“They won’t be online till they stop Sir.”
“Open it anyway and keep trying till you make contact.”
Chapter 22. Soln 1530, 4 February
Sue came out of the cavern and heard the explosion to her west. It wasn’t that far, maybe 500m. She knew what it meant and she knew she had to get down there fast. “Steff I need you, a medic and three others back here pronto.”
“Roger Maam.”
Some pulse firing erupted further south. “Contact Maam” said Jim. “We have 10 maybe 20 enemy flanking west downhill from us. We’re engaging.”
“Roger Jim. Continue to harass them with fire. They are probably trying to get to the crash scene. I’m going there now with a small team.”
“Will do Maam.”
Steff came up to Sue panting. They had obviously run the whole way. The last in her team was grateful when Steff stopped. Sue pointed to the West and said “The crash scene’s down there. Take us out in single file. Jim reckons the enemy is flanking downhill to get there too, so keep a good eye out for them. Shoot on sight. I’ll be your fourth in the column.”
Steff just nodded as she took in some more breaths. “Right Maam.” Steff looked at her charges, barked out the briefest of orders and took the lead herself. Her quanto gunner was Hodge Blanquist, known to all as ‘Blanky’. He was as fit as a fiddle. He waited until Steff had paced out ahead ten paces, then he began moving. Jerry Ringwald slotted in behind Blanky. He was carrying a short barrelled pulse rifle with a grenade launcher attached. He had a large bandolier slung over his broad shoulders carrying extra grenade cartridges. Next was Tpr Brie Fontaine. She was the medic and she waited for Sue to insert herself into the line. Tpr Kyle Xiobang brought up the rear.
Art came to the top of the rise. His display said he’d covered 200m since the DZ. He looked out over the terrain ahead. It was sloping down now to what must have been a river valley running at right angles to his line of march. The bottom of the re-entrant was probably 300m away but with the undergrowth it was hard to tell. The ground on the other side rose up to another ridge about the same height as he was on. He could hear the sound of pulse fire emanating for the other side of the valley, forward and to the right.
Freddy caught up with him, took a look for himself and asked “Launch the probe?”
Art nodded and pointed eastwards. While Freddy took off his back pack, Art took out the communicator. He raised the antenna and immediately heard the call form the Chicago. He gave a very brief SITREP and closed before Mick Riley could say a word. He packed away the communicator in time to see Freddy withdraw a cylinder from his pack and place it on the ground beside him.
It was about 30cm long and about 12cm diameter. It had a button on the top. He hit it. The cylinder lid and bottom opened simultaneously and the cylinder split open lengthways. The contents now unfolded like a butterfly to form a small aerial probe. Freddy pulled out his console and fed in the instructions, including its proposed flight path. When he hit the commit button the probe ascended into the air with the aid of its whisper quiet engine.
Freddy had specified that the probe should stay below the canopy, which here was about thirty metres high. So they were not going to get a big picture view but at just under 25m high Freddy could see all the way across to the far ridge via the image relayed onto his console. Freddy watched intensely as the probe manoeuvred east and to the south from where the sounds of fire was emanating. The alert fired on his console as it detected a column of beings moving west towards them. Freddy pointed this out to Art as he looked over his shoulder. Freddy zoomed in the view. It was hard to make out who these figures were.
“IFF pulse?” asked Freddy, referring to the Identify Friend or Foe signal.
Art weighted up the advantage of identifying friend or foe against the risk of alerting these potential enemy to their presence. “OK do it.”
Freddy sent the instructions and the probe sent out an active IFF pulse. This would invoke a similar IFF response on friendly troops, thus confirming that they were good guys. “Baddens” said Freddy “15 of them”. He interrogated the display. “Range 400m, ETA 7 minutes.”
“Sweep north” ordered Art.
Freddy replotted the path and the small probe manoeuvred northward. “Bingo” said Freddy. “Six also heading our way.” He hit the IFF pulse. “Ah, friends Sir. That’s nice. Range 450m ETA 8 minutes.”
Art took out his console and activated a sweep of all known active Federation channels that were effective at his location. He had 6 showing. He selected all of them and hailed “Federation forces this is Charlie 1 newly arrived west of Soln. Do you read me?”
Sue heard it alright and she recognised that voice. “Charlie 1 this is Chalker from the Fulmar mission. Is that you Art?”
A big smile came over Art’s face. “Yes it is darling, I have Val and six others with me. We are at top of ridge line 450m to your west. Sensors indicate 15 enemy approaching from the south east. We will hold here and engage enemy. Can you hit them from the flank when you arrive?”
“So I have to save your but again do I?”
“It’s worth saving isn’t it?”
“Oh I suppose. Ok hold tight.”
Freddy left his console with Art while he deployed his troops. Val came forward. “Sue?” she asked Art.
Art nodded with a big grin. “Here you can control this” he said and gave Val the console. Swing it back so we can see both groups.”
“Right” and Val started entering her instructions.
Art could see that Freddy had deployed his troops in a line along the ridge with one quanto on the left and the other on the right. He had also refused his right flank so that he had two troopers now facing south to meet what he expected would be the enemy’s flanking move. Art approved. ‘Knows his stuff’ he thought to himself.
“250m” said Val. They were all prone now waiting to get their first sight of the approaching enemy. Art took a quick look at the console. Sue’s group was 300m away to the north. There must have been 500m between both groups, neither able to see the other for the undergrowth.
“Contact” hailed Freddy who was on Art’s right. He tapped the shoulder of his quanto gunner on his right and a long burst of fire tore into the vegetation. “One down” hailed Freddy. All six on the line opened fire. Freddy was giving instructions to his quanto gunners to sweep their fire down the slope hoping to catch the enemy as they took cover.
Return fire opened up from what Art thought was six pulse rifles and one light gun. “Slow and steady” he hailed. “Conserve your ammo.”
“Their flanking to our right” hailed Val “Five, I think.”
Freddy got his gunner on the right to change facing to the right, then he too ducked behind him and took up a position with the refused flank. They now had four facing south.
“Sue, they are flanking to our right with a fixing group 150m south east of us. Can you turn half left now and assault south. You should catch their fixing group in their right flank.”
“OK give us a few minutes to shake out.”
Sue stood upright with both arms outstretched indicating to the rest to form up on either side of her in an assault line. Steff and Blanky were on her right. Jerry walked up and slotted in on her left. It took another minute before Brie and Kyle completed the left side of the line. It then took another minute for Sue to complete her rudimentary briefing.
“Art we’re formed up and starting our assault.”
“Good. The fire here has slackened. Their flankers are about 200m away and forming up. We’ll try and keep both groups busy. Take care.”
“You too.”
A long burst of automatic pulse fire twanged over Art’s head. He cursed himself for speaking too soon about the fire slackening. But he knew that this signalled the start of the enemy’s flank attack. A grenade exploded 30m short of his position. “Shit” he said out loud. He craned to see where that could have come from. He could see about 100m in most directions and all
looked clear of the enemy to his front.
Another grenade went off even closer to his front. His ears were ringing and Val was hugging the ground. When she recovered, Freddy’s console that she was using to control the probe was covered in dirt. She started dusting it off.
“Can you see anyone close Val” hailed Art.
She dusted away the dirt faster, peered at the view. “No.”
“They must have grenade launchers. They’ll have our range. We need to move.”
At that moment Freddy’s troops facing south began firing.
“Leave that Val. Stow the console and move left with that quanto gunner 50m. Keep up the fire downhill.”
Val was scrambling to secure the console. “OK” she replied. She tapped the quanto gunner on the shoulder. But he didn’t respond. He was too busy firing. She hit him harder. He tilted his head, saw her motion and he followed her off to the left. Art turned and headed for the end of the refused line to help fend off the flank attack. Another grenade landed not ten metres from where he and Val had just been.
Art dived for the ground on the right of the line. To his left Freddy and his troops were taking careful aimed fire at the enemy now 100m away. He joined them.
Sue could hear the intensity of fire and explosions increasing. They had advanced 150m but still could not see anyone. It would not be long though. Blanky opened up with the quanto on her right. Steff was straining to see the target of his fire. She took another pace forward and fired off two shots at a figure kneeling to her front about 100m.
Sue was still blind. “What can you see?” she hailed.
“Lone rifleman 100m front 20m right” responded Steff.
“Alright let’s keep moving.”
Sue pushed away the fern from in front of her eyes as she took another pace. She could see more than a lone rifleman. There were four figures, including one firing a grenade launcher. She leaned into her left knee and squeezed off a round aiming for the grenadier. It missed. A burst of automatic fire landed close by. She went to ground and crawled off at an angle to her right.
She heard the pop of Jerry’s grenade launcher and then the thump and explosion as it impacted 100m away.
“Jerry stay put and pour those grenades into them.”
“My pleasure Maam” said Jerry as his weapon popped again.
“The rest of you keep moving.”
Val and the quanto gunner opened up their fire from on top of the ridge to Sue’s right. That was very comforting. The fire from in front picked up though. A grenade whistled past her head, landed some 15m away, rolled down the hill a further few metres and exploded some 15m from Jerry.
“Fuck you” hailed Jerry. He had spotted the enemy grenadier and took aim, firing his own grenade in response. He had the satisfaction of seeing his round hit pay dirt.
The enemy flank attack had their own grenadier and he fired off two rounds in quick succession. The first one fell short. But the second thump took out the two troopers on Art’s left. He fired off a bust of fire at the advancing enemy line, then crawled over to the trooper closest to him. He rolled him over, but the vital signs were all red on the helmet.
He caught Freddy’s glance as he looked up. He could see his grief but only briefly for Freddy immediately turned to face forward and he let off a long burst of fire. An enemy soldier went down. Art too refocussed on the oncoming threat. He pulled his rifle into his shoulder and was scanning for the next enemy soldier in the line. He was only 75m away and it was the grenadier. He was looking directly at Art. They both fired at the same time. Art rolled to the right. His pulse shot hit the grenadier in the chest. The Grenadier’s grenade landed short but the shock rattled Art’s helmet. He felt his head flung back as he rolled. His helmet hit the ground hard and he lost consciousness.
Freddy glanced across the line, saw Art down and hailed “I need help here.”
Val left the gunner on the ridge line and raced back down to where Art was lying on his back. The vital signs were good. She left him there, took aim and dropped the figure 50m to her front. She saw the other figure to the left fall as well. The final enemy trooper turned and ran. Freddy rose to his knee and fired. The enemy arched his back and fell. Freddy was breathing hard and fast. His blood was up. He left Val attend to Art.
“Come on” he hailed his quanto gunner and they pushed their legs back up the slope to the ridge line, dropped down and began pouring more fire into the enemy below.
Sue felt the surge of friendly fire coming from the ridge above. Another of Jerry’s grenades crumped into the ferns not more than 20m ahead. “Stop Jerry” she hailed. “Join us.”
The return enemy fire had all but stopped. There was a lone shot fired further down the hill and then another even further down. Sue realised that they were retreating.
“Cease fire” she hailed. Her legs were tired. Her ears were ringing and she had a bad headache. The adrenalin was draining fast.
She continued moving to where the enemy had been located. They found six dead figures. Steff came across the first one in front of her. The helmet was crushed in from the side facing her. The pulse fire must have caved in the helmet. It was impossible to make out what the being looked like as a brown coloured liquid covered the surfaces. She prodded and got no reaction which is what she expected. “Small aren’t they?”
“Gee” said Blanky “They look almost human.”
“Clear” hailed Sue. “Come on. We regroup up on the ridge.”
Steff took charge of the deployment. Freddy was attending to one of his fallen. Sue saw Val to his right but could not see Art. Then she realised that Val was kneeling over a body. She felt the adrenalin kick in again and raced over to find Art still unconscious. “It’s alright Sue” said Val. He’s OK. Just knocked out.”
Sue sank down to the ground and sat there next to Art. She started to breathe deeply and slowly bringing her heart rate down. She was relieved he was OK but knew that now was not the time to linger. She was in charge. She had to focus on what next.
Brie came over and looked first at the two bodies on the left of Art. She quickly assessed that they no longer needed her. She motioned for Sue to get out of the way. Sue reluctantly rose to her feet as Brie opened the seal on the med port on the side of Art’s helmet. Whatever she inserted into it did the trick. Art began coming too.
His head hurt like hell, his ears were ringing still and his vision was blurry but he recognised the face staring at him and he gave a weak smile. He also made out the words she was saying as they rang through his helmet’s sound system. “Come on hero. There’s more to do!” This time he even managed a bit of a laugh. He tried to rise but his legs were weak. Sue caught him and together with Val helped him along for a few paces till he got his balance.
“Just a minute” he said “I want to see one of these rogan.”
“Don’t worry” replied Sue “I’ll show you a live one.”
Everyone turned to stare at Sue dumbstruck by what she had just said.
“Come on everyone. Steff take us back.”
As they marched back down to the river bed they heard more firing in the distance. “Jim what’s happening?” hailed Sue.
“The sleth are making a counter attack out of S3. I think they have just overrun the enemy position to my front.”
“Fowlsit this is Chalker, what is happening?”
“We are taking this opportunity to clear away the enemy between our two positions. You have received reinforcements and news I trust.”
“Yes but only a handful. Their craft was destroyed. I have Lt Simons with me. He has news but we must get back to our lines first.”
“I will come.”
“That may be too dangerous Folwsit.”
“I will come.”
Chapter 23. Chester 1710, 4 February
Rihan read the flash message in from Soln. “Damm it” she said out loud. She went straight to Matt Turiq’s office.
He was just packing up for the day. He looked up at her
from his desk and could see that this meant trouble. “What?”
“A rogan cap warped into Fulmar at 0500 this morning. The last report before they went off line is that they were under attack and that the sleth cap has warped away to Raleigh.”
“And the Chicago was due to arrive there around midday, right?”
“Correct.”
“What’s the ETA for the Hermes and Rio?”
“The Rio is due in around 1700 tomorrow. Not sure about the Hermes but most probably AM tomorrow.”
“Well let’s pray that the Chicago prevails or we could lose the lot. Better advise the Admiral. Any word from Fleet HQ?”
“Not yet. The earliest we’re likely to get anything will be tomorrow morning.”
“When will all of the remaining frigates be back here?”
“Not for another week.”
“Shit. How many will be ready for commitment tomorrow morning?”
“One for sure, possible two.”
“When can we have three ready?”
“Three days.”
Matt held his face with both hands then pulled his head back, clearly thinking things through.
“We should wait till we have all four, Sir” said Rihan.
“Yeah I know but….” and he trailed off into silence.
“I’ll let the Admiral know.”
“Yeah, please.”
She left him pondering.
Chapter 24. Soln 1745, 4 February
The sun set like a trap door. It was pitch black when Fowlsit, Gret and two sleth troopers confronted the picket Jelka had set at the cavern entrance. When Fowlsit finally made his way to the area outside Wenra’s quarters he saw some very tired human warriors resting. Jelka appeared from behind the screen and beckoned Fowlsit in. The two sleth troopers stayed outside.
Fowlsit brought his hands together and bowed before Wenra. Gret did likewise. She responded with a bow of her head and with a wave of her hand bid them to sit down. The light inside was adequate enough for Fowlsit to recognise everyone. He could see the fatigue on all the faces. He knew that his face must have similarly betrayed his tiredness.
Redemption: Book 2 of Warner's World Page 29
