Shaitan Wars 2: Wrath of the Shaitans (36 page)

“Sarge, I have a question. If the Shaitans are jamming radio signals over the entire EM spectrum, and the radar also runs on radio, how come the Shaitan radar is still working?”

“Willy, the jamming device sends strong junk signals over the radio waves, called white noise. It fills up the radio waves such that subtle change in frequency or amplitude of someone else’s radio signals get drowned in that noise. This makes it impossible to modulate coherent signals on the radio waves.

That does not mean that we cannot detect another source of a radio signal, we can detect the presence or absence of another radio signal, we just can’t send any information over it. That is the reason we are maintaining radio silence right now. We don’t want to alert the Shaitans. That is also the reason that we can alert the shuttles by radio, simply by sending a strong signal. We cannot speak to them, but the very act of sending a radio signal will tell them that we have accomplished our task.

The radar simply needs the reflected radio signals from our shuttles, so it works fine since it can detect the presence or absence of a reflected radio signal. It is good that you are taking interest in learning science Willy, but right now I would appreciate if you can just concentrate on blowing the frigging thing up. How is the signal shaping up?” Sarge asked Willy.

The first and the second platoon didn’t have any tech-heads amongst them, so Willy had to stop his slow jog, remove his right hand from Sarge’s shoulders to swipe his faceplate to get the radar signal up, that was being detected by the antenna on his back.

To accurately detect a faraway aircraft, the radars need to collect a very weak radio signal. The radio signals themselves are long wavelength that need large dish for collection. The dish size has to be somewhat comparable to the size of the wavelength it is trying to catch. That is the reason why radar detection needs large assemblies with a large cumbersome dish antenna that are usually mounted on vehicles or aircrafts.

The marines however had no such need. They were not trying to detect some faint reflected radio signal, they were tracking the direct signal coming from Shaitan radar equipment, which had been deliberately turned up in power so that the reflected signal would be strong. All that the marines needed was a primitive but long telescopic antenna hooked up to their suit computer, which had a built in radio transceiver.

“The signal is getting stronger Sarge, so we are going in the right direction. We are still too far to be able triangulate though.” Willy replied and they all continued their jog towards their destination.

The squad was moving in a single file with the Sergeant leading through the dust storm. That way no one would fall into a chasm as long as the leader kept his eyes on the ground. The person following him had to keep his eyes glued ahead to give as much of a warning as possible in case they ran into a Shaitan patrol.

The Sergeant came to a halt and every marine in the single file train touched the suit of the person in front as they had been trained for radio silence operations. “Halt. There is a steep slope down. We need to be find another way if possible.”

“Sarge, the radio signal is getting very strong. I think we are near, it may be a good idea to triangulate and see the direction we need to go.” Said Willy.

The Sergeant gave him permission and Willy started wandering around and at several points checked his faceplate display. Triangulation is a simple method of moving to different spots and checking the strength of the radio signal. The further you are, the weaker the signal, with multiple points, the computer can point out roughly the direction where the signal is the strongest.

Willy motioned the Sergeant and the others followed Willy. When the Will felt a hand on his shoulders he said. “It is in this direction Sarge, along that narrow path which falls down on both sided. Looks like a ridge of some sorts. Let me lead. The signal is getting strong, it can’t be far now.”

It was the last thing that young Willy said. A plasma pulse came out of the veil of dust and seared a large hole in the middle of his torso. The marines went down instinctively in a technique pioneered by their chief of Marines Lt. General Alex Parkinson over two decades ago here on Mars.

The ten remaining marines pumped a fair amount of lead into the direction of the plasma pulse. They could not see anything, but one of them must have gotten off a lucky shot for an IR halo emerged from the veil of the dust storm advancing quickly. The marines used the opportunity to further pump lead into the Shaitan, which further sent it into a death frenzy.

The Shaitan had not yet crossed the ridge to reach the place the marines were lying flat. Its death frenzy made it lose its footing on the ridge and it plunged below to some indeterminate depth. The marines had no idea how far the fall went. One of the marines started foaming the hole on Willy’s torso while the rest kept a watch in the direction of the ridge.

It was clear to Sarge that the Shaitans could see them before the marines could see the Shaitans. The radar was somewhere on the other side of the ridge and they had to run the gauntlet if they wanted to take the radar out. The marines did not even have the luxury of approaching slowly over the ridge. The dead Shaitan was sure to have tripped an alarm.

There was no knowing how many Shaitans on the other side of the ridge protected the radar, but he was certain had a hell lot of them would come from behind the marines to reinforce and protect the radar very soon. Their only chance was to reach the radar before reinforcements arrived and hope to overwhelm the defending Shaitans on the other side.

The narrow ridge and the broad bodied Shaitans could still be taken advantage of. The charge had to be quick, shocking and suicidal. That was the only hope for success. Oh well… thought Sarge, whatever happened, it will be mercifully quick either way. Sarge gathered the squad, gave the order and led the charge.

The ridge was wide enough for one human to run comfortably and safely in suit, but not two side by side. It was a careful walk for the wide bodied Shaitans. Sarge had his SG-4 in automatic mode. He squeezed the trigger and kept it squeezed as he ran at full speed screaming with bloodlust at the top of his voice inside his suit, which no one else could hear.

The SG-4 kept pumping out its massive caliber bullets at the rate of just under one per second, and caught the first Shaitan who was coming over the ridge to face the charging marines. Although it was a blind shot, with neither parties having detected the other, Sarge’s reckoning had been correct that any Shaitan trying to cross the narrow ridge was highly likely to get hit due to their wide bodies.

The Sarge was however not so lucky with the second Shaitan behind the first one he had shot blindly. That Shaitan had not yet gotten on to the ridge and as a result was not in the line of Sarge’s fire. Sarge was barely 15 meters from crossing the ridge when he came into the IR sensor of the second Shaitan.

The plasma pulse hit Sarge on his neck and right shoulder. He felt no pain as he tumbled over the ridge down into a fair sized chasm and crashed. He was long dead before that. The second Shaitan did not get a second chance to fire. The marine behind Sarge, pumped three bullets into it before its plasma gun could recharge.

The marines tumbled and crawled the moment they crossed the ridge and spread out as they advanced. They found cover behind what looked like boxes that lay strewn around. There was firing coming out of a lone gun. The remaining 9 marines quickly surrounded the source of the plasma fire and advanced, firing blindly till the IR halo of the Shaitan came into view. At that point the Shaitan died a quick death from 9 guns eager to avenge their Sarge.

Two of the marines with the demo kit got busy rigging up the only piece of equipment on top of this flattened peak. It was fairly easy to identify it as a radar. In fact it was amazing how much in common it had with a human radar, especially the design of the dish antenna. The problem of physics to solve was common for both the species, hence the design was similar.

It was obvious that this peak was used as a high observation post for the radar. It was ideally suited for the purpose with its height. It was also very defensible with just a few soldiers. The only access to this place was thorough the narrow ridge that they had come. As the demo team was rigging up the explosives on the radar, the remaining seven marines dragged the boxes next to ridge and took up positions behind them.

It was a good thing that they did because no sooner had they done so that the first plasma blast hit the box. The good part was that only one Shaitan, the foremost one could fire at a time while crossing the ridge. The humans had been the disadvantaged party when storming the place, but now they were the one with the advantage.

With seven guns, they had enough stopping power to halt the Shaitans as they tried to cross the ridge. They could not run very fast across the ridge like the humans due to their wide body, which forced them to tuck their limbs. Still the marines decided to conserve their bullets. They had no idea how many Shaitans were waiting to storm the place. They fired alternately to put 3 rounds per Shaitan, which ensured that they stopped and slipped in their death frenzy.

The marines had given up their radio silence. There was no point now. It helped them to co-ordinate and all of them hunkered down when they heard ‘fire in the hole’ as the demo team blasted the radar to bits. Then the Lance corporal, who was now the commanding officer of the squad transmitted the prearranged radio signal. It would register as a strong blip on the radios of the shuttle, but it would tell the pilots all they needed to know. The radar was down.

Chapter 22

Fiery Ghosts

Mars

September 2083

Ed was having a tough time keeping track of all the marines and the positions on the HUD while keeping a sharp eye out for IR scans of the approaching Shaitans and their muzzle flash. He decided to switch over to monitoring the overall tactical situation through his neural interface, while tracking the enemy movement with his eyes. He would pay for such an overload with a massive migraine very soon, but it was better to let his head ache than to have it blown off.

A virtual map started floating within his field of vision. It was not a schematic map like the one he had been watching on his HUD. It was as if virtual objects were floating at various distances, and as he turned his head some of the virtual objects came into view, while others went out of his field of vision.

There were green blocks in the virtual map, which represented the last known position of one of his marines. If he concentrated on that block, it would zoom to show the photo and name of the marine. The dotted line to the green block showed the distance. Some of the green blocks were hatched, which indicated that those positions had not been updated for at least a few seconds, probably due to that marine moving out of the limited range of the virtual radio grid the marines had created with their suit.

The hatched green blocks represented the last known position of the marine. There were quite a few of the green blocks that turned hatched and then updated back to green some distance away as the marines kept coming in and out of range of their virtual radio grid. The pathetic range of the grid would continue as long as the Shaitan jamming device was on.

Then there were a few static yellow blocks that were coming into Ed’s view. These were the position of some of the ghosts they were approaching towards. Lastly Ed would see a glimpse of a red block once in a while, which were the known position of any Shaitan that may have been picked up by the suit of any of the marines. These few red blocks kept appearing and disappearing as Shaitans came and went out of view or were killed by the marines.

“Demo Team 2, haul ass! You have fallen behind the rest of the line. I want you to double time towards you ghosts now!” Ed shouted. Fire Team 2 had taken a few extra seconds to place their explosives and they were now paying the price of having to struggle to reach the retreating line and prevent themselves from being surrounded.

Ed reached his ghost. And took up his cover position next to it and waited. He had a moment so he looked sideways at the ghost and wondered. Had he come up with the most harebrained idea in the history of the marines? They would find out soon, but if he turned out to be wrong, it would end very badly for the third platoon.

His answer came soon enough, when the first plasma pulse struck the ghost. His gun barrel camera was monitoring the direction of the muzzle flash, but he could not yet see the Shaitan who had fired the shot at the ghost. Ed swapped the gun to his other hand and took it next to the ghost and fired in the general direction of the Shaitan, then quickly withdrew his hand and waited. Only the barrel and its camera sticking out.

This time he saw the IR halo of the Shaitan emerge from the dust storm. Clearly the Shaitan had gotten impatient when the ghost fired back at it. The Shaitan came closer to kill the ghost better. The Shaitan paid the price with his life as Ed placed two well-aimed shots right in the middle of its bulk. The ghost clearly worked, at least for Ed. It was worthwhile lugging it all the way here. Ed got further confirmation from the open channel as marines shared tips on how they were making the most of their ghosts.

The ghost was an idea that formed in Ed’s mind while discussing tactics with Leanna for this battle. The colonel had brought in Dr. Yusuke Matsumoto to give an idea of the conditions that can be expected in the next few days. Yusuke had mentioned that there was a developing storm that he could observe in the stratosphere.

The dust storms on mars can vary from little dust devils to storms of legendary proportions, which rise into the stratosphere 10 to 15 Km high. Some of the largest storms can engulf the entire planet and last for weeks on an end. Since they no longer had any satellites orbiting Mars, Dr. Matsumoto could not accurately predict the weather.