“It was just forward of here, sir,” Sergeant Bae said, pointing to a red-marked square of space tape on the luminescent wall. “There were two turns, we went left at each of them.”
“Lieutenant Morris, leave one team here to maintain control of this intersection,” Lieutenant Ross said. “Lieutenant Bergstresser, your platoon has the lead.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Berg said. “Gunny, point team.”
“Champs, you’re up,” Gunny Juda said. “And I’ll be right up your ass.”
“Teams will enter the open area described by Sergeant Bae,” Berg said over the platoon freq. “Charlie center, Alpha left, Bravo right. Order of targetting will be cannoneers to thorn throwers, riflemen to dogs. Do not engage any unrecognized type unless they present a notable threat. Teams will advance with maximum speed to the open area, eliminating resistance in the corridor by constant fire and movement. Use the boot, don’t piss on them.”
“Gung-ho, sir,” First Sergeant Powell said. “You heard the man, Champs. Let’s go kill us some Dreen.”
Sergeant Champion wasn’t watching his speed indicator; he was too focused on the targets in the corridor. The Dreen had apparently laid out dog-demons as security and there was one every thirty meters or so. More as they approached the open area. He’d gotten three so far but there were two together, using the corridor to charge him at lightning speed…
“Get the left,” Powell shouted as a wall of fire came by Champion’s suit.
Champion bit down on his trigger, sending a stream of .50 caliber rounds down the corridor, but he could not track in on the charging demon…
“Chither!” he shouted as the demon latched onto the leg of his suit and flipped him onto his face. Their contact may have had no inertia to it, but the low-slung, powerful alien was more than capable of lifting a Wyvern suit off its feet.
“Got it,” Kaijahano said, firing a single cannon round into the dog-demon’s exposed back.
“We got company,” First Sergeant Powell said, dropping to a knee and firing down the corridor. “Sir, the entry is blocked. Too many to bull through.”
“Platoon,” Berg said calmly, “take positions and open fire.”
“How many of these things are there?” Ducksworth asked rhetorically. The corridor was getting piled up with bodies of Dreen, mostly dog-demons.
“A lot,” Champion replied. With his mangled suit-leg, he could only fire from the prone but it didn’t really matter. His team was belly down, side by side with him, while Bravo took a knee and Alpha was standing. The wall of fire had the Dreen stopped in the corridor and there were no more forks, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a way around. If there were enough of them, and under an intelligent controller, they could use the corridors to bypass the blocking position and hit them in the rear.
Of course, then they’d run into Third Platoon, who were patiently waiting for an opportunity to get it stuck in.
“Or not,” Champion said as the wave receded. “Sir, we’re out of targets.”
“Either they’re out of bodies or the controller has taken a different choice,” Berg said. “Hold your position…”
“…stopped,” Berg said over the command freq.
“We still need to get into that room,” Weaver replied.
“How’s your ammo level?” Lieutenant Ross asked.
“Nominal,” Berg replied. “We’re still all in the green. One suit mobility damaged.”
“Third will remain in support,” Lieutenant Ross said. “Second platoon will assault forward into the room. Move it out, Two-Gun.”
“Chither,” Berg said, sliding to the floor of the immense cavern, then popping back up to look around. He couldn’t exactly stop for sight-seeing but it looked much like the other crystal caves, just immensely larger and with much larger crystals.
The crystals were the problem, as it was apparent the remaining Dreen were using them for cover. He could see a mass of fungus towards the rear of the compartment but between the Marines and the fungus a horde of Dreen thorn-throwers darted in and out from the pillars, laying down a wall off fire.
The only cover was the one difference between this compartment and the others, besides the size, a low wall that had an opening by the corridor but stretched in a semicircle around the compartment, truncating by both side walls. However, there was a fifty-meter open area between the wall and the crystals the Dreen were using for cover.
“I’m hit!” Shingleton screamed. “Grapp, I’m hit!”
“Stay frosty, Kelly,” Sergeant Bae said. “How bad is it… ?”
“We need to clear those pillars,” Lieutenant Bergstresser said. “Somebody needs to flank them!”
“Then you do it, sir!” Champion snarled. The sergeant had crawled forward on his belly and barely made it to cover behind the wall. But he was up and firing over it. Just as the last words left his mouth, though, he let out an “unk” and fell back, blood pouring out of his suit.
Berg was sorely tempted to do just that, but he also knew it wasn’t his job.
Bae was down a man. With Champs gone that left…
“Staff Sergeant Carr,” Berg said. “You will move your team to the right, using the wall for cover. When you reach the end of the wall, report in. We will provide cover fire for your movement to the pillars. Take the Dreen force in the flank and drive them out.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the staff sergeant replied. “Dupe, Rucker, on me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“We lost Sergeant Champion and Lance Corporal Rucker, KIA,” Eric reported tonelessly. “Corporal Shingleton was injured by a thorn and we’ve been unable to stop the bleeding. He needs to be evacuated to the base. There appears to be a final defensive point beyond the fungus. When Staff Sergeant Carr’s team attempted to approach from beyond the last crystal pillar, they took plasma fire. He stated that it was white in color, not green.”
“Nitch,” First Sergeant Powell said. “Maybe Mreee. Both of them use blasters and the plasma is white.”
“That was where we lost Rucker,” Carr said. “It tracked in on him. Right around the cover of the crystals.”
“Yeah, that’s one of those Mreee/Nitch blasters,” Powell said. “They’ll do that.”
“We couldn’t even get a good look at who was firing,” Carr said. “There’s a bunch of spread-fungus down there, too. I’d rather not get into that if we can avoid it.”
“We need to clear this compartment, Staff Sergeant,” Bill said. “But I’ll admit we need something to clear the fungus so we can.” He thought about that for a second and then snapped his fingers, the claws of his suit trying to follow suit. “Miriam.”
“Miriam can clear the compartment?” Lieutenant Ross said, surprised. “How, sir?”
“Let’s get your wounded and KIA back to the camp, Lieutenant,” Bill said. “I need to talk to Miss Moon.”
“Well, of course, I brought some with me,” Miriam said. “I’m not done studying them. I’ll admit, this isn’t the best environment…”
The camp had been moved to one of the larger crystal caves and even the conversation of the camp tended to trigger the crystals. The whole area was lit by effulgent light from the glittering pillars.
“Well, here’s an experiment for you,” Bill said. “We can’t clear that forward compartment until we get rid of the fungus in the way; that stuff will infest a Wyvern suit like nobody’s business. Can your spiders clear it?”
“I’ve only got the two,” Miriam said. “But they’re parthenogenic. I don’t actually know what their rate of reproduction would be in an optimal environment…”