The dock was sealed from the vacuum of space by an invisible Gravity Shield, which held the atmosphere in place when the octagonal aperture of the dock hatch itself was open. The Transport, which was the last to leave, moved through the aperture and into visible space beyond, then the hatch sealed, a wall growing where one had not existed before, as fast as the blink of an eye.
"He'll get them killed." Lan said.
"Undoubtedly." The Major General said, not at all ruffled that Lan had spoken out without permission. They were birds of a feather, and they flocked together.
"The Ides of War." The Colonel said. Merely a commentary.
Becla did not know where she stood in this company, and was rigidly at POA. Back straight, shoulders squared, eyes forward, blast rifle locked across her chest.
"Can this woman fight or was your concern merely of a sexual nature?" The Major General asked in all seriousness. Lan realized that whatever they had planned for him, it would not be a walk in the park.
"Both, Sir." Lan answered to a little gasp from Becla, who began to blush under their scrutiny.
"I hope so. That she can fight, I mean. She'll need to be able to." The Major General said. "Where I am sending you. You can be at ease, soldiers." Released from POA, Becla turned a glowering eye upon Lan, but all he could do was smile and shrug. She was soon smiling as well.
"So what is this all about?" Lan asked as the group turned and began walking towards the exit. "And why me?"
"It's about Colonel Rebecca Collins." The Colonel said.
"What about my sister?" Lan demanded, halting to stare at the Officer. His first thought was that she had been killed in an attempt to assassinate the Senator, but if that had been the case, they wouldn't have pulled him off the Transport to tell him. They would've told him on his way down, via communicator, so that he would take his rage down to the world below with him. That's how he imagined they would do it anyway. It was probably quite accurate.
"Her ship's gone down onto a Prison Planet." The Major General said, looking into Lan's eyes. "There was some malfunction with the Satellite Defensive System guarding the planet. You are going to put a Team together and go in their once we figure out why the system malfunctioned. The Defensive Satellite System is responding to our queries by saying Benefactor did not identify herself, and that is why it was shot down."
"How did they know it was Benefactor if they did not know it was Benefactor?" Lan demanded, utterly furious, nearly yelling.
“We don't know yet." The Orderly answered. "We think the system may have been sabotaged, but we don't have any hard facts yet. Were you aware of your sister's posting?"
"My half-sister. We had different fathers." Lan said. "Yeah I'm aware of your problem. I got a tachyon communication from her yesterday. She told me all about her new posting. It was dated a week ago. Do you have any hard facts?"
"The ship wasn't completely destroyed." The Major General said. "Scans show that it's mostly intact. They must've had some power as they went down. The possibility that there are survivors is quite good."
"Why don't you go in and find out?" Becla asked suddenly, interrupting.
"We will be." Said the Orderly. "As soon as we can get those satellites neutralized. If they have been sabotaged, they'll shoot down anything that comes near. Plus we have to put a Team together, and get them there."
"Of course I'll go." Lan said.
"We weren't asking!" The Major General said, the steel in him showing. "You understand that the Senator is your first priority!" Again, no question.
"Of course." Lan lied, meeting the General's dark eyes evenly. "If the Senator is still alive, my sister will be at his side. Of that you can be assured."
"Hmm . . . yes." The Major General said.
"When do we leave?" Lan asked, ignoring the Major General's implicit threat.
"You will be escorted there by the Battleship Maximus." The Colonel said. "Maximus will neutralize the Satellite Defensive System when you arrive, then you and your Team will be inserted."
"If you fail," the Major General said, "the entire planet will have to be pacified. A clean slate. We will not look kindly upon failure."
"Success shall be rewarded." The Colonel said. "The entire Team will be promoted out of the Infantry. None will ever have to fight again."
"I cannot express with words the gravity of this situation." The Major General said. "We are talking about a very important person. There is nothing we would not do to rectify this situation. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal, Sir." Lan said. "When do we leave?"
"We are already on our way." The Colonel said. "We left eleven minutes ago."
Chapter 9
The movement was all around him, encircling him, but by the time he would turn and sight down the blast rifle's barrel, there would be nothing there. Whatever was out there could move and seemed familiar enough with humans to be wary of him.
The thick verdant growth all around him impeded his view on every side. The blurs of movements he saw were through the heavy growth, through gaps in the leaves and stems of the brush and boles of the trees. All he could catch were flickers. No more.
They weren't human. Pack hunters of some kind. Pack hunters who had felt man's sting, at some time or other, and who were now very cautious. But he was only one man alone.
This was obviously a scenario which had been played out many times in the long evolution and existence of these particular animals. As long as he continued to turn, vigilant, they were kept at bay. Their patience would be inexhaustible however, and they appeared to be many. Baldwin had read that humans had hunted in a similar manner in the Hunting/Gathering stage of their own evolution. They would worry him until he was too tired to resist, then overwhelm him.
The odds were not in their favor however, Baldwin thought. Not with his superior weaponry. An immediate confrontation was the best solution. He stopped turning. Just stood there stock still waiting. Minutes dragged by like hours. An itch ran up his spine. He shivered. He could stand it no longer. He had to look behind himself. He knew they were there, creeping closer! He spun, the blast rifle ready.
They had come much closer than he had expected! And unheard as well. Four of them were caught out within plain sight. They now stared at him unabashedly.
His first thought was relief. Relief that they weren't reptiles. Reptiles seldom knew fear and seldom hesitated to attack. Reptiles were always carnivorous. This natural inclination had been borne out on nearly every world that had possessed reptiles, and most did.
The creatures facing him now were rat-like, but much overgrown. Two spade-like teeth jutted out of the creature's mouth. They would have sharp, serrated edges, backed by powerful jaws, wonderfully suited for chewing through nearly any biological substance known, he knew, once having studied the Earth rat problem; where man had gone, Earth's rats had followed. They were as proliferate as cockroaches. There were no human worlds where the hearty rat could not be found.
These specimens, of an entirely separate evolutionary line, yet similarly adapted, were about the size of large dogs, maybe seventy-five kilos, powerful looking, and undoubtedly very deadly.
The rat creatures flinched visibly as the blast rifle roared. Then a ball of yellow/white flame struck the ground between the nearest two, where he had aimed. He couldn't hit all four at once, so his objective had been to scare them away.
The concussive explosion shattered the two closest creatures. It literally ripped them apart. The two outermost creatures were flung aside, like leaves on a strong gust. One lay still, twisted at a strange angle, the other squealing horribly as it tried to drag itself away, its hindquarters entirely useless. Spinal injury, Baldwin thought.
Baldwin was stunned by the enormous power the blast rifle possessed. He had never imagined. Nothing could have prepared him for the devastating power of the weapon.
Feeling reckless, he turned and began firing into the jungle around him, until the blast rifle began to grow noticeably
warmer. There were no more scurrying’s now, except the injured rat, which was slowly attempting to drag itself away. He walked up behind it, careful not to get too close.
"Disgusting!" Baldwin said. The thing stank of carrion. As he neared, it turned and bared its teeth, staring with beady, button eyes.
His idea to eat this creature vanished in a wave of nausea. Gone also was any thought to put it out of its misery. Let it suffer.
"Your friends will be back. They'll help you." He said loathingly. These creatures were worse than reptiles. He had never been so disgusted by another living creature as he was at that moment.
He turned away and put some distance between them, carefully watching the thing as he did so. If he turned his back, he was sure it would attempt to attack.
Glancing at the Star, the Balian Sun, to keep his path straight, and also to guarantee he could return, he moved out once again walking quickly. He was soon beyond the scene.
The heat of the day became intense as the sun reached its zenith directly overhead, signaling midday. With the sun directly overhead he would be directly upon the planet's equator. That knowledge did him little good.
Sweat poured in rivers while a local variety of biting insect swarmed over him. He couldn't slap them away fast enough to be free of them. The tiny green florescent flies continued to land on him and fly away with pieces until his exposed skin, his forearms, hands, and face were lumped, swollen and hardened, and still they came, three or four always on him, until he thought this would be how he died. Eaten alive in small little bits. The hours crept by.
Sometimes the little agonies were the worst!
He had been climbing throughout the morning and early afternoon. It had been a slow gradient, but now the nature of the ground underfoot had changed to dry, hardpacked soil. His shoes began to dry. Suddenly the flies even disappeared as well, as some variety of small bird began to swoop through forest, released by the cooling of the atmosphere.
He began to second-guess his decision to leave Benefactor. He even began to regret leaving the rat meat. He had never felt so hungry in his life. He was not someone accustomed to such. On introspection, he decided with a little laugh, that he was still not that hungry! The time would come though, he admitted. He had tired considerably, he suddenly realized.
Throughout the day Baldwin watched the nature of the plant growth through which he traveled. There were tubers, berries, fruits, and an abundance of plant life he could attempt to eat if the situation became that desperate. Bali was classified 'life-sustaining', else no Prison Colony would have been founded here. The planet could sustain human life.
One of the most abundant of the possible food sources he noticed were cherry-like red berries hanging in clusters on dark leaved, thick bushes. There were always one or two of these bushes in sight. If they were edible, they could provide an excellent food source.
Stopping at the nearest bush in his path, he chose one of the juicy looking berries, and broke open its delicate skin. A sweet smell erupted from the berry as its juices flowed out onto his fingers. It certainly smelled good, Baldwin thought.
He popped the berry into his mouth and nearly gagged. It burned!
He spat it out as fast as he could get it out of his mouth. He spat until his mouth was bone dry. Still it burned. Then his mouth began to swell.
Their poisonous nature explained their abundance, he realized, wishing he had not put the whole thing in his mouth at once. Not when the tiniest taste would've been more than sufficient!
He had seen no water. Not anywhere. Only in the moist soil earlier, and he could not drink moist soil. He imagined his mouth and throat swelling closed and suffocating him. He was done with experimentation for the day he decided, though he had got nothing into his stomach of course. Only the flies had feasted well this day. And the remaining rat creatures, of course. There was no doubt, whatsoever, that they would've come back to eat their comrades. They would obviously eat anything.
Angrily now he began to move on again. There were many hours left in the day and exhausted or not, he had to make the best of them. He also needed a place to spend the night. It would come soon enough.
That he might not find a safe place to spend the night left him demoralized and dejected. There was nothing but level forest ahead, behind, or to the sides. The rise in the ground earlier had been too gradual to create any rock formations that might hide caves or natural caverns. In fact, the whole planet was very much tectonically inactive. The whole thing was rather flat, in fact. Flat and level.
Baldwin did not know it yet, but the overgrown rodents he had encountered earlier, which the natives called Hoag, weren't the only predators which stalked these forests. One followed along behind him now. It had just picked up his scent. It was much more careful than the Hoag. It crept along Baldwin's back trail, stalking into the wind, so as not to carry its own scent to its prey, which it did not know could not be perceived, in any case. Its normal prey were very perceptive, agile and quick.
Baldwin of course had no idea. If that natural, normal sense which alerted humans to peril was sending any telltale signals, they went unobserved in his exhaustion. He continued to push himself on.
The predator which followed was normally a nocturnal hunter, but had been roused by Baldwin's passage through its territory. Now it was in no hurry. Night would arrive soon, where its large saucer eyes, superior hearing and unparalleled sense of smell would give it the decided advantage. The bloodhound of Bali, except a much more serious predator.
The natives knew well enough to fear this predator. When they had to be hunted, they were hunted by large groups of men, and they were not hunted for sport. They were only hunted when one became a danger to their tribe.
This creature was one of Bali's most fearsome predators. The only predator more fierce was man himself. These two predators had battled fiercely in man's early years here, but most had been wiped out. Most, but not all. Not all.
Chapter 10
It was a testament to Rebecca's abilities that when she came upon the slain Hoag that she got within visual range before the rodent's feast was disturbed. Before they noticed her.
A large pack of the creatures were feasting on several somethings, or one something, which had been torn into pieces, but which she could not see under the mass of their bodies.
The rodents scattered fearfully when she was detected, but her blaster was in hand just in case. Scavengers were rarely overtly aggressive, but the carcasses the rodents were feasting on might have told a different tale. There was little chance Baldwin could've snuck up on them.
They were fearfully disgusting. Rebecca hated scavengers. They would tear you apart alive in their frenzy to feed. Though they filled a necessary ecological nook, and were one of God's creations, they filled her with complete loathing.
At least her main fear had not been realized. She'd had a terrible premonition when she had seen the feasting scavengers.
Rebecca saw other wild-life, as well, as she continued. Wildlife which Baldwin's noisy passage had alerted and warned away. Small deer-like animals. Tree rats. All manner and variety of bird species, even one that moved in flocks on the ground. All manner of small mammal. Other scurrying’s that were gone too quickly to notice. The forest was alive, filled with a variety of life.
There would be no hunger here. She had to catch Baldwin first though, before she could think about that. That was the first priority. Then fresh water. Then food. A river or lake would provide all such necessities. She was already parched.
Quite unlike herself, she cursed Baldwin's impetuosity. He had undoubtedly thought her dead. He may have searched and been unable to locate her, but if he had not the idea was not troubling to her. It was just that he had made her job more difficult, not that he might not have thought of her.
If the roles had been reversed she would've searched thoroughly. Not out of sentimentality, but logic. She would've wanted the Security Tech's expertise. Plain and simple.
Th
e trail became more difficult to follow as the ground dried and hardened and became somewhat rocky. It slowed her forward progress, as she spent more time tracking, and less actually moving.
It would have taken a bloodhound to follow her own trail. She wasn't leaving much to follow. Baldwin continued to move in a straight line, directly on a vector corresponding to the course of the Balian Sun blazing down from above. He was thinking, at least.
It would mean that anyone following would have just that much easier time, as well. If she knew for sure he would continue as he was, she could throw caution to the wind and sprint ahead. Once having made some ground, she could re-scout his trail. It was possible she would run right into him, he could not be that much farther ahead, if the scuffling trail he was leaving meant he was as exhausted as he appeared. The day was beginning to wane, she had to make a decision.
But if she were wrong, and he had altered his course! That she could not afford. The night would bring extreme danger. She had to weigh the pros and cons of the action, basically without facts.
She began to run. Her wrist throbbed with every step. She ignored it. The ground slipped by beneath her feet. Her body had been battered and abused many times in her conflict-ridden life, but that didn't make the pain now any less real.
She was in some serious fucking pain. She ran on.
She missed the predator's trail. There was almost nothing to note its passage in the first place, and she ran on by that. It was not her fault. Night fell before she had located Baldwin and she recognized her need for shelter. Baldwin's trail had become more obvious as his exhaustion took its toll, and she reacquired it before darkness fell completely.
It fell like a heavy blanket thrown over a glow tube. One minute there, the next gone. As it fell, she searched among the branches above for a crook she could wedge herself into. She found something that looked good almost immediately.
A way up into the tree would prove to be more difficult. The tree she had chosen had a low hanging branch, but her fingers barely scraped its underside as she jumped for it. It was not that low.
Duty, Honor or Death the Corps Sticks Page 7