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CHAPTER NINETEEN
0600 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Sigrid thirteen by twenty-four
"Faster!" Corporal Harland shouted "You want to die in the mud, Marine?"
"Hell no, sir!" Private Fincher sto’s tires spun in the strearavel, across the bank, and onto the sandy shore
Harland strapped hi, one hand cla moved in the brush behind the sound from
"Old Faithful" shook the teeth in his head Ferns, trees, and vines exploded and splintered as the gunfire scythed through the foliagethen nothing wasthe shore, his head bobbing froh the downpour "We’re sitting ducks in here, Corporal," Fincher yelled "We have to get out of this hole and back onto the ridge, sir"
Corporal Harland looked for a way out of this river gorge "Walker!" He shook Private Walker in the passenger seat, but Walker didn’t respond He clutched their last Jackha blankly ahead Walker hadn’t said a word since this mission went south
Harland hoped he would snap out of it He already had onehe needed was for his heavy-weapons specialist to be a brain case
Private Cochran lay at the Corporal’s feet, cradling his gut with blood-s the ambush The aliens used so, thin needles--which exploded seconds after impact
Cochran’s insides were meat Walker and Fincher had filled hied to stop the bleeding--but if the oner
They had all aloners
The squad had left Firebase Bravo two hours ago Satellite iet area Lieutenant McCasky had even said it was a "rid thirteen by twenty-four--just see as there and get back "A simple snoop job," the ell-tee had called it
What no one told McCasky was that the satellites weren’t penetrating the rain and jungle canopy of this swaht about it--like Corporal Harland was thinking about it now--he would have figured so three squads on a "reen Corporal Harland and the others had fought the Covenant before They kne to kill Grunts--when they massed by the hundreds, they knew to call in air support They’d even taken down a few of the Covenant Jackals, the ones with energy shields You had to flank those guys--
take them out with snipers
But none of that had prepared thes, das five klicks down the streambed before the terrain became too steep and slippery for the all-terrain armored vehicles
He had the men hump the rest of the way in on foot They h the slime to the depression they were supposed to check out
When they had gotten to the place, it wasn’t just another rotto pool Arches had been carved into the wall, their edges extre stones around the pooland covering those stones were tiny geoot a look at before the Lieutenant ordered him and his team to fall back He wanted them to set up the ht to the sky
That’s probably why they were still alive
The blast had knocked Harland and his team into the mud They ran to where they had left the Lieutenant
--found fused glassycorpses and bits of carbonized skeleton
They saw one other thing--an outline in the er than any human Harland had ever seen And oddly, it looked like it earing are, strangely shapedplasma weaponand that’s all he needed to see to order a full speed retreat
Harland, Walker, Cochran, and Fincher fell back, running--blindly firing their assault rifles
Covenant Grunts had followed the down the jungle as the tiny razor shards exploded
Harland and the others stopped and hit the deck, splashing into the thick, red ot back on their feet, Cochran took the round in the stoht up to them Cochran flinched, his side exploded, and then he cruround He fell into shock so fast he didn’t even have time to scream
Harland, Fincher, and Walker hunkered down and returned fire They killed a dozen of the little bastards, but h the jungle
"Cease fire," the Corporal had ordered He waited a second, then tossed a grenade when the Grunts got closer
Their ears still ringing, they ran, dragging Cochran with the back
Sootten the hell out of thereor, at least, that’s what they were trying to do
"Over there," Fincher said, and pointed to a clearing in the trees "That’s got to lead up to the ridge"
"Go," Harland said
The Warthog slid sideways then raced up the ele loa up the slope They eeline
"Jesus, that was close," Harland said He ran ait back
He tapped Fincher on the shoulder Fincher jumped "Private, pull over Try to raise Firebase Bravo on the narrow band"
"Yes, sir," Fincher answered in a wavering voice He glanced at the near-catatonic Private Walker and shook his head
Harland checked on Cochran Private Cochran’s eyes fluttered open, cracking the mud caked onto his face "We back yet, Corporal?"
"Alh his face had, in the last several minutes, drained of color The woundedto bleed out
Harland placed a reassuring hand on Cochran’s shoulder "Hang in there We’ll patch you up as soon as we get to camp"
They had dropships at Bravo Cochran had a chance, albeit a slieons at headquarters--or better yet, to the Navy docs on the orbiting ships For a moment Harland was dazzled with visions of clean sheets, hot meals--and abut static on the link, sir," Fincher said, breaking through Harland’s reverie
"Maybe the radio got hit," Harland muttered "You know those explosive needles throw a bunch of ot slivers of that stuff inside us, too"
Fincher examined his muscular forearms "Great"
"Move out," Harland said
The tires of the Warthog spun, gripped, and the vehicle e
The terrain looked fa tracks--yes, this was the way the Lieutenant had brought them Ten minutes and they’d be back on base No arettes, and shook one out He pulled off the safety strip and tapped the end to ignite it
Fincher revved the engine and shot up to the top of the ridge--crossed over, and skidded to halt
If not for the haze, they would have seen everything frole in the valley, the riverdotted with fixed gun emplacements, razor wire, and pre-fab structures: Firebase Bravo
Their platoon had partially dug into the hillside to minimize the camp’s footprint and provide a place where they could safely store theirof sensors encircled the ca could sneak up on them Radar and motion detectors linked to surface-to-air e--three klicks down that was the coastal city, Côte d’Azur
The sun broke through the haze overhead, and Corporal Harland saw everything had changed
It wasn’t fog or haze Smoke rose in colule
Everything had been burned to the ground The entire valley was blackened into s red craters honeycoht them to his eyesand froze The hill where the caone--it had been flattened Only a listened with a cracked glass coating The air was thick with tiny Covenant fliers in the distance On the ground, Grunts and Jackals searched for survivors A few Marines ran for coverthere were hundreds of wounded and dead on the ground, helpless, screaot, sir?" Fincher asked
The cigarette fell froht on his shirt--but he didn’t take his eyes off the battlefield to brush it away
"There’s nothing left," he whispered
A shape er than the other Grunts and Jackals Its outline was blurry
Harland tried to focus the binoculars on it but couldn’t It was the sarid thirteen by twenty-four The Grunts gave it a wide berth The thing lifted its arun--and a bolt of plasma struck near the riverbank
Even from this distance, Harland heard the screa there
"Jesus" He dropped the binoculars "We’re bugging out, right now!" he said "Turn this beast around, Fincher"
"But--"
"They’re gone," Harland whispered "They’re all dead"
Walker whimpered and rocked back and forth
"We’ll be dead, too, unless you ot lucky once today Let’s not push it"
"Yeah" Fincher reversed the Warthog "Yeah, some luck"
He sped back down the hillside and hopped the Warthog off the embankment and back into the streambed