I finally got to the enclave and knelt down beside the mortar. Luckily, there was ammunition on the ground. Four rockets. One of them had a dent in it. I decided to put that one aside and use it last, just in case it blew up in the chamber when I fired it. I picked one of the unvented rockets up and wiped it off with my hands. It was important to make sure that the rocket wasn’t dirty, or it could get lodged in the chamber and explode before leaving the weapon.
And if the mortar rocket got stuck in the chamber, then whoever was operating the weapon would most likely get a nasty surprise in the form of his life ending in a puddle of blood and guts. I wasn’t looking to go out like that. So I was always careful when loading explosives in such volatile weapons like a mortar.
“One click noon,” Spooks said, his voice coming through my intercom system.
For some reason it was now working. I suppose it had something to do with the radius we were now in. Spooks was only a few metres away from me, and the people I’d been trying to get on my comms system, the ones in the mineshaft, were too far away from my suit to pick up any of their own suit signals. But I’m sure once we were inside the mineshaft we’d be able to make contact with one of the squadrons. Or at least that is what I hoped. But you know what they say about hope; it’s a dangerous thing. It can give a man a false sense of safety. A safety that doesn’t really exist. And in most cases, never really existed.
But hope can sometimes be a good thing. When the atrocities of war came crashing down on soldiers, taking chunks of their soul away from them, eroding their sense of spirit and ability to get the job done, hope can - and usually does pull you through the worst of it. And Hope is all I had at that very moment. Hope that the mortar would work. Hope that the many reptilians that stood in our way would be eviscerated by the combustion of rocket fuel and gunpowder, exploding into a terrifyingly beautiful cloud of dust and brimstone. That is the hope I was holding onto. And that was the only hope a Marine should ever humour. For the other forms of hope are very much humourless.
“Copy, one click noon, loading rocket, rocket loaded, engaging fire switch, in three seconds, two… one…,” I said, engaging the fire switch on the mortar.
Suddenly, a deafening sound could be heard as a rocket fired out of the chamber and arched its way into the sky, seconds later falling with precision onto its designated target. One click noon, in front of us, a huge explosion erupted and chunks of rock, vegetation and sand formed a dust cloud. I hit the deck, covering myself up with my hands, burying my head deep under a rock, waiting for the debris to stop falling. But Spooks, Spooks was different, Spooks had guts. Guts and balls.
He continued to fire on the pirates, even though he couldn’t really see them or pinpoint their exact location because of the dust from the explosion. He was serious about eradicating these reptilians. He didn’t stop firing. Clips and clips of ammunition fell to the floor as he obliterated everything around us.
By now, I was on my feet and watching him let loose. I’d never seen anything like it before. A man so enraged by the possibility of somebody trying to kill him that he would stand tall and proud while a mortar strike went off a mere two hundred feet away from him. Basic training states that when using explosives it is wise to find cover, just in case bits of shrapnel or other jagged foreign implements end up falling from the sky.
All it would take was one miniature rock - a stone even - flying at hundreds of miles an hour toward Spooks and hitting him straight in his helmet to end his killing spree for good. The small rock would penetrate the glass visor and lodge itself within his skull. But it wouldn’t stop there - this wouldn’t be no flesh wound. It would be a full-on head trauma. A trauma so bad that it would most likely split the inside of his brain into two parts.
When they would recover his body and do an autopsy on it, the doctors would most likely marvel at the state of the inside of Spooks’ skull. They would marvel at the fact that what should look like a fully formed human brain was now the equivalent of a bowl of red custard, clumps of brain matter the only remnants of what used to be an unblemished organ.
But fortunately, nothing had hit Spooks. In fact, Spooks had single-handedly taken out the reptilians that were not in the blast radius. He’d taken them out with his trusty weapon. And looking at his feet, he must have fired around two hundred rounds before I even got back to aiming down my own sights.
I’d never met this man before he rescued me, but I knew that for as long as he was alive, and as long as I was alive, he’d be my best ally on this planet. We’d already been through quite a bit, even in such a short amount of time. But it wasn’t the fact that we were both on this planet that made us allies, nor was it the fact that we worked and served the same corporation - the same arm of the military - but it was the simple fact that he was handy with a weapon. The handiest I’d ever seen even. And no Marine would take such a fact lightly. Especially a Marine like me. A Marine that didn’t think of himself as handy. A Marine that suffered from confidence issues.
A Marine that to this day, on this planet, on his first ever mission, was just a rookie. Even rookies knew their own limitations. It was easy to recognise them after all. A rookie had a lot of them. And I was no different.
“I guess we can make our way inside the mineshaft, now?” I said, still a little in awe of what I’d just seen.
But Spooks didn’t take no notice of it. I guess he was used to people being in awe of him. The smile on his face pretty much confirmed that to me. He looked proud of what he’d just done. And in my haste, I hadn’t noticed that he was a high-ranking Gunner. He was actually wearing seven medals on his chest. Medals that were commemorative. Medals that most Marines would never get, but if they were fortunate enough to get them, the medals would most likely be in a cabinet at their home or at their barracks. But this man, this man stood in front of me and he wore them proudly.
“Yes, to the mineshaft. Hopefully there are more of these bastards in there. And if there are, let’s make sure that they suffer the same fate as the ones out here,” Spooks said, sidling up beside me and gently patting me on the arm. He looked at me and then at the mortar on the ground. He then smiled.
“Good job on the mortar kid, you really took it to these guys. I bet they’ll be feeling this one. Before you know it, this whole tour will be done. Keep on bringing it like you have been and there won’t be much left of them when night falls,” Spooks said, grinning at me and then reloading his weapon.
Yet another clip hit the ground. It would join the many others that Spooks had discarded of during the firefight. This man was a one-man-army. And I was just glad that he was on my side. Because God knows I wouldn’t want to be against him.
“Well, I’d say that we both took it to them. But, I’m not going to lie, I don’t think we really needed to use the mortar, seeing that you completely annihilated them with your railgun. I’ve never seen anybody use a weapon so efficiently before,” I said, looking directly at him. But Spooks didn’t even blink. He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled once again.
“What matters is that we survive this. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here, we still have to make our way through the mineshaft. And I don’t know if you are familiar with close quarters combat, but it can get a little bit hairy. So be on your guard. You may even need to use hand-to-hand if we come across any of these reptilians. Let’s not forget, these guys are not human. They are animals. And they are strong. Most likely stronger than us. So don’t be afraid to use any dirty tactics,” Spooks said, turning around and slowly making his way toward one of the open mineshafts. “This is after all, sanctioned war, not a boxing match!” he said.
I stared at the gaping hole in front of him. We were supposed to walk through that hole. Through that darkness. Through that unknown. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But I had to do my duty. I had to get to safety. I had to get to the others. I just hoped that they would be there waiting for us.
“You coming then?” Spooks said, turning around a
nd ushering me to follow him. I didn’t say anything. I just nodded and began to follow him into the shaft.
I didn’t know what was waiting for us in there, but I did know this; whenever facing the unknown, it’s best not to think too hard about it. Because thinking hard during combat will only result in your death. And death wasn’t on the cards for me, at least not just yet.
The only certainty of war is death – and I knew that it was certainly coming. But who was it coming for?
Chapter Two
The Mineshaft, Tribeca Planet
The mineshaft was cold and dark. I could feel the dampness through my spacesuit. The sound of dripping water in the distance was both loud and eerie at the same time. Spooks was in front of me, he stepped in a puddle, the sound of his squelching boot made me feel uneasy.
For some reason, it stirred up images of blood and guts, broken bones and splinted arteries, spraying blood and gore all over the place. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking this way. The day had taken its toll on me, and my mind was a cesspool of violence. It seemed as if every time I blinked, an unfortunate and unwanted image flashed in front of my very own eyes.
The first image was the image of my Marine Sergeant. The Sergeant that had helped me off the dropship. The Sergeant that had had his head ripped off by a wild reptilian dinosaur-like creature. And then there was Grimes. The Staff Sergeant. Tough. Tough and dead. The images of both those men seemed to ingrain themselves into my vision. But I couldn’t succumb to the images in front of me, the images in my mind. They weren’t real. But the darkness of the mineshaft was. And I very nearly well found that out the hard way.
“Watch your step,” Spooks said in front, realizing that I’d nearly walked off a steep edge.
I heard loose rocks and gravel plunge down to the dark depths below. I realized that we were on some sort of platform. A natural bridge if you will. And on either side of the bridge, there were two steep drops. Steep drops that seemed to stretch to the core of the planet. In reality, I couldn’t actually see how far the drops went, the darkness obstructed my vision. But I knew that if I went tumbling off the edge, it was likely that I wouldn’t be coming back up anytime soon.
“Thanks for that, I don’t know where my head was at,” I said, momentarily looking at the floor whilst I tried to add a little base to my voice.
I sounded like I was making excuses. I knew exactly where my head was at. And so did Spooks. But he didn’t mention anything to me. He just continued walking along the natural bridge. Suddenly, we were on the other side. And on the other side, there was an unwinding slope that seemed to go downwards in a spiral, deep down into the heart of the mine. Spooks turned around and pointed at the slope.
“You see that? We need to make our way down there. I know it seems a little daunting, all this sneaking around in the cave system, but trust me when I say this; you’d much rather be down here than you would be up there. I heard on the radio, before I came across you that is, that they were planning on running bombers across the quarry. Our airships are trying to clear the surface for the natives on this planet. And they figure that the only way they can do that is if they do a bombing run and annihilate anything living on the surface. So, that’s why all the troops have been summoned into the mineshafts. That and of course the fact that the pirates are pillaging all of the precious metals. So, if our luck allows it, we may be able to stumble on a squadron before they make the jump on the unsuspecting pirates deep below. I’m guessing that a flanking assault will be more than easy on these fellows, they will be far too interested in the loot to notice a bunch of humans converging on them. But once we do converge, they’ll know about it,” Spooks said, turning back around and starting his slow and steady descent down the slope.
I followed, railgun in hand, swooping my sights from left to right as we trundled down the uneven slope. My footing was loose, about as loose as the gravel that we were walking on. At least it felt like gravel. In actual fact, on close inspection, it was just slate rock. Deep and dark black slate rock. The sort of rock you’d find on volcanic surfaces. I wasn’t no geologist, and I didn’t really know anything about rocks, but I knew that these type of rocks were special.
They were special because they were made out of special material. Material that most likely formed next to equally special material. And if the inhabitants of this planet were correct and the pirates were really trying to steal all of the loot from the mineshafts, then they’d picked a good mineshaft to loot from.
As I walked down the slope, my hands tightly around my gun, my eyes focusing through the red dot sights, I caught a glimpse of a coal seam running along side us. The coal seam was quite pretty. But coal wasn’t really that valuable. So I gathered that the further we went down the shaft, the better the resources around us would be. And it didn’t take long for us to reach the bottom.
“Good God,” I muttered under my breath upon coming face-to-face with the bottom of the mineshaft.
In front of me stood seven solid gold pillars, pillars that were obviously crafted and made by the inhabitants of this planet. I stepped closer toward the gold pillars, and got up as close as I could with one of them. The pillars themselves were spread out evenly, around two feet of space stood between each of them. They formed some sort of entrance to what looked like a tomb. But it was obvious that it was just the entrance to the mine. A mine that looked to be filled to the brim with red stones. I didn’t know what the stones were made of, but some of those stones were infused into the gold pillars. They gave the structure a shiny finish.
It was beautiful, really - decadent even. And as I squinted at the up close and personal view of one of the pillars, I realized that there were drawings – engravings - of the inhabitants on the pillars. I also noticed that the bottom of this particular pillar had chunks taken out of it. Like somebody or something had tried to take an axe or some sort of cutting implement to the pillar. They had attempted to remove the pillar, to knock it down, but were not able to do so. I looked up at the ceiling, and noticed that the pillars didn’t actually reach the top, so if they had wanted to take the pillar, it wouldn’t have collapsed the mine.
“Fancy,” Spooks said, doing the same as I was and eying up the pillars in front of us.
“Someone tried to take this one,” I said, pointing at the obvious abrasive marks on the bottom of the pillar. Spooks turned toward me and stared at the gaping gash. He smiled and then looked at me.
“Don’t you mean something?” He said, chuckling and turning his head forward.
I nodded my head. It’s exactly what I meant. These things were something, they were not somebody. I had to remember that we were not fighting humans, or humanoids, but we were fighting reptiles. And as that thought dawned on me, both of us heard a noise in the distance. Not too far, yet close enough to cause a disturbance.
I turned around thinking that it was behind us, but then my ears homed in on the direction of where the sound was coming from and I quickly turned on my heels and aimed down the sights once again. As I did so, I noticed Spooks had already started toward the sound. This man truly had no fear, and to be honest, he was starting to make me look bad. A slight smile crept across my face as my heart began to pound in my chest. I decided to follow Spooks, but I wasn’t tagging along behind, I was right up his rear, making sure that I had his back. I noticed that Spooks clocked on to my tight covering, and gave me the thumbs up.
“I guess I’m learning,” I said, turning my microphone down a tad, as to not draw any attention to us as we approached the sound in the distance.
The darkness started to subside a little, and Spooks and I came to a stop near a large rock. We took cover behind it, and he gestured for me to peek up and have a look at what was causing the noise. I nodded and gave him the okay signal.
I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t completely bricking it. My stomach was doing summersaults and my bowels were about ready to release, but I had no time to give the fear I was feeling a second thought. I
sighed inwardly and took a deep breath in. Seconds later I was peeking above the rock, railgun in hand, optical zoom turned up, scanning the immediate area.
To my surprise there were two reptilian pirates standing a few feet from us. They had their backs to us and appeared to be hunched over some sort of crate. A crate that was loaded with gold bars. I couldn’t quite believe it, but it looked as if they had been carrying the gold bars themselves, just the two of them, and they were now taking a rest. I noticed that a few of the gold bars had fallen from the crate and were now scattered on the floor. One of them was bending toward the gold bars and picking them up and stacking them back on the crate.
Judging by how many gold bars had fallen from the crate, it wouldn’t be long until they were back on the move again and walking right past us. I had to relay that information to Spooks. But I didn’t want to risk them hearing us talk. So I took a video capture of what I’d just seen using my onboard helmet-cam, turning the volume down, and sending it to Spooks’ headset. I then stopped peeking and got back into cover. I could see that Spooks was watching what I’d just recorded. He was engrossed in it, and I could see his eyes flickering from left to right as he analysed any possible points of entry.
The man was an open book, and his expressions spoke many words. It was obvious to me that he was already calculating the risks and rewards of engaging these two reptilians. And within a few seconds, he signalled me. He then began to use sign language, sign language that the Marines use. He began gesturing at me, trying to communicate what our plan of action was going to be. And it was obvious to me what that plan would be when Spooks disarmed his weapon and placed it gently on the floor.
I did the same. He nodded at me and raised both fists toward me and shadow boxed for a second or two. It was obvious that he was suggesting that we take them out using hand-to-hand combat. If we were quick enough, we’d be able to get the jump on them from behind, and possibly sink a knife into the back of their heads. I understood completely what he was suggesting, especially since using a railgun caused a lot of noise, and before firing it, the gun emitted an audible buzzing sound, a buzzing sound that could give a nearby enemy the jump on us. Just in case there were more of them, it made sense to disarm them ourselves, using our God-given weapons of mass destruction. Our hands.
Dropship One Page 4
