Claire Takes On The Galaxy

Claire - Chapter Eighteen

They all picked themselves up from where the explosion had thrown them, with Lieutenant Addington asking if anyone was okay. Everybody was.

“Forcenet is up,” Lou told Claire and she started making her report.

“Command, Clou team is out of the tunnels at the point known as Access with Lieutenant Addington. We saw the Shades mess up a platoon of Mercs at our entry point and wipe out a sniper team…”

Claire was told later that the squad covering the exit had heard the distant sounds of battle, including grenade explosions and concluded that Clou team had found Mercs. Captain Chan had pulled back his entire line rather than risk being outflanked – a couple of clicks of land out in the valley did not matter a damn – but had left the squad in place covering the tunnel entrance at the left of his line. The Merc platoon, reeling from its encounter with the Shades, ran straight into the fire of that squad. As Clou team had not re-emerged, Captain Chan had regretfully concluded they were missing in action. He was relieved, and astounded, that they had made it out. However, Claire only heard about all that later. She did not listen to Lou making their report. Instead, she saw James in front of her dusting himself off and flung herself at him, only to hit his head with the open visor of her helmet.

“Ow!”

Claire clicked her tongue impatiently, flung off her helmet, threw both arms around James’ neck and kissed him hard. This time James got the idea and kissed back.

“Private Williams is here,” she heard Lou say to Captain Chan, “she’s just uh busy. She’ll switch her suit on in a moment.”

“Does this mean I’m forgiven,” said James when they came up for air.

“i***t,” she said and kissed him again.

Addington, who was passing the couple, used a switch at the back to turn on Claire’s system. “Unhand the civilian transport driver Private Williams,” she said in her best officer voice. “You can catch up later. We’re still fighting a battle out there.”

“Wounded soldier in need of medical attention,” said Lou.

Claire reluctantly let go of James. “Later civilian.”

“Anytime, marine.”

“Now that I have your attention, marine,” said Addington, “why is there a dead alien organism at my supply point?”

This was the Shade killed in the fight at the cavern entrance which the Synth had dragged back through the tunnel. It’s remains, a huddled, pale mass dripping a brown goo, lay where the Synth had dropped it.

“Ma’am, it’s definitive proof that Shades exist – finally. I was hoping that James could take it back in transporter.”

“You want me to take a Shade body?” said James without enthusiasm.

“Wrap it up and put it in the forward locker, then in a freezer back at base. The academics will see it, Maddie’s story about her foster parents becomes believable and she’s no longer suspected of murder. Her life can go forward.”

“Ahhh!” said James. “Of course. Done.”

“Maddie – murder?” said Addington.

“Long story ma’am, but if James could take it back, it’d be really good for her.”

“Just keep it away from the wounded, James.”

“Will do Lieutenant.” He turned the creature over with his foot. “Say, this guy is artificial.”

“Not bio?” said Addington.

“Maybe part-bio. I can his skeleton and it’s sort-off metal, built as a proper framework. The internal organs don’t look bio either. I’d say our guy here is closer to being a Synth than anything else. Have to get him back and look more closely of course. Could explain why those things react to electronics, and why the change in atmosphere didn’t bother them.”

“One for the academics, James,” said Addington. “Wrap it to go, and let’s get back to military matters.”

Those military matters included Mason, the wounded soldier Lou had referred to. One of the shots had been blocked by his bullet proof jacket, but the other had hit just above his jacket’s top panel breaking the collar bone, as near as they could judge, and probably causing other injuries. He needed to be shipped back to the medical machines at the base. Then Adria turned up, accompanying the wounded on carrying beasts, along with another medic from the command group. They patched up Mason, tagged him for urgent treatment and loaded him onto Maddie’s transporter.

“First Merc I’ve seen,” was Adria’s only comment on the fact that Mason was one of the enemy. She accepted Clou team’s expressions of sympathies over Taylor with a nod and a comment “I heard you got the guy” then greeted James with a smile, a “hi!” and a query about whether Maddie was safe.

“She’s still pissed with us,” said Lou.

Claire sighed. It was better to get back to the fighting. Lou’s leg was treated by the command group medic, a woman in her thirties who had joined up to see the galaxy after a failed marriage and had found herself in Devil’s Pit with its limited delights – a point that she had made a few times to both Claire and Lou in the months they had been there.

“Good to go for the moment,” she told Lou, “I’ve rigged a patch on the wound that’ll give you full movement for a while, but you’ll want it seen to by the med machines when you get back to base.

“Got it,” said Lou, who walked a few steps tentatively, limping a little, then walked over to James to ask if Brew was okay.

“He’s fine,” said James. “He’s almost finished helping with sorting out the base AI. None of the townies or miners have been hurt in any way. We still have to deal with Gellert and Henshaw trapped in the reactor building – they’re behind steel hatches and lots of concrete and no-where near the reactor or instrumentation – but I have my concerns.”

“Is there a problem with those two?” asked Addington who was close by. “I thought they were safely contained until we got around to them.”

“We thought they’d be okay for a time,” said James. “But we’ve got cams on them and we can see the idiots are trying to work out ways to attach a grenade to one of the door’s locking mechanism. In that confined space it will mess up them far more than the door, but they may not realise that. I’d recommend putting them in cells”

Addington shrugged. “Okay, I’ll get up a posse from the support guys when we get back. Let’s rock! Clou team – good work, but you’re still wanted out on the valley floor.”

Clou team rode back on one of the beasts – Adria pointedly riding on a separate vehicle – and were posted on the extreme left, forward of the main battle line, the valley cliffs just a kilometre to the north, their left.

“I hope they don’t want us to go back in there again,” said Lou. “Running around in tunnels being chased by Shades weren’t no fun.”

Other units were brought up, including a One-Five platoon that Captain Chan had released by thinning out his line, and the Clou team’s friendly rivals Bron and Chad, on Broncnet.

“I hope you ladies are ready to cheer our many achievements,” said Chad over comms.

“I thought your job was cheering our achievements,” said Lou.

“How were the tunnels? Heard it was tough for the Mercs down there.”

“Sure was, we saw them mess up a platoon and wipe out a Merc sniper team. Spotter was killed, and sniper opted for a last stand over his body.”

“Weird, why stay because the spotter’s been killed?” said Chad.

“Almost as strange as the spotter staying because the sniper is killed,” said Bron. “We all need super powers, then the Shades and Mercs won’t be a problem.”

The extra units had been brought up because Chan suspected that the Mercs were about to make a big push. The plan where the Merc platoon was supposed to emerge behind his left flank – a plan which indicated that the Mercs knew a lot more about the Shade tunnels than the marines, if not about the Shades – had been foiled, but most of the forces to exploit that surprise were still in place. The Mercs would try to push the marine left flank hard and maybe send units on an end run around it. Chan pulled his line back again and posted snipers and the extra squads about where he thought that push would come. As it happened, he got it right, and the attack went into the killing ground of the crack sniper teams, Clou and Bronc. Clou was on the extreme left and, a sniper’s dream, behind the enemy flank as they pushed forward, without the Mercs realising they were there.

Claire later remembered the day as one of Lou calling targets, firing, then changing position, the whine of popups searching for them; taking snap shots at the pop-ups and then running to avoid missiles. The enemy was a helmet at two hundred metres or the top of a beast at four hundred. She killed both and moved on. An officer thought he was safe behind a ridge, until Clou team took his life. That produced a furious reaction with a machine gunner spraying bullets in the direction he thought the shot had come from.

“Poor training,” thought Claire, as the muzzle flash showed where the Merc gunner was. He died. Clou team moved. They saw an Ogre at long range but ignored it. Like the snipers, including Bronc team on the other flank, their job was to shred the Ogre’s support, to make them easy meat for the main Marine line. At one point they emerged from behind a clump of twist trees to confront two Mercs emerging from the other side. Lou gave them a burst from her weapon and Clou team dashed for cover, zig-zagging as they had been trained to do, before throwing themselves down behind a fold in the ground covered with more grass than usual.

Claire rolled over and unfolded her weapon’s bipod.

“To your right, in sight,” whispered Lou.

Another Merc had come to find out what had happened to the first two and paid the ultimate price for his curiosity. One of the Mercs Lou had shot was not moving but the other tried to get up and run, only to drop with a hole in his head. Then Lou, who had been keeping one eye on her tac screen the whole time as she was meant to, grabbed Claire and dropped a decoy.

“Incoming, C, run!”

The pair, tumbling over a ridge just before the missile exploded where they had been. They got up and realised that they were just behind a female Merc medic a little younger than Claire and Lou working on a comrade, maybe an artillery Beast operator to judge from nearby smashed up equipment. The fallen Merc’s chest and stomach were covered in blood.

“Can you guys give us a hand,” said the medic, without looking around. I need another pain injector kit and a bandage. Drew here is real bad.”

The marines were supposed to treat enemy wounded as if they were their own. Lou put one of the marine pain injector ampules from her kit and a bandage Claire handed to her into the hand of the medic, still intent on her patient.

The medic looked at the items.

“These aren’t issue,” she said, then turned around. Her eyes widened in horror and she fell back, exclaiming “ahhh!”

“Just flick the top off the ampule and inject it,” said Lou.

“Bandage directions are on the packet,” said Claire.

The wounded Merc drifted back into conscious and, realising who Claire and Lou were, fumbled for his sidearm.

“Your guy raises that sidearm, he becomes a combatant,” said Claire, “and we get to finish the job our side’s started.”

The medic hurriedly wrestled the pistol from her patient’s hand and threw it out of his reach.

“Don’t be an i***t, Drew,” she said. “You’ve got enough problems as it is.”

“Have a nice day,” said Lou, as she and Claire moved off.

“Get f****d Marine,” said the wounded Merc.

“No, Merc,” said Claire, without heat, eyeing the man’s bloody chest; the blood bubbling in one part when he breathed. “Looks like you’re the one who’s fucked.”

“Real good reaction from that medic,” said Lou later, “worth doing again if we could avoid being shot at.”

After that it was time for Clou team to hightail back to their own side, except that their own side came to then. With his forces having taken the Merc punch and broken up their team structure, Captain Chan thought a quick thrust would reap big rewards. Four armoured Ogres, fully supported with pop-ups, plats of all types and grunts with guns, broke a hole in the Merc line. Ten prisoners were taken. A huge victory, but one that Chan could not follow through. Movement in the southern part of the line caused him to pull back and shift units to block a thrust. Numbers were still stacked against the Marines. Clou team’s main contribution to the assault phase of this victory was to hide, but they added one live kill and one equipment kill to their tally.

As night fell the battle died down with both sides considering their next move. Feeling totally drained Clou team reported back to company headquarters. Lieutenant Masters congratulated them over their performance.

“Thank you sir,” they chorused.

“Go, eat and sleep, another sniper team is on point. You guys will be wanted for the next move, whatever that might be.”

Claire swallowed a can of stew, drank some juice, wrapped herself in a thermal blanket and, not bothered by the occasional explosion from the battle field, went out like a light. The next thing she knew Lieutenant Masters was shaking her and Lou urgently.

“Whaat.. we up?”

“Listen,” said Masters, shoving a field comm unit at her. “Our units out on the left flank are hearing this

Claire listened and heard, yet again, that distinctive sighing that made her hair stand on end. She sat bolt upright. “Shades, and they sound close.”

“That’s them, sir,” said Lou. “No question, and it means trouble.”

“I thought they didn’t come out on the valley floor,” said Masters.

“That’s what we thought,” said Claire. “But no one knows much about them.”

“Where’s that tunnel we went down?” said Lou. “It must be close to where our guys are hearing that.”

Masters pulled out his tac display.

“About there,” he said pointing off into the darkness. “Between the two lines.”

“Sir, I respectfully suggest pull our guys back and tell them to switch off all electronics,” said Claire

“All electronics?”

“Yes sir, Lou and I survived in there ’cause we switched off everything and used sidearms without the laser sights, and grenades.”

“Old school,” said Masters thoughtfully.

“All phones and support stuff have to go off,” said Lou. “Those guys’ll detect anything you’ve got on.”

“I guess we can go primitive for a while.” Masters ordered three platoon to switch off straight away, and move back, then told Captain Chan what he was doing. “The chief wants you guys up near the cliffs,” he said after reporting, “to observe developments and deal with any of the creatures which come our way.”

“Does running away and screaming count as dealing with them, sir?” asked Lou hopefully.

“That’s not the Steller Marine Corps tradition,” said Masters. “You shoot at them then run away screaming for fire support; that’s the SMC tradition.”

Clou team kitted up and left, still feeling wrung-out, keeping the suit and weapons systems on until they got closer. They kept the mass of the cliffs directly in front of them for some time before almost stumbling over one of three platoon’s squads in the darkness. The squad pointed pistols at them until they worked out who the intruders were. After that they switched off all electronics and, veering to the right or North East, kept walking, expecting at any time to hear Shades or fall victim to Mercs. They were within a few hundred paces of the cliff face when they heard soft sighing and dived for cover.

“How come we’re suddenly Shade experts,” whispered Lou. “Does being chased around half Devil’s Pit in the dark by these things made us experts?”

“Seems so,” said Claire, “but maybe this time we’ll get to keep away from them.”

They crept closer. There was no forcenet chatter in their right ears, or the heads up displays on their face plates, just the landscape lit only by the stars above, and the sighing of the Shades. They began creeping on hands and knees, then crawling. At the top of one, gentle ridge they stopped. Claire found a cleft in the ridge to look through. Lou found a rock to shield her while she peeked out. Both of them thought they could see pale shapes in the distance – a lot of pale shapes. Then they heard a scream and shots, then more screams and a machine gun opened-up.

“The Mercs didn’t switch off,” whispered Claire, “the Shades are going for them.”

“Those guys are doing a lot of our work,” whispered Lou. “If we don’t have to go near them, it’s good.”

“Maybe you can report from here. The Shades seem busy. Light up, report and then close down. Just say the Shades are bothering the Mercs and that’s what the gunfire is about.”

Lou switched on, told Captain Chan what was happening and that they would report if anything changed and switched off. Claire thought that one of the pale forms came closer while Lou was reporting but lost interest when Lou switched off. The pair listened to what seemed to be a confused fight between the Shades and the Mercs. There would be shouting then shots, a long burst with a machine gun, then more shouting. Someone yelled orders. The marines thought they heard the word “perimeter” then the real firing started to their right front. Claire thought that the Shades must be using the terrain to advantage. The Mercs had full tac systems with night time vision and advanced weaponry just as they did, and the platoon in the tunnel had taken a heavy toll of their attackers. But out on the open valley floor there was cover if the Shades knew how to use it, and perhaps they did, just as they had known to ambush the platoon in the tunnel by hiding a group in one of the alcoves.

As Clou team listened they heard a high-pitched human shriek, abruptly cut off; a few single shots. Merc artillery opened up, the shells arching through the sky to land about where the firing was.

“Calling fire support in close,” murmured Lou, who was trying to see more through her binoculars with the night vision turned off. More shots, then automatic fire, this time short, controlled bursts. Then every fire support weapon in the Merc arsenal seemed to open up, raining down shells and rockets in a line across the Merc right (the Marine left). The firing stopped. Lou thought she could see Shades retreating back to the tunnel, carrying the bodies of their own kind. Lou switched on again and reported that to Chan.

“We’re up again, C,” the spotter said. “Captain wants us forward. All hell’s about to break loose.”

Sure enough, they had barely started to creep forward when it was the Marine’s turn to rain fire down, by hitting the Merc positions with every support weapon the captain could find in his two companies. He had reshuffled his line again to bring up equipment and people for a major thrust into a disorganised enemy, using sniper teams to screen his line to the South. To a veteran of the world wars on Earth the barrage would have seemed tame, but it was far more accurate than those massive events and was hitting an enemy barely dug in, still in disarray from fighting the Shades, who had hit them in the flank, and where that fight had revealed many of the Merc positions.

For Clou team just outside the bombardment area it was bad enough. Claire thought that she could not get close enough to the vibrating ground. She shook her helmet off and clamped both hands to her ears. Abruptly it stopped. Somewhere off to her right, Claire could hear the distinctive tread of armoured Ogres. Clou team put their helmets back on, switched on all systems and began their own deadly business.

A Pop-up operator died over his machine. His comrade saw the body fall and zig zagged for cover, causing one of Claire’s rare misses. An officer trying to rally his unit took a bullet over his right eye. The marines ignored another Merc medic working desperately on a comrade, and took out a Merc about to fire a rocket at an Ogre. Lou used her rocket launcher on a small group of Mercs they encountered behind trees. Then they had to throw themselves flat to avoid shots from their own side.

“Being shot at by Mercs is bad enough,” grumbled Lou.

Suddenly the Mercs were in full retreat, trying to avoid a rout. Without any live targets for the moment, Clou team was ordered to swing well out to the Marine left, the north. They were still moving as the sun rose, bypassing a last stand of a Merc platoon-sized unit, mainly wounded, staged so that the main body could get to the transports. The Mercs had their own, grim traditions.

Claire and Lou caught up with a couple of stragglers who realised they weren’t going to get to their transporters in time and surrendered their weapons. Clou team told them to go down by the Alph and wait and then walked on, weighed down by the newly acquired hardware. Hours later they sighted, at extreme distance, the last of the main Merc body getting onto a transporter. Claire killed one just as the transporter ramp was closing, and that encouraged the transporter to take off, disappearing below a crest before she could take another shot. When it reappeared, jinking and weaving, it was far beyond her range. Clou team walked to the take off point to find some discarded equipment. Lou told command what had happened. Captain Chan then approached the remnants of the last-stand force, under a flag of truce, to tell them that they had no further reason to fight and the Mercs surrendered, ending the battle. The Marines, with some quite unlooked for help from the Shades, had won. Mars could go back to sleep. Claire thought she had never felt so drained in all her life.