Insurrection (The Kurgan War Book 6) Read online

  “Here they come,” said Cole, ducking back under cover.

  From around the bend came the first armored personnel carrier. It was a standard troop transporter with ten wheels and a large turret on it. Its main armament was a 30mm chain gun. In the sky above it hovered a drone armed with four high-explosive missiles affixed to its wings.

  “Standard platoon package,” said Cole as three more vehicles appeared.

  Sheridan’s heart began to beat faster as the lead vehicle neared the top of the road. The improvised explosive device the insurgents had buried in the road was activated by a pressure plate. The Kurgans’ jamming devices would be helpless to stop it from going off. A split second later, the bomb detonated, sending the APC tumbling over the side of the road and down into the valley floor. Three anti-air missiles struck the surveillance drone knocking it from the sky just as a volley of anti-armor rockets fired by rebels hiding among the rock hit the three remaining vehicles. Three missiles bounced off the APCs thick, sloped armor while two more penetrated the engine compartments, crippling the vehicles. Kurgan soldiers rushed out of the back of the vehicles and took shelter among the rocks at the base of the hill. Another stream of rockets finished off the stationary APCs. Plumes of black smoke wafted skyward.

  Sheridan felt Cole tap his arm. He turned his head to see what his friend wanted. Sheridan shook his head when Komada stood up dressed in his robes and pressed the arming devices for the anti-personnel mines they had hidden among the rocks at the ambush site. With a loud boom, the mines went off, sending thousands of ball bearings into the hapless Chosen soldiers.

  Silence fell on the killing ground.

  Sheridan peered from behind his boulder. He couldn’t see any government soldiers still on their feet. Several were severely injured and lay on the ground waiting to die while a couple more were crawling back down the dirt road trying to get away.

  “Poor buggers,” said Cole. “Until they learn to send out more than a platoon at a time, they’re always going to lose the fight.”

  “Come on, let’s pick up our gear and get a move on before they learn from their mistakes,” said Sheridan.

  Shots rang out as Komada’s disciples finished off the wounded soldiers.

  Chapter 3

  All of Sheridan’s troubles evaporated the moment he wrapped his arms around Tarina and got lost in her loving embrace. He had tried several times to convince her to leave, but she and her friend Wendy wouldn’t hear of it. They were staying until they were relived. For that, he respected them both.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” said Tarina.

  “Me too,” he replied.

  Tarina let go of her lover and looked into his bloodshot eyes. “You look tired.”

  “I am. We’ve been on the go for days. A warm meal and a few hours of uninterrupted sleep and I’ll be back to my usual chipper self.”

  “‘Chipper?’ Who the hell says chipper anymore?”

  “It’s all I could think of,” he said with a shrug.

  Tarina took Sheridan by the hand and led him to the small cave they shared. “Drop your gear and wash the dirt from your face while I fetch us both a bowl of soup.”

  “After that? he said, smiling.

  “Sleep, mister. You need lots and lots of sleep.”

  Michael Sheridan slowly opened his eyelids and looked around. There was a solitary candle flickering in the breeze. He sat up and ran a hand through his thick black hair, which for a Marine was long past due for a haircut. Sheridan couldn’t recall the last time he had hair this long.

  “Oy, look who’s up,” teased Cole.

  Sheridan took a couple of deep breaths through his nostrils to clear away the cobwebs in his mind and stretched his arms over his head. His bones cracked and popped. Sheridan stood up and saw Cole, Tarina, and Wendy sitting on the floor. The smell of freshly cooked meat filled the air. Sheridan’s empty stomach rumbled.

  “How long was I asleep?” he asked.

  “Almost ten hours,” replied Tarina.

  “Wow, I must have been fatigued to sleep that long.”

  “Come join us for supper,” Tarina said, patting at a spot on the ground right beside her.

  Sheridan took a seat and picked up a plate of food.

  “Mike, Alan was telling us that you want us to end our mission here on Kandara-Minor,” said Tarina. “Is this true?”

  “Yes. We don’t belong here anymore.”

  “Colonel Wright is due in three days’ time,” said Wendy. “I can ask him to send more ships to pick up everyone still left on the planet.”

  “That would be great. Thanks. The problem will be the SF training teams,” said Sheridan “They’re spread all over hell’s half acre.”

  “Leave that with Wendy and me; we’ll make sure the message gets to them,” said Tarina.

  Cole placed his plate down. “What if fleet pushes back and says everyone has to stay?”

  “Right about now, I don’t give a damn what they have to say,” replied Sheridan. “They can arrest me when we get back to the fleet for all I care. I can’t stomach it anymore. Komada’s followers have committed far too many war crimes. Our very presence here means either the fleet doesn’t care if he’s a war criminal, or it tacitly supports his actions. Well, I do care, and we’re done here.”

  “Can I be a witness for the prosecution at your court-martial?” asked Cole.

  “Go right ahead if it’ll make you happy.”

  Tarina tapped Cole on the hand with her spoon. “Don’t you dare even suggest such an awful thing.”

  Wendy looked at Cole and shook her head.

  “Hey, I was just kidding,” Cole said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “With my luck, they’d prosecute us together and send us both away for the rest of our lives on some desolate rock to mine perlinium.”

  The rest of the dinner conversation switched to Cole telling tales from his younger and less restrained days. After the evening meal, Sheridan and Tarina tidied up their tiny home and got comfortable on their bed made from straw stuffed inside a couple of sewn-together blankets.

  “Michael, do you think this war will come to an end soon?” asked Tarina.

  Sheridan rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow. “All wars do. I’m beginning to suspect this one is in its last throes. If they haven’t already, the Kurgans will have to forget about fighting us and turn their forces on the insurgents if they want their empire to remain intact.”

  “I joined the service in the hope of one day flying a fighter. The thought of actually having to fight the Kurgans never entered my mind when I enlisted. Now all I can think of is visiting my parents’ home and sitting on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean while the sun shines down on my face.

  “I’d like that too.”

  Tarina smiled, reached over, placed a hand behind Sheridan’s neck, and gently pulled him toward her waiting lips. They met in an embrace which fueled their insatiable hunger for one another. It was hours before they wrapped their arms around each other and finally drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 4

  Sheridan shot straight out of bed. His heart was pounding away. The first rush of adrenaline shot through his veins. By candlelight, he hurried to get dressed.

  Tarina rolled over. She looked up at him through sleepy eyes. “What’s wrong? Did you have another nightmare?”

  “No. It wasn’t that. I thought I heard something.”

  “What did you hear?” she asked, sitting up.

  “It could be nothing,” he replied, pulling on his boots.

  “Michael, you’re scaring me. What is it?”

  “I thought I heard a drone’s engine.”

  Tarina put a hand on his shoulder. “Mike, that’s not unusual. They fly over the valley all the time.”

  “I know, but this one sounded close . . . real close. I’m going outside to take a look.” Sheridan took his rifle and walked to the entrance of the cave and looked up at the star-filled sky. He stood there starin
g when a dark shape passed in front of Kandara-Minor’s moon. It banked over and dove down toward the valley. Sheridan took cover behind a thick tree and watched as it came to a sudden stop. The spy hovered over the tree-covered hills the insurgents were using as their base of operations.

  “Did you spot a drone?” asked Tarina. She stood there wearing only the blanket from their bed.

  Sheridan brought up an arm and pointed at a pair of tall coniferous trees a couple hundred meters away. “There, do you see it? It’s hovering in the air just above those two trees.”

  “Damn,” muttered Tarina. “They’ve found us.”

  “Ten to one they’ve been looking for us for months and used the platoon we ambushed yesterday as bait. There probably was a surveillance drone flying high in the sky so we couldn’t see or hear it. It must have followed us all the way back here.”

  “Then what is this one doing?”

  “Making sure the coast is clear.”

  “For what?”

  Sheridan gently squeezed Tarina’s arm. “Run back and wake up Wendy and Alan. Tell them an attack by Kurgan government troops is only a matter of minutes away.”

  She nodded and sprinted off.

  Sheridan turned on the night vision sight on his rifle and looked at the forest for any sign of Kurgan soldiers who could be using the trees for cover. The only thing he spotted was a couple of large deer-like animals eating grass in the clearing at the bottom of the valley.

  “I hear we’ve got company coming?” said Cole as he slid in next to his friend.

  “There’s an observation drone less hundred meters away,” explained Sheridan. “It wouldn’t be here if the Kurgs weren’t looking for us.”

  The faint sound of rotor blades cutting through the air made the two men stop talking and look at the far end of the valley.

  Sheridan brought up his night sight. A second later, two troop transport helicraft, flying at treetop level, came into view. With two rotors on either side of the craft, they looked like giant prehistoric insects. Six more helicraft ducked down and flew behind the lead two ships.

  “Stand to, stand to!” hollered Cole at the top of his lungs.

  In the dark, someone banged two pots together to wake up the slumbering people in the camp.

  The first two troop transporters slowed down and came in to land in the clearing. Sheridan held his breath and watched. Just before the landing wheels on the helicraft touched down, they pushed down on thin wires attached to several anti-personnel devices hidden in the tall grass. There was a bright flash followed a split second later by four loud explosions as the mines went off. The ships dropped straight down and triggered a couple of high-explosive devices buried in the ground. Both craft exploded in fireballs, lighting up the night sky.

  The next six helicrafts pulled up and let loose in every direction with their high-explosive rockets and chain guns.

  The sound of the 30mm chain guns firing was like listening to a band saw as it cut through the trees. Sheridan ducked down as the tree he was hiding behind was sawn in half. Bark and shattered branches rained down on him. He took a quick peek around the tree and saw soldiers descending on ropes from the helicraft into the woods at the bottom of the hill. Sheridan did the math in his head and figured at least sixty Chosen soldiers had been dropped off.

  A volley of anti-air missiles fired by the rebels streaked at the helicraft. Only two hit their targets; the rest went wide and exploded harmlessly on the other side of the valley. They may have brought down two ships, but the insurgents firing the missiles had signed their own death warrants. The rest of the helicraft turned all of their weapons on the rebels and blasted them to pieces.

  Sheridan ran back to his home. Tarina and Wendy were waiting there. They had their rifles in their hands and packs on their backs. “Where’s Alan?” he asked.

  “Right behind you,” replied his friend, running out of the dark.

  Sheridan looked at Tarina and Wendy. “Okay, I want you two to get the hell out of here and head to the alternate camp, further back in the mountains.”

  “What about you two?” asked Tarina. Her voice was shaky.

  “We’re staying. There are women and children in the camp. I can’t leave them to be captured or killed by the Kurgs.”

  Outside the sound of small-arms fire increased by the second as both sides fought each other.

  Cole winked at Wendy. “We’ll be okay, Red. Now get moving so Michael and I can get to work.”

  Wendy forced a smile on her lips and nodded. “See you soon.”

  “See you soon,” echoed Cole.

  Tarina leaned over with tears in her eyes and kissed her lover on the lips before turning on her heel and sprinting off into the night with Wendy by her side.

  “Now what do you want to do?” Cole asked Sheridan.

  “This, for starters,” he replied, activating an anti-personnel device hidden in a crevice at the front of his home.

  Cole grinned. “I did the same. Let’s hope everyone else kept their heads and armed their mines.”

  “I doubt too many of them did.” Sheridan looked down at the line of Kurgan soldiers fighting their way up the hill. “Come on, Alan, let’s buy some time for the people with families to escape.”

  “Lead on.”

  Sheridan picked a route and started to run. The world around them was filled with the din of battle. The surviving helicraft had lifted up high into the air and were circling the valley, firing on targets of opportunity. Rebel and government soldier alike were fighting tooth and nail over every rock, every tree on the side of the hill.

  Sheridan came to a halt and brought his rifle up to his shoulder. Through his weapon’s night sight, he could see the line of Chosen troops. They had unexpectedly come out near the enemy’s exposed right flank.

  “Okay, when we go, we don’t stop until we’ve rolled them up or they’ve run away,” said Sheridan.

  “Let’s hope our friends don’t mistake us for bad guys and put a couple of rounds into us,” said Cole.

  “It’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Sheridan said, flipping his rifle’s selector switch to automatic.

  “On three?”

  Sheridan nodded.

  “Three!” said Cole, firing from the shoulder as he ran past his friend.

  “You bastard,” said Sheridan under his breath as he chased after Cole.

  To the Chosen soldiers, the unexpected appearance of two men among their ranks was terrifying. Most died where they stood, unaware that they were being fired on from the side. Sheridan and Cole leaped over the bodies of the dead and injured as they pushed on down the line. A Kurgan officer with a crimson banner in his hands spun around and brought up his pistol to fire. He was hit twice in the head and fell to the rocky ground. That was all it took for the remaining Chosen soldiers. They saw their officer fall and broke. Most tossed their rifles and helmets aside in an attempt to flee before they too were killed.

  Cole stopped by the dead officer and ducked down behind a tree. Some of the rebels thought he was an enemy combatant and fired in his direction. All of the bullets went high and struck the tree.

  “That wasn’t fair,” said Sheridan as came to a sliding halt. He was breathing hard. “You said on three.”

  Cole shrugged. “Yeah, and I said three so what are you complaining about?”

  “Nothing, I guess.” Sheridan turned his attention to the handful of Chosen survivors as they rushed to board a helicraft which had come to pick them up.

  A bullet ricocheted off a rock near Cole’s head. He spun about and yelled, “Quit firing, you idiots. It’s Major Sheridan and me. The Kurgs have gone.”

  “Are you alright?” called out Komada.

  “Damn, I was hoping the Kurgs had put one between his eyes,” said Cole under his breath.

  “No such luck,” said Sheridan as he stood up and waved at Komada.

  In the night sky, the four remaining helicraft raced out of the valley and headed back to their base on th
e outskirts of Kandara-Minor’s capital city.

  “Thank you for your bravery,” said Komada as he joined the two Marines.

  Sheridan ignored the faux flattery. “Do you know if the men with families managed to get away?”

  “I don’t know. I came to where the fighting was in case any of my disciples needed me.”

  “Aren’t the women and children also considered your disciples?” asked Cole.

  “Yes, but their fate was in the Lord’s hands,” replied Komada. “He told me to walk toward the fighting, and that’s precisely what I did.”

  “Poppycock,” blurted out Cole.

  “I know you don’t believe, Mister Cole, but I do. Since I don’t want my people to see you being disrespectful to me, I think I’ll walk away.” With that, Komada turned and started to head back up the hill.

  “I really hate that man,” said Cole, not caring who heard him.

  “Our time here is done,” said Sheridan. “As soon as we can, we’re out of here.”

  As they walked back to join the rest of the people, it didn’t take long for them to come across the terrible cost of the Kurgan attack. A young rebel soldier sat with his back against a tree. He was crying while he tried to hold in his guts from spilling out with his blood-soaked hat. Even with a skilled doctor on site, Sheridan knew the boy was going to die in the next few minutes.

  “Damn it all to hell,” said Cole when they saw a woman cradling her dead child in her arms.

  Tension built up in the back of Sheridan’s neck. He had seen enough of death and misery to last him a lifetime. The war couldn’t come to a close fast enough for him.

  Chapter 5