Invasion (The K'Tai War Series Book 1)

by PP Corcoran

  Settling her rifle in her shoulder so it was as steady as a rock, Sue tapped a small button on the side of the weapon’s sight. Panning left to right, she took in the entire brutal scene. The electronics of her weapon dutifully recorded what she was seeing and downloaded it on to the weapon’s integrated chip. Filming complete, Sue ejected the small chip and ensured it was safely stowed in her breast pocket. Someday, somehow, the evidence of what had happened here would see those responsible pay for their crimes. In silence, Sue and DeWitt moved on from the burnt-out farm and the grisly, mutilated corpses. By the look on the marine’s hardened face, he too struggled to control his fierce hatred and anger which threatened to burst from him.

  The pair had only managed to cover a bare two kilometers more before the air was tinged with a smell that filled Sue with new dread. DeWitt held up a balled fist and Sue froze in place at his silent command. She rapidly scanned the immediate area for potential threats. The waist-high grass held nothing obvious, though Sue couldn’t see over the gently rising hillock they’d been heading for. DeWitt tapped his ear with a finger and Sue’s own hearing strained to make out the sound that caused him to halt. Carried on the same gentle breeze on which she had first detected the faint whiff of smoke, Sue could make out the steadily increasing whine of repulsor units. DeWitt jogged forward a few paces before flinging himself flat and poking his head over the rise. Extending an arm, he gave a thumbs-down signal. Sue recognized it immediately. Enemy! She ran forward and joined DeWitt, cautiously raising her head just enough so she could see over the rise. The cold running down her spine had nothing to do with the damp earth she now lay prone on.

  Before her, the rise dropped away into a green, lush valley. Nestled at the base of the valley was a farmhouse and what looked like a couple of animal sheds, with a larger barn set off to one side. Grounded by the barn were two ugly, box-shaped K’Tai troop transports, smaller than those Sue had destroyed at the Calley Mine; Sue estimated these ones probably carried a dozen or so troops each.

  Those numbers were confirmed as her gaze settled on a group of figures clustered around the front of the farmhouse. Sue focused in on them and the distant group jumped into stark reality, as the M89’s optics automatically ranged the distance and set the correct focal length. Sue counted ten K’Tai, eight wearing form-fitting black head-to-toe armor, faces completely concealed, pulse rifles plainly visible but, oddly, held rather slackly. In front, and from what Sue could see, in charge were two more K’Tai. These two, however, were wearing snow-white armor, and their blue skinned faces were uncovered for the world to see. Against the wall of the farmhouse, huddled together, were three humans. Through the powered optics, Sue could easily make out a rotund, red-faced man in his late thirties. He had a protective arm wrapped around a shorter, blonde-haired woman, and between the two adults crouched an obviously terrified teenage girl, shoulders shaking as she pressed her tearful face into her father’s chest. The sounds of indistinguishable shouting came from the barn, and Sue swung the sight over to get a better look, just as several more black-clad K’Tai emerged. This time their pulse rifles were held in a more purposeful manner, for they were escorting prisoners. Sue counted eight green and brown clad men, arms raised, hands clasped on the tops of their heads.

  “Shit! That’s Sergeant Ciesla down there. I’d recognize his ugly face anywhere,” whispered DeWitt. “He’s a slippery son of a bitch, so if they’ve caught him, it means the rest of his platoon is already either dead or in the bag.”

  The captured marines and their K’Tai escort made their way over to where the farmer and his family were being held. Sue was about to suggest she and DeWitt move on when fresh shouts erupted from the farm. They were too far away to hear what was going on, but the enhanced view provided by her weapon’s optics showed one of the white armored K’Tai was in an extremely heated discussion with another K’Tai, this one dressed in black. The K’Tai in black still had his armored helmet on, so his face was not visible, but the other K’Tai’s face was screwed up in obvious anger and he was using an outstretched finger like a weapon to poke the armored chest of the unmoving K’Tai in black.

  DeWitt was as confused by what he was watching as Sue, evident by his mumbled “What the fu…” Whatever her companion was going to say, it died in his throat as the white armored K’Tai suddenly spun on his heel, withdrawing his pistol from its holster as he did. Three sharp single cracks echoed off the shallow valley walls as the farmer, his wife, and their daughter dropped to the ground. The creeping red pool of their lifeblood spread slowly over the rich fertile ground.

  For a heartbeat nothing happened; then, with a bellow of rage, Ciesla charged forward. Following their sergeant’s lead, the other marines charged. Their guards were as stunned by the unexpected turn of events as the marines, but they were highly trained soldiers just like the marines, and if they reacted slightly slower than their prisoners, then it didn’t really make a difference, for they had pulse rifles and the marines had only their bodies. Sue forced herself to keep watching as Ciesla body-tackled the nearest K’Tai and they both went down in a tangle of arms and legs. The split second it had taken the other marines to react was enough to seal their fate. Pulse rifles fired in unison and the marines were torn apart as hundreds of ceramic darts traveling at supersonic speeds ripped into them. Ciesla was on the ground, still fighting with a K’Tai he had somehow managed to pin down, the sergeant’s fists pumping hit after hit on the black armored helmet. The useless struggle ended abruptly as the butt of a pulse rifle crashed down on Ciesla’s head, knocking him out cold.

  The white armored K’Tai, pistol still out, stalked over to the unconscious Ciesla, his intended purpose clear. Sue blinked rapidly to clear her vision as her right index finger flexed once, coming to rest gently on the trigger of her rifle. Letting out a long breath, she centered the red dot of her weapon’s sights on the head of the pistol-wielding K’Tai. The M89’s internal electronics, sensing the pressure on its trigger, automatically ranged the distance to target, offset for cross wind and cycled the appropriate round and power requirements. The dot in the aiming reticule went from red to green in under a second. The weapon was ready to fire and Sue never missed.

  DeWitt noticed the steadying of Sue’s breathing, and the way she settled the rifle into her shoulder could only mean one thing. Sue was going to kill that murdering son of a bitch, and that was fine by him. The marine brought his own weapon up, because when Sue took out her target all hell was going to break loose.

  Without warning, he was deafened by the high-pitched whine of repulsors, as two aero fighters escorting a single troop carrier screamed past at almost zero feet. The itchy feeling and disorientation as the repulsor field passed over them caused both their fingers to come off their triggers. The arrival of the carrier and its escort obviously came as a surprise to the K’Tai at the farm, as the black-clad soldiers rushed to form a perimeter, leaving only one of their number, the one that had argued with the farmer’s murderer, standing over the still form of Sergeant Ciesla. The white-armored K’Tai with his pistol hanging by his side took a step back, and as the carrier grounded, he replaced the pistol in its holster.

  DeWitt placed a hand on the barrel of Sue’s rifle, lowering it. “If we take him now, we have zero chance of getting out of here with our skins intact,” he said levelly.

  Sue raised her eye from the rifle’s optics and warily regarded the two sleek aero fighters slowly circling overhead. Grudgingly she removed her finger from the trigger. The face of a single K’Tai burned into her memory. “Yeah, you’re right. His time will come. Let’s get out of here.”

  #

  The sight that greeted Lady Kara, commander of the Black Legion, as her booted foot crunched on the hardcore road upon which her command carrier had touched down nearly caused her normally confident stride to falter. She sent a silent thanks to her Valan bodyman Jolel as he easily sidestepped, placing his body directly between her and the smug-looking face of a Kem Tak ‘office
r,’ hiding her first, faltered step. Recovering quickly, she steeled herself as her long legs carried her over the distance between them in moments. Halting by the unmoving body of, by his uniform, a human marine, Kara pointedly ignored the bowed head of the two Kem Tak soldiers, refusing to release them from the position of respect. Kara allowed her eyes to soak up the scene around her, feeling her anger grow as those same eyes lit upon the prone uniformed bodies of the human marines, their once mottled green and brown uniforms now stained red with blood. Her anger reached boiling point and it took all her effort to restrain herself as she took in the sight of the lifeless corpses of the farmer’s family, the parents having fallen on their child in a last desperate attempt to shelter her from the inevitable, while she addressed her first question to the Legion officer who commanded the detachment seconded to the Kem Tak.

  Rumors had reached Kara that units from the Legion were being used for what were euphemistically being called ‘clearance operations’. Having selected a unit currently assigned to the Kem Tak, Kara had wasted no time setting out from her headquarters at Gemini City’s spaceport to find out the real aim of these operations. Kara had been unable to shake her discomfort with the Claviger’s orders to suborn nearly a quarter of the Legion’s fighting strength to Kem Tak control, and not only because those units were desperately needed to provide security for the numerous key strategic points within Gemini City, such as her own headquarters, power and utilities infrastructure, and the like. Add to that the drain on her available combat units, tied up protecting the numerous Redlazore mines with their associated refineries; the Legion also had the ongoing headache of hunting down those responsible for the upsurge in sabotage and attacks on K’Tai patrols.

  This, though…this was not the answer. Addressing the Legion officer who commanded the detachment seconded to the Kem Tak, she continued to pointedly ignore the two white-armored troops.

  “Report, section leader.” The words came out between gritted teeth and left the legionnaire in no doubt that he had better have a good explanation for what had happened here.

  Swiftly removing his helmet so Kara could see his sincerity, he began to speak, his chin firmly bowed in to his chest, eyes averted. “My lady, following reports of guerilla activity in this area…”

  A white-armored body stepped between Kara and the section leader. “I lead this operation, Lady Kara so it is only right that I…”

  Quicker than a striking snake, Kara’s gloved hand flashed out, the force of the slap as it struck him cleanly on the cheek sending him reeling back. Kara kept her eyes firmly locked on the section leader, but her icy words were aimed at the Kem Tak.

  “Another word from you and I will have you put down like the lowlife wellak that you are!”

  From his position, half kneeling in the dirt, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, Lady Kara’s verbal insult reverberated in his ears. Whether he considered his next action or not no one would ever know. His hand moved, the pistol came out of the holster, and it began rising in Kara’s direction. There was a single sharp crack and his head exploded, gray brain matter mingled with the pink mist of blood as the Kem Tak officer was propelled backwards by the single shot fired from Jolel’s pistol. The remaining Kem Tak officer looked from his prostrate comrade’s body to the emotionless, red-skinned features of Jolel, whose weapon was now trained in his direction. Wordlessly, the K’Tai moved his hands ever so slowly clear of his holstered weapon.

  “Section leader, I am waiting.” Kara spoke as if nothing had just happened.

  The section leader swallowed to wet a suddenly dry throat; he was no coward and had seen his fair share of action and the shock of unexpected violence, but the casual way that Lady Kara’s bodyman had dispatched a Kem Tak officer, of all people, had left him a bit shell shocked.

  “We were close on the guerillas’ tail after picking up residual heat traces on our sensors. I deployed half my section to block their escape route toward the mountains while using the remainder to continue the pursuit.”

  “You were going to use your blocking force to pin them while you came at them from behind.”

  “Yes, my lady. For whatever reason, the humans must have guessed my plan, for they veered toward this farm and sought refuge in the outbuilding. We surrounded the building, but the humans were well-armed and we were taking casualties, so I decided to wait and placed a call for reinforcements.”

  Kara nodded her approval of his decision. “Sound tactics, section leader, please continue.”

  “The Kem Tak...” As the words came out, Kara could almost feel the disgust in the legionnaire’s voice. “Decided they did not want to wait. They ordered me to round up the farm’s occupants. When I had done so, the Kem Tak ordered the human soldiers to surrender or they would execute them.” By the way the section leader averted his eyes, Kara could tell he had not agreed with the Kem Tak’s methods. However, he was also obliged to follow their orders, something which Kara must bear part responsibility for. She should have fought harder to retain full control of her units instead of allowing the Claviger to browbeat her into suborning them to Commander Neras and his Kem Tak thugs.

  “I take it the human soldiers surrendered?”

  “Almost immediately, my lady. They came out of the building, unarmed, and I took them prisoner. That was when… when…”

  Kara completed the sentence for him, an accusing finger pointing toward the dead Kem Tak officer. “That sorry excuse for a life form killed them anyway?”

  The section leader simply nodded confirmation as at last he raised his eyes, and Kara could see the regret in them. “The soldiers went mad! Even though they had no weapons, they attacked us like rabid garaks. My men… they had no choice, my lady.” The section leader dropped to both knees, head bowed in supplication. Carefully he placed his pulse rifle to one side before drawing his Hadak offering it up to Kara, the curved blade of the knife glinting in the sun as he began to recite the age-old words from the Book of Rig. “As Rig teaches us, a leader is only such as long as he commands the respect of his warriors and defends the honor of his house. I have stained the honor of the Legion, my lady, so my life is forfeit. I ask only that my life’s blood is enough to wash clean the stain of dishonor.”

  As if by some unsaid command, the members of the section formed a circle around their kneeling section leader and Kara, forcing the sole Kem Tak officer to move backwards. Helmets were removed and all eyes looked toward the penitent man. Kara took the proffered Hadak deftly flicking it around in one hand so the curved blade was turned inward. Gently she placed her free hand under the man’s chin, pulling it upwards to expose his neck as she stepped behind him. Steadying herself, Kara settled the blade just below the section leader’s left ear. In one single, swift action she drew the blade across his neck, cutting deeply through arteries, windpipe and nerves. Bright red blood sprayed forth, covering those K’Tai who were unfortunate enough to be standing in its path, but none flinched. All eyes remained fixed, unblinking, on the section leader as Kara released her grip on his chin, allowing the body to slump to the ground. For an endless moment Kara joined the section, watching wordlessly the final involuntary twitches before his body went still.

  “Who is this man’s second?” Kara demanded.

  Stiffly a man stepped forward; blood soaked his legs and upper body, for he had been standing directly in front of the section leader, as was his place.

  Kara held out the Hadak to him. “Take this and use it well, for it belonged to a true warrior of Rig. His sacrifice has regained his and your honor.”

  Taking the blade like it was the most precious artifact of Rig, the warrior gave a curt nod to his fellows, who gathered tightly around their fallen commander. Kara and Jolel moved away, allowing them to mourn in private. To one side stood the remainder of Kara’s retinue, standing warily over the still unconscious human marine.

  “See the human is secured aboard my carrier and treat him well, for he is under the protection of the Legion n
ow.” They sprang to obey as Jolel spoke barely loud enough for Kara to hear.

  “My lady, the Kem Tak will not like this. Standing orders are for captured guerrilla fighters to be handed over to them for… interrogation. Do we need to…” The Valan tilted his head toward the dead Kem Tak officer. “Antagonize Commander Neras and the Claviger further?”

  “As always, Jolel, your council has merit.” Kara beckoned the Kem Tak officer over; any pompous sense of righteousness and self-importance he may have had previously were no longer on show.

  “My lady?”

  “This human and his comrades wear military uniform, do they not?”

  The Kem Tak officer’s confusion was evident in his voice. “Eh, yes, my lady, I believe they do.”

  “If they are in uniform, then they cannot possibly be guerrillas, can they?” This came out more as a statement of fact than a question.

  “Indeed, my lady.”

  “Therefore, the human is a prisoner of war and his disposal falls under the remit of the Black Legion.”