“HERE!” Joseph roared over the relentless cracks of the railguns.
The ground shook as the mechs approached. With too many friendlies, they didn’t fire. They waded into the mass of bodies and hammered them with punches from their metal fists.
Jones broke through and took his place between Marcie and the enemy. The other three humans and two weretigers jumped into the circle, expanding it as they gained the edge before a new flood of Tiskers threatened to envelope them.
“There’s a tunnel,” Kaeden reported using the suit’s external speakers. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
Joseph, Petricia, Jones, and the others collapsed into the center of the circle and covered their ears as the explosion shook the ground. The Tiskers stopped and then started scrambling away. The railguns opened up.
The mechs fired their heavy guns at the retreating enemy.
“CEASE FIRE!” Terry Henry Walton bellowed from nearby. Silence returned along with abject darkness. “Report.”
Marcie slapped Joseph on the shoulder and nodded. “Marcie here,” she said softly, knowing that Terry had exceptional hearing. Her ears were ringing from the incessant railgun fire, but that would clear up soon. “They appeared out of nowhere. Aaron and Yanmei sensed them before they showed up, and I want to know how.”
They waited until the weretigers changed back into human form.
Kae showed up and hugged his wife. Terry looked around, confused.
“It’s out of power,” Kae reported. “Cantor is finished, too. But Praeter and Duncan have enough left to hopefully get us to morning, protect the suits until they recharge enough for us to head out.”
Kae and Marcie both understood. The Bad Company couldn’t stay there. Movement was their key to survival. Marcie took her ballistic vest off. It was peppered with Tisker slugs and useless to stop more. The creases in her helmet said that she was lucky to be alive. She held up her railgun.
“Spot me a few rounds?” she asked.
“Sure, Colonel,” Terry said. He held out his hand and Char slapped a heavy dart pack into it. He passed it to Marcie, who swapped the empty pack for the full one and did a quick function check. She sighed audibly.
“They travel underground,” Terry said.
“Looks like it,” Kae answered. Aaron and Yanmei appeared, still naked, but torn up. They had been in Were form without body armor.
As if by magic, Cory and Ramses appeared, and she immediately started working on the two weretigers.
“How did you know they were coming?” Terry asked.
“We could feel them moving under the ground. The air that they pushed in front of them smelled foul. It came up before they did.”
Terry nodded. “Good to know, you two. Now get yourselves healed up. Marcie, take the company up the ridge and dig in.”
Marcie nodded and with one last look at Kaeden, she headed toward the platoon to find Kimber.
“Thanks for getting in the middle of that, saving Marcie,” Kae told Joseph and Petricia. He shook hands with each before he turned and disappeared into the night.
“You seem to be the best suited to work in this soup, so if you would be so kind and scout out the ridge, I’d appreciate it. I can’t see my hand in front of my face. Talk about seeing, has anyone seen my dog?”
How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not your dog? Dokken replied.
“Damn, boy! Where have you been?”
Those thundersticks of yours hurt my ears, so I went the other way, Dokken explained.
“Can you see in this?”
Probably as poorly as you, but I’m a dog. I can smell my way as well as keep three feet on the ground at all times.
“Makes sense.” Terry leaned down so he could scratch behind Dokken’s ears. “Can you feel them underground? Smell the air they push in front of them?”
I think so. I know what to look for thanks to the cats, Dokken replied.
It was easy to see where Cory was. Terry followed the blue glow until he found her, Aaron, and Yanmei.
Ramses was coordinating with Kimber to police the Tisker slug-throwers from the ambush site. Most of the platoon members carried at least two. Some had five, but seeing how quickly they were burning through their supply of ammunition, they wanted the slug-throwers for backup.
Cory stood up weakly. Terry and Char each grabbed an arm to support their daughter. “They’ll be fine,” she mumbled before passing out. Terry caught her and lifted her, cradling her like a baby.
“As light as ever,” Terry said, watching her sleep. Char brushed the hair from her face. “Dokken. Lead the way, buddy. Take us up the hill so we can settle in for the rest of what I hope is an uneventful night.”
***
Timmons joined Sue in her rapid-fire response to a Tisker incursion. Four of them appeared out of nowhere. The werewolves snarled, staying close to the prisoner, while Christina was torn between staying where she was on the Tisker’s shell or killing it and diving into the fray.
But the attack was soon over as all four Tiskers lay in their own blood. Sue and Timmons checked the area and found that it was clear once again.
“Come on, you blue piece of shit,” Timmons growled, yanking on the rope.
“Why don’t you stay as you are,” Timmons told Christina. “And you two change back. Grab your railguns. werewolves are ineffective against these blue fuckers.”
They dragged their recalcitrant captive back to the hole where the backpacks were stashed. They waited while Shonna and Merrit got dressed.
Timmons held the rope while Sue aimed her rifle at the alien’s stalk-head. Christina rode on the shell with a clawed hand wrapped around the stalk, ready to rip should the situation arise.
But the Tisker remained sedate. It never showed the pain it had to be in with two of its four tentacles having been violently ripped from its body.
“Maybe you don’t feel pain like we do,” Timmons pondered. “You have to feel something. We’ll find what that is and leverage it to get what we want to know. I almost feel sorry for you. Almost. You make me feel like I’m walking a pet pig, now COME ALONG!”
Sue clicked her tongue at her mate for yelling into the darkness while in enemy territory. The five of them and one Tisker. They wouldn’t be able to hold off a concerted attack.
“Would they kill one of their own to get us?” Timmons asked in a hushed tone as he yanked on the rope yet again to keep the prisoner moving.
“We’ve seen that they are plenty willing to die for their cause. I haven’t seen any blue-on-blue fire, but I wouldn’t put it past them,” Sue answered in a whisper, grabbing the rope to help Timmons drag the Tisker.
Christina continued to balance on the alien’s shell, tapping her claws at various points along its stalk in search of a place where it might feel pain. She wasn’t sure that she was being very encouraging, but she was ready to kill it if they were attacked again.
The Pricolici refused to sacrifice one of the others to accomplish their mission of capturing one of the enemy. They could always find another Tisker. She would not be able to find another pack. Not like this one. She was feeling more and more at home with every passing minute. They needed her and she needed them.
“Yessssss,” she cooed to the back of the Tisker’s stalk-head. The others kept moving toward where they’d heard the firefight. Silence, darkness, and a prisoner with all the energy of a sandbag kept them from moving quickly.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kaeden and Cantor crouched next to their powerless mech suits. The two men carried railguns with full loads of ammunition. The two functioning mechs stood vigil, quietly embracing their low-power mode.
Kae wanted to listen to music, to help offset his rising anxiety.
The power he felt while inside the mech was equaled by how helpless he felt without it. He’d been in combat a hundred times as a foot soldier, an FDG warrior, but the powered, armored suit changed his entire perspective on warfare. It made him feel naked as he crouched outside of i
t, waiting for daylight.
Kimber approached as the platoon finished their sweep of the area.
“You need anything?” she asked.
“Power,” he replied forlornly.
“Need an extra fire team?”
“No. Once we juice up, we’ll need to move and quickly. I don’t want to leave anyone with their ass hanging out.”
“See you at the top,” Kimber told him, before pulling him up and into a hug. “Don’t die trying to protect a hunk of metal.”
Kae didn’t reply as he’d been thinking about exactly that. Not dying, but protecting his suit with every fiber of his being until he could put it back on and power its weapons. Then, there would be hell to pay.
Could he leave it behind? He wasn’t sure he could, so he nodded and bit his lip instead of lying to his sister.
She faded into the night, issuing orders to the platoon as she went. With low-voiced replies, the platoon moved out. The vampires had already broken the trail.
The weretigers were taking it easy, moving with the platoon until they recovered from the beating they took from Tisker slug-throwers.
The werewolves were off somewhere trying to capture a Tisker. That left Kae’s parents. Terry and Char waited until the others were well up the hill before they said their good-byes and left, only to stop and head the other way. Without a word, they walked into the valley that had taken the company time and effort to cross.
Kae and Cantor sat side by side, one on each side of Kae’s mech.
“Where are they going?” Cantor asked.
“We don’t have to guess.” Kae switched to his comm chip. Where are you guys going?
Timmons is inbound and it looks like they have a Tisker with them, Terry replied.
“Now we wait,” Kae said.
“This fucking sucks,” Cantor replied.
“I’m not sure you have that right. The question is, how can we make this suck more?” Kae joked.
In the distance, flashes looked like lightning.
“That’s how,” Cantor said.
“INCOMING!” Kaeden yelled toward his parents, before dodging around the backside of his idle armor.
***
“You have got to be shitting me,” Terry growled as Char grabbed his hand and pulled him sideways. He stumbled into a depression, and they both threw themselves against the side facing the incoming fire. They crouched and covered their heads, waiting for the telltale whistle of the artillery round just before it impacted.
***
Timmons heard Kaeden’s warning. They had their backs to the horizon and hadn’t seen the flashes.
“Get down,” Timmons ordered. Everyone dropped where they were except for the Tisker and Christina. She slid around the stalk, putting it between her and the artillery pieces.
The first round impacted at the edge of the valley ahead of them, at the base of the hill, where the company had engaged in a firefight.
“I don’t expect our people are still there. I think the Tiskers have yet to learn that the best place to be isn’t where you were,” Timmons repeated what he’d heard Terry Henry say on more than one occasion. TH was a fan of being a moving target. He didn’t like digging in. His only concept of defense was offense. Attack the enemy until they gave up or were dead.
Timmons continued, “This must really grate on Terry’s soul—not having a target to hit. We run around in the open while they take pot-shots at us. It’s like being on the wrong end of a shooting gallery. This isn’t one of our better operations.”
***
Terry and Char heard Timmons’s order to get down. They weren’t more than fifty yards away.
The first round impacted near the blown-up tunnel mouth. The area was littered with Tisker bodies and the first impact sent blue spray in a massive arc over the area. Kae and Cantor stayed low to the ground, trusting that the suit’s armor would protect them.
More rounds followed into the small area where Marcie and the vampires had unleashed death upon the Tisker incursion.
Then the firing stopped. Less than ten rounds, all impacting the same area.
***
Kae and Cantor brushed themselves off. Their night vision was ruined until the nanocytes could help the two men recover.
“What was that about?” Cantor asked.
“Could they have called in a fire mission and it took that long, over an hour, before it was executed? That’s pretty fucked up,” Kae replied.
“The colonel would have our asses if we dicked around for an hour before helping someone who was neck-deep in the enemy. Can you imagine?”
“No way in hell. It also makes me feel bad. The Tiskers are dedicated, but they aren’t in our league. We’ve already killed thousands of them. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, and it ain’t right.”
Cantor had no reply. The Tiskers had a standing army, so they weren’t opposed to fighting, but the humans brought one massive dose of pain, to be liberally delivered.
Dad, they fired on the position where the battle took place. Accurate fire, but a day late and a dollar short. It’s like we’re fighting school kids.
Timmons is bringing a Tisker captive. As soon as we can talk with it, we’ll find out what the hell is going on. When you have power, get the drones in the air. Our entire effort is to find the Crenellian Forces, grab them by the stacking swivel, and give them a good shake until the truth falls out. I’m not a fan of killing the Tiskers. Let’s see how many we can save as we go forward. Keep your head down, son. It’s my job to fix this, Terry replied.
Will do. Take care of Mom. Kae looked at his teammate. “We dig in and wait. We’ll be fine since Praeter and Duncan are watching our flank.”
The two men pulled their collapsible shovels and got to work.
***
“Timmons,” Char said in a normal voice.
“Coming,” the werewolf replied. Timmons and his team appeared at the edge of what Terry and Char could see—four people carrying railguns and a Pricolici riding on the shell of a captured Tisker.
Terry nodded approvingly. “Your boy appears to be missing a couple limbs.”
Christina’s canine snout bounced as she laughed in her gravelly Pricolici voice.
“He didn’t need them since he still had a couple more to stuff food into his pie hole.” Timmons hesitated. “Do we know how they eat?”
“All that and more on the next episode of, What’s On Your Mind, You Blue Martian!” Terry said as he eyed the Tisker closely. “Come on down, Christina. We’ll take it from here.”
The Pricolici jumped. Christina changed shape mid-air and landed as a human. She twisted her head one way and then the other to loosen her neck. She pulled her weapon from her back, hefting it easily as she took her place as part of the detail surrounding the captive Tisker.
Terry gave her the thumbs up as he continued to study the prisoner. “I can’t wait to hear what Joseph sees in your mind,” Terry told him. The Tisker’s eyes focused on Terry Henry Walton.
The head at the top of the stalk was almond-shaped with four eyes at intervals around the stalk, front, rear, and each side. The mouth was the top of the stalk and faced the sky. The point of the almond would open occasionally as the alien took a breath.
“Where’s your brain?” Terry asked. The Tisker didn’t answer.
“Probably in there somewhere protected, unlike us humans with our shit out in the open for everyone to take a shot at,” Char said softly as she pointed to the alien’s shell.
Dokken barked once at the alien, showing his fangs and snapping his jaws, then he moved to Christina’s side where he wagged his tail furiously while greeting his friend.
“It’s been quiet for a good ten minutes now. That’s making me nervous,” Terry said, looking toward the horizon, expecting to see artillery flashes. He leaned down and felt the ground with the flat of his hand. Tissikinnon Four was calm.
The captive’s stalk-head dipped toward Terry. Shonna and Merrit aimed their railguns,
fingers on the triggers and ready to fire.
Terry held up his hand, signaling them to stand down. “You know that we understand, don’t you? You move underground. You live underground and that’s why we can’t find your headquarters or the Crenellians. Everything is underground. We’ve only been scratching the surface, so to speak.”
The Tisker leaned its head back and continued to watch Terry. The colonel put his hand on the alien’s shell. “I’m sorry that we killed so many of your people” Terry didn’t expound.
He knew that he’d kill more if he had to. Many more.
***
Cantor shook Kaeden. “Incoming,” he told him. The flashes from the horizon were still fresh before his eyes, but when Kaeden blinked awake, he didn’t see anything. Darkness enveloped with the night.
The grayish clouds blocked what little light would have come from the stars.
Kaeden ducked back into his hole. “How long till daylight?” he asked.
“I hope not long.”
The first round impacted on the far side of the valley. The second hit behind them. The explosions walked up one slope and down the other. The fire seemed haphazard, random even.
“What do you think that’s all about?” Cantor asked.
“We haven’t seen any stalk-heads lately, so they’re firing blind. That’s what I think. We know they can hit what they’re aiming at.” Kae stopped as a round hit nearby and sprayed dirt and gravel over the two men.
Kaeden shook the dirt off and continued as if nothing had happened. “I believe they don’t have eyes on target, otherwise, we’d get hammered. If they destroyed the mechs, we’d be in a world of hurt.”
Cantor raised his head enough peek out of his hole. Then he stood up. “Looks like that’s it for now.” He brushed himself off before moving to his suit and checking it for damage. Kae did the same thing. He caressed the metal as he looked.
He’d grown extremely fond of his powered, armored suit.
***
Terry and Char hunched behind the Tisker. The alien stood tall and proud. With eyes on each side of its stalk-head, it didn’t need to turn around to look at them. Terry found it slightly disconcerting.
The Bad Company Page 6