Invasion of Kzarch (15 page)

“Have them send in the poke group and the blocking force.”

“Yes, cap’n. Sending the message now…”

***

“Sir, we’re seeing another pirate group! Three hundred, to the high right!”

“Three hundred? That’s it?” frowned Frank.

“All units, bear down forward right!” Colonel Johnson ordered over the channel, his voice managing to mostly mask his worry.

“Move, move, move!” one of the Marines chanted near-breathlessly over the channel. Frank had to agree to the sentiment.

“Keep the com clear!” snapped a sergeant.

“Got one!”

“I’m seeing a group over on the back left.”

“They’ve got some heavy weaponry on the right. Kate, can you take ‘em?” Sergeant Abe asked.

“On it.” A missile hit the spot indicated, then another two when the first one hit a shield. Overlapping explosions shredded right through the shield, causing another series of somewhat smaller explosions, as the pirate’s missiles blew up.

“They’re down.”

“Incoming in the rear!”

“Left side is closing in- All units on the left, suppressing fire!”

Not letting the chatter overwhelm him, Frank tried to keep up with what was going on. It wasn’t going well, but so far they were holding their own.

“There’s a major force up ahead! Reading over a thousand!” a Marine suddenly reported in.

“A
thous
- Shit!
I knew I didn’t like this!
”

***

“And now, the trap’s jaws begin to close.”

“Hm.” the general agreed noncommittally.

“Gunboats are to be launched now,” Bloody Jack ordered. “Suppression flights only; we don’t want to lose too many of them. Ships are to begin firing ten seconds before the gunboats begin their strikes. Sealing force should start moving as soon as the gunboats finish their first attack. Tell them to move it!”

“Sending now, captain!”

“Good.”

“What if they try breaking out past your ‘poking’ force?” the general asked, studying the map display intently, it showing a red group nearly surrounded by blue ones. But the blue line was thinner in one or two spots.

“They won’t have much chance to try. Besides, they’re about to get hammered from all sides. Even if they manage to somehow break out, they’ll be badly damaged. And once the rest of my forces catch them…”

***

“We’re surrounded.” The platoon sergeants always dour tone had achieved a degree of moroseness his commander would’ve sworn was impossible.

“I
know
that, McKain! How do we get out of here?!”

“I’m still thinking, sir. But our best bet is to attack were they’re weakest, and try to break through.”

“Well,
obviously
,” said Frank sarcastically. But he didn’t have any other plan.

Activating the officers’ com channel, he said, “Colonel Johnson, we need to get out of here. McKain and I suggest we hit the small group to the upper right. Maybe we can punch thorough.”

“Maybe, but if-” The colonel’s voice suddenly cut off.

“What happened?” the lieutenant demanded.

“The colonel’s been hit! Upper chest, exby bullet… He’s gone!”

“Damn! Colonel Firgos, we-” Frank began, before being interrupted.

“MISSILES INCOMING!”

“All Marines to point defense!” Lieutenant Harsmith immediately ordered, opening the platoon’s channel. “Where the
hell
are they coming from?! Kate, find out and take whoever-it-is down!
Now!
”

The missiles, in fact, were coming from the pirates’ three spaceships. All three had been parked near the governor’s mansion on an airfield below a cliff. While they weren’t very useful for ground combat, they
could
add some artillery support by using their missiles, especially if they could do so while staying away from the enemy. And that was exactly what they were doing.

Seventeen missiles roared at the group every five seconds.

“Get ‘em down! Shoot ‘em!” Frank ordered frantically, taking several shots himself. Missile after missile was blown away, but along with the second wave came the nasty surprise they had been expecting ever since the ambush had begun.

Gunboats.

Four of the pirates’ remaining six came roaring in on high speed passes, one still in the repair shop, and the other being used by Bloody Jack. Four was quite bad enough as far as Frank was concerned, however.

“Oh,
shit
. Kate, forget the missiles! Take the gunboats!” The heavy squad leader was already changing her targeting.

This is going to be
bad
…

It was. The combination of attacks from all sides, missiles from a hidden source and additional ones from the gunboats, as well as their ee-cees, smashed into the combined Kzarchian and Marine group.

The results were devastating.

Over a hundred-twenty Kzarchians were simply wiped out, and a hundred more injured. Five precious, irreplaceable Marines were killed. And despite their best efforts, h-squad wasn’t able to bring down a single gunboat.

When the gunboats’ pass was over, there was a moment of comparative calm. But Frank knew it wouldn’t last long. And that they were currently at a standstill. They needed to
move
.

“Colonel Firgos!”

“He’s dead! Hit by a missile.”

“Colonel Ru’st is badly hurt!”

Frantically, Frank tried to contact the two other colonels, but one was missing, whereabouts unknown, and the other had been knocked unconscious.

Their time was almost up, and the lieutenant knew that the force was about to break. They needed clear direction,
now
.

“EVERYONE!” the lieutenant bellowed, using the full force of his suit’s loudspeaker. “TO THE UPPER RIGHT! WE’RE GOING TO CHARGE AND SMASH THROUGH ‘EM! REGULAR MARINES, UP FRONT! Sergeant Kate, make a hole on my order!”

“
YESSIR!
”

“YOU HEARD THE LIEUTENANT!” Sergeant McKain hollered, “EVERYONE,
CHARGE
!”

The gunboats were already beginning their next strike-run, and the missiles were still coming in, not to mention the tremendous weight of firepower the ground infantry was bringing to bear.

But despite all that, the Kzarchians and Marines charged with a will.

“FIRE TO THE FRONT! LET’S KEEP THEIR HEADS DOWN!” A large amount of bullets and energy blasts followed the lieutenant’s order. Then the gunboats were on them. Better prepared this time, the Kzarchians and Marines did their best to hammer them as they ran their strikes.

Another hundred or so Kzarchians were killed or wounded, leaving the entire force at only about three hundred fifty Kzarchians, and twenty-nine Marines.

Then the gunboats were past, and the charge met the pirate force.

“KATE,
NOW-
!” Seven missiles speared out, and quite literally blew a hole right through the center of the pirate group. Then the Marines were in the corridor, firing at every pirate in range. Considering how many of them there were, they had plenty of targets.

Whoever was commanding the group had obviously survived, and was well aware of the importance of keeping the Kzarchians and Marines from getting through. The pirates, instead of running, tried to close back up together to seal the hole.

But the Marines weren’t having any of that.

Despite the heavy fire they were taking, the Marines held the corridor open, until every Kzarchian still on his feet was through and the pirate force around them thoroughly broken. But at a cost. When they disengaged, they left the bodies of three dead Marines behind them and another fifty Kzarchians.

They had broken free of the trap… for the moment.

***

“They broke free.”

Bloody Jack shrugged to the general’s flat, with a hint of a sneer, statement.

“True. I honestly hadn’t thought they’d manage it. But they’re getting worn out, and they still have to deal with two thousand men coming up their rear. We’ll get them yet.”

General Juan merely grunted, as Bloody Jack turned to the pirate at the com to give more orders.

***

“Everyone, keep moving! They’re still on our asses!” Sergeant McKain bellowed, firing off both wegs, taking out two pirates in a single volley.

And the gunboats are going to be back in a couple of seconds,
the lieutenant thought grimly.

“When the gunboats start their run, I want everyone who can to focus their fire on them!” he commanded. “If we’re going to break away successfully, we
need
to get rid of ‘em!”

A chorus of acknowledgments sounded, and Frank readied his own exby rifle, as the gunboats began to bore in.

With only having enemies in the back to worry about, although they still had to keep an eye on the missiles, the Kzarchians and Marines could finally seriously take on the gunboats, as the storm of fire that greeted the gunboats demonstrated.

One took damage, and broke away, and the other three aborted their attack runs early, as their shields began to overload.

“That’s the way!” Lieutenant Harsmith encouraged. Then he switched to a private channel with Sergeant McKain.

“Sarge, we need to get out of here. How long before we can get out of range of their missiles? Without them to worry about, we’d have a much better chance.”

“It looks like their missiles are coming from their ships, back
there
,” A dot on Frank’s display indicated where the missiles were coming from. “-and they
could
actually follow us,” McKain pointed out. “But assuming they don’t move, we need at least another mile, probably two.”

“Dammit.”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, we got no choice. Which is the fastest way out of range? Got it. EVERYONE, FORWARD
RIGHT
!” The Kzarchian and Marine force swept on, trying to out-distance the pirate group coming up from the rear, while fending off missile and gunboat attacks.

They weren’t making it. At best, they were holding their own; at worst, they were steadily losing ground. Two large groups of pirates were beginning to flank them, as the guerrillas were forced to slow to deal with the various attacks.

Then another gunboat strike went in.

A barrage of bullets, energy blasts, exbys and missiles greeted them, as the Blastfires threw their own, far smaller volley back.

Blasts and missiles slashed into the Kzarchian and Marine force, then the gunboats were past.

Another fifty or so Kzarchians had been killed or wounded. But the gunboats hadn’t been lucky this time. Another one took heavy damage, and one simply crash-landed.

It was the boom as it hit that woke Frank.

“Whu…?” He shook his head groggily, and tried to get up. But only to slump back down. To his horror, he saw his right arm had been blown off, and his exby rifle ruined. His battlesuit was already at work, sealing the wound and giving him drugs to stop the bleeding and prevent shock. He then grew aware of someone shouting at him.

“Sir! LIEUTENANT!”

“Wha? What’s going on? WHAT HAPPENED?!”

“You got hit by a missile. Or almost. Come on, you need to get up.” McKain grabbed him and yanked him to his feet. Frank swayed for a second, then steadied, as the battlesuit hit him with another set of drugs.

“Okay. What’s the sitch? Oh.” His sensors, which were still working, showed him it wasn’t good. The gunboat attacks had stopped, the Blastfires now hovering out of range, but the pirates on the ground had almost finished preparing their pincer attack.

“
Shit
.”

***

“Looks like they’re finally done for.”

“I’d have to agree, general,” said Bloody Jack thoughtfully. The Kzarchian and Marine force was surrounded on three sides, badly wounded, and about to get hit heavily by infantry, with a follow up gunboat strike. It looked like the battle was almost over.

In which case…

Without making a big deal out of it, Bloody Jack tapped into a code into his chair’s computer. An acknowledgment flashed, then a double-check pop-up. With another tap and acknowledgment, a new program started running.

A second and a half later, the front screen of the gunboat slid up. Startled, the general and the bridge crew turned towards it.

“What-” General Juan began, before the gunboat’s internal tractor beam seized him and threw him straight out the now open window.