by Chris Hechtl
That ended when the Horathians used snipers to take out three of the fire team panicking the crowd to run. The surviving Marine tried to fire on the sniper but she too was cut down, this time by a spray of weapons fire from a militia member.
Grimly Patrick and Fernando Scalari moved in to finish off the Marines and any witnesses with single shots, and then packed the suit interiors with explosives.
The raiders thought they'd gotten away clean but were caught by an angry mob as they retreated. The Marines came on the scene to find the raiders had been lynched from a line of oak trees. Their bodies swung in the afternoon breeze.
“Summary justice has been served,” the sheriff said as he tipped his hat to the Marines. “Good day folks,” he said as he took his hat off and used it to wave people along. “Nothin more to see here folks, go about your daily business now,” he urged.
Gunnery Sergeant Anastasia Kodiak shook her massive head at the sight. “I'm glad they stood up for themselves, really I am. Should we cut them down Sir?” she asked, turning to Lieutenant Ch'th.
The Naga hissed as he turned all six eyes on the bodies swaying in the wind. “I'd love to leave them as an example but it sets a bad precedent. Go ahead, get them down. ONI will want to check them. Get photos of their faces.”
“Lovely,” Anastasia blanched looking at some of the purple faces. She shivered in distaste but then issued orders to the team to get to the grim task quickly before the flies came.
<)>^<)>/
Bordou, Chuck, and Freya returned to Fallbrook on foot. Harambe hadn't been happy about losing the services of the smiths but he hadn't stopped them. They'd graciously left the tools they'd made behind for the apprentices to use.
The trio of adults were amused to see the wall around the perimeter, and the welcome to Fallbrook sign on the hill by where the old Horathian checkpoint had been. Fallbrook was one of the few areas that hadn't had a visit from the Horathians since the Marines had landed, though there had been some fear of them at one point several months ago. Apparently it had turned out to be a false alarm.
Since it was so quiet, refugees had flocked to the town for safety and work. Of course the Marines weren't the only one to check each person out when they arrived. Old Buck had been formally elected as mayor and took the time to meet each group.
“Nice to see you again,” Al said with an infectious grin as he held out a hand to Chuck. The ape took it to shake it but Al ended up pulling him off balance in an attempt to hug him. The gorilla was far too massive for that so Al moved in and hugged the gorilla before he turned and extended the same greeting to Freya.
“Get your grubby paws off my wife bub,” Chuck growled, making Freya and Al chuckle as they broke the embrace. “You've grown!” Al said as he picked up and swung one of the kids about. “And gotten heavy,” he said in a sudden breathless voice that made the gorillas and Border collie chuff in laughter.
“Your place is still up,” Serena said as she came up behind her husband. She smiled a tight lipped smile to the Neo adults then caressed one of the brat's heads. She handed her a cupcake. The little imp took off with it as her siblings went off in hot pursuit.
“They'll come back begging for their own,” Freya said with a roll of her brown eyes.
“Let them. I've got a half dozen left. I baked them yesterday. We'll help you get set up,” she said with a nod to the apes.
“Thanks. Put it on our bill,” Chuck said with a shake of his head. “His too for a little while anyway,” he said, pointing a thumb in the general direction of Bordou.
“Hey, I can find work,” the collie said.
“What do you do?” Al asked curiously.
“I can dig, but I'm an electronics tech. I can do minor solder work too, and I know a few tricks in making things,” the dog replied. “I want to start a radio show here if I can swing it.”
“Well, you'll get a lot of listeners if you do. As long as you don't get too cute with the ads,” Al grumbled.
“So that means you won't be an ad customer?” Bordou retorted.
Al opened his mouth then closed it slowly. Finally, he grunted as his wife smothered a giggle. “Okay, see me later about that,” he said gruffly. “After you are on the air.”
“Right,” Bordou said with an ear flick and doggy smile.
“It's good to be home,” Freya said just as Tessa came around the corner of the building. “Tessa?”
“Chuck? Freya!” Tessa stared then turned to yell over her shoulder up the street. Chuck leaned over to see Flo sweeping a stoop. The Neochimp waved then turned to relay the news to the house she was at then to the neighbors.
“I see the grapevine is in fine form,” Chuck chuffed.
“And I can't wait to get back into it,” Freya said as she cracked her knuckles. “And get back into shape. We didn't get to do a lot of forge work in the bush.”
“So you are saying you are rusty and offering a discount?” Al teased. It was Freya's turn to look at him with her mouth open then close it with a clop. Serena giggled again as Tessa moved in for a hug.
“Is it true that Fallbrook has been untouched?” Bordou asked.
“Knock on wood yes,” Serena said. “Don't jinx us,” she said. “We've heard about other places. I know the Marines,” she nodded her chin to Sergeant Ivanovich nearby. The others turned to look at the Marine and then back to Serena. “ …have managed to catch a few people coming in. Most of them give themselves away when they try to smuggle weapons or explosives in,” she said.
“They didn't have a problem with us,” Chuck said, hefting his favorite hammer.
“That's because you are Neos,” Al said as Tessa broke her embrace to hug Chuck. Flo and the others arrived to greet them.
“Make it a party why don't you,” Chuck grumbled as Flo hugged him. Her kids found his and started to tumble about and play. One of Flo's boys got goosed then shrieked indignantly then went after the girls’ intent on revenge.
“I see some things haven't changed,” Flo laughed as Isabel came up to them.
“Nope,” Serena said as her own youngins got into the act.
“Is it really as bad as we hear on the radio?” Freya asked. She could see the sergeant stiffen out of the corner of her eye. She turned curious brown eyes her way, the woman was a good 100 meters away.
“Yeah, the cities are the worse, there are too many people coming and going to keep track of them all. And the bastards laid in stocks of weapons and stuff ahead of time,” Al said with a grimace. “They are practically going door-to-door to route them out. And then of course there is the occasional IED that goes off.”
“Last week someone didn't even know they had it. It got attached to their car and when they went in to the checkpoint the Marines caught it and yanked the driver and his daughter.”
“How … was it here?” Chuck demanded, pointing a thumb back the way they'd just come.
“No way,” Al said with a shake of his head. “Bixby.”
“Oh.”
“We've had a few try to get into town with weapons but the sergeant has it sown up. They get stopped before they get into town and searched.”
“Which explains the greeting,” Chuck said with a nod. “We passed the Smith farm on the way in. It looks like people are camping there but they aren't doing much with the place.”
“They haven't been to town for supplies. I don't know. Squatters …” Al grimaced in distaste. “I guess someone needs to do something with the place. If they can make it work …” he shrugged.
“I promised to bring some stuff back to Harambe,” Bordou said. “I guess I get to fill Kiki's shoes, though he's sending someone to meet me half way.”
“Lucky you. He got the radio gear though?” Al asked.
Bordou nodded. “And the supplies and care packages. I know he's too much of a grump to thank people properly but thanks from everyone else.”
“We'll put you up for a couple days,” Serena said. “I don't think you've got the cash to stay a
t the inn,” she said.
Bordou shook his head.
“Thought not. With all the refugee's coming in everyone's been getting hit up. The Essen's have been charging an arm and a leg … the bastards,” Al grumbled. He grimaced. So did a few of the others. “There is a shelter if you'd prefer that.”
“No, no, I'm good,” Bordou said with his hands up.
“Well, don't be out on the street after dark, they frown on that sort of thing,” Al said. “Curfew and all,” he said.
“Curfew?” Chuck asked.
“Never can be too careful. They rigged up street lights, they are solar powered,” Al said, pointing to one nearby. The others turned and shaded their eyes to see it. “I want to buy some. Simple and elegant things, LED's they said. Bright but they don't take a lot of power. Little black panel on the back sucks up the sun for power.”
“Cool,” Bordou said in a long voice, eying the device. “I could maybe make something like that with the right parts,” he said, walking around the pole to get a better look.
“Want me to get it down?” one of the ape kids asked.
“No,” Flo said firmly. That got the adults chuckling.
“Well, if you can do it you'd make a pretty penny,” Al said to the Neocollie. He'd heard a lot of people talking but most didn't amount to much.
“We'll see,” Chuck said with a nod.
<)>^<)>/
“They are here ma'am,” Lieutenant Eros reported.
“The transports from Pyrax?” Colonel Harley asked tiredly. She was working twenty hour days and it was catching up to her she knew.
“No ma'am. The Roy Boehm. They uploaded a flight plan when we requested it, they are from Antigua. She's a Dora class; I don't see why they sent such a small ship. She can't have much on her.” He knew the Marines would take what they could for relief but it didn't seem like enough. He and the other spacers had watched and listened helplessly to the reports of the crap going on down below. He wasn't the only one who had to workout some of his impotent anger issues in the gym each morning he knew.
Dana's eyes lit as she sat upright sharply. Her abused muscles protested but she grinned. “Hot damn!”
“Ma'am?” the lieutenant asked.
“Get Major Zedeal and Lieutenant Liu to send them everything we've got up to this point from the last download. Hell, send everything, they've got the electronic support to filter it,” she said. “Get on them the logs for the past couple of weeks while you wait on the spooks.”
“Yes ma'am,” the dubious lieutenant said.
“If they are half as good as advertised I'm going to love having a ring side seat for what's coming,” Dana said with a growl.
“Yes ma'am,” the lieutenant said as he tapped out the orders to the communication's team.
“What's their ETA?” Dana asked.
“Two days, ma'am. Forty-seven hours. They are already moving out from the jump point.”
“Good. Get them what they need and if they ask for anything we haven't covered get it to them. Whatever they need. They've got the clearances,” she said.
“Yes ma'am,” the lieutenant said with a nod.
<)>^<)>/
Jethro got the latest debriefs as the ship rumbled to her final destination. He was relieved to know there hadn't been any casualties in the past three-days. It was a small lift off his conscience. But some of the reading was grim, like the attack on the salvage operation. He passed on everything he got to the teams to pick over. Many eyes might spot something his and Bast's might have overlooked.
“Letanga, Lance, V'n'r, Pamplona, Jasper. Get the suits ready. We've got our work cut out for us,” Jethro growled.
Chapter 59
Bordou found a converted half-way house the second night that they hit town. It wasn't that he didn't like Al or Serena, but he wanted to pay his own way. He also didn't want to be a babysitter for them. He liked kids … as long as he didn't have to put up with them on a daily basis. That was also why, after helping Chuck and Freya get their home sorted out he'd begged off their offer to sleep by the forge.
He had immediately signed up with Al's militia though, as had Chuck and Freya. Al had kept the weapons in his basement until the mayor had made him lock them up in the new jail.
On his second morning he got news of a new ship coming in along with an offer to play night watchman. It didn't pay diddly, and he only had a baton and whistle for protection, but it got his foot in the door and gave him some extra credit to pay for his room and board.
<)>^<)>/
Captain Goddard shook her head. Getting her people in position to hit the town had taken weeks of meticulous planning and months to get them within striking distance under the cover of the eyes of the enemy, both the Marines and the natives. Several of her people had been housed in an old farm with still equipment in it; she had nearly a platoon that had taken shelter in the barns of a burned out farm right on the main road leading to the town.
An entire company assembled at various staging areas. Weeks of getting them and their gear into position. But finally, finally they were ready. Their patience was about to pay off. The signal went off and the units took up arms and moved in. She had a squad covering each of the streets. They would move in once her team started the ball rolling. She followed along behind her main squad with her reserve fire team. She wasn't looking forward to the mission and the bloodbath, but it had to be done.
She grimaced when she stopped at the 'welcome to Fallbrook' sign. Here was a good place as any to wait for the all clear to move forward.
<)>^<)>/
Sergeant Ivanovich heard weapons fire; the gunshots were distinctive and not conductive to sleep, especially to a Marine already on the edge. She swore; she'd just gone down for the night. When she didn't get a report back she sat up and got dressed. She had slept in her pants and undershirt so it only took a moment to get her socks and boots on. She rose from her bunk to hear more fighting.
“This is serious,” she said to her fire team as they climbed out of bed and geared up.
She put a call in to HQ and then grabbed her kit and rushed out the door. She tore off to the picket near Al's market where the fiercest fighting was. She took cover but got close enough to see Red Claw was down and PO Sanchez was manning the gun, firing into the night at something and too busy to get a radio report off apparently.
She saw more enemy tangos trying to slip in behind her and the PO. She turned and fired on them, then had her people move to the small sand bag fort just as the PO turned to look at them then turn back to fire on something further up the road.
She patched into the long range radio to put another call in. “Hold tight,” Lieutenant Decoure ordered her. “Help is on the way.”
“We'll do what we can sir, but we're in a crack. I don't think air support will help. The buildings are too close. Too many bunnies in the area,” she said as she saw Al fire his shotgun at a raider. The guy went down but another guy turned and hosed the market down with his rifle, killing the market owner and tearing his shop apart. A Molotov cocktail set it ablaze. She turned away from the blaze in time for a rocket grenade to hit her position and take her and her remaining squad out in a blaze of fire and pain.
<)>^<)>/
Bordou heard the weapons fire and looked outside. When he saw the flames and heard the screams he took off for Chuck and Freya's place.
“Damn it,” Freya muttered as she met him at the door. She let him slip in.
“I don't think the Marines have what it takes to take them on. Not if we're hearing screams,” Chuck growled as he hefted a hammer.
“Don't be a hero,” his wife warned as she ushered the kids down stairs.
“Who me?” the gorilla demanded. She eyed him severely. He shrugged and hefted his hammer. “We need to get to the jail and the weapons. You with me?” he asked, looking at Bordou.
“Hell yeah,” the Border collie said.
“Just kick ass,” Freya said. Chuck nodded, blew her a kiss, then
he slipped out into the fire lit night. Bordou had a last look behind him and then followed in his wake.
<)>^<)>/
Flo, Isabel, and Tessa heard the shots and rat-tat tat of weapon fire. It woke them all out of a sound sleep. The women got together and grabbed Flo's kids to head away from the sounds of fighting. They headed north east, getting off the main road. They passed the inn but turned back when they saw bodies at the checkpoint.
“The river. We get there and hide for the moment,” Isabel said as she pulled a tearful Flo and Tessa along with her.
<)>^<)>/
Chuck chuffed as he noted Bordou shadowing him. They kept low and circled around the fighting. When they saw a human cut down a woman Chuck hid. “Okay, let's assess. We've got hand weapons and they've got rifles,” Bordou breathed softly.
“You didn't have to come,” Chuck said, looking at the Border collie.
“Hell if I'm going to let you hog all the fun,” Bordou said as a raider came around the corner and spotted them. He tossed the knife he'd picked up in the forge. It wasn't finished so therefore unbalanced; it went end over end and hit the guy in the chest but not enough to penetrate. The guy went down but then got up.
However, Chuck had rumbled in on all fours like a freight train of muscle and rage. His hammer crushed the guy's skull. He picked up the guy's weapon just as someone fired on him.
He got one shot off as Bordou got to his side, then slumped. Bordou got the weapon and fired until the clip was empty. The enemy heard the clicks and came out to shoot him. He tried to pull Chuck aside but the wounded gorilla was too heavy.
When the raider got close he had one last card to play. He yanked a grenade off the dead raider, pulled the pin and then threw it just as a shot caught him in the chest. He saw the grenade go up, then come down slowly, as if in slow motion. It fell to the ground behind the shooters.
They turned to look at it just as it went off, throwing them backwards towards him.
“Got … them,” he said to Chuck as Chuck groaned.
“Get off,” Chuck answered but he couldn't push the Neodog off. He tried to put a hand over his wound but he couldn't move. “Gotta … get … Reya …” Darkness descended.
