After dressing the cuts Cornelius looked around, frowning. “It’s going to get dark, and soon. We need to find someplace to shelter before then.”
“And how are we going to do that?” said Katlyn, a hopeless expression on her face.
“We head for some rocky area and look for caves,” said the farmer, looking around the forest. Two of the dogs were actively sniffing their dead comrades, while another two started biting chunks out of the dead carcasses of the carnivores. Cornelius doubted the meat tasted all that good, but the dogs were pragmatists, and would eat while they could.
Suddenly all the dogs went to alert, ears pinned back, hair standing on their backs. Cornelius hissed and gave them a hand signal, then slid a new magazine in his rifle. His eyes scanned the woods in the direction the dog’s muzzles were pointing. Katlyn knelt beside him, her own weapon ready, fear and anxiety playing across her face.
“Ho,” yelled out a voice from the near trees. “I’m human. I’m coming in, so don’t shoot.”
Cornelius kept his weapon ready until he saw that it was indeed human, a woman of average height dressed in clothing that blended her in with the jungle. A pistol was holstered on her side, and a rifle was slung over her shoulder, while she presented both open hands.
“We heard the firing and came to see if we could help,” said the woman, lowering her hands as Cornelius lowered his rifle, then pushed Katlyn’s down.
“Where did you come from?” asked Cornelius, while the dogs ran over to the woman with tails wagging.
“We have a Freehold about an hour’s walk from here,” said the woman, making a hand gesture. A trio of women came out of the jungle, dressed and armed similarly to the first. “Me and the girls were out on a patrol when we heard you shooting. Looks like you ran into a pack of Jakelodons. Lucky you had the dogs to warn you.”
“Yes, it was,” said Cornelius, looking at the hard looking but not unattractive women. “Where are your men?”
“They’re out hunting Cacas,” said the woman who seemed to be the leader, slightly older than the other three. “Why don’t you come along with us and we’ll shelter you for the night, or maybe longer if you can prove useful to us.”
“That sounds wonderful, Cornelius,” said Katlyn, standing up and getting wide eyed looks from the women.
“You shouldn’t have brought her out here in her condition,” said the leader.
“I really had no choice,” said the farmer, looking back the way they came. “The Cacas were going to kill everyone they could find, and I didn’t think our basement would be enough of a deterrent.”
“Good point,” said the leader, looking over Katlyn. She looked back at Cornelius. “And you were a soldier?”
“Not much of one,” said Cornelius, shaking his head. “I was in the militia, and we got our asses kicked.”
“Looks like you did OK here,” said the woman, walking over to the body of a Jakelodon and giving it a kick. “My name’s Becky, by the way,” said the woman, walking back over to the couple and holding out a hand that Cornelius grasped. “Becky Sutton. My husband Bradford is the leader of the Freehold. We’re not real big, even though we’ve been here for quite some time.”
Moments later they started through the jungle to the Freehold, the three other women watching carefully. Cornelius kept his dogs close at the suggestion of Becky. They went slow enough for Katlyn to keep up, and the woman kept looking at his wife with a concerned expression.
“Now watch your dogs,” said Becky, holding up a hand to halt the party. “We got some guardians here they really don’t want to tangle with.”
“Guardians? Like what?” asked Cornelius, holding onto the straps he had leased the dogs with, just before a brown furred creature reared up and looked them over. He heard a grunt and another looked from behind a tree, then a third. The creatures were massive, the one standing at least four meters tall, and it had to weigh over a ton. Cornelius felt a shiver of fear as he looked at the creatures, things out of the primordial nightmares of man when he only had spears to protect himself. The dogs started to bark and pull forward, then thought better of it when one of the other animals growled.
“They’re modified Kodiaks,” said Becky, walking up to one of the bears and putting out a hand for it to sniff. The bear snuffled for a moment, then leaned into the woman while she gave it some hard pats on the shoulders. “They do much better out here than dogs, or even large modified cats. My husband and I raise them, and sell them to other Freeholders.”
“They’re not dangerous,” said Katlyn, looking with wide eyes at the bears.
“Hell yes, they’re dangerous,” said one of the other women. “Unless they see you as part of the family.”
“And if you stay we’ll have to get them used to you,” said Becky, leading the way into the fenced in area that was the center of the Freehold.
“You don’t farm?” asked Cornelius, looking over the several outbuildings that blended into the woods.
“We have some farming lands,” said Becky with a nod, looking at Katlyn again. “But it’s too exposed at a time like this.” Becky walked over to a large pen that was empty except for some bowls. “You can keep the dogs in here for now. Once we get them acclimated to being around the bears you can let them roam. The bears already know what dogs are, and won’t harm them as long as they don’t mess with the cubs. And the cubs are in a secure den.”
“I appreciate what you’re doing for us,” said Cornelius. “We’ll just stay the night and move on in the morning.”
“You may have to stay longer than that,” said Becky with an enigmatic smile.
That evening Katlyn went into labor.
* * *
“Why did it have to be a world like this?” asked Officer of Scouts Hrenderixilix, glaring back at the jungle they had just walked out of. A jungle that sprouted new terrors at every step. “And those cursed humans. Why don’t they come out and fight like males?”
“Because they know they would get whipped in a stand up fight,” said the officer’s chief underofficer. “Because they are too smart to do so.”
“Then curses on their damned smarts,” said the officer. “May it do them much good when we have sent them all to Hell.”
“I find this planet magnificent,” said the underofficer, pointing a claw at the grazing herbivores on the other side of the large open grasslands. “Where else could you see such creatures?”
“Yes, they are magnificent,” said the officer, who like all his kind had been raised with an appreciation of nature. He looked at the hundred or so massive herbivores, their long necks cropping the leaves from the trees on the edge of the small prairie. And the smaller but still massive species who in their hundreds grazed on the grass. “But I would rather enjoy this world as a tourist or new colonist, and not someone who must fight inhabitants who know it so much better than we.”
“It is all clear,” came a voice over the com, one of the advanced scouts.
“It is clear, my Lord,” said the officer on another circuit. Moments later a hundred Cacada had appeared in the open area, still spread out. They advanced to the center of the open area, and another hundred followed them from the jungle.
“We will take a break here for a half an hour,” said the company commander over the circuit. “Hrenderixilix, take your section and scout out the jungle on the other side.”
“Yes, my Lord,” said the officer, biting off the curse words he wanted to say. We always have to be on the move, while the other males can rest and relax. I should have requested a line platoon instead of the scouts, and ignored the talk of glory the assignment officer tagged this type of unit with.
“Get the males ready to move,” he said to the underofficer, who also suppressed a groan. “I know. But the lord and master has spoken.”
The underofficer gave a head motion of agreement. Both males knew what the penalty was for disobedience in the forces of the Empire, and neither would have wished that on their worst enemy.
<
br /> * * *
Colonel Samuel Baggett looked through his binoculars at the enemy forces in the small prairie before him. The man beside him nudged him in the side and pointed up the oblong area where about thirty of the Cacas were moving toward the jungle.
“We have something else planned for them,” said the man, the leader of this group of the Freehold Commandos, as they were taking to calling themselves.
Baggett nodded his head. He looked again on the field, and thought of what he could have done to the Cacas with a company of his own. But the purpose of this day’s work was to watch the Commandos in action. He had even left behind all of his own equipment except for an emergency transceiver and a weapon, and both of them were powered down. The Commandos carried no high tech equipment except for the same, and for this mission their transceivers were off.
“Will your people know when to set it off?” asked Baggett, still amazed that the Freeholders could operate without communications.
“They’re my family, my neighbors,” said the leader, Ted Clarke. “They’ll know what to do. Ah, it’s about to start.” The leader pointed to the mixed herd of herbivores that was now moving restlessly about.
Baggett had never thought of using animal pheromones as a weapon before. But he could see the logic of it. A pack of predators was being stirred up on the inside edge of the forest. Soon they would erupt in a murderous rage, against themselves and everything else that moved. And then the fun would begin.
The herd moved again, edging away from the forest and the scent of predator that was growing stronger. A big female trumpeted, then another, while the smaller bison like herbivores started lowing. And then it happened so fast that Baggett was not sure he was actually seeing it correctly, as thirty tons of carnivore came rocketing into the herd, followed by a dozen more.
“We call them Bearcats,” said the Commando Leader, pointing at one of the big animals taking a swipe at an eighty ton female herbivore, its claws striking in a splash of blood. Another of the big carnivores came in and the first one turned on it with another swipe.
Appropriate name, thought the Colonel, looking as one of the carnivores rocketed into the air and landed on the back of a sixty ton male herbivore. They were built much like stout cats on a massive scale, with heavy bodies and long curving fangs. Their coats were thick like that of a brown bear, with much the same coloration. And they looked like the worst nightmare the Colonel could imagine.
One male Jassanic Beast, the largest herbivores on the planet, and a couple of pseudo-bison were down, and the Bearcats were still drawing blood from one another. The leader had explained it earlier. They had used a mixture of hunting and mating pheromones to drive the carnivores mad. The chemicals had been mixed in the local lab, and were never secreted together in the wild. But now they were, and the confused carnivores were mad.
The mixed herd broke, heading away from the jungle’s edge and toward the center of the prairie. The carnivores broke with them, in a killing lust, wanting to take down prey and also wanting to avoid their pack mates as much as possible. And the mass of heavy bodies headed right for the resting places of the Ca’cadasan infantry.
* * *
Officer of Scouts Hrenderixilix turned when he heard the trumpeting sounds. Turned to see the huge carnivores attack the even bigger herbivores, then the whole mass of fighting beasts stampede toward the company it was his job to protect. But now he couldn’t see what he could do to protect them. Except.
“Get that heavy laser up, here,” he yelled to the crew of the one truly heavy weapon his lightly armed platoon possessed. “Set up and fire into the front of that mass of animals.”
The males moved quickly despite their shock. The males in the company were also reacting, though for many that reaction was to run directly away from the oncoming beasts. Some stopped and fired, knocking down one of the smaller herbivores here and there. Their shots seemed to be having no effect on the monster herbivores and their massive predators, and the officer did not see how mag rifle rounds could affect such masses of bone and muscle. And then his heavy weapon was set up, the crew firing. The beam, highlighted in the dust of the grassland but still nearly invisible in the sun, struck into the front ranks of the herbivores, cutting through legs like an infinitely sharp blade and dropping screaming, honking animals to the ground. He saw a particle beam from the company killed one of the biggest of the herbivores, then another kill a predator, and he thought for a moment that they might be able to stop this disaster in mid-track.
* * *
The commandos were ready for that response from the enemy. All of the people had heavy hunting style weapons, capable of sending a massive rounds on a flat trajectory over a long distance. There were also four of the heavy sniper rifles used by Imperial Special Ops. The Freeholders had come to this planet to live their own lives without too much outside interference. Being heavily armed with the best money could buy was part of that proposition. And many of the men and women had contacts that allowed them to get their hands on such weapons.
The four sniper rifles fired almost as one. Each put a twelve millimeter round into the air at three thousand meters per second, recoiling heavily into the shoulders of their firers despite the bipod legs that absorbed much of the force. The round itself was a shell of depleted Uranium surrounding a grabber unit and crystal matrix battery, with a miniature shaped charge in the nose. The distance to the targets was variable, but all the rounds hit with at least a fifteen thousand meter per second velocity, some much more. The two Cacada who were firing heavy weapons into the stampede went down with exploding helmets, as did the big male who seemed to be trying to rally the troops.
* * *
Officer of Scouts Hrenderixilix watched in horror as the laser gunner’s head disappeared in a cloud of red despite the helmet the male wore. A moment later the assistant died in a similar manner, then another of the crew. No one else made a move toward the weapon, which seemed to be a magnet of death. The officer looked up to see the stampede reaching the Cacada troops, outrunning the heavily armored troopers easily. There was very little firing going on, and what there was didn’t have much effect. Most of the males were simply running for their lives in a race they would lose.
The wave washed over them, and eighty ton herbivores crushed armored Cacada to the ground as if they were shelled insects. The smaller herbivores drove into warriors and lifted them from the ground, to fall underneath heavy hooves. And carnivores grabbed Cacada in their mouths, or raked them with claws. When that didn’t penetrate the armor they simply flung the males long distances, or reared up to bring all their weight down on the warriors.
The Cacada didn’t stand a chance, and in less than a minute the company was gone, less the score of survivors who made it into the jungle. And the sniper rounds had shown that the humans were present there. The officer doubted if any of those males would make it out alive. Then it was time to think about his own men.
“Underofficer. Get the men into the jungle. We need a rally point where we can call for extraction.”
The underofficer acknowledged, and soon they were all under cover, while the officer tried to contact help.
* * *
Baggett almost felt sorry for the Ca’cadasans. Almost. It was unbelievable seeing that mass of animals roll over the enemy infantry. And the commandos had shot down anyone who looked like they might be able to stop it. Have to find out how they got those weapons, thought Colonel. His soldiers had some, but not enough for this kind of warfare. And I have to remember to tell my own officers to watch out for situations like this, he thought, playing the image of an eighty ton herbivore crushing a Caca underfoot with each step in his mind. It could happen just as easily to us. But the Cacas didn’t include flight in their suits, which seemed kind of strange considering how advanced they were in so many other ways. Must be something from their past experience that made them forego that tech.
“And where are we going now,” he asked the Commando Leader, w
alking beside him through the jungle. He noted that the man was always looking, his eyes darting from foliage to overhead to ground, always on the lookout for danger. Lord knows I’ve lost some men in this mess to inattention, he thought, remembering how deadly this planet could be. He thought back to yesterday when they had come to the rescue of some civilians trapped by arboreal predators. Too late to save some thirty of them who had been torn apart for later consumption.
“We’re going to see the end of this group of Cacas,” said the man, looking over with a cold smile.
They stopped before a group of people, two men and a woman, who were crouched low and speaking. “They in the trap?” asked the leader.
“Walked right into it, easy as you please,” said the young woman, who had the coldest eyes the Colonel had ever seen.
“It started?”
“Not yet, but it can’t be long now,” said the leader. There were some yells in alien voices, and the young woman broke out into a laugh. “It’s started,” said the leader, nodding a head to the Colonel. “Give it a few more minutes and we’ll go have a look.”
The Colonel thought about that for a moment, his stomach turning. Have a look at what, he thought, imagining a horror.
* * *
Officer of Scouts Hrenderixilix settled himself into the crook of the tree roots, looking over his rifle at the path he expected the humans to come across. The rest of his platoon was nestled in tight around him. They may get us, he thought, but we’ll make them pay. He looked over the skull of a large animal that was also part of his cover. There were a lot of bones around here, and he wondered if it might be some kind of animal burial ground like he had heard of on other worlds. The bones had a half dissolved look to them, as if something corrosive had worked them over. Not something I need to be thinking about now. There were very real dangers in the humans out there in the jungle.
He had tried to contact HQ, but there had been too much static on the com. It had sounded like static generated by someone for the express purpose of keeping him from making contact. He still hoped they might be able to make it out of here, if they could hold out. HQ would have to send someone to see what happened to an entire company they lost contact with, wouldn’t they?
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm Page 20