The Last Hero

by Nathaniel Danes

  Trent studied the major where she seemingly stared off at nothingness. When he finally approached her, she noticed his presence and went to stand.

  Putting his hands out, Trent said, “At ease, Major. Don’t get up on my account. You deserve the rest. Hell of a job tonight, I expected this part to be a lot harder. Guess I didn’t fully consider you in my calculations. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

  “Oooh, nothing to it, sir,” she said. “There was an opening, and we pounced on it. After that, they just fell apart.”

  “Words make it sound easy, but you and I know better. Good job. Try to get some sleep. You’ll need it for the next fight.”

  He turned to walk away.

  “Sir?”

  “Yes?”

  “If I may, where did you get the idea for such an attack?”

  “Wish I could take all the credit.” He swung the MRG onto a shoulder. “The feint attack was a favorite tactic of the Mongols. They used it time and again to draw confident and aggressive enemies into bad situations. Seemed like it might work here.”

  “I might need to brush up on my Mongol history.”

  Chapter 21: Into the Breech

  “H

  ow the hell are we going to get in there?” Lt. Colonel Cutter scouted the main enemy base. General Banks, Captain Simms, and Colonel Maxwell too looked upon the foreboding defenses while crouching behind cover.

  Walls twenty meters high, lined with numerous automated and manned heavy weapons emplacements, and combined with an eight hundred meter killing field surrounding the base betrayed no weaknesses.

  Several tall buildings peeked over the fortifications. Their function was difficult to determine, but the distant humming sound of machinery hinted that they operated as part of the ore mining.

  “Got any neat history lessons for us this time, Colonel?” Banks remarked. “Didn’t Alexander the Great do something brilliant at some siege?”

  “Umm...something tells me the siege of Tyre doesn’t have a great degree of applicability in this case. Don’t see how building a land bridge to their walls is going to help.”

  Cutter suggested, “Maybe we can sneak up on them like you did on Big Red?”

  “That only worked because we had the element of total surprise,” Banks said. “Bearcats know we’re here and have a sharp eye on us.”

  Trent lowered himself and turned around, leaning against the rock guaranteeing their stealth.

  “Let’s review our options. There are three ways to get inside a heavily fortified position. Over, through, or under.”

  “Over won’t work.” Cutter joined Trent on the ground. “Their air defenses are still fully intact. What air assets we have are too valuable to risk.”

  Banks said, “And I think we just ruled out punching through the walls.”

  “So that leaves under,” Trent said. “I’m guessing tunneling through this rock will be a real bitch. I doubt we could keep it hidden from them for long.”

  Simms perked up. “Actually, sirs, I think we can.”

  “Please explain, Captain.” Banks’ voice dripped with curiosity.

  “Trenton, bring up the seismic scans and transmit to this party,” Simms commanded his CAL.

  A 3D image of the base and the ground under it appeared on Trent’s visor. The ground beneath the base appeared to be honeycombed with tunnels.

  Simms continued, “Their mining operations have already done some of the work for us. Some of these tunnels extend out two-thirds of the perimeter. All we have to do it dig a short distance to connect with one, and we can walk right in.”

  “How are we going to cut this rock?” Cutter tapped her knuckles against the surface. “We can’t blast our way through.”

  Simms said, “The laser welders on Earth’s Fist can easily be modified into cutting tools. This area’s geological makeup is different from much of the planet. The rock only extends down a few meters. Then it’s the softer mineral the Bearcats are mining. We should be able to connect to one of these tunnels in a few days, once we get the welders here.”

  Banks took a knee in front of Simms and quietly considered this option. Picking up a small rock, he bounced it up and down in his hand.

  “Simms, get on the horn with the Fist and make it happen.”

  ***

  The red light of the laser danced off Trent’s visor in the dark night as he stared into the pit. At the bottom, a team of amateur miners cut their way to the soft mineral deposit that would signify the point where their work would become far easier. The carefully chosen digging site concealed the activities from the besieged.

  The machine whined. Broken pieces of rock thrown from the pit smashed into each other. Sergeant Roth came along his side, holding her MRG with both hands.

  “What’s the timetable, Colonel?”

  Turning away, he walked away with Roth keeping pace.

  “We’ll hammer through the hard part tonight. It should be smooth sailing after that. Should only take us a couple days to tunnel the hundred and seventy-five meters to one of their shafts.”

  “Good, it looks like they’re buying the diversion. Hard to believe.”

  Roth referred to the teams of soldiers building a rock barricade to seal in the base.

  “Don’t laugh.” He pointed at the pit. “If this doesn’t work, that’s plan B.”

  Stopping next to a supply crate, Trent placed the MRG on top before sitting down. With Roth standing in front of him, he tilted his head back, looking at the sky.

  “The night sky here is really lovely. It gets so dark on the surface that you can see the stars in all their glory.”

  Roth sat down next to Trent, matching his gaze.

  “I tend to forget to look up a lot of the time. It’s weird you know. We traveled halfway across the galaxy for this, digging a hole to storm the enemy keep.”

  “Not nearly as weird as spending ten years trying to sneak up on a minor enemy base for a raid.”

  “Ha...ain’t that the truth.” Roth laughed.

  Removing his helmet, Trent revealed matted hair and thick stubble on his face. Reaching into the crate, he pulled out two bottles and held one in front of Roth.

  “Join me, Sergeant, in a fine delicacy, fresh un-recycled water that isn’t piss-warm.”

  Roth took her helmet off, showing no concern for her equally dirty and tangled blonde hair.

  “Don’t mind if I do. I get tired of drinking my own urine over and over again.” She took a deep breath through her nose. “This fine night air will do me good. It doesn’t smell so bad anymore, compared to my own BO.”

  In between sipping the water like a fine scotch, Trent said, “You never really told me about your vacation time back home. I hope things hadn’t changed too much.”

  “I would have thought those all-knowing personnel files would’ve given you the highlights.”

  “I imagine they would if I read yours again. Like I said a while back, the files tend to miss a lot of important stuff.”

  Roth took a large drink.

  “Well...things were different. But not in the normal home from war type different that I experienced after my mission in Mexico. No, this was...was...”

  “Kinda like you were the alien.” Trent sought to add words to her emotion.

  “Exactly.” Roth turned her upper body toward him. “Having an arm in the process of growing back didn’t help.”

  “I know what you mean. I think it was a mixture of time displacement and being a new class of warrior fighting a new class of war. The world wasn’t ready for us, nor were we ready to return to the world we found. I think a few people wondered if we were still completely human.”

  “I just hope it’s better this trip home.”

  Finishing the last of the delicious water, Trent rose and put his helmet back on. To Roth’s naked eyes, save for the nanos inside, he almost disappeared in the dark night and black background.

  “I think it will. The world is getting used to this war. We w
on’t have been gone that long this time. If we get this thing wrapped up soon, it won’t be much over two years. The old whaling ships back in the day were out that long, and they managed to live in their world. Well, I should go check on some things. See you around, Sergeant.”

  Standing up, Roth took her MRG into her hands.

  “See you around, sir. Let’s win this one as quick as we can.”

  ***

  Poking a finger through the final millimeters of soil, Sergeant Gabriel completed the clandestine link to the Bearcat mining shaft. Peeking into the small hole, he determined the coast was clear to proceed with the slow motion attack. One by one, the legionnaires filed into the dark cavern, crawling on all fours.

  The cavern ceiling was a comfortable four meters high, and the side walls were about ninety meters apart. The area reminded Gabriel of a super-sized version of the deserted coal mines he and his friends used to explore in West Virginia.

  Only a few centuries would remain on the surface, continuing to give the appearance of tightening the siege. Everything rode on their operation; retreat back through the short and narrow passage wasn’t an option.

  Moving down the tunnel, Gabriel led the careful charge with extreme caution. Bringing over four thousand soldiers through the small route would take time. With surprise serving as their greatest weapon, he hid behind a dump truck while keeping a watchful eye out for trouble.

  Thirty minutes in, a need for more space dictated a gentle push further up the gradually sloping shaft. Gravel cracked under his boots as he took soft steps. Fortunately, the siege caused the Bearcats to abandon the mining operation.

  Gabriel only dared to move a couple hundred meters up the seven hundred meter tunnel. Silently he stood behind a drill bit twice his height. The squad waited motionless.

  An hour later, Colonel Maxwell’s voice broke into Gabriel’s helmet, “Sergeant, do you read me?”

  “Nice of you to join us, Colonel. What can I do for you?”

  Trent knelt beside the dump truck Gabriel first came upon. “We have over two cohorts in here now, and we can’t afford to get bottled up. We have to be close enough to the entrance that if we’re discovered, we can rush out and secure a foothold in the open. That way, we can still bring the rest of the legion through. Scout ahead until you can see the way out. Don’t give us away.”

  “No problem, Colonel.”

  Careful steps carried Gabriel and his team silently across the dark tunnel’s pebble covered floor. They headed toward a two story windowless building just a hundred meters from the opening.

  The ten black holes lined up along the wall facing away from the entrance and around the corner from the door leading into the building. A streak of light emanating from a crack in the door cut through the emptiness of the cavern. Gabriel used the barrel of his MRG to watch the door safely from cover.

  “Corporal Krist,” Gabriel whispered. “I’m going to check out the door. Be ready to come up.”

  “Roger that, Sarge.”

  Staying low and hugging the wall, he slid around the corner with his weapon trained squarely on the door. Moving with extreme care, he gently pushed the large door open wider and prayed for it not to squeak. Seeing the initial path clear, he slipped into the building, sweeping the barrel left and right down both ends of the corridor. The white bare walls reflected the light coming from a small tube running the length of the ceiling.

  “Bring’em up, Krist.”

  One by one, the rest of the squad filed in, taking positions to cover all angles.

  “Corporal, I’ll take fire team one to the right. You take team two left. Let’s get this area cleared quick and quiet.”

  Krist nodded her acknowledgement.

  Turning left at the end of the corridor revealed a series of doors and a staircase leading to the second floor.

  Krist’s soft voice came over the com-link. “I found a set of stairs, Sergeant. Should I head up?”

  Looking up the high steps at the first landing, he replied, “Send three up. I’ll go up with one from my team. You stay down here and clear the first floor.”

  “Understood.”

  Walking up a set of stairs designed for creatures three meters tall while maintaining a constant stable footing proved challenging. Using the final step as cover, he scanned the long way down the corridor. Seeing all of the doors on the left were closed, he poked his MRG around the other hallway to find no doors just as the first floor was.

  Gabriel kept the weapon pointed down the hall and signaled his counterpart to take up a position opposite him on the first door.

  On one knee and ready to fight, the private tried the lever serving as the doorknob.

  Locked.

  “Hottie,” Gabriel whispered, “do you detect any movement in the adjacent room?”

  “No movement or life forms detected,” Hottie answered.

  The same routine repeated for the next six doors. On the seventh, Hottie spoke before the private could try the lever.

  “Warning! Movement detected.”

  Both soldiers froze in place.

  Holding three fingers in the air, they readied to storm the room.

  First finger down.

  Gabriel switched his MRG to single shot.

  Second finger down.

  The private’s right hand hovered over the lever.

  The third finger barely bent when the private tugged down on the lever and pushed the unlocked door open in an instant.

  Gabriel rushed into the room. It appeared to be a lab of some type with various types of equipment scattered about. Scanning left to right, with the private a quarter step behind, he entered at the opposite angle and cleared the room right to left.

  In the right corner nearest the hall, a startled Bearcat working at a computer terminal turned around in his chair just in time for a nearly silent MRG round from Gabriel’s weapon to explode his head.

  Less than half a second later, they both announced, “Clear,” before pivoting back around to cover the door in unison.

  What sounded like many pops filled the air.

  “They’re coming your way!” a human voice shouted across the com-link. “Three of them!”

  Bolting into the corridor, Gabriel dove flat onto the floor. The private took cover in the doorway. Wild MRG shots slammed against the wall less than ten meters ahead of them. White flakes flew into the air.

  Heavy footfalls landed in between loud pops. These pops were too quiet for Bearcat rifles but grew closer and closer. Paying no attention to Gabriel’s direction, two Bearcats ran around the corner directly into his and the private’s fire. Twin bursts of ten rounds hammered the massive enemy soldiers into pieces.

  Expecting another one to appear, Gabriel almost killed one of his own men when he darted into view.

  “We got the other one, Sarge,” the soldier announced.

  Gabriel leapt to his feet.

  “Hurry and check these doors now! We can’t let anyone give us away.”

  Realizing time was their greatest threat of discovery, the five separated to search individually. A frenzy of movement found no enemy soldiers on either floor. The building was secure, along with the path to the heart of the base.

  ***

  Trent squatted by the mangled Bearcat bodies. Blue blood and gore covered the walls. Placing his MRG down, he picked up an enemy weapon he’d not yet encountered. It looked like an enlarged version of a handgun with the grip centered in the middle of the barrel as opposed to the end. Rotating it around in his hands, Trent studied the device.

  Gabriel walked up. “That’s new.”

  “Yeah, guessing it’s only issued to non-frontline troops. What happened?” Trent asked standing.

  “From what I understand, Corporal Krist and her team were checking another door when these guys came out, surprising the hell out of each other. They got one of them. The private and I took care of the rest.”

  “We got lucky. It doesn’t look like they got a warning out. But w
e have to move fast and attack before they’re missed.” Trent walked to the stairs with hurried strides. Gabriel remained at his side. “I want another squad assigned to security here. I’m sending Captain Simms in to see if we can get anything from this tech. We rush out of this hole in twenty and bring hell with us.”

  “No argument from me, Colonel. I want to end this thing. I have a hot date with that waitress when I get back.”

  Chapter 22: All In

  Three columns of legionnaires cautiously approached the daylight shining through the tunnel’s wide opening. Two clung to the black walls while one advanced down the middle, crawling on their bellies up the mild slope.

  Moving to the border between light and darkness, the attackers paused to await the signal from the shadows.

  A few centuries remained in transit, but surprise stood as a more valuable commodity in the coming battle, determining the decision to attack while it remained on their side.

  The waiting charge consisted of six cohorts. The remaining forces stayed back in reserve. Upon the fateful moment, they would move to the tunnel’s mouth, ready to plug any hole or exploit any opportunity.

  Trent lay motionless on the rocky floor just centimeters from the light. Before his eyes, Sweetie displayed the tac map of the enemy base. Information gathered from orbital surveillance showed nearly fifty buildings populating the walled interior.

  Their square design differed greatly from the domed buildings on Big Red. The largest structures, dismissed by intelligence as warehouses, would be of little tactical value in the attack’s early stages. Suspected barracks and command and control centers ranked higher.

  General Banks held back with the reserve force to manage the battle from a secure location. Trent was more than happy to lead the primary strike in person. The anticipation of combat quickened his pulse and dried his mouth. Licking his lips, he dismissed Sweetie’s visual aid and gazed at the target zone ahead. A stiff breeze kicked up dirt. Seeing no reason to delay, he opened a link to all personnel and shouted, “Charge!”

  The flanks poured out along the base’s high walls. He led the darting center straight out of the cavern.