“You all will follow the cursors popping up in your implants to your squad assignments. The squad leader will introduce you to the other men in the squad, and the platoon leader and sergeant. We start training tomorrow, though I would suggest that all of you men spend as much time as possible tonight learning about the hell hole we’re deploying to. Dismissed.”
Cornelius waited for the cursor to appear while all the other men started on their way. It refused to appear, and he knew that something was up.
“Corporal Walborski,” called out the Sergeant Major, whose name tag said Takei. “If you will come with me.”
Cornelius followed the short stout man down a corridor and into an office. The door slid shut behind him and the Sergeant Major gestured him to a chair.
“I have two things to say to you, son,” said the Senior NCO, planting his butt on his desk. “First, I want to welcome you aboard. Your record shows you to be a warrior. Hell, you have more combat experience than most of the men in this battalion. I know for a fact that you have more kills than just about anyone here. That makes you an asset.”
The Sergeant Major was silent for a moment, looking down at the floor, then turned his intense gaze onto the corporal. “That said, I also understand that you have powerful friends. People who are willing to bend the rules, and have the power to make that happen.”
“Sergeant Major,” interrupted Walborski. “I would never think…”
“Of course you would,” said the Senior NCO. “You’re only human, despite your new enhanced abilities. And let me warn you about them as well. Being stronger, faster and smarter does not make you invulnerable. But back to the original matter. I will not have a soldier in my battalion pulling strings at the top to get what he wants. If you want priority transport someplace, that’s one thing. But if you plan to try and get special treatment in this unit, I want to know. So I can ship your ass off to some other unit before you become a liability I can’t afford.”
“Sergeant Major,” said Cornelius, coming out of his chair. “I won’t beat around the bush. I know the Emperor, on a first name basis. I really don’t think I deserve the kindness he has shown to me and mine, but he seems to have adopted me in some manner. That said, I will never call on him to get me out of any dangerous or shit detail. I trained to be a Ranger. I want to fight as a Ranger. I want to kill Cacas.”
“And I don’t want anyone with a death wish either. Your chances of dying on this deployment are very good as it is. I don’t need someone who wants death, and brings that same death to his squad mates.”
“I have something to live for, Sergeant Major,” said Cornelius with a smile, seeing the image of Devera, then Junior, in his mind. “I definitely don’t have a death wish anymore.”
“Very well. Then good to have you aboard, son. And I expect you to keep the people around you focused on the mission. Most of them are going to get caught up by their surroundings, like puppies in a field of butterflies. I want you to keep them focused, so they have a chance of coming home too.”
Cornelius was happy to see that he was assigned to the same squad as Sergeant Chantamurta, who was the A team leader, while he took charge of B. Anderson was in Chantamurta’s team. The squad leader, Staff Sergeant McAllister, seemed like a good guy, as did Sergeant First Thorwaldson and Lieutenant Schwarz, the leaders of the platoon.
The next day they got down to training, the dual task of learning to move in the environment and getting used to the ways of their squad. It was just as grueling as Ranger school, more so in some respects. They walked holographic jungles and dodged animatronic beasts while learning how to keep their eyes out for the mission objective. That was always the most important part. Mission. Everything else took second place, even their lives and the lives of everyone around them.
The month and a half went by quickly, as time does to those who are kept busy. The regiment had been split before the arrival of the new men, calving another regiment that was also filled with new men. The Army was in a hurry to deploy the Rangers, but like the British Empire in the days of Gordon, they were not ready to send unprepared men to their deaths without the chance of a payoff. Finally the day came when impatience to deploy was greater than the caution not to waste.
“We move out in the morning,” said the Sergeant Major on the night before the deployment. “Everyone make sure everything is packed and all your equipment is functional. We will pick up our additional mission gear and load out at the Donut. Any questions?”
“How long is this deployment, Sergeant Major?” asked Sergeant Chantamurta.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Ranger,” said the older NCO. “It may last a month. Or we may be there for the duration. Just remember this. As valuable as we are, as much time and money went into our training, we are expendable. Make no mistake about that. Try and get back, if the mission makes that possible. Go out with the knowledge that those in charge will try not to waste you. But in the cold hard equation of a war of attrition, if you take out the enemy, your death is not meaningless.”
The next morning they were aboard the ships with their full load and boosting for the planet they had orbited. All felt too light in the lower gravity of the planet as they waited to enter the wormhole. “Don’t get used to it,” warned the Lieutenant was he walked down the line.
‘What keeps the air from coming across?” asked Anderson as they waited their turn. “I mean, material objects are moving across all the time, so why not the air?”
“There’s a thin cold plasma field across the opening on both sides of the gates for that reason,” said Cornelius, remembering when he had asked Doctor Lucille Yu, the Director of the Donut, that very question. “Of course they don’t need it for vacuum gates.”
Finally the battalion made it through and onto the Donut, then down the corridors to another large gate room. Rolling carts waited for them here, loaded down with all the gear, rations and ammunition they would need for a month long deployment. More would come later, if needed. Looking at it Cornelius hoped that future loads were just as large, as that would mean there were still a lot of soldiers in the battalion.
They finally got the go ahead. Cornelius was in Lima Company, the last in the Third Battalion. His was the third platoon, so there really wasn’t much behind him. He grabbed the handle of a cart and pulled the load on its antigrav lifters through the gate, again experiencing the feeling of great time passing while he stretched across the Universe.
And then he was in a large cavern, with high gravity pulling him toward the floor. The air was dense, though not as humid as he expected. Probably because I’m in a climate controlled system, he thought, pulling his cart and getting out of the way.
It struck him then that he was finally here, on a planet on the front line. And outside this complex was an enemy that wanted to kill him. The same he wanted to kill, until there were no more of them in the Galaxy.
Chapter Thirteen
What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Henry David Thoreau.
AZURE. FEBRUARY 3rd - 14th, 1001.
She thought they should have been at the caverns by now. She looked at the map on the hand comp she had packed. Unfortunately, the net and its GPS system were down, so she couldn’t see where she was on that map. She had been navigating by dead reckoning and guesswork, and it was obvious that she had not gotten them where they needed to be.
“We need to get into the open tonight,” said Rebecca to her brother as it started to get dark. “I think there is an area of prairie a couple of clicks to the right.”
“Is that safe?” asked Benjamin, his eyes wide.
“Probably not,” said Rebecca, shaking her head. “But wandering around and hoping we just happen upon something is not safe either. I need to get a look at the stars to tell where we are. We’ll just have to locate some shelter on the edge of the jungle that we can get to afterwards.”
Her brother’s expression showed that h
e really didn’t like that idea, but he nodded his head to show that he understood.
“Great,” said Rebecca, taking his hand. “And tonight we’ll try out this com and see if we can pick up any signals that might tell us what’s going on.”
She had almost forgotten about the portable com she had picked up from the aircraft. She didn’t think she would use it to try to get a signal out, that might lead something to them she didn’t want. But she could still listen.
They reached the prairie just before the sun went down. The high mountain peaks on the other side of the grasslands reflected the orange of the setting sun off their snowcapped peaks. They were beautiful, and Rebecca found herself wishing that she could just sit down and enjoy the natural beauty. Which was something she could not afford to do.
There were animals moving out on the prairie before them, some really large herbivores. They were preparing for the night, getting into their defensive positions to protect the calves during the night. There were some really large predators that came out with the night, and they would take any prey of opportunity, including humans.
“Keep a close watch,” she told Benjamin, looking down at the child as he donned his night vision glasses. He nodded back and started to look around the twilight world. She also had the glasses, but did not wear them as she needed to fix the stars first.
It seemed to take forever for the first star to shine. One was not enough, and it was an even longer wait for more to become visible. Beasts were moving around them in the darkness, the huffing of breath of the large bulls audible as they patrolled the areas around their groups. Rebecca prayed, waiting for the darkness to keep deepening.
This should be enough, she thought as there were over a hundred stars in the sky. She held up the small comp and let it take a picture of the sky, then waited a moment while it computed the visible stars against its database and the time. A second later it displayed the holographic map, with their location marked on it. “Shit,” she said, seeing where they were compared to where they needed to be. And they were way too far to the north. In fact, she thought, plotting a path to the caverns, We would have to backtrack three days and then walk four more days to get there. So seven days. Shit.
She looked at the map, zooming out and looking at the larger area. This looks promising, she thought, seeing a small village marked two days walk to the northeast. And if it doesn’t pan out we can walk around this range and up this valley, getting there in five days. She thought about talking it over with Benjamin, then decided against it. He was still a young child, almost seven years her junior. She understood from her developmental courses that she had almost an adult mind, while he still thought as a young child. It was up to her to make sure that they made it, not him.
“Let’s get back to the tree,” she told Benjamin as she put on her night vision glasses. She led the way, making sure to check to both sides and behind as well, not totally trusting him to locate all threats. Nothing materialized, and they moved to the safe tree, which was marked with a glowing dot. She retrieved the dot, then started the climb under the soft light of her flash. They reached the hollow where branch met tree without a problem. The area had already been isolated by pheromones, and she freshened them up after checking the area with her flash. She checked the survival pack and frowned as she saw they only had six pheromone sprays left. We’ll just have to ration until we make it to safety.
After they had set up she broke out the com unit and activated it. It was made to function by finding a satellite and linking with it, or the general wireless net if that wasn’t available. But it was also designed to be of use if those resources no longer existed, and the military net was reduced to using broadcasts. Of course those would be encrypted, and she hoped that her unit was still up to date enough to get some sense out of what they would pick up.
At first there was only static after she activate the unit. The electronic war was still going strong, waged by both sides. She could hear some words here and there, and was tempted to cut back on the gain so she could get rid of the static. But that would also get rid of anything that she could hear of any clarity.
Hearing voices, human voices, let her know that the fight was still going on, since she doubted the conqueror would allow those they conquered to communicate over the air.
“Daddy,” said Benjamin, sitting up as a couple of words came through.
“That is him,” said Rebecca, a smile crossing her face. “He’s alive.”
“And we’re going to point orange three three,” came a particularly clear transmission, and she knew it was her father, Captain Joseph Goldman.
“Dad,” she Rebecca, keying the unit to transmit. “Dad, it’s us. Rebecca and Benjamin. We’re OK. We’re alive.”
“Rebecca, is…..you?”
“It’s us, dad. It’s us.”
“You need to…..off……..now.”
“What was that, dad?”
“You need…..off…..transmission…..”
“Dad, can you hear me? Dad?”
“Off……”
“Daddy,” yelled Benjamin.
Realization came to Rebecca, and she turned the set off. The military was transmitting from hard lines to multiple transmitters so they wouldn’t give their locations away. They, up here in this safe tree, were not. And had they been on long enough for something to get a fix?
“Why did you turn it off?” whined Benjamin. “That was daddy. He could come and get us.”
“We need to leave,” she told Benjamin, pointing to their gear. “Pack up. Now.”
“But, we’re in a safe tree.”
“Don’t argue with me. Do it. Now.”
Benjamin looked frightened now. He started putting stuff into his pack, while she grabbed what she wanted in hers. She then led the way down the tree and onto the prairie. They would have been able to hide better in the jungle, but she knew that was suicide at night. So they would take their chances on the open field.
She picked out several large huddles of animals from their body heat, herds of herbivores settled down for the night. Further out she picked out single moving forms that had to be stalking predators. She moved them to the side away from those dots, trying to stay upwind at the same time. “Keep moving,” she said to Benjamin, her hand on his back.
A search light came down on the grassland. Rebecca urged Benjamin to run, getting them to a small hill where they ran around and set up on the other side. Rebecca placed her small comp at the top and shimmied back down, watching the take from the unit on her glasses.
The herbivores, those closest to the hovering aircar, started to get restless and lowed in the night. One group got to its feet and started to move away, and the searchlight followed them, then swung back into the jungle.
“Back,” hissed Rebecca, putting her hand on Benjamin from where he had crawled up to the crest of the hill, pushing him backward as the light swung their way. The aircar continued to drop toward the ground and a second one appeared over the trees. Warriors were getting out of the first aircraft, about a half dozen of them, and started to move into the trees, heading for the general area of the safe tree they had sheltered in. She was sure they would find the tree, based on the chemical markers of the pheromone tubes they had used. Normally that would not be a concern, but the Cacas would have their transmission location pinpointed within a score of meters, and a slow chemical search of that area would definitely pick up the pheramones.
“Make sure the pores on your suit are closed and your hood is up,” she told Benjamin, doing what she said to herself.
“It’ll make it too hot,” complained the boy in a whiny voice.
“Do it anyway,” she hissed, reaching up and pulling down her small comp. “We can’t let them pick us up on heat sensors. So we’ll just have to deal with it.”
Benjamin nodded his head and fastened his hood. She put the small comp in her belt pouch and motioned for him to back down the hill with her. At the bottom she started them on their way
and headed for the next small hill. Halfway there they heard one of the aircars taking off. Rebecca grabbed Benjamin’s hand and pulled him along at a trot. They went around the small hill and dropped down to the other side.
Benjamin pulled his hood off. With her night vision glasses Rebecca could see the sheen of sweat on his face and the hot air rising from his mouth. “Down,” she hissed, pulling him to the base of the hill. “Breath close to the ground. Only close to the ground.” She pulled off her own hood and did the same. The light from the aircar swept close to them, and then on.
Rebecca waited for a moment, waiting for the light to again move on, till it was centered on a restless herd of herbivores. Rebecca wondered why they didn’t just use infrared vision, then decided that they most likely were, but still wanted the spotlight to identify what they had found.
She waited until Benjamin had cooled down enough and repeated the procedure of getting them to another small hill. Moments after they quitted their last position the search beam speared it in artificial brilliance. With that it turned off and the flashing strobe of the aircar moved away.
“I think it’s safe now,” said Rebecca, folding her hood and putting it in its belt pouch. She checked her chronometer and saw that there were still hours of night left, at least five of them. She didn’t think it was a good idea to wander into some unknown jungle at night. Instead she bedded Benjamin down on the top of the hill and stayed awake until the sun was coming up over the jungle, sweeping the darkness with her glasses to make sure that nothing tried to sneak up on them. The herbivores stayed restless, and the carnivores decided to take a night off after smelling and hearing the strange creatures that had moved among them that evening.
He’s alive, was her recurrent thought through the night. Her father was alive, somewhere out there in the world. She didn’t know how she would find him, or if he would be able to search for her. But now she had the hope.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 05 - Ranger Page 19