Next out were Campanelli and Wojak, BJ with the second SLAW and Wojak with a second mooring line which he would put down well removed from Cartwright’s.
Then Peterson and Amberly with the two Wyverns, Garcia and Hastings, and finally Lang and Jeff. Carver would stay aboard and at the controls for the moment just in case a sudden retreat or water maneuver was necessary, and Ishiwara, a noncombatant, would stay with him. He’d also ordered Kaminski to stay aboard, since he wasn’t yet fully recovered from his ordeal with the Singer.
“We’re on the ice!” Nodell shouted over the radio. “No hostiles, repeat, no hostiles! Can’t see worth a damn, though.”
“Line attached!” Cartwright added a moment later. He could hear her labored breathing as she moved. “I’m moving out onto the ice!”
“Deploying to cover her! Still no hostiles!”
Yeah, but there would be, and soon. The question was, how much longer?
A new concern assaulted him, a possibility he’d not thought of. They’d heard two Chinese landers, but suppose what they’d heard were landers taking off? Suppose they’d arrived at the Chinese LZ just as the Chinese were deploying a new and heavier attack against Cadmus?
Suppose there was nothing at the enemy LZ at all but some deserted buildings, that the enemy was now a thousand kilometers away, attacking Melendez and the handful of Marines left behind?
No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy.
Ice Station Zebra, Europa
0730 hours Zulu
Enemy fire was coming in heavily from three directions now, east, west, and south, as enemy snipers and riflemen planted themselves at the top of the crater rim. The riflemen, firing Type 80 rifles at extremely long range, were woefully inaccurate, but the snipers with Type 104 laser rifles were deadly. Corporal Kenneth Dalton took a laser burst squarely through his helmet visor, killing him instantly. Vince Cukela had a bolt graze his left shoulder, rupturing his suit, but Tom Pope got to him in time with a sealer patch and stopped the leak. Worse were the zidong tanke, which were hard to hit and harder to kill, and fired much more powerful bolts from their 104 lasers. Lance Corporal Porter was hit by a shot from one of the robot tanks and nearly torn in half. Ten meters from Lucky’s hole, Sergeant Riddel rose to his knees in his firing pit, aiming the squad’s one Wyvern, and was burned down before he could fire.
Some of the tanks were already venturing down the inner slope of the crater. It was clear the Chinese planned to rush the Marine position and overrun it with armor, following up with troops on foot.
Lucky killed a rifleman sliding down the east slope, but his fire wasn’t having any effect on the Charlie tanks. “This is gonna get us dead!” he shouted.
The Marines returned fire, sweeping the crater rim with highly accurate, concentrated laser fire, driving the enemy gunners back, but it was clear their position was hopelessly exposed and vulnerable.
“Alert Five, this is Melendez! The enemy is too strong! We’re shifting to Plan Omega!”
“Fall back to the E-DARES!” Pope yelled. “Two at a time! Dade! Cukela! Go!”
Omega was a literal last-ditch plan, to be employed in case the Chinese swarmed into the crater in such numbers that fighting them on the surface was clearly suicide. The Marines would withdraw to the E-DARES facility and wait. Maybe the enemy would try to cut their way in, in which case the Marines would fight them deck by deck. Or perhaps the enemy would simply say the hell with it and blow the entire facility.
The operations planners had decided that the chances of that last were small. The PRC forces still needed to recover whatever information the CWS scientists had turned up, and saving the scientists themselves would be a plus. Besides, the E-DARES facility was ready-made for attempting to contact the Singer, and there were nine Chinese prisoners on board.
The Chinese might even decide an assault was more trouble than it was worth and leave them alone, hoping to starve them out. They might also be withdrawn to meet the unexpected assault on their rear, back at their LZ.
Lots of possibilities, but they depended on the seven surviving Marines of the Alert Five getting back inside the E-DARES hull and sealing it off.
The Marines intensified their fire, sweeping the crater rim. Dade and Cukela rose from their firing pits and ran, clumsily, toward the E-DARES access walk, a few meters away. Ice and steam erupted in a silent blast close beside them, knocking them both down. Coughlin opened up with his SLAW, hosing the tank that had fired at them, giving them cover as they scrambled to their hands and knees and kept going, sliding the last couple of meters on the peroxide-slicked ice.
“Mayhew! Owenson! Go!”