by Ben Winston
"Ignore it people! The only way we'll be able to stop this is if we keep it from getting to us. The rest of the people here are counting on us to protect them! We have to stop the bastards that did this! Use these images! Use the feelings it creates in you! Use them to stop these butchers before they hurt more people!" John told his troops.
"There aren't any wounded, just dead." One of the troops said quietly.
"Captain Stilts, could you request an armed medical unit to land at our LZ to search for wounded and police the dead? This is going to be a hard day," John asked the Captain of the destroyer.
"Affirmative, General. The other Destroyers are dropping their teams in different areas around the City, so there will be friendlies in the area. Direct any survivors to go to the park you landed in, and I'll make sure a medical support shuttle gets there. I'll let you know where the aid station is as soon as we know," the Captain replied sounding harried.
"Thanks Dione," John replied as they linked up with the rest of the platoon. Switching channels, John spoke to the Ell-tee over the platoon channel. "We gotta catch up the bastards, Ell-tee. Direct any survivors we find to the park; Stilts is going to set up a medevac (medical evacuation) point there. Let's get moving."
"You heard the man, ladies! Use your scanners to check the buildings as we go, but we need to move!" the Lieutenant ordered.
The platoon spread out and ran toward the park exit, following the path of destruction left by the Tammerain force.
The attackers hadn't been on planet very long, and taking the time to kill everyone in every building had slowed them down considerably. John's platoon caught up with them three blocks from the park.
"Movement forward!" the point soldier reported. "Tammerain troops are checking the aircars in the park for that apartment building on the left."
"Take 'em out Corporal! We're coming up behind you. Sampson, Hernandez, get over to the building and get a scanner on it!" the Lieutenant ordered. "Don't get shot in the process, you don't have permission to die today!"
As he looked up at the building, John saw a Tammerain soldier through a window on the second floor. "Belay that! They're in the building! Hostile sighted on the second floor! Take out the hostiles and move into the building ASAP! Watch for snipers, that'd be a wicked crossfire!"
The Tammerain had been too focused on killing civilians to post a sniper for cover, and the platoon killed the four Tammerain troops in the park so quickly they hadn't been able to get a call for help out. The platoon entered the building and their scanners told them the first floor was clear.
"How do you want to do this, Sir?" the Lieutenant asked.
"Urban assault protocol, Ell-tee. You take first squad and clear the first floor, second squad; second floor, third squad; third floor. I'll take fourth squad and clear the fourth floor. Once you clear your floor, move up three floors until we can't, clear the top, and regroup down here. Move out!" John ordered, and the teams ran for the stairs.
"It looks like a squad size unit, General. Two or three troopers per floor up to the fifth. I'm not showing any more above that," John's squad leader reported.
John nodded. "Did you get that, Ell-tee?"
"Affirmative, General. We show the same," the young officer replied.
"Okay, I'm going to send four of my people up to clear them out, then do a floor by floor scan to make sure. Regroup in the lobby," John ordered.
What followed was a harrowing, nerve-wracking search for the killers. The Lieutenant, showing he was a good officer, ordered two troops from each squad to go up to assist the ones John had sent to the fifth floor.
Two of John's squad rushed into a corner apartment and killed the Tammerain trooper that had just kicked in the door to the master bedroom. They shot the big beast in the back of the head just as it was raising its rifle to kill the family hiding there. The two Marines had just checked the small family when one of them dove on the children, yelling 'rocket'! The other trooper flipped the bed over them and pulled the parents close to him before turning his back to the blast.
When the building shook, John and his team ran for the apartment. Entering the room, his optics sighted the enemy trooper that had fired the missile. It was reloading the launcher for another shot. John raised his rifle and shot it in the head. Another trooper rushed into the room and tried to shoot John. Another of John's team killed it before it could fire another shot.
The room was destroyed. One of the two children suffered a broken leg when he was crushed by the Marine that was shielding him. The little girl was scared, but healthy. The Marine was also unharmed because of the bed that had been thrown over them. The Marine that had tried to cover the parents hadn't fared as well. He was still alive, but his armor had been blown apart. The father of the kids was missing his left arm, and the mother was bleeding from a large wound on her right leg.
"Medic!" John called. "Forth Floor, corner apartment! Ell-tee, there are bandits in the building to the north. They fired a rocket in here."
'Fuck!" Okay boys and girls, no one said this was going to be easy! Erikson, finish clearing the upper floors! Second and third squads; status?"
"Second floor is clear, heading for the lobby."
"Third floor, give us a sec. This last one is trying to hide from us."
The medic arrived followed by several civilian men. The medic immediately got to work on the wounded, and two of the other of the civilians helped him. One of the civilian men walked up to John.
"My Lord General, Corporal Hayle," he indicated the medic. "Said there was a medevac at the park. We'll help with the wounded, you go kill these fuckers," the man said.
"You are?" John asked.
"Captain Peter Goring, late of the Royal Lancers. I was a Marine for six hundred years, Sir. I think I let them retire me too early," the man replied.
John handed him an earbud comm unit. "Thank you for your service, Captain. We have hostiles in the building to the north, if you can help by getting the wounded back to the park we would really appreciate it.
"For now, we'll use our personal vehicles to get these folks to the park. We can pick up a delivery van or something so we can carry more. We'll try to follow you, but we'll stay back far enough to stay out of your way," Goring replied. "We have a couple of medics with us, too."
"Thank you, Captain," John replied and put an armored hand on the man's shoulder in gratitude.
"Ell-tee, some of the civilians have volunteered to help with the wounded. As soon as the upper floors are clear, we need to move north," John said.
"First and second squads are already in the lobby of that building. They're sticking together, and working their way up. No wounded yet," the Ell-tee replied.
"Understood, keep them together until the rest of us can come play too," John ordered. "This is a fucking nightmare."
Chapter 32
The proof that these had not been normal Tammerain troops lay before him. John looked out at what was left of the city of Sanctuary on the planet Haven. Even after the destruction of their capitol ships, the smaller ship dove into the atmosphere to kill as many humans as they could before they were destroyed themselves.
There had been no reason for it; just the wholesale slaughter of innocents. Of the Tammerain forces that had attacked, none of them survived. To the last being they fought with mindless abandon, killing anyone and everyone they could see. The thing that bothered John the most about it was that there had been no reason for it. The battle was over, and they had lost, so why had they done this? It made no sense.
"John, Mark wants us back on Centauri," Chloe said to him softly, and lightly touched his arm.
He had been standing there staring out at the destruction, tears falling freely down his cheeks. When she interrupted him, he almost rounded on her for disturbing him. "They counted on us, Chloe. They trusted us, and we let them down."
"I know love, I feel the same way," Chloe replied. "Come on, we have to go now."
He let her lead him back
to the Hades. The destruction had been so bad that Captain Stilts had set the destroyer down as close to the city as she could so her Marines and medics could render what aide they could. The fleet was handling the rescue and aide operations now, and the four small destroyers had been recalled back to the Capitol world.
John was oblivious to the salutes from soldiers and sailors alike that had been working around him while he stood vigil. John had put on his armor and joined the Marines that had run from the destroyer to engage the Tammerain troops that made it to the surface. He led the platoon into the heart of the enemy and there they killed every Tammerain butcher they could find. He was still in his armor, standing guard over the aide station since the platoon had returned. He had refused refreshment and just stood, weapon at the ready.
Chloe nodded to the Captain, as she passed the woman on the way to the quarters John had been assigned. The Captain wiped her own tears from her eyes and turned back to her duty, after everything was said and done, that's all a soldier really had at the end of the long days.
In his quarters, Chloe got them both out of their armor and stood naked outside the small shower compartment and washed him. This battle had been hard on him. It was at times like this that she worried about losing him. This was the real threat to the guardians, carrying the cost of all the battles and all the death. It had been almost two hundred years since they had dealt with something this bad, and John had taken it hard back then, too.
He looked up at her. "I'll be fine, Chloe. You know that, I just need time to..."
She almost started crying again. She hated to see him like this. To the rest of the Kingdom, the Temporal Guard were ageless, fearless, and unswerving in their duty to protect the human race. It was a rare thing to see a Guard reduced like this. John was Chloe's strength. If he were to retire she would too because living without him would be too painful.
He sighed and gently took her hands. "Shh, love. I'll be fine. I'm not going to retire anytime soon. Our people still need us, even if we failed a few of them."
"Bullshit, Marine!" Mark's voice was heard in the small room. "You didn't fail anyone! In point of fact, you saved a great many lives!"
"You weren't there, Mark. You didn't watch those fuckers slaughter those people, you didn't hear their cries and pleas for help!" John said. You didn't hear a mother begging the Tammerain soldiers to not kill her child."
"No John, I wasn't there. You were," Mark said. "Because you were there, those animals were put down before they could kill more people. You stopped them. Yes, they made it to the planet, and started killing innocents. But you know as well as I do, that is something most Tammerain will not do. Gabby believes they were some type of fanatical temple guard that followed the traders here from that planet. Nothing they did since the moment of their arrival was typical of normal Tammerain military."
"So? I still failed those people on Haven! I let those animals get too close and people died!" John said yelling at Mark.
"You stopped religious fanatics from slaughtering an entire fucking planet! Damn it, John, yes they got to the planet and did a lot of damage, but you're not seeing the bigger picture here; that planet is still there, and ninety-nine percent of its population is still alive because you were there. If you hadn't been, that planet would be dead, and that fleet would be on the way to do the same to another world!" Mark countered.
"No, the Fourth Russian would have contained them, or held them long enough for more of our ships to arrive to deal with them," John said as he got out of the shower, pushed Chloe in, and he began to wash her. "Mark, the fifty-four thousand people in and around Sanctuary that had no idea what was coming; those people that believed we would keep them safe, it's those people I let down."
"John, you're the oldest living soldier in our military. You're also the oldest human still alive. You, more than anyone else, should know that in any military confrontation that takes place in the vicinity of population always results in collateral damage. Not 'never', not 'sometimes', but always! As soon as the Tammerain fleet took up orbit around that planet, it became a forgone conclusion that someone on that planet was going to die as a result.
"Your actions, as well as the actions of the other Guardians, helped to limit that damage. You did all you could have done, John. The simple fact is that there was nothing, nothing else you could have done to prevent this outcome. If you turn around right now, go back to Haven, pick anyone in the aide station or the city of Sanctuary and ask them if they believe you are responsible for the deaths and destruction there, what would they say? I honestly don't believe you will find one person that would blame you," Mark replied.
"While I was down there, I did get a chance to speak to some of the people," Chloe replied. "We were recognized, and that actually surprised most of the people. They believed that we Guardians were only out on the frontier because that's where we were needed. They asked me, 'if the Guardians are on Haven, who was keeping the Tammerain from invading?'." Chloe paused and smiled sadly. "They believed we are the only reason the Tammerain hadn't yet invaded them. The other side of that was that, if what happened at Haven was bad enough for the Guardians to respond, then it had to have been very dire. The survivors believe that because we were there, they survived." She looked up into John's eyes. "John, the people of the planet believe that because we came, they survived. Not that the fleet had come, but that we had come."
John shook his head slowly. "That's wrong, too. It was the fleet that saved them, yes, we helped, but four old soldiers do not decide battles."
"Actually, they do, John," Mark replied. "You are icons for our people. Just your appearance on a field of battle inspires them. If our people see you fighting for them, they know there is hope. Yes, there are only five of you remaining, but you are going to be adding to that number. Yes, it might take a while for the new Guardians to build the reputation you have, but the simple fact that you have selected these people to be guardians tells our people that you believe in the future, and you are planning for it."
"Mark, what happens when we fall? With what we are facing, there is a far better than normal chance none of us are going to survive. What you’re saying is that when we fall in battle, the rest of our forces are going to lose heart and crumble. There's nothing special about us. We are just jacked up Marines that are too stupid or stubborn to die. We have no special abilities, but because of our age we get the best toys to play with. The way things are right now, what will happen when we die?" John asked.
"The people honestly believe you won't, some believe you can't," Mark replied. "If this is bothering you that much, then talk to the people, tell them about your fears, tell them why you are still here, and why you still fight for them. It certainly can't hurt anything, and maybe it'll give them the strength they'll need if you do fall in battle."
"How am I supposed to do that?" John asked.
"The Palace has its own studio, use that," Mark suggested. "Who knows, maybe it'll help improve recruiting. Gods know we could use the boost there."
"I'll think about it, Mark," John replied. As he and Chloe left the shower room, they found Mark's hologram sitting on the edge of their bunk. He stood as the pair proceeded to get dressed in duty uniforms. "Will did a good job with our defenses, but I see what you mean about him. He's only going through the motions." Mark said sadly. "As soon as the Flyer gets out of dry dock, I'll make sure you have a couple of weeks for him. I just wish I could go with you. Other than you, John, Will helped me the most. I can remember times when he physically held me back from charging in and getting killed." Mark smiled, sadly. "He'd grab the back of my armor by the helmet seal, and pull me back. He'd tell me something like 'bad puppy!' or 'Puppies shouldn't play with wild animals all by themselves.' At the time I wanted to slap the hell out of him, but somewhere in the jumbled mess of my mind, I knew that, in his own way, he was just trying to keep me alive."
John nodded to Mark. "That was when Holly was still with us."
Mark nodded. "I
know I approved his retirement request, but I had hoped that maybe we could get him to snap out of it. Now that I've been around him again, I understand what the rest of you meant."
"You ordered us to return, may I ask why?" John asked.
"It might seem specious, but Mary is due to arrive soon, and I wanted you both here to greet her. I also think you four need a break before getting involved in what's coming. Besides, it's just nice having you guys around again," Mark said, "Even if it is temporary."
Chapter 33
The reunion at the Palace landing area was more than John or Chloe had expected. Mary literally jumped on him with a hug and a passionate kiss. When she finished with him, she did the same thing to Chloe, which made Chloe very happy, and embarrassed her at the same time. Not to be outdone, Gloria ran to Mark and planted a lip lock on him that would have the gossip columns speculating for weeks, and had the guards grinning.
"I guess she's really glad to see us, John," Chloe said. Gloria and the King were still kissing. Beside them, her parents were starting to look a little uncomfortable, kneeling on the landing apron.
John grinned. "Naw, I don't think she missed me at all, she kissed you longer!"
"So why did she kiss you first then?" Chloe replied, also grinning.
"Oh stop it, both of you!" She turned to her friend. "Gloria, if you don't stop kissing him, he won't be able to let your parents stand back up!" Mary moved back over to the Saints, and knelt with them, to greet her King.
Mark opened his eyes and waved them back to their feet behind Gloria's back. The trio stood, but still had to wait for Gloria to break the kiss. John and Chloe moved over to the Saints and shook hands welcoming them to the Capitol.
"How was the flight, Baily?" John asked.
"Pretty comfortable, actually. For a courier, she's a really comfortable ship," Bailey replied.