A broken alliance, p.29
A Broken Alliance, page 29
part #5 of Sentenced to War Series
“Commanders, I want an orderly retreat. We are the best of the best, and we’re not running like panicked fools. Full military discipline.
“May the Mother be with us all.”
The withheld anger in the CO’s voice did more to center Rev than anything else. No matter what his warrior wanted to do, there wasn’t much he could accomplish by continuing the assault.
More than that, he was a professional, and pros obeyed orders. The thought of being defeated—and there was no getting around the fact that they’d lost this battle—was almost too much to bear.
Almost.
Rev had suffered a defeat before, on Preacher Rolls, his very first operation. If he lived long enough, he might suffer another defeat in the future. But this fight was over, and the best he and the rest could do would be to get to the rally point and live to fight another day.
“Let’s go, Charles.”
Rev led the way back down the mountain, this time following the “up . . . two . . . three . . . down convention.” He could feel the crosshairs on his back as he juked and jived down the slope, but surprisingly, there was far less MDS fire. Maybe, knowing they’d won, they were letting the defeated troopers go.
It didn’t seem in their nature, but it was the best Rev could come up with.
Just over two minutes after starting their retreat, Rev and Akkeke crossed PL Yellow and were out of the bunkers’ direct line of fire and about a hundred meters or so east of the chimney.
The two took cover, and Rev opened up his P2P. “Miko?”
“Thank the Mother,” she said, relief in her voice. “You made it.”
Rev sighed in relief as well. “We were forty meters away, Miko. Forty meters.”
“I know. I saw you. I thought you were going to do something stupid when the order to retreat came.”
Rev didn’t tell her he almost did.
“We were so close, though.”
“To be honest, I don’t know how,” Tomiko said. “At least not so many of us. It’s like they were trying not to hit us.”
“Sometimes, the righteous are just lucky.”
Every minute, as what had happened sunk in, Rev was getting angrier. Not only losing the battle, but Pashu. How the hell had the MDS managed to shut her down, and what else could they do? Pashu had become so much a part of him that he felt violated, and he didn’t want to give the MDS any credit. If most of the troopers made it back, then he didn’t want to entertain the thought that the MDS had a part in that.
“Listen up,” Lieutenant Macek passed. “I’ve taken command.”
What? What happened to Captain Chokra?”
The last Rev had seen of him was the captain leading the final charge. With a sinking feeling, he knew the captain had been killed, and that hit him hard. He missed the lieutenant’s next few words and had to struggle to focus again.
“. . . and we’re being told to book it down the mountain. Intel says the slopes might be rigged like the Tooth. We’ve got to get off, now. We don’t have time to form up at the chimney. Just get down as fast as you can and head for the supplemental rally point. We’ll move to the RP as a unit from there. So, move it!”
Rev had been about to ask Tomiko where she was so they could link up, but that could be why the MDS hadn’t seemed too concerned about letting them go. If the mountain was about to blow . . .
“Let’s go,” he shouted to Akkeke as he started bounding down the slope through the trees. It seemed that rigging the entire slope to blow was just a little much for the MDS, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.
Together, he and Akkeke covered the ground in leaps. Rev could go faster with his augmented legs, but he stayed with the corporal. He was concentrating so much that at first, he didn’t register the sounds of firing for a moment. He landed hard, his legs absorbing the blow as he went to one knee, handgun raised and pointing down the slope.
The heavy forest made it almost impossible to tell from where the firing was coming, but what was a few volleys turned into a full-out battle.
“Rally on me at the base of the chimney,” the lieutenant passed.
Rev couldn’t even see the chimney through the trees, but he knew it was off to his left.
“This way,” he told Akkeke, and they started to cut across the slope.
The blast hit them while Rev was mid-stride, knocking him against a huge fir. He bounced off and tumbled down the slope ten or fifteen meters before he stopped at the trunk of another tree.
He’d lost his Tata-5 in the blast, and frantically looked up the slope for it when the ground seemed to rise up from the forest floor. Like some mythological creature, an MDS soldier stood, his big beam cannon pointed at Rev. Not just any soldier. A karnan.
The karnan’s visor was retracted, and he grinned at Rev.
“Caught like a rabbit in a snare, just as planned,” the karnan said. “Why don’t you just sit down and put your hands on your head?”
Rev scrambled to his feet. He glanced down the slope. Four or five bounds and he’d be out of sight. But where was Akkeke? Rev looked back up the slope where the corporal lay in a motionless heap.
Another MDS soldier, not a karnan, moved into view from behind a tree, his normal ICW—Infantry Combat Weapon—locked on Rev as well. Like the karnan, the soldier had his visor retracted, his bare face visible.
Rev still thought he’d have a chance if he bolted, but he couldn’t leave Akkeke behind.
“I said, sit down,” the karnan repeated.
“I don’t think so.”
The karnan stepped out of his spiderhole. All around them, more explosions echoed through the trees, and the net was full of reports of being ambushed, but Rev tuned them out. His entire focus was on the two soldiers in front of him.
Rev slowly raised Pashu, and the karnan laughed.
“What are you gonna do with that hunk of shit? You got no fucking weapons!”
Rev knew the MDS had somehow shut down Pashu, but that confirmed it. This entire thing had been planned out. Rev had been playing chess three moves ahead, but the MDS had been playing six.
“Don’t need no weapons.”
The karnan hooted. “What are you gonna do? Bite me?”
Rev slowly moved into what was unmistakably a fighting stance.
“You man enough to go mano e mano, Pit Bull?”
It was a long shot, but it was the only thing Rev could think of.
“I heard you jarheads call us that,” he said. “So, you know what I am, and you know what I can do.”
“Doesn’t mean you’re still not a Mad Puppy.”
He laughed again. “Ooh, with the names. But this is over. You can either sit down like I said and live, or I’m putting a hole through your head.” He raised his aim until Rev could almost look down the barrel.
The sounds of fighting were still going on, and it was surreal to be standing here, arguing with a karnan in the middle of an ambush, but Rev had to concentrate on what was going on right in front of him. All of the comms, some directed at him, were distracting.
“Mute the comms, Punch.”
His battle buddy didn’t argue, and silence washed over him.
“Look, you were sent here to capture us. You already know everything about our IBHUs. So, what is it? To prove that karnans are better than us?”
“Don’t know, don’t care. We were told to bring you in, and that’s what we’re doing. And yeah, we are better than you oners.”
“So, if you are better, then why not take me by force? I mean, you’ve got your nanny standing there if you start to lose.”
For the first time, the karnan seemed to lose his cool. “He’s not my fucking nanny. He’s my nestorman.”
Rev had no idea what a nestorman was, but he said, “Oh, he’s your boss and won’t let you fight.”
The karnan stared at Rev, evaluating him. Finally, he shrugged and laid his cannon on the dirt.
“Under-sergeant—”
“Shut up, Miles. Don’t interfere.”
He set his feet, spread his arms, and said, “Bring it, oner.”
Rev knew how strong a karnan was, stronger than him, anyway. And his two reinforced hands would be better at grappling than Rev’s one organic hand and Pashu’s fingers. Slowly circling, trying to find an opening was a sure plan for disaster. If the karnan got in close and locked up with him, Rev knew it was over.
So, he couldn’t let that happen.
With a shout, and in full warrior mode, Rev charged, Pashu raised. The karnan’s eyes widened in surprise, and he brought his hands up to block his IBHU instead of dodging the blow.
Mistake.
A karnan might be stronger than an IBHU Marine, but Rev was no slouch. He’d been fighting with the IBHU for years, years in which he built up strength beyond his augments and assists. Years during which he learned to use Pashu as an extension of himself.
And Pashu massed eighty-three kilograms. Swung with every ounce of force he could muster, the momentum was just too much. Pashu powered through the karnan’s block, crashing into the top of the soldier’s helmet. The blow glanced off and rode down to hit the shoulder joint, breaking the armor and snapping the bone beneath.
The karnan crumpled to one knee, face down, his good arm waving as he tried to grab Rev and stop the next blow.
But Rev wasn’t winding up for another overhand blow. He pulled Pashu back along his side, reached for the top of the dented helmet, and yanked the karnan’s head up. Dazed eyes tried to focus on him as Rev punched forward, twisting his body to get as much power as he could behind it.
Pashu’s muzzle connected just to the side of the karnan’s nose. The muzzle ended its short journey at the back of the karnan’s helmet. Blood spurted out, covering Rev.
“I’m not going to bite you. Pashu is,” he said with a snarl.
But he couldn’t stand and admire his work. Rev tried to dive out of the way, knowing that the other soldier was still there, but Pashu was stuck inside the karnan’s skull. Rev yanked while trying to dive to the side, and the body came with him.
He had one glimpse of the soldier, eyes wide with fear, as he ran to the side to get a clear shot.
There was nothing Rev could do about it. Not with the karnan’s body dragging him down. The soldier seemed unwilling to shoot his dead under-sergeant, so Rev tried to keep pulling the body to keep it between them, but it was only a matter of time.
But time can run out on anyone. A single shot rang out, and the soldier’s face exploded before the body crumpled to the ground. Rev looked around expecting another trooper, but it was Akkeke, who was still down, but had his rifle extended.
Rev released a huge breath and let the back of his helmet bounce on the ground as the karnan’s body slid off of him. He took five or six deep breaths, trying to gain control of himself.
Finally, he got up on his right elbow, looked back at Akkeke, and said, “Took you long enough.”
The corporal laughed, then immediately groaned. “Fuck, that hurts.”
“You OK?” Rev asked, joking forgotten.
“No. Got my bell rung. But nothing serious, I think.” He looked at the body still attached to Rev. “Uh, you gonna do something about that?”
Rev got his first real look at the carnage. Pashu was buried in the karnan’s head. He gave his IBHU a couple of yanks, but all that did was splatter him with gunk—brain matter, blood, and bone. And a tooth, it looked like.
Rev rolled over and got to his feet. He placed one foot on the karnan’s carapace and got ready to pull when he heard footsteps behind him. He tried to wheel around, wondering what he could use as a weapon, when he saw Tomiko and La’ei.
“What the fuck are you doing to that guy?” Tomiko asked.
“Trying to get Pashu out of him.” He turned back, replaced his foot, and heaved. Most of what was left of the karnan’s head shot into the air, making Tomiko dodge out of the way. She didn’t make it completely clear.
It was only then that Rev realized the fighting was over.
Real good situational awareness there, Reverent.
“How come you aren’t answering your comms?” Tomiko asked as she tried to brush off some of the gore that had splattered on her.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.”
“Fuck, Rev. When you didn’t reply . . .”
“Sorry. I had to concentrate. What happened? Is anyone hurt?”
“What happened is that the fuckers ambushed us. They had it all set up. They snatched Randigold—”
“Eth!” Rev shouted. “We’ve got to get her back!”
“We did, we did. Calm down. We chased them down.”
Rev’s heart was pounding, and he took another few deep breaths. “What else. Anyone hurt?
Tomiko cleared her throat, then said, “Sign of Respect. Looks like he fought them, from what Toshi said. They shot him in the head.”
Rev felt dizzy, and he leaned up against a tree for a moment.
“Who else? Gingham. Crocker. San Martin. That’s all I know,” Tomiko said.
Rev expected more, but those hurt. “What about the captain?”
“Bought it during the assault. And we don’t know about Aleman and Dulla.”
“Both of them? Were they snatched, ’cause that’s what this ambush was all about? They wanted IBHU prisoners.”
“I don’t know. Maybe Macek does. And yeah, we were set up for this. They wanted you.” She looked at the dead karnan, then the gore dripping from Pashu. “But they didn’t know how difficult that was going to be.”
Rev felt the anger boiling over. Five, six, maybe more troopers dead. Three IBHU Marines. And for what? So the commanders for both sides could feel each other out?
“Rev, no more chatting. With your comms off, we were sent to find out what happened to you. We need to move out before the mountain blows. They’re waiting for us at the base of the chimney.”
“The mountain isn’t going to blow. They let Intel think that so we’d just run pell-mell off the mountain instead of keeping unit integrity,” Rev said. “Besides, they’re still in their complex up at the top.”
“Maybe, but do you want to take that chance?”
Rev was sure he was right, but so was Tomiko. Why take the chance?
“La’ei, pick up your buddy there, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
34
“Let me see.”
Rev extended Pashu, and Daryll leaned closer to give a look before he recoiled in horror. “Is that . . . ?”
“A karnan’s skull? Brains? Probably,” Rev said. “I was a little busy to go around looking for a steam jet to clean her out.”
Daryll’s face had gone pale. “OK, let’s just take her off, and I’ll go from there.”
It had been seven hours since the end of the battle, long enough for karnan blood and brains to harden in Pashu’s crevices. They’d had no more contact as they continued down the mountain and linked up with the rest of the battalion at the supplementary RP. From there, they went to their original RP, which was where the POW processing camp had been built. The camp had been leveled, a little “fuck you” from the MDS arty.
A temporary cease-fire had been called, and while the Tigans went back up the mountain to recover the dead, the Home Guard battalion was lifted back to their camp. All during that time, Rev had stewed in his anger, letting it eat at him. He second-guessed himself a hundred times as he tried to put together the sequence of events that ended with so many deaths and defeat.
“Any idea what happened?” Rev asked, his voice tight. “Why did our IBHUs suddenly decide they weren’t weapons systems?”
“No, no idea yet. But we’ll get to the bottom of things. I’ve already asked for a contact team from the company. It’s . . . this shouldn’t have been possible.”
“But it is. It happened. And that hung us out to dry. Three of us didn’t make it back.”
“I know, I know. Sorry about Tesler. He was a good kid, respect for the fallen.”
“Saying ‘respect for the fallen’ doesn’t do shit unless we know what happened and how to stop it from happening again.”
“I know, and we’re working on that.”
“This is because they stole our IBHUs back on Enceladus, isn’t it?”
Daryll sighed, then said, “If I had to guess, I’d say yes, that’s exactly what it was.”
Rev reached over, grabbed Daryll by the front of his shirt, and pulled him close. “I don’t want guesses. I want answers,” he snarled.
Daryll’s face went white, his eyes opened wide. The Sieben tech tried to stutter out something, but all he managed were some unintelligible grunts.
Ah, shit. It’s not Daryll.
Rev released the tech, then closed his eyes while he tried to calm down. He took three deep breaths.
“Sorry. Here, take her off.”
He held out Pashu, and Daryll hesitantly rolled up the hoist. He attached it to the IBHU, and a few moments later, she was detached. Rev rolled his shoulder, stretching out his back muscles.
“What do you think happened?”
Daryll gave Rev a wary look, then said, “It’s gotta be one of two things: either they planted something that turned your IBHUs off—"
“They hit all of them, not just the five that were stolen.”
“I was just saying what could have happened, not what I think. What is more likely is that they found a flaw, a vulnerability, that they exploited.”
“So, Sieben screwed up in the design.”
Daryll didn’t reply. But it was obvious. If Sieben designed the IBHUs, and there was a heretofore unknown vulnerability, then they failed their mission. And, as a result, three IBHU Marines were killed, and the MDS had decisively won the first engagement of this . . . this almost war.
The goal had been to roll over the MDS soldiers to convince them that they couldn’t stand up to the CoH. That had spectacularly failed.
“What about First of the Third? You hear anything?” Rev asked.
There were Sixteen IBHU Marines with that battalion, and they were deployed with a Union division on Janx, one of the six planets where the MDS had launched military actions.
