by Michael Ryan
Our numbers looked like this: Callie, Abrel, Mallsin, and me in the command team.
Dragon Squad: eight green troopers and two orange, including Veetea.
Devil Squad: nine green troopers and one orange.
Elefant Squad: eight green troopers and two orange.
Muldvarp prisoners: three, all apparently in good shape.
Humans: fifty-eight total, including Kevin, who I’d put in charge of the civilians. They were roughly split between males and females.
Purvasts: fifty-four. Males outnumbered females about two to one.
Katashie: thirty-seven. There were only eight males. Of the twenty-nine females, twelve were visibly pregnant, and four of the others carried newborn infants. The babies were tightly bundled in the women’s garments, so I hadn’t noticed them before.
I was in charge of one hundred and eighty-six persons.
We had no accurate maps this far into nowhere.
Communication with the Kuznetsov was down.
We lacked food and water.
And as we entered the forest, I noticed we were being stalked by a hunter wasp.
CHAPTER TWENTY
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
~ Gaius Julius Caesar
I quickly killed the lone wasp scout, but as I suspected, its death triggered an assault by the rest of the hive’s hunters.
Hundreds of the stinging insects swarmed us and dive-bombed unarmored and armored alike.
It was apparent the creatures couldn’t distinguish between us. They were harmless to those in armor but deadly to the others. Dozens were stung before we managed to get the group into a tightly packed circle that allowed us a chance to defend them with coil-guns and armored fists.
The effect of their stings was immediate.
As I watched helplessly, a man pulled one of the barbed hooks from his back. He screamed in pain while using both hands to rip the stinger from his flesh, but it was too late to stop the venom. He clutched at his throat, unable to breathe, and his skin turned pale blue as he died of asphyxiation.
One of the greenie corporals from Dragon Squad managed to shoot a whole bunch of wasps.
But he also killed two humans and a purvast and wounded several others.
“Sergeant Tunning, get that idiot under control.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We need a flamer,” Abrel said.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” I responded while selectively targeting wasps with my coil-gun.
There had been some debate about whether to include flamethrowers in our EPs, but in the end the space given up for fuel was deemed too costly for the benefit of being able to torch things. Most of the Dreki structures were nonflammable anyway, and if you got close enough to a lizard to attempt to barbecue it, you were usually better off shooting the sucker.
I splattered over thirty of the flying bugs before we’d put a dent in the ranks. Our defense had done a reasonable job, and we only lost an additional four humans, three purvasts, and one Katash to add to the three friendly-fire deaths. Once we’d tightened up our circle and created a field of fire that resembled a dome, we killed off about half of the remaining swarm before the insect survivors called it a day.
“Let’s hope we stay in our suits,” Callie said.
“I have an uncomfortable question to ask,” Abrel said over the private comm.
“Go.”
“The bodies. We’re going to need to feed these–”
“Gross,” Mallsin interrupted. She continued with a diatribe against cannibalism.
“It is pretty gross,” Callie said. “But is it cannibalism if the humans eat the Katashie, and the Katashie eat the purvasts, and the–”
“Stop,” I said. “We get it. Yeah, it’s not going to happen.”
“It might be better than letting them starve to death,” Abrel said.
“If it gets that bad, we’re probably all going to die. I’m choosing to remain optimistic.”
“Water is a bigger concern,” Callie pointed out.
“Where’s that praying woman?” Abrel asked. “We can ask her to put in a good word.”
“I don’t think her deity is on this planet,” Mallsin said. “But it can’t hurt to ask.”
“Jesus, enough,” I said. “You two drive me crazy sometimes.”
“If we had Jesus and water, we could make wine,” Abrel said.
“Echovel!” I cursed.
“More Guritain epithets?” Abrel asked. “At least you’re trying to be multicultural. I’ll give you that.”
“Golvin. We need to organize and move.”
I found Kevin and explained that we didn’t have time to bury the dead. “We’re moving out in two minutes.”
The following afternoon we found a tiny stream streaming from a distant cloud-covered ridge.
During the night we lost another two of our wounded humans.
Something big had snuck into our camp and carried off a purvast.
And one of the newborns died of unknown causes.
This brought the nonmilitary numbers to one hundred and thirty-four. If we didn’t find a safe place to make camp, all our rescue efforts would be for naught.
The group drank until they couldn’t stomach any more, and I hoped the microbes I detected were only minor ones. Without a means to purify the water, the unarmored were left with no other choice but to risk sickness.
We couldn’t stay at the stream because it wasn’t a suitable location to defend. I had little doubt that the Drekis would send scouts to hunt for us, probably by unleashing pekasmoks to sniff us out. Even if our group had only been a couple of dozen TCI-Armored soldiers, we’d have been easy to track. With the civilians marching alongside us, our trail might as well have been marked with billboards.
Our suits’ night vision rendered even the darkest nights bright enough for us to trek safely and spot enemies, but after the sun went down, we were forced to camp anyway. The un-suited members of our group were too likely to step in a hole or walk off a cliff and, without chemical augmentation, would quickly become too fatigued to continue. I also wanted to avoid inadvertently feeding any more of the local carnivores.
“You think any of them will survive?” Callie asked.
“I hope so,” I said. “There are still three living newborns. I sort of…”
“I get it,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Watch a movie with me?”
“As long as it’s something dark and violent,” she said.
“Sure thing.”
Callie wasn’t kidding. She only liked to watch uplifting and lighthearted films when we were on leave or safely traveling in a starship. In the field she preferred the gorier and more violent fare.
If it was a war flick, especially if it involved violent scenes with aliens, she often would watch it multiple times. I generally fell asleep, but she appreciated that we were doing “something together” even if the movie was playing to my unconscious brain. The film we watched that evening after I’d posted a rotating guard shift was called Biragon Zombies. In the movie, an evil-genius scientist turned sisalikalaurs into undead eating machines. They lumbered into downtown Hevlaton, which was a populous Tedesconian city that bordered the rainforest, and ate through the terrified population until the brave hero, a young Ted named Jaxzid, discovered the secret to killing them.
Don’t ask me what the secret was. I fell asleep after the obligatory Gurt stupidly walked into his basement and was consumed alive.
Callie told me the next morning it was a great film. She’d moved it into her top twenty list, displacing the classic Purvastian Vampires Hunt at Night.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love – oh shit,” she said.
“Oh shit” in this case meant a couple of high-flying pekasmoks.
“The petaízmaj have arrived,” one of the muldvarps said.
“I see them,” I replied. “Ain’t no
thing but a thing.”
“I don’t understand that terminology,” the multilingual alien said.
“Never mind, it’s over your head.”
“Yes, they are very high in the sky,” he admitted. “But they have eyes like the tearlaoglies and will soon see us.”
“Abrel.”
“Here, boss,” he answered.
“We’ve got company. I want you and Mallsin to do a dirty job. I need it to be secret.”
“You got it, boss. But I don’t know if de-suiting is wise.”
“Not that kind of dirty…oh, Versus, never mind clowning around. This is serious.”
“Go.”
“Grab a couple of corporals you think you can trust. I want you to go back and retrieve a few dead bodies.”
“Mallsin isn’t going to like that,” he stated.
“Fine, take three or four corporals and leave Mallsin with me. I’ll find something dirty she can do here.”
“I’m going to talk with your wife,” Abrel said. “Why do you want us to retrieve dead bodies?”
“The flying dragon things…remember when you got zapped with the blue lightning bolt?”
“For about a fraction of a second. Then everything went dark.”
“After you were out cold, the Dreki fed those things meat.”
“This is getting sick. You do realize it’s a class one dash four B felony to desecrate a body during an act of war, a police action, or–”
“Stop. I know the Basic Orders better than you.”
“Okay, so why are you asking me to commit a felony?”
“So we can get those petaízmaj off our trail. I want you to create a blood trail and lure them to you.”
“And then ambush them like deer at a salt lick?”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t seem sporting,” he mused.
“Golvin, Abrel. You take some damage to the head or what?”
“Yup.”
“Not even a bit ashamed, are you?”
“I was tortured. I’m in a special victim class now. You can’t mistreat me; it’s a special crime in and of itself.”
“I’m glad you’re on board. Go make the dead useful; I’m confident if we could ask them, they wouldn’t mind.”
“Probably best I’m leaving Mallsin here.”
“No problem.”
“And I’m not telling her about hacking up corpses so I can butcher the Dreki equivalent of cuddly puppies.”
“I wasn’t planning on telling Callie, either. So we’re on solid ground here.”
“I never considered tactful omissions to be lies.”
“I’m not touching that. Go.”
Abrel found some helpers and left camp. I informed Kevin we were moving in ten minutes, and I told little white lies to Callie and Mallsin.
Abrel, Sergeant Tunning, and two reasonably competent privates left the group.
“Where are we going, Sergeant?” one of the privates asked Abrel when they were half a click out.
“We’re going to create a diversion,” he answered. “See those flying things?”
“The birds soaring way the hell up in the clouds?”
“Those aren’t birds,” Abrel said. “They’re a carnivore. The Drekis keep them as pets, and they behave like hunting dogs. They’re stalking us right now.”
“From that high up?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s our mission?” Sergeant Tunning asked.
“We’re going to have to take some of the dead and use them for bait.”
“Disgusting,” the private said.
“Isn’t that a war crime?” Tunning asked.
“I’m not going to tell anyone if you don’t. It’s a way to keep more bodies from piling up.”
“Gotcha.”
Abrel’s display screen informed him of a stench.
<
He closed the pop-up and found the source. “Find another one,” he said, “and we’ll call it good.”
Tunning discovered another corpse and asked, “Now what?”
“Here’s the dirty part,” Abrel said. “We’ve got to leave a long trail of blood to a kill zone.”
“Private, grab another body,” Tunning said. “If we’re going to do this, we’d better do it right.”
The trio used their EPL blades to gut the remains and then walked in curves and circles, spreading bodily fluids and organs along the ground. Abrel led them into a small ravine filled with rocky alcoves and recesses. They made three piles with the last of the bait and waited.
“What’s Abrel really doing?” Mallsin asked me.
“Trying to lure the pekasmoks away,” I said.
“How’s he doing that?”
“He’s going to ambush them.”
Callie jumped into our discussion. “How?”
“I made the assumption the beasts would try to scavenge the dead.”
“Ew,” Mallsin said.
“Well, I hope they get the creatures before they show up and desecrate the dead,” Callie said.
“I hope so, too.”
I’d moved the group into a grotto that had a flowering plant I hoped would help mask our presence. My sniffer gear discovered the scent and labeled it as a pleasing and sweet aroma.
<
I’m sure the pekasmoks were capable of finding the group by following our many odors, but I was hoping the job I’d sent Abrel to do would provide the creatures a more tempting enticement.
My hope seemed to be rewarded when the beasts finally swooped from the sky and disappeared behind a distant tree line. Abrel was too far away to safely communicate with, so I told the group to be patient and alert.
We waited without incident.
Abrel, Tunning, and the two privates remained still as the hunters appeared. The creatures were forced by the shape of the canyon to give up flying and drop to the ground. They crawled the last fifty meters toward the piles of rotting flesh.
“Wait until they’re all within striking range,” Abrel ordered.
The first pekasmok to reach the trap was the largest.
Abrel feared for a moment that the alpha wouldn’t allow the others to feed, forcing them to kill it and then try to hit the rest before they could escape. But soon after its first taste, the others moved closer and feasted on the other mounds.
“I’ll take the big one,” Abrel said. “On three, open fire on the closest creature. Three, two…hold it.” His scanners detected an anomaly. “We might have company.”
He ran additional scans. “Golvin,” he said. “I’m picking up something.”
“Shouldn’t we kill them anyway while we have the chance?” Tunning asked.
“I’d like more intel,” he answered. “Lock down and fire up your camo.”
The four soldiers disappeared into the rock face as if they weren’t there.
Shortly after that, four pup pekasmoks appeared, followed by a pair of Drekis in light armor. The guards weren’t heavily armed, but they carried what seemed to be a communication device.
“We need to kill them simultaneously,” Abrel said. “Before they signal for backup.”
“Won’t someone miss them?” Tunning asked.
“Probably, but the difference could be minutes instead of hours.”
“Roger,” the sergeant said. “I can take the one on the left.”
“Wait one,” Abrel said.
The Drekis approached without caution. They appeared to speak to each other, but even with his external microphones on high pickup, Abrel heard nothing. “Change of plans,” he said.
“Go,” Tunning said.
“I want you to kill as planned, but you two privates are going to help me capture the other Dreki alive.”
Abrel gave them a specific order of attack, and they waited for the pair to get closer.
When the pups reached the scraps and began to eat, Tunning sent a one-hundred-round burst from his holste
r coil-gun into the face of his target. The lizard died silently.
Abrel used a Callie hack to prevent a shell from igniting and fired the phosphorus flare at the knee of the second guard. What it did instead of burning was shatter the leg of the surprised Dreki.
The two privates pounced.
One secured the device they assumed was a communicator; the other broke the lizard’s arms in a dozen places.
The pekasmoks went crazy.
A burst of flame erupted at Abrel’s faceplate, and his suit auto-adjusted the gel temperature to keep his face from melting. He unloaded a steady stream of mini-bolts at the beast until it slumped over dead.
The pups jumped on the fallen creature.
Tunning had finished off the other adults, and Abrel ordered him to spare the little ones.
“Reason?” Tunning asked.
“I have a feeling we might be able to use them. The ones I saw in the slave camps didn’t hurt humans unless ordered to attack. Like well-trained guard dogs. They may prove useful, and at any rate they’re not dangerous at the moment.”
“Roger that. You think the dead Dreki has a leash?”
“Worth checking. Private, search that body.”
The Dreki had several leather ropes that presumably worked as tethers.
“First use what you need to bind the mouth of this one,” Abrel said. The private who’d broken the Dreki’s arms was forced to hold it down to keep it from snapping. In spite of its injuries it continued its attempts to bite. Armor was powerful enough to stop the lizard’s teeth, but since Abrel planned to take the lizard hostage, he needed to prevent it from being able to bite anyone who wasn’t in armor.
The private looped the tether several times around the animal’s jaw and was about to land a blow to further subdue it when Abrel stopped him. “I want him to be able to talk, so no more beatings, especially around the face.”
“Roger, Sergeant,” the private said. “If he acts up, can I break its other leg?”
“Absolutely,” Abrel answered, “but don’t break the flesh. I don’t want it bleeding out.”
“The puppies?” Tunning asked.
“Leash them,” Abrel said. “And let’s go for a walk.”
