by Mark Harritt
Everett looked over at Caul, “By Sjurai, you mean us?”
Caul nodded again, “Yes. Unfortunately, they have a tendency to lump you in with the others. Things are getting better, but they still have some problems with aliens. Which means, they don’t want to listen when Mickey or Tom are trying to tell them something.”
Mike wasn’t used to being thought of as an alien. He tried to ignore it, “Is it just those three?”
“Well, let’s just say, those three are the worst.”
Mike’s face grew grim, “Well, if it continues, we might have to replace them with someone else that will follow orders. If they’re unreliable, I don’t want them to endanger the rest of the group.”
Caul shook his head, “No, it’s not like that. They’re very reliable. I’ve known them for a long time, since they were children. I would go into combat with them, anytime.”
“So, it’s not a case of they can’t, it’s a case of they don’t want to?” Everett asked.
Caul pointed at him, “That’s it, exactly.”
“Then, it’s doubtful that Mickey’s lesson was absorbed by these three,” Mike mused.
Caul nodded, “You’re probably right.”
“Then why put them in the ring with Mickey?”
Caul grinned at them, “Because I’ve never seen Mickey fight three men. It was … illuminating.”
Mike smiled, and tilted his head, “Were they damaged?”
“A little bit. Not enough to keep them from digging new latrines. Mickey was gentle with them. Hopefully, they’ve learned a little respect.”
Mike looked over at Everett. Everett shrugged.
“Still, you might want to keep an eye on them.”
Caul smiled at Mike, and patted him on the shoulder, “I always do.”
They walked through the camp, and Mike looked around. Small sleep lodges were arrayed neatly in rows, set up for two men in each. Remnants of the breakfast cook fires could be seen. All in all, not the most uncomfortable camp that he’d ever experienced. As they walked, they heard a ragged volley of shots ring out.
“Sounds like Tom has them shooting again,” Everett said.
“Well, we’ve got lots of ammunition for the new rifles. The more practice they get here, the less likely they are to freeze in combat. Might as well keep them busy,” Mike made a motion like he was pulling a trigger, “Nothing beats muscle memory in combat.”
Caul nodded, “I think Tom was saying something about reloading and clearing malfunctions for today’s training.”
The drill was pretty simple. This was about changing magazines and clearing misfeeds. The men behind the ones on the shooting line would put a random amount of rounds into an empty magazine, and then hand them to the shooters. This taught the shooters how to deal with random misfires and changing magazines.
They walked out until they found a small clearing. In it, they saw two lines, shooters and loaders, twenty in each line. Behind them, Geonti, Rieci, Dind and Leth acted as range safeties. Mickey and Tom stood immediately behind those four, calling out the commands. Further back, there were two more lines of shooters waiting for their turn at the range.
Mickey yelled, “Ready! Turn!”
The shooters had their rifles at the low ready. They turned to their left, raised the muzzle, and fired into targets in front of a dirt berm. Several of the weapons didn’t fire, and the shooters performed the SPORTS maneuver to clear a malfunction, and then, when it still wouldn’t fire, cleared the magazine, inserted new one, and reengaged the target.
After the last bullet was fired, Mickey yelled, “Ready!” again, and the shooters returned to their original position. Tom didn’t like the angle that one of the shooters was holding his weapon at, so he stepped up and repositioned it so that it didn’t flag another shooter.
Mickey noticed this, “You good, Tom?”
Tom held up his thumb to give the okay.
“Turn!”
Once again, a ragged volley of shots filled the air.
Mike walked over to them, “How’s it going?”
Since Mickey was busy calling out commands, Tom answered, “Much better these days. Might take a while to get them to perfection, but they’ll do in a pinch.”
“Good enough for a mission?” Everett asked.
Tom glanced over at Everett, “Why, you got something in mind?”
Mike grinned, “Would we be here if we didn’t?”
Tom smiled, “I kind of figured something was up when you said you were coming out.”
He noticed Ken and Rich standing behind Mike, “So they finally let the dogs out of the pound, I see.”
He leaned forward and shook hands with both of them.
Rich grinned, “They had to let us out sometime. Besides, it was getting kind of boring there.”
“Tired of brawling with Murph and the guys?”
Ken shrugged, “Well, you dance with the same guys, and you start to know their moves. Can’t improve your skills like that.”
Tom waved at the group doing the reloading drills, “Well, I’ve got a hundred men here for you to test your technique on.”
“A hundred? Looks like you’ve got eighty out here,” Everett said.
“Twenty of them are out pulling security. We’ll rotate the ones that just finished out to pull security while we pull those guys in to run them through the drills.”
“They any good,” Mike asked.
Tom nodded, “Yeah, they’ve got some good natural talent there. Some better than others. Pretty raw, though, no technique. We’ve paired the ones from Althus’ village with Matki’s people for mentorship. They’ll get it sooner than later.”
Everett motioned toward Mickey, “I hear you had a demonstration this morning.”
Tom nodded, a wry smile on his lips, “You could say that, There’s a few hard heads among the bunch. We’ve identified the ring leaders.” Tom crossed his arms and glanced over at Mickey, “They lost, so they get to dig the new latrines.”
Mike called over to Mickey, “Hey Mick, you have fun this morning?”
Mickey didn’t stop calling out his commands, but he had a big smile on his face. Mike noticed a contusion on his forehead.
Tom looked down at his watch. It was useless to track the passage of the thirty-three-hour day, but it was good as a stopwatch, “Hey, Mickey, time to rotate.”
Mickey called out, “Okay, secure your weapons, make sure they’re safe. Safeties, check all weapons, then we’ll rotate the new group in. Tell the ones that just finished firing to go out and replace security.”
Geonti started yelling out the commands in Contai. Mickey watched for a moment to make sure that everybody was complying with directions, and then he walked over.
“How you guys doin’?” he asked.
“Doing well. We have a mission. That’s why we’re here,” Everett replied.
Mickey sighed, “Good. Maybe that will redirect some of the anger out here.”
“Problems?” Mike asked.
Mickey brushed aside Mike’s concerns with a wave of the hand, “Nothin’ we can’t handle. It’s Althus’ group. They want some payback. They don’t understand why we’re here training instead of out there hunting down the Sjurai. They’ve got good intentions; they just don’t like our methods.”
Everett looked around at the recruits, “Well, maybe this mission will channel them in the right direction.”
“Wha’cha got?”
“We think we know the location of the next slaver attack,” Mike told him.
“So, the bug on the Turinzoni base is working?”
Mike nodded, “Like a charm.”
Tom looked over at the new group standing on the firing line. He held up a hand, “Wait a second. Let me go check a few things here.” He stepped over and started making his way up and down the firing line to ensure that everybody was in the right position. He walked back as soon as he was satisfied.
“How we getting there? We walking or flying?” Mickey ask
ed.
Everett leaned back and crossed his arms, “We’ll have to take the big shuttle. The village is about three hundred miles from where we’re at right now, south, southwest of here.”
“When you want to head out?”
Mike thought about it, “Well, tonight would be best. We can get down there a few days early, infil, make sure there aren’t any traps, and then set up the ambush. It looks like there are several locations where the slavers can infil and move to the village. We’ll need at least four ambushes set up.”
Mickey looked over at Caul, “What do you think?”
Caul didn’t answer at first, and then he seemed to come to a decision, “Well, we were going to move to the alternate training area tomorrow night. We can move that up to tonight. We can put each of the ambush teams under Geonti, Rieci, Dind and Lech. I’ll keep a group of warriors with me, in reserve, just in case. That way, I can keep an eye on the trouble makers so they don’t fuck up the ambush.”
Mike looked over at Caul. Mike smiled at Caul’s use of the English curse word. Mike had made a mistake, though, and he was glad that Mickey had subtly corrected him by diverting the attention to Caul. He’d been talking to Mickey and Tom, and hadn’t included Caul. Mike had to switch from his Delta training to his Special Forces training. He and the team weren’t going to lead the attack. He needed to step into advisory mode, something that he hadn’t done in a long while.
This wasn’t a decision for the old Earthers. For the Contai to become the warriors that Mike knew they could be, they had to learn how to lead. The best way to learn was by doing. Mike and his team would be there as advisors, nothing more. For this mission, they would give plenty of advice, but as the Contai matured as soldiers, they would slowly back away from operations and focus on training only, allowing the Contai to run all aspects of their operations.
Mike wasn’t sure how well he would adjust to that role, but he had no choice. He had to worry about Jennifer and his unborn child. Circumstances had stolen his chance to see his first child born. He’d be damned if he was going to miss the birth of his second. Besides, the only way that the Contai would survive is if they were able to embrace small unit tactics, and take the fight to the Sjurai. Hopefully, if they made it costly enough in life and resources, the Dostori Rev would leave the Contai people on this continent alone, although it seemed that the lives of her soldiers didn’t matter to her, at least, not the way she was willing to expend them on the battlefield. She still sent them out on slave runs, even though the last four missions didn’t come back.
“That sounds like a plan, Caul. With your permission, one of us will tag along on each team. I’d like to take Ken with me, and Rich can go with Everett.”
Caul smiled at Ken and Rich, “It sounds like you might be doing some training of your own.”
Mike nodded, “We get older. We need to train our replacements.”
“Hey, I ain’t gettin’ older. I’m just tired of hearing the young ‘uns bitch when we don’t take them with us,” Everett protested.
Ken grinned at Everett’s reaction, “I’m twenty-six, Everett.”
Everett glanced over at him, “Like I said, the young ‘uns.”
Tom changed the subject, “Well, Mickey and I still have some work to do here. If you lazy bastards don’t mind, you can step up and help us with it.”
Mike raised a hand, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He took his backpack off and dumped it on the ground. The others followed suit.
“Where do you want us?” Everett asked.
Tom motioned toward the firing line, “You can help as range safeties.”
“Done.” Mike and Everett moved to the firing line.
----------------------------------------------------
The rest of the day’s training was uneventful. Mike saw the three guys that Mickey had sparred with. They were the ones with the stitched up contusions and bruises. Mickey would beat the hell out of you, but then he’d make sure you were bandaged up and ready for duty afterwards. They weren’t acting like knuckleheads now. They seemed to be complying with directions. Time would tell. They got lucky, though. The new mission didn’t permit time to bury the old latrines and to dig the new ones. Caul didn’t let them off though, informing them that they’d have to complete the task when they came back after mission.
It didn’t take long for the recruits to get ready for the operation. One of the things that the team was trying to instill in the recruits was the need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. To do this, the recruits were moved between three training sites constantly. The recruits were told right before they moved. They’d learned to be organized at all times. That plus the fact that they were hunter-gathers to begin with sealed the deal. So, a quick word was all that was needed to get them ready to move.
The recruits broken down into five groups, the sections that Caul had outlined earlier. They moved to the landing zone and their leaders moved them into security positions with scouts forward in an observation/listening post. That level of security probably wasn’t needed, but it was better to instill good habits through repetition.
They arrived several hours before the aircraft was due, so Mike and the team moved to the edge of the landing zone. Rich was on radio watch, listening for Daijj or Shar to call, indicating the aircraft was thirty minutes out. That would be the signal to get the recruits ready to move onto the aircraft. If everything went well, they’d get onto the aircraft in a quick orderly procession. Mike knew something like that rarely happened with new recruits, but with Caul and Geonti running the show, he held out hope.
Mike knew it was time when he heard Rich speak, “Roger, this is Rich, over.” A few seconds passed, and Rich replied again, “Roger, Wilco, out.” Rich turned to Mike, “They’re thirty mikes out.”
“Got it.” Mike turned to Ken, “You want to go around and let everybody know?”
Ken nodded, got up, and disappeared into the darkness.
Mike turned to the team, “Everybody ready?”
Tom’s voice floated to him, “Always.”
“Yep,” and “Roger,” came in quickly from Mickey and Everett.
“What about you, Rich?”
“Yeah Mike, just putting the radio away.”
Ten minutes later, Ken walked back into the team.
“You tell everybody?”
“Yeah, I told all of the team leaders that the aircraft was about twenty mikes out.”
Ken moved to his kit and quickly put it on.
They waited until they felt the unusual sensation at the back of the jaw that meant the aircraft was approaching.
Mike turned to Everett, “Okay, I’m going out.”
Mike stepped into the landing zone, and pulled out a red lens flashlight. He shined it up in the air. Ordinarily, the red lens wouldn’t be bright enough to bring in the aircraft, but the old Earth engineers had rigged up night and thermal vision for the pilots. Against the darkness of the ground, with night vision, the red light would stand out like a beacon. Shar and Daijj would come in with the nose of the aircraft pointing to the light.
The feeling in Mike’s teeth grew and then he saw the bottom of the transport as it came in for the landing. As the aircraft came down, Mike turned off the flashlight and ran back toward the tree line. The aircraft slowly settled in the landing zone, and Mike turned to the team, “Come on!”
Mike led the way, and ran out to the transport, making sure that he didn’t lead the team close to the turbines. They made it to the back of the aircraft at the same time that Dind arrived, leading his team onto the back ramp. Mike fell in beside him, and they formed two lines going up the ramp. The inside of the transport was bathed in green light, another innovation that the engineers had rigged up.
Everybody ran forward, but Mike and Everett stood at the top of the ramp, waiting for the next four groups. As each group came up the ramp, Mike and Everett did a head count. While they did that, Tom came back to Mike and told him, “I’ve got twenty-one in the f
irst group, plus us. After the four groups got onto the aircraft, Mike walked to Everett, “What’s your count?”
“one hundred and eight.”
“Okay, we’re good.”
Mike walked up to the cockpit, and put his hand on Shar’s shoulder, “We’ve got everybody.”
Shar nodded and hit the switch that closed the ramp door. Shar said something over his mike to Daijj, and Mike walked back, staggering slightly against the acceleration as the aircraft lifted off the ground. Mike shrugged out of his backpack, and put in on the floor in front of the seat that Tom had saved for him. Mike sat down, settled in, and closed his eyes as he waited.
----------------------------------------------------
“What do you mean, he doesn’t want to leave?” Mike asked.
Mike and Everett had been working with Geonti and Rieci to place the last two ambush sites. Ken and Rich were there, soaking up everything that the four of them were talking about. It was morning, and the attack on the village was supposed to happen tomorrow night. So, not only did they have to identify and set up the best position for the ambush site, they were also working out where everyone would bivouac and identifying escape routes if the ambush went bad. Mike had the interactive map on the ground between them.
While they’d worked on those tactical problems, Caul had gone into the village to talk to the headman. Mike saw him coming and by the expression on Caul’s face, he knew there was something wrong. Evidently, it hadn’t gone well.
“He hasn’t heard about the slavers. He doesn’t want to move the families out of the area.”
“I thought we sent runners out to all the settlements?” Everett asked.
“We did. I don’t know who we sent out to this location, but they didn’t make it here.”
“You think something happened to them?”
Caul shrugged, his features stoic, “it could be anything. Injured in an animal attack, maybe a fall. We might never know. Eventually, if somebody’s missing, we’ll find out. Things have been chaotic lately. Hard to know.”
