Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (124 page)

Kovu still had an attitude
problem, he was definitely no Letanga but he was coming along. Jethro was glad
that Valenko had insisted on the time chop for realism sake. It had given them
plenty of time to prepare even though the pilots had complained.

Private Fonz wasn't so bad in the
bush for a human. That was surprising to Jethro; Fonz had never been off his
small asteroid colony before he'd joined up. He was a good sniper, bit of a hip
goof off duty but he settled down nicely in action. Or at least in the sims. He
still had to face the real furnace though.

When Fonz had replaced Miles it
had been a bit of a see saw with Asazi. Most of the others had concluded Fonz
was in for a broken jaw, or at least a broken nose. He'd surprised them all by
cracking her up by showing her an image of him before he'd joined up. She'd
cracked up and then passed the image on to the others. Jethro had to admit the
guy had changed. He'd gone from a black mullet and long sideburns to a no
nonsense marine buzz cut. Now he had to live up to his new “rep”.

Jethro knew the op orders but he
also knew that whoever the opposition team leader was they were probably out
for blood. Most likely camped around the perimeter of the meadow on the south
side of it, facing the incoming team. When the team came in they'd wait and use
them as bait until the dropship arrived.

Or they'd wait until the dropship
dropped its security and then ambush them. Or wait until the entire group was
in the bag and then let loose. There were a lot of different ways things could
play. Well, they could if Valenko had been bothered to follow the book to the
letter at any rate.

He picked a nice thick oak, one
with some nice branches about two hundred meters up. Climbing it was dead easy;
doing it quietly from the south side with all his gear so no one could see him
on the other side wasn't so easy.

When the team was set they double
clicked their radios to call in the dropship. Valenko rested his paw on the
pilot's shoulder and leaned over. “Just bring her in a bit, enough for the
whoever is waiting there to hear your engines. Then wait.”

“Wait?” the pilot asked, looking
up at him dubiously. Didn't the damn bear know they were a sitting duck for
anyone with a plasma gun or SAM?

“Yes. Just a bit for the all
clear,” Valenko rumbled. The pilot nodded. He had no intention of screwing with
the bear.

Jethro smirked as he caught sight
of rustling ahead of him. Whoever was waiting could hear the engines as he did
but had pretty good camo on. Thermals were useless. He tracked the motion by
eye, glad there wasn't any wind at the moment. When he was certain of their
positions he nodded slightly and sent them to his teammates through a wire
link.

Jethro spotted the predicted
ambush before it happened and called it in. There were two dozen of them by his
count. He left Kovu and Fonz as over watch with his gear and then headed out
hunting. The dropship pulled back to secondary recovery lz.

His real task was to draw the
hounds into chasing him. For this he was the hare, and Kovu and Fonzerelli
would slip past the hounds and hunters when he distracted them. He'd draw the
hunters off buying time for the others to meet up hopefully.

“There is no secondary LZ! This
is it!” The retreating lieutenant snarled. He was thoroughly confused. This was
supposed to be a simple shoot and scoot, get to the LZ and then pack it in. He
didn't know why they bothered with such scenarios, they should just do the
basic op and then quit. Doing an insert, op, and then extract may be realistic
but it was damn tiring. Now throw in Valenko's little monkey wrench... What the
hell was going on? What was the bear playing at?

“Trust me; the selected LZ is too
hot. No go. Repeat, No go,” Valenko rumbled. He closed his eyes for a moment.
He didn't want to remain on the radio for much longer; it would draw the
attention of the hunters. “Little eyes and ears are involved.”

“Roger,” the lieutenant replied,
feeling a little put out but suddenly relieved. He didn't want to be the one to
screw the pooch, walk into an ambush all fat dumb and tired. Sure Valenko was
responsible for LZ security but his people would get caught up in the works if
things went south. Valenko shot him a set of coordinates embedded in an
encrypted message. Myers opened the file and checked them. The indicated
coordinates were west of the first LZ, about two clicks off his course. “That's
in the deep forest. That's no clearing!” he snarled back.

“It will be when my people get
done. They'll rappel down and clear a zone,” Valenko replied soothingly,
praying that the other team hadn't hacked their communications. If they had
this asshole would blow it for all of them.

“Roger.” There was a brief pause
and then, “smart,” the lieutenant said grudgingly.

“I figure the major has the other
clearings covered. Do the unexpected,” Valenko rumbled. Myers double clicked in
response to that.

Myers turned to his people and
waved. Sergeant Minachelli shot him a look. Myers was still new to the hand
signal thing. Quietly Minachelli made his way over to his boss and leaned
close. Myers whispered his changed orders in the sergeant's ear and then waited
for a response.

Minachelli straightened and then
looked him in the eye. After a moment the heavy worlder just shrugged and made
hand signs to the others to stop. He pointed the blade of his hand in the new
direction and then waited for the point to adjust. Then he signaled to move
out.

The retreating squad was pissed
but humped the extra clicks. It wasn't like they had any choice after all. They
were never aware they were being stalked by enemy squads. Not until nearly to
extraction when a rear guard blew a sensor pod away to keep them from being
followed. After that Myers changed direction and double timed it out of the
area.

Sergio, Valenko, Asazi, and Ox
rappelled down to the newly designated landing zone and cut down trees. The
dropship moved off to the western sun to keep their location a secret. Valenko
watched the two heavy weapons marines take on the virtual trees and winced. Ox
had no finesse, he was all business. When one metric ton of enhanced Tauren at
full charge met a virtual poplar the tree didn't just break it shattered.
Timber didn't even cover it.

Sergio's technique was a bit more
varied. With smaller trees the Liger ripped them out of the ground and then
threw them aside. With larger trees he either climbed them until they bent and
then snapped them or he gripped them with gloved hand paws, digging his claws
in to the bark and his toe claws into the ground and just ripped them in half.
No explosives necessary.

“Damn!”

“What?” Valenko asked, looking at
Sergio as he shook a paw and then tried to pick something out of it.

“Got a splinter!”

“How the hell could you get a
splinter here?” the bear demanded.

“Don't ask me!”

“Sometimes this place is a little
too
real if you ask me,” Asazi said. She went over and used her slightly
smaller fingers to pull the splinter out of the Liger's paw and then flicked it
away.

Valenko looked over to Asazi. The
Terran woman just shrugged and went back to watching her zone. He snorted
looking at the other two. Damn it looked like fun. He made a mental note to
figure out something faster before pulling on virtual gloves and getting his
paws dirty. He couldn't let the others have all the fun after all.

They used the trees as cover for
the outer perimeter. Stacked in piles the trees and their tops make a good
screen. Not that wood would stand up for more than a half second against rail
guns and plasma weapons, that wasn't their intended purpose.

The spotter and co sniper made
the perimeter just before they picked up the flashed IFF of the incoming
retreating squad. Good. He waved to the sniper team to set up and then sent a
burst signal for the dropship to return. The snipers nodded and kept moving,
not even slowing their pace. They had made good time to make it here ahead of
the storm. He listened, turning his head as the birds and animal life quieted.
Yes, the dropship was incoming.

The dropship's engines screamed
as it came in, kicking up dust and making the virtual plant life dance as it
came down to land. It's boarding ramp in the rear dropped. The pilot had been
smart, he'd come in and positioned himself facing his extraction course with is
door facing the incoming squad and the enemy. The door gunner was setting up.
Valenko smiled. If he was right the gunner wouldn't be needed for more than
show.

At the secondary LZ the dropship
picked up the injured squad and the officers consulted as the rear guard warily
came in. They reported the incoming squads were less than five minutes behind
them. Valenko nodded and called the second dropship in. He’d vectored it to a
different holding station so it would come in from a totally different
direction. To make sure it wouldn’t be shot down he ordered the pilots to fly
nap of the earth and as quick as they could.

“We’re ten minutes out but we’re
on our way Lieutenant,” the pilot said.

“Roger,” he responded and turned
to his fellow Lieutenant.

Myers the first lieutenant in
charge of the retreating squad wasn't happy. He's a normally by the book guy
who just didn't get into this humping across the dirt crap. He wanted bigger
and better things, but he'd grudgingly admitted he needed this experience if he
was ever going to get above lieutenant rank.

He's gruff, taking on a no
nonsense personality. As human's go he pulled it off okay, not as well as
someone seasoned could, but not bad for a bald former spacer turned marine. He
marched up to Valenko, aware of the bear's mighty frame but reminding himself
that the bear was on his side. The bear was also only a second lieutenant so he
outranked the grizzly by a pay grade.

The LT started to ball out
Valenko but Valenko quietly explained to him to be ready for ambush. His team
has deployed around the secondary LZ before the squad had arrived. “Payback's a
bitch right?” Valenko growled, giving the other Lt a challenging look.

The lieutenant looked around,
pursed his lips as his crew stood near fighting positions. His hazel eyes
locked onto his sergeant's. Sergeant Minachelli was more than happy to finally
get some of their own back, he was grinning savagely as he locked and loaded.

Myers turned, lips turning into a
tight lipped smile. He'd been hassled the whole way, getting sniped and he was
thoroughly tired of being chased all over virtual creation. He had to admit
getting some of his own back was worth the chance of getting their asses chewed
later. Latrine duty sounded good if he could get some of his own back.

He snorted. “Damn straight,” he
said with a grin as his hand smacked into the bear's paw. “Let's do it,” he
growled as they shook hands. He checked to make sure he was locked and loaded
as Valenko sent him the battle plan through their implants. He grunted as he
looked it over and then nodded curtly. It was a little tricky on the timing but
simple and brutal. He loved it already. He left at a trot, pointing to his
troops and quietly positioning them where he wanted them.

Valenko watched him go, updating
his plan as the other officer added his own quirks. This would get interesting
he thought with a savage smile. The best defense was always a good offense, and
he was about to prove it.

As the squads settled down for a
nervous but eager wait he listened to the area around them. Just as he had
expected the animals started chirping and making noise once more. He raised his
muzzle to the wind. It was blowing just right, from the north west almost
directly behind the incoming opposition force. They had done a good job
vectoring Myers force in just right. He could just catch the scent of
aftershave and deodorant in the wind. Would they ever learn?

He heard the brush rustling about
one hundred and fifty meters out after a few minutes. The simulated local
wildlife was dead quiet now, so it made picking out the sounds incredibly easy
even without enhanced hearing. There was the occasional crackle of breaking
branches and soft cursing. The enemy squads were coming in hot, not really
focusing on stealth doctrine as they run to catch up with the retreating squad.
That was a strategic mistake.

When the enemy squads get to the
clearing at a run they were ambushed. The dropship took off with the wounded to
clear the battle area just before the op force exited the tree line and came
through the gap in the tree barrier that had been left for them. Their entire
focus was focused on the retreating ship, not on the hunkered down marines
waiting for them on the other side of the clearing and it's flanks. Now the
hunters became the hunted.

The lieutenant swore softly and
then laughed as Valenko turned the tables. Mortar fire ripped into the opposing
tree line. Valenko had been precise when he'd laid his people out, and his
people were gods of war it seemed. Rounds tore into the opposition force from
behind, shocking them and tearing them apart with their savagery. Claymore mines
lovingly sown in front and on their flanks went off as the squads turned to
run. Snipers got in early savage rounds under the cover of the explosions and
retreating dropship, cutting down any officers or noncoms that they recognized.
Chaos ensued as the opposition forces were cut down like wheat. Some of the
opposition force dropped to the virtual ground and tried to find cover but he
knew they were just delaying the inevitable. The LT laughed as sim ended
abruptly.