by P. A. Piatt
Kramer handed Lily another hydration pack and he took a long pull before continuing.
“Bravo Company was here to back up the GRC test tubes. They formed up around Mine Shaft Four and lit off the thumper. The bugs—”
“What’s a thumper?”
“You saw the big towers next to the mine shafts? Those are thumpers. Turn ’em on, the big weight goes up to the top and then slams on the ground; excites the bugs. That’s what happened. The vibration brought the bugs running and the test tubes opened up on them.”
“How did Bravo Company get involved?”
“I’m not sure, Gunny. I was a hundred meters away, up in the jungle. The test tubes started trading fire with Brave Company and they charged. The Marines weren’t ready, and the test tubes overran them. It was a massacre.”
“And you’re sure it was the test tubes?”
“Damn right I’m sure. No doubt.”
“What happened next?”
“I didn’t wait around for them to spot me. I hauled ass. A few hours later, I heard a nuke go off.”
“And you’ve been hiding in the jungle ever since?”
Lily nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
“How did you avoid the bugs for this long?”
Lily shrugged. “I stay real quiet and don’t go out much after dark. After I saw them come running to the thumper I didn’t need any more convincing.”
Fortis stood and stretched. “Let’s take a break and give Sergeant Lily a breather.” Everyone stood up.
“Would you mind not tying me up again?” Lily looked at Osterruck. “I don’t need a guard, you know.”
“Private Osterruck isn’t a guard,” Fortis said. “Think of him as your assistant. You know, somebody to get you whatever you need.”
Lily shrugged. “Fine by me.” He turned to Osterruck. “Private, can you rustle up another pig square and some coffee?”
* * *
Fortis, Hawkins, and Pell gathered atop the command mech.
Fortis asked the others, “Do you believe any of this?”
“It sounds like he’s telling the truth.” Pell shrugged. “Why would he lie?”
Hawkins shook his head. “Because he’s nuts after seven years alone in the jungle.”
“Let’s start with the basic question. Is he really Staff Sergeant Marcus Lily of the ISMC?”
Hawkins traded glances with Pell, then said, “He seems to know a lot about us and Bravo Company. He may not be Lily, but I think he’s definitely a Space Marine. He’s got what’s left of a DINLI tattoo, too.”
Pell nodded.
“Okay, so he’s a Space Marine. Does his story of stowing away on a dropship make sense?”
“It’s possible,” said Hawkins. “It’s not the most brilliant plan I’ve ever heard of, but if he was desperate enough, it might make sense.”
“Getting flogged around the Fleet was no joke. I’m glad the ISMC outlawed it,” said Pell.
If a Space Marine was convicted by a court martial and sentenced to flogging around the Fleet, he was transported to each ship of the Fleet and received ten lashes from the master at arms before moving to the next ship. Depending on the number of ships accompanying the flagship the punishment could be twenty lashes or two hundred and was often fatal.
Fortis continued: “Let’s assume he’s a Space Marine and his stowaway story is true. What about the test tube massacre of Bravo Company? Does that ring true?”
Pell shrugged. “The report I read said there were a thousand test tubes, so they had the Marines outnumbered five-to-one.” She looked at Hawkins. “I want to say no, but it’s not impossible. Like the rest of his story.”
“I agree,” said Hawkins. “If the Marines weren’t ready, if they were out in the open around a mine shaft, who knows? It could happen.”
Fortis watched the Marines burning back the jungle at the firing range. The oily black smoke wafted over the compound and the acrid smell stung his nostrils. His mind raced with the potential complications if Lily’s story was true.
Is the GRC hostile? Should we prepare to defend ourselves against the test tubes?
Hawkins spoke as if he were reading Fortis’ mind.
“With your approval, I’d like to raise the alert status of the camp and set a quick-reaction force in one of the mechs. I also want to start a rotation of regular patrols.”
“Let’s put the road project on hold and put more Marines in the fighting holes.”
Hawkins shook his head. “I disagree, sir. We shouldn’t do anything obvious. Don’t forget the cameras. I’d like to continue the road project with a couple sappers and a mech and include a security team. It will take longer than planned, but that’s okay.”
“Why continue with the road?”
“If they’re watching and we suddenly tighten up security and start sending out patrols they’ll know something’s changed. If we build the road, it gives them something to wonder about. Maybe we’ll catch them off balance if they sneak in for a look.”
“I think we need to know more about the cameras,” added Pell. “One or two Marines in full auto-flage could survey the tree line and locate them all.”
“But what about Lily? Is he a prisoner?”
“No doubt. What choice do we have?” Pell was adamant. “We know nothing about him except what he’s told us.”
Hawkins agreed. “We can’t give him free run of the camp. Maybe we don’t need to keep him tied up, but we’ve got to watch him.”
“By what authority do we hold him? We can’t just drop in on a planet and start taking prisoners.”
“He’s a deserter, sir.”
“Only if his story is true.”
The three lapsed into an uneasy silence. Finally, Fortis said, “Look. I’m not trying to make this more complicated than it already is. I’m thinking about what happens when we’re extracted and bring Lily with us.”
Another uncomfortable silence.
“How about this, LT? We hold him for now with the understanding that his story is true, and he is a deserter. Meanwhile, we work to confirm his story. If we confirm it, we bring him out. If we can’t, we give him some pig squares and wave goodbye when we leave.”
“That sounds sensible to—”
A long burst of machine gun fire cut Fortis off. Trenas’ voice filled his ear.
“All stations, this is Command. Sensors have detected mass movement on the northwestern perimeter.”
* * * * *
Chapter Seventeen
Space Marines scrambled for their fighting positions. The machine gun positions covering the northwest opened up on the jungle. An automatic grenade launcher thumped in rapid succession and a series of sharp explosions in the undergrowth created a blizzard of sticks and leaves. The two mechs assigned to the road project roared into motion and took positions alongside the fighting holes. Their dual twenty-millimeter guns thundered and the ground at the edge of the tree line erupted.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Hawkins’ voice boomed over the circuit. One by one the guns fell silent as a thick pall of smoke drifted over the compound.
“Who opened fire?”
“Gunny, this is Corporal White. That was us—me and Cowher. We spotted a bunch of bugs in the trees over here.”
“Mark the spot with a smoke.”
One of the Marines threw a smoke grenade into the trees, adding a bright purple tinge to the otherwise drab dust and smoke from the gunfire.
“Do you see anything?”
“Gunny, this is Command. The motion sensors and noise monitors are picking up signs of mass movement in that area.”
Hawkins turned to Fortis. “What do you want to do, sir?”
“Hey, Lieutenant. Lieutenant!” The unfamiliar voice came from below. Fortis looked over the edge and discovered the voice belonged to Marcus Lily.
“Tell those guys to stop shooting grenades at the bugs. Don’t shoot those twenty mike-mikes, either. The vibration from the explosions attracts them.”
Fortis looked
at Hawkins, who shrugged.
“All stations, this is Fortis. Cease fire with the grenade launchers. Don’t shoot grenades at the bugs unless you absolutely have to.”
“What the hell are you doing out here?” Hawkins bellowed.
“We heard the firing, so me and Osterruck came out to watch the fun.”
“Damnit,” Hawkins muttered. He pointed to the blushing private. “Osterruck, get Lily inside, and don’t come out again, understand?”
“Here they come!”
A massive swarm of bugs poured out of the jungle. Automatic weapons shredded the bugs in front. The bodies piled higher and higher as the bugs in the back pressed forward until they pushed into the minefield. Fortis watched with grim satisfaction as the static defenses blasted holes in the advancing mass. But with each mine blast the bugs became more agitated and their pace quickened.
Four Marines with flamethrowers intercepted the swarm when they threatened to break through the defensive perimeter. The whoosh of the fire and the crunch of exploding bugs drowned out the rat-tat-tat of automatic fire. After several minutes the insect tide stalled and then ebbed. The perimeter was thick with shattered and smoking bug carcasses, and the smell added a sick tinge to the air.
“All stations, this is Command. The sensor belt is quiet on all quadrants.”
Hawkins looked over the compound and shook his head. “It looks like Lily is right about the bugs and vibration, LT. I’ll get the word out, no grenades unless absolutely necessary.” He nodded to Warrant Pell. “You ought to let the mech crews know to take it easy on the twenty mike-mike. And we need to re-think the minefield.”
* * *
Two hours later, Fortis was hunched over the keyboard in the command mech drafting his daily report to Reese. He was at a total loss on how to report the recovery of Staff Sergeant Lily. Worse yet were Lily’s claims about GRC and the fate of Bravo Company. If Fortis accused a massive conglomerate of murdering a company of Space Marines, he would need solid evidence, and he only had the word of a scraggly survivor whose identity he couldn’t verify.
A burst of laughter from the troop compartment broke his concentration, and he cast an annoyed glace at the hatch.
“Those two should get a room,” quipped Trenas.
Gunny Hawkins had assigned Ystremski to keep watch over Lily. “He’s smart for a corporal,” he’d told Fortis with a wink. “He’ll be able to see through any bullshit story Lily might tell.”
Fortis stuck his head into the crew compartment. “You girls having fun?”
“Sorry about that, LT.”
He stepped inside and closed the hatch behind him. “Don’t worry about it. I need a break anyway. I was trying to figure out how to write up the daily report for the CO.”
“Lily here was just telling me some sea stories about liberty in the Eros Cluster. It sounds like a good time.”
“Lily, I’ve been wondering about something since we talked earlier. Are you up for some more questions?”
“Sure thing, LT. Fire away.”
“You said your plan was to desert and join the mining colony but after the massacre of Bravo Company you took off for the jungle. Why didn’t you join the colony?”
“The miners are prisoners. The GRC keeps them locked up inside the colony.”
“What? Why?”
“Beats me.” Lily took a deep breath and rubbed his hands together. “The day after they nuked Mine Shaft Four I saw a personnel shuttle take off. I figured all the mercenaries were on it, so I went to investigate the colony. The entrance is locked up tight. I tried to break in through a ventilation shaft, but it’s locked, too.”
“What do you think is going on there?”
He took a long pull on his hydration pack. “GRC staked their claim to Pada-Pada right after the deep space probe discovered it. They have to establish a permanent presence on the planet to substantiate their claim with the UNT, so they hired a bunch of miners and brought them and their families here. All the big companies do it, right?”
Fortis nodded. “What were they mining for?”
“I don’t know. Whatever it was, they never found it. We heard the miners sank five shafts and hit bug colonies with all of them, so they stopped digging.”
“Did you ever contact the miners?”
“Never got the chance. They only come out of the colony after the lake burps, and the mercenaries guard them closely.”
“What do they do at the lake?”
“I’m not sure. I tried to follow them once, but the mercs guarding them had a shoot first policy for anything moving in the jungle. They almost got me twice before I decided it wasn’t worth it.”
Fortis let that sink in. The former Marine’s story sounded fantastic, but he came across as sincere, and Fortis struggled to reconcile his own cynicism with his instinct to believe Lily.
“The burps fill the atmosphere with poisonous gas. How did you avoid that?”
Lily shook his head. “LT, they told us that same story before we deployed, so I figured I was a dead man the first time the lake went off, but the gas never came. It didn’t make sense, but I wasn’t about to question my good luck. It’s been burping ever since, and I never smelled it. Maybe it’s more GRC bullshit.”
“How did you survive for seven years?”
Lily snorted. “I didn’t know it had been seven years until your guys told me. I lost count a long time ago. It’s a good thing, too, or I might have given up. At first, I hid out in the mechs at Mine Shaft Two and lived on the rations left behind by Bravo Company. I figured the ISMC would send someone to investigate, but they never did. I tried to sneak into the mercenary camp to steal some food, but there was no way to get in. After that, it was trial and error. I got sick a lot. I tried every kind of bug, but they’re not edible. I found a couple kinds of fruit, some seed pods, and a tree with a core like a heart of palm. And that’s it.” He plucked at the ragged shirt clinging to his bony frame. “I was two hundred and twenty pounds when I stowed away on that dropship.”
* * *
Fortis met Hawkins and Pell on top of the command mech, and he briefed them on his conversation with Lily.
“Now I’m not sure I believe the story about the GRC test tubes wiping out Bravo Company,” Pell confessed. “His stories are getting more fantastic by the minute. The GRC is holding the miners as hostages? It’s all becoming too crazy to believe.”
“We could always talk to the miners,” Hawkins said.
“They’re locked up, if you believe Lily. Besides, he couldn’t break into the colony, remember?” replied Fortis.
“He couldn’t break in. That’s doesn’t mean we can’t,” said Hawkins.
“Do you really think we should try to break into the colony?”
“If we want to verify that part of his story then we need to.”
“With what authority, Gunny? It’s one thing to explore abandoned mineshafts, it’s quite another to break into Conglomerate property,” Pell said.
Hawkins turned to Fortis. “Sir, we’re obligated to protect the lives and property of humans wherever they are. If the GRC are holding the miners as hostages, that’s our authority.”
“I don’t know, Gunny. Picking a fight with the GRC this far from home is a big step.”
“I’m not talking about assaulting the place. I’ll take a couple guys and reconnoiter. If we see an opportunity to get in undetected, we’ll take it. If not, we’ll come home and no one will be the wiser.”
“You agree with this then, Warrant?”
Pell nodded. “Yes sir, I do. I’m skeptical of Lily’s story, but maybe we can verify part of it. In fact, it’s the only part of his story we can verify. If the miners confirm his story, we can take Lily back with us and dump the whole thing on the division staff and let them worry about it. If the miners don’t, we keep looking for corroboration until our extraction date. We just have to be careful.”
* * * * *
Chapter Eighteen
Lily smiled w
hen he saw Fortis, Pell, and Hawkins enter the troop compartment.
“Oh shit,” he said, straightening. “Here comes bad news.”
Hawkins shook his head. “Not bad news, serious business.” He handed Lily some paper and a pencil. “I want you to draw a map of the area around the colony and a layout of buildings, ventilation, whatever.”
Lily’s face lit up. “You’re going in, aren’t you?”
Hawkins shrugged.
“You’ve got to take me with you,” Lily said in a rush. “I know the area well, I can guide you right to it.”
“Hold on a second,” Fortis said. “Nobody’s going anywhere. We just want to know the colony layout and what terrain around it looks like.”
Lily knelt on the deck and used his chair as a desk. “You’re a terrible liar, LT. I’ll draw you a good map, but you’ve got to take me along. You’ve got to!”
Ten minutes later, Lily stood up handed the paper to Hawkins.
“There you go, Gunny.” He pointed at the drawing. “This side is a map of the area, the other is a map of the colony entrance.”
Fortis looked over Hawkins’ shoulder. The detail of the map impressed him. It showed the colony on the slopes of the Southron Ridge, a jagged line of mountains that ran north and south and where two great tectonic plates collided. The colony was four klicks due east of the GRC headquarters, and Lily had drawn a road between the camp and the colony and another road from the colony to Mineral Lake, about seven klicks north. To the south, Lily had put an X and labeled it “Shaft Five,” and to the north Lily had labeled another X as “Shaft Three.”
“I didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the area, but that’s the basic geography,” Lily explained. “It’s all jungle until you hit the ridge, which is vertical rock peaks. A mountain goat would need climbing gear to get through there.”
Hawkins turned the paper over and they examined the colony layout. The builders had carved a plateau into the face of the first ridge and placed a large building on it. Four ventilation shafts were shown further up on the same slope. Lily’s drawing showed a large equipment door and two smaller doors for humans on the face of the building. South of the colony building, Lily had labeled a wide flat area “Launch Pad.”
