The Wounded Warrior

by Jim Laughter

  The commander had looked forward to using it himself to map this planet. Now he would have to rely on the cruder scout reports (which he discovered to be many cycles older) and improvise if problems developed.

  The last item in his report would be the stupid death of one of his soldiers. The Hive Rep discouraged the waste of resources, even mere underlings. Again, it could be chalked up to the hazards of the mission. But just in case, the commander listed it last. That way the Hive Rep might not notice such a minor detail. The fact that the dead soldier had been of a diverse caste of the same spawning as the Hive Rep himself added complications the commander did not want to contemplate.

  The other thing the commander hoped for in the transmission was reports from the outlaying detachments on the four other planets under his command. He had placed his most trusted underlings in charge of each so they could function with some level of autonomy. Still, he liked to keep a claw on things lest they go off in unexpected directions.

  That was a lesson he’d learned the hard way from the disaster at his human farm. The corpse of that underling overseer had been fouled and then returned to his home planet as an example. That it had been a spawn mate had been a considerable embarrassment.

  The commander was checking his timing device for the eighth time when the unit responded. Recognizing the correct carrier code, he switched it to transceiver mode. After a series of brief light flashes, it finished. Pulling out the transcriber module, he sat on a convenient rock to read it.

  Scanning through the usual self-congratulatory paragraphs in the opening, he got down to the meat of the message. Why those above him enjoyed all the fluffy language, he attributed to their soft existence. He preferred his news like his food - meaty and raw.

  As expected, there were the regular reports from his various contingents deposited on each of the selected planets. Most were proceeding according to instructions. However, his experienced eye detected subtle clues that said otherwise. He understood why underlings tried to hide their mistakes. He had done it himself. Now that he was on the receiving end of such deceit, it was less appreciated.

  As far as he could determine, everything was going as expected. All detachments had landed safely and undetected. A few glitches with equipment were obvious by lack of mention as was the unaccounted for loss of a few soldiers.

  Scanning further, he found the report from Credence last. Funny he still thought of that victory by the human name for the place. It had a better ring to it than the Hive’s designation. He had gotten used the human word from his dealing with them before the harvest.

  Knowing of their previous problems before receiving new orders, he understood their frustration. The simple task of mopping up after the transports had left stuffed with humans for his failed human farm should have been easy. But a series of difficulties had beset that detachment that no one could have foreseen.

  The commander remembered the direct communications he received (that the Hive had no knowledge of, he hoped) detailing the ensuing chaos. Equipment failing at higher than normal rates, problems hunting down the humans that escaped the first harvest, and the uncooperative behavior of the captive humans were enough to cause anyone’s horns to droop.

  Then he had sent new orders to release the captives they were still holding. The commander could imagine their shock but pleased they were followed in spite of the bizarre nature of his directions. Even to him such orders were against his nature, but one does such things to survive, especially when dealing with the Main Hive.

  But here, although couched in careful terms, was the latest happenings on that isolated planet. Their captive humans had been released and made haste scattering. Individual scouts watched them from afar for clues to where the other humans were hiding. It was that habit of the humans that he counted on to gather knowledge for the next harvest. Complacency would set in and the humans would become lax. Given their proclivities for communal living, the scattered individuals and groups would congregate over time, making it easier to track them for rounding up later. Oh, how he wished he could be there for the final chapter of his success on that planet.

  And now the overseer was again starting the scouting missions to outline the upcoming harvest. If the humans were as intelligent as he suspected after the human farm debacle, they were aware of those missions. That was as the commander intended. A little panic would lead to mistakes. He was counting on it.

  The commander allowed himself to imagine what those stupid humans would be thinking. As soon as panic set in, they would scatter. Afraid of being seen in large numbers, the different groups would fan out. If patterns followed, they would head back to their previous hiding places and thus reveal themselves to his scouts. He had no doubt his overseer was recording and mapping all of this.

  Scattering would give his soldiers another advantage - no organized opposition. As he had discovered from the debacle of the farms, large groups of humans were a serious problem if organized. Even though they were weaker than his soldiers, they could fight fiercely even without proper weapons. Several of his soldiers at the farm had paid for that lesson with their lives. The commander did not regret their loss since it could have been he killed by the mob of captives instead of just a squad of unimportant low-caste drone underlings. They were replaceable. He wasn’t. However, he had not taken the lesson lightly and applied changes accordingly.

  Soon his overseer would start the next phase of the new plan for Credence. With all the human hideouts located and mapped, the contingent there would prepare a new assault. Instead of landing in the middle of a region thick with humans, they would land on the outskirts. Moving inward, they’d drive the humans closer together and cause them to congregate. Then, just as the humans were massed, his soldiers would to fall back. This should provoke the humans to abandon their defensive posture and follow his retreating soldiers. Since any Red-tail could easily outrun a human, there would be little risk to his detachment.

  With the humans drawn out of hiding and nicely grouped, the final phase of his plan would begin. The commander closed his eyes and imagined the moment. The humans, tired and disorganized from having chased his soldiers, would find themselves surrounded and trapped. Their zeal to pursue the soldiers who were actually baiting them would work against them since any organized groups would be scattered in odd bunches. Easy pickings for his trained harvesters.

  The commander prided himself on culling out the strongest of the humans for capture first. The small, weaker humans and their spawn would be left behind, alone and undefended. These were the real prize of the harvest. Their valuable meat was much sought after back on the home worlds and he would wring maximum value out of them. The larger and stronger human males would be slaughtered and packed for shipment back to ready markets. He would again relish the rewards that would come with his advancement.

  But enough of this delicious pleasure. He must order his local detachment to pack the tight beam transceiver. He hoped his hunters would be back from checking their traps soon. He was hungry and he knew the rest of his soldiers would be as well. Although not as tasty as human meat, the game the hunters had been securing was better than field rations. Using the short-range signaler, the commander ordered the detail to return to the surface to retrieve the equipment. He was looking forward to the warmth deep underground.

  The commander was just closing the signaling equipment when his two hunters came rushing toward the cave entrance. They were obviously agitated about something and acting most undisciplined. He could tell even from a distance they’d not filled their quota of meat. They slid to a stop in front of him but did not bow in abeyance as was fitting their low caste.

  “Protocol report!” he growled at the errant soldiers. It took a moment for them to calm themselves. As soon as they were calm, they bowed and then stood at attention. He took his time glaring at them with his most critical eye. He enjoyed making them suffer under his most hostile glare, fearful he might flay them alive. Such were the privileges of command
.

  Satisfied at last, he barked his next order. “Explain yourselves and the obvious lack of meat strapped to your lazy backs!”

  He was surprised they didn’t wither in his presence. Just then the soldiers who had been waiting below appeared. Considering their rapid appearance, the commander suspected they had not gone all the way back down to their underground quarters. He would have to deal with that disobedience later. Right now he had to finish with these unproductive hunters. A glare from the commander at the other errant soldiers brought them up short. They assumed the proper position and stood silent in their rank. The commander turned his attention back to the two hapless hunters.

  “What do you have to say for yourselves before you sacrifice your flesh to my whip?” he growled for the benefit of the other soldiers witnessing this disciplining session. “Why did you return to camp without your quota of meat?” he growled. “And what of the body of your comrade? Where is it?”

  “We went to recover our comrade’s body as you commanded,” the first hunter stammered in obvious fear. “But we found it had been disturbed.”

  “What?” roared the commander. “You let it be defiled by some alien animal?”

  The two hunters quaked under his verbal assault. “Yes and no,” replied the second hunter with trepidation.

  “Explain yourself!” demanded the commander as he unlimbered his long knife. “Maybe a little pain will help you achieve some clarity.”

  “We found evidence of something digging around the body,” the first hunter said hastily. “But it was not one of the wild animals we have encountered on this planet.”

  “What kind of animal could disturb a properly buried body?”

  A silence developed between the two hunters as each hesitated to speak. The commander brought his long knife up to where the two hunters could see its sharp edge more clearly. At random, he chose the second hunter to intimidate.

  The unlucky hunter paled noticeably until his hide was nearly pink. “Human,” he said in a quivering whisper.

  “What?” the commander hissed. “I want details!” He turned toward the other hunter.

  “It was humans,” he said with more confidence than his partner. “Two of them,” he added loud enough for all to hear. “Female humans.”

  “Were they armed?”

  The last thing he needed right now was to be discovered by fighters from the human mass. But females? Not even humans would use females as fighters. Females were good for only two things —breeding and food.

  “As far as we were able to discern, no,” the second hunter added to the report. “We found no evidence that either were fighters.”

  A mummer ran through the ranks of the other soldiers. The possibility of capturing and feasting on humans, especially females, caused their discipline to falter.

  At the mention of human females, the commander lost all interest in further debasing his hunters. He even dismissed from his mind future punishment for them or the other errant soldiers in his command. Right now, all he wanted was to sink his fangs into the tender raw flesh of a human female.

  Forcing his mind to focus, the commander started barking orders. “You two!” he snarled at the hunters. “Each of you take separate details and lead them in a proper search. Bring me back those human females alive and unharmed.” He then whirled around to face the other soldiers now standing sloppily in their rank.

  “You!” he said to one he picked at random. The soldier became rigid in fear of his senior. “You coordinate here between the two groups.”

  The soldier had a glimmer of disappointment in his eyes. He wanted to be on the hunt. The others in rank reacted to the fearsomeness of the commander and came to stiff attention.

  “And you!” he barked at yet another. “Start breaking down and moving this equipment inside. I don’t want it damaged when the captives are brought in.”

  Everything froze in place while his orders sunk in. He waited a moment to be sure his underlings understood exactly what he wanted them to do. He let the tension build until it was ready to snap. Then he released them with a command motion and one simple word spat between his dark red fangs. “Move!”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Anna was worried. Ever since she and Leatha discovered they were trapped on this side of the river, Leatha had changed. Instead of the vibrant young trooper she had come to know, now there was a leaner, meaner creature with a cold deadly look in her eye. She would almost call it feral. Rather than an alarmed but resourceful hiking partner, Leatha had turned into a calculating hunter. This was far worse than the earlier incident by the fire days before. Moreover, Anna did not know where it would take them.

  She recalled the conversation she’d had with this radically different young woman.

  “The game just changed,” Leatha said in a quiet, stronger voice. “Now we are the hunters!”

  The difference in her was as dramatic as it was staggering.

  “You’re crazy!” Anna hissed, fearful she would be overheard. “We can’t fight them. They’re larger and stronger than we are.”

  “Watch me,” Leatha retorted. The low tenor of her voice sent cold chills up Anna’s spine.

  And with that she took off into the forest with Anna trailing desperately behind. She was amazed at how cat-like Leatha had become as she glided through the woods without a sound.

  At first, Anna tried to imitate Leatha’s movements but the effort made her even clumsier. Leatha stopped and whirled around to face her after one particularly noisy episode. There was still that air of a lean cold killer about the younger woman, but Anna thought she saw a glimmer of Leatha’s old self around the edges.

  “Relax. Think like the wind,” Leatha whispered.

  “But I can’t move that fast!”

  “Not fast,” Leatha replied in a funny singsong voice. “Soft. Like a gentle breeze sifting between the branches.”

  She turned and was gone, silently leading Anna deeper into the trees.

  As far as Anna could determine with her finely honed sense of direction, Leatha was leading them back via a different route to where they had discarded most of their packs. It seemed longer but it only took two hours to regain the location albeit from a different angle. Anna was dismayed to see a tree above where they had buried the gear had come down. The resulting destruction buried and probably destroyed anything useful that might be there.

  After sniffing the air for a moment, Leatha turned to her friend while they crouched behind a low stand of brush.

  “It’s all gone,” Anna whispered before her friend could speak.

  “Good,” Leatha said unexpectedly. “That means they can’t use it against us.”

  “What do you mean?” Anna confused by Leatha’s unusual statement.

  “The desire we might have for that stuff could be used to trap us,” Leatha said, again in that funny, singsong voice. “Its loss frees us from the limitations of too many resources,” she added, sounding more like her old self. Anna could almost swear there were two Leatha’s in front of her, one a deadly hunter and the other the shadow of a child from her past.

  “What do we do now?”

  Leatha again sniffed the air and then peeked over the brush. After a quick scan, she ducked back down.

  “They’ll be coming. They always do.”

  “But you said they’re able to track us!” Anna exclaimed. “They can follow us wherever we go.”

  “I know,” Leatha again responded in a flat voice. “I’m counting on it.”

  Leatha then seemed to draw inward and just squatted there in the brush. Anna did not know quite what to do. She had a gnawing fear that she was the only adult present. Leatha’s demeanor reminded Anna of a feral child she’d read about in a magazine years ago. After a minute, Leatha glanced back up at Anna, tears filling her eyes, compounding Anna’s fear. Then in a flash, the distant expression disappeared, replaced again by the fearsome look of the hunter.

  Without speaking, Leatha, still crouching,
slid out through the brush and into the woods. Anna scrambled to follow and noticed Leatha was leading them in a circle bypassing the site. As soon as they were well away from it, Leatha changed direction, moving higher into the hills on a zigzag course.

  ∞∞∞

  With the tight beam transceiver safely returned to their underground quarters on this alien planet, the commander allowed his soldiers to return to the entrance. Taking just enough time to map out their search plans, the two anxious groups of soldiers moved off into the alien vegetation.

  The commander noted the soldier designated to remain behind to coordinate the search looking longingly after his disappearing comrades. He understood what the underling was thinking since he was thinking it himself. Both were anxious to again taste human flesh.

  It was this drive that motivated the commander in all his plans for the future. He didn’t understand the chemical interactions involved that made his species crave the human delicacy, but that did not matter. What did matter is that he was working on serious ways to meet that demand. That was his path to greatness and a place in the Main Hive. He was not interested in the talk of conquest among other cluster commanders of his rank. That was for politicians. He craved the privilege that comes from having absolute power.

  Looking down at the underling next to him, he had a brief flash of sympathy. He too longed for the delicious meat. Nevertheless, he knew his path to greatness and redemption with the Main Hive rested in the desires of the underling. Such thoughts hardened his resolve and his response.

  “Maintain station!” he snapped at the frustrated soldier.

  Out in the brush, the two hunters were having their own frustrations. In their eagerness to catch the humans, the soldiers were trying to go faster than their immediate overseers would tolerate.

  “Keep rank!” snarled the first hunter at his group. The half dozen soldiers were fanning out in front of him in a standard search pattern. The combination of their haste and lust for the meat was causing them to leave large gaps unchecked between them.