The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) (37 page)

“That’s the route open,” Berg said with satisfaction as the large red blip showing the fort was replaced by a smear of much smaller contacts.

“Coms, Bridge.
Saladin
is transmitting the all clear. We’re getting... a dozen beacon signals from the ground.”

“Tactical, give me a display of the signals on the holo.”

The main holo’s tactical display of the space around
Black Prince
was replaced with one of the planet. Most of the visible contacts seemed to be forming a large open circle around the lost shelter of Douglas. There was a single contact a few hundred kilometres from the Chinese shelter. The American shelter was still hidden on the far side of the planet. Before the war, Landfall had a seven-figure population and Berg wondered how many people those twelve blips represented.

“Navigation, crunch the numbers and give me the most efficient course to make drops on those contacts,” she ordered.

The same calculations would be made on
Saladin
, but as the second ship they had to be ready in case something happened.

“
Saladin
is uploading manoeuvring instructions. We’re also receiving a data upload from one of the fighters. They’ve achieved line of sight on the American base. We have another fifteen beacons.”

“Understood,” Berg replied. “Helm, upload instructions from
Saladin
.”

The escort hovered over the top of the carriers and pod-droppers as they did their work. They mostly delivered arms and ammunition, but two carriers dropped a few hundred brave soldiers, joining a fight from which there would be no retreat. As the
Schumann
held off the small squadron of Nameless ships, the convoy manoeuvred in turn over each of the beacons below. As pods dropped down and away,
Horus
completed her second duty and remorselessly pounded any major enemy surface targets they could identify from orbit. Job done, the convoy broke away, climbing up and over the Red Line.

___________________________

As her radio started to ping again,
Alice hesitated at the edge of the woods as she stared up at the sky. The clouds were so low the drop pod would only become visible a few hundred metres up. Under the best of circumstances the pods were usually only accurate to within fifty metres of their beacons and that was under peacetime conditions. Lashed together from scavenged parts, their beacon was likely to be even less effective. If someone got under the pod, that would permanently solve all their problems but they needed to empty it fast. No, they couldn’t afford to wait until they saw it.

“Alright, let’s move,” she ordered, “spread out and watch the sky!”

No one needed to be told to stay low. Everyone ran half crouched, their heads turned uncomfortably to keep an eye on the clouds. Out in the open Alice, could feel her flesh crawl with the sense of exposure. Her radio still pinged as the beacon continued to transmit.

“There’s one!” someone shouted.

“There’s the other one,” came a second cry.

Alice
spun round and, after a moment, spotted them. Like giant onions with a spinning propeller on top, there was no danger of either of them landing on anyone. One was coming down right on target, but the other one – the damn thing was well off course, angling in towards them, but about to miss its beacon by at least a kilometre.

She hesitated in a moment of indecision.

“Franks, take number two and get the closest one. Number one group, with me!” she bawled out as she began to run. “Now everyone move!”

From behind she heard the thump of the first pod hitting the ground. Ahead, the second was still coming in. It bounced as it hit the ground then dug in and tipped over, its’ spinning rotors shattering as they hit the ground. The fastest runners reached it before
Alice and were struggling with the access hatch when she arrived wheezing. The sides of the pod were still hot from its passage through the atmosphere and the hatch frame seemed to have buckled from the impact.

“Pry bar! Where’s the pry bar?”

The biggest man in the group was bringing up the rear, puffing like a steam engine. He barged through the clustering crowd and sank the pointed end of the two-metre bar into the frame like a spear. He, Alice and another man leaned into it and with a sudden bang the hatch gave way. They began unloading immediately, dragging the packing cases out.

“Two to a case, grab on and get moving!”
Alice ordered as she glanced back towards the woods from which they’d come from. They’d ended up more than two kilometres from where they needed to be, with no cover. She anxiously began to search the skies again, this time for Nameless aircraft.

Twenty minutes later they abandoned the now empty pod and spread out across the grasslands in two lines. At the back of her line,
Alice still scoured the skies. Then in the distance, over her own heavy breathing, she heard what she had most feared – the sound of an aircraft engine.

“Oh God,” she murmured before shouting down the line. “Pick up the pace!”

As they lurched across the open ground, she fumbled off her backpack. Inside it was their only real defence against whatever that aircraft might be about to drop – one of the few precious thermite grenades left to them. Hidden by the clouds above, the aircraft passed over them.

Trust me, we’re not important enough to bomb
, Alice thought.

Then she heard it turn.

Her end of the packing case thumped to the ground as she dropped it. Jolted to a sudden halt, her partner swore loudly. Alice ignored him as she twisted the priming cap and threw the heavy device as far as she could.

“Go! Go!” she shouted as she seized her end of the packing case.

“One, two three...” she counted beneath her breath as she ran.

From high above, she heard the distinctive pop of a missile launch, while from behind her came the whoosh of the thermite going off. Even at a distance she felt a flush of heat on the back of her neck. Lungs straining, legs burning, she forced herself to run faster to put precious distance between them and the burning grenade that would be suckering in the heat seeker missile. Hopefully.

A sound like a rising whine reached her ears.

“Get down!”

Hitting the ground, she lay as flat as she could, nose in the dirt. Then behind there was an explosion that went beyond mere noise, emitting a shockwave that knocked the breath out of her. She felt rather than heard metal fragments spin through the air above her.

Staggering to her feet,
Alice looked back at where the grenade had been. It was now a circle of small fires where the thermite had been scattered. Five hundred metres ahead she could see smoke rising. The first of the group back to the wood had started the bonfire they’d laid down. Even with an emergency flare and a dozen marine firelighters, it would take time to get going.

Moving again, they caught up with the next pair ahead. A young woman, Alice couldn’t remember her name, cradled an equally young man, screaming incoherently as his blood soaked into her clothes.
Alice glanced at him. After the trenches of Douglas, a glance was enough to tell her that if he wasn’t already dead, then he was certainly beyond saving. He hadn’t ducked fast enough. She could still hear the aircraft. There wasn’t time to be gentle and Alice dragged the woman to her feet by her hair, kicking and slapping her until she was moving again. The body was left where it lay. As they ran, Alice saw at least three cases abandoned in the grass. She didn’t have the breath to curse about it.

With her laboured breathing blotting out the sound of the aircraft, they were now under the first of the trees. Her partner paused at one trunk, gasping, but she didn’t have the breath to urge him on. The blood soaked young woman slumped to the ground, too exhausted to cry. Hands on her knees,
Alice looked around just in time to see the small Nameless jet dip below cloud cover and turn towards them. Its engines howled as it accelerated towards them. Close to its nose there was a glimmer of light.

“Down!”
Alice shouted as she dived behind a tree. As she huddled and threw her arms over her head, she could hear the thud of bullets hitting the ground and the ping of flying fragments all around them. The tree behind which she hid shuddered from the impact of the rounds and shredded leaves and branches rained down. Some distance away, she heard a brief, cut-off scream and knew she’d lost another one. Above them, the jet’s engine roared as it passed directly overhead. As her adrenalin kicked in, Alice leapt to her feet, grabbed the box and sprinted with three others further into the trees. Alice briefly registered the body of another man, torn open by gunfire. But they were now going deep into the woods and the worst was over.

It had taken them five days to walk from their hiding ground to the drop zone. It took them nearly seven to get back. Repeatedly, they were forced to go to ground as Nameless aircraft buzzed overhead. Several times the aliens must have got some kind of read and dropped bombs. Most missed by wide margins but one stick of four straddled their column. It was a miracle no one was hurt.

Seven days after the drop they were intercepted.

The forest was silent but for the steady tramp of their boots. At the head of the column,
Alice paused and crouched down. Those behind immediately followed suit and within seconds no one was moving.

Up ahead the sound came again – a whistle.
Alice pulled out hers, blew twice and then waited, hand resting lightly on the butt of her pistol. The figure of a marine stepped out of the undergrowth ahead.

“Lieutenant Byatt, what are you doing out here?” she said in recognition.

“Looking for you,” he replied, “was starting to think they’d got you.”

“We came under air attack and it slowed... What’s happened,”
Alice said as she registered his grim expression. Behind him two more marines appeared. Byatt motioned her away from the rest.

“Shit’s hit the fan,” he said grimly. “Don’t know how, but the bastards got some kind of idea of our position.”

“Oh God, have they...”

“Not yet. Fleet’s bombardment must have taken out most of their air and orbital assets or we’d have been carpet-bombed by now. Or if they wanted to be really sure, they’d have nuked us from orbit. They’re coming in from the west with infantry and armour. They’ve got a few gunboats but after we tagged one of those with a SAM, the rest are keeping back.”

“Can you stop them?”

“If we couldn’t stop them at
Douglas Base with all of it fixed defences, we sure as hell ain’t gonna stop them here. All we can do is slow them a bit.”

“Then what will we do?” she asked. “What’s the Colonel ordered?”

“Retreat and scatter. I’ve been ordered to find you and then get the military supplies to the fighting. The Colonel wants you at the farmland to organise an evacuation.”

She would be running again.
Alice hadn’t realised she’d allowed herself to hope, but now she could feel that hope dying. Byatt snapped his fingers in front of her face.

“Hey, wake up! This shit is happening and we need to deal with it.”

Alice shook herself.

“Arms and munitions are in the first ten crates, food and medical supplies in the ones after that. No point taking those in. If we’re running, those emergency rations might be what stands’ between us and starvation.”

Byatt nodded as he pulled out his computer pad and brought up a map.

“What we need is a rallying point,” he muttered.

Before she reached the outer perimeter
Alice could hear the horribly familiar sound of Nameless missiles coming in. Byatt had detached his two marines to escort her and all three of them had to fight the urge to run, either away or towards the fighting. When they reached the first of the farms the evacuation was well underway and Alice met her old deputy William.

“Hi, Boss,” he said as her saw her approach. “Looks like the uniforms have fucked up again.”

There wasn’t any real anger in his voice. He sounded too tired and too defeated for that.

“Yeah,” she replied as the two marines, aware of the air of hostility around them, shifted uncomfortably. “What have you heard?”

“Only what the first group of people to come through told me. The bastards came during the night. Anyone that could get out ran for their lives – no food, no supplies, no nothing, just the clothes on their backs.”

William nodded towards the closest group of people. Now that she looked properly,
Alice realised they were mostly packing ripe banana patata into backpacks woven from vegetation. In the distance there were three deep crumps as Nameless missiles landed.

“We can’t carry the whole harvest,” William said. “We’ll take what we can. The rest we’ll leave and hope we can come back for at least some of it.”

That last part sounded over-optimistic and looking up at William, she could tell he knew it too. In fact, as she looked around the camp, Alice saw her own errand was probably futile. Any central control was already breaking down. Those who would survive were the ones already reacting. Any of the farming settlement simply awaiting instructions, would not get out.