by Ricky Sides
Tim had just set the Peacekeeper in motion on their trip to the place where they were to wait for the battle to commence when the radio crackled to life once more and the leader’s voice came over the air saying, “Those farmers think they are smart huh. Well they just made our job a whole lot easier,” he said elatedly. Then he added, “Those in on the smokehouse run will proceed to that location. The rest of the convoy will move in and take the drive-in. Until we are all gathered there together, no one makes claims on the women. I’ll award a third to men who have earned them in the past and I get my pick of the women and those to be awarded. The rest will be common women to be used by any man in our group who wants her.”
Patricia frowned in anger but held her tongue. “They’ll be taking nothing but death with them today,” Jim said softly in a reassuring manner.
“Aye, Captain,” she said with an air of grim determination.
“Send Sergeant Wilcox and his men the message that we just intercepted. Once they’ve heard it, then tell them their orders are to take no prisoners,” Jim said with an air of determination of his own.
“My pleasure, Captain,” the communications specialist replied.
Chapter 6
The communications between the strike team and the Peacekeeper ship were a complex arrangement. As it turned out, the innovative radios would be useless without the sophisticated Peacekeeper computer system, which handled the traffic directing individual communications to specific frequencies. The communications specialist programmed the computer system to direct the traffic via the use of channel numbers. When the strike team wanted to address each other, they used the number designated for their team, which was the number two. The person wishing to transmit had to say the number twice. When the first number was transmitted, the computer compared the voice to its voice recognition files and then directed the message. When the computer rebroadcast the message to the intended recipients, the second number would be the first word heard by the recipient of the message. The number one was the designated code for the Peacekeeper ship. Each crewmember had their own private numbers which could be used to direct private communications between crewmembers, should the need arise. Overall, it was a complex communications system that required a great deal of expertise to set up properly. Nevertheless, Patricia’s expertise in computer programming made it work and work flawlessly. She modestly downplayed her role in the perfection of the system, but both Pete and Jim were aware of the difficulty and had discussed it privately.
These communications would prove to be an invaluable asset during the coming engagement.
***
Sergeant Wilcox spoke quietly saying, “Two, two. All of you men look sharp, because the bad guys are on the way, over.”
One by one, the men of the strike team acknowledged the sergeant’s warning, as did the sniper in his position in the copse of woods nearby. Onboard the Peacekeeper, Patricia was monitoring all communications and she passed the information on to Jim.
“Has the sniper team at the drive-in reported contact with the enemy?” Jim asked puzzled. The drive-in team should have had the first contact.
“Not yet,” replied Patricia and then she said, “One moment, Jim.” She listened for a moment and then keyed her channel open and said, “Three, three. Roger that. I will inform the Captain. Good look, guys, over,” she said and closed the channel.
“The sniper team reports contact at the drive-in, Captain,” she said.
“Thank you for the update,” Jim responded. He looked around at the crew to see the expressions on the faces of those about him. “Sound battle stations if you please,” he said calmly. It was really a formality, for only Maggie and Lacey were not present in the control room. Still it was the first time that they had went into a major battle since the formation of the Peacekeepers, thus it seemed appropriate. Jim didn’t count the brief fight with the infiltrators who had tried to take the ship.
In the infirmary, Maggie heard the call to battle stations and flew into last minute preparations and double checks.
***
The farmers saw the trucks approaching rapidly from the north and stood quietly watching the approaching vehicles. Behind them, Sergeant Wilcox spoke reassuringly to the farmers reminding them to get down and crawl to safety if violence erupted, and then the first of the trucks arrived and he had to concentrate on playing his role.
The leader of the Marauders stepped out of his truck and strode around to stand arrogantly before the farmers with a pistol in his hand. In the back of his truck were the four young ladies who’d been abducted. In the truck with them were two men armed with rifles, which they held trained on the group of farmers. From his place of partial concealment behind the farmers, Sergeant Wilcox whispered a message as the Marauder leader stepped to the front of his truck saying, “Two, two. Get a bead on the two in the back of the leader’s truck but hold your fire until the right moment. I want them to be the first to die. I can’t risk talking again so you guys away from the locals work out the details, over.” A moment later, he heard two of his men say that they had the two targets acquired.
The Marauder leader looked at the farmers and then turned to point to the young women in the back of the truck. “Now, I’ve kept my word and returned to finish the trading. Do you have the meat to trade for these girls?”
“Yes, we have the meat you want, just don’t hurt the girls,” said Herman, the father of two of the girls.
“Well, bring it out then and we’ll release them,” said the Marauder.
Herman and several other farmers turned and entered the smokehouse. They were inside only a few minutes and then they returned with five slabs of beef. They stacked the beef in the truck and the leader released two of the young women. “Go on now, bring out the rest of the meat,” the leader said. He was enjoying the domination of the group of proud men.
Herman escorted the freed young women to the rear of the assembled farmers and hugged both. They were apparently his daughters. Sergeant Wilcox heard him reassure the young women that everything was going to be fine. The men then went back into the smokehouse. Sergeant Wilcox noted that several of the men in the other trucks were beginning to aim their weapons at the farmers. He then took a moment to study the face of the leader and he knew, somehow, he just knew that the man was going to order the attack the moment that the men emerged from the smokehouse. “Two, two, attack now!” He shouted the last word and the farmers in front of him dropped to their hands and knees. Some of the men near the recently liberated young women pulled them down to the ground as the bullets began to fly through the air.
Sergeant Wilcox had been holding his pistol in his right hand beside his leg where the bodies of the farmers between him and the Marauders concealed it from the view of the Marauders. As he snapped his pistol up to fire at the Marauder leader, the man detected the motion. The Marauder tried to bring his own weapon to bear on the man in the dirty black cap, but Sergeant Wilcox beat him to the all-important first shot. His bullet hit squarely in the center of the Marauder’s chest. His second shot struck the man between the eyes.
As Sergeant Wilcox turned in search of another target, he saw the two men standing in the bed of the leader’s truck fall. They had both struck in the head by rifle fire from his strike team. Darting over to the truck, he grabbed one of the young women, pulled her over the edge of the truck bed, and sat her down hard on the ground beside the truck. “Stay down!” he shouted and then reached up to help the other young woman from the truck. A bullet struck that woman in the upper right arm as he dragged her out of the line of fire and knelt beside her on the ground for a moment. “One, one. We have a wounded female hostage, over!”
“Two. We are in route now,” Sergeant Wilcox heard Patricia’s voice reply.
“Two. What is the nature of the wound?” Sergeant Wilcox heard Maggie ask.
“One, one. It seems to be a through and through that penetrated the upper arm, but I don’t think it hit bone,” he said firing two sho
ts at a Marauder who came running around the back of the truck firing behind him in the direction of one of the strike team members. The Marauder, slammed against a truck, slid down to the ground, and remained still.
Suddenly the air erupted in sustained gunfire that seemed to go on for about fifteen seconds and then there was silence. Patricia’s voice came over the radio, asking if everyone was all right. Looking up, Sergeant Wilcox saw the Peacekeeper hovering fifty yards down the road and he waved. Their arrival had caused the fusillade as the Marauders had fired in mass at the ship. It was at that moment that the smell hit him. Looking around for the source of the smell, he saw the bodies of several Marauders who the laser weapon of the Peacekeeper had struck. They were the source of the unpleasant smell.
Before he could respond to Patricia’s question her voice came back on the strike force channel telling the team to organize and have their medics treat the wounded. She added that they had to get the ship to the drive-in immediately, and that the strike team was to join them there if they could get one of the vehicles started. There was no time to land and take them aboard. The snipers at the drive-in were now coming under heavy fire.
***
As the Peacekeeper bore down upon the fighting at the smokehouse, several of the enemy, seeing the approaching ship, stood up firing wildly at the men visible behind the windshield. Several of the enemy fell to fire from the strike force on the ground but as Pete handled the firing of the Peacekeeper’s forward laser with a deadly precision, the rest were slain.
As Patricia was waiting for Sergeant Wilcox’s response after the battle, a message came in from the one of the two snipers at the drive-in. The trap had been set off but not many of the enemy had been near when they triggered the explosion. Now, most of the men were scrambling for their vehicles in an attempt to escape. They had managed to take out a vehicle and temporarily block the exit, but now the enemy was actively retaliating. They had already shifted to their secondary positions and were about to shift to their third as heavy fire concentrated on their positions.
Jim ordered the ship to proceed to the battle zone immediately. He had Patricia tell the strike force to tend the wounded and then to commandeer a truck if they could and join them at the fight. There wasn’t time to wait.
Minutes later, the Peacekeeper flew over the wrecked vehicle at the entrance and began firing at the dozen vehicles trapped inside the lot, but most of the vehicles had been abandoned by the Marauders who were spread out in a skirmish line firing from the prone position at the two snipers who occupied positions near the movie screen. Once more Pete fired at the enemy in rapid but very efficient firing patterns. There was a group of about twenty men hunkered down in a depression that had formed in the middle of the drive-in parking area. They were pouring sustained fire at the snipers positions at such a rate that they would surely soon kill the men if they were still in that position.
Maneuvering the Peacekeeper above the depression, Tim nodded to Pete and said, “In position to use the belly gun.”
Pete activated the weapon and a moment later, they heard screams coming from below the ship. In seconds, there were numerous small explosions as the Marauder’s ammunition cooked off.
One of the snipers radioed in that there was a large group running around toward a break in a fence to the northeast. Tim spun the ship on its axis and they saw the men scrambling through the broken fence. Then to their amazement, the men scrambled right back through the hole in the fence firing behind them as they ran. Staring in amazement Jim saw Sergeant Wilcox’s strike team crash through the fence in one of the pick up trucks. Three of the men were standing in the back firing at the retreating Marauders. Pete added precision fire to the concerted attack and soon had cut down that group of Marauders.
“Teams, Report!” Jim snapped and Patricia relayed the order.
Sergeant Wilcox’s team reported all clear on their end but the sniper team reported two men seeking to crawl away to the southeast near the main entrance. An instant later, a shot rang out followed by another in about five seconds. “One. Targets have been eliminated, over,” reported one of the sniper team members.
Chapter 7
Using two of the Marauder’s trucks, the men of the community were working hard to gather all of the bodies in a central location in a large field where one of the farmers was digging a mass grave with a backhoe. Sergeant Wilcox and his men were searching the bodies for serviceable weapons and any information that might lead to the location of the Marauder’s base. Jim hoped that they might be able to recover most of the meat stolen from the community. He understood that for these people, the meat might well mean the difference between survival and death in the months to come.
Pete and Bill Young searched the vehicles thoroughly for that same reason. Many of the vehicles had been destroyed but eight trucks were left that were still serviceable. Large gasoline cans seemed to be standard equipment in the backs of each truck. There was fuel aplenty in the beds of some of the destroyed trucks. With an eye toward helping the farming community in their efforts to cope with the coming winter, the fuel cans were collected and placed in the rear of the serviceable trucks.
Inside the cab of the Marauder leader’s truck, they found a Rand McNally atlas. Pete turned the atlas to the Tennessee page and smiled. The Marauder leader had traced a route to Arley from a rural area in Arkansas. Handing the map to Bill, Pete said, “Get this to Jim so that he can see where their base is probably located. He’ll have to decide whether or not we go try to retrieve what the Marauders took from these people.”
“All right, I’ll be back in a bit,” replied Bill taking the book and disappearing inside the Peacekeeper.
Pete continued to search the vehicle but found nothing else of major importance. The sergeant’s team had already stripped the weapons and ammunition from the vehicle. They were under orders to secure all weapons and ammunition, much of which Jim planned to distribute to the men and women of the farm community who were willing to learn to use firearms to defend themselves.
As Pete stepped away from the truck, he heard Maggie shout his name to get his attention. Looking in her direction, he saw Maggie and Lacey working on one of the farmers who’d been grazed by a bullet during the firefight. Walking over to her, he said, “Yes, Maggie, can I help you in some way?”
“Yes, please open the blue plastic box there on the ground. Take out the pressure bandage inside and open the protective cover, but don’t touch the bandage itself please,” Maggie requested as she finished sewing up the man’s leg. The bullet had grazed the exterior of the calf muscle. Lacey was holding pressure on the leg above the wound to slow the bleeding while Maggie worked to sew up the wound.
Retrieving the box, he prepared the bandage for Maggie following her instructions to the letter. “Thank you. You did that well. Maybe I should add you to my emergency staff,” Maggie said, looking sweetly at Pete.
“No thanks, Maggie,” he said smiling back at her. “I’m not cut out for your line of work. I can’t stand the sight of blood. The stuff rolls my stomach.”
Laughing at Pete’s response, she thanked him and deftly applied the bandage. “Lacey, hold the pressure another minute and then ease off gradually and let the blood flow return to normal,” she said and then turning to Pete once more she said, “The red bag if you please, Pete.”
Unzipping the red bag on three sides, she then opened it like a book revealing several syringes with labels attached. Selecting two of the syringes, she gave the man two shots and told him he’d need to try to stay off that leg as much as possible for a week or he’d likely pull the stitches loose and cause a setback to the healing process.
The man thanked the women for their assistance and hobbled away and another patient took his place. This was a young girl named Sally. She was the wounded hostage who the medics were tending after the fighting ceased at the smokehouse. Her father was standing behind her looking on with a concerned expression on his face. Maggie took one look at the
girl’s eyes and knew from long experience that she wanted to speak to her privately. Turning to the pile of supplies nearby she covered the sound of her voice as she utilized the radio system and contacted Pete on his private channel asking him to distract the girl’s father while she took her inside the ship for a private examination. Then turning to Lacey she said, “I could have sworn I brought that kit with me. Well, never mind, we’ll just take this young lady inside and treat her there.”
Lacey noted the look in Maggie’s eyes and played right along, saying, “Well, we were in a rush to get out here, but no harm done.”
Turning to the patient, Maggie helped her to her feet and began walking toward the ship. Her father, a man named Brandon, started to follow, but Pete stopped him, saying, “The girl will be fine, just let the doctor see to her. Right now I need your help with these vehicles.”
The man looked reluctantly at his daughter’s back as she disappeared inside the ship and then back to Pete. “Yes, of course I’ll help if I can, sir, but I want to know if those men abused Sally.”
“I’m sure you do, but the girl seems well aside from the wounded arm. Why don’t we let our doctor see to her needs for the moment,” Pete said persuasively.
“If they touched her I’ll…,” the man began.
Pete looked the man squarely in the eyes and said, “Sir, they are all dead. None of the Marauders survived. But if the girl was abused, the way you react to that will have a lot to do with the way she copes with it in the future. I suggest you consider carefully what you say regarding the period of time that she was captive. If a child results would you hate her and the child? Is she in danger if we leave her here? Is the child to die for the sins of its father?”