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"Well, the hell if any trumped up sergeant is going to lead my troops," said the major, his voice cracking and ending on a high wavery note. "Where the hell are the rest of the officers?"
"I am the only remaining officer, Major," O'Neal said reasonably. "There are one sergeant first class, three staff sergeants and five sergeants, sir. I am the only officer on site."
"I do not have time for this," spit the commander, "put me through to another officer."
"Sir, I just said that there are no other officers."
"Dangit, Lieutenant, get me Captain Wright and get him now or I'll have you court-martialed!"
"Sir," Mike choked. He began to realize that Major Pauley was not tracking well. The position of the retreating ACS battalion should have prepared him somewhat, but nothing could have fully prepared him. "Sir . . ." he started again.
"Dangit, Lieutenant, get those troops back here now! I need all the forces I can get! I don't have time to eff around with this. Get me through to Captain Wright!"
"Yes, sir," Mike did not know what to do, but ending this conversation would be a start. "I'll get the troops to your location as fast as I can and get Captain Wright to contact you as soon as possible."
"That's better. And put him back in command, dang you. How dare you usurp command, you young puppy! I'll have you court-martialed for this! Put yourself on report!"
"Yes, sir, right away, sir. Out here. Michelle, cut transmission." He thought for a moment. "Michelle, who is next in this rat-fuck chain of command?"
"Brigadier General Marlatt is MIA. That makes it General Houseman."
"Okay, who is left in the battalion chain."
"Major Norton and Captain Brandon are still in action and collocated with the battalion."
"Put me through to Captain Brandon."
"Left, left! Bravo team, move back!" Captain Brandon was maneuvering the remaining troops in contact on an open cha
"Captain Brandon."
"AID, partial privacy," said the captain quickly. "O'Neal? Is that you? I figured you were dead under your pyramid.
"Thanks for the cover," Brandon continued sarcastically, "unfortunately most of my damn company didn't quite make it out of the building!"
"That explosion was not the demolition charges, although they were detonated sympathetically," Mike began, lamely.
"Fine, now come up with some miracle to get us out of this nightmare! Or give me my damn company back!" the captain ended angrily.
"I have some of your troops down here, sir. We're going to start E and Eing out of here as soon as the rest link up. But, I just tried to report to Major Pauley, and, well, he was . . ."
"Babbling," Brandon said, flatly.
"Yes, sir."
"We know, thank you. Anything else?"
"Well, . . .", go ahead, he thought, say it. "What the hell do I do, sir? I'm . . . I'm just . . ." he bit back what he was about to say, " . . . not sure what course to follow, sir."
"I don't have time to hold your hand, O'Neal. Do whatever you think will do the most damage to the enemy until you can get back in contact. Take that as an order, if it helps."
"Yes, sir." Deep breath. "Airborne, sir."
"O'Neal."
"Sir?"
There was a short pause. "Fuck that shit about being a jumped up NCO, you saved our asses by dropping the buildings. Sorry about jumping your ass, it wasn't right. So, good hunting. Pile 'em up like cordwood, Lieutenant. That's an order." The officer's voice was firm and unwavering.
"Yes, sir," said Mike, unfelt conviction in every syllable. "Air-fucking-borne." Vaya con Dios, Captain.
"Now get off my damn freq; I got a war to run here. Alpha team! Position Five! Follow the ball! Move!"
30
Andata Province, Diess IV
0626 GMT May 19th, 2002 AD
As Mike whipped in the current, dangling like a lure on a trolling line, he really wished he had either been smarter, and had come up with a better plan, or stupider and had not thought of this one.
Once the improvised air lock was in place and area flooded, the next problem was how to move through the water mains. Between ongoing use in unconquered areas and unsealed breaches, the flow rate was high. An unencumbered person who is a good swimmer can only swim against three to four knots of current. The water was flowing past their location at what Mike judged to be about seven knots.
Mike had trained under water in battle armor, but never with a current. When he checked the flow going past at the first "T" intersection he experienced a sinking suspicion that his armor would not handle worth a damn, especially since the lack of power meant he could not "fly" the suit under impellers. He was still unsure what the mission plan would be, other than "to stack 'em up like cordwood" but he fully intended to see Diess' fluorescent light again, and soon. That meant getting out from under the zone of total destruction and the only way out from under the buildings was through the water mains, current or no current. Since swimming the armor was out, that left "rappeling" down the current. He worked out a route that flowed with the currents and would come out under a building three blocks away from Qualtren. Since the first principle of leadership was that you never asked someone to do something you would not do, Mike elected, over the protests of his platoon sergeant, to scout the first bound.
A line would be secured at the starting point by universal clamp and paid out with the scout, in this case O'Neal, dangling from it like a spider in the current. Waypoints had been determined, areas where there should be lower currents, and there perso
The winch and line were built-in features of the suits. The winch was a bulge the size of a pack of cigarettes on the back of the suit and the line was thi
That lack of testing, since he had been the test pilot, was a personal indignity of the highest order. If there was any failure Mike had precisely no one else to blame. As he went bouncing off into the darkness he would be forced to curse only himself: designer, test pilot, user. Idiot.
For it was inky darkness his suit lights barely penetrated. Silt from breaks swirled through the tube and as he twisted wildly in the raging current the light swung randomly, illuminating for a moment then being swallowed by the turbidity. A moment's flash of wall, empty water, wall, opening, broken bits of plascrete from the shattered infrastructure, what was once an Indowy. The feeling of helplessness, swirling movement and flashing lights induced massive vertigo. He abruptly vomited, the ejecta captured and efficiently scavenged by the helmet systems.
"Down," he continued. "How much farther?" He would have looked, but he had to close his eyes for a moment. That made it worse so he opened them again and glued his eyes to the suit systems, checking the schematic just as the suit slammed into the wall. The heavy impact was more than absorbed by the suit systems and Mike hardly noticed.