Trident Fury (The Kurgan War Book 3) (18 page)

Cole ordered Urban to dig out a small camera from his pack and had him leave it at the entrance to the cavern. He camouflaged the device before joining everyone else down below.

“What can you see?” Cole asked.

“For starters, if anyone tries to sneak up on us, I’ll see them coming,” replied Urban as he moved his finger along the screen of a small handheld tablet. He adjusted the picture until it gave him a thermal image of the world around them. A small rodent ran past the camera; its warm body showing up against the cold rocks.

Sheridan asked, “What about the mining complex?”

 
Urban moved the camera around. “I can see several buildings and an entrance that is guarded by a couple of Chosen warriors.”

Cole said, “I’ve never seen this type of surveillance camera before. How long are the batteries in your monitor good for?”

“Forty-eight hours. I’ve also got several spares with me just in case we need them.”

Cole nodded. “Okay, I’ll make up the duty roster. You’re on first. Make sure that the monitor gets handed off to the next person on shift along with a quick lesson on how to use it.

“Yes, Master Sergeant.”

Sheridan lowered his pack to the ground. It felt good to have the extra weight off his back. Aside from his water, rations, and ammunition, he was also carrying a spare radio, batteries, and several anti-personnel mines. He took a seat on the cool, rocky floor, dug out his canteen, and took a long deep sip of hot water. He swished it around in his mouth for a minute before swallowing it. At least being out of the sun, their water would cool down and make it more drinkable.

“Hey, sir, hand me one of the anti-pers mines,” said Cole.

Sheridan opened a flap on his pack, grabbed hold of one of the mines, and gave it to Cole. The device was the same size as a baseball and made to look like a rock. Once activated, it would lay silent until it detected movement nearby. If the mine took the motion to be of something the size of a man, it would launch itself up into the air and explode sending hundreds of ball bearings into its intended target. “Where are you going to place that?”
 

“Near the camera. Just to be on the safe side.”

“Good idea.”

“I know, that’s why I came up with it,” replied Cole with a wink.

Sheridan propped up his rifle on his pack before moving from person to person checking their feet and seeing if they had any other problems. If they did, they hid them well. Although tired from the march under the hot sun, everyone’s spirits were high. Sheridan made his way back to his pack, rummaged around for a ration, and opened it. He sat down and took a sip from his canteen.

“So, sir, what’s for dinner?” Cole asked, taking a seat beside his friend.

“Same as breakfast. Next time steal something more than beans from the quartermaster.”

Cole shrugged. “Food is food. Besides, the boxes were marked as being something else. Pasta meals, I think. This must be someone’s idea of a cruel joke.”

They sat and ate their meals in silence. Both men were deep in thought.

“Sir, something is coming in to land,” said Urban as he made his way to Sheridan.

“That’s a big bastard. I wonder what it is?” Cole asked, looking down at the monitor’s screen.

“That’s a Kurgan troop transporter,” said Sheridan. “By the looks of the size of it, it could easily hold five hundred soldiers.”

“Sergeant, you had best make note of when and where it landed,” Cole said. “The task force is going to need to know about this. They don’t want to try landing on a hot LZ.”

“Yes, Master Sergeant,” replied Urban, inputting the info into his monitoring device.
 

“Make sure whoever is on next knows what you have done so there’s no confusion later,” added Cole.

Urban nodded and walked back to show Toscano the information. He found her helping Private Snow, the Marine comms specialist, take off his heavy pack.

Sheridan and Cole resumed sitting on the cool floor.
 

“Sir, do you still get those dreams of yours?” Cole asked.

“No, not recently. I did after Tarina was first reported missing. However, as you were right to point out, I hit the bottle a little too hard and the dreams stopped. I’ve been so busy and tired these past few days that I doubt I dreamt at all.”

“So what does your gut tell you? Is she still alive?”

Sheridan sat there for a few seconds before answering. “My gut tells me that we and everyone else involved in this operation are in great danger. If that was an Imperial Guard transport, then they have arrived far earlier than initially expected. As for my heart, it speaks loud and clear to me. Tarina is somewhere in that mine, and I intend to get her and as many of the other prisoners out alive.”

“Then we had best get a move on. I’d hate to think that the task force is going to arrive too late to help anyone.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Sheridan drew his bayonet from its scabbard and ran his thumb along the blade’s edge to see how sharp it was. “We’ll get a few hours rest and then make for the mine. I need to know what is going on in there.”

“The others?”

“They can stay here. If we are killed or captured, Miss Toscano can still help the invasion force do their job.”

“If there is anyone left to help.”

“We didn’t come all this way to watch our friends be butchered like animals by the Kurgs. As long as I have a breath left in my body, I’m not going to let them kill our people.”

Cole nodded. He pitied any Chosen or Kurgan warrior who got between Michael Sheridan and his girlfriend. It was a fight they could never hope to win.
 

Chapter 24

“All right listen up,” said Colonel Wright to his assembled personnel. “We’ve only got one chance to make this work, so split-second timing and precision will be vital throughout this phase of Trident Fury. I volunteered this squadron because I have faith in each and every one of you to do your job and do it well. I know some of you may feel that we haven’t had the time to adequately examine the enemy base and its capabilities and others have already voiced their concerns over the lack of rehearsal time. Well, folks, you’re all right, but I don’t care. We’re launching in an hour, so pay close attention to the XO’s mission brief.”

Lieutenant Colonel Tolinski walked in front of Wright’s Avenger jump ship and raised up a remote. The lights in the launch bay dimmed. A second later, a holographic image of a small planetoid appeared. Tolisnki zoomed in on the Kurgan listening station. It looked like a large metal ring. There were numerous towers and antennae spread out along the surface of the rocky asteroid. The only visible weapons were a couple of missile launchers dug into the top of a nearby hill.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Kurgan base is our target. It is located on a small rocky planet that the fleet has designated as GX 111. As you can see, the base is lightly defended with only a few anti-ship missiles. However, just because we cannot see any more weapons, we should not discount the fact there could be more hidden from view.”

“Ma’am, how old is this image?” asked one of the pilots.

“It is almost forty-eight hours old. I strongly doubt that the Kurgs could have substantially altered their defense posture in that time.”

“No more questions until the XO is finished,” said Wright, his tone told his people to keep their mouths shut.

Tolinski glanced at her watch. “In exactly fifty minutes from now, I along with my wingman, Captain Zhang, will begin our jump to GX 111. We will arrive there twenty-three hours later. Both of our Avengers will be carrying electromagnetic pulse bombs which we will deploy above the Kurgan base. Once that is done, we will jump back one-quarter of a million kilometers so that we won’t be caught in the electromagnetic wave created when the bombs go off. It is anticipated that these two devices will be sufficient to destroy or at the very least cripple the Kurgans’ ability to call for help or defend themselves.”

She brought up a new image of four teams of two Avengers each. “Thirty seconds later, Colonel Wright and the rest of the squadron will destroy the listening station. Your ships will all be carrying a single Mark V torpedo, specially modified to fit underneath of our vessels. Your targets have already been inputted into your Avengers’ computers. Unless something catastrophic happens, you should be over the target for less than a minute. Once you’re done, there shouldn’t be a soul left alive to report what has happened.”

Wright stepped forward. “Once we have flattened that Kurg base, we will all RV with the XO. Our lift home will be waiting for us there. Don’t be late as you won’t have enough fuel left to make another jump. I can’t stress this enough, the success of the rescue mission on Klatt is riding on our ability to eradicate that listening station. Folks, I don’t intend to let the task force down, and neither do you.”

A chuckle ran through the nervous flight crews. It was Wright’s standard line letting everyone know that there was only one outcome possible and defeat wasn’t it.

Tolinski turned off the holographic projection. The lights came back on. She looked over at Colonel Wright, who nodded back at her. She clapped her hands in the air to get everyone’s attention. “Pilots and navigators, to your ships. Technicians, begin your last minute flight preps. This mission is a go.”

A loud cheer erupted from the men and women of the squadron as they shook one another’s hands and told their friends that they’d see them again when the job was done.

Wright moved over beside Tolinski.

She held out her hand. “Thanks for letting me in on this one, sir. I thought I was doomed to be stuck behind my desk until the war ended.”

Wright shook her hand. “XO, you’re the best pilot for the job. If you fail, we all fail. I know that you won’t let us down. I’ll see you back on the transport.”

“That you will, sir.”

They smiled at one another for a second, before turning and making their way to their ships. Throughout the launch bay, the sound of people and equipment moving about filled the air. The First Special Warfare Squadron was once again preparing to go into harm’s way.

“Sir, the last of Colonel Wright’s ships have jumped,” reported Captain Killam.

Admiral Sheridan nodded. “Task force status?”

“Sir, the
Saratoga
has reported that she is ready to deploy. The missile cruiser,
Ford
, and the destroyers,
Churchill
and
Algonquin,
are good to go. The support ship,
Arctic,
will be reporting in shortly.”

“What about the transports and the ground forces?”

“All twelve landing craft have given us the green light, and Colonel White is already busting my chops asking when we’re going to get under sail.”

Robert Sheridan chuckled. No one could fault the Marine colonel for his zealous desire to get the mission done. “Please pass onto the good colonel that we’ll go when I give the order and not a nanosecond before.”

“Aye, sir.”

The clock on the tactical display counted down toward zero. Admiral Sheridan glanced over at it and saw that they would begin their jump into hostile territory in precisely forty-nine minutes. He felt a pang of anxiety in his stomach. The men and women who made up the task force numbered close to ten thousand, twice the number of the people they were going to rescue. He had tried to par down the number of people and ships going but each time he did, Killam had a viable answer as to why he thought they needed every last ship and person in the task force. The admiral knew that to go any smaller was to invite failure.
 

“Sir, I noticed that you didn’t leave the operations center for a bite to eat tonight,” said Commander Roy.

Admiral Sheridan looked over and saw his aide holding a tray. On it was a sandwich, an apple, and a tall glass of water. “I must have forgotten to eat.”

Roy handed the tray over. “Sir, you’ll be no good to anyone if you don’t keep your strength up. I know you. You’re not going to rest until it’s all over. So if you must insist on pushing yourself, at least eat something from time to time.”

“Thank you,” replied the admiral as he took the tray and sat down in his chair.

Roy shook her head and moved over to speak with Killam. Sheridan had no doubt that she was telling Killam to keep an eye on him. He chuckled to himself. He had the best staff in the fleet and he knew it. They had become more like family than any other officers he had ever worked with in his long career. He took a bite of his sandwich and tasted tofu. He made a quick mental note that if Roy was going to look after him, she would have to feed him non-vegetarian food. For now, he would eat his meal and enjoy it.

Forty-nine minutes later, Admiral Sheridan gave the order. On the tactical screen, he watched as the task force jumped away from Illum Prime and sped toward Kurgan space. In roughly twenty-four hours, he would know if the listening station had been destroyed and if it was safe to proceed with the flight to Klatt. He made himself as comfortable as he could and watched the timer countdown. With the task force in motion, there was nothing for him to do but wait. His thoughts turned to his son. He prayed that he was still alive and they would soon be reunited.

Chapter 25