When Eagles Dare

by Doug Dandridge

  The Humans were firing back, their rounds making loud cracks as they pushed into the hypersonic range through the air. One of the Xlatan was hit, a glancing blow on tough chest armor. The rest continued to put their laser beams into the target area, but for some reason they weren’t hitting the Humans, who were taking advantage of the cover they had.

  Jillor wasn’t sure if he was seeing things when he caught the moving blur out of the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see two of them, or possibly just one moving really fast. The blades coming out of the blurs were very visible, long lean weapons that showed their infinite sharpness when they struck.

  Two of the Xlatan were down before they even knew their enemies were there. The blades went through the back armor of the soldiers, sticking out of the front and dripping gore. They slashed back out in cuts meant to cause maximum damage on retraction. The remaining Xlatan turned in a panic, to be met by blurs which seemingly moved too fast to be living creatures. The blades both swept in at neck level, and two Xlatan heads flew into the air to spin to the ground.

  Jillor was thirty yards from the invisible death, and he knew he couldn’t outrun them. The door to the administration building was right behind him, with a pair of small Vroton guards kneeling behind cover and looking out. He fired his pistol, sending out a stream of hypervelocity rounds into the nearest of the blurs, then turned to reach the door.

  “Stop them,” he said to the guards, who looked at him in confusion. He didn’t have time to tell them more. Getting into the building was of paramount importance. He thought he could find safety in his office, and maybe now was the time to call in his ace in the hole.

  The door closed behind him, and he triggered the lock on the thick alloy door. He stumbled to his office, his limbs leaden from shock and fear. The door to his office was just as strong as the outer portal, and he pushed the wall panel to slide it closed. Another push and it was locked.

  “I need you,” he said into the comm as he fell into his chair. “Kill everything that gets in your way.”

  Sure, he might lose some of his own people to that killing machine. If it got all of the Humans, it would be worth it.

  * * *

  Asuka and Hotaru had been cutting a swath through the compound, relying on their modernized version of traditional weapons to kill. The pair had been raised in a traditional ninja family in Japan. Ninjutsu was a lost art to all but a few related groups. They could move silently through the darkness, surprising enemies who didn’t even know they were there until their life’s blood was flowing onto the ground. With traditional resources, they were fearsome. With modern stealth equipment, they were all but unstoppable.

  The colonel had recognized their abilities. They could move in the skirmish line with the others, but that wasn’t their strength. Their greatest abilities were moving silently and quickly, and killing just as silently, just as quickly. And unlike most of their kind, they had a bond as a pair that went beyond being partners on the battlefield. They’d been married for over a decade and complimented each other in almost every way.

  Now the team ran toward another group of Xlatan, a risky move. Since the aliens had some of the pair’s teammates pinned downed, it was a challenge they couldn’t deny. They didn’t make a sound, though such silence was unnecessary with the clamor of battle all around them. Cracks of hypersonic rounds, the buzz of lasers, even an explosion here and there. Hotaru thought they could have made the approach on a still night, but the background noise was comforting.

  Both thrust their swords into the bodies of the first Xlatan they encountered, as near to simultaneously as to make no difference. There was an instant of resistance when the sword hit the back armor, followed by none as it pushed through the organic matter, then a bit more resistance as it ran through the front plate. She immediately pulled it back, putting pressure on the hilt to force the blade down and cut through more of the vital organs. Those Xlatan fell in silent heaps, already suffering massive blood loss.

  Hotaru swung her blade back, the blood from the aliens sliding off the frictionless surface. A swing in, and she cut through the relatively thin neck armor, sending a Xlatan head spinning through the air.

  The pair turned, searching for the next target. It was right there, by the building that was one of the primary targets, a large brown-furred alien, wrinkled gray skin showing through patches. That skin was supposed to be tough, but she had no doubt her blade would slice through it like it was water.

  The creature raised a pistol that started to spit a rapid stream of hypervelocity pellets. A quick move and a duck took her out of the line of fire. The grunt from Asuka indicated he hadn’t fared as well.

  “No,” she hissed under her breath as she turned to see her husband fall bonelessly to the ground. He was still a blur in his covering, but there was a tear through the field that showed his masked face, and the forehead of the mask showed a large hole, with blood and brain matter leaking out.

  Hotaru kept her mind on the fight, looking back up and watching the creature who’d killed her husband run through a door, while two small aliens in the poor combat rig of guards knelt behind some filled bags, looking confused. Sure she wasn’t about to be fired upon, the woman knelt by her husband, her hands going to his head. It only took an instant to ascertain that Asuka would never rise from this field, and it only took Hotaru a second to bury her grief. Mourning could wait. She looked up at the guards and in an instant decided on her angle of approach. A dozen steps to her right, and she was padding softly up the side of the building. Having no idea about the hearing ability of that race, she decided to take no chances.

  The first the aliens knew she was there was when her blade sliced through the throat of the nearest. She didn’t go for a decapitation, wanting her blade out at the right angle for the second kill. That came an instant later as she closed the distance with an athletic leap, her sword going through the side of the alien’s neck and dropping him in a heap.

  The ninja looked back at where her husband lay, still a blur in his suit. With a shake of her head she held back the tears and pulled the small tool kit from her belt. Her own discipline had taught her how to handle many locks. Xou had taught her how to deal with the more advanced types. She put her husband out of her mind and got to work. She had a mission, and now revenge was a part of it.

  * * *

  “They got one of the ninjas,” Joey said, starting to take a step out toward the pair.

  Jonah grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. His people knew what they were looking for, which made it easier to pick out their active camouflage, while any opponent had trouble just determining what they were looking at.

  “We have a job to do, son. They have two people pinned down.” Just like we were, Jonah thought, taking one last look at the ninjas as one of them moved away and took up a position to take out the alien guards by the building door.

  The pair hurried on, keeping low in a hunch, giving any watching enemy the smallest possible distortion to wonder about. There were several targets they could have hit on the way. The colonel made sure Joey ignored those. They didn’t need to get into another fire fight on the way.

  “There they are,” Jonah said in a low voice. It would have been nice if he could have used hand signals and directed his partner without talking. Unfortunately, the stealth coverings worked both ways, and there was no guarantee another trooper would see the signal, much less interpret it correctly.

  Four Xlatan were crouched behind very good cover, the partial wall of a building that had been hit by something during the early stages of the battle. They were firing lasers at a twenty-yard-long pile of logs, setting small fires.

  “We’re here,” Jonah said over the comm. “Are you behind those logs?”

  “Thank God, sir,” Antonopolis said. “Yeah, that’s us.”

  “We’re safe enough for now, sir,” Xou’s voice came over the comm.

  Yeah, but I need you in the fight, not covering in safety. As he had
that thought, he spotted another pair of Xlatan working their way around to flank one of the men.

  “Watch out. You’ve got a pair coming in on your left flank. Take care of those, and we’ll take care of the ones to your front.”

  “Wilco,” Xou said.

  “Let’s take them out,” Jonah told Joey, sighting in on the back of one of the Xlatan after dialing his rifle up to maximum velocity.

  * * *

  “Dammit,” Sandra hissed as her round hit inches away from her target. Take a breath, she thought, pulling back from the sight.

  The Kalagarta had been chopped to pieces. There were possibly a dozen or fewer still on the field. As soon as they showed any part of themselves, they intercepted a laser beam. Those who had been hit left horribly mutilated bodies. Missing limbs, heads that had burst like smashed grapes, large holes through torsos. She was their only hope. But putting stress like that on herself wasn’t helping the situation.

  “Got another,” Sarah said in a gleeful voice, putting a round through the torso of a Xlatan who’d popped up from behind cover. Several others had also come up to fire, and all immediately dropped back.

  A series of popping explosions started to the left of the pair. Bright flashes of small grenades blasted over them. Sandra closed her eyes, waiting for death. When the popping stopped, she opened her eyes again, amazed she hadn’t felt the pain of a hit. A quick check of her diagnostics showed she was still unhurt. She turned over to look at Sarah with a smile that immediately left her face.

  “I’m hit,” exclaimed Sarah. She’d been hit hard enough that her stealth was no longer working, and she lay with blood flowing through gaping holes in her lower back.

  “Don’t move,” Sandra said, crawling over to the other woman as another burst of grenades exploded.

  “Get the hell out of here,” the other sniper groaned. “They’ve got me spotted. All you’re going to do if you try to help is put yourself in the target area.”

  Sandra was about to argue when a trio of lasers cut through the drifting smoke. One hit Sarah on the right shoulder, a strike that held for over a second and burned through suit and flesh. The woman’s body went limp, and a quick assessment told Sandra she was dead.

  With a feeling of guilt at leaving a comrade, Sandra low crawled away toward the back of the rise. When she was far enough down that she was sure she wouldn’t be spotted, she rose to a crouch and headed to the north, her eyes searching for another firing position.

  That could have just as easily been me, she thought as she moved. That it hadn’t been didn’t mean it wouldn’t soon be. Taking a series of deep breaths, she continued on. Now was not the time for fear or regret. That would come later, when the fighting was over. If she was still around.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Lt. Dotty Farrah was worried, not so much for herself as for her people. A medical school dropout, she’d learned enough on the job to have qualified for a degree. The problem was, she didn’t have the equipment in the field to save all the lives she could have saved with a fully staffed hospital. She’d already lost one. She wasn’t about to lose another.

  Come on, she thought as she dragged Ivan Zhukov over the ground. The fully-equipped trooper was too much for the small woman to lift. She’d stabilized him, treating the left leg that had been almost cooked by the laser strike. He was medicated to the point of unconsciousness, the severe pain held at bay. He would make it, though the leg would probably need to be removed. It could be replaced. As long as the man was alive, she was determined he’d stay that way. The medic needed to get moving and see to others who might still be alive, but lying out in the open didn’t increase his chances of surviving.

  Only a few more yards. She was almost to the small drainage ditch she thought might be a good place for Ivan to stay until they could get to him after the battle, if there was anyone left to come and get him.

  “What’s that over there?” called out a voice in the earbuds of her helmet, translated for her.

  Dotty looked up in horror to see a quartet of Xlatan, one pointing right at her. She and Ivan were both in full camo, blurs to anyone who saw them. Unfortunately, even being almost invisible wasn’t the same as being truly so. The Xlatan aimed their weapons, and she struggled to get her own rifle off her shoulder. Too late, and two of the beams hit her low, right in the hips and abdomen. The agony washed through her from her lower body. There was no feeling coming from her legs; the nerves had been destroyed.

  Farrah was falling, and she retained enough sense to use the weight of her upper body to fall over her patient. It probably wouldn’t save Ivan, but if she could cover him, he might gain some time. Enough? Probably not.

  Her consciousness started to fade as she heard the Xlatan approach, speaking among themselves.

  “Big bastard, wasn’t he?” one of the aliens said, and Dotty’s last thought was that they thought the two bodies lying together were one. Then the last beam hit her in the back, burning through into her upper torso and broiling her heart and lungs.

  * * *

  “That finished him,” said the leader of the Xlatan quartet, looking down at the large blur on the ground. The center of the blur showed a hole in reality, with scorched flesh showing through the opening.

  “That’s the largest Human I’ve ever seen,” another of the Xlatan said. “Better tell the commander we got another one.”

  * * *

  “Everyone ready?” Colonel Alexander Ramos asked, running a last-second check on the systems of his CASPer.

  He had twenty-four of the units with him on the ground, only a third of what his company had on the ship, but all they could land on the first drop. He could have waited for another drop, but the Eagles might not have the time. So he’d move with what he had, and hope that if he needed reinforcements they’d be down by that time.

  The troopers in the other CASPers sounded off, all sounding ready and eager.

  “Take your platoon in from the west, Becky,” the colonel told his mission second, Captain Becky Schultz. “I’ll come in from the east. We’ll crush them between us.”

  “Yes, sir,” the always cheerful officer responded. “We won’t let you down.”

  Ramos watched as the twelve mecha started off at a run. The war machines were over eight feet tall and thick of body, with arms and legs that made them look like fat headless humanoids. All had heavy autocannon on both shoulders and carried laser shields on each of their arms. Ramos didn’t have the most advanced model of CASPer, but they were advanced enough, and his mechanics had made some improvements that put them head and shoulders above the others of their generation…even if they didn’t have heads.

  He felt confident that he was bringing enough firepower to win the fight. That was only part of the problem, though. Could he win fast enough to rescue Jonah White Eagle and his people, or would he achieve victory in time to hold a service for them?

  * * *

  “You take the two on the right,” Ahmed said, sighting in on the first of the pair on the left. That, of course, left the one in the center. They just had to hope they could take down the others in time for one of the mortarmen to get that one, too.

  “Too bad we don’t have some grenades,” Yusef said softly.

  Ahmed had been thinking that himself. Even if the grenades didn’t kill all their opponents, it would have at least knocked them back. Unfortunately, the mortarmen had already been weighed down enough with the weapon and ammo they’d humped in. They didn’t even have a full load of ammo for their rifles.

  “Now,” Ahmed said, squeezing his trigger and sending a stream of rounds into his first target. With a cyclic rate of ten rounds a second at five thousand feet per second, the rifle almost pushed him onto his back despite his widely-spaced feet. The burst of eight rounds hit the Xlatan in the shoulder and side of the helmet. None penetrated, but the three that hit the helmet put the Xlatan over on his side, probably concussed.

  Ahmed swung his weapo
n over to the next soldier, who’d started to turn his way. His burst caught the Xlatan in the shoulders and helmet, just like the last one. This Xlatan, though, had his faceplate turned toward the Human, and two of the rounds blew through the thinner armor and into the head beyond. The soldier fell backwards, his rifle falling from his hands.

  The senior mercenary switched his attention to the one in the middle, just in time to see the soldier trigger his weapon, the laser beam linking weapon with target. He glanced over in horror to see the blurry figure of Yusef catch the beam dead center. He shot at the Xlatan soldier, getting solid hits in the faceplate, but not in time to stop the laser from punching through his partner.

  “No,” he whispered, stepping over and kneeling by Yusef’s body. The hole showing through the camo field gave enough of a view for him to see that his partner was dead.

  A loud smack grabbed his attention, and he looked up while swinging his weapon around just in time to see another Xlatan, weapon leveled, falling to the side with a hole in his faceplate.

  “Get your ass moving, soldier,” Sandra said over the comm. “I can’t keep babysitting your ass.”

  “They got Yusef.”

  “I know. And they got Sarah. But we both have a job to do, so get to it. I’ll try and cover you.”

  The eleven Kalagarta who’d survived jumped to their feet and were moving to the berm, until a trio of lasers cut through the smoke and reduced them to eight living members.

  “We have more Kalagarta coming up from the river,” Sandra said, “but they’ll fare no better than the ones that just went down.”

  “I’ll hit them from the flank while you keep their heads down,” Ahmed said, moving forward in a crouch, eyes locked on the Xlatan force a hundred yards away. Every eye of that force was looking out, and most had their heads down as much as possible in realization of the long-range death out there. The only problem was there were seven of the enemy, and he wouldn’t have a chance against all of them. He’d join Yusef in paradise, and he had no desire to go there yet.