Unwilling From Earth Page 28

  “No. It made me gag. I nearly vomited. I’m surprised you didn’t hear me.”

  Mark shrugged, got a mug of tea from the synthesiser and sat down opposite Mike.

  “Do you know the new battle plan yet?” He asked her.

  “Yeah. Our troops have become bogged down and now both sides are dug in facing each other. There is some light artillery being fired and a lot of small arms fire but very few casualties on either side. It appears that the enemy are prepared to sit it out. They seem to be waiting for something.”

  “Waiting for what?” Mark asked.

  Mike shrugged. “I don’t know but Sally doesn’t want to wait to find out. We’re going to launch a full-blown assault in about six hours.”

  “Er, shouldn’t you be with your unit now?”

  “It’s not much fun being a Lieutenant Colonel.” Mike sighed. “I’ve briefed all of my sub-commanders and given them my orders. I don’t really need to be there.”

  “Yes but they’ll miss all of your love and compassion if you don’t get down there with them.”

  “Fuck you, soldier.” Mike said with a grin. “I’m going to join them when I get down there. There is no way they are going into battle without me at the front, leading them.”

  “The Mark Eights perform really well. They seem better than the enemy’s weapons, I thought they were being upgraded to be as good as theirs.”

  “We learnt a bit from their designs and took the improvements a lot further than they had. Theirs can fire short bursts of continuous fire, ours can fire long bursts of continuous fire. And we’ve uprated the power of the pulses too.” Mike stood up. “Got to go now. Good luck. See you on the other side.” Mike picked up her backpack and left.

  Mark sat with his mug of tea in his hands. “And then there was one.” He said softly.

  Mark walked up to Sally’s door exactly nine hours after leaving her. The door slid open and he walked in. Sally and Orange sat at a table, both moving their hands in the air in front of them. Mark knew that they were manipulating their view of the battle simulation. Despite the sleep suppressors, Sally was looking tired. She stood and walked over to the armchair and slumped into it. Mark took a seat in the other armchair.

  “Sorry Mark, I’ll have to make this brief. You’re all set to go. There’s a lander that will be ready to take you down with some fresh troops soon. We’ve had more third tier reserves arrived. There are also an unknown number of volunteers from the Sinth army assembling, I believe about a thousand,. As soon as they are ready Alan is taking Mother to get them. They’ll be joining us on the ground shortly, we’re working out how best to use them.”

  “Who are the Sinth army? And why are they volunteering?”

  “Of course, you won’t have heard of them. They are the second-best army in the galaxy. Damned good soldiers. They’ve volunteered to join us because I won’t let them fight beside us under their own commanders.”

  “The second-best army in the galaxy? Why aren’t we getting volunteers from the best army in the galaxy?”

  “That would be silly.” She smiled. “How could our own soldiers volunteer to fight with us?”

  Mark blushed. “Er, no. Of course.”

  “You’re going to join Lieutenant Colonel De’Nesh. He has a mixed group of species in his unit. He is a good man, he gets things done. You hold no rank in the army, not even Private so you have no command, but he has been told that you carry my authority. I don’t expect you will feel the need to use it, but you have it. I’ve told him you’ve requested to be put in the front line and told him to put you in the centre of things. You’ve got access to the command link, so if you really, really need to contact me, you can. The transport is about ready to go, is there anything you need before you leave?”

  “I’ll need more field rations and I want to take two more grenade belts and as many grenades as I can carry.”

  Sally raised one eyebrow. “They will be ready by the transporter. Anything else?”

  “Just this.” Mark said and leant forward to give Sally a clumsy kiss.

  When they pulled apart, Sally said: “I’m not sure that was appropriate. Still, it was a bit better than last time. There’s just one more thing.” Sally said, looking very serious. “Don’t get taken prisoner. I know Mike has told you what to do before that happens.”

  Mark sighed. He knew what to do. He gave Sally a smile. “I won’t be taken alive.”

  “Good luck Mark.” Orange called out. “Make me proud.”

  Mark stepped over to him and put his hand on Orange’s shoulder. Looking up at Sally, he said “I will. I’ll see you both on the other side.” Mark liked the sound of that when Mike said it. It seemed like the sort of thing a real soldier would say, even though he had no idea what it meant. He blinked to the main docking bay.

  His AI had taken him directly to the lander. A technician stood waiting for him with a trolley loaded with various munitions and supplies. The technician was tall, quite stocky and extremely hairy. He looked a bit like a wookie.

  “Help yourself Sir, Ma’am, er, sorry I don’t know your gender.” The technician said.

  Mark sighed. “Just call me Mark.”

  He pulled grenades out of a crate and refilled his grenade belt. Then he picked up another two grenade belts and looped them over his head, one over each shoulder, crossing across his chest. He’d seen that in a movie once and thought it looked very macho. Shrugging off his backpack he realised that the Mark Seven was still clipped to it. He unclipped the weapon and passed it to the technician. He put ten field ration packs and ten large water bottles into the backpack. That made it about as heavy as he could carry.

  “I’m new to this.” Mark told the wookie. “Will there be drinking water in the front line?”

  “Yes Ma’am, Sir, Mark. There may not be any field rations suitable for you though.”

  Mark took eight of the water bottles out and replaced them with grenades until the backpack was a comfortable weight. He made sure that his field medical kit was within easy reach and pulled it back on.

  “Is this your first time on the front line Ma’am - I mean, Mark?” The wookie asked.

  “Yeah, but I’ve seen action as part of a small team.” Mark answered.

  “I can see that you have great courage in you.” The wookie said. “Now, you must get on board, they are all waiting for you.”

  Mark turned and walked up the boarding ramp. “What is it with all these aliens?” He thought. “He, she, it - whatever it was, thinks it can see great courage in me but can’t even tell what my gender is. How can I not question its judgement?”

  As soon as he was on board, the landing ramp slid back inside, the door closed and the lander lifted off smoothly. The lander was full of troops, there was just one empty seat in the front row, which Mark sat in.

  Welcome To The War

  The lander set down gently. The door slid open and the ramp extended. The troops on board all stood and filed off. None of them seemed to be in a particular hurry.

  The disembarkation reminded Mark of getting off the coach for a so-called team building exercise the ITC department had been on a few years ago. Why HR thought the ITC technicians would find paintballing to be bonding was beyond Mark or any of his colleagues. Everyone was happy to get a day out in the country and be paid for it, nobody was keen on the idea of paintballing.

  Shortly after arriving, Ian, a project manager, had fallen down a bank and twisted his ankle. He insisted through his cries of agony that he had broken it. The ambulance crew, when they eventually arrived, quickly diagnosed it as a slight sprain and refused to take him to A and E, so the coach was called back early to take them all home. In the meantime, Steve had gone off to look for help. Two technicians were sitting crying because they had been hit by paintballs and they had really stung. They had lost Steve who had been gone some time and wasn’t answering his mobile phone. Rebecca had punched Brian because he had shot her in the arse with a paintball and he was on her tea
m. Brian was also sitting on the ground crying. Mark escaped without having fired a shot or being shot at. It was one of the times when he was glad to be ignored by everyone.

  Mark told his AI to order up ten sleep suppressors and waited until everyone else was off before walking to the back of the lander and collecting them from the synthesiser.

  As Mark walked down the ramp, the sky was overcast and a gentle rain was falling. He looked around and saw that there was hardly any vegetation left standing, just a sea of mud with splintered wood laying in it as far as the eye could see. It didn’t look welcoming.

  At the bottom of the ramp a tall, slim reptile with silver insignia on his shoulders greeted him.

  “You must be Mark.” Said the reptilian.

  “Yes, and you are?” Mark replied.

  “Lieutenant Colonel De’Nesh, at your service Sir!”

  “Er, no Sir, I’m just a grunt. I follow your orders. I’m only here because I’ve nothing else to do. I’m not a soldier so I’m afraid I don’t know anything about army protocol. Do I call you Sir?” Mark responded.

  The Lieutenant Colonel grinned. “I can deal with someone who isn’t a soldier but can fight like you. I’ve seen the reports of you in action.”

  Mark sighed. “Don’t believe everything you read Sir. I’ve just had some lucky escapes, that’s all.”

  “We’ll see if your luck holds out. In my experience, nobody is that lucky, they’re skilled and talented. Call me Sir in front of the men. De’Nesh when it’s just the two of us. The Colonel told me you are a civilian adviser with no combat background and not subject to military discipline, though from your brief career in this army it’s difficult to believe you haven’t seen action before.”

  Mark sighed again. It was becoming a habit. “Look Sir, I mean De’Nesh, I really haven’t. Can you put me with a team who know what they are doing and can tell me what to do please.”

  “If you’re sure you want to go on the front line, I have just the person to put you with. He is experienced and enthusiastic. He is as hard as nails and always in the thick of it.”

  “Sounds like someone I know.” Mark said, thinking of Simon. “Perfect.”

  “Good. He is Corporal Kar Fen. I have taken the liberty of warning - I mean briefing him that he may be taking you under his wing. Not literally of course. He’s not an avian.”

  “Great, where is he?”

  “He’s on the front line, I’ll get you taken there.”

  A machine that looked a bit like a ruggedised quad bike silently rolled up beside them.

  “Here’s your ride.” De’Nesh said.

  Mark climbed on board the quad bike and made ready to go.

  “By the way, one thing you should know about Kar Fen is that he is a Krendor. Good luck.”

  The quad bike took off and Mark swung round to look at De’Nesh in disbelief. A Krendor! It was a Krendor that wanted to gut him back at the enemy base! De’Nesh was smiling and gave him a friendly wave as the quad bike increased speed and hurtled through the mud towards the front line.

  Front Line Friends

  The quad bike sped Mark through the mud towards the front line. Silent apart from the splashing as it rolled through the puddles of thin mud, and a sound a bit like Sellotape being pulled off a roll as it crossed thick, sticky mud. It wove a path through small water filled craters avoiding the traffic coming the other way. The vehicles he met were mostly mechanised stretcher trolleys, carrying a variety of species with injuries that ranged from the trivial looking to horrible messes that make Mark feel sick. The thought that he could end up like that was too grim to think about, so Mark pushed the thought away. Apart from the silent machines trundling around, the type of weapons and the variety of shapes and sizes the soldiers came in, Mark thought this must be what the Somme looked like in World War One.

  The quad bike slowed to a stop and Mark got off. A long line of soldiers, several deep, stretched away as far as he could see to the right and left, about one hundred metres ahead of him. The sound of KE weapons firing and the occasional explosion of a grenade came from up and down the line.

  “What do I do now?” He asked his AI.

  “Stop someone and ask where Corporal Kar Fen is.” His AI told him.

  “I know it was my idea to come here, but I don’t really know what I am doing. Is there anything you can do to help me survive this?” Mark asked.

  “A lot. I am only a machine intelligence, but much more capable than anything else in this whole army. I have all the intelligence gathered about the engagement so far on Gnn’Ath with a real-time feed from Sally’s systems as well as some I am able to get from the enemy. I can offer you advice on request or, if you will allow it, I can give it to you pro-actively.”

  “Pro-actively would be good, please, if that’s OK with you.” Mark replied. “And for the time being, is it OK if I call you Kate? It would easier than keep referring to you as AI.”

  “You may call me anything you please Mark. Our relationship is not symbiotic, as you may think. You should look on me as an extension of yourself. I am orders of magnitude more intelligent than you and I have storage capacity which is effectively infinite. Just consider that you have had an upgrade.”

  “Er, right. That’s a bit overwhelming.” Mark said. “Nobody has told me I’ve had an upgrade before. If it’s against the protocols - or whatever, to use AI in conflict. Won’t your pro-active advice breach that?”

  “No, and the reason is both simple and profound, but I can’t explain it to you. That is something one of the People must tell you and when they do, it will also explain why Alan is providing assistance, which might appear to go against the People’s policy of non-interference. This is something that must not be discussed with anyone who is not of the People, under any circumstances.”

  “Er, right. I guess I ought to find Kar Fen now.”

  Mark hailed a passing soldier and asked where he would find Kar Fen. The soldier told him that all he had to do was walk straight forward until he reached the line and Kar Fen would find him.

  As Mark made his way to the line, Mark saw another thinner line of pairs of soldiers with a device that had a short tube which was held pointing up at an angle on a sturdy looking stand. There were low trolleys dotted along at intervals just behind them loaded with crates.

  “What are they?” Mark asked.

  “Mortars, with ammunition crates on the trolleys behind them.” His AI answered.

  “Can you give me a quick run down on them?”

  “Stand still a moment.” Kate told Mark.

  As soon as he stopped moving a virtual reality scenario of a mortar being loaded with a magazine, aimed, then rapidly firing a succession of rounds high in the air played out. As it cleared, Mark paused and carried on walking.

  “That was effective. Thanks.” He said.

  Mark walked forward at a crouch as he got closer to the soldiers on the line. Some were sheltered by earth mounds thrown up in front of them, some by large grey sausage shaped barriers. Mark shuffled up to the soldiers directly in front of him. One bulky looking soldier turned to him and startled Mark when he saw its face. It was an insectoid, with shiny black mandibles and four eyes, two of which were large red compound eyes and two smaller glistening black eyes.

  “Are you the human we are expecting?” The insectoid soldier asked.

  Mark controlled a shudder. “Yes. I’m looking for Corporal Kar Fen.”

  “Glad to have you with us.” The insectoid said. “Kar Fen is the second one along to your left.” It pointed with one of its front legs. “I am Bai Reah. I’ve not met a human before. If we get a break together I’d be interested to hear about you.”

  “Sure. I’d like to find out a bit about you too.”

  Mark looked to his right and saw the broad back of a soldier talking to someone that Mark couldn’t see. He moved round to crouch at the side of the Krendor. A cold shiver ran down Mark’s back as he remembered Kate telling him that Krendor’s were
warlike and aggressive. This close, he could see its large head had a flattened muzzle with a wide mouth. A typical predators mouth.

  As soon as Kar Fen noticed Mark he swung round and said “Human?”

  “Yes, Mark, reporting for duty Sir!”

  “Mark! It’s great that got here. I’ve checked you out.” He reached out with his great clawed hands, clamped them on Mark’s shoulders and shook him violently.

  “Traditional Krendor greeting.” Mark’s AI told him. “It shows respect. He’s friendly.”

  “I’m pleased to meet you Sir.” Mark said in response to the damned good shaking he had just received.

  “Hey, Mark, drop this ‘Sir’ shit. You aren’t a signed up soldier, just call me Fen.”

  “Er, OK, Fen. What do you want me to do?”

  “You Mark, can do anything you like, but it would please me if you stood next to me and fought beside me. That OK with you?”

  “Yeah, but, this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. I don’t know what to do or when. I’m not a real soldier.”

  “Now don’t give me that shit!” Kar Fen said, with a huge grin which showed off his long dagger-like teeth. He made Mike’s teeth look like a puppies. “I’ve seen the reports from Sally’s team. You took down a charging Krendor with just a Mark Eight and a couple of grenades! Respect! I was hoping I could learn something from you. And, you stood up to draw fire from Orange when your armour was down. Hell, you are one brave bastard. According to the reports you really know how to use your Mark Eight too.”

  “Look Fen. It’s really important that you understand this. Stopping the Krendor was just luck. It wasn’t brave when I drew fire from Orange, I wasn’t thinking otherwise I wouldn’t have done anything so stupid.”

  “That’s cool Mark. You stay lucky and keep acting stupid and we’ll make a hell of a team. Come on, we’ll be battle buddies.”

  “Cool?” Mark asked his AI.

  “That’s a close idiomatic translation.” It answered.

  “Battle buddies?” He asked.

  “A Krendor Battle Buddy is a tradition which, after a short ritual, bonds you together to fight your enemy and protect each other for the duration of a battle. It is an honour for a non-Krendor to be made a battle buddy.” His AI informed him.