Wind Riders 1.2 excerpt

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Once again, the next morning, Duncan waited until the four scout vehicles were a mile down the road before the five vehicles parked on the crest of the hill. This time the vehicles were parked facing the road. The girls started waving and blowing kisses right away this time but everyone was close to the doors of the vehicles except for the Coyote’s dismounts who were ranged in a fire line to each side of it. The turret was pointing in the general direction of the ten vehicles that were parked as a blocking force three hundred yards away. But otherwise everything appeared the same as the day before. Nobody was making any threating moves.

As the command vehicle went by, the commander glassed them and Duncan waved and smiled at him. Giving him a little salute. The commander just glared back at him. All the troops for the light vehicles casually made their way to their vehicles and got in them shutting the doors and the vehicles started up.

Everyone just sat there like that until the last squadron came abreast and everything changed and changed fast. In one smooth motion the Coyote’s turret rotated and started spitting twenty millimetre rounds into the blocking force, vehicles exploding in in flame and broken pieces of red tinged ceramic. A few of the rounds went straight through hitting vehicles in the column itself. The fifty caliber chain gun deployed at the same time, targeting the large armored vehicles providing security for the transports blowing them apart as the five light vehicles sprinted toward the column, the C-9’s spitting fire from the roof tops at any vehicle that crossed the sights.

Once they were within a hundred yards, Katerina’s roof mounted gun opened up on a tanker and it exploded after the second shot. Then the C-9’s shifted first to the remaining fuel tankers and then to the water tankers. Duncan fired a grenade into a square transport blowing it and the supplies in it up. Then he, like the other passenger gunners worked his C-8 over any vehicle he could see. By then they were turning broad side to the column and they raked everything that came into their path before turning again and sprinting back the way they had come. The whole time, the Coyotes dismounts had gone to one knee and were pouring round after round into anything that moved. Now they sprinted into the Coyote, it slammed the rear door shut and in a blast of diesel smoke and spinning tires it took off.

This time they didn’t stop their high speed run until they had gone five miles across country away from the column.

“All good Ghost, nobody is coming after us,” CT said over the tactical net.

“Ok, find us a place to pull over,” Duncan said.

“Gulf One, Alpha One, massive fireball.”

“Alpha One, Gulf One, copy massive fireball. Bravo has splashed Sierra. Party will start in sixty mikes.”

“Copy, Alpha One out.”

The vehicles started to slow and pull into their laager, except for Katerina’s which stopped right beside the Cougar. Katerina flung her door open and yanked the rear passenger door open and a figure fell out of the seat. Amanda was sprinting to the vehicle with her med kit and Karen was jumping out of the Coyote with hers. Carols medic joined them, gently pushing Katerina away.

“Captain! Get control of those troopers!” Duncan yelled pointing at Katerina’s crew. “Commander! Report now!”

He looked around, but all his people were doing their jobs, although glancing back to the action at times. Katerina jogged up to where he was and Carol took her troops farther away. As Duncan received Katerina’s salute he looked over her head and saw the medics stand up. Karen looked at him and shook her head. He waved her over.

“Ok Commander what happened?” Duncan asked.

“Sir, a beam came in through the rear window and wounded one of my troops sir.”

“Lieutenant?”

“Hit him right in the neck Ghost,” Karen said. “He was dead before he knew what hit him.”

Katerina was pure white and wavering.

“His name commander?” Duncan said softly.

She swallowed a couple of times, then got control of herself somewhat.

“Albert,” she said. “Albert Clowswitz.”

“Ok, thankyou Commander. Lieutenant, please escort the commander to her troop and inform them of the loss of their comrade.”

Amanda had draped a silver space blanket over Albert by the time Katerina had turned around, at least sparing her the sight of her dead trooper.

“CT, get me a link to headquarters stat,” Duncan said.

“Alpha One, Gulf One,” came over his head set.

“Gulf One, Alpha One, six, by six.”

“Alpha One. Major fireball. No casualties’. Proceeding to rendezvous.”

“Copy major fireball no casualties. Inform Papa Two One that Papa One Four is KIA.”

“Shit, copy Alpha One, Gulf One out.”

Karen, Amanda the other medic and Dave were putting Albert in a body bag by then. They hoisted it to four waiting troopers on top of the Coyote and passed it to them, where it was quickly lashed down.

“Brett can you handle driving that thing to the rendezvous? Amanda will go with you.”

“Ya, its not the first time I’ve seen a little blood and guts,” Brett said.

Duncan keyed Carols private channel. “Carol, put the rest of that crew in with the Coyote. You just became my new driver and bring Katerina with you.”

“I’ve got HQ ghost. CT said. Who do you want to talk with?”

“Madam Horshack,” Duncan said.

“Duncan, you have done wonderful work today,” Tanya said. “The mercenaries are reporting they lost half of their fuel and water supplies plus a hundred dead, two hundred wounded and the loss of a large amount of food supplies and vehicles. Well done.”

“Madam Horshack it is my sad duty to inform you that Albert Clowswitz was killed in action today mam.”

“Mam?” Duncan said after a prolonged silence. They were on the move by then and he thought they may have lost the link.

“Th..thankyou Mr.Kovaks. I will inform his family myself.”

“Mam, we will have to bury him in the field mam. We can’t take him with us. I will record the location and we can come get him later.”

“No, someone will come for him after the main column has passed Duncan. Is Katerina ok?”

“Yes Tanya she is fine. It was a lucky shot, it went right through the window. He was killed instantly.” Well it sounded good anyway, he thought.

“Thank you for telling me Duncan, take care.”

“Break it down CT,” Duncan said. Then he turned to Katerina in the back seat. She had her head against the door looking up at the ceiling. Scott mouthed that he would keep an eye on her and Duncan turned back to look out the front.

“The first one is always the worst,” Carol said so only Duncan could hear.

“They all hurt Carol, but ya the first one was the worst. Shit I didn’t even know that kids name.”

“My first was my best friend from high school,” Carol said. “Sometimes I think it’s better when we don’t know them.”

“Fuck!” Duncan said. “Lucky Goddamned shot threw the fucking window!” he slammed his rifle into its spring clip on the dash.

He looked back at Katerina again and she was quietly crying, trying not to let anyone see. Scott moved over and put his arm around her shoulder and she turned and buried her head in his chest and let it all out. She didn’t see that Scott was crying as well and the tears started in Duncan’s eyes.

“Fuck!” Carol said, wiping hers as she was trying to drive.

After half an hour of driving looking out the widow, Duncan turned back and saw Katerina doing the same with Scott now back on his side of the vehicle.

“It was a lucky shot,” Duncan said. “We were at high speed. Shit it could have happened to me just as easily. Sometimes shit happens Katerina.”

“He wasn’t killed instantly like you told my aunt Duncan,” she said. “It took him a couple of minutes to die. Maybe if I would have radioed it in, we could have saved him.”

“No love,” Carol said. “His main artery was severed, his airway was destroyed. We had no way to save him even if we could have stopped to try. He would have been in massive shock and wouldn’t have felt anything. He was probably brain dead already and what you saw was his body reacting, that’s all.”

“Remember what I said,” Duncan continued. “The mission always comes first. If we had stopped just then, we would have put more troopers in danger. We will be linking up with the others in a few minutes. They need to see you have your act together. Yes you feel like shit, so do I. But we can’t let them see that. They want to know everything will be alright. That you are still in control. We will bury him before dark tonight and celebrate his life tonight. Tomorrow we are back to work.”

They were waiting for them when they pulled in and joined the laager formation. The hole had been dug a hundred yards away from the formation and all the troopers were lined up and saluted the Coyote as it drove past.

“Go join your people Katerina,” Duncan said. “Have six of them bear the body to the grave.”

CT’s crew were already undoing the straps holding the body bag to the roof and others had placed three wide tow straps on the ground. They gently gathered the body as it was passed down and placed it on the tow straps and moved away.

Duncan had the Wind Riders form up in double file at attention and they saluted as the body being transported by six troopers holding the three tow straps walked by. Then they followed marching the slow step reserved for funerals.

They stopped opposite Katerina’s troops on the other side of the grave and stayed at attention as the body was slowly lowered into the grave and the tow straps tossed in after it. All of Katerina’s troops except her and her second in command, filled in the grave and then formed up in a line.

“We all knew Albert,” she said, her voice strong. “He was a good man, a funny man and a very brave one. Let us not make his scarifies in vain. Lord we ask you to give us strength so that we may carry on and defeat our enemies.”

“Squadron. Attention!” Duncan said. “Squadron will salute by squadron fire!”

All the Wind Riders raised their weapons and pointed them in the air. Then Duncan pulled his trigger and as the next trooper heard the one before him fire, they did as well and it sounded like a giant sheet of paper being ripped, as the rifles in sequence fired.

“Squadron order arms. Squadron dismissed.”

The Wind Riders moved away and left the planetary people to their own. After a few minutes, they came into the laager and grouped together. All of them were quiet, just sitting in their chairs looking at their feet or at the stars or anywhere but at each other. Duncan dug into the back of his G-Wagon and found a twenty four pack of Canadian beer and brought it and his chair over to them. He sat down, took out a beer and tossed it to the person across from him. It landed in his lap and startled him. Then Duncan started tossing beer cans one by one to the other six and finally one for himself and he popped the tab.

“We have a tradition,” he said and stood motioning the others to stand. “You have heard us say part of it before, now you will know what it means.”

He held his beer up. “To Albert,” he said and took a drink. He waited until everyone had taken at least a sip and held his can up again. “To absent comrades.” Then he drank the rest of the beer, crushed the can and tossed it to his feet.

Katerina was the first to follow his example and was soon followed by everyone else. Then Duncan passed out another can to everyone and sat down.

“Now I hear Albert was a bit of a smart ass,” Duncan said. “Why don’t you tell me some of what he used to do?”

Again, Katerina was the first to tell a story that got smiles and a couple of laughs. Then others starting talking and soon the whole group, including Duncan were laughing at the stunts Albert used to pull.

Then CT’s exterior speakers came alive again at the end of a French song and everyone went quiet.

“Hello my brave soldiers. This is the Voice again. My brave, brave boys. Once again you have been subjected to the cowardly enemy that refuses to stand and fight. They know my brave boys, they know they can never defeat you. That is why they run. That is why they pick on those paid thugs instead of you. Because they are afraid of you. Now I will play your song once again.”

Now that the soldiers knew what this was about, they all started to smile. For they knew the exact opposite was true. That the planetary soldiers were anything but professional and brave.

“Know my poor brave soldiers so far from home. Know that your girls and wives are waiting, just like the girl in the song. Waiting for their brave boys to come home to them again. The Supreme Commander is very proud of his brave boys and all the good work you are doing for him. Until tomorrow night my pretties, this is the Voice wishing you sweet dreams.” This time she ended it with some wet sounding kisses, before the feed cut back to the marshal music once again.

This time it was the planetary people that were laughing hard, especially when Barb made her way over to them and blew them all kisses.

“Hey you bum,” she said to Duncan. “Did you save some beer for me? That’s hard work you know.”

Duncan made a big show of digging out a beer and making like he was serving it up on a platter and bowing after she took it.

“Rightly so, my good man,” she said. “Absent comrades.” As she downed the beer and crushed the can, Duncan had another waiting for her.

The rest of the Wind Riders made their way over, forcing the circle of chairs to get wider. The beer was flowing freely and the stories getting wilder as more beer was flowing. Brett and Bob telling stories about Duncan back in the day, which got a lot of laughs.

“CT,” Duncan said quietly to CT who was sitting next to him. “I want you to take in the rest of Katerina’s crew tomorrow. I’ll put her in with my crew.”

“No sir,” Katerina said. She was sitting next to CT and had heard what he said. “With all do respect sir, my people and I function as a unit. We came in together and we fight together. As you said, the mission comes first and being a vehicle down could make a difference.”

“Very well Commander,” Duncan said. “I agree. Any volunteers to join the commander’s crew?”

“I’ll do it,” Brett said without hesitation. “Bobs been bitching about being cooped up in the big tin can with no windows anyway.”

“Well kid,” Bob said. “I forgot more about driving a G-Wagon than you will ever know.”

“Forgot being the operative word Oldman,” Brett said. And the verbal sparring between the two was on. The stories getting funnier each time one was told.

Duncan quietly got up and left while the attention was off of him. He knew somebody from his crew would bring his chair back.

“Duncan,” Katerina said before he had gone to far. “Thank you for that. My people needed it, so did I.”

“No problem Katerina. It’s part of the job description.”

“I’ll have someone from my crew clean up the mess in the vehicle so Brett doesn’t have to sit in it,” she said.

“Already handled,” Brett said as he walked by. He had Duncan’s chair in hand. “Just going to grab my gear. I’ll grab the ammo tomorrow. Not to be picky, but I like a little more fire power than you people have.”

“How can you people carry on like this?” she asked. “Like nothing has happened. A man just lost his life today.”

“And more will die tomorrow,” Duncan said. “Your man wasn’t the only one to die today. Kat, we are all soldiers. I have been for a long time, so have most of my squadron. When we put on these uniforms, we are dead men walking. It’s only a matter of time before our number will come up. I’d rather die like a man than cower like a mouse.”

“Live for today,” Karen said as she walked up. “For tomorrow we may die. Now if you don’t mind I would like to steal my husband for some after action sex. You should try it sometime Kat, they are really horny with all that pent up testosterone after a fight.”

Bret had his sleeping bag across one shoulder and weapons harness in the other hand as the couple walked away.

“Come over here Kat, I want to show you something.”

He took her over to the front passenger door and pointed.

“Two inches higher and it would have been Duncan laying in the ground beside your trooper.”

There was a scorch mark just below the window on the door.

“They were not just sitting there and taking it,” Brett said. “They were fighting back. If you look, you’ll see we all took some hits. Al has a burn on his arm. Like Duncan said Kat, it goes with the job description.”

“What is this ‘Kat’ business?” she asked.

“Oh, you just got tagged with a nick name,” Brett said. “Like Ghost or Voice. Besides, Katerina is such a large mouthful to say. Beautiful name that it is and all. Kat is much easier.”

“Why don’t you have one then?” she asked.

“Well Shit Head doesn’t sound right,” Brett said and they both laughed. “Come on, lets break the party up before it gets out of hand.”

“God Duncan, that was close today,” Karen said holding him close. “You almost got one through the window too and Al got hit in the arm.”

“Ya, those guys are tough alright,” Duncan said. “They were shooting back for sure. That’s what we get for being over confidant. I don’t think we will get closer than a hundred and fifty yards next time. Kats people are just going to have to make do. Tanya said we took out almost half of the mercenary’s fuel and water supply today. I think tomorrow, we will concentrate on the food supplies. Also, you people will hit them first and as soon as you engage, I’ll hit the middle.”

“You will be careful Duncan?”

“Hey you had a few shot your way as well,” he said, pointing to the scorch marks on the Coyote. “Sure they were long range, but your dismounts were in the open. These guys are pros Karen. We may out gun them, but they are not going down without a fight and tomorrow they will be waiting for us .”

Wind Riders 1.2 Copyright 2016 R.P. Wollbaum