Grunt Hero

by Weston Ochse

  “Yeah, it’s not like we can miss anything.”

  “False walls? False floors? Drop ceiling?” I was grasping at straws.

  Chance shrugged. “If there is, we might never know.”

  We stared at each other for a moment, then all of us turned to watch the old man who was chuckling at the television. It couldn’t possibly be. Or could it?

  “Excuse me, sir, but what’s your name?”

  He ignored me and turned up the volume.

  I glanced at Olivares and rolled my eyes. Then I walked over and gently took the remote from him. Thankfully, he didn’t fight. I’d hate to have to get into it with an octogenarian. I turned off the television, then put the remote on the coffee table.

  “Sir, I just need the proper way to address you. I’d like to ask you a few questions and I want to be polite about it. Now if you will, what’s your name, sir?”

  “They call me Alpha,” he said, crossing his arms.

  “Alpha what?”

  “Just Alpha.”

  I doubted that was his name, but I’d tried. If he wanted to be called Alpha, then I’ll call him Alpha. “Mr. Alpha, we’re looking for two specimens. We found one but can’t seem to find the other. If you’d help, then we could get out of your hair and let you get back to watching television.”

  He stared at me for a long moment, then got up and went to the bedroom. Maybe it was under the bed. But instead of leaning down, he went to a standup closet, grabbed a bag, and then strode purposefully towards the specimen box. He placed his bag on the ground, then sat down on top of it.

  I glanced from Chance to Olivares, neither of whom seemed to know what was going on either.

  “Mr. Alpha? What are you doing?”

  He pointed to the box he was sitting on. “This is Bravo. He died in 1962 due to a compromised immune system.” Then he pointed at his chest. “I am Alpha. We are your specimens.”

  You could have knocked me down with a feather.

  “But you seem so... so...”

  “Human? We’re virtually the same species, you know. Whether you say Khron, Human, or Phenomnom, it doesn’t really matter. We all came from the same seed. In fact, that’s who we are. We are the seeded.”

  “Olivares, are you hearing this?”

  I could see his narrowed eyes behind his faceplate. “Loud and clear.”

  “Have they arrived?” Alpha asked “Have my people arrived?”

  I nodded. “And they want you.”

  Tears suddenly leaked from the corners of his eyes. “Damn, but it’s been a long time.”

  Chance shook her head. “So you’re the alien?”

  He nodded. “I was a lot more fit when we were captured. More believable then, I supposed.” He rubbed his balding head and his plump stomach. “Not as young as I once was.”

  “But you don’t even have an accent,” she said. Then she said, “Wait, does your kind even speak English?”

  “No, dear. My kind doesn’t speak English. But I expect given seventy years of captivity you’d be able to speak the language of your captors pretty well.”

  “Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God,” Olivares said, a tinge of fear in his voice as he crossed himself, finally realizing what was going on.

  I was struck by the juxtaposition of a hardened Army lieutenant in a walking tank suit suddenly afraid of a little old man.

  Alpha must have realized this and said, “Don’t worry about me. There isn’t any such thing as Klingons or Romulans and I’m certainly no Spock,” he said, making pincer movements with his fingers.

  “How do you know about Star Trek?” Chance asked.

  “Not much to do here but watch your television. When we were first captured, you only had radio. Then finally television. It took years of your mind-numbing shows before you actually created something worth watching.”

  “What about Lost In Space?” I asked.

  “Please, what a ridiculous show. We would have spaced the doctor after his first traitorous action and been done with it.”

  “But then there wouldn’t have been a show,” I countered.

  “If life imitates art, then art should imitate life.”

  “Interesting. Sounds like you’re a pragmatist,” I said.

  “It’s how I could survive your poking and prodding all these years.”

  “Wait a minute... that had nothing to do with me. We’re just soldiers.”

  He just gave me a look.

  “How were you captured?” Chance asked.

  “Engine failure. We were in the process of fixing it when, how do you say it, we got rolled up on by the po po.”

  Chance snorted.

  I laughed.

  “So you were in one of the UFOs,” Olivares said, finally managing not to sound afraid of the small man.

  “Wasn’t unidentified to me, sonny.” Alpha followed this with a few words in an unidentifiable language.

  I shook my head. “What is it you were doing here?”

  “Waiting for the Umi. It goes like this. First comes reconnaissance. Once your infrastructure and grids are mapped, the Umi send in the hives with what you refer to as Cray.”

  “What do you call them?” I asked.

  “When they came to my planet, we called them Othoids.”

  “How long ago was that?” Chance asked.

  “In earth years, that would be about nine thousand years ago.” He nodded. “Where was I... The Othoids come, then you develop a technology to fight them. I have to hand it to you. You came up with the EXOs faster than most of the other words that have been attacked.”

  “About that,” I said, “Your reporting wouldn’t have anything to do with that, now would it?”

  “Do you mean did I provide significant data that would influence your ability to fight the invasion? That would have been against our regulations. I never would have done that.” He paused for a moment, then added, “But I did take pride in the moment when Ripley blasted the alien out of the airlock. What an inspiring image, don’t you think?” Without missing a beat, he added, “And then comes the terraforming, which is actually performed for two reasons. One, the water needs to reach a certain temperature so that the Umi can spawn, and two, metal needs to be harvested in the most expeditious manner to create lift vehicles to get the newly-spawned Umi off the planet. At that point, there’s a lull that can last years, or decades, waiting for the water to become warmer. You aren’t aware of this but the Umi have harvested hundreds of thousands of asteroids from your Oort cloud and have been firing them in to the Arctic to assist with the melting of the Polar Ice Cap.

  “Normally we’d have already been in place because the watch station positioned in your solar system, which was waiting for these events to unfold, would have reported Phase I of the Umi conquest. However, since we were caught and there was no one to report, it wasn’t until one of our automated beacons captured their movement into the system and sent the information back to the task force that we realized what was happening. By now the Khron have established several beach heads around the world and are preparing to launch attacks on the newly born Umi before they can be lifted from the planet. My guess is that’s our next step. Am I right?”

  We all nodded.

  Chance asked, “Is it always like this with the ’Crealiacs...er... the Umi?”

  “They’re not particularly intelligent, but they have a way to control other species that supersedes genius. You experienced it with zombie spore. Its cross-species effects allow them control and direction of multiple alien species and to also direct them to do their bidding.”

  “So the Cray are infected as well?” I asked.

  “To a different degree, yes.”

  Olivares interrupted. “Mason, Ohirra says everything is ready.”

  I nodded, picked up the old man alien’s bag, and gestured towards the door, aware of what a turning point this was and how surreal it all was. “After you, Mr. Alpha.”

  “Alpha. Just Alpha,” he said, then got up and wa
lked out the door.

  The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

  Henry David Thoreau

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ONCE WE REACHED the main level and Alpha saw Nancy and Doctor Paul, he rushed over to them. I couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but I could hear Nancy calling him Uncle Alpha, which indicated how close they really were. After a few moments of learning what had happened, Alpha came over to us. One hand was balled into a fist. His frown would have made a lesser man cower.

  “You didn’t tell me everything,” he growled.

  “I figured you’d see for yourself.”

  He jabbed his fist toward Picket’s body. “What they did was terrible.”

  “I agree,” I said.

  “Behavior like this is not worthy of saving.”

  “I agree to that as well. That is unacceptable behavior and isn’t to be tolerated. None of my soldiers have ever, nor will they ever, act with such atrocity. My soldiers have character.”

  “That one seemed to have character,” Alpha said pointing at Corporal Sykes.

  I didn’t know what I was going to do with Lance Corporal Sykes. I really didn’t think I should leave him here. “But he’s guilty by association. I’m sure they knew what kind of person Picket was. He joined them and he went on mission. Hell, he tortured them for three days. Basically the entire time you were downstairs without power. And Sykes did nothing to stop it.”

  “He could have been killed had he tried to do something,” Alpha said.

  “I would have died trying to stop it. The other man had to sleep or turn his back sometime.”

  “Indeed. Maybe your species is worth saving.”

  “Just as someone judged that your species were worth saving at one time or another.”

  He nodded but his frown didn’t lesson.

  “We need to get going,” I said.

  His frown finally fell as he stared with regret at Paul and Nancy. I realized that he’d been around them longer than anyone else in his life. For as close as they’d become, they might as well have been family. “Alpha, we need to go,” I repeated

  He turned to me, his face blank. Then he nodded. “You’re right. Let me just go say goodbye.”

  I pulled my EXO from where it was leaning against the wall and climbed inside. Someone had patched the hole, but I doubted the integrity of the internal Faraday cage. Still, it would have to do. Once I was locked in and powered up, I contacted Liebl. “Report.”

  “Negative contact outside.”

  I called the pilots over the command net. “We’ll be ready for wheels up in ten mikes.”

  I waited for a response but got nothing. I repeated myself, but still nothing.

  “Liebl, do you have visual on the airfield?”

  “Negative visuals. Do you want me to go check?”

  “No. Stay on station.”

  I turned to those in the room. There was still another super EXO out there so I needed to be careful who I sent. It couldn’t be Liebl. We needed someone to warn us if it was coming this way. Likewise, I couldn’t send only one person. Whoever went needed backup.

  “I’ll go, sir.”

  I turned to Earl, who’d so recently been a cowering mess. “I don’t think so, son.”

  “No, really, Lieutenant.” He paused, seeming to realize how needy he sounded. Then he switched to private chat. “I know I was lousy out there. I really screwed up. I need this, sir.”

  “You definitely weren’t yourself. What makes you think letting you go out there is a good idea?”

  “I’ve proven myself over and over,” he said. “This was just one time when I wasn’t… wasn’t… I don’t know what I wasn’t, but being in the suit makes all the difference.”

  “That suit doesn’t make you invincible,” I warned.

  “I know. I just need to go out there and do something to make up for my actions.”

  I thought of Thompson and how he’d turtled up at the Battle of Kilimanjaro. I remembered others hiding and ducking while I fired and moved. Combat wasn’t for everyone. It wasn’t that I was suicidal anymore. I had a fine taste of life and a love for living. I was just proficient enough at infantry tactics to keep myself alive. I remembered having a drill sergeant back at Benning who preached battle drills. If you make them second nature, they would save your life. Earl had learned battle drills the easy way, but had been successful because he’d been protected by the firepower and armor of the EXO. I’d learned my battle drills without the benefit of an EXO, so the EXO added to my portfolio of violence. Maybe it was just that he didn’t have the ability to translate what he’d learned in his suit for use outside of his suit. It was clear he wanted to not only regain his own confidence, but mine as well.

  Olivares requested private chat and I granted it.

  “Don’t do it.”

  “Don’t do what?”

  “Don’t let your man Earl go on mission alone.”

  “I was going to send his sister with him.”

  “I guarantee you that if they get into combat he’s going to do something stupid.”

  “But if I don’t do it, we have no confidence in him.”

  Olivares paused before responding, then said, “You were right when you said Video Game Syndrome. He doesn’t see what he’s doing while in the suit as real. That means he’s probably been taking chances he shouldn’t normally take. Now, after he embarrassed himself, it’s only going to be worse.”

  Not knowing I was also speaking with Olivares, Earl pleaded once more, “Lieutenant, seriously, I can do this.”

  “Olivares, thanks for your input,” I said. Then I killed my private chat with Earl and broadcast on the command channel. “Earl and Pearl, go and recon the airfield and report back any evidence of enemy activity.”

  They both acknowledged and were out the door.

  Olivares shook his head.

  Ohirra wanted a private chat, but I declined. She tried twice more and twice more I declined.

  While I waited for Earl to get into position, tracking his movement through his feed, I watched Alpha and his unexpected family say their goodbyes. The motions were a luxury. I’d never had a chance to say goodbye to anyone in my unit back in Afghanistan. Earl and Pearl had never been able to say goodbye to their friends because the invasion had come when they were on holiday. Everyone still alive on this rock was in the same position, and I watched as Ohirra and Pearl stared uncomfortably at the three pouring emotion into each other for the last time. Even Charlemagne watched, tears in his eyes, probably remembering family or friends he longed to have last words with. I considered getting their attention, turning them away to some task so they wouldn’t have to watch, but I didn’t. As painful as it was, I felt it was important for them to experience this, inculcate this, then use it as ammunition for the hours to come. No one knew what we were about to get into. Alpha was hardly the model for the aliens we were soon going to meet. And then what? To war? To space? Whatever it was, I was ready, and I wanted my Heroes to be ready as well.

  Earl turned a corner and what remained of the airplanes came into view. Smoke curled from the smoking wrecks. I checked Earl’s radar but there was no movement.

  “Investigate,” I ordered, and Earl and his sister began to jog in the direction of the air frames.

  I began running through my options and realized I didn’t have any. Unless it was on foot, I didn’t know how we could possibly travel from here to Odessa. In fact, now that the aircraft were destroyed, we had no way to recharge, which had been my plan.

  I sighed and tried to engage Ohirra in private chat, but she declined. I tried again, and she responded. “So now you want to talk to me.”

  “Sorry, I was tired of having my orders questioned. But I need you now because we have a more serious problem. Unless you know of a way to magically get us to Odessa, we’re stuck.”

  I watched as she turned to gaze at Alpha. “What happened to his aircraft, I wonder?”

  I remembere
d the silvery, donut-shaped craft I’d seen in the Arctic. Was it one of those? I imagined DARPA had been working on reverse engineering such a craft, so it was worth a shot.

  I asked him.

  “I haven’t seen my Viper since we crashed.”

  “So it’s not magically sitting in a hanger somewhere in this complex?”

  He smiled wanly. “Not that I know of, sorry.” Then he added, “But there might be another solution if we can find a way to transmit.”

  For whatever reason, we were on this mission because the Khron had asked us. If maybe we were able to provide proof of life, it was possible they might send aircraft our way. If we could find a way to contact them.

  “Enemy contact,” Olivares broke in. “The Wonder Twins are taking fire.”

  I switched to Earl’s feed in time to see his sister take five rounds in the chest and go down.

  I think that we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it’s a verb.

  Robert Downey Jr.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “CHANCE AND OLIVARES, go go go!”

  As they tore out the door, I watched from Earl’s point of view as he skidded to a stop behind the fuselage of one of the C-130s. Both planes had their engines ripped from their cowling. The pilots and crew were heaped in a pile between the two aircraft. The flag of the New United States of North America was affixed to a pole that rose from the center of the pile. Behind this stood Saxton in the super EXO with the .50 cal machine gun balanced on the pile of bodies.

  I checked Pearl’s vitals. They weren’t good. If she didn’t get medical attention in the next few minutes, she’d be gone.

  “Doc, do we have any more of that blood?” I shouted.

  Wilson ran to a fridge and pulled out three bags. He handed these off to me along with a phlebotomist’s set up. I took those and ran out the door. I gaze-flicked to split screen. The one on my left was my real time view, which would hopefully keep me from tripping and falling on my ass. The one on the right was Earl’s. He was protected by the fuselage, but kept peeking out at the super EXO.