The Conscripts: Fight or Die (Blood War Book 3) (31 page)

“Maybe they shot their wad.”

“I wouldn’t count on it. You heard about resupply?”

“Negative, Five. We’re going to have to make do with what we got.”

“Roger that. I’m headed back to the LZs. You got the watch. After this next pass I’ll have to go back to the Tarawa for more munitions, and that will take hours. Something’s gotta give.”

“Roger that, Dragon Five. Out.”

Lee turned the ship to the east and headed for the huge, flat plain on the other side of the spaceport.

“Odaka, I’m going to take us to the east of the port. See what you can find.”

“Roger that.”

Lee flew past the port and headed east, searching the plain as they went.

“Lee, pull back on the speed a little. Let me see what comes up. I’m going to try several different sensors.”

Lee eased the throttles back and slowed the craft. They flew out across the plain. It was so quiet that Lee had time to notice that it was a beautiful night. The stars were a brilliant white against the jet-black sky in the thin atmosphere. Lee had never thought he would see something as beautiful as outer space, but flying at night on this planet sure gave outer space a run for its money. With no humidity to distort the light, it was truly beautiful. No wonder those ancient pilots had loved to fly so much, even though they were just in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Snap out of it before you get shot down admiring the night, Lee thought to himself. He glanced at the crystal temperature. It was still in the green in spite of all the demands he had put on the ship. They had changed several of the crystal’s angles after 703, and it had made a tremendous difference in both the power it produced and the temperature control.

“Lee, could you go back around? I thought I caught something on infrared. Go north five miles, then make a north-south run parallel to the runway.”

“Check.”

Lee brought the ship around and headed north as Odaka had requested. The air was smooth and there was nothing moving on the plain below. He could see nothing except a broad expanse of sand and rocks. He made his turn and flew south two hundred feet off the plain.

They were almost halfway down the flight path Odaka had requested when Odaka said, “Got something.”

“What?”

“Don’t know. Here, I’ll put it up on your secondary.”

Odaka put what he was seeing in the right corner of Lee’s secondary display. Lee glanced at it. In infrared it almost looked like there was a line of rectangles in the sand below.

“Those aren’t natural,” Lee observed.

“Do that run again. They seem to be getting brighter.”

Lee banked and put the ship back onto the line he had just flown, only this time he flew south to north. As they came onto the line, the rectangles were brighter.

“What are those fucks up to?” Odaka said.

“Missile, missile, missile!” Toland shouted. Before Lee could react, the missile lock was screaming. The missiles had locked onto their ship.

“Break right!” Odaka said.

Lee broke hard right and Odaka worked the defense systems. He put out chaff and flares as he readied an anti-missile missile.

“Firing,” Odaka said.

“Multiple missiles fired,” the defense system squawked. “Break left.”

“These fucks are really trying to shoot us down this time,” Odaka said as he frantically worked the defense systems.

Lee broke left as hard as he could while the ship threw out chaff and flares.

“I know why they're trying to knock us down. There are thousands of hybrids coming out of those things in the ground—they were doors. They opened when they started firing the missiles.” Lee fought for control as a missile exploded close by the right wing. The shrapnel thudded against the armor.

“You getting them, Odaka?”

“Yeah, yeah. Shut up so I can concentrate.”

Lee broke right, then left again as Odaka frantically worked the ship’s defense systems. Another rocket exploded in front of the nose of the ship, blinding Lee for a few seconds. Debris bounced off the windshield as they flew through the smoke and fire of the explosion.

“Could you please not let them get so close?” Lee said. He threw the ship into a steep dive.

“Fuck. They are dead serious about knocking us down,” Odaka said, his voice tense.

“They must be shooting everything they got before giving up on the spaceport. Toland, what’s going on?”

“Chief, I thought I’d seen a lot of ’brids, but this is something different. We need to get down there. They’re hauling ass and getting close to the port.”

“Oh, no they won’t,” Lee said.

“Hard left, Lee! For God’s sake, left!” Odaka yelled.

Lee threw the ship over on its left wing and they were rocked by the closest explosion yet. It exploded directly under them. The ship was thrown over on its back. Lee worked the controls and pushed the throttles to the firewall. With extra speed he was able to right the ship. He took it up in a steep climb, then stalled and let the nose fall back toward the planet. He dove toward the plain and the spaceport.

“We clear?” Lee asked.

“For now,” Odaka replied.

“Now we’re going to show these fucks what payback is like. Starting a run.”

“Let’s rock and roll,” Toland said.

“I’m going to light up the night with their asses,” Lee said as he readied his weapons systems.

1st Raider Battalion

Alpha Company

First Platoon

“Here they come! Fire as they get into range!” Hu said over the platoon frequency.

Fenes’s head snapped up. Minga was silent as she focused on the sensor plants downrange.

“You got any Xotoli?”

“No, not yet. I’m going to give you what looks like officers and NCOs.”

Minga touched an image in the spotter’s 3-D virtual reality, and suddenly there was a figure glowing yellow in Fenes’s scope. He put the crosshairs on, then pulled the trigger halfway to let the rifle know it was his target. It glowed red. Fenes pulled the trigger and the round was off. He had moved on to another target before the first one was hit. He had fired three times before the first target was thrown backward. All three targets went down.

“We’ve got X’s now. Get ready.”

The firing below was increasing as more and more of the platoon found targets off in the distance on the barren plain. Fenes heard the cough of another sniper’s rifle from over his shoulder. It must be the other sniper team in the control tower. Now the first of the Xotoli suddenly glowed yellow, but even with the help of the rifle’s and spotter’s computers, it was hard to keep the crosshairs on it. They were incredibly fast. One was outdistancing the rest and running straight at the spaceport, not trying to zigzag, just running flat out. It was getting bigger and bigger in his scope. Fenes pulled the trigger and waited for the round to hit. When it did, the Xotoli staggered but did not slow. Fenes fired two rounds, one after another this time. When they struck, the big Xotoli fell to its knees. It used its rifle to try and stand, and Fenes put a round in its helmet and blew it backward.

“Four fucking rounds to put that fuck down!”

“We got more to go.”

The fire from below them was cutting into the hybrids as they raced toward the position, but the Xotoli weren’t going down as fast. They were going to make it to the building. Every time Minga highlighted one, Fenes put two rounds in first then followed with two more in rapid succession. It never took less than four to put one down, and they were getting closer and closer. Then Fenes saw a Mike boat dive down, firing its metal storm and rockets. The rounds tore into the hybrids, ripping them to pieces. One Xotoli even as fast as it was could not out run the Mike boat metal storm and it was killed with the hybrids it led. Fenes lost all targets in the sand and smoke from the explosions. When the Mike boat finished its pass, it did an almost impossible turn on its wing and came back for a second run. Once again the plain was a huge plume of sand, pieces of hybrids, and explosions. Fenes couldn’t see anything moving.

“Minga, you got anything?”

“I’m still trying to get over the strafing. It was like I was a hybrid in the middle of it. I almost jerked out the I/O, it was so real. Things are settling down now. Yeah, there are still hybrids out there. The Xotoli disappeared. Wait.”

The Mike boat was coming back for a third pass when there was a flash out on the plain where the Xotoli had been. Faster than he could follow, a rocket streaked out of the ground toward the Mike boat.

#

Hu watched in alarm as the rocket hit the Mike boat in the front-right engine. It exploded with a huge blast and the Mike boat flipped on its back and plunged toward the ground. He could see the pilot fighting to pull the ship out of the dive and bring it upright. He was able to get it upright and reduce the angle at which the ship was diving, but not soon enough. It crashed into the ground, skidding across the empty plain and throwing out a huge plume of sand and rocks before slowly coming to a stop. One wing was gone and the cockpit was crushed in, but there was no fire. The battle seemed to freeze, as if the crash of the Mike boat was such a big event that everybody had to watch. Then Hu realized that not only had the Mike boat’s passes torn up the hybrids, but it had crashed into the wave and broken the charge. It had stopped the attack. The dust slowly settled and he heard, “Goddamnit. That’s the tail number of the boat that extracted us. We’re not going to leave them to these fucks.”

Hu realized it was Striker, and he was running as fast as his armor would take him. Not far behind him were the rest of the penal-battalion troops, all racing for the wreckage.

“Get back here, Striker! Goddamnit!”

Striker only increased his speed. Before Hu knew what was happening, half his platoon was following Striker. Fuck it, Hu thought. Those Mike boats had been saving their asses all night.

“First and third squads, covering fire. Second squad, follow me.”

Hu jumped up and raced toward the wreckage. He could see Striker as he reached the ship and began to look for signs of life.

“Penal, set up a perimeter. Snipers, cover us.”

“Check,” Fenes said.

“Roger that,” Basso said from the control tower.

“What the fuck are you doing, Hu?” Nani snapped as she watched half her platoon running toward the crashed Mike boat.

“It’s Striker and the penal-battalion guys,” Hu said as he ran. “This was the boat that saved their asses. I wasn’t going to stop them, so I thought I might as well join them.”

“Goddamnit, Hu.”

“Nani, the boat’s runs stopped the attack. We can do this,” Hu said, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he ran.

“Okay, but if the ’brids don’t kill you, I will when you get back. Gras, Lena, Bien, move more to the left and fill in the middle. Snipers, shoot anything that moves. Cover their asses,” Nani ordered over the platoon’s comm.

Hu glanced at his heads-up. Nani had filled the holes in their position and was still adjusting the positions of the rest of the platoon. She had things covered—that was why she was the acting lieutenant. As Hu got closer, he could see the pilot moving but not the copilot. The rear ramp been thrown off, and the rear gunner moving in her harness.

“Vallaion, Retig, Flavvia, behind that dune on the right. Harkin, Tolla, to the left,” Hu barked. The Raiders took up positions so they could cover the perimeter, but not so far out as to allow any hybrids to sneak in behind them.

Hu ran to the rear of the ship. There were two penal-battalion guys working on the gunner.

“How is she?” Hu said.

“She’ll live. She keeps mumbling something about cutting tools.”

“Yeah, follow me,” Hu ordered.

Hu and the other Raiders had been trained on how to rescue people from the Mike boats. One lousy class months ago. The boats carried their own rescue tools in an outside compartment. Now if he could only remember which side. As Hu looked, his stomach began to knot.
Oh, please be on this side not the side buried in sand.
Then he saw it. It had a big yellow streak across it and said Rescue.

“They’re in there. Cut her out while I check on the pilot,” Hu said to the penal-battalion guys working on the gunner.

Hu began to hear rails firing close by to his left.

“What have we got?”

“Nothing serious, boss, just a few stragglers. But I don’t think we should take our time,” Harkin replied.

Hu got to the pilot’s side. The pilot’s hatch was off—Striker had opened it and was trying to figure out a way to pull the instrument panel off the pilot. The pilot was groaning and mumbling. Hu looked over at the copilot. He'd been crushed into his seat by the instrument panel—it had impaled his chest. Blood was pouring out of his helmet. He was dead. Somebody grabbed Hu by the shoulder and pulled him out of the way, then shoved Striker aside.

“Listen, you stupid—” Striker started to say, then stopped.

It was Borges, the corpsman, in just her powered exoskeleton with no armor as usual. She had a big red cross on her helmet and on the medical pack on her back.

“Would you boys get out of the way and let me work? Go shoot something,” Borges said.

“Where’s Kant?” Hu asked.

“He’s in the back with the gunner,” Borges said. “Somebody tell him I’m going to need the stretcher and the cutters as soon as he’s finished.”

Hu ran to the rear of the ship. He could see Kant, Borges partner working with the others to remove the rear gunner.

“Hey, Kant, Borges needs the cutters as soon as you’re finished,” Hu said.

Kant looked over at Hu and shook his head without quitting what he was doing. Hu trotted back to Striker and Borges at front of the ship.

“Here, whatever your name is. Put this in the I/O on my backpack. Hu, show him where it is,” Borges said, handing Striker a tube that was attached to the pilot.

Hu pointed to the port she wanted and Striker put the tube in the port. Striker stood and shook his head. “She always like this?” he said.

“Afraid so,” Hu said.

“Hybrids!” Harkin yelled. “Left flank.”

Hu and Striker turned and faced away from the wreckage. Hybrids were coming up out of the ground through some kind of opening. Hu fired at the first group as they emerged. The rest of those in the perimeter fired almost as soon as he did, and the hybrids were cut down. The firing had just stopped when Striker took off running toward the opening.