Serpents and Vipers

by Donald Nicklas

  Once there was nothing left to see on the near space monitor, they returned to watching the area around the mountain. The Sea Clan was able to see in all directions around their city. The external part of the city was still filled with bodies from both sides. There were more Mountain Clan dead, than Sea Clan, only because there had been more of the enemy for the railgun towers to kill. The battle had taken quite a toll on both sides, but the Mountain Clan had more bodies to lose than the Sea Clan. This meant the Sea Clan had to take care which fights they picked. The Slones were standing next to Sly, watching the monitors.

  “Sly, how long do you think we can hold out here?” Christopher asked.

  “Sss. Captain Slone, in three months, no more food. Even if they do not attack, we must open the mountain in three months.”

  Alaya now joined the conversation, “Let’s hope Tavia and the others make it.”

  “Sss. Alaya, I wish you had gone with them, and been safe.”

  Alaya was surprised. Sly had never used her first name before, always used her rank and last name. “We want to help you and your clan.”

  “Sss. The clan is in disbelief that you stayed. This is not your fight.”

  “You are like family to us, Sly. Your clan has been devoted allies of ours as well. What would it say about us, if we didn't help?” Alaya replied.

  Sly said no more, but Alaya could swear she saw a tear in the serpent’s eye. The next month passed uneventfully, this allowed them to prepare a defense. Either the battle in the city did more damage to the Mountain Clan than they thought, or they were planning something big. In case it was the latter, Sly asked the Slone’s how humans would defend the mountain. What humans did not know about serpents; serpents are not fighters. They have watched humans develop over millennia, and have admired their intelligence and versatility. It is true serpents were smarter than humans were, but they had never been able to separate themselves from their primitive side. This is why their weapons were weak compared to human weapons; and why they entered combat with tooth and claw. They used personal weapons and armor sparingly. In addition, their time on their home world was ending. The Mountain Clan staged this coup to eliminate competition for limited resources. The Sea Clan had all they needed on their worlds in space. They had allied themselves with the humans out of fear; fear of the humans conquering them. It was fortunate that the Romani were not like the humans of the corporations. The Romani asked nothing in return for friendship and Sly knew the Sea Clan were friends of the Romani.

  The Slones referred the question of defense to Centurion Marshal, since his experience was with ground combat. The Centurion explained there were two theories to defending a position. First, there is the perimeter defense, which puts the entire effort into preventing penetration into the mountain. If this fails, all is lost. The second is a defense in depth. With this type, there are preset, fallback positions where the defense can continue if the farther positions are lost. The Romani prefer this type of defense. Sly knew an expert when she saw one.

  “Sss. Centurion, would you do us the honor of organizing our defense?”

  Marshal was honored by the request. “Sly, I would be happy to.”

  “Sss. Excellent,” Sly gave some orders and three serpents came over. Sly barked some orders and the three bowed to the centurion, who returned their bows. “Sss. These are our commanders. They will do as you say, without fail.”

  Centurion Marshal determined that the serpent commanders spoke enough human speech to understand him and he them. He set right to work to set up the defense in depth. This work continued through the month of quiet after the ship carrying Tavia and the Consul left. At the beginning of the second month, while Tavia was reporting to the Senate and the rescue mission was coming together, things began to stir outside the mountain.

  Over the quiet month, the occupants of the mountain developed a routine. The humans had been assigned quarters just off the operations room. This room was the one filled with the monitors and sealed by large blast doors. They knew if the perimeter were breached, this room would be the first one lost, so nothing of importance was left here. At the centurion’s request, a second control room with only the most critical monitors was set up right next to the hatchery. This was the fall back position for the monitor techs and Sly with her bodyguards. This room was protected by the fourth and last line of defense. The centurion had done a masterful job of training the serpents to teach them how to fight as a unit in Romani style. They had also made makeshift body shields that they tested against their railguns for penetration. They were as prepared as they could be, when movement was detected outside the mountain. Sly was called over to one of the monitors and had a conversation with the monitor tech. She then came over to the Slones and Centurion Marshal.

  “Sss. Motion sensors near the beach show movement. We will send a drone off.”

  As Sly explained the problem, a drone was launched and they could see what it saw on the big monitor bubble above their heads. The humans had noticed that serpents seem to love to look straight up. No doubt, it has something to do with serpent anatomy. Nevertheless, for humans, having monitors directly overhead just makes for a stiff neck. Since they always had their body shields with them, they got used to leaning back on them to look up more comfortably. The drone flew towards the beach. The operators were keeping it at tree height to decrease the chance of detection. The beach where the movement was detected lay over 100 kilometers from the mountain. It would take the drone two hours to cover the distance. They watched for a while, but the treetops all looked the same and it was monotonous, so the centurion went back to his training, with more intensity this time. As he left, Sly came over to the Slones.

  “Sss. My clan speaks very well of Centurion Marshal. He has taught them new ways of fighting and lifts their feelings about the future.”

  Alaya was touched, “I am glad, Sly. It is our mission to hold out until help arrives.”

  Christopher watched as Centurion Marshal did some last minute training. The discipline shown by the Sea Clan will come as an unwelcome surprise to the Mountain Clan. Instead to the rapid, tooth and claw fight the humans witnessed before, there would now be a shield wall defense similar to that used by the Romani. Every serpent in the cave took part in the training. There would not be any non-combatants among the Sea Clan. Early in the training, it became apparent that swords would not work with the serpent hand structure. They could hold a weapon tightly, but they lacked the wrist movement needed to twist the swords, as the Romani technique required. A solution was found in an even older weapon with which the Romani first experimented. The centurion showed the serpent smiths how to forge short handled spears. These were a little longer than a sword but half their length consisted of a pyramidal spear point that could be thrust straight into an opponent and would do massive damage without being twisted. Now as Slone watched the training, he could see the wisdom of this weapon for the serpents. Given their superior strength compared to humans, they could easily wield the spear and the body shield. Their physical condition was also far greater than humans, which gave them increased stamina. Centurion Marshal more than once remarked how much damage he could do with a cohort of serpents. Both species were learning more about each other in a month than in the preceding three centuries.

  The centurion started by training one hundred serpents, who then each trained one hundred more, resulting in 10,000 trained troops within a month. They were formed into 16 cohorts with 400 troops left as trainers for more warriors. It was hoped that the first force of 16 cohorts would be tasked with holding the cave entrance if the blast doors were breached. If they were forced to fall back, the new trainees would be available at the fall back positions. Tens of thousands of serpents were available for training, but time was not their friend. It also took time for the serpent crafters to make body shields and short spears. Armor was abandoned due to the time it took to make. Now all eyes were glued to the drone monitor.

  The drone was brought to a st
op and Christopher went over to Sly, “Why did the drone stop?”

  “Sss. It has reached the end of the woods. We will have to bring it up from the trees now. It is silent, but once we move it above the trees, it will be visible. We have no idea how long it will be running after it is seen. They will shoot it down.”

  Now Christopher understood why they stopped it. All eyes were on the drone and the equipment was recording everything the drone saw. Sly gave the signal and the drone operator flew the drone up and at full speed to the beach. They could see a group of serpents slashing the jungle growth to widen the beach. Some watercrafts were just off shore and a camp was going up. As soon as the serpents saw the drone, the males raised their railguns and started firing at the small drone. The operators moved it quickly from side to side, flew over the beach, and started to photograph the watercraft when the feed suddenly ended. They had finally hit the drone, but it had seen enough. It was obvious they were building a beachhead, and there was no opposition to their invasion. The pictures of the watercraft indicated large vessels that could easily hold thousands of serpents. This time they meant to conquer the mountain, once and for all.

  Slone turned to the Centurion, “Centurion Marshal, how long do you think we have before they reach us?”

  Before answering he turned to Sly, “Sly, how quickly can they build a camp large enough to hold the thousands of troops they have in those ships?”

  Sly looked at the pictures of the camp construction and the numbers of troops. “Sss. It will take two human weeks.”

  Serpents were always certain of their answers but not always of their facts, so the humans had to assume the time was close to that stated. The Centurion then turned to the Slones. “I am not sure how well a large group of serpents can move through thick jungle, but if they move like humans, it will take at least five days if not a week to cut through over 100 kilometers of jungle wide enough for them to pass. Even if the jungle is not a problem for the serpents, they will need a cut path for the equipment they need to get into the mountain.”

  Alaya asked, “What if they use hover craft? They could be here in a few minutes.”

  This time Sly answered, “Sss. They fear our railgun towers and they know we have more rail guns and missiles in the sides of the mountain. They will be cautious next time.”

  “Ok then,” Christopher said. “Assume we have close to three weeks before they reach us and plan from that. Sly, do you have enough drones to check on their progress daily?”

  “Sss. Yes, captain. We have a great many drones. This will also give the Centurion more time to train us.”

  The next two weeks were filled with preparations. Centurion Marshal doubled his training efforts and even some serpents were being worn down. All of the serpents developed great admiration for the centurion. Indeed, all the humans impressed them, because they were tireless in helping them pursue a fight that was not theirs to deal with. What was remarkable, even to Sly, was the devotion the serpents began to have for the centurion. They never questioned his orders and they would follow him into certain death.

  The humans also made other preparations. One of the problems they encountered in the earlier battles was the serpents’ ability to leap over the shield wall. For the serpents to have an effective shield wall, a way would have to be found to negate this advantage. The Romani pick their leaders based on leadership abilities combined with imagination and Centurion Marshal did not disappoint. All serpents not involved with training were put to work building. They took heavy metal plates and used them to cover the upper parts of all entrances used as fallback positions. The entrances were then reduced to seven-foot clearances, which allowed for fighting without leaping. The shield wall would cover the opening. All agreed this was a brilliant way to keep the enemy on the ground. The three humans worked tirelessly along with their serpent allies to make the mountain as defensible as possible. Since serpents were mainly melee fighters, ammunition was only a problem for the railguns and the missile tubes. Since there were no enemies in the outside portion of the city, Centurion Marshal and a group of serpents made sure the railgun towers were fully supplied with rail shot. They were automated. Once the enemy was outside the mountain, there would no longer be access to the guns. When they were finished, the Romani looked around the city that had been the site of battle when they first arrived. The dead were all gone. The Sea Clan had removed both their dead and the enemy dead. If there was a burial ceremony, it was done in private and the humans were not invited.

  Sly was outside with the reload team and Alaya asked her a question. “Sly, if we use explosives to mine this plaza, we can take out a lot of the enemy when they come to attack the blast doors.”

  “Sss. That would work well, if we had explosives.”

  Christopher had overheard this exchange, and said “What about your missiles. I know you have a lot of them, more than we will use against ground troops. If we remove their payloads and bury them in the plaza, we could remotely detonate them.”

  The Slones imagined they could see the wheels turning in Sly’s head. “Sss. I will set my engineers to work. How many payloads do you think we will need?”

  Christopher looked at the size of the plaza and did a little calculation in his head. “I think 20 should do, if we are careful to overlap the blast zones.”

  The others agreed and Sly gave the orders to dismantle 20 missiles and bring the payloads out to the plaza along with work crews and techs to set up the remote detonators. She left it to the Romani to decide the best place to set them. They were hard at work setting their surprise and smoothing out the plaza to make it look like nothing had been done, when Sly had a messenger come and get the Romani. After making sure the work teams knew where to place the remaining charges, the Romani went into the cave and over to Sly who showed them the latest drone footage. For the past two weeks, the drone situation had remained steady. A drone was sent out; it took video of the beachhead, and it was promptly shot down. The drone operators tried to vary the approach angles to keep the enemy guessing, but once the drone was visible, it was rapidly destroyed. This last drone lasted long enough to show the beachhead was finally complete and they were starting to cut down a wide swatch of jungle to bring up their troops. The troops were finally deploying into the camp from the watercrafts, which rode up on the beach a bit.

  Alaya turned to her husband, “Chris, their starting to cut through the jungle. I wish there was a way we could slow them down.”

  Christopher Slone looked at the monitors. From the progress they were making, it looked like they would be at the blast doors in less than the week they had estimated. As he was watching, the germ of an idea came into Slone’s head. He called Centurion Marshal to bring over a dozen of his serpent troops. Slone also asked Sly to come over. When all were assembled in an open area of the control room, he ran his idea past them.

  “We need a way to slow them down,” Slone started, without preamble. “Before coming to the Romani, I lived in a Sinclair mining base and had little to do when not on space duty. As a result, I learned a lot about mining and especially explosives. By tomorrow, we should have an idea how far they can clear the jungle in one day and what direction they are going. While we wait, Sly, I need your technicians to remove twenty more missile warheads and remove the entire explosives. From what I could gather from the ones we set in the plaza, the explosive is very stable without a detonator present. Tell them to save the detonators and keep them separate from the explosives. I also want them to keep the explosive in the nose cone of the missile. Have your engineers see if they can make pressure detonators that will explode when the weight of a serpent steps on them.”

  Now Centurion Marshal began to smile. “Land mines. But for them to work the enemy must stay on their course.”

  “I am willing to bet they will come straight towards the mountain entrance. They won’t want to waste time going any other way. When we flew here from our crash on the beach, I could see that the island is flat all around
the volcano.”

  “Sss. Captain Slone, I will set everyone to work. We can keep working on land mines after the first set. We have many missiles in the mountain and more on our ships in the hangar.”

  This time it was Centurion Marshal’s turn to innovate. “Sly, could you also ask your engineers to see if they could point the missile tubes at the outer city. Then we can fire missiles at them as long as they remain outside.”

  Again, Sly acknowledged the order and set her engineers to work. By the next day, they had twenty serviceable landmines and a clear idea of how far the serpents had progressed in clearing the jungle in one day. They also now knew the route they were taking. A quick calculation told them how long they would take to get half way to the mountain and it was decided to lay the mines from that point on to the mountain. Centurion Marshal led a team of serpents to the halfway point and set the mines. As they finished laying a good spread, they moved back and more mines were brought up. The Centurion decided it would be wise to move each new set of mines out a little from the route, since a human would change the route if confronted with a minefield. He knew from talking with Sly that serpents had never used mines; therefore, this was going to be a nasty surprise that all hoped would slow down the progress of the jungle clearing. The Centurion and his team worked all day and into the night to finish laying the mines and then returned to the mountain. The small opening in the blast doors was resealed. From this point on, no one was leaving the mountain until victory, or all were dead. The serpents went back to training in all parts of the cave. The backup control room was set up and ready to go. If the main chamber was breached, then all power to the larger control room would be cut off and only the inner parts of the cavern would remain powered. The hangar bays were also sealed with blast doors, eliminating all escape routes. The upper sections of the mountain were cleared just in case they break through the hangar doors. Only the ground level with the hatchery would be defended. Since this area also contained most of the living areas, there were well over a hundred thousand serpents inside the mountain. Sly had told those living in cities elsewhere to stay there and defend themselves as best they could. They knew as well as Sly, once the hatchery was off the planet, they were on their own. She felt that most would join the Mountain Clan in time, since they had opted to remain planet bound when the rest of their clan went into space.