Shadow Play by P. R. Adams

Author:P. R. Adams [Adams, P. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Promethean Tales
Published: 2019-05-12T06:00:00+00:00

17

Faint lights winked in and out deep in the crater, not matching the whistle of the sporadic wind. The image sent chills down O’Bannon’s spine. What had his grandmother called such things? Will o’ Wisps? Malevolent spirits of the damned come to take the souls of the innocent to the fey lands. He was no innocent, not after decades of war, but he wasn’t evil, either. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that entering the pit was the same as accepting death and sending his soul to some faraway damnation.

From his left, Lieutenant Franke crawled over. “Major? You see the lights?”

“Yes. Likely lures to draw fire.”

“Then they are down there? These Kedraalian invaders are real?”

The major put his trusty binoculars to his faceplate and let the video synchronize with his goggle optics. All across the crater floor and along the walls, there were glows of heat, pale stars in the abyss. Decoys. Clever. Resourceful. What else might they have down there? He could make out small spacecraft. Shuttles, most likely. There would be improvised cover, heavy weapons emplacements—things that blocked their heat signatures.

All while his men were left exposed. They might not be giving off a bright heat signature themselves, but he could see them with his own binoculars, and they were old. Surely an enemy such as the Kedraalians would have superior technology.

He put the binoculars back in their case. “They’re down there. Their numbers, however, remain unknown.”

“But you said there were shuttles.”

“Some, yes. A few look intact. And they’ve detonated something about a third of the way down. There will be mines, no doubt.”

“And we have heard nothing from Captain Knoel?”

“Not a sound.”

The lieutenant poked his head over the edge of the crater lip. “Could he have left us to face the worst of their weapons?”

“With people like him, it is always a possibility. It is more likely he will wish to bloody his little knives to actually earn a real medal for once.”

“We should head back to the base, bring back the mortars and rain fire on the crater.”

“Prudent, even if we lack the munitions to break them.”

“A few rounds among those spacecraft, they will rethink ambushing us.”

“Perhaps, Jan. But we need prisoners.”

“There are always survivors from artillery.”

“We need prisoners we can interrogate, not shattered vegetables. And we want to see their weapons. How better to assess the enemy than to see how they have progressed?”

The young, wiry man grunted, then edged away and poked his head over the lip of the crater again. After a minute, he came back. “You take Andressen, Gerard, and Lyonne, Major. I will split the rest of the men into four squads and descend here, here, here, and here.” Franke indicated four parts of the southern wall roughly equidistant from each other.

“And I am to watch while you and your men test the enemy?”

“We must be sure we know where they are before you enter.”

“I will enter along with you. I will lead the easternmost descent; you take the westernmost. Your sergeants can manage the center.

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