The Return of the Grey

by Robert Lee Henry

  ‘You were out to the northwest? I told you to get away.’

  ‘Sure, but that was the best way to go,’ said Collin.

  ‘We could get a good look at them and watch the battle,’ said Roli.

  ‘It didn’t look too good for you when they brought those cannons up.’

  ‘Around we went.’

  The scouts’ talk came so fast it was hard for Mike to make sense of it.

  ‘Sometimes it is easiest to follow along behind,’ said Collin.

  ‘The noise moves all the creatures away and the enemy never thinks to check their backtrack,’ explained Roli.

  ‘No never, that’s right,’ agreed Collin.

  ‘You nearly got us killed,’ said Roli accusingly.

  ‘We had to come all the way back around again,’ Collin agreed.

  ‘The sky was low but we went lower.’

  ‘Except where the ground was high, then we went faster.’

  ‘Almost got us.’ They were smiling again.

  Mike felt he was back at the beginning. He put up his hand for them to stop. Think. Strategy, not just tactics, the Armourer had taught him. This battle had been the latest in a series of flanking attempts, always to the west. But the enemy had moved east coming down out of the pass, not west. They knew the west was closing down! ‘How low and how long, do you think?’ he asked.

  ‘Very low and soon,’ said Roli.

  ‘Even lower and sooner,’ added Collin.

  ‘You think it might hit?’ asked Mike.

  ‘Yes,’ they both said at once.

  ‘How much time do we have?’ he asked.

  ‘Only guessing, a day maybe more,’ said Roli.

  ‘Maybe less,’ added Collin.

  ‘Are we clear here?’ Mike asked.

  ‘Should be, it is way over northwest.’

  ‘But a bit more distance would be good.’

  A collision would shut down the region. Give the marines time to rest, maybe allow them to rejoin the main Group. The idea was tempting. But it would make new ground, ground that they didn’t know, and the skies would be wild. Aircraft wouldn’t be able to penetrate the new area for weeks. All advantages for the enemy.

  Mike studied his men. They need rest but they have one more good run in them. He turned to Delaney. ‘Eight men to take the wounded east. They should make the open before the hit comes. They can call up air support and arrange a pick up. The rest of us go south then west, wait out the hit then move into the new ground to scout. What do you think?’

  The sergeant considered. ‘Not in two’s like these guys. I can’t put the boys into that.’

  ‘Full squads,’ said Mike. ‘We reform, you and I included. That will give us seven full squads. We can cover some ground with those numbers. Not a deep scout, just until the Armourer calls us back.’

  ‘What about us?’ asked Roli.

  ‘The party with the wounded can report on this last action and pass on our plans. You two come with us, teach us what you can. When we move into the new ground, you drop back and scout for communication lines … and a quick way out if we need it.’

  ‘It’s a risk, Mike,’ said Delaney. ‘We’re too small now to be a serious fighting force. Not against the numbers they send. And this will take us further from the Armourer. If the big battle comes back there, we won’t be able to get back in time to help.’

  ‘The new ground will give them all the advantages,’ said Mike, working through it in his mind again. ‘They know that. They predict this stuff. They knew this end was going to get shut down. If that business at the pass had been their last thrust on this campaign, it would have been stronger. Troops alone couldn’t roll up our line. They would need surface to air weapons and laser batteries to get past the open areas our craft control. This lot was too light. More like raiders, aiming to get behind our lines and cause trouble, keep us from seeing their main move. That will come through the new ground.’ He felt surer having said it out loud.

  ‘That’s good thinking, Mike,’ said Tane. ‘I think you are right. But we can’t lose. If they aren’t there, then we scoot through and get behind them. What do you think, Delaney? A hundred men can do more damage in back of them than in front, heh?’

  ‘If you are going behind, we want to come,’ said Roli.

  ‘Yeah, there are things we could do back there,’ added Collin.

  ‘Find their base.’

  ‘Look for the Captain’s leg.’

  Mike put up his hand again. ‘Let’s see what happens when the dust settles. For now, let’s just get moving.’ Delaney was on his feet before Mike finished speaking. Mike smiled up at him. ‘Sergeant. Take command.’ As if he hasn’t been since we left the pass. He wondered vaguely why Delaney didn’t smile back. He reached for Mojo and Terri.

  ‘The dead stay here Mike.’

  CHAPTER 42: BLACK PLANS

  ‘Leave the fuckin’ dead alone!’

  Bley’s voice was as irritating as ever but he was right. We need to make time, agreed Ledock. These Red Suits slow us down. House get, with their baggage of honour and tradition. The Red Suit Commander, Kayrooz, had his men piling rocks over their latest dead, building a cairn to mark the spot. For what? No one will come back here even if this place still exists in a week’s time. The sky is coming down. They were all warned of it. It was part of their strategy. Get behind the enemy lines and when the west is closed by the collision, you will be able to raid deep under the low sky, their aircraft unable to search or pursue. Destroy their supplies and communications, and the next offensive will roll over them. And now we are behind their lines, and if we are quick enough, we can avoid their aircraft. He had not made up his mind on what to do. He would need to feel out the other Black Hands. May as well use this time.

  ‘Bley. Leave them alone and get over here,’ he ordered. Bley was a pain but he was dead clever. He saw things the hardest of them missed. Not a man to leave out of your counsels either, not if you wanted to go on living. From the cairn, the Red Commander lifted an arm and waved in thanks. Fool, thought Ledock. But he felt for the man. Not a bad commander, maybe one of the best of the House auxiliaries, usually up at the front, a good fighter. Old family, dedicated to the Houses, father to son over many generations, like most of the Red Suits. Well, from what those that came back said of the pass, that is finished for a while.

  Ledock took off his helmet and hand signalled to the other Black Hand leaders. He moved up the slope away from the rest of the men, checked the ground carefully then sat on a boulder. The others made their way over. Helmets off, their talk would be secure.

  ‘This is too slow,’ said Stuluck.

  ‘Waste of fuckin’ time,’ complained Bley. The lack of progress seemed to particularly distress him, make him fearful.

  Why? wondered Ledock. There is nothing behind us.

  ‘All they do is make shade for the corpse-eaters,’ grumbled Corso. ‘Our way is best.’

  The Black Hands had a tradition of their own. Dead and wounded were left where they lay. Black Hands were paid to fight. The spoils went to those on their feet at the end. All of them carried a fine blade inside their suits, a long thin stiletto. Dragged across an artery or eased up into the heart, it could be used to end one’s own suffering. Or if it was a friend, or someone who had crossed you, lying on the ground, then the blade could be worked through the join at the back of the helmet and driven into the base of the brain.

  ‘What is your hurry?’ Corso added. ‘Are you in a rush to surrender?’

  ‘Let’s talk about that,’ said Ledock.

  ‘About time,’ agreed Ritius. The others nodded.

  ‘If the big marine was true, then all we have to do is make it to the open and call their ships.’ Ledock set it out like a teacher. ‘Then they take us away, off the Rim.’ He paused to search their faces. ‘First, is it for real?’

  ‘Yah, I say so,’ said Stuluck. ‘If they wanted to kill us, it was easier back there, a few more minutes with the cannon.’ The bl
ocky man tossed his hands in the air to indicate the result.

  ‘Okay. So they take us to Base,’ picked up Ledock. ‘Then what?’

  ‘Then nothing!’ burst in Bley. ‘Who would hire us off Base? We have no funds we could touch from there. We would be stuck. No choice but to leave one-by-one as hands on freighters or to join their ‘Guard’.’

  ‘Ha. How would you like that Ledock?’ laughed Stuluck. ‘All your sins wiped, a new place for life?’

  ‘I like my sins and I intend to continue practicing them,’ he answered. Now is the time to sway them. ‘If we went to Base we would stay alive, but if that is all we wanted, we wouldn’t have come here in the first place. The rewards are here and they are still possible.’ He knew that they all must have thought about this, but he wanted to bring it forward, get them thinking about what they would have to do before he put it in words.

  ‘The Houses can’t lose. They are too rich and too powerful. This is just the start. Once they have the Passages, they will take their war to the Arm and eventually the Inner Belt. Soft rich green planets. Easy conquest. The hard fighting is here and those successful will be rewarded. Their own commanders are dying, or are diminished like Kayrooz. They will need us. The hard ones. How would you like to command the sacking of a port? … Or a whole planet? Anything is possible.’ That should have them. Hell, I am excited myself, thought Ledock. He gave them a few moments to run their fantasies then brought them back to the present. ‘The plan was to get behind their lines and raid. We are behind their lines.’

  ‘We only have what we carry, sidearms and supplies for maybe a week,’ said Corso. ‘Perhaps we should let them take us in, fly in comfort to their compound and then make a move.’

  ‘No!’ spat Bley. ‘They will search us, remove our suits, maybe stun us.’

  ‘He’s right,’ agreed Ritius. ‘We can not count on them all being as trusting as the big marine.’

  ‘So, we slip south into the hills,’ offered Ledock. ‘The main enemy force is probably somewhere further to the east, but I wouldn’t want to try to cross the open areas, not with their aircraft around.’

  ‘If the marines are heading back we may meet them on their way,’ grumbled Corso.

  They are more worried about those marines than the rest of the enemy. I don’t blame them, admitted Ledock to himself. ‘We put out scouts and go slow. If we see them, we avoid them. It gains us nothing to fight them.’

  ‘How can we go slow?’ asked Stuluck. ‘The Red Suits won’t go for this. The enemy will know where we are once they pick them up. We’ll be on the run.’

  The Red Suits. That’s the crux of the matter. Now, we will see who is up to this. ‘The Red Suits don’t get a choice,’ Ledock said flatly.

  ‘They are either with us or against us,’ declared Ritius.

  ‘The Houses pay us to fight, all of us. They would not take kindly to surrender,’ said Corso.

  ‘We double our supplies and leave no trace for the enemy,’ said Bley cutting through their rationalisations. ‘Not one the enemy would understand anyway.’

  The Black Hands went quiet. Trust Bley to go straight to it, thought Ledock, for once thankful of the man’s presence.

  ‘The Red Suits number the same as us,’ said Stuluck. ‘That’s a lot of men. Men we have fought beside.’

  ‘So?’ countered Bley.

  ‘The marines would have sent the word, that prisoners were on the way,’ continued Stuluck.

  ‘No, they just made it to the pass. They had no time to set up comm lines,’ argued Bley.

  ‘They would send men out, those scouts of theirs. How do you catch them?’

  ‘Why send men when you have wounded? I saw them gather wounded. The big marine would send them back. As quick as he could. And what way is that? Same as us. To the open to meet their ships. And they would carry the news. All the rest would go on to fight elsewhere.’ Bley finally slowed. ‘Stop the wounded and you stop the news.’

  And gain more supplies and proper weapons as well. He is cunning, admitted Ledock. I will have to watch him. The others seemed to have similar thoughts. Their eyes stayed on the slight man as they considered.

  ‘This gets tricky,’ grumbled Corso. ‘And tricky is hard to do on the Rim.’

  Ledock had not thought past the Red Suits. This business of the marine wounded was a fine addition though. It made sense. They could try to combine the two. ‘It may get easier. The open area must be close. If we keep going down this valley, we could be there soon.’

  The others followed his gaze down into the valley. The cairn was complete. The Red Suits were waiting, staring up at them, almost to a man. ‘I will tell Kayrooz that we do not trust the enemy ships. That they may not have word of our surrender, or take our word. That they will probably shoot us on sight. This, the Red Suit could expect of us. It would also explain away this little meeting of ours that they have observed.’ Ledock got to his feet. ‘I will offer the solution of joining the enemy wounded and going out on the plain only under their protection. Another day, south, over the ridges. That is all I will ask. There are no more wounded to prevent this. He will be reasonable. It will give us time. If no opportunity arises to simplify matters after a day, then we slip away when they go out onto the plain. It leaves us no worse than we are now.’ Another day will take us into a period of darkness. There will be opportunity. Confident that the others shared his thoughts, Ledock walked down toward the Red Suits.

  CHAPTER 43: A LESSON

  Barry could not move. Fear held him.

  He had worked late, lost in the flow of the numbers. The calculations were not complex but took time to get right. Orders for food, medical supplies, clothing, suits, weapons, munitions, shelters, all to be prepacked and ready for distribution. The re-supply had to be as efficient as the fighting. Casualties had lowered demand but there would be more marines coming out of Med on Base to go back on line and another cadre, maybe two, arriving soon. The Rangers were down to less than half strength.

  When he had finally lifted his head, satisfied at last that he had the orders right, he had found himself alone. The little burst of pride his accomplishment had given him had been instantly sucked away by the vacuum of the empty room.

  He had made the door and two steps out before he froze.

  He could see the lights of the mess hut. He could hear the muted sounds of people eating and talking inside. They would be relaxing, retelling old stories and making up new ones, guessing as to the progress of the battles, adding bits of news that had been picked up or imagined.

  The hut was in front of him, only forty metres or so away, across broken grey ground that he hadn’t noticed when they had come across after lunch. Now it was terrifying. Fine dust floated past, making it hard to see clearly in the spare light. Shadows filled dips in the ground and connected them to the greater darkness outside the arc of the lights. Anything could be out there. He heard a shuffling noise.

  A beam of light splashed his legs from the side then disappeared. A suited figure approached out of the dust.

  ‘What do you see, soldier?’ asked a gruff voice.

  Relief and shame overwhelmed enough of his fear to enable him to speak. ‘Nothing, Sergeant,’ he stammered.

  ‘I asked it wrong. Of course you can’t see anything. What I mean is, what is holding you here? You haven’t moved all the time I was coming round the perimetre.’

  Barry bowed his head. He couldn’t say ‘nothing’ again. Sergeant Tollen wouldn’t let it go. May as well tell the truth. They would find out sometime anyway. Let him yell and send me back. Better that than freeze and get somebody killed again. ‘I’m scared. That’s all. So scared I can’t move. Of all this. This dreadful place …’ His voice broke. Fear and shame welled up together. ‘I can’t even make myself walk across …’ He shook his hand at the ground in front of them, lost for words.

  Beside him, the sergeant studied the gap, turning his head this way and that. Now he will say something funny, something belit
tling, then start yelling, thought Barry.

  ‘On your own, no suit, in the dark time. I wouldn’t go either. That’s good sense, soldier.’ He cocked his head to Barry. ‘I thought I told you lot to stay in pairs.’

  This last was more like what he expected. ‘I worked late, on the requisitions. I lost track of time.’

  ‘Well, don’t lose track of anything up here, understand. It can kill you.’ The old marine squatted and continued his study. ‘I don’t like this either,’ he said after a few minutes pause. ‘Where do you feel it?’

  ‘What?’ Barry didn’t understand.

  ‘Whereabouts out there?’

  Barry stared into the dark. ‘Everywhere.’ He felt it again. Even with Tollen next to him he was terrified. ‘I can’t do this, Sarge. I volunteered for this duty to be brave but it didn’t work.’

  ‘This isn’t the place for ‘brave’, soldier. ‘Brave’ gets you killed here. You had it right the first time. Dreadful. Full of dread.’ He said the last words low and slow. ‘Now, close your eyes and lift your arm and point it out there.’

  Barry closed his eyes for a half second but couldn’t bear it, opening them with a snap that went through his whole body.

  ‘Put your hand on the shoulder of my suit, so you don’t fall down, and try it again,’ said the sergeant.

  This time he could do it, anchored to the solid marine. Well, at least he could keep his eyes shut and his arm up. This must look foolish, he thought. He didn’t care as long as the sergeant stayed with him. His arm started to tire. ‘What are we doing Sarge?’

  ‘We’re working it down. It is a marine way of doing things. When something is too big for you, you work it down,’ said the sergeant. ‘Keep your arm up, we’re not done yet,’ he ordered. Then he settled back to his measured drawl. ‘Now sometimes you look up in battle and everything is coming at you. Too much. You know you can’t stop it. So you work it down. Study it and find the pieces. Find something you can target, one enemy, or one gun, or one wheel even. Then you shoot it and go on to the next. That’s what we are doing here. Trying to work it down to something we can shoot.’