Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (38 page)

"You
’re a little high Chief. Drop 200."

"Check."

"Dead on Chief. Three, two, one. Capture."

The Swift Boat jerked as if
a giant hand had grasped it. Kim struggled to keep the ship on course. The Boat settled under the additional mass and became stable. He glanced at Lee. Lee's Boat was still not completely under control.

"Easy on the stick Lee, not so much retro
, more pitch and yaw."

Kim watched Lee slowly get the ship under control. They were side by
side each pulling three lifeboats.

"Chief we have a solid capture. It's holding with no problems."

"Good Lee, on my command full throttle. Let's get out of here."

Kim watched as Lee dropped back behind the TS 111 in perfect formation. Without a
n order Lee deployed the drones. They were soon in the protection sphere of a new set of drones.

"Three, two, one."

The two Swift Boats sped away from the battle towing the six lifeboats. Kim set a course for the Fleet Anchorage.

RIFT

FLEET HEADQUARTERS

SIRIUS

BRIGADE COMMAND POST

ARMORED
EXPEDITIONARY BRIGADE

COMMAND GROUP

Colonel Daniel Dasan Sand knew his command was in trouble.  They had been fighting wave after wave of the aliens since the morning. Now over twelve hours later the pace had not slackened. Looking out onto the wide walkways between the building
s was like looking at a mass grave. Hundreds of alien and Legionnaire bodies literally covered the walks. You could walk the entire quarter mile distance between the buildings without ever having to step on the ground.

Studying the roster of his command there were very few completely effective troops left, almost every surviving Legionnaire was a Yellow. Very few if any had not been wounded at some point during the long battle. He and  all of command had used up all of the go juice in their armor
and were amped out. The exhaustion after the injection of drugs left you feeling similar to Status Insult. Yet there was still no word on when the Tarawa and the reinforcements would arrive. No way to plan or give the troops any encouragement or even a possible end to the fighting. The aliens were relentless if nothing else and casualties seemed to mean nothing to them.

"Aijuba."

Aijuba walked over from the command display. She had been coordinating the dwindling ammunition to the different positions.

"How are we looking on ammunition?"

"We are going to go into the black very soon if we don't get re-supplied."

"More good news."

He glanced at Aijuba and it was the first time he could ever remember seeing her looking exhausted in all the years he had known her. She normally had more endurance than any three Legionnaires in the Brigade. Her face was pale and her eyes had fatigue etched underneath them. She looked like hell. He imagined he looked the same.

"We need to tour the positions I need to put my eyes on the troops."

"Good idea."

Aijuba looked at Dasan for a long moment.

"You look like hell," Aijuba said.

"Look who's talking. We need to show our faces anyway."

"Yes it will be good for the troops."

They turned and moved toward the stairs. The parking garage looked nothing like it had at the beginning of the day. In the fading light of the sunset it looked more like a rubble
-strewn abandoned building. Empty rail magazines, mini drums and all manner of military debris littered the floor. Squad leaders were moving slowing between positions checking on their troops in this pause in the fighting. The troops were no longer standing they were all sitting. Some were lying down. If he knew them they were practicing the old grunt anthem, if you don't have to stand, then sit, if you don't have to sit then lay down, and if you don't have to stay awake go to sleep. He saw one squad leader kick one his troops who startled awake. He had gone to sleep without meaning to, if he felt like Dasan, and simply closing his eyes too long meant sleep would come instantly. Combat was simply the most exhausting thing you could ever do and his troops had been in a constant fight for over twelve hours. No breaks. This was the first pause. They were out of water in their armor and dehydration was adding to their fatigue.

Dasan and Aijuba walked over
to the make shift hospital that Captain Zhad had been able to organize in the midst of chaos of the battle. Corpsmen were moving among a number of the wounded. The Red's were lined up against the wall, their suits keeping the brain of the trooper alive until they could be moved to a medical facility that could repair their massive injuries. A corpsman moved from one to another checking their status, adjusting their suits settings, to make sure they lasted as long as possible.              

Other corpsmen were walking among the Yellows with missing limbs or other massive injuries that could not be patched with nanos and sent back to the lines. The corpsmen administered more
painkillers or tranquilizers to keep them quiet. A makeshift operating table had been set up for Zhad who had actually performed surgery in this crude hospital setting. Performing surgery in the field simply was no longer needed; there had been no troops in the field who required that level of care the armor took care of their wounds until they could be moved to a proper medical facility. You had to look to the history books to find the last time it had been done; yet Zhad had done it. Zhad walked over to them. He had ditched his armor and was working in his Uni suit. His face was exhausted and his uni suit was covered in blood.

"Colonel
, good to see you."

"Captain. You're doing an incredible job."

Zhad looked down at his feet before he said anything.

"I just los
t another one that any other time I would have back to duty in a week under normal conditions. We are out of everything. The Red's batteries and med's are running low so it won't be long before we start losing them. Don't supposed you've heard anything about those reinforcements Colonel?"

"No Captain, I wish I could say I have but still no word
. It has to be soon."

"Colonel
, I stopped believing in miracles back in med school but it sure would be nice if somebody had one more up their sleeves."

Dasan looked into those tired eyes that had seen too much death, that on any normal day he could have prevented.

"I'll see what I can do Doc," Dasan said.

A corpsman ran up.

"We need you, sir."

"Sorry Colonel."

Zhad turned and followed the corpsmen back to the patient. Dasan and Aijuba turned and headed for the stairs and the positions in the floors above.

"We're lucky
to have him" Aijuba said.

"Yeah, very few of today
’s doctors could adapt to this. He is something special. We need to keep him around."

Aijuba looked over at Dasan. He knew what she was thinking but he did not want to say it out loud, if we make it through the night. They moved slowly up the stairs toward the positions on the second floor. They could hear the coughs of sniper rifles as they entered the second floor.  Another rifle coughed from just to their right. A sniper and spotter were
lying on the floor using a small murder hole.

"
Chun zi
."

"What happened?"

"You dumb
wang ba dan
. I forgot to reset the rifle. I just fired without zeroing my target. It was like using a dumb bullet and I missed."

"Trooper
," Dasan said.

The sniper turned over and said.

"Why don't you go bother some other.... oh sorry Colonel."

"Don't worry about it trooper
," Dasan said.

He could see the snipers armor had been patched at least three times meaning she had been wounded at least three time
s. Two of the patches were on her legs. Dasan had a feeling she had a hard time standing up and was lying down because that was the only way she could continue to fight.

"I
am just so fucking tired Colonel. My suit is out of go juice and I'm not thinking straight. I'll do better next time."

"You are doing fine
, Legionnaire," Aijuba said.

"Thanks Sergeant Major. Means a lot coming from you."

"You know your problem, slow down don't try and get as many shots off. Consciously go through the steps to set up your shot. Make sure your rifle is set for the round you are using. Understand you are tired and have to slow down," Aijuba said.

"I had just done a sensor plant and forgot to return the system to targeting mode."

"You've got a good plant?" Dasan said.

"Yes sir."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure. Oe let the Colonel see our plant."

Dasan knelt down next to the spotter. Oe unplugged the sensor feed and plugged it into Dasan's suit. Suddenly he was walking through the halls of Rigel Kent almost a quarter mile away. It always took Dasan a second or two to adjust to "being" in another place. The sensors feed the images directly into his input plug behind his ear and his was "there" not kneeling in Sirius. The interior of the building looked much liked Sirius - an office building destroyed by the battle. Aliens in armor were moving around. They appeared to be organizing for another attack; a number were gathered around what appeared to be an officer. They were two rooms into the building. Dasan was hovering over them in virtual reality. He wished he could hear what they were saying but the officer seemed to be chewing some ass.

"Sniper
, can you go through three interior walls?" Dasan said.

"Yeah, let me get set and load a penetrator round."

The officer was taller than his or her men. If it would just stay still for a few more seconds they might be able to nail this fuck. It would feel very good to be part of a team that took out an individual. Then several of the aliens gathered around the alien, turned, and in the dim light of the room Dasan could see that they were all officers. This was a command meeting. They were planning something big.

"Sniper
, this is an officers meeting. Can you do multiple targets? Do you have enough penetrator rounds?"

"I just put in a new clip. I was saving them."

"Well this is worth all of them."

"You target them and I'll nail them. I got ten rounds. I set them for time on target."

"Ready."

"Yes, sir."

Dasan reached out and touched ten of the officers, when he did each one was highlighted like you highlight text for future reference.

"Targeted
," Dasan said.

"Firing."

The snipers rifle coughed ten times. Each of the rounds would hit its target at the same time; with the time on target set the rifle programmed each round for distance and penetration. Dasan held his breath for the second before the rounds hit. Then all at once, ten of the officer’s head's exploded in a spray of blood and were blown into a bloody heap of headless bodies. There were two survivors they were just standing and staring at the carnage at their feet. Dasan highlighted them. He heard the sniper slam another magazine into the chamber.

"Two more."

"Firing."

The weapon coughed twice. Both of the targets had just turned to run away when the two fifty caliber rounds struck them in the back of the head. They joined the rest of the aliens on the floor. Dasan unplugged and handed the plug back to the spotter.

"What's your name sniper?" Dasan said.

"Grinon sir."

"Aijuba, make sure this gets written up. Grinon here just took out twelve alien officers that were obviously planning the next attack."

Grinon turned on her side and hinged her helmet back. She was grinning ear to ear.

"Thank you, sir."

"No need for thanks. It was a hell of a job."

Aijuba knelt next to Grinon.

"You are going to miss. You are on the edge just like us all. Just don't take it to heart. You know how much sniping is focus and concentration. You just proved that previous miss was nothing by making that last shot. Now get back to work."

"Yes, Sergeant Major," Grinon said. She appeared to have had a jolt of go juice. She winced when she turned onto her stomach. She must be in pain and yet she was still at her post. That is when Dasan noticed that her spotter was missing a foot. He too had a wound that would normally have them off the line. He stood and he and Aijuba continued their tour of the position.

"It was very fortunate that you found that officers meeting
," Aijuba said.

"I knew she needed a success
and when I plugged in I just got very lucky. We accomplished two goals. We got a damn good sniper back on line and we hurt the aliens."

"Yeah, again we were lucky."

As they continued their inspection they would stop and talk to a squad leader or Legionnaire. They all appeared exhausted but still in the fight. He had seen the roster but it was starling to see just how few effectives he still had on line.

"Have you seen any troops without patches on the armor?" Dasan
asked.

"Maybe one or two. Every
one of them is a Yellow if not worse."

"Yeah, even consolidating in Sirius and concentrating our defense has not kept the casualties down."

"If we hadn't, the aliens would have chewed up the troops in Wolf and Ceti and we would be in a much worse spot than we are now."

"Does it get much worse?"

Aijuba smiled and said,

"I
’m sure it does but I can't think of how right now."

Dasan was silent as they continued to inspect the positions on the other floors. The story was the same in each position
; nanos, painkillers and their own will was all that was holding these men and women together. Dasan gave encouraging words when he could and the troops seemed to take some solace that the Colonel cared about the well-being of even the youngest private, and pride that he had taken the time to talk to them. Aijuba too gave encouraging words, something she never did. She was his bad cop until today. She was the one who oversaw their training and many of the punishments with Masafaro, his Executive Officer. Dasan missed him - he had been an excellent XO and a good tactical sounding board but Dasan was missing most of his officer command structure and holding the unit together had fallen to the NCO's of the Brigade. As in all wars they had been the backbone of any combat unit and his were turning to be as good as any in history.