CHAPTER 34

“Bravo Six,” said the fuzzy crackling voice in Katie’s ear. She could barely understand it but, she did manage to catch, “say again,” in all the garbled electronic mess. It all told Katie one thing. Their communications net had gone down and they were just short of the target.

Instead of wasting time with the radio, Katie figured, NottaKay would just have to wait till they got back. She switched over to the intercom, found out what she needed and then held up a finger for all to see, “one minute! Remember this is a roll out guys!” Katie looked to their advisor, Captain Chjolani, and he nodded that he understood and was all right with it. Katie was getting proficient and recognizing this particular elf’s moods and she was pretty sure the guy was not what he claimed. He seemed to think that the Rangers were insane when it came to jumping out choppers. What could Katie say to that? He had a point.

The Blackhawk dove for the tops of the trees and flew right along with the terrain. It was a roller coaster ride in this area and not something that Katie had mentioned in her briefing because, she had not known it would happen either. This was as far north as anybody had been and there just weren’t any maps that told you about these small elevation changes. Of course, small is a relative thing. When you are flying over them at better than two hundred miles an hour, small is considerable.

The last jerk that almost put the chopper vertical was all the warning that anybody needed to be ready to bail. Katie thought she was going to scream when she watched the nose suddenly reverse and dive straight for the deck. Her body felt like it was nearly going to crush against her seat as the Blackhawk leveled out only feet above the ground. The worst part of all was that the ground looked to be moving pretty fast beneath them. Of course, she knew it was the chopper moving but, when you jump out of one, what difference does it make?

“ONE! TWO! THREE…” Katie screamed as each Ranger filed out of the back and hit the ground rolling. Her turn came when the compartment was almost empty. Only the assistant gunner and Chjolani were left on her side of the chopper. Katie actually had to grab the elf and push him. Then she wished there was somebody to push her because Katie almost did not jump. She found it a very unnatural act, one that her body was almost not willing to do. She had to close her eyes before it became possible. Even then it was worse than jumping off the back ramp of a C-130 and Katie had done that eight times to date.

When the roll stopped Katie flipped up on her knees with her weapon at the ready. As smooth as that part went the next was not so much. She growled in pain, “son of a bitch that hurt!” Snake was obviously nearby. He came running at the sound of Katie’s pain and she brushed him off as she got to her feet and said, “it’s ok Top. I’m in one piece.” As an afterthought she mumbled, “that’s a lot easier with a parachute.”

Katie looked up to the sky and saw the choppers gaining altitude and beginning a sharp turn to the south. That gave her one bearing because she knew their flight plan. She looked for the next two landmarks and then referred to the crappy ass map she had in her vest pocket. Now she knew exactly where she was, or, as well as she could for this area. She cut the air with her hand in the direction she wanted to go and told Snake, “company HQ assemble on me. Get everybody moving that way. Let’s go.”

Bravo company had practiced this move long before they came here and, for that matter, even before they had reported for training at the ITTC back in Kansas. Her platoon leaders, their sergeants, and all of the fire teams knew the drill and deployed without much of any supervision. They had been given the formation order before they left so, the company was moving in no time at all. As the HQ section began to follow the main body, Katie noticed her advisor.

Chjolani had stuck by her like glue. He looked concerned but, Katie could not fault the guy for that. She was too. Still, there was something else on the face of that elf and Katie could not read it. It was an expression she had never seen before so, she asked. Chjolani was taken by the question but, he finally did answer, “my compliments to you Captain.” What was that supposed to mean? What had he found wrong with them this time? It was now Katie’s turn to be surprised when the elf told her, “I’ve never seen a formation move this fast after an insertion, particularly after one like we just made.”

Katie wanted to say thank you even though she figured it might be unprofessional. Then Chjolani broke the good mood by commenting, “I’m afraid that means we might beat my people to the objective.”

The implications were quite clear to Katie. If the company of Olyan-Notae did not show up on time then Bravo Company was going to have it’s hands full of bad guys with no support team. Did this guy always have to be such a pessimist? More important was the question of how to handle it. Did she slow her people down when the most important factor was speed?

The decision seemed to have been made for her. Katie saw the people in front of her going to ground and scrambling for cover. She waited till she could see First Sergeant Sun. Snake wasted no time sending back hand signals. Katie gave him the affirmative and then Snake vanished into the flora. Katie told her elf, “contact right.”

That did not impress Chjolani as he quietly replied, “what did they contact?”

Katie just had to admit, “I have no idea but, I need to find out fast.” She gave orders to the headquarters people and then told the elf to follow her. They moved as fast as they could without making much noise. When they came up behind third platoon they went to their belly’s and began crawling towards the contact position. Katie found Specialist Foster watching something through the scope on his Big as fifty caliber that he was so fond of these days. Katie asked gruffly, “what is it Specialist?”

Foster was obviously following something and he had a kid like grin on his face as he replied, “I have no clue Captain. I’ve never seen anything like it and I thought somebody might need to check it out.”

Katie rolled over on her back and pulled out her binoculars. After a second or two of coordinating with Foster, she finally saw what he had been looking at. All Katie could say was, “holy shit. It’s a big furry dinosaur.” The creature had a long neck with a tiny head on top. It had a big fat body, relatively short stubby little legs, and a very long tail. Katie might have called it a brontosaurus only the thing had thick and shaggy fur all over it’s body.

After handing off the binoculars to the elf, Chjolani took a quick peek and seemed unconcerned as he handed back the viewing device, “it’s a Pautceauti. They are not common in this region but, not unheard of either.”

That was all Katie needed to know. She rolled back over and began putting away her binoculars as she said, “all very interesting but, we’re not on a nature hike here. Let’s…”

Foster had never stopped looking through his scope. He stopped scanning and focused in on something. Then he sounded almost like he was talking on the radio when he said, “two hostiles at six hundred meters, confirmed!”

“What,” Katie had already stowed her gear and was not about to get that crap back out. Instead, she jerked the rifle away from Foster and took a look for herself. Again, He had to guide her view to the target but, sure, enough, he was right. Even more important was that the Orcs were right down there by the dinosaur with hair growth issues. They were guiding it? Then she saw the long neck of another hairy bronto-burger and it had a strap in it’s teeth. It raised up a net full of wood and set it down on the back of the first creature.

Katie handed off the rifle to the elf. Foster was not happy about having his weapon get even further from his hands but, he would live. Katie was more interested in what they were seeing here and she asked for an evaluation. Chjolani was not a happy camper when he replied, “I have no idea what they’re doing Captain Mack. If I had to guess, I’d say construction.”

Katie wondered and asked another question, “do they use those things as pack mules? You know, beast of burden like?”

Chjolani could only shrug, “I don’t know. I don’t suppose there is any reason you couldn’t domesticate a Pautceauti but, why would you bother?”

Gabe reached out and snatched his weapon back from the elf. As he did he said, “I think they’ve found one.” He then asked his commander, “Captain, want me to plug those two down there? Maybe even go Poop Chute hunting?”

Katie began to back away from the position so she could sit up and check her map. It was of no use and she grunted as she told the following Chjolani, “we have to go around. That’s not our mission over there.”

Chjolani replied, “until we find out more about what’s going on up here, I suggest we pull back. Send up the recall flare.”

That was not an option. Katie pointed to third platoon’s leader and began giving hand signals. She finished by giving a new direction. Then she told her advisor, “we’re not giving up on this. The first two ops on Golden Straw have already been blown. I’m not calling it just because we encounter an unexpected outpost.”

Chjolani grabbed Katie’s arm, as she started to move past, and he told her, “we need to find out what is going on here.”

Katie snatched her arm back, “this is a movement to contact, Captain. We’re not on a recon. Anything in the objective and it gets smashed. Clear?”

Chjonlani backed all the way off and put his hands up like he surrendered, “it is all yours human.”

The Elf bowed slightly while his arms were still raised and said something in his own language. Katie had no idea what it meant but, she had seen them do that before, with each other mostly. Whatever it meant, it did not appear to be an insult so Katie forgot about it and moved on. This was not the time.

It did not take long before another set of hand signals began working their way back down the formation and, this time, they were coming from both sides. Katie understood the full meaning of those rather limited set of hand gestures that she was seeing from her First Sergeant. She actually cracked a smile before she replied with her own hand signals. She told him, “deploy snipers, ready line, three in reserve.”

The deployments took longer than she would have liked. There was also not a lot that Katie could do about it. If she tried to go fix whatever it was that somebody had fucked up then that would most likely lead to even more problems. All she could do was wait and it was the worst part of all. She even realized she should be scared but she wasn’t. She was jumpy but, it wasn’t fear. It was almost excitement. It was also sure as hell better than manning a perimeter and inspecting holes every hour. This is why she joined the army. This is what she had been training her entire career for.

The first shots did not come from her people. The staff weapons, carried by the Orcs, made a very distinctive sound when fired, and what Katie was hearing was definitely just that. Several of them had gone off and she held her breath for a moment, waiting for another volley. Had they been ambushed? Katie could not see a damn thing from here! She looked up towards Snake and he was busy watching down the line. That meant he had not even gotten word yet. How did she do anything if she didn’t know what was going on? The plan was to deploy, then she would move forward, eyeball the target, make adjustments, and then attack!

Chjolani got up to his knee’s and flipped the safety off of his SKS. He then told Katie, “if we do not move then we’re dead!”

That actually sounded like good advice. Katie jumped to her feet and decided to forget about hand signals now. She rushed up to join her First Sergeant and his team, signaling hers to follow. When she came down to a knee, next to Snake, she asked, “sitrep!”

“Don’t know,” First Sergeant Sun replied, “I’m pretty sure it came from that direction. Nobody responded though. Haven’t heard anything else.”

Katie was getting very excited now, “come on Jack, I have to know!”

Finally there were some hand signals coming from back down the line and the First Sergeant told Katie, very confused like, “no contacts, snipers deployed. First and Second report, ready?”

When the next round of shooting began, there was more than just a volley of staff weapons. Now Katie was hearing the reports of seven point six two ammunition. It was echoing through the trees in a steady rumble. This damn terrain did more than just limit your vision. It bounced sound around even worse than normal. Still, Katie figured, at least she now knew more than a minute ago. Most of her people still carried their standard small arms and that meant the shooting was coming from a company of Olyan-Notae who were supposed to be the only other unit in the area. A second later that was confirmed when they all saw a flare go up. It also gave Katie the direction she needed.

Katie looked to her advisor and asked him, “you with me?”

Chjolani looked a bit confused, “was I ever not?”

“Snake,” Katie snapped, “take charge of my section.” She then got to her feet and began rushes forward with the elf right behind her. Katie reached the forward deployments of her second platoon and took cover with one of their M-60 gunners and his assistant. She could see the target from here but, she also saw what had gone wrong with her communications. Kate realized they were just too spread out for this terrain. Something must have gone wrong when they began moving into formation to attack and they had lost sight of each other. It was a bad time to find this out too. There was no time left to fix it.

While Katie was worried about her own deployments, Chjolani was busy studying the small rise they were at the base of. The Orc’s had knocked down several trees. They had used the splinters as construction material to reinforce a series of loosen dirt mounds that they had, obviously, only recently built. The trees themselves had been given the slow burn treatment and what was left of them were hollowed and now being used as buildings. The tops had long since been cleared away and Chjolani could only guess as to why.

It would be an understatement to say that Chjolani was alarmed by what he saw. He looked to Katie and said, “Captain, what do you…”

Katie fired the flare and only seconds later the loud retort of fifty caliber rifles sounded through the trees. It was followed by at least one staff weapon firing back. It only ever fired once as several fifty calibers answer it and obviously found their mark. Katie then fired up the second flare and her entire company opened fire on the objective.

As she observed Bravo’s company’s opening salvo on the enemy, Katie had to admit that everyone had been right about the five point five six ammo they were using. It was not taking down the enemy very well but, it was taking them down. The larger caliber rounds, particularly from the M-60 machineguns, were doing the trick even better than promised. It took Katie a few minutes to realize why. Most of the Orcs they were engaging did not have on their body armor. That told her, “we caught them napping! Yeah!”

It was at this point that Katie noticed her advisor had not fired a single round. He was busy watching the Orc camp. Katie was not entirely sure but, she thought, he had an air of concern on his face. She got down next to him and yelled over the shooting, “what’s wrong?”

Chjolani never stopped watching the fight, “we’ve got to blow those trees! We don’t know how many are in there. We could have just kicked over an ant hill.”

The M-60 gunner yelled, “Captain! I think they’re getting up reinforcements!” Katie raised her binoculars and scanned the camp in front of her. She did see a large body of Orcs that were picking their way through debris and heading in her direction. They were coming from the direction of the other fight on the far side of their perimeter. She had kind of hoped that might happen and she was ready for it.

Katie moved back from the line of fire and sent more hand signals down the line. Then she moved back up to her forward position and watched. Again, it took too long but, this time, Katie was pretty sure it was her own nerves. She had forgotten to look at her watch. Just when her mind had finished the internal argument, and the “it’s taking too long” ideas were winning out, the first whine of mortar rounds came crashing down on the camp. They also missed their targets but, that was largely to be expected. Katie moved back and sent another set of instructions via hand signals. When the next salvo hit, her final orders, via hand signals, were simple, “fire for effect.”

Chjolani was both surprised and confused by the overall effect of their attack. As he watched the Orc formations breaking up and the return fire grow weaker, he had to admit to Katie, “I did not expect this. I have to be honest with you Captain. We must have caught them off guard.”

“That was the idea,” Katie told him as she kept studying the battle. She finally put her binoculars away and pulled out one more flare. As she loaded it she told the elf, “if you guys keep letting these bastards dictate the terms of the battle then you’re going to keep getting your clocks cleaned.” She fired the flare into the sky and Bravo company moved out from their positions, advancing and firing as they went. They swept the camp, right up to the fallen trees, and left behind any number of gifts for the orcs, all of which would explode later and take out the bunkers they were in, hopefully with orcs inside.

Katie finished her advance right beside a hollowed out entrance to one of the fallen trees. She pulled the pin on a grenade, tossed it in the hole, waited for the explosion and then sprayed the interior with an entire magazine. As she reloaded she saw that Chjolani had joined her. Katie almost wanted to laugh, “well, any advice?”

The elf Captain still appeared nervous even if the battle seemed to be going their way. He told her, “we need to leave as soon as the last explosives are set.”

“With you on that one,” Katie mumbled and mostly to herself. She had done what she came here to do. She pulled out a whistle and then blew on it hard, with three long bursts. Then, right before she set out, a thought crossed her mind, “what are they doing with these trees?”

Chjolani was most definitely weighing his answer. Katie kind of figured that maybe it was just because the elf did not really know. Then she considered the other possibility and it was that he just did not want to say. Whichever it was, it concerned him greatly. He finally said, “I’m not sure.”

That led Katie to another wild hair. She was on a roll so she decided, “I want to find out. You game?”

“Not really,” the Elf replied.

That led Katie to yelling out for her First Sergeant. When Snake and three others showed up she told him, “cover me, I’m going in.”

Snake’s eyes got big as he looked at the hole, “are you goddamn crazy woman!”

Katie winked at the guy and dove in the hole.