Assault Troopers

by Vaughn Heppner

  She stopped talking as I grabbed one of her thin wrists.

  “Where are you from?” I asked.

  She hesitated before saying, “They took my parents with them the last time they observed,” she said.

  “During World War II?” I asked. “Was that the last time?”

  She became wistful. “We were going to help process millions. I so looked forward to visiting my origin planet. But the Lokhars got here first. Now…” She patted my hand and worked her wrist free.

  “Will I see you again?” I asked.

  “You’re a fighting beast,” she whispered, “a prime specimen.”

  “We’re people!” I told her. “We’re not animals. So don’t call me one.”

  She looked away.

  There was something about her…even though she’d been brainwashed by the Jelk… “I’ll see you again, Jennifer, right?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  Something about that “no” hardened my resolve. “Yes,” I said, feeling good saying it.

  “You’re going far away,” she said, with that wistful look in her eyes.

  “I believe you,” I said, “but you also have to believe me that I’m also coming back for you.”

  “We’re done, Jen,” the head nurse said. “We have many of them to process today. Let’s go.”

  Jennifer looked into my eyes one last time. I looked into hers and felt a spark leap in me. She straightened before I could try to kiss her, and headed for the door. In her white nurse’s uniform, her butt swayed perfectly. The cloth tightened in just the right ways. I wanted to be with Jennifer. I wanted to take her out to eat and go to the beach with her. Instead, she exited the room and the door swished shut behind her.

  I thought about what she’d told me about surgery and neuro-fibers. Lifting my arm, I examined the skin. There were hairline scars. I examined the rest of my body. I could see hundreds of these extremely thin scars. What had she said? They’d pumped me with steroid sixty-five.

  The Jelk and Saurians—the aliens—continued to treat me like an animal. If I lived long enough, I’d make them regret that in a very personal way. I’d hired out as a mercenary. They’d better get used to the idea that we’d made a deal and start treating me—us—right.

  The door swished open, and I grew tense, expecting to see a phalanx of Saurians rush into the room with shock batons to beat me down. Instead, a lean doctor in a white lab coat walked in. She held a slate in one hand and a small flat device in the other. Her thumb hovered over a button on the small device.

  She had thin hair, outrageous eyebrows like the first doctor, and wet lips. A nametag said “Dr. Warren”.

  “Hello, Mr. Creed,” he said.

  “It’s just Creed,” I said, “without the mister.”

  Dr. Warren slid the small device into a pocket, pulled out a stylus and made a mark on what I realized was a computer tablet.

  “So what’s on the agenda now?” I asked. “More steroid sixty-five? Or will you plant extra lines of neuro-fiber into me?”

  “Neither. First you have some tests to take. Afterward—”

  She stopped because I stood up. The room tilted, or it seemed to, and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I swayed unsteadily.

  “You should sit for now,” Warren suggested.

  “How about you give me some answers,” I said. “I’m getting tired of this animal routine. We’re mercenaries. Tell the Jelk we have a contract. He should understand that.”

  Dr. Warren calmly put her right hand into a lab coat pocket. A second later, an agonizing jolt of pain stabbed the back of my neck. My knees unhinged and I collapsed onto the floor.

  Seconds ticked by, and I could feel Dr. Warren bending over me. “Let me give you some friendly advice concerning the Jelk Corporation. Immediately obey those in charge. Do not seek to give orders or corrections. You have become Shah Claath’s property. If that doesn’t sit well, think of yourself as a semi-liquid form of venture capital. I realize you’re a fighting beast, but the key to your—”

  Warren quit talking because I spun on my back and used my legs to swipe hers out from under her. The doctor went down in a heap, and I heard the tablet clatter across the floor. The cold sweat remained and the throb of pain in my neck still bit. I had a good idea what had just happened, and I was going to put a stop to it.

  Warren groaned. Then I managed to flop onto her and she yelped in surprise. I wrestled with one of her hands, the one striving to shove itself into the lab pocket. Instead, I shoved my own hand into the pocket and grabbed the small device she’d put into it a few minutes ago. As my fingers touched the device, the shocks started again in the base of my neck, jolting down throughout my body.

  I groaned at the agony, and I found myself blinking rapidly. I tried to clutch the device again, and once again jolts sizzled through me. The clammy feeling worsened and I vomited, or I tried. There wasn’t anything in my stomach to throw up. I lost all interest in trying to grab the device, though. I rolled onto my back and lay there gasping.

  “That was foolish,” Warren said. It sounded as if she spoke from on her back.

  I cracked open an eyelid and turned my head toward her. That caused a splitting headache to throb into existence, and it robbed me of the majority of my vision. There were splotches in my sight. I did spy something lying on the floor near me: the doctor, I presumed.

  “I hit my head,” Warren complained.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “What did you put into my neck?”

  “It’s not what I put into you,” Warren said. “Family technicians put it in while you received the neuro-fibers. The Jelk are sticklers for obedience from their animals, particularly from their fighting beasts.”

  “I’m a mercenary!” I shouted. “We made a deal.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t read or would not have comprehended the fine print,” she said.

  “Do you have one of the pain-makers in your neck?” I asked.

  “No, no, of course not” she said. “Why would I?”

  “So you’re a traitor to the human race,” I said.

  “This is an undignified conversation and it isn’t helping either of us. In point of fact, this is my first trip to Earth.”

  “You weren’t born here?” I asked.

  “I was born in the Steel Worlds, as we refer to the ships. The last observer team took specimens. They always have. Thus, there have always been several million humans throughout the Jelk Corporation. I don’t know why it took this long for the Jelk to decide to draft Earthbeasts into its military arm. Perhaps the Lokhars have made greater gains then our masters let on. I’ve heard word the Jelk Corporation has lost star systems to Lokhar incursions. But that’s all it is: rumors, gossip. I have no hard data.”

  “The Jelk told me they don’t have an empire,” I said.

  “Well, no,” the doctor said. “They do own star systems, though, profitable ones.”

  Was this just a matter of semantics? I filed away the thought. It wasn’t germane just now. “I asked the Jelk if we’re mercenaries. He said yes but thinks of us as animals. Will the Jelk keep his word to me?”

  “What word is that?” she asked.

  I told Dr. Warren about my bargain with the Jelk.

  “Hmm,” Warren said. “Maybe he will. I must assume you spoke to Shah Claath. The Jelk are spread thinly throughout their corporation. I don’t know of any other masters along on the mission. It’s clear you amused him. Jelk seldom laugh. Unfortunately, it’s seldom good for anyone when they do, as their humor is as dark as the Crab Nebula.”

  Dr. Warren groaned, and I heard her garments rustle. I had the feeling she climbed to her feet and knew my thought was correct as her shoes scuffled on the floor.

  “Let me caution you,” she said. Her voice came from higher up. “In case you don’t know, the controller in your neck is for obedience. If you’re troublesome, I have permission to use it on you. If you attempt to pry the device from me—even if you touch it,
the control device will automatically deliver punishment shocks to you.”

  I reached back and felt along my neck. There was a longish scar. I pushed, and I could feel a hard object inside me about the size of my pinky nail.

  A wave of nausea hit, along with anger and dread. Shah Claath had stuck a shock collar on me—no. He’d caused an implanted obedience controller into me. Okay. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. My first order of business was to cut this thing out of me. Actually, my first order of business was to survive long enough to try it.

  “I can see you’re finally thinking,” Warren said.

  “Why bother doing it like this?” I asked.

  “You’re the one who attacked me. It should be obvious therefore why they did it. Especially after the enhancements given you, you’re too dangerous to let run around loose.”

  “That’s not what I mean. Why not tell me up front what’s going on? Why hide knowledge from me and then shock me by surprise?”

  “Yes, the not knowing is frustrating, isn’t it?” she asked. “But it’s the way Shah Claath wants it for now so there’s nothing you can do but accept it.”

  “Why do you help them?”

  “My dear fellow, it should be obvious why. Now, no more questions for now or I’m going to use the control device on you again.”

  I took a deep breath, rolled onto my stomach, waited for the nausea to pass so I wouldn’t vomit again, and pushed upward. I felt her hand on my elbow. I wanted to shove it away, but I let her help me onto a stool. I sat there gasping afterward.

  Some of the splotches had faded from my sight. Dr. Warren had a shiner on her forehead and her lab coat was rumpled.

  She glanced at her stylus. “It’s time to run you through some tests to see if the neuro-fibers took. I imagine they did, but we’re supposed to be certain. Once you start the training, there’s no stopping until the six week are up. You’re going to be very hungry the next few weeks, and your skin will itch terribly. My advice is to eat all you can and exercise like a demon. Shah Claath will want at least thirty pounds of muscle growth on each of you.”

  “If he’s so high and mighty, why does he care about mere beasts?” I asked.

  Warren laughed without an ounce of humor. “My dear man, Claath is a Jelk’s Jelk. He has and will invest money into you. Why does he do this? For the only reason a Jelk does anything: profits. He desires you and the others to become prime fighting creatures so he can recoup his venture capital and gain a massive profit. As you can imagine, the Lokhar assault on Earth has enraged him.”

  “Because of the sudden lack of mercenaries he’d hoped to recruit on our world?” I asked.

  “That and the amount of money he sank into arranging for such a vast fleet of transports to arrive in this system. If you knew the pains he has taken for training millions of battle-beasts… I’ve heard he’d hoped to sell tens of millions of you Earthers to the Rim Confederation. Now those contracts will remain unfulfilled. The loss of income—profits—staggers the imagination. I would think Shah Claath is wild to regain something from this fiasco. Perhaps that’s why you struck his fancy.”

  Lokhars, Jelk and now the Rim Confederation, I knew nothing about the interstellar situation. We were ciphers to them, animals to catch and sell or to squash and spray. Mankind had obviously gotten a late start in the star-building game, and we’d almost been wiped off the board. Well, this so-called animal was going to do everything in his power to change that. First, I’d have to pass these tests and endure combat training.

  “Let’s get started,” I said.

  Dr. Warren raised an unkempt eyebrow.

  “I have a lot to do and a short time to do it in,” I said.

  She gave me a strange scrutiny before pointing at the door. “Head that way then and we’ll get started.”

  I did, marching toward six weeks of hell.

  -9-

  Ella figured it out first: that our drill instructors weren’t the children of kidnapped humans from an earlier survey, but manufactured androids. The unsmiling, monotone DIs proved to be bio-plastic human replicas with cybernetic interfaces and bio-grown brains. They lacked all mercy. Heck, they lacked every emotion and demanded perfection. It meant we were in the hands of machines that were doing exactly as they had been programmed.

  For the first several days we ate like hummingbirds. No, not very little, but a lot. Some of those tiny creatures consume more than twelve times their bodyweight every twenty-four hours. There probably weren’t any hummingbirds left, though. Not after the bio-terminator worked its way through the world. The Lokhars had a lot to answer for. Thinking of that, I ate until my jaws ached and afterward I slurped the Jelk equivalent of protein shakes.

  Battle-suited Saurians had moved us to another ship, a gravity vessel where I weighed at least twice as much. I constantly felt tired and the drag on my muscles and bones made every movement a struggle. It also forced our bodies to work and to grow.

  We ran on a track, did pushups and sit-ups and other exercises, rolled for hundreds of feet, ran again, marched, climbed ropes and ate more meals, repeating the process ad nauseam. All the while the ramrod-stiff, mask-faced DIs prodded us to run faster, roll harder and force out yet another pushup.

  I’d been through the U.S. Army’s boot camp. It had been a breeze. Despite old movies about rugged boot camps, the one I’d passed through hadn’t been anything like that. I remember waiting for a U.S. Army DI to challenge one of us to a fight. It happened in every movie on the subject. I’d planned to give the man the fight of his life. But to my bitter disappointment, the challenge had never come.

  I’d worked out harder in the prison weight room than in U.S. Army boot camp. Those days—in prison—my biceps, triceps, deltoids had quivered with exhaustion after a strenuous workout. In comparison, Jelk boot camp was bad. I felt how a pit bull must feel when cruel humans beat it with sticks, kicked it in the ribs and generally taunted the dog. When our android DIs were displeased with one of us, they used the obedience chips in our necks to shock us.

  The worst day in that regard proved to be on the obstacle course, at the wall. A DI raised his speaking volume, with his face, his eyes, as animated as a seashell. There was nothing vital or vibrant on his plastic-like face. He was an inorganic zombie, but his amplified voice lashed the weakest to jump and try to scale the wall again.

  The wall was nine feet high. In regular gravity, it would have been a cinch to jump and hoist ourselves over. Here in double gravity—let me put it this way. Even after the steroid sixty-five, neuro-fibers and swelled muscles, the best of us barely managed, while three trainees simply couldn’t do it.

  “712,” the DI said, pointing at a chest-heaving man drenched in sweat. “Climb the wall.”

  The man gulped and stared up with bulging eyes. He leaped feebly, his fingers a good two feet from the top, and slid down in a heap at the bottom.

  “Up,” the DI said.

  712 had nothing left. He stirred, though, but that was it.

  The DI aimed and clicked a small device.

  712 writhed on the ground, moaning, as a punishment shock struck from within his neck.

  “Jump over the wall or you will receive another shock,” the DI said.

  712 looked up at the wall, but that was all he did.

  The android shocked him again, making the man jerk and vomit on the ground.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “He’s exhausted, kaput. Let him rest.”

  The android turned machine-fast to our group. “Who spoke?”

  I licked my lips, and I stepped forward. We’d learned the hard way that they gave group punishments just as quickly as single-man lessons.

  “602,” the android said, “you spoke without my leave.” He aimed the device, and a jolt struck me in the neck.

  I groaned, massaging my muscles, but I managed to remain upright. When I looked up again, the android had turned back to 712. The DI told the man to try again, but nothing happened. So the android shocked him lon
ger this time, threatening to continue unless he cleared the wall.

  “We have to charge the thing together,” I whispered.

  Grimly, Rollo and Dmitri nodded. A few of the others hung back.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Stand 712,” the android said. “If you cannot stand you will die where you lie.”

  “Now,” I whispered. I tensed my neck and sprinted at the monster. The android shocked 712. Even so, he must have heard us. The thing whirled around fast.

  “Stop,” the DI said, lifting his hand.

  I didn’t stop, and since I led, I had no idea who followed me. Pain blossomed in my neck. This time I was ready for it. I bellowed, more in rage than anything else. The android hand pointed at others, and his thumb twitched as he delivered shocks.

  I reached the android, grabbed the offensive bio-plastic wrist and used one of the nifty new fighting techniques they’d been teaching us. I cracked the wrist using its own leverage and drove a knee into his plastic-hard belly. A jolt more powerful than the others struck the back of my neck. It was the last the DI gave. The shock device fell out of the android’s hand. I bellowed again, landed on the DI like a goblin in a nightmare and moved for his head with every ounce of my heightened strength and speed. I twisted the android’s head around, snapping the neck, and had the distinct pleasure of seeing his eyelids flutter.

  “You must stop this,” he told me.

  I twisted again, and the lights went out in those plastic eyes.

  A moment later I and—I found out later—all the rest of the trainees were knocked out by an obedience shock broadcast from elsewhere.

  ***

  I awoke stretched out on a metal slate, with my legs, arms and neck manacled to it. Below, I heard churning water and tiny gnashing noises like hundreds of sets of small teeth.

  Looking up, I spied a Saurian on a perch above, standing at a control panel. A screen stretched above the lizard. The screen flickered, and Shah Claath, the Jelk, appeared on it. Claath sat at a desk, with a window showing stars behind him.