeland?” Jonah asked, looking over at the grenadier.
“No. My homeland was mostly jungle near the coast, with wooded hills further in. This reminds me of Tanzania. I went there once on vacation.”
“It reminds me of what Africa would be like if it were in the Arctic,” Ivan said with a chuckle.
“Like Mother Russia?” Joey asked.
“More trees, fewer herds,” Ivan replied, shrugging his shoulders. “And this is the summer in this place.”
Jonah looked at his HUD. It was a balmy forty degrees below zero. Much warmer than the plateau above, but still no vacation spot.
“Ivan,” Jonah asked his scout, “how do you want to proceed?”
The Russian was carefully studying the terrain, looking for gullies and small valleys for cover, and also checking for woods where the party could shelter if anything flew over.
“Back,” Charley ordered.
Everyone in the team moved back into the cavern without a word. Discipline was good, and they did what they were supposed to.
“I saw one of their aircraft,” explained the second-in-command, “cruising by about a mile up, two or three to the east.”
“Okay. How in the hell do we deal with them?” the colonel asked. In the original plan, they’d have been crossing the midlands without the enemy knowing they were on planet. An aerial patrol would make things much more difficult.
“Maybe one of the tricks of my people,” Joey said, looking over at his leader.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Some mobile natural camo,” the young man replied, “if we can get the skins of about twenty of those buffalo.”
“We’re not here to destroy an entire ecosystem, Joey,” Amobi said, waving a finger in the air.
“Probably work better if we had three people under each skin,” Cheung Xou said.
“I think this is a crazy idea,” Asuka said, shaking his head. “I suggest we use a technique of my people.”
* * *
“It’s getting late, sir,” the pilot said, holding the gunship in a hover, “and we’re running low on fuel.”
Mmrash scowled as he looked out at the cliff and the midlands below it. They’d been searching all day and hadn’t spotted a thing. Of course, if the Humans were still in those caverns, the Xlatan would never find them.
Maybe if we set off some city killers in the caverns we could flush them out, the commander thought. The problem with that was getting the weapons. The Syndicate probably had some, but not on this world. It might take weeks to get them here, if they were even in accord with their use. Gas was a nonstarter, since the Humans were using breathing masks and tanked air. And he wasn’t about to send more of his people into those caverns. That was just asking to lose them, especially since by now the Humans would have charted enough of the structure to treat it as their own backyard.
The commander set the sensors to run an infrared scan over the midlands. He could only cover a square of a couple of hundred yards on a side with a deep scan. There was a lot of territory down there, and it would take a lot of time to cover it all, even with all five of the shuttles.
Numerous red dots appe
ared on the Tri-V, most still, some moving slowly. There were scores of them in the two-hundred-yard box, which had to translate into hundreds of thousands across the entire search area. The well-insulated creatures were still giving off considerable heat, a function of their high metabolisms.
How to pick out the Humans among them? That was also going to be a problem, since there were so many different heat signatures down there, and he didn’t have firm data on what Human infrared profiles looked like, much less what they looked like wearing their cold weather gear.
“Here are my orders,” Mmrash said, looking over at the pilot. “Send them to all craft. Shuttles Three and Four are to return to base to refuel and to rest the soldiers. All squads are to top off with fresh soldiers.”
“And us?” the disappointed pilot asked.
“We’ll stay here. We have enough fuel to continue cruising through the night. When it gets too low, we’ll perch on the upper ledge and continue our scans. The same order goes for shuttles One and Two.”
“And when do we head back to base?”
“When I tell you,” screamed the commander, leaning over to put his growling face close to that of the pilot. “Until then, concentrate on your job if you want to live.”
The pilot’s ears twitched with fear, and he turned away without a word.
Maybe now I’ll have some peace from his inane questions, the commander thought, sitting back in his chair and watching as the scan kept sweeping over the midlands. It would take luck to find them on that ledge/plateau, and luck had been in short supply as of late.
* * *
“I saw something like this in a really old movie,” Charley said in a soft voice, walking a couple of yards behind his boss.
“What kind of movie?”
“It was set during the war between Asuka’s country and the North American States in the middle of the twentieth century. The Japanese were using a tactic like this to sneak up on the North Americans.”
When Eagles Dare Page 11
