Bennett bowed his head for a few moments in thought. Then he looked up. “How long will it take you two to get the civvies ready to evacuate?"
Inside two hours, Mai and Gordon had their people—including those Cresperians who were preparing to metamorphose to human—ready to go, clustered in Mai's lab. But before they could depart, the alert klaxon went off.
"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL MILITARY PERSONNEL TO BATTLE STATIONS! ACTIVATING SHIELD! ATTACK IMMINENT ON NORTH CONTINENT OF CRESPERIA! ALL NON-DUTY PERSONNEL ACTIVATE VIDEO IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ATTACK IMMINENT!"
Gordon snatched the remote, and activated the video.
An intermediate sized Snapper vessel—a battleship, Gordon and Major Bennett had begun terming it—had shot forward, ahead of the rest of the incoming fleet, and was approaching Cresperia from the north. The large northern continent was indeed its apparent target.
Suddenly, well before it was in range of Cresperian defensive beams, a green ray lanced out from the battleship, down toward the Cresperian surface. A cloud of ejecta could be seen exploding from the site, and suddenly Gordon and his fellow Cresperians, whether in human form or not, dropped to their knees. The room filled with high pitched wails and keening.
"GORDON!” Mai screamed, crouching beside him. “What's wrong?!"
"They... they killed them, Cherry,” Gordon panted, raising his head to look into her dark, anxious eyes. “Past the shielding, past everything. An entire city of my people... was just obliterated."
Within seconds, the battleship itself disappeared from the video screen—or at least, most of it did. What little was left of the vessel from the orbiting disintegrator cannon's attack vented atmosphere, fluids, shards of debris, and what appeared to be dead bodies.
"Thank God we talked Steve into outfitting the orbital cannons with active camo,” Mai murmured vindictively. “I swear the stuff works even better in space."
"Yes, but Cherry, they have the reach on us,” Gordon pointed out. “That Snapper ship was nowhere close to being in range of the ground based defenses. Yet it punched through our shielding like paper."
"How can that be?!” Mai exclaimed. “You guys have the best shit going."
"Evidently not,” Gene Preconder observed. “A city wiped out obviously just got trumped in the matter of offensive and defensive weaponry. Sorry,” he added to the Crispies present.
"No offense taken,” Zztklknith shrugged. “Truth is truth. But the fact that our disintegrator got through their shielding as easily as their energy weapon did ours, is some source of... perhaps comfort is not the right word...” He sighed.
Just then, Major Bennett burst into the room.
"What the hell happened?” Mai demanded. “That was a damned hot knife through butter. And all our guys went down with the pain,” she swept a hand at the Crispies in the room.
Bennett shook his head. “We're not sure. Our current theory is that the previous assault was made with whatever ship was nearby, not necessarily a top of the line. When that failed, they brought in the big guns."
"Shit,” Margie Preconder, Gene's wife, spat. “Blast the Snappers to hell."
"I wish we could. How close are you to being ready to evacuate?” he demanded.
"We were headed to the tubes when the call to battle stations came through,” JFK, the human physician, informed him.
"Good. We're just crossing the terminator into night. If you head to the spaceports near the western coast of South Dtnir, you'll be damn near opposite the direction of the Snapper fleet. The Cresperians are preparing some smaller ships for you. They have just as much range, but a better chance of slipping out of the solar system unseen."
"What about you?” Gordon asked.
Bennett grew grim. “I'm sending a couple of units with you guys, to function as weapons officers and pilots if you should need ‘em,” he told them. “The rest of us are staying here."
"But... Steve...” Mai tried to protest.
"I know, Mai. It's... been good knowing you.” Bennett stuck out his hand, but Mai flung her arms around the Marine officer.
"Don't, Steve,” she whispered. “Don't do it. Please. Go to ground instead. Lead an underground resistance movement. A thorn in their side. Don't go kamikaze on us."
He nodded. “We'll do what we can, Cherry. We're not suicidal. We're just soldiers."
"No,” Gordon contradicted. “More than soldiers. Friends—and family."
Bennett nodded, swallowing hard. “Now go. My men will meet you at the spaceport; they're already gone. And Godspeed."
Every member of the group hugged the major on the way out.
Rather than create surface roadways or airways that obstructed the view, the Crispies constructed their transportation facilities, like their cities, underground. The Earth outpost personnel had taken to calling them “the tubes,” and one station was directly underneath their compound. The refugees gathered their hastily compiled belongings and research—what could be brought—and headed for the station. Having considerable sense among them, they divided into small groups and each group took a different car, on a different route, to the spaceport.
Mai and Gordon clambered into a car. Four of Gordon's “cousins” joined them. Eugene and Margie Preconder took another car, along with several more Crispies. Four Crispies piled into a third car, along with JFK and his nurse. And so it went, each car zipping off in a different direction.
As Mai and Gordon approached their first hub, the city of Xxtrflm, they found themselves caught in a traffic jam of sorts, as citizens of that city sought to flee into the countryside, considering it safer than the concentration of the city. The car came to a complete stop at the first commuting station, unable to move forward due to the snarl of traffic in the city proper.
"Come on!” Gordon exclaimed, opening the car and shepherding everyone out with their small bags. “We can't wait this out. From what I saw we're still in range of the Snapper weapon. I know this city like the back of my hand, as Cherry would say! We've got to get through it on foot, then try to find a car on the other side! Let's go! Stick together!"
Chaining hands together, the six beings, led by Gordon, threaded their way through panicked crowds of Cresperians, all headed outbound. Before they could get ten feet from their abandoned car, it was crammed with fleeing Crispies, all headed back the way Gordon and his group had come.
Past the tube station the crowd thinned a bit, and Gordon picked up the pace to a run. The others followed hard on his heels; Mai stayed right beside him. “One hundred zrts ahead, then take a left,” he instructed. “I'm taking us the back way. It should be less crowded. Got it?"
A chorus of “Yes!” came to his ears, and he increased speed.
They made the corner, and the coast was clear. “Next right,” he said. “Then a dog leg, and another right."
The six family members—because, in Gordon's mind, they were, despite radically different appearances—made the maze of underground streets smoothly, dodging the odd fleeing Cresperian. A quake shook the city, and Mai nearly fell. Gordon grabbed her before she could hit pavement, hauling her against his side as he continued to run, tears flowing down his cheeks. When she'd gotten her balance, he eased her feet to the ground and she resumed running. He released her.
"What the hell was that?!” she exclaimed, matching his pace again.
It was one of Gordon's cousins that answered, his tone very subdued. “I cannot be for certain, but I would guess that the adjacent city, some kimozrts away, was just attacked."
"Judging from what I felt, I think you're right, Krnlith,” Gordon agreed, dragging the back of one hand across his eyes in an effort to erase the signs of his emotion. “I'm taking us to an older station, one that, hopefully, most people will have forgotten. Otherwise, we will simply run into another log jam of people.” He turned to Mai. “Can you go any faster, love?"
"A little,” Mai declared staunchly, and soon they were covering city blocks in me
re moments, dodging around abandoned possessions and vehicles, as well as the occasional lost pedestrian.
"This way!” Gordon would call, whenever that happened, and the Crispy so addressed would immediately fall in behind. Soon they had a group of a dozen.
But Mai, enhanced though she was, was running out of reserves. Gordon noticed her pace slacking somewhat. “Are you all right, Cherry?"
"Fine,” she panted.
"Not if you are out of breath.” Without slowing, Gordon scooped up his wife, backpack and all, and carried her. “It is only about a malazrt away, sweetheart,” he assured her. “With any luck, most of the others will have forgotten about it and we will find a couple of cars to take us away from the city. Then we will be safer."
Mai nodded in his arms, trying to catch her breath. “You can't carry me that whole way at this pace,” she protested.
"That is what family is for,” Dala, another cousin, noted. “We will take turns until you have recovered."
"Gordon, what about your parents?” Lira wondered.
Gordon remained silent. Mai shook her head.
"He called them,” she informed the cousins, “but they wouldn't come. They've hooked up with Major Bennett and they're going to try to form a resistance movement."
"Oh,” Lira said, subdued.
They handed Mai off twice in the remaining malazrt to the station. As they rounded the corner to the entrance of the tube station, they stopped short. Several hundred Crispies packed the old station, clambering into cars as fast as the cars arrived. Some cars were packed with eight or ten Crispies, despite the fact that they only seated six.
"Shit,” Mai expostulated. “Now what?"
But the crowd had heard the English exclamation, and turned. A jabbering sounded in Cresperian, and several green hands pointed in their direction. Gordon raised his hands and responded in Cresperian.
Suddenly the crowd parted, letting them through. Gordon, Mai, and their cousins were ushered urgently to the next car, which had just arrived. One of the oldest Crispies stepped forward as the six members of the outpost climbed into the car. He placed two of his hands on Gordon's head, the other two on his shoulders, as if conveying a benediction.
"GO,” he said urgently in English. “I charge you: Bring back help from Earth."
"We will,” Gordon assured them.
He closed the door of the car, and they were off.
With deft, knowledgeable programming of their route on Gordon's part, they avoided passing through any more cities on their way to the spaceport. It took them an extra half hour longer to arrive than originally anticipated. “Then again,” Mai pointed out, “better a half hour than stuck in some city when it gets obliterated."
As the six extracted themselves from their tube car, they found they were actually some of the first to arrive. Anxious Space Marine attendants and several Crispy teams stood waiting at the portal to the small starcraft hangar, along with a little group of four half converted Crispies. Gordon recognized them.
"Chnilith, what happened to the Preconders?” he demanded urgently.
Chnilith shook his head. “We got caught in a... I think the term is ‘traffic jam?’ In Dndrth,” he finished. “Everyone was trying to flee the city."
"Yes, the same happened to us in Xxtrflm,” Gordon noted. “What happened?"
All four of Chnilith's hands went in the air. “We lost them in the crowds,” he mourned. “We searched and searched and could not find them. Finally we chose to save the research,” he pointed to the case in the hand of one of his companions, “and get out. Now we are here, and our mentors are not,” he anguished. “I fear we shall never see them again."
"Why?” Cherry demanded.
"We were barely out of Dndrth when the Snappers’ green ray obliterated it."
"The ground quake,” Krnlith reminded them.
"Shit,” Mai whispered, paling. “Not Gene and Margie. No, no, no."
A soldier approached them “I hate to interrupt, Dr. Trung, Mr. Stuart , but the time for grieving is later, when we've gotten away. I'm Sergeant Douglas Bain, and I'll be your weapons master and pilot if needed. Let's get aboard our starcraft before the Snappers have the planet encircled."
Another marine approached what had been the Preconders’ group. “I'm Lieutenant Stevie Gann,” she introduced herself, “and I'm assigned to your group. I recommend we also get away from the planet as soon as possible. There are other starhoppers waiting that the Preconders can take if and when they arrive."
The two groups hastened toward the portal into the hangars.
The acceleration into orbit was high; Gordon was at the controls instead of Bain. “I used to play with these things in my younger days,” he explained. “Over the years I helped with their enhancement and upgrades. I know how to use the normal accelerator in conjunction with the unreality drive to make it really move. Hang onto your stomachs, because this is going to be a pretty wild ride. I want to get away from here as fast as I can without being seen, and this is the best way to do it."
Within seconds they were exoatmospheric, and Gordon headed for the nearest moon, which was still on the dark side in its monthly eclipse. The Crispy was intent on getting behind its bulk. But a group of three of the Snapper runabouts was hovering near the moon, apparently standing guard. It was one of the new configurations for their runabouts, and Gordon concluded they must be small, one or two person fighter craft. Fighters, armored personnel carriers, battleships, and “aircraft” carriers, to draw analogies to Cherry's world's fleets, he concluded.
Due to his skill with the starhopper, he was on them before they had a chance to react. “See them, Sergeant?!” he called. “You take the outer two, I'll take the middle one."
Although Mai was a decided shade of Crispy green from the way Gordon was handling the ship's drive, Sergeant Bain was in relatively good shape, if a trifle pale around the mouth. “Got ‘em, sir!"
The center fighter craft disappeared in the sights of Gordon's disintegrator cannon, and the other two were gone fractions of a second later. Gordon flew low over the surface of the small moon, using its bulk and rugged terrain as a sensor diversion, praying there were no Snapper emplacements already on its surface.
But it appeared the fighter flight they'd just taken out were the forerunners, and soon the smaller of Cresperia's moons was between them and the Snapper fleet. Gordon programmed the ship to maintain that orientation until they'd reached the next planet, and the little craft zipped away from Cresperia.
Bennett took his remaining forces and the Crispies that had joined them, and led them down into the maintenance tunnels that served the complex and the tube transport. Then they ran until they were several miles away from the outpost, away from any danger of being hit if the outpost were attacked, before stopping.
"All right,” he said. “We're the resistance. We have to hold out until the rest of the outpost members can bring back help. How fast can the little starhoppers go?"
Casey Stuart, one of Gordon's parents, shrugged. “The drive is the same, regardless of the mass of the ship,” he said. “They will go as fast as our exploratory ships. Perhaps faster."
"Okay, so...” Bennett did some mental calculations. “Good. I think we brought enough supplies. We're going to create caches in places underground, away from both the outpost compound and any major activity centers. It should be awhile before they get to the outpost unless they beam it, so we've got time to observe and plan, then spread out. Anybody know what's happening topside?"
"Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Jenson noted, pulling up an image on his screen. “The first of the troop carriers have landed in the countryside, sir. Have a look."
They clustered around the small screen as best they could, those in front taking turns with those in back so everyone could see.
Topside, the small troop carriers were swarming over the sunlit landscape, disgorging thousands of Snappers armed with lasers and green energy beams. Then the carriers became tanks, using the
ir laser cannons to cut apart everything in sight. The beautiful Cresperian landscape was in the midst of a rape.
Heedless of pleading cries and obvious surrender gestures, any Cresperians the Snappers came across were mowed down without mercy. Body parts and internal organs strewed themselves across the once pristine landscape, now blackened and blood splattered. Several of the Crispies who were with Bennett made groaning noises, and Bennett himself turned away, sickened.
"Scorched earth policy,” he murmured. “I've never seen anything like it. We must've gotten the third stringers before. I hope help comes soon, or there won't be anything left."
Planet by planet, asteroid by asteroid, Gordon eased the starhopper, which Mai had dubbed The Last Resort, out of the Cresperian solar system, keeping a wary eye out for flanking maneuvers by the Snappers. But the hostile aliens seemed to prefer the blunt, direct approach: even though Gordon also used the cover of the automated shipping traffic, of which the Snappers already knew, they were ignored.
Behind them, however, a couple of silent explosions erupted in the shadow of Cresperia, and the occupants of The Last Resort knew some of their companions hadn't made it away before the entire planet had been besieged. Detonations and eruptions began appearing on the nighttime surface of the planet, each one marking the demise of a Cresperian city or town.
As soon as they cleared the cometary cloud, Gordon set a course for Earth and punched the unreality drive to maximum.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Chapter 12
Bang was, several weeks—and missions—after his arrival at the Enclave, officially not only a gunner's mate but a fire control man in the Space Marines. He and Piki were semi-officially a couple, although still not lovers; and Piki had applied to be the Crispy adjunct to Platoon White Horse. This was debated for some time, before word came down that permission had been granted; Sira, as chief geneticist, was considered too important to send into the field on a regular basis. And as Piki had an emotional attachment, not merely to Bangler, but the entire unit, she was considered perfect for the assignment.
The Cresperian Alliance Page 16
