Ambush

by G J Moses

  With Mel out front, they jogged towards the Chohish officer. The dirt and grass covering the Chohish were a sure indication of the body having been thrown around. The angles of the body gave Hawke grave doubts the Chohish was still alive. “Mel, how do you know he is still alive?”

  “It is still alive” Mel updated Hawke forcibly. Startled at her vehemence, Hawke noticed that Mel refused to classify it sexually. “It is being closely monitored, if you look closely, you can see its chest moving as he breathes. If you would move your left thumb up to the right, you can access the readings being fed to all the Battleoids. We have clear instructions that we are to make sure we bring this one back.”

  Doing as he instructed, an overlay popped up on the left screen. It was flashing statistics that made no sense to him. “Uh, Mel, help please?”

  At that moment, they reached the Chohish curled up on the ground. The sound of a sigh came through his speakers before he heard “The green bar at the top is the vital sign. The rest you can ignore for now. I will be glad to kick it so you can see it move towards red if you want. It has nothing implanted to track so the AI Battleoids are monitoring external signals such as chest movement, temperature and so on.”

  Gazing at the Chohish laying on the ground, Hawke felt his rage building as he stared down at the enemy that had brought so much pain to his people. He would like nothing better than return the favor. “Maybe a small kick would be in order. What do you think?”

  “I would love to, I really would, but we better not. Remember Hawke, Zeke thought capturing this Chohish alive was important, really important. Relax and let’s do our job.” Melinda warily spoke to Hawke.

  Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply and refocused his thoughts before responding. “I know Mel, I know. Not sure what Zeke wants him for, but knowing him, he would not have risked someone unless he had a good reason.”

  Sudden realization hit Hawke. “Are you monitoring me Mel?”

  Again, he heard a woman chuckle. “Yes, I am. Jeanne gave me orders to watch over you, and if not too much trouble, the Chohish. Getting you back is my primary task over anything else. You are the only one here with any real knowledge of the Chohish. As far as the Chohish is concerned, if bringing that thing back alive can assist in feeding a few more Chohish to the fish, I will do it, reluctantly, but I will do it.” Melinda replied with passion. “It and its fellows have killed a lot of my friends.”

  Grabbing the harness on the Chohish, Hawke raised the body, so it draped over his shoulder. His leg seemed to be handling the strain ok, but he could feel the tendons tighten and start throbbing. Using both hands to keep the body stationary, Hawke and Melinda started making their way back.

  It was only after going a mile or so when Hawke heard and then felt the Battleoid warning system. While searching for the alarm display, Melinda took off running.

  As Melinda ran, her laser and Gatling gun raised out of her shoulders and started firing at something in the distance that Hawke could not see. The missile on her back launched straight up before flattening out to hug the ground.

  Four small red blips appeared on his screen along with a green blip that was indicating a path away from him. “I will handle this; you get the package home. Follow the green dotted path I am enabling on your display. No delays, no stopping, under no circumstances are you to stop or deviate from your path. Time is limited and you need to get yourself and it back asap. Understand? I will follow you once I take care of these fish feeders.”

  Moving at a good clip, Hawke followed the path shown on his monitor while glancing periodically at Melinda. But he was not one to leave a battle while others were still fighting. That was when he found out that he now had very limited control of Battleoid. The Battleoid refused to change direction or speed no matter how much pressure he applied to the foot brakes.

  His attempts to slow down must have alerted Melinda because no sooner attempted than he heard. “Hawke, I have instructed the Battleoid AI you are riding in to get you and your package back ASAP, but take care not to damage the package. I should catch up with you prior to you reaching the station entrance.” Hawke heard Melinda though his communicator.

  Carefully playing with the controls, he was able to get a view of what Melinda was seeing. The screen was jumping up and down as Melinda jogged her way towards the four Chohish headed in her direction.

  Two of the Chohish paused to take aim at Melinda with their rifles. At that moment, the missile from Melinda’s back slammed into their position. The explosion of smoke and debris hid what happened in the next several seconds.

  Jogging while trying to keep the body on his shoulder from shifting too much, Hawke continued on his way. Concentrating on where he was going, he still managed to watch Melinda when the smoke finally cleared.

  Melinda’s laser and Gatling gun were kicking up dirt and grass around the other two Chohish who were roaring a challenge in their own language while shooting their handheld laser rifles. Hawke could see that these two had personal force fields that impeded some of the fire directed at them. Not all the fire, though, as he saw one spin around after being hit in the shoulder by a bullet. It slowed the Chohish down, but did not take him out of action. ‘It’, as Melinda would say, shook it off and continued firing his weapon and running towards Melinda.

  He would have liked to dump his cargo and rush back to assist Melinda, but no matter how he tried, the Battleoid would not let him slow down or change direction. There was some small advantage with the AI controlling where he was going, he did not have to take his eyes off Mel’s Battleoid while traversing a deep ravine. He did lose sight though when the ravine dropped down several dozen feet.

  Once on the other side, he was able to check again on how Melinda was making out. Just in time to see Melinda meet the closest Chohish. It was odd to see it from Melinda’s view. The Chohish dropped his weapon and jumped towards Melinda with a loud growl. The image showed the Chohish up close and filling the screen. Melinda’s right armored hand came into the screen to grab the Chohish by his throat and hold him away from her body. The Chohish hands reached out towards Melinda and just when Hawke thought the Chohish would grab her, he saw a knife being held by a similar armored hand but from the left side appear. The blade went deeply into the Chohish side chest before being ripped out the back.

  Shoving the body away, Melinda was hit by a Chohish laser weapon. The screen lit up with the impact of the laser on her shields. Still watching through Melinda’s display, he saw the barrel of the laser weapon move to point directly at her chest just before her fusion rifle entered his view to remove the scaly hand that was holding the weapon. Watching as the Chohish face light up in pain just before fusion from her rifle slammed into its chest. It was intimidating to say the least.

  “Say hi to your fellows in hell. I will be sending you some more soon to keep you company.” Hawke heard Melinda yell at the dead Chohish. The view on Hawke’s remote screen scanned the immediate area before it turned to show Hawke’s Battleoid moving away at a slow clip.

  Within short order, Melinda was running next to Hawke due to his reduced speed to minimize injuring his package. It was only a few more moments before Hawke saw a section of the ground rise to show an entrance.

  Holding the captured Chohish officer in his arms, Hawke had to stoop to enter. It was not very wide, so Melinda had to wait for Hawke to squeeze through first. Once they were in, both were surrounded by dozens of security personnel who took the Chohish from Hawke where he was placed into a large stasis field pod. Unless Hawke was mistaken, it looked like a cargo pod vs. a medical pod, but what the heck, they worked almost the same, except the cargo pod had no padding, so who the hell cared. He sure didn’t.

  Engaging his Battleoid to open, he cautiously stepped out into fresher air. Not the best, but a lot fresher than what had been cycling in the Battleoid. Thankfully, his leg was still encased in the foam support, enabling him to stand, even if it was painful. Glancing to his side, he saw Melinda step out of
hers.

  Melinda was a beautiful young lady with long flowing brunette hair and bright brown eyes. Much younger than he originally thought due to the experience she displayed in the field.

  “Well, hello Mel, it is good to finally meet you face to face. Thank you for all your help, it was desperately needed. Not sure what shape I would be in if you had not shown up. I hope I will see you again.”

  Laughing, Melinda told him that was more than likely. “I would like that. Away with you now, you need to get to medical and get your leg checked out. You are also still bleeding freely from your head regardless of the patch the AI put on it. I am going to see if I can feed some more fish, if there are any left. Greedy my folk are, always wanting to hog all the fun.”

  After using a towel supplied by one of the techs to wipe the sweat off her face, Melinda, stepped back into her Battleoid. She was about to close the unit, when she paused. Stepping out of her unit, she started making her way back towards Hawke.

  Seeing that Melinda had exited the Battleoid and heading back towards him, Hawke stopped what he was doing to see what she wanted. As she made her way towards him, he saw that she was struggling with something under her shirt. It took a few seconds before she pulled something from around her neck. Glancing at what she held; she closed her eyes for second while continuing to walk. Melinda clenched her hand tightly, opening her eyes finally as she stopped to stand in front of Hawke.

  Using her left hand to turn Hawkes hand, palm up, where while looking into his eyes, she deposited the item in hers into his.

  “This was my brothers. Wayne died in the just ended war with the RGN. He had such high hopes and plans, a wonderful person whose life was cut short following what he believed in. He would, did, sacrifice everything for his family, his home. I watched your battle out there, you two are so very much alike. Wayne would have liked you, a lot. He, and I, would be honored if you wore this.”

  With that, Melinda made her way back to her Battleoid, got settled in, closed it up, and waved goodbye prior to exiting the tunnel. Watching all this, Hawke continued watching as she ran back towards the ongoing battle.

  Glancing at his hand, he saw he held a thin silver chain that had a circular silver replica of a planet attached. The planet detail was exquisitely done. Having just come from there, he knew what planet it was, Tortuga. Turning it over, he saw it had an inscription in standard Galactic. “To my home and family that I love with all my heart, I will always be true.”

  Cradling the chain in both hands so as not to drop it, Hawke carefully and with reverence, slipped the chain around his neck. “I am honored Melinda, truly honored. I may not have known your brother, but I have met his family, you, and I find they are worthy and noble. I will wear Wayne’s medal with honor.”

  Gripping the world in his fist, Hawke looked at the rapidly retreating figure of Melinda. “I should have paid more attention to you Zeke when you told me ‘Times are a changing, my feathery friend, times are a changing.’ those so many years ago. Then again, after all the beer we drank, who could have blamed me for not paying that much attention to you.”

  Whistling a Sorath lively tune, Hawke hobbled along following behind the stasis pod.

  Preparations

  While everyone was cleaning up and packing their gear, Zeke went with Titus and his security team to visit the capital city. This was the first time anyone had been able to leave and check the city out since the attack. What he saw was so much worse than what he had viewed from space. The physical destruction was near total, but nothing could prepare him for all the bodies.

  Thousands upon thousands of bodies were strewn throughout the city and along the roads to the shelters. Most of the bodies were in advanced stages of decomposing. It was hard to breathe the stench was so overbearing.

  Following Titus, who walked slowly along shaking his head with despair at the sights around them. Zeke watched as Titus slowly knelt next to a family group that had not made the shelter. The family looked like they had laid down together to rest only to never rise again.

  “Why, oh why, did they do this? What did this family do to them? This child is innocent. All of them are. What did they do? All they wanted was to live in peace.” screamed Titus to the sky.

  Even having seen the destruction and death from multiple wars, Zeke had never seen anything that matched the scale of what he saw now. His experienced eyes were able to tell that this was done systematically and on purpose.

  The Chohish had deliberately traced their fire along the highways leading to the shelters so they could kill as many as they could. The enemy had also rained down their fire on the city, destroying the buildings and killing indiscriminately.

  Even though there were hundreds of soldiers coming out the shelter to look for survivors, no survivor had been found yet. Maybe they would be lucky and find a few in the ruins of the city, that is, if time permitted.

  Even though the searchers were military who had seen and been through a lot already, the sounds of their anguish over what they now saw were being repeated and again.

  Leaving Titus with the family, he walked slowly along the side of the main road taking it all in. Coming to a bend in the road, he saw a large bus off to the side, leaning over an embankment. Walking closer, he saw something in the dirt that made him pause.

  Kneeling on one knee, he saw large footprints, very large footprints, and not human, outlined in the dirt. A large group of them. Following them, he saw the footprints were leading him in the direction of the bus. Signaling to the half dozen security guards around him, he moved cautiously towards the bus.

  Fanning out, the security detail slowly inched their way to the bus. Reaching it, Zeke gestured for them to stay alert.

  Half the windows were missing, but with the way the bus was leaning, Zeke could not see into the bus. Grabbing the side, he pulled and pushed to see if it was stable enough to support him. Feeling no movement, he made ready to climb when several of the security team rushed over to stop him.

  Flagging them to step back, Zeke stretched high to grab the bottom frame of a window that had lost its glass. Using this as leverage, he was able to scramble up onto the side of the bus. But here he lost his balance and fell through the window opening to land hard against the opposite seat frame.

  It was only after he came to a stop, was he able to take in his surroundings. A second later he was puking violently. The stench alone was enough to cause the vomiting, but it was the sight of what he saw that clinched it. The bus was loaded with children’s corpses, dozens and dozens of them.

  Based on their size, most were under the age of ten. The bodies were decaying and bloated with a good many also showing evidence of insect and animal damage. But it was evident as to what caused their deaths. From the blood splatter, the children must have been alive when the Chohish found them. The children’s bodies were broken, crushed, with some having been decapitated.

  There were several adults present and it was obvious they had been tortured before they died. What kind of creatures were these Chohish?

  In the seat located just in front of him, being held close by a boy just a few years older than her, a very young little girl’s face mirrored the horror she must have seen and felt at the end. Her wide, staring dead eyes, her split lips pulled back in a loud scream, her fingers gripping the seat restraints, her blonde hair covered in dark brown dried blood.

  Something snapped in Zeke then. Reaching out slowly to pry the girls’ hands free and pull her from the grasp of the boy, Zeke held the body of the young girl close to his chest and started crying.

  Several of the security detail found him that way shortly afterwards. It took a good ten minutes for them to coax him out of the bus. However, as much as they tried, they could not get him to release the body of the young girl.

  Carrying the little girl’s body, Zeke made his way to rejoin Titus, who with several others were in the process of burying the family they had come upon earlier. Watching as the tears rolled down Zek
e’s cheeks in a steady stream, Titus tried to take the girl from his arms. “Give her to me Zeke, let me bury her with this family, they will watch over her.”

  “I believe her brother is in the bus. He held her close until they both died. Let them be buried with the family together. It is the least we can do.”

  Several of the security personnel left to make that happen when they saw Titus nod yes. Once they left, Titus, and now Zeke, silently continued digging the grave.

  After a short and quick ceremony, Zeke and Titus walked slowly back to the shelter. A determination like he had never felt before resided in Zeke. He knew he needed to prepare rejoining his staff on the Lucky Strike, but he could not shake the feeling, his anger, his rage, his hatred of the Chohish. Zeke would never forget what he saw.

  Saying goodbye to Titus, Zeke reentered the facility lost in thought. With the memory of what he just saw fresh in his mind, Zeke knew what he needed to do, had to do, before he could do anything else.

  With a purpose in his step, Zeke made his way to see the captured Chohish in the medical bay. It was with more than curiosity that Zeke looked down upon the captured Chohish strapped to a heavy metal table.

  Feeling the anger and rage building again, it took all his control not to turn the Chohish over to the family and friends of the people killed above. Zeke could feel blood congeal on his fingers as his fingernails pierced his palms from gripping them so hard. “Oh, how much I would like to be able to do what I want to do, if only I did not need you.” Looking around, he saw his anguish was mirrored on the half dozen sentries stationed there and it was obvious what they wanted to do.

  The Chohish was still unresponsive, but that was to be expected based on the amount of the drug used. Even though he did not have time to deal with the captive at this time, he could not resist looking in on his enemy.

  The Chohish was a huge specimen. The bipedal, covered in green scales, had been injured from the blasts, but was responding well to the medical nanites. The medical AI had identified the medical makeup of the Chohish in short order which matched the guesses Doc had made when developing the serum for Hawke to use. The Chohish was expected to survive in good shape, but it would be a few more hours at least before regaining conscious for a better examination.