Until Relieved Read Online Free PDF

fire, but a lot of spools of wire were emptied. Then there was silence. Joe got his men up and rushing forward as soon as they had time to load new spools of collapsed uranium wire in their carbines, even before Maycroft passed the word that Delta Company had cleared the enemy position.
    The squad stopped when they reached the four bodies—three of the enemy, and one soldier from Delta. Delta had also taken two Schlinal prisoners, both wounded. They stood back-to-back, helmets off, hands on the tops of their heads. Two soldiers from Delta were watching them, zippers at the ready. Joe walked past the dead Heggies without a glance, but he gave the captured enemy soldiers a close look as he went past them. They were young men, not unlike the men in his own squad. They looked sullen. One of them appeared to be in considerable pain. There was a large blot of wet blood on the left leg of his fatigues.
    Kam Goff stopped and stared at the bodies on the ground. He had never seen a dead human before. One of these was in a particularly gruesome condition. His head had been completely severed from his body. A burst of wire had totally chewed away the neck, just below the bottom of the man's helmet.
    After a moment Kam lifted his visor hurriedly and vomited.
    "Keep moving, kid," Joe said, moving to get between the rookie and the corpse.
    "Joe." He recognized Maycroft's voice.
    "Yeah, Max," he responded over the noncoms' channel.
    "You're getting close to the edge of the trees. Find good spots for your men. We may actually be staying put for a bit this time. We seem to be a little ahead of schedule. Time to let the rest of the regiment catch up."
    "Okay by me." Joe switched channels and started positioning his men.
    "You come with me, Goff," Joe said after everyone was in place. "I want to take a look out front."
    Kam simply nodded. If he suspected that Joe had chosen him just to give him something to think about besides the corpses, he said nothing about it.
    They moved away from the rest of the squad, darting quickly from tree to tree, weapons ready. Joe led the way. Kam stayed just behind him and off to the side, far enough away that a single burst of wire would be unlikely to nail both of them. They stopped frequently to look and listen, getting down on their bellies behind whatever cover was handy. The background noise of gunfire had moved well off again. It seemed to be coming from the far side of the LZs now, perhaps as much as four kilometers away.
    The end of the wooded area was only thirty meters in front of the squad's positions. As Joe and Kam neared the border, they moved forward on hands and knees. Finally, they took up positions behind a cone at the very edge. Out in front of them was a grassy area at least two kilometers across, with grass that appeared to be waist high, and with only a few isolated trees—of a different variety than those they were under.
    There were no enemy troops visible. But then, Joe had scarcely expected to see any. That would have been too easy. An entire regiment could hide in that tall grass.

CHAPTER THREE
    Blue three and four landed in the same tight formation they had held while flying, making their vertical landings within a few meters of their ground crew. Neither Slee nor Zel bothered to get out of their Wasps or even open their canopies. They communicated with their crew chief by radio, assuring him that both fighters were running smoothly. While that conversation was going on, batteries and ammunition were being replaced in both Wasps. The ground crew worked as much by feel as by sight. The matte-black color and the gently flowing contours of the Wasps made them look more like shadows over the ground than physical objects. The canopies reflected no light. The interior of the cockpits and the flight suits and helmets of the pilots were also a dull black. Staring at a Wasp gave some people headaches as they tried to derive reality from the optical illusion that the plane's designers had