by P. A. Piatt
Gunny Hawkins, where are you?
* * *
Kilfoy groaned and struggled against the makeshift lashings holding her to the litter. Hawkins saw that she was still unconscious. He pulled the first aid kit out of his pack and brushed away the dirt and leaves sticking to Kilfoy’s dressing. The bandage was stained black with blood, and Hawkins caught the sickly, sweet smell of infection and decay even before he started to unwind the filthy gauze. After he peeled away the layers, he exposed the horror of Kilfoy’s injury.
Just below her knee was a circular, purple-black bruise surrounded by deep puncture wounds. Below that, the bug had sliced the flesh on the side of her shin to ribbons and Hawkins could see her shinbone gleaming yellow-white through her shredded flesh. Green and yellow pus flowed freely, and the foul odor made him gag.
He dumped three packets of topical antibiotic on the wound and covered the area with an elastic spray to form an impermeable skin. As he was wrapping Kilfoy’s leg with a clean bandage, Lily called him.
“Gunny, I’m coming in. Grab your stuff, we gotta go!”
Seconds later, Lily burst into their brushy hideout and saw Hawkins bent over Kilfoy.
“She’s not—”
Hawkins shook his head. “Still unconscious.”
Lily hauled Winaki to his feet. “We need to make tracks. There’s a tracking party five minutes behind me. They’re mercenaries with a platoon of test tubes.”
Hawkins fastened his pack straps and heaved himself to his feet. His back howled in protest, but the urgency of their situation demanded he ignore the pain.
“Grab the litter. We’ll head due east. Step lightly and let’s see if we can lose them. After we get some separation, we’ll turn north and cut their track. We have to stop punching virgin bush; we’re making this too easy for them. If they want to catch us, let’s make them work for it.”
* * *
“LT, look at this.”
Fortis jerked awake and realized he had nodded off. He looked up at the display screens.
“What’s up?”
Trenas was on watch now, and she pointed at the infrared display. “Under all the leaf sparkle, it looks like there’s a line of hot spots.”
She zoomed in on the jungle, and Fortis saw what she was talking about.
Warrant Officer Pell, who’d been dozing next to Fortis, sat up.
“That’s not some kind of phenomenon, like a harmonic reflection or something crazy like that, is it?”
“No, Warrant, I don’t think so. I have the system set up to filter out anomalous data, so if there was some reverberation or reflection, it wouldn’t appear. Besides, those hot spots aren’t moving in unison like you would expect from a harmonious anomaly. I think they’re people.”
“Where is this?”
Trenas zoomed out and Fortis saw the GRC base directly south of where the drone was traveling.
“How far south does this line extend?”
“All the way to the bottom end of the flight path at least. I think it reaches to the GRC camp.”
“And the north?”
“I don’t know. All the way to the sea, I suppose.”
Fortis stood, and his muscles protested as he stretched.
“What time is it?”
“The drone has been on mission for two and a half hours.” Corporal Ystremski, unseen against the wall behind Fortis, stepped forward and pushed a mug of steaming coffee into Fortis’ hands. “Brewed fresh from yesterday’s socks, sir.”
Fortis blew on the cup and sipped the hot liquid. It burned his tongue, but he was grateful for the warm feeling that spread through his insides.
“Why do you suppose the GRC lined up their test tubes like that?”
“They’re here for testing.” Pell stood up and groaned. “Maybe this is part of it?”
Ystremski snorted. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“What else could it be?”
“A net. They’ve set a net. They’re trying to catch Gunny Hawkins and his patrol.”
* * *
Brinks studied the dirt and listened as one of his trackers explained what he was looking at. To Brinks, tracking was a combination of art, science, and bullshit. How much of each depended on the tracker.
“They stopped here recently. See how sharp this print is? The dirt around the edges hasn’t started to fall in yet, which means it’s fresh. Very fresh.”
“Great. We know they’re close, but which direction?” He struggled to keep the frustration out of his voice, but after several hours of fruitless hunting, his nerves were wearing thin.
“That’s the problem. We can’t find any tracks leading away from this clearing. It’s like they vanished.”
Brinks’ temper boiled over.
“They didn’t vanish, you moron. They’ve been heading south, so let’s search that way. We’ll pick up their trail again and get back on them.”
“But, sir—”
“Stop. Just stop. You’ve done a great job up keeping us on their trail, don’t fuck it up by saying something stupid. Now, move out.”
* * *
Lily waved Winaki and Hawkins down and they flattened themselves in the dense foliage. Hawkins peeked through the leaves and saw a test tube patrol moving silently through the forest three meters from his hiding spot. The patrol moved with slow, deliberate steps, their rifles held at the ready.
On the stretcher next to him, Kilfoy began to jerk against her restraints and her heels drummed on the dirt. Hawkins slid on top of her, pinning her legs with his, and prayed that the test tubes hadn’t heard her struggle. After a few minutes, Lily’s quiet voice came over the comm link.
“Stay down. There’s a trailer.”
Several more tense minutes went by before Lily gave the all-clear.
Hawkins took a deep breath.
“Can you get off me, Gunny? You weigh a ton.”
By the time Lily and Winaki joined him, Hawkins had pulled Kilfoy into a seated position and she was gulping greedily at a hydration pack.
“Hey, look at you,” exclaimed Winaki.
“Welcome back,” added Lily. “How do you feel?”
Kilfoy drained the hydration pack before answering. “My head is killing me and my leg is on fire. Other than that, I feel tip-top. Where are we?”
“Best guess is a couple klicks northeast of the GRC base. We’ve been playing hide-and-seek for the last few hours, but we might have lost the pursuit, for now.”
“Long way from home. You carried me this whole time?”
Hawkins shrugged. “We couldn’t leave you behind.”
“That must have sucked.”
Another shrug. “DINLI.”
“All right.” Kilfoy grabbed at Hawkins and started to pull herself up. “Help me up.”
“What about your leg?”
Kilfoy snorted. “It hurts like a motherfucker, but I can’t have you carrying me. Give me a shot to numb it up and let’s make tracks.”
“This is ugly humping, Kilfoy. Are you sure?”
“DINLI, remember?”
Hawkins shook his head at the young sergeant’s courage and determination as he squeezed the hypodermic injector full of local anesthetic into the flesh above her wound.
“If you have trouble walking or you feel any pain, tell me,” he instructed Kilfoy. “We can throw together another litter.”
“Gunny, if I have any problems, you’ll be the last person I tell.” Kilfoy slammed Winaki on the shoulder, and the other sergeant nodded in return. “Let’s go home.”
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nesbitt’s communicator beeped. It was Beck calling.
“Any word from the trackers?”
“Nothing since they reported the battery. I think they’re still on the trail of the Space Marines. Brinks is dumb, but he knows enough to call if they lose the scent.”
“The Marine base launched a drone about three hours ago. I saw it on the cameras.”
“Drone? Nobody has reported seeing a drone.”
“It was a glider. You know, with the big wingspan? Those things fly so high you can’t see them.”
“Why would they launch a drone?”
Beck shook his head. “I don’t know, Nesbitt. Military operations are your thing, not mine. I’m starting to wonder if this whole thing isn’t a wild goose chase. Maybe your trackers misidentified those boot prints and they’ve been tracking themselves around the jungle.”
Nesbitt sighed and rubbed his forehead. “You’re right, Beck. Military operations aren’t your thing. Why don’t you leave military matters up to me and go back to filling out reports for the folks back at corporate headquarters?”
“Don’t forget who you’re talking to, mercenary.” Beck spat out the last word like an insult. “You work for me, remember?”
Nesbitt laughed. “I don’t work for you, Beck. You’re a corporate stooge, nothing more. Your boss’ boss signs my checks.”
“Do you like Pada-Pada, Nesbitt?”
Beck’s change of direction caught him off guard. “What?”
“Do you like Pada-Pada? Do you enjoy spending time here?”
“Of course not. What kind of question is that?”
“If you don’t like Pada-Pada and you don’t enjoy spending time here, then you should do everything you can to assist me with the engineered soldiers instead of obstructing me every chance you get. The sooner they develop the ability to run the mining colony, the sooner we can both leave this place. Do you understand?”
Nesbitt had to concede the point to Beck, but he wouldn’t admit it. He remained silent.
“What I want to know from you is whether the continued participation of the engineered soldiers in this chase does anything to further our mutual goal?”
“Not directly, no. If word gets out—”
“I already told you, I’ve taken care of that for now. We need to come up with a permanent solution to that problem, but you’re a military man, you’ll think of something. For now, recall the troops and let’s get them back into camp before nightfall so we aren’t up all night searching for them in the jungle, too.”
* * *
“Look at that.”
Trenas zoomed in on an area of vegetation where the line of hotspots had been visible. “It looks like they’re moving south. Maybe they’re going home?”
As Fortis watched, the line contracted back toward the GRC base.
“What do you think it means, LT?”
Fortis shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. Maybe they really were testing or training and they’re done.”
Ystremski voiced everyone’s worst fears. “Maybe they captured our troops, and they’re headed home.”
“Orbit the drone over the GRC headquarters and let’s see what’s going on,” ordered Fortis. “If they have Hawkins, we’ll see it.”
* * *
Hawkins crept forward on his belly up a slight rise and looked down over the jungle. The patrol had circled around to cut their trail again and discovered the jungle was empty. The unnerving thing about the jungle on Pada-Pada was the lack of animal life. In other jungle environments, birds and other wildlife served as an early warning system. When the jungle grew silent, danger lurked. Not so in this place.
He waited and watched for several minutes, but the jungle remained quiet.
“Okay, move up nice and slow.”
Winaki slipped in next to Hawkins, followed by Kilfoy and Lily. Kilfoy’s movements were slow, but she struggled on without complaint. She needed help over some rougher patches, but the going was a lot easier for the other three Marines without the burden of the litter.
“Where did everybody go?” asked Lily. “This place was crawling with test tubes the last time we came through here.”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to wait to find out. Come on.”
Hawkins crept down the rise with his rifle at the ready. His frayed nerves screamed at him as his eyes darted all over the place, searching for a glimpse of the test tubes. He moved forward in a crouch for fifty meters, then paused at the edge of an open area where the overhead canopy thinned.
“Stay out of sight,” he instructed the others. “I’ll go forward and see if I can get a fix and establish comms with Command.”
He slowly advanced until he was directly under the gap in the trees and watched his navigation aid. After a minute of searching, it locked onto one of the ISMC satellites high overhead. Hawkins saw they were four klicks north of the GRC base. He dialed up the Command circuit and keyed his mic.
“Command, this is Hawkins.”
Silence greeted his transmission.
“Command, this is Hawkins. Do you read me?”
Again, nothing.
Hawkins moved around the clearing to change his line of sight to the sky, but his signal strength monitor never rose above the twenty percent necessary for voice communications.
“Any luck, Gunny?”
“I got a fix, but no comms.”
“Have you tried the burst?”
The “burst” Kilfoy was referring to was a digital communications technique that required much lower connectivity than voice communications. A sender could enter up to one hundred twenty-eight characters, which the communicator compressed into a transmission in a few microseconds. The message would remain cued up to transmit until the satellite linked up or the sender cancelled the transmission.
“Forgot all about it,” Hawkins admitted. He slipped off his glove, punched in a brief message, and hit “transmit.”
Coords 382.56.98-6634.40.1003. All safe. Hdg west.
* * *
Nesbitt joined Beck on the platform overlooking the training ground and watched as the test tubes filed in from the jungle. Human troops would have grumbled about pointless operations and wasted effort, but the test tubes remained passive. Their mercenary leaders weren’t so composed, and there was a great deal of shouting and shoving to get the test tubes lined up in ranks.
Brinks and his trackers strode into camp and gathered at the bottom of the platform ladder.
“We had them, Nesbitt,” Brinks shouted. “We were five minutes behind them when you recalled. Five minutes!”
Beck looked over the rail at the mercenaries below. Before Nesbitt could stop him, the GRC executive sneered. “You were five minutes behind them all day long, Brinks.”
Nesbitt pulled Beck back from the rail. “Bickering with my mercenaries won’t help, Beck. Let him vent.”
Brinks shouted something unintelligible and attempted to climb the ladder before the other trackers pulled him away.
“Go back to your quarters and get cleaned up,” Nesbitt ordered the mercenaries. He shared their frustration, but there was a more important issue than tracking a Space Marine reconnaissance patrol, and he needed them all to focus.
The company commanders finally reported that all were present or accounted for and Beck dismissed the formation. The troops filed toward their tents, where they would wait until the mercenaries summoned them to the mess tents for supper.
“They have a lot of potential, you know,” commented Beck as the last of the test tubes exited the training ground. “With every generation, we get closer to our goal. Someday—” he tapped Nesbitt on the chest, “—soldiers like you will be obsolete.”
Nesbitt chuckled. “We’ll both be dead long before these mindless fuckers make humans obsolete, Beck. You’d be better off replacing them with colonists than trying to make them your overseers.”
“The generals don’t pay us to develop miners.”
* * *
Fortis watched as test tubes streamed in from the jungle and filled the GRC compound. Trenas zoomed in on several groups that were clustered together, but they didn’t see Hawkins or the other Space Marines. The test tubes fell into ranks, got counted, and then fell out.
“I didn’t see anything that looked like prisoners. Did you?”
Fortis stared at the screen.
“That means they got away, right?” The hopeful tone in Trenas’ voice sounded hollow.
“Yeah.” Fortis’ answer was reflexive and just as hollow.
Or they’re lying dead in the jungle.
“It will be dark in a couple hours. The infrared sensor performance will improve, and we’ll find them then.”
“How much more flight time do we have?”
Trenas pulled up the drone status. “We have two hours of battery-powered flight and another ninety minutes of fuel, but we’ll need that to bring it back and land.”
“Hmm.”
“We would gain a few more minutes if we jettisoned the bombs over the GRC camp,” said Pell.
Fortis snorted at Pell’s suggestion.
“If we knew Hawkins’ team was safe, I’d consider it.”
The console beeped.
“Hey! It’s a burst from the gunny!” She put the message up on a side display for all to see. “Coordinates and a message. They’re all safe!”
“When was it sent?”
“That’s the weakness of the burst system,” advised Pell. “He might have sent it hours ago, but the message sits in the queue until his communicator links up with a satellite.”
On the main display, a flashing icon north of the GRC base appeared.
“That’s where the coordinates put them,” Trenas announced.
“Send the drone, and let’s see if we can find them,” ordered Fortis.
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kilfoy cried out in pain when she lost her footing on a small embankment and landed in a heap. Lily dropped next to her and helped her sit up.
“Gunny, we’ve got to stop. She’s bled through the bandages, and it needs to be rewrapped.”
“I can take it,” Kilfoy protested through gritted teeth. “Just help me up.” She struggled to stand, but Lily held her down as Hawkins and Winaki joined them.
