Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 76

Buy the book now at your preferred store: https://books2read.com/u/bM2Nna

***********************************

Waiting patiently in the pit, the Rangers were soon joined by the squad from third platoon. Ash elected to take the two tunnels on the right, and after a short discussion they began to advance, while Tian took up the rear, dropping radio boosters as they moved. The tunnels were not lit, so they reengaged their night-vision. For the first hundred yards they encountered no movement, and Thandi began to suspect the tunnels had only been meant as a diversion to assist the main force on the surface rather than as a serious attack.

Eventually they caught up with the drones they had pushed back earlier, together with a few Special Forces soldiers, who were attempting to set up a defense. The Rangers sealed their facemasks, rolling out tear gas grenades to great effect in the cramped caves. After a brief and intense firefight, they killed the defenders and continued forward.

The tunnels opened up into a cavern, and Thandi caught sight of beautiful crystal formations embedded in the rock walls. Ahead of them was a maze of corridors, and the squads stopped to develop a plan.

They were almost finished when Ash interrupted the chatter, her face pale. "A dropship has been shot down."

Toska rolled her Shrike into another approach down towards the valley floor. Elmira's radio communication kept her well informed of the location of the Rangers. As soon as she was cleared hot for a run, she had no problem lining up an approach, without fear of accidentally shooting her comrades fighting desperately below.

She waited until she was close enough, then squeezed a burst from the nose mounted minigun before banking away over the ridgeline.

"Good guns," came Elmira's curt reply.

Toska suspected that she hadn't done much damage, since the drones were once again hiding amongst the rocks, but at least her repeated attacks kept them from trying anything new.

"Two more runs and I'm winchester," she called.

"Copy that," Elmira replied.

A bright red light appeared on Toska's indicator panel, and she was so surprised she had to check it twice. Throughout several decades of operational experience, the light had almost never illuminated, and as she processed the implications she felt her stomach drop out of the aircraft.

The red glow indicated that an enemy search radar had swept over her aircraft, trying to create a target lock—no doubt for a missile. It wasn't an immediate concern since the Shrike was an effective stealth fighter, almost invisible to all forms of electromagnetic tracking, and whoever was aiming at her would have to be very lucky to get a return strong enough for a true missile lock. But it was an unwelcome development, only reinforcing Toska's sense that the operation was not going well.

She began a series of fast turns, as she watched the light's behavior. Whenever she banked, it flicked off, but then quickly came back on again after she levelled out. That could only mean that someone with a handheld system could visually see her fighter and was trying to track her across the sky. At night, that would have been impossible, but in the brightening morning sky, she would be easily visible.

She thumbed her radio switch. "Raven, this is Falcon. Be advised I am getting a fire control radar alert. Seems to be a manual tracker."

"Copy that Falcon," came the quick response. "We're scanning for contacts."

Far below her, Raider snipers perched on the ridgeline alongside the combat controller were checking every inch of the valley floor through their scopes, looking for enemy soldiers.