"Focus your fire on the second group," he called out over the blaring clatter of rifle and machine gun fire. "I want fire superiority, people."
The ground erupted around Walker's feet as he ran up the slope. Dekker's Marines reset their aim and opened up on the troops from the second group. More rounds kicked into the ground at Walker's feet as he zigzagged his way up the hill. Dekker's firing line zeroed in on the new targets and one of the Terran Guard troops flung his weapon into the air as a round landed squarely in his chest.
Dekker pulled the bolt back on his plasma rifle and laid his cheek against the stock, peering down the site. He squeezed the trigger and jerked back as the weapon kicked out a plasma canister. The round landed at the feet of one of the troops and threw up a flash of blue flame. The soldier raised his hands to protect himself as the flame rose up and seared his face. The flame vanished and the soldier, now smoking from the plasma burn, fell face forward into the dirt.
"That's it, Marines. Keep it up."
As Walker clambered up the slope and Dekker lashed out with another plasma round, none of them noticed the two troops from the first group when they hauled out a black tube from the rear of their vehicle. They set it on the ground and unfolded support struts with base plates.
Rounds from the second group stitched their way up the slope, chasing after Walker as he dodged back and forth, the case still in his hand.
Then, he tripped and fell as one of the rounds found his boot. Dekker heard the grunt a moment later and yelled, "Stay down! We have you covered. Just hang on."
Walker flopped the case in front of him and crawled after it, dragging his injured foot through the dirt as he clawed his way towards Dekker.
Through his sites, Dekker saw the effect of his Marines and the superior accuracy of their weapons as more troops from the second group went down. What he hadn't seen was the soldier from the first group dropping a round into his mortar tube. Dekker pulled back the bolt of his plasma rifle, set his aim and squeezed the trigger.
Just as the canister left the barrel, he heard a thump next to him, then the snapping ring of the mortar round ejecting its casing. A buzz gnawed at his ear just before he felt the bite of shrapnel ripple along the side of his body.
His vision blurred and he tried to breathe, but he couldn't get air into his lungs. His gut tightened in a burning ache as he looked towards Major Walker. The Paladin was up on one knee and about to stand up when his body started to thrash and he dropped the case. Blood and bone erupted from his chest as the rounds shot through him from behind. His arms dropped to his side and he toppled over on his face one last time as more rounds peppered the ground around him. The Old Scrolls rested on the ground just beyond his fingertips.
A surge of pain rippled through Dekker's body as he strained to hold on to consciousness long enough to realize that the Paladin was not moving. He closed his eyes and heard himself whimper.
Then the world went dark.
Promise
Dekker opened his eyes to the sound of a purring coo drifting through the air around him. He blinked and saw a wall of gray as the sound became louder. He moved his head to look at Lt. Simmons and blinked again. The world arrived as a blur of light that fell into itself until he could see her face staring up at the sky with vacant eyes. Her uniform shone with the slick red of blood where shrapnel had torn into her and knocked her away from the machine gun.
His voice was barely a croak. "Lieutenant." Her mouth was agape and her arms were extended over her head, lying on the ground with palms open. He grimaced as his body surged with pain to the tempo of his pulse. He closed his eyes. "Ah, fuck."
He felt something rough brush against his cheek and he forced his neck to turn to see what it was. Shahn'Dra was huddled next to him with her knees pulled into her chest as she brushed his cheek with the wrinkled leather of her knuckles.
"Your mind breathes a while longer," she said. Her antennae weaved back and forth over her head and she unfurled her snout. The sound of her song flowed over him again and he realized it was the only thing he could hear. The snap of rifles and the relentless pounding of the machine gun were gun, as if they had been turned off by a switch. He lifted his arm and groaned again. The pain beating his body with the rhythm of his heart subsided into a throbbing ache and he decided not to check his wounds, whatever they might be.
He squeezed his eyes hard and opened them again, his vision clearing but still veiled by a wetness in his eyes brought on by the pain. Major Walker's body lay silently on the slope. The case was gone. He squinted, working to focus his eyes as he swept his gaze down the slope. General Godfrey and Shoahn'Fal were loping towards the Terran Guard carriers lined up in front of the Pyramid, the Old Scrolls locked in the clutch of the Shoahn's clawed hand. A thin veil of white smoke rose up from the first carrier while the second lay flopped on its side, now abandoned. The stench of burned out coils drifted up the hill and stung his nostrils.
Further away from the Pyramid, troops were gathered beneath the remaining three Cats, none of which were moving now. He looked away, not wanting to see any more - knowing what they were going to do to the pilots.
"Will you help me now?" Shahn'Dra asked.
He turned to look at her. "What?"
"I will need your help now." Shahn'Dra stood up and raised her hands in front of her face and moved them around each other, as if she were caressing a ball. "You promised."
Dekker looked back at the two figures moving away from him, carrying the Old Scrolls to the Pyramid. "Right." He dug his elbows into the ground and pushed himself up from the ground. He grasped the plasma rifle and leaned on it, gathering his strength to focus on one last mission.
He craned his head around and beckoned for Jommy to join him. The carrier hatch flew open and Jommy ran towards him at a dead run.
As Shahn'Dra filled the air with a deep drone that Dekker could feel through the ground beneath him, he told Jommy, "Check the belt. How many cartridges are left?"
Jommy picked up the belt and pawed at the pouches. He shook his head. "They're all empty."
Dekker tugged at the cartridge mounted in his rifle, but wasn't able to pull it out. "Here, pull this one out so I can see it."
Jommy knelt down next to him and placed one hand on top of the weapon and grabbed the magazine with his other hand and yanked it out. Dekker pushed down on the canister loaded in the top of the magazine, feeling it firmly set against the rest below it.
"Four rounds," he said. "OK, put it back in and get behind me."
Jommy wrestled the magazine back into place and then scooted back to look over Dekker's shoulder.
Dekker shouldered the weapon, wincing at the pain that came with every movement, laid his cheek against the stock and then wrapped his hand around the grip behind the trigger housing.
Shahn'Dra stopped moving her hands and then opened her arms wide. She took a breath and let out a piercing screech. Through his site, he saw Shoahn'Fal and Godfrey both stop dead in their tracks and look around as if they were caught in a net. Dekker squeezed the trigger.
The first canister landed just behind them. As the blue haze of the plasma faded, he saw they were both still standing just beyond the shimmering heat wave now rippling from its impact.
Dekker twisted the windage knob for the rear site. "They are really far away," he said.
Shoahn'Fal turned and looked straight at them. Shahn'Dra let out a yelp and then held her hands out in front of her with her claws curling in as if they were squeezing something.
Shoahn'Fal fell to one knee and his antennae unfurled from the top of his head.
In a voice that sounded like it came from a caged animal, Shahn'Dra said, "Hurry."
Dekker pulled the bolt back and squeezed the trigger again. A blue flash leapt up from the ground to the side of his target. Godfrey tugged at the case, but Shoahn'Fal held it firmly in is claws. Staring at Shahn'Dra, he cocked his head and she let out a yelp. She stumbled back, still holding her hands in front o
f her face. Shoahn'Fal turned around and both he and Godfrey resumed their run towards the Pyramid.
As they passed the line of troops guarding the carriers, Dekker fired his third round. It took a moment for the round to close the range and then one of the troops erupted in a blue smudge. Dekker pulled the bolt back and exhaled.
They reached the alcove framing the entryway to the Pyramid and Shoahn'Fal set the case on the ground. He opened the lid and removed something - Dekker couldn't see what exactly because of the distance, but a chill washed over his body as he saw Shoahn'Fal press something into the wall next to the entryway.
Shahn'Dra pushed her hands out, a low drone mixing with a wail of desperation. Shoahn'Fal staggered and then whipped around to look at them one more time. He set down whatever he was holding and raised his own hands in front of his face, then took a step forward.
Shahn'Dra screamed and fell flat on her back.
Dekker let out a screeching howl as the pain - which had merely been a throbbing hammer pummeling his body from the inside - slammed into his body and ripped through him like hot steel.
His hand shaking, he reached up and tugged at the bolt, straining to pull it back as the pain drove him towards another bout of darkness. His breath came in tight stabs as he pressed his cheek against the stock and sited down the barrel. His focus wavered. For a moment, he could see Shoahn'Fal facing the wall next to the entryway; the next moment, all he could see was a blur. The site weaved through the air as he struggled to tell his hand to hold the barrel still. A glimmer of a thought surfaced, telling him he should adjust the windage again, but he didn't dare move his hand from the trigger grip. He estimated the adjustment he would need to make the canister arc out at its maximum range to find its target.
As his hand shook against the strain of trying to steady the barrel, he thought of a picture he had once seen of a world that was green and blue with clouds in the sky that swirled around it. Or was it a dream? Men like Emmet had said they could make Shoahn'Tu that way some day. Generations from now, if they didn't have to worry about moving from place to place to escape the ravages of war, they could make a world like that. Others had scoffed, saying it was nothing more than a dream.
The site wavered relentlessly over the head of Shoahn'Fal as he worked on whatever he had latched to the wall. Dekker could just make out the antennae quivering over his head, as if he were nothing more than a child excited at the prospect of his first visit to an amusement park. He could sense, somehow, that the old Shoahn' was giddy.
Dekker let the image of leaves rustling in the wind settle into his mind. A dream was enough. The site wavered and then paused for just a moment, as if time had finally decided to let him have a sliver of itself - even if it was just to see what he would do with it. The master of all things let one more grain slip through that would determine whether the leaves would one day be more than a dream or if they had come all this way just to become another whisper in the dark, never heard by the universe again. It was enough to take one more breath.
Dekker pulled the trigger.
Tomorrow
She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, And tomorrow, And tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
-Shakespeare: Macbeth 5.5
Jommy was crouched behind Colonel Dekker when Shahn'Dra screeched and fell on her back. He ran to her and started pawing at her body as she stared at the sky, her antennae draped along the side of her head. She wasn't moving. As panic welled up inside him, he placed his hand next to her snout and felt the warmth of her breath. Then it stopped. It seemed like forever, but then he felt another shallow wash of air. He turned to look at the Colonel, started to say something and then changed his mind. He picked up Shahn'Dra's hand and sat down next to her as Dekker fired the last shot from his plasma rifle.
Dekker rolled away from the weapon with a groan and leaned back against the crest of the ridge. Jommy felt his stomach turn when he saw the slick of blood all along the side of the Colonel's body. Dekker pointed at one of the bodies lying next to him with a red cross wrapped around his arm. The Colonel's voice was strained as his face twisted against the pain. "Get me the satchel of his back."
Jommy padded his way to the body, trying not to step on the ground too firmly, as if he were tip-toeing into some sacred place that would awake too easily at the sound of an intruder. He unlatched the satchel from the corpsman's back and tucked it under his arm as he backed away.
The Colonel's voice was thin as he sputtered his words. "Open it." Jommy unsnapped the flap and scooted the satchel towards the Colonel's hand. Dekker grunted as he rummaged through the bag and pulled out a white bandage. He unrolled the bandage, took Jommy's hand and draped it over his palm.
"I know it will be rough, Jommy." The Colonel wheezed in a breath and groaned. "Work hard. Keep your head down. Be useful. Stay alive." The Colonel ran his hand across his forehead and down the front of his face. "Remember what you've seen here today. Maybe someday you can tell somebody. Don't ever forget." The Colonel clenched his teeth and pushed out a raspy groan. "Until then, stay alive. You have to stay alive."
He curled the boy's fingers around the cloth and said, "It will be quiet soon." The Colonel winced and sucked in a sharp breath. "When that happens, I want you to go stand on the crest and hold this in the air as high as you can until somebody sees you."
Jommy let his eyes drift to the crest of the ridge and shivered when he thought of what must have been behind it.
"When they come for you, tell them your name." A ragged cough erupted from the Colonel's chest and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. "Then tell them you surrender."
Dekker dug in one of the bags still slung over his shoulder and pulled out a handful of socks. Laying them on the ground, he reached back into the bag and raised his hand to reveal the clay cup cradled in his palm.
"This was made from the ground where the Second Battalion, Fifth Colonial Marines Regiment fought their final battle." He placed the cup in Jommy's palm. "Try not to let them take it." Dekker looked at him and took a wheezing breath that Jommy could barely hear. "We are more than walking shadows."
His face grew still. He stopped breathing. Colonel Dekker's eyes froze then, and stared past Jommy. He looked as if he had something more to say, but no more words came. Jommy felt like he was looking at a photograph - something that would be lost in the winds when there was nobody left to remember it.
He stood up, letting the rising wind bite into is face and dry away the tears he felt on his cheek. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then opened them again. He stepped deliberately to the crest of the ridge and gasped when he looked into the valley below.
Shuddering at the sight of the smoking shells of the Cats, the bodies still lying on the field and the broken corpse of the Paladin, he raised the bandage as far above his head as he could and let it unfurl in the wind.
"I surrender," he said to himself, practicing the way he would say it when they came for him. He didn't want to forget. He didn't want to sound scared. He just wanted to go home.
"I surrender."
Home
General Godfrey felt the air heave out of her lungs as if somebody had just punched her in the gut. The world shimmered and seemed to stretch away from her. A haze fell over the world and then it snapped back into place. She squinted as the brightness of it burned into her eyes, as if she were waking from a dream. She shook her head, clearing the debris of a forgotten trance from her mind and sucked in a deep breath.
Realizing she was lying on her back, she panted a few more breaths and then sat up, straining against the stiffness that told her to wait a little longer. It seemed like she had been waiting for something for a long time and she was tired of it. She shook her head again, flinging away the last tendrils of something that infested her mind and was now dead. She felt like
she had been covered with something and brushed at the sleeves of her uniform, but nothing was there. Whatever had been there, in her mind, around her, part of her - it was fading fast now like a lost memory. She took a deep breath, thinking it was just the effects of coming back to awareness after being knocked out.
She gulped and a shiver ran through her when she saw the smoking body of Shoahn'Fal lying next to the entryway to the Pyramid just a few feet away. Her mind reeled as something unraveled inside. It had been more than just the effects of coming to. She realized she was waking up from a sleep that had lasted far longer than that. Her mind raced until she remembered the meeting with Shoahn'Fal at the bunker. She had fallen into something then - something that had wrapped around her and carried her to a place she never wanted to leave. She blinked and looked at the ground, puzzled. That had only lasted for a moment, hadn't it? But there had been something else hidden behind it, something that seemed to have been watching her.
It was gone and all that seemed to watch her now was the Shoahn' sun moving against the horizon. She stepped towards Shoahn'Fal. The device he had shown her in the case was inserted in a depression in the wall next to the entryway - a dull blue glow pulsating along its surface. The pad, now warped and melted, was nestled in his charred hand. Thin wires leading from its edge lay broken on the ground next to it.
She stooped down and wrestled the half-melted pad from Shoahn'Fal's claws. Even in death, he didn't seem to be willing to let it go. "Well, that's not gonna' work," she said to herself. She dropped it to the stones covering the ground in front of the entryway and looked at the key still glowing in its socket.
Its pulsating blue light seemed to be waiting for something and a shiver ran through her as she wondered whether or not it would work. She stepped towards it slowly, as if approaching a shrine and raised her hand. Her fingers hovered just in front of its surface as she studied the pulsing blue glow. Another memory came back to her and her body froze as shards of fear ran through her. Thinking of the symbols he had shown her while he translated the scrawl next to them, she looked at the Pyramid towering into the Shoahn' sky, pulsating with the same blue glow. She held her breath and let her fingers touch the key.
The Terran Mandate Page 26