by Mark Harritt
“What are you grinning at?” Ken asked.
Mike pointed toward Rieci, “I knew a retired sergeant major that could describe sexual relations that were not even remotely, anatomically feasible, and knew how to curse descriptively in six languages, and I don’t think even he could hold a candle to Rieci.”
He turned to look at Ken, “Hell, it makes me nostalgic for my days at Fort Benning’s school for wayward boys.”
Ken looked confused, “Excuse me?”
Mike smiled at Ken and clapped him on the shoulder, “Sorry, Infantry School.”
Ken nodded slowly, clearly not understanding Mike’s reference.
Mickey’s voice sounded in Mike’s ear, “Hey, Mike, can you come over here? I got somethin’ you outta see.”
“Sure, Mickey, I’ll be right over.”
“Everett, Tom, you need to come over as well.”
Now Mike was curious. He listened as Everett and Tom gave their assurances that they’d be right there. Mike walked over to Ken and Rieci, and told them that he would be right back, and to make sure that things were well with the men. The last thing they needed was for one of the recruits to forget to put their weapon on safe and accidently shoot someone. Mike watched as Rieci and Ken moved through the recruits to check and make sure their safeties were engaged. Once they saw what Rieci was doing, his squad leaders and team leads started checking on the men as well.
Mike turned away from the plus sized platoon and started walking toward Mickey’s team. He moved quietly and with purpose. The last thing he wanted was to accidently get shot by one of his own men while the village area was in their control.
“Hey, Mickey, I’m headed your way. Let your men know I’m coming.”
“Roger Mike. No problems. They already know you’re headed this way. Just holler before you come in. I’ve got some glow sticks out, and I have my flashlight on without the red lens. You’ll see me long before they see you.”
Mickey was as good as his word. As soon as Mike saw the white light of the flashlight, he yelled out that he was coming in, speaking in English and Contai so that they wouldn’t shoot him. He walked through their lines, not comfortable until he was past the outer perimeter. He walked toward the white light to see Mickey there with Everett. Mike walked up to them, “What’s up?”
Mickey was squatting down next to the corpse of one of the enemy soldiers. He pointed at the corpse, “It looks like we got new players in town.”
Mike moved to the corpse to check it out. As he walked, he heard Tom yelling that he was coming in. Mike walked closer, and noticed a smell of decay.
“Damn,” he thought, “Either that thing started rotting fast, or he didn’t take many showers.”
Mike walked over, and stood next to Everett to look down at the dead soldier. The first thing that Mike did was check out the kit that the soldier was wearing. The corpse was outfitted with a combat vest that had multiple pouches across the torso for extra magazines, and other munitions that looked like grenades. There was a nasty looking serrated knife on it.
Mike leaned forward to thump the chest of the vest. The chest was solid, with what seemed to be an armored carapace under the cloth of the vest. The helmet was functional as well, with a visor that dropped across the upper part of the face. All of his equipment was covered in a camouflage pattern that blended well with the local foliage. The kit was well maintained, but Mike could tell that it had seen some hard use.
He looked at the rifle and noticed something unusual. The end of the barrel didn’t have a hole in it. Instead, there seemed to be some sort of glassine window on the end. He dug at one of the magazine holders on the vest until he was able to pull a magazine out. The magazine was heavy, but it didn’t have any bullets in it. There was a polymer cap that he popped off. There were flat electrical connectors underneath. It was a battery, not a magazine. It was some kind of energy weapon.
He took in the physical characteristics of the dead soldier. The face was incredibly different than any other hominid species that he’d encountered. The skin was dark brown shading to green although there were yellow patches scattered across the features. Mike couldn’t tell if that was the natural color of its skin, or if it had been painted. Part of the head was gone, which was probably the reason Mike was looking at a corpse instead of a live soldier. There was one eye left, dark and small under a heavy brow. The most interesting thing about the dead hominid, if it was one, was the hard beak that was in place of the nose. It looked like the beak you would see on a turtle, extending down to cover the lips of the mouth, which were purple and fleshy.
“Is that part of his face?” Mike asked.
Mickey put his hand down on the corpse’s chest and leaned forward to grasp the beak and tried to shift it from side to side.
Tom walked up at that moment, looked at the corpse that Mickey was wrestling with, and stated, “That is one ugly bastard.”
Mickey let go of the face and leaned back, “Yeah, I think that’s part of his physiology.”
Mike looked at the corpse, “I want to find out who this guy is. We need to take the corpse back to the head shed and see what they can tell us about him. Grab him and his kit. Hopefully, they can give us a better idea of what we’re up against. I want to know what those weapons are capable of.”
Tom shook his head, “Damn he’s ugly.”
----------------------------------------------------
Chapter Five
Since Mickey’s team got the kill, they got the pleasure of carrying the corpse to the landing zone. A quick call brought the transport in thirty minutes. The teams quickly moved onto the aircraft, and the three malcontents got to carry the corpse onto the shuttle. Mike, Everett, Mickey and Tom waited for everyone to get on and then took their preferred seats next to the ramp, with Mike and Everett sitting on one side of the ramp, and Mickey and Tom on the other.
Throughout the cabin, the Contai soldiers were congratulating each other on a job well done. Everett hit Mike’s arm with the back of his hand and inclined his head toward the celebration, “Sounds like they won the war.”
Mike looked down the center of the aircraft, everything painted in the soft green light.
Mike shook his head, “They’ll learn. When their buddy gets hit and doesn’t make it back, they’ll understand.”
Everett looked at Mike, “Damn Mike, what’s wrong with you tonight?”
Mike looked down at the corpse. Too soon for rigor, the body was still relaxed. He watched the head of the corpse roll around with the movement of the aircraft. Blood puddled under the shattered head.
Suddenly, the weight of the world settled on Mike’s shoulders. He’d been playing the game since he was eighteen years old. He’d gone to the Ranger Battalion and then he’d gone down range as a private first class to fight. He’d made staff sergeant with the Rangers and then he’d gone into Special Forces. Soon after, he went into the warrant officer program, and as a CW2, he’d been selected for Delta.
Five years in the Rangers, most of the time in Iraq. Six years in Special Forces, most of it in Afghanistan. Six more years in Delta, mostly spent in Central and South America, killing Hezbollah and other shit heads that wanted to harm American citizens. Now, he’d been here for two years, fighting monsters he’d never dreamed off. Fighting alien humans, descendants of his world. Nineteen years spent killing. After years of loading his friends on medevacs and wondering why he’d survived and they hadn’t, he’d been able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He was going to retire, get his Master’s degree in mathematics and possibly teach. He and Jo were going to raise kids. That was never going to happen now. He’d never know peace.
Mike looked at Everett, and pointed at the corpse, “It’s never going to stop.”
Everett looked at the corpse, and then back at Mike, “What do you mean?”
Mike frowned, “It’s never going to fucking stop, Everett.”
Everett looked concerned, “You okay, Mike?”
Mike ran his hand t
hrough his hair, “Fuck, I honestly don’t know.”
“What’s wrong?”
Mike motioned around the cabin, “Everything is wrong. We’ve fought monsters. I mean, big fucking dragons. We’ve fought aliens. And now, there’s another alien here. We’ve won so far, but it’s not going to stop. They’re going to keep sending more people after us, until they’ve found us, and killed us.”
Everett stared at Mike, “Damn Mike, what’s wrong?”
Mike leaned forward, and put his face in his hands, sighed, and then he leaned back, “I guess it’s the pregnancy. Jennifer’s going through a tough time, and now it seems like she’s right. This world is going to throw everything it can at us until it punches our ticket.”
Everett reached up and clapped his hand down on Mike’s shoulder, “I’m telling you, Mike. It’s the baby. Don’t let all of this,” Everett pointed at the corpse, “Get you down.”
Mike held his hands up, “Oh, no, don’t get me wrong. I’m the happiest guy in the world. It’s just got me to thinking.”
Everett nodded, “Yeah, kids do that.”
Mike turned to Everett, “How the hell do you do it, Everett?”
“Do what?”
“Your girls, Sam and Becky. Joe and my baby. They weren’t safe on Earth. They were killed in a nuclear war, for God’s sake. And you’ve got a new baby on the way. How the hell do we keep them safe, Everett?”
Everett leaned back, his hands on his knees, “I don’t know, Mike. I’m making this up as I go.”
Mike shook his head, “I’m tired of it. Jen’s freaking out about me leaving the compound. And I can’t say I blame her. Plus, I keep thinking about Jo. I’m fucking afraid that the same things going to happen. I’m afraid that I’m going to leave, and something’s going to happen to Jennifer.”
Everett was sympathetic, but he didn’t have any answers for Mike, “Honestly, Mike, I don’t know what to tell you. It sucks. I know it sucks.”
He looked across the cabin at all the happy faces, ecstatic in their first victory, their first strike back at their hated enemy, “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. If we can get them trained so that they can defend themselves, then they don’t need us out there fighting for them anymore. When they get some experience under their belt, then they can go out and train the other Contai. And hopefully, they can build their army, and fight off the Sjurai.” He paused, to look back at Mike, “After that, hopefully we can live out our lives in peace, raise our families, and not have to worry about dying in some God forsaken place trying to defend some village filled with people we don’t know.”
Mike looked at the faces of the Contai, “Still, I know that I have to help them. After what we saw …”
Everett nodded, “Yeah, I couldn’t face myself in the morning if we didn’t try to help them. I keep thinking about the children, and what those bastards did to them.”
Mike grimaced, “I guess there’s no easy answer for us, is there?”
Everett shook his head, “No, there isn’t.”
Mike looked at Everett, “The worst part is, Jen thinks I’d rather be out here doing this than back there with her. She thinks I don’t love her as much as I like going out to fight.”
Everett smiled, “No, that’s not what’s going on.”
Mike’s brow furrowed, “What do you mean?”
Everett chuckled, “Jen’s a smart woman. She knows how much she means to you. She also knows how much the baby means to you. What’s happened to her is exactly what you’re doing right now.”
Mike’s face screwed up with a look of consternation on it, “What am I doing?
Everett grinned, “Thinking too damn much, that’s what you’re doing.”
Mike stared at Everett, clueless.
Everett smiled, “Think about it. What’s changed?”
Mike thought, “Jen’s pregnant?”
Everett nodded, “What else?”
Mike shook his head, “Nothing. Everything’s the same. Except maybe for that.” He pointed at the corpse.”
Everett looked over at the corpse, “I don’t see any difference between that corpse and all the other corpses we’ve put into the ground.”
Mike shrugged, “I guess you’re right.”
“Oh, I know I’m right, Mike. Nothing’s changed. Just some more bad guys that have, or are about to, cross the wrong damn mean ass bastards. Nothing’s changed. We just have to make sure that we’re meaner, smarter, and better prepared than they are. We kill them until they decide, ‘Hey, since these bad ass sons of bitches keep killing us, maybe we should leave them alone.’ Then,” Everett paused to point his finger at Mike, “You get to go home to your beautiful wife, and eventually, your little baby as well. So, not a damn things changed.” He hooked his thumb toward the Contai, “And, when we’re done with them, and get them on the track to being the biggest, baddest, meanest fuckers around, you and I,” Everett paused to lean back and put his hands behind his head, “go on vacation, with the few occasional students to teach.”
Mike laughed, “Well, I certainly hope you’re right, Ev. Jen was getting inside my head. She had me half convinced that I couldn’t live without this shit.” Mike paused, and then he looked at Everett, “Ev, you know, if something happens to me …”
“Oh no, you cut that shit out right now, Mike. Nothin’s gonna to happen to you.”
“But, if it did.”
Everett looked at Mike, a very serious expression on his face, “I’d help raise your baby like he was my very own. I’d make sure that he knew who his daddy was, and how much his daddy loved him.”
Mike exhaled a ragged breath, “Thanks Ev. I needed to hear that.” Mike thumped Everett in the thigh, “And the same goes for you, man. I’d make sure that your kid has everything he needs.”
Everett leaned back, closing his eyes, “You’re damn right you would, otherwise I’d come back and haunt your ass.”
Mike laughed.
At that moment, a skin of arrack made its way into Everett’s hands. He shuddered as he smelled the fumes, “Jesus, who the hell smuggled this on board.”
Mike smiled, “I don’t think they ever travel without it. ‘For medicinal purposes,’ I think is what Caul likes to say.”
Mike heard a yell from across the cabin. Mickey was grinning at them, “Drink some, you pussies, then pass it over here.”
Mike looked over at Mickey, and then around the cabin. There were a lot of faces staring back in anticipation.
Mike looked at Everett with a grin, on his face, “Hair of the dog that bit you.”
Everett frowned at Mike, “Easy for you to say. It was a big, damn dog that bit me.”
Everett paused, as if he was gathering his strength, then he upended the skin and took a deep drink. The cabin exploded with the sound of enthusiastic shouts, trying to get Everett to keep drinking. He was onto that trick though, and wasn’t falling for it again. The skin came down, and Everett wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He passed the skin over to Mike. Mike took it and looked at it with trepidation.
Everett pushed the skin closer to Mike, “Oh no, you don’t get a pass.”
Everett looked back at the crowd, and raised his hands to get them to quiet down a little bit, “Hey, everyone! Quiet down, quiet down.” As they grew quiet, Everett looked back at Mike, with a questioning look in his eye.
Mike nodded, “Yeah, go ahead.”
Everett turned to the group, “I’ve got some great news. Mike’s going to be a Daddy!”
There was a roar from Mickey as the information sank in. He unbuckled his safety belt and launched across the cabin. Mike thought Mickey was going to rip him out of his seat, and was pretty sure the bruises on his arms from Mickey congratulating him wouldn’t go away for a month or more. Tom started singing the lyrics to ‘My Front Porch, Lookin’ In,’ “There's a carrot top who can barely walk, with a sippy cup of milk. A little blue-eyed blonde, with shoes on wrong, 'cause she likes to dress herself …”
; After that, Mike didn’t have a choice. He had to take a drink of Arrack. And another. Then just one more. Finally, he forcefully handed the skin to one of the Contai, a new recruit from Althus’ village. The wine traveled around the cabin until it was gone, then, miraculously, another one appeared. Caul drank several toasts to Mike, and his new boy. The Contai started singing songs about Mike’s virility. Mike didn’t know if it was a tradition of theirs for new fathers, or if they were just trying to make him blush. Mike was grateful that they had so many people in the transport, because he didn’t think he’d stay sober if there weren’t. Hell, even with this many, he wasn’t sure if he’d stay sober.
Finally, the transport descended through the mists, using radar to find the box canyon. The aircraft landed, and as the ramp started lowering, Mike tried to stand up. He had to put his hand on the wall of the cabin to steady himself. He wasn’t the only one that had trouble walking down the ramp without stumbling, though.
----------------------------------------------------
The warning came early in the morning. For Taectis, it came in the form of Fancheion banging on the door to her room. At first, she didn’t understand what was happening. She only knew that she had a warm cocoon of mud around her, and that she wanted to sleep longer. The banging continued until she was awake enough to make the decision to climb out of the bath.
“Hold on, I’m coming. Let me put some clothes on!”
Taectis sluiced the warm mud off of her body. Immediately, she felt her skin drying. She sighed, wishing that she could be back in the swamps of her homeland. It would be many more years before she was able to go back home, though. Presently, though, that road started with her finding out why Fancheion was banging on her door.
She had an idea that she knew what it was. She knew that Gemthis had been slated to go out on mission with the Turinzoni tonight. It had been explained to the commander on the ground that Gemthis was there to ‘familiarize’ himself with operations in the area, and the Turinzoni tactics against the local primitives. He’d gone, knowing that in all likelihood, that he was never coming back. Such was the price of regaining his honor.