Battleground Mars (21 page)

“Yes, it is. Yes, they’re following. But south, that’s the Polar Regions, I doubt we'll make it through there.”

“We won’t make it if we go north, we can’t fight our way past that monster.”

He heard Brad’s voice over the intercom. “Do you think they have many like that one?”

Even in their desperation, he smiled. “I sincerely hope not. If they do, we’re finished.”

The plunged further south, the storm had either eased or had not reached this far. But in the distance were the polar peaks. The ground, crusted with frozen dioxide. It looked like ice, a beautiful sea of white sculptures. The beauty was skin deep, these were not flat plains that ran through this area, just a jagged mass of crevasses and rocky outcrops to trap and kill the unwary. It wasn’t their only problem. Kaz, his Arab crewman, had jumped aboard the transport during the rout at the drilling camp. He called through on the radio.

“Rahm, the Taurons, they’re following.”

“I hear you. We’ll have to try and shake them off, we can’t fight them.”

“Not easily. Is the thermite explosive still in the hold?”

Rahm mentally kicked himself for not thinking of it. Of course, the explosives.

“Good thinking. I’ll ask Gabi to prepare them. Can you go past us? We’ll need to throw them out behind.”

“The driver heard you, he’s going past now.”

The transporter lumbered past.

“I see them,” Brad shouted. “The four transports, they’re gaining on us.”

“Understood. We’ll give them something to slow them down. Gabi, you know what we need?”

“I heard, yes, I’m preparing the explosive now.”

“Sooner would be better,” Brad shouted again. “We haven’t got long.”

“Ten seconds.”

They dashed on across the landscape that became more littered with obstacles, so that Rahm was continually serving to follow the transport that raced ahead of them.

“First bomb has gone,” Gabi called out.

“Keep throwing them, they’ll take a lot of stopping.”

There was a huge explosoin behind them, the blast wave punched at the buggy and almost threw it off course, but he righted the steering and kept on. They heard a burst of firing from the laser cannon, and then Brad called over the intercom.

“That first bomb was a hit, the lead transport rolled over it, the explosive went off under the second vehicle, it looks gutted. The lead transport was thrown off course but they righted, they’re still coming.”

There was another explosion, and then a burst of fire hit them from the pursuing Taurons.

“They’ve opened fire,” Nathan shouted. “It’s that lead vehicle, the one with the big bastard inside.”

He didn’t reply, as he was fighting to keep the buggy on course. The transport ahead was having similar problems. They’d slowed even more to stop driving into any of the crevasses that waited to swallow them up. Tauron gunfire hit them again, but Gabi threw out another charge that narrowly missed the lead vehicle but exploded in the gap between the following vehicles. They collided in a tangle of twisted, alien metal, and came to a stop. The Taurons climbed out, only to be peppered by a long burst from Brad’s cannon. The pursuing transport fired again and again with its heavy, roof mounted cannon, but the ruts and bumps in the surface kicked the vehicle up and down, preventing the gunner from getting a good shot. Rahm heard a shout from the lead transport.

“We’ve got a problem ahead, there’s a wide ravine with only a thin strip of frozen ice that crosses it.”

He moved the buggy to one side to see past the transport, as he did so a burst of fire spat past them. He could see the problem clearly now. The bridge was just wide enough to take the transport, which was larger than the buggy. But was it strong enough. He thought through the problem. If they stopped to fight it out they’d lose. There was no choice.

“You’ll have to cross over, if we stop now we’re lost.”

“But it could collapse.”

“In that case the end will be the same. Better than being eaten by that Tauron monster.”

“Understood.”

He called for Gabi to have a last charge ready. Then he dropped back to allow the transport to cross on its own. The bridge may support one vehicle, he was certain that it would not support two.

The Tauron started to catch up. He shouted to Brad to hold them off and explained what he planned to do.

“The cannon alone won’t hold them, Rahm. These bastards just keep coming.”

“I’ll get you some help.”

He shouted for the rest of them to lean out and add their rifle fire to the power of the cannon. The Tauron took multiple hits, they could see pieces flying off the bodywork, they were doing a heap of damage, but at first there was no sign of it slowing. Then Brad shouted.

“They’re easing back, so I think we must have hurt them. Yes, they’re stopping. The big monster is getting out. Jesus Christ, he’s one mean mother.”

Ahead of them, Rahm stopped at the start of the narrow bridge. The transport hurtled across, several times they slipped but finally it reached the other side and rolled onto the land. He accelerated away and drove cautiously across the bridge. He was three quarters of the way across when he felt movement under the wheels. The bridge was giving way! He jammed his foot on the pedal and the buggy shot forward and off the bridge, behind them, the structure collapsed into the frozen depths below. He stopped and climbed out. Behind them, across the other side of the wide crevasse, the giant Tauron had also climbed out of his transport. They stared at each other for several minutes. It was absurd. They were like two prizefighters waiting to slog it out, toe to toe. If they ever did meet, he knew that the giant monster would destroy him with a few blows. Yet something primeval stirred inside him. Despite the disparity in their relative sizes, he wanted to take that evil bastard down. He wanted to open his guts onto the Martian dust and see his green blood draining away.

“You’re shaking.”

He whirled. Gabi had climbed down to stand beside him.

“I’m ok.” He worried that she might think that he was shaking out of fear. She understood that he wasn’t.

“It’s the adrenaline, you wanted to kill that bastard,” she smiled.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Sure. I thought we were about to see David and Goliath re-enacted.”

* * *

He watched them, across the depths of the ravine. There was something that connected him to this human. A force that was as strong as life itself. They had to meet. Man to man, in the old way. He could feel his hands on that pale, soft body beneath the pressure suit. Tearing at the flesh, seeing the red blood spouting into the dust. It would be an uneven contest, which was true. Unless the human brought something to make the contest more balanced. They were quite capable of that, this species. They had little of the direct, vicious aggression of which his race was so proud. Their fighting used methods that were more devious, planned in advance to blind an enemy and exploit their weaknesses. Well, he could try. Nothing he did would alter the outcome, he was confident that he would taste that human’s blood before too long. A pity there was no way to follow them, but now that they had destroyed the narrow bridge, it was impossible. He thought about the signal he would need to send to his Lord. They’d destroyed one of their buggies, the one with the soldiers, which was good. But in return they’d lost an entire drilling crew and several of his own troopers, as well as substantial damage to their vehicles. No, he’d have to send the report in such a way that it hid the real truth. Perhaps the drilling crew had met their end during the storm, had run into a deep ravine by accident. He’d have to be careful, for his troopers may be questioned apart from him. What was needed was a solid victory to report to Tabor. If his Lord had solid evidence of an overwhelming victory over the humans, it would blind him to the losses. Where could he strike the most devastating blow? At their Mars Base, of course. These cowards would be returning now, content in the warm glow of what they thought was a success. Their guard would be down, if he struck soon, he could drive them off the face of the planet. Yes, a major attack, preceded by his suicide bombers to blast a way through, then he could lead his troopers into the Base itself. He called for his men to board the transport. He would leave the injured to deal with the damaged transports and return to Elysium Base when they were able. They were useless to him at present. He’d rendezvous with reinforcements and launch the attack that would end the annoying attacks of these puny creatures.

* * *

The journey across the southern pole of Mars was hard. Despite their escape from the Taurons, their vehicles had sustained a great deal of damage. The bitter temperatures, cold enough to freeze nitrogen, seeped through their suits, through their thermal clothing, to clamp around their bodies like molded coffins. Containers that would become the icy shrouds that entombed their corpses if they couldn’t escape from this freezing hell before they were overcome. They reached the end of the land mass they’d been travelling on and were faced with a drop of several thousand feet into a deep, dark valley. The slope was almost sheer, and there was no way they could take the vehicles over.

“Can we get past this?”

He turned and looked at Gabi. Inside her helmet he could see that her face was white with cold, she was literally freezing to death. Her voice had a note to it that worried him, and he knew she was close to the end.

“Yes, we can, and we will. Gabi, when we first met, I told you something. You’ll die when I tell you, not before. That’s the way my team works, always has and always will. Have you got that?”

She managed a small smile. “Yes, Sir. In which case, could you tell me what we’re going to do next?”

He’d already worked it out. They could go north or south in the hopes of finding a way across. If they went south, they went further into the icy wastes.

“We’ll take the lead from here on in. I’m going to find a way through, that’s my job. We’re turning north. As soon as we find a crossing, we’ll start heading back to Mars Base.”

He gave the message to his men and made sure that the troopers in the captured transport understood. Then he accelerated away to the north. He could only hope that he’d made the correct call, but going south was not an option. It was the only call he could make, that would be small comfort if they failed to find a way through, but it would have to do.

Their luck changed. They’d only been traveling for twenty miles when they came to a place where the cliff had collapsed into the ravine, leaving a long, steep ramp that led to the bottom.

“We may find it impossible to get out, once we go in,” Kaz murmured.

“That’s the way we’re going, my friend,” Rahm told him. “Win or lose, that’s our route. I’ll bet you two bottles of bourbon that it’s the way through.”

“You know that my religion forbids me to drink. Gambling is frowned upon too. Let us hope that God has shown you the correct path.”

Rahm heard Saul exclaim, “That’ll be a first.”

He smiled as he accelerated towards the ramp, then he forgot everything except the task of keeping the buggy stable on the steep descent. The wheels slipped and skidded on the icy slope, at one time he had to fight to keep control when he noticed that they were sliding down like a toboggan. The captured Tauron transport was having even more difficulty, for it was a much heavier, more powerful vehicle. To add to the problems, it was being driven by a person who knew little or nothing about alien technology. Once, they received a tremendous bump as the heavy transport lost grip on the ramp and collided with them. The shove pushed them forward and it was only by judicious juggling with the controls that Rahm was able to stop the buggy from going over the edge. Their nightmare descent took almost an hour, creeping and slipping to the bottom, but they arrived on the floor of the ravine undamaged. The valley floor stretched away dark and ominous in the distance. After a short break, they climbed back aboard the vehicles.

“What does God tell you now?” Saul asked him.

“To go north and leave you behind next time we go on a mission like this.”

The toolpusher nodded gravely. “Better than freezing my ass off in this place. But he forgot that without me you’d never get back.”

Gabi rounded on him. “Saul, he’s trying to concentrate on driving this thing. Why don’t you just shut up?”

The interior of the vehicle was silent, but Rahm could feel the chuckles of his crew.

The drove for an hour with no sign of a way out of the valley. They discussed leaving the vehicles and climbing out, but Rahm quickly dismissed the idea. They‘d freeze to death in the open, even if they didn’t they’d never get back to Mars Base.

“We keep going until we find a ramp. I don’t want any argument.”

“What if there isn’t a ramp?” Nathan asked. He’d been strangely quiet for most of the trip, Rahm recalled. He wondered if it was fear. Or just resignation.

“There will be a ramp. We just need to keep going. Let’s move on.”

They drove for another hour. The endless darkness of the ravine and the intense cold wore at their bodies and their minds. Their reserves of physical and mental strength were at low ebb, almost gone. Even worse, Rahm had started to order the crew to keep each other awake. Lassitude was setting in, and if one of them went to sleep in the freezing depths of a Martian ravine it was doubtful they’d ever wake up again. Then he sighted a ramp, a long, steep slope that led up to the Malea Plain. He put the wheel over and steered for the dark stripe in the side of the valley and soon the wheels were biting the slippery surface as they began the long climb. He could see the lights of the transporter behind them, his crew was still together. It took them another half hour to reach the top. As they crested the rim the glorious view of the Martian landscape stretched away in front of them. They headed due north, towards the Meridian Steppe. Soon, they were crossing the wide open spaces of Xanthe, skirting the small boulders and potholes. In front of them loomed Chryse Gulf, and home. Mars Base.