The Lost Command (Lost Starship Series Book 2) (26 page)

Fortunately, the two acceleration seats didn’t head for the frozen lake or the forest, but for an area of large snowdrifts between the two areas.

We’re getting a bit of luck
, Maddox thought.
Maybe enough to give us a chance for survival in the near term. Are we really near Ludendorff? I’m betting we got blown far off course.

The ground rushed up, and the chair crashed into a snow bank, sinking, softening their landing. The giant parachute floated down over them.

“So…cold,” Dana said past chattering teeth.

Maddox couldn’t unbuckle. The metal buckles were frozen shut. He pulled out a long, tri-steel knife and began to saw the tough fabric, parting the straps one by one. Finally, he stood, and burst open Dana’s suitcase. As fast as he could, he put the jacket and snow-pants on her. He clicked on the internal suit heater. Then he slid on her frost mask and goggles.

The batteries for the thermals wouldn’t last for many days, but getting enough heat onto Dana Rich was an immediate problem.

Once he was done, Maddox realized he couldn’t feel his feet. Sitting in the chair, he tugged off his shoes, putting the thermal boots on. Only then did Maddox cut through the silk above, parting it.

Keith floundered near, having a hard time forcing his way through the drifts. The small ace sank up to his chest.

“This place is worse than I expected,” Keith shouted. Tendrils of white escaped through his mask. “My jacket is set on high, and I’m still freezing.”

Maddox wondered if the ace’s thermals were defective. His own clothes were set on medium and he felt fine.

“Dana?” Maddox asked.

She opened agonized eyes, peering past the safety of her antiglare lenses. “C-Cold,” she stammered. “I-I’ve never been so c-cold in my life.”

Maddox wasn’t sure what to do next.
Think about immediate goals. Keep your people alive first
.

“Did you happen to see where most of the jumpfighter cabin landed?” he asked Keith.

The ace nodded, lifting a trembling arm, pointing toward the lake.

“We’ll go there first,” Maddox said.

“W-Why?” Keith asked.

“To see if we can salvage anything,” Maddox said. “We won’t last long on our own. We need a radio, directional equipment and whatever else we can find. Come on, talking about it isn’t going to help us.”

Maddox grabbed one of Dana’s gloved hands and pulled the doctor to her feet. “You have to keep moving,” he told her.

“I want to sleep,” she said.

“No. Walk. Follow me.” Maddox started for the frozen lake.

It was hard work wading through the drifts. The snow particles were fine and dry. Packed tight, the snowpack failed to hold them on its surface. Maddox doubted the snow would have held for a cat. Snowshoes wouldn’t have helped either.

The captain dragged Dana after him. She shivered constantly, stumbling, mumbling about the freezing cold. Behind her, Keith doggedly followed, the ace’s arms wrapped over the front of his body.

Maddox found their chill odd. It was cold certainly, but he didn’t feel debilitated by the weather. Could his hotter core temperature give him an advantage here? He gave that a high probability and then no longer thought about it.

The wind increased, whipping up the white powder, decreasing visibility. Now the cold slashed through his thermals. Maddox halted long enough to turn his suit from medium to high.

Dana’s pace slowed. Maddox had to stop twice and shout at the ace. The man looked at him dully. Could the cold weaken Maker that quickly? How could trappers live in this environment? Maybe the slarn furs made a bigger difference than Maddox had realized.

An hour later, Maddox pulled Dana to the compartment wreck. The wind no longer whipped the snow, but it was colder here. A front of glacial chill emanated from the lake ice.

“Keep moving around,” he told them. “Don’t lie down while I’m looking.”

Both Dana and Keith stared at him dully. He didn’t think they’re were going to last much longer out in the open. Wolf Prime was proving to be a brutally cold planet. And this wasn’t even the worst time of the orbital cycle.

Carefully, Maddox stepped to the twisted metal of the cabin. A wrong move could cause a sharpened piece of metal to slice his suit and maybe his skin. This was dangerous, but he needed to find tools.

Poking around, lifting a metal strut, Maddox found a thermos. He shook it. The container still held coffee. Would it still be hot?

Stepping around a sheet of cabin, Maddox lifted a fold of metal. It screeched and then snapped off. He hurled the piece away and spied the edge of his rifle case. It had to be a twisted piece of junk surely.

Maddox worked out the case and opened it, checking the weapon. The Khislack was intact, including the various magazines and suppressor.

A shout alerted Maddox. He looked over at the other two. One of them pointed at the sky.

Maddox looked up, but didn’t see anything. He glanced at the other two.

“There, there!” Keith shouted. “It’s dropping out of the sky. Can’t you see it?”

Craning his neck, Maddox looked straight up. He saw it then, and he wondered how the ace had spied it. All he saw was a dark speck. Even so, sight of it squeezed Maddox’s heart. That had to be an enemy shuttle. Had a star cruiser’s sensors spotted them down on the planet? With an oath, Maddox hurried back to the others.

By the time the captain reached them, the speck had increased to twice its former size.

“Do you know what that is?” Maddox shouted. White tendrils of mist puffed from his frost mask.

“Y-Yes,” Keith said, with his teeth chattering. “It’s a shuttlecraft.”

“Does it belong to the New Men?” Maddox asked.

“Who else?” Keith said.

Maddox scanned all around. The lake was a kilometer away, the skeletal forest three kilometers the other way. Various-sized drifts were in between.

“We’ll move away from here,” Maddox said. “Maybe they’re homing in on the cabin metal.”

“N-No,” Keith said. “You can bet they’re looking at our heat signatures. We must be like beacons to them.”

Maddox scanned the cold sky. The shuttle had grown again. It came down fast.

“Look!” Keith said.

Maddox caught the pilot’s motion more than heard the words. The ace’s right arm rose, pointing toward the low horizon. Two bright plumes lofted from the ground, rapidly gaining on the descending craft.

“Surface to air missiles?” Maddox asked.

Keith laughed, nodding.

Maddox watched the tableau. The missiles increased velocity, moving at high acceleration. Silvery chaff glittered from the shuttlecraft. Then red tracers hosed from the air-vehicle. Some of them struck a missile, creating an explosion and a growing black cloud of smoke.

Keith groaned, and cheered a second later as the last missile burst out of the smoke-cloud.

The shuttlecraft tracers struck the nosecone, but this missile refused to die right away. Then it exploded, creating a fireball and an expanding smoke-cloud. The shuttle flew into the cloud. As it reappeared at the bottom, smoke trailed from the shuttlecraft.

“Hit!” Keith shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

“Down,” Maddox said. “Crouch. There’s no sense making ourselves any more visible than we have to.”

Keith glanced at Dana and pulled her down beside him.

Maddox likewise crouched. He watched the shuttlecraft. The machine began to wobble, straightened out until a burst of fire blew away a back section. Then it plunged for the surface.

At that moment, three capsules ejected from the craft. Seconds later, gigantic parachutes billowed into existence.

That was too much for Maddox. He had to know if they were good guys or bad. Snapping open the case, the captain raised his Khislack. He tucked the stock against his shoulder and peered through the scope. This one had been treated for the cold.

It took him a few seconds, then Maddox had one of the shuttle crew sighted in his scope. The man wore thermal clothes and a frost mask with goggles. The captain had a moment where he centered on the man’s face. The skin was golden colored. Three New Men floated down toward the surface.

-26-

“They’re enemy,” Maddox said in a hoarse voice.

“More will be coming,” Keith said. “There’s two star cruisers up there, no doubt hunting for us.”

Of course Maddox knew that. He also knew that someone on Wolf Prime had used SAMs on a New Man shuttlecraft. Did that have something to do with Professor Ludendorff? He hoped so. It meant they would have allies. None of that would matter in a few minutes, though. What was he going to do with three New Men coming down?

In those few seconds, Maddox realized what he had to do. He didn’t like it, but… The captain’s resolve firmed. The New Men were impossible foes. If they were like him, only better, the cold wouldn’t debilitate them as it did Dana and Keith.

Lifting the rifle a second time, Maddox decided to even the odds while he could actually do something. The New Men were remorseless foes. To defeat them, he would need to use an equal ruthlessness.

Before the mission, Maddox had zeroed in his Khislack so he could put three consecutive rounds in a palm-sized target at one hundred meters. He used special bullets, Horizon Blue Kings, not trusting ballistic-tip ammunition for precision shots.

Sighting the nearest New Men, switching on the targeting computer, Maddox gathered data.

“You’ll never hit them from here,” Keith said. “You’ll have to wait until they’re almost down.”

Maddox didn’t bother nodding. He already knew that, but what point was there in saying anything. This was his area of expertise. He’d rather show a man than say it.

Taking off a mitten, Maddox reconfigured the targeting computer for a one thousand meter shot. Then he put the mitten in a pocket and craned his head upward, watching the parachutes float toward the surface.

“Can you nail them?” Keith asked.

Maddox said nothing as he gathered himself. He couldn’t lay the rifle on the ground or a rock. He’d have to be perfectly steady. Raising the rifle, he aimed skyward. With the scope and targeting computer, Maddox centered on a New Man’s back. The enemy faced away from him.

The captain waited as he studied the wind. Wind was never constant. In this situation, the most important wind consideration was two-thirds of the way to target. This would be tricky, no doubt about it. There were some obvious crosswinds. He’d have to take them into account. Despite the best computers, it still took constant practice and skill to make long-distance shots in the field.

Maddox took three deep breaths. Then he let out all his air on the last exhale. The money spot was a two-second pause afterward.

He squeezed the trigger, and the shot broke. Maddox continued to squeeze to the rear and released the trigger slowly to the front. The kick told him he’d done his fundamentals right. The scope fell right back onto target as it should.

The New Man jerked, and his head twisted. His arms dropped away from the guidelines as he hung limply, dead or dying.

Without hesitation as he stood tall, Maddox swiveled his torso, finding the next parachutist in his scope. This New Man looked back and forth at the ground. He must have spotted Maddox. Faster than the captain would have thought possible, the New Man clawed at a holster at his side.

Maddox fired…missed. Taking three deep breaths, collecting himself again, the captain exhaled slowly.

One… He let himself go blank. The New Man aimed his black weapon. A blob of force ejected from the blaster. Two… Maddox ignored the attack. If the enemy hit him, it was all over anyway. Three… With deliberate coolness, Maddox centered the targeting dot slightly left of the New Man’s chest and squeezed the trigger. BAM! The rifle along with the scope lifted. The scope fell back onto target.

A hole appeared in the enemy’s chest, pouring blood.

Maddox used explosive bullets. He didn’t want to have to hit a New Man twice to put him out of the fight.

“That’s fantastic shooting, mate!” Keith shouted. “Kill the last one, Captain.”

Once more, Maddox twisted his torso, put the scope on the New Man—

The enemy plunged down fast, no longer floating.

“What the…” Maddox said. Then he realized the New Man had released himself from the parachute harness, letting himself fall to the ground.

With the scope, Maddox searched for the man, but he was too late. The enemy in the silvery suit hit a drift and disappeared out of sight.

Slowly, the captain lowered his Khislack.

“Did you see that?” Keith said. “The madman unhooked. He must have fallen over one hundred meters. He can’t be alive.”

Maddox didn’t want to bet on that. Raising the rifle, he scanned the location, but found a hill of a drift blocking the landing site. It was time to get out of here, but where should they head?

Once more, Maddox studied the terrain. The lake was out as it was too cold and barren. The forest might protect them from the wind a little and they could burn the wood—

“Look!” Keith said. “Do you see that?”

“No,” Maddox said. “What?”

“Over there,” Keith said, pointing. “I saw a flash of light.”

“Where?”

“In the distance,” Keith said. He pointed at what might have been a set of hills in the opposite direction as where the New Man had landed. It would be up the aisle between the lake and forest.

“What kind of light?” Maddox asked.

“Like someone flashed a mirror. I think they were signaling us.”

Maddox frowned. That didn’t seem right. Still, what else was there? Nothing. So, he might as well grasp at this straw.

“Point it out again,” Maddox told the ace.

Keith did so.

“Let’s go,” Maddox said. “You lead the way. Dana. Dana,” he said, shaking the doctor.

Groggily, she raised her head. Dana’s eyes had been closed.

“Follow Keith,” Maddox told her. “I’ll bring up the rear.”

He would keep a sharp eye out for the New Man. Would their enemy trail them, or did he have a broken leg or ribs? It was impossible to tell. In any case, after he broke apart the Khislack and put it in its carrying case, Maddox set off through the powdery snow.

***

It was hard going. The wind increased, blowing the powdery snow and knifing through their thermals. If Maddox didn’t push the other two, they soon slowed and stopped altogether.

The captain wanted to drop back and watch for the New Man. If the parachutist had survived the fall, he would be coming after them. Maddox couldn’t stay behind, though. Dana and Keith would soon lie down and allow themselves to freeze to death.

Like a shepherd, Maddox prodded the others, forcing Keith to plow out the path and keeping Dana in his lane. Soon, the wind changed directions, howling across the icy lake, increasing the cold. The sun dimmed and soon disappeared altogether as dark clouds began to form overhead.

“W-We’re not going to survive out in the o-open,” Keith stammered past chattering teeth.

“Where are these others you saw?” Maddox asked. “Why don’t they contact us?”

Keith jerked a thumb upward. “T-The New Men are listening. T-The others must know that.”

“Are the winds keeping the New Men from launching more shuttles?” Maddox wondered.

Neither Keith nor Dana answered him. The three of them kept stumbling through the drifts, making the best time they could.

Maddox studied his companions, trying to gauge their stamina. Long weeks aboard
Victory
hadn’t prepared them for Wolf Prime. The other two weren’t going to last much longer in this ice age. It was getting colder every minute. If one of the blanket storms hit them out here…

We’re not going to do anyone any good frozen to death
.

Maddox angled away from Keith’s original destination. He headed for a field of large boulders. It was darker there, with brown lichen showing in places where snow had fallen off. Maybe they could find a makeshift cave. Yet, how was that going to help them in the long run?

Maddox shook his head. It was the short run that counted, many of them strung together until they won.

Visibility worsened during the next fifteen minutes. Soon, Maddox could hardly see a meter ahead of his face. He had to get them out of this now. Grabbing Keith with one hand and Dana with the other, the captain plowed through the drifts. His legs drove up and down like pistons. He kept jerking the other two, making them keep up. Ten minutes later, he almost crashed against a boulder. It just loomed out of the blizzard. He had to yank the other two to halt them, because they kept staggering like robots.

“We have to go to ground,” Maddox shouted in each of their ears.

Neither said a word.

Maddox pulled them after him, weaving through the lanes created by the giant boulders. It sounded as if haunting demons shrieked down at them. He knew it was the wind whipping around the rocks, but the sounds made him nervous nonetheless.

Finally, the captain found what he’d been searching for. Big boulders made a cul-de-sac. Using the rifle case, Maddox dug in the snow, making a hole, piling the snow around them as a shield.

“Crouch together,” he said.

Maddox slid a pack off his shoulder, ripping it open. The pack held a pup tent. He set it up and forced them inside. He piled snow against the fabric. That would act as insulation. Then, he crawled in with them, sealing the entrance against the elements. With his thumb, he turned on a small thermal unit. It churned out heat, helping a little.

As the wind rattled the upper fabric, the three of them shivered together. Maddox remembered the thermos he’d found in the wreckage. Carefully, he opened it and found a miracle: hot coffee. It smelled wonderful.

“Here,” he shouted at Dana. “Sip some of this.”

She held the thermos with two trembling hands. Maddox continued to hang on, guiding her. She sipped, and she trembled even more.

Maddox studied her.

“Good,” she shouted. “So good. I want more.”

He let her sip half the thermos, noticing that her shivering lessened. He repeated the performance with Keith.

“Thanks, mate,” the pilot said after he’d drained it. “I think I can sleep a bit now.”

Maddox let them. Because of the thermal unit and insulating snow, the temperature had risen within the pup tent.

Maddox wasn’t sure when he nodded off. A terrific
boom
woke him. Groggily, the captain raised his head. Was a shuttle landing beside them? How had the New Men found them in the storm? More booms hammered the heavens. It was thunder, not the roar of rockets. The booms were louder than any he’d ever heard.

The winds howled overhead, but they only buffeted the tent. The giant boulders protected them from its worst fury. For the next hour, the booms continued. White flashes of lightning illuminated the dark tent.

As they endured, Maddox took Dana’s communicator and tried it. He doubted the New Men would get any reception up in orbit. He need not have worried. All he got was horrible static. No one was getting any reception down here either.

Time passed, and Maddox began getting drowsy again. Then something alerted him, a premonition of danger perhaps. The hairs rose on the back of his neck. It felt as if something big prowled outside. Then, a low growl told him one of the slarns must be outside the tent.

Drawing his tri-steel knife and long-barreled gun, Maddox debated sliding outside. Should he hope the snow beast went elsewhere? Or should he defend them from death?

Maddox tried to reason this logically. If the beast was outside, it must have trailed them through their scent, hunting them as prey. Should he wake the others to help him? No. He would do this himself. They needed rest, giving their bodies time to repair the damage they’d taken for what must have been a grim ordeal for them.

With his frost mask in place and with the goggles protecting his eyes, Maddox unsealed the tent. A musky odor told him he’d been right about there being a beast outside.

Steeling himself, Maddox slid out on his back. A flash of lightning in the distance showed him a long and sinuous animal with a mouthful of teeth. It looked like a giant weasel the size of a grizzly bear. The slarn opened its jaws with its ears pinned against its narrow skull. Then, it roared dreadfully. That caused an awful odor to wash over Maddox’s face. He didn’t want to think what he would have smelled if he hadn’t been wearing the frost mask.

Rising up onto its hind feet, the thing towered an easy four meters, almost twice Maddox’s height. It had six legs with six sets of wide claws.

Maddox stood up. He doubted his bullets could kill the thing in time—

The slarn arched back and roared in agony, with its jaws aimed into the heavens. It took a second for Maddox to comprehend what happened. Sizzling lines of energy played upon the snow beast’s luxurious fur along its back. Another bolt struck the creature, and more energy burned the fur and made the slarn thrash back and forth in agony.

Maddox barely hurled himself away in time. The big creature rolled over the tent. Then it flipped around onto its feet, bending its body like a weasel would. It crouched as if threatening to leap, snarling at the person who had shot it with an energy weapon.