Hell Fighters from Earth

by William C. Seigler

  “Well it’s hard to say; much of what they say is hard to understand. But I … I got the feeling that it was some sort of honor thing.”

  “Honor thing?” asked the Captain.

  “Yes sir, he kept going on about the Greys we rescued. They seemed very impressed with the rescue, like I don’t know, that maybe it was something outside of their experience or just too strange to believe.”

  The officer glanced down at his pad and seemed to be reading something.

  “Anyway we were to rescue Private de la Fuentes. They seemed very concerned with fulfilling some sort of requirement, dictated by honor to get her. They called her the ‘lost-ling.’ Does any of this make sense to you sir?” The question got the pressure off his back, if only for a moment.

  “I really don’t know. I’ve never worked directly with them.”

  “Well, it’s sort of hard to follow them.” Smith was playing this up but only a little.

  “Go on.”

  “Well they had two pieces of equipment on board which could keep an eye on the lizards, but were afraid they would be spotted and destroyed or picked up by the enemy.

  “I installed one on each of the moons of the planet. They came in handy later when we went after the prisoners.”

  “You did what; you installed some sort of device?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How?”

  “I put on a suit, went outside the ship, and set the equipment up.,”

  “Exactly what sort of information did it give you?” asked the Captain.

  “Pictures.”

  “Did you see them for yourself?”

  Denver had not thought about that. “Well no, but Cee…, the Grey told me what was going on whenever a moon was over the base.”

  “Okay, so you’ve installed observation devices on the moons, then what?”

  “We waited till the warship could not find us, and we went down to the surface. They landed and hid in a ravine while I went to look for Argie, I mean Lieutenant de la Fuentes.”

  “And did you find her?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How?”

  The interrogation droned on for another two hours with the officer asking specific questions and Smith giving concise answers. All the time, he hoped the subject of communicating with Cee without the headband would not come up. He was convinced by the way the officer kept looking at his pad every time he answered a question, that they had a way of determining if he was telling the truth.

  “Who decided to scout the aide station first?”

  “I suggested it.”

  “I’m a little confused here, Captain Smith. Who was in charge?”

  “They were.”

  “But did they set you down and say, go here do this … this way?”

  “No sir; it was more like this is the general idea, now go to it.”

  The naval captain and Fitz exchanged glances.

  “You were pretty much on your own then.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Who decided to free the prisoners?”

  “We were discussing it when the robot vehicle came along. I saw an opportunity and went for it.”

  “Are you aware that you could have been captured or killed?”

  “Yes sir, but I was also aware that we might not get another chance to get our people out. The legion does not take leaving people behind lightly.”

  “Are you getting tired?”

  “To be honest, yes sir I am.”

  “Well go back to the waiting area with the others. Commander Fitzpatrick will be along momentarily.”

  Smith got up, saluted, and left.

  The naval captain exhaled for a long while, then hit a button on his desk. “You get all that?”

  “Yes,” said the electronically filtered voice.

  “What do you think?”

  “It looks like he was telling the truth. We don’t see where he was withholding anything.”

  “Anything from the other two?”

  “Not much, just small talk. The girl is asleep now.”

  “Okay, thanks.” He switched the device off.

  “Well commander, what do you think?”

  “Wow,” said Fitz.

  “Yes, wow is right. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Smith is making up some sort of aggrandized story about himself.”

  “Under other circumstances, so would I.”

  “However, given his history, I’m not surprised at his level of…”

  “Initiative?” added Fitz.

  “Yes, initiative. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to regimentation in our society that it seems almost odd. At least, many people think so, but we would not be having this conversation had our ancestors not had initiative.”

  “True, but Smith is something different.”

  “Yes, I almost wish command would see fit to mate him with our females, but can you imagine the outcry,” continued the naval captain.

  “I think we’ve enough problems without starting something like that.”

  “Yes, Commander. I think that is enough for tonight. Oh, by the way, welcome to naval intelligence.”

  “Thank you, sir. There is one other thing. That vehicle Smith and the others used to escape. It shows more sophistication than I would have expected from the Reptilians.”

  “Yes, but is that just our prejudice? I mean they didn’t run their spaceships on steam power. They must have pretty advanced technology,” said the captain.

  “I suppose so, but still something about it strikes me as odd.”

  “I tell you what, in order to keep them busy, when they are not being debriefed, have them put together some ideas on how we can make such a vehicle ourselves. Might be useful.”

  “Yes, sir. Will there be anything else?”

  “No, tuck your people in. The higher ups will want to know what we’ve found so far. I’ll let them know. Just try to keep your people calm. They need to see that we have their best interests in mind. We’ll start again tomorrow morning.”

  “Sir, do we know what’s going on?”

  “No, whatever it is goes right to the top. I’m just following orders.”

  “Yes sir, goodnight sir.”

  Chapter 21: The Legion Rifle

  The navy driver looked frightened. What did he think we would do, eat him? Smith paid him no attention.

  “Stay with the vehicle,” commanded Captain Smith.

  “Aye aye sir.”

  He entered the part of the warehouse area which had not been quite finished, some sort of row with the higher ups, not that it mattered. He knew who he was looking to find. Smith had only met him a time or two but quickly learned to deal with him fairly, friendly, and honestly. Otherwise, the legion’s own Russian mafia might make short work of you.

  Smith saw the men watching him, off duty for any official legion business, but on duty for the Russians. The leadership had done everything they could think of to downplay ancient tribalism, but it had only been partly successful. At least, the Captain Nemo faction had given everyone a common enemy.

  How they expected this to work, he didn’t know. That wasn’t his problem today. Today he needed something he could only get here. So far these men played the game and went along with orders. Besides, they didn’t know where they were in space or how to get back. It would matter, if there was any reason to go back, which there wasn’t.

  Russia was once again an oil exporter. American horizontal drilling and fracking in the oil and gas fields had kept Russia from going down the tubes like the ill-fated European Union. The bankers had strangled the life out of Europe and had made life difficult enough in America. Only the Russians, Iranians, Chinese, and a few others had been able to keep themselves out of their clutches. That was probably a good thing, at least for them,
maybe for all of us.

  Us, what us, he thought in self-rebuke. We are somebody else now. We are an army without a country. Whether that was a good thing or not, Smith did not know. He had gone as far as prudence allowed. He would wait now. Dmitri knew he was here. Now would he talk to him?

  It didn’t take long. At the far end of the deserted warehouse, the doors swung open, and Dmitri’s men fanned out followed by the man himself.

  Dmitri Pisstitoff, nobody knew his real name, was a huge barrel-chested man of considerable physical strength. He also had learned to quickly take the measure of a man and exploit his weaknesses. Some said he had been Spetsnaz, others said he had spent years in the Russian penal system; either one could make a man hard if it didn’t kill him.

  “You crazy American professor, what are you doing here?”

  Denver knew what to expect, slaps on the back that would nearly cripple him. He wasn’t disappointed.

  “I couldn’t stay away from your charming personality.”

  Dmitri fingered Denver’s epaulets, “And now they have made you an officer. I hope you haven’t come to shut down my operation.”

  “No, of course not. I came to see you.”

  Dmitri held Denver’s shoulders at arm’s length and examined him looking directly at him with his head slightly askew.

  “Come we will have vodka and talk.”

  “I hope the quality of the vodka’s improved.”

  Dmitri halted for a moment and tapped Smith on the chest with his huge knuckles, “Watch your mouth, I make the best vodka on this whole godforsaken planet.”

  “You make the only vodka on this planet.”

  “Yes, so?”

  “How’s Frenchy, has he taught you to drink wine yet?”

  “No, he was caught stealing grapes from the mess hall, so he’s in the brig right now. Any chance you could get him out, I mean now that you’re an officer and all?”

  “We’re pretty much on lock down. If they find out that I’ve come over to this side, I’ll be in the brig with Frenchy.”

  “They treating you okay?”

  “Yeah, so far it has been the velvet glove treatment. As long as they get the information out of us they want, we’re okay.”

  “What sort of information?”

  “What have you heard?” asked Denver.

  “You showed up in a Grey’s spaceship with MIA’s (missing in action) at the hospital and the Trups went apeshit.”

  “Trups?”

  “You know, ‘cadavers,’ they look like dead bodies, all the blood drained out. That’s what we Russians call them. You need to work on your Russian.”

  “Oh right, well that’s pretty much it.”

  “You got back your girl.”

  “She’s not my girl!”

  “Are you the only one on this stinking planet who believes that lie?”

  Dmitri opened the door to his private office and his bodyguards backed off. Denver closed the door behind him and found the two cleanest looking glasses while Dmitri found the vodka. This might turn out to be a long meeting.

  Dmitri poured. “So they making you soft over on that side? You look like you’re putting on weight. Looks good on you.

  “Za tvoyo zdorovie.”

  “Za vas.”

  “They ask us the same stupid questions ten different ways a hundred times.”

  “So you want to tell me what happened?”

  Denver was expecting this. “You got anything to eat?”

  “Not much with Frenchy in the brig. I’ll see what I can get.”

  The vodka began to hit home. Smith hoped he could remember why he came. Better do that first.

  “While we’re waiting,” he began reaching into his vest pocket, “I need you to build me a rifle around this.”

  Dmitri took it. “Where you get .30-06 ammo up here?”

  Up seemed odd. Out here would be more correct. Denver told the professor in his head to be quiet.

  “A friend got it for me.”

  “It is a good round used in your Springfield military rifle and later in the M-1 Garand; good weapons. Then Americans went soft, didn’t want to carry heavy ammunition anymore, eh?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is we had to pump a lot of lead into the lizards to kill them with the modified AR-15.”

  “You’re telling me. Alexi was trying to reload when one of those damn things bit his head off. We were massacred using your American pop gun.”

  “We got busted up pretty badly too. My ship was shot out of the sky; had to hitch a ride to the front.”

  “What front? We landed in the middle of them. I managed to get a bunch of Russians, a Japanese squad, and some Brazilians together and fight our way out. They came at us with their rifles still strapped across their backs. They had this backwards curved sword, and all they wanted to do was get close enough to use it.”

  Dmitri downed another glass of vodka without stopping as if it would make the horror go away. The food came, and this seemed a good time to change the subject. He poured himself another glass.

  “Za vas.”

  “Here’s looking at ya’.”

  “Can you do it?” Denver asked after drinking his toast.

  “I can do anything you want. But why .30-06, eh? Wouldn’t your .308 do just as good? The .30-06 will kick your soft American ass.”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t want to go in again under gunned. Is there anything you can do about the kick?”

  “Perhaps, I’ll see what I can come up with. Anyway why you doing this; they put you in charge of weapons? I thought they were coming up with this super rifle. Where the hell is that?”

  “Yeah, I heard that too. Right now they’ve got us back engineering a light armored attack vehicle, like the ones we found the lizards to be using.”

  “What the hell happened to you up there?”

  Denver reached for the vodka. At least now, he had something in his stomach. So far he had managed to avoid telling the navy that he could communicate with the Greys without the headband. As he began to relate the whole story, he made a mental note not to give up the secret now.

  Dmitri downed two more glasses of vodka and injected a few chuckles and generally enjoyed the story.

  “So now they’ve got suits against the cold. I wonder what else they have.”

  “I’ve thought about that a lot too. Now can you build me a rifle based on the old AK-47 built to chamber this cartridge?”

  “I can do anything you like. Did they send you over to do this?”

  “No, they don’t even know I’m off base.”

  “They will bust you back to private if they find out.”

  “I want a weapon that will flat kill a lizard. That’s all I care about; otherwise, they can go to hell, Za tvoyo zdorovie.

  “Za vas. You should have been a Russian.”

  Denver thought this was the highest compliment someone could give an outsider. It was acceptance.

  “You are too kind.”

  “Don’t you think your NATO 7.62 will do the job?”

  “I don’t know; I just don’t want any more surprises.”

  “I can give you a working prototype, but it might be a bit much to handle on automatic fire. I can make the rifles, but making the ammo, that is another matter.”

  “How about making one of each? If I can get my connections in the navy to bring up the ammo, we can test both of them.”

  “This I can do. It will take much machinery and not too many questions; so many forms to fill out.”

  “I’ll do what I can.” They clinked glasses.

  “Now enough shop talk, Vasily is taking a wife, or she is taking him. I don’t know which. We go to celebrate. We have nice girls too.”

  “Russian?”

  “Ummmm no, but unde
r the circumstances what can you say, eh?”

  Denver knew this was going to hurt in the morning.

  Chapter 22: The Worm Turns

  “You have done what, Captain?”

  “Sir, knowing how badly the rifles the legion was supplied with performed against the Reptilians, I have had two prototype rifles built and wish to test them. I will need the proper ammunition brought up from Earth.”

  Lieutenant Commander Fitzpatrick stood to the right of and slightly behind Captain Smith. Now Smith refused to continue the debriefing unless he got two cases of the prescribed ammunition from Earth.

  “Commander, are you part of this mutiny?”

  “No sir, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I am not a mutineer. I just don’t want the legion slaughtered like the last time you navy types dropped us in on a planet where your own intelligence said there would be only limited resistance. You are lucky there is any legion left, sir.”

  “But you will not continue the debriefing if you do not get what you want.”

  “Sir, I’ve told your people everything I know dozens of times. I have nothing new to add. Do you think I’m holding out on you? If we are going to fight this war, we need a weapon we can count on to knock those devils down and keep them down. That is what you want; isn’t it sir?”

  “Yes, yes of course; I’m just not used to …” He trailed off.

  “Not used to trash from Earth taking charge?”

  The admiral straightened. “Sir” began Fitz, “I’ve worked with Captain Smith; I’m certain he has the best interest of the legion and the war effort in mind.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he does, but still …”

  “Sir, we are going to have to get over many years of separation and prejudice if there is going to be a human race to save,” said Smith.

  “Commander, can they even do such a thing?”

  “I don’t know sir. Admiral, in spite of all the time of separation and the attitudes formed, I am always surprised at what people can create, especially in the area of technology. Sir, you will be amazed at what Earth-based human ingenuity can do.”

  The admiral thought long and hard. “All right, I’ll see what I can do. Now, Captain will you continue the debriefing?”