Gunfire echoed down the street as William struggled forward. He turned a bend and saw women and children laying around the front of the building. The razor drones had struck.
Crow stood with his rifle to his shoulder and sidestepped into the doorway. His muzzle flash illuminated the dim interior showing several of the drones floating nearby. He backed out and around the corner. The others were waiting around the entrance.
“I’m out!” Crow called as he drew his sidearm.
“Call it,” Sebastien said, as he aimed his rifle at the door.
“Grenade?” Aleksandr asked as he clutched a dull sphere in his hand.
“Negative, still got civvies inside,” Crow said.
Selim sidestepped in front of the doorway and cracked off two shots. A whirring hiss panged out from the door. “On me,” he said to Leduc. He popped into the doorway and sidestepped with Leduc moving the opposite way. The rest of the crew followed suit.
By the time William reached the building, the firing had stopped. Vito was tending to a wounded woman while others writhed around him. He knelt down and pushed his hands against a fast bleeding wound just below a boy’s arm. It was Saul. “Vito! Get out the patches.”
The final supply of patches was all they had left. William knew if they used them now they’d have none for themselves.
“Tik! Bring the case!” Vito yelled. His eyes were focused on stopping the bleeding coming from the legs of the woman in front of him.
The soldiers and Marines exited the room and assisted with the wounded. Sebastien broke off with Crow and ran to inspect the truck and APC. Tik limped into the mess with one arm carrying the nanite patch case. Von Hess followed slowly behind.
“How could they do this?” Avi asked. He cradled a bloody child, the mother at his elbow, sobbing.
Vito stripped the case out of Tik’s arms and tore the case open. He dropped to his knees and slapped fresh patches on the most heavily wounded, while the less wounded wore the used patches pulled from the dead.
“The Sa’Ami use them,” Von Hess said. “I saw them on a drop on Tunis Prime. Anytime the civilians rallied to us, they would send in the razors. It took all of our drones to clear them out.”
“But why? Good god man, look at what they have done!” Eduardo said.
Von Hess shrugged. “They are not for military use. They are to keep a planet in fear.” He waved a hand around him. “They maim, and in a simply public manner. They find the largest group of unarmed people and strike.”
William brought Saul into a clear building and laid him down on a wool blanket. The wound was slick with a crimson sheen but the flow of blood had stopped. The nanites were working.
He walked outside and met Sebastien returning with Crow. Crow held three sets of pattern armor.
“Look what we found,” Crow said, as he hefted the clunky looking jacket and a trio of slender rifles.
William grasped a corner of the armor and was amazed at how light it was. “What is it made of?”
“They foam alloy and impregnate it with elastomers to grab onto projectiles. Nanites self repair it, expensive stuff, K743 make the best, but this looks Hun,” Sebastien said.
“Can we use it?”
“Oh yes, absolutely.”
William nodded. “Issue it. What of the truck and the rifles?”
“The truck is fine, well, as fine as that dinosaur is. That thing’s got to be eighty years-old. Rifles will work—not much ammo, though.” Crow dropped the vests and whistled. “Leduc, Aleksandr, get over here.” He handed the vests to the pair and saved the last for himself.
“Anything of the APC?” William asked.
“Cooked. It thermited when it was hit,” Sebastien said.
“Did they get a message out?”
“Unsure, but I’d say likely.”
William nodded. He had expected as much. “Did David survive?”
“He isn’t hurt,” Crow said.
“We’re taking these people with us,” William said. He looked at the two men for a reaction.
“They’re not our responsibility,” Sebastien said.
“The hell they’re not. They took us in, no fault of theirs that an APC showed up.”
“Why did an APC show up? He said it was a regular run,” Crow said.
William shrugged. “Patrol, who knows, but if it happens again we’ve got no way to hit them.”
“What do we do with these people? We need to move fast,” Sebastien said.
William nodded slowly. “We pack into that truck and drop them at the first town we come to. If anyone asks, they say they were held hostage.”
“I don’t like this, we need to move and now!”
Crow nodded. “I agree, we can’t move with these people in tow.”
“Then find a way,” William said. “Now.”
Sebastien looked at him with cold eyes. William held the gaze and fully expected the augment to slap him aside. Crow stood to the side and shook his head.
“We’ve got to go, now. If the VTOL is on the way, we’re screwed regardless,” Sebastien said, walking towards the building with the wounded.
William let out the tension he was holding inside and took a deep breath.
Crow noticed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go, we’ve got to get these people loaded.”
David protested along with the older women as they were herded into the truck. The wounded were gently laid down on beds of piled wool blankets. The painkillers had quieted all but the most severely wounded.
Vito sat in their midst. “We need to take it slowly, these wounds could open back up.”
Sebastien hauled himself up into the passenger position and stirred the sleepy reactor into action. William jumped onto the sideboard and tucked his sidearm into his jacket. The rust crinkled in his hand as he focused on holding on as the wobbly truck lurched forward.
“How far?” Selim called to the back of the truck. He sat in the driver seat. “How far, old man?”
David sat hunched with his head held low “Two hundred kilometers.”
“How far to the next town?”
“Fifty.”
Selim nodded and settled himself into the worn seat.
William turned to the sea for one last glimpse. The water stretched out northwards with a low line of puffball clouds racing south. Only the inky smoke from the APC broke the horizon. Another storm was coming from the north.
The green hills rose like gentle furrows as the crew and refugees meandered south. The weather slowly shifted from a drizzled horizon to a variety of blue sky and fluffy clouds. It all seemed vaguely odd and abandoned. Only a lonely spire broke the horizon. Below it a spreading carpet of small shrubs and scrubby trees.
* * *
Tik rode with eyes closed and teeth clenched. Her back still crunched and shooting pains ran down her legs when she walked. But what she hated most was the shame.
She was ashamed of being pulled, carried, lifted, assisted, helped, and—worst of all—she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. The feeling of being an invalid was against everything she had worked so hard for. To now be the ideal of a damsel burned her to the core.
She stole a glance at the men around her. Each was tired, worn, injured, and beat. Only the jockey was more mangled than her, bur he didn’t seem to mind being pulled. She reflected on that a moment and looked to the civilians. She turned her nose up at them.
“Tik, you okay?” Leduc asked.
“Yeah. Why, Corporal?”
“You look, hmm, uncomfortable.”
She looked back at him. She thought he was the one who looked uncomfortable with a frost blackened nose. “I’m doing fine.” She didn’t want, or need, anyone’s help.
The truck bounced over a slab of stone and the entire vehicle rocked. Tik braced her back and felt the crunching at the base of her spine. It took every bit of her concentration to keep the tears from streaming down. It passed like a subtle burn. And then something was on her lap.
/> A small girl, no more than four years-old, had climbed onto Tik’s lap. The tiny thing latched one hand into her jacket and squeezed Tik’s arm with the other. The girl’s face was against her chest with crystal blue eyes looking upward. Her eyes were the only thing that was clean.
Tik looked around quickly to the others in the truck. No one seemed to pay any mind to the little girl on her lap. She relaxed her back and felt the girl’s weight resting on her.
What should she say? Motherly thoughts didn’t come easy to her—she focused everything on being a Marine. “Who are you?” she asked in a quiet voice. Was that her voice? Shit, she thought, I sound like a sissy.
The little girl squeezed tighter and buried her face.
Tik looked down and slowly lay an arm over the little girl. It felt awkward at first, tense, unusual. She frowned slightly and shifted herself. The little girl tightened and gripped more. “It’s okay.” She relaxed her arm and drooped it over the little girl, squeezing her in.
The added weight made her back sore. The little girl looked up at her with eyes that said nothing. Tik looked down and nodded. She ran her hand through the little girl’s grubby hair and watched as her eyes fluttered and closed.
The vulnerability struck her as she realized that not long ago she was the one asleep. Her anger over being the invalid blinded her to the fact that she was the vulnerable one. She ran her hand over the girl’s cold cheeks and watched her sleep.
Avi smiled. “Nice kid.”
“Shut the fuck up. I’ll come over there and shove my boot so far up your dumb fucking ass that your teeth will scrape the sheep shit out of my soles.” She glared at Avi. “You’ll wake her up. Now piss off.”
Avi grinned back at her. “I knew you were feeling better. A proper Marine.” He nodded and closed his eyes.
Tik looked down and watched the child sleep until the sleep came for her, too.
* * *
The truck had the unfortunate tendency to bounce with any bump of significance. The bounce would amplify until the wheels would nearly hop off the ground. Selim had to slow to nearly a crawl before starting forward once more. Every lurch brought the cries of the wounded.
William turned and looked into the back of the truck. His crew, he thought. Were they really his crew? He felt a nagging desire to ask each and every one about his command but quickly tossed the idea aside. He needed to stand tall—if not for their sake, definitely for his own.
A set of eyes caught William’s attention. Saul. The boy was looking up from the gray blanket right at him. The nasty wound looked congealed but not set. He suddenly had an odd envy, he didn’t even have scars from his ordeals as a child.
“Mr. Grace, explain to me what the plan is?” Selim said. His hands were tight on the ancient worn steel steering wheel.
“We drop the civilians off at the next town.”
“Then?”
William looked to the civilians. “If there’s only a company, we might be able to rally the folks in town.”
Selim’s eyes were hard and dark. “Why in the fuck would we do that? We need to get off the planet.”
“Because what better diversion than starting a revolt?”
Selim narrowed his eyes and squinted. “Go on.”
“We don’t have the ammunition to engage a company of mercenaries, regardless of how fat and out of shape they are, so we need to use it wisely.” William gripped tightly as another dip lurched the truck. “Once we stir the pot, we can hit the mercs with a riot while we seize the elevator. If they succeed, then better for all of us.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They will,” David answered strongly. His back was against the cab and his eyes closed.
“How do you know?” Selim asked over his shoulder.
“My son works in a refinery, no one wants to do it anymore, but the options are a bit thin. Things have been a bit tense as of late. Quotas up and the beatings as well.”
“Who are you, old man?” Selim asked.
David smiled with thin lips and nodded. “I was a Councilor—the Councilor. I ran the Colony, my grandfather was Redmond, so I get some votes for that. I also, unfortunately, agreed to let them land.”
“Redmond?” Vito said. “Is his tomb in the Capital?”
David looked confused a moment. “No, he left. Supposedly back to Earth.”
Vito blinked and took his turn as the confused party.
“So you let the mercs land?” William asked.
“At that point it was engineers, they offered work, medicine, things we didn’t have.”
“Hmph,” Selim snorted.
“Don’t judge me,” David turned and yelled up front, “we live in the shadow of what our forefathers were.”
“Enough. How many refineries are there?”
David turned to William. “Maybe two hundred, the raw ore is extracted from the south and shipped north. From there the stamp mills break it up and the refineries in the city extract the raw metals, while the main refinery purifies it.”
“Two hundred? What does your capital look like?”
David closed his eyes. “Not what it used to.”
William nodded. “I would imagine.”
Selim sat with a scowl.
“Once we get into the Capital, we’ll find my son, he’ll know more.”
“Time is not on our side, David. This needs to happen fast. The longer we wait to pounce, the greater the chance we are caught,” Sebastien said. He turned slightly and nodded to William. “I’m with Mr. Grace.”
Selim drove on in silence with his brows furrowed. He chewed his lower lip and concentrated. “So it shall be, but we need to scout it. We can’t go in like the wind. We need to do some recon.”
William nodded and looked back to David. The old man had set his jaw and looked proud. He didn’t remember what Redmond looked like very well, but he didn’t think he had any resemblance. Vito continued to stare with his mouth slightly open.
“If he didn’t come back to Earth, where did he go?” Vito asked.
David looked at Vito and shrugged. “There’s a statue he left at the elevator, about all we have left of him.”
William adjusted his grip and leaned into the rusty side of the cab. The hills stretched out into the horizon lazily. They seemed to be laying down with less rock poking up. An occasional flock of sheep grazed on the horizon.
* * *
The VTOL first poked over the horizon a dozen kilometers away. In a rapid commotion everyone sat up and stared as it disappeared behind another hill, before popping back up. The sleek shape was hugging the landscape tightly. It looked like the same beast that had bombarded the capsules.
Around them stretched green fields broken by an occasional stone. The low hills offered nothing to hide a man. The worries of the civilians grew louder as the whine of the rotor drifted in.
William looked into the back of the truck. Aleksandr, Leduc, and Crow were strapping themselves into the bulky pattern armor.
“Did the first three have comms?” William asked.
“What?” Sebastien said.
“Radios, communicators, anything!”
“No, nothing that I saw.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Stop the truck!” William yelled.
Selim slowly pressed on the brakes and the truck lurched forward and back like a drunken hippo. “I hope you’ve got an idea.”
“Crow, get in the driver’s seat. Aleksandr, Leduc, pop in too. Everyone else in the back and lay low!” William stepped off the side of the truck and jumped into the back.
The positions were switched rapidly as the Marines and soldiers crawled in and lay beside the civilians. The truck bounced back into motion.
“Crow, when that VTOL comes in, just stop the truck, sling the merc rifle onto your shoulder, and get out.”
“Just like that? And va-voom, he goes away?”
“I’m open to ideas,” William said.
Crow shook his head and drove slowly.
The VTOL crept above the next rise and skidded sideways through the air. The blunt autocannon was pointed squarely at the truck as it pivoted around. It wavered up and down as if unsure if it wanted to remain.
Crow brought the truck to a stop and sat in the seat for a second.
“Get out!” William hissed.
Crow turned and grasped the slender rifle. He dropped himself off the cab and slung the rifle onto his shoulder over the bulk of the armor. He took a few steps towards the VTOL.
The craft swung in the wind and hovered at a steady distance.
What the controllers of the VTOL saw must have baffled them. Crow began by waving his arms north. He followed this up with a pantomime of his hands rising like a rocket, followed by a large explosion. He ended it all with a quick exaggerated jog. This ended with a final universal gesture of ‘fuck it’ followed by a steering wheel turning gesture.
The VTOL hovered and didn’t look convinced.
Crow gave one final wave north and dismissed it. He turned his back and hopped into the cab. The truck bounced as he accelerated.
William lay as low as he could get and watched through a slat in the side. The VTOL hovered and slowly banked away before moving north. A rough hand ruffled his hair. He looked up with a smile and was greeted with Sergeant Selim grinning down at him.
“You owe me a new pair of underwear, Midshipman,” Crow called over his shoulder.
The truck continued south until it finally arrived at a modest settlement. The houses were a mix of old concrete and weathered stone. The wounded were offloaded and passed into the hands of the locals.
Sebastien took special care moving Saul indoors.
Before them stretched a dirty agricultural landscape dotted with ragged farms and scraggly trees. An occasional ancient truck could be seen doddering about on the lower plains. Far off on the horizon the slender black form of the elevator rose into the sky. It glowed orange for a brief moment as the reflection of the sun played on it.
The lower line of the elevator was obscured by the horizon and a sooty smoke that seeped above it. William stood and squinted.
Trial by Ice (A Star Too Far Book 1) Page 13