Trident Fury (The Kurgan War Book 3) (30 page)

“
Ford
, this is Ghost One, target destroyed,” reported Urban.

Colonel White and his team walked over and took a seat. The man was so calm that he looked to Toscano as if he were out for an early morning stroll. “I thought you’d like to know that they’ve linked up with the POWs and have begun to bring them out of the mine. The first wave of landing craft accompanied by a squadron of fighters is on the way down.”

“That is good news. Sir, before I forget, we had survivors at our crash site. Could you please ask someone to rescue them as well?”

“I’m on it, sir,” said Sergeant Bowen, digging out a map for Urban to pinpoint the survivor’s location.

White smiled. “I swear, Sergeant Bowen could replace me and no one would ever know.”

Toscano was going to point out that Bowen was black while the colonel lived up to his name and was white. She, nonetheless, understood the meaning of the colonel’s compliment to the efficient non-com. “Sir, what’s your plan now?”

“I brought up a company of Marines from Guardian’s battalion with me. When the time is right, we’ll leapfrog back by companies to our landing craft. You and I, Captain, will be the last two Marines to leave this accursed rock.”

“Got it, sir.”

“Glad to hear it,” said White patting Toscano on the shoulder before heading down the line to check on the other Marines.

“That’s one cool customer,” remarked Urban.

“He and his kind were born for this war. Having said that, I’d rather have one Colonel White to lead me in a frontal assault on the Kurgan home world than a thousand bureaucrats from Allied Defense Force Headquarters back home on Earth.”

“Amen to that, ma’am.”

Chapter 41

Colonel Kuhr had never seen such deadly and accurate firepower in his military career. His lead battalion had all but ceased to exist in a wall of flame. In under a minute, his ground attack plan was in tatters. His next wave of soldiers had been forced to take cover in a long, dry riverbed and were pinned down, unable to advance or retreat. That left him with his reserve battalion still intact. He thought about moving them around to a flank but ruled it out when he spotted Terran fighters flying a combat air patrol over the mine. His attack ships may be hard to detect, but they weren’t invisible. With the night fading away, he didn’t want to risk his ships being spotted and destroyed.

“Sir, what do you want to do?” asked Kuhr’s adjutant.

“Have everyone keep their heads down until the humans begin to withdraw. We might not be able to stop them, but we can still inflict grievous casualties on them.”

“I’ll pass the word.”

Kuhr nodded. He had hoped to catch the Terran forces before they could recover from the blow his craft had dealt them. However, they had proven to be more resilient than he had expected, and now it was his soldiers that were being cut to pieces, not theirs. He prayed that the soldiers he had left behind had proven their worth and had dispatched all of the humans at the train wreck. He could use the reinforcements.

Sergeant Kurka, Kuhr’s trusted old friend, walked over and saluted as if he were on parade. “Sir, I can’t raise anyone on the communicators. The humans are jamming all of our frequencies.”
 

“If we were in their place, we would too. Before you lost comms, did you manage to speak with the fourth battalion?”

“It was garbled. But I think that Lieutenant Colonel Kulk is dead, along with a couple of hundred of his men.”
 

The news struck Kuhr like a thunderbolt. “That can’t be. A battalion of Young Guard soldiers brought low by a handful of human prisoners. Kulk must have been overconfident and walked into an ambush; there can be no other explanation.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the old soldier.

Kuhr stood and looked back at the reddish glow on the horizon as if he could somehow see the disaster that had befallen his subordinate. He gnashed his pointed teeth together and cursed God for not helping him in his hour of need. He couldn’t understand, he was a loyal adherent to the word of the Lord. Victory, not defeat, should have been his reward this day.

Kuhr placed a hand on Sergeant Kurka’s shoulder. “Sergeant, I want you to take a company from the third battalion and personally deal with those wretched humans who have dared to soil the proud history of the Young Guard.”

Kurka nodded. He was a veteran soldier with years of combat experience under his belt. He would deal with the non-believers and restore honor his regiment. Kurka saluted, turned, and ran for the landing site where the third battalion was waiting.

With his dreams of glory and admission into the Old Guard all but gone, Kuhr began to plot his way out of this mess. No matter what happened now, Lieutenant Colonel Kulk would be his scapegoat. The officer had not followed his orders correctly and had led his men into a trap. Kulk’s family name, not his, would go down in history as the architect of this disaster.

Chapter 42

“Here you go. You’re in good hands now,” said Cole to a man he had helped out of the mine. He found the fresh morning air invigorating after hours of backbreaking labor.

“We’ll take him from here,” said a young Marine as he placed an arm around the exhausted prisoner and guided him through the open doors of a landing craft. The ship had landed right outside of the mine to minimize the time it took to load each one. Inside, a platoon of medics rushed about looking after the emaciated and exhausted former POWs.

Cole stepped back and looked up at the ship. The larger, battalion-sized vessels always reminded him of a metal tortoise’s shell.

“Master Sergeant Cole,” called out Wendy as she made her way through the throng of people to reach Cole. “I’m glad I found you,” she sounded flustered. “I tried speaking with some of the senior Marines here, but they all brushed me aside. I told them about the people taken to the Kurg camp in the desert to be murdered, but no one wants to listen to me. They all keep saying that they are too busy to help me.”

“Leave it to me, ma’am,” replied Cole. His eyes narrowed when he spotted a couple of officers standing off to one side chatting. He smiled at Wendy. “Why don’t you go and see if you can find your friend Angela and meet me back here in five minutes’ time.”

 
Cole strode straight at the officers. “Excuse me, gentlemen, is your commanding officer around? I’d like to speak with him.”

“There’s no time to talk,” replied a slender Second Lieutenant. “Our CO is busy. You can thank her later. Just follow the line of people getting into the landing craft, and we’ll have you back home in no time.”

Cole’s tone turned belligerent. “Okay, sir, I’m not asking, I’m telling you. Where is your CO?”

The second lieutenant pursed his lips. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m an officer and won’t allow you to speak to me in a disrespectful manner. I don’t care if you are a former POW, show some respect to the rank.”

Cole saw red flash before his eyes. He clenched his right fist and pulled back his arm when someone from behind grabbed a hold of his arm. Cole turned his head ready to punch whoever it was.

“Master Sergeant Cole, is that you?” asked a man in full combat gear.

“Yes, sir,” responded Cole when he saw the lieutenant colonel’s rank on the short man’s collar.

“Sergeant, It’s me, Lieutenant Colonel Kimura. We met on the
Colossus
. I’m from General Denisov’s staff.”

Cole unclenched his fist and lowered his arm. “Yeah, now that you mention it, sir. I do remember speaking to you.”

Kimura looked over at the young officers. “Standing there won’t help these people. If your Marines are helping the POWs, so should you two. Get to work, gents.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the chastised officers in unison.

“Sir, I really need your help,” said Cole.

“Name it.”

Captain Killam drummed his fingers on his console while he waited for his call to be returned. Kimura’s message had sent Killam into a near panic to find a solution to what seemed to be an insurmountable problem. He hadn’t told Admiral Sheridan of the danger his son and up to one hundred POWs were facing. He knew that there was no wiggle room for error. There was only so much troop lift available in the task force, and with four landing craft already gone, there was nothing left to send down to extract the missing prisoners.

“Anything?” whispered Commander Roy.

Killam shook his head.
 

Roy glanced over at the timer on the screen and bit her lip. They had just under forty minutes before the first Kurgan ships could arrive in orbit. Time itself was now their enemy as well.

“Status Report, Captain?” asked Admiral Sheridan.
 

Killam looked away from his computer and quickly collected his thoughts. “Sir, the first landing craft transferred its passengers to the
Arctic
and is on its way back down to the planet’s surface. The
Arctic
has already spooled up her engines and will be jumping to the RV point beyond the asteroid belt in the next two minutes.”

Admiral Sheridan nodded. “That is good news.”

“Sir, two more landing craft are on their way up and will be in orbit shortly. Once they signal that they are ready, the
Churchill
will accompany the ships to the RV.”

“What is the prognosis from down below? Are we going to get everyone off before the Kurgans arrive here in force?”

Killam hesitated, unsure of what to say next. He cleared his throat and said, “It’s going to be tight. Colonel White still has to collapse his perimeter and get his forces onto the last couple of transports.”

“Please remind him of the time.”

Killam nodded. He felt awful for not telling the admiral the true situation on the planet’s surface. He let out a deep sigh and turned to pass the message when he saw a dispatch on his computer screen. Right away a smile crept across his face. Before jumping, the
Arctic
had just been able to fix up an old medical shuttle and send it down to the mine to link up with Master Sergeant Cole.
 

“Excuse me, sir, but there’s been a development I need to brief you on,” Killam said, rising from his desk.

From the grave look on his face, Admiral Sheridan knew that his operations officer had something important to pass on. “Very good, Captain. Let’s hear it.”

Chapter 43

The cold gray light of dawn crept over the top of the rocky hill. For the first time since they had arrived, Sheridan was able to take in everything that had happened. He walked solemnly past the rows of dead. In some places, bodies were stacked one on top of the other. Kurgan and Terran corpses covered the ground.

“Michael, I thought you should know that two more people have just died,” said Tarina as she made her way to her lover’s side.

“What does that bring the total to?”

“We’ve got twelve uninjured and seven wounded still alive. One, Corporal Wu, probably won’t last long if we don’t get him medical attention. That last fight really tore us to ribbons.”

Sheridan felt a pang of remorse in his chest. He had no idea how many they had lost until now. He took Tarina by the hand and held it tightly. “If the Kurgs knew how badly off we are right now, they’d be on us before you could blink an eye.”

Sergeant Lee waved at Sheridan and jogged over. For the past hour, he had been keeping an eye on the Kurgans. “Sir, I don’t get it. The Kurgans are just standing around at the bottom of the hill. It’s like they have no clue what to do next. Surely they’ve got non-coms who could lead them?”

“They do, but there’s aren’t like ours. They only have three rank levels for their conscripts: private, corporal, and sergeant. In their military, the officers make all the important decisions. Stuff we’d leave to a sergeant in our armed forces is usually done by a lieutenant in theirs. I’ve read of some veteran sergeants taking command in battle, but it’s a rarity. I suspect that with all of their officers down, they’re waiting for an officer to arrive to take charge.”

“What about our people?” asked Tarina. “They must have freed the other prisoners by now. Wendy would have told them where we are.”

“As would have Cole,” added Sheridan. “Let’s go with the assumption that help is on the way. Sergeant, pair off some of the stronger people with the wounded and be ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”

“Can do, sir.”

Tarina raised a hand to block the rising sun. In the far distance, she could make out three craft flying low to the ground. A chill ran down her spine when she realized that they were heading in their direction. “Michael, look!”

Sheridan turned to see what Tarina was pointing at and swore when he recognized the triangular ships as being like the ones he had seen the night before. “Looks like we’re going to have to hold out for a little while longer.”

Tarina’s voice grew concerned. “We only have about fifty rounds left. We don’t stand a chance.”

“Head back to the others and warn them that the Kurgans are getting reinforcements and will be coming up as soon as they sort themselves out.”

“What are you going to do, Michael?”

“I’m going to buy us some time.” He turned his head and looked into Tarina’s eyes. If what he did next saved her life, then it would be worth it. “I love you, Tarina Pheto.”