Макс Глебов – Fire Density (страница 3)

The dropship was wobbling from side to side. I almost hit the nearest hill but only slightly grazed it and raised a cloud of sand. Nevertheless, I was flying. It was a good thing no one’s tried to shoot me yet. The machine I was flying was an easy target now.

At first I just flew away. Having realized that I can already, somehow or other, manage horizontal flight and careful maneuvering, I turned my attention to weapons. There were no thermobaric rocket launching containers that are so dear to the heart of any human commando. Instead, quargs suspended under one of the short wings an additional high-speed aircraft gun, and under the other wing – an air-to-air missile launcher with a laser-optical guidance system, which is used to follow the target manually. Looked like that was who shot on our planes and the dropship. Judging by the amount of missiles used up, I’d say it was so. The quargs knew we’d send a rescue team for the scouts. They flew in early, picked up a position, disguised the dropship, turned on the EW station, and quietly waited for guests. It was a perfectly sensible decision. But an evil brigadier general showed up and ruined the party. At least, let’s hope so.

I was no longer interested in the group of quargs running around the hills. I remembered there was still one missile left in the Small Dragon’s backpack, and at my level of piloting, meeting that missile didn’t seem like a good idea. I bypassed the threatened area along a wide arc, pressing the dropship belly against the hills, and even sometimes diving into the most spacious gorges. By my calculations, I’ve already beat Lieutenant Egorov’s team by ten kilometers. I didn’t risk arriving to them on an enemy dropship. They could just begin shooting before they can figure it out. Having landed the capricious machine in a small hollow, I went to the landing bay and squatted down in front of Anton. The quargs didn’t deactivate his suit. That’s all that kept the Private alive. The embedded first aid kit was doing what it could, but its prognosis was getting more and more threatening. If Gnezdoff isn’t in the hospital within the next five hours, there’s no way to save him. Which means we probably won’t have time to land in our control zone and call for help. I’m gonna have to brazenly fly the enemy machine right onto the runway of the special forcesʼ base. I donʼt think Iʼd be welcome…

I caught the beacon signal two hours later. I couldn’t waste time any more, so I took the dropship in the air.

A group that had already lost two people was moving east pretty vigorously. But it was OK just for now. There was still power left in the accumulators for another five hours. Lieutenant Egorov’s mood was getting worse by the minute. He didn’t see a real way out and led the group forward out of sheer stubbornness. Kay Shefferson raised his hand, urging the group to stop.

“Commander, I’ve picked up a drone, a human one. But this is not my dragonfly, it’s something else.”

Soon they saw the device. It slowly approached, circled the group with a slight buzzing and withdrew behind the ridge of the nearest hill.

“John, look what it is,” ordered Alexey.

The sniper went up the hill, raised an optical scanner over its ridge, and then he went straight down to the squad.

“There’s a quarg dropship, Commander. It’s on the ground, the ramp is open, and near it stands our Cadet in his ‘barn’ with guns. He waved at me.”

“Are you not overheated, John? Send me the file.”

When the Lieutenant started playing it, he looked for a few seconds into the image projected onto the helmet visor, then silently slapped the sniper on the shoulder, made a sign to the subordinates to follow and climbed the hill.

Major Weber was pulled from the table by the howl of an air-raid warning.

“Duty Officer, report!” ordered the Major via communicator.

“An enemy dropship has entered the control zone.”

“Alone? No cover?”

“That’s right. Altitude is one kilometer. It flies slowly. Doesn’t maneuver. It makes an ideal target.”

“Wait, Lieutenant. Something’s wrong here. I’ve never noticed quarg suicidal tendencies before.”

“It could be a diversion, or it could be a simulator.”

“Put the battalion on combat alert. Make air defence equipment fully operational. The dropship can launch missiles from ten kilometers. How far is it now?”

“105. If it doesn’t change speed, it’ll enter the firing range in fifteen minutes.”

“Call the interceptors.”

“Yes, Sir!… Major, Sir! There’s a signal from the dropship! It’s unstable yet. I can’t make it out. But the coding is ours.”

“What the hell?.. Turn it on me.”

The Major’s office was filled with cracking noise through which sometimes incoherent pieces of words burst. But with each passing minute, the distance decreased and the quality of the communication improved.

“…ship calls… …ber Dropship… Major Weber. …tenant Egorov’s group returns from mis… Pri… seriously wounded. Request emergency evacuation to hospi… ”

“Scheißer! Don’t shoot!” shouted the Major via communicator. “Call back the interceptors! Get medics and emergency crew on the runway right away. ”

“Major, Sir, have you sent Cadet Lavroff back to Academy?”

“Yes, I have, Lieutenant. He earned the low-level combat experience he needed in one mission abundantly. His practice ended there, so the Cadet left. And he took the dropship with him as a legal trophy. I didn’t mind. ”

“That’s a pity, I had no time to talk to him. You have introduced me to the promotion. I’d be happy to give him my group, with a completely calm conscience. When he finishes his studies, naturally.”

“You’re still a rookie, Lieutenant,” Webber laughed so hard, “Haven’t you read his file?”

“At first, there was no time,” Lieutenant was embarrassed, “And then there was no need. It just became clear what a man was worth.”

“Would you at least look out of curiosity,” squeezed the Major out of laughter, “Who did you want to offer the group to? This Cadet of yours had been commanding a Heavy Commando Brigade for a month on the quargs-occupied Luyten-5. Generals are certainly waiting for him to graduate from the Academy, the Generals with such shoulder straps that you and I are very far away. Well, Lieutenant. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun.”

Chapter 1

The front didn’t collapse, but it cracked quite a bit. As it turned out later, this was the first, but very bad, wake-up call that marked a difficult time for people. A distracting quarg strike on the Luyten’s system caused the Earth Federation to react sharply, and draw on significant reserves to address the threat. As a result, it was almost impossible to counterbalance a strong and unexpected blow in the other direction – it was an attack on the Federation planets of stars Gliese-338 and Groombridge-1618. This led to a serious defence crisis, which the people were unable to overcome quickly.

When I returned to the Academy, the high command was in a very nervous state. Reserves have been raked out wherever it’s been possible, and Lieutenant General Schiller had to reluctantly agree to the early graduation of third-year cadets. As it happens in such cases those cadets received only one star on their shoulder straps instead of two and the rank of second lieutenant, which was rare in the army. Suddenly I was out of the job as an instructor, since it was the graduate course of the Academy that mastered the captured machines.

Academy director called me back to his office. When I tried to report, he waved it away annoyingly and silently pointed me to the meeting table.

“Cadet Lavroff, ” began gloomily the General, whose mood fluctuated at the mark „below the skirting board”, “you’ve certainly done a great job, and you are a hero. Colonel Kreps sent me Major Weber’s report on your practice. For your rescue mission, he recommended you for the Iron Cross. We, Germans, prefer to recommend deserving soldiers for precisely this award.” A light shadow of smile appeared on the General’s gloomy face. “Kreps approved the recommendation, punch a hole in the tunic.”

“Serving the Earth Federation.”

“Ehh, yes. And you serve it pretty good. Except with the situation on the front… Do you know, Lavroff, when was the last time we had to throw undertrained cadets into battle?” Forced to sign the order for the early graduation of the third course the General couldn’t calm down.

“That was in the first year of the was with quargs, General, Sir.”

“That’s it. Twenty years ago. Do you understand where we have returned?”

“These are temporary difficulties caused by the strategic error and intelligence deficiencies. We shall undoubtedly prevail, Gen… ”

“Put ranks aside, Cadet. ”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You’re right! The recon guys have overslept, to put it mildly, preparations for strikes on Gliese and Groombridge. And right you are about the Luyten’s system – too much force was thrown in there, although this mistake may have saved the lives of you personally and of our freshmen.”

“Not of all of them, unfortunately.”

“Not of all of them. This is war, Cadet, you know it as good as me, or better yet, I haven’t been in a fight in a while. And that’s the second question I want to discuss with you. We’ve already lost almost half our freshmen and we’ve lost the opportunity to prepare well our graduates. I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut the curriculum down to two years. Now freshmen, your comrades, are better prepared for battle than sophomore cadets, and, probably better than those fresh second lieutenants who have just been graduates. I need practical advice based on your combat experience. I have to turn the remaining cadets into officers who will not be killed in the first battle with their units. Don’t look at me with wild eyes. Yes, the General asks the Cadet to share his combat experience. Have you recently looked in the mirror at your qualification tab?”