Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Behind Enemy Lines Copyright (c) 2008 by deGaffer CONTENT: no-sex ScFi Chapter 4: What Lies Beneath The scattered fleet was six months out of Truman when the Hurst Castle reported finding a heavily polluted planet with no sign of recent Sa'arm activity in planetary system reference number 749.4, also known as Sa'Triste. Colonel Murphy ordered a polar orbit of the planet and an initial mapping of the surface. The Hurst Castle had been in a high orbit of the fourth planet for ten days when the Lancaster Castle was detected entering the system. It took the Lancaster Castle two days to maneuver into a low altitude polar orbit and begin detailed radar and thermal imaging of surface features. The surface of the planet was totally obscured from the visible spectra by a dense haze of sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and hydrocarbon particulates. About the time that the Lancaster Castle began the high-resolution mapping, the Farnham Castle announced her arrival as she transitioned from hyperspace and engaged her sub-light engines. She was on-station in two days. The Hurst Castle had been in the system for over a month when the last ship of the intrepid fleet arrived. It took an additional four days for the Sir Galahad to enter into a synchronous orbit above Sa'Triste after surveying nearby rocks to see if anything was hiding under them. Lt. Timmons entered the fleet CIC aboard the Sir Galahad and approached Commodore Achord. "Commodore, I've read a report that the Lancaster Castle has located a heat source on the surface that's also releasing radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere. I've check with Ensign Wallace who's convinced by his analysis of the emissions that they're from a fission reactor. This sounds like a promising objective for a landing party. How soon do you think it will be before it's safe to deploy my platoon to the surface?" "We're shifting orbit to be in a position to drop the shuttles at that location shortly after local sunrise," Achord responded. "That's about nine hours from now. You should have your troops ready to drop at that time." "Sir, we've only been monitoring this system for a little over four weeks," Timmons observed before cautioning the Commodore. "It was sometimes six to eight weeks between the arrival and departure of Sa'arm ships in Tulakat. Shouldn't we continue monitoring the area for another month before committing ground forces?" Commodore Achord was ready to wrap up this mission and head for home. "Nonsense," Achord replied. "It'll take hours for a Sa'arm fleet to get here after exiting hyperspace. We'll have plenty of time to recover your people from the surface and make our escape. At normal drive speed it'll take us more than three months to get back to. We've already been away from there for seven months, and you'll probably need at least a month to thoroughly explore this one power plant. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can all go home." Timmons stopped in to spend some time with Wallace before retiring for the night. After their passions were satisfied the two exhausted lovers spoke of the future. "I really wish I were dropping with you guys in the morning," Wallace commented. "Nonsense," Timmons replied. "You could become a very capable platoon leader, but your true strength lies elsewhere. You were telling me about an unusual ice planet in a pristine planetary system here in the midst of the Sa'arm. If you really believe it can be a useful outpost; then sell the idea to General Thornberry. You've worked with Major Wilson and Major Bronson, and they've given you a feel for how to work the politics of general headquarters were these kinds of decisions are made. Use that knowledge and your contacts. Accurate intelligence can be far more devastating to an enemy than a single platoon can ever hope to be." "I don't know," Wallace was unsure, "I'm just an ensign. Why would they listen to me? How can I get their attention?" Timmons stroked the flaccid tube of flesh resting on her hip, "I'm not sure about Wilson, but I'm sure you can find a way to get Bronson's undivided attention. Hasid could well be out of a job if she ever gets to sample your talented ... self. Maybe... AI, if anything happens to me I want Mark Wallace to have my concubines. Rush is almost as good as you, and I have it on good authority that Bronson likes it rough when she pulls a train." The disembodied voice went unnoticed when it responded with, "Noted." "Oh really, and you're such a timid soul." Wallace folded Timmons into an unlikely wrestling hold that left her crotch incredibly vulnerable. "What do you know about pulling trains?" Wallace hadn't remained flaccid for long. "I've got to get some rest," Timmons complained ten minutes later as she energetically met Wallace's thrusts. ---- The atmosphere-capable Galileo class shuttles were never intended for use as assault craft. They would only accommodate four battle-ready Marines behind the pilot and copilot, but the shuttle did have enough headspace to permit the use of a transporter nexus. A transporter equipped Galileo had replaced the aft Leopard aboard the Sir Galahad, and it was made ready for launch along with the remaining Leopard. Lt. Timmons, SSG Carson, and three Marines secured for departure in the Galileo. MGS Budzinski waited aboard the Sir Galahad's Leopard with Second and Third Squads and the platoon's heavy weapons. The weapons pylons on the Leopard were fully loaded with a selection of rockets and a pair of cluster bombs. They were to hold their launch until the L-Z was marked and secured by First Squad. The nanites could reverse the radiation damage caused by the hot emissions from the vent, but with only eight med tubes among the four ships it wasn't their first choice of ingress. Ground features were not clearly visible until the shuttle was within 800 meters of the surface. Lt. Timmons did a quick aerial survey and located some surface structures that were about three klicks west of the vent. She directed the pilot to circle the cluster of buildings and then land the shuttle in a depression that was a klick south of the structures. As soon as the shuttle settled onto the ground Timmons yelled "Go!" The rear hatch swung down and the four Marines took defensive positions on either side of the small craft. Everyone was wearing medium armor that gave them about four hours of air. Lt. Timmons, who had ridden down in the copilot's seat, grabbed her gear from the transporter nexus and headed down the ramp to the planet's surface. The balance of First Squad emerged from the shuttle's transporter pad and expanded the defense perimeter around the Galileo. Timmons established an observation post on a small rise just south of the structures. From this vantage point she could monitor the road going east-west among the buildings. No movement was detected after an hour of vigilance. Timmons opened communications with the Sir Galahad, "Beacon established for Shuttle Two." The Leopard dropped SSG Fohner and Second Squad at the edge of the cluster of buildings north of Timmons' position. Timmons ordered Second Squad to immediately begin a recon of the structures. Finally, Sergeant Budzinski, Corporal Miller, and the six-man fire support Third Squad unloaded near Timmons. Budzinski set up three mortar pits in an arc facing the abandoned town, even though the undermanned squad could not effectively use even two of the weapons at the same time. Timmons ordered the Leopard pilot to orbit the structures and look for any sign of activity. Second Squad had reported nothing of interest in the structures that they had searched when they switched to their reserve LOX bottles at the end of four hours. "Okay Fohner, bring your squad back to my pos," Lt. Timmons ordered. "First squad, chow down. You'll take recon duty when Second Squad relieves you." She turned to Budzinski, "Gunny, maintain this defensive position. I'm going to take First Squad into the middle of this settlement and start working outward. If there's an underground facility, I'm guessing these buildings are centered on the access portal." "Aye, aye, ma'am," Budzinski responded. "We've got your back." The AI aboard the Farnham Castle had deployed a drone over the structures, but the poor visibility made it unlikely that it would spot the approach of the cold blooded Sa'arm unless they were in mechanized transports. When second squad had re-supplied and eaten, Budzinski approached SSG Fohner. "Fohner, take three men from your squad and setup two observation posts." Budzinski stood with his back to the township and pointed at his ten o'clock and two o'clock. "I want one a klick in that direction and the other a klick out there." "Right, Sergeant," Fohner acknowledged the orders. "Smith, Coxwain, Szczygiel, you're with me!" The four Marines headed out toward the first position Budzinski had indicated. "Miller," Budzinski directed his attention to his Third Squad leader. "Deploy the rest of Second Squad between the mortar pits and the settlement, inside the edge of town if it's defensible. Get a spotter on top of one of the taller buildings in case we have to cover First Squad with suppressive fire. It's just too damned quiet here, I don't like it!" "Can do, Sergeant," Miller replied. She began sprinting toward the buildings, "Alright! You dirt bags heard the man. Let's go looking for trouble!" Budzinski just shook his head, but he was smiling. Miller may be a seductress aboard ship, but she was one hundred percent Marine in the field. The planet had a nineteen-hour rotation. Lt. Timmons had kept searching even after First Squad had changed to their reserve LOX bottles. As light from the local sun was fading they found a spiraling ramp off the basement of one of the larger buildings. As anxious as everyone from Commodore Achord down to Private Smith was to continue the search, good sense prevailed. The Galileo and Leopard shuttles were moved to an open square that was two blocks from the building that appeared to house access to an underground facility. New observation posts were established on 120-degree radials and a kilometer out from the edge of the settlement. The original lookouts were called in, and the platoon began rotating back to the ship at four-hour intervals for hot chow and rest. ---- First Squad was assembled and ready as the sky above the abandoned city began to glow a dirty orange color. Timmons insisted on leading the descent over Budzinski's objections. The spiraling ramp could have been contained within a two hundred meter diameter cylinder. Each circuit of the five meter by twenty-five meter ramp descended about fifteen meters in a modest 3% slope. The first obstacle was encountered seventy-five meters below the surface and fifty meters from the base of the ramp. The tunnel ended at the face of a massive blast door. The First Squad 'circumvented' the locking mechanisms with a few shaped charges. They loosened the stiff door hinges and seals with satchel charges and pushed the overlapping pair of doors all the way open. About a hundred meters beyond the first door was a second door that was identical to the first. To the left and right of the large chamber were recessed doorways that were also four-and-a-half meters high by twenty-four meters wide like the one they had just entered. Recessed in the meter thick doorways they found a control panel that opened two of the four blast doors leading in and out of the chamber. These two recessed doorways opened away from them and led to tunnels that were considerably longer than the one they had entered before spiraling upward. Explosives were used to open the pair of doors that blocked the fourth doorway. A four hundred meter tunnel led to a ramp that spiraled downward. They encountered two more chambers similar to the first except that the next one had two passages leading up and two leading down. Timmons chose one door to force open and disabled the other from being opened by closing the manual isolation valves on the hydraulic cylinders that operated the locking pins. When more explosives were brought down to deal with the door that blocked the descending passage from the third chamber, First Squad encountered a tunnel that was at least a kilometer long before spiraling downward. This time the blast door opened into another long tunnel, not into an open chamber. About three hundred meters beyond the first door on this level was another door that opened toward them. The heavy doors were on their side of the doorway to keep a blast from their position from passing into whatever lay beyond the doors. There were no other doors between this last pair of doors. When the locking pins on this last door were blown off of the door facing the doors swung open a few meters without assistance. First Squad finally had access to a vast underground chamber. A significant breeze of fresh, clean air blew through the disabled doors and up the spiral ramp. The equipment that processed the atmosphere for the underground lair they had found on this abandoned rock appeared to still be functioning. The out-rushing air was noticeable to the troops guarding the entrance even before the thin cloud of smoke and light debris from the explosion reached the surface. Budzinski didn't like it even before the sensors indicated that the air on the ramp was now perfectly safe to breathe. "Fohner!" Budzinski shouted after requesting a direct channel to the squad leaders. "Make sure our watchdogs are awake. Miller! I want all three mortars manned. Carson! I've got a bad feeling about this. Try to talk the L-T into heading toward the surface. It's at least seven klicks uphill for you guys. We can pick up where we are tomorrow if we're not hip deep in dickheads. Whatever's down there'll still be there tomorrow!" The Marines who were underground didn't have a transporter nexus with them. Transporter technology was to be protected at all costs. There was a five hundred pound bomb sitting next to the pad in each of the shuttles to insure that no trace of it could be found if a shuttle couldn't be flown back to the assault ship. Budzinski opened his Navy communications channel, "Shuttle One, Budzinski here. Launch and come to my position," Budzinski was inspecting a five by twenty-five meter door in the side of the building with the descending tunnel. There was a ramp behind the sheet metal doors that went down to the opposite side of the basement from the spiral that went down to the underground warren. These doors were on tracks much like old style aircraft hanger doors. Budzinski had one side open and was working on the other side when the shuttle arrived. He asked the Galileo pilot, "Do you think you can fly your shuttle down this ramp, across the basement and down the spiral ramp at the other end?" The pilot took a quick look and figured he would have at least a meter of headroom if he were a meter above of the ramp. He answered, "Sure, no problem." Budzinski asked the pilot to open the rear hatch. He scrambled in and took the copilot seat as the hatch swung closed, and they began their decent into the basement and down the spiral. He told the pilot, "If the shit hits the fan, give me a ninety-second delay on your destruct package and get out through the transporter." The pilot blanched as he glanced at the bomb strapped down in his shuttle. He looked back at Budzinski and warned, "Sergeant, that thing will take out this whole area." "Right," Budzinski acknowledged. "If you get overrun, we won't last ninety seconds anyway." Budzinski keyed his connection with Timmons. "Lieutenant, I've got Shuttle One on its way down. Send someone out to show us where to park it." "You're fucking crazy, Budzinski!" Timmons answered back before connecting to Carson. "Sergeant Carson, step out to the blast door and show Budzinski were to park the shuttle that he's bringing down." Carson shut off the microphone and muttered, "What am I, the fucking parking valet now?" Lt. Timmons had noticed that the telescoping bridge across a two-meter gap in the floor just inside the second blast door separated the rigid tunnel and dome from a shock mounted structure that was as large as the old Superdome. The spiraling tunnel had been completely dark, but there were light sources within the huge building. Whatever was here, the Sa'arm had gone to a lot of trouble to protect it. "The last Sa'arm didn't turn off the lights on its way out of this place." Lt. Timmons looked around in wonder. "Lock and load, spread out, and grab anything that looks interesting." There was a twenty-five meter wide corridor that was two hundred meters long and went straight across the suspended structure. There were five hanger doors on either side of the corridor starting twenty-five meters from each end. Behind each door they found a column of Sa'arm assault vehicles or light attack aircraft. "Private Johnson," Timmons addressed the nearest Marine and pointed to an assault vehicle. "See what makes those damned things so dangerous. Mathews, I want you to do the same with the aircraft in that hanger." There was another bridge and blast door at the far end of the corridor. Timmons yelled out, "Private Thiele, do you have another satchel charge?" Thiele replied, "Yes, ma'am." "Can you rig it under that bridge with a laser tripwire?" She asked as she caught up with Thiele. "No worries," he responded. "Hey Walker, give me a hand slinging this under the bridge where it can't be seen." Carson shook his head when he saw the lights of the shuttle around the curve of the ramp. He directed the shuttle through both blast doors and parked it to one side of the interior corridor. The lights of the shuttle revealed a recessed door in a dark side passage. SSG Carson forced open the heavy steel door that blocked the far side of the recessed doorway. There were racks of equipment inside the sturdy chamber. "Lieutenant, I think I've found an armory." "Excellent!" Timmons responded. "Grab what you can carry and head for the shuttle. I'm beginning to get Budzinski's bad vibes about this place. There are at least fifteen floors in here, and we haven't found so much as a staircase. There has to be a way to access the other levels" Budzinski lowered the shuttle's ramp and cautioned Carson, "I can see why we had such a hard time stopping the flow of reinforcements on Tulak. This place reminds me of an ant farm I had as a kid. Dickheads can come at you from any direction down here. Try to keep everyone together as much as possible. I'm going to head back up to the Leopard." Budzinski went through the transporter to the Sir Galahad and then back down to the Leopard. Carson and three others loaded up what they could carry and headed up the ramp into the shuttle where they re-opened the transporter nexus to the Sir Galahad. Carson sent two of the Marines through with double loads. They could barely stumble into the beam with their cumbersome burdens. Before Carson and Sanchez had gotten down the ramp, Fitzgerald and Sewell had reversed the transporter and returned. Carson looked back and asked, "What are you guys doing back here?" They both shrugged, and LCPL Sewell responded, "Nothing's going on up there." "Come on then, dumbasses. Didn't anyone ever tell you two to never volunteer!?" SSG Carson didn't let them see him smile. "Sergeant Carson," Timmons could be heard through Carson's implant. "I've found an elevator shaft at the rear of the center hanger bay. See if there's one in the bay to your left." "On our way, Lieutenant," Carson responded as the four ran to the center pair of doors. "Fitzgerald, Sewell!" Carson directed, "You heroes wanted adventure; go find the Lieutenant in the back of that hanger while Sanchez and I break into this other one." Unlike the rolling doors on the surface, these doors were heavy and opened vertically. The big doors rotated up and tucked against the ceiling inside the hanger much like an oversized garage door. But, each big door had a sliding door within it for pedestrian traffic. Thiele and Walker joined Carson and Sanchez at about the time the pedestrian door had been forced. "Thanks for the help you sent," Carson heard Timmons say before adding, "We found an air intake and purifier next to the elevator shaft. It looks like we're on the top floor. Fitzgerald, Sewell, and I are repelling down." In less than a minute Carson reported, "We have an elevator at the rear of this bay along with a steep staircase and an exhaust duct. It'll be real easy for us to bust our asses on these steps. There's not much airflow and the exhaust dampers appear to be closed. That's probably because we have the blast doors open all the way to the surface." Timmons forced open a door at the end of a side passage on the bottom level. Inside the room was aisle after aisle of floor to ceiling racks containing glowing cubes of various colors. They weren't just glowing; they were twinkling. "AI, what's all this?" She asked as she panned her camera on the find. She had never been comfortable addressing a disembodied voice by a name. "It appears to be a data archive of Ladac design," the AI replied through her implant. She asked, "Can we access this archive media if I hack it out of here?" The AI replied, "It's doubtful that the data would survive the forcible removal of the media. There should be a data transfer station along the periphery, but I don't think you'll have time to use it. Motion has been detected on the surface. Vehicles appear to be in route to this location. At their current rate of travel they will arrive in twelve minutes." "You two, back to the shuttle," Timmons ordered. Timmons kept searching and found an access terminal near the middle aisle. She was surprised to find a standard data port and plugged the fiber optic cable of her field PDA into the workstation. She set it up to transmit data to the ship through a relay in the shuttle, leaned it against a grenade with the pin pulled, and was headed back to the elevator shaft when she spotted a staircase through an open door in the distance that she didn't remember seeing before. Up on the top floor, no one had noticed blast door in the dark recess of the thick frame swing silently open. It wasn't until an explosion rocked the structure that anyone was alerted to trouble inside the complex. Something had tripped the booby trap that had been placed under the far bridge. Seconds after the explosion the AI reported, "High speed vehicles are converging from five directions. Airborne craft will arrive in two minutes. The original column of vehicles has stopped five kilometers from the square." "Shit!" Timmons exclaimed as she sprinted back the way she had come. "Everybody out! Go! Go! Go!" As she ran she got on the radio to the Sir Galahad, "Commodore Achord, we're going to need a bigger bomb down here." Timmons dove into a side doorway when she heard the sound of scuffling feet. A column of Sa'arm units had entered from a small blast door. She watched from her concealed position as they began ascending a steep stairway that was near the elevator shaft. "At least twenty Sa'arm are ascending stairs near the elevator shaft I came down." When they had disappeared up the steps, Timmons pushed the blast door closed, pulled the pin on a grenade and wedged it against the door and its locking mechanism. Anyone opening the door from the far side would be in for a nasty surprise. She then started up the stairway behind the group of Sa'arm units. The lifeless bodies of Johnson and Mathews could be seen in the corridor to Fitzgerald's right as he disconnected from the winch that had pulled him up the elevator shaft. He signaled Sewell and the two men readied their rifles as they ran to the open hanger door. When they were halfway to the door they could see laser fire in the corridor ahead and heard footsteps thundering behind them. Sewell dropped back and keyed his comm link, "L-T, what's your position?" Timmons responded, "I'm on the eighth level down following about twenty Sa'arm who appear to be heading for the hanger we descended through." Sewell found the staircase behind a tight-fitting sliding door. The footfalls were no more than two flights down. He pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it down the steps. He yelled, "Fire in the hole, Lieutenant! There's someone no more than two levels down from the top." Then he pulled the pin on a second grenade and sent it after the first. The two tiny explosions left Sewell's ears ringing as he ran to rejoin Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was using the doorframe for cover as he fired into the corridor. Sewell dove through the door and used Johnson's bloody body for cover as the Marines cleared the corridor of Sa'arm infantry between them and the Galileo with a deadly crossfire. Sewell rolled and fired in the opposite direction. More Sa'arm units were jumping the gap left by the destroyed bridge. Johnson and Mathews were in too many pieces to be recovered by only two men. Sewell grabbed a dog tag from each as he scrambled around to fire past Fitzgerald. Sa'arm units were pouring into the rear of the hanger. "L-T, the hanger we went down is full of dickheads!" There was the sound of a distant explosion as the grenade Timmons had left at the small blast door detonated. Fitzgerald saw one of the ascent cables sway under load and flashes of laser fire illuminate the elevator shaft from below. He activated the shield he had been assigned during extraction duty and never removed from his combat harness. He knocked down several of the thick bodied Sa'arm as he charged into the cluster. They reminded him of a boxer's heavy bag, but they were covered with an armadillo-like hide. The laser fire stopped and the backlash of the cable signaled that it had been cut above the load it carried. "Lieutenant Timmons!" Fitzgerald shouted into the radio. He really wanted to have a look down the elevator shaft, but there were too many Sa'arm units filling the bay and his shield was failing as they hacked it with their energy knives. He backed toward the corridor where Sewell was firing into the mass at the destroyed bridge and yelled again, "L-T, please respond!" Fitzgerald pulled the pin on his last grenade and dropped it onto his boot as though it were a soccer ball. He deactivated his shield just long enough to kick the small bomb between the scuffling legs of his adversaries. When the grenade detonated he dropped the failing shield generator and ran back to join Sewell who was splitting his fire between the corridor and the hanger bay opposite the one Fitzgerald was in. Fitzgerald and Sewell continued their retreat toward the shuttle, picking off scores of Sa'arm units as they quickly backed away from the advancing horde. There were bodies of other fallen Marines in the bay opposite the one Fitzgerald and Sewell had explored. One dickhead appeared from the haze near the ceiling. He was flying through the air with an energy blade in each of his longer arms. Fitzgerald blocked with his rifle and fell back with the forestock in his left hand and the buttstock in his right hand. Fitzgerald's rifle was in two pieces, but Sewell was in two pieces and counting as the Sa'arm unit continued to slice and dice. A laser blast from Thiele's weapon separated the mushroom-shaped head from the fat asparagus-stalk body. Fitzgerald dropped his useless weapon, and scrambled headlong toward the shuttle. Lt. Timmons didn't make it to the shuttle. Fitzgerald, Thiele, and Carson were the last ones on the ramp. When Carson heard about Timmons' probable fall and saw the Sa'arm massing to charge the shuttle, he made a final check for survivors, secured the rear hatch, and ordered the pilot through the transporter. Achord had dithered about sending a tactical nuke down and there was no time left if the three remaining Marines were going to get out alive. Carson signaled Fitzgerald and Thiele into the transporter with his head. He made sure that the H-E bomb was set for five seconds before activating it and stepping onto the pad himself. ---- On the surface Sergeant Budzinski was on the run toward the underground entrance barking orders as he went. "Miller, I want six H-E rounds on the column from one tube only; then break it down and move it into town. Fohner, break out a couple of anti-aircraft missiles and take down our uninvited airborne guest. Everyone but the mortar and missile crews to the Leopard on the double!" The AI spoke to Budzinski, "The aircraft has landed three kilometers east of the structures and approximately fifty Sa'arm units have fanned out and begun moving your way." Budzinski realized that the wheels were coming off fast, "Miller, have the two pits put Beehive rounds on their infantry formations; then abandon the tubes with prejudice and hotfoot it to the Leopard." "You got it, Gunny," Miller responded as explosions rocked the air west of town as the high-explosive shells fell on the halted Sa'arm column. The two mortar crews put a dozen of the nasty bomblet rounds onto the advancing line of Sa'arm; then set the tubes at ninety degrees and scattered the remaining live rounds in the pits. On a signal from Miller, the two crews dropped three high-explosive rounds into each tube in rapid succession and then ran like hell. The flight time of the rounds would give the crews just enough time to sprint out of the blast radius of the warheads before they dropped back on top of the mortar tubes and reduced them to scrap metal. The mortar attack had decimated and stopped the advancing line of Sa'arm. The surviving units milled around for a moment; then the half-dozen survivors continued their advance toward the town square. Being the stubborn lot that they are, the Marines converging from the outlying positions didn't go to the shuttle as ordered, they gathered around Budzinski at the top of the ramp. Budzinski felt as well as heard what sounded like a thousand eggs frying on a huge griddle right under his feet. "This can't be good," He said as he looked at his feet. "Miller, put as many Beehive rounds as you have on my position from the tube you moved; then get your ass into the Leopard! That goes for the rest of you." About that time the ground collapsed all around the small group that was standing near the basement entrance and a dozen or more Sa'arm emerged from the new holes wielding their nasty butcher knives. Budzinski grabbed the short center arm of his three-armed adversary. Budzinski and the Sa'arm unit were struggling for control of the energy blade as they fell into the pit locked in combat. Budzinski twisted back and forth and managed to sever the arm that had gripped his shoulder, and he almost severed the other large arm. He finally managed to wrest the weapon from the weaker middle arm and used it to behead his opponent. He then cut the straps that held the strange helmet and backpack from the lifeless body. Budzinski waited until the last of the bomblets exploded before crawling from his hole. He was covered in greenish-white Sa'arm blood and wasn't sure his battledress would be recognized by the smart rounds. The ground shook from a heavy explosion deep beneath his feet as CPL Miller knelt by the pit and extended her hand. "What're you doing in that hole, boss?" Budzinski passed up the helmet and backpack he had taken from the beheaded Sa'arm unit; then reached up with his left hand, "I thought I told you to report to the Leopard?" He kept his right arm away from Miller because of the knife in that hand. "Yeah, well," Miller replied, "A funny thing happened to me on my way to the assault shuttle. I'll tell you about it later. Is there anyone else down there that I know?" Budzinski shook his head. The two Marines who were in nearby holes lay in several pieces. The Leopard had not been used to engage the advancing Sa'arm because of the anti-aircraft artillery vehicles that were now within range. The Leopard was totally outgunned. It would have been suicide to even try flying it back to the ship overhead. However, it did a couple of popup jumps and fired rockets at the advancing armored carriers, slowing their advance a little. When Budzinski and the stragglers reached the Leopard it didn't have a five hundred pound bomb next the to transporter pad, it had a one hundred kiloton tactical nuke. Carson, Thiele, and Fitzgerald of First Squad had retrieved it from the armory, basically at gunpoint, and delivered it to the transporter room. The AI assured Budzinski that he was the last living Marine on the planet. Three seconds after the transporter was shutdown an angry red pimple appeared in the atmosphere where the Leopard used to be. Budzinski was certain that the device was not large enough to dig out the underground complex even with its blast doors open. He made a beeline toward the CIC to find Achord.