Their Master's War (26 page)

"Relaying."

The brain voice was replaced in the helmet by that of Rance. "Elmo, what's going on?" "This isn't Elmo, this is Hark." "Where's Elmo?" "He's dead." "How bad is it?"

"It's bad. Half the squad is pinned down in the cavern that houses this big plasma unit, and the other half is trying to get them out. If we don't get help, we're going to be overrun."

"How did this situation come about?"

"Dyrkin went in ahead, and then the chibas hit. Elmo wanted to pull back. The twenty was split in two."

"And now Elmo's dead?"

"Right."

Hark was certain that Rance had guessed what had happened. The question was, What was he going to do? What happened to a trooper who killed a noncom? Rance gave no clue. The topman was all business.

"Try and hold on. Help's coming."

Hark ran back to the cavern entrance. There were chibas everywhere. The troopers had formed into two defensive positions which they were managing to hold despite the overwhelming odds. Dyrkin was no longer out on his own. Renchett was beside him. Between them, they were laying down a withering fire. Some-* where along the line, Renchett had lost his MEW, but he was doing just as well with a chiba handweapon.

"Rance is bringing reinforcements."

"About time."

At that moment, Tabor tried a shot at an advancing chiba, but he stuck his head out too far. Instantly, his helmet exploded and he died without a sound..

They had to hold for another seven minutes before Rance turned up with a reserve twenty. Three more men were killed in those final minutes. Then the fresh troops poured into the cabin, and the tables were turned. The chibas fell back under concerted fire. The survivors fought a brief rearguard action and then fled into the tunnels. The fresh twenty seemed inclined to go after the chibas, but Rance restrained them.

"The other groups will catch up with them."

The remnants of Elmo's twenty climbed out of their makeshift cover. They seemed dazed and uncertain, as if they could hardly believe that it was over. There were just six of them left. Dyrkin and Renchett, Hark, Helot and Kov, and a recruit called Tain. The men gathered around the base of the power stack.

"What do we do about this thing?"

"Are we supposed to blow it?"

Rance shook his head. "Not a chance. If we messed with this baby, it'd vaporize half the valley. We'll get sappers in here to shut it down slow and easy."

Hie looked around the group of survivors, spotted Hark, and beckoned to him. "I want to talk to you." Hark walked over to where the topman was standing. He was too tired to be afraid. Whatever was going to happen would happen.

Rance pointed to his helmet. "Is that Elmo's?"

Hark nodded. "I didn't take it off after I used the command channel."

"Troopers aren't supposed to use command channels except in the most dire emergency." Hark looked him straight in the face. "It seemed pretty dire at the time. We were losing the whole twenty."

"So Where's Elmo?"

"He's back down the tunnel."

"Let's go take a look."

Rance turned on his redscope and started down the tunnel. Hark followed. Without a word, Dyrkin and Renchett fell into step behind them. Rance glanced back,

"So the whole gang's coming, too?"

"Just want to see what happened to Elmo," Dyrkin said.

The overman was sprawled facedown where Hark had left him. Rance took his time inspecting the body. "Shot in the back."

Dyrkin shrugged. "It happens." His voice was studiedly neutral.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that those burns came from an MEW set on blast." Renchett hefted his chiba weapon. "It's hard to tell for sure." Rance glanced at Hark. "You have anything to add?" "Nothing. I found Elmo dead and used his helmet." 44And what were you doing back here if all the fighting was in the cavern?" 44I was looking for Elmo."

Dyrkin stepped in.44 I sent him back. To look for Elmo. We needed to get word through." 44So what was Elmo doing back here?"

"Who knows with Elmo? He'd gotten pretty strange."

Rance walked slowly around the body as if a different angle would give him some new insight.

"A rerun of the helmet conversations during the engagement might give us a clearer understanding of what went on."

Hark knew that he was dead. Even if the conversation between him and Elmo hadn't already been noted by the command brain, it would certainly come out on any rerun. He wondered if he simply ought to confess.

"It's a pity that we can't do that."

What was Rance talking about?

"The conversation couldn't be datastored. There was too much static from the interface."

"There was?"

"We'll just have to assume that Elmo died a hero, won't we?" He gave Hark a long, hard look. "We all want to be heroes, don't we?"

Fourteen

"I hope you know what you're doing, Rance. There's chaos going down all over. If this ain't on the up and up, we could all be shot out of hand. There's headhunters all over the embarkation sites," the gunsaucer pilot said.

"Field police always show up when the fighting's over."

"That's as may be, but they still have weapons and the authority to carry out summary executions."

"I told you when we took off. I'm going to the nearest embarkation point to smooth the evacuation of my combat group."

"You're only a topman, Rance. You really think you've got that kind of clout?" "We'll find out, won't we?" "I guess we will."

"All I know is that I'm not going to be stranded on this ball of mud."

"And what about these other guys? How do we explain them?"

"They're my best longtimers. I need them with me." The gunsaucer pilot shook his head. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"So do I."

The big trap had been sprung. Word had come through the command channel immediately after the tunnel clearing had been completed. What everyone on JD4-1A had feared all through the long and grinding campaign was now coming to pass. The Yal were returning in force. Five huge enemy battleships had appeared out of jumpspace and were heading for the planet. They would be in operational range within a matter of planetary days. The
Anah
cluster, which had been majestically orbiting the planet for so long, was already powering up to jump for safety. It would be touch and go as to whether the now heavily outgunned complex of ships could get clear in time. On the ground, there was a sense of scarcely controlled panic. Those who were able to make it to the cluster in time would be safe, but there would be no waiting around. The ones who couldn't be evacuated would simply be left behind. Nobody knew what the Yal would do with a whole army of prisoners, but there were few who didn't fear the worst. Rance had acted immediately. While everyone else was still in the grip of the initial shock and confusion, he had gathered Dry kin, Renchett, Dacker, and Hark around him.

"I don't intend to be left here for the Yal."

The longtimers had been a little surprised that the topman was putting self-preservation over duty. In a situation like this, they would have expected him to be one of the last into the lifeboat, not the first. He must have sensed what they were feeling.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm going to get out as many

men as I can, but I'm also getting myself out if I possibly

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can.

The four longtimers looked at each other. "So where do we figure in all this?" Dyrkin said finally.

"Fin taking you with me."

"I ain't going to argue with that. What do we have to

do?"

"Hill 4078 is being set up as an embarkation point." "Where's that?"

"About two hundred klicks to the north." "What are we supposed to do, walk there?" "We're going to commandeer a gunsaucer." "We're what?" "I'm calling in all my favors." Dyrkin scratched the back of his neck. "Can I ask you a personal question?" "Why am I doing this?" "That's the one."

"Because a lot of good men are going to be left stranded on this forsaken planet, and there's nothing I can do about it. That's it. I'm damned if I'm going to be one of them. Besides, most of the people I feel I owe my loyalty to have been killed."

"It finally got to you."

"It finally got to me."

Renchett had grinned wolfishly. "So let's get ourselves a saucer and get the hell out of here." Calling down the saucer was a simple matter of putting a request through the command channel. Convincing the pilot, a hard-eyed individual called Maso, had been a little more difficult. It had taken fifteen minutes of hard talking by Rance and a considerable trading of obligations before Maso finally agreed to fly them out.

"Just so long as me and my crew go out on the same e-vac as you," he said.

"What about the saucer?"

"Forget the saucer. There's going to be a hell of a lot of material left behind before this scramble's over." Beneath them, Hill 4078 came into sight. Its cleared top stuck out of the surrounding fungus jungle like a bald

head. On one side, sappers were still burning off the vegetation. Clouds of black smoke rolled into the air and were driven away from the site by a brisk wind. A number of e-vacs were already on the ground.

"I bet the bastard officers are getting away first."

Warning lights started flashing on the saucer's control panel.

"We're running into ground fire!"

Maso glanced swiftly at Rance. "You didn't tell me that we'd hit enemy fire." Rance's expression was bleak. "What did you expect? The Yal are going to use every last chiba on this rock to slow us up."

Pulses of green energy arced lazily up from the fungus. Crew and passengers were pushed down into their couches as the saucer accelerated and banked steeply.

"I'm turning back."

"Back to what? There's going to be enemy around any place that e-vacs are jumping off." "Dear God!" The craft rocked and rolled as an energy pulse burst beside them. Maso's fingers danced over the control keys. The saucer lifted vertically.

"I'll try and get above the flak."

There were two more explosions, but neither was as close as the first.

"Body gunners stand by for manual override."

"Check."

"When we're over the hill, I'm going to drop fast. I want blanket fire on the surrounding jungle. Anything to make those Yal gunners keep their heads down."

"Check."

"Comm here, chief. I'm getting a demand for identification from traffic control on the hill." Rance spoke into his communicator. "Tell them we got an A-thirty priority clearance." "But we don't."

"If it's as much of a mess up down there as we think it is, they ain't going to know. Try and sound like an officer."

"Okay, I hope you're right."

A few seconds later, the comm operator came back on. "They seem to have bought the story. We're cleared to land."

"Dropping on my mark."

The ship fell like a stone, decelerating only at the last, bone-wrenching moment. Halfway down, the guns opened up with a shuddering roar.

"Torquing up here, Chief."

"Don't worry about it, I don't intend to take this thing off again." The saucer hovered as its landing legs extended, and then it touched down. The passengers and crew unstrapped and stood up. Rance looked all around the

cabin.

"If we run into a problem, let me do the talking."

The port opened. The saucer had set down some distance from where an e-vac was running its drive prior to a fast lift. The e-vacs, too, were drawing fire on the way in and out. The squat ugly ship was vibrating hard enough to pop its seams, and the noise was deafening. When it finally rose into the air, it went up screaming like a banshee, cramming on every last measure of speed. The backwash produced an instant dust storm all across the embarkation area. The men leaned into the hot wind as they climbed out of the port. The sound of the climbing ship died away, to be replaced by yelling in their helmets.

"Get down! Incoming! You by the saucer, get under

cover."

Rance looked quickly around. There were some half-1 finished slit trenches on their left. The digging equipment I seemed to have been abandoned by its crew.

"Run!"

They sprinted and dived. Orange fireballs streamed ] from the jungle below them in a lazy curve that ended in ] a tight group of explosions. A ground transport blew up. | Pieces of metal pattered down around the crouching J men.

"I've had better welcomes." "No shit."

"This is a place to get out of."

The firing ceased. There were three other figures also I sheltering in the trench. The trio were all sappers. They ] had to be the digging crew, and they were probably the I ones who had shouted the warning. Rance called out to j them.

"Is that the end of it?"

"Stay down. There's likely to be a second burst. They mostly dust us off after a ship gets away. The bastards usually do us a second time to see if they can catch us I creeping out of our holes." In absolute confirmation of the sapper's words, a sec-j ond burst of fire hit the area. Again it stopped. The sappers left it a couple more minutes before they raised their j heads.

"Looks like they've given it a rest." "How long have they been out there?" "They started last night."

"Have they been hitting the perimeter?" "Not yet. So far they've just set up a couple of firing j positions."

"Who's in command here?"

"There ain't nobody in command. The officers are all 1 too busy getting their ass off planet. The closest thing is j

the field police who are going around shooting everyone they don't like the look of."

"So where do I go to hook up with my ship's e-vacs?"

"You could try the traffic control dome. That's the big one over in the center. I doubt you'll get too far, though. We heard that they had just two standards to get everyone off this rock."

"Two standards? Is that all?"

"That's when the cluster's supposed to jump."

There was less time than even Rance had imagined. The sappers were climbing out of the trench and remounting the digger.

"Keep your heads down. And watch out for the head-hunters." Rance turned to the troopers and the saucer crew. "You all heard that. We're going to go to this dome and see if we can bullshit a line to our own battle e-vacs."