by S. H. Jucha
The area was blanketed by scent. The insectoids had nested there for a while and foraged in all directions.
Droga watched the shadows turn in circles. He eyed Homsaff skeptically, and she swung an arm toward the trees. He took that to mean the new direction fell to the hunters. He shouted to his companions, and they fanned out to investigate opportunities.
Homsaff sent two shadows with each hunter, except for Droga, whom she covered. Then she and the hunter wandered far from the nest. Homsaff noted Droga followed the puncture steps of the insectoids, but the trail was heavily trodden. She could smell the insectoids’ scents, but that didn’t help her determine whether the trail would lead to a second nest or if it was a well-worn path to hunting grounds.
Homsaff received Orbit’s app to orient her.
Homsaff tapped Droga’s shoulder and took off at a run.
Droga soon regretted his sneering at Homsaff’s slow pace when they’d left the sky boat. Now, the muzzle-faced stranger covered ground with a long steady stride, and he struggled to keep up.
Homsaff and Droga arrived at the contact location first. They found a hunter bracketed by the assigned shadows. He wore a worried expression. The shadows had refused to let him move.
When Homsaff appeared, the shadows relented from their protective fencing duty, and the hunter complained vociferously to Droga.
While Droga caught his breath from the furious sprint, the details he heard from the fellow hunter amused and enlightened him. He’d been wrong about the stranger’s leadership. They’d found a big nest. In addition to that, her ability to unerringly locate his companion and the actions of the strangers’ creatures told him that the visitors had capabilities far beyond what the eyes could see.
Homsaff waited for the others to arrive. Then she directed the shadows to hunt, and the team ran after them.
Tacnock’s group began the day entirely different. His hunters directed him to their village. From there, the ship flew over forests, across a shallow river, and to a field of grasses ripe with seed.
The lead hunter motioned with his hands to descend, and Tacnock relayed the request to the pilot. They landed at the edge of a vast expanse of meadow, which ended at a rugged and rocky terrain that marked the beginning of a low rise of mountains.
Tacnock’s eyes followed a hunter’s pointing. The green-skinned arm indicated the far hardscape and the presence of insectoids.
Another hunter plucked a stalk and rubbed off the ripe seeds.
When Tacnock cupped an ear, he could hear the skittering and squeaks of rodents in the field. The presence of small rodents would mean a concentration of juveniles.
The sound of weapons being drawn caused Tacnock to glance at the hunters. Every one of them had drawn their edged weapons. One hunter had a short sword in each hand.
As the team crossed the meadows, the shadows eliminated the few juveniles they encountered.
However, Tacnock knew most of the rodents would come out at night to feed, using the cover of darkness for protection. That would be when the majority of young insectoids would hunt.
At the start of the hard terrain, seven grays attacked the team and were swiftly dispatched.
The young smelled food and spilled from the rocks. Hundreds of small insectoids raced across the short distance to reach the hunters.
The team was quickly overwhelmed, and Tacnock and the hunters were dancing to keep their feet away from the bites of the juveniles.
The shadows were hampered. With the juveniles among the team, laser fire was held for fear of penetrating a young and hitting a hunter or the assault commander, who were in constant motion.
A hunter was unfortunate. He was bit on the ankle. He kept fighting and slashing with his sword, but his reactions slowed. Then he was bit twice more. Soon, he succumbed to the venom that coursed through his body. When he fell, the juveniles swarmed him.
Frequently, Tacnock and the hunters used the shadows’ backs to leap clear of the converging juveniles.
The networked controllers detected the tactic, and the shadows slowly retreated. That allowed the hunters to use the shadows as steppingstones to draw out the juveniles’ numbers. It also gave the shadows an opportunity to target their adversaries without hindrance.
The fight ended several minutes after it started. One hunter was dead, and the ground was littered with the bodies of young insectoids. Because many of them were sliced in half or more pieces, it was impossible to obtain a count without a SADE’s assistance.
Tacnock thought the hunter’s death would end the participation of his companions.
The pilot landed the traveler. The hunters recovered their dead and carried him to the ship. Then they sat on the ramp’s edge and directed Tacnock to another location. They wore grim, determined faces.
In that moment, Tacnock experienced a swelling of immense pride for the bravery of the green-skinned race.
Aputi had the younger hunters. He wondered why more experienced males hadn’t showed from their village, but it was too complex a question to communicate in pantomime.
One thing for sure, Aputi didn’t have to caution the hunters not to stray. They stayed close to him, as if he elicited some invisible field of protection.
Despite their youth, the hunters knew their territory. They led Aputi to find three nests on the first day. The count of insectoid dead rose, and everyone on the team survived. When the team boarded the traveler at the day’s end, the youthful hunters celebrated their success.
Jess’s team scored the least number of juveniles. That was because they consistently encountered reds.
The first red reared from concealment near Ufrat. The hunter ducked and pivoted to get behind Jess. The red’s huge pincers were less than a meter from Jess when he darted it. As the insectoid’s heavy trunk fell forward, he sidestepped it.
Ufrat was forced to leap aside to prevent being struck. His hand gripped his sword’s hilt, but it hadn’t cleared the sheath. He stared at the red’s body that had been nearly cut in two. Then he grinned, cackled, and planted congratulatory slaps on Jess’s shoulder.
That was Jess’s only kill for the day. The shadows performed the remainder of the work, eliminating reds and grays alike.
The juveniles were too few to give the hunters an opportunity to unlimber their weapons before the shadows dispatched them.
Lucia’s team suffered the only other day’s death, but it wasn’t an insectoid encounter.
A carnivore dropped from a limb and fastened heavy jaws on the hunter’s neck. Lucia shot the animal, but the hunter died of his wounds.
As Tacnock’s hunters had done, the body of Lucia’s lost individual was placed aboard her ship, and the hunt resumed.
By dusk, the encampment fires glowed again.
The village elders took charge of the dead, and the females prepared the hunters for burial in the traditional manner.
Young females from the village fed the hunters and offered clay pots of water for drink and washing.
The Norsitchian troops and the Dischnya warriors, except for the squad leaders, returned to the ships above.
Jess kept the lead veterans planetside to meet with them. They ate a meal, while lounging aboard Sharon’s traveler.
“Two hunters dead,” Aputi remarked. “Regrettable, but I’m surprised that’s all we lost.”
“I was shocked that they kept hunting,” Lucia said.
“That was my thought,” Tacnock added.
“Will they want to lead us tomorrow?” Homsaff asked. It was the question on every veteran’s mind.
“The hunters were invaluable,” Simlan commented. “We would have spent a day trying to locate one nest if we�
��d searched by ourselves. The insectoids are concentrated, and we managed to clear three large nests and a moderately sized one.”
“Where our team hunted, the forest was thick,” Hessan said, “Overwatch couldn’t provide directions. It was the hunters who knew where to find the insectoids.”
“We have the number of adults who were eliminated,” Jess said. “The brassards, who were without shadows and don’t have Dischnya capabilities, still had some fortune. The other teams did exceedingly well.”
“Three hundred ninety-two adults,” Tacnock said, reading Orbit’s calculations. “More than a third of the number that probably landed.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have an accurate juvenile count,” Jess said.
“Understandable,” Tacnock said. He shared an edited vid of his encounter where the meadows met the rocky hillside.
“Oh, for the love of Pyre,” Aputi swore, as the vid played in his implant. “You were fortunate to lose only one hunter.”
“The hunters diced many of the juveniles,” Homsaff noted. “It made estimates impossible for us.”
“What did Orbit say?” Lucia asked. She knew Jess had an extensive conversation with the SADE.
“Orbit examined the recordings,” Jess replied, “and he calculated about four thousand young.”
“This will probably be our best day,” Homsaff remarked.
“Agreed,” Jess said. “The adults will scatter.”
“That will expose the juveniles,” Simlan reasoned. “We’ve all observed dangerous fauna. Perhaps, they can reduce the number of juveniles when the adults desert them.”
“As the adults scatter, the hunters will be less effective,” Lucia mused “They won’t be able to lead us to the nests.”
“True,” Jess replied. “Locating the adults may have to wait until reinforcements arrive. However, the young won’t wander far from the nests and eliminating them is the greater priority.”
Jess briefly hung his head. He feared bad news. Regardless, the conversation promised to be complex, and that would be complicated by the lack of a common language. He set his tray aside. As he left to meet them, he felt Lucia’s fingers trail over the back of his hand.
In front of the elders, Jess pointed at the hunter encampment, held up two fingers, and tapped his hand over his heart.
The elders understood the message, and they repeated Jess’s actions. It was shared lament for the loss of the two brave hunters.
Jess indicated the encampment again, pantomimed star rise, and the ships lifting. He ended with a quizzical rise of his eyebrows and his hands held out in supplication.
The elders chatted, before Tsotsia turned to Jess. He used a hand to describe a circle around the hunters and their fires. Then his fingers indicated the hunters walking to Jess’s sky boat. Finally, with palms up, he raised them upward.
The hunt continued for several days. Success slowly dwindled.
As Homsaff predicted, the adults scattered, deserting the young. Without providers, the young grew ravenous and swarmed the teams when they appeared. Two more hunters met their deaths from the deadly bites.
By the time the Freedom and the accompanying Tridents arrived overhead, the adults’ number had dwindled to less than a quarter of those who had landed, and the young had been decimated by half. Unfortunately, by all estimates, two hundred plus adults and sixteen thousand juveniles remained at large.
Jess and Lucia waited until the day’s hunt ended. Then they explained to the elders, as best they could, that they were leaving but would return the following morning. Then they boarded Sharon’s traveler and lifted for the city-ship.
24: How Devious?
Jess and Lucia had thé in the owner’s suite with Alex, Renée, Julien, and Tatia.
“Good to see the two of you safe,” Alex said, and Renée and Tatia murmured their assent. “Orbit has been sharing details of your exploits.”
“Enjoying your first extended contact with a nascent race, Jess?” Renée asked.
“My pantomime skills have improved remarkably,” Jess replied, waggling his hands and twitching his fingers in the air.
“Who knows what the villagers think he’s been saying to them,” Lucia teased, which earned her a grin from Jess.
Renée took note of the ease, the comfortableness, that the couple had achieved, and she was happy for them.
“Orbit has built a rudimentary dialog,” Julien said. “If needed, I can improve on that.”
“We’d like that,” Lucia replied. “We’re concerned who the villagers believe we are, and we’d rather not leave them with false impressions.”
“What do they call themselves?” Renée asked.
Jess shrugged, and Lucia said they didn’t know.
Everyone regarded Julien, who said, “Orbit has several terms, but I don’t have their equivalents in our language.”
“You’ve made great progress below,” Alex noted.
“It’s cost the villages four hunters,” Jess responded.
Alex would have bet credits that Jess would have said exactly that. It was the same thing he would have replied if someone had pointed out his success.
“We have Orbit’s datapoints about the villages, the shuttle landings, and the nests you’ve found,” Julien said. “Is there anything to add to these?”
“If we move quickly, many of the remaining young will be found within a few kilometers of the nests that the hunters know. As you’ve heard, the adults have abandoned the juveniles. The hunt to locate the adults will require the forces range wide,” Jess replied.
“The Sylians are ready. They can descend tomorrow,” Alex said.
“I’ll have them scour the countryside for the adults. Two of them can take over Lucia and my teams,” Jess said.
“Do you intend to continue to use the local population?” Renée asked, with concern.
“Yes,” Lucia replied. “Jess and I’ve talked about this. We don’t want to see more of the hunters lost, but this is a cooperative race. The villages work together. More important, the hunters are a proud group.”
“On the occasion of each death,” Jess added, “the body was loaded aboard the traveler and the hunt continued.”
“So, the hunters will be with the veterans until the end,” Renée supplied.
“Yes,” Jess replied. “They need to be.”
“That’s the events on the planet. Tell us about what’s going on up here,” Alex requested.
“It’s a collection of changes that I expect will cause us trouble,” Jess replied.
Alex nearly repeated what Lucia had said, but some aspects of her messages had been blunt. He didn’t know if she’d spoken to Jess in those terms.
“First, when the Dontot’s dome was taken, the Colony was cut off, and the adults fled up and down line,” Jess explained.
“And the reds were spotted carrying a new type of weapon,” Lucia interjected. “It appears to be energy based.”
“Wonderful,” Alex groused.
“The insectoids who fled down line have been chased here, as we cut off access in the next two systems,” Jess continued.
“We saw imagery of those worlds that accompanied the yellow-designated domes,” Julien said. “Their devastation is regrettable. The uplifted and lost races might never be investigated.”
“So, the reds and the grays are here in large numbers, and the reds have energy weapons,” Alex summarized. “What else?”
“The next item is guesswork on our part,” Lucia said. “It involves the transports. Normally, the two hatches, which run the length of a transport, are left open to space. It’s evidence of the twin shuttles that were launched planetside.”
Julien swiftly reviewed the telemetry. “Every hatch is cl
osed,” he said, glancing toward Alex.
“How did they manage that?” Tatia mused.
Jess skipped past Tatia’s question. He had no idea as to the answer, and he didn’t want to speculate. Instead, he said, “According to our calculations, the number of shuttles landed equates to twenty-six transports.”
“But you have thirty-two,” Renée pointed out, “and they appear identical.”
“Exactly,” Jess declared. “At least, six of them are dangerous.”
Tatia noticed that Jess and Lucia had glanced her way when Jess had spoken. Her combat senses were alerted, and she focused on their words.
“There’s an obvious answer,” Alex said. “The race below probably won’t venture into space for thousands of years. Before then, the transports will be pulled out of their orbits by gravity. They’ll burn and explode as they fall through the atmosphere.”
“Alex, now that these villagers know what’s beyond their world,” Julien said, “they might be tempted to be out here sooner.”
“I can’t disagree with your thinking, Alex,” Jess remarked, “but we know the Colony is in transition. The insectoids are gearing up to blunt our efforts to end and reverse their expansion. We need to learn the Colony’s new tactics, and we might as well start here.”
“I agree,” Tatia said. “There’s collective experience here that won’t be replicated within the commands when they confront the Colony in some other systems. The more information we provide the admirals, the better.”
“Do you intend to throw rocks?” Alex asked, with a grin.
“We might need something more sophisticated,” Tatia replied.
Jess frowned, and Julien asked, “What is it, Captain?”
Jess glanced at Lucia, who sent,
Alex and Renée shared a glance. They could tell a private conversation was in progress.
Alex sent to Renée.
“I don’t think you understand the nature of the Colony,” Jess said. “As a race, the insectoids don’t react to pressure as we do. They don’t see a problem and devise a counter. They think beyond that.”