by Jay Korza
As he finished the last sentence, Seth’s cubs bounded out of the forest and tackled his seated figure. Seth was on the ground with four cubs rolling on him, licking him and nipping at various body parts.
When Seth was able to sit up once again, he added one last thought to his email. P.S. I think I’m a Shirka daddy now. I’ll explain later.
Two hours before dawn came, Seth’s pack moved out to make contact. The Shirkas stayed with the group for the first half of the hike and then they took off to meet up with the cub forces. The adults were the only ones who could communicate with the cubs, so they had to be with them to coordinate the attack.
Seth had First Son tell Seth’s cubs to stay with the humans and to watch their backs. Seth wanted the extra heightened senses with his team but it also gave him an excuse to keep his cubs in a less dangerous position.
As they continued on to their target, Seth opened a private channel to Mike and subvocalized, “You know, it’s not too late—you can take the north flank and I can go south.”
Mike subvocalized back, “Why?”
“I just. I mean, I was just thinking…”
“You think I’m taking the south flank to prove I can still do the hard stuff, don’t you?”
“That run yesterday—you were keeping up to make a point.”
Mike grimaced. “You’re right, I was. It was stupid. Look, you know I trust you, and I believe you are the right man to run this team. Not to mention you’re an officer and I’m enlisted.” Mike took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But no matter how true those words are, I’m still a man, a man who is getting older. A warrior who can see the end of his career. I’ve still got a lot of time ahead of me on this team, but for the first time I can actually see the end of the tunnel and it’s scary.”
“Look—” Seth tried to jump in.
“Stop. Let me finish.” Mike was thankful for subvocalization; he knew Seth was the only person who could hear the conversation. “I pushed too hard on that run and that was dumb. I won’t make that mistake again. I’m not taking the south flank because it’s harder and I want to prove a point. I’m taking it because initially it will be harder but once I’m there, I’ll have the high ground and my fight will be stationary and easier than yours.”
Seth thought for a moment and visualized the area in his mind. “I see your point. My position is more likely to encounter resistance and more of a stand-up fight.”
“Now you’re seeing the whole picture.” Mike would’ve had a conspiratorial tone to his voice if he were speaking normally. “I have a harder position to get into but in the end, it will be an easier position to fight from. You’re welcome.”
“Someday I’ll be as sneaky as you, First Sergeant.”
“Are you planning on resigning your commission and becoming enlisted?”
“Fuck you.”
“Ha. Thought so. Sir.”
The team made it to their final insertion points. Everyone spread out and slowed their pace to a silent creep.
Seth’s senses were still heightened; he could hear faint footsteps from his operators that he knew were far enough away from him that he shouldn’t be able to hear them. He inwardly cringed as he heard the footfalls on leaves and through water, but Seth also knew the sounds were quiet enough they should go unnoticed by the warriors.
As Seth waded into the water, the crashing sound of the nearby waterfall masked all sounds to even his abnormally heightened senses. Seth had set his visor to thermal imaging and he could clearly see two warriors getting a drink at the edge of the river. Several others milled around the camp and at least one group of four warriors patrolled the perimeter.
The four warriors on patrol were shielded and the rest were not. Seth still hadn’t determined whether the shields weren’t issued to everyone because they were in short supply or whether there was some sort of honor-based reason warriors didn’t wear them.
Seth’s visor lit up with targeting indicators as his men got settled into position and picked out their first round of targets. Seth looked to each of the targets and decided on a new course of action.
“Slight change of plans, people,” Seth subvocalized over the team push. “Keep your primary targets designated; however, I want everyone’s first volley to be from your grenade launchers and aimed at that group of four warriors on patrol. We’re far enough out that we can send our grenades and get back on our primary targets before the grenades impact and explode. Nine simultaneous grenades should overload their shields and maybe even take one or two of them out.”
“Good plan. I like it.” Surgeon breathed a bit hard but he was in position and picked out his primary target. “We still haven’t heard from our snipers.”
“Davies, if you can hear me,” Seth began, “pick off that warrior south of Surgeon’s position. He’s all by himself and…”
The sentence wasn’t finished before Seth saw the warrior slump to the ground. Through Seth’s thermal imager, he could see warm blood and tissue spray silently into the air. The warrior had been two hundred meters from Seth’s position but he could tell from the spray that Davies was somewhere at the top of the waterfall.
“Nice. If Boddie can take out the next guy, that would be great. I want to know where his position is.” Seth looked around and found another warrior that was isolated from the rest. “Boddie, take out that one eating at the back end of the camp.”
The warrior was barely visible to Seth; he had to dial up the magnification on his visor to really get a good look at him. Seth could see the warrior holding a struggling game animal of some sort and shoving pieces into his mouth as he ate. Seth was grateful he couldn’t hear the screams of the meal that was being torn and eaten alive.
Seth saw the first round hit low. It went through the meal animal and then the warrior’s chest. Warm blood sprayed into the cold night air and the warrior fell over. Luckily, his mouth had been full of the screaming animal so his own sounds couldn’t be made when the bullet entered his chest. Boddie, or maybe it was Davies, sent a follow-up round that went through the warrior’s head.
Now was not the time to talk to Boddie about his missed shot but Seth filed that thought away for discussion at a later time. Regardless of the missed shot, Seth could tell that Boddie was close to Davies up on top of the waterfall.
“Good job, guys. You can start picking off targets you think won’t be noticed. Once the assault starts, everything down here is fair game. When we—”
Seth didn’t finish his sentence as Joker broke in. “The patrol is coming back with four more shielded warriors. The guy on point is holding a device and they’re headed in your direction, Captain.” Joker was calm but there was a sense of urgency in his transmission. “Wait. Now they’re headed to me.”
The warriors were still at least a hundred meters from Seth’s waiting team but that ground could be covered quickly.
Seth’s subconscious put two and two together. “They’re keying in on our transmission. They know we’re here.”
On cue, the warriors changed their course and headed towards Seth’s position. “The camp is being alerted. All grenades on the shielded warriors; two volleys instead of one. Weapons free. Go, go, go.”
The first volley of nine grenades being launched made a nearly simultaneous whoomph as they left the underbarrels of the operators’ weapons. The second volley wasn’t nearly as uniformed but the nine additional grenades were all in the air before the first ones landed.
Seth transitioned from his grenade launcher to his rifle and brought his sights down to his predesignated target. Before Seth could get a round off, the warrior’s head split open. “Hey, Davies, that was mine,” Seth joked to himself as he quickly moved to the next available target.
As Seth sent rounds into the camp, he saw the eighteen grenades had killed six of the eight shielded warriors. Of the two that were still standing, one was taking repeated rifle fire as he blindly fired his weapon out into the night.
The warriors were g
enetically engineered to not need light or technological assistance to fight in the dark. Their primary eyes could see in multiple spectrums and their third eye could see by creating images from sound and radiation that was absorbed by the organ.
One of the shielded warriors flinched as a round penetrated the weakened field and impacted his chest. He dropped to a knee and continued to fire until his shield failed completely and another round entered his head.
At that moment, another grenade sailed into the gunfight and landed next to the last remaining warrior. The grenade exploded and ripped through the weakened shield to kill the warrior.
Seth now saw the tree canopies come alive with moving heat signatures. “No more explosives. Repeat, no more explosives. The cubs are coming in from the trees. Check your fire. Everyone give me an affirmative on the explosives order.”
Seth’s visor showed eight winking green lights from his men that indicated that they heard his order for no explosives. Seth was relieved when the last light came on. Not that he thought his men would launch explosives into what was about to become a melee of epic proportions, but he just wanted to be sure.
That moment of relief was quickly extinguished and replaced with a primal urge to dodge to the right and turn around. Seth didn’t question his subconscious reaching out to his conscious brain; a person’s deep down lizard brain was usually correct when it came to warning its owner of danger.
Seth rolled to his right and felt a warrior’s sword pass by his side and land in the water where he had just been. Seth realized he had smelled the warrior and more than that, he had heard the warrior even above the endless crashing of the nearby waterfall.
Seth brought his weapon’s muzzle up to fire but had to stop himself as he saw his four cubs launch onto the warrior’s back. Seth slung his rifle; he pulled out his field knife and drove it into the chest of the warrior. The female cub had already reached around the warrior’s neck and tore flesh from his throat.
The warrior went down but still tried to act as though he were alive. Seth knew the creature was dead but the warriors sometimes needed a little more time to figure that out for themselves.
The four cubs finished their kill and then bounded towards the fray of hundreds of other cubs and their warrior enemies.
“No! Wait! Stop! Heel! Stay! Shit!”
Seth knew they couldn’t understand Coalition basic, but Fang said they could understand the content of the words based on how they were said. So in other words, Seth’s cubs were being dodgy little teenagers that didn’t want to listen.
Great, Seth thought as he took after his self-acquired charges.
All around Seth, the battle raged. Some warriors emerged from the woods or their makeshift sleeping areas, wearing shields. Those warriors were quickly identified and swarmed by the cubs. Seth was impressed First Son had given the cubs that immediate action drill and even happier that the cubs followed orders.
Once in a while, Seth would see a warrior get hit with a bullet, but those instances came less often now. Seth knew his men were going to need to leave cover soon and join the fight hand-to-hand.
Seth waded through the fight and realized there was no way he was going to be able to pick his cubs out of the multitude that were running around. A few cubs ran by Seth and muzzle-punched him as they went. Seth guessed they were trying to scent their allies without slowing down.
Seth felt the same primal urge from before but this time it pulled him forward at a dead run. Twenty meters later, he found a warrior hacking a cub into pieces as two other cubs tried to stop it from happening. Seth knew these were his cubs; he had been drawn here by their scent and primal cries of brutality.
Seth came in with his knife but was batted away. The warrior used the hacked-up cub as a weapon; he swung the cub at Seth and struck him in the face. Seth staggered back at the force of the blow. Rage filled his heart as he tasted the blood of his cub.
Seth moved in under the warrior’s attempt at a backhanded swing of the cub. He drove his knife deep into the warrior’s belly and pulled it out while he dragged the blade sideways. The warrior’s torso opened and gore spilled onto the ground.
The warrior pulled out his own knife and impaled one of the cubs that clung to his upper body. The cub howled in pain as she was skewered and then thrown against a tree. Seth hated that the warriors could fight and kill even after their own fates had long since been sealed.
As the warrior brought his knife back, Seth kicked the inside of the warrior’s knee; it buckled outward and brought the warrior to one knee. The warrior still tried to bring his knife towards Seth’s head but their positions gave Seth the advantage. He brought his knife to the warrior’s moving wrist and lopped off his hand.
Seth drove his knife up under the warrior’s chin and into his cranial cavity to end the fight. Breathing hard, he removed his knife and placed it back in its sheath.
Seth looked around and found one of his cubs still in fighting condition, two dead, and the one female badly injured.
Seth went to her side and looked at the wounds. They were bad but he went to work on her anyway. “Reaper.”
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“Are you in a position to get to me?”
Reaper pulled up Seth’s beacon on his visor before he answered. “Yes, sir. I’ve got a bit of opposition between us but I’ll dodge what I can and get there soonest.”
“Good. I need you here, buddy, fast.” Seth tried to keep the worry and fear from his voice but he didn’t do a good job of it. He knew the commlink would scrub most of his emotion from the transmission, but he didn’t need his men to hear their commanding officer’s voice crack during a firefight.
“What’s your status?” Surgeon piped in.
“I’m fine, First Sergeant. One of my, I mean, one of the cubs needs Reaper fast.”
“Understood.” Surgeon didn’t take over for Seth, but he wanted the men to focus on something else rather than the last transmission. “Alright men, we’re doing well so far. The Shirkas are kicking ass and we’ve intercepted a warrior transmission basically saying the same thing. They are reporting heavy losses and already acknowledging that they won’t be able to hold this position. It’s time to kill their communications. They put out the message we wanted them to.”
Surgeon barely finished his sentence when Seth heard an explosion come from the area of the communications hut. The cubs had been told by First Son to stay out of that area and Seth hoped they had all listened.
The gunfire was now down to a slow trickle as Seth’s men moved into the camp and switched to bladed weapons. Every once in a while, Seth heard a finishing shot and pictured one of his men putting his barrel directly to a warrior’s head to get a contact shot and not endanger any of the other friendly combatants.
Reaper made it to Seth and looked at his patchwork. “I’ve got it from here, sir. Get back in there.”
Seth wanted to argue but knew Reaper was right. “Copy that. Thank you, Doc.”
Reaper just nodded as he was already focused on his task.
Seth turned to leave and the brother cub tried to follow him.
“No,” Seth said sternly as he pointed back towards Reaper and the cub’s injured sister. “You stay with them. Protect them.”
The cub looked at Seth, back at his sister, and then to Seth again. The cub whimpered.
“I know. But you have to stay here.” Seth knelt, eye to eye with the cub. “Go protect them. I need you here to protect my friend and your sister.”
The cub quietly and sadly turned to do what was asked of him. Seth stood and entered back into the fight, fearful he would return later to find only one of his cubs left.
It took another hour for the battle to be over and twenty more minutes to sweep and secure the area.
Seth sent Joker, Jenson, and Sister to sweep the camp for intel. Sister was the technogeek on her team and was smart enough to give Bloom a run for his money, had he been on this mission.
Seth gave S
urgeon and First Son the task of organizing the remaining forces and performing an assets check. First Son sent packs of cubs out on patrol. There was no need to send out hunting parties; the warriors had already stocked several pens with game animals. First Son didn’t like the idea of killing a caged animal but Surgeon reminded him that there were more mouths to feed tonight than hunting would be able to provide. First Son gave in, if not reluctantly.
Seth began to set up a triage area but Fang stopped him. “There is no need. None of our men are hurt and none of the Shirka will use it.”
“What about the cubs?” Seth could not hide his dismay. “There are wounded cubs everywhere. We can save them.”
“No, we cannot.” Fang put his massive clawed hand on Seth’s shoulder. “Father, if you save the cubs, at best their mother will not kill them herself when she comes back for them, and they will be left here to grow up as outcasts. But more likely, their mothers will kill them rather than see their cubs have that fate.”
Seth was shocked and could not speak for a moment. “One of the cubs that stayed with me when I was unconscious, Reaper is working on her now. He says she’ll live. What will happen to her?”
Huj’pa’ul stepped forward. “We should go kill her now. Save her the dishonor of dying from her wounds after we leave.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Seth shifted to anger. “Reaper said she’s going to live.”
“For now.” Huj’pa’ul asserted herself more fully as she gauged Seth’s anger. “But when we leave, who will hunt for her? Who will get her water? She is too injured to do these things on her own. She will die of her wounds. Either because she cannot care for herself or defend herself when a predator comes and eats her.”
“Her brother will,” Seth protested.
“Yes, he will.” Fang looked sad for Seth. “However, when his mother returns and finds his sister healed by human treatments, she will kill or leave them both. She cannot take her son if he has dishonored himself in this way.”
“This is bullshit!” Seth almost roared. He paced back and forth a few times. “I should just take her. Screw this crap!”