by Terry Mixon
Jess thought about that for a while and slowly nodded as the Volunteer settlement came into view. There were a couple of fires down below and many torches inside the walls, so she had a decent idea of where people were positioned.
The night-vision goggles didn’t like the bright points of light, but they were modern units and more than capable of toning down the brightness while still showing her what was going on.
She could see a huge gathering of enemy troops that must’ve been just across a small rise from the settlement. They seemed to be in a large, wide line, and many of them in the front were holding pieces of equipment that looked like they might be useful in scaling the walls.
They were ready to attack. That wasn’t good.
Even as she watched, the enemy forces let up a howl and charged toward the settlement. There were scattered shots from the walls, but it looked like the defenders were evenly spaced around the circumference of the settlement, and not enough of them were going to be in position to deter the charge.
From the trees below her, she saw a lot of their own troops began coming out in wide lines, laying down fire as they moved forward. The range was long, but a miss was almost impossible with that many targets.
To her shock, the heavy fire didn’t deter the aliens from charging the city, and they kept going until they were there. They then began scaling the walls. The fight for the settlement was on.
“This is going to be bad,” Jess said even as Sandra opened fire, her suppressed weapon stepping down the cracks to a bearable level as she started shooting at whatever targets she saw below.
Jess had to do something. If this went the way she expected, Harry was going to get involved and that might leave him dead on the field below.
Making certain that they were in a good flight pattern and far above the range of the black powder weapons, Jess pulled her quantum phone from her jacket pocket and called Brenda Cabot. She needed to make the other woman aware that if things went bad, they’d be on their way back in a real hurry.
Brenda had just finished washing and changing when Jess called. She answered the phone, worried that something had gone wrong.
“Cabot.”
“The aliens have kicked off their attack, and it looks like they’re trying to overrun the walls on the settlement. We’re attacking them, and I’m worried that things are not going to go smoothly.
“Harry’s a great military leader, but we’re so outnumbered. If things do go badly, I’m going to try to get him into the ultralight with me and get as far away as fuel allows. You guys are going to have to be prepared for things if they turn on us.”
Brenda looked at the air car and the strange weapon that was still mounted in its rear. “We’ll be ready, but would some extra air support be helpful? We just captured one of the air cars with some kind of weapon mounted in the back. I’m not sure how fast this thing goes, but we might be able to get there in time to make a difference.”
“Do that,” Jess said, relief in her tone. “Even if you’ve only got a squad with heavy weapons in the back of that thing, that might be enough to break the Peret. Thank you.”
Brenda put her phone away as soon as Jess had hung up and gestured for Colonel Montalvo to come over. “We need to get the blood cleaned off of this thing as quickly as possible, and then we need to get a team of folks with an appropriate heavy-weapon mix to relieve Harry and his people. I’m not sure what you can get into the back of this thing, but grenade launchers would be a great start.”
The man nodded and called for one of his aides to come over before giving him a sharp series of orders. He then turned back to Brenda. “We’ll be ready to go in about fifteen minutes. Are you sure that we can get there in time to make a difference?”
She shrugged. “I’ll do my very best. If we don’t make it in time, a lot of our friends might die, and I’m not going to stand still if I can change that. We fight tonight.”
42
Even before Rex and his forces had hit the Asharim at the wall, Harry knew they weren’t going to be enough. The Peret weren’t being forced back nearly as much by the incoming fire as he’d hoped, and their morale seemed to be unbroken as they counterattacked. Even through the green of the drones’ night vision, he could see the enemy’s resolve. This was going to be an all-or-nothing event.
“Send in the reserves,” Harry snapped. Even as he said the words, he was running out of the tent and headed toward those same reserves. He slapped his night-vision goggles down as he ran.
The forces he’d set aside for an event like this came to about a third of his forces and were heavily armed. Their purpose was to turn the tables when that type of martial judo would make a difference. In this case, he needed to relieve Rex so his scout commander could pull back enough to regroup and fight on.
“We got a serious problem,” Rex said over the command frequency. “It looks like they’re not just scaling the wall. They’re planting charges, and they’re going to blow a big hole in the sucker. Once they do, they’ll go right through. It’s going to be a massacre.”
“Continue to engage the enemy,” Harry ordered coldly. “I’m bringing the reserve force. Be prepared to get in between them and the wall.”
“That’s the very last place we want to be,” Rex warned. “The Volunteers don’t know who we are. They could shoot us in the backs while the aliens are shooting us in the front. That’s a suicide move.”
“It’s a desperation move,” Harry corrected. “We’ve got to keep the Peret out of the city at all costs. At. All. Costs.”
There were a few seconds of silence before Rex responded. “Copy that. We’ll be ready for you.”
The reserves were prepared, and as soon as he reached their position, he gathered their senior squad leaders and Commander Krueger.
“Rex is going to try to push the Peret away from the walls, but the possibility exists that he’s going to fail. He said that the enemy have explosives rigged up and that if we can’t stop them from setting those off, there’s going to be a large breach that we’d have to protect.
“His forces are going to help us with that, but we’ll have to spread out enough to cover the area around any breach and keep the Peret from breaking through.”
“We’ve got a lot of ammunition, but I suspect it’s not going to be enough,” Krueger said. “My people have as much as we can carry, but if we can get more brought out to us before the fighting gets really bad, that’ll help us to set up a defensive perimeter to keep these bastards off of us.”
Harry considered that and nodded. With the use of the dirt bikes, they could move a fairly decent amount of ammunition out to the fighting lines and get the riders back to safety in fairly short order. There was always going to be the risk that someone was going to get shot, because the couriers were going to be prime targets, so it would have to be a volunteer-only effort. He’d give the orders and hope for the best. Needs must when the devil drives.
The relief force couldn’t just jog out like Rex’s forces, because the scout hadn’t been trying to get there fast. He’d been trying to conceal his approach for as long as possible. Harry needed to get there as quickly as possible, and that meant they were sacrificing stealth for speed.
He mounted one of the bikes and was just securing his helmet when a loud explosion sounded in the distance. That couldn’t be good.
“They’ve breached the walls,” Rex said over the command channel. “We’re holding as best we can, but if you could speed up a little, we’d appreciate it.”
“Let’s get a move on,” Harry said as he gunned his bike and shot forward.
As a group, the entire force raced out from the forest and onto the plain surrounding the Volunteer settlement. It might have been cleared of trees and underbrush, but the ground was certainly not what anyone would consider flat. There were ruts and holes, probably created by some kind of burrowing animal, and that slowed them down.
As soon as he had a clear view of what the situation was like at t
he wall, Harry knew they were in trouble. The Peret were grouping behind a large line of their fellows, and it was obvious that they were preparing to crush Rex and his people against the walls at their backs.
Rex and the main force were arrayed, protecting the city. There wasn’t time to dig in and make foxholes, so they were standing fast and taking the heavy fire coming at them.
Thankfully, it seemed that the defenders were disinclined to attack fellow humans, because they were firing their black powder weapons at the Peret rather than Rex’s people.
The hole in the wall was rather significant, perhaps twenty-five meters wide. Of course, the wall was made of wood, and the debris was smoldering or on fire.
“We’ll hit them from the left flank,” Harry ordered. “Use cavalry tactics. Zip right in, shoot them up, and ride out. Always keep in motion and never give them an easy shot at you. Try to force them to turn, and face us because that will open up their flank for Rex to take advantage of.”
Having said that, Harry had absolutely no intention of harrying the enemy flanks while Rex was in deadly danger. Even as they raced closer to the enemy, he was already looking for a good way to get around the Peret so that he could join the defenders. If he was going to fight, he was going to plant his feet between innocent civilians and the ravening hordes. They would take the settlement over his dead body.
The aliens were shooting at every motorcyclist. Harry heard a couple of bullets whistle past him and thought he was going to be safe enough, and then one of the shots struck his front wheel, and his bike flipped over, throwing him into the air.
This was not the first time that Harry had been unceremoniously tossed through the air, so he tucked himself into a ball and regained control of his potential impact position, landing on his feet but rolling to absorb as much of the damage as he possibly could. The unexpected flight had taken him over a couple of the enemy, and he saw a clear path leading through the last few enemies between him and Rex’s forces. He leapt to his feet and staggered forward, becoming steadier with ever step. He wasn’t hurt. He was going to make this.
He drew his pistol and shot the Peret that were between him and Rex. Several of them turned and leveled their black powder rifles at him, but there weren’t enough of them to form a strong defense. The one that actually pulled the trigger missed Harry in all the confusion. A few seconds later, Harry was on the other side of the Peret and sprinting toward Rex.
“A little help here, buddy,” he said over the command channel.
The forces against the wall seemingly turned their attention to the quarter that Harry was coming from and opened fire. Bullets flew past him in every direction at the enemy as Rex’s forces engaged the Peret. Harry had no idea how many people were shooting at or around him, but it was more than he’d like.
Seconds later, he spotted Rex and raced to the man’s side.
“Glad you could make it,” his scout commander said as he continued firing at the enemy. “I wish you hadn’t come, though. It looks like they’re going to rush us.”
“We’ve got reinforcements out there harrying their flanks, and we have folks with more ammunition headed this way. Can you hold out?”
“Isn’t that the kind of question you ask before you stick yourself into a blender like this?” Rex asked with a snort. “I don’t know. It really depends on how determined they are. If they really want to take this settlement, they’re going to roll us.”
Almost as if on cue, a huge shout went up from behind the alien lines, and every one of them seemed to charge forward.
“Well, my timing does suck,” Harry agreed with a dark grin. “Everyone stand fast. None of those bastards gets through.”
An answering shout came from his people as they increased their fire at the charging enemy.
There were a lot of aliens out there, Harry decided as he emptied his pistol and grabbed a rifle from one of his fallen comrades. In truth, he didn’t know if they were going to win this fight. He just knew that he didn’t have a choice about whether to defend this place.
The Peret were seemingly unimpressed with their stand and charged in ever-growing numbers. Even against the Asharim flechette rifles his people had, they were turning the tide. They seemed willing to climb over piles of their own dead to kill his people and get into the city.
All around him, his troops were dropping, wounded or dead. This defense was rapidly becoming a last stand.
“Krueger, we need immediate support,” Harry said over the radio as he continued firing. “And by immediate, I mean ten minutes ago.”
“We’re trying to break through,” the Navy officer said. “They’ve closed their lines, and we’re not making much progress. Hang on.”
Before he could answer, Rex toppled backward, his head almost exploding from the impact of a large-caliber bullet. Harry wanted to scream in denial, but he couldn’t spare his dead friend even a single moment. If he did, they’d all be dead.
“Cluster together,” he shouted. “Stand fast. Stand fast!”
As soon as he finished giving the order, something struck him in the left shoulder like a sledgehammer. He staggered back and fell. The world seemed to be spinning around him.
He glanced at his arm groggily and saw that the enemy had shot him in the left shoulder with one of those big-bore black powder rifles. He had to be in shock, because the amount of blood he was seeing and the bone sticking out of the injury indicated he was in bad shape.
“Krueger,” he gasped over the radio. “Take command. stop them from getting into the city.”
The world faded to a pinpoint and went dark before the other man could respond.
Jess circled the ultralight over the battle with her heart in her throat. Word had just come in that Rex was dead and that Harry was down and seriously injured. The news tore at her heart, and she desperately started looking for a way to get down there.
It didn’t look like she was going to have the chance, though. The fighting was too intense, and the forces were too jammed together. The Peret were killing her people.
The only place she could land was far outside the fighting, and she had to do that in the dark on terrain that she was completely unfamiliar with. Terrain that had never been inspected for things that could destroy the ultralight and probably kill Sandra and herself.
“We got to do something,” she said, almost growling in frustration.
Sandra was busy firing down into the enemy, taking out whatever people she could and trying to make a difference. Still, she managed to respond, never slowing her shooting.
“We’re doing what we can,” she answered, her voice filled with despair. “If Krueger can just hold out, we might still be able to push the Peret back and find a way to land. Harry can hang on. He’s tough.”
Jessica knew from experience that being tough wasn’t enough sometimes. Rex had been tough, and now he was gone. She had to come up with some way to get Harry out of there before the Peret killed them all.
A buzz from her pocket startled her. Someone was calling on the quantum phone. It had to be Brenda.
“Give me some good news,” she said grimly as she continued to look for a survivable landing spot.
“We’re on our way,” Brenda said. “In fact, we’re almost there. What’s the situation?”
As quickly as she could, Jess explained what was going on and told her that Rex was dead, Harry was down, and their forces were being exterminated. “You’ve got to hurry. I don’t know if we can clear an opening to get him out, but we’ve got to try.”
The other woman chuckled. “I think we might be able to help open a spot for you. We figured out the weapon in the back of the air car. I think it’ll probably help turn the tide.
“I’m going to have to go so I can fly this thing, but you better call the people on the ground and tell them to be ready to duck when the time comes. They’ll know when that is.”
With that, the connection went dead, and Jess put the phone away. She explained what she’d
been told to Krueger.
Sandra, who’d been listening, chuckled darkly. “I bet that’s going to be an unpleasant surprise for someone.”
Jess began scanning around, trying to spot the air car. In the darkness, that wasn’t going to be an easy task, even with night vision.
A few minutes later, she spotted it coming over the city itself. It was a little higher up than she was and almost obscured by the wings of her ultralight.
Her phone rang again, and she answered it.
“Jess, you need to get the ultralight forces out of the way,” Brenda said. “There’s one in particular that’s directly in my firing path.”
“Yeah, that’s probably me. I’m changing course now, and I’ll give a signal to clear out over the radio. Please hurry.”
Jess did a hard bank and pulled the ultralight away from the enemy forces and signaled on the radio that all scout forces needed to withdraw from the area over the battlefield. Rather than argue, the scout commander gave the order for everyone to pull back.
She had just enough time to turn her ultralight back around when she saw a bright-green spark leap from the back of the air car and strike into the center of the attacking Peret. That transformed into a writhing, energetic globe the color of moss perhaps ten or fifteen meters across, which then transformed into an explosion and blew a huge hole in both the enemy lines and the ground.
“Holy shit,” Sandra said. “Is that Cabot?”
“You’re damn right it is,” Jess said with a grin. “We might just be able to hold them off yet.”
The rate of fire of the alien weapon seemed to be about one shot every five seconds. It took less than a minute to break the will of the attacking Peret, and they started racing away from the settlement and back toward the forest. Brenda’s people didn’t hesitate to continue firing into their ranks as they fled.
As soon as the pressure was off, Jess turned her ultralight toward the site where Harry had been holding the line against the Peret.
