Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (26 page)

“
Ox relay
broadband. Area is a minefield. Gases erupt from ground during
quakes. Tell everyone to watch where they walk. Get an update to
Valenko.”

“
Roger,”
Ox replied.

Jethro turned to the
cheetah. “Now you were saying you got something?”

“
Yeah,”
the cheetah said. A file appeared on Jethro's buffer. He grunted and 
opened it. A static filled frantic voice called out for help. The
signal was badly distorted and broken. He grimaced and turned. “Ox
shunting a file to you. We definitely have an emergency situation.
Looks like we're off the hook.” He looked around. “We
need a better way of navigating this mine field. Or avoiding it all
together if possible.”

“
Probably what
Rigatoni should have done. But this is right in a straight line from
his drop point. Wanna bet he tried to run the gauntlet anyway?”
Senjix asked.

“
No. Can you
feel these quakes? Eruptions?”

“
Yeah. About a
second before they happen. I bet Ox or someone who can hear subsonics
can do better though,” the cheetah said. He stood and
shouldered his rifle. Jethro thought for a moment. Taurens may look
like classic Terran fantasy brahma bull minotaurs but outward
appearances were just that. Appearances. They were omnivores like
over seventy percent of all sentients. They usually spoke in subsonic
ranges. They could feel subsonic messages in their hooves.

Ox's voice cut
through their talk after a moment. “Firefly has responded to
the mayday. They are two hours out. They were checking another rock
nearby and running a shuttle exercise.”

In other words they
were on their own for now. “Wonderful,” Jethro sighed.
“So until then we're it.” He grimaced looking around. He
blinked as an IFF pinged on his HUD. After a moment Letanga came out
from behind a series of rocks into the open.

“
It couldn't
have taken them all out. You'd think someone would have had the sense
to go for help,” Sergei said looking around.

“
I found a
body. Impaled on the rocks. Recruit,” Letanga reported. He
shook his head. “Dead. Suit was too torn up to save her,”
the sniper sighed. “Pieces of gear everywhere. From the looks
of it one of those eruptions got a good chunk of the platoon. Maybe
the entire platoon. Some may have gone Dutchman.”

“
Sending them
up and then into the jagged rocks like a wave,” Déjà
said over the team push. “I've seen it happen.”

“
Quiet,”
Valenko said. He was at the cliff top. “Scouts out, find us a
way through these rocks. Scale them if you have to. Ox get a signal
to higher. Tell them Alpha is down and we may have multiple Dutchman
issues for them to look out for.”

“
My way is a
dead end,” Letanga said shaking his head. “Overhang on
three sides. Sheer, can't get a grip.”

Jethro paused,
pulling up a map of the terrain. He grimaced and then opened a
channel to Ox. The Tauren panned his camera slowly over the field.

“
Like a maze,”
Hurranna hissed. Jethro realized Ox was broadcasting the signal to
the entire team. He opened an audio channel.

“
Everyone
listen up. Hurranna's right, it's a maze. Treat it like it is.
Letanga found a body here,” he pointed to a path and
highlighted the leopard's aborted path.

“
Actually
here. I see where you’re going with this,” Letanga said,
uploading his map. “Each of us take a path virtually, run it
like a map game the gunny gives us. See who can find a path out of
the maze.”

“
But they may
be somewhere inside.”

“
And we won't
know where until we find the safe path. If I was Rigatoni I'd have
mapped a path before entering this mess,” Valenko said nodding.
“Good thinking. I'll see if I can get an idea from his
perspective.”

...*...*...*...*...

After a few minutes
Betty raised a hand and then dropped it again. “Thought I had
it,” she grimaced.

“
I think I do
though,” Shiku said raising his hand. He highlighted a path and
shot the file to the team. Jethro watched as a red line ran through
the forest of rocks.

“
Which may...
yes, it does match up with my recreation of his thought process on
the other end,” the grizzly said, overlaying another line. It
matched the fox's.

“
All right
people, scouts follow the path, watch for unstable areas and keep an
ear out for anyone. Ox, stay where you are,” the bear looked up
to the cliff. “Sergei, give him your rocket.”

“
Right,”
Sergei handed the Tauren his rocket and then started down the line.
“Be at the bottom in a moment,” he growled.

“
Everyone keep
a lock on each other and Ox. Ox you're our anchor and our eyes and
ears to Firefly. Squirt a signal with an update now. Give them
updates every ten.”

“
Roger,”
the Tauren replied. “Done,” he said after a moment.

“
Good. Let's
move people.”

 ...*...*...*...*...

They found several
bodies after a few minutes of exploring on the path. “Done and
done. Damn,” Hurranna hissed. “God, nasty way to go,”
she said, sucking in a breath. She looked down at the broken visor
and then away. Luckily the face was in shadow.

“
I think I'm
going to hurl,” Betty choked out.

“
Don't.
Breath. Breath deep. Suit ramp up her oxy and supply nausea
suppressant,” Valenko ordered. “Betty don't look. Keep an
eye out.”

She grimaced and
then turned. “They've been dead a while boss. About two hours
or more,” Jethro said.

“
Hey what's
going on there?” Betty said pointing to a sunlit patch of
ground. It glittered. The others turned to her.

“
See
something?”

“
Yeah,
something's going on just under the surface.” She grimaced,
switching her view to thermal. “Yeah, boiling... just under the
surface like a pimple.”

“
Everyone
watch out!” Jethro snarled, pulling the simian away from the
patch. Valenko fell into a crouch as the ground erupted. Gas spewed
out to the heavens. Some of it fell back, drifting like snow.

“
Careful.
Don't let the crap get on you when it's warm and liquid. When it gets
in the shade it'll freeze and may crack your suit,” Zebo
cautioned urgently.

“
Right,”
Valenko grimaced. “You stay here.” He pointed to one of
the heavy worlders. “You go back until you're just in line of
sight of her and then stay there.” He grimaced looking around.

“
You are
forming a daisy chain?” Jethro asked.

“
Yes.”

“
I've been
leaving signal repeaters. I'm out though. I've got the others laying
theirs now.”

“
Now you tell
me,” the bear growled. “Cancel that,” he growled,
waving to the two heavy worlders. “Ox can you read?”

“
Barely boss,”
the Tauren answered. “I'm getting some scatter.”

“
Close enough
to work. We've got more bodies. Also another eruption.”

“
Spotted it.”

“
Make a note.
Bodies are near this location.” He turned to the heavy
worlders. “You two police the bodies. Get them ready for
recovery.”

“
Boss signal
coming in. We've got a survivor,” Senjix reported over the com.
“SNAFU. Situation is normal, all fracked up. Very screwed up.
You want the low points?”

“
Upload the
report and then give me a fast verbal,” the bear growled.

“
Rigatoni and
most of the platoon got blasted. Some like Rigatoni ended up down a
cleft when they came back down. Others were sprayed here there and
everywhere. The survivors are trying to get the others out but there
are a lot of injuries and suit breaches.”

“
Suits will
handle them,” Valenko replied, dismissing the problem.

“
Not a lot all
at once. Compound fractures that pierced the skin suits are some of
the worst. Rocks and impalement are some of the more major ones. A
few people landed on their visors and cracked them too. Suit can't
handle that.”

“
Ew, nasty,”
Betty said, shaking her head.

“
Lead us,”
The bear said grimly, motioning them to move out.

 ...*...*...*...*...

They rounded a pair
of stalagmites to find a pair of suits waiting. Jethro had made it
ahead of them and was interviewing the scout who had left to find
help.

“
Why didn't
you signal for help?” he demanded.

“
Can't.
Rockets are... down there,” the survivor pointed to the open
cleft. Jethro looked up to the stars and then down to the ink black
cliff line and grimaced.

“
Pull it
together marine, we've got to get your team mates out,” he
growled and then got up. “Boss this sucks.”

“
Vacuum
usually does,” Valenko said looking around. Several other
survivors waved weakly. Most were lying down or against a rock
holding limbs. The leopard, Letanga was near the cleft edge looking
down.

“
Careful, the
side is unstable. We lost a guy who got too close,” a marine
cautioned. The leopard waved as rocks moved under him to fall below.

“
Yeah,”
he grimaced and then looked up. His golden eyes locked onto the bear.
“They are well and truly stuck in a crack boss. About fifty
meters down. There is a lot of debris on top of them as well keeping
them there.”

“
Oh lovely,”
the bear growled. He started to come forward but the leopard motioned
him to stop.

“
Stay. It's
unstable even with my mass. You'd bring the entire house down.”

“
Okay. New
plan,” the bear looked around. “Anyone?”

“
Rappel down
of course,” Jethro said. He was already pulling the bundle of
line around his torso off. He went over to a stalagmite and dropped
one end, and then played it out as he walked around. When he got back
to the end he had dropped he tied it to the long end.

“
Even your
weight would drop crap down on top of them,” Hurranna growled.
She took the line. “I'd better do it,” she said,
shrugging off her ruck and then clipping in. Jethro stopped and
looked at her.

“
You sure?”

“
Yeah,”
she said, not sounding at all sure. She walked back towards the cliff
edge. She leaned backwards, dropping the excess line behind her. She
looked down. “I can see seven or eight down there. Drop the
repair kit when I'm down.”

“
Right.”

“
This is such
a bad idea,” she breathed and then stepped off. They could hear
scrabbling over her radio link and then static.

“
Line of sight
broken,” the suit reported. Valenko grimaced. He looked around.
“Jethro get someone up that stalagmite overlooking the cleft.
And get an update to Ox.”

“
I'll do it,”
Letanga said. He went over to the cone and ran line around it, then
climbed it like a human would an old world electrical pole. When he
got to the top he wrapped his legs around the spike and waved.
“Update sent. Hurranna can you hear us?”

“
Gotcha,”
she said. “Should have set up a repeater on the cliff edge,”
she muttered. “Wait how are you...” She looked up to see
the leopard on top of the just visible stalagmite. He waved to her.
“Fucking show off,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I
go down you go up. You know you're kinda lost right?”

“
Signal
dumpkov,” he retorted. “To you and to Ox.”

“
Oh,”
she grimaced in embarrassment for not picking up on the obvious.
“Well, we've got survivors. Kicking even,” she reported.
Rigatoni groaned. “But injured. I don't think they will be of
much help getting them out of this mess.”

“
Figures.
Lying around on the job,” someone joked.

Jethro shook his
head as he looked around. “Boss I suggest we get the survivors
moving out to the drop off point now with escort and litter support.”

“
Good idea.
Though I don't like the idea of splitting up,” Valenko sighed.
“But needs must. Get on it.” He turned to Sergei. The
Liger nodded and then started pulling stretcher packs from some of
the teams rucks. A few of the team noted it and followed suit. In a
few minutes they were ready.