The Expendable Few: A Spinward Fringe Novel

by Randolph Lalonde

  “That ends if you open fire here,” Tamera reinforced.

  “We’ll see if you get to make that report, bitch,” Kipley said so casually that it caught most of them by surprise. “Sleep with one eye open.”

  Davi wasn’t surprised. Kipley could be easy to talk to one moment, and borderline psychopathic the next. “Stow it, Kipley. This mission is staying out of their reports because it’s the only way for us to gain the issyrians’ trust in a short amount of time. We’ll just make sure the Order doesn’t find out that we were from Freeground, that’s all. Just a bunch of travellers who sympathize with the people here.”

  “You can’t dictate what I tell Intelligence, nor is it my place to decide how they act on the information I give them,” Tamera replied.

  “Keep that up and I might start agreeing with Kipley,” Judge told her.

  “We don’t have time to discuss it,” Davi said. Mary was listening to everything from where she led the group at the front. He had to bring this to a close in the issyrian’s favour. “This is happening right now. You only have a few seconds to decide if throwing in with these people is worth the mission’s objective. If you think there’s another way, or you can’t help, you’re on your own.”

  Tamera thought for a moment, looking from Davi, to the ground at her feet, to Mary and back at Davi. “It’s the only way to gain the issyrians’ trust in time.”

  “Tamera,” her Gretch objected from behind her. “This is premeditated and exactly the situation we were supposed to prevent.”

  “Not at the expense of the mission.”

  “That’s not specified,” he replied.

  “You’re new to field Intelligence, so I’ll spell it out for you,” Tamera replied. “When you’re on your own, stripped of mission critical resources, like our cloak suits, emergency beacons, and high-trans comm gear, then you have to think on your feet and do the best you can.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he replied.

  “You’re here and you can help a few hundred people escape whatever these soldiers have planned,” Mary said. “This is how people really make a difference out here. I know it’ll be hard because it’s the opposite of Freeground Intelligence’s ‘watch, wait, and withdraw’ strategy, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea.”

  Chapter 23 - First Offence

  The panicked shouts and screams ahead were all the group of humans needed to get them moving faster up the hill. A gust of wind sent fine sand down the path and into Davi’s eyes. He never missed his combat vacsuit more. He’d be helmeted and well protected if they were on a sanctioned mission, but he was getting the feeling that he’d never see that combat armour or orders sanctioned by the Freeground Military again.

  They reached the top and took cover in a couple of entrances there. Looking down the hill they could see retreating issyrians to the west and, just around the bend, two squads of Order soldiers in dark blue and green carapace-like armour were marching purposefully. Davi scanned the houses on the corner down the hill and spotted a crowd of issyrians gathering, slowly starting to move away from the oncoming soldiers. “They won’t see them in time!” he said, pointing out the cover at the bottom of the hill to Judge and Kipley.

  “I’ll take point,” Kipley said as he launched into a run.

  Mary almost lurched after him, following his lead, but Davi grabbed her shirt and shook his head. “Wait until I finish counting to ten,” he told her. He watched Kipley expertly duck from one good cover point to the next with impressive speed. “Now, go!” All the humans followed Mary and Davi as they followed Kipley’s path.

  “He’s good. I’m surprised,” Mary said.

  “Best point man I’ve ever served with,” Davi replied as they ducked behind a crumbling wall, halfway down the side of the hill opposite the one they’d climbed. As soon as Davi broke cover he saw Kipley signalling for them to rush down the opposite side of the street. He was already setting up on a firing perch above one of the rounded roofs. The soldiers wouldn’t see him; he was dug in and well under cover.

  “Too bad he’s a complete ass outside of a firefight,” Remmy said, out of breath.

  “Guy doesn’t fit in anywhere else,” Judge replied. “He’d have a chest full of medals if he didn’t fight the chain of command.”

  They finished their run to the corner and easily found cover between the cluster of small homes. Davi was able to climb atop one, across from the one on which Kipley perched. The soldiers would pass through the intersection right in front of them. They came within sight, and were within firing range of their rippers when he saw their leader, a man in heavier armour signal the double column to stop.

  Two issyrians burst from one of the homes just ahead of the soldiers, and without hesitation one soldier stepped forward with a large bore rifle and fired. The slow moving round that popped from the weapon sailed through the air and burst right behind the soldier’s target, throwing a cone of webbing material forward. The issyrians were stunned by an energy burst and trapped in position as millions of strands caught them upright.

  “This is a capture mission? What are their plans for them?” Davi asked.

  “Medical research, Doctor Marcelles says. Maybe to develop new medical tech,” Remmy said.

  The heavily armoured soldier in the lead pointed at Kipley’s position then the cluster of homes that Davi and the rest of the humans were hiding in.

  “Fuck, they caught us on a scan,” Mary said. “Take ‘em down!”

  Davi opened fire on the lead soldier, his weapon whirring as hundreds of tiny blade-shaped particles surged from his ripper handgun every second. The projectiles shattered against his target’s armour, sending micro-shrapnel in all directions around him in a thin black cloud. Other soldiers fell to the sudden attack. Two soldiers knelt behind cover and fired their rifles once, the concussive pops overriding the sound of screaming rippers for a moment.

  Davi fired several bursts at their positions, forcing them back under cover and watched the big shells sail overhead out of the corner of his eye. One burst against the side of the house Kipley crouched on. The other hit him dead on. He was knocked off balance, about to fall when the web caught him and held Kipley in place on the back side of the home while stunning him with electrical shocks several times.

  It was a small victory, and in the end it didn’t count for much, since the group of Order soldiers on the street were practically shredded. “I see two under cover,” Davi announced, pointing for a moment then resuming his burst fire at the short wall they hid behind.

  “One escaped to the street side nearest us,” Judge said. “Remmy, confirm.”

  “Confirmed on my scanner, he’s already put a block between himself and his commander,” Remmy replied.

  Davi couldn’t believe his eyes as the commander rolled to his feet, leaving parts of his shredded armour behind. Davi tried to open fire on him in time, but missed as the leader joined the two soldiers who had taken cover early and remained to fight. “How is he in one piece?”

  “Framework,” Remmy said. “Highly programmed, they call them Order Knights.”

  “Intelligence says the Order doesn’t use them in leadership positions,” Tamera said.

  “Well your intelligence is wrong again,” Remmy replied. “Forget everything you think you know, Freeground is behind again, and that includes the Intelligence division.”

  “Especially Intelligence,” Mary said, her eyes searching the three-way intersection below.

  “What happens now?” Davi asked as he weighed the situation. His instincts and the lack of issyrians below told him that it was time to leave. “What does an Order Knight do when they’ve lost the battle?”

  “We’ve never seen real evidence of one until now,” Remmy said. “We tore that guy apart, no way he gets up unless he’s got regeneration tech built-in. Framework quality or better.” He looked at his hand scanner a moment longer before bashing it against the rooftop. “Uh-oh, game over.”

  “What’s up?” Mary s
aid as she fired a burst at the enemy’s position. Her shots pockmarked the short wall.

  “We have incoming, and whoever it is doesn’t want me to see a damn thing. I’ve got sensor fuzz two-point-four kilometres out, they’re using an EM jamming field.”

  “Air support, we’re leaving,” Mary announced.

  “How do we cut Kipley down?”

  “Very carefully, with rippers,” Remmy said. “Try not to de-limb him, I’m a really bad medic.”

  Judge and Mary remained where they were so they could keep sporadically firing on the Order Knight and his two soldiers, forcing them to remain under cover. The rest rushed across the street to Kipley. Tamera and Davi shot the hardened webbing around Kipley while the rest kept watch. After a long three minutes of careful blasting, Kipley fell to the ground in an unconscious heap. “We’re good! Let’s get out of here!” Remmy shouted.

  Judge and Mary made good time dropping from their rooftop perch and rushing across the street. “Carry him,” Davi told Judge.

  “Third time I carry his ass back from an engagement. I should start charging,” Judge said.

  A roar in the distance announced what Remmy stated aloud, “We’re out of time. Sounds like at least four troop carriers.” He held his hand scanner up between the grey sky and his eyes, using it to magnify the view. He jerked at what he saw and was visibly seized by panic. “Run!”

  Before anyone could follow, Remmy was ten steps ahead, sprinting back the way they’d come with an urgency that dismissed Davi’s need to question. As he turned and launched into a run after Remmy, he felt the concussive shock of an explosion in his chest, and the ground battered his feet as it shook. A glance behind him revealed only a dust cloud rising in the distance. The explosion was a kilometre away, maybe more by his estimation.

  During Davi’s long military career, he’d logged countless kilometres running mostly in short bursts. He’d run from the enemy at length a few times before, once on All-Con Prime during one of the enemy’s last-gasp retaliations before Freeground affirmed their victory there. The rolling tanks and vicious infantry had them on the run there until Freeground reinforcements arrived two hours later. His lungs burned, muscles ached, and his head rang by the end.

  Davi almost wished he was back there; he’d rather face that danger than what he felt coming behind him as they ran down narrow streets and rushed across openings between houses. The ground pounded the undersides of their feet, pulses of air and sound making Davi’s head ache before long. The clusters of homes around them cracked like eggs. Many began to collapse.

  “Any resistance! Please come in! Retreating fighters need pickup at this location!” Remmy repeated in a raspy scream into his hand scanner. It was easily adapted to transmit, and had a greater range than the simple communicators they brought with them from the Sunspire.

  “They’re jamming everything,” Remmy said to everyone and no one in particular.

  Davi was thankful that he was one of the rare type that could panic for hours, and use that as fuel to run for just as long. Even though Remmy seemed nearly beyond reason, tears clearing paths through grime down is cheeks, he was still using his hand scanner to map their way back towards the old tunnels they’d come from.

  He didn’t hesitate for a second when the entrance loomed before them, half caved in, and ran inside. “Wait!” Mary shouted after him.

  Davi took the opportunity to look behind, and counted Tamera, her partner Gretch, and Judge bringing up the rear with Kipley over his shoulder. The man’s stern expression and far away stare told Davi that he could keep going for another hundred klicks, or until his body failed him. A trail of dried blood led up the side of his face past his hairline.

  Davi and his group followed Mary through the entrance and to their relief they were confronted by an overburdened cargo truck. A few hundred issyrians were loading onto its flat bed, and Remmy was already being hauled up by his belt by a particularly large one. A few other civilian hover cars were already accelerating on ahead.

  “Hell of a day,” Judge said as he dropped to one knee and let four issyrians take Kipley from his shoulder. “Find us a place to retire after this, Sam,” he told Davi, looking more weary than anyone he’d ever seen.

  Davi offered the man a shaky hand so he could get to his feet and nodded. “Consider it done,” he managed between gulps of air.

  Chapter 24 - Proven

  “You see what happens when you engage without knowing the first thing about the field?” shouted Tamera. Davi had seen it before, senior officers who got caught in the line of fire for the first time, or first time in a long time, and then completely unravelled when they were safe at last. He sat down and leaned back in one of the plush seats strewn about in front of a trash heap resulting from the constant servicing the issyrians shuttles and ground vehicles required. They were in a makeshift hangar in what Davi imagined would be one of the larger caverns in Trest.

  Judge sat down beside him with a groan. They had only been there a couple of hours, and Davi’s legs were still aching. He couldn’t imagine how Judge felt. “I’m listening,” Davi said with a sigh.

  “You’re reported!” Tamera said. “Don’t go back to the Sunspire, because they’ll just ship you back to Freeground for execution after they read my report.”

  “They don’t do that to us folks,” Kipley said from where he lay across a row of four seats that had been dislodged from one of the civilian shuttles. “Man, I think I’m gonna throw up.”

  “Still a little sick from that stun?” asked Isabel as she emerged from the rear of the nearest shuttle with Remmy. Issyrians worked on the smaller ships under her direction. She had the training to make repairs on most of the simpler civilian vehicles there.

  “Ulp,” was Kipley’s response as he suppressed a retch.

  “He says he’s feeling pretty sick,” Judge said, reaching over and patting him on the belly.

  Isabel and Remmy laughed at the casual antics, while Tamera found more fuel to fume on. Gretch, her partner, quietly seethed behind her with his arms crossed. “This is serious! I’ll make you exiles!”

  The issyrians nearby were getting distracted, looking at them from where they worked around, under, atop, and within the three nearby shuttles. “Shut it down, Tamera,” Davi said calmly. The last thing he needed was to escalate things by raising to her level.

  “I will not shut this down,” she growled back.

  “Shut ‘er down!” Kipley cried mockingly.

  “We’ll go back to the Sunspire when it’s all over and done with,” Davi said. “And then they’ll probably give us something cheap so we can leave, get to the nearest alien world and make our way.”

  Kipley inadvertently punctuated the statement by leaning over and vomiting in three agonized coughs.

  Judge patted him on the shoulder. “There, there,” he chided.

  Kipley replied by giving him the finger.

  Remmy scanned him momentarily and nodded. “Yeah, he’s just got really bad stun sickness. Bet the room is just spinning right now.”

  “Fuck you, too,” Kipley replied, wiping his mouth with a discarded rag.

  “That’s Kipley-speak for ‘hell yeah,’” Judge said.

  “How do you expect to live as exiles?” Gretch asked as Tamera threw up her hands in surrender. “You don’t know anything about this sector, and I doubt you’ll get any financing from Freeground.”

  “I’ve dropped in on a couple of worlds not too far off,” Judge said. “You really didn’t spend much time reading my file, did you?”

  “Adding up to a few weeks of experience at best,” Gretch retorted. “Not the kind of experience that can lead to a good beginning.”

  “Are you chastising out of concern, or are you just enjoying the sound of your own voice at this point?” Davi asked.

  “Seems a lot of Intelligence Officers like how they sound when they’re bitching,” Judge added.

  “I’m just telling you how things are out there,” Gretc
h said. “You’re not going to survive.”

  Kipley hacked a last splatter of fluid onto the cavern floor and looked up at the Intelligence Officers. “I ran first, I shot first, so blame me, you dumb fuck,” he rasped. “Your report’s nothing but bullshit if you don’t put the blame on me first. These idiots were just covering my dumb ass.”

  Gretch’s eyes went wide, and Tamera shook her head. “He’s right,” she said. “We could put him up as the aggressor in this,” Tamera said. “We don’t gain anything by presenting it any other way.”

  “You’re agreeing with them now?” Gretch said, surprised.

  “No, they dragged us into this and it was wrong to get involved, but we can still present this in a way that will get them away from Freeground for good with a few credits, so they can survive on their own.”

  “So, what? Are we following them from here on out?” Gretch asked, incredulous.

  “If it will get Doctor Marcelles’ cooperation, then yes. That’s the only way to salvage this mission for any of us,” she replied. “And it’s the only way to avoid getting us both busted down to able crewman for what’s already happened.”

  “That’s right,” Kipley said with a grin. “You guys are our babysitters, if it all goes tits up and none of us survive, you’re on the hook for it.”

  “I hate you people,” Gretch said, dropping into a seat.

  Mary interrupted Kipley with her entrance, something for which Davi was more than a little grateful. Even in his current condition, his comrade would push for the fight to go on. He loved a good argument almost as much as he liked a good fistfight. “Well, that did it,” Mary said as she stepped into the semicircle with Emiss behind her. “You’re on the op with us in Port Gibblin tomorrow.”

  “You have earned our trust,” Emiss added. “And we need you.”

  “Shut ‘er down!” Kipley shouted. His nausea forced him into a lunge, and he coughed up a spatter of bile. “Fuck, I thought I was done.”