Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (2 page)

“Eagle One, Eagle Nine.”

“What is it, Frankowski?” Gina said and fired at what her HUD insisted was a rebel sniper in the trees. Her display flashed a good kill, and the red icon faded from her display.

“You saw Grace?”

“Yeah!”
she shouted as the grenade launcher took out a tree nearby. It crashed to the ground barely a metre from her dugout.
“We’re pulling back!”

“No shit! Pags is dead, and Pike’s hurt bad. I’m bringing him in.”

Gina changed channels and gave her orders. “All Eagles, Eagle One: we’re pulling back.
Marines, we are leaving!
”

She fired an unaimed burst into the trees and scrambled out of her hollow. Keeping low, she crawled into the undergrowth, but then cursed when she realised Eric hadn’t followed her. She looked back over her shoulder, and watched him firing into the enemy like some goddamn mindless sentry gun on auto.

“
Let’s go!
”

Eric nodded and threw his now empty weapon away.

She handed him her sidearm as they crawled over the edge of the riverbank. She looked back over the ledge and saw some of the enemy moving carefully into the clearing. She picked off those she could, and sighed in relief as Frankowski dragged Pike over the edge to safety.

Frankowski pulled out his medikit and pumped a dose of phenazocine into Pike, before carefully cutting away the burned remains of his uniform. Pulser wounds were nasty and damn painful. The phenazocine was a strong pain suppresser. It was stronger than Pike’s bots could produce on such short notice. His face relaxed, and his breathing eased as the shot took effect.

“You’re gonna be okay, buddy,” Frankowski muttered as he applied a battlefield dressing to the hideous wound in his friend’s side. The self-sealing sterile bandage adhered to the skin around the wound keeping infection away. “How’s that?”

“I feel like shit…” Pike panted clutching at the loose soil. The pain in his side surged up one last time, but a couple of seconds later it was defeated by a mixture of drug and nanobot activity. “Gimme a weapon… where’s my frigging rifle?”

Frankowski ignored the question to scramble back up the bank to add his fire to the defence. He glanced in Gina’s direction. “He’s hurt bad.”

“He’ll make it.” Gina selected squad wide on her comm. “Save your ammo—single shot only.”

She ignored Eric fumbling one-handed at her waist. He was going after the ammo for her pistol. She didn’t have much, and in a quiet moment ordered the others to dump theirs for him to use. Eric thanked her calmly and began taking out the bad guys with unerring accuracy, even when they were under cover. She didn’t know how he could keep going with only one arm. He said his bots were taking care of it, but still.

Nanobots were a fact of life for everyone, even more so in the military, but although they should keep him alive, fighting should be beyond him. Nanotech could do amazing things, but a body could only take so much. Using nanotech to boost a body’s natural processes was dangerous in the extreme. She could tell Eric was boosted to the max by the look in his eyes. He was glaring into the jungle, unblinking, as if in a trance. His movements were so rapid they almost seemed to blur in her vision. She blinked trying to clear the sweat from her eyes. She couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was. No one moved like that, boosted or not.

Dirt kicked up in front of Gina and she ducked. A moment later, she popped back up and fired an unaimed burst in the direction of the rebels. Eric’s head turned like a laser turret tracking targets. He fired at a careless rebel while glaring at another section of trees on his other side. The rebel was blasted back, and Eric’s pistol moved to the seemingly innocent trees. He fired again and moved on without pause. Glare to the left, fire to the right. Glare straight ahead, fire to the left. Glare, fire, glare, fire… Gina shivered. There was something not right about him.

“Eagle One, Falcon Leader.”

“Falcon Leader, Eagle One. What’ve you got for me?” Gina replied before firing again.

“Three birds fully loaded. Where do you want it?”

“Dump it all on the clearing.”

“Roger, Eagle One. Keep your heads down.”

“Eagle One clear.”

Gina looked around and found seven Marines and one civ hiding behind the bluff. If Eric was a civ she’d eat her rifle, but he looked like one. There wasn’t much cover, but it was all they had. It would have to do.

“Everyone down,” she shouted as the jungle erupted in death and fire.

The three FB-160 fighter-bombers screamed in low and deployed their munitions. The FB-160, unlike carrier based aerospace fighters like the SPAF-18 Nighthawk, was a ground-based fighter-bomber designed for COAS (close orbit air support) missions just like this. It was a perfect match for the mission of supporting a small squad of Marines under siege. Three flechette dispensing bombs, weighing thirty kilograms each, disengaged from each fighter and detonated as one at a preselected height above the clearing. The compression wave killed everyone in the clearing, and the razor sharp flechettes minced the remains finishing the job. The bombers however, weren’t ready to leave just yet.

“Falcon Leader to all chicks. Second pass on my mark… mark.”

The FB-160’s banked sharply and climbed. At three thousand metres, the pilots pushed over into a dive and fired their Hornet-AG missiles… a full spread. The jungle erupted again as eighteen warheads ploughed into the ground and then detonated.

“Jesus
Christ!
” Frankowski shouted as he tried to bury himself into the riverbank. “Are they
nuts?
”

Gina could only cover her head as the world went mad. Flyboys were all crazy, but this was pushing it. Talk about overkill.

“Eagle One, Falcon Leader.”

The explosions died away to be replaced by the crashing of falling trees and the crackle of burning undergrowth. Gina wiped mud and leaves from her visor and blinked at her surroundings. She could hardly believe what she saw. For almost a klick ahead of her, nothing stood above ground level. Fires were burning all over, and where huge majestic trees once stood, now all that remained were piles of broken kindling surrounding a deep crater.

The fighters screamed by overhead. “Eagle One, Falcon Leader,” the call came again.

“Falcon Leader, Eagle One. You sure know how to trash a party,” Gina said, crawling to the edge of the huge smoking crater.

“Navy training, Eagle One,” the voice said with a chuckle before hardening again. “Falcon Leader clear.”

“Always knew flyboys were nuts, but this is ridiculous,” Westfield said in awe.

Gina nodded in complete agreement. “Sensors up,” she ordered and rebooted her own software.

“No hostiles,” Frankowski reported first and the others concurred.

Eric pointed off to his right. “I have one.”

Gina didn’t know how he knew that. He was a civ. More than that, he didn’t have Marine armour or tactical helmet with its sensor package. There was a depth to his emerald green eyes, a kind of knowing weariness that puzzled her. He noticed her watching him, and his lips quirked into a crooked smile. He seemed to find her amusing, which was strange considering the situation they were in. Strange or not, there was something about Eric that said she would be wise to heed him.

“Frankowski, Westfield, go check it out. The rest of you cover them.”

“Aye, aye,” her people chorused and moved out.

Eric stood to follow.

“Not you.”

He shrugged. “As you wish.”

As she wished? Damn right it was. “Who are you?
What
are you?”

Eric smiled. “I think you already know, Sergeant, or perhaps you’re only now beginning to guess.”

She glanced at his stump. Now she had time, she noticed something odd. It excited her at the same time as it appalled her. The bone wasn’t shattered or even split. Instead, it was bent and twisted at the end like metal. She knew why that was.

“A viper?” she whispered reverently.

Eric smiled again. “I think it’s time you called in, don’t you?”

“What rank?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does to me.”

He straightened to attention. “I am Captain Eric Penleigh, Special Assault Group, 501
^st
infantry.” He relaxed and laughed at her dumbfounded expression. “Don’t bother to salute.”

Gina nodded slowly. Of course he was 501
^st
, all vipers were. To meet one was rare, especially when the Alliance consisted of more than two hundred member worlds, a total that didn’t include those in the Border Zone like Thurston. Who knew how many Human settled worlds there were altogether? She certainly didn’t. They had a great many worlds to cover.

“Don’t make a fuss, Sergeant, and that
is
an order. I’m supposed to be Eric the terrorist while on this God forsaken planet. If you want to tell your people something, tell them I’m an informer who needs protection.”

“Aye, aye, sir.” Gina almost saluted, but she managed to restrain herself in time.

“And watch the sirs,” Eric added before walking away.

“Is there likely to be more of this?”

He looked back over his shoulder. “Probably.” He went to join her people in their search.

Gina made her way to where Pike lay. She sat beside him and keyed his wristcomp to display a read out on his medical condition. It was in the red. She watched as his bots reported back that his condition was critical but stable. Reassured somewhat, she contacted base.

“Red One, Eagle One.”

“It’s about damn time,” Major Stein said. “Report, Eagle One.”

“Sorry for the delay, Gold One. Something came up.” She wondered what had happened to Lieutenant Strong. “I have two dead and one seriously wounded.” She patted Pike on the knee, and he smiled feebly back at her. “We have the package and—” she broke off at a warning beep in her headset. “Wait one.” She changed channels. “What have we got?”

“We found a live one, Gunny,” Frankowski said sounding surprised. “Our civ wants to take him in. I say we cap him for what he did to Gracey.”

“Copy that.” She wanted the bastard dead, but Eric was no civ. “Bring him in alive. I want to ask him where his bastard friends are.”

“Aye, aye. Eagle Nine clear.”

Gina quickly changed channel again. “Gold One, Eagle One.”

“Eagle One, Gold One. Go,” came Major Stein’s quick reply.

“We have the package and one prisoner, sir. Request extraction co-ordinates.”

“Gold One copies. Co-ordinates follow…”

Gina tapped the figures into her wristcomp and pressed save. “Eagle One clear.”

Frankowski prodded the rebel forward and made him sit before Gina in the mud. She gave Frankowski a meaningful look and he nodded almost imperceptibly. They had played this game with prisoners before. Gina casually pointed her rifle at the rebel and asked her question.

“I ain’t talking to you
bastids,
” the prisoner spat before she could say another word.

Gina grinned. Frankowski raised his pulser and pressed it against the man’s right knee. The terrorist closed his eyes and sweated. Gina was impressed. He hadn’t uttered a single word of protest.

“Gunny?”

Gina glanced at Eric. He was watching her intently. “Not yet… maybe later.”

Frankowski nodded and lowered his weapon.

Gina knew that there was nothing left of Grace to recover, but maybe Pags? “Any sign of Pags?”

“He was near me,” Pike panted.

Gina turned and surveyed the crater. Pike had been near the centre when he was hit. Nothing had survived. She said a silent prayer for her two friends, and then turned back to business. She had other friends that needed her. She downloaded the evac coordinates to their wristcomps, and then detailed off her people.

“Frankowski and Westfield can look after our friend here. Cole, you take point. Ridley and Gleeson, you two carry Pike in the centre. Hollings, you’re rear guard—keep your eyes open for any more of this guy’s friends.”

PFC Liz Hollings nodded and raised her weapon eagerly. Pags had been her best friend and she wanted payback.

“And me?” Eric said.

Gina studied him for a long considering moment. Vipers were lethal to anything that moved, but her people didn’t know what he was, and he wanted it kept that way.

“In the centre with Pike. You’re wounded.”

Eric nodded.

“Let’s move Marines,” she ordered and Cole set a fast pace into the jungle.

* * *

President’s office, parliament building, Thurston

“We have their location Mister President,” Major Patrick Stein said patiently.

He was quite pleased with the calm sound of his voice. In reality, he was boiling with anger. Rage would be closer to what he was feeling. Two of his people were dead, and one would be lucky if he was back on duty in a month. He didn’t want to think what might have happened. The reality was bad enough.