Boots of Oppression

by M. J. Konkel

  Amerigo whipped open the back door, and I stuck the muzzle of my rifle inside. The same actions happened on the other side of the scout with Tinner and Xavia. I stared through the back door but only saw Xavia staring back opposite from me.

  There had been only the two Spits in the scout. “Clear,” Xavia yelled.

  “What do we do with the Spits?” Drummer asked.

  “Take their helmets off and throw the bodies down into the river,” Marla ordered.

  One of our trucks came up and over the hill to our right. It slowly descended the steep bank, and when it finally reached the road, Marla directed it behind the Spit scout. Several others then transferred three large crates of explosives from the truck into the back of the scout.

  “Toss me one of those helmets,” Marla barked at Amerigo. “Toss the other to Trite. Everyone, you know the plan. So let’s go kick some Spits’ asses.”

  I caught the helmet and hopped into the driver’s seat. Marla hopped into the seat opposite of me. Enceladus, Drummer, and Amerigo hopped into the back seat.

  I turned the scout around, and we rolled along toward the mines outside Lustrous Hole.

  “Do you think this will really work, Cheng?” I asked, reading the name of my companion off the HUD.

  “I think the odds are against us, Schmitt,” Marla admitted. “But I’d rather go down fighting than be under their boot for the rest of my life.”

  A rather honest assessment. I had actually hoped for some words of confidence, so I just concentrated on driving for a while. After about an hour had passed, the fence that circled the mining camp became visible in the distance. The camp covered a huge area but was mostly flat open space. Far off on the backside of the camp stood several small hills where the mines were supposedly located.

  “Cover up under those tarps,” Marla ordered. The coms in our helmets would tell the guards at the gate that Marla and I were Schmitt and Cheng. But the coms for the others would not register properly. And that would be a problem at the gate.

  I slowed the scout down and glanced up at my HUD for the time. We were out of com range with the others, but exact timing would be essential on this raid. On the other hand, I couldn’t go so slow as to be suspicious to the guards.

  I pulled up to a stop at the gate to the camp. Two guards in armored suits carrying rifles stood in front of the gate. Over two dozen more stood along the inside of the fence. Off to the side on the other side of the gate, a barracks stood that I figured could hold more than a hundred soldiers if it was full.

  One of the guards at the gate held out his hand in the universal gesture for halt. Off to the side, a mounted gun on a turret pointed out toward the hills. It appeared to be a 20 mm cannon. Their rifle flechettes wouldn’t be able to pierce our scout, but that big gun’s rounds surely could.

  One of the guards approached Marla’s side of the vehicle with his rifle held against his chest.

  “Good day, sir. I will need for both of you to put up your faceplates for retinal scans,” the guard demanded as he saluted us from Marla’s side.

  I popped up my faceplate, hoping the guard didn’t know Schmitt by his face. Marla pretended to be fiddling with the dial next to her helmet. “Sure, but what the frick are you doing saluting?” I shouted in my best Spitnik accent.

  The guard slowly lowered his hand.

  “If there are snipers out in those hills, you will have just told them we have an officer in the scout. Are you trying to get us killed?”

  “No, sir,” the guard uttered. “But I still need to do the retinal scans.”

  “Cheng says he’s having a frickin’ problem with his faceplate,” I said.

  “Then he will have to take off his helmet,” the guard ordered.

  “Yes, regulations!” I yelled. I glanced up at the time on the HUD. I needed to stall just a little longer. “Ah, fine. But do mine first while Cheng works on her-his helmet.” Shit! Did the guard catch that? “And rush. We were doing intel and believe an attack is imminent on this camp. Those vermin might be out there in those hills right now.”

  The guard glanced out to the hills beyond the camp as he marched around the scout to my side. He reached my window just as a flechette whistled past. And then more. Right on time.

  “It’s sooner than we thought. Open the gate!” I yelled. “Open the gate!”

  The guard hesitated, unsure about what he should do.

  More flechettes whistled around us. Then a mortar round exploded a few hundred meters off to the left. I wondered if those behind us had meant for it to be that close. The guard signaled for the gate to open and then dove behind one of the barriers. He scanned for signs of his enemy as we drove past and through the gate.

  From the hills surrounding the camp, the others in our band did their best to make it look like a full-scale invasion of the camp was beginning. They only had to give us cover for a few minutes and then pull back and go into hiding before reinforcements and a counterstrike were called in by the Spits. While the Spits might now be on alert, they would be looking out to their perimeter while we were already on the inside.

  I did not think about any of that though. I concentrated on my role. According to Lieutenant Stroggnoff, the entrance to the mine was about twenty meters wide and located against the hill on the east side of the camp. There were other mine entrances to the north side, but those were supposedly shallow surface mines that only went a short distance into the sides of those hills. The tantalum mine went deep underground. I immediately steered the scout toward the entrance to the eastern mine.

  The three in the back seat came out from under the tarp and sat with their rifles ready as I glanced at rear view camera feeds. I saw the dust kicked up by us, but no one followed.

  It was two klicks across from the camp’s entrance to the mine. As we approached, several workers exited the mine’s entrance and a couple had just entered. There didn’t appear to be any security guards around the mine. So that was good, right? I slowed the scout vehicle down and leaned my head out of my opened window.

  “You there, excuse me,” I shouted. “Is this where they get the tantalum?”

  One of the workers turned toward us and laughed. “The tant mine? Who told you that?”

  “This is not the tantalum mine? Frick! It looks like we were given the wrong directions,” I said. “We have a special part they ordered for the equipment at that mine.”

  The man frowned. “Are they the new bearings for the cutters?”

  “How the hell would I know,” I yelled. “I am just doing the delivery.”

  “Gotta be those. The workers over there haven’t been able to go back in for two days because of that cutter. The mine you’re looking for is the far right one up that way. The one with the guard station out front.” The man pointed toward one of the hills to the north. Of course, it would be the one with all the guards. I couldn’t see them from the east mine though. Too far away.

  “Thank you.” As I turned the vehicle toward the tantalum mine, I just realized what I had done. Shit! Spit military never say thank you. I hoped my dumb courtesy comment didn’t doom us. I glanced down at a video screen with the rear-facing camera feed. The workers seemed to be going back to their business. Perhaps I had dodged a flechette on that one.

  “If we get out of this alive, that lying Spit is going to wish he was left in the desert for the coyotes,” Drummer growled.

  “Yeah, but for now focus on the mission,” Marla said.

  “And getting out alive,” I added.

  As we drove forward, a gap appeared between the hills. A flat basin extended past the gap to a ring of hills beyond. A fence cut across the gap, blocking those from the mining camp from going through without passing through a guard gate.

  “Is that a starship?” Enceladus stared past the guard gate.

  “Yeah, a freakin’ corvette. What’s that doing here?” I mumbled.

  “Focus ahead, people” Marla ordered. “Five guards with rifles and sandbags around a big gun t
hat we have to deal with.”

  “I’ll take care of the big gun. Everyone else, get the other guards,” I suggested.

  “Anyone have a better plan?” Marla asked. “No? Alright, how you’re going to take the big gun out?”

  “The scout,” I said. “Wait till I rev it though before opening fire.”

  I tried to concentrate on the guards ahead of us, but my eyes kept straying back to the starship until the view was blocked by the hill.

  I eased back on the accelerator as we approached the mine’s entrance. One of the guards stood out in front of the others and held a hand outward, ordering us to stop.

  As we approached the guard, I smiled at him, knowing he had no idea what was coming his way.

  “Now!” I gunned the motor and swerved the scout toward the big gun.

  The closest guard’s rifle started to pivot toward us. But it was too late for the sucker as the scout slammed into him and sent his body flying toward the open entrance to the mine.

  The other guards raised their rifles toward us. They were cut down by fire from Marla and the others in the back seat.

  A second later, we crashed into the big gun nest and crushed the gunner. I reversed the scout and backed it toward the entrance as its wire mesh wheels flung sand and rocks back into the crushed gunner’s nest.

  “Hurry,” Marla yelled, as if we needed to hear that.

  As soon as our vehicle stopped, I jumped out of the scout right behind the others. I pulled my rifle from the catch in the door and it clicked into place as I threw it across my back.

  I grabbed the helmet off of one of the Spits and replaced mine with it. Marla, Drummer, Amerigo did the same. I glanced toward where I had spoken to the mine workers, but they were gone. Hopefully, they had disappeared before witnessing our raid.

  Marla stood guard at the entrance, ready with her rifle. The rest of us pulled the crates out of the back of the scout. Each composite crate had enough pyrotechnics inside to produce a good show all by itself. We hoped, if all three ignited, it would collapse the entire mine shaft.

  I grabbed the handle of one and Drummer grabbed the opposite handle. We carried it past the crate set down by Enceladus and Amerigo, and we continued down another hundred meters into the mine shaft.

  A light appeared ahead of us. Drummer and I dropped the crate and stood still. We had our rifles out and were ready to shoot whoever came up from the mine.

  “Hold your fire.” I pointed my rifle upward. “They won’t know we’re not the Spit guards.”

  A utility cart rolled up toward us and stopped about ten meters away. Two men dressed in black uniforms jumped out.

  “Are those the new mag bearings for the cutter?” one of the men asked.

  “Somebody just dropped this off and told us to take it down,” I said. “Didn’t say what’s inside.”

  “Good! Good!” the man said. “Just put them on the back of the cart for us.”

  I glanced at Drummer, and he stared back in a way that said to play along. I slung my rifle over my shoulder until it clicked into place.

  “That was fast,” the second man said. “Didn’t expect to get these for a couple more days.”

  “Yeah, I guess this mine is a high priority,” I said.

  “That box is mighty big for just bearings,” the second man noted. I glanced at Drummer.

  “The general probably made sure spares were sent,” the first man said. “He knows how important the operation is here and doesn’t want any more delays.”

  “Wait! Where’s the manifest?” the second man asked.

  “They didn’t give us any manifest. They just told us to carry this down to the cutter machine,” I replied.

  “Stupid idiots. They know we need the manifest.”

  I was ready to reach for my rifle again.

  “We’ll get it later,” the first man said. “We need to get the cutter fixed fast before the general blows up again.”

  I winked at Drummer as we loaded the crate onto the back of the cart. The men turned the cart around, and it rolled on back down the mineshaft.

  “Beckmann, do you copy?” I heard over my com. I glanced up at the HUD and saw that I was supposed to be Beckmann.

  “Beckmann here,” I said.

  “Beckmann, what’s going on over there? I don’t see a life signal for Jurgoczek and he’s not answering his com.” Jurgoczek must have been the gunner in the nest.

  “Must be something with his com. He’s standing right next to me,” I lied.

  “Who is this? You don’t sound like Beckmann.”

  “Who is this?” I asked as I glanced on the HUD for a name. “You don’t sound like Rajahall.”

  I tore off the helmet and tossed it to clatter down the mineshaft. I raced up to the entrance and saw Enceladus and Amerigo pulling out the last crate.

  “We have to hurry,” I shouted. “They know we’re not the Spit guards.”

  “There’re trucks already on the way,” Marla shouted back, tossing the guard’s helmet she had been wearing aside.

  I glanced out and saw three dust trails far off across the compound coming for us. Likely, trucks with heavy guns mounted on top and lots of GATs with rifles inside.

  “Get that last crate down the shaft and let’s get the hell out of here,” Marla ordered.

  Drummer and I grabbed parts of the handles and helped Amerigo and Enceladus carry the heavy crate down the shaft about twenty meters where we set it down.

  We turned back toward the scout. But the scout pulled away from us.

  We dashed toward the mine entrance, waving and shouting, but to no avail. The scout rolled across the dry dusty compound toward the trucks, and then it swung toward the fence to the west. The three trucks veered to intercept.

  “I can’t believe she left us behind,” Enceladus cried.

  “She won’t make it,” Drummer mumbled.

  I looked at the pile of our old helmets left where the scout had been. Next to it was the remote for the explosives.

  “She doesn’t intend to get away,” I said. “She’s drawing them off for us. Buying us time.” I reached over and grabbed my helmet.

  “Marla,” I said as soon as I had the helmet on. “You didn’t have to do it this way.”

  “Stop yapping and finish the mission,” she commanded.

  “There has to be another way,” I begged.

  “Maybe. But I can’t think of one, and we’re running out of time. Listen. I don’t know how much more time I have before they catch me. If you get out of here, take care of Morgan. I made a promise. I want you to promise that he is kept safe until he returns back to Benjanin and Luci.”

  “I’ll watch over him,” I promised. “But you --”

  “I don’t have time. Shut the frick up and listen! Dr. Z is the key. Him and you. You must get back to him. Don’t let him fall into the hands of the Spits. He --”

  There was a flash out on the compound as the scout blew up, and my heart sank. Above the desert floor, a fireball rose until it morphed into a black cloud over the burning scout. Most likely hit by a rocket. The three pursuing trucks surrounded the burning remains of the scout as we watched, stunned.

  I wanted so badly to hurt those Spits out on the desert floor but knew there was nothing I could do. Except to try to keep my promise.

  Chapter 18

  How I wished she had not gone off like that in the scout. There had to be another way. And what had she meant by Dr. Z being the key? And me? The key to what? There was something about the doctor Marla knew but had kept secret from us. Too many secrets kept from us.

  I grabbed the remote and tossed their old helmets at the other three. Something flying at them broke them of their trances.

  “We gotta get out of here,” I yelled.

  “Aren’t you the frickin’ genius!” Enceladus yelled.

  “This way,” I shouted, ignoring her sarcasm. I spun left and raced along the foot of the mined hill. I darted behind a storage shed with the others clo
se behind.

  I glanced out onto the compound’s basin. GATs surrounded the burning scout but couldn’t get closer to examine it. So they just watched it burn. The bastards!

  We needed to move. Whatever equipment, boulders, or even mounds of dirt we found close to the hill, we used for cover. Luckily, there were no other workers around the site. I constantly glanced back across the compound until I spotted a new truck heading toward the mine.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. I hoped we had put enough distance between us and the mine.

  “Take cover!” I armed the detonator remote and pushed down on the trigger as the three of us ducked behind a rubble pile.

  Nothing happened. I peeked around back toward the mine entrance as the truck raced onward. No, I thought. We went through all our troubles. Marla had even given her life. It’s got to work!

  I reached for the detonator trigger again, but then an enormous blast erupted out of the entrance to the mine. Rocks flew far outward onto the compound’s sandy basin floor. A cloud of dust surrounded what used to be the mouth of the mine.

  A second blast blew more rocks out of the mouth and then the face of the hill collapsed down onto the shaft, burying it.

  The next thing I knew the ground rumbled below my feet. The whole hill next to us vibrated. It felt as if I was back on Riva Lontana during one of its quakes. Everything shook, and dust rose up into the air all around the hill.

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.

  “Move it!” I screamed.

  We jumped ahead as a small boulder, dislodged by the shaking, rolled past behind us. It smashed into and demolished a storage shed before coming to a stop.

  “What do we do? Shit! I wish Marla were here,” Enceladus moaned. I saw in that moment just how much the group had depended on Marla. And now she was gone.

  “Well, she’s not, so it’s up to us,” I said. “Follow me.” I headed toward the fence in the gap between the hills.

  “Where’re you leading us?” Enceladus asked, following. Drummer and Amerigo were right behind.

  “We’re gonna steal that ship,” I replied.