Alliance

by S. H. Jucha

  Lizzie noted Jess’s furtive action. She patted his knee, with her heavy-worlder hand, and said, “Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll make sure you get back safe. Don’t want to have the commodore on my tail for the rest of my career.”

  Jess regarded the freckle-faced young woman, with the ginger hair, and laughed.

  Lizzie grinned in reply.

  The traveler pilot dropped Jess’s command in one of the hot spots, where deaths had recently been reported on the increase.

  Menous had requested Planetary Defense announce planet wide that all civilians were to remain inside from dusk to dawn until further notice. The PD explained that a plan was underway to eliminate the insectoids, and it would involve weaponry. “You don’t want to be mistaken for the enemy,” was the final part of the message.

  Lizzie’s link to the traveler’s networked controller gave her a wealth of information. Specifically, she checked to ensure twenty-two thermal images, marking their command, were visible to her, as the traveler lifted. Using her link, she sent the four squads in their assigned directions, guiding them via the squad leaders’ ear wigs.

  “Squads are in position, and they’ve formed their defensive perimeters, Captain,” Lizzie announced. She unslung her launcher and checked the breech for a dart. Being a veteran, she’d also checked the weapon before she left the ship.

  “Any targets?” Jess whispered in her ear.

  “None. Some small animals scattered, when they detected our presence,” Lizzie whispered in reply, taking the hint about talking too loud.

  “Tell the squads to chat quietly,” Jess said. “We want them to attract the attention, not us.”

  “Right, they’re the bait,” Lizzie said. When she passed the message through her ship’s controller, it was transferred to every other traveler and then to every Omnian.

  Nearly an hour passed before Lizzie whispered in Jess’s ear. “Three contacts. Two headed toward bravo and the other toward delta.” As it was a dark night, she’d taken his hand and pointed it in each direction.

  Lizzie went vocally quiet after warning Jess. The remaining time until contact was saved for the squads.

  The troopers had saved the energy in their goggles’ power packs. Now, they switched them on and focused on the terrain in front of them.

  Lizzie sent.

  The bravo leader said quietly, “I want them both. Don’t shoot the lead one until we can see the other.”

  Lizzie sent.

  The thick undergrowth allowed the insectoids to get close to the squads before they were seen.

  Delta fired first. Two Norsitchians eliminated the red as its head appeared not two meters from them. The plops of their darts were hardly noticeable among the night’s sounds.

  In quick succession, bravo squad dispatched both insectoids, a red and a gray.

  A Norsitchian in alpha squad caught movement in the peripheral vision of her goggles. She focused her sight on the ground. Leaves close to her had moved. She kept staring at the place.

  When three insectoid young crawled out from under the shrubbery, the trooper pointed her launcher at them only to realize they were too small to be accurately targeted. Briefly, she left her position and stomped the juveniles to death.

  The warning went out to the commands to beware of the young who could crawl close to the squads. Their small heat signatures were obscured by the dense foliage.

  Immediately, those who didn’t have their goggles on powered them up, and they began checking the terrain in front of them. The Omnians and others in command positions used their goggles to check the grounds around them. They would be scanning in circles for the rest of the night.

  When an area was cleared, a traveler repositioned the command to where other insectoid heat signatures had been spotted.

  The commands achieved some success in their ambushes. However, there were troop losses. In one case, a squad had set up a poor defensive perimeter. The underbrush was thick, and it was too close to them. It allowed a gray within striking distance before the squad could be warned.

  The gray struck a trooper’s leg, cutting deep into the flesh and injecting its venom. The injured Norsitchian screamed and toppled over. As he fell, he squeezed the trigger of his launcher and killed a companion.

  The inadequate defensive position was a lesson learned, and the night was full of them for the commands.

  As starlight chased the darkness from a command position, the pilot collected the troops and returned them to the Rêveur. Brassards and their leaders would file into the dining room. Crews fed them, and then the individuals retired to their cabins for the refreshers and sleep.

  Jess’s command was the last to be recovered from the cycle’s rotation. The traveler landed, and Lizzie recalled the squads. The troopers returned to their original starting points. One dead trooper was carried by alpha squad.

  Settling into their seats, Jess regarded Lizzie. “How did we do?” he asked.

  “We’ve averaged about five insectoids per command,” Lizzie replied. “That’s an adult count. We don’t have any information on the juveniles.”

  “What about our forces?” Jess asked.

  “Thirteen, all Norsitchians,” Lizzie replied unhappily.

  “A three-to-one ratio of kills to losses. That’s not good,” Jess murmured, leaning back into his seat and rubbing his strained eyes. He ran the numbers in his head, and he thought, By the time we clear this planet and take the dome, we’ll probably have run through Menous’s entire command.

  The main cabin lights woke Jess from his sleep, and he trudged off the traveler with the rest of the command.

  In the bay deck corridor, Jess passed a brassard, an Omnian, and Tacnock. They were the first command in the planet’s cycle, and they were on their way out.

  “You’ve looked better,” Tacnock remarked.

  “Long night. Good to see you’re okay,” Jess replied. “How are you doing?”

  “We’ve lost one trooper and killed four insectoids,” Tacnock replied.

  “Not good,” Jess commented. “Be careful and be safe down there, my friend,” he said and walked on.

  Tacnock understood what Jess was saying. Everyone was running the numbers, and they weren’t encouraging.

  After food, Jess cleaned up, fell into bed, and was instantly asleep. After a deep sleep, he woke and sought out Olawale. The SADEs had already rotated planetside.

  “You know the totals?” Olawale asked Jess.

  “Yeah,” Jess replied.

  Olawale saw the disappointment on Jess’s face. “It’s a good plan, Captain,” he said. “You’re trying to make up for the Colony’s annuals of headstart.”

  “We’ve got to work smarter,” Jess said. He left to get some food and join his command to board their ship.

  “Tell me I look better than you,” Lizzie quipped, when Jess sat beside her.

  Jess studied the Omnian’s drawn-looking broad face, and he replied, “You’re a shining jewel to encourage us all.”

  Lizzie’s deep laugh resounded around the ship’s interior. It was deep and hearty, as befitted a New Terran physique. “You need to work on your lying,” she said.

  The entire command napped on the way down below. After landing, the squads dispersed and cleared zones around them to prevent the insectoids from getting too close undetected.

  Night fell and stretched on. Nerves settled, and boredom crept into minds.

  “How many kills so far?” Jess asked Lizzie, when his command hadn’t registered one.

  Lizzie queried the traveler’s controller. “None,” she whispered.

  “None?” Jessie repeated in surprise.

  “Only juveniles and not many of them,” Lizzie explained.

  Jess checked his chronometer. Half the night was gone, and four or five commands would ha
ve rotated back to the Rêveur.

  “Lizzie, recall any planetside commands to the liner ... my orders,” Jess said in a full-throated voice, as he stood. There was no need for quiet. The adult insectoids weren’t coming.

  The last commands, which had been down below, landed aboard the Rêveur. The brassards ate and headed for their cabins.

  Jess sat at a table with Olawale, Patrice, Ophelia, the SADEs, and the other commanders who’d recently returned.

  “Esteban, did the commands relocate?” Jess asked.

  “They tried, Captain, as you requested, but the pilots couldn’t locate targets for the commands,” Esteban replied.

  “Did the travelers expand their searches outside the belt areas that you’d previously identified?” Jess pursued.

  “I ordered them to do that,” Lucia said. “Their results were negative.”

  “One continuous night of attacks on our perimeters, and then they hide for the next cycle,” Sam mused. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It would if they could warn one another,” Lucia added.

  “Around the entire planet?” Sam queried.

  “Oh, for the love of Pyre,” Jess swore. “Olawale, do you have hand weapons that could destroy a Colony shuttle?”

  “Plasma rifles,” Olawale replied, glancing at Sam.

  “Our people can’t get that close to a shuttle with a plasma burst,” Sam objected. “The explosion would destroy a wide area.”

  “You’re assuming, Lieutenant, that these shuttle tanks have a substantial amount of chemical propellant in them. I believe that you’ll find them nearly empty,” Juliette said.

  “It shouldn’t matter,” Jess said. “The tanks are outboard and on the lowest third of the shuttle. I need the bow and the pilot’s cabin removed.”

  “The shuttles have comm relays. The insectoids have been warning one another about our tactics,” Lucia said in anger. “We should have thought of that.”

  “Something that’s been repeated to me over and over from my father, who received it from his father and back to Jessie Cinders, is the tremendous mistake of underestimating the Colony because of their appearance,” Jess said. “The Messinants lifted many different species, but the one thing every race received was a tremendous capacity for intelligence and inventiveness.”

  “Now what?” Aputi asked.

  “Good question,” Jess replied.

  “We have the solution to one dilemma,” Juliette said, “or, more precisely, the planet provided the answer.”

  Juliette fed Esteban’s portable holo-vid with imagery collected during her command’s previous time on planet. She manipulated the recording to help the audience follow the action in the dim light.

  Those around the table watched a raptor silently launch itself from a branch. Its curved wings enabled it to soar without a sound.

  “It’s a sotter, a nocturnal predator,” Menous said.

  The audience watched the sotter swoop down and pin a creature in place.

  “It’s a juvenile insectoid,” Patrice declared.

  The sotter’s sharp beak struck quickly at the head, lopping it off along with the deadly pincers. Then it flew away, with the body dangling in its sharp talons.

  “I had the travelers’ controllers monitor the flights of these birds,” Juliette explained. “Flocks were found congregating around rocky terrain. The sotters have added a new menu item to their diet. They wait for the ravenous young to crawl from the rocks in the late evening to hunt. Then they pounce on the juveniles.”

  “Sotters are known to be clever,” Menous pronounced. “They feed on night creatures. Some of them are extremely venomous.”

  “Well, they’ve learned quickly how to deal with insectoid young,” Sam commented.

  “That’s one less worry,” Jess said. “Let the sotters take care of the juveniles. They’ll do a more thorough job than we could. Thank you for that, Juliette.”

  “What about the adults?” Daktora asked.

  “How soon can we eliminate the shuttle comm systems, Olawale?” Jess asked.

  “A traveler and a team are headed down below now,” Olawale replied. “After they reach the surface, it will take the team about four hours to hop around the planet and eliminate sixteen shuttle bows.”

  “Hmm,” Jess replied. “Then I’ve time to get some sleep.” He tipped his head to the group and wandered off to his cabin.

  -28-

  The Hunt

  “Jess, wake up,” Lucia said urgently, shaking him by the shoulders.

  Jess had been in the middle of a deep sleep cycle. He woke slowly, recognized Lucia, and reached for her.

  “Snap to, assault commander,” Lucia said sharply and pushed Jess’s hands away.

  Assault commander — the words penetrated Jess’s fuzzy thinking. Adrenaline cleared the fog, and he sat up in bed braced on his elbows. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “The insectoids are on the move. When dawn came around the planet, they started attacking small population centers,” Lucia said.

  As Lucia stood up, Jess swung his legs off the bed. He rubbed his face and tried to organize his thoughts. “Their shuttles’ comm systems,” he groaned. “We eliminated a fifth of their forces, and that information was shared. Then we cut off their communications.”

  “But why come out in daylight, where we can hunt them?” Lucia asked.

  “We’re removing their incursion’s assets, and their options are dwindling. This is some kind of final assault, and I think they intend to take as many citizens with them as they can.”

  “The SADEs are monitoring PD’s communication,” Lucia said. “We know precisely where the attacks are centered.”

  “Single or multiple insectoids?” Jess asked. He’d dressed, while they talked, and was now headed for the door.

  “The reports indicate both,” Lucia replied, as she hurried after him. “Citizens often encountered one, ran from that one, and met others.”

  “Their screams,” Jess yelled over his shoulder, as he hurried for the bridge. “The noise will allow the insectoids to target them and join the attack.”

  Jess found the others already on the bridge, reviewing the new hot spots. He eyed Lucia, who said apologetically, “You were a little difficult to wake up.”

  What Lucia didn’t say was that she took a few minutes to watch Jess sleep.

  “Jess, the other travelers are on their way here. We sent four brassards and their leaders to board our liner’s shuttles,” Olawale said.

  “Good,” Jess replied. “We keep the same commands for consistency. The SADEs can direct us to the hot spots.”

  “Do we employ squads as before?” Menous asked.

  “That’s up to the commanders,” Jess replied. “You’re hunting now. I advise the commands stay together and watch their backs until they’re ordered otherwise. The Sylian veterans will direct operations. Aputi and you must listen to what we advise.”

  Menous nodded, accepting the strategy.

  “The four brassards that have been sent to our travelers have completed their boarding,” Esteban said.

  “That’s our cue,” Tacnock said, glancing toward Bortoth, Daktora, Menous, and Aputi.

  The Rêveur’s travelers launched, and the next wave landed. The brassards continued to load, along with the remaining Omnian security, the SADEs, Lucia, and Jess.

  As usual, Kasie gave Jess a fierce hug. She whispered and sent her love to him before he left. She was careful not to upset his mental balance with fierce emanations.

  Seated beside Lizzie, Jess said to her, “This is important. You have two jobs. The first is to stay safe in the center of the command. You’re our contact with the traveler and its surveillance. The second is to keep the Norsitchians covering all angles, even as we walk in one direction.”

  “A little awkward,” Lizzie commented.

  “Getting stabbed in the back of the neck by venomous pincers is more awkward,” Jess retorted.

  “Point taken,�
� Lizzie replied.

  Following her directives, Lizzie kept her link with the traveler’s controller and relayed her conversation with Jess to the other ships. Omnians shared the dialog with any Sylian defenders, who accompanied them.

  The SADEs analyzed the reports flooding into PD headquarters. The data identified the locations of the most numerous attacks. They were tagged with the planet’s global positioning system. The SADEs translated the GPS coordinates into the Omnian telemetry system and directed the travelers to those locations.

  The pilots let the controllers fly the ships, as the travelers left space and entered the atmosphere.

  Jess left his seat to stand at the front of the cabin, and Lizzie and the brassard focused on him. “We don’t walk in a cluster or in squads,” Jess announced forcefully. “That diminishes our firepower. We open into a rough circle, and each of you watches an arc, a portion of the circle. If a companion is bitten, you must leave him or her behind and close the circle. If you don’t, more of you will die.”

  The Norsitchians looked at one another in consternation. Jess’s directives were contrary to their training.

  “Listen up,” Jess commanded harshly, cutting through the grumbles and murmurs. “I entered the Sylian dome with twenty-four, well-trained, security forces and their officer. They were experienced humans. I left the dome with the officer and nine of the twenty-four. You can either learn from our experiences, or do it your own way. If you follow my orders, you’ll improve your chances of surviving the coming encounters. I can promise you this. The insectoids will do everything in their power to see that not all of you climb aboard this shuttle again.”

  The squad leaders barked, ending any further conversation between the troops.

  Aboard the other travelers, Omnian humans repeated Jess’s words. The SADEs chose to open their mouths and let Jess speak for himself.

  When Jess’s ship touched down, cued by the lights in the cabin, he walked deliberately down the aisle, staring with cold eyes at the troops. As he walked, he unslung his Loopah weapon and checked the breech. Behind him, he heard snicks, as his actions were repeated many times over.