Salvage Conquest

by Chris Kennedy

  The kinetic bombardment from orbit destroyed the ship and everything the humans had built. Most of them died in the attack. The only ones who had survived were some of the soldiers that had deployed away from the colony area. Like the other colonies, they had been defended by a military unit, though it was larger this time. The planet defense system had been the first thing powered up by the new fusion plant on-planet. The three planet defense launchers had fired surface-to-space missiles and hit the heavy battlecruiser, Rage, several times while it orbited, immediately after it released its payload of kinetic rounds.

  An infantry company and a tank platoon had been spared the fate of the rest of the orbiting ship’s inhabitants. They were coming down on the first dropship to clean up the remaining humans when they heard the distress calls from the cruiser about not being able to break away from the planet’s gravitational pull. The dropship pilots lost radio contact with the battlecruiser by the time they were approaching the surface fifty miles from the site of the human colonist landing.

  Less than a day later, they were met by tanks with infantry support. The humans had twenty fusion tanks and some infantry left after the bombardment. The Kitrail tanks had been ready for them, and several had been performing overwatch from the heights of rolling hills above the valley. Both sides had a few air support craft at the onset, but they had all been taken out early in the first day of battle.

  There were no other aircraft on the planet, so the radar systems the soldiers used were able to pick them out easily. The dropship they came down on doubled as their air support, and it had been blown from the sky by several shoulder-fired missiles. Skrelton witnessed the last human aircraft, a strange looking thing with rotating wings, erupt into a ball of flames in the beginning of a run toward his tank. He owed whoever had operated the shoulder-fired laser missile a drink, but he would never get the chance for repayment.

  * * *

  Chapter Two

  “Lithowka, do you see any of our tanks out there in decent shape?” Skrelton asked.

  “Yes, KahCrit, I see one,” LakTa Lithowka answered. “It looks like the front end and the turret have been destroyed, but the power plant and engine area look intact. There is no movement around it. It’s about a half mile out into the valley. I’ve counted all the rest of the platoon’s tanks. I think we are the last tank crew alive.”

  “Well, it looks like you will be infantry today, Ta. Get down here,” Skrelton ordered. “Ta Brakaya, grab the tool bag. You and I are going on a little trek.”

  Despite the Ta’s earlier statement about the infantry, he didn’t hesitate in climbing down from the hatch and joining the KahCrit at the back of the tank. At least moving through the valley meant he wouldn’t be a sitting target for the humans.

  “Moving, KahCrit,” he answered as he was climbing down.

  KahCrit Skrelton put on his helmet. He didn’t bother fastening the mandible strap. He slid his harness on, checked his rifle, and put four grenades in his pouches. Four grenades, two flares, and an extra barrel for the pulse laser were kept in a compartment in the tank. It was standard issue for a tank. Everyone also had their basic loadout with spare power cells for their individual weapons.

  Crit Ashaltic climbed up into the hatch the assistant gunner vacated. “I got the radio KahCrit,” he called out to his leader.

  “You see anything moving besides us, you let me know,” Skrelton ordered.

  The two of them picked their way down the hill, going through trees and bushes, around boulders and rocks, avoiding cliffs and sharp declines. It didn’t take long to get down to the lower level of the valley. Skrelton paused and looked out across the valley through the trees with the optic on his rifle. He could see smoke still coming from several tanks like his. He could also see many of the destroyed human tanks.

  The human tanks were a little smaller than the Kitrail tanks. They were, however, no less deadly. The human tanks relied on kinetic rounds, unlike the laser cannon mounted on their own tanks. The rounds were able to penetrate the anti-laser armor on the Kitrail tanks and cause devastating damage.

  In return, the laser mounted on his tank had caused major damage to theirs. It appeared as if the armor on the human tanks was designed to stop kinetic rounds but not lasers. Skrelton wondered what had led to a decision like that. The humans had lasers—he had seen that over the last few days—but not as the main gun on their tanks.

  He also wondered how they were powered. They had to have some type of power plant similar to his, since he had seen several lose containment and explode. He had seen other tanks in his platoon devastated by the same type of containment loss. Ground warfare fought by two races that were good at it produced many explosions.

  He looked back at Ta Brakaya. The Ta was leaning against a large rock, resting. Skrelton knew the soldier was exhausted. Brakaya came from the home world of Kitrail. The KahCrit knew the young Ta wasn’t raised to do anything that took effort. No one on that planet did. Skrelton was actually surprised to hear the military started drafting young Kitrail from the home planet. Someone in the government must be desperate. Usually all the military draftees came from the colonies where Kitrail were in much better physical shape from manual labor and better food.

  The young Ta was pretty big, the KahCrit had to admit. He stood a little over six feet tall and had powerful pincers. He wasn’t as big as Skrelton, but few Kitrail were. Skrelton was six and a half feet tall and wide in the shoulders. His exoskeleton was a dark blue, almost black, color. The Ta was more of a brownish color, like most from the home world.

  Skrelton’s face was a little lighter with purple mandible protrusions. His tail stinger was the same purple color. It protruded out of his uniform and was curled behind his left shoulder. He kept it there, so in face-to-face combat, he could spin to the left and strike out with it to the right. He was an imposing figure in full combat gear.

  “KahCrit!” the radio crackled in his helmet. “There is movement about two hundred feet to your front right.”

  He signaled for Brakaya to get down. He lowered himself into a crawling position, and they eased up to look through the bushes in the direction indicated. On the other side of those bushes, it was wide open. Across the base of the valley, there was hardly any cover. He was relieved to see four Kitrail soldiers making their way toward him. One of them was injured, a pincer was missing from its right arm, and the end was bandaged and in a sling.

  Ta Brakaya stood up, called out to them, and waved them over with a pincer. Time slowed and, before Skrelton could order him back down, the Ta’s head seemed to explode, and his helmet went flying. Right after, one of the soldiers headed their way collapsed after one of those damn kinetic rounds went through his upper body. This close, he could hear the human weapons firing loudly. The other three soldiers dove to the ground for cover. Skrelton heard one of them crying out for a medic, and he saw one of them crawling toward the wounded soldier. At least a medic lived through the night, he thought.

  He quickly raised his rifle to scan and see where the rounds came from. As he was looking, he saw the pulses from his tank’s smallest weapon come over the battlefield and strike against the same tank he was headed to for spare parts. Humans were using it for cover. The laser pulses from the weapon mounted on top of his tank couldn’t penetrate the anti-laser armor on the huge tank, so if the humans were behind it, they were safe. The pulses bounced off into the air without penetrating. The last few shots became lighter in color as the power source ran down, but at least they kept their heads down, and they quit firing.

  Skrelton crouched and ran out to meet the group. He grabbed one pincer arm while the medic grabbed the other, and they half lifted and half pulled the wounded soldier into the tree line and behind a rock outcropping. The other soldier helped the Crit with the missing appendage, as he was obviously weak and in pain.

  The medic pasted a self-adhering bandage onto the front and rear of the shoulder of the LakTa’s large right arm. He looked up at KahCrit Sk
relton and shook his head. It was bad. The round had blown a large hole through the front and caused massive internal damage. The soldier was unconscious.

  The medic pulled a bag from his backpack and inserted a needle between the soldier’s head and chest shell. He handed the bag to Skrelton and told him to hold it high. Skrelton did as he was told. When it came to medical emergencies, the rank of the medic was irrelevant; the medic was in charge. The KahCrit did as the LakTa asked. After just a few seconds, the bag, which had self-compressed, was empty. The medic took the needle out.

  “It’s all I can do. Hopefully the sealant works and stops the internal bleeding,” LakTa Jekotloma said. “Thank you KahCrit.”

  Skrelton nodded and looked over at the Crit. “What outfit are you from?”

  “We are from headquarters, Strike Force Twister…and we are all that’s left,” the Crit answered. He had caught his breath enough to answer and was holding the bandaged arm against his chest.

  “The whole headquarters company?” Skrelton asked.

  “No, KahCrit…all that’s left in the entire strike force,” Crit Captalta answered. “We’re it. There’s no one left.” The Crit grimaced a moment and continued. “Where did you come from?”

  “We…I came from up on the ridge. My tank is up there in shutdown mode. I have two soldiers up there,” KahCrit Skrelton answered. He looked over at Brakaya’s headless body.

  “We thought there were no more humans alive, when we were surprised by several coming down from the hills on the other side,” Captalta said. “I lost three in the crossfire. We were able to retreat, but they followed. There can’t be more than five or six of them, but they have those damn projectile weapons. They tore us apart.”

  “Did you get a good look at them? Are you sure there are only six?” Skrelton asked.

  “I think so,” Captalta said. “I got a good look. Did you know their bodies have no armor at all? They are soft on the outside. They look weak, but I guess they’re not, since they nearly wiped us out.”

  “Their skeleton is inside their body,” the medic said, looking over at them both. “They are not so weak, though they only have manipulative arms. In combatives, they would be no match for us with our pincers. They don’t even have a stinger.”

  “If you can get that close,” the fourth soldier added. He was a Ta with an engineer’s insignia on his uniform. He was way out of his element here. Headquarters was made up of several different military occupations. “I saw one that had been hit in the leg, sitting against a rock, drop its empty rifle and fire a pistol that killed my team leader before he could get close enough for a stinger strike. My next shot took its arm off, and it finally died.”

  “Suns…” KahCrit Skrelton said. He knew they were a formidable enemy, but he had mainly thought in terms of armored vehicles. He was a tanker, after all. The soldier-on-soldier stuff was not something he had really dealt with in his military career. With the tank disabled, it looked as if he would now.

  * * *

  Chapter Three

  “You heard him. Get your gear and grab the last water container, we’ve got to go to the KahCrit,” Crit Ahshaltic told Lithowka. “It’s a good thing, too. The battery just died. There won’t be any more shots fired from the pulse laser until we get this beast running.”

  They both put on their harnesses. Ahshaltic grabbed the flares and a case of rations. The LakTa grabbed the water container.

  They made their way along the same route they’d watched the other two use earlier. When they got close to the edge of the tree line, they called out. An engineer they didn’t recognize waved them down and guided them into the area between the rocks where their KahCrit was located. He was there with three other soldiers. Brakaya was not there, and they were told he wouldn’t be coming.

  “Suns…he was from Kitrail, but he was a good soldier anyway,” LakTa Lithowka said, shaking his head.

  “There’s nothing we can do about it now,” Skrelton remarked. “How much water is left? We are going to have to ration it out. These soldiers are completely out. There are five of us left who can effectively fight. We have to get to that tank and hope it has an intact reservoir we can cannibalize. That’s if we can get it off without damaging it. Maybe there is some drinking water left in their container too.”

  “It’s only half full, KahCrit,” the LakTa answered.

  “That won’t last a day,” said the medic. “Not with all of us drinking full rations. If we go more than two days without water, our systems will go into hibernation, and everyone will curl up and sleep until rainfall hits us. We have to get some water somehow.”

  “When that happens, the humans will kill us in our sleep,” Crit Ashaltic added.

  “You would think someone would have figured out how to get around that after thousands of years of evolution,” Skrelton said, clearly agitated by the thought.

  “It’s better than the alternative,” the medic informed them. “Some creatures just die after prolonged periods with no fluid intake.”

  “Well, we might as well be dead if hibernation kicks in,” Skrelton said. “Are there any sources of water nearby?”

  “We learned in the brief that the nearest water source is over eighty miles away,” LakTa Jekotloma said. Medics received a different type of briefing than tankers. “On the other side of the colony. The humans dug deep wells, but they are no good to us now. Surely the bombardment destroyed the pumping station.”

  “Suns!” Skrelton exclaimed. “What is the weather forecast? With all of this vegetation, surely it rains often.”

  “The mission brief called for clear skies for the next several weeks. It’s the dry season here,” Crit Captalta answered. He was grimacing as he said it. Whatever pain blockers the medic gave him were wearing off. His limb was obviously hurting him now.

  As badly as the battle had gone, it was getting worse by the moment. KahCrit Skrelton stepped away to think. They had to get across to that tank and take out the humans. If they didn’t, they would either die in their sleep or hibernate until the rains came. That would leave them without any type of protection if this planet had dangerous creatures native to it. They hadn’t encountered them yet, but that was because the three-day battle had scared any and all away. Every planet had some type of predator; he knew that for a fact.

  Making his decision, Skrelton said, “Alright, here’s the plan. I’ll take Ashaltic, Lithowka, Jekotloma, and Minkata with me. We’ll go down the wood line and come out slow and low. Maybe we can get an angle on the humans and take them out. Crit Captalta, you stay here with him,” he said, indicating the unconscious soldier. “With that arm, I don’t know if you would be a help or hindrance out there. It’s best if you wait here.

  “None of us are infantry, but you all remember your basic training. Crit Ashaltic, you take point. Get down before you exit the wood line…not after,” Skrelton advised.

  “I will, believe me, I will, KahCrit,” Ashaltic promised as he checked the power level on his rifle.

  Later, they eased out of the wood line in a low crawl. The tank they were headed for was off at an angle to their left. They could almost see behind it. Looking through the optics on their rifles, there was no enemy movement visible.

  “Do you think they’re still there?” asked the medic.

  “I don’t know,” Skrelton said. “I don’t see anyone, but then again, I have no idea what humans would do in this situation. We have been fighting them for several cycles, but we haven’t figured out their tactics. During the first four engagements, leadership panicked and attacked without attempting to talk to them.”

  “They did capture some of them on the last planet, though,” Skrelton continued. “They were able to write a translator program we can communicate with. It works with the prisoners, anyway, or so I’m told. What has been learned from them is a tightly guarded secret. Whatever it is, it has the Government in a panic, and we are being sent out to wipe out more of their colonies.”

  “They even
started drafting soldiers on the home planet,” the KahCrit said as he looked through his scope. “We were told to use the translation program only if absolutely necessary and not to relay anything discovered outside of the chain of command.”

  “Maybe they are afraid that the humans will start attacking our colonies like we do theirs,” Lithowlka suggested.

  The KahCrit looked over at his driver, impressed. It made sense; after all, the Kitrail were attacking the human colonies. Skrelton was only a soldier, but part of him had to wonder if there was another solution besides war. Even if they figured out this mess and killed the remaining humans here, it might be a long time before another ship came for them or even to see what had happened. They had been ordered to wipe this planet, but there were no colony ships coming through the gate in the immediate future that he knew of.

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  They were within one hundred feet of the tank when Skrelton saw the flash and heard the loud weapon fire. The round kicked up grass near Ahshaltic’s head. The soldier froze and tried to get lower. Nobody moved. The flash had come from within the tank, indicating the humans had put a sentry in the vehicle and he had fired through the wrecked front of the tank. The enemy had the high ground. It was not a good situation.

  It was a close shot, but Skrelton refused to believe the enemy had missed at that range. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it was a deliberate near miss. He heard the humans making a strange sound. It was guttural and abrasive, with starts and stops. Are they attempting to communicate? he wondered.

  Skrelton reached back and grabbed his radio receiver relay from the back of his harness. It was in a padded pouch, connected wirelessly to his helmet. He set it to override all the helmets in the near vicinity and keyed in the four-digit code that enabled the new translator program.