I took Sanyo, and we went on ahead into the darkness. I switched to passive vision and Sanyo went to infrared. We kept twelve meters apart and stayed silent. With no Ismay, we were forced to speak aloud to communicate, and we didn't want to do that just now. I picked my steps carefully, but Sanyo had to alter his course frequently in order not to roll over something that would make too much noise. Eventually, we encountered so much debris he could not proceed quietly. I went over to him and whispered. "Stay here, I'll go on ahead, you cover me. Remember to look up, too."
"I yield to the superior design," he said.
Patting Sanyo on the chassis, I stole slowly forward. I eventually reached the top of a large piece of a building that had fallen over in the quake. From here, I could see a dim light half a click out. It was light from dome eight spilling into the darkness of five. To my right, another smudge of light from dome six. We had to get to eight. I could see a path of sorts through which we could all pass. I figured Walker and I would walk the "high ground", atop the rubble on our flanks, keeping a watch while the rest negotiated their way through the valley of debris.
I switched to infrared to scan the area again when something caught my eye. Something, downhill from me, about two hundred meters out was just slightly warmer than its surroundings. I started toward it, but not by the obvious route through the valley. As I drew closer, the glow began to take on form. It was a man. I glanced around again looking for signs of a trap. Seeing none, I picked up speed and headed directly for the fading glow.
When I reached the body, I discovered it to be Mathis. Based on the body's core temperature, I estimated he'd been dead about an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half. I switched back to passive vision and scanned the area. There were signs of a struggle.
About five meters away from Mathis, I found the lifeless body of Colonel Wayne. He had been shot three times, twice in the torso at the G-Buc and once in the head, execution style.
He had lived long enough to try and leave us a message. Using his own spinal fluids, he had scrawled on a piece of metal the number six and the letters "P-e-g". The message was clear. The number six meant dome six off to the right, and the letters "Peg" for Pegram. Why, I asked myself, dome six? I called up the map of JILL and zoomed in on six. Moving from a floor plan to an elevation view, I saw the reason. Six was the closest dome with a vehicle garage. This meant a large airlock. There was only one reason Pegram would need an airlock of that size—to allow a large group of enemy soldiers into the dome all at once.
"Thanks, Colonel," I said, and clasped his shoulder, then hustled back to Sanyo.
Sanyo saw me coming and moving fast without regard to noise or any attempt at stealth, so the instant I reached him, he asked, "What's wrong?"
"They're both dead. Let's move fast."
When we got back, I explained what I'd found to the rest. "Pegram must have known the plan. The enemy, knowing we’d all pulled back to sector nine must have headed to one of the other airlocks in the side of the BSC. They walked around the outside of the base until they got to dome six where they waited for Pegram to open the doors. From this side of sector nine, they would basically have us surrounded and cut off from our only means of egress. Then they can hit us from both sides simultaneously. This means they are planning an attack. We have to get back fast!"
Reversing our tactical model, we headed back as fast as the Bios and bots could move through the scattered fields of debris.
Walker ran up next to me. "Matt, we all know you could have been back already. Go ahead, get on with it man, you have to get back to base camp and warn them!"
He was right, but I didn't want to leave them.
"Go!" he demanded.
I nodded and said, "Get 'em back, Pete." With that, I bounded several meters into the air. Hitting the ground on a pile of rubble, I bounded again. I was in mid jump when I heard the staccato of weapons fire.
I turned and bounded back. I aimed my second jump toward the large pile of rubble to the right of my guys. I was high up and somewhat short of their position. As I descended, I could see they were being engaged by an element of perhaps twenty enemies almost directly below me and to my left. Another force of enemy was on Walker's right. I had led my people right into an 'L' shaped ambush.
I landed on the pile and immediately came under fire. A bullet passed through my left calf, another struck a rib on my right side and ricocheted off, and a third cut a trench through the left side of my neck. The rib shot knocked me down and the fire lifted. They must have thought they had gotten me.
"Dammit," I muttered, "I just got this skin fixed, too."
I remained prone and wheeled around in order to return fire. Below me, I could see directly into their positions. I started on the short side of the 'L', the side blocking my guys' forward movement. My enhanced vision and computer-enhanced mind permitted me to take deadly accurate aim. I had fired three rounds and three of our enemy had fallen dead.
My position was revealed, and bullets started slamming into everything around me. I quickly backed out of the line of fire. That was when they fired an RPG into the debris above my head and a mountain of the junk cascaded down onto me. Still, I was undamaged and able to push my way up. Now, of course, my position was gone, filled with the now useless remnants of the once magnificent lunar city. I was looking for another place to jump where I might still bring fire on the enemy. I glanced down and saw the guy with the RPG reloading. I had to jump now.
The sound of a weapon firing with great rapidity stopped my jumping. I looked back down and there stood Sanyo. He had opened up with his ASG not fifty meters from the guy with the RPG. The effect was devastating. He was firing HE and HEAP. The bloody sight was not one I'd soon forget.
Walker fired several High Explosive Air Burst Fragmentation rounds at the short end of the 'L' effectively destroying the position. I shouted down, "Run!" They jumped up and started running in the direction of dome one and out of the kill zone as Sanyo and I provided covering fire which kept the enemies’ heads down allowed our guys to escape.
Walker waved up at me, indicating I should join him. I lifted my arm to wave back, and as I did, a bullet passed through the fleshy part of my underarm. I instantly threw myself down and rolled about three meters. Looking over the edge of the fallen building I was now on, I saw what must have been the main body of the enemy task force. About fifty enemy soldiers emerged from the dark tunnel coming out of dome five. They had been in a column of twos, but were now deploying in a textbook fashion in order to envelop me and cut me off from my friends.
Sanyo began laying down very effective fire. I called to Walker, "Run, dammit!"
The enemy fire was like a zephyr of hornets whizzing all about me, kicking up dust and debris.
The more or less horizontal side of the collapsed building was several meters above my enemy. To my right front lay a window now on the horizontal, its glass gone. I crawled to it and dropped inside. There was about a meter-and-a-half clearance between what was once a wall and the rubble that now filled the space.
I jumped up and grabbed the window ledge to look out and down at Sanyo. He had just reloaded and was again pumping a hail of fire on the advancing enemy. "Sanyo, get out!" I shouted, which invited a blizzard of bullets from that arm of the enemy threatening to circle behind Sanyo. I fired a full magazine in their direction just to make Sanyo aware of the danger. He did not flinch, but stood his ground. Another blast of bullets peppered the area around my window, causing me to duck. That's when I heard the unmistakable sound of an RPG being fired. Its path of travel was a short one, and I both felt and heard the detonation. When I looked up again, the spot where Sanyo had been standing was a smoking crater.
I didn't move until more bullets forced me down. I could now add Sanyo to the list of dead under my command, and to the list of friends lost. I sat back and closed my eyes. If the capacity to cry had been one of my functions, I would have been blubbering. Instead, I just sat and felt the pain of Sanyo's loss. I had
stopped counting the number of buddies I lost since my first deployment. Buddies, Sanyo had defined the word—"A buddy, a good friend or chum, a comrade, a partner, especially one of a pair." But a true buddy is so much more than that. This buddy had just sacrificed his life for me.
○O○
At last, I turned and started to make my way through the inside of the once lovely five-story building now reduced to scrap. Outside, it was quiet. I figured Walker and the team had gotten away. The enemy was consolidating and would soon be in pursuit, though they most likely had already sent a kill team after Walker, Dolph, Adam, Jeff, and Ed.
I picked my way down through the debris, it was a lot like caving, which I had done with some guys at Fort Knox several years ago, but this time, I had no equipment. I was stronger now, of course, and being able to see in the dark was a big plus. I dropped down several meters through cracks in the floors, between huge, bent girders, and past what was once a desk, I think, and ultimately, into a horizontal crawl space that led toward a distant light. The light was the inside of the dome and the way out of this tomb. I was crawling on my belly, and almost there when I heard voices. I slowed immediately, and crept slowly forward.
They were speaking in Malayan, "Rehat, periksa senjata dan peluru anda."
"Rest, check your weapons and ammo. Lieutenant Colonel Pegram, a word, please?" A man with a distinctly European accent was speaking.
"What is it, Colonel Mamat?"
"How could you not know that they were patrolling this area?"
"I am telling you they are not patrolling at all. I suspect they were looking for Colonel Wayne. There was a lot of objection to his going out. After Ava went down, I became far more persuasive."
"Well, we are both in trouble. She is coming here herself to take charge."
"Damn." Pegram murmured.
"Damn, indeed. I do not mind dying for the cause, but to be executed for incompetence will bring shame upon my family."
"Where the hell has she been?"
"She has been down in that hole with the advanced computer. It is said she is taking over the functions of the A-V-A computer and will then turn the entire facility against the Tiku—the faithless, to you, Yankee."
“Do not confuse my origins with my beliefs!” Pegram grunted under his breath. He paused to compose himself then asked, “Who is she anyway?”
"Have you never heard of General Hella Andromache?"
"No, should I have?"
"It is not, perhaps, well known in the west, but her family were almost eradicated in the first war against the orang Tikus a century ago. She and the suci bersekongkol led the planning for the attack on the demon city. She herself killed a ratus score of Americans and French to acquire the weapon. She will not be stopped in this effort. Trust me, I have seen her cut the heads from those who fail to accomplish the tasks she sets for them. And since she has become a machine, she is much more lethal."
Twenty minutes later, I could hear a general excitement among the enemy troops and heard a voice cry out in almost awed tones, "It is she! She comes!" The chant started with one voice and was soon picked up by several more. In moments, all the enemy soldiers were chanting "Hella, Hella, Hella!"
Abruptly, the chanting stopped. From my right, I heard several footsteps approach. Then I heard a voice, a female voice, harsh, loud, and angry. "Colonel Mamat, Pegram, come to me!" I noted she did not reference Lieutenant Colonel Pegram's rank.
"Madam Hella," Colonel Mamat said, "may the blessing of—"
"Whom do I thank for this amazing exploit?" she interrupted.
There was silence.
"You both realize, do you not, that there will be no more re-supply of soldiers. Those we have are all we have. Yet, you two throw them away like garbage. The Tikus need not fight us. Just wait for my officers to kill all my soldiers!" She was furious. "I would have your heads mounted to poles were it not for the same dynamic. I may yet make common soldiers of you and let you fight up front and put sergeants in your places. The Tikus have a sergeant commanding their forces. He is smarter than the two of you combined!"
"Madam Hella," Pegram ventured to speak, "that sergeant has squandered his resources and lost that which he was told to hold, the A-V-A mainframe complex."
She responded in a cold, subdued voice that grew in anger and volume as she spoke. "He has left us abandoned, destroyed our transport, he has caused our command vessel to leave lunar orbit damaged, he has destroyed all but two hundred of our troops, and robbed us of our goal. If we have won against him, it is a Pyrrhic victory at best. You, Mr. Pegram, need to be as silent as death."
There was a long pause. Hella seemed to take a few steps about.
"I smell that sergeant's hand in this action. Did anyone see him?"
Colonel Mamat responded. "There was a man, Madam Hella, up there. But he looked different. The last time Sergeant Strum was seen, he was badly injured. This man was not wounded or bandaged."
"Fool! Over forty hours have passed since the destruction of our transport. As he is repairable, they have, no doubt, repaired him. Did anyone see him escape?"
"We do not know that he escaped."
"Then show me his remains!"
There came another pause.
"Madam Hella, no remains have been discovered."
Yet another pause.
"Show me the bodies of all the Tikus you killed here."
"There was a robot, but he was blown to pieces. There is nothing to recover."
"And our losses?" Hella asked.
"Ah, twenty-two."
"Colonel Mamat, if after the next fight with the Tikus, you emerge without a long line of their bleeding and broken bodies laid at my feet, there will be nothing of you to recover! Now, search this pile of excrement. If the sergeant is dead, I want to know it. If he is not, I have to know it."
Mamat gave the order and all the remaining enemy soldiers rose to their feet and started to climb all over the remains of the structure. Their added weight was putting stress on it, I could hear it moaning and groaning all about me. They were either going to find me or bring this junk pile down on me.
Several times, I saw boots walk past the little opening in front of me. Should someone bend down to look into it, I'd be discovered. I looked around. If I crawled back about a meter, there was a hollow in the side of the wall on my left I could squeeze into. If someone did look in, I might just appear to be another piece of junk.
An hour ticked by. I heard Colonel Mamat ask a question of his boss: "Madam Hella, are we not losing time with this, should we not be pressing the attack on the enemy rear?"
"How did you ever make Colonel?" she calmly asked. "Better, how did you get a commission in the first place? At least five of the members of the sergeant's patrol got away from you. They went back, and now the Tikus are ready to defend themselves. You have lost us the element of surprise. Now, stop and consider what leverage holding their commander might provide us. What information might we get him to divulge? Really, Colonel, if your brain can't think any farther than it does, join Mr. Pegram, and shut up."
As I slowly slid myself into the concavity on the inside of the tunnel, a piece of rubble dislodged and bounced about, making a terrible clatter. I was not concerned as the soldiers climbing all over the pile were shaking stuff lose all over the place. However, for some odd reason—perhaps the echo produced by the hallow cavity—this noise caught Hella's ear. She bent down and looked in. I could see her face now—she was the one we called Freya, the Commander of the Valkyries. As my eyes beheld her face her identifier popped up. "Oh, my God," I thought, "my identifier!"
"Well," Freya said, "hello, Sergeant. Why don't you climb out of there and join us, or must I toss a thermite grenade in there with you?"
Chapter 16
Lost and Found
I climbed through of the hole and out from under the massive pile of rubble. As I was about to stand she extended her left hand, I refused it. There were several weapons trained on me, so I just
stood there. Freya, or Hella, walked slowly around me. She was a tall blonde with large, piercing blue eyes. The last image of her I saw, her hair was long, braided, and rolled up on top of her head. She had cut it, and was now wearing it bobbed. She was dressed in a very tight, red suit with tall, red boots, and around her waist was a red sash. In the center of her left forearm, embroidered directly into her suit, was the sword and stars emblem.
"You don't look like much," she said. "With all the trouble you've caused, I expected a giant with four arms."
"Well, I'm a bear in the mornings."
She leaned in very close to me and, in a voice so low even my ears had trouble hearing her, she whispered, "I expect to test the truth of that statement, Matt." She then smiled, which only compounded my confusion. She was neither taunting me nor snickering. I was lost as to how to read her.
Colonel Mamat approached. "What are your orders, Madam Hella?"
"Before anything else, I think I will attempt to negotiate with him."
Pegram stepped forward now. "Negotiate?" he screamed. "You said it yourself, this clown has our backs against the wall, and he’s robbed us of our prize. We have sworn to succeed or die, there is no negotiating he must—"
I sprang forward grabbed Pegram by the back of the head and fired my stun gun at full strength. In less than a second, a powerful hand grabbed me and pulled me off of him. It was Hella. I was shocked at her strength. I picked myself up from the pile of rubbish where I'd been flung and dusted off my uniform. Around me was a prickly circle of rifle barrels. I simulated spitting on the floor at Pegram and said, "Traitor!"
"My, Sergeant," Hella said calmly, "you really must learn to control your temper." Then she rounded on Pegram. "And if you ever presume to speak again without my permission," she began shouting, "I’ll rip you apart with my bare hands! I’ll weld your spine and skull into a war club! Now, get out of my sight!"
She turned back toward me, the anger still etched on her face. She corrected her posture and her facial features relaxed. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Sergeant. I'll not suffer subordinates to undercut my strategies. I'm sure you understand."
The Battle of Broken Moon Page 21
