Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (58 page)

“Jesus, did
you hear that!” Kostovich said to Walton.

“I did, what
do you want me to do?”

Kostovich
shook his head.  “Send them short.  No, send five at him and five
short.  Give him something to think about.  Just make sure none go
long; that’s Karjalainen right behind him.”

Foveaux had
retrieved the personal missile launchers from the troop carrier.  Two of
her troops had been injured in the explosion and remained behind but with the
rest she set off at a light run towards the mech she could see about five
hundred metres distant, which was running toward the spaceport with Bobby’s
troop carrier in pursuit.

“I have a visual
on your mech, Bobby,” said Foveaux, “should I fire?”

“Yes,” said
Bobby.

Foveaux
turned to a trooper next to her with one of the hand-held missile
launchers.  “Take out the mech,” she said.  “You two too,” she said
to two others.

As they
stopped to allow the grenadiers to drop to one knee and fire they heard,
quietly through the thin Marian atmosphere, the roar of approaching missiles.

“Any time you
like,” said Bobby.

Foveaux saw
brief red streaks as the mech tried to take out Kostovich’s incoming missiles.
 “Fire!” she said, and at first one then two and three missiles streaked
away, hugging the ground as they sped toward the mech.

While the
mech was firing its laser into the air, still running, the second wave of
Kostovich’s missiles struck the ground in front of it.  A huge plume of
light brown dust was thrown into the air.  Steiner lost visuals in the
dust cloud but his radar showed that he was about to enter a newly appeared
missile crater.  Keeping his momentum he went to jump it.

At the moment
his trailing foot left the ground the first of Foveaux’s missiles struck,
quickly followed by the other two.  The mech was strong enough to resist
their explosive force but was pushed, just slightly, off balance.  As the
mech landed on the far side of the crater instead of carrying on with its
stride it fell, hitting its right shoulder on the crater wall before spinning
and landing on its back.

Bobby
continued with his chase.  The troop carrier jumped the ridge of the
crater and landed on top of the fallen mech.

Steiner
struggled to move.  He twisted and turned, but it felt like there was a
huge weight on his chest.  There was; it was Bobby’s troop carrier.

Bobby and the
driver were shaking about in the cabin as the mech writhed beneath them.

Steiner tried
to bring his laser to bear but he couldn’t get the angle he needed on the troop
carrier.

“Do we get
out?” said Bobby’s driver.

Bobby was
about to answer when, with an almighty twist, the mech span around so it was
now laying on its side.  The troop carrier slid partly off its back and
sat at a forty-five degree angle, half on the mech and half in the
crater.

“Yes,” said
Bobby.  “Bring all the ordnance you have.”

As his crew
scrambled out of the troop carrier Foveaux appeared at the rim of the
crater.  “Take out the laser!” she said to one of her grenadiers. 
The trooper squatted and sent a missile directly to Steiner’s laser. 
Steiner felt the blast as keenly as if it had hit his own shoulder.  Now
he was utterly defenceless.  He pressurised his suit and pulled on the
emergency
evac
switch.

Bobby circled
around the troop carrier as the dust thinned and cleared.  He saw Steiner
stagger from the belly of the mech and he saw the pistol in his hand.

“Don’t
shoot!” said Bobby across all frequencies.

Steiner heard
him clearly but ostentatiously banged the side of his helmet like he was having
trouble picking up the transmission.

Bobby’s crew
fanned out beside him.  They had plasma rifles, RPGs and personal missile
launchers.  Steiner pointed his weapon at them suspiciously.  He held
it two-handed.  From his cautious movement it looked like he was
controlling the situation.  Bobby held a plasma rifle aimed directly at
Steiner’s head.

“It’s over,”
said Bobby.

The dust
cleared further and Steiner could see Foveaux and her
fireteam
ranged across the far edge of the crater.  He had considered taking his
chances with Bobby.  Now he could see that, as well as being outnumbered,
he was at the apex of a perfect field of crossfire from two well-placed
fireteams
.  He dropped his gun and put his hands in
the air.

“You’ve got
me,” he said.

“Please
report on your situation,” said Kostovich.

“The area is
secure.  We have one prisoner.  We’re bringing him in,” said Foveaux.

Bobby
approached Steiner.  He held out a hand.  “Welcome to Mars,” he said,
“how do you like it so far?”

Steiner
looked at the outstretched hand.  “I thought
my
hometown was grim,”
he said.  “I need a shower.”

“We can sort
that out.  Come with us.”  Bobby guided Steiner to the top of the
crater.  His troops followed behind.  Foveaux walked around the edge
to greet them.

“Nice work,”
she said to Bobby.

“Thank you,
Commissioner,” he replied.  “I hope to be compensated accordingly.”

“Pay is
basic.  No bonuses,” said Foveaux.

“Is it too
late to reconsider?”

“It is
now.  You’re signed up.  Welcome to the MSS.”

They trudged
toward the space port.

As they
passed
Parry 4
Bobby noticed the crisscross burns on the radio
domes.  Steiner had done a job on them.  He thought he caught Steiner
glancing in that direction too, and smirking.

They walked
across the runway and into the hangar.

“Are we all
here?” said Foveaux.  “Raise the doors and
repressurise
.”

They saw the
yellow lights spinning and felt the rumble as the powerful motors started to
push the doors up from the ground.

As the doors
reached a height of two metres Steiner span around and planted a fist into the
chest of one of Bobby’s troops.  He grabbed another and threw him at a
further three.  Before anyone had time to react he was streaking across
the hangar bay towards the doors.  A handful of troopers stepped forward
and raised their weapons.

“Don’t
shoot!” said Foveaux.  “We can’t damage the doors!”

Bobby and
some others chased Steiner but he pulled away easily.  Bobby had played
high school football and his rushing game was excellent, but Steiner’s speed
seemed unreal.  He pulled away from Bobby as if he was standing still.

As he reached
the rising hangar door, which was now nearer three metres high, Steiner
jumped.  He sailed gracefully over the door and was away.  Bobby and
the troops were left standing, looking as foolish and confused as if Steiner
had literally vanished into the thin Martian air.  Bobby turned back to
Foveaux and made an elaborate shrugging gesture.  He started a slow walk
back as the doors finally clanked into position and warnings signalled that the
hangar was
repressurising
.

“Don’t worry
about him,” said Kostovich.  “He’ll never last more than an hour out
there. 
It’s
dusk - the
temperature will be through the floor in a couple of hours.  I’m launching
a drone.  I’ll track him and you can recover the body in the morning.”

The
repressurisation
finished and Bobby pulled his helmet off.

“He got
away,” he said to Foveaux.

“He must know
what’s waiting for him out there.  His choice, I guess.  Is that all
part of the commander code?  Avoiding the dishonour of surrender?”

“Not that I
know,” said Bobby.  “He was going to have a shower.  That’s what I’d
have gone for.”

The personnel
from
Ephialtes
had been watching from the transports.

“I think that
was Steiner,” said Lund.  “Why would he go and do a thing like that?”

“Steiner? 
You think he made it?”

“It was
him.  I know it.  That was the emergency.  He must have made it
through and tried to attack.  Why has he run off now, though?  He’s
going to die out there.”

“I don’t
know,” said Lucero.  “He’s one tough son of a bitch.  If he made it
down here then who knows what he has planned?  He’s a pretty resourceful
guy.”

Lund looked
at the place Steiner had escaped from.  It was like a warehouse in style,
but it was warm and light with a breathable atmosphere.  The outside had
none of those things.

On the drive
to the garrison Kostovich’s voice came over the com.  “Foveaux?” he said.

“Go ahead,”
said Foveaux.

“I got a
drone overhead and I picked up the heat signature of your guy.”

“Go on.”

“Well, I
followed him for a couple of klicks and then he went dead.”

“He
died?  From the cold?”

“Probably
that too,” said Kostovich, “but the signature just disappeared.  Boom, it
was gone.”

“Fell down a
hole, maybe?”

“Who
knows?  Anyway, I’ll give you the coordinates and you can get out there
and have a look tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“You did a
great job today, by the way.”

“Thank
you.  But it wasn’t just me.  It was all of us.  You too.”

Kostovich
nodded.  “Maybe.  Maybe we all did a great job, you’re right. 
Congratulations us.”

“Congratulations
us,” said Foveaux.

At the
garrison the transports were unloaded under guard.

“There’s
really no need for all this,” said Lucero, “it’s not like we’re going to go anywhere.”

“
It’s
standard procedure,” said Foveaux.

“You have a
procedure for this?” said Lucero, incredulously.

“We do now,”
said Foveaux, “I just made it up.  In the stockade and secure quarters for
now, and we’ll sort something out for the long term in a few days.”

Lucero rolled
her eyes.

Bobby pushed
his way through to Askel.

“Askel?” he
said.

“Bobby,”
Askel replied.

“I wanted to
catch up on
Europa
.  I was
kinda
busy,
though.”

“I saw. 
So you’re on the other side now?”

“Well,” said
Bobby, “I’m just a simple Martian boy, sticking up for my planet.”

Askel
laughed.  “I guess you thought you could get away from me here. 
Well, look right where I am.”

“I’m
looking,” said Bobby.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. 
Looks pretty good to me.”

“Oh, that is
slick
. 
You haven’t changed, Bobby Karjalainen.”

Bobby smiled
at Askel.  “What are you doing tonight?”

“Are you
asking me out?”

“I might be.”

“I’m sorry,
but I’m going to have to turn you down.”

Bobby was taken
aback.  “Why?” he said.

“Well,”
explained Askel, “tonight I have to be a prisoner of war.  So I can’t make
it.  But some other time, okay?”

“Hey,” said
Bobby conspiratorially, nodding toward Foveaux, “I think it’ll be okay.  I
know the commissioner.”

A small voice
startled Bobby.  “Commander Karjalainen, could I have a few words?”

Bobby turned
and saw Elspeth standing, camera in hand, beaming at him.

“How did you
get in here?” he said.

“I’m
accredited now,” said Elspeth, pointing to badge attached to her lapel. 
“Just a few words, for my stream?  Could you tell us about the
rescue?  I understand there was big firefight out at the spaceport? 
Were you there?”

“I’d love to
talk to you, Elspeth, but it’s been kind of a long day.  Can we do this
tomorrow?”

Elspeth
looked disappointed.  “Okay,” she said.  “How about something for
tonight’s stream?  Just a picture or something?  Who’s your friend?”

“This is
Askel Lund.  She’s a spacecraft designer of some repute.”

“Could you
kiss her?”

“
What!?
”
said Bobby.

“It would be
a great picture.  You rescued her, right?  Give her a kiss, I’ll make
it the number one aggregated image before the end of the day.”

“What do you
think?” Bobby asked Askel.  “Feel like making news?”

Askel looked
at him.  “
C’mere
,” she said.