Lieutenant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 3) (23 page)

“Oh, that’s pretty bad.  He needs surgery.”

“Well there’s no freaking surgeon here, is there now?  You’re the medic, show me what you can do.”

The column began a ponderous turn to the right to move into the trees as McManus contemplated the situation. 

“OK, this isn’t enough, but get me one of those branches, one about yay long,” he said, holding his hands about a meter apart. Then to Ryck, “Do you have any of those zip ties?”

“In my left cargo pocket.”

McManus reached inside, pulling out everything and dropping it in the dirt before picking out some white zip ties.  “Look, this won’t be great, and these things are thin, so they’ll cut your blood off if they are tight enough to give you support.  When we get to the shuttle, we’ve got to cut this off, OK?”

“My leg?” Ryck asked, confused.

“No, this,” he said as one might talk to a child, holding up the branch Sams had retrieved.

There was a blast, maybe 400 meters back along the columns trace.

“I heard your mines go off and thought I’d set a few of my own,” Sams said.  “They’re getting closer.  I think they’ve gained 300 meters in the last 30 minutes.  Can you hurry it up, McManus?”

With sure hands, the medic placed the branch alongside of Ryck’s leg, then with firm tugs, tightened the zip ties.  Ryck had to bite back a scream.

“Can you get up?” the medic asked.

Ryck struggled to his feet.  He gave a sort of hop-skip, putting almost no pressure on his leg, but it still hurt. 

He kept his face calm as he said, “I can make it.”

“Rancer!  Come here!” Sams shouted over Ryck’s shoulder.

A fit-looking man in his 40’s came up.  He was a little shorter than Ryck, his dark skin once again covered with the dirt and grime of the forced march.

“I want you to help the lieutenant, got it?  Make sure he keeps up,” Sams told the man.

“Shout out if you need more help,” Sams told Ryck.  “I’ve got to get these people moving.”

Sams looked back to see if the capys were in sight yet, then started shouting out to  speed up the movement towards the slopes. 

“How do you want to do this?” Rancer asked, concern evident on his face.

“Um, well, how about if you give me a shoulder?” Ryck suggested.

Sams had been clever.  With Rancer a little shorter, Ryck’s left arm fit comfortably over his shoulders.  Ryck took a hesitant step which drove jolts of pain from his leg all the way to his neck, but he thought it would be manageable.

Just as Ryck and Rancer moved off the path and into the trees, Sams raised his HGL and fired off two shots.

“Move it!” he screamed, physically pushing the last straggler into the trees.

The teak forest gave some degree of cover, and with no undergrowth, it didn’t slow the column down in and of itself.  However, with Ryck, Mr. Saunders, and Reiko, along with some other slowly moving people, the column was not making time, and if the capys got close enough, there was no undergrowth to dissipate their energy balls.

Ryck pulled out his blunderbuss and held it in his right hand, ready to use it if needed.  With only one HGL in the group, every weapon was needed.

Tara came running back down the line, and Sams shouted out, “What are you doing?  I need you up there!”

“No, you need me here,” she responded, holding up her blunderbuss.  “I’ve got Gracie leading the column.  She’s done sampling up there and knows exactly where to go.  So how about you give me a couple more of the mines and you worry about keeping the tail end here moving.”

Sams looked like he was going to argue, but then simply handed over three mines to the woman.  Ryck felt like he should stop to make sure Tara knew what she was doing.  The mines were sensitive, after all.  But frankly, it was all he could do just to keep moving.  Each step was agony, and he was having a harder and harder time compartmentalizing the pain.

Up ahead and off to the right, he heard the faint sounds of HGL fire.  Gutierrez and Caruthers were still at it.

They better be doubling back soon
, he thought.

If Ryck thought walking through the plantation was tough, once he hit the slope and the denser wild vegetation, it became torture.  He couldn’t swing his left foot as much and had to lift it higher to get it up and forward.  After only a few steps, he stopped trying, using his right leg to step, then dragging his left to meet it, then the right again.  The vegetation grabbed at is legs, trying to stop him.

An explosion sounded in back of him.  He thought Tara had accidently set off a mine, and he looked back, but Tara was walking backwards only five meters behind him, blunderbuss at the ready.

That meant a capy had set off the mine, and that meant the capys were less than 200 meters behind them.  They were closing the distance.   If the column had still been within the plantation, the capys would have been within range of the rear of the column and they could have taken them under fire. 

Ryck felt a rush of despair.  This was the second time he’d been in full retreat, something Marines were not noted for.  He’d lost most of his platoon on GKN with the capys chasing them.  He’d joined recon so he wouldn’t have to worry about being responsible for so many other lives, but here he was, running for his life, with 27 civilians in his charge.  This was a wickedly devastating dose of déjà vu. 

Ryck kept trying to turn around to spot the capys, and that twisted Rancer.  The man didn’t complain, though.  Ryck knew the slope would slow down the capys as well, but if they got close enough right as the plantation ended, they could be well within visual and weapons range.

Ryck flipped the butterfly valve and started misting, but only in the back of him.  He hoped the mist would cover Rancer as well.  He didn’t give it much credence, but maybe it had helped Caruthers, so it couldn’t hurt.

There was another blast, just at the edge of visual range.  Tara had made time to set at least one more mine with the capys on her ass.  Ryck looked over at her as she made her way backwards up the slope.  She had a big welt across her side, and one foot was bloody, but she didn’t falter.  Ryck had to admit that she was one tough hombre.

“There they are!” Sams said to no one in particular as he fired two rounds from his HGL. 

“You got one!” Tara shouted in excitement.  Both ducked low into the undergrowth, and in a crouch, pushed their way uphill.  There wasn’t any way Ryck could crouch, and Rancer wouldn’t abandon him. 

When Ryck felt the kiss of energy, Rancer cried out, “My arm!  Bastards!”

Ryck wondered if the mister was actually helping.  Maybe it only partially covered Rancer as well.  That would explain why his left arm had received more of the effects of the energy ball.

Ryck had no time to contemplate that as Rancer physically dragged Ryck forward, each tug wrenching his leg. Ryck was lost in a sea of agony, only peripherally aware of anything else.  He wasn’t sure how long it took or how far they went.  He was vaguely aware of Rancer cursing, of someone else, maybe Tara, coming over to take Ryck’s blunderbuss and putting his right arm over her shoulder.  He kept trying to walk, to move his legs, but he wasn’t sure how effective he was.

And then, he was out of the trees, up on the grass and rock plateau.  The fact that this was the new LZ registered deep within his mind, forcing him to shut out the pain and take stock of the situation.

Most of the civilians were standing in small groups, talking nervously among themselves.  Several of them were down on their backs, the strain of the flight too much for them.  A couple of hundred meters away, two Marines were running forward toward them.

Ryck felt a rush of relief.  All of his team had made it.  Whether there were capys on Gutierrez and Caruthers’ tail, or whether the capys on the slope below them would make it up soon was immaterial for the moment.  His Marines were back together.

“Sams!  Is everybody up here?”

“Just did a head count, Ryck.  Every swinging dick is here, ready to go.  Where’s your shuttle?”

Ryck’s checked his watch.  They still had five minutes.  The timing had been close, which was good, but was five minutes too much time?  How long before the capys made it up there?

“Shart! Crutch!  Get over here and cover the slope.  Where’s my HGL?” Ryck asked.

“Here it is, Caruthers said, holding up the bunker buster.”  “Mine’s out of ammo, so I’m using yours.”

Ryck almost asked for it back, but it was better in Caruther’s hands.  Ryck had a brief flashback of giving a weapon to another Marine back on GKN, and what that had cost him.  He forced the thought back down into the recesses of his mind. 

“Give me the flares, then,” Ryck said.  “I want you two right there on those rocks.  You see any movement below you, light them up!”

Tara and one of the men, both carrying blunderbusses, silently went to join the two Marines.  Ryck didn’t even bother to comment.  If the capys made the plateau, it was over, anyway, so it didn’t matter much if the two helped his Marines. 

“Sams, get everyone ready to go.  If the shuttle lands, I want everyone rushing it and onboard.  If the capys get here, tell everyone to scatter.  Maybe some will make it, and if there isn’t an interdiction, they might get picked up later.”

Ryck suddenly felt nauseous, and he bent over at the waist, afraid he was going to vomit.  Bent over, he caught sight of his leg.  That was the first time he’d seen his leg since he broke it.  Shards of bone were sticking out of his skin and through his trou, and the foot was twisted 30 degrees to the right.  Ryck almost passed out, but managed to fall to a sitting position.  He refused to look at his leg as he took deep breaths, centering himself.

“Take it easy, Ryck.  I’ve got it,” Sams assured him.

Sams might be able to run things, but this was still Ryck’s responsibility.  He was the one who was tasked with extracting the civilians. 

A shadow flitted across the grass, and it took a moment for Ryck to realize what it was.  Two Navy Experions were making a run over the plateau.  Of course!  The shuttles would not come in without an escort!

At that moment, Gutierrez and Caruthers opened fire down the slope.  Ryck heard the sharp report of one of the blunderbusses.  The capys had to be almost to the plateau.  Ryck scanned the sky, but no shuttle was in sight.  Even with one on approach, it would be too late.  They couldn’t board it in time.

I’m an idiot!
he berated himself. 
We can’t get into a Navy fighter, but they’re
pretty powerful birds, even within the atmosphere.

Ryck turned on his monocle, hoping he had comms with the fighters.  Nothing.  Well, he had something else.

“Sams, the fighters are coming in for another pass, probably just to count us.   I want everybody up and pointing to the slope where the capys are.  Have them jump, have them scream, but point!

“Rancer, can you throw?  You ever play ball?”

“Yeah, handball at my uni,” Rancer said, looking puzzled at the question.

“Take these,” Ryck said, lighting off two of the flares.  “Wait until the fighters are almost over us, then toss these over the edge and down into the trees.  Toss them high, so they arch.  Don’t wait too long, don’t throw early.  The fighter pilots have to see them.  Think you can do it?”

“Hell, yeah I can!” he said, taking the flares.

“Do it, then!”

Ryck watched Rancer run almost to the edge of the plateau.  He stopped and looked back, watching for the Experions.

The two fighters came back down to overfly them.  The civilians all started jumping up and down.  Not all were really pointing in the right direction, or pointing at all, to be honest.  But Ryck hoped it was enough. 

“Now!” he shouted at Rancer, but the man had already leaned back and thrown the first one. 

It arched up, a bright red beacon, before falling out of sight into the trees below.  He threw the second one, pushing it up higher.  Ryck had envisioned both at once, but this made more sense.  It gave the pilots a better chance to spot them.

The Experions pulled into an immediate climb.  Had they seen the flares?  Did they understand the message?

“Frack it!” Gutierrez shouted, jumping up and down, holding an arm.  “Pull back five, then let them have it as soon as they poke their noses over the edge!”

The two Marines and two civilians stepped back from the edge and got down, ready to take on the first capys to make it up.

Caruthers reached into a pocket and pulled out a toad.  He lit it off, then tossed it over the edge.  Throwing blind didn’t give him a good chance to hit one of them, but any action was better than inaction. 

Ryck looked back up, trying to see the fighters.  The sky was clear.  Had they gone?

A low rumble filled his ears, and the tops of the trees not ten meters from the edge of the plateau began to come apart.  The fighters had not left, and the pilots had understood the message.  They had gotten altitude, and then swooped down on the trees below Ryck and his charges.  They were chewing up the slope.  The two Marines and two civilians pushed their faces into the dirt, hands covering the backs of their heads as pieces of trees flew through the air, pelting them.  With one pass over, the second bird was starting its pass.