The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (69 page)

Alice squatted at the bottom of the dugout steps and peered up into the pouring rain. She could only see a small square of sky but it was enough to observe occasional flashes of light as Nameless missiles burst high above the base. The rain was so heavy she could see the refractions of the point defence lasers as they cut across the sky. Every few minutes she had to move her feet to avoid sinking into the ground. Whatever bunch of clowns had built the dugout in the first place had managed to place it in a localised dip in the plateau, then compounded their mistake by failing to put any kind of dam at the top of the steps. There was already nearly ten centimetres of water at the bottom of the dugout. If it weren
’
t for the regular bursts of shrapnel landing outside she
’
d have ordered them all out.

At that thought Alice looked over her shoulder at the squad. It wasn
’
t hard to pick out the newbies, whose faces were so pale they almost glowed. Every damn time she had her squad trained up, some of them got transferred as replacements to some other unit that had got itself shot up. The fleet seemed to have decided that she was good at keeping people alive, so a good place to assign those fresh up from the shelter. Alice thought that was a big pile of BS. She
’
d been lucky so far and wasn
’
t looking forward to the day one of them got seriously wounded or killed. Seeing her look back, Damien waded over and squatted down beside her.

“
I
’
ve worked drops before,
”
he said quietly.
“
My first year here, I had to do social duty,
”
he continued.
“
I spent it working on our colony drop site. We had to stay at least three thousand metres from the drop zone until the last of the pods had landed. We
’
re going to be running around out there as pods land.
And
they
’
re going dropping dozens at a time.
”

“
Yeah, we
’
re going to have to keep our eyes on the sky. Drop pods have right of way.

Behind her there was a sudden brighter flash.

“
What the hell was that?
”
Damien asked

Alice didn
’
t reply but instead scrambled up the dissolving steps. As she reached the top there was another. A line of fire cut across the sky and terminated below the horizon. North of the base there was a dull glow. Below she heard the field telephone ring, which Damien had answered by the time she got down again.

“
Show time. The first wave of shuttles are on the way down,
”
he said. She nodded and resumed her place at the door.

___________________________

15:20 Hrs Douglas Base time

“
Contact separation!
”
called out a sensor operator.
“
We have incoming!
”

“
Recall
Amun
,
”
Crowe ordered as he stared at the holo. Although the Nameless had slowed their approach, they
’
d got a lot closer than he
’
d expected and the alien commander was obviously smart enough to organise his force to fire as one. Throw enough missiles all at once and that gave them their best chance of saturating the defensive screen. But they were back to single axis firing and as the screen thickened with Douglas
’
s fighters, the wave of approaching missiles was whittled down. Then
Deimos
’
s
guns started to rattle and on the holo the salvo melted away to nothing.

Suddenly there was a distant bang.

“
What was…
”
Crowe started to say.

“
Damage Control, Bridge,
”
crackled Commander Hockley
’
s voice over the intercom.
“
Hit to the port wing, minor dam…
”

A second crash cut him off and this one shook
Deimos
to the core. A scream cut across the command channel.

“
Commander! Commander!
…
James!
”
Crowe shouted.
“
Report. Somebody report!
”

“
This is Bosun Benson,
”
a new voice called across the connection.
“
The Commander is down! Hull breach! Section D, decks one, two
…
Jesus Christ Skipper! That went straight through!
”

“
Fire Control, Bridge!
”

“
Talk to me, guns!
”
Crowe shouted back.

“
Sir, our fire is having not effect on some of the incoming!
”

“
What the hell is it?
”

“
I don
’
t know sir!
”

“
Skipper!
”
called out Lieutenant Colwell.
“
Long March
has been hit!
”

Crowe spun towards the visual. The port side of the big Chinese drop carrier was ripped opened. Even as he watched, she took another hit, resulting in the release of so much atmosphere the carrier lurched out of line, her engines frantically trying to compensate.
”

“
Tactical!
”
Crowe shouted,
“
What the hell are they firing at us!
”

“
Sir, I
’
m
…
I
’
m not sure…
”

No help there, he thought and then roared:
“
helmsman, take evasive action

“
Bridge, Coms, I have a signal from Dubious.
”

“
Understood. Dubious what is it?
”

Dubious
’
s fixed forward gun fired for a split second and expended eighteen rounds. Alanna winced as the gun
’
s ammunition read-out on her display dropped into single figures. Dubious
’
s missiles were long gone, as was the ammunition for the dorsal turret. The fixed gun and ventral turret were down to forty rounds between them, while the fighter
’
s fuel was barely at twenty-five percent. But that had all become a secondary concern when she saw
Deimos
take a hit.

“
There
’
s another one!
”
Schurenhofer said as she worked her controls.
“
Roll to port.
”
In amongst the cap ship and general-purpose missiles they
’
d seen since the start of the war, there was something new. Before Dubious could bring her turret to bear the missile fired. A projectile erupted from the front while debris blasted out the back like buckshot, leaving the missile housing to tumble away.

“
Deimos
, we
’
re seeing new missiles. They
’
re firing a kinetic strike projectile using some kind of recoilless rifle system.
”

There was pause and the only sound across the radio was the crackle of the carrier.

“
Understood, Dubious. All fighters. Extend perimeter by five hundred kilometres and priority target the new missile types.
Deimos
out.
”

“
We can extend the perimeter as much as he likes,
”
muttered Schurenhofer,
“
but in a minute we
’
re going to be down to offensive language.
”

___________________________

15:29 Hrs Douglas Base time

“
The main drop
’
s starting,
”
Alice announced to her squad as she put down the field telephone.
“
Everyone out.
”
Damien headed up the steps, but no one else moved.
“
I said everybody out!
”
she shouted kicking the nearest member of her squad.

Outside the rain had managed to get even heavier. A kilometre away, shuttles were scattered across the airfield and she could see troops streaming away from them. There were also a number of columns of thick black smoke from crashed shuttles that had come in too hard. But that wasn
’
t her problem. Her squad were milling around in little clusters. Damien was trying to get them organised but he was a polite man and still not used to shouting at people.

“
Move it, spread out!
”
she bellowed as she started shoving her troops.
“
Spread out and watch the skies! Drop pods have right of way!
”

Minutes passed as they all squinted up into the rain, then finally someone called out:
“
Here they come!
”

Alice spun in the direction of the pointed finger. Emerging from the clouds came an object shaped like a giant onion, its two contra rotors whirring. It hit the muddy ground with a bang, swayed but didn
’
t topple. The rain steamed off its still blisteringly hot metal. Despite that Alice and her squad rushed towards it to offload the cargo inside.

Forty minutes later pods were still coming down thick and fast, and Alice
’
s work party was starting to fade.

“
Move it! Move it! Move it!
”
she screamed hoarsely as they rushed back and forth from the latest drop-pod to the truck, heaving in bulky ammunition boxes. The landscape was now dotted with pods and even as they scurried back and forth like ants still more were landing.

She paused to get her breath back. A few pods had landed on top of each other but so far she didn
’
t think they
’
d landed on any workers. Then suddenly she was aware of a shadow.

“
ALICE!
”
she heard Damien shout in the distance. Before the trenches she might have looked up, and that would have been the end of her, but now by automatic reflex she instead dived away. The pod crashed down centimetres behind her, sending out a muddy splash. She lay in the mud, feeling water flow down the front of her jacket. Damien rushed around the pod.

“
Jesus, are you alright?
”

“
Fantastic,
”
she replied tiredly as she rolled onto her back and stared up through the rotors as they slowed down.

He sat slumped down in the mud.

“
Jesus, I thought you were dead.
”

“
Nope, not yet,
”
she replied.
“
I don
’
t know why though. I
’
m supposed to be a bloody language expert but now I have a set of stripes and people keep shooting things at me!
”
She raised her head and glared at him.
“
I
’
m
not
going to die on this rat hole of a planet. I
’
m going to survive, get home and get a nice, safe, boring university job,
”
she said as she rolled back onto her feet. As she tottered away Damien heard her shout:
“
what the hell is everyone standing around for? What
’
s this? A fucking union meeting?
”

“
Amen to that,
”
Damien muttered to himself as he stood up.

___________________________

16:26 Hrs Douglas Base time

“
There goes the
Marly James
,
”
Colwell muttered as another transport was smashed apart. The Nameless probably only had a handful of the new rifle missiles but they
’
d forced
Deimos
to engage targets further out. That had thinned their fire, which in turn had allowed some conventional missiles to get through. Below Crowe could see lines of fire scorch their way across the face of Landfall as the remains of the
SS Hong Kong
tumbled into the planet
’
s atmosphere.