Major Sheli Chowdhury
1 July
Mama said there would be days like this, but she never said that it was possible to string so many of them together. Of course, she said that I would come to a bad end one day, so what did she know.
At first, I wasn't sure what Captain was up to when the ragged terraforming group came into our clearing.
“Stand easy, Major,” he called. “these are the friends that Commander Truman told us about.”
I perked up at the name and made a show of relaxing. Truman was the name of the CO of the commandos that sold me out and led me into a trap nine years earlier. I wasn’t aware that Captain knew about that particular episode of my career. Stand easy? Not likely.
That name told me something. He wanted me on watch. Captain and I had been together long enough that I could usually tell where his thoughts were headed. He was one of the most devious men that I had ever met. I loved that about him. He always left himself a way out of any situation. Preferably three or four ways out so he could choose the best one.
Several things were immediately obvious. These men were lying through their teeth and they had guns on us from somewhere. They claimed to be the terraforming crew that had been sent out by Warner Command but for some reason, Captain wasn’t buying it. They probably had covering fire somewhere. You could bet on it.
When Captain tasked me to gather a group to go to their camp, I felt the loss of Aichele once again. I wished, sometimes, that I hadn't sent him back onto Pathfinder. Like I said, Captain likes to give himself lots of options, and maybe I'm finally learning. But I could really use someone here that I could trust.
Even after nine months together on Pathfinder and now our short time on Vanguard, most of the crew were still unknown to me. Johnson was a known entity, as she had been together on Resolute with Captain for a short time and I had served with her on Fearless when she was an ensign, but she was still young and developing as an officer. Mackey, I had known for years. He was steady and solid but he only dealt with threats as they came. He never anticipated trouble. The ensigns were green and raw. They could probably only be trusted to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. That is what ensigns do best. Mackey was the best choice but he didn’t have the rank.
“Johnson,” I called, when I was away from the strangers far enough for them to be unable to overhear, “I am going to leave you in charge of security here at the ship. Have Mackey post guards and maintain a constant watch. Captain feels there is something wrong with this group. They aren’t what they seem. Keep everyone under cover as much as possible and protect the ship at all costs. Without the ship, we’re dead.” Her eyes got big for a moment, but I don't think anyone saw.
I selected our party and we went off to the terraformer’s encampment, leaving Johnson and Mackey with two guns to cover the group that stayed behind. While we walked with them to their camp, it became obvious that whatever these men claimed to be, they were military. There are always little clues in the way they work with each other. I would bet my next paycheck that they were either a Raider Strike Unit or Drop Marines. This made our survival much less likely.
On arriving at our destination, I could tell right away that this was either a secondary camp or they had been here a very short time. There was no evidence of occupancy. Those little bits of ourselves that we leave all around without thinking. There were no families and very little clutter. I whispered to Captain of my suspicions, but he just nodded. He knew already. That's what I love about him. He sees things. After we finished our meal and Captain told them some more lies we prepared to head back to camp.
“Well, the food was excellent.” Captain said as he stood casually. Now was the critical moment. If they wanted to take us, now would be their best opportunity. “We enjoyed this meal and we greatly appreciate you sharing your meager stores with us.”
I stood and casually separated myself from the group. Drew began gathering the supplies that we had received. He was also being very wary of our hosts.
We had secured the ship as much as was possible before we left, but I felt that they would make an attempt on us before we got back to Vanguard. It made sense to attack the groups while they were split. 'Defeat in detail' they call it. I had picked out six of the troopers that were paralleling us in the jungle on the way in. I figured that I could get three before they could cover the ground necessary to get to us unless they had armor, but I didn't know what kind of weapons they had. They might be able to keep their distance, but I didn't believe that they had any stand-off weapons, and I had seen no evidence of energy weapons at all. Of course, that could all be part of the ruse. It was best to assume that they were armored and had the normal weapons load out of a Raider unit. That put at least eight troopers in the woods in addition to the six that were pretending to be terraformers.
Just as I thought we were going to get out of the open clearing and into the cover of the trees, a bright flash and thunderous noise rocked the clearing. Heavy assault rifles by the sound. I squinted against the flash to preserve as much of my sight as possible and drew my pistol as I leapt into the woods to my right while everyone else was shielding their faces from the blast.
Everyone was scattering at the sound of weapon’s fire and the ‘terraformers’ were pulling pistols from under the mounds of foodstuffs. I picked my targets and fired as quickly as I could. The troopers in the woods were a priority target but those in the clearing were easier to get to and would soon be just as great a threat. Two troopers went down with my first two shots but the second was still moving. They did have armor, then. That had been a clean heart shot.
“Captain, get them back to the ship, I’ll cover your back,” I called and let off two more shots at the terraformers. One connected and the large trooper went down. The second connected also, but the raider had managed to roll at just the wrong time and had taken the shot in the back. He was stunned but still struggling for cover. I shot him in the head and he lay still. I scanned for the captain but they were all moving up the trail. Captain looked over to my position and motioned to those still in the clearing. Shots were impacting all around them. Roberts was down but had managed to get under cover. Le Vesconte lay face down in the clearing where he had fallen after taking that first shot from ambush. Captain pointed to me and I waved. Got it, they were my responsibility. Many would dither and risk the group to rescue those still trapped. Not Captain Brighton. Command decisions are very difficult and the mark of a good captain is the ability to make the tough decisions quickly. If I had not been available, Captain probably would have stayed behind to get Roberts out but instead he moved off with the others towards the dubious safety of the ship. The remaining raiders in the clearing were all under cover and I could hear movement behind me coming down the hill. Time to move.
I found cover near the bole of a large tree about thirty meters to my right. The raiders in the clearing had gotten daring and were trying to move on Robert’s position. One went down as Roberts let loose with a large rock that connected with the side of his head. The other kept going without firing. He obviously wanted a hostage. I got a clear shot just as he was about to reach down to grab the Ensign. My shot took him in the back of the head and he fell forward on top of her. She took his pistol and let loose a wild volley that forced everyone else back into cover. Good girl. All six of the terraformers were down, though two were obviously still alive and firing back.
I could hear movement behind me so I went up the tree. People get very used to looking at everything two dimensionally. A good trooper will be aware of what is above him but most aren’t. I holstered my pistol as I saw my target. My pistol would be totally ineffective against the heavy armor that he was wearing. His helmet made it less likely that he would see me above him as well. He was moving slowly and cautiously through the trail. His weapon and helmet were both tracking from side to side slowly and methodically. He was doing everything by the book- slow and easy. When he reached a point on the trail that was directly below me, I swung off of my branch and dropped fifteen feet to land with both boots on his upturned faceplate. His weapon was swinging up towards me but my feet got there first. The weapon went off as I hit, burning the outside of my left leg and we went down in a heap with me on top of him. His heavy armor was not much of a cushion. Luckily for me, the helmet coupling of his armor was not strong enough to take an impact at that angle and it had come apart and broken his neck in the process. Grabbing his rifle, I rolled off to my right, favoring my burn as blasts came in from three directions. They were firing blind at any noise or shot without regard for their comrade. We must have gotten lucky and taken out their officers.
I decided that it was time to bug out. I slowly moved off of the trail and cut quietly through the light brush. I stopped every few seconds to listen. It sounded like they were trying to get around behind me. I kept moving until I reached a position near the trail back to the ship. I could see Roberts as she randomly took shots at one of the fake terraformers. She had pulled Le Vesconte into the shelter of the woodpile with her. How had she managed that? The other terraformer was nowhere to be seen.
“Roberts,” I yelled as I opened fire with my heavy blast rifle, “run for it.” She looked at me and with a quick glance at the scene, she sprinted to my position and continued on to a large tree behind me. She jumped behind it and I followed her as the treeline erupted with return fire.
“Le Vesconte is dead,” she said without preamble.
The fire abruptly stopped and I could hear movement to both sides. They were moving around to cut us off from the ship.
“Let’s get moving then. Stay behind me and watch our backs.”
We ran as quickly as possible down the trail.
We moved out, but we had not gone ten minutes before I heard weapon fire from in front of us. One of the sounds was from a large assault rifle like the one that had killed Le Vesconte, but the others were the sounds of our blast pistols from the vicinity of Vanguard. We could also see occasional flashes from that direction. It appeared that I had been right in deducing that they had been headed for the ship.
I slowed down and waved Roberts into the jungle. I scouted ahead a little and came back to her. "Wait here for ten minutes," I began, looking directly at Jheri and motioning to her wristwatch, "then follow up the trail slowly. If there are any issues, I'll try to come back and stop you before you run into them. You watch our backs. I handed her the rifle. Be careful." She nodded and moved back into the brush.
I slowed again just short of the clearing, then moved up behind the men trying to take the ship. By my best count, there had been fourteen raiders between those in the clearing and those that had been covering us. We had accounted for five in the clearing, counting the one that I had landed on. I wasn’t very impressed with their coordination. If I had had fourteen Marines, no one would have gotten out of the clearing unless I wanted them to.
The one that I had landed on had been wearing heavy armor but the two that I could see from my perch were only wearing light assault armor. It was not top of the line equipment and the one directly to my left and five meters in front of me was totally oblivious to her surroundings. As I watched, I could see the reason. Her right shoulder bore a shield that was half red and half yellow divided diagonally by a narrow black stripe. That was the shoulder flash of the DaGama Family. They were not the last group that I would expect to see here, but pretty close. The DaGama family was very small and had no space interests outside of the Sol system. What were they doing here? As far as I knew, they had never conducted an actual, live, planetary assault. No wonder they were screwing up by the numbers. Of course, they would have to do a lot of screwing up for us to be able to slip through them and back to the ship.
I saw Roberts moving slowly up the trail with her captured pistol in her belt and the rifle sweeping jerkily back and forth as she tried to watch in every direction at once. I slipped quietly down from the tree and moved back towards her.
“We need to hold here for the moment,” I said as I pulled her into the heavy brush along the side of the trail. She looked very young and scared. She also looked very relieved to see me. Once again, I missed Aichele and Burton or any of the other personnel that I had trained with over the years. I was going to need reliable backup if we were going to pull this off.
“You are doing great.” I told her. “I want you to wait here until you hear my distraction. When you hear it, run for all you are worth. Run straight down the trail and shoot at anything you see. Don’t worry about hitting me, you won’t. Try not to shoot towards the ship. Once you get there tell Captain to raise ship. You are going to need to yell your name as you cross the clearing so that they know who is coming.”
“What about you. We can’t leave without you.”
“If I’m not right behind you, I’m not coming. Don’t wait for me.”
“But…”
“That is an order, Ensign.”
“Yes, ma’am”
I moved back up to my tree and continued to watch.
It appeared that they only had the one heavy gun. The others were armed with light carbines and pistols. In the time that I had been away, they had consolidated into two groups. I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t rushing the ship. As if answering my thought, two members of the far group tried just that.
They had only gotten about ten meters before a heavy rifle opened up from the treeline to our right, firing into their midst. No one was hit but they broke off their attack. The heavy rifle in front of me opened up immediately to suppress his fire. Who ever was up there quit firing but there was no evidence that he had been hit. It looked like it had been a feint to draw fire so they could locate and eliminate the sniper. More important to me were the questions, “Who was up there and where had they gotten a heavy rifle. Normal load out for a light assault unit was two heavy rifles, ten light carbines, one demolitions pack and two pistols for the CO and sergeant. I had taken one heavy and the other was right in front of me, where had the third come from? A CO that liked to carry firepower? Wherever it had come from, and whoever was firing it, they were using it to good effect. A couple of quick shots before moving to a new location.
My musings were cut short by the sound of Vanguard warming up her engines.
Captain new that he couldn’t hold for long as darkness was beginning to fall so he was getting ready to go whether we got back or not. He would hold out for as long as possible, but he would not risk the entire crew for two or three individuals.
Time for my distraction.
I slid back down from my perch as quietly as I could. Moving with as much stealth as I could manage I moved up behind the last heavy rifle. She had a good field of fire and she would be able to pick us off as we ran across the clearing if I didn’t take her out first. My pistol would be almost useless against her armor which was designed to absorb energy and disperse it without allowing it to penetrate. The same went for high velocity projectiles such as bullets and flechettes. The reactive armor would feel the impact and harden itself to prevent penetration. Oddly enough, the best weapon against the armor was a knife. The slower entry speed did not activate the reactive armor and a knife blade would penetrate. Of course, bringing a knife to a gunfight had its own problems.
Luckily for me, the raider was a newbie and had developed a terminal case of target fixation. I came up out of my crouch and had my knife in her kidney before she began to spin to face me. Her spin pulled the knife out of her back and I plunged it back in just below her ribs. I pulled her rifle away as she fell and began to target the group that stood in the path between Roberts and the ship. I got one in the shoulder and the group scattered quickly. The rifle in the treeline opened up at the same time and Captain came out of the ship with Hayes and Mitchell. Each had a pistol and they began to fire indiscriminately at the raiders from behind as they turned to face me.
They scattered into the brush even though the pistols could have no effect through the armor. Roberts came screaming down the path firing wildly in all directions. She drew some return fire but much less than I would have expected.
I started moving towards the ship as well, firing as I went. Roberts passed the three defenders as the raiders finally started a charge towards the ship.
Mackey came out of the brush to the right of the ship and let off a volley with his rifle that caused the raiders to hit the dirt. He stopped at the captain’s side and continued his rapid fire to keep the raiders pinned down. The captain yelled something and Hayes ran back into the open airlock. I quit firing and ran for all that I was worth.
The clearing was only about 300 meters long and the ship was near the far end, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer.
Suddenly, the landing lights came on and I did stumble as I tried to shield my eyes from the sudden, dazzling brightness. I continued the roll and came back up running. The pursuers were well back, and I finally made it inside the perimeter.
Both doors were open on the airlock and the crew was aboard already. Captain, Mackey and Mitchell were standing at the hatch, holding their ground against the charge. They opened fire as I went past to further discourage my pursuers.
As I slowed to enter the hatch, I could hear the sounds of the thrusters firing up. The defenders followed me in and the outer hatch closed behind us.
"Where is Le Vesconte?" Captain yelled over the noise.
"Dead."
"Are you sure."
"Yes, sir. No doubt whatsoever."
Captain yelled forward, "Lift ship, Lieutenant."
