Wolf emperor, p.31
Wolf Emperor, page 31
part #1 of The Last Marines 08 Series
In the distance, something roared, and more roars answered it.
“They know we are here now,” Navinad said. “The hunt begins.”
Why did the damned cappie have to use the word hunt?
* * * * *
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Fifty-Five: Regimental HQ
Navinad – The Wanderer
The distant roars sent a chill down Navinad’s spine.
“They know we are here now. The hunt begins,” Navinad said.
The ODT squad leader gave his men the command to move out and behind him Yosef ordered his squads to follow.
“It sounds like there are about eight of them,” Lilith said.
“Why do they roar?” Navinad asked. “They knew we were here the second that creature saw us.”
“Intimidation?” Lilith asked. “I suspect they use some form of communication beyond audio. Perhaps the controlling Jotnar acts as a unifier. They talk to each other through their Jotun master but cannot convey much information. The roars provide a backup form of communication.”
“So where is their master?”
“When I discover this, I will let you know,” Lilith said.
Navinad watched the Russelman index climb. They were coming. “Be ready.”
He felt the psychic pressure as the creatures approached. He had felt the first one and had warned everyone, but now the presence pushing on him was heavier, making it more difficult to ascertain numbers or direction, but he did feel the smothering presence of a Jotun focusing on them briefly.
The commandos had spread out a little more, many of them getting prone, which was good training, but in this situation kneeling would have been better. None of the ODTs were getting prone.
“Left front,” Navinad yelled, sensing the closest one.
ODT weapons lashed out seconds before the commando weapons. Fifty meters away the blazer rounds pierced the flesh and it died. Navinad felt the Jotun’s annoyance. Not anger, not fear, annoyance. That worried Navinad. The Jotun’s confidence in its eventual victory was disturbing.
“We might pick up the pace,” Navinad said.
“Wilco,” McCarthy said and ordered his people to move faster, which they did, leaving a gap between the ODTs and commandos.
Almost desperate, Yosef ordered the NMDFs to get up and follow the damned ODTs. The gap widened.
Watching the commandos, Navinad missed the next creature coming at them. It was fast and silent, not as huge as the first or second one but still large. The flash of hate-filled eyes in a sweeping helmet light was their only warning.
Lilith pulsed an Inkeri generator carried by one of the mules and caught it in the field just as blazer rounds from the ODTs and commandos found it.
The creature slammed to the ground at Navinad’s feet. A big hulk of an ODT by the name of Johnston walked up and casually placed a couple rounds in its head.
“Someone said they don’t die easy,” Johnston said and turned to catch up with the rest of his squad.
Navinad cast out his senses and felt the anger, frustration, and confusion. If each creature was an extension of the Jotun then they were drawing the Jotun’s attention.
“Do you think they ate all the bodies, or are they hiding somewhere?” McCarthy asked him.
“If I had to guess, they might have left to hunt other humans, or the Torag,” Navinad said. He hoped so at any rate.
“Then why are these still here?” McCarthy asked, his weapon sweeping the darkness.
“Maybe they got too big and couldn’t escape to the outside,” Navinad said.
“They just keep getting bigger?”
“I don’t know,” Navinad said, wishing the ODT sergeant would shut up so he could sense the others.
“The regimental warrens are up ahead,” McCarthy said. “Pay attention, we are almost there. Stay frosty. Watch for survivors.”
Navinad was pretty sure there were no more survivors. The sergeant was looking for someone. The poor guy. Anyone who had been here would be dead or transformed. One key question Navinad didn’t have the answer to, was where the other monsters were. If there were a lot of smaller ones, how far away were they, and would their master order them to come return here?
The ODTs led them into the regimental warrens. Here there were more signs of battle, more bloody pieces of armor and broken weapons and gear. Computer stations were wrecked, some walls looked ready to fall over because of all the blazer holes. There was no doubt a massive battle had occurred here, but there were no bodies, no attackers or defenders. The blood stains were dry, but it didn’t look old yet. Had this been a last stand?
“That way,” McCarthy said and directed his squad to clear the area, sweeping the offices for bodies and survivors.
Nothing.
The darkness made Navinad’s skin crawl. The Jotun was aware of them, he was sure, and would not tolerate a small group of humans challenging it like this.
“We need to move faster,” Navinad said. There was a flicker of irritation from McCarthy. Marine Raiders might have moved faster and been more focused on the mission, but Navinad knew if he pushed McCarthy too hard, the sergeant would push back and make things worse in some passive aggressive way.
A half hour later, down several more flights of stairs, they arrived in the Regimental Intelligence offices without being attacked. Which didn’t mean the vanhat weren’t pouring down the stairs and hallways behind them.
“Lieutenant,” Navinad said to Yosef, “make sure rear-guard is extra alert. We will get attacked, and right now I think it will be from behind.”
“Acknowledged,” Yosef said and changed links.
“Also watch the Russelman index. As the vanhat get closer it will probably go up.”
“Acknowledged,” the lieutenant said.
Navinad watched the warriors move around him. Was he being an annoying officer? Stating the obvious? Acting paranoid?
“Here,” McCarthy said, coming back to Navinad. “The data cores are in there. Things look salvageable. It is secure and you can do your thing. I’m going to have my people search around.”
“Thank you.” Navinad motioned a data specialist forward, followed by a robotic mule. Yosef had assigned two troopers to guard and help her.
“I got this,” she said, shining her light around as Lilith analyzed the equipment and provided her with additional data and recommendations.
Sitting down, Navinad let the data specialist and Lilith work on finding what they could. Would a regimental HQ have what they needed?
This was the part Navinad hated. If this facility didn’t have what they wanted, they would have to find a higher-level facility. Of course, it would be nice if the data links were working, then they might hack it, but Navinad knew that wasn’t likely. At the very least, the specialist should be able to get a map of the warrens so they could get there.
“Telaviv-Two, this is Telaviv-One,” Clara said on the long-range link.
“Go, Telaviv-One,” Navinad said, steeling himself for bad news.
“We have seeded the area with drones and it looks like a horde is coming to your warrens,” Clara said. “We are going to drop d-bombs and strafe, but that will probably bring back more ships.”
“We’ve only just started,” Navinad said.
“I’m trying to buy you time,” Clara said. “There are lots of them. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands.”
Navinad didn’t like his options. Retreat or try to get as much data as they could? Could they fight their way out? They had good data links, so the Romach should get the data, but Navinad didn’t want to sacrifice his team.
There were over two hundred cabinets of data cores and systems. There would be no way to catalog or grab the ones they needed. Maybe they could inventory them?
“We’re going to have company,” Navinad said to McCarthy. “The Romach says the vanhat are coming back.”
“Waiting on your specialist.” McCarthy turned to his squad as Navinad listened in. “Start collecting magazines and ammo, as much as you can horde. Stage it here or on the mules. I think we’re going to need it. Moore, see if your team can find one or two of the crew served blazers.”
“Should have them in the armory,” Moore said. “We passed it earlier. It was sealed.”
“You have an ODTs universal key pass? Unseal it.”
“Wilco. Always wanted to blow up an armory with angry play dough, but why isn’t it open?”
“I dunno, probably couldn’t remember the pass code with monsters trying to eat them. You know how pogues are. Be careful though, just in case.”
“Wilco.”
“I’m sending you a feed,” Clara said. A link came in from a drone.
At first, Navinad didn’t understand what he was seeing, just a trio of vanhat. Then he realized how big they were. One looked up at the drone and the feed died.
“What did I just see?” Navinad asked.
“Three ape-things, about seventy meters tall. How they took down the drone, I don’t know. Psychic maybe? I wonder if it can take down a shuttle as easily.”
Navinad recognized where they had been. Outside, where the shuttles had landed. There had been nothing when the drone died, the feed just ended.
“They can’t get in if they’re that big,” Navinad said. Though getting out to the shuttles might be a problem now.
Another link came in. It showed a dark mass of the creatures flowing through the jungle. They were of various sizes and, as he watched, one of the bigger ones scooped up a smaller one and bit it in two before devouring both halves.
“I think we know what happened to the bodies,” Clara said. “And how they grow.”
Navinad looked at the commandos and ODTs.
“We’re going to need more coffee and bigger guns.”
“D-bombs?” Clara asked.
“We don’t want to fry the data cores,” Navinad said. Were they deep enough?
“I’ll hit them with some of the lighter d-bombs.”
“Peppering the surface with mark sevens should be safe enough,” Lilith said.
“Okay,” Navinad said to Clara. “Just the mark seven warheads.”
“Copy that,” Clara said and the link closed.
“We need to find out how many ways there are in and out of these warrens,” Navinad said. The vanhat probably knew them all. Part of the horde might already be in the warrens with them.
“Wilco,” McCarthy said.
Navinad looked at the data specialist. What was taking so damned long?
* * * * *
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Fifty-Six: Planetary Command
Sergeant Aod McCarthy, ODT
Blazer fire erupted from the parade area. Quinn and his team were watching that direction, so McCarthy tapped into his view. The rate of fire increased.
Several smaller aliens were coming at them, first at a trickle, and then a flood. Quinn had found some chem lights and dropped them at several points in the parade area so anything coming in was silhouetted, and the chemlights provided enough illumination for their night vision to let them see clearly.
With precision, Quinn and his team cut the aliens down, and in seconds it was over. The aliens’ bodies were smoldering wrecks.
“Bad news,” Navinad said on the command link.
Moore and his team were busy with a commando team, ready to reinforce the commandos as needed. They had a perimeter and several escape routes planned, but they couldn’t go anywhere yet. Moore and Walsh were working to get another ODT mule powered up to carry ammunition. They already had two of them up, operational, and overloaded with weapons and ammunition.
McCarthy didn’t want to hear there was bad news. His skin was crawling. He didn’t enjoy being on the defensive, waiting to get overrun by a swarm of monsters. That was enough bad news.
“What is that, sir?” McCarthy asked. The armory Moore had broken into had plenty of ammunition and weapons, so now McCarthy was worried about carrying enough. But all his teams had a couple machine guns with extra ammo so they could swap machine guns, which was faster than reloading. They also had wire guns, which would be effective against unarmored targets. Options were good, and while blazers had penetration and explosive power, the wire guns sliced them apart. In tandem, nothing would get near his troopers.
One ODT came in with another armful of claymores, versatile mines that could be used inside tunnels or out in the open. He balanced them on a mule as another ODT strapped them down.
“We have to head toward planetary command,” Navinad said. “We know where that is.”
McCarthy saw a data link come in and a map uploaded to his cybernetics with the destination already highlighted. A route had already been selected. Damn. That data specialist was fast and efficient. She was probably getting help from the crew in orbit, but she was still damned fast.
Now that his ODTs didn’t know where they were going, was Navinad going to betray them or relegate them to follow? Or would he be worried about having the ODTs behind him?
“We’re going to use routes that are not standard,” Navinad said. “We have to move fast because I’m pretty sure the major thoroughfares will fill up fast with monsters. Your troopers move well, and if we encounter any survivors, I think it would be best if your guys met them first.”
Looking over the route, McCarthy didn’t like it. Navinad was right, and his logic was sound, but he wanted to argue. Without a good counter argument, though, it made little sense. His troopers were the better choice for the reasons Navinad mentioned, and the commandos did not impress McCarthy. They were a lot better than Guard troops, but they weren’t ODTs.
“It looks like they could bottleneck us when they figure out where we are going,” McCarthy said. “Lots of small, narrow corridors.”
“There are a lot of maintenance tunnels and routes we can use,” Navinad said.
“Which will probably fill with those bastards.”
“Aye,” Navinad said. An odd word McCarthy wasn’t used to hearing. “But the important thing is that these tunnels are smaller and the big vanhat won’t fit easily.”
There was that.
“That’s our route. Get your men moving.”
“Wilco, sir,” McCarthy said.
Navinad used that tone of voice that meant discussion was over and now was the time for action. It was the voice of an NCO used to giving commands, and McCarthy wondered about his background.
“Pull back, Quinn,” McCarthy said after changing links. “We have a cargo track to follow, and that’s in another direction. Have your team bring up tail-end-charlie, I’ll have Moore’s boys on point.”
“Oh goody. You mean we won’t have to worry about these cappie commandos shooting us in the back?”
“Nope. You just get the fart smell from our passing. Now shut up and get moving.”
“Wilco,” Quinn said, a smile in his voice.
Navinad was getting his commandos moving, and Moore got the ODT robo-mules going. They were now loaded with extra weapons and a lot of extra ammo. Machine guns were packed on so they could be fired from where they were or quickly pulled off.
The operational ODT robo-mules lurched to their feet and joined the NMDF mules. One almost tipped over, and McCarthy was tempted to say something, but it wasn’t like they were going overland, maybe up and down some stairs and ramps. They could abandon weapons and ammunition if they needed to, but McCarthy would rather expend that stuff first. It was always better to abandon ammunition when you had to move faster than moving fast and realize you didn’t have enough ammunition.
Seeing the commandos were ready, McCarthy looked at Navinad, who nodded. McCarthy gave the Moore the signal to move out.
McCarthy knew they were walking into a shit storm. Maybe they should get more ammunition. People weren’t staggering enough.
* * * * *
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Duel
Kapten Sif – VRAEC, Nakija Musta Toiminnot
Sif knew this was a bad idea, but it was the quickest way she could think of to gain dominance and make the Mongolians respect her. If Enkhbold was a typical commander, he would make sure he did not lose, or he would give the task to a different warrior.
“Are you crazy?” Peshlaki asked.
She was sleep deprived and nervous, but she wanted off this cursed and haunted station.
“Yes,” Sif said.
“I’ve seen the SOG Central Committee eyes-only reports on the Golden Horde. They have no mercy, no pity, and seem to enjoy killing for the joy of it. They can’t be trusted.”
“They were once an ally of the Republic,” Sif said.
“Which doesn’t make me feel better,” Peshlaki said. “I know the Republic wasn’t as bad, but is there honor among thieves and pirates?”
“Yes. You just don’t understand it.”
“Let me take them on,” Peshlaki said. “I’m an excellent fighter, and if anyone stands a chance it will be me and my SCBI.”
“No. I have a SCBI as well.”
“But I’m used to fighting with mine.”
He was right, but she was committed. It was too late to change things now.
With the Jaegers behind her, Sif knew they wouldn’t encounter any vampires. The aliens were gone, and except for the ghosts, there should be nothing to stop them.
“Consider it,” Peshlaki said.
“I have. And you accepted my command authority. Continue to do so or I will have Sloss remove you.”
Peshlaki missed a step. She felt his shock, surprise, and anger, but right now she didn’t care. She needed to concentrate on the mongols. Would they ambush them, or would they want to see the duel? She couldn’t let Peshlaki distract her.
She kept the drone view visible on her heads-up display, so she saw when a large, golden mech enter the bay. This had to be Enkhbod. Gold, with silver trim. It was intimidating.
