9
Responsibility
Lt. Hawkh was enjoying his battlefield promotion immensely. It felt great to have the crew salute him and call him sir. He was a career soldier but never had any expectations of becoming an officer. Mutants didn’t become officers in the TGA when he joined up, so he had never thought about becoming one.
Early on he had proven himself a natural soldier and advanced from private to sergeant in just three cycles. His mutation, or enhancement as he liked to think of it, was a third ear on the back of his head that gave him the ability to hear sounds beyond the range of the normal human ear. He also had a superior intellect, which together with his audio enhancement made him an astute soldier. He was first noticed by Major Linz and was quickly assigned to his staff. At this point he’d reached the pinnacle of his career, so he thought. But now, he’d made a jump rarely seen in the Tarizonian military. He’d become one of the elite, an officer, a mutant officer at that. It was hard for him to believe it was true.
Now for the first time he realized the Loyalists were sincere in their beliefs about freedom, equality and the abolition of slavery—at least Captain Shilling and Commander Lanzia were. The thought of it almost brought tears to his eyes. But it didn’t last. What did last was the weight of responsibility that had just been dropped on him like a lead pipe. He was in charge of re-establishing contact with all elements of the 3rd Army which were scattered all across the Doral Mountains—just a mere10,000 square kylods to search!
The 3rd Army, the mutant army, had been composed of sixty-three divisions: fifty-five infantry, five medical, two engineering, and one airborne. The airborne division by all reports had been totally destroyed at Rini. Only a half dozen fighters, a few copters and three transport planes had survived the battle, mainly because they stayed away from it. It was unclear what was left of the infantry divisions. What was clear was that hundreds of thousands of bodies had been left on the plains of Tributon. Those who were not obliterated by the hovertanks were mercilessly killed by the infantry that followed in their wake. Videl Lai was making good on his promise to rid Tarizon of what he called “its mutant cancer.”
Of the sixty-two infantry divisions composed of approximately 20,000 soldiers each, only eleven had been accounted for at the time Lt. Hawkh was promoted and given the assignment to locate them and reestablish contact. The eleven that had reported in had sustained losses of up to eighty-two percent of their personnel with half of the remaining soldiers left wounded and unfit to fight. Lt. Hawkh feared the reports from the other divisions would be worse.
The next morning he met his crew and took off in search of the fifty-one missing divisions. Their first destination was a hospital camp that had reportedly been set up by one of their medical divisions in the southern region of the Doral Mountains. It was about a forty-loon copter ride from the base. The flight would have been routine except that the TGA had decided they could spare a couple infantry and one airborne division to comb the Doral mountains for survivors of the Rini Massacre.
It was late summer in the Dorals and thunderstorms were a common occurrence. Due to the polluted skies it was often difficult to see a thunderstorm approaching, making flying somewhat hazardous. It was during one of these encounters with an unexpected storm that Lt. Hawkh and his crew had their first encounter with the TGA air force. They had just swung around a huge thundercloud, trying to avoid its strong winds and heavy rain, when they spotted three enemy fighters overhead.
The pilot looked at his radar screen and frowned. “Hostile at 1600!”
Lt. Hawkh looked up at the barely visible objects in the sky. “Do you think they’ve spotted us?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to take us down to the tree tops just in case they haven’t.”
The fighters suddenly dropped and swung around toward them. “Skutz! They’ve spotted us,” the pilot yelled over the rumble of thunder that shook the chopper.
Lt. Hawkh looked out over the hazy landscape for a place to hide. In the air they would be easy prey for the TGA fighters. Ahead he saw a narrow gorge that plunged deep into the mountain. “Take us down into that gorge up ahead. Maybe we’ll be able to find a place to hide.”
The pilot veered over to the gorge and descended into its depths. Almost immediately Lt. Hawkh realized he’d made a big mistake. The gorge was narrow but not so narrow the fighters couldn’t swoop in and gun them down. He looked around nervously and froze when he saw the TGA fighter drop into the gorge behind them.
“Oh, God! We’re done for,” Lt. Hawkh moaned. “I’m sorry!”
Suddenly there was a flash of light, a crack of thunder and a downpour of rain that cut visibility to five feet. The copter began rocking and shaking violently. Lt. Hawkh strained his eyes but couldn’t see the fighter. “Land! Land her right now!” Lt. Hawkh ordered.
The pilot looked over at Lt. Hawkh like he was a lunatic. “Land! Right now.” Lt. Hawkh repeated.
The pilot cut the throttle and copter dropped quickly into the thick grey mist. There was a swish overhead, causing the copter to rock back and forth violently. Then another flash of light, but this flash wasn’t from lightning but an explosion.
Lt. Hawkh looked at the pilot.
“Well that takes care of one of them,” the pilot noted.
“See if you can find a place to land,” Lt. Hawkh said.
The pilot looked at his instruments. “We’re fifty feet off the ground. Hopefully we’ll be able to see it soon and then I can look for a spot.”
After a few tiks they saw the river raging below them. “Over there!” Lt. Hawkh yelled. “There’s a sandbank.”
The pilot nodded and swung the copter over and settled it down on the soft sand. They looked up overhead anxiously and were gladdened to see nothing but dark grey clouds. The storm eventually waned and the skies cleared, but Lt. Hawkh knew that, by then, the enemy would be gone as they’d have to return to base for fuel.
“We’d better get out of here in case they send someone back here looking for us,” Lt. Hawkh said.
“Yes, sir,” the pilot responded. “Where should we go? Back to base?”
“No, let’s get back on our original course. We’ve got to find that hospital camp before nightfall.”
The pilot nodded and started the engines. In a few moments they were climbing up out of the gorge which was quite beautiful under the bright sky. Lt. Hawkh looked up and said, “You know, one of these days we’re going to look up in the sky and see the sun.”
“Wouldn’t that be a sight,” the pilot replied.
Then, as they climbed out of the narrow gorge where they’d escaped certain death, they saw it—miles upon miles of camocubes. Had they been a hundred feet higher they would have missed them, as they were designed to blend in with their environment. Each ulta-thin, lightweight, 10' x 10' sinalithic building block could be inflated in a few tiks and attached to other cubes to make almost any size structure that was needed. Since each soldier carried one cube in his standard infantry pack, there were always plenty of cubes to build whatever temporary structure was needed. Once inflated, the cubes were staked to the ground and could withstand gale force winds. Sound shields could also be placed on any square surface to provide privacy as needed.
Besides the array of camocubes there were campfires, ATVs, military equipment, armaments, and thousands upon thousands of wounded soldiers sitting around waiting for medical treatment. The copter cruised over the hastily built hospital compound. Lt. Hawkh’s jaw dropped as he contemplated the suffering beneath him. He ordered the pilot to land.
Once on the ground the crew got out and began searching the compound for the officer in charge. The stench of death was heavy in the camp. Soldiers were loading bodies onto trucks while other wounded soldiers looked on with great trepidation in their eyes. Lt. Hawkh put his hand on one of the soldier’s shoulders. “Corporal, who’s in charge here?”
The soldier looked at Lt. Hawkh. “That would be Captain Buril, sir.”
“Where can I find him?”
He pointed in a southerly direction and replied, “The last time I saw him he was in the surgical cube—over there about half a kylod. It’s the biggest cube in the compound. You can’t miss it.”
Lt. Hawkh thanked the soldier and went on with his crew in his wake. After a few loons they saw the large surgical cube in the distance. There was a scream from one of the cubes they were passing and voices arguing. Lt. Hawkh peered in at the dozens of cots lined up on both sides. The cube reeked of a combination of alcohol, blood and urine. A medic looked up at him.
“Can I help you, sir?” he asked.
“How long have you been here, soldier—this camp, I mean?”
“Seven days, sir.”
“How many are in the camp?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know”
“What unit were you from?”
“The 23rd Medical Division, sir.”
“Thank you, carry on.”
The group continued on to the surgical cube and entered it. It was an enormous array of cubes and appeared to Lt. Hawkh to house over a hundred beds. He grabbed the arm of a female nurse and asked, “Where can I find Captain Buril?”
The nurse gave Lt. Hawkh a once-over and asked, “You from Central Command?”
“Yes.”
“Where in the name of Sandee have you been?” she said angrily.
“I’m sorry it took us a while to find you and we’ve just got our new command center up and running. What’s the situation here?”
“We have over eighty thousand wounded soldiers and we ran out of most of our medical supplies three days ago. The death rate around here is about five thousand a day.”
Lt. Hawkh sighed. “I see. Why haven’t you tried to make contact with us?”
“The hovertanks destroyed all our communications equipment and the sick and wounded have been flooding in so fast we’ve been too overwhelmed to try to rig up something. How did you find us, anyway?”
“We heard a report from a soldier who was treated here. He gave us an approximate location.”
As they were talking, a grey-haired officer strolled up. “Sgt. Gittings, you’re needed in surgery.”
“Oh, Captain Buril. These men are from Central Command.”
Lt. Hawkh extended his hand. “Hello, Captain. I’m Lt. Hawkh. We’ve had a difficult time finding you.”
“Excuse me,” Sgt. Gittings said. “It’s been a pleasure, but I’m needed in surgery.”
Lt. Hawkh nodded. “Of course, thank you.” She smiled at him as she left.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here now. As you can see the situation here is rather desperate.”
“Yes, I’ll radio back to base and get you some help up here. In the meantime, I’d like to begin questioning soldiers to see what I can find out about our missing divisions.”
“Sure. I’ll get someone to take you around.”
Lt. Hawkh divided his sixteen crew members into eight teams and got them started on canvassing the compound. He immediately realized he was going to need more manpower as the camp was so large. When he returned to the copter he got on the radio to call command.
“C1 calling base. Do you read?”
“H1 here,” a voice said.
“Hi. Lt. Hawkh reporting in. Is Captain Shilling there?”
‘Yes, one moment, please.”
“Lt. Hawkh. Captain Shilling here.”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ve located the medical compound.”
Lt. Hawkh gave his report on the conditions at the base and advised that immediate and massive assistance would be needed.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much to send them right away, but I’ll start working on it.”
“Good. I’m coming back to base. I’m going to need a lot more help reestablishing contact with our missing divisions.”
He told her about the TGA fighters and his concern for the camp’s security. The captain assured him she’d send some troops over for security and be sure they were equipped with portable Muscan missile launchers to deal with any fighters that might spot them. When he hung up he stepped outside again and looked out over the vast medical camp. He sighed in despair, wondering how many of these soldiers would survive this ordeal and go on to fight another battle.
Tarizon, Civil War, Tarizon Trilogy Vol 2 Page 5
