“They are fearsome warriors, sir.”
“And they would have been dead if you’d gone after them while they were still shocked and confused from the crash. Now I want you and your people to keep at it until you can bring back proof they’re dead.”
“And if we can’t find it?”
“Then plan on being out there until you do, or until we can reasonably assume they aren’t still coming here. Say, in a month or so.”
Mmrash ground his teeth together, not wanting to say something that might land him in more trouble.
“I’d like to be able to switch out my men so they don’t become too fatigued.”
“That’ll be fine. But you’ll stay out there until this is over.”
The comm terminated before the commander could say another word, leaving him reeling in anger and shock. That isn’t fair, he thought, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth. But one thing he’d learned was that life wasn’t fair. It also wouldn’t be fair when the boss threw the pieces of his body into the great river for the water animals to eat.
He looked over at the pilot, whose ears were in an attitude of mirth.
“If I’m out here, so are you,” Mmrash growled, pointing a pair of index fingers at the pilot.
“But…”
“That’s not fair? Whatever led you to believe life was fair?”
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty
Jonah shook his head as he looked out over the edge of the wasteland. The fire had stopped only twenty yards from where he was standing. Some of the tree trunks were blackened from the flames that had eaten at them before the heavy rains put the fire out. The air smelled of burnt wood, and even more disturbing, the odor of burnt meat. Smoke drifted through the forest, hanging low to the ground. There were no animals in evidence, all having either run away or flown to nearby dens.
“We need to move, Colonel,” Charley said, walking up to stand beside him, the crunch of ash underfoot lending an emphatic statement to the tragedy. “We need to get into the forest before those bastards make their way over here.”
“Yep.” Jonah turned and started into the woods, motioning for all of his people to come along.
Their Xlatan prisoner walked with them, his arms locked behind him in two matched pairs. Manny trailed just slightly behind him, rifle at the ready. The alien hung his head as he moved, mumbling to himself as he put one foot in front of the other.
“Where do you think we should head?” the colonel asked Xebraferd, walking over to the war chief.
The Kalagarta didn’t answer for some moments, his eyes darting back the way they’d come, trying to get yet another glimpse.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said the Kalagarta, his wide eyes looking into those of the Human.
Jonah thought the heart had been punched out of the alien.
“Don’t you have forest fires?”
“Not like this. The forest is normally too wet for fire to start easily. Sometimes lightning will strike and set a tree on fire, and it might spread for a short distance in the underbrush. But this.” The Kalagarta gestured behind them. “Only the evil you star people bring could cause something like this.”
Jonah looked away and walked for some minutes, letting the alien have time to process his thoughts. After they’d covered a mile into the forest, the mood of the party changed for the better. They now had some cover behind and above them. The smell of burnt wood was still in the air, and there were wisps of smoke, faint and fleeting.
“We should move five or six miles to the west, then angle back to the north,” said Xebraferd after huffing out a breath. “We need to get to the great river and meet up with the tribe who controls that territory so they can get you across. That’s not something we can do without spending days to make watercraft.”
“I’m putting my trust in you.”
“What about your prisoner? Could you give him to us?”
Jonah didn’t like the question. If the Kalagarta had their way, the Xlatan would die, horribly and in great pain. That was something he couldn’t allow.
“Our people don’t treat prisoners like that. I’m sorry.”
“We are aiding you, at great cost to ourselves. If you cannot reciprocate, why are we doing it?”
And if I don’t give you the prisoner, you’ll abandon us? Jonah looked back at the prisoner. From what he’d learned, the male had been a squad leader. If the Xlatan military was anything like Human organizations, that meant he had limited authority. He wasn’t personally at fault for what his people were doing.
They called the aliens cats, but they weren’t any more closely related to Humans than a slime mold. In fact, a bacterium on Earth was a kissing cousin compared to the Xlatan. Though they had many of the same proteins in their physiology, they used a different set of nucleic acids for their DNA. On closer look, they didn’t even resemble Earth felines that much. The angles of their faces were different. Their eyes had horizontal slits, like goats, instead of the vertical variety of cats. Their ears were probably what resembled Earth cats the most, though seeing the way they moved, it was obvious they had a completely different muscle structure.
Should have studied xenobiology, the colonel thought. As a child, he’d always been fascinated by biology, especially with the variety of life in the universe. His family had been too poor to pay for higher education, and the only way out of the slums of the Eastern North American Metroplex had been the military.
“I can’t do it, Xebraferd. No matter what you do in return, I cannot do it.”
The alien let out a loud croak the colonel had come to associate with anger, then hopped off.
“That could have gone better,” Charley said from ten yards back, stepping forward so he could talk with his colonel. “I know you don’t want to turn over a prisoner, something to do with your absurd sense of chivalry.”
“You think I’m wrong?”
“I don’t know. I feel uneasy about turning someone from a civilized species over to a bunch of barbarians. I can just imagine what they’ll do to him. But what happens to him when we cut him loose a hundred miles from his people? You really think he’ll make it through that stretch of forest without being caught? The same thing will happen to him, and we gain no benefit.”
Jonah knew his partner was correct. The cat might be equipped as a hunter, but this wasn’t his native environment. Most likely the Kalagarta would be able to track him down without a problem. He’d still be dead. But I’ll know I had nothing to do with it. And that mattered to him.
“Anything on your sensor net, Xou?” Jonah asked his electronics expert fifteen minutes later.
“The one drone I left back there is still picking up their shuttles coming and going, with a couple on overwatch. So far nothing heading our way.”
They still aren’t sure whether we’ve left the area, and they’re continuing the search, the colonel thought, a slight smile on his face. As long as they kept sweeping that area, they wouldn’t be looking for them where they actually were.
By dusk they’d made fifteen miles from the cavern, and it was getting too dark to travel. If he’d been traveling on his own, he’d have kept them moving. Their night vision gave them an advantage over anything on this world during the hours of darkness. The Kalagarta insisted they camp for the night. Since they knew this world, he bowed to their expertise.
He looked at the stand of vegetation the natives led them to with curiosity. It looked something like a Banyan tree, with multiple trunks and roots creating a maze.
“We call it a sanctuary tree,” said Xebraferd when asked about it. “It provides us with everything. Food, water, concealment.”
The Kalagarta gestured at a branch that held green berries that looked like olives. A couple of his warriors were building a fire in one of the spaces under the canopy, keeping the blaze small, enough to cook on and not much else.
“Nobody will spot your campfire?” Charley asked, brow furrowing with concern.
/> “The canopy is too thick, and the leaves will reflect the light back inward.”
The party relaxed as much as possible as darkness descended, and meat sizzled over the spit. The Xlatan was probably the only being who wasn’t at ease, as the cat’s head was on a swivel, looking from the Humans to the Kalagarta and back. It was obvious the creature was afraid of the natives and hoping the Humans would continue to protect him. The Kalagarta speared the alien with cold stares that promised painful death.
“Why are your people here?” Jonah asked, taking a seat on the ground next to the Xlatan.
“Why are you here?” the Xlatan replied. “Probably for similar reasons. We want to trade with the Galactic Union but have nothing to offer them except ability and determination to fight.”
That about sums it up for us, Jonah thought, nodding, wondering what the alien was making of that gesture. The ears of the creature were flashing signals like a semaphore, and he had no way of knowing what was being signaled.
“And this place?”
“We were offered a contract that paid well, and my clan decided to send us. I was one of the ones chosen, so here I am.” The Xlatan looked down for a moment in thought before looking up again, his teeth showing in what would be a grimace on a Human. “I’d known those males you killed today my entire life. I grew up with them, trained with them.”
“I’m sorry we had to kill them.”
“It was us or you,” the Xlatan said. “No warrior can blame the other side for fighting their best. Our lives were not your concern. They were ours and ours alone. We failed, you succeeded. So do not apologize, Human.”
“I won’t. My people are my concern, as you said. It was you or us, and I will always pick us.”
The ears of the alien started flashing his emotions, but from the thoughtful expression on his face, the colonel thought the warrior agreed with him. They’re an honorable people, Jonah thought, closing his eyes. It was unfortunate that they worked for bastards like the people who’d come here to kill this planet for profit.
“What will become of me?” the Xlatan asked, watching as a Kalagarta approached the pair with some food sitting on a couple of large leaves.
“Sometime tomorrow evening we’ll let you go. It should take you days to reach your people, and by that time we’ll be well away from the release point, so you won’t be able to lead them to us.”
“You know I won’t make it out of this jungle. Maybe if you gave me a weapon,” the Xlatan said hopefully, then looked down again at the leaf of food sitting on the ground in front of him. “But I know you won’t do that. It’s not something I would do either, arming an enemy so he could protect himself from an ally.”
Jonah looked over at the alien, wishing he could do more, but the Xlatan was correct. He couldn’t arm him, and if he ran into the Kalagarta in the jungle, he was dead. It might be better to just kill him and be done with it. That was also something he couldn’t bring himself to do.
“I’ll help you,” Jonah said, seeing a glimmer of hope in the eyes of the alien. He reached for the food and saw the glimmer die as the Xlatan realized he’d meant helping him to eat. “At least you’ll have a chance when we let you go. Better than what your people gave those they captured for slaves. Or killed for resisting.”
It was a shitty thing to say to a prisoner who was sure he’d be dead in another day. Still, it made Jonah feel better to remind himself and the prisoner of the reality of their situation.
* * *
“They were definitely in that cavern, Commander Mmrash,” Nlorn said over the comm. “Sergeant Lrator was able to leak some urine out of his suit. Not enough to tip the Humans or the Kalagarta off, with their defective sense of smell, but it was like a flashing sign to us.”
Thank the gods Lrator is still with us, the commander thought. Lrator was probably his most intelligent and thoughtful subordinate. Very few of the lower-ranking Xlatan could be called bright. Most of those who were soon rose to the ranks of officers. Lrator would probably be commissioned after this mission, if he survived. That thought hit the commander in the gut. Just because he been alive when he was in that cavern didn’t mean he was still among the living at this point.
“What’s the plan, Sergeant?”
“Well, sir, we can’t send everyone through the pool, but the people on the other side can walk to the end of the tunnel and locate the exit.”
Mmrash really didn’t like the fact that those who walked the tunnel would have to wait for the rest, but he didn’t see any other way. They only had a couple of diving rigs, so the warriors who’d used them were the only ones who would be forced to go through the pool.
“Let me know when you get there,” the commander ordered, looking at a Tri-V map of the region. The map told him nothing. Of course it showed the jungle and all the changes in elevation, but what it didn’t show him was where the damned Humans were, or more importantly, where they were going.
That looks interesting, he thought, pointing to and zooming in on one of the few large clearings on this side of the river. It was eight miles from north to south, and twenty miles from east to west, with scattered trees over grasslands. He wasn’t sure how it had evolved in the otherwise surface covering jungle, but there it was. If the Humans moved through that, they just might be able to hit them in the open.
But why in the hells would they do that? The Humans knew their enemies had control of the air. If he positioned a shuttle high in the air, they’d be able to spot any movement across that open area. Of course, it was more likely that they’d avoid that area like the killing zone it was.
“See if you can pick up their trail in the forest,” he ordered his senior sergeant. “If you pick it up, follow it, but don’t make contact until I tell you.”
“And if we can’t pick up the trail?” Nlorn asked.
“Then you’ll make your way to a point where the shuttles can pick you up.” While he had air superiority, he’d use it to its full advantage.
* * *
“They hit us while we were out harvesting this section,” the small alien said on the comm. “They killed over half our people, Boss, and freed all the slaves.”
“You weren’t able to fight them off?” Jillor asked, closing his eyes and letting out a breath of tension.
“We killed a few, but they came out of nowhere, and those damned poison darts and spears killed everyone they even scratched.”
And we’ve gotten careless, Jillor thought, growling low in his throat. When they’d first come here, they’d treated the Kalagarta with the respect due any foe. Many easy victories later, and hundreds of slaves taken, they’d started to think of the natives as nothing but helpless, childlike savages, forgetting they were intelligent beings adapted to this environment. Now that attitude had come back to bite them in the ass.
“Come back to the compound with everyone you have left, and don’t forget to bring the equipment.” Maybe that last order wasn’t needed, but they’d found out the hard way that any equipment and vehicles left unattended in the wild tended to catch on fire. The aliens could do little to advanced high-tech equipment when it was manned and on the move. Sitting unattended gave them opportunity to put the lightly-armored civilian equipment to the torch.
With the push of a panel he sent a comm request to the Xlatan second-in-command. The female’s face appeared on the Tri-V that sprang up over the desk moments later.
“Boss?”
“Major Grolrror. You heard what happened?”
“Yes, sir. You want me to assign some of our people to the harvesting parties?”
Jillor stared into the strange, slitted eyes of the female. She was unusual for her people, who normally assigned the function of soldier to the larger males, which meant she was either really good at her job or had some influence with the clan. He thought if she had that kind of influence, she’d have stayed home.
“I want you to put together a strike force and wipe out the village those raiders came from.”
“Do we know which village that is?” she asked, eyes narrowing as her ears signaled her emotions.
Most non-Xlatan couldn’t make heads nor tails of those signals. He couldn’t read them with total comprehension, but he’d been around the creatures long enough to catch the overall gist. The female was disgusted that such a mission had landed in her hands. Well, too bad. If Mmrash hadn’t been such an incompetent, he’d be here to lead it.
“Just hit the nearest village. Capture as many of the young adults as you can. Kill everyone else and destroy the village. Totally.”
Again the major looked as if she was disgusted by the order, and for a moment the boss wondered if she would refuse it. If she did, he’d have no choice but to put her down.
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
The comm died, disconnected from the other end, sending a shiver of rage through the boss. He terminated the comm when he was talking to a subordinate, not the other way around. He had a notion to call her back and bring her to task.
No. As long as she does it. But I’ll be keeping my eye on her.
In fact, Jillor walked out of his office to watch the two shuttles take to the air. They rose with the whine of fans, leveled off at six hundred feet, and moved out, heading out to search for villages. Unfortunately, there were none within a hundred miles, the nearer ones having already been taken for slave labor.
After he watched the shuttles recede in the distance, Jillor decided to walk the compound. After all, if the natives had been brave enough to attack a harvest party, might they not muster the courage to hit the compound as well? Jillor thought they’d regret that decision, but it wouldn’t hurt to check out the security. Losing even one more of his people was one too many, after all.
* * *
“Are you okay, Major?” the pilot of the lead shuttle asked the officer occupying the seat next to him.
When Eagles Dare Page 24