R.A.E.C.E. Genesis

by Geoffrey C Porter

  "Ok guys, I've been teaching this to the others with rifles, and it's time for a crash course in ambush tactics for the rest of you. There are 40 Lithor marching this way, and a big tank. Leave the big tank to me, a few blasts in the right place from my blast rifle should detonate its munitions. Unless they were smart enough to unload its ammo, and Lithor aren't smart.

  "The trick to this kind of ambush is simple. They're marching in a line. We set up in a line formation. Everybody targets the guy in a straight line from himself. Don't shoot at the guy on his left or right. Count on your fellow on your right and your left to take out their targets.

  "We need to go get ready. We'll hide in the jungle, right at the border of it and the plains. Are there any questions?"

  Sarah asked, "Ten on forty?"

  "We ambush them, or we wait for them to come here and take us one cave at a time. Plus, that's 40 laser rifles out there for us to acquire, and it would be nice if everybody carried a rifle."

  They set up just barely in the forest. Everybody hid behind at least a little cover: trees, a rock here, a shrub there. Jack could see the Lithor troop headed their way, at least on max zoom of his rifle sights. They wouldn't be in range of his people with laser rifles for another fifteen minutes easily. Jack started to sweat, although not half as bad as the civilian men and women who waited for the ambush.

  Jack switched between just looking at the marching Lithor and spying on them through the sights. The laser rifles didn't have scopes on them, so he waited for the Lithor to be visible to the naked eye and big enough, so they'd make decent targets. He prayed all the while that the Lithor wouldn't see his people hiding behind the trees, rocks, and bushes. Time crawled for Jack.

  The Lithor marched closer with every moment. Jack targeted the sweet spot on the big tank and squeezed the trigger on his blast rifle. His line of Humans opened fire with their laser rifles. The big tank erupted fire out of its top hatch--Jack scored a direct hit on its munitions. The whole line of Lithors started dropping to the ground, either for cover, or dead. Jack could see them easily even on the ground, and he proceeded to kill them one by one as quickly as he could. His people wasted a bit of ammo, but this being their first ambush, Jack didn't blame them. The return fire from the Lithor ended. Rob shouted, "Woohoo!"

  Jack called out, "Advance, slow."

  They walked up to the dead Lithor. Two of them crawled away from the fight. Sarah shouted out, "I'll deal with the wounded."

  Jack walked up to the big tank and lifted the head of the Kilken tied up, and it was Kai, unconscious. Jack cut his right arm free. It just slumped down. Jack cut the other arm free, and Kai slumped over at his midsection. He cut Kai's legs free, and Kai slid off the tank onto the ground. Jack heard a scream and looked around. Sarah stood over a Lithor with a knife stuck in the Lithor's groin.

  Jack howled, "Sarah, the throat, slit their throats."

  "He'll bleed out…"

  "That's not the point. We give the wounded a humane death, if we can't take them as prisoners."

  Sarah smiled. "That must be a Fleet rule…"

  "It is."

  Jack went back to tending to Kai. He didn't open his eyes, but he mouthed something, and Jack leaned in close. Kai said, "Water." They didn't have the luxury of canteens, so they'd have to carry Kai to the forest stream.

  Jack looked; his troop stripped the Lithor of everything useful: laser rifles, ammo clips, bayonets, and grenades. That's when Jack heard another scream. He turned. Again Sarah had sliced a Lithor open at the groin.

  Jack shouted, "Sarah!"

  "They deserve it, Jack."

  "You disobeyed a direct order!"

  "I'm not wearing a Fleet uniform, last time I checked," she said.

  "And you never will if you do that again," Jack said.

  "I'll do it again in a heartbeat, man--it's about giving them what they deserve."

  Jack didn't have much to say. He always got the impression that Sarah fared poorly at the hands of the Lithor; he just didn't know her hate ran so deep. Jack looked around. Everybody seemed ready to go. "Let's run, people." He picked up Kai and threw him over his shoulder and led the way.

  When they got to the first stream in the forest, they stopped, and Jack put Kai down on the ground in reach of the stream. Jack moved his hand into the water. Kai rolled over onto his stomach and started drinking handfuls of water. After a few drinks, he collapsed on his back and groaned, "Food."

  One of Jack's fighters spoke up, "I saw a pear-apple tree a bit back…"

  Pear-apple trees grew fruit that looked like a pear but tasted just like apples. "Run back and grab a few, would you?" Jack asked.

  "Sure, boss."

  He ran off, and Jack looked at his crew. He couldn't help but feel proud of them. "You all did a great job today. The Lithor will now think twice about coming into our hills. And now, with laser rifles for everybody, we'll be safer and hunting will be easier."

  The kid showed up carrying an armful of pear-apples. Jack took one and put it in Kai's hand, saying, "Fruit, eat."

  Kai still didn't open his eyes, but he grasped the fruit and started taking big bites out of it. He threw the core away and held out his hand for another. Jack gave him one. Halfway through the fruit, Kai opened his eyes one at a time and then said, "Sergeant…"

  "None other, Kai…"

  Sarah queried, "You two know each other?"

  "We go way back," Jack said.

  Kai asked, "Is there more fruit?"

  The boy carrying the pear-apples handed his last three to Kai, who wolfed them down.

  Kai stood up and looked Jack's fighters up and down. "I need three laser rifles. I need to go back. There are two more of my squad held captive…"

  "No," Jack said. "Five minutes ago you couldn't even walk, after a few days of rest…"

  "No, they need to be freed now."

  "I hate to do it to you, Kai, but you report to Fleet first, and I'm the highest ranking Fleet officer on this planet. I order you to rest first. Get some meat in your belly. They've survived this long they can survive a few more days."

  Kai looked down at his feet. "Perhaps you're right, my friend. Will you give me the laser rifles and a knife in a few days, so I can rescue my people?"

  "Yes."

  * * *

  Two days passed. Jack made Kai go over his whole plan. Kai would sneak into the city just after midnight, make his way to the skyscraper that held his people, infiltrate the building and free them. His exit path mattered most to Jack. He knew Kai would make the best time, if he headed east through the orchards to the canyon, then ran south along the rock surface above the canyon, turning southwest once they hit jungle. Jack made it clear to Kai. If Kai failed and got captured again, they wouldn't be making any kind of effort to rescue him. Kai nodded in understanding.

  * * *

  Kai ran along a dirt road that cut through the wheat fields on the way to Amber. Houses stood in the distance, and a sentry was underneath a street lamp smoking something, likely marijuana, a very addictive plant to the Lithor. Kai drew a bead on the Lithor's right eye and squeezed off a bolt from the laser rifle, and the Lithor dropped like a rock. Kai ran on, into the city.

  There was a house with lights on, and he went around it through an alley--he almost stumbled directly onto another sentry. The sentry faced the other way, and Kai shot him in the back of the head. Kai needed to make it to the center of town before sunup. The sky already showed a hint of dawn's early light. He leapt to a rooftop and started running again, leaping from one rooftop to the next, watching below for any signs of life.

  The building that housed his people was right there. Two sentries stood at the main entrance, and he crouched upon his rooftop and shot one through the heart then the other. He ran up to the entrance and looked, and he didn't see any Lithor. He pushed the doors open and stepped inside.

  A lone Lithor sat at a desk. Cursing, he reached underneath for something, a pistol or an alarm or something. Kai fired f
irst; right in the face, and the Lithor slumped over. Kai started searching the body, for he needed a key to work the elevator, and that guard should have one. He found not just one key but a ring of keys, and he took all of them.

  He went to the elevators and pushed the up button. A set of doors slid open. He entered the lift and rummaged through the key ring looking for the right one. He found it, inserted it, and turned it to the right. A voice said, "Access granted." He pushed the button with a glowing seven and prayed they hadn't moved his people to a new floor. Kai expected four guards to be sitting around playing cards on the other side of that elevator door. It would go ping and slide open, and they would reach for their weapons on instinct.

  He undid one of the laser rifles he carried on his back and held it ready in his left hand. The doors slid open, and Kai let loose on full auto with both laser rifles. The Lithor didn't have a chance.

  Kai stepped out of the elevator, turned to the left and sprinted down the hall. He went past pen after pen. Humans were there, on the floor, sleeping. He made it to the last pen. His people slept. He thanked the Heavens that they hadn't been moved. He fumbled with the key chain again, trying to find the right key to open the lock on the pen. The Kilken woke up, and in unison they said, "Kai…"

  "Yes, my friends, it is I."

  None of the keys on the ring worked. Kai passed two pieces of fruit to his comrades. He used a laser rifle and cut through the lock. He handed a laser rifle to each of them. "Let us make haste…"

  "But how, Kai?" Che asked.

  "Sergeant Jack is out there, living in the hills."

  Lok and Che took the laser rifles and ammo belts, stepping out of the pen. They headed towards the elevators with Kai leading the way, and Lok and Che behind him on either side. They shared a look of blind determination on their faces. The elevator waited for them, and they stepped inside and pushed the button for the lobby. As they rode down, Lok asked, "Is the lobby clear?"

  Kai said, "It should be. Get ready in case it's not."

  Che said, "Aye."

  The elevator stopped. The machine went ping, and the doors slid open. The Kilken faced ten Lithor with laser rifles pointed directly at them. Kai hesitated for a split second, considering his options then he opened fire on the Lithor. Lok and Che followed suit. The Lithor hesitated as well, a bit too long, and frankly, Lithor aren't very good shots. The Lithor died.

  The Kilken raced out the front doors, and they met no resistance, but a siren howled overhead. Kai started running due east, towards the orchards. Lok stayed behind him to his left and Che on his right. They ran right down the center of the street. Here and there, a lone Lithor would step out of a building or house just to be gunned down. They didn't meet any kind of organized resistance. After a few kilometers through the city, they reached the orchards. Kai ordered a halt, and he turned and faced the city. The first rays of the sun burned on the horizon. Nobody followed them.

  Lok climbed on Che's shoulders, and then Lok jumped up into one of the trees. Fruit fell all around the Kilken. Both Lok and Che feasted on the food.

  Kai paused for a few moments, just watching the city, listening… Engines started up in the distance, ground vehicles. He shouted, "We have to run, now!" He took off to the east through the orchards. They needed to cover two kilometers before reaching the canyon. The sound of the engines chasing them grew in volume as they raced past the trees.

  They made it to the canyon. Standing on a sheer rock face, they looked down to a raging river about thirty meters below. Kai figured if worst came to worst they would dive into the canyon and hope to land in the river, and even if they landed on rock, he figured they would have a good chance of surviving the fall. The motors screamed in the distance, and Kai paused just to listen--the sound of the ground vehicles definitely grew closer. Kai turned to the south and started running again. Lok and Che followed.

  The rock, jagged and torn, felt good under Kai's feet. The Kilken leapt from flat sheet to flat sheet, faster than running for a Kilken. The ground turned to earth to their right though: a vehicle could keep up with them. Kai didn't want to look back. He didn't want to slow down for anything, but he knew Lok and Che grew tired. Kai skidded to a stop on a flat sheet of rock and turned to look back while Lok and Che panted. In the distance, there were ground vehicles, four-wheel drive all terrain vehicles with rapid fire laser rifles attached to the backs.

  Kai gave them another minute to rest and then started again to the south. After another fifteen minutes or so, the green line of trees and jungle was ahead of them, just a few more kilometers away. The vehicles were practically right behind them, and the Lithor started firing the rapid fire lasers at the Kilken's feet with the obvious intent of crippling and capturing. Kai risked a glance behind him. He stopped counting at a dozen vehicles, too many to turn and fight, but the jungle grew closer by the second. Kai thought to glance to the right and another half dozen vehicles sped ahead of them to cut them off from the jungle. They would be boxed in for sure. Kai knew a forlorn hope that they might make it to the trees before the other vehicles cut them off.

  The half dozen vehicles stopped dead in the path of the Kilken and pointed their lasers at the Kilken escapees. A Lithor on a loudspeaker shouted, "Surrender or die."

  Kai stopped on a sheet of rock, wondering if he could jump to the canyon before being cut down, wondering too if Lok and Che could make it. Kai turned and looked at the vehicles behind him, maybe twenty of them, each with a driver and a Lithor manning a laser. Kai didn't like being boxed in on two sides--they'd be shot in the crossfire.

  That's when Kai heard, "FIRE!" And laser bolts lashed out from the jungle, cutting down Lithor gunners and drivers. Kai opened fire as well. Lok and Che targeted the vehicles to their rear, letting loose on full auto. A few of the Lithor returned fire, ineffectually, although Lok took a blast to the shoulder. Jack and a troop of twenty men and women stepped out of the jungle carrying laser rifles and walked to the battle site to collect munitions.

  Kai smiled and hollered. "Nice to see you, Sergeant Jack."

  "My pleasure, Kai."

  Jack let Sarah finish the wounded Lithor, because she had promised to slash their throats this time. She stared into their eyes as they met with Death. Jack turned to Kai and smiled. "You can call me Jack."

  "In our custom," Kai said. "Your title is your first name. Jack is more like your second name."

  Jack pondered this for a moment.

  "You are Sergeant first," Kai said. "That is the… Familiar."

  Chapter 29

  A.D. 2133

  Back to Orion…

  Steve Creech assembled his crew of ten in the mess hall and addressed them, "We'll be doing a high-g jump back to Orion: eight hours a day at three gravities and sixteen hours a day at one-point-five gravities. It'll shave a few months off our journey."

  One of the privates groaned.

  "The war can't wait," Steve said. "The high-g won't kill us. Spend the time at three gravities in your gel cushions, if it gets uncomfortable.

  Nobody else made to complain, Steve said, "Dismissed."

  Everybody wandered off except Julie, Steve's second in command. Julie looked at Steve and said, "Let's have an early dinner. I need to get the flight plan coded into the computer, and I want to eat first."

  "Ok, we do have the place to ourselves."

  They got trays from the dispensers and sat down at one of the tables. About halfway through the meal Julie looked at Steve and smiled. "What's the future hold? For us, I mean…"

  "I intend to stay in Fleet, until they don't need me anymore."

  "Well… Think about us, Steve. Just think about it…"

  "I will."

  Julie went to her duty station and coded the acceleration pattern into the computer and set course for Orion. They made it home ahead of schedule, and ahead of the other Corvettes on bombing missions. The new Fleet plan called for the Corvettes to go on the bombing missions in triplets. Seven Lithor worlds remained that br
oadcast on FTL, and the current estimates put the number of Dreadnaughts at twenty to thirty. Some Dreadnaughts should be at those remaining seven Lithor worlds.

  Chapter 30

  A.D. 2121

  The beginning of the end…

  Lithorians colonized world after world. Millions of their people died to viral infections that their scientists either overlooked or ignored. The governments and companies doing the colonizing simply looked the other way in typical Lithorian fashion.

  Lithor religious belief held that by eating a diseased corpse, it would grant immunity to the disease.

  Fleet established a science station on planet PL-1047, just inside the border with the Lithor. With a crew of just over six thousand, they could survey a planet in as little as eighteen months. They almost finished the process of finalizing the planet for colonization and considered the planet to be prime: its gravity, rotation, climates, and soil compositions matched Earth's almost exactly. With its rich mineral reserves, it would make a nice addition to the commonwealth.

  Fleet central received an emergency FTL transmission from the science station. "There are Lithor here. They're armed. Their ship carries the logo of CromSys!" Fleet central recognized CromSys as, one, the largest corporation of the Lithors, and two, the largest organized religion of the Lithors. The FTL transmission ended abruptly. The officer who received the transmission immediately relayed it to upper Fleet command. The top brass in Fleet raged. They dispatched a small battlegroup at high accel to PL-1047 to investigate.

  Fleet's top officer, Admiral Mendola, fired up an FTL terminal and contacted CromSys's corporate office. First he explained the situation to a receptionist who transferred him to a holding pattern. Mendola waited. After fifteen minutes he gave up and contacted the corporate office from the front door again. Same receptionist, he made it clear to her that he didn't want to be put on hold, and he wanted to talk to somebody in charge. She transferred him to a middle manager.