The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three)

by T. R. Harris

  “Who…who are you?” she said. Sherri noticed the movement of her mouth did not match the words she spoke.

  “My name’s Sherri. I’m here with a group of Navy SEALs from America to rescue you. Do you understand English?”

  “No. I’m Italian.”

  “That’s fine, we have translation bugs,” Sherri said with a smile, tapping the back of her ear. The woman smiled back, nervously.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Annabelle. Annabelle Pasqual.”

  “Well Annabelle, we don’t have much time. Are all the women in the green shirts being held against their will?”

  “Yes. Yes we are. They took us! They’ve been using us—”

  “Yes, I know. It’s all right now. We’re going to get you out of here. How many women are here, and are the yellow shirts also being held against their will?”

  The woman tightened her jaw and her eyes narrowed. “No, the yellows are with them. And there’s talk of them going to kill us. The women laughed at us when they saw our expressions.”

  “How many green shirts are there?”

  “About 60 now. They took several hundred of us away a few months ago. We haven’t seen any of them since.”

  “Will the yellows fight with the others against us?”

  “Fight? Them? No, they know nothing. They are like robots, except when they want the attention of the men. They know how to do only one thing.”

  “Okay, listen very carefully Annabelle. I need you to wake up all the other women in this building and tell them to stay in their rooms. Tell them to remain very quiet. We do not want to alert the 2G’s. Now hurry, and then you come back here to us.”

  Franks released the woman, and she quickly rose to her feet and scurried off down a long corridor off the common room. She began to open doors, and soon the building was alive with an ever-rising volume of chattering. Franks and Sherri looked at each other. What part of ‘stay quiet’ did they not understand?

  The other three SEALs had taken up positions near the door and were watching for any activity from outside.

  Suddenly Petty Officer Krug turned to Franks. “Company,” was all he whispered.

  Franks and Sherri moved to the doorway. Coming down the road in front of the buildings were five men – or boys would be a better description. They were talking among themselves and each wore the dull expressionless look of 2G’s. Only two of them wore MK-17’s strapped around their waists.

  Annabelle moved up next to those huddled near the door.

  “Are they coming here?” Franks asked her.

  “Yes. They are coming to wake us. We are all moved to a cafeteria for breakfast. That will be in half an hour.”

  “We won’t be able to hide the burned open door from them. Command, five targets approaching our location. Two armed. Location will be compromised.”

  “Hold one,” Tobias said into their ears. “Team Bravo, ETA?”

  “One minute,” came the immediate reply.

  “Remove threat,” commanded Tobias evenly.

  “Roger that.”

  As the five men turned to climb the four short steps to the front door of the building, the lead man noticed the hole in the door where the knob had once been. Immediately, the door swung open and the SEALs placed precise double-taps into the five men.

  Further down the road, someone shouted. Then came more shouts, as the SEALs could see a dozen young men emerging from a building not too far away. Each carried flash rifles and were running for the electric carts parked in front of the building.

  The SEALs opened up on the lead vehicle from their position in the doorway. Suddenly, the wood around the door began to explode as plasma bolts slammed into the building. The walls were thin, yet they withstood the barrage.

  Weir ran to the back of the kitchen and leveled his M4 at a section of the outer wall. Then he opened up, blasting an arching pattern and perforating the wood. Once complete, he kicked out with his right foot, and a new exit was created in the building. He and Krug slipped through and crawled underneath the building. Soon they had cover, and could clearly make out the attackers as they were letting loose with brilliant bolts of energy toward the front of the building.

  The two SEALs took aim and pressed their triggers. Soon they stopped to slip in new 30-round magazines, and a moment later, all the 2G firing had stopped – but only momentarily.

  Further down the road, they could see about a dozen more 2G’s moving toward them. The SEALs on the ground under the building, along with those inside, checked their ammo and prepared for another round of fighting. But just as the 2G’s were drawing near, the distinctive pop, pop, pop of other M4’s could be heard to the rear of the advancing 2G’s. The rear line of 2G’s fell where they stood.

  The other 2G’s hesitated. There was confusion and pain on their faces, the most expression Sherri had ever seen on 2G’s before. The men quickly dropped their flash rifles and stood in the street, as Riyad and his Team moved up behind them. Then Sherri’s Team stepped out.

  “Put your hands up!” Franks yelled.

  The 2G’s didn’t seem to understand.

  “Up! Put your hands above your heads.”

  Slowly, comprehension came to the 2G’s, and soon the SEALs were moving within the 2G’s, binding their wrists with nylon ties and frisking them for hidden weapons. A quick count left only three of the 2G males unaccounted for, and that could have simply been an error on the part of the reconnaissance team.

  As for the yellow shirts, once the men were secure, Sherri and three of the SEALs approached the buildings where they were housed. A door opened, and a few of the women stepped out. One square-jawed hulk of a woman stepped forward.

  “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” she demanded in a gruff, gravelly voice.

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch!’ Sherri said back to her. “You’re not in charge here anymore. And if you laugh at the idea of the greens being killed, will you still be laughing when it’s you who are going to die?” Sherri leveled her weapon at the woman.

  The woman’s jaw dropped open, and gasps could be heard coming from the other women who had heard Sherri. Krug leaned over to Sherri and whispered in her ear, “Eh, we’re not supposed to kill these women.”

  “I know,” Sherri said back to him, a wicked smile creeping across her face. “I just like giving people a taste of their own medicine now and then.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Seventeen minutes after the start of the operation, the 2G base on Calamore was secure. The SEALs had suffered zero casualties, while the enemy had lost nearly 90-percent of their strength, not counting the yellow-shirt women. Now came the most important part of the operation, and the main reason they had come all this way in the first place.

  As Johnson swung open the main gate to the prisoner compound, Adam rode in on one of the electric carts and stopped at the beginning of a wide parade field separating the outer wall from the rows of long, narrow barracks. He stood up and took the microphone that his men had hooked up to a simple speaker that now rested on the hood of the cart. No one in the compound had noticed their arrival, or the fact that no guards were in the towers overlooking the prison.

  “Attention! Can I have everyone’s attention?” Adam announced loudly. His voice echoed cleanly in the still, early morning air. “I need everyone to leave their barracks and assemble in the parade field immediately.”

  Flanked by eight ominous-looking SEALs in full gear and cradling M4A1 carbine rifles, Adam watched as dozens of groggy-eyed men began to slowly filter out of the buildings. The men were all dressed in dark blue tunics, many ripped and dirty from years of use. Most of them had longish hair and beards, along with gaunt cheeks and hollow eyes. These were the resisters, the ones who would not cave to the Klin propaganda. They appeared to be of little use to the Klin, and had been treated accordingly.

  As the men began to form into ragged lines in front of Adam’s cart, many seemed not to notice the SEAL’s and their non
-2G outfits, but a few did. These men appeared to be more bright-eyed, more aware of their surroundings. New arrivals, Adam speculated, still angry at their incarceration. But soon, even the mind-numbed veterans began to take notice. This was something different from the normal morning roll call. Murmurs began to spread throughout the ranks.

  After about five minutes, Adam noticed that no more men where leaving the buildings. But this wasn’t right; there were far fewer than 1,000 men. A quick head count put their numbers at closer to 90 or so.

  Adam lifted the microphone. “I’m Captain Adam Cain, United States Navy. We have secured the compound and are here to free you from your captivity.”

  He paused to let the significance of his statement filter throughout the ranks. As the seconds passed, there came a marked improvement in the moods and expressions on the faces of the men. A few of them even began to cheer. Then someone yelled out, “We’re going home, boys!”

  Adam grimaced to himself. He knew they were in for a letdown. Then one of the older men stepped forward. He was tall and barrel-chested, with large dark eyes and a bald head. Every group of men had their leader, and the prisoners were no exception.

  “I’m Derrick Vanholden,” the man said. Even though he spoke English, Adam could still detect a trace of accent, even through the interference of the translation bug. The device behind his ear tried to decipher which language the man was speaking, but with his next words, the device seemed to have worked it out. The words came through to Adam smooth and clear.

  “We’ve been told that we are on an alien planet, hundreds of light years from Earth. And now the U.S. Navy is here to save us. Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe. We have been manipulated by the 2G’s in the past.”

  “I can assure you, Mr. Vanholden, that we are the real deal. We have just come from Earth, where major changes are taking place. But I was led to believe that there were around 1,000 of your men here. How many are in your ranks?”

  “There are 86 of us left. The 2G’s came and took most of us away a couple of months ago, just after most of them left. They seem to be deserting the base. Are you here to take us home?”

  Adam hesitated, and Vanholden picked up on it immediately, as did some of the men closest to Adam. “What’s wrong? Is this some kind of game you’re playing?”

  “No, it’s no game. But I have to tell you what’s going on first.”

  “No shit!” someone yelled from the crowd.

  Adam had no choice but to jump right in. “As you know, the 2G’s and the Klin have been trying to get you to join their forces for a fight against the Juireans. Is this your understanding as well?”

  “That’s right,” Vanholden confirmed.

  “Well I’m to here to tell you that the war has begun, and that it’s a direct result of the Klin manipulating both the Earth and the Juireans into fighting each other. The Klin revealed the location of Earth to the Juireans and they sent a massive fleet against the planet a few months ago. The Klin then sat back as millions of people were killed in the initial attack. Then the 2G’s, in the Klin spaceships, destroyed the Juirean fleet. Now the Juireans believe Humans to be their enemy, and are going to be utilizing their entire empire to fight against us.”

  “When can we go home?” someone asked from the crowd. Adam was getting the distinct impression that most of the men didn’t care about the politics of the situation. All they wanted to do was go home.

  “That’s the problem,” Adam said. “The Klin have convinced the people back on Earth that they are the saviors of the Human race. They call the 2G’s, and the other men who have joined their ranks, Recruits, having joined them voluntarily. The last thing the Klin want is for people like you, along with the woman, to tell your stories, stories of abduction, torture, rape and imprisonment. The same thing happened to me and my friends when we first returned to Earth after having been abducted ourselves.”

  “So what’s going to happen to us?” Vanholden asked. The men had begun to crowd closer to Adam’s cart, a move that made the SEALs nervous. They gripped their weapons a little tighter.

  “You have options, Mr. Vanholden, and the rest of you. You can return to Earth; we’ll provide you with one of the Klin spaceships and help you to find your way. But then you’ll be taking your chances with the Klin. Or you could stay here, in control of the compound, and wait for either the forces from Earth or the Juireans to find you, and take your chances that way. Or you can join us.”

  “What do you mean? Aren’t you a part of the Earth forces?” Adam could see the confusion on Vanholden’s face. Adam was realizing that the subject matter he was presenting was a lot of material to drop on them all at once.

  “Not officially. We escaped from Earth just as the battles were winding down. We are not a part of the Earth-Klin forces. We are operating outside the control of the Klin and the 2G’s. And we are on a special mission.”

  “What mission?” Vanholden’s tone spoke volumes. Adam was beginning to feel he’d lost them.

  “We are to operate as a strike force behind the Juirean lines, disrupting their fighting capacity as best we can, and preparing for the Human invasion of Juirean territory.”

  “You want us to fight with you, rather than go home? Are you fucking crazy?” Multiple voices began to protest in the crowd.

  “Like I said, the choice will be yours. Just remember, if you decide to go back to Earth, you run the risk of being imprisoned, or worse. The 2G’s could eliminate you, rather than have you counter the lies the Klin have been spreading.”

  Adam held up his hand, as many of the men began to talk among themselves. “Listen up. I’m not asking for an immediate decision. We will be staying here at the base for a few weeks as we prepare for our move into Juirean territory. During that time, you are free to go anywhere on the base you wish and to speak with any of my men. Ask your questions and satisfy yourselves. I have been where you are now. I was abducted, too. The last thing I want is for someone to join us who is not 100% committed. But for the time being, you’re free. You no longer need to fear the Klin or the 2G’s. That’s all for now.”

  Adam wanted to get out of the prison area as soon as possible, so he and the SEAL’s loaded into three of the carts and headed further into the base to hook up with the other Teams. Tobias and Rutledge would be coming in now, and they would need to establish a headquarters on the base.

  Adam knew he would be replaying the speech he just gave over and over in his head, thinking of all the different ways he could have presented the information. He had been winging it, and the more he spoke, the more complicated – and bizarre – the presentation became. Nearly a hundred men had been shaken from their slumber, and then presented with a set of facts that defied belief.

  As the cart hummed through the deserted streets of the base, Adam was hoping that the recent experiences of the men would have conditioned them for the strange and seemingly impossible reality they now found themselves in. Adam, himself, would have been skeptical. But luckily he had a few weeks in order to convince the men of the truth. He had the President’s speech they could watch. He had Riyad and Sherri they could speak with, along with the other non-converts in Chris’s group. And they had their own experiences at the hands of the Klin and the 2G’s.

  He began to feel a little better. If all went well, he would have his small army, smaller than he had anticipated, unfortunately, but an army none the less.

  What he would do with it remained to be seen.

  Chapter Fifty

  Admiral Nate Allen had become very proficient at spotting 2G’s. He had even begun to reference them, at least to himself, for what they were, and that was a bunch of barely-Human men, who had been born and raised off-planet by a race of backstabbing and heartless aliens. In no way were they the Saviors of the Human race.

  But it was their pedigree that had also provided their greatest weakness. Having never spent too much time around real Humans, the 2G’s were gullible to a fault. If any of them had any
money, Allen would have been able to strip them clean in a game of Texas-Hold-Em.

  As Allen set about establishing his clandestine operation out in Nevada, he had found that all he needed to do to gain the full cooperation of the 2g’s was to compliment them. They had no concept of sarcasm, and believed everything Allen told them. When he said he was in absolute awe of their knowledge of Klin ship operations, they had been more than willing to show off their expertise to Allen’s secret recording devices. Then taking those recordings, Allen’s SEALs had been able to master the controls and technology of the ships in very short order, even before the trainees under Admiral Keller’s command.

  As it turned out, none of the technology was magical; it was just more advanced. And Allen’s cadre of scientists he’d recruited needed just a little more knowledge before the concepts became clear – at least to them.

  The Admiral had made the mistake a few weeks back of asking some of the scientists how it was that they could communicate almost simultaneously over interstellar distances. He had left the room feeling as though his head was about to explode, with terms like quantum entanglement pairs and wormholes boggling his mind. He decided that he didn’t need to understand, just as long as the technology worked.

  And indeed it had – even if a message took four hours one-way – and now Allen was in touch with his advance force in The Fringe.

  He had relayed to Tobias and Cain the information regarding the aftermath of the Juirean attack. They had been mortified, just as he had, at the number one-billion dead. Yet they saved most of their scorn for the fact that the 2G’s were now passing themselves off as Earth’s Saviors. This information had set off Adam Cain to an even higher degree. But he had calmed down somewhat when Allen related the conversation he’d had with President Ryan concerning him and the charge of treason. Allen had expressed the hope that one day Cain’s name could be cleared of this horrid lie. Allen’s belief in Cain’s innocence had gone a long way to improving the mood of the young SEAL.