Casserine

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Jake stood next to Mercer and McClure as he watched the monitor to view the progress. The hovercraft tunneled its way right through the outside shell of the angled wall, shooting debris out of the back. It shook slightly with the effort of excavating into a reinforced structure. Dougherty slowed the hovercraft as he superheated the hole he created. The military command center office, located in the center of the structure, had been moved from a bunker underneath the mammoth building because of the Bug breakthroughs.

  “On your right, Lieutenant Dougherty,” Fajardo warned suddenly.

  The hovercraft shook with pulse weapon fire. Dougherty raked the area with his front turret, ending the attack.

  “Thanks Dan, I was looking in too many places at once,” Doughertysaid.

  “Any more of that and we’ll back out and Mag the building,” Jakecut in.

  “Just pulse beams, Sir,” Dougherty replied. “We’re not cloaked, but we’re armored with a strong enough Bug shield to repulse particle beam weapons. We’re almost there now. I’m slowing, and leaving you a safe hallway to the door. You see it?”

  “Tea Tim, perfect,” Jake answered. “Back us out, and turn her around. We’ll drop the rear hatch, and secure the passage to the room while you face back around.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir.”

  Dougherty backed the hovercraft out quickly. Fajardo opened up with thin, particle beams in a random pattern around the area where Jake and the Marines would be attacking. As soon as Dougherty reentered the building, rear hatch first, Fajardo held his fire. It took only seconds to reach the passage, which Dougherty had superheated to the rest of the structure around it. Jake hit the rear hatch panel, which opened onto the jagged opening. Jake led Mercer and McClure’s platoon, numbering fifteen men, into the passage with the Marine at the rear carrying Zaros along.

  They approached the center quickly, crouched over as they ran through the six foot high passage. Dead Passallians in uniform lay mangled around the passage, and in rooms, which opened into the passage. The Marines followed Jake’s and Mercer’s pattern of putting a burst through each body they saw, as they secured each room on the way. By the time they reached the military center’s hatch, Dougherty had returned facing forward, and scanning ahead.

  “Five Passallions coming up from the level below, and they have weapons, but nothing with an explosive signature,” Dougherty reported. “They’ll be coming up thirty feet in front of you.”

  “Thanks Tim,” Jake acknowledged, nodding at Mercer, who gestured comically at McClure.

  “Handle it, handle it,” Mercer ordered.

  McClure grinned and pointed at two of his original squad, who immediately bracketed the passage in between the Marines and where the carrier would be stopping with its armed force. The five Passallians exited in the dull glow of the shorted out illumination circuitry backups, and were executed immediately. Three other Marines ran past them and fired into the bodies on their way to the carrier, which they blew to pieces.

  They gathered again at the hatch leading into the military center. Jake motioned for the Marine helping Zaros along to bring him forward. Jake took off his helmet. “Okay, here we are. Can you open this door without my having it blown?”

  “No, General,” Zaros shook his head negatively. “I do not have thecode.”

  “Here’s how we’ll do it,” Jake said. “We’ll blow the door, and throw in a couple of concussion grenades. A couple seconds after that, we’ll go in and kill everything carrying a weapon. Once we blow the door, if they don’t just start firing at us, I want you to call in to them, and tell them to surrender. If they give up, we’ll skip the grenade part, okay?”

  “Thank you, General, I will be happy to try and obtain a surrender without more deaths.”

  Jake nodded, and then gestured for the platoon to get on both sides of the door, leaving the area directly in front of it empty. After putting on his helmet, Jake gestured to McClure, who used short blasts to blow the door inwards. He ducked back out of the way, as pulse beam fire shot out of the room, and into the bulkhead across the way. McClure gestured to a Marine next to him, and the Marine dove down in front of the doorway on his stomach. He fired into the room wherever he saw weapon flashes, and then rolled out of the doorway. Silence followed the Marine’s action.

  “It’s your show, Zaros,” Jake called over to the Passallion.

  Zaros inched to the side of the doorway, and began calling into the room in his own language. Moments later, angry shouts echoed out from inside. The voices were followed by pulse weapon fire. This time, the weapon fire hit into the floor where the Marine had fired from. Zaros turned back to Jake, and shrugged. Jake nodded at McClure, who then threw three concussion grenades into the room, one after the other.

  Seconds after the blasts ended, McClure led his platoon inside. The Marines fired into any bodies they spotted, still carrying weapons, no matter how disoriented or disabled they were. The firefight was over in moments. Jake and Mercer had followed McClure’s platoon in, searching the huge room for the military leaders. The other Marines dragged any Passallions still alive out into the passageway, away from the smoke. The smoke from the concussion grenades dissipated slowly, due to the inoperable ventilation systems, and slowed the search down.

  With the smoke thinning, all twenty-five Passallions were accounted for after just over fifteen minutes. The Passallions had suffered sixteen dead, and seven wounded. Jake had found two of the military commanders, huddling in the far corner of the room. A third, Mercer found blown to pieces, directly in front of the doorway. The wounded prisoners were allowed to sit up against the passageway wall, while Zaros directed the platoon’s medic in first aid. Jake and Mercer positioned the two surviving military commanders further down the passageway. One Passallion began shouting at Zaros, gesturing wildly at him. McClure, who was in charge of supervising the other prisoners walked closer to Zaros.

  “What’s he saying, Sir,” McClure asked politely.

  “He calls me a traitor, and human lover,” Zaros replied. “He claims I will be killed slowly once you humans leave. It is nothing I have not heard already since returning.”

  “Do they speak English?” McClure asked, as the enraged prisoner made a hand gesture at Zaros, which caused the other Passallions to cackle in their imitation of human laughter, but visibly bothered Zaros.

  “Yes, we all speak English, as I explained before,” Zaros replied.

  McClure drew his sidearm as he walked down the line of prisoners, and then shot the gesturing Passallion right through the head. The creature’s brain matter spattered the nearest prisoners, as he collapsed twitching to the passageway floor. Except for Mercer, chuckling down the way, you could hear a pin drop afterwards.

  “Now that I have your attention,” McClure stated calmly. “You will speak only English, if you speak at all. Would anybody else like to threaten our friend Zaros here? Please, speak up. He saved your lives. Without him, we would have killed you all. If you don’t cooperate, we may still kill all of you. Is that clear?”

  There was a quick chorus of affirmative nods.

  “Good. Did anyone wish to speak?”

  The Marines behind McClure laughed as the Passallion heads immediately went from affirmative nods to negative.

  “Very well then,” McClure declared, and turned to Zaros. “You may continue your first aid, Sir.”

  “I’m making that boy an officer,” Mercer said to Jake, “although I hate to spoil a good Marine by doing that to him.”

  “It didn’t hurt you any, Colonel,” Jake pointed out.

  “Good point,” Mercer agreed cheerfully, “but I’m crying inside.”

  “I can always bust you back down to PFC,” Jake offered. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

  “I’ll just tough it out,” Mercer sighed. “My country needs me. Now, where was I when I stopped to watch the entertainment? Oh yeah.”

  Mercer pulled out Mr. Snappy, and lit the device off, as the Passallion officers lo
oked on. “I’d like to introduce you two to my friend, Mr. Snappy.”

  “We will tell you human trash nothing,” the stockier of the two saidangrily.

  “Oh boy,” Jake sighed, looking heavenward, as Mercer smiled. “I was afraid that’s what you’d say.”

  “Turn off the helmet cam, Jake, and let the screaming begin,” Mercer said happily.

  Chapter 44

  Cleanup

  Jake stumbled out of the hovercraft with the last squad of Nest Marines, who had been in the tunnel with him. He looked back over his shoulder, with his particle beam rifle slung, and his helmet dangling from his left hand. “Great job, Marines. There’s a three rum ration tonight.”

  Although tired themselves, they snapped to attention, saluting and barking ‘ooh-rah’.”

  Jake returned their salute, and waved them on by with a tired grin.

  Dougherty and Mercer were the next ones out. Mercer whistled when he saw Jake. “Boy, you look like shit.”

  ‘Tea, well you ain’t no bowl of fruit yourselves,” Jake retorted. “Tim, did you remember to bring what I asked you to? I’ve been thinking about it for the last five hours in there.”

  Dougherty laughed and opened the front of his armored tunic. He pulled out a large flask, with three small glasses fastened over the top. “Right here, Jake. Don’t you want to get cleaned off first?”

  “Nope,” Jake replied. He gestured for them to follow him. After throwing his helmet to the ground, he pushed the hatch panel until the rear hatch was at a comfortable sitting height, and then he sat down with a big sigh. “Pour ‘em, barkeep.”

  “Why the very idea,” Mercer said condescendingly. “You are a disgrace to the uniform, General.”

  Jake listened with a big grin as he laid his weapon on the hatch and took off his gloves. Dougherty had already sat down, and was pouring from the flask into the three cups. “Sit down, Charlie, and quit fooling around. We have to do our debriefing session.”

  Mercer pretended reluctance, but sat down primly, and took a cup from Dougherty, who was trying not to spill it between laughs. Jake raised his cup, touching it briefly to the others’ upheld containers. “Here’s to one smooth ass mission.”

  “Here’s to the end of the Bugs,” Dougherty added.

  “May those Tattallious bitches rot in Bug hell till the end of time,” Mercer finished with a flourish.

  The three men drank their rum down in one gulp, bringing grunts of satisfaction, and a second pouring by Dougherty.

  “That was smoother than the second nest,” Dougherty commented. “Gee, just when we get really good at this, the species becomes extinct.”

  “I know there’s still hundreds of the suckers wandering around without a Mommy, Tim,” Jake laughed. “You could adopt one, and keep him as a pet.”

  “Tea, I’m sure your girlfriend won’t mind,” Mercer added. “They’re kind of cute when they ain’t runnin’ around in packs of ten thousand. Good Lord, could those bitches pop them out.”

  “Worse than that was how quick they grew to maturity,” Dougherty replied. “Jake, how long you think the mop up will take?”

  “We’ll hang around and try to make sure we get all the strays, but I was hoping we could try out the new jump gate into Earth galaxy,” Jake answered. “We already have the coordinates, so why not?”

  “As long as we don’t have to hang around Earth too long,” Mercer said. “They ought to be happy with the progress we made in trade negotiations though.”

  Jake motioned for another refill, which Dougherty took care of, and then lifted his cup. “Here’s to Mr. Snappy, the greatest negotiator in human history.”

  “Mr. Snappy,” Dougherty and Mercer echoed as they raised their cups with a laugh.

  “And you told me not to buy it, back when we were at the Gate,” Mercer pointed out to Jake.

  ‘Tea,” Jake admitted. “I was short sighted. Who knew? Talk about a universal translator. It don’t take much talk with Mr. Snappy, and he cuts right across all racial boundaries too. I thought you’d end up in prison, and look at you, you’re a top notch diplomat, Charlie.”

  “Thank you,” Mercer replied, turning his head up haughtily. “It is nice to have one’s talents recognized.”

  “Those ET’s really got behind old Zaros quick,” Dougherty allowed. “With their backing, it was a cinch.”

  “Zaros is a natural leader,” Jake added. “By the time they get back on their feet, they’ll elect him president freely. It took Mr. Snappy a second time in the saddle though before we found out all the details on their antimatter weapon. I was relieved when we confiscated all that. We ain’t got no shields for that one.”

  “They could even put them in orbit and set up a mine field of sorts,” Mercer replied. “Good thing Doug splashed that cruiser of theirs.”

  “Let’s not talk about that one,” Jake sighed. “Any more medicine left, Tim?”

  “Nope. Want me to go get some more?”

  “No, I’m one past the limit I set for the rest of the Marines anyway. Hey, before I forget, let’s get on to business. How much should we charge the ET’s for the extermination service? I don’t want them thinking we do this stuff out of concern for their welfare.”

  “Jake,” Mercer laughed, “you thinking about setting up a toll booth on the planets we engage?”

  “We have to look out for our financial well being, Charlie,” Jake replied. “Nick will need the big bucks to keep us on top of all the known galaxies in terms of firepower. Who knows what we’ll run into with all these jump gates?”

  “It sure beats taking losses in the thousands when you’ve got the tools,” Dougherty added.

  “Tea, you guys are right,” Mercer agreed. “We’ll have to take this operation out in the coin of the realm, whatever that may be. You have anything in mind?”

  “Zaros told me himself we could name our own price for what we’ve done for them. The anti-matter stuff might help Nick, but he’s already armed our Command Wings with an anti-matter warhead. They may have some minerals here we can take. I’m leaving the Yorktown here for a while anyway. Maybe they can scout around for something we could use.”

  “Are you sure it’s safe to leave Doug here,” Mercer joked. “We may get back from Earth and be greeted with nothing but ET debris.”

  Jake shrugged, which provoked more laughter.

  “Jake, can you transfer a certain lieutenant from the Yorktown to the Intrepid before we leave for Earth,” Dougherty asked casually.

  “Consider it done,” Jake replied, ignoring Mercer’s vehement gestures to the contrary.

  “It’s against regulations, Jake, and you know it,” Mercer said, throwing up his hands as if in despair. “You can’t keep bowing down to every whim this gold brick comes up with. You’d think he had one of your family members held hostage somewhere.”

  Jake and Dougherty were doubled over in laughter at Mercer’s phony outrage. Major Corey joined them from inside their main command complex.

  “Hello boys,” Corey smiled, sniffing the air. “I can smell booze even over Jake’s coating of Bug entrails. Are any of you still coherent?”

  “We’re sober as judges, right Jake,” Mercer said, with only slightslurring.

  “Oh yeah,” Jake agreed. “We’re solemn and serious too. Just don’t ask us to walk any where in a straight line. What’s up, Sara?”

  “Governor Risling is standing by to talk to you, Jake.”

  “What about?” Jake asked. “Can’t it wait?”

  “There has been an outcry because of the tactics used against the ET’s,” Corey replied. “The Governor’s catching hell about our heavy handed mission here. It seems the public back on Earth has gone crazy over the vids, we kept sending from around the ship on the way here, after you rescued Zaros and the other Passallion prisoners. I guess we should have shut off the vid cams on this one, Sir.”

  Jake, Dougherty, and Mercer all looked at each other in disbelief, and then as if on cue, they began
howling in laughter. It was a full five minutes before they regained control, and Corey waited uneasily, glancing back at the command center.

  “C’mon guys, I’m not joking,” Corey said. “Risling really is standing by.”

  “I’m sorry, Sara,” Jake stated finally. “Do I look like I care? Okay, okay…I’m coming.”

  Jake stood up with only a small amount of unsteadiness, and Mercer and Dougherty began to join him. Jake gestured for them to sit back down, but they stood up anyway. Dougherty grabbed Jake’s helmet and rifle, while Mercer closed the hovercraft hatch. Jake slung his rifle, and strapped his helmet around it.

  “Why don’t you guys get cleaned up,” Jake said. “We can get some chow together once I tell Risling to get stuffed. I’ll catch up with you.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want us with you?” Dougherty asked.

  “Yea Jake, we’ll help you explain,” Mercer added.

  “You can’t even stand up straight, you lightweight,” Jake laughed. “Tim, take Han here to the showers and then to the chow hall. I’ll join you there.”

  “Okay, Jake,” Dougherty agreed, putting an arm around Mercer’s shoulder. “C’mon Han, you old rummy, let’s get some food.”

  “All right,” Mercer relented, beginning to feel a little unsteady after the long hours in the hovercraft, topped off with the small celebration, “but I ain’t stopping while you fool around with your girlfriend.”

  “She was rotated up to the Yorktown, so bugger off, Han,” Dougherty replied.

  Jake watched them walk over and enter their hovercraft through the cockpit entrance. A few moments later Dougherty drove it slowly towards the Alpha Drop Ship hanger bay.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have let Tim take the hovercraft,” Jake mused. “Maybe you better call ahead and warn the hanger deck crew, Sara.”

  “I will,” Sara laughed. “You need to come along before you get busted down to PFC.”

  “Been there, done that,” Jake replied good-naturedly. “It wasn’t so

  Jake had cleared the area around the Command Center communications monitor. Only Sara stood nearby. Jake sat down in front of the monitor, where he could see Risling sitting at his desk looking over a panel he held in his hand.