Purgatory, 9: A Trail in the Wilds
14 Jan 2024Meowers
"One of the first things promotions taught me: now I have people who follow me. They can fulfil tasks given to them, they can fight, yet they are mortal. It is a striking difference when compared to being responsible for my own life only."
You can't see even the central star from here. The clouds are so thick and dense that the sunrise only makes them glow brighter. And that annoying rain... It never ends, it never changes. It simply exists, as an integral part of this world. No stars at night, no sunshine in the daytime. Being on this planet makes you feel isolated from the rest of the Universe, like it's nothing above these clouds, like it's the solid concrete ceiling of this world you can't get through no matter how strong you want to. And the jungle is endless. You could walk for days and weeks and see nothing but trees, grass, vines around and the heavy grey sky above. If there are places that want you to feel hopeless, lost, done, this one is a perfect example. Clouds shrouding everything and jungle eating everything away... They're like an event horizon. Once you're inside, nobody will ever hear you, nobody will ever see you, most won't even get to know you existed, what you saw, what you experienced.
T + 36h 17min. Stabilised the wounded and gave them time to rest. Medics had to rebandage them several times and check their vitals during the night, others couldn't get any proper sleep either. I laid on the ground, closed my eyes and then opened them instantly once the alarm buzzed. Four hours of healthy and refreshing sleep, dammit. At least there's less insects in the air when it isn't dark. Going through another day without that brownish rocket fuel instant coffee doesn't sound like a good idea and I don't want to deal with those bugs on top of that.
That map is a crappy piece of napkin artwork. No cardinal directions, no longitude and latitude marks, no topography stuff, no scale, no distances, it just vaguely follows the road curves and connects the dots. At least we can pick the right way using it: many roads are fake, they lead to dead ends, go in circles, form intersections where every choice is pointless. Marines tend to think it was made that way intentionally, with capture or interception in mind, and I agree. Like, if you work here, you can't lose the road, it's either tracks in the mud or thick jungle, following the lines will get you to the place you need eventually. And you won't find anything having this for a map if you're here to bomb the place to shreds.
It took a little over an hour to drive from the clearing to A-15... Damn. I thought it was a simple design flop. The truck didn't have a proper speedometer, only a filling bar on the dash, somewhat correlating with its speed. No numerical values. Damned smartarses. Okay, it was, like, two times faster than people mashing the mud... Crap, still like seven kilometres of damn walking to reach that B-02 thing. Through the jungle, parallel to the road. Okay, an almost healthy MRE breakfast and off we go.
T + 38h 03min. Walking, chopping, walking, chopping. Made a little stop a few minutes ago to catch our breath and chug some water, proceeding further... We're past the halfway point I presume. Thing is, I wanted to get there at night. If not for those slicky damned fishdogs. Finding our way inside in a broad, as much as it gets here, daylight could be impossible.
T + 40h 05min. Have a visual on the compound. One big building in the centre, several smaller auxiliaries are spread over the complex. Same treatment, guard towers, killzone around, yet... I can't see any dead bodies around, magnification is at max. Okay, something to consider later. Approaching, slowly.
Hm, those branches on the ground, they look odd...
Damn there's a trap!.. Everybody stand still.
40-26, discovered a trap. Literally a damn trench, hidden under chopped branches. Okay, I was right. Those branches are forming a suspiciously straight line. Fuck they're mad, it's two metres deep, same metal spikes on the bottom, mud, dirty water, infected grass, maybe some snakes, who knows. A nice welcome. Okay, okay... Maybe it was made for the crazed escapees, not someone with military training who's stepping carefully.
Chopping trees now, to drop them and get to the other side.
T + 40h 47min. Observing the compound. More guards than before, a big building in the centre, no less than a hundred metres of open space between it and the fence. Auxiliary buildings concentrated in the middle of the territory. Nah, not going there in the daylight. Retreating back to the trench to make camp and rest, my people are tired and in dire need of sleep. And... I am too, perhaps.
T + 41h 03min. Dropped our tired arses onto the ground. I've assigned the watch shifts, medics are inspecting the wounded. Will wait for the nightfall here... Like, six to seven hours. Going silent. And horizontal.
* * *
T plus... 47h 21min. Damn that was good. Like I never slept that well. Now, a can of tea and a cigarette. To properly kickstart another ordinary day.
Problem is... There are quite a lot of those fuckers, even at night. And they may be alerted. We can't just delete everyone like we did before and make it look like prisoners have gone berserk. So, here's the deal. Both options, sending a group to sneak in, and starting a fight and rushing in, could lead to losing people and not getting anything. And both options will certainly lead to revealing our presence. But, yeah, it's me, therefore the answer is obvious.
So, the plan. Four wounded will stay here, we have to act fast and they can't. Therrien and Roberts as well, they recovered from the infection yet still a bit dizzy. Everyone able to chop small trees, branches and vines should make a more or less dry place for the stuff from our backpacks and a makeshift cover and defence point. Even a half-metre high pile is most welcome.
Rocket team and engineers should sneaky-crawl their way to the opposite side of the complex and drop landmines between them and the fence. Jarvinen in the lead. Burn the damn sniper towers, make a hole in the fence, shoot a few mags to attract the mercs further, all that distraction attack job. Then run back straight line to the trench-trap, baiting bastards onto the mines. Not to the defence point, we mustn't reveal it unless the situation is dire.
I'm moving out with the rest, right through the front gate that is to be blown to bits. Hitting them fast and hard, grabbing all the interesting stuff we can get our hands on, dropping it into our emptied backpacks and back to the jungle. Both groups are to lay low for a while and then return to our wounded. In case of the distraction team falling into trouble... We could engage once again and goad the mercs to fight us, against our three heavies, one launcher and nineteen rifles, retreating slowly. They are unlikely to wander far from the compound. Rapid-reaction hostile groups are expected, fall back to the defence point in case of big problems.
Not the perfect plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Okay... Splitting up. 48:30 mark is the time to begin.
* * *
Next part: #10: Gifts of the Forsaken World
Next part: #10: Gifts of the Forsaken World