by Nate Johnson
Shaking his head, he said into the radio, “Sir, we will hold until there is no one left to man a position. But I don’t know that it will be enough.”
Dex held his breath as he waited for a response. At last, the radio hissed. “I understand, Captain Carter, do your best. That is all anyone of us can do. This is Commander Thirty-Two out.”
His shoulders slumped. How was this possible. General Smyth must be getting the hell beat out of him if he couldn’t send help. Damn, things were royally screwed up. But then, what else was new?
“Obamway, get a squad unloading the shuttle. I want everything moved back into the Rift. At least two hundred yards back, behind that first bend.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” the corporal said then halted and looked back. “I mean, yes, Sir,” he said with a sad grin that let Dex know just how worried he was.
Well, with good reason. One thing he knew. His men weren’t dumb. They could read a situation as well as anyone. He’d spent two years teaching them. They knew they were screwed.
Swallowing hard, he turned to the woman still standing next to him.
“I better meet with your people,” he said.
She stared at him for a moment as if trying to understand a foreign language, then nodded and started walking toward the only brick building in the village.
As they walked, Dex glanced over his shoulder. The Scraggs were still there, waiting, watching.
Why? he wondered. There was more than enough to overrun his position. Why hold off and give him time to get ready?
Oh well, it never paid to assume your enemy knew what the hell they were doing.
The women next to him kept looking at him with big eyes. As if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He tried to give her a reassuring smile but his guts told him that there was a very good chance this woman, along with everyone here, was going to end up as rat food unless he pulled off a miracle.
The thought saddened him. Surprising him with the strong sense of wrongness. Nothing had the right to hurt these people. Especially this woman. And it had now become his responsibility to make sure it didn’t happen.
Chapter Ten
Alicia stared at the man next to her as she fought to bring her mind back to the here and now. When they invented the word – Hero – they were thinking of this man.
Tall, big, strong, confident. Everything about him told the world that he was in charge and he would make sure they were safe.
She glanced over to try and get a good look at him. His skin was tanned like soft leather. The corner of his deep brown eyes were creased from staring off into the distance too often.
He walked with long strides that forced her to run to keep up with him. A man on a mission with no time to adjust for other, lesser mortals.
She remembered the way he had coolly dispatched those two monsters taking Stephan. As if he was on a range taking target practice. Then calmly shot that alien lying in the road.
This man wouldn’t second guess himself to death, she realized.
His mirror like armor didn’t make a creak or groan when he moved. It seemed to flow around his body. Adjusting to accommodate him. He slipped his rifle over his shoulder as he turned slightly to look again at the distant enemy.
Shaking his head, he started again for the group of people gathered outside the schoolhouse.
“Is this everybody?” he asked her with that deep, gravelly voice of his.
She nodded and said, “I think so,” Mrs. Diamond was crying quietly in the back. Jenny Hobson had her arm around the old woman, trying to comfort her.
Everyone looked as if they were in shock. Their wide eyes staring into nothingness. Their hands fumbling as they pulled children close. Why hadn’t they gotten ready? she thought. Why hadn’t they prepared?
The tall Marine came to a halt and slowly looked the group over. He stared at them for a long minute, taking in every detail.
“I’m Captain Dex Carter of the Imperial Marines,” he said with a large commanding voice. “I need everyone to gather what food and water they can carry and head for Tannerville. Through the Rift. ”
“Nooo,” someone yelled.
“We can’t walk that far,” someone else said as a dozen voices were raised in protest.
The Marine just stood there and let the words wash over him. When everyone was done and silence had returned, he said, “You’ve got ten minutes.” Then turned and started to walk back towards his men.
“Stop,” Alicia yelled as she grabbed his arm to hold him in place.
He looked down at her, waiting.
She swallowed hard. “They are right. A lot of these people will never make it. Besides, this is our home. And you said Tannerville was in the middle of a big battle.”
“I’m not leaving,” Stephan said from behind her. “I can fight.”
Alicia glanced at her brother and realized he was right.
“Listen,” she said to the Marine, “my grandfather discovered this planet. My other grandfather was given this valley by the Emperor himself. We are not leaving. You can’t make us.”
The Marine slowly turned and looked at the crowd surging around him. He stopped and looked at Alicia for a long moment and mumbled under his breath. Alicia thought she might have heard something about it not making much of a difference either way.
At last, he shrugged his shoulders.
“Get your stuff and get into the Rift. You can stay there for now. Out of the way.”
A man of few words, she thought. He hadn’t said they could stay, but he wasn’t forcing them to leave. At least not yet. Her heart jumped with hope.
“What can we do to help?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow, then turned to look off to the horizon where the enemy continued to gather.
“Do you have a doctor here? I think we’re going to need one and we lost both our corpsman.”
Alicia slowly shook her head. “My mother is a nurse, I’ve helped her. It’s the best we’ve got.”
He nodded back to her as he watched a line of Marines carrying supplies back into the Rift, . She watched as his mind raced with a dozen different problems. At last, as if coming to a decision, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Get your people back into the Rift, . Every bit of water and food they can get together. Set up an aid station back there. Get blankets and anything else you need. Don’t count on being able to come back into the village. Do you understand?”
Her stomach fell with the realization of what he was saying. Everything they didn’t take with them was going to be lost. Swallowing hard, she said, “Yes, I understand.”
“Good, make them hurry, I have no idea if this quiet is going to last. When you’re done, come find me.” The young captain gave her a long look that let her know just how worried he was. Then turned and started talking into his radio. Ordering an inventory and sending a man up to the main house.
Alicia felt a nervous fear wash over her. If this man was worried then things must really be dire. Maybe they should try for Tannerville like he wanted. No, she said to herself. They’d never make it. Besides, her grandfathers would roll over in their graves if they knew she abandoned the valley to a bunch of rat faced aliens.
Gathering herself, she headed back to the schoolhouse. The man wanted an aid station. Then she’d build the best aid station on Intrepid. Unfortunately, her heart told her that it was going to be sorely needed.
.o0o.
Dex put the woman and her people out of his mind. Once they were set up around the bend in the Rift he could ignore them. They’d be safe there. At least for a while. If the Scraggs got that far then it meant he and his men were dead and they had lost.
Scanning the area, he watched as his men worked. His company, he reminded himself. His responsibility. The idea sent a sharp pang of fear to his guts. How was he going to pull this off?
Oh well, he thought as he moved forward to inspect their fighting holes. No use worrying. All he could do was what he could do.
<
br /> “Cleavers,” he called over his radio. “Take your team up to the main house and set up on the roof. It’s the highest thing around. Let me know if anything gets within range. Your weapons are free. Take ‘em out if you get a chance.”
The young private nodded and tapped his teammates on the shoulder as they scrambled out of their hole and up the slope.
Dex watched them climb the hill. For a brief moment, he envied them. A simple mission and someone else to worry about the big picture.
Get over yourself, he thought as he shook his head and brought himself back to reality.
“Obamway, you got that inventory?”
“Yes sir,” the corporal said as he ran up to him. Dex held his breath as he waited for the bad news.
“Full ammo load, full food, half the water is gone. Most of the claymores, I’ve got half of the ones left set out like you wanted. We’ve got some of the medical stuff but a bunch was lost with the corpsman.”
Dex nodded, the corpsman always carried the good stuff with them during a drop. They didn’t have time to go rooting around in the cargo bay for medical supplies.
Obamway looked at him hesitantly.
“Go on,” Dex said.
“The heavy weapons are gone, the heavy machine gun and the mortars.”
“What?” Dex exclaimed. “All of it?”
The young corporal slowly nodded. “All except one tube and four mortar rounds.”
Dex’s heart felt like someone was squeezing the life out of him. It was bad enough losing two-thirds of the battalion, but all the heavy weapons as well. It was like the universe was a cat playing with a mouse. Teasing the hell out of him but never giving them a real chance.
“Okay, thank you, corporal,” Dex said as he laid a hand on his shoulder. He knew Obamway, being the bearer of bad news would have torn him up. “We’ll have to make do. See that the medical supplies are given to Miss Miller. She’s setting up an aid station back around the bend.”
“Yes, Sir,” the corporal said as he started to salute, then remembering they were still in a combat zone, dropped his arm back to his side as his face turned beet red over the error.
Dex caught the mistake and smiled at the young man. “Listen, Corporal, I want you to know that before we left Taurus I’d recommended you for Platoon sergeant. I just wish it hadn’t come about this way.”
The young man’s eyes grew wide with shock as he waited.
“I know you can do this,” Dex continued. “Just remember, your men know their job, you know yours. Do the best you can and I’ll be satisfied.”
“Yes, Sir, Thank you, Sir, I won’t let you down. I promise.”
Dex smiled then patted him on the back before turning to address another of the thousand problems facing him.
.o0o.
Alicia sighed for the thousandth time. It was taking forever to get her people organized. It was like herding Valerian squirrels up a tree. No one wanted to go in the right direction. Some of them were still in shock, moving at a snail’s pace. Others were frantic, running about gathering everything except what they really needed.
Finally, after a long two hours of pure chaos, she had them all located back behind the bend. Supplied and bedded down. The children were assigned to adults. The supplies packed away.
“Keep them here,” she told Stephen. “I’ll be right back.”
“Hey, I want to go too,” he exclaimed. She could see that special glint in his eyes. The one that told her he was going to ignore her orders and do what he wanted to do.
“Listen, Stephen,” she said as she gripped his shoulder, praying that her words would sink into that thick skull of his. “We need to stay out of their way or that Marine Captain will force us to leave. It’s your job to stop anyone from bothering them. Do you understand?”
Her little brother looked up at her for a long moment, his eyes narrowing in concentration.
“How can I stop them? They’re adults. No one will listen to me.”
She had to bite her lip to stop herself from informing him that they’d stopped acting like adults long ago. Shrugging her shoulders she said, “If you have to, punch them. I don’t care. No one goes around this bend without my permission, that includes you. Do you understand?”
His eyes grew as large as eggs when his sister gave him permission to punch an adult.
“Yes,” she said, “I am that serious.”
He gulped and nodded and she knew she could trust him. He might be rambunctious and carefree. But he wasn’t dumb. He knew when things were important and right now, this might be the most important moment of their life.
Reaching over, she pulled him into a quick hug as she fought to hold back her tears. Maybe the last moment of their lives.
Stephen let her hug him for a few seconds then pulled away, quickly looking around to see if anyone had caught him being hugged by his big sister. Obviously, the worst thing that could happen to him.
“I’ll be right back,” she said as she left to find Captain Carter.
It didn’t take long. He was standing by the shuttle watching as two Marines furiously dug a hole under the fuselage.
“You asked me to find you when I had everyone in place,” she said as she came up to him.
He glanced at her, then held up a hand as he talked into his suit radio. “Okay, Cleavers, keep me informed.”
Turning to her, he smiled slightly and Alicia caught a hint of what he must be like away from this death and destruction. What if they had met somewhere else, a friend's party, or a tavern. Would she have found him this interesting? Or was it the fear constantly coursing through her veins that made her feel this way?
“Come with me, Miss Miller,” he said as he began walking back towards the Rift, .
Alicia swallowed hard and fought to bring herself back to reality. As she hurried to catch up, she noticed several other Marines break away and run to meet them at the Rift opening.
“This is Sergeants Smith and Daniels,” he said to her, “and Corporal Obamway. Gentlemen, this is Miss Miller, our new medical team.”
“Alicia,” she said as she reached out to shake their hands. Suddenly she felt like a little girl who had been invited to sit at the grown-ups table. This was a new universe, a new world that she had never expected to inhabit.
The men greeted her cordially then quickly focused on their captain. All business, she thought. That’s good, she reminded herself. The more business like they were, the better chance she and her people had of surviving this thing.
“Okay,” the captain began, “As you know, we’re on our own, no naval support, and we’ve been ordered to hold until relieved. No retreat. The mission is still the same. Nothing gets through the Rft to catch General Smyth from behind, got it?”
Each man nodded. Alicia felt her stomach drop about three feet. The look in their eyes let her know that they didn’t think they had a chance in hell, but they’d die trying.
“If anything happens to me, Smith is in charge. So … report. Where are we at?”
Sergeant Smith began. He was a slight man, Alicia thought, not the normal towering Imperial Marine she had always assumed was a requirement. But he looked serious, competent, a man who knew his job.
“All fighting positions are ready and fully supplied. Everyone has eaten and they’ve got enough water for the next twenty-four hours. All suits are functioning correctly and the rest of the supplies, including the majority of the ammo, is back around the bend. Like you wanted.”
Captain Carter slowly nodded then looked at Daniels.
“The listening devices are set out at the half-mile mark.” The square-headed sergeant said with a voice that sounded as solid as a brick wall. “I didn’t want to go further because I didn’t want to tempt them.”
“Good. Besides, in this terrain, we shouldn’t have any problems seeing them approach,” Captain Carter added.
“The shuttle is rigged and I held back half the mines like you said,” Daniel continued.
“Good, Good. Corporal?”
Corporal Obamway looked at his fellow leaders and swallowed hard. “We’ve fully mapped all approaches, There’s a few dips and curves that could give them some protection, but not much and nothing close. When they come, we won’t be surprised.”
“Good,” the Captain said, “So, question? Why haven’t they come yet? I’ve seen commanders make a lot of dumb mistakes over the years. But giving us time to dig in like this is just plain stupid. Why?”
The three sergeants looked at each other. “Maybe they weren’t expecting us?” Smith said.
“Or, they’ve never come across someone who fights back,” Captain Carter added.
“When we were coming down., I got a glimpse of them,” Daniels interjected. “They were marching down the road like they were on parade, rifles on their shoulder, grouped up so tight a stiff breeze could have taken out a dozen. Then suddenly, they split up. Like it was each rat for himself.”
“A disciplined force that became a mob,” the captain said as he slowly nodded.
“Yeah, no fire and maneuver,” Smith added. “No covering each other. Like you said, it was as if they became a bunch of individual fighters.”
The captain thought about their words as his eyes looked off into the distance. Slowly he nodded and smiled slightly. “Well, a mob is a lot easier to kill than a disciplined army. Let’s hope they stay that way.”
Alicia caught a glint of harshness in his words and for the first time, she felt a glimmer of hope. Grabbing onto it, she held it tight and promised herself that she would share it with her people.
The Captain continued to stare across the valley then finally nodded.
“Okay, we need a trench here,” the Captain said as he pointed to the front of the Rift. “Slopping up the back so we can shoot into it if we have to fall back. I want two sandbag walls there, a hundred feet into the Rift. We’ll use it like a funnel.”
“Miss Miller, if any of your people can help with the digging, it would be appreciated. It’d be fewer men I have to pull off the line.”
Alicia quickly nodded, already mentally selecting who she could get to help.
