Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [61]
Even as they got up from their positions, the men recognized the soft noise of Falco’s sniping rifle. The fact that there wasn’t a follow-up shot told them that the sniper hadn’t felt a need for it. But the enemy forces scattered in the newly created clearing in front of the ambush could still be a threat. Moving quickly, the SEALS went forward to check out the dead and dying.
As alien hands scrabbled for a dropped weapon, a quick thump of a suppressed shot ended the threat. Bodies were checked, and undamaged equipment and weapons were quickly stripped away. Everything was checked, and while the rest of the Team was looking over the killing zone, Ensign Sanders moved quickly up the trail, led by Marannis. Sanchez remained back with Lieutenant Jackson.
The killing was complete; none of the enemy had escaped. It had been a nearly perfect ambush, but the mission for that day was far from over.
Ensign Sanders and his men were in position at the clearing barely ten minutes after leaving the ambush site. Following Marannis through the jungle had been like trying to play keep-away with a ghost. But he had kept them on line to the clearing, and in spite of their speed of movement, they made almost no sound as they approached the clearing blasted into the jungle canopy.
Now they could see what they had been rushing for. Two alien ships, boxy affairs, were resting in the clearing, placed almost nose to tail with each other but separated by a few meters of distance. They rested on tripod landing gear that resembled skis or skids, allowing the ships to perch with a fair degree of stability on the flattened swath of timber and brush. Sanders saw wheels retracted above those skids and deduced that the ships could land more like traditional aircrafts if they had a proper tarmac underneath them.
What interested the young SEALS officer the most were the open ramps at the rear of the craft and the single alien figure standing at the back of the left-side craft, the ship that was behind the other one. The alien was looking off into the distance and holding some kind of optical device up to his eyes. It was obvious that he was looking for something, but what it was, the ensign had no way to tell.
Pulling back to where the rest of the men were, Sanders whispered very quietly and gave them a very simple plan.
“Master Chief,” Sanders whispered. “You and Dobson take up positions on this side of the clearing and cover both craft. Marannis, Robinson, and I are going to move over to the left and try to come up from behind these things and take out the crew. We can only see one man, but there may be others. Remember, above all else, don’t let one of these things lift off. They don’t look like they’re alerted, but they probably heard the ambush and are going to be wondering why no one from that patrol is contacting them.”
The men all nodded silently; there wasn’t much of anything to say. In moments, Sanders and his two Teammates had eased around the makeshift clearing to get a look at the ships from the other side. They caught a glimpse of a man in the window of one transport’s flight deck and had to assume that both ships had pilots aboard.
“Permission to move in closer, sir?” Marannis asked in an almost inaudible whisper into the ensign’s ear.
Sanders nodded, wondering what the point man had in mind. He watched in awe as the scout dropped to the ground and began to move through the tangled greenery, squirming forward like a snake. In two minutes Marannis had moved up to within a few meters of the rear end of the trailing craft. The plant life that had been knocked down by whatever the aliens had used to make the clearing looked to be totally flattened, but the SEALS point man was finding cover where no one else could see it. He was only meters from where the alien stood when whatever luck he was using finally ran out.
The alien put down whatever it was he had been looking through and turned to the rear of his craft, where the open ramp was. He shouted something unintelligible and grabbed at a pouch at his waist as he