He pulled his helmet over to him, grabbed his weapon and slithered back into the forest. Under the cover of the trees he carefully attempted to retraced his steps. He searched carefully for the traps he knew were there somewhere. He veered off course once and stopped dead as he spotted a thin line stretched out to either side of him. He carefully stepped over it and continued out of the forest past dozens of bodies. They knew we were coming, he thought. He stopped as he came to the edge of the forest, in front of him was the wreckage of the crippled troop ship. He waited to make sure there no enemies around and walked quickly over to the ship. After a quick search, he found three compartments still intact. From the first compartment, he pulled two communicators that looked ok plus four rechargers and stuffed them into a campaign bag. From the second, he found several campaign kits containing meal packs, a radiation cell charged heater and stove, and a unit sized shroud generator. In the third were six one-man antigrav vehicles and trailers and he found one that was still operational. Well at least I won’t have to walk out, he thought.
He continued to search the wreckage and when he had removed everything he could use to survive, he loaded up the trailer and headed west, with hopes to find other survivors but he knew that was wishful thinking.
Unknown to him a group of survivors, mostly covered in bee stings, had met up and headed north, but were so busy escaping from the bees they hadn’t scavenged the troop ship. With Altis sinking, Jank traveled as fast as he could over open ground. It seemed to him to be too early for the Erthers to be sending out patrols. They would be too busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack. He was not afraid, he knew how to survive. In basic officers training school, they had taught evasion and survival techniques. He had faith the military would come for him if they knew he was alive.
Commander Frulé was temporarily stunned at the sight of the Orion exploding. He had to assume that Tom was dead. The chain of command was clear.
He depressed his communicator, “Colonel Barisniki you are in command now. What are your orders, Sir?”
An unknown voice came back. “This is Commander John Balechek. The Colonel is dead. What is your date of rank?”
Frulé told him. There were a few seconds of silence then, “You are senior by 10 days. What are your orders, Sir?” asked Balechek.
Frulé did not hesitate. Kris had sent a
communication outlining the situation on the ground.
“Bring the Brigades down to the planet. The Second Brigade can follow us to the landing zone. Make sure Barque Bravo has picked up the Sharks. They must be concerned about oxygen levels by now. Once we hit dirt we need to see what is needed at the village. Have flight leaders do a roll call and then stand by. You will assume the duties as Commander of EDB2
immediately.”
“Commander we are experiencing an unusually large input of data into our onboard system,” said Warrant Officer Lindstrom. She paused, “Two other Barques are experiencing the same phenomenon.”
“Is it causing any disruption to our capabilities?” asked Frulé.
“No Sir. I cannot access it but it seems to be causing no harm. The onboard system can absorb the equivalent of five Zettabytes and still function, this data has taken every piece of it. It must be of Hevinian origin as the system accepted it immediately. Between the three Barques we have just received fifteen Zettabytes of data.” She turned to her second in command, “Take over for me.” Once relieved, Lindstrom communicated with her onboard system. She looked up at Frulé who had assumed his normal command stance, feet apart with his hands behind his back focused on the main screen. “Sir, this is the complete archival data from the Orion. Her Captain must have sent it before the ship disintegrated.”
After a quarter mile, Tactical Sergeant Acron Kebel suddenly stopped running. He was in a clearing looking at several other men stripped to the waist picking bees off their skin. He ripped off his armor then his shirt and began pulling off bees. There seemed as though there had been hundreds of them stinging him repeatedly but he only found ten. Kebel was a highly skilled veteran of dozens of battles throughout the Galaxies but he had never encountered bees before and was unprepared for their effect. Slowly the realization came to him that they had run from combat. They would be considered cowards and deserters. He had to move quickly. He looked at the men standing around. For most of them this had been their first battle. Two he recognized as veterans and he ordered them over to him.
“Who is in charge here?” he barked.
“I guess you are,” replied one of the veterans. “Right then, is there a medic among them?” He
pointed to the men who were now standing around nervously. “That man is,” said the veteran, pointing to a man handing out pretreated swabs. “He is trooper Kark”
“Kark, come over here,” Kebel bellowed.
The man dropped what he was doing and ran over.
“Kark I want you to finish treating these men for their combat wounds then report back to me with a list of those fit for continued duty.”
“Yes Sir,” said the medic as he ran off to his patients. The two veterans realized what the Sergeant had done. By referring to the insect bites as combat wounds he had possibly saved them all from a military tribunal. Within minutes the medic returned and handed the Sergeant his data pad. The Sergeant transferred his report into his own device. The report declared all combat wounds were treated and all present were fit for continued duty, so now it was official. Time to establish his authority; he organized them into two six-man Gladari and they headed back to the battle site. By not mentioning their mutual desertion he was able to reestablish discipline quickly. The memory of hundreds of biting insects swarming under his armor filled him with terror. He was embarrassed at having run from the field but at the time, as with the others, he had reacted on instinct. The two men assigned to range ahead returned with the news that the battle had not gone well. He halted the column and taking the veterans with him they silently moved through the brush until they reached the edge of the forest. He knew immediately their mission had failed. The ground in front of them was littered with hundreds of bodies in black uniforms. To lead an attack now would be an act of suicide. He turned to his men and using sign language ordered then back into the forest and away from the carnage. Rejoining the others, he led the men deeper into the forest until they came upon the clearing once more. He posted three men around the perimeter and motioned the rest of the men to gather round. He pulled out his communicator and tried to contact the fleet but there was no reply.
Closing his communicator, he said, “We must assume we are on our own for now. You have been around and you know the score. The fleet will not know we survived.” He looked at the younger men who were staring at the ground in despair, knowing he needed to give them hope. “I believe a second and larger fleet will be dispatched but that will take time. So, while we wait we must survive. The number of uniformed personnel I saw indicates a large military force supporting the colonists which means they are too strong for us to attack. They may assume some of us survived but they will need time to bury their dead and lick their wounds before they come looking for us. This will give us time to observe the enemy for a while so we can provide information when our fleet returns. After which we need to put as much distance between us as possible and find a secure location where we can wait. I intend to maintain military discipline for without which our chances for survival are slim.”
He pointed to the two veterans. “I am promoting these two to Gladarius.” The two men looked at each other; having the rank of Gladarius meant they would do less of the menial labor. Kebel continued. “For now, we will push further into the forest and set up a secure camp site. Let’s move out.”
As the Barques descended, they could see the destruction on the ground. Hundreds of black uniformed bodies stood out in stark contrast against the plethora of colors from the wild flowers blanketing the meadow between the berm and the forest. There was smoke rising from several yurts in t
he village and there were bodies scattered in between. A few were in blue uniforms but most were in black. It was obvious they had been hit hard but by the number of dead Kaedian troopers but it was equally obvious that the villagers had given a good account of themselves. Except for the southeast and west corners, the berm and battlements were intact. The men prepared themselves for what they would find.
“Commander,” said Warrant Officer Lindstrom. “The data from Orion has just transferred itself to the Karnat systems’ data bank in the village.”
“After we land go to the Karnat crew and make sure they are aware of this,” said Frulé.
Ray and Kris landed to the west just outside the berm. They climbed up the side and they too were saddened by what they saw. The despondency that prevailed throughout the village was accentuated by the arrival of the afternoon rain. The villagers and the Brigade crews were gently and respectfully carrying their dead to the open ground of the village square where they were covered with tarps to keep the rain off. The wounded were being helped to the clinic where Sande, Marcie, the Corpsmen, and village volunteers were working tirelessly to patch up their wounds. Ray strode off to the clinic to find Marcie and Kris began the search for Anne and Jennifer. Jennifer found him first, she shrieked with delight as she bounded toward him. Kris noted the tear on the left side of her jacket and the bandage underneath but she seemed okay. She leaped into his arms, gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Jennifer took Kris over to where Anne was working with the wounded. She spotted him heading her way. She smiled as she calmly finished changing the dressing on a wounded woman, then walked over to him and planted a big kiss firmly on his lips. Both were overjoyed at finding each other alive.
By late afternoon there was a semblance of order in the village. Sande had been in the clinic and was unaware that the Orion had soundlessly disintegrated. She came out of the clinic and spotted Kris and Anne with Marcie and Ray sitting on a bench outside the Café. She walked over and looked around at the bodies laid out on the square.
“We were lucky,” she said and dropped onto the bench next to Marcie. She was exhausted, leaning up against her friend she began to doze.
“Did you see the way the Orion blew up? It was horrible. Those poor men onboard probably never knew what hit them.” It was the voices of two villagers passing by. Marcie tried to hush them but it was too late, Sande had heard. Her eyes widened as she looked at Marcie.
“Has something happened to the Orion? To Tom?” she asked fearfully.
“Yes,” said Marcie, coming right to the point. “The Orion exploded about two hours ago while we were working in the clinic. There is no word of any survivors. I’m so sorry Sande.” Sande was shivering with emotion, Marcie put her arm around her, “but we don’t know for sure.”
The Orion’s escape pods navigation program was simple and automatic, locate the closest habitable planet and bring the pod down in a remote but survivable area. Altis-5 was the closest planet. The system chose an area that insured the best conditions for survival. The pods landed safely at the edge of a small stream which formed a border between a dense forest and a wide meadow. The doors opened automatically after checking the atmosphere and scanning the surrounding area.
The cramped space was flooded with sweet fresh air. The crew member checked that the beacon was working correctly and went outside to join the other survivors. They knew what was left of the Kaedian fleet had escaped but they did not know the situation on the ground so their first priority was to set up a defensive position. The pods carried survival gear that included several long and short-range hand carried weapons. Together they dug in.
Tom was shoveling out his foxhole when it occurred to him that with all the technical advancements in weaponry it still came down to soldiers digging holes in the ground for protection just as they had done since before the Romans.
“Ray!” It was Joshua. He had been helping with the bodies and it had been over an hour since Lindstrom had informed him of the data dump before he had time to return to his yurt. The equipment had survived the assault, he began to clean James’ desk when he noticed three small icons blinking on the bottom of the screen. He adjusted the range and focused on the icons. It took a few seconds for the equipment to identify the icons but when it did Joshua ran out of the yurt.
“Who is in charge? I have located three emergency beacons. They are escape pods from the Orion that have landed four thousand miles northeast of here.”
Sande jumped up, “What are we waiting for?” “Right then,” said Ray.
“Sande, you and Marcie can come with me. Kris,
will you go find Commander Frulé and have him dispatch a Barque? All right everyone let’s go.” Within ten minutes the Jaguar was airborne and screaming off to the location provided by Joshua. They flew at 10,000 feet then dropped to two hundred as they approached the location. Marr was monitoring the beacon’s signal and was guiding the Jaguar, then as they crested a massive rock ledge they spotted the life pods sitting in the grass less than fifty yards from each other. Sande could see twelve men standing around, her heart went to her mouth, one of the men was in blue coveralls. It wasn’t long before the Jaguar descended vertically next to the pods. Ray got out and Sande almost knocked him over in her rush to get to Tom. Her emotions were exploding. Her exhausted brain had gone from the emotionally hard work attending to the wounded to the lowest depths of despair, to hope, to exultation in less than ten minutes. She hugged him tight.
Their joy at finding the Orion crew safe was quickly dampened by the feeling of loss and sadness in the air when they returned to the village, with such a tight knit unit everyone had lost someone close to them. Sara now recovered, began to take stock of the village. She decided that the funerals could begin in the morning but for now they must help the living. She assigned two villagers to Commander Frulé to assist with the head count, she wanted everyone accounted for. Search parties were organized on standby just in case people were missing. A team of CB’s were sent to see if there was any damage to power or water and four fire teams were sent out locked and loaded, each with a Corpsman to ascertain the status of the Kaedian casualties. Flight Sergeant Kevin Surrells, the senior Corpsman, examined the bodies. After 10 minutes of pushing over bodies and checking for a pulse he began to think there were none left alive. As he approached three bodies grouped together just outside the forest line one of the bodies shot upright and pointed his sidearm directly between the Sergeants' eyes. Surrells knew he was going to die. Then a blur as the rifle butt of one of the fire teams came flashing by slamming into the head of the wouldbe killer followed by two shots from the other fire team members.
Surrells turned to the man who saved his life and said, "Thank you. Now I believe I need to go change my underwear."
They continued with the checks but with a lot more caution. Apart from two troopers who were not dying well who were quickly dispatched there were no survivors on the field or in the woods.
That night there was a debrief for the village leaders and Senior Brigade personnel. For the first time, Sergeant Deming was not present to organize the meeting. He had been found alive but badly wounded and unconscious. He was in the clinic, off the critical list but it would be a while before he could resume his duties.
Tom and Sande were the first to arrive followed by Ray and Marcie, then Kris and Andrew with Sara. Commodore Querrion arrived with Captain Acheron of the Zenon. Commander Frulé and Commander Balechek were the last. Once everyone was seated Tom stood.
“I attempted to put together a brief paper for you all but I do not have Sergeant Deming’s skills. I understand he tried to get out of bed but the nurses threatened to tie him down.” He paused, smiling at the thought. “It is dedication like that in everyone that pulled us through today.” He paused with sadness in his eyes. “I am full of mixed emotions. I am sad that so many of our comrades and friends are no longer with us. Their sacrifice will be an inspiration to us all forever. I am joyful and thankful that we ar
e all alive. I am elated that the Kaedian forces were defeated again. I am grateful for the timely arrival of the Zenon and the Second Brigade. We were successful because everyone did their part with great courage. So, we will bury our dead and then we will celebrate and then decide our future. He turned and picked up a paper from his chair. I am a military man so I know no other way to do this so please forgive me if I appear blunt.”
He paused to control the emotion building inside him.
“Sixty-six of our friends died defending the village. Ninety-two of our comrades died fighting in space. We cannot tell the total number of the enemy that were killed. We do know there were five hundred ground troops killed and I estimate several hundred more were killed in space. I would say they paid the butchers bill in full.” Again, he paused. “We know from the data that Commodore Querrion was able to send that the Orion was hit by a new and previously unknown class of enemy scout ship invisible until the last millisecond before it hit. This information has been given to the Zenon for analysis by the Hevinian Fleet Commander on Earth. The Kaedians, being aware of the sizable force stationed here, are not likely to want to return for a while. So, our courage and determination has brought us a period of peace. Just how long we don’t know. I just wish the price wasn’t as high. Any questions so far?” He paused. “OK let’s move on. Sara what is your opinion of the status of the village?” Sara stood and quickly looked over her notes.
“We lost several yurts but only a few of the enemy forces penetrated the center of the village so the clinic, community center and other structures around the square remain intact. The wind and solar generators remain intact but we took a direct hit on the water purifier. Twenty percent of the underground power lines and water distribution pipes have been destroyed. Our food storage was unharmed so we have plenty of supplies. I estimate we have enough for seven to eight months. Our seed supply hut was hit, there was no fire but all the containers were scattered about. First glance says most of the packs are still intact. Two of the Hevinian farm machines were destroyed leaving us with just one. We can make do if necessary.” She looked over to Marcie who stood.
Altis-5: Book #2 of the Sleeper Series Page 24