He grabbed hold of a Kurgan sword at his feet. With a war cry on his lips, he ran forward and swung his blade at the head of a warrior who blocked the move with his own sword.
The Kurgan saw his friends lose heart. He dropped his sword and ran for his life.
Sheridan had never seen Kurgans run before. He was about to take a step forward when he noticed the body of a Kurgan lieutenant colonel lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the side of the head. He looked back at Tarina and realized that she must have killed their commander. With all of their other officers down, the leaderless Kurgans fled.
Sheridan smiled at Tarina. “Where on earth did you get the extra ammo?”
“One of our wounded from the train had it on her. I found it by pure luck when I went to pull her back from the fight; the magazines fell out of a bag she had with her.”
“Why didn’t she say anything earlier?”
“She’s unconscious, that’s why.”
“Well, whoever she is, thank God for her.”
Sheridan jammed his sword in the ground and looked around. There were piles of Kurgan bodies interspaced with dead humans. “Sergeant Lee, report.”
Lee ran over. Sheridan saw that he had received yet another wound to his head.
“Sergeant, organize a detail to pull our people back from the Kurgan dead and get me a headcount. I need to know how many are still fit to fight, and have someone check the wounded for ammo.”
“Yes, sir.” Lee snapped his fingers at a young Marine and put him to work.
“How many do you think we’ve killed?” Tarina asked Sheridan as she looked over at the Kurgan corpses.
“I don’t know. They came at us three times. There’s maybe two hundred dead and dying Kurgs spread out over the top of the hill.”
“Do you think this is over? Are we safe now?”
He let out a mournful sigh and shook his head. “They’re Imperial Guard troops; once they find an officer to lead them, they’ll be back.”
Tarina sat down on the ground cradling her rifle in her arms. “When is this nightmare going to end, Michael? I’m so very tired and I don’t want to die out here.”
“No one wants to die,” said Sheridan as he took a seat beside her and wrapped his arm around her. She leaned her head over and rested it on his shoulder. For a brief moment, they forgot their troubles and found solace in each other’s company.
Chapter 40
“It looks like it’s safe enough to proceed,” declared Angela as she peered out into the dark.
Wendy worked her way past Angela, lifted the wooden cover to the shaft, and took a quick look around. The world outside looked like it was on fire. The mining complex was consumed in flames. Thick black smoke rose up into the air. If a Kurgan shuttle had landed before the attack, it was long gone. The spot Angela had identified as the place where the shuttle should be located was nothing more than a smoldering crater. What troubled her were the destroyed Terran vehicles and transport craft that she could see. Whatever had happened had not gone well for the Marines, she thought. She felt like running back for the safety of the mine when she first heard, and then saw, missiles streak down from the sky and explode behind a long ridgeline. The massive detonations were so close to the camp that she felt the ground shudder under her feet. Wendy screwed up her courage, climbed out, and took cover behind some tall rocks. The last thing she wanted was to be mistaken for an enemy soldier and shot before she could make contact with the invasion force. Wendy raised her head up and looked down at the ground around the destroyed buildings. Her heart leaped for joy when she spotted a group of Marines making their way through the wreckage.
She stood up and energetically waved her hands above her head, yelling, “Hello down there.”
The party of Marines stopped and looked up at her.
Wendy kept waving her arms. “Please help me; I’ve got some escaped prisoners with me.”
The Marines turned, waved back, and sprinted straight toward her.
“Do you think it’s safe to come out?” asked Angela.
“Yes, yes it is,” replied Wendy with tears of joy streaming down her dirty face.
Major Altonen removed his helmet and shook Wendy’s hand. It was plain to see that she looked tired and in need of some medical attention. He handed her his canteen before saying, “You are to be commended, Miss?”
“Captain Wendy Sullivan,” she replied, taking the flask and opening it.
“Captain, how many people did you manage to bring out with you?”
Wendy took a long sip of water. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and returned the water bottle. “Sir, Angela, my colleague, brought out thirty-three. She’s already on her way back into the mine to fetch the next batch, but there are thousands more waiting down below to be rescued.”
“We should have them out soon; we’re having explosives placed on the rocks as we speak. We’re going to blast our way inside.”
Wendy balked at the news. “Major, there are people working at the other end to remove the rocks. You have to warn them that you’re going to blow the debris away, or you may kill a whole bunch of the people you are here to save.”
Altonen nodded and reached for his radio’s handset. “Echo One, hold what you’re doing. Do not, I say again, do not detonate the explosives until we contact the POWs on the next level.”
“Sir, I can head back down below and warn them,” offered Wendy.
“No, that’ll take too long; besides we have other ways to pass the message.”
Cole wiped the dirt from his sweat-covered brow and stood up straight. His back ached worse than it ever had in his life. Any thought of taking a break was erased when he saw that the people around him had not paused for even one minute since he had asked for their help. He reached out for a rock and almost jumped out of his skin when an insect the length of his boot crawled out from between a gap in the rocks.
It stopped moving and looked up at the people working in the tunnel.
“Damn,” said Cole when he realized that he wasn’t looking at a disconcertingly long centipede but a miniaturized crawler robot. He picked it up and held it in his hand.
“Master Sergeant, get everyone back behind cover,” explained Wendy through a speaker on the robot, “they’re going to blast the rocks out of the way.”
Cole turned and called out, “Everyone, back in your caves right now and take cover.”
The prisoners stared back at Cole as if not comprehending what he wanted them to do.
“Folks, I’m not kidding, move your butts or you’ll become a permanent resident down here.”
First Lieutenant Toscano could feel each thunderous explosion in her chest. Although she was well protected by the rocky berm, the missiles were impacting barely one hundred meters from her position. The first volley had all but obliterated a Kurgan battalion caught out in the open trying to rush the Viper combat team survivors huddled on the ridge.
Sergeant Urban tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a handset. He had to yell to be heard. “Ma’am, it’s the Ford calling again. They want a damage assessment.”
“Tell them to wait a minute.” Toscano crawled up and peered out at the open plain. The image of hundreds of mangled and torn bodies was one she would not easily forget. She brought up her binoculars and looked where the missiles had hit. If there were any Kurgans out there, they had long since gone to ground. She slid back down beside Urban and shook her head.
“Ford, this is Ghost One, target destroyed,” reported Urban.
Colonel White and his team walked over and took a seat. The man was so calm that he looked to Toscano as if he were out for an early morning stroll. “I thought you’d like to know that they’ve linked up with the POWs and have begun to bring them out of the mine. The first wave of landing craft accompanied by a squadron of fighters is on the way down.”
“That is good news. Sir, before I forget, we had survivors at our crash site. Could you please ask someone to rescue t
hem as well?”
“I’m on it, sir,” said Sergeant Bowen, digging out a map for Urban to pinpoint the survivor’s location.
White smiled. “I swear, Sergeant Bowen could replace me and no one would ever know.”
Toscano was going to point out that Bowen was black while the colonel lived up to his name and was white. She, nonetheless, understood the meaning of the colonel’s compliment to the efficient non-com. “Sir, what’s your plan now?”
“I brought up a company of Marines from Guardian’s battalion with me. When the time is right, we’ll leapfrog back by companies to our landing craft. You and I, Captain, will be the last two Marines to leave this accursed rock.”
“Got it, sir.”
“Glad to hear it,” said White patting Toscano on the shoulder before heading down the line to check on the other Marines.
“That’s one cool customer,” remarked Urban.
“He and his kind were born for this war. Having said that, I’d rather have one Colonel White to lead me in a frontal assault on the Kurgan home world than a thousand bureaucrats from Allied Defense Force Headquarters back home on Earth.”
“Amen to that, ma’am.”
Chapter 41
Colonel Kuhr had never seen such deadly and accurate firepower in his military career. His lead battalion had all but ceased to exist in a wall of flame. In under a minute, his ground attack plan was in tatters. His next wave of soldiers had been forced to take cover in a long, dry riverbed and were pinned down, unable to advance or retreat. That left him with his reserve battalion still intact. He thought about moving them around to a flank but ruled it out when he spotted Terran fighters flying a combat air patrol over the mine. His attack ships may be hard to detect, but they weren’t invisible. With the night fading away, he didn’t want to risk his ships being spotted and destroyed.
“Sir, what do you want to do?” asked Kuhr’s adjutant.
“Have everyone keep their heads down until the humans begin to withdraw. We might not be able to stop them, but we can still inflict grievous casualties on them.”
“I’ll pass the word.”
Kuhr nodded. He had hoped to catch the Terran forces before they could recover from the blow his craft had dealt them. However, they had proven to be more resilient than he had expected, and now it was his soldiers that were being cut to pieces, not theirs. He prayed that the soldiers he had left behind had proven their worth and had dispatched all of the humans at the train wreck. He could use the reinforcements.
Sergeant Kurka, Kuhr’s trusted old friend, walked over and saluted as if he were on parade. “Sir, I can’t raise anyone on the communicators. The humans are jamming all of our frequencies.”
“If we were in their place, we would too. Before you lost comms, did you manage to speak with the fourth battalion?”
“It was garbled. But I think that Lieutenant Colonel Kulk is dead, along with a couple of hundred of his men.”
The news struck Kuhr like a thunderbolt. “That can’t be. A battalion of Young Guard soldiers brought low by a handful of human prisoners. Kulk must have been overconfident and walked into an ambush; there can be no other explanation.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the old soldier.
Kuhr stood and looked back at the reddish glow on the horizon as if he could somehow see the disaster that had befallen his subordinate. He gnashed his pointed teeth together and cursed God for not helping him in his hour of need. He couldn’t understand, he was a loyal adherent to the word of the Lord. Victory, not defeat, should have been his reward this day.
Kuhr placed a hand on Sergeant Kurka’s shoulder. “Sergeant, I want you to take a company from the third battalion and personally deal with those wretched humans who have dared to soil the proud history of the Young Guard.”
Kurka nodded. He was a veteran soldier with years of combat experience under his belt. He would deal with the non-believers and restore honor his regiment. Kurka saluted, turned, and ran for the landing site where the third battalion was waiting.
With his dreams of glory and admission into the Old Guard all but gone, Kuhr began to plot his way out of this mess. No matter what happened now, Lieutenant Colonel Kulk would be his scapegoat. The officer had not followed his orders correctly and had led his men into a trap. Kulk’s family name, not his, would go down in history as the architect of this disaster.
Chapter 42
“Here you go. You’re in good hands now,” said Cole to a man he had helped out of the mine. He found the fresh morning air invigorating after hours of backbreaking labor.
“We’ll take him from here,” said a young Marine as he placed an arm around the exhausted prisoner and guided him through the open doors of a landing craft. The ship had landed right outside of the mine to minimize the time it took to load each one. Inside, a platoon of medics rushed about looking after the emaciated and exhausted former POWs.
Cole stepped back and looked up at the ship. The larger, battalion-sized vessels always reminded him of a metal tortoise’s shell.
“Master Sergeant Cole,” called out Wendy as she made her way through the throng of people to reach Cole. “I’m glad I found you,” she sounded flustered. “I tried speaking with some of the senior Marines here, but they all brushed me aside. I told them about the people taken to the Kurg camp in the desert to be murdered, but no one wants to listen to me. They all keep saying that they are too busy to help me.”
“Leave it to me, ma’am,” replied Cole. His eyes narrowed when he spotted a couple of officers standing off to one side chatting. He smiled at Wendy. “Why don’t you go and see if you can find your friend Angela and meet me back here in five minutes’ time.”
Cole strode straight at the officers. “Excuse me, gentlemen, is your commanding officer around? I’d like to speak with him.”
“There’s no time to talk,” replied a slender Second Lieutenant. “Our CO is busy. You can thank her later. Just follow the line of people getting into the landing craft, and we’ll have you back home in no time.”
Cole’s tone turned belligerent. “Okay, sir, I’m not asking, I’m telling you. Where is your CO?”
The second lieutenant pursed his lips. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m an officer and won’t allow you to speak to me in a disrespectful manner. I don’t care if you are a former POW, show some respect to the rank.”
Cole saw red flash before his eyes. He clenched his right fist and pulled back his arm when someone from behind grabbed a hold of his arm. Cole turned his head ready to punch whoever it was.
“Master Sergeant Cole, is that you?” asked a man in full combat gear.
“Yes, sir,” responded Cole when he saw the lieutenant colonel’s rank on the short man’s collar.
“Sergeant, It’s me, Lieutenant Colonel Kimura. We met on the Colossus. I’m from General Denisov’s staff.”
Cole unclenched his fist and lowered his arm. “Yeah, now that you mention it, sir. I do remember speaking to you.”
Kimura looked over at the young officers. “Standing there won’t help these people. If your Marines are helping the POWs, so should you two. Get to work, gents.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the chastised officers in unison.
“Sir, I really need your help,” said Cole.
“Name it.”
Captain Killam drummed his fingers on his console while he waited for his call to be returned. Kimura’s message had sent Killam into a near panic to find a solution to what seemed to be an insurmountable problem. He hadn’t told Admiral Sheridan of the danger his son and up to one hundred POWs were facing. He knew that there was no wiggle room for error. There was only so much troop lift available in the task force, and with four landing craft already gone, there was nothing left to send down to extract the missing prisoners.
“Anything?” whispered Commander Roy.
Killam shook his head.
Roy glanced over at the timer on the screen and bit her lip. They had just under forty minutes b
efore the first Kurgan ships could arrive in orbit. Time itself was now their enemy as well.
“Status Report, Captain?” asked Admiral Sheridan.
Killam looked away from his computer and quickly collected his thoughts. “Sir, the first landing craft transferred its passengers to the Arctic and is on its way back down to the planet’s surface. The Arctic has already spooled up her engines and will be jumping to the RV point beyond the asteroid belt in the next two minutes.”
Admiral Sheridan nodded. “That is good news.”
“Sir, two more landing craft are on their way up and will be in orbit shortly. Once they signal that they are ready, the Churchill will accompany the ships to the RV.”
“What is the prognosis from down below? Are we going to get everyone off before the Kurgans arrive here in force?”
Killam hesitated, unsure of what to say next. He cleared his throat and said, “It’s going to be tight. Colonel White still has to collapse his perimeter and get his forces onto the last couple of transports.”
“Please remind him of the time.”
Killam nodded. He felt awful for not telling the admiral the true situation on the planet’s surface. He let out a deep sigh and turned to pass the message when he saw a dispatch on his computer screen. Right away a smile crept across his face. Before jumping, the Arctic had just been able to fix up an old medical shuttle and send it down to the mine to link up with Master Sergeant Cole.
“Excuse me, sir, but there’s been a development I need to brief you on,” Killam said, rising from his desk.
From the grave look on his face, Admiral Sheridan knew that his operations officer had something important to pass on. “Very good, Captain. Let’s hear it.”
Chapter 43
Trident Fury (The Kurgan War Book 3) Page 22
