Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (59 page)

Gina frowned at him. “I will of course.” She noticed Rutledge watching her. “What?”

Rutledge shrugged. “Two of us would be better.”

“Good idea,” Cragg said quickly. “I’ll watch your back, Gina.”

“I meant me,” Rutledge growled testily.

“You’re both
crazy
,” Newlove hissed.

Varya’s ears flicked, and his jaw dropped in amusement. “To me they sound very sane, but it should be me that goes. I’m quicker and… how do you say… hard to see?”

“Stealthy?” Cragg offered. “It means sneaky or hard to catch.”

“Yes, that is me. I can be very stealthy. Especially at night.”

Gina shook her head. “I’ve made my decision.”

“Fuentez…” Rutledge began. “Captain, you’re not thinking this through. You have two of the best trackers alive right here, and both of them are Shan. You know how well they blend in, but have you seen how fast they can run on all fours? I have. Shima and Varya have the best chance of getting the job done, and getting out in one piece.”

Gina hesitated. “A compromise then. Shima and I will do it, and the decision is not open to debate.”

Rutledge snapped his mouth shut.

“Gina—”

“No, Martin. I’m in command and the decision has been made. I won’t risk sending both of our trackers in there. We can’t afford to lose both. When the others get back to us, Varya will lead you all out of here. We still have three missing pilots to find.”

“Three?” Newlove said sickly. “Only three?”

“Sorry. The others are dead. You’re the first we’ve found that the Merkiaari didn’t get.”

“Oh God… they were my friends. I led them here to die.”

Gina knew exactly how he felt. “Sergeant Rutledge?”

“Captain?”

“Inform the General of what I intend, and make sure he’s aware of what’s coming his way.”

Rutledge nodded. A moment later his eyes went vacant as he contacted General Burgton using TacNet. His comm might be tracked, but TacNet was secure.

Hours later, Rutledge led the team over the ridge to wait. It hadn’t been said, but everyone was thinking that Gina’s self imposed mission was suicide. She thought they might be right. As soon as they were gone, she went into action. Crawling through the underbrush, she found an ideal position to watch while Shima took the transponder into the Merki camp. She would have been invisible if not for Gina’s knowledge of her position, and her low light amplification. Shima’s pelt blended so well with the shadows, it was like watching the night itself slink toward the camp.

Gina had her rifle panning across the camp looking for threats to her friend, but Shima had made her promise not to fire unless she was absolutely certain she couldn’t deal with the threat. They both knew that the mission would be over the moment Gina fired. She was determined to give her friend every chance to deliver the package.

She watched the Shan scientist turned warrior moving around the edges of the camp. Shima needed a way in that gave her maximum cover, and the chance to move undetected. They had discussed the placement of the transponder before Shima set off to deliver it, and had decided the best place would be one of the larger transporters. The combat gravsleds were out. The crew might notice if she put the transponder in the cockpit or gunner’s position. The transporters were another matter. No one would stumble upon it if Shima could secrete it amongst all the supplies in the cargo area. The problem was, she would have to penetrate the camp deeper than if she simply chose the closest gravsled. The sleds had been placed near the perimeter where they could be used in place of fixed defences in case of emergency. Worst of all, was the state of the Merki’s preparedness to move. They were getting ready to advance on Charlie Epsilon and points south. That meant instead of a camp that was settling down for the night, Shima had to contend with one that was a hive of activity.

Shima froze as the huge form of a Merki trooper walked by within touching distance. Gina had her rifle up and targeted on the Merki’s head, but she didn’t fire. He hadn’t seen Shima who was on her belly watching him intently. A few seconds went by before Shima moved out again. When she did it was awesome. Gina gasped when her friend went into a sprint from a standing start. One moment she was on her belly watching the retreating figure, the next she was streaking across the open space ahead. Shima was just a blur of speed.

Gina lost her the moment she moved, and then found her again just in time to lose her as she hid behind a pile of crates—munitions if she was right. She watched the pile for a few seconds, and only realised Shima had gone when she noticed movement further on. She quickly panned to the new location and zoomed in. She caught another glimpse of Shima, but then she was gone again.

Gina shook her head in admiration. What a viper Shima would make. She switched to thermal imaging, and found Shima just as she went to ground. There were troopers all over the place. They were easy to see using thermal imaging. Shima stayed still for the longest time yet. Gina was beginning to wonder if her friend had lost her nerve, but no, she was stronger than that. Like all Shan, she hated the Merkiaari with a passion. Her father had died early during the current incursion, and there wasn’t a day that went by that Shima didn’t remember him. She often told stories about him. Tahar sounded like an amazing man. Gina wished she could have known him.

Shima was close to her goal, but things were happening in camp. Gina watched as a section of gravsleds on the perimeter fired up, and began moving off to the south. Following them were hundreds of troopers just then falling in for the march, while others boarded the Merkiaari equivalent of APCs. Shima was aware her time was running out. She took one hell of a risk by moving into the open.

Gina cursed as her friend almost ran straight into the back of a sentry. Shima rose to her hind legs, and pulled her beamer. Gina targeted the sentry but waited for Shima to fire first, but she was hesitating. Shima holstered her weapon, and eased back from her enemy. Two paces back, she went to her belly and crawled under the armoured flange of a parked gravsled. She was taking a hell of a risk. If someone fired up the gravsled’s systems while she was underneath… Gina shuddered preferring not to think about it.

A minute passed, and Shima crawled out on the far side of the sled. The transporter she chose was the closest one to her position. It wasn’t the best one by any stretch of the imagination, it was still being loaded, but Shima was running out of time and she knew it. She waited for the troopers to descend the loading ramp on their way for more cargo before moving.

Gina panned her weapon around the transporter watching for guards. There was a brief lull in activity, and Shima took full advantage. She sprinted up the ramp and into the cargo hold. Gina counted under her breath imagining herself in the Shan woman’s place. She had to scout out a good place among the crates to hide the transponder. She gave Shima a count of ten for that. Another count of five to activate it, and a further five to get back to the ramp.

Twenty seconds after her dash up the ramp should have seen Shima ready to get out, but luck turned against her. Gina tensed as the Merkiaari returned with more cargo, and climbed the ramp to stow it in the hold. She watched with fading hope as more and more cargo went into the hold, but there was no outcry or the shattering sound of blaster fire. Gina watched in disbelieving silence as the Merki reappeared and descended the ramp. The ramp retracted and the transporter powered up. Gina zoomed in and caught a glimpse of Shima’s frightened face before she ducked back into the shadows within the hold.

“Oh no,” Gina breathed. “Oh Shima, I’m sorry.”

Gina watched as the transporter moved away to join the others in the supply convoy. There was nothing she could do. Shima was on her own. Gina eased back, and put some distance between herself and the camp. As soon as she could, she began climbing straight up the ridge in an effort to get back to Rutledge in the next valley over.

She made it to the crest of the ridge unseen.

As soon as Gina had put the bulk of the ridge between herself and the Merki camp, she went active on her sensors. It didn’t take long for her to find Varya who was a friendly blue icon on her display waiting for her on the edge of sensor range. Gina quickly made her way along the ridge toward him. She could not see him, not even when her sensors assured her that she was within a few metres of him.

“Shima?” Varya said easing out of his cover.

Gina shook her head. “She did her job but…”

“Dead?”

“She couldn’t get out without being seen. She stayed behind.”

Varya’s ears lay back and then struggled half erect. “May her ancestors welcome her,” he said softly, and shook himself like a dog shakes off the rain. “Come Tei’Gina, we have new orders.”

She hurried to follow. “We do?”

“Rutledge and the others have gone ahead. The Murderers have attacked our line and broken through. To my eternal shame, it was my people who failed to hold the Murderers at bay. Your metal men fought and killed many, but they too have been overrun. Our camp is in danger of being surrounded.”

Gina gritted her teeth in anger. They had to get the General out of there! Metal men were what the natives called Marines in their mechs. For the Marines to have been overrun meant the enemy was mounting a major offensive. The timing of such an offensive was ominous when combined with the movement she had just witnessed.

“Let’s try and catch Rutledge,” Gina said, and pushed her jog into a run. Varya dropped to all fours to keep up.

* * *

Combat Information Centre, ASN Victorious

Admiral Alice Meyers, commanding officer of
TF19
, paced anxiously. The holotank was the centre of attention, with most of her officers almost fascinated by the current view being displayed. She was more interested in what was happening on
Sutherland
. She stopped her pacing for a moment, and reached over the shoulder of a young ensign to bring up another view on his main monitor. He glared up at her in irritation for a moment before realising who was interfering with his station. Meyers ignored his whispered apology, and selected another view. This one was a simple list of assets in theatre, and was being constantly updated by CIC aboard
Sutherland,
and other ships within
TF19
. The satellite networks in orbit of Child of Harmony and Harmony were also linked in to
Victorious’
CIC, giving her almost godlike control over information flow. It didn’t make her feel any better about the current situation.

Despite almost four weeks of constant battle, the Merkiaari ground forces had been reduced by barely a third. In that same time however, Burgton had lost almost eighteen percent of his vipers, and close to forty percent of his Marine contingent, most of which had died not two hours ago when their lines were overrun. The unpalatable truth was that the Marines had been caught with their pants down. Until now, the bulk of the Merki forces had been steadily retreating and that more than anything had fooled Major Papandreou of the 7
^th
Marines into letting his guard down. Burgton on the other hand, had not been fooled. His lost men had all fallen in offensive operations in which he had inflicted awesome casualties upon the enemy. All his battles were victories, but he was so outnumbered that the losses he had sustained, though almost miniscule in comparison to those sustained by the Merkiaari, did in fact weaken him much more than they were weakened.

The long and the short of it was that although the Shan were now actively engaged in the fighting, they were in fact losing the war on the ground for Child of Harmony. It was just as Burgton said at their first meeting. They were fighting a delaying action, and trying to prolong things long enough to ensure that when Fifth Fleet finally arrived, there would be people alive to greet them. That was all very well, but watching the battles from orbit was harder than Meyers had imagined it would be. The strain of watching people she was responsible for die while she remained safe, was beginning to tell. She was getting snappish and short tempered. She tried to curb it, but lack of sleep and constant worry made that almost impossible.

“How long before
Sutherland
can launch again?” Meyers said.

“They estimate another twenty minutes, Admiral,” Joshua said, from behind her. “I think that’s optimistic. I would guess thirty five to forty minutes.”

“Why so long?”

“Her launch bays are still taking aboard our bombers from the last wave of strikes.”

“Damn.”
Sutherland’s
bays would be a chaos of landing, taxiing, and rearming spacecraft. It would take time to reconfigure the bays from landing to launch operations.

“Has the General made another request for air cover, ma’am?”

Meyers shook her head. “No. Commander Heinemann’s last report was routine. When is the next launch scheduled, and what’s the target?”

Joshua sat at an empty station to call up the data. “We have… hmmm. We have two launches scheduled for eighteen-hundred.
Sutherland’s
launch rails will be fully committed. The target is Intari—another bomb run. Commander Heinemann requested fighter cover for the bombers after what happened over Masaru. Captain Alston concurred with him. She ordered the bombers be accompanied by a second wing configured for air to air combat.” Joshua checked the time. “
Sutherland
reports on schedule for that double launch, Admiral.”