Unwilling From Earth

by Andrew Maclure

  “Sir. I have brought something for you from Alan.” He said to Mark, handing him a box about forty centimetres square and twelve centimetres deep.

  “God, I hope that’s a pizza.” Said Mark as he took the box.

  Sally and Orange looked on curiously as Mark opened the box. Inside, set into cut out foam, was a device that looked like it was made of the same black composite material as the Mark Eight weapons. Mark lifted it out and examined it. It was about twenty-five centimetres long, oval shaped with one end sliced off. The top was rounded like a flattish blister. On the cut off end, the flat surface had an oval shape projecting two centimetres out of it. Underneath was a grip positioned so a hand could be slid into it and the device worn like a rigid glove.

  “OK, I give up, What is it?” He asked Sally and Orange.

  “No idea.” Orange answered.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this Mark. Are you sure it came from Alan? Check with your AI.”

  “Well?” Mark asked his AI.

  “This is a version of a People’s personal weapon. This one has been designed to fit you. It utilises what the People refer to as hidden technology though it is unlikely to stay hidden for long.” Mark’s AI informed him.

  “What? Why has he sent it to me? And why now?”

  “It was in response to my last briefing on the progress of the engagement. It included your inability to take part in close combat due to lack of training. He sent it to you because you are a Friend of the People.”

  “Your briefing? What briefing? Have you been acting as Alan’s spy on me!”

  “No Mark, simply reporting on significant events in the same way that any of the People’s AI’s would.”

  “Uh huh. Anything else you have been keeping from me? And just remind me, I can make you dormant anytime I like?” Mark asked.

  “I have not been keeping anything from you Mark. It is one of my functions. You can stop the briefings but I would advise against it. The only use made of the information is to identify any help or support you may need. You don’t have to use the weapon, but you now have the option to.”

  Mark sighed. “OK, what’s it called, what does it do and how do I use it?”

  “It’s a People’s device Mark, so you should realise by now that it isn’t called anything. I gave it the description of a personal weapon. It is limited to activation on contact so it can only be used for close combat. Your use of People’s weapons technology is limited until you are fully aware of its capabilities. You can use it by pressing it against your opponent and it will activate. Neither energy field armour or body armour give any protection against it. You will see what it does when you use it. This information is privileged and the details are not to be revealed.”

  Mark looked up at Sally and Orange. “It’s a weapon. For close combat only.” He said. “I can’t tell you any more than that, though that’s pretty much all I know.”

  “It doesn’t look like it’s up to much.” Orange said. “You sure you wouldn’t rather use the club? I designed it especially for you.”

  “Yes, and I really appreciate it Orange, but to be honest it’s a bit limited. If I swing it hard enough to do any damage it just bounces off the field armour. If I only swing it hard enough to get through the field armour, it doesn’t do much more than annoy my target and give them light bruising, so I’ll give this a go.”

  “Good decision Mark.” Sally said. “We all know the People have secret weapons, I’m sure it will be effective. You can take my left, Orange on my right when we lead the way back into the fight.”

  “Listen up!” Sally addressed the gathered soldiers. “We’re going in tight formation up into the fighting. This is our best chance to put an end to this. We are still outnumbered, and the enemy has soldiers that haven’t been deployed yet, but we are in good shape to push right through them. The objective is to give concentrated support, gather more of our troops and keep on clearing through. The rescue and recovery team will be right behind us and landers will move up with us to stay close behind. I want to get organised well enough to push right through and keep them on the back foot. Are you with me!”

  The soldiers held up their weapons up at arm's length and shouted back. “We are with you!”

  “Ranks of twelve, get into formation!” Sally yelled and the soldiers quickly got themselves into a column in ranks of twelve.

  “Mark, put that thing on and stay on my left. Your role is to stay close to me and Orange and fight with us. If I fall Orange takes over. If Orange and I fall, you’re in command. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Sally set off at a jog towards the fluid front line which was now at least half a kilometre ahead of them, the column followed close behind.

  Breaking The Line

  Sally headed straight into the fighting which was still going on in the barbaric hand to hand way it started. Mark was more than a bit nervous about going into the thick of it with what looked and felt like little more than a toy on his hand. He soon had a chance to try it as a creature with pinkish grey skin with coarse dark bristles sprouting all over its face leapt at him. It had a short thick bladed weapon aimed at his neck but Mark ducked under the blade as it thrust towards him. He swung his right hand with the weapon and jabbed the soldier in the side of the chest. The device activated and the soldier's chest seemed to deflate, like a balloon that suddenly doesn’t have enough air in it. The soldier instantly and soundlessly dropped to the ground. There was no wound, but it looked like there was something serious missing from the body.

  Mark looked up just in time to see a short sword wielded by a soldier, that looked very much like an attractive, fair-haired human woman, get rammed into his body armour just below his left arm. He tried to twist out of the way but felt the thud as the hilt banged against his body armour and would go no further. He instinctively swung his right hand up and struck the soldier in the lower chest with his weapon. It dropped lifelessly on top of his previous assailant. He thought being stabbed would be painful, but he felt nothing from what he guessed must be a life-threatening wound.

  A soldier from the column behind him had moved up to his left, just behind him. “You had a lucky escape! The point must have been deflected by a reinforcing plate”

  Mark stepped back, pulled the weapon from his right hand and slipped it onto his left hand - he didn’t want to leave himself vulnerable. He fumbled behind him with his right hand and felt the end of the short sword poking out of the back of his body armour. Reaching round to the front he grasped the handle of the sword and pulled. It was tight in the armour, but Mark got it free, half expecting it to be covered in his blood, but even the blood that was on it before had been wiped off on his body armour. Unsure of what to do with the sword, Mark slipped it into his belt and swapped the weapon back onto his right hand. He stepped forward back into the fight with new confidence. Using the field attenuator on his left arm as a shield, fending off blows, and using what he had learnt from Mike about avoiding getting hit, he jabbed at enemy soldiers, dropping them in a series of short engagements. He was making forward progress at the same rate as Sally on his right, who was fighting furiously with her lips pulled back in a snarl, showing her canines and looking quite scary.

  Although the weapon made it frighteningly easy to kill the enemy soldiers, Mark was tiring fast from the relentless fighting. As soon as he dropped an enemy soldier and stepped forward, another came at him, convinced that they could do better than their late colleague. Their column, fighting their way forward in an organised and disciplined way, were moving forwards at a slow walking pace, sweeping up more of their soldiers as they progressed through the disorganised melee that the advance had become. Their column became wider as they added soldiers to it, and as some of those at the front were wounded, tired or killed, the soldier behind stepped up to take their place. The wounded and the exhausted were helped back to the rescue and recovery teams.

  They soon had several hundred more soldiers who had joined their column,
and they were cutting their way through the enemy in a wide swathe. More of their soldiers joined them as they withdrew from the melee and fell into line with the column. They came across a group of Ants, and cleared the enemy around them, the Ants took up position on the flanks of the line. Organised like this they became unstoppable until finally the enemy, which had become a disorganised, rabble broke and ran. The soldiers at the front of the column took up their KE and particle pulse weapons and opened fire, the row behind threw grenades until the fleeing soldiers were out of range.

  “Cease fire!” Sally ordered across the command link. “Officers! Make yourselves known! Soldiers! Assemble into units around your officers.”

  Sally changed the comm link to communicate with just the officers and gave them their orders. “Set up a perimeter. Get the walking wounded and the exhausted back to landers and up to Mother to recover. Make camp and get the troops fed and watered. Tell your troops to order fresh supplies. De’nesh, Ti’rrk, report to me here.”

  “Sally, I need to find someone. Is it OK if I go now?” Mark asked.

  “Don’t you want to get some food and rest first? You look like you could do with it.”

  “I won’t be long, but I need to this first.”

  “Who are you looking for?”

  “A Krendor called Kar Fen.”

  “Hold on Mark. I know you had a bad experience with a Krendor, but now you’ve got your new weapon I can’t have you going around killing my soldiers. Keep clear of the Krendor!” Sally ordered.

  “I’m not going to kill anyone, I’ve had more than enough of that to last me a lifetime. I want to make sure he’s all right. He’s my Battle Buddy, and I lost track of him shortly after the fighting started, but I found a couple of Krendor in the Sinth volunteers and took them to him.”

  “A Krendor Battle Buddy! How in Satan’s name did you become a Krendor Battle Buddy!”

  “It just sort of happened. All you aliens get strange ideas. By comparison they make you seem normal. And I wish you’d stop using that expression.” Mark told Sally.

  Sally rolled her eyes. “I am normal - for me.” She replied. “Meet me back here when you’ve finished. I am going to message Simon and Mike to rendezvous here and demote Mike back into my personal team.”

  Mark told his AI to find Kar Fen and walked in his direction. He had got used to jogging everywhere but he was tired, his legs ached and the thick mud had built up on his boots so that his feet felt like they weighed a tonne each. Eventually he got to a cluster of soldiers and pushed his way in until he found Kar Fen. He jogged the last few metres to him, grabbed him around the waist and hugged him.

  “Fen, thank god you’re OK.”

  “Whoa, little Battle Buddy. Is that a customary way your species greets people?” Kar Fen asked him.

  “It is when you’ve been made their Battle Buddy and then promptly lost them. I’m sorry I didn’t meet my commitment to fight alongside you.”

  “You did everything I could expect from a good Battle Buddy, Mark. You weren’t going to protect me fighting alongside me, you’re too puny, but you found two Krendor and brought them to me to fight with me. Our commitment was to fight our enemy and protect each other for the duration of the battle, which you did by bringing Dren and San to fight with me. I didn’t do much to protect you but you obviously didn’t need it, so that’s OK too.”

  Mark grinned. “I guess I need to look into the Battle Buddy tradition a bit more. Maybe we’ll fight together again one day. If I’m in a fight, I’d like to have you by my side. I’ve got to get back to Sally now. It was an honour to meet you Fen, I hope we meet again soon.”

  Kar Fen grabbed Mark by the shoulders and gave him a vigorous shaking. “An honour to meet you too Mark. Live well until we meet again.”

  “The shaking is a traditional Krendor parting too?” Mark asked his AI.

  “Yes Mark.”

  “Much more of that and my teeth will come loose.”

  As Mark turned to leave, he saw Boze Dren and Gor San and walked over to them. “Dren, San, thanks for sticking with Fen. You enabled me to meet my commitment as a Battle Buddy.”

  “No sweat Mark. We Krendor always fight better together, it was good to meet up with him. Good to meet you too. Live well until we meet again.”

  Mark walked back to meet up with Sally and the team again. “Thank god I got away from those two without another damn good shaking. Live well until we meet again? Is that also a Krendor parting Kate?” He asked his AI.

  “Yes, it’s a friendly parting, but not as friendly or respectful as the shoulder shaking.”

  “Remind me not to get too friendly with any more Krendor.”

  As Mark walked through the soldiers on his way back, he overheard one with silver insignia on his shoulders say to another soldier. “We’ll run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.”

  Mark really hated that tired and ridiculous old cliche. It was the kind of thing which Anthony James, the UK IT Director at IFG said at their monthly Town Hall meetings. Some of the middle management drones used it on the IT team when they visited Winchester, which they clearly considered to be the outer reaches of civilisation. Mark thought it showed lazy thinking and a shallowness of intellect.

  He stopped and turned to the soldier who had just spoken. “Really? Run what up the flagpole?” He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “The flag, it’s just arrived. We’re using it to test the response to it from the new Sinth volunteers as an indication of commitment to the army.” The soldier replied.

  “Oh, er, that’s good. Carry on.” Mark said, feeling like an idiot.

  As Mark walked away, the soldier with the insignia asked his colleague: “What was that about?”. The other soldier just shrugged.

  When Mark got back to the spot where he had left Sally and Orange there was no one there. Mark called Sally on the command link. “OK, where are you hiding. This is no time to play games.”

  Mark heard Sally sigh as she answered. He thought she would probably have preferred to have grown-ups in her team. “In the lander sixty metres behind you.”

  Mark walked over to the lander. Inside he found that De’Nesh and Mike had joined them. When Mark saw Mike he jumped to attention and giving a clumsy salute said: “Lieutenant Colonel Mike! Reporting for duty Ma’am!”

  “Fuck off Mark. Any more of that and I’ll kick you in your soft mammalian balls.”

  “I bet your troops are missing your charm already.” He responded.

  “Good to see you Mark.” De’Nesh greeted him. “I was worried about you in the front line but hoped that Kar Fen would look after you. By the size of that gash in your body armour you had a near miss.”

  “Well, you know what they say.” Mark said. “You can’t keep a good man down.”

  “Can’t say I have heard that.” De’Nesh replied. “Are you a good man?”

  “Er, no. It’s just a saying. Sort of ironic.” Mark answered.

  “I see.” De’Nesh said, thoughtfully.

  “I thought you translated idioms in context? You did a crap job there.” Mark said to his AI.

  “There is no close idiom in De’Nesh’s language, so I did a direct translation.” Kate answered.

  “Next time that happens, use your frighteningly powerful intelligence and try a bit bloody harder!” Mark snapped at it.

  “So how did you get on with Kar Fen? I wasn’t sure about putting you with him after your run in with a Krendor before, but thought that if there was a problem, you would be able to handle him.”

  “We got on fine. We both fulfilled our Battle Buddy commitments to each other.”

  “He made you a Krendor Battle Buddy! You must have made an impression on him. And fulfilling your Battle Buddy commitment speaks volumes about your ability in a fight. Your modesty about your abilities is impressive Mark. It would be good to have you with us next time we go into battle.”

  “Thanks for the offer De’Nesh, but once this is over I w
ill be happy to never get involved in a war again.”

  “The offer stands Mark. If there’s nothing more Sally, with your permission I’ll get back to my troops.”

  Sally nodded, De’Nesh turned and left the lander.

  A Rude Awakening

  “I’m getting a hot meal.” Mike said. “Do you want one? Want to try that stuff you called teppanyaki? You can have your own plate this time, you’re not sharing mine again.”

  “What’s this? First you’re found laying on top of Mike when you’re supposed to be fighting, now you’re sharing a plate of food? If I find you shagging next there will be trouble.” Sally said with a smirk.

  Mark glared at her and walked to the back of the lander and took off his body armour. He picked up the sword he had been stabbed with and looked at it for a moment, then slid it into his belt on his jumpsuit with the one that Kar Fen had given him. He collected his meal from the synthesiser and went to sit down next to Mike. They ate their meals in companionable silence. When he had finished eating Mark put his plate on the seat next to him, sat back, closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep and dreamed about the soldier that looked like an attractive, fair-haired human woman, repeatedly stabbing him.

  Mark woke up with a start. Mike leant over him with an injector tube in her hand.

  “Ah, you’re awake at last.” She said and jabbed his neck with the injector tube.

  “What the fuck!” Mark shouted and jumped to his feet. “What have you injected me with?”

  “Relax, it’s just a sleep suppressor. You’ve had two hours sleep, time to get going.”

  “You could have said before injected me.” Mark complained. “How long were you standing there waiting for me to wake up?”

  “I wasn’t standing waiting for you to wake up. I was standing there kicking you to wake you up.”

  “You missed your vocation in life. You should have been a children’s nanny. You could have been the next Mary Poppins.”