Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (8 page)

The cabin door opened, but this time the blast of air was much warmer. The loadmaster struggled to enter the cabin, his right hand tucked into his left armpit. Blood was splattered across his entire front.

He dogged the door shut and sagged against it, his face pale. Master Chief released his seat belt and sprang to the man’s aid, helping him to a seat on one of the web benches. “Let me see it,” Master Chief demanded.

Petty Officer Johnson removed his hand from the protection of his armpit and Master Chief could see he was missing most of the little finger. Blood continued to well up from the stump. “What happened?” Master Chief asked, pulling gauze out of his pack.

“You know how they say, ‘beware of rotating machinery?’” Johnson asked in a weak voice. “They really mean it.” He coughed and winced. “Hurts like a son of a bitch too. The good news is the fourth motor is running.” He nodded toward his seat. “Give me the headset please.”

The headset’s cord was long enough to reach where he was sitting, and Master Chief put it on the loadmaster’s head, adjusting the microphone so he could speak into it.

“
Duke, Smoke, we’re all set back here,
” Petty Officer Johnson said. “
No, there’s no chance. He went overboard at about 30,000 feet. I saw him go.
” He paused, listening, and then moved the microphone to talk to the soldiers.

“Stand by; they’re about to blow the box!” The LCAC’s engines screamed as the ship’s craftmaster brought the engines and lift fans to full power.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The explosive bolts holding the LCAC to the bottom of the box were fired and the LCAC’s fans blew the rest of the box down and away from them. The boat lurched, and Master Chief could feel the craft drop as the parachute was jettisoned immediately afterward.

“Hang on!” Johnson called.

Master Chief didn’t think the engines could get any louder. He found he was wrong, as the engines were brought to full power. The ship shook like a wet dog, seemingly trying to tear itself apart, and then slammed into the water of Parishan Lake. Miraculously, nothing further broke and the craft lifted back off the water to its operating altitude of six feet. The craftmaster spun the craft around to the southeast and began accelerating.

“The navigator sends her compliments and says we’re 40 miles away from the target. We will be there in 39 minutes.”

Master Chief looked at his watch and nodded to Night. “Right on time.”

The nondescript man looked over the crest of the hill at the warehouse three miles away. It was well lit, and he could see activity throughout the compound. Trucks continued to come and go, all day and night, as they had for the last week. Everything was normal.

He looked up and saw a flashing light high above as an aircraft flew over. Pushing himself back from the crest, he stood up and struggled into his suit. He hated wearing it, but it was necessary. He only had 43 seconds to get it on and sealed, but he had grown up on the Lebanese border. He could suit up twice in that time. He smiled to himself as he closed the last seal.

“Coming left five degrees,” the pilot of the Gulfstream G550 aircraft said.

“Think they will notice?” the copilot asked.

“Unlikely,” the pilot replied. “They are lazy bastards.”

“Aircab 207,
this is Shiraz Approach Control,
” a voice crackled over the radio, “
We show you deviating left of course. Come back right 10 degrees to resume track and avoid restricted airspace.
”

“Aircab 207,
roger, coming right 10 degrees,
” the pilot replied without touching the controls.

“This place must be important to them,” the copilot noted.

“It must be,” the pilot agreed. “Too bad they won’t have it much longer.” He switched to the plane’s intercom. “
We are within range. Deploy the weapon.
”

“
Roger, deploying the weapon.
”

The pilot felt the plane shudder slightly as a door opened in the back of the aircraft. After 30 seconds, the shuddering ceased.

“
The weapon is deployed.
”

“
Understood.
” The pilot brought the plane back to the right. He looked back to the area of Lashkar Abad. “Leh lehizdayen,” he said in Hebrew. “
Fuck you.
”

The copilot nodded. “I think they’ll get the message.”

“Oh fuck,” the craftmaster said, a note of awe in his voice. “Hey, Klemarczyk, what’s our target again?”

The navigator didn’t look up from her chart. “It’s a warehouse. Just follow the wadi to the southeast, and we’ll run right into it. It sits just past a small village.”

“We’ll run right into it?” the craftmaster asked.

“Yeah,” the navigator said without looking up. “It should be right in front of us. You can’t miss it.”

“You mean
that?
”

“Holy shit…”

Master Chief heard the engines come back up to full power and felt the craft jump forward as the craftmaster accelerated to attack speed.

“Five minutes,” Petty Officer Johnson said from his normal position up in the observation bubble. The platoon’s medic, Corporal Shaun ‘Lucky’ Evertson, had patched him up and given him some drugs, and the loadmaster had resumed his duties.

“
Five minutes, everyone, stay sharp!
” Master Chief commed. “
Gunners ready?
” With the loadmaster injured and the deck mechanic lost overboard, the platoon was manning the LCAC’s two M60 machine guns.

“
Mount One is ready,
” Sergeant Milan ‘Gunner’ Vranjesevic said.

“
Two is manned and ready,
” Sergeant Dan ‘Giseman’ Geisenhof added. “
I can see the facility. It’s lit up like a Christmas tree. At a guess, I’m probably going to need a bigger gun…I may need more ammo, too, but definitely a bigger gun.
”

Master Chief looked up to the loadmaster. “Can you see the target?” he asked. “What’s it look like?”

“It’s big,” Petty Officer Johnson said. He slid out of the seat so Master Chief could climb up to look out the bubble. “Here, take a look.”

Master Chief looked at Night. “Want to go first?” he asked.

“Go ahead,” Night said as he went to the door. “I’m going outside.”

Master Chief climbed into the loadmaster’s seat and his eyes widened in surprise. “Fuck…” he said involuntarily under his breath. He had been told the facility was about the same size as the one on Earth, but it wasn’t. It was much,
much
bigger.

Where the warehouse building on Earth was only two stories, this one was at least three stories high, and probably closer to four. It was hard to tell, though, because part of it was obscured by an enormous wall. It wasn’t a chain link fence like on Earth, but a no-kidding
wall
that any medieval castle would have been proud to call its own. The wall was at least 15 feet high and looked thick…far too thick for the LCAC to knock down. The only opportunity would be the gate, but the gate doors were closed and looked like they were made of metal and at least as solid as the rest of the walls.

Fuck.

“
Grenadiers and cyborgs to the bow, now!
” he commed. He looked down at the loadmaster. “Tell your craftmaster to aim for the gate. We’re going to take it down.” He switched back to the comm system. “
Aim for the gate and try to take out the hinges.
25 nanogram setting!
”

“Hey, Master Chief,” the loadmaster said, “he wants to know what you think you can do against that wall.”

“Tell him—” Master Chief started and then reached for the headset. “Give me the damn headset, and I’ll tell him myself.”

He took the headset and put it on. “
Craftmaster, this is the platoon’s master chief. I have my grenadiers and cyborgs going to the bow. They are going to blow down the gates. Don’t stop; they’ll get them down.
”

“
Grenadiers? Are those the guys with the trident things?
”

“
Yeah, those aren’t tridents, they are antimatter projectors. They are going to be firing rounds with about five times as much explosive power as a hand grenade. If that doesn’t work, we’ll up the ante.
”

“
Unless they have a pretty good range, they’re only going to get a couple of shots.
”

“
You just drive the damn bus and leave the gate to us. We’ll take care of it.
”

Master Chief handed the headset back. “I’m going outside,” he said. He switched to his comm. “
The craftmaster is worried you won’t get the doors down. Use the 50 nanogram setting.
”

The wall approached with alarming rapidity. “
Fire!
” Master Chief commed over the noise of the engines and the rush of the wind.

There were six fire teams in the platoon, and each team leader was equipped with an alien trident that launched a round of antimatter within a magnetic containment field. The magnetic field dissipated upon impact, and the antimatter reacted explosively with whatever it hit. The six rounds impacted the gate’s doors and the ground in front of it, and the blasts threw several of the Efreet from the walls. Three of the four cyborgs had rocket launchers, and they added to the maelstrom.

As the smoke cleared, Master Chief could see the right gate was only hanging by one hinge, although the left gate was still in one piece. “
Fire!
” he ordered again, and another round of projectiles raced in front of the speeding LCAC to collide with the gates. The right door was blown completely off its hinges, and the left one sagged, two of its three hinges destroyed.

Both machine guns opened fire as the defenders began firing at the craft. Unsure what the craft was, the defenders had held their fire while they waited for orders; as the Terrans made their intentions known, the defenders returned fire. They had never trained to hit something moving as quickly as the speeding LCAC, though, and their first volley went high and long. They didn’t get a second volley as the LCAC crashed through the remains of the gate, yawing slightly as its left front impacted the left door, still hanging from the wall.

“Let’s go,” Nightsong said, bursting through the door. The ground shook and multiple explosions could be heard from outside.

“What’s going on?” Calvin asked.

“I imagine your friends are here to try to recover you, despite the warning they were given.” He motioned toward the door with his laser pistol.

“And what if I’d rather stay here and wait for them to rescue me?”

“Then I would have to shoot you,” Nightsong said, as the sound of jet engines and tearing metal could be heard. “That’s not what I want to do, especially now that my plans are starting to come together, but shoot you I shall. Then I’ll use my nanobots to sew your hands behind your back to make you easier to transport. It won’t be fun.” He smiled. “Well, it won’t be fun for you, anyway.” Nightsong motioned toward the door again. “We don’t have any time to waste. Move!”

Master Chief surveyed the buildings while his troops did everything possible to knock them down and kill everyone in the compound. The troops had formed a perimeter around the LCAC and were firing at everything that moved. Some of the buildings were already a
lot
worse for wear.

“
Hey, Gurn,
” Master Chief commed. “
I think that’s enough for that building. Dial your trident back a little. We don’t need to level
everything
out here, especially since the skipper may be in one of them.
”

“
You got it, Master Chief,
” Staff Sergeant Ryan ‘The Big Gurn’ Gurney replied. “
Is this all they’ve got? Flechette guns and flamethrowers?
”

“
No, we know they also have big combat robots that are armed with powerful lasers, so be on the lookout for them.
”

Master Chief surveyed the compound. Unless some of the robots showed up, the battle was in hand. All the Efreeti flechette guns were the little handheld ones; they had a few of the big crew-served guns on the wall, but the Efreet couldn’t swivel the mounts to point into the interior of the compound. Even if they could, the Terrans weapons would still have completely outclassed them. The flamethrowers the Efreet had were extremely nasty, but only from a fairly close range. As long as the Terrans kept the Efreet back, they weren’t going to be much of a danger…unless they brought up some of the bigger stuff.

He went back to identifying the buildings. The giant warehouse housed the transport device, or so they’d been told; anything else that might reside in its cavernous depths would remain unknown until they went into it. There were several buildings that looked like they could be barracks, several that looked like administration of some sort, maybe, and at least another six or seven that could have been anything.

Searching all the buildings for the transportation rods would take forever…especially if the troops continued to destroy them.

“So, sir,” Master Chief said, “how are we going to do this?”

“I’m still working on that,” Night said. He frowned. “It’s going to take a long damn time to search all the buildings, even if we’re able to narrow it down some. There’s no telling how much backup they have available, but I’m sure they’ve called it in. We’re going to need to evac pretty quickly.”

He thought for a few seconds, then came to a decision. “Have First Squad take the devices into the warehouse and let’s get that party started. Send a fire team from Second Squad through the facility and see if we can find any indication of where the transport rods or the skipper might be. The rest of Second Squad can guard the LCAC.”