Exodus: Empires at War: Book 05 - Ranger

by Doug Dandridge

  She nodded, and he led her off into the jungle, wondering what he was going to do with her. She would slow him down, and mission came first. But how could he abandon a child out here in this killing jungle?

  * * *

  “You are sure that you got all of them?” asked the General, looking down at the creature before him.

  “We cannot be completely sure,” said the Prime Hunt Leader, giving a head shake of negation. “As far as we know we got all of them, and we got their heavy weapons. But there may be one or two still wandering through the jungle.”

  The General looked at the rocket launcher and the chemically fueled warhead that came with it. His experts had opened one of the warheads, and had estimated that it was a fusion device with a ten megaton yield. Enough of a warhead to destroy the bunker with a direct hit, and powerful enough to gut all of the structures out on the prairie.

  “Why could you not find the one or two you think might have gotten away?” he asked the Maurid.

  The creature gave another head shake of negation, a bit of body language they had picked up from their masters. “I did not say I think some got away. I said that some may have gotten away, since these humans are so hard to track. They give off almost no scent, and they move very well through the jungle. Almost as well as we do.”

  “So you don’t think any got away, but you can’t guarantee it? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “That is exactly what I am saying, General,” said the Prime Hunt Leader, his cold predator eyes locking with those of the larger Cacada.

  “Then get out there and make sure that these men you are not sure are out there do not get closer to my headquarters. Is that understood?”

  The creature gave a head nod of acceptance, then turned and dropped to all fours, walking out of the office. The General stood there for a moment, staring at where the Maurid had just stood. He really didn’t understand the creatures. He wasn’t sure anyone of his species did. They made useful if maddening servants, and that was all.

  With that thought he returned to his desk and took a seat, looking over the reports on his flat screen. Human civilians were almost gone from this world, though they kept bringing in soldiers to take a toll on his forces. And until we find that wormhole, they will continue to do so. But where is it?

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war. Donald Trump.

  AZURE. MAY 26TH - 27th, 1001.

  Rebecca was still very surprised to be alive. She saw no way out of that death grip the Crocomycus had placed her in. It was only a matter of time, and very little at that, before she was pulled under for the last time and she drowned, allowing the creature to eat her at its leisure. Not that it would have enjoyed the meal. She would have at least caused digestive problems. At most she would have poisoned the creature, and she still would have been dead.

  The last thing she expected was someone to come out of nowhere and rescue her. She looked over and up at the man who had come to her aid. He was taller than most heavy gravity planet dwellers, she would have estimated his height at a little over a meter and nine tenths. She couldn’t see his musculature under the military survival suit, but from his general size she judged him to be heavily muscled. His hair was covered under his bush hat. He looked down at her and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling in his deeply tanned face. And the way he moved. She remembered how the Rangers she had met in the first village had moved. She started to speak and the man held up a hand, palm out, telling her to be quiet.

  The man started looking around, stopping in place. Rebecca wondered what he was looking for, then came to the conclusion that he was looking for a place to stay. He started to move, not noticing the vine that came down from the trees. She grabbed his arm and stopped him, shaking her head when he looked at her. Taking a stick she hit the vine, which immediately wrapped around the broken limb and pulled it from her grasp. “Strangle vine,” she whispered. The man nodded and continued to look around, and she pointed to a safe tree she had picked out close to them.

  She led the man to the tree and started the easy climb up the trunk, which had numerous knots and crannies that could be used as hand and footholds. He followed behind her as she passed the first two flattened boles and scrambled onto the third one, twenty meters above the jungle floor. As soon as he was on the bole she pulled a spray bottle of pheromones out of her pack an sprayed the perimeter of the bole.

  “This is a Safe Tree,” she told the man in a quiet voice. “We’re safe from the wildlife here.”

  “How?” said the man in a whisper, looking over the side of the tree, then at her.

  “The tree puts out a chemical defense that repels most animal and all plantimal life. It also masks our own scent from anything on the ground or surrounding trees. And the pheromones I sprayed will keep the few forms of insect life that inhabit the tree away from us.”

  “Who taught you this? Or did you just make a lucky find.”

  “Someone taught me,” she said, thinking about her father’s friend Ted, and all she had learned from him.

  “Pity the guides they gave us didn’t do the same,” said the man, shaking his head.

  Some sounds came from below, and the man perked his ears to listen carefully. Her hearing wasn’t as good, of that she was sure, but she could recognize the harsh gutturals below and thought they were the aliens who had been hunting through the jungle. She kicked back against the trunk of the tree, letting the obviously capable adult take care of things.

  After a few moments the voices moved on, though it sounded like they were still arguing among themselves. The man waited a few minutes, then turned back to her.

  “So, tell me about this man who taught you.”

  “Ted was a friend of my father’s. I think he was a Marine, or maybe a Naval Commando. He actually spent time living in the jungle. That’s really unusual. Most of the guides only go into the jungle during the day, and spend the nights in camps with prepared perimeters, or cabins. Not Ted.”

  “What’s he doing now?”

  “I don’t know, but if I had to bet, and he’s still alive, then he’s out here hunting the aliens through the jungle.”

  “Wish we’d had him with us this morning,” said the man, scowling. A slight smile crossed his face and he held out his hand. “Cornelius Walborski, Sergeant, Imperial Army Rangers.”

  “I’m Rebecca Goldman,” she replied, grasping his hand.

  “Where’s your family, Rebecca?”

  “Dad’s a captain in the reserves,” she said, wondering if he was still alive. “He got called to active duty when the aliens came.”

  A cloud passed over the Sergeant’s face, and he looked down. “What about the rest of your family?”

  “Most of them were killed when the aliens shot down our air cars on the way to a refuge we had,” she said, sniffling a bit and wiping a tear from her eye. “My little brother survived, for a little while, until the damned devils killed him.”

  The Ranger shook his head, looking at her with sympathetic eyes. “I am so sorry,” he said in a hushed voice, the fingers on his right hand playing with a ring on a chain around his neck.

  “What’s the ring for?” she asked, thinking it might be a wedding ring, and having no idea why someone would wear one around his neck.

  “The Cacas killed my wife on Sestius,” said the man, an edge creeping into the hushed voice. “I wear this to remind myself of what happened.”

  Rebecca stared for a moment, her heart reaching out to a man who had lost his family, just like she had. “What was Sestius like?” she asked him to break the silence.

  “Sort of like here. Hot, with a lot of jungle. Also a class two, maybe a three, though the animals were much larger.”

  “How much larger?” asked Rebecca, not really able to comprehend animals larger than some of the herbivores and carnivores of this world.

  “It had a lighter gravity, only a little bit over Earth normal. The largest herbi
vore was about eighty tons, while the biggest carnivore hit twenty, maybe thirty. And they were definite mammalians.”

  “Did you hunt them there?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head, a wistful expression on his face. “I was a farmer. And in the militia. I hunted plenty of Cacas after they killed my wife, then got off and became a Ranger so I could hunt some more.”

  “And you’re out here by yourself?”

  “There were a hundred and twenty some odd men with me,” said Walborski, frowning again. “The rest of them were killed in a firefight. As far as I know I’m the only survivor.”

  “That’s, horrible. You must have been very good.”

  “Or very lucky,” said the man, looking down over the side of the bole. “Maybe just pure dumb luck.”

  I don’t think so, thought Rebecca, studying the face of the man in profile. Once, maybe. But not on two different planets. You’re damn good, and just what I need.

  “I have to figure out what to do with you,” said Walborski, looking at her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m on a mission child, and I can’t afford to let you slow me down. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. You would get in the way. So, is there any place nearby where I can drop you off where you’ll be safe.”

  “Not that I can think of,” said the child, shaking her head. “There’s the refuge that my parents set up, but some deserters took that away.” She shook at the thought of what had occurred there, having to kill some people to keep something heinous from happening to her.

  “How far?”

  “At least four days from here.”

  “Too long,” said the Ranger, shaking his head, then pulling out his map and looking at it. “Look. I’ve got to get to this spot in order to accomplish my mission.” He pointed at the edge of the valley that was almost all grassland.

  “I was there a month ago,” said Rebecca, recognizing the terrain features. “I actually got almost to the edge of the jungle. I saw the airfield here, and what looked like an infantry compound there.”

  Cornelius gave her a look like he couldn’t believe her, then nodded his head. “That’s there alright, though not marked on this map in case it was captured. And you said a month ago? How long have you been out here?”

  “On and off about three months,” she said, and his eyes widened. “Part of the time with my little brother. He was handful.” She could feel the pain in her chest as she choked out those words, and she looked down at the floor of the bole and tried to keep from crying.

  “I’m so sorry,” said the Ranger, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I really am. And I think it’s amazing that you have done so well.” He was quiet for a moment, then looked back down at his map, all business again. “I am thinking about climbing into the mountains right here,” he continued, putting his finger on the map.

  “There’s no way you’ll get up at that point,” said Rebecca, shaking her head and pointing. “That’s fifteen kilometers of cliff, even though it doesn’t show on your map. It’s about two kilometers tall on average. We call it the Slash. It’s like someone cut it off the mountain with a huge sword.”

  “So where can I climb?”

  “This is an easy climb here,” she said, pointing to the mountainside a couple of kilometers to the south of the Slash. “There’s an old road, well old for this world, that goes up to the ridge line that runs along these two mountains. That’s about twelve kilometers,” she said, running her finger along the map. “Then you can climb down to these foothills here. It's only about two hundred meters, and it slopes fairly gently at the bottom.”

  “That might work,” he said after a moment of studying the map. “I can walk through these couple of kilometers of jungle and get into a firing position here. Perfect.”

  “And can I come with you?” asked Rebecca, hoping she could convince him not to leave her behind. It might be dangerous, but it would be shared danger, and she was tired of being alone.

  “I’m not sure,” he said, looking at her fom under hooded eyes. “This is going to be dangerous.”

  “And wandering through this jungle on my own isn’t. Look, I know the wildlife, probably much better than you do. And I know the path to the top. If you want to leave me up on the ridge, that’s fine. There are some caves up there, now that I think of it. At least I would have shelter.”

  “OK,” said the Ranger, flashing her a smile. “Why not. I could use some company myself, and if I could drop you off on the ridgeline I could be sure you’re going to be alright. Especially if those caves are up there. But is there anything to eat up that high?”

  “I think so,” said the child, not really sure at all. “There’s at least a back way from the ridge to the other side of the range. If you want to get out it might be a good idea to come back up, pick me up, and go down the other side, where we can work our way around the range from the other side.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Walborski, holding up a hand for her to slap. “Let’s start off in the morning, since it’s starting to get dark out.”

  Rebecca checked the pheromone barrier one more time before going to sleep. This night she slept very well, more secure than she had been in months with the deadly and capable soldier in the tree with her.

  * * *

  Cornelius was very impressed with the courage of the little girl, not even quite to puberty, surviving what had to be a terrible situation with losing her family and having to survive on her own. He could tell that one day she would be a real beauty, as well as a smart and competent adult. Today she was still very young. I shouldn’t take her with me, he thought as he prepared to bed down. But he had been looking for an excuse to do just that, and she had provided an argument he could grab onto.

  The Ranger closed his eyes, knowing that his alert ears would tell him if anything tried to sneak up on him in the night. Not that such a thing was likely to happen, up high in a tree that masked their odor. But, as he had learned in training, not being alert because you thought you were safe was a good way to not wake up in the morning.

  Morning came, and he felt more rested than he had in days. The child was still asleep, and he couldn’t imagine how exhausted she must have been after yesterday. She had told him about falling in the hole she had crawled into to avoid the Hunters, plunging into the underground river, coming out through a high falls, then fighting for her life against the big river predator. Most adults would be hysterical after such a day, much less a child, but she seemed to recover fast enough to lead him to safety and convince him to let her tag along.

  After a quick breakfast of high calorie food concentrates they climbed down the tree and started on their way. Rebecca proved her worth immediately, leading the Ranger around several plantimal ambushes that he had not even seen. She walked along quietly and confidently, picking out threats with an ease that impressed him. She pointed out the signs that tipped her off, teaching the Ranger what he needed to know to survive this jungle. He thought that with a week with her he would become an expert on this particular world, or at least this region of it.

  “Hold on,” she said with a quiet voice, putting a hand on her arm. “That clearing is death.”

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Because there’s nothing to see. The carnivore is below the ground.”

  Cornelius nodded, still not sure what was there, but trusting Rebecca’s judgment. They moved around the clearing and further into the jungle. Five kilometers further on he saw what had waited for them under the ground as they came to another clearing. This time he could see the open hole, and the large herbivore that had fallen into the pit. Spikes penetrated its sides, and what looked like limbs had grown into its body.

  “It’s a carnivorous plant,” explained Rebecca, pointing at a stand of unassuming looking shrubs on the far side of the clearing. “It lures the herbivore into the clearing with the succulent leaves of the shrubs, which also perform the other functions of a plant, including photos
ynthesis. Then, when it traps an animal, it gets the fertilizer.”

  Cornelius stood for a moment looking at the dead beast. He thought that his survival suit could survive the spikes, but not if they went into his head. “Do you have any predatory fungus here?” he asked, remembering the large underground fungoid predator on Sestius.

  “There is,” said the child. “But I think I know their signs too. Ted didn’t teach me about them, but I saw a small tree dweller caught in what looked like a fungus eating it alive.”

  They walked on, Cornelius again following her while keeping his eyes peeled for threats. He fingered his wedding ring while he looked around the jungle, learning from her the signs of what could kill him. She led him to a plant that seemed to consist of tubular leaves. She cut off the top of one and crouched down, tilting the plant to pour the pure water within into her mouth. A little further on she pulled some berries and popped them into her mouth. Cornelius did the same, but later, when he tried to pick some other berries that were a slightly different color she stopped him with a hand and a head shake.

  “The red berries have a very high sugar content, and almost no protein,” she told him by way of explanation. “The blue berries have a lot of protein, and quite a bit of cyanide, which is not a poison to most of the herbivores around here.”

  “But might get by my nanites enough to injure or kill,” he said, shaking his head and memorizing the look of the deadly berries. They moved on with partially filled stomachs and quenched thirst.

  A little later his ears perked up, and he heard something coming from ahead. A sound he really hadn’t wanted to hear, the noise that indicated the Hunters were coming toward them.

  “We’ve got to find a place to hide,” he told her, looking around for one of the safe trees and not seeing one, right when he really needed it.

  “Can’t you fight them?” asked Rebecca, her eyes wide.

  “Too many of them. And they’re tracking your scent.”