Jump Pay (27 page)

Joe Baerclau got his platoon over to the right, along the building's wall. That kept them out of the line of fire of the Heggies on the roofs. They couldn't lean over and shoot directly down without exposing themselves to Accord riflemen farther out. When the platoon reached the southern end of the building, the men had to wait at the corner. One fire team started shooting around the corner, as far as they could without exposing themselves. Farther out, the company's 1st and 3rd platoons went back across the inner rampart to move farther south. First came back over once they were covered by the next building. Third stayed in the gap to shoot straight down the lane.

"Hey, cut that out!" a voice said over the company noncoms' channel. "This is Nimz, 3rd recon. We're up this street."

All three platoons stopping shooting down the lane. Dem Nimz and two other men came running down the lane. Captain Keye and First Sergeant Walker moved along the east wall of the building past Joe's platoon.

"I've got about fifty men left," Nimz said. "We're covering the next intersection, Captain. I'd suggest securing these two buildings. I think a lot of the Heggies have gone inside."

Captain Keye took a moment to relay the news that Echo had contacted the reccers and to explain the situation to Colonel Stossen.

"Okay, Nimz," Keye said then. "For the time being, consider yourselves part of Echo." That had come from the colonel. Keye turned and gestured to Joe. "Baerclau, you take your platoon into this building. Secure the interior and the roof. I'll send 1st platoon to take the next building over. Nimz, you stay with Joe until we can get you back to your platoon. You've been inside here. These men with you will go over with 1st platoon for now."

Nimz just nodded. Baerclau was already talking to his squad leaders.

"What can we expect inside?" Joe asked Dem as he started moving 2nd platoon down the east-west lane toward the nearest door leading into the building.

"I think the buildings on this side of the base are all warehouses, the first two or three lines anyway," Nimz said. "Our guess is that any factories are in the middle and that the smaller buildings over on the west side are barracks and mess halls and other support services. You get inside any of the warehouses at the first site?" When Joe nodded, Dem said, "These are about the same. Big interior space. Stairs to the roof along one wall. Stuff stacked neatly. I think we've got a tunnel complex underneath, like at Site Bravo. No idea how extensive
that
is."

"We'll worry about that when someone tells us to," Joe said. He took a deep breath and glanced at the recessed doorway. The door was closed. He positioned first squad on the east side, second on the west.

"Any suggestions?" he asked Dem.

"Explosives," Nimz said without hesitation. "Blow the door in and run in behind it, shooting all the way. They might be waiting for a break-in, but the blast should give us a couple of seconds to cut down the odds. I've got a couple of charges left."

Dem didn't wait for Joe's nod. He pulled the charges from his pockets and moved into the recess on hands and knees. There was no window in the door, but he wasn't taking any unnecessary chances. He only needed ten seconds to affix the two explosives and clip the fuses. He scooted back out of the recess and dove to the side.

The others didn't need any orders. Everyone pulled back from the opening and got as close to the wall as they could.

The fuses had only a ten-second delay. When the charges blew, Dem allowed no more than two seconds before he started into the doorway. Not all of the debris had settled yet. Joe Baerclau and Wiz Mackey were in just behind him, with the rest of the platoon moving in as rapidly as they could.

The first men in started shooting before they knew whether or not they had any living targets. Dem stopped where the wall of the doorway gave him a little protection and fired out into the interior of the warehouse. Joe and Wiz went past him, diving off to the side, careful to get under Nimz's gun level.

There
were
Heggies in this warehouse, at least a platoon of them. That was Joe's initial assessment as he dove to the floor and rolled to cover next to a stack of crates. But for as much of the interior as he could see, there might have been three or four times that number.

The explosion that had blown the door into the warehouse hadn't hit anyone, but it had given Joe's platoon the couple of seconds Dem had promised. Then the Heggies started shooting. Some obviously pulled their triggers from reflex, before they had the weapons pointed toward the doorway. There was little accurate fire on either side during the initial seconds of the firefight.

Joe pulled the pin from a grenade and lobbed it. From the corner of his eye, he noted two other grenades going away from the doorway. He scrambled forward on his stomach, heading for the next stack of crates. When the grenades started to explode, he stopped, pulled his arms and legs in as close to his body as he could get them, and hunched his shoulders up, covering the vulnerable junction between helmet and fatigue shirt.

Once the grenades had blown, Joe got to his hands and knees and scuttled across the aisle. That drew fire. He felt a burning sensation in his right hip and knew that he had been hit. At the ranges available inside the warehouse, he had no doubt that his net armor had been pierced. With wire, he expected that there would be several wounds.

The pain took a moment to reach his awareness. Joe had little time to fret over it, though. Al Bergon was already at his side, examining, then slapping a medpatch over the wounds. The analgesic in the patch worked quickly. The blood clotters worked even faster, stopping the bleeding.

"Doesn't look too bad, Sarge," Al said while he worked. "All in the meat. Shouldn't even slow you down for more than a few minutes."

Joe blinked a couple of times. "You mean I've got a fat ass."

"You said it, I didn't," Al said. He slapped Joe on the shoulder and started looking for his next patient.

Joe sat up, too quickly, when he realized that the shooting inside the warehouse had stopped. Sauv and Low had their squads moving across the building, toward the northwest corner.

"What's going on?" Joe asked over his link to the squad leaders.

Sauv answered. "The Heggies worked their way out of here in a hurry, Joe. Looks like they've gone underground."

"Make sure, both of you, then set guards over all of the doors. Where's Nimz?"

"West wall, near the door." It was Dem's voice on the radio. "My guys are in the next lane so this side should be secure."

"Get some backup before you open the door, just in case," Joe said.

"I know what to do," Dem said, keeping his voice neutral at the cost of some effort.

"Mort, take your fire team over to support our reccer," Joe said after switching channels. "His guys should be on the other side of that door, but don't take chances."

"On the way," Mort said.

Joe stayed down for a moment longer, thinking, trying to make certain that he hadn't forgotten anything that might be critically important. His wounds no longer hurt. A medpatch didn't take long to neutralize local pain, even worse pain than he had felt from the wound in his hip—his butt, rather. Once he was as certain as he could be that nothing essential had been omitted, it was time to find out whether or not his wounds were going to slow him down.

He got up to his knees cautiously, then straightened up, sitting on his haunches. There was stiffness but no pain, more a tightness that might have stretched the new scabs over his wounds. Using his rifle as a support, he got to his feet. He felt no dizziness, no discomfort. The slight limp when he tried walking was more psychological than physical. It faded away after just a few steps.

Then he called Captain Keye. "We've got the interior of this building secure. The Heggies who were in here have apparently turned mole, gone through an interior doorway we think leads to a tunnel system. Nimz is getting ready to contact his men on the far side of the building. As soon as we finish checking what we've got, we'll go for the roof."

"Give the roof to the reccers, Baerclau," Keye said.

"Yes, sir."

"Joe," the captain said after a slight hesitation.

"Yes, sir?"

"We don't have much time left to get the job done here."

"This is the last base, isn't it?" Joe asked.

Keye let out a long breath. "Yes, but we've got complications." Hilo didn't like keeping information from his people. At least his platoon sergeants and platoon leaders had to know.

"More Heggies?" Joe asked.

"A new fleet coming in," Keye admitted. "For the time being, this news doesn't go any further. You understand me, Joe?"

"Perfectly, sir. How much time do we have?"

"Can't be certain. From the briefing I had, certainly no more than an hour before the new fleet is in position to start launching shuttles. And fighters. Maybe less than an hour now. I'm not sure. You can figure out the rest."

"Any idea how many of them?"

"Just guesses with nothing to base them on. Anywhere between two and four regiments is possible from the number of ships reported. Until we know better, we have to assume the worst."

The worst?
Joe thought.
We couldn't even handle the best end of that estimate.
"I hope our navy lads take care of a good share of them, sir" was what he said.

"So do I. Remember, Joe. This goes no further, not even to squad leaders. I really didn't have clearance to tell you, but I want my platoon sergeants to know what's coming."

"I appreciate it, sir. What about Nimz? He's the reccer platoon sergeant."

Keye hesitated before he answered. "You tell him, Joe. Face-to-face, not over the radio. Make sure he knows not to tell anyone else without orders. Far as that goes, he may already have the word."

—|—

"One hour. Sixty minutes," General Dacik said. "I want every man and every piece of equipment north of the canal by then." He had his entire staff and all of the senior unit commanders except Colonel Stossen on the link for this session. "And then I want both bridges blown."

"We might have trouble getting across that quickly," Saf LaRieu said. "The 5th has widened their bridgehead a little, but not enough."

"Then bring the rest of your people across to the other bridge and turn east once you get over the canal. We've got to break this end of the peninsula loose," Dacik said. "Whatever it takes."

"Yes, sir," LaRieu replied.

"If we can clean out Heggie resistance on the peninsula, we're got a chance to hold on for quite a time," Dacik said. "These new Heggies will have to come to us. And without bridges to cross the canal..." He let that hang for a moment. "I'm sure that this fleet wasn't coming in expecting that they would have to fight for Tamkailo. That's our only advantage. No doubt they know what's waiting for them now. That people here were probably in contact with them within minutes after the fleet emerged from hyperspace. And even if they weren't, the new fleet would have spotted our ships soon enough. But a few hours to plan an operation with whatever troops they happen to have on those ships isn't the best way to work. If we're particularly lucky, they won't even have any great stock of ammunition. With all the stores we've found here, the newcomers might have no more than standard issue."

This time Dacik paused long enough to give the others time to throw cold water on his hopes, but no one spoke. "We need to have the Havocs and all of the support vans for the artillery and air far enough north that they'll be out of range of any Novas that the newcomers might have with them. The howitzers close enough to support any action along the canal."

"What if they drop out on the peninsula?" Luro Bones asked. "They know what the situation is. That's probably their best bet."

"We'll blow as many of their shuttles out of the air as we can," Dacik replied quickly. "Try to deal with the troops from any that get through as expeditiously as possible. If we can break the 5th free in time, we'll use it as a quick reaction force. And use all of our Wasps to back them up."

"We're going to have our butts stickin' up in the air here, General," Colonel Ruman said. "There still might be three or four thousand Heggies on the loose on the peninsula. No way in Hell we can neutralize all of them before the new fleet unloads."

"We'll concentrate on the ones between us and the Heggie base," Dacik said. "Stossen reports that the Heggies there are withdrawing underground again, fighting all of the way. The 13th can sit on those Heggies. If they're down in tunnels, they're irrelevant."

"Unless they've got bolt holes prepared," Major Olsen said. "If they've got exits out somewhere that the 13th hasn't found, they could raise real Hell."

CHAPTER TWENTY

In space the dance continued.

Within fifteen minutes of emerging from hyperspace, the Schlinal fleet had stopped braking for a routine orbit around Tamkailo. A few minutes later, the incoming ships accelerated, increasing speed and changing course. The individual ships also moved a little closer to one another, maneuvering slowly into battle formation. Ships did not make hyperspace jumps too near one another. Even the mass of a ship complicated that process.

Closer in, the Accord fleet accelerated out of its parking orbit, away from Tamkailo.

Both fleets wasted copious amounts of energy, opting for maximum movement rather than fuel-efficient trajectories. At the moment, propulsive energy was the least of the concerns of either commander. There would be no shortage of antimatter for their engines and weapons systems. In CICs in each fleet, the other's course was plotted. During the early stages, the time required for light to travel from one fleet to the other was greater than the amount of time that the CIC computers needed to correct and project the enemy's course, and to evaluate possible changes in course and time of interception.

The opposing commanders made their own adjustments to those of the enemy, which were met with further refinements. And so forth. Plans for the engagement were made, refined, and changed again: a simplified version of chess with fewer pieces and movement possibilities.