Because your stupidity is compounded by the fact that you are petty little plastic soldier, I have to go to these extreme measures to demonstrate to you why you do not fuck with my command.”
The Humvee rolled to a stop between the bunker and trailer. Ray’s ship was still glowing, but it was possible to see the outline of the broad brim of the hull, the main dome on top and several of the domes on the underside. It was resembled the classic UFO that it was. It was straight out of UFO lore. The ship was the stuff of grainy photos, shaky video and conspiracy theories. Only this apparition was quite real, both in appearance and implication. It was a sight that these armed women and men were trained to deal with as their profession. The work was difficult psychologically and emotionally in addition to being physically and intellectually demanding. The job was infinitely more difficult when other professionals who should know better decided to interfere. They carefully extracted general Kirkpatrick from the Humvee. He was still silent. His legs trembled noticeably. Nichols began to sympathize with the man.
“You come out here to shoot off your little rockets so the Chinese or the Russians or that fat kid up in Commie Korea won’t be able to say that their dicks are bigger than yours,” General Breslin said. “Well, let me show you what my job is all about.”
The general reached up and pulled the black bag off Kirkpatrick’s head. He grabbed the taller man by the arm and spun him around to face the glowing spacecraft.
“That is not one of ours, General. That there is the real deal. Genuine interstellar spacecraft. You see, General, while you are up there in your office pretending to make the world safe for democracy, we are out here making sure the fucking planet stays safe from hordes of fucking lizard people who quite literally want to come down here, crack open your fucking skull and eat your underutilized brain like a goddamn soft-boiled egg.”
General Breslin wasn’t sure if humanoids that resemble lizards existed or not. The Unit certainly wasn’t aware of any. The General was on a roll and was feeling inspired by the day’s stressful events.
General Kirkpatrick was pale. His legs stopped shaking. His jaw hung slack, and his eyes were wide. Nichols thought the man might soil himself. Nichols himself felt his bladder loosen during his first extraterrestrial encounter. He managed to keep it in, but incontinence was a very real and very common human response to an encounter. Having been through it themselves, very few in the Unit would fault someone for losing control of bodily functions.
“Holy shit,” was all Kirkpatrick could muster.
“Hallelujah, I think he gets it. Maybe there’s hope for you yet, General Kirkpatrick.”
“Holy shit,” Kirkpatrick repeated.
“I think we covered that, General, but yes. Holy shit.”
Chase let him view at the spacecraft for a good long while. He understood what the man was going through. The general scheme was the same for everyone. It would take a while for his mind to rationalize, digest and then understand that the thing out there in the desert could not be the product of human hands.
“You can see that I have my hands full here, General,” Breslin said, and then: “Corporal Burns!”
“General!” Burns popped up instantly before both generals, very nearly startling General Breslin.
“Why don’t you get General Kirkpatrick a cold bottle of water for the ride back.”
“Full cooler in the Humvee, General.”
“Very good corporal, that’s why we keep you around.”
Breslin uncuffed Kirkpatrick himself and led the shocked man back to the Humvee almost gently.
“I had no idea,” Kirkpatrick said with a tone somewhere near the intersection of shock and apology.
“Uh huh. That is essentially my thesis here, General Kirkpatrick,” Breslin said, as they climbed into the Humvee. He continued like an insurance salesman.
“Now General, there’s just a few things we need to talk about on the way back.”
Breslin motioned for Nichols to drive. The two corporals piled into the rear seats with Breslin and Kirkpatrick. Burns took the furthest seat rear and the big Corporal Mackey squeezed in beside General Breslin. Nichols turned the Humvee around and headed back to the post. Breslin handed the shocked general the cigar tube he’d used to simulate a pistol barrel. The man took it absently with numbed fingers, then sipped on a cold plastic bottle of water. Some water dribbled from his lower lip onto his collar.
“That there’s a Cuban, General. Go ahead. Take it. It’s a gift; a ‘cigar shaped object’ as a memento of our time together in the desert,” Chase said. Breslin couldn’t resist the comment and Nichols almost choked trying not to laugh, as much from the horror of the humiliation as the dated reference. Kirkpatrick was beyond noticing such things.
“Now, when you go back there you can tell them that we’re old buddies, and this was just a wild prank. We can support that story for you. See, we’re real good at covering things up. The Unit’s got sixty years’ experience, maybe more. A few words from us in the right places and everybody believes it’s your birthday or your bachelor party, or fucking father’s day or some such shit—just an extreme prank between old buddies. We’ll leave the story up to you, just give me a call later and let me know. You do have my direct line, and I will take your calls now, General, because I think we have an understanding.
Now, along with our new understanding comes the requirement that you can’t tell anybody, and I mean anybody, about what you saw here today. Don’t even suggest you know something about this. Don’t even make stupid UFO jokes. Don’t even watch a science fiction movie.
In fact, it’s now your job to squash any and all talk about anything resembling what you saw out there today. We’ll help you with that too. Don’t you worry, we’ll keep a close eye on you from now on so we can help you out. We’re all very concerned about the health of your career now, General.
If you do talk, though—believe me, we will know it.”
The group fell into silence, and the pale Army General stared through the air-conditioned window of General Breslin’s personal Humvee. A few awkward minutes later and the shaky General Kirkpatrick was back at his command.
They were silent for a while on the ride back. The General seemed much more relaxed.
“Lizard people, General?” Nichols asked, not being able to resist the silence with the buzzing thoughts in his head. He took the risk that being an accomplice in a kidnapping gave him, at least, some form of informal rapport with the General. The risk paid off.
“Shit, Nichols, you just couldn’t wait to call me out on that one, could you, son?”
“No General. Sure couldn’t.”
Chase whipped around to the back seat like a cranky old man driving the family minivan. He glared at the two corporals sitting there.
“I hear you two knuckleheads back there trying not to laugh. I’m going to ask Colonel Balanik if she’s ever come across any lizard people. Let’s see who laughs then.”
They laughed so hard for the rest of the ride that they were hoarse and coughing by the time they arrived back at the bunker. They riffed on variations of the ‘lizard people’ theme and any other UFO cliché they could think of for the duration of the ride. They were all a bit surprised that the normally very serious Sergeant Nichols seemed to have the best one-liners. Breslin was a bit sad as he stepped out of the Humvee, adjusted his uniform and painfully resumed his role as the tough and stoic leader.
Chapter 5: The Third Arm, Warsphere Alpha, Escape
The wave of acid came down like water from a wash bucket. Time lost meaning before the brutally clear vision of slaughter. Nina wielded her staff at an enemy that seemed to be part of the air itself. She slashed and bludgeoned and destroyed until her arms burned, but it made no difference. The enemy was everywhere, thinning Warriors out, breaking them apart. They fought in a rising tide of acid that reached their calves. The tide pushed up from the rim of the canyon and contained even more Silicoid cells.
Nina’s skin t
ingled. Something pulled the power from her. The atmosphere pressed heavier as her energy sheath drained. The draining force hit lone warriors hardest. They dropped at the pace of a rapid heartbeat. One moment they fought, and in the next, they were naked. Their armor simply flickered off and their robes dissolved. The screams in Nina’s mind were pitiful as bare flesh met the crushing atmosphere and the lake of acid that was the battlefield. Those closest to other warriors felt the drain far less. They began to form clusters and fought back to back and shoulder to shoulder.
"Stay close together!" Nina gave a general order. "Link armor!"
Thickening panic swirled in the acid with them. Some soldiers separated from their groups and ran to the perceived safety of the growing mass of reinforcements uphill. They didn't make it far but did serve as a grim example to the others. The remaining soldiers formed closely in groups of a greater number until they were a single confused mass.
There were two Silicoid traps. The first trap was for the bait and the second for the entire army. The Silicoids wanted the whole force to rush into the acid. Nina and all the soldiers around her were just more bait. She found only one order to give. It was the hardest command of her life. She had given it twice now.
"Do not send reserves! Repeat! Do not send reserves! This is an ambush! Fall back and call for extraction!" Nina called over all broadcast channels.
The order was not obeyed. Again. Her sisters instead worked the problem. The entire remaining army abandoned the lava dome and rushed forward to meet the enemy. Along the way, they took every cache of supplies they could carry.
Nina prepared herself to die. As she fought hard with the others to beat back the spore, she just couldn't think of a way for them to get out. As they pressed closer together, her sheath grew stronger, but it was not enough. As the Silicoids succeeded, warriors found themselves fighting an increasing number of occupied bodies.
Something bounced off Nina's head and splashed down at her feet. A few seconds later, another dark object bounced off the shoulder of a someone beside her. At first, she thought tiny cells were leaping into the melee, but the objects were power crystals. Soldiers threw them from the shoreline. The Warriors deeper inside the cluster saw the crystals and picked them up. They stuffed some inside their robes and passed the rest. A rough hand shoved a hard stone inside her robe, and her armor took on power. Those with the extra power units boosting their armor moved to the outside of the pack.
The army was mounting a rescue. She’d never been more thrilled to have a direct order ignored. They built a chain, linked arm-to-arm, sharing the power of their energy sheaths. Groups of heavy troops walked down the line of soldiers pressing their shoulders together to share power. They took the job of beating back the few Silicoids that turned from the captive force to attack the growing chain. Some single could hear troops were using spare power units salvaged from machinery to reinforce their armor while the chained soldiers shared collective energy.
Nina found herself dismayed as more joined the chain. It was an incredibly dangerous and stupid move, she thought. If one of those warriors lost her grip, the entire chain would perish. It took the combined power of ten soldiers to keep up with the force was draining their armor. Some of the single Heavy Infantry walking the line were overcome. Their robes glowed around them like halos as they accessed the full power of two, sometimes three power units intended to operate heavy weapons and equipment. Their skin burned and blistered, turning red and gray as their bodies conducted so much energy. Eventually, they just couldn’t sustain the force, and their armor blinked out. They dissolved without a sound into the acid. Nina vowed never to forget that bravery.
In the dilated time of battle, an eternity passed before the chain reached them. The last in the chain reached out and managed to grab the robe of a nearby soldier. She pulled and realized her mistake too late. Removing the soldier from the cluster, even for an instant, doomed her. The soldier screamed, thrashed and melted away.
The solution came when the remaining group cleared their midst of Silicoids and managed to form a solid cluster. They moved into the chain and joined it, slowly building another layer. Soon the chain was several warriors across. As long as they managed to keep physical contact with each other, they survived. Back on the shore of the acid lake, the remaining reserves wasted no time. Heavy weapons crews moved forward and stood ready to cover the retreat.
The last of the bait stepped back over the riprap and onto dry land. They moved behind the newly formed line. Some collapsed and lay still, battle staffs under them. Others wandered aimlessly with wide, shocked, dead eyes. Medical engineers did the best they could with wounded. Nina stood on the edge of the shore gripping her staff and holding it low. Her knuckles shone white even beneath her armor. She shook uncontrollably, and the ground seemed to shake with her.
The numbers ran through her mind. After hundreds of battles, Nina was an expert in the calculus of attrition. They lost more than five thousand. Her head twitched as her wild eyes darted from one scene of chaos to another.
Suddenly, a sergeant popped into view. The slight soldier stood erect before her and toe-to-toe. Her face was desperate.
"Captain! We need orders!" The sergeant screamed.
Nina stared back.
"Captain!" The soldier said again, this time, more desperate. Nina couldn't respond. Nina didn't see her reach back, but she felt the back of the Sergeant's hand across her face. The tremors stopped instantly.
"Captain, you are it!" the sergeant yelled.
The blow brought Nina back. "You are my second now,” she said, “Organize squads," Nina said. She linked with her Second and searched for her Comm Sergeant. The sergeant was in on the network, but nowhere in sight. Nina reported the situation, then turned to her Second. "We need to organize a retreat."
Nina grabbed a shocked and wandering corporal. She pulled the corporal close and gave her a good shake.
"Are you wounded?" Nina asked.
The corporal just worked her mouth and Nina's second moved in to check her over. There were no visible wounds. The two huddled over the corporal as Nina spoke.
"We need you and everybody else. Get your strength back now and help the others. Do you understand?"
The corporal nodded slowly. Nina gave orders. "Gather wounded and start moving back to that lava dome."
The Second grimaced. If the spore decided to attack again, they would go for the wounded first. Moving wounded rear the right thing to do, but created more danger. Nina hoped it wouldn't provide more bait. They had few troops to spare for defending those moving rear.
"Second, I want all available heavy infantry to fall back to the nearest heavy weapons cache. Keep the medium troops on the flanks. Light infantry covers the rear for a controlled pull-back."
She waited for the Comm Sergeant to confirm with Second and the order went out wide. "Stay by my side. We're going up the line."
"Captain," the Comm Sergeant said, "I have cursory numbers. We're down to twenty-thousand. There is no one else on the network."
Nina could only acknowledge the report. She was too stunned by the number. They lost more than eighty-thousand Warriors since landing. The fact did not change the work they had to do.
Nina ran with her Second along the new front line. The Silicoids did everything they could to try luring soldiers back into the acid. It appeared that was their goal. Before this Warsphere army, no Advocate believed Silicoids could have goals.
Nina organized crews to pile rocks along the shoreline as battlements. They soon had a significant defensive wall. When Nina as satisfied the line was stable, she turned to her Second.
"Find me as many comm officers and engineers as can be spared. Bring them to me behind front line center," Nina ordered.
The sergeant cocked her head in question, then ran to the task.
Nina called the Comm Sergeant again. "We're getting off this planet,” Nina said. "Find Abal. She found a way to get to through to Orbital."
"Captain," Comm replied. "Abal is dead."
"Someone has to know what she had in mind. Find them. Make it happen."
"Captain," her Second reported, "We have activity from the main spore."
Nina didn't hesitate. She bolted up to the battlement and stood to survey. The Silicoids were massing, forming lines of their own. Shapes lurked just below the surface, making ripples and lumps in the liquid.
A Lieutenant joined Nina on the battlement. "Might be worms or something bigger is coming," she said."
They turned and jumped back down.
"Make ready," Nina ordered the line. "Second wave any minute."
Nina spoke directly to the nearest heavy troops over the network.
"You warriors are in charge right here. Hold this line and kill anything that moves over this wall. We're getting out of this hole soon. Be ready to fall back for extraction"
"Captain," Comm called. “I have contact with Abal's engineer squad.”
Nina waited, said, “What! Tell me!”
“Captain, the engineers discovered Orbital is actively blocking our channels from the rest of the fleet.”
Nina did not make the Sergeant repeat the news, however much she wanted to. Instead, Nina repeated those words in her mind. This was a new reality. She had to make it stick, no matter how hard it was to believe.
“Comm!” Nina called.
“Here, Captain.”
“Tell that squad to meet me at the front.” It didn't take long for the soldiers to assemble. They found Nina a few dozen meters behind the line on a low rise. Nina paced as she watched random skirmishes break out. She directed force where necessary when she saw Silicoids trying to get at the flanks. When Comm and engineers arrived, she turned the front over to her Second.
“What was Abal's solution for getting us out of here?” Nina asked the assembled engineers.
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