“Run!” Jasper yelled, grabbing young arms and pulling children up.
JJ ran past, Reisa slung across his shoulders.
“Come on, Mark! Take your sister,” he shouted as he passed the young boy, who was staring at the impact point.
He heard the whistle of the next shell just before it hit, sending another cascade of rock down the mountainside. The dust cloud expanded, and small bits of debris peppered the stragglers.
“They’re just trying to scare us,” Mountie said, his voice sure and calm.
Doing a good job at that!
Jasper looked over his shoulder as he dragged Fanny’s two little ones up the last few meters to the top. The tank that had fired had lowered its gun, but with a puff of black smoke, it lurched to a start, moving down the trail.
Over the lip and into the gorge, the most of the villagers were huddled together, teary eyes looking up at him. After the two impacts, the pass was eerily quiet, with only snuffling and a few quiet sobs punctuating the tinkle of the brook.
“That’s everybody,” Mountie said, coming alongside Jasper and letting little Lori Atweiller down.
“Why were they trying to shoot us?” Hette asked, her arms around two of the children.
“They weren’t,” Mountie said. “They were trying to scare us, to make us stop.”
“But now they’re coming up,” she said, raising a cry from the others as they heard.
“Yes, it looks like they are. But it’ll be a tight squeeze for the tanks, so it will take them awhile. But that means you have to keep going. Look, up ahead. You’ve got maybe a klick, uh, a kilometer, ahead, maybe two, and you’ll be out of the pass. You’ll be into the plateau, and the Federation’s up there.”
“Our children are tired. They can’t go on,” she insisted.
“They have to go on, Miss. And we need the adults to help Jasper get them up there. OK?”
What? Help me? Jasper wondered if he’d heard right.
“So, everyone, take a drink of water, OK? You need to start in a minute.”
He motioned for Jasper.
“You need to take them and get them up onto the plateau. As soon as you can, get off the road and put as much distance as you can from it. I don’t think they’ll follow.”
“Me? And what are you going to do? You and JJ?”
“We’re going to try and buy you more time,” Mountie said as JJ nodded. “This is a good place to hold. The mercs have to come up the trail, and they’ll be vulnerable.”
“Horatius at the Bridge,” Jasper said.
“Yeah,” Mountie said, sounding surprised that Jasper knew his history. “Horatius.”
“Except that Horatius never faced armor. And you don’t have any anti-armor left.”
“We don’t need to defeat them. Just delay them and give you enough time to get everyone out of the pass.”
“But—”
“But nothing. This isn’t your fight. It never was. You were always going to get your family and make them safe. Leave this to us.”
“Hell, we signed up for this, and that’s why we make the big credits,” JJ said with a laugh.
Jasper stood there, looking at the two men, and Mountie said, “You need to get going.”
Without a word, Jasper spun and walked to Keela, who was squeezing the last of her water bulb in Amee’s mouth.
“The mercs are coming, and they need to be delayed. You need to get all these children out of the pass.”
She looked over at his two companions for a moment, then said, “OK, you take Amee and start out. I’ll bring up the rear. We can do—”
Jasper saw when realization hit her.
“You said, I need to get the children. You’re not coming, are you?”
“I swore an oath last week with Maarten. But more than that, they need my help. And you, all of you need us to stop them.”
“But they were only scaring us! The lieutenant said that!”
“Aye-yah, he said that. But can we be sure?” he said, ruffling Amee’s hair. “Can we afford that? Where are the rest of you?
“Look, I survived the fight on Koltan’s Hill. I never should have. I think maybe God had a plan for me, and this is it.”
“You need to move, now, Jasper,” Mountie called out.
“But—”
“No buts, my love. I need to do this. And you heard him. It’s time.”
She stared at him, eyes wide. Then she broke, and she lunged at him, enveloping him in a crushing embrace.
“I love you,” she said, leaving it at that.
He relished the embrace, trying to memorize her feel, her smell. But only for a moment. He gently pushed her away.
She squeezed his biceps one last time, then wiping the tears from her cheek, turned and shouted out, “Time to move! Sandy! Take two of the little ones and start walking. Hette, you and I are taking the rear. Now, everyone, now!”
Jasper didn’t watch, couldn’t watch. He returned to Mountie and JJ, who waited silently.
“You’re wrong, Mountie. This is my planet, and those are my people. If it’s anyone’s fight, it’s mine, not yours.”
“Told you,” JJ said to Mountie as he stepped forward to smack Jasper’s arm. “So, Gyver, you ready to kick some ass?”
“Gyver? What, you’re finally giving me a nickname? And that’s it?” he asked.
“You’re one of us. And don’t knock the nic. It could have been worse.”
Gyver looked over his shoulder one last time. The villagers, his villagers, were already moving out. Keela had her back to him as she helped Mark and Hette lift Reisa.
“Aye-yah, JJ. I’m ready.”
Chapter 26
JJ
“Can you block this?” Mountie asked him, pointing to the ground.
“If I had a full kit, maybe. As it is, I don’t think so,” JJ said, fingering the rock walls on either side of the opening to the pass.
He knew the mountains in the area were primarily metamorphic with a similar composition to gneiss, but to him, they looked and felt more like granite. If he had to bet, he’d guess the rock would react like granite as well, being hard and strong. With the right equipment, he might be able to shear off pieces, but as far as bringing enough down to block the pass, he doubted it.
“Hey, Mountie! I see more vehicles coming,” Jasper shouted from his position where the trail cut into the pass.
Mountie and JJ rushed forward to see. The view was spectacular, if he could ignore the threat arrayed against them. A haze stretched out for kilometers, but he had to be able to observe 20 klicks or more of the highway and most of the five klicks of the trail to the lake. And coming out of the trees, he could clearly see a line of vehicles.
JJ pulled out his binos for a better view. He counted 20 before the last one emerged from the firs along the road. Eight were Pecker-3s, three were APTs, and the rest a hodgepodge of whatever the mercs could put together. Along with the two tanks below them, that made a total of ten. Comparatively speaking, the Pecker-3 was not the most capable tank in the galaxy, but ten of them could create havoc maneuvering in the Marines’ rear.
JJ took a step forward to look down the mountainside. At the second switchback, one of the two tanks already here was slowly making the turn. A bigger tank might not have been able to squeeze by, but the Pecker-3 was small enough to be able to use the trail.
“I give him 20, 25 minutes at that rate to reach us,” Mountie said. “So, we need to come up with something before then. Why don’t you see what you can do?”
JJ checked his kit for the 100th time to see if something had miraculously appeared that he’d missed the other 99 times. Nothing doing. He had the same five detonators, two breaching charges, a C10 pack, three E22s, two toads, and 15 meters of line charge as he’d had each previous time he’d checked. The line charges might make a nice boom that could startle someone, but they’d do nothing against the native rock. The toads could burn through maybe a meter or two of rock, and the breaching c
harges might be able to crack off a chunk. Only the C10 charge had the ability to move rock, but to be effective, it had to be drilled in.
“There’s no way I can move enough rock to block the pass. I can knock off a chunk or two, but that’s it.”
“Can you drop a rock on top of that tank?” Jasper asked.
“If I timed it right, maybe. It won’t do much, though.”
“But would it slow them down?”
“Ha! If I got rang like that from above, I’d sure be cautious,” JJ answered.
“So, let’s try that,” Mountie said.
“I wasn’t serious about that. I can’t aim a rock.”
“But Jasper’s right. It might make them slow down. They don’t know what we can do up here, so let’s give them something to let their imaginations run wild.”
JJ looked at Mountie for a moment before just saying, “Aye-aye, sir.” What he was asking was unreasonable. He could blow up a piece of rock, maybe even send it down the hill. But to actually hit a moving vehicle was asking too much. Still, maybe the threat of tumbling rocks might slow them down, and the day was just too beautiful not to try and extend their time in it.
There was a crack from the second tank below, the one still on the ridge overlooking the lake. All three ducked back down, and a moment later, the round whizzed over their heads to explode against the mountain walls some 400 meters down the pass. JJ didn’t point out that the Pecker-3’s 60mm round didn’t have much effect on the mountainside, just sending dust and small pieces of rock flying off.
“Now if they had proximity fuzes, we’d be in trouble,” Mountie remarked. “Uh, JJ, they don’t have the fuzes, right?”
“I don’t see why they wouldn’t. That’s real low tech. Been around for five, six-hundred years at least. Not too expensive, either.”
Mountie grimaced, then said, “Well, either they didn’t stock up on them, or they just want us to keep our heads down.”
JJ didn’t want to think of things that were out of their control. Keeping back from line-of-sight, he selected a detonator and, after a moment’s contemplation, a breaching charge. The C10 had more power, but it exploded much slower, and without being drilled into the rock, he thought the force of the blast would just be directed outwards.
He crept up to look down the mountainside to his right. Above them, part of the slope was almost vertical for over 100 meters. From their position down to the bottom where the road started making switchbacks, it was still pretty steep, maybe a 35-degree incline and slightly steeper in spots. At the base of the sheer cliff walls, rocks from above had hit—some stayed there, others had kept on going down the hill. At least one looked to have taken some trees as it smashed almost all the way to the lake sometime in the near past.
Ten meters away, almost at their level, a large rock, about two meters high and a good meter-and-a-half thick was partially buried in the scree. At least that was what he could see. It could be part of the underlying rock jutting up, but from the formation patterns, JJ thought it had fallen from above. If it was not connected, it might be possible to give it a push.
If he wanted to push it, then the breaching charge wasn’t the best choice. Discarding that, he connected an E22 to the C10. JJ didn’t want to pulverize the rock, just push it over, and the C10 exploded slow enough to do that.
“I’m going to see about knocking over that bad boy,” JJ said.
Mountie edged forward to take a look, and said, “That rock out there? What, are you going to toss your explosives at it?”
“No, I’ve got to place it.”
JJ understood the lieutenant’s concern. Besides being exposed to fire from below, he’d half to be half-mountain goat just to keep his feet. The scree at this level was loose, and if he slipped, the trail below should catch him, but then he’d have to run back up while the mercs used him for target practice.”
“Your call. But maybe we can cover you,” Mountie said.
“With what? That Pecker down there’s all buttoned up.”
Neither Mountie nor Jasper had a rejoinder, so JJ checked the connection on the E22, and before he could think of any of the thousand reasons that this was a stupid idea, jumped up and scrambled across the open area, feet slipping, but managing to cross to the rock.
Just as he reached it, the ground around him burst into small explosions as an automatic gun of some sort sprayed the area.
“Holy shit!” he shouted as he dove behind the rock, jamming himself in the small space and pulling his legs in.
A few chips of rock stung his face, but for the most part, the rounds were impacting all over. There was a shitload of them, to be sure, but without a tight grouping.
“You OK, JJ?” Jasper called out.
“I’m alive,” he answered, looking over to see two worried faces.
He gave them a thumbs up just as a stream of tracer rounds reached up from below, some impacting on the edge of the road, some continuing on to the sky, sending them both scrambling back.
“That’s the Pecker on the trail below!” JJ called out. “I think the one that fired on me was the one by the lake.”
JJ didn’t know what the mercs were using to take him under fire. If his comms weren’t being jammed, he could query his AI on what machineguns a Pecker usually carried, but it looked to be either a .50 cal or 12.8mm at the least, maybe even a 15mm. The tank down by the lake was at least two klicks away, but even then, he thought the grouping was too loose. He had a feeling that the mercs were more concerned with budgets, and they’d cut corners when they could, to include substandard arms.
Maybe they’re too cheap for proximity fuzes, too?
He wasn’t going to get anything done huddled behind the rock. As if reminding him of that, another burst of fire splattered around him, a few rounds hitting the rock and making it vibrate against his back. Taking care not to expose himself, he scrunched around until he was facing the rock. He wanted to tip the thing over, so he activated the gecko pad and placed the charge about three-quarters of the way up. Clicking in the E22 detonator, he removed the control, and as at the bridge five days before, set it to dead man’s switch-mode. The status lights flashed green.
He eyed the distance back to the pass. It was only ten meters, only five steps. Not far at all for most purposes, but way too far, as far as he was concerned. A few more questing rounds impacted above and to his side. The tank’s machine gun may have crap for accuracy, but it could spit out a shitload, and all it would take was for one to hit him. It would probably cut him in two. And then there was the tank below him. If it could acquire him, the range was so close that the gunner couldn’t miss.
On solid ground, he could cover that in two seconds. It would take the gunner on the far tank a second to acquire him and fire, maybe two-and-a-half seconds for the rounds to reach him. He should be able to make it.
Should.
Gripping the detonator switch, he gathered his legs under him, then bolted for safety. Two steps in, his right foot slipped, and he went to his knees, left hand grabbing to keep him up, right keeping the switch closed. He managed to bring his right foot back, and he lunged forward just at the rounds started impacting.
Jasper and Mountie both stood up and grabbed him just as his left foot slipped, dragging him onto the trail and down below the lip. More rounds chattered, banging off the rock walls, sending chips down on top of them.
“That got my heart pounding,” JJ said. “Good times!”
Jasper laughed while Mountie just shook his head.
“You should have seen yourself,” Jasper was saying. “Slipping and sliding like that. I thought you were going to the bottom, but you just kept on pushing it.”
“I was there, I know,” JJ said, feeling relief wash over him.
“Did you get the charge placed?” Mountie asked, interrupting them.
JJ held up his right hand, still grasping the dead man’s switch. “Right here, ready to go.”
“So now, the question is when to blow it
,” Mountie said, moving forward again.
Dust was still drifting down on them from the wall impacts, but the guns themselves were silent. The drone of the Pecker-3’s green-diesels were getting louder below them. JJ peeked over the lip of the trail, ready to pull back at any sign of firing. Three switches below them, the tank was making steady progress. If they did nothing, it would reach them in four or five minutes.
JJ handed Mountie one of this two toads. The small grenades were meant to burn through obstacles of fortifications, but he didn’t see any reason they couldn’t burn through the top of a tank as well.
“If this doesn’t work, when it gets to the last switchback below us, try these.”
“Make sure this works, then.”
Right, sir. As if I wasn’t going to try.
Sometimes, officers just had to state the obvious.
JJ had three attempts to hit the tank with his rock. In a few moments, the tank would pass beneath the rock, but crossing two loops of the trail, JJ thought if the rock even detached, it could get hung up on a trail or get knocked to the side. If he waited for the last loop, the rock might not have generated enough momentum to do much damage.
Second one it is, then.
“What do you think?” Mountie asked.
“When it reaches there,” he answered, pointing. “By that scraggly bush leaning away from the trail.”
It seemed as if Mountie was going to say something, but if he was, he bit it back and said, “OK, it’s your call.”
The Pecker-3 whipped around the third switchback with barely a pause. The driver must be getting used to it and gaining more confidence. Hubris could be deadly, and JJ hoped the driver would miss the second-to-last turn. If he started to fall, the tank probably wouldn’t stop until he hit the bottom.
But, no such luck. He took the next turn easily. JJ started to get to his knees to get a better view, but Mountie pulled him back down.
“You don’t need to give them a target. You can keep down and still time this.”
He was right, JJ knew. He was letting his thrill-of-the-hunt get in the way of solid tactics.
Behind Enemy Lines: A United Federation Marine Corps Novel Page 20
