Casserine (43 page)

Mercer smacked the side of Jake’s head with the back of his hand.

“O
wwwwwww
,” Jake intoned, playing hurt.

“No, I didn’t make her dress up as Princess Lea, Bug Man. Only you would consider something as perverted and childish as that. Besides, where would I get a Princess Lea outfit out here?”

“I could loan you Adrian’s,” Jake quipped.

The rest of the Marines, seated silently around their two mission commanders, once again watched in amazement as Jake and Mercer laughed continuously until tears were streaming down their cheeks, and they were pounding on each other’s backs.

One Drop Ship landed at a time, with Alpha Drop Ship first in line. After disgorging five companies of the Marine First Regiment, they off loaded equipment and hovercraft on the center of the Landing Zone. The other Drop Ships kept the Bugs well away from the epoxy base of operations. Without close connections, the Bugs lost contact with the Queen, and would simply wander around until killed.

Mercer deployed the Marines outwards to guard the operations setup, while Jake oversaw the building structure, which would house their temporary command center. After the command structure and communications were up and running, the other Drop Ships came in to unload tunnel pipe and other hovercraft. By the end of the Passallion morning, which consisted of torrential downpours mixed with red tinted sunlight, the temperatures were hovering in the steamy nineties. The landing force of over two thousand Marines proceeded to build connecting shelters to the point of where the tunnel to the nest would begin, in order to protect men and equipment from the elements.

Air conditioning made the inside of the command center, and sheltering connections havens to refresh the Marine force. Medical stations were set up in a dozen spots, managed by med techs trained on Omaha by Adrian Matthews, interspersed with med tech veterans from the Omaha and Bougainville missions. With the tunneling pipes laid out for quick installation, Jake went with Dougherty to make a check of where their tunneling operation would begin. They used the modified hovercraft designated for the main digging operation.

Gunnery Sergeant McClure had formed a skirmish line where Mercer had directed him, right at the point where the digging would begin. A fifty-yard gap existed between where the shelter tunnel ended coming from the command center, and the edge of the Landing Zone, where the tunnel to the nest would begin. Because it was in direct line to the nest, the Bug line continually surfaced at or near McClure’s squad. A Drop Ship hovered over the immediate area, disrupting the line further toward the nest, leaving McClure’s squad to kill the ones no longer guided by the Queen. Dougherty set the hovercraft down near McClure’s Marines. He and Jake disembarked to join them at their skirmish line.

McClure turned, and snapped a salute, which Jake returned.

“Hi Vic, how’s it look?” Jake asked.

“Pretty light, Sir, thanks to the Drop Ship screwing with the Bug line all the way to the nest,” McClure replied. “When you start getting down underground, I bet it’s going to get real dicey. The Queen probably has multiple lines heading for our LZ.”

“You’re right, I’m sure,” Jake agreed.

“We’re expecting to plow through half dirt and half Bug matter, Sergeant,” Dougherty replied.

“Yes Sir, I bet it will be at least that, and they’ll be plugging your hole at every opportunity.”

Jake looked up at an increasingly clearer sky, and subsequent blazing red sun. “How are your guys holding up in the heat, Vic?”

“Ooh-rah!”

“Good,” Jake chuckled, “because except for getting drenched in between, this is it. Let’s get Charlie, and get started, Tim. Vic, I want your squad to go in with me once we get started. We’ll have two squads in there at all times, rotating out every hour, just as planned. Stay out here where you are though, until I call for you.”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

Jake and Dougherty flew the hovercraft right up to the edge of the epoxy surface. They could see on the monitors where the surface bubbled slightly, all over the area, which meant McClure’s assessment was correct.

“I bet Vic’s being conservative with half dirt, half Bug juice,” Jake commented. “We’ll have to make sure we keep the tunnels clear, even if it means going a little slower. I don’t want these guys wading around in Bug fluid.”

“These craft will keep us moving, Jake. They can clear out a lot of tunnel debris in a very short period of time, and the width of the pipe will allow us to have two following along at a time,” Dougherty said.

“As the tunnel gets longer and deeper though, we’ll have to have more hovercraft along the route, until we have a steady circle in and out, removing debris and rotating troops. Okay, let’s get started, Tim.”

Later, Dougherty, with Mercer sitting next to him, blew a fifty-yard gouge downwards in the wet sludge at the angle they needed for the tunnel pipes. The first collapsible tunnel pipe was jammed into the groove, and expanded by remote control in the command center at Dougherty’s order. It expanded into a rectangular, rounded on the edges pipe, complete with its own individual luminescence, fifty yards long, fifty feet across, and twenty-five feet in height. As Tim blasted into the second section of the ground, two hovercraft on the left of the pipe, at staggered distances from each other, sucked debris into huge tanks mounted on the nose section of their craft. When the tanks were full, the craft simply backed out of the pipe on the right.

Dougherty continued excavating for the second pipe partition, cauterizing the surrounding dirt in the hole with high heat, so it would hold until the collapsible pipe was pushed into place. After five of the pipes had been placed into position, and their ends joined, the Bugs attacked the hovercraft in bulk. Their numbers filled the opening as they punched through the excavated hole, and into the tunnel. Dougherty opened fire on the hole with devastating effect.

Jake, who had been following along behind the hovercraft on foot, putting Marines on guard at each juncture, now called for McClure’s squad to fly in with the next hovercraft. Jake killed a few Bugs, which tumbled into the tunnel beyond Dougherty’s guns, but even they had been hit and maimed before getting by. The hovercraft continued their vacuuming procedure, leaving behind only a few inches of debris on the tunnel floor. When McClure’s squad arrived, Jake split them up to cover the hole from both sides of the tunnel. The mop up operation worked well; but more untouched Bugs made it through, because of the sheer numbers jamming the opening.

Jake rotated the Marine squads at every two pipe junctions, and ordered the sentries guarding the pipe joints relieved every two hours. After twelve of the sections were laid in place, the pace slowed down dramatically, because of the cave-in factor. With the Bugs attacking the opening in mass, Dougherty and Mercer had their hands full at the controls. By cauterizing the opening a couple of minutes longer, Dougherty managed to stop the cave-ins, but multiplied the Bug numbers at the opening. Mercer watched Jake on his monitor, as he helped up Marines who slipped in the tunnel soup, and directed replacements to their posts. Jake had to pause every few minutes to squirt off his visor, which was covered in sludge and Bug slime.

“Jake?” Mercer called out.

“I’m a little busy here, Charlie.”

“Rotate out goofball before you pass out.”

“I’m fine, Charlie,” Jake chuckled. “If you see me start to stumble around, then get on my case. Until then, stay off my command frequency.”

“Aye, aye, General Cement Head,” Mercer retorted, as stifled laughter echoed throughout the command channel.

Chapter 41 

Chamber Surprise

The excavation continued non-stop for the rest of the day. After twenty-four hours straight, they reached the hollowed out area housing the Queen’s chamber with thirty sections of connected pipe. Sixty Marines guarding the pipe joints, and twenty more at the point with Jake, were rotated more frequently as the digging had slowed down. The Marines above kept guard over the Landing Zone against the dwindling number of surfacing Bugs. As the last pipe was put into place and sealed, Dougherty punched through into the chamber area suddenly, and all hell broke loose, as thousands of Bugs, unable to get at the hovercraft before, attacked simultaneously.

Jake called in reinforcements, as Dougherty was unable to kill the Bugs fast enough. Jake, with his twenty Marines held the point. Every hovercraft coming in, dropped off more platoons of Marines, driving the Bugs back into the surrounding sludge as they blanketed the area with particle beam fire. Dougherty’s hovercraft was brought to a halt by the sheer weight of the Bugs dropping in on it, as Dougherty guided it to the Queen’s chamber shield.

“We’re buried, Jake,” Mercer pronounced. “Tim and I are killing Bugs as fast as the guns can fire, but they even have the turret movement stopped.

“On our way, Charlie,” Jake replied. “Will the hovercraft fly if we get the Bugs off?”

“Put a fork in us Jake, we’re done,” Dougherty answered. “I have the portable gun, loaded with shield solvent for just this type of screw-up, but I have no way of getting it to you.”

“Understood,” Jake replied. He looked around at the Nest Marines he had covering the edge of the chamber, blowing away Bugs as fast as they came. “Boys, I need cover, so I can swim through this mess to the disabled hovercraft. I want hovercraft, three abreast, at the tunnel entrance, with Marines rotating in a skirmish line underneath them. Hovercraft Five, you on the right, I need a ride in to Hovercraft One. I’ll hold on to the side. Deck gunner on five, you read me?”

“Yes Sir, Corporal Stassinas here, Sir.”

“Change to pulse blasts on the Bugs covering the hovercraft, or you’ll blow up Hovercraft One.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” Stassinas acknowledged.

“Pilot, Hovercraft Five?”

“Yes Sir, Lieutenant Brisby here, Sir.”

“This is going to be tricky, you okay to go in on this?” Jake asked. “If not, say so.”

“Let’s make some Bug Juice, Sir,” Brisby replied.

Jake climbed up on the outside of Hovercraft Five.

“Don’t do this, Jake,” Mercer said calmly. “Back the force out, and rig another ship. You can always fight your way through again.”

“Bugger off, Major,” Jake retorted, as he pounded on the side of the hovercraft he clung to. He had his sidearm out, which fired only pulse blasts, and had slung his particle beam rifle. “Let’s go Brisby. The rest of you will have to try and keep the Bugs off us without blowing a hole through me. Remember, I love you guys.”

Laughter echoed in his ear as Brisby flew into the Chamber. The contingent of Marines and hovercraft blasted attacking Bugs, flailing at the wavering Hovercraft Five from above as well as below. Jake killed four Bugs with his blaster, which had clamored onto the debris tank mounted on the front of Hovercraft Five.

“Brisby, can you jettison that friggin’ tank?” Jake asked, blowing the head off of yet another Bug which landed on the tank.

Seconds later, the debris tank fell away, and they were at the downed Hovercraft One.

“Position the Hovercraft so Stassinas can clear off Hovercraft One, Brisby. Charlie, you and Tim get ready to come out the back hatch.”

“Already there, Jake,” Dougherty called out, as Brisby maneuvered Hovercraft Five so his deck gunner could clear away the Bugs.

Jake climbed around to the back of Hovercraft Five. “Drop the rear hatch, Brisby, and back her in. Keep that cover fire going boys, we’re going down.”

The Chamber looked like a Bug charnel house. Bug parts, and innards were piled to the center of the downed Hovercraft One. They rained down over everything as Marines and hovercraft deck gunners blew Bugs apart all around Jake’s craft. The hovercraft rear hatch dropped open, and Jake slipped inside. He leveled the previously slung particle beam rifle, and holstered the blaster. Brisby backed his hovercraft right to the rear hatch of downed Hovercraft One, as it virtually rained Bug pieces.

“Pop her open guys, your rides here,” Jake ordered.

Hovercraft One’s rear hatch popped open into Bug soup. Debris literally flowed into the hovercraft hatch. Dougherty and Mercer rushed out, firing as they came with their hand blasters. Corporal Stassinas and Jake covered the two as they jumped onto Hovercraft Five’s rear hatch, and turned to add their fire to the mix.

“You see the Bitch’s Chamber, Brisby?” Jake asked, as a Bug landed right in front of him, and opened up the front of his armor, knocking him off his feet. Mercer blew the Bug’s head off, and Dougherty covered them as Jake regained his feet.

“I see it, Sir,” Brisby acknowledged. “Shall I back in?”

“As quick as you can,” Jake replied, taking stock of anything besides armor damaged on his body.

“Cripes Jake, that one opened you up like an old time tin can,” Dougherty commented, as they all fired into the Bug mass Brisby backed them into. “Are you bleeding?”

“I don’t think so, Tim,” Jake replied, as he just barely swung his rifle up in time to blow apart a Bug dropping onto the open rear hatch. Its innards blew back over the deck turret, leaving Stassinas with only his rear monitor for vision, and even that had been impaired.

“I’m almost blind in here, Sir,” Stassinas called out. “I’m rotating cover fire, but not at much I can see.”

“You’re doing fine, Corporal,” Jake replied. “You can’t miss from here. Hovercraft Two, and Three, jettison your tanks, and fly in on both sides of us. When you get here, open up on everything, but the front of the Queen’s shield. We’ll be working there.”

“More hovercraft are there to take up the slack, Jake,” Corey inserted from the Command Center.

“Thanks, Sara, I was hoping you could still see what’s going on,” Jake said.

“We’re all with you, Sir. We’re just staying quiet,” Colonel Peters

“This soft ground is the pits,” Mercer muttered, firing a steady stream of particle beam fire into the roof of the Chamber. “I’m glad these new rifles don’t heat up like those old blasters they gave us on Omaha the first time in, huh, Jake?”

“Man, you got that right,” Jake grinned at the memory. “We’d be Bug food already. Get set Tim, here we go.”

Brisby backed his hovercraft right into the shield surface. The moment he could see, Dougherty fired the shield solvent. It took only a moment to dissolve away a hole big enough for Jake and Mercer to literally disintegrate the Queen, who did not even get a chance to attack the hole. In the sudden silence from the final cessation of the Queen’s keening screams, Jake, Mercer, and Dougherty dropped down against the inner side of the rear hovercraft bulkhead, ignoring the nearly three inch covering of Bug matter they collapsed in.

“Well, that was fun,” Dougherty gasped.

“I’m so tired, if a Bug popped in here now, I couldn’t even lift my arms to shoot it,” Mercer said tiredly.

“Did you guys get any time to rest?” Jake asked, his helmeted head leaning back against the bulkhead.

“We took catnaps on and off coming in,” Dougherty explained. “When do.”

“Can I take us out, Sir?” Brisby asked.

‘Tea, Lieutenant,” Jake answered quickly. “Sorry, we were catching our breath. You did a great job.”

“I was afraid I’d slam us into the shield, and knock you guys right out of the hatch,” Brisby replied, relief evident in his tone.

“Shall I order in the mop up, Jake?” Corey asked.

“It’s all yours, Sara. Relieve everyone in the tunnels, and bring in fresh companies to kill the stragglers. Just MAG50 the shit out of this chamber,” Jake advised. “You all did excellent work. It didn’t go as planned, but we got the job done. I’m off line as of now, Sara.”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

“Can we take these helmets off, Jake?” Dougherty asked tiredly.

“Just as long as you don’t scratch your nose with those Bug contaminated gloves, young Jedi,” Jake said, taking his helmet off and dropping it next to him.

“We look good, Obi Wan,” Mercer pointed out, after removing his helmet. “You reek though, pal. Would you scoot over against the other wall please? How’s the chest wound, by the way?”

Jake took off his gloves and peeled aside the front of his armor, turning towards his two friends. “It stings, and it feels wet with Bug juice, but other than that.”

Jake stopped talking at the horrified looks on his friends’ faces. Mercer jumped up and ran for the nearest med kit storage locker, while Dougherty threw his helmet on, and told Brisby to streak for the nearest med station. Jake took the hint and ripped open the front of his armor. Mercer had already torn open a large body bandage, and pressed it to Jake’s chest with all his might. Dougherty took off his helmet again, and stuffed it between the wall and the small of Jake’s back.

“I take it I ain’t feeling as well as I thought, huh?” Jake grinned comically for his friends.

“Tour suit’s full of blood, Jake,” Mercer explained seriously.

Dougherty had already tried unsuccessfully to start an IV drip with the plasma kit Mercer had dragged along with him. “I can’t get the needle in, Charlie.”

“Try the scalpel, Tim,” Jake directed, “just to make a hole.”

Dougherty ran back to the med kit locker, and came back with a laser scalpel. He did as Jake had directed, and followed it with the needle, successfully hooking up the plasma drip. The hovercraft rocked, as Brisby weaved in and out of the incoming and outgoing craft and Marines.

“It must be deep,” Jake commented. “Otherwise, I’d have closed up by now.”

“I could see bone through there,” Mercer told him truthfully. “You must have lost a quart of blood.”

“We’ll be out of the tunnel shortly, Charlie,” Tim added. “The first med station is just inside the main tunnel channel.

“Like I told you guys, I heal fast,” Jake said. “The analgesic on the bandage took away the stinging too.”

“It seems no matter how tough your skin is, that Bug didn’t seem to have much trouble puncturing you,” Mercer replied, as Dougherty reached around his bandage application to fasten it down.

“Lucky shot.”

Mercer and Dougherty laughed uneasily, as the hovercraft came to a stop. A moment later, Stassinas exited his deck gun, and walked back to where the three men were getting on their feet. Lieutenant Brisby had jogged up behind him. They both saluted as Jake rolled over carefully, and stood up, waving off Mercer and Dougherty. He returned the salute, and shook hands with each of them, as they gawked openly at the torn armor.

“We want to thank you guys again for the quick action in there,” Jake said casually, as Mercer opened the rear hatch. “Good work. We’ll need you two on the next one. Hopefully, I’ll come up with a plan of action a little less dangerous at the nest.”

“We’ll be there, Sir,” Brisby replied. “Can we give you a hand to the Med Station. That looks bad, General.”

“No, Major Mercer, and Lieutenant Dougherty will accompany me. You two get your craft washed down, and get some chow and rest.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” they both called out, saluting again.

Jake just nodded amiably, and turned to walk out of the hatch, as Mercer and Dougherty stayed at his side in case he could not keep walking. Marines and ship’s crew from the Intrepid snapped to attention in the corridor, as the three men made their way to the Med Station. Jake just waved, and kept repeating ‘Good job’. The Med Tech personnel had already forwarded all the wounded to the next stations. They had only had lacerations and broken limbs, all sustained in the last heated action. With his friends’ help, Jake peeled off his outside armor, and the bloody uniform top underneath directly into a disposal bag.

“Make sure no one touches that stuff,” Jake directed. “You guys go ahead and get washed off. We’ll plot strategy later for the next nest.”

“Okay, but don’t go anywhere,” Mercer replied. “Tim and I will be right back.”

Jake nodded, as the two men hurried out, carefully staying away from other personnel because of the Bug residue. Crews in decontamination suits came along after them to clean up the residue left behind in their wake. Everyone had been prepped about the need to keep clear of anything with Bug DNA.

“Can we get you something for the pain, Sir?” a young woman with Lieutenant J.G. Spiros on her nametag asked.

“No, Lieutenant,” Jake replied, as he lay down on the gurney with a sigh. “Just see what you can do to get me patched up. I need to get something to eat, and then some sleep, hopefully in that order.”

“Aye, aye, Sir,” Spiros grinned.

She directed her assistants to clean Jake up while she walked over to roll her equipment table over. By the time she returned to the gurney Jake was on, her assistants had removed the bandage, and cleaned all the blood and debris from his upper torso. Blood welled up out of the ragged tear from his right rib cage, diagonally up to his upper left shoulder.