The Lawgivers: Gabriel Part 16

Then promptly fell back into her seat.

Grasping a handful of her suit, Seth hauled her to her feet again, trying to help her steady herself on the rolling, bucking deck.

aLine up to bail!a she bellowed.

He obeyed, hauling her around until she was in front of him, wedged between his belly and Daneas back. They shuffled toward the gaping maw of the drop ramp that had been opened, fighting the rocking of the s.h.i.+p and the buffeting wind.

aOh my G.o.d!a Danika exclaimed. aWhat the f.u.c.k are they thinking? I canat make this jump!a The wind whipped her voice away, but Seth had gotten close enough to gauge the distance to the ground, as well, and his calculations substantiated hers. The drop was too far for a human to manage without sustaining debilitating damage. He wrapped an arm around Danika and stepped off of the platform, allowing his legs to absorb the shock as they landed.

He discovered he had miscalculated having had insufficient data to correctly a.s.sess the snow pack. His considerable weight and the distance, combined with Danikaas added weight, resulted in him landing with sufficient force that he was driven waist deep into the ice below. He released her as he felt himself sinking and she landed on the softer pack of the surface with a grunt as the air was forced from her lungs.

A projectile struck Seth in the shoulder while he was a.s.sessing the situation and calculating the best way to free himself. A dozen more peppered the ground around Seth and Danika, throwing up fountains of snow as they furrowed.

Dimly, Seth was aware of alarm at the danger Danika was in, fully exposed and lying on the top of the soft pack, snow camo or not. Peripherally, he was aware that the entire battalion was taking heavy fire from nearly every direction. He was mostly focused, however, on the pain that had exploded in his shoulder and filled his mind as the projectile tore through the biological sheathing of his shoulder.

He had never experienced pain before. He was so stunned by the reaction, in point of fact, that it took him many moments to comprehend what it was. There should have been nothing more than an alert of damagea"followed by a damage report!

The second projectile that cut a burning path along the same arm finally shook him from his preoccupation with the intense new sensations and forced him to focus on avoiding more pain. After pus.h.i.+ng ineffectually against the s.h.i.+fting snow for a few moments, he finally pushed the upper portion of his body downward since he couldnat pull his knees up and used the force to propel himself upward.

He landed face down near his squad leader. Crawling forward, he managed to form a protective s.h.i.+eld on one side. aDane! Niles! To the squad leader! Form a barrier.a He discovered Danika was gaping at him when he focused on her, trying to a.s.sess damagea"or if she had damage.

aGetting my squad shot all to s.h.i.+t isnat going to help me!a she growled.

Their com units squawked. aForward squads! Lay down a suppressing fire. Rear squads fall back!a as.h.i.+t!a Danika responded to the abrupt command that squawked over their com units. aWe were last to drop. That makes us forward, d.a.m.n it. Get your weapons up, squad! Fire! Fire! Fire!a Reflecting that he could still s.h.i.+eld her with his body facing away from her, Seth rolled away from her and unshouldered his weapon. To his relief, his malfunction didnat seem to extend to his ability to calculate the trajectory of the projectiles flying at them. Unfortunately, also by his calculations, his own weapon range fell short of the enemyas. Ignoring the lack of logic in firing on an enemy he could not hit in favor of the orders given, he zeroed in on a target and fired.

aOut of range,a Niles responded.

aFire, d.a.m.n it! They donat know that!a Danika hesitated as she fired off several rounds, and then muttered, aUnless they have cyborgs, too.a aUnlikely,a Seth responded. aThere was nothing in intel to suggest it.a aLike theyave never gotten anything wrong!a Danika snarled, glancing quickly to right and left. aTheyave d.a.m.ned well got night vision and theyare closing.a aThey are also flanking our position,a Dane reported.

as.h.i.+t! Theyare going to cut us off! Whatas it looking like behind us?a Seth scanned the ridge to the rear with his night vision and then the thermal imaging, discovering neither worked worth a d.a.m.n under the current conditions. aThe rearward troops have made it to the ridge. Theyave formed another line to our rear a fifteen meters.a aGood!a Danika said. aOur turn to fall back! Move it!a She leapt to her feet almost before she finished speaking and immediately caught a projectile that spun her around and threw her face down in the snow. aNiles! Dane!a Seth bellowed, surging to his feet and scooping Danika up with one arm. aCover our retreat!a Niles and Dane formed a body s.h.i.+eld, jogging backwards and firing.

Seth caught a projectile in his thigh that brought him to his kneesa"from the front. aFriendlya firea"human, he thought, knowing the cyborgs would have known not to fire on thema"unless the enemy had already managed to flank them.

Trying to close his mind to the fresh pain, he struggled to his feet again with Danika and charged toward the line of troops. He managed to make it through the line without catching another round. Depositing Danika on the ground, he scanned her to locate the wound. aMedic! Human wounded!a There was no response to his call for aid and Seth glanced around. He discovered that they were surrounded by woundeda"and damaged cyborgs struggling to function despite the damage theyad sustained.

aWe will be outflanked and surrounded, by my calculations, within twenty minutes a"earth time.a His voice sounded strangea"strained, and that was almost as odd as his unnecessary reference to earth time since they were all programmed to earth time measurement, but although Seth noticed, he was too intent on pulling up data to attend Danikaas wound to a.n.a.lyze it. aI need to close this wound and patch Danikaas suit.a Widening the hole in her suit, he reset his weapon, pinched the wound closed and used the laser to cauterize the flesh, gritting his teeth when she screamed in pain. He dragged a patch from his supplies when head closed the wound, slapped it over the damaged suit, and held it until the nanos in the material bonded, ignoring Danikaas groans and her attempts to shove his hand away.

The chatter flowing through the com units that Seth listened to as he attended Danika was not good. Interspersed with dozens of calls for medics and groans and screams from human throats, there were more disastrous observations.

aWeare cut off!a aBoxed in!a aOh my G.o.d! Iam shot all to s.h.i.+t! I need a medic-borg!a aTheyare going to outflank us!a aItall be like shooting fish in a f.u.c.king barrel!a aCyborgs! Leap to the summit of the ridge! Carry the humans!a The sudden, forceful command silenced all other chatter. It did not come from the command centera"the channel was local. It also did not come from a human, but everyone knew they were running out of time to act and no one questioned the command.

The cyborgs not too damaged to act on the command lifted their human squad leaders and leapt toward the ridge above them.

aWho issued that command?a That demand came from their commanding officer aboard the mother s.h.i.+p.

There was a significant pause. aReuel CO469.a * * * *

Despite the intensive conditioning shead been subjected to when shead been s.h.i.+pped to combat training, Danika was unable to convince herself that she was just experiencing more of the same as the ground to air missile ripped a hole in the drop s.h.i.+p she was in just as it entered the target planetas atmosphere. She tried to. She thought she just might be able to conduct herself in a manner befitting a soldier of the confederation and not shame her native world if she could. She wasnat sure shead be able to if she couldnat because she was as terrified as shead ever been in her life.

She hadnat expected to be thrown immediately into combat, though. Shead expected to have more time to adjust to being shot at.

Everyone knew the conditions on Xeno-12 were horrific. It was a frozen world, just too far from its sun to ever thaw out completelya"livable, as long as one was fully prepared for the colda"with a breathable atmosphere, but uninhabited, so she hadnat been unduly worried. They would have everything they needed to deal with the deep freeze and her own native world was at the outer habitable zone of its sun. She was used to dealing with dangerously cold temperatures.

They were to land, set up a forward base as a buffer against the enemy encroachment and protect the true prize, Xeno-12as sister world.

Shead thought the war might well come to Xeno-12as doorstep eventually, but shead also thought there was a better than even chance that the war would be fought and won far, far from her station.

She was pretty sure she wasnat the only whoad thought that.

The bombardment had deprived her of that illusion. The bucking s.h.i.+p had shaken her, but shead convinced herself that it was just rough aira"nothing to worry about! The troop carriers werenat designed for comfort but rather durability and efficiencya"right up until the hole appeared in the side of the s.h.i.+p and shrapnel peppered the troops inside. She might have nursed her illusions a little longer, despite the disaster and the horror of watching three troopers sucked out, except that she could see flashes through the hole that lit up the sky and knew the entire battalion was under attack. She saw at least two of the drop s.h.i.+ps take direct hits and disintegrate into fiery trails of debris.

Theyad already taken losses in the hundreds, maybe thousands, and they hadnat even reached the planetas surface yet!

It was almost beyond comprehensiona"far easier to think in terms of numbers than soldiers.

Were the other battalions being dropped around the globe taking similar fire? Or were they the unlucky ones being dropped right in the lap of a nest of enemy troops?

aDanika! Are you alright? Were you hit?a The sound of her name penetrated Danikaas shock. She blinked as if coming awake and searched for the origin, the person whoad spoken, and stared at Seth blanklya"Seth CO1543. He was a cyborg, she thought, struggling to figure out what it was about him that didnat seem right. Why was he asking her if she was alright?

He looked humana"all of the latest cyborgs dida"and small wonder when they were constructed of almost 50% biological materials. They looked so human that it wouldave been hard getting used to the idea that they werenat except they still didnat behave like humans. They didnat speak like humans. Not only did they have no accents like most humans did that pegged them to various regions, but they used none of the abbreviated speech patterns common to humans, none of the slang or colloquialisms, and they didnat make idle chatter. In fact nothing that came out of their mouths bore more than a pa.s.sing resemblance to conversation. They responded when spoken toa"when a response was needed. They issued warnings when they detected anything they needed to warn humans of, and otherwise they said nothing at all.

The early autonomous robots, particularly the ones used in warfare, just looked like machinesa"some roughly humanoid in that they had a head and torso, two arms, two legs, etc. and others more like tanks with headsa"but the abare bonesa unclad cha.s.sis had design defects. Two much of their critical mechanics was vulnerable. The enemy could simply aim for exposed pneumatic tubes or motors and incapacitate them. Thin armor sheathing came next, but not only did that create a serious weight issue, but it gave the human troops the creeps. They wouldnat have had a problem if the units werenat autonomous, but being surrounded by steel monsters that seemed capable of anythinga"including acting on their owna"was too distracting and demoralizing for the human troops. It had the same effect on the enemy, of course, but since the human ground troops were there to make sure the robots didnat destroy property that didnat need to be destroyed or gun down innocent civiliansa"or go berserk and destroy everything and everyone in sighta"the government decided they needed an army that looked more human and could be more easily accepted by their human counterparts.

Synthetic human-like sheathing came nexta"which opened up a whole new market for the manufacturera"whoad already produced way more robots than they could sell to the government and were looking at a sharp decline of their profits if not total disaster. The civilian population suddenly saw a need for companions, nanniesa"entertainment. The synthetic sheathing just wasnat quite close enough to human flesh and skin. Happily, that desire for human flesh coincided nicely with the advances in growing human skin cellsa"muscles, internal organsa"the whole works. It had actually become far cheaper to use the areala thing than synthetics and since the cyborgs couldnat object to and werenat terrified of nanos like the rest of the population was, they could introduce nanos into the cyborgs to affect repairs.

Not that they would have objected to making more money off of the government in repairing damaged equipment, but theyad done such an excellent job of convincing the government that their cyborgs were virtually indestructible that the government had demanded a guarantee on the product before they would sign off on the multi-trillion dollar contact.

It wasnat just the fact that Seth had asked her if she was alright, though, she realized abruptly.

One the things that had always unnerved her about working with the cyborgs was the eyes. They had cold, dead, emotionless eyes. They managed to replicate some emotion through programming that kept them from being quite so stilted in their interactions. They looked and felt human. As long as they didnat talk, or confined themselves to one or two word responses and she didnat look them directly in the eyes, she could pretend her team was just a bunch of recruits just like she wasa"really big, brawny recruitsa"but as human as she was, not t.i.tanium monsters that could squash her like a bug if their programming was faulty in any way and the notion struck them.

And yet when shead met Sethas gaze, shead seen everything reflected in them that she was feeling in those moments herselfa"fear of pain and death.

But maybe that was it? Nothing but a reflection of her own fears? Projected onto him?

She wasnat entirely convinced, but the realization that shead been frozen with shock and fear shook her. She couldnat afford to let those emotions take the upper hand or she wasnat going to get out of this alive!

Considering the bombardment, she didnat know if they were even going to make it to the ground, but she needed to act when and if they did!

She got her second jolt when they were ordered out and she finally made it to the off rampa"only to discover that they were still a very long way from the ground, not on it, as shead expected. Instantly visions of being mangled like a squashed spider when she hit the ground leapt into her mind. Before she could force her way out of the line or demand to be taken lower, Seth, who was behind her, tightened his grip around her torso and stepped off the d.a.m.ned plank into thin aira"really thin air!

She screamed all the way down. Fortunately, the landing was enough of a jolt to knock the panic out of her when it deprived her of breath. Reason reared its head as the snow pack around her was peppered with shots from what seemed every direction. Her conditioning took overa"thankfully.

The landscape was so starkly white with ice and snow that it almost seemed to glow in the moonlight that bathed it. As she rolled over and scanned her surroundings in one swift, sweep, she saw that the virtually flat plane shead landed on was littered with black dots of all shapes and sizesa"burning debris from the landers that didnat make it to the drop in one piece, and bodies, some moving, some eerily still. A black bowl of sky capped the nearly featureless landscape.

She couldnat tell where the enemy position was!

It didnat help that she couldnat see a d.a.m.ned thing once her team decided to form a wall around hera"to protect her! What were they thinking? They were supposed to be shooting at the d.a.m.ned enemy!

Fight or die, she told herself! The enemy had them pinned down. What to do? Retreat?

Not unless ordered.

Thankfully, the thought had no sooner entered her mind than she heard the command.

Except she was at the front and supposed to lay down fire for those in the back to drop back.

Fight or die!

She finally managed to spot a flash that gave away an enemy position. Once she began returning fire, she was able to focus on trying to eliminate everyone firing at her. She didnat realize how anxious she was for her turn to drop back until the moment shead been waiting for came. A new line had been formed and her team could drop back and take up a position a little further from the enemy.

Yelling for her team to drop back, she leapt to her feeta"stupid move! The projectile that slammed into her and smacked her down again drove that home! Blackness swarmed over her. She was in so much pain it took her a few minutes to figure out what had happened. By the time she did, Seth had scooped her up under one arm and was racing across the plane. The jarring raised her pain level until oblivion claimed her. When she came to, she felt hands tugging at her suit. Her mind struggled for a moment to make sense of what was happening and finally produced the conviction that she was being attended by a medic.

Thank G.o.d! She wasnat going to diea"yet.

Needing a.s.surance, she opened her eyes with an effort, managed to focusa"and then got the shock of her life. Seth was manhandling hera"not a medic-borg!

She didnat even manage to say no before he set her on fire with the d.a.m.ned laser! And she was in too much pain after that to berate him.

She needed to get up and fight. She was aware enough of her surroundings to realize the fire fight had intensified, could hear the sounds of battle through the open channel that provided communications for the force on the ground and the dull, muted sounds of intense fighting that penetrated her protective helmet. With a supreme effort of will, she managed to move her arms and handsa"or the uninjured one anywaya"in a blind search for her weapon. She didnat find it and the fear of discovering she was unarmed sent a torrent of adrenaline through her that was powerful enough to enable her to roll onto her stomach and perform a wider search. aMy weapon. Whereas my weapon?a aI have it.a It was Niles who respondeda"she thought. aWell give it to me, d.a.m.n it!a aYou have sustained damage, squad leader, Danika.a aLike I donat f.u.c.king know that when my whole right side is on fire! Give me the d.a.m.ned thing!a aTime to fall back again,a Seth responded, scooping her up and launching into another bone shaking run that made her pa.s.s out again.

When Danika regained consciousness again, she found herself staring up at a sheer, white wall of ice. She stared at it blankly, trying to figure out where it had come from when she certainly hadnat noticed it earlier when shead surveyed the plane theyad landed on.

Apparently, no one else had noticed it either when theyad been given the order to fall backa"except the enemy, because theyad driven them back against a wall of ice they had no hope of scaling. They werenat equipped for climbing.

They were all going to diea"right in this G.o.dforsaken spot!

Strategically speaking, they were f.u.c.ked!

Danika roused herself to make another demand for her weapon just as she heard the commanda"directed at the cyborgs.

Seth scooped her up and tilted his head back to gauge the distance.

Not that she didnat think it was a d.a.m.ned good idea for him to make some calculations before he attempted it, but he made one h.e.l.l of a target! Miraculously, although projectiles whizzed past them, none made their target a until the very moment Seth crouched to launch the two of them. As he sprang up again, shooting them skyward, she heard him grunt and felt him jerk with an impact.

They werenat going to make it, she thought in dismay! It was further, she was sure, than the drop from the s.h.i.+p had been and shead been convinced he couldnat make that leap and remain operational.

Chapter Two.

Seth more or less fell over the top of the precipice. Barely clearing the edge, he pitched himself forward in a roll.

Fully expecting to be crushed, Danika was too stunned to move for several moments after Seth stopped rolling, waiting in vain for the pain of crushed and mangled body to reach the nerve centers in her brain, regardless of the fact that she was sprawled on top of Seth when he finally stopped rolling.

Realizing after a few moments that she wasnat dead or dying, she lifted her head and stared at his face. He was staring up at the sky above them and she felt a jolt run through her. aSeth?a He blinked and s.h.i.+fted his gaze to her face. For a long moment, their gazes seemed locked and in that moment Danika saw, or thought she saw, something she should not have seen in the eyes of a cyborga"pain and relief.

aDamage report,a she said finally, pus.h.i.+ng herself off of him with an effort and looking around for her other team mates. Niles, she saw, was crouched beside them, firing toward the enemy line. Dane was nowhere in sight and she recalled abruptly that his mobility had been impaired when the drop s.h.i.+p had been damaged. Scrambling toward the edge of precipice, she looked down. She had a split second to register the disaster below and discover that Dane was dangling by one arm from the side of the ice cliff and then a hand curled around one of her ankles and she felt herself dragged backwards.

Twisting her head, she saw it was Seth who had hold of her ankle.

He was glaring at her. aYou will get your head shot off!a Stunned at the display of anger, Danika blinked several times, gaping at him. She was far more preoccupied with the scene her mind had captured, however. It looked like fully half of their force was trapped belowa"maimed, wounded, or already dead, and the enemy was advancing and systematically executing anybody who hadnat managed to escape the trap. She barely noticed when he released his hold and crawled to the edge of the precipice to look down as she had.

aCan you climb?a aThe mobility of my left arm is compromised. I will try.a aNiles and I will try to cover you,a Seth responded, turning to summon Niles with a hand motion.

Indignation flickered through Danika, piercing her shock. She was the squad leader, d.a.m.n it! She was supposed to be leading the team! She was obliged to admit after a very little thought, though, that she couldnat think of anything better to try. It wasnat as if they could haul Daneas heavy a.s.s up the cliff!

Well, she supposed Seth and Niles could a if they had a rope of some kind, which she knew d.a.m.ned well she didnat have in her pack. He was going to have to make it on his owna"or not. Gritting her teeth against the pain from her wound, she crawled to the edge again on her belly. Seth stopped firing long enough to plant a hand on the top of her helmet and shove her back. aStay!a he growled.

Danika sloughed the snow off her face s.h.i.+eld and glared at him with a mixture of disbelief and anger. Before she could think of how to respond to his order, however, she saw a hand appear above the rim. Seth put his weapon down and grasped the hand, hauling Dane over the edge.

No one, Danika realized, had given her a damage report!

Granted, theyad been busy, but they were cyborgs! It wasnat as if they werenat capable of handling multiple tasks!

aDisengage the enemy and fall back to secure weapons and supply drop, coordinates 3 degrees 47 minutes North West; 14 degrees South a.a Danika listened while the orders were repeated through the GOa"general ordersa"channel. aHow far is that, Seth?a aThirty clicks.a as.h.i.+t! Damage report.a Before any of her teammates could respond, they heard an exchange between a junior officer on the ground and the command center. aAcknowledge receipt. The Lieutenant Colonel and staff all dead or missing. Weave sustained heavy casualties. We need an immediate evac. Thatas a no go on reaching the supply drop at coordinates a.a aWho the h.e.l.l are you, you idiot?a someone roared, cutting the speaker off before he could finish. aUse the CO channel!a aSomebody just got busted,a Danika muttered. Clearly she wasnat the only one that had just had her first taste of the real thing and was having problems remembering traininga"Not that she was rattled enough to forget that that sort of information shouldnat be pa.s.sed through anything but the COa"command operationsa"channel! They were going to be d.a.m.ned lucky if the enemy hadnat picked up that damaging intel! aNot that it looks like heas going to have to worry about it. I doubt thereas going to be an evac and Iam guessing you guys saw what I did at the base of the cliff. The enemy is advancing and it doesnat look like they plan to take prisoners. You guys think you can make it to the drop?a She asked when shead done a visual and discovered that the cyborgs had taken far more damage than she had.

She didnat think they had time to wait for them to make any sort of repairs. She didnat think it was pure luck that the enemy had pounded the h.e.l.l out of them and driven them back against a wall. Their objective might have been to outflank them and close the fist, but she thought there was a good chance that theyad known about the ridge to start with and the confederation forces had reacted just as the enemy had hoped. That might also mean that the enemy knew of a route up the escarpment or had forces closing on them now from the rear.

From the chatter on the local communications channel, she thought most everyone that had surviveda"so fara"was beginning to get the picture.

aWe canat just leave our people down there!a aWe canat do anything else. If we donat get to that supply drop before the enemy weare going to be in the same shape they are!a aWhereas air support?a aWhere are the med-evacs?a aYouare saying you think theyare tied up in another battle?a aWhat the h.e.l.l kind of intel is that? There wasnat supposed to be any resistance here!a They complained and speculated for the first half hour while the remnants of the companies that made up their battalion struggled through almost knee deep snow, but they discovered theyad walked right into a blinding snow storm and n.o.body had the energy to waste on talking anymore after the storm hit them.

They were about half way between the ridge Danika was beginning to think of as slaughter ridge and the drop site when a series of ma.s.sive explosions prompted them to hit the ground. It only took them a few moments to realize that the bombardment wasnat close enough to be an immediate threat.

Long term was another matter.

aOh my G.o.d! We are so f.u.c.ked! That was the supplies that just went up in smoke!a aWould you just shut the f.u.c.k up!a aI donat know which one of you stupid f.u.c.ks gave the coordinates away, but youare going to be a dead mother f.u.c.ker if I get my hands on you!a aWhy doesnat everybody just shut the f.u.c.k up?a Danika yelled angrily. aHe didnat get the chance to give away the exact coordinates. My guess is that either none of the channels are as secure as we thought or they didnat need the coordinates. It sure as h.e.l.l didnat take them long to get there.a aHey! We donat know that it was our supplies! Could be another group taking a pounding.a Danika glanced at her team questioningly, feeling a ray of hope. It died when Seth shook his head. aThat is the coordinates we were given.a aI guess wead better hump it, then,a she said tiredly, aand see what we can salvage. I have a bad feeling weare going to need anything we can find.a There wasnat much to salvage. It looked as if the bombardment had been a long range effort, however, and when theyad rested briefly and began to sort through the debris that had cooled enough to allow for a search, they began to find a few useable supplies. Danika supposed they should just be grateful that the enemy didnat seem to have the technical capabilities of the confederation or they wouldave been completely screwed.

Or maybe it was more a matter of being spread too thin and not having the munitions they needed to totally annihilate the confederation troops?

By her, admittedly, rough calculations, the armada that had brought them had been carrying a force of nearly a half a milliona"counting cyborgsa"which shead considered actually counted as more than a single soldier since they were many times stronger than their human counterparts. That was the main reason she hadnat been unduly nervous about the mission. As far as anyone knewa"or at least had been tolda"there werenat any enemy bases on Xeno-12.

Clearly, the confederation thought theyad been clever in not declaring war until theyad nearly reached the planet they planned to take and hold since it offered the most strategic advantage in protecting the confederationas interests in this system.

Either they hadnat been clever enough, though, or the enemy was smarter than theyad given them credit for.

Or the grunts like her just hadnat been important enough to get the memo. The only warning theyad had was to expect the possibility of pockets of resistance. They sure as h.e.l.l hadnat expected such a ferocious, focused attack that they wouldnat even be able to organize a counter strike once they got on the ground.

They hadnat been able to pull themselves together at all! It had been a total rout!

She had a bad feeling, though, that the lack of action by the fleet meant that the disaster her battalion had experienced on landing wasnat isolated. The only explanation that she could think of for the lack of air support, med-evac, or complete evacuation was that the entire force was under attack and unable to lend support.