by Dave Hazel
“We’re with you boss man,” Roy Jr. replied and raised a defiant power fist.
“Captain Diaz,” Mykal yelled out Diaz’s name as he approached their little group.
“Yes Mykal?” He answered but his focus was on the many voices speaking in his small group.
“I just wanna have an idea what our plan is concerning the enemy and how we’re gonna go about confronting them or rather responding to them.”
“I would like to point out,” Finley spoke up first. “If we’re trying to fight from a defensive position, or hell, even an offensive position we’re not going to be very effective if we fight while we’re running. Meaning if we’re moving,” he added for clarification. “Most of our men will be stuck inside the vehicles and won’t be able to engage the enemy. I say, if we have a situation where we must defend ourselves or if we decide to go on the offensive, we should stop and allow our men to get out and really engage the enemy.”
“I would agree with that,” Diaz said. “We just need to ensure we hit hard and fast and move to prevent our men from becoming targets.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Mykal agreed. “I just wanna know what we’re doing cuz I don’t want us running around out there all half assed and everyone not knowing what’s going on. As long as you guys are in control and we’re working as one body and one mind, I’ll agree to whatever you suggest. I know we all want the same thing and I don’t want fifty voices with fifty ideas. Just keep me in the loop and make sure we work as one unit.”
“I would agree with you Mykal,” Finley said and watched all the movement hustling around them. “Since Captain Diaz seems to have a good rapport with Lanorear and his Hawkmen I would say we should yield to whatever he thinks since the Hawkmen will be our eyes in the sky.”
“I’m okay with that,” Mykal said and nodded with a friendly smile. “We just need to keep Doninka from the hands of the enemy until the 7th of February. Then they can’t put her out there for the trade. I’m gonna trust you two guys with this and I’ll keep her close to me and Towbar. Mathis will be in my vehicle and he has his radio so if you need me for anything just let me know. Looking at it from a game perspective,” he snickered as the idea popped into his mind. “We scored when we intercepted the ball. We have the lead in the game and now we have to run out the clock, but they are gonna come hard and aggressive at us to take the ball back.”
“Tain’t gonna hap-in,” Roy Jr. laughed from behind him. Roy Jr. held up his hands and enthusiastically forced them all to high five him. “Ya hear me? Ya hear me? Tain’t gonna hap-in. Tain’t gonna hap-in,” he yelled and did his best to sound like an old black man from the south which caused the southern blacks to laugh with him.
“I love this country boy’s determination,” Mykal laughed when he high fived Roy Jr. and they clasped hands.
“You is a crazy whi’ boy,” Green Beret Sergeant Freeman laughed and then high fived him as well.
“We gon’ beat these dumb ass hicks,” Roy Jr. laughed and tried to sound like a hillbilly which made them all continue to laugh with him.
“Seriously though, let’s get this show on the road,” Mykal said with an exaggerated wink to Captain Diaz. “We’re following your lead Sir.”
4.
“Hey Mykal,” Mathis called to him and disrupted the quiet rest the people in the vehicle seemed to be getting. “Captain Diaz is calling for you.”
“Hey Myk,” Sergeant Barry called to him from the front seat of the vehicle. “Captain Diaz is calling for you over the radio.” Barry didn’t hear that Mathis had just said the same thing just a couple of moments prior.
“See the difference between the Marines and the Army?” Mathis laughed quietly and pointed to his own head as if to say that he was smarter.
Mykal couldn’t help but laugh. He wasn’t sure if it was just anxiety from the heavy pressure situation or the fact that Mathis was trying to be comical and get a dig in at his sister branch of the military.
“Mykal here,” he spoke into the handset and couldn’t keep the humorous tone from his words.
“Mykal, we’re about to have our first confrontation,” Diaz announced into his ear. “We can turn and run away but we will be running into the hands of the enemy that has been in pursuit of us. They are the very same enemy that had the six large Things in their group. Or we can plow through this group in front of us. From my last conversation with Lanorear, we have three large groups coming from the front. The group before us will be the middle group. There is another group to our left and another group to our right. From what had been made clear to me the group to our right is much bigger and if we can get through this middle group we can get away from the group on our right because they are a little farther behind and not marching alongside with the other two groups approaching. All the groups will try to slow us down so the group behind us will be able to catch up and crush us in a vice like grip.”
“Well, let’s do what we gotta do to stop them and plow through them,” Mykal said.
“They are big enough that we’ll want to stop and allow all the men to inflict as much damage on them as possible,” Diaz said. “And then we’ll drive right through them.”
“Okay, you’re in charge. Tell us what to do,” Mykal said. “I’m kinda riding blind here.”
All the vehicles stopped and lined up to allow the men to get out with their weapons in preparation for the assault that was going to come their way. The army of soldiers that was coming their way was larger than the groups they faced over the past months or so. There were easily eight to ten thousand foot soldiers in the group that advanced on them with all their leaders on horseback, but there were several other creatures among their group that would be considered special weapons.
“Alright then,” Gunnery Sergeant Ratner yelled out. “This is what I like. We’re not going to be running from these worthless warriors from another time and place. We’re going to put a real ass hurting on them and then we’ll run right through their sorry asses,” he yelled to get a laugh as he walked up and down the line of men between the stretched out line. “Let’s just be grateful these dumb asses don’t have enough sense to wait and join together to hit us all at once because then, gentlemen, they would be making it a little bit more difficult for us. But we’re dealing with grade ‘A’ dumb asses. Morons of the first order. Idiots supreme,” he added to continue generating laughter among his men. “Now listen up,” he barked loudly. “My Mah-reens and you Dawg faces will show them what we’re all about. Am I right?”
“Ooh-rah! Ooh-rah!” The Marines shouted.
“Hooah! Hooah!” The Army personnel shouted in response.
“My Dawg faces will show you how much they love a fight,” Lieutenant Finley playfully responded to Ratner in an attempt to help motivate and stir competitive juices among the men.
Mykal liked it that the men were in a humorous mood and not fearful. Towbar had come to accept their mentality in combat preparation though the Elves still did not understand where they were coming from mentally. The Elves were a serious brood that seemed to lack humor in any form. They still considered the humans from another world to be peculiar in their humorous expressions, though they would not hold that odd deficiency of solemnity against them.
Mykal watched as the transport teams set up the Mk-19s on the ground with their tripods. He was glad because they would use the rapid fire 40mm grenade launchers while at the same time make use of the .50 caliber machine guns mounted atop the turrets of the transport vehicles. Mykal saw that both Captain Diaz and Lieutenant Finley were speaking to the senior transportation leader Staff Sergeant Barry. He couldn’t hear them but he was sure they were telling Barry to take it upon himself to open fire with his men and weapons.
Barry rushed to get inside his vehicle which was beside the vehicle that Mykal positioned himself. Doninka agreed to stay inside of the vehicle so as to not get in the way. Towbar stood ready by the vehicle should the battle get close enough for hand to han
d combat. The Dwarves, Nordad and his men as well as Hidtotim and his men were waiting also. The Elves had bows and they would engage the enemy once they came into the range of their bows.
Sergeant Barry’s voice blared through the speaker of the public address system atop his vehicle. “My men who are on the Mark 19s be prepared to open fire. When I give the command to open fire use your discretion but don’t spend more than a belt of ammo on them. I will let the .50 calibers do some real damage and besides,” he said and paused to look for Ratner. “We want to make sure our little Jarheads can play some too,” he said which caused roar of laughter among the Army personnel.
“I do not understand what is so humorous, my friend,” Towbar said to Mykal.
“See, Ratner who is a Marine called the Army people Dogfaces. It’s a nick name they use to poke at the Army guys,” Mykal chuckled. “And Barry,” he said and pointed to the vehicle. “He is an Army guy and called the Marines Jarheads which is a nickname to poke at them. They’re just playing with each other as we’re getting ready to unload on these guys,” Mykal added and pointed to the army of soldiers slowly moving toward them.
“I see,” the giant replied but he didn’t seem to fully understand what the point was.
Sergeant Barry waited until the enemy looked to be one hundred and fifty yards to two hundred yards away. “Mark 19s, open fire,” he yelled through the speaker.
After a slight delay all six of the Mk 19s rattled off their explosive death. The results weren’t precisely apparent due to the distance, but the plumes of smoke and the bodies of men being thrown into the air spoke volumes. There was sudden mass confusion among the enemy. The damage and devastation to those close to the explosions was horrendous but the explosions weren’t very big. For the superstitious people who feared magic and had never witnessed such weapons the effects were traumatic. The enemy was forced onward and driven into the battle in the hopes of making contact where they would have their chance to inflict their pain.
The men who finished their belts of 40mm grenades quickly broke down their weapons to get them loaded back onto the vehicles while the big machine guns roared and delivered heavier damage. Bodies were dropping as fast as they came into the sights of the machine gunners. Mykal’s men began to high five each other when they saw how viciously accurate they were. Most of the leaders on horseback were killed or knocked from their mounts. There were four Klardfurdams, the large rhinoceros looking creatures that did not have a horn like the rhinos from their world. Each of the four Klardfurdams had the tall skinny rider on its back. The Crymontox riders atop the large Klardfurdams, was the same type of creature that used a blowgun to shoot worm like beings into Mykal’s neck. The men were fearfully leery of coming in contact with a Crymontox due to Mykal’s experience.
Mykal was concerned about the four Klardfurdam and Crymontox teams. He looked up to the machine gunner and heard the heavy .50 caliber casings being spewed out of the weapon and raining down on the metal of the vehicle. Mykal thought the sound was musical. Though the sound was pleasant to Mykal’s ears, the sound meant men were being ripped apart and killed. Men who had families and who had people waiting for them to come home at the end of the day were being brutally stopped in their tracks never to rise again. Those who did manage to survive the nasty .50 caliber round bursting through their frames suffered worse than if the cold steel of a sword blade had cut into them. They would never be normal again.
“Shoot the rhinos. Shoot the rhinos,” Sergeant Barry yelled through the speaker before Mykal said anything. The men knew by his orders that by taking down the rhino like creature they would be in essence taking down the riders, the Crymontox creatures, also. Within moments of Barry’s orders all four creatures and their riders tumbled over. Whether they were killed or just incapacitated was not known. They were put down and out of this fight.
As soon as the four Klardfurdams and Crymontox riders went down, the remaining leaders on horseback collectively made the decision to stop what they were doing and turned to high tail it out of there. Without a word being spoken the machine gunners ceased fire and everyone looked to see if there was anything else that needed to be accomplished.
Gunnery Sergeant Ratner and Sergeant First Class Lemon received their orders from Captain Diaz. “Alright men, alright. Great job, great job,” Ratner yelled. “Let’s pack it up and move out. We need to move quickly because we have that army coming up behind us. Let’s go, let’s go. And be ready for a fight at any turn.”
As everyone rushed about to get back inside their vehicles Mykal was suddenly surprised by the trembling green flesh of his hand and arm. It felt stronger than the day before, but it wasn’t as strong as he felt at other times. He knew the enemy was bringing more forces into the fight. He didn’t know for sure where they were going to be placed but he believed they were going to be placed in front of them to make up for the damage they did to the force that didn’t even get close to them.
5.
When they drove off they knew there was another army to their left which would have been close to the force they just defeated. They went to the right in the hopes they could maneuver around the large sized group they knew was out there. Mykal’s concern was that another group or groups had been placed somewhere out there to help the enemy. And he wasn’t sure where the group behind them was. Hopefully Lanorear and the Hawkmen would have some good information that would help them to avoid the enemy since they were able to observe everything from the air. Mykal knew they were putting themselves at great risk. They would be killed if it was learned that they were helping the enemy, but Mykal hoped they would take up his offer to transport them to the other side of the world where they could start a new life in the Pass. Mykal also hoped that Nidious would be able to help reverse the curse that had been put on them by Zizmon-Tarl that turned them into Hawkmen and return them to the Elves they had once been.
Mykal didn’t like feeling that he wasn’t in control, but he knew he had to trust the leadership of Captain Diaz, Lieutenant Finley and the other leaders down to Staff Sergeant Barry in leading the men to their destination to find a local village or town where they could hopefully find a decoy princess to take the place of Doninka. Mykal vowed to himself that he would do anything and everything to protect Doninka, not just because of his personal emotions toward the girl which he promised he would not allow to interfere with his relationship with his wife, but because of his commitment to Towbar and Towbar’s people. Towbar risked his life to save Mykal’s life when he was struck by a death arrow during his first trip to this world. He would be dead right now if Towbar wouldn’t have stepped in and risked his life to spare Mykal’s life. Mykal felt he owed it to Towbar, thus to the King of the land of Labins to protect the girl that he could easily fall for if he wasn’t so committed to and devoted to his wife in another world.
‘Damn, I don’t wanna think about this stuff again,’ he thought and shook his head. He looked at Doninka who tried to close her eyes to get some rest and tried to honestly assess his emotions. ‘Stop!’ He rebuked his mental self from the torture it was inflicting on him. ‘I love her as a friend. I love Pam as my wife. ‘Nuff said. I have a friggin job to do.’
“Hey Mykal, do you think we’re gonna be able to get away from all the bad guys?” Mathis asked.
Mykal really enjoyed the company of Mathis and Mathis had a way of making him laugh all the time even at the most inappropriate times, but Mathis’s question was laced with true fear and concern. It suddenly made him feel bad that Mathis was fearful and concerned about their plight.
It brought back memories of Franklin Perry. Mykal carried tremendous guilt and heartache. The day before the big battle of July 4th he took Franklin Perry’s ammo away as punishment for falling asleep on guard duty with the intentions of giving his ammunition back before the Sosos arrived. With the busyness of the preparation for battle and how hectic the day turned out to be he forgot to give Franklin his ammo back. He watched Franklin get killed by two
Sosos since Perry was out of ammunition. It truly broke his heart that Franklin died July 4th because of his actions of taking Franklin’s ammo away. The thought of Franklin dying because of him not giving Franklin’s ammunition back to him in time of the battle and the scene of Franklin’s family sobbing uncontrollably at the news of his death was too much.
Mykal hated himself that he caused the pimpled faced kid to die that day. To top it off, the emotional icing on that cake of heartbreak was the journal Boris found the next day that Franklin kept going on a daily basis. The journal had several entries where he continually praised Mykal for being the true leader among their people and that Mykal would get them home and keep them safe and sound from the enemy.
Mykal had to fight the sobbing that wanted to take over and ruin him. He knew the magic of the gold band around his finger helped to play mind games against his normal state of mind, but he couldn’t fight the fact that Franklin’s death caused him true hurt in his heart. ‘I gotta stop this sissy crap,’ he scolded himself but he knew the ring would help bring his emotions up and down.
Deep inside he knew he never meant Franklin Perry any harm, but the fact was his actions and inattentiveness to the situation at hand led to Franklin’s death. ‘He was just a goofy kid,’ he moaned mentally and wished he could go back and undo that day. He would love nothing more than a re-do to not only give Franklin Perry his ammunition back but to keep him from facing off against the two brute Sosos that killed him.
“From the radio chatter Myk, it sounds like we’re going to be making contact with more of the bad guys,” Mathis whispered as if he was giving out secret information. Mathis didn’t seem ready to share the things he was hearing in his radio handset earpiece.
