Unwilling From Earth Page 29

  “For god’s sake, why can’t I meet any normal aliens.” Mark thought.

  “I am honoured.” Mark said to Fen. “I am sorry but I don’t know the ritual for becoming a battle buddy.” Mark was hoping it didn’t mean sacrificing part of his anatomy or having to cut himself and mix their blood.

  “No problem. It’s simple. Hold your arms up like this.”

  Kar Fen lifted his arms in front of him, bent at the elbows at ninety degrees so that his forearms pointed upwards with his claws stretched out and his palms facing outward. This enabled Mark to see a sharp backwards facing claw protruding from his body armour about a third of the way down Kar Fen’s forearms.

  “Now you do the same.” Kar Fen said, grinning.

  “Shit, I just know this is going to hurt.” Thought Mark as he lifted his arms up.

  “Now, we do this.” Kar Fen said and Mark winced ready for the pain, but all that happened was that Kar Fen bumped his arms against Mark’s and held them there, palms touching. “And now,” Kar Fen continued, “we say together, battle buddies until death or victory. Come on, you say it with me.”

  “Battle buddies until death or victory.” Mark said in unison with Kar Fen, trying to show enthusiasm.

  “That’s great Mark.” Kar Fen said as he dropped his arms. “I guess your AI has told you what it means?”

  “Yes, you’ve got to look after me.”

  Kar Fen leant back his head and with his mouth wide open made a series of short barking roars. This view of his teeth was even more daunting than before. Mark was pretty sure that Krendors weren’t vegetarians.

  “Laughing.” Mark's AI informed him.

  “Thank god for that.” He thought.

  “That’s right battle buddy, and you’ve got to look after me!” Kar Fen said, still grinning.

  “Only if my luck rubs off on you.” Mark replied, forcing a grin.

  “I’m glad you told me you were just lucky, and not brave but stupid, otherwise I would have thought you were full of shit. I know Simon pretty well, I have fought alongside him and Sally. When the Lieutenant Colonel told me about you and that I was having you in my unit, I contacted Simon. He’s on the ground now, a couple of kilometres from here. He told me that you are a complete rookie and that you probably were lucky with the Krendor, but he also said that Orange told him you had the guts to keep fighting until what you must have thought was going to be your last breath, and that’s not luck. As for being stupid when you did all the other stuff I saw about you, that’s just another word for bravery. Simon said you are skilled with your Mark Eight, you’ve got the guts and tenacity to keep going when things get hard and you’ve gone through non-stop training with commitment and without complaint. That makes you a good soldier. Simon respects you and I respect Simon.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” Mark said with a wry smile. “Let’s hope today I won’t be unlucky.” He was surprised that Simon said he respected him.

  “The second assault has been brought forward. Instead of waiting until dark, the plan now is to go in about fifteen minutes, as soon as everyone is in place. It will start with the mortars each launching two magazines into the enemy lines while we fire on anything that looks even vaguely like the enemy. Ant spearhead units will be coming up behind us in a few minutes. As soon as the mortar bombardment finishes we open up the lines, the Ants charge through and we follow them. We have got an as yet unknown number of reinforcements following up behind us, but however many there are, they will follow us in. The objective is to make so many breaches in the enemy lines that they will be in complete disarray, then we can just wipe them all out and push forward.”

  “That seems, er, like a good plan.” Barbaric was what Mark wanted to say, but then he remembered their attack on the enemy base that seemed so important at the time, and the overall objective of killing everyone who was an enemy, this objective wasn’t much different.

  “It’s Sally and Orange’s plan. It can’t go wrong.” Kar Fen said with earnest conviction.

  “These reinforcements, are they the ones from the Sinth army?” Mark asked.

  A low rumbling growl came from Kar Fen. “I hope not.”

  “Er, any particular reason? Sally said they were the second-best army in the galaxy.”

  “They’re a bunch of drones! They make you follow orders to the letter, without question. They don’t like initiative, they don’t want you thinking!”

  “I take it you have first-hand experience?” Mark asked.

  “Right. They wouldn’t have room for you. They’re arseholes.”

  “Arseholes? Really?” Mark asked his AI.

  “A simple direct translation.” It told him.

  “Are they any good?” Mark asked.

  “Yeah, but they have a very high casualty rate.”

  “That explains why Sally wouldn’t have any of their commanders here, there are just troopers coming.”

  “Really? Well that’s OK. But if I see a Sinth officer, I swear I will gut them.”

  “I hope we don’t see any then.” Mark said. “Fen, I need you to tell me what to do.” Mark asked urgently.

  “Just stick close to me. There will be hand to hand in there - you good at that?”

  “I can say without any doubt at all that even good luck and stupidity wouldn’t make me good at it. I’ve not been given anything sharp because Simon thinks I might cut myself with it.”

  “Shit, that could be a problem.” Kar Fen reached over his back into his backpack and pulled out a scabbard about thirty centimetres long and handed it to Mark. “I always carry spares. The grip may be a bit big for you, try it out.”

  Mark grasped the grip and pulled the blade out. The grip was a bit too big to be completely comfortable, but he could hold it firmly. The thirty-centimetre blade was shiny like stainless steel, sharp on both edges and broadening slightly towards the tip. It had a slot running down the centre almost the entire length of the blade.

  “Do you think you can use that?” Kar Fen asked.

  “If I have to butcher a cow, I’m sure it will come in handy, but in a fight I think I’m more likely cut myself than damage an opponent.”

  Kar Fen grinned at him. “Clip it to your belt, you might change your mind. Keep it anyway, it will be a souvenir from the battle.”

  “Thanks Fen, if I survive this I will treasure it.”

  “When we get into hand to hand, stay behind me or Renall. She may be small but she is very dangerous.” Kar Fen said, then quickly added “Only to the enemy of course, she will look after you. Keep clear of Bai Reah in close combat though, she goes fucking mad.”

  This was beginning to sound less like the Somme to Mark and a lot more medieval.

  Kar Fen leant across Mark and grasped Renall’s arm. “Hey, Renall. Our friend Mark here has no hand to hand experience. If we get into a close fight, look after him.”

  Renall turned to face Mark. She was a reptilian about the same size and build of Mike, but instead of Mike’s fairly flat face she had a distinct muzzle with two tusks jutting up from her lower jaw. Her skin was such a dark shade of green that it was almost black, lightening to pale yellow round her eyes, which were dark green with slitted pupils. Mark could see what looked like feathery down poking out from under her helmet.

  “No problem. I have heard you are good with your Mark Eight. I have only just got mine. What do you think of it?”

  “It handles like the Mark Seven, but the pulses are more powerful and it has a continuous fire mode. It’s supposed to be a short burst mode, then have to charge up, only firing single shots until it’s ready again, but I’ve not had it stop on me yet.”

  “OK, you cover me with your Mark Eight and I’ll cover you in hand to hand” She said with a grin which exposed more of her tusks and a lot of sharp teeth.

  “Deal.” Said mark, wondering if all reptilians had scary teeth,

  “Here come the Ants.” Kar Fen said, nodding towards the back of the line. “Get yourself ready, we’re ab
out to go into action!”

  Assault

  The mortars fired the first magazines as the troopers opened up with a barrage of small arms fire across the two hundred metre gap between the lines. The sounds of the KE weapons was deafening. Mark asked his AI to do something about it more in hope than expectation, but the volume dropped quickly. He picked targets and fired continuous bursts at enemy soldiers. With all of the other gunfire and pulse weapons fire it was difficult to see if his shots were having any effect. The first barrage of mortars landed amongst the enemy soldiers and some jumped up to charge towards the friendly lines. It was a suicidal move and they were quickly cut down.

  The second magazines of mortar shells started to soar over the lines and Mark heard Kar Fen shout “Close up!”

  Mark started to edge towards the Krendor, Corporal Kar Fen when he was hit hard on his right by Renall, the reptile and pushed into Kar Fen. Bai Reah, the large insectoid, leapt over and landed on top of him.

  Bai Reah giggled and said “Sorry guys!”

  An Ant unit came charging through in formation with a single lead Ant followed by a row of three behind her which were in turn followed by four rows of four. The lead Ants fired their heavy calibre KE weapons at the enemy line as they ran. The Ants feet churned the thin mud up even more and threw a thick spray of it over the troopers either side of them. Renall scrambled to her feet and took off running after the Ants. Kar Fen’s claw grasped Mark’s shoulder and he

  was half dragged alongside him as he ran, feet skidding, towards the enemy lines, Bai Reah followed right behind them.

  They ran straight up to the earth mound that the enemy soldiers were sheltering behind and flung themselves onto it. Kar Fen and Mark scrambled and slithered up through the mud to get to the top of the mound and were immediately hit by a hail of KE and impulse fire from the beleaguered enemy soldiers who were now surrounded by Ants firing into them and picking them off with their mandibles, which cut through the vulnerable parts of their body armour - mostly round their necks.

  Kar Fen drew a large blade from a scabbard at his waist and plunged roaring through the enemy soldiers, slashing and stabbing with his blade and grabbing enemy soldiers with the powerful claws on his free hand and flinging them in the air. Bai Reah followed in his wake on her hind legs, slashing with four blades held in her other limbs. Kar Fen was brought to a sudden halt by a massive enemy reptile, bigger even than he was. Without pausing, Bai Reah scampered up and over Kar Fen’s back and launched herself from his shoulders at the enemy reptile which snapped at her with long, dagger-like teeth as she sailed over its head. Twisting round, she dropped on its back and as Kar Fen threw himself at the front of the reptile she stabbed at its eyes and neck in a flurry of flashing blades. Between the two of them, the enemy reptile quickly succumbed and its furious roaring abruptly stopped as it crashed to the ground. Mark was stunned by the brutality of the fighting and realised that Sally’s comment about her army being confident against an enemy with a four to one advantage wasn’t an empty boast.

  Mark wasn’t ready to try his lack of skills with a knife against the hardened enemy soldiers who were now fighting like trapped rats. He stood back and took careful aim at an enemy reptilian soldier, nearly as big as Kar Fen, who was standing roaring, swinging and stabbing with two short swords and keeping friendly troopers at bay. He poured a stream of impulse fire from his Mark Eight into the reptilian and could see the sparkles on its armour in the image in his vision. The reptile quickly realised what was happening and leapt towards Mark, swords held up, ready to strike. Mark could see that its field armour was weakened but wasn’t about to collapse. As it bounded towards Mark a dark blur leapt onto it’s back. Bai Reah clamped her back legs around its waist and slashed and stabbed at its vulnerable points with the four short blades held in her other limbs. Dark red blood spurted from multiple wounds and the huge reptile roared again, now in pain, struggling to prise the insectoid from it’s back and stab her with his short swords. Bai Reah ducked every attempted blow, got two blades stuck into its neck and drove them in up to their hilts. The reptile’s legs buckled and it started to fall. Bai Reah was instantly off it’s back and leapt into the fray again.

  Mark swallowed and thought he ought to try a softer target. By now half of the Ants had moved forward, leaving ten with the troopers to finish off the remnants of the enemy. As the last of the enemy soldiers fell one of the Ants collapsed and Mark could see that it was badly injured. Its field armour had collapsed and it had one leg almost completely severed, its body armour showing multiple impulse weapon holes.

  Mark ran over to it and said “How do I help you?”

  Kar Fen walked up beside him. “Medics are right behind us with transport for all of the wounded. Any of our troops who are still alive when they get here will be fine.” He gently patted the Ant. “She’ll be fine.”

  “Thank you for your concern, Mark, Friend of the People.” The Ant said. “The Corporal is correct, I will survive until aid arrives.”

  “Er, do you need any pain relief, anything that I can administer?”

  “No Mark, you go with the Corporal and continue the assault.”

  “Come on Mark, a lot of our people are wounded, but they’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

  The remaining Ants had already left to rejoin their unit. Mark and Kar Fen broke into a jog and ran towards the sound of gunfire and shouting. Mark shook his head and thought “I’ve really lost it. I should be running away from gunfire, not towards it.”

  They quickly reached a fight, there were plenty to go round. There were bodies and body parts scattered all over the ground, the mud was red with blood. Mark changed his mind about this being like the First World War, it was much more medieval looking than that. Kar Fen ran straight into the melee, Mark thought it would be prudent to stay away from sharp objects and having seen Bai Reah in action didn’t want to get too close to her flailing limbs when they were holding knives.

  Mark dropped down to one knee so that he was firing upwards and selected targets with images of pulsing armour. Having made sure that he wasn’t going to hit any friendly troopers behind his targets, he fired carefully aimed single shots to the head.

  A single enemy soldier ran towards him firing a KE weapon as it ran. Few of the shots hit Mark but he was more worried about a knife attack. He yanked a grenade out and threw it as hard as he could. It reached the distance the soldier was at but about five metres to the left, too far for the grenade to target a running soldier. Mark followed up quickly with another and as he released it grabbed a third and sent that flying toward the oncoming soldier. The second and third grenades landed close to the soldier. His AI had configured them for a single high-velocity slug of heavy metal, both of which impacted into the soldier's armour. The armour must have already been weakened as it started to pulse immediately. Continuous fire from the Mark Eight riddled its body and the soldier fell forward and slid in the mud, dead.

  Looking around, Mark could see fighting going on in a broad front, with some clusters thicker than others. On the whole, the front was moving forwards slowly, so his side seemed to be winning. There was much shouting, and roaring and the sound of gunfire. There would have been impulse fire as well of course, but that was silent.

  Mark could see two enemy soldiers on his side of the battle bent over an object about two hundred and fifty metres to his left. It looked to him like they were attending a wounded colleague, which was, in his experience, rather out of character for them. Then one stood back and as it began firing a magazine he realised that they had set up a mortar very similar to the ones that his own side had used to start the assault. He ran toward it for fifty metres and dropped to one knee in the mud to steady himself and get a good sight on his target. He fired a burst from his Mark Eight directly into the mortar. Unprotected by any kind of armour it was almost immediately destroyed. The two soldiers bellowed and started running towards him firing KE weapons. Mark wasn’t too concerned about their fire. He had lea
rnt that a soldier running at full pelt firing bursts of fire may look scary, but their shooting was wildly inaccurate and very few shots hit him. As his field armour was fully charged, they would have to get a lot closer and hit him with a lot more fire before there was any danger of it collapsing. He stood and aimed his attenuator and Mark Eight at the soldier to the right and fired a burst at it. When they got to about a hundred metres away he threw four grenades into their path in quick succession and took up fire again, this time on the soldier on the left. As they reached the grenades, Kate detonated them sending two high-velocity heavy metal slugs into each of them. The armour on the soldier on the left collapsed immediately and it dropped into the mud as Mark’s impulse shots hit their target. A few more shots to the soldier on the right and it dropped too.

  “That is a very effective tactic that you have come up with”. Mark's AI said with Kate Baraheri's voice.

  “It’s only what I learnt from you when we brought down that Krendor.” Mark said. “Something has puzzled me about that. He took a lot longer to stop than it did those two. Why is that?”

  “He was bigger and carrying a more powerful power source for his armour. It enabled it to stay up longer.”

  Mark didn’t answer, but it explained a lot, including why the Ants could take so much fire without their armour collapsing.

  Not Going To Plan

  The campaign had been going so well. But then, it all started going wrong.

  Fangur Rey knew his strategy was good, but something had gone wrong. If it wasn’t his plan that was flawed, then it was some else’s fault.

  They had lost contact with their orbiting assets. There had been no re-supply. There were no communications with Tk'ng Dach Rrn.

  Fangur Rey felt like he had been abandoned. Why would Tk'ng Dach Rrn do that? Even though the Colonel’s army was tougher than expected, there had at first been fewer than expected, but they had been deployed sooner than expected at his most vulnerable points. Now they were getting reinforcements and his troops were taking a battering. And there was a persistent rumour that the Colonel’s army had got some kind of pre-emergent super soldier who had attacked and destroyed their ground headquarters, which was their fallback for resupply if anything happened to prevent it coming from orbit. Now they couldn’t replace any arms and ammunition, or food. It wasn’t a problem at the moment as they scavenging supplies from their own casualties. Every dead soldier meant their weapons and ammunition were ready to be used by another. Food wasn’t a real problem either as they were eating the natives. If they could recover their bodies, many of the Colonel’s army would make good eating too.