Colonel Hinkley was in full mission mode now, and he didn't want to talk about anything but operational details.
"I've set you up with two helmet cams," he said, "so you can follow the action. We have some long-range ordnance left – mortars and RPG – and we'll try to clear out the entrance point before we go in. We only need," and he hesitated, "to get inside the walls of the citadel."
"Roger that, colonel," said Cal briskly. There were other things to be discussed, and then the feed went to a split screen from the two helmet cams. Both showed a gentle slope covered in bodies and mangled machines, as before. The citadel at the end of the slope reared out of a large, boggy depression that expanded to a lake in the background.
The nearest corner of the citadel had extensive cracks radiating outward from a point at ground level, and a section of the wall had fallen outward. A bus might have just driven through it.
Hinkley snapped some commands, and the attack started. Several RPGs launched at extreme range, and a dozen mortars came to life with solid whumps. The opening in the citadel disappeared in a ball of flame and smoke.
Two columns of soldiers filed down the slope as they took the flanks. Don noticed how spread out they were, and then the ground around them blasted upward as the energy arcs came to life. A little more than half of each company made it to their designated points either side of the opening.
Two more columns raced toward the opening in the wall, but this time a wedge of soldiers drove down the slope between them. The helmet cams were somewhere in the middle of that wedge. The soldiers made it to the shelter of the walls, and moments later the energy arcs stopped. Then the citadel's black guards boiled out of the opening.
The troops had some success with improvised explosives and machine gun squads, hastily set up, but they didn't have the Rohifs' alloy bullets. The soldiers wouldn't be able to hold their positions for long.
The helmet cams followed the central wedge of soldiers as it moved quickly through the opening, and into a maze of passages. They hadn't gone far before they burst out into a larger area, and were confronted by a wall of Aeskri already closing the gap between them.
Some of the soldiers backed into an enclosed space off the larger area, and the rest of them formed a semicircle in front of it. A dozen grenades scooted across the floor and exploded among the Aeskri.
Several of the troops staggered as they took hits themselves, and two collapsed onto the floor. It was a high price to pay, but it was one way they could hurt the Aeskri.
The huge creatures righted themselves, and one of the helmet cams showed the blood now spattered across them. It came from minor wounds only, but it was buying the soldiers time.
The battle continued fiercely, with the troops being forced steadily back, while the second helmet cam recorded what was happening inside the smaller room.
Hinkley flicked out two keys and inserted one in each lock at the top of the suitcase. Then he input a set of numbers. An officer beside him added a second set of numbers. There was the squeal of metal as one of the Aeskri tried to force itself through the doorway, and into the smaller space of the room.
Colonel Hinkley looked squarely at the camera, and then the two men turned the keys. It took longer than Don expected, though it was no more than a second, before the screen dissolved in blinding light. Don turned to look at Cal.
His boss was frozen in place, not even blinking. A tremor started in Don's arm, and he took his other hand and stilled it. He didn't know if that was due to his internal injuries, or the immensity of the moment.
"Let's hope we got them all," said Thapa, pride and devastation in equal measure fighting across his face.
"We'll get clean up squads in there as soon as we can," said Cal, somewhat distractedly. "I don't think Hinkley's people committed all their troops in that attack."
Jo kept trying to raise the Peru headquarters. Eventually she got through to someone. The woman was crying.
Epilogue
"Look at that!" said Don, watching the news on an old television set. "The first nuclear reactor's back on line. It's only connected to two small towns so far, but it's a start."
Work had already started on small-scale hydro schemes, after the big dams had been destroyed in the earthquakes, or the Aeskri demilitarisation of the planet that followed.
The tv set was bulky, heavy, and barely 45 cm across the top of the screen. It had been recycled. Anything factory-made was years away, and salvaging from the wreckage of the earthquakes had become big business. People had instinctively wanted to be connected again, and television and radio were usually the next things after food and shelter.
One of the most popular tv shows recently had showed the destruction of an Aeskri space station, using one of the Aeskri rockets. It was a symbolic moment for the whole planet. It would take a while but the other station, and then the space platform at the Lagrange point, would follow.
"Cal says a US science team has taken apart one of the citadel fusion reactors," said Jo, "and it's not that complicated. We'll be making them ourselves in years to come. Just think – safe, clean energy. Wish I'd been there to see it dismantled."
She came round the corner from the kitchen with two cups of coffee. She was definitely waddling now. Don repressed the desire to make a duck call and improvise paddling motions with his hands.
He took the coffee thankfully. The stuff was still an exorbitant price at the neighbourhood market. The earthquakes hadn't stopped things growing, but transport was limited to donkeys and sailing ships.
"How long now?" he said, patting her belly.
"You never listen!" she said, but there was no heat in her voice. They were coming to understand what was good about each other, and what wasn't going to change. At least he didn't say babies were 'women's work' any more.
"Just over a month," she said, "and then you can start training her to be a soldier. Or a policewoman. Whichever she wants to be."
"You're still sure its a she?" he hazarded, and she looked at him like she knew secrets he didn't.
"My mojo was stronger than your mojo at the time, big fella," she said, "get used to it." Then she laughed, and said, "your mojo can be stronger than mine next time, all right?"
He nodded.
"Do you think they'll be back?" she said. She meant the Aeskri, and he shared her concern. Once children were involved, the future became a lot more important.
"No," he said, "not if they're rational beings. They would have to put together a fleet of ships, knowing we'd be ready for them as soon as they landed next time. You said it takes 37 years to make the trip here, and that assumes they have faster than light comms to carry news back to their home planet. They must be half a century away at the least.
"It also seems to me we're developing our technologies faster than they are. Even fifty years would substantially narrow the gap between us."
She thought about that.
"By the way," he continued, "Cal wants you down at his base sometime soon. I Wadu is missing you, and one of Cal's science teams has been taking apart the Aeskri comms systems they salvaged. He wants your input."
She sighed. It was a long trip by the new standards of a much larger world. She wasn't a sailor, and the roads were terrible.
"Do you think this will change people?" she said suddenly, and he knew what she meant. Would it be another overpopulated, capitalism-driven, abusing the planet, life style, a hundred years into the future.
He paused at that.
"Knowing the dark side of people like I do," he said slowly, "I'm not optimistic. We understand overpopulation, and the downside to capitalism, but it hadn't made any difference before the earthquakes."
"But people know we're not alone in the universe now," said Jo.
Don pondered that.
"Ideas don't change people," he said, "feelings do. Fear, or the joy of being part of something bigger than themselves.
"But we have just fought and died for this planet, so that could change t
he way people think. Maybe they will look after our world this time."
"And each other," said Jo.
"Yes, and each other," agreed Don.
"Have I told you today you're the best thing in my life?" he continued.
"Yes, this morning," said Jo.
"Would you like to hear it again?" said Don.
Jo leaned back contentedly. "You can never have too much of a good thing," she said.
THE END
If you enjoyed this book, could you write a review for it? Reviews help new authors like Warwick Gibson get established, and they help readers decide if the book is for them. If you do have time to write a review it would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to be notified when each book in Warwick Gibson’s new “Invardii” series comes out, leave your email address here (guaranteed no other emails).
The first book (of six) should arrive around Christmas, and then every two months after that. These will be stand-alone tales mined from a huge science-fiction trilogy written three years ago. Together, they tell the story of the hybrid Invardii as they boil out of the galactic core, and claim Human space.
The first book starts when Celia’s research team on Ba’H’Roth learns the human race was transplanted to Earth 200 thousand years ago . . .
Struggle for a Small Blue Planet Page 30