He looked pained for a moment, and we both started laughing.
Thirty Five
I pulled off the perfect hero landing.
Okay, so technically that wasn’t true. The combat suit I was in pulled off the perfect hero landing. If I’d tried it myself, I just know I’d have landed on my face, and in front of the Keerah, that would have been downright embarrassing. Jumping from ten meters up wasn’t something I’d practiced, but fortunately the suit had the pre-programmed jump already there, and I just had to step off.
Monty had brought team six and I down to a thousand meters up, and we’d taken six salvage droids down the rest of the way. Three or four on each sled, we’d headed for each of the six entrances to the caves, and all jumped down at the same time, pointing out towards the plants, firing the combat suit version of the new guns. First downwards to clear a spot to land, and then outwards from where the Keerah were hunkered down behind their fortifications and a massive mound of dead plants.
It left live Trixone behind us, but I could see the Keerah rising up immediately to take these out before any could turn back towards us.
A Keerah pulse hit me in the back, causing me to stumble forward a step, and my sight could plainly see the white tiger with a smirk on his face looking at me as he lowered his gun, and passed it back to an orange. I ignored him.
Sam had gone to another entrance, but we were all on team coms, and trying to co-ordinate mowing an area large enough for the Cobra’s to land at each site. Monty on the other hand, with Jane actually on her bridge, was sending missiles at any larger than normal concentrations of plants within her range, which included destroying the dozen troop ships on the ground in the general area.
The Keerah stayed where they were, having been told to, while the three marines with me stepped deliberately ahead, almost crossing our fields of fire as we went. Behind us, I could see more than a few jaws hanging open, as the four of us did what hundreds of them had not been able to do. We pushed the plants back.
There was a balance point though, and a half hour of slow movement forward had us reach it, as plants began to sneak past us. It didn’t do them any good.
With enough cleared room now to land, a Cobra dropped neatly behind us, ramps already down and nose pointing our way. A full company of combat droids streamed out, and began filling the holes between the four of us, and the steps forward began to quicken.
Behind us, me now using the Cobra to see with, the tigers were standing there with amazed looks on their faces. I knew the look, because I’d been studying the vids of previous encounters. When the Cobra left, my vision expanded to see the whole area from above for a short time, before settling down to what I could see for myself. I was also getting feeds from the other cave entrances, and they were all looking much the same now.
“We’ve got this, sir,” said the marine next to me, now quite a distance from me as the droids finished forming a partial circle.
I didn’t respond, but stopped firing, slung the gun on my back, turned towards the Keerah white I’d seen earlier, and walked back towards them.
Something solid took me in the back with not enough warning to dodge it, and the combat suit measured its length in the dirt and shredded foliage.
“Well that’s new,” said Jane.
“What is?”
“They’ve finally brought some heavy weapons with them.”
“Now you tell me.”
“The main question is, why use one on you, and not on the Keerah.”
“Let me guess, they brought them just for us?”
“Could be,” said Sam. “We just had a couple fire at us as well.”
“Anyone down?”
“Hell no.”
She was laughing.
I sighed. And slowly stood up again. The gun on my back was fried, but the suit itself wasn’t damaged. I tossed the now useless gun, and started off towards the Keerah again, who were showing signs of outright shock. The next heavy pulse which came my way I saw in time to skip out of the way at the last second. Another second later, the position it was fired from took a capital ship missile, which left very little except a large hole, and a lot of dirt thrown a long way.
I continued walking towards the Keerah. A flight of three Excaliburs, all on their sides, screamed down the side of the mountain in front of me, shot over the top of me one after the other, and began firing into the mass of plants beyond the line of combat droids. They were followed soon after by other flights in finger four formation. I tapped into Monty’s feeds and could see the squadrons forming a ring of flights around the entire mountain range, and they began circling outside the main engagement area, firing at anything which moved.
There were some attempts to fire heavy weapons at them, but the plants obviously had no experience of leading a fast moving target, and each time they fired, a capital ship missile hit the same spot. By the time I reached the Keerah front position, the heavy fire had ceased.
I came across a new problem beneath the fortifications the Keerah were behind. While it looked hastily put up, the fortification was a rock wall towering over me, and for most of its height, there was nothing but mangled plant material in front of it. I had no idea how the plants had been climbing up over the corpses of their dead, but they had.
“Jane, I’m going to need a hand here.”
Of course, she gave me a thunderous applause.
“Ha-ha. I need the salvage droid to take me to the top of this wall.”
“No need.”
“What do you mean?”
I took off.
Jets I didn’t even know were on my legs propelled me upwards, firing in a way so I moved closer to the wall as I went up. Just over the top, they stopped, and I was forced to land by myself on the other side. I had just enough seconds to trigger the hero landing command again, and made a perfect touchdown in front of a very startled white tiger. The other side of the wall was not very wide, and had steps leading down to the same level as outside. It reminded me of a castle wall, only hastily made out of rocks, instead of being properly built.
I stood up to my full combat suit height. The tiger did likewise. The back of the suit opened, and I stepped back out, and walked around the suit to stand next to it, my flight suit shifting into full uniform at the same time.
Now he was looking down at me.
“Commander Ecclestone, at your service.”
“Acting Governor Tarnigar, not at yours.”
We glared at other for a few moments.
“Follow me,” he said finally, and turned away from me.
I kicked his arse.
Thirty Six
It was surprisingly satisfying.
The tiger measured his length on the ground, with a very satisfying thump, and very close to pitching over the edge, with the woof of loss of air from his lungs. I looked around to see how much trouble I was in.
But rather than angry looks, I saw silent laughter and grins. They were all orange tigers, and it seemed someone taking a white down a peg was something they didn’t see very often, but quite enjoyed if it happened.
Faces went serious very quickly as the white picked himself up, looking thunderous. He turned back towards me with his claws extended and teeth bared.
“You’ll want to see this,” said Jane, through the combat suit external speaker.
I held up a hand palm outwards to stop whatever he planned to do next, and Jane popped up a screen everyone could see for me.
A station was emerging from a rift.
Exclamations of surprise came from around me. It was one of the new small stations with only four docks, and I wondered for a moment why it’d been sent. We needed troops on the ground, not traders in orbit.
“Wait for it,” said Jane, and everyone heard her, and they all waited, even the white.
“Look at the middle of the cleared area,” she added, and the screen vanished.
All heads swiveled to look over the edge of the rock face, with more than a f
ew moving to the edge for a better look. I stayed in place, looking directly at the white, although he was now looking over the wall himself.
About a hundred meters behind the line of combat droids, there appeared a long white rectangle. And from it emerged a stream of short warriors with furry heads, all carrying the light version of the gun I’d been using. They sprinted for the droids, and went through the gaps, where they began firing wildly into the plants beyond. The line moved forward more quickly now, as more and more joined it.
The white looked at me.
“Don’t you want to see what’s going on down there?”
“I can see just fine thank you.”
“How?”
“I’ve eyes in the back of my head.”
The orange tiger closest to the white exploded into laughter, and we both turned to look at him. If I’d ever wanted to know what a tiger looked like having a hysterical laughing fit, my wish was granted. I hadn't, but it was happening anyway.
The tiger mimed firing a gun, looking like he was about to fall over from laughing so hard, pointed to the back of his head, and then kicked out with one leg. Several of the others began laughing as well, and I assumed they’d all been with the white when we’d chatted earlier.
Even a stern look from the white failed to quell the mirth, and he looked back at me, where I was doing my damndest not to smirk. I couldn’t hold it in any longer, even though my face was still under control.
“Did someone request Lufaflufs?”
They all lost it, and I couldn’t stop myself laughing hard as well, while the white stood there looking stony. Across team coms, I could hear twenty people also laughing. And Jane was as well, but not through the suit speaker.
More screens popped up, showing Lufaflufs pouring out at all six cave entrances. Below us, the last of them emerged, looked around, and finally up at us. He said something, a small rift opened in front of him, the other end in a space near me, and he stepped through.
He was wearing what looked like leather clothing, but I could see it was actually a belt suit. The insignia on his shoulders, repeated on the cap he wore on his head, was a full bird.
Under one arm he carried a swagger stick.
The other hand adjusted his monocle.
On a human, it would have looked old fashioned, even for a Brit. On a dog face with a long nose, the best word I could come up with was eccentric. A lot of the tigers stared at him as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I wasn’t sure I did either.
“Who’s in charge here,” he demanded, fixing his gaze upwards on me, even though he outranked me. “First Lufafluf battalion reporting for duty. Sah!”
The last of the tigers stopped laughing.
“Commander Ecclestone, Claymore, temporarily in command. Lieutenant Colonel Jackson-O’Neill is at one of the other cave entrances, and I assume with your timely arrival, General Hobbs is also on his way.”
“So I was informed Commander. I guess that makes me the big cheese here until he does. Hmmm?”
The tigers were obviously having trouble figuring out what cheese had to do with anything.
“I stand relieved,” I said, saluting him.
“I relieve you,” he said, returning the salute.
I turned to the white.
“I believe you were about to lead me somewhere comfortable where we can discuss things?”
He looked from me, down to the dog headed dwarf I’d just passed command to, and back to me.
“This way.”
Thirty Seven
“What is your price human?”
“For saving you?” He nodded. “No price. But you have some hard choices to make.”
He was sitting at a desk in a makeshift cave office, not far into this end of the cave system. Since they had no chairs comfortable for a human, I was standing on the other side of his desk. It actually made us even for height.
We’d walked past groups of civilian families, hunkered down wherever they could gain some semblance of comfort. Their children were cute looking, as only cats can look, but seemed terrified of me as I walked by, or perhaps more by the combat suit walking behind me. As we’d started down from the top of the wall, Jane had closed it up, and started it walking after me.
“What sort of hard choices?”
Jane had been sending me negotiation information during my walk down here. Some of this stuff I hadn't heard of before.
“First off, do you even want us to secure the planet for you? It’s going to take a major expenditure of resources on our part, and for right now, they’re not available to deploy here. We can keep the Trixone well away from you for now, but they could be sending a next wave against this system any time now.”
“You could hold them off I assume?”
“Depends on what they send. We don’t know how they communicate with each other, so what we don’t know is if they know their fleets here have been destroyed. If they do, another fleet may already be on its way. If they don’t, the next wave may already be on its way. Either way, something is going to be coming in the next day or so, and until we see it, we won’t know if we can take them.”
“You don’t seem to have had any problem so far.”
“So far this jump corridor we’ve been on has only really seen recon fleets. They laid a trap for us here to be sure, but that could have been recon fleets held back to form a larger force, because they’d lost contact with the ones in front, and assumed a hostile force was coming here. We don’t know for sure.”
“What do you know?”
“I know what my small fleet is capable of taking on, but as yet, we haven’t even finished mapping this system, so we don’t know where the plants are likely to come from next.”
“You mean jump points?” I nodded. “There are three. The one you came in through leading to the Napenga, and two others leading into Keerah space.”
Helpful, but vague.
“How far away are the nearest Keerah planets?”
“Two jumps and three jumps. Both have far larger populations than this one had, and both have much more significant military forces than we had.”
“Had.”
“What?”
“Had. My guess is both planets are dead now.”
He stared at me, not wanting to show me his level of shock. Or disbelief.
“No, you’re quite wrong. Both will have survived. We lacked the military forces in space or on the ground to repel the invaders.”
“Did you get any warning they were coming?”
“Well, no.”
“There you go then. My guess is the Trixone attacked both of your planets at the same time, and also bypassed them both with the first recon fleet we encountered, which took out any civilian ships or couriers which might have given you warning.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“It doesn’t matter. The fact is you’re cut off from your own people, there is most likely a force on the way to complete the job here, and we don’t have any agreements in place to fight your battle for you.”
“So what are you doing now?”
“We call it humanitarian aid. When someone calls for help, and we can give it, we’ll help. Personally I don’t give a shit we don’t have a formal diplomatic relationship. You were in serious need. We were able to help. The situation is stable for now, but there are more Trixone on this planet than there are Keerah now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means the plants are going to regroup and start throwing major massed formations at you, and probably at the same time my fighters have to return to space to fight off their next fleet. There are probably additional troops being assembled to come here and fight, but we don’t know how your people will react, or even if the expenditure of resources is acceptable to us. Part of that comes down to what you choose to do.”
“Choose? How? What are the choices?”
“Stay and fight is one. But from what I saw out there, you don’t have m
uch in the way of remaining military, and had we not come along, eventually the plants would have won through into the cave somewhere. At which time you’d have all died. That is still one of your options.”
“What are the others?”
“We establish some level of diplomatic relations which enable us to defend this system until your people can get a defensive force here. The beginning of that is you deciding you want to stay, and we put some sort of local agreement into force so you can.”
“Or?”
“We evacuate your people, and let the plants have this planet until such time as your people are able to take it back.”
“And what stops you from taking possession of it?”
“Nothing. But we have no need for additional systems at this time. We do need to secure this jump corridor though. And for now, the easiest place is the other side of the jump point we came through, since it’s a choke point. If we do though, this planet is most likely lost.”
“But you could save this system if you wanted to?”
“Probably not with our current resources. We can probably hold one jump point. But if the Trixone can come through two of them, we’d need to double the fleet presence in this system, and I’m not privy to if that’s possible or not.”
It wasn’t. Jane had been adamant about it. Even when we found the jump points, we couldn’t defend both with what we had. There was another alternative apparently, but it required the Imperator to be here, and I wasn’t high enough in the command structure to know what the option was. Yet. And no-one was quite sure when he’d be able to get here. We were spread way too thin.
“So you want us to evacuate?”
“It’s the best option on the assumption the Trixone want this planet enough to send a serious amount of firepower to take it fully.”
“Where would we go? And more importantly, how?”
“I’m told we have a planet in our space which already has a small Keerah settlement on it. Mainly prisoners of war as I understand it. It’s not the best planet, but it will support several million beings without much trouble. And for now, we don’t need it, except as an internment center as it’s currently used for. As for how, the way the Lufaflufs arrived. Those doors are still open, and your people could walk through to the station in orbit, and then from there through to another station in orbit of the planet your people are currently on, and down to where they are.”
Legend of Dreamwalker (The Hunter Imperium Book 5) Page 17
