Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [50]
But there was no point sitting there and taking in the scenery. “I guess it’s time to take a walk in this winter wonderland,” Jackson decided. “Can you pop the top?”
Grafton pulled a manual release lever, and the explosive bolts securing the canopy blasted away, throwing the shield upward, where it immediately was snatched by the wind and carried away. The eight SEALS and the three sailors emerged into a snowfield that was nearly thigh-deep.
“We move out single file,” the officer ordered. “Rotate point and take turns breaking trail.” He consulted his navscanner, which was a combination of miniature pocket radar and electronic compass. The radar was a mess of crackling static, but the compass provided a semblance of a bearing, even if it wobbled unsteadily. Remembering Grafton’s speculation about the location of Tommy, the LT chose a course of east by southeast.
“I got the point, sir,” Robinson volunteered.
Jackson nodded, and the squad started out.
Immediately the storm surrounded them. Jackson looked back after half a minute, and the wreck of the drop boat already had vanished in the white gale. Although it was not strictly night, neither could it be called daylight. Instead, this side of the ice moon was shrouded in a kind of gray twilight, dominated in all directions by snow in the air and snow on the ground.
The terrain was rough, scoured by ravines and outcrops of rock, though, fortunately, it was not exactly mountainous. Robinson followed along the edge of a deep ravine until he found a place to descend and then waded through chest-deep snow within the depression before climbing out on the other side. Jackson was going to suggest that a second man take the point, but the lanky Minnesotan pressed ahead before the LT had a chance to give the order. Remembering the man’s grim determination and the fact that his shooting partner, Keast, remained in the infirmary aboard the Pegasus, Jackson decided to let him continue in the lead for the time being. The lieutenant wouldn’t let the man exhaust himself, but right now the exertion might be just what he needed.
The SEALS tried to raise the other drop boat on their comlinks and used magnetometers and infrared detection viewers to seek their comrades, but in the end it was good old eyesight that led them to their target. They found Tommy less than a kilometer away, amid a halo of illumination caused by the bright landing lights shining through the blizzard.
The second boat had come down much more roughly than the first. It lay on its side, and the force of the impact had shattered the main canopy. If the SEALS inside hadn’t been protected by their pressure suits, they would have frozen to death in the seventy-five minutes that it took the men from Mikey to find them. As it was, the men of the second squad still were assembling around their disabled boat. None of them were badly hurt, and Sanders, like Jackson, had arranged to outfit the three navy crewmen with weapons, knowing that the only way any of them would get out of there would be by walking.
“I can’t even get a goddamn compass to work,” groused Sanders. “Every damn piece of equipment I own got the crap knocked out of it in the crash.”
“I’m having a little better luck with my navscanner now that we’re on the ground. We’re just going to have to hold to our bearing,” Jackson countered. “But we have to move, and move as fast as we can.”
He was truly worried about the Team and their navy comrades. Despite their pressure suits, the deep chill of the ice moon’s atmosphere was pervasive. They had no clear idea how far it was to the target, and though no one had been injured seriously,