Trident Fury (The Kurgan War Book 3) (28 page)

“Yes, by all means get her going. Make sure that she takes something to help identify her as a prisoner and not an enemy combatant.”

Wendy cringed. “In that case, I think I’ll go first and make contact with our forces and let them know what’s going on.”

Cole shrugged. “Whatever works.”

Wendy nodded and jogged off to help organize the prisoners.

Cole bent down and took hold of another rock. Tired-looking men and women in filthy rags shuffled over and joined him. The work was slow and backbreaking but no one stopped, no one complained; they all knew what was at stake.

Chapter 38

Sheridan stared out into the night as an odd humming noise grew closer. He couldn’t see what was making the sound, yet it seemed to be all around them.

“Michael, look!” said Tarina, pointing at a dark shape hovering over the burning train wreckage. “What is it?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” The craft was large and triangular with a downward pointing nose at the front. It pivoted around in the air before landing. At the rear, a ramp dropped and Kurgan soldiers ran out. Within a minute, four other craft had landed and disgorged their passengers.

“Looks like they’ve found us,” said Lee, clenching his rifle tight in his hands.

“Yeah, looks that way,” replied Sheridan. “Have everyone take cover. Pass the word that no one fires until I do, then it’s one shot and one shot only per Kurgan. Tell them to aim for the officers and the NCOs first. If they don’t know how to tell one from another, tell them to kill anyone who is trying to lead the others forward.”

“Rodger, sir. Shoot the officers, it’s a non-com’s wet dream.”

Tarina took hold of Sheridan’s right arm. “What do you think our chances are?”

He pulled her in close and looked into her eyes. “I don’t know. They’re coming here with one thought on their minds, to butcher you and your friends. I say we give them a warm welcome.”

Tarina nodded. “Yes, let’s.”

Together they stepped back and got down behind some large rocks on the lip of the depression. Already they could hear the sound of boots scraping on the rocks as the Kurgans began to climb up the side of the hill.
 

Sheridan rested his rifle on the ground and looked through the weapon’s thermal sight, picking a spot he was sure the Kurgans would appear. He was surprised that he was as calm as he was. He had expected to feel scared, but his many months of combat had taught him that whatever happened next was out of his hands. All he could do now was his job and trust in his comrades to do the same.

Less than a minute passed before the first wave of Kurgans hauled themselves up onto the top of the rocky hill. Sheridan spotted a Kurgan with a flag in his arms yelling at the soldiers behind him to follow. Although dark, Sheridan knew that the flag would be crimson-colored for the Kurgan religion. He laid his weapon’s sight on the officer’s forehead before gently taking up the pressure on his rifle’s trigger. With a sound like that of a whip cracking, the bullet shot forth and struck the Kurgan right between the eyes. He keeled over, dropping the flag. Another soldier ran to pick it up. Sheridan took aim and killed him as well.

Beside him, Tarina and Lee brought down several more Kurgans as they came into view. Like a dam bursting, the Kurgans surged forward like a living wave. With their swords held high above their heads and with hate in their hearts, the Kurgans charged straight at the people taking refuge in the crater. One or two fell wounded, but the majority died before they could make it more than ten meters from the side of the hill. In under a minute, the first attack petered out and stopped. A Kurgan hissed defiantly at Sheridan and the other defenders before helping one of the severely wounded soldiers. A macabre row of dead Kurgans marked the farthest limit of their advance.

A cheer burst from the people huddled in the darkened crater.

Sheridan stood up. “Quieten down. No cheering. That was only a probe. They’ll be back and from more than one direction next time.” He turned and looked over at Lee. “Sergeant, check the bodies to see if any of them was carrying something other than a sword.”

Lee nodded and dashed from the depression, quickly searching the remains.

“How long before they come back?” Tarina asked.

“If we’re lucky, ten minutes, perhaps.”

“And if we’re unlucky?”

“Five or less.”

She leaned over and kissed Sheridan on the cheek. “Well. Let’s hope for today that you’re lucky.”

He smiled back at her.

Tarina shook her head. “Not that kind of lucky, mister.”

On the outskirts of the mining camp, Viper Six lowered his thermal imaging binoculars and glanced down at his watch. They had been in position for close to two hours and had yet to see a single Kurgan. The fighting behind him had died down a while back, now the only sound was coming from the burning wreckage of the old mining complex. A twenty-year veteran, Viper Six’s real name was Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Okiro. He was a bull of a man with broad shoulders and a muscle-bound body.

“I guess we’re not going to see any action tonight, sir,” said Sergeant Day, Okiro’s radio operator.

“No. I suppose not.”

“That’s a real shame. I was really hoping to get the chance to kick some Kurgan arse.”
 

Okiro chuckled at his youthful sergeant’s remark.
 

All of a sudden, Day sat straight up in his chair and looked over at Okiro. “Sir, the
Saratoga
says that they have just detected a large formation of ships heading this way.”

Okiro glanced over and saw that there was nothing on his vehicle’s scanners. If they were out there, they were flying nap of the earth. He stuck his head outside and helplessly watched as one by one, the drones flying in support of his team were blown from the sky.

“What the hell is going on?” remarked Okiro, unable to discern what had brought down his UAVs.

The sound of additional incoming missiles turned his blood cold. Only the warheads, not the attack ships, racing at supersonic speed at his position showed up on Day’s monitor. Okiro and his sergeant died a second later when his command vehicle was blasted into thousands of pieces by a Kurgan missile. All along his defensive line, anything with a power source was hit. In less than three seconds, twenty vehicles and their crews were gone. Orange and red flames licked the night sky. Only the Marines who had dug in with their heavy weapons had survived the attack.

“Calm down, son, and tell me again what just happened,” said Colonel White into a handset.

“Sir, we are under attack. Viper Six is dead and over half of the combat team has been destroyed,” replied a flustered Lieutenant on the burning ridgeline.

“Hang on, I’m on my way to your position.” White turned and jogged out of the mine. He clenched his jaw when he saw the burning hulks of what had once been a robust fighting force illuminating the horizon. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw three Marines he didn’t recognize carrying radios on their backs running as fast as they could toward the wrecked combat team.

“Just a minute, who are you people?” called out White.

A woman turned to face the colonel. “Sir, my name is First Lieutenant Toscano; my men and I were part of the recce team who were sent ahead to scout out the mine. We saw what just happened and are going to see if we can help.”

“What’s your MOS Toscano?”

“I’m a fire effects officer, sir.”

“Okay then, get up on the ridge, make contact with the task force, and start raining down all the ordnance you can into the desert. I got a feeling that a storm is coming our way.”

“Yes, sir.” Toscano took off running with Sergeant Urban and Private Snow by her side.

White heard an odd humming noise and turned to look up at the star-filled sky just as a dark triangular shape, followed closely by another, flew right over the top of the mine. His stomach clenched in a knot when he realized that they had to be Kurgan attack ships of some kind. He didn’t recognize them but knew that they meant to do his people harm.
 

His mind barely had time to process what was going on when the two Kurgan ships let loose a volley of missiles into the landing craft sitting defenseless a kilometer away from the mine. The sound of the ships exploding rocked the night. White swore as the large transports were destroyed by the nearly invisible assailants. In the blink of an eye, everything had changed. For the first time since he had stepped foot on Klatt, White began to face the possibility of failure. As it wasn’t in his or the Corps ethos to give in without a fight, he quickly formed a plan in his mind.

“Sergeant Bowen, the handset, if you please.” White wasn’t finished—not by a long shot.

Admiral Sheridan listened to the incoming reports and tried to imagine himself on the surface of the planet fighting for his life. He shuddered at the thought of the loss of life that had just occurred among the Marines and the transport flight crews. He willed himself to block out such thoughts until they could be dealt with when the engagement was behind them.

“Sir, thank God you didn’t send the rest of the landing craft down to the surface or they’d be gone too,” said Killam.

“Captain, does fleet intel have anything on these new Kurgan attack craft?”

Killam shook his head. “No, sir.”

“Hell of a way to find out.”

“Aye, sir.”

Roy joined the conversation. “Admiral, Colonel White wants us to bring as much fire as we can onto the ground in front of Viper Six’s old location. He believes that a ground assault by overwhelming Kurgan forces is just minutes away.”

Admiral Sheridan said, “Have the missile cruiser
Ford
support the call for fire with everything she’s got, and then tell the
Saratoga
to launch two squadrons ASAP to support the beleaguered Marines.”

“Aye, sir,” responded Roy. She moved back to her duty station, picked up her tablet, and typed out the orders.

Killam lowered his voice. “Sir, we’ve now lost four of our twelve landing craft. We needed nine to evacuate everyone off the planet.”

“I know. I want you to order the support ship,
Arctic
, to jettison everything that she does not need from her cargo holds. She’s going to be turned into our last transport. We can cross load some of the first people brought up from the planet and make this work.”

Killam nodded. “Aye, that might just do the trick.”

“It had better as we’re rapidly running out of options to make this work.”
 

“I’ll speak with the captain of the
Arctic
myself and tell him precisely what you want him to do.”

Admiral Sheridan glanced over at the timer counting down to zero. They had just over two hours to go before any Kurgan fighting ships could arrive. He was also cognizant of the fact that they had yet to find, let alone move, a single POW up from the planet. He took a deep breath to clear his mind, placed his hands behind his back, and resumed his pacing.

Chapter 39

With a loud roar from one hundred throats, the second attack began. As Sheridan had anticipated, the Kurgans had maneuvered around and came at them from two different directions this time. Luckily, the paths they had to use to reach the top of the hill were narrow, canalizing the attackers into coming at them in twos and threes at a time. While Sheridan led the fight from his end of the crater, Sergeant Lee did the same at the other. The Kurgans never flinched nor wavered. Regardless of their losses, they kept on coming. Before long, their bodies covered the ground around the depression, yet they would not give in. Driven by a bloodlust, the Kurgans were hell-bent on killing their enemy so they could honor their ancestors by advancing into the ranks of the Old Guard.

With a quick glance down, Sheridan saw that his rifle had only forty rounds left in its magazine. When they were gone, he would be out of ammo. He suspected that the others around him had even less ammunition remaining as they tended to fire more shots than necessary to bring down an enemy soldier. He watched as Tarina got up on one knee, took aim, and brought down a Kurgan NCO, who had just taken possession of their battle flag from a fallen comrade.
 

From somewhere in the night, a horn blared. The Kurgans stopped their advance and, as if nothing had happened, turned about and walked away from the carnage.

“Hold your fire, they’re retiring,” called out Sheridan. The defenders guns fell silent. The unsettling moans of several wounded Kurgans unable to crawl back for medical aid filled the air.

“Michael, I’ve only got twelve rounds left,” said Tarina.

“Check with the others and see how many they have left as well.”

Sheridan stood up and glanced over at the horizon and saw the first faint rays of the approaching dawn. He checked on the rest of his people, stressing to each person with a weapon to conserve what remained of their ammunition.

Tarina and Lee joined him. “Sir, on average we’re down to fifteen rounds per rifle,” explained Lee. “The few pistols we have are still fully loaded, but they’re only good close in. I’ve handed around as many swords as I could find. But I doubt we’d last more than a couple of minutes against the Kurgs if all we had left to defend ourselves with were those weapons.”