Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (52 page)

“This will do nicely,” Kate murmured to herself and raised her rifle. “Hmmm, where are you? Ah…”

She squeezed the trigger and took the top of a Merki’s head off. Her targeting reticule hesitated a second, and then tentatively settled on another target, this time the barrel of a plasma cannon. She dropped onto the target and fired a three round burst and watched the cannon explode into its operator’s face.

Kate chuckled. “Lovely.”

Looking around, she found her people moving from crater to crater, closer and closer. Time to move up again. She crawled out then sprinted forward a few yards. The first she knew she was hit was when she fell face first into a crater. She grunted as the air was blasted from her lungs, but the fact it hurt was reassuring. If it hurt, then she must be alive. She realised her armour was cracked over her ribs, and that her damage indicator was blinking pale yellow over her left side. It hurt like a sonofabitch, but it was nothing to worry about. No doubt she would sport one hell of a bruise tomorrow. She leapt out of her crater into the next one.

“Now then, what’s the range?” Kate checked her range finder. “One hundred?” She poked her head up for a better look, and ducked as the rim of the crater eroded from incoming fire. “Yep, one hundred. Delta One, Alpha Leader. Report status.”

“Delta One,” Lieutenant Dengler answered in a distracted tone of voice. “Still moving forward. I make it two hundred metres to target.”

“Copy that. I’m at one hundred. Move up in line, and call off the barrage in exactly five minutes…
mark.
”

“Copy.”

Kate looked to her left but couldn’t see Brice. “Charlie One, Alpha Leader. Report status.”

“Charlie One. I’m bogged down,” Brice said.

“How far back?”

“Three hundred metres.”

“Three hundred is unacceptable, Lieutenant,” she said knowing that Brice wouldn’t like that. “Move your people up. In exactly four minutes, the barrage will lift and we go in.
Be there.
”

There was silence for a few moments. “Copy.”

Exactly four minutes later, Kate ran forward at top speed hearing the last grenades and mortars detonating ahead. It was a relief. She would really hate it if her own launchers killed her. She grinned into the wind, and fired at the Merki troopers in front of her. Both males went down as she jumped into their foxhole.

“Woof!” Kate was body checked by a trooper before she could fire. He began to throttle her.

She had a flashback of the simulation back at Alliance HQ for an instant, but this time she didn’t mess about. Her rifle came up in her right hand, and she selected full auto even as she pulled the trigger. She staggered back from the collapsing monster, drenched in alien blood, and reloaded her rifle.

One of her men jumped into her foxhole, and immediately swung left to fire along the enemy lines. Thinking that a fine idea, Kate did the same on the right before climbing out and heading for the next position. With her sensors sweeping ahead of her, and her targeting software locking up one Merki trooper after another, she became a walking killing machine. The next enemy position appeared before her, and a grenade arrived in her hand as if by magic.

“One… two—”

WHUMP!

“Three.” Kate grinned and dropped into the foxhole already firing. She stared at the corpses, and shook her head. “Waste of ammo.” She climbed out looking for something else to kill.

All along the Merkiaari lines, her sensors reported blue viper icons swarming over, and slaying, the glaring red ones denoting enemy troops. She found herself too far away to do any good, and watched the red lights wink out one after another without firing a shot. With nothing else to do, she called for satellite imagery of the battlefield.

Access satellite Sierra Zero One. Enlarge sector G-five.

Everything looked quiet now. The satellite showed the port facilities and the surrounding area. The hangars were still burning, and she could see activity on the roof of the terminal building, which had gaping holes in the walls and many windows broken or missing. Fuentez had set up a squad on the roof to overlook the LZ, and another was patrolling the grounds around the building.

Centre grid G-six.

The image was replaced with another showing Zuleika. The city seemed quiet, too quiet. There was no obvious enemy activity, but Kate knew they were there. The General said the control room found by Fuentez’s First Squad, was some kind of communications centre. She could expect to receive another attack at almost any time.

“Alpha Leader, Charlie One,” Brice said over the comm.

Kate ordered her processor to clear the image. As the view of the city disappeared to be replaced by her targeting display, she began making her way back toward the LZ.

“Alpha Leader. Go,” Kate said as she crossed what had been the Merki line of defence.

“Sector secure, no casualties.”

“Copy that. Set the perimeter alarms and move the launchers into the dugouts. We might be receiving company from the city.”

“Copy Alpha Leader.”

“Alpha Leader, Delta One,” Dengler said making her report.

“Go,” Kate answered.

“Sector secure. No casualties.”

“Copy that. Set up your spy eyes, Erma, and bring the mortars into position. Send someone back to Viper One to re-supply your platoon.”

“Copy that.”

Kate contacted Brice again to order a similar resupply for his platoon. She didn’t tell Fuentez to do the same; there was no point. Her friend would have seen the need, and already have done it. Kate decided it was time to give the General a sitrep.

“Gold One, Alpha Leader.”

“Report,” Burgton said instantly.

“Spaceport secured, sir. No activity from the city as yet, but I’ve ordered alarms set to give warning, and a defensive perimeter is now in place. You may make your landing at your convenience, General.”

“Outstanding Katherine. Casualties?”

“Captain Hames and one other, sir. Chrissie Roberts bought it.”

Burgton sighed. “Copy that, Katherine. Meet me at the LZ.”

“Will do, sir. Alpha Leader out.”

“Gold One out.”

 * * *

Zuleika Spaceport, Child of Harmony.

James searched the empty sky for the source of the sound. Thunder? No, it was getting louder. Shima pointed behind him and he turned in time to see a pair of Nighthawks fly subsonic over the outskirts of the port. He flinched as the fighters accelerated through the sound barrier, the sonic boom echoing over the busy port as they climbed steeply. He watched the neon blue light of their twin afterburners until he lost them to distance.

“Professor Wilder?”

James recognised the black battle dress uniform of a viper Colonel. “Yes, sir,” he said to the approaching man, coming to a rough attention.

“Let me introduce myself, Professor. I’m Colonel Flowers, Regimental Exec.” Flowers smiled and shook hands. “Call me Dan if you like. And who is your companion?”

“Colonel, this is Shima.” James turned and translated for his friend. “Shima, this man is a Tei among the vipers. His name is Dan.”

“But James,” Shima protested. “You have told me of the shock troops called vipers. You said the Alliance had no more.”

“It seems I was mistaken my friend, and thank the harmonies I was.”

“Tei’Dan, I…
pleased
am you here are,” Shima said in halting English and held up a paw.

“Like a handshake, sir,” James explained. “Press your right palm to hers for a few moments.”

Flowers did so without hesitation.

“I greet you, Shima. May you live in harmony,” Flowers said in passable Shan, and James grunted in surprise. “I’m glad to finally meet one of your people face to face. Tei’Varyk’s brief went a long way to help us, but there’s nothing like the personal touch.”

“Colonel, if I might ask,” James said. “How is it you speak Shan so well?”

Flowers smiled ruefully. “Not so well, as you no doubt noticed, Professor, but good enough for now. My men and I uploaded the language on our way here.”

He nodded, intrigued by the idea that Binder’s translation could be used by a viper’s internal computer system. It would be like having a built in translator.

“You said Varyk is alive?”

Flowers nodded. “Very much so.
Canada
picked him up from the wreckage of his ship. He was instrumental in arranging our presence here.”

“And Tarjei?”

“His mate?”

James nodded.

“She’s well. Tei’Varyk and the remnants of his crew received nano treatment before reaching Earth. There was some concern over cross-species infection I understand, but
Canada’s
surgeon took care of it.”

“That’s great. I barely had time to get to know them both. They were the first Shan I ever met. I’m glad they survived.”

James quickly translated for Shima. She was delighted and spoke rapidly to the others to tell them the good news. He listed for a moment before turning back to address the reason for his presence at the spaceport.

“I know you’ve seen some fighting here, Colonel, but I have to warn you that the Merkiaari here are nothing compared with the new troops in the city.”

“New troops?” Flowers said with a frown. “I don’t believe I understand, Professor.”

“Call me James. My friends and I have been fighting here for months. The new troopers are extremely hard to kill, sir. They fight smarter than those you fought before. They have learned a lot from their previous defeat, Colonel. Too much for my piece of mind.”

“Come with me. The General needs to hear this.”

“But my men,” James said glancing back at what was left of Zuleika’s resistance movement. There were perhaps three hundred bedraggled people gaping at their surroundings, and flinching as the fighters screamed overhead on their way to bomb the known Merki infestations.

Flowers’ expression softened. “I’ll assign you a couple of men. Take a half hour to get them settled and fed.”

“
Weapons
Colonel, we need
weapons
. Our cell charger is in the city and what we have with us won’t last long.”

“We’ll discuss that later. For now, get them bedded down in the east wing. I’ll come get you when the General has time for you.”

James would have protested, but what was the point? He was in the presence of one of the Alliance’s greatest heroes as well as in the middle of a camp full of its elite troops. He nodded slowly and turned back to explain to his people.

A few hours later, James was sitting at a table in a large room on the terminal building’s ground floor. Burgton was there along with his officers. Flowers was sitting next to the General, and both had worried faces. He didn’t blame them. He had learned since his arrival that there was only a single battalion of vipers in the system. Worse than that, they represented every combat capable viper the Alliance had available. Shima and James’ team leaders sat with him. He had explained that he wanted them nearby to back him up, and would go over what was said after the meeting. Their English was still too poor to make understanding easy, but he felt better facing so many vipers with a few of his own men with him.

“Firstly,” Burgton began. “I am ordered to offer you a ride up to
Victorious
to rejoin the rest of the contact team, but I don’t think you’ll take it. Will you?”

“No,” James said without hesitation. “I have responsibilities here.”

“He is our Tei,” Shima said in heavily accented English, but the words were understandable.

Burgton nodded. “As I thought. Now that’s out of the way, let us get down to business. Dan has briefed me on your claims—”

“Not claims,
facts,
” James interrupted.

“
Claims
,” Burgton said firmly. “They are claims until one of my people examines an example of your new Merki troopers. Having said that however, we will proceed on the assumption that they are indeed something new. Caution costs little. I need everything you have regarding them, Professor.”

James nodded. He was relieved that Burgton was willing to listen. He interlocked his fingers, and leaned forward intently.

“I don’t know if you know this, but one of my fields is history. I assure you that I know what I’m talking about, General. The troops you fought were tough, there’s no disputing that, but they were also stupid. You agree?”

Burgton smiled. “Up to a point, yes. The females always seemed more intelligent. The males were never deep thinkers. They were unsound tactically, and needed close supervision and guidance. We used that to our advantage time and again.”