by Michael Ryan
We began our assault the second night.
I decided to enlist the help of the prisoners.
I sniped a Dreki guard who had line of sight on the entrance to the farthest slave quarters, and entered the building while Callie and Mallsin remained on overwatch. The captives were asleep and I didn’t want to alarm them. I turned my external volume down as low as possible and gently shook the shoulder of a human.
“Huh?” he said.
“Quiet. I’m a soldier from the Joint…I mean, I’m from Earth.”
He rolled over and went back to sleep. He probably thought my appearance was just part of a bad dream. I shook him again. He bolted upright in a panic. “Gah!”
“Shhh,” I whispered.
But it was too late. A commotion broke out in the barracks.
“I’m Lieutenant Ford,” I said calmly. I didn’t think it’d help any to claim to be a lieutenant colonel, so I kept that tidbit to myself. “I’m here to liberate you.” I kept the bad news to myself as well.
“Just you?” someone asked.
“There are a couple of others outside,” I explained. “We aren’t a large force. We were sent by Command to recon and didn’t expect to find anything.” A little white lie to keep things moving smoothly seemed prudent. “I need everyone to follow me. We’re going to have to work together to defeat the Dreki guards.”
“The who?” a purvast asked.
“The lizards.”
“Why didn’t you say so? Did you bring us weapons?”
“No.”
“Some rescue operation. I’m going back to bed. Try not to get us all killed.”
“I’m sorry this wasn’t planned better. It’s out of my hands. I’m looking for a Gurt soldier named Sergeant Veetea.”
A murmur went through the room.
Sergeant Veetea was there. He was barely recognizable, but I knew it was him. “Goddamn! It’s Avery Ford,” he said. “Well, that’s some impressive-looking armor. How do I know it’s really you?”
“It’s me.” I told him a story about chocolate pudding that I knew would convince him.
“I remember that day,” he said. “So you’re a lieutenant now.”
“Got a promotion and moved up in the world. Now I’m here. It’s been a long time,” I said. “Things have changed back home. We’ve banded together. I never thought I’d see the Gurts and Teds get along, but that’s what’s happened.” I briefly explained the status of the tri-planets. I told him what had happened with Command leaving us behind, although I had no information on why they’d left orbit. I explained that Abrel had been taken as a prisoner.
A man who’d been quietly listening to our conversation said, “I’ve seen Abrel.”
“You have? Is he okay?” I asked.
“I’ve seen him. I’m Dr. Edwards,” he said. “Abrel was alive the last time I saw him.”
“They’re interrogating him,” I said, “I’m sure.”
“Yes. I’ve been ordered to keep him alive,” he said. “I offered him a way out, but he refused. He claimed he had no damaging intel to offer them.”
“And you believed him?” I asked.
“Had I not…I would have mercifully killed him myself,” the doctor explained. “If he could jeopardize our rescue–”
I interrupted. “I know the protocol, Doctor. I want to get him out of here, but I also have a commitment to the group.”
I told them what had happened at the other camp.
“So you’re technically–”
“A lieutenant colonel,” I said. “But it hasn’t gone to my head. We need to move out.”
Every society has different views on the effectiveness of torture.
Gremxula – the name the lizard race called themselves – considered interrogation under torture to be of limited value, but they had plenty of humanoid stock. Getting more of them had become slightly problematic after the governments of three troublesome planets had banded together, but such inconveniences hadn’t stopped them.
Besides the nearly hairless humanoids they used as slaves in the mines, the Grems also used a rodent-like species. The nasty burrowing mammals were resilient and intelligent, and they also bred like konjins when food was plentiful.
Because of their technology and sheer numbers, the Muldvarp War had dragged on for a painful and costly forty-seven years. But in the end the most significant muldvarp nation, the Szczur, had agreed to supply slaves directly to the Grems. They harvested them from the less technologically advanced countries on their home planet. Purchasing slaves was more economical than intergalactic war, so hostilities ended.
The Gremxula and the Szczur became trading partners.
Training the humanoids to understand the Gremxula language had proven impossible. Apparently, their ears were incapable of detecting the frequency in which the Grems spoke. This made negotiation appear unlikely until it was discovered that the muldvarps could hear and speak across both ranges.
Kolrorermont, a useful muldvarp servant, approached Abrel. “Are you awake?”
When his question went unanswered, he threw a bucket of dirty water on the prisoner.
Abrel opened his eyes but didn’t speak. He saw a Dreki watching him, so he imagined being rescued and killing the creature in the most painful manner possible.
“You’re with me again,” the rodent-like interrogator said. “Good. I’d like you to meet the administrator of this facility. She’s a reasonable Grem, all things considered. But she’ll just as soon throw you in the river to become jegulje food. My advice to you is not to push her patience. Do you understand?”
“Go to Golvin,” Abrel said. “I’ve said all I have to say.”
The Dreki opened her mouth. She flicked her tongue, but Abrel heard no sound.
Kolrorermont nodded. “She says that she respects and honors your strength. She also says her petaízmaj is hungry. Have you seen one of their pets feed? It’s quite a sight, especially when they have kits. I once witnessed a litter devour a human alive over three days. You’d do well to avoid such a fate, Sergeant Velesment.”
“I’ve told you all I have to say,” Abrel said. “The irony, you disgusting rat, is that Dreki intelligence knows more than I do. I’d gain more information about my own forces if you tortured this Dreki for me. Tell her that. She knows more than I do. I have no idea where my Command ship went. I wish I did.”
The muldvarp moved his mouth; the reptile’s tongue flickered.
“If you do know something,” Kolrorermont said, “we’ll want to discover it before you expire. For now, Abrel, we’ll continue to see how brave you really are. If you’re smart and lucky, you’ll end up working the almasi mines.”
The alien sank its teeth into his flesh and violently shook its head; Abrel’s scream echoed off the walls.
I left the building with enough men that, if joined with my existing forces, I’d have an actual battalion-sized group.
Callie and Mallsin joined us, and Mallsin asked, “Does anyone know about Abrel?”
“Yes,” I answered over my external speaker. “He’s right there. Name’s Dr. Edwards.”
“What do you know?” Mallsin asked him.
“I know where he is,” Edwards said. “And he was alive the last time I saw him.”
“Edwards, guide Mallsin to him,” I ordered. “But wait until we get into position and can provide some overwatch. Callie, I want you on that roof.” I pointed to the tallest point in the compound, which was also the building I assumed was the heli-jet hangar. “Sergeant Veetea, you bring a group behind me.”
“Roger,” he said.
“On the way,” Callie said.
I moved to the next building and used my coil-gun to eliminate the guard. I knew it wouldn’t be long before an alarm went off somewhere, and I wanted to accomplish as much as possible before that happened. “Callie, once we’re discovered, try to maintain a couple of drones over the camp.”
“Roger that,” she said. “I’ll be in position in one.�
��
“I’ll be inside right behind you.” I dragged the dead reptile into the second barracks. There were another four or five hundred captives inside, and I instructed a sergeant from the first group to explain the situation. “Do what you can to organize,” I said, “and then meet us inside the largest building.”
I made it across the field to the hangar before we were discovered.
A Dreki guard spotted us and set off an alarm.
Spotlights illuminated the camp.
I put an APA round through the lizard’s head, but the damage had been done.
“Quick!” I shouted to the men.
We entered the hangar. The heli-jet was warming up as the large rolling door to the hangar rose. I shot the pilot and he slumped over the controls. The copilot panicked, and the craft shot out of the building before I could kill him. I fired ten heat-seeking HE missiles, wanting to be sure I wouldn’t miss. The last thing we needed was an eager Dreki heli copilot strafing the grounds.
With such a short distance between us, the copilot had no chance of evading them.
An explosion shook the ground as the rounds blew the craft apart.
Tall flames whipped skyward from the wreckage. The secondary explosive from the ammo stores sent shrapnel through the building. Dozens of soldiers fell to the ground in pain. I assumed many were terminally injured, and ordered those still standing to search for weapons. I’d seen the Dreki guards use a short, riot-control shotgun for use on patrols. The weapon was awkward for human hands but serviceable.
Sergeant Veetea found twenty of them and distributed them to men he trusted.
A pair of lightly armored Drekis burst into the hangar and fired on us with coil-guns.
Three men screamed in agony and fell.
“Take cover!” someone yelled.
All of the captives were soldiers, but none had been in battle recently. The art of being an efficient killer took practice to maintain. For some, like Veetea, it showed in their reaction times. They knew what to do, but their muscle memory was long gone. I used a coil-gun better suited for close-quarter combat and fired at the new pair of enemies.
Then a grenade bounced into the room.
Callie positioned herself on the edge of the roof ridge that was closest to the center of the compound. She locked down all but her arms and activated her camo system. The huge explosion of the heli-jet behind her momentarily distracted her, but she ignored the flames and concentrated on her assigned area of responsibility.
A trio of Dreki guards came running out of a building across the compound.
She hovered the reticule over the center soldier, who had slightly different marks on its uniform. Seeking higher ranked or otherwise distinguished troops was an automatic response in her, developed through years of experience. The dot blinked from yellow to green and the APA round streaked supersonically across the yard. The Dreki looked at his chest plate – Callie preferred to aim for the heart – and then tumbled forward.
She didn’t know where the heart was located on the reptiles, but the shot was effective. Callie moved the reticule to the second guard, who was sprinting for cover. She toggled the system to manual and triggered her second shot at the fleeing soldier’s back. It collapsed to the ground and its weapon skittered across the ground.
The third lizard reached cover before she could kill it.
Callie switched to an HE missile and fired at the wall the Dreki was using for cover.
The explosive round detonated in a ball of flame. The guard ran from its hiding spot, partially on fire. She switched back to her sniper rifle and ended its suffering with a shot to the back of the head.
The doctor took the opportunity to race to a long building at the opposite end of the camp, Mallsin in tow.
Callie kept a watch on them until they’d successfully entered the structure.
A pair of pekasmoks appeared in the sky.
One of them streaked down and landed near the first dead Dreki.
Callie used a KE round to send it to the afterlife with its master.
Not wanting to take any further chances, she turned to hunt for the second flying beast when it struck her from behind and lifted her off the roof.
As it carried her over the camp, her system lit up with a warning.
<
Mallsin practically flew into the building.
She left the doctor behind as she raced down the hallway.
The first Dreki she reached looked up in shock. It hadn’t realized an alarm had gone off and the camp was under attack. She unloaded one hundred mini-bolts from her coil-gun into the beast’s face and throat. It stumbled and dropped a tray of metal instruments it’d been carrying.
Mallsin stepped over the corpse and burst through the first door she encountered.
It was empty.
She moved back into the hall.
Small-caliber rounds ricocheted off her armor.
Dr. Edwards lay dead on the hallway floor, his skull vaporized.
Mallsin switched her weapon selector to an HE missile and sent the round straight into the body of the Dreki guard firing at her from the end of the corridor. The explosion blew the creature into bloody chunks, and Mallsin resumed her search for Abrel.
The next two rooms were also empty.
The fourth room contained a row of medical tables, each with a partially dissected body of a humanoid spread on top. She remembered to snap a few evidentiary pictures. While there wasn’t an officially declared war nor any treaties or agreements with the Drekis, part of the mission on Drekiland was to document anything of importance.
Her actions were rote, and she didn’t pause.
A row of grenades flew through the air toward her.
She used her coil-gun to demolish them in flight. The soldier who had sent them died a moment later as she filled him with coil-gun bolts and followed her initial assault with a grenade of her own.
“Abrel!” she shouted over her external speaker. “Abrel, are you here?”
She received no answer.
The last door she encountered was thick steel, and it was locked.
With power-enhanced kicks from her TCI-Armored boots, she broke through the wall instead. Once inside, she spotted Abrel strapped to a chair. A strange beast stood behind him with a knife to his throat.
“Release him,” she said through her speaker.
“I will consider it,” the alien creature said. He looked at her faceplate with beady dark eyes. “Don’t lift your weapon.”
“You mean like this?” she asked.
Mallsin’s words moved slower than the bolts she fired, and she doubted the rodent-like beast heard them. Her sidearm was still firing into the wall behind Abrel’s captor when the creature hit the floor. The knife he’d foolishly threatened her partner with clattered at his feet.
“You can let go of the trigger,” Abrel said.
“You’re alive,” Mallsin said.
“Or we’re both in Golvin.”
“I missed you. Don’t ever do that again,” she said.
“You mean get shot with a lightning bolt from the front of a Dreki heli-jet?”
“Yes.”
“Deal,” he said.
Mallsin scooped up the blade and cut the straps that held Abrel captive. She chucked the knife and kicked the creature in the head, further shattering its skull.
“It’s dead, Mal,” Abrel said. “Where’s Avery?”
“What is this thing?” she said. She kicked it again.
“It’s dead. I’ll explain later, okay?”
“Okay,” she answered. “Avery’s in the big building. I think he was successful in destroying the heli-jet. Callie’s on the roof providing overwatch. And I’m here to rescue you.”
“Thank you,” he said. “We should go help our friends.”
“You’re in no position to help anyone. You’re staying safe. Period.”
“Do mother me.”
“I nearly lost you,” Mallsin s
aid. “So I’ll do all the mothering I want.”
“Golvin,” Abrel said, and then also kicked the dead creature for good measure.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
There is no condemnation for the blind, the lame, and the deaf when they fail to assemble for war. But when the able-bodied avoids duty, the fires of Golvin shall be his reward.
~General Tenaal
I dove for cover.
Veetea and his men returned fire, but the shotguns were designed more for slave control than killing Drekis. Another group of the lizards showed up and we had an old-fashioned shoot-out. I kept the enemy from charging into the open, and the enemy kept my men penned down behind tool chests and machines. I wanted to attack more aggressively, but I was busy with anti-grenade fire.
I was able to blow up their munitions in the air, but that kept me working defensively.
“Callie?” I asked over our comm.
She didn’t answer.
I could see her icon; she was above me.
Then she wasn’t.
Hell.
“Pull your men back,” I shouted to Veetea. “I want to fire some heat.”
“Roger,” he said. “Hold one and cover on my mark!”
I lobbed a few grenades towards the Drekis.
Veetea shouted, “Moving!”
I unleashed a continuous burst of coil-gun bolts and followed with another dozen grenades. When the men behind me were under cover, I launched three HE missiles, and the opposite side of the hangar bloomed into a fireball.
“You think you got them all?” Veetea asked.
“They’re barbecued iguanas,” I answered him. “Stay behind cover and wait for me.” I ran out of the building towards my partner’s icon. “Callie?”
She was in the air being carried by a pekasmok. I ran after her.
<
I froze.