An Uneasy Alliance: Book 4 of the Sentenced to War Series

by Chaney, J. N.

“What do you see?” he asked Schmidt after switching back to the off-platoon net P2P.

  “I can’t see everything. But there’re seven bodies at the bottom.”

  Seven CMG soldiers might have been enough to create a dangerous situation, especially if they had heavier weapons. But Rev’s gut said there would be more than just seven of them.

  The platoon net alert flashed, and Rev opened it. “All clear over here,” Akkeke passed.

  “Lieutenant, what’s your position?”

  “One-two-zero from the Anaconda. Do we have company there?”

  “Seven dead here,” Rev said, pinning the spot. “I think there might be more.”

  “We’ve still got an unknown number pushing us. Not enough now to cause much damage, but to let us know they’re there.”

  Rev looked over the terrain. There were some indications of activity, but for the most part, it looked serene. It was hard to tell that in the warrens of dry washes, it was life or death.

  He looked to the south. He could make out the dust plumes of another Anaconda making its way north. It would make good time until the land became more convoluted. Rev figured it would get there in ten or twelve minutes with a squad from Second Platoon.

  Rev wondered if Bundy would bring the two squads up out of the crevices. But with not knowing how many were in pursuit, they could better defend with a narrow frontage. And with Rev, Schmidt, and now Akkeke and Gingham, they had eyes to spot any CMG attempt to emerge and take the higher ground.

  Not bad tactics, Bundy.

  But there was still the possibility that some mercs had gotten past Rev. He motioned the other two troopers over.

  “Take that side. We need to clear the rest of this wash.” The three troopers started to walk down the sides of the crevice. With them on both sides, they could eyeball what was below them.

  As they made the first turn, where Schmidt could no longer cover it, Rev told her to go back to her original position and wait for Bundy and the rest. He gave her a big thumbs up as she drove off. Four more steps and he whipped Pashu over as he spotted the two mercs, but they were standing still, hands in the air. Rev kept them there until Akkeke and Gingham could cover him.

  “Step away from your packs and weapons,” Rev told them.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” the first said. “We’re officially surrendering as per the Brighton Agreement.”

  “Step away. You’re still a threat, so Brighton doesn’t apply.”

  “We’re moving, and I stress, we’re officially surrendering. This is being recorded and broadcast.”

  They stepped away until Rev said, “That’s far enough. Are there any more ahead of you?”

  They looked at each other, but if they were invoking Brighton, then they had to answer. By surrendering, they were probably done as mercenaries. It was better than being dead with an unknown chance of being resurrected. But if they now lied to him, then they might still be alive—just behind bars for the rest of their lives.

  The Brighton Agreement was the commercial soldier equivalent of the Torinth Accords. It protected mercenaries, but to do that, it had some severe punishments for mercs who broke them.

  If there were CMG mercs ahead, they were probably these two guys’ friends, but they had to reveal that.

  “Five. Setting Craigs.”

  Craigs were semi-autonomous, semi-stealthy mines that could emplace themselves and be programmed to detonate under specific circumstances. In the confines of the crevices, they could be devastating.

  They could be overwhelmed with jamming that confused their sensors, but the platoon didn’t have the jammers with them. They were usually a battalion asset, not a platoon.

  “Lieutenant, you’re walking into Craigs. We’ve got two who surrendered, and they said there’re five mercs setting them up.”

  And now, the CMG commander’s plan became clear. Push from the rear, probably hoping not to engage. Have the Home Guard walk into the Craigs. Knowing how the corporations worked, Rev was willing to bet that the Craigs would be untraceable, giving the CMG one more case of plausible deniability.

  Rev had to give the commander credit. Craigs were useful, but not so much in the open and somewhat easily bypassed. Using them here, in this specific situation, was genius. If the squads had blundered into them, it would have been bad.

  He wondered if the commander was one of the three who he’d seen when he was with Ms. Borgia. Maybe the one who tried to bore into his soul.

  “Hell, Rev,” Bundy passed on the P2P. “Once again, your warrior sense, yeah, the one that you call pure luck, came through. And this time, I’m here to witness it. If you hadn’t taken it upon yourself to identify and see that other crevice, well . . .”

  He switched to the platoon net. “Pelletier, Akkeke, Gingham, and PFC Schmidt, cover us. Everyone else, on my command, climb out of this wash. Do not proceed any farther down. We’ve got Craigs emplaced somewhere. Squad rush, Second leading. I want everyone aboard and moving in two minutes. PFC Schmidt, I want you moving the moment the back hatch is closed. Second Platoon’s Anaconda is approaching. Head for it. Pelletier, you’re back in the turret.

  “On my command . . . go!”

  Rev started scanning, ready for any reaction. The CGM wouldn’t be stupid enough to emerge and start chasing the troopers. The Takagahara would have a turkey shoot. They might pop up and fire, hoping to get lucky, though. Or the Lancers could be programmed to shoot up, turn, and acquire a target, never exposing the one firing.

  Within ten seconds, troopers started emerging, surprisingly close, only fifty meters across the high ground from Rev and the other two. Somewhere below them, five mercs were waiting with emplaced Craigs.

  “Start collapsing on the Anaconda,” Rev told the other two. “But keep your eyes peeled and scanning.”

  More of the troopers appeared. Rev picked out Kvat again with another trooper slung across his broad shoulders. He was faster with that burden than some of the other troopers as he ran to the Anaconda. Rev knew firsthand how strong the man was, but he hadn’t realized how fast he was as well.

  The CGM didn’t show their heads. They didn’t fire. The commander might have realized that the Craig-gig was up, and it wasn’t worth it to pursue things any further. That didn’t mean Rev could relax, however. He could be wrong in his thinking.

  Rev and the other two reached the Anaconda as the first of the others reached it. He ducked inside and up in the cupola just before Kvat carried the body in. He came out a moment later, shouting something about how they can’t let the mercenaries show them up, that they should go back and “teach them a lesson.” He stepped away from the Anaconda, urging his squad leader as Arsenyev arrived that they should head back out now that the dead and wounded were safe. Arsenyev ignored him, and Kvat took a few more steps away.

  “Kvat, don’t go too far. There’re at least five of the mercs over there somewhere.” Then he tuned the karnan out as the man ranted something about five mercs being nothing. No matter what Kvat thought, their orders were pretty obviously to withdraw and minimize the chance for confrontation. That did not mean hunting down five CMG mercenaries.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t agree with the karnan to an extent. Maybe to a great extent. They’d just lost two troopers from Second Squad, and several others looked hurt. Whether they were initially targeted or caught in the crossfire didn’t matter. Whether it was the Scratchers who killed them or if they were the ones that started the fighting didn’t matter. Without a doubt, the CMG mercenaries had harassed Bundy and the two squads while they were withdrawing, and they’d tried to set up an ambush with Craigs. That was good enough reason for him, and he was having a hard time keeping his warrior from running amok. But orders were orders, and he had to trust those up the ladder to know what they were doing. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that if this was handled wrong, war between the Alyanz and the FIS could break out, drawing in the rest of humankind as they took sides.

  He involuntarily
took a glance at the sky. He was hoping that this wasn’t a complete withdrawal. Maybe the Takagahara was just waiting to light up the area with them out of it. He had to think that with all the crevices in the terrain, she’d have to use something pretty big to be effective, something big enough to be a threat to the platoon.

  “Shit!” he said out loud.

  If the Takagahara was going to light up the area, he’d left the two mercenaries who’d surrendered sitting on the ground, their parole given. He looked over, and yes, he could just see them still sitting there, partially hidden behind a rock, honoring the rules.

  “Lieutenant, we’ve got the two prisoners sitting two hundred meters to my two o’clock.” He pinned their location. “If something is going to happen, we’ve got to get them out of there.”

  Bundy looked up at him from where he was urging the last few troopers forward. Rev pointed, and the platoon commander followed the direction. He immediately grabbed two troopers—Rev couldn’t see who they were—and sent them off in that direction.

  He glared up at him for a moment, and Rev felt his friend’s—and his commander’s fury. It wasn’t something he wanted to experience again. It wasn’t as if he could have taken them along with him as he covered the two squads, and the laws were the laws. They had no choice.

  But he knew Bundy was under a huge thunderstorm of pressure and stress. So, he just shifted his gaze back to scanning for more CMG soldiers to emerge.

  The last of the two squads crammed inside the Anaconda as Bundy waited for the two troopers and the prisoners. The fact that Bundy had chosen to retrieve them now instead of getting a larger force to get them was a pretty good sign that he knew the Takagahara was going to lay waste to the area. And while Rev had no love lost for the mercenaries, he was glad he remembered. Leaving them to be killed, if it became known, would fall on Bundy’s shoulders to bear the blame.

  Time seemed to drag on as the two troopers reached the prisoners and started to bring them back. Schmidt revved the engine but stayed put.

  “Give me a headcount!” Bundy said.

  Rev glanced between his feet. The Anaconda was not designed to carry this many people, and the troopers were crammed on top of each other. Voices were muffled as troopers from both squads answered to their names.

  “Kvat, answer the fuck up!” SFC Arsenyev’s voice cut through the hubbub. “I said, answer up.”

  “I don’t think he’s in here,” someone else said.

  “Bullshit. He was the first one back. Kvat, if you’re screwing with me, so help me . . .”

  An ominous feeling swept over Rev. He leaned forward and looked at the ground. Most of the trampled earth and weeds came from the front, from where the two squads arrived. Heading off to the right were three sets, the combat suit boot imprints pretty clearly heading toward them. Several very large boot imprints were leading away. It wasn’t a clear, easy trail, but there were enough of them. And over by the lip of the wash where Rev and the other two had covered was a collapsed section, as if someone jumped down from there. Someone large and powerful.

  Like a karnan.

  “Lieutenant,” Rev yelled out. When Bundy turned, Rev pointed and said, “I think Kvat took off to hunt the five mercenaries who laid down the Craigs.”

  Bundy spun around to see where Rev was pointing. He shook his head and climbed up onto the top of the Anaconda.

  “Look at the footprints.”

  Bundy searched for a moment, then shouted, “Shit! Arsenyev! Where’s Kvat?”

  “We can’t find him,” the Second Squad leader said, his voice now worried instead of angry.

  Bundy looked up into the sky, and Rev could see the reverse image of a timer through his PAL-3 face shield display.

  Are we on a time schedule for the Takagahara to hit this place? And with Kvat who knows where . . .

  Either the ship’s fire mission would be canceled or it would go on as planned with Kvat in grave danger. Rev didn’t know the ramifications of the mission going or not going. He had a feeling that there were far more layers to it than a simple tactical decision that affected two squads from First Platoon, Fox Company, Second of the Second. He didn’t know how it would be more, only that he believed it so.

  And that meant Bundy, who probably had more information, was about to make a command decision, one that could possibly haunt him for the rest of his life.

  Rev wasn’t about to let that happen to his friend.

  “Hold the ship up for five minutes!” Rev shouted as he vaulted out of the turret and hit the ground running.”

  “What the hell are you doing, Rev?” Bundy shouted back, but on the platoon net, not on the P2P.

  “Just hold them,” Rev passed on the P2P. “And if you can’t, remember, I’m doing this on my own. This isn’t on you.”

  Rev really didn’t know where the five mercenaries were. But Kvat had gone this way, and so Rev was going this way, ready to drag back the karnan any way he could.

  A sharp rap on the head with Pashu might do it. Maybe two—one to knock him out and another for good measure to teach that asshole a lesson.

  He jumped down into the crevice, his augmented legs easily absorbing the shock. The fact that Craigs were in play had him uneasy, but Kvat had run up the wash, and Rev hadn’t heard Craigs go off, so he had to trust his choice.

  He ran, watching his timer click as he tried to chase down the karnan. It didn’t take long, but not having heard the sounds of a firefight, it was almost Rev’s doom. If he hadn’t heard the voices, he would have been dead meat.

  He slowed to a stop and hugged the crevice wall.

  “He isn’t the other kind, the Union ones, but the bounty’s still pretty sweet on this guy.”

  “How are we going to get him out of here? He looks like he weighs 500, 600 kilos,” someone else said.

  “If you want your share of the bounty, you’re going to have to help carry him,” the first voice said.

  “Is he dead?”

  Rev listened closely, his heart pounding.

  There was a pause as if Kvat was being examined. “He’s still alive. Look at that glare from the good eye. He will be soon enough, though. He sure the hell ain’t moving now, so we’re cool. I think we nailed his spine.”

  “That was me. Not even an armored combat suit can stand up to a Volc.”

  Rev grimaced. He now knew why he hadn’t heard any sounds of firing. A Volc was a multipurpose tool, a type of coil gun that shot a small, platinum rod, a miniature version of a God Rod, if he could use that analogy. Essentially quiet, it could send the rod through bunkers with ease, and if fired from close enough, through any tank in existence. But the gunner had to be near, and getting close to an enemy tank could be detrimental to a soldier’s health.

  In a series of washes like this, however, the range was always going to be short. Once again, a smart tactical decision on the mercenaries’ part.

  If Kvat had come charging up the wash and surprised the mercenaries, then he’d have had to take them out before they could fire on him. Since Rev hadn’t heard any fire, it was obvious that they’d fired upon him first, hitting him at least once.

  Rev checked his timer. If Bundy had been able to give him those five minutes, he’d just used a minute and twenty-one seconds of them. He leaned his head back against the rock wall. If Kvat was dead, he’d be tempted to leave him there. Taking a Volc rod to the head, as it sounded like what happened, made resurrection problematic. But from the sounds of it, CGM wanted to capture karnans—and wanted IBHU Marines even more. If they wanted them both, then Rev was pretty sure it would be a good idea to not let that happen.

  But that was OBE. Kvat was alive, and no matter what Rev thought of the guy, he was a brother in arms. He didn’t have a choice.

  A fleeting thought went past him. If a Volc took out the karnan in his combat suit, then it would make mincemeat of Rev’s PAL-5. By moving forward, he might just be delivering an IBHU unit to the mercenaries.

  Didn’t matte
r.

  He took a deep breath and stepped out from cover and around the bend in the wash where the mercenaries were standing over Kvat’s body. The mercenaries were really good. And really quick.

  Rev was quicker. He spotted the two with Volcs and took each one out, hitting one and dragging his beam across the other before either could bring their weapons to bear. Two more were to the second Volc merc’s right, and Rev let the beam continue to ride through them. The one on the far left was able to get off a shot—not from a Volc, thank the Mother—from a Suang 99. The heavy round glanced off Rev’s blue pauldron, sending it flying off before he was able to sweep his beam across the merc, who folded over in two and fell forehead first to the ground where he perched like a bird eating seeds.

  Three seconds before, the five were already counting their bounty. Now, they were dead.

  And Rev and Kvat would be dead if he didn’t get them out of there.

  He rushed forward. Kvat was a mess. His helmet was shattered, the left side of his face covered in blood. His right eye was open and looking at Rev.

  “Are you OK?”

  Come on, Reverent. Stupid question.

  “Can you move?”

  Nothing.

  Well, it’s up to you.

  He bent down to hoist up the karnan. It crossed his mind that he massed about the same as the weights Kvat had egged him on to lift, the weights that ruined his social arm.

  “You’d better hope I have it in me this time, karnan,” he muttered as he tried to secure his grip. For all Pashu could do, her tentacled fingers were not the best for this. The first attempt ended up with Kvat sliding off and hitting the ground with a thud. That was when he saw that Kvat hadn’t only been hit in the head. He had two more through and throughs. He draped Kvat over one of the mercenary’s bodies. This gave him a little better vantage, and with a heave, he got Kvat up on his shoulders. Carefully, he stood.

  Damn, this guy’s heavy.

  He started to run down the wash, but that bounced Kvat around too much, making him slide on the PAL-5s armor.

  Why don’t you have dead men’s hooks? You don’t retrieve your fallen?