Serpents and Vipers

by Donald Nicklas

  They were desperate to get back into space and leave the old world behind. Sly knew they had made a mistake keeping the hatchery on the home world, when their life was in space. None of her kind could have envisioned this level of betrayal by one of the clans. She tried to hide it from her human friends, but there was an enormous sadness coming over Sly as she witnessed the dissolution of her civilization and the beginning, of the end, of her kind. The serpents were millions of years older than the humans were, yet they had never evolved the versatility of that alien race. Humans had within themselves a spark that allowed them to overcome any obstacles. The survival of the Romani and their development into a great civilization was a case in point. They had been turned out by their kind and left to die in space. Now they were more powerful than most of those who turned them out. Sly admired their abilities and swore that, if she gets back to them, she will redouble her efforts to throw the serpent’s lot in with the humans. As Sly watched, Centurion Marshal stood near the entrance, giving orders that were translated by a devoted group of runners to the front. He and the Slones had worked tirelessly to save Sly and her people, along with the hatchery. She hoped her other friends had made it through. She was not sure if the humans would help them, but she wanted Tavia to be safe. In her own way, Sly loved Tavia. The only human she had ever felt that way about. She only wished the three who stayed behind had left as well. Time was running out and the mountain’s fall could only be postponed, but not prevented. If help did not come soon, the hatchery would be their tomb.

  Sly’s thoughts were interrupted by a commotion at the gate. A young serpent came running over to Sly and reported that the enemy had withdrawn outside the mountain. This was unexpected. Sly thought they would just keep attacking until they broke through. They kept bringing more of their clan across from the mainland. By now, Sly’s forces must be outnumbered a hundred to one. There was much trumpeting and barking from the serpents on the front lines. Some of them wanted to rush forward, but the centurion ordered them to hold positions. To their credit, their training held and so did the line. The command group’s attention now turned to the monitors and the area in front of the blast doors was projected into the air above the room. The cratered plaza was empty, but movement was visible in the distance. There was much activity in the jungle. Some of the serpent commanders requested permission to reload the missile tubes, but Centurion Marshal had a better idea. Since to replace the tubes would require removing the mines placed in the missile positions, he told the serpent engineers to bring the missile tubes down and place them at each opening that needed to be defended as the enemy drove them towards the hatchery.

  Christopher watched the monitor and they turned to Sly and asked, “What do you think they’re up to?”

  “Sss. Captain Slone, I cannot tell what they are planning. Serpents are resourceful, but not the inventors that humans are. They are slow to adapt, but they will come back with a plan.”

  “Guess we’ll have to wait to see what that plan is,” Alaya chimed in. They did not have long to wait, but there had been time to place four missile launchers in the large control room, all aimed at the corridor. If they were overrun, they would fire the missiles to cover their retreat.

  There was movement on the monitors. Suddenly a group of six vipers broke clear of the jungle and ran at full speed towards the partially opened blast doors. They were all carrying something that could not be identified. As they reached the opening of the door, the defenders opened fire from the third row with their railguns. Two of the attackers dropped and what they were holding fell to the ground, the remaining four threw their load into the gap made by the opened blast doors. They then ran back to the jungle, carrying one of their fallen friends who must have still been alive.

  “What did they throw in?” Centurion Marshal asked one of his command staff. A runner was sent to the front and came back immediately to report to the translators.

  “Sss. It is missile fuel, Centurion,” one of the serpent commanders reported.

  Marshal shouted to the Slones, whose position with Sly was well back in the cavern. “They threw in missile fuel.”

  He did not have to say it; the odor was beginning to permeate into the cavern. As they were determining what was tossed in, another group of six broke from the jungle and ran to the doors. Once again, the gunners, who had moved to the front of the line, managed to take down three. Nevertheless, three threw their loads in and also picked up a few of the dropped loads and threw them in. they were contained in breakable vessels that spilled their contents when they hit the hard floor. The corridor was starting to fill with fumes and they were working their way back into the cave. Marshal ordered the lines to move back and out of the corridor, since there was no mass attack. He wished the serpents had rear blast doors to the corridor, since it was becoming evident, they wanted an explosive atmosphere in the cave.

  Christopher turned to Sly, “Sly, can we increase the ventilation to get rid of some of these fumes?”

  Sly nodded and gave an order. The Slones could hear loud fans begin to pull the volatile air out of the cavern, but the entrance was too concentrated with fumes to clear. Suddenly the monitor techs let out a loud whistle of alarm. All eyes moved to the monitor in time to see three surface-to-air missiles streaking from the jungle in the direction of the blast doors. Two of the missiles impacted on the doors. One away from the opening had no effect, the second one hit the edge of the opening and its blast went in and ignited the volatile atmosphere in the corridor, which acted to contain the flames and funnel them like a flamethrower into the cavern beyond. Several hundred defenders standing behind the corridor were incinerated and many others were burned. Just before this detonation, the third missile managed to enter the opening without hitting the doors and flew straight into the cave. Everyone in its path threw themselves on the floor and the missile detonated when it hit the rear of the wall. This broke lose a considerable amount of rock, which fell to the ground. Fortunately, all could get out of the way of the rock fall. The fire was still coming out of the corridor like a blast furnace. The noise of the fire was so great that the Slones had to shout over it.

  “Sly, tell your engineers to shut down the ventilation fans or we will turn the mountain into a blast furnace.”

  Sly gave the command and the whine of the fans dropped back down to the normal, quiet operation of the ventilation. The Slones looked around at the carnage. The fire was still burning in the corridor but no longer extending into the cavern. The fire would keep the enemy out for a while. The area around the corridor was littered with burned bodies. They were not the ones Alaya pitied. Many serpents were badly burned, but still alive, and they were trying to crawl away from the fire. Those who could do so, tried to help the wounded move away, but Alaya could see that a large number of those still alive had limbs and other body areas burned beyond human repair. She only hoped the serpent metabolism could heal them better than humans. As Alaya watched, the severely wounded were given railguns, rather than helped to safety. She turned to Sly, “Why are they giving the wounded railguns?”

  “Sss. They will not survive and will hold back the Mountain Clan as long as they can.”

  Alaya recalled how the wounded resistance fighters on New Wales had sacrificed themselves to protect those who could get away. Perhaps serpents and humans were more alike than she thought.

  “Sss. We will fall back to the next defense. We have locked all of the terminals here.”

  Centurion Marshal gave the order for his remaining defenders to fall back to the first inner defensive position. This was situated at the rear entrance to the control cavern and lead into the first layer of the volcano. The opening was an old lava tube that broadened out to a large, internal cavern with another lava tube at its rear leading deeper into the mountain. The tube had a 45 degree bend in the middle of its 50 meter length. The tube itself was only large enough for eight serpents to fit abreast and the ceiling was too low to allow for leaping. After everyone, excep
t the severely wounded were through the tube, Marshal set his remaining troops in lines ten meters behind the bend. This meant they would be invisible to the attackers until they rounded the bend and prevented heavy weapons from firing on them. The centurion had determined this to be a very strong position and expected it to hold out indefinitely, as long as his lines would hold. The fire must have abated by the time the defenders were set up, since they soon heard the unmistakable sounds of railgun fire. The guns made a sound like a knife being drawn across a whetstone. The firing did not last long. As it turned out, it was the fire, started by the attackers, which did more to slow them down. Even from his position at the end of the ranks crowded into the lava tube, Centurion Marshal could hear the enemy smashing terminals and other equipment. It was odd they took the time to destroy equipment, but he was sure they had no idea that everything was duplicated and already manned just outside the hatchery room. It is where they would make their last stand if it came to that. It was time to fire the missiles while they still could. Marshal gave the order and his techs pushed the remote firing mechanism. They could hear the missiles fire and the detonation within the mountain caused some of the defenders to fall down from the pressure. They could hear the screams of agony and hoped it was the enemy and not the remaining wounded.

  Marshal had lost two of his serpent field commanders in the corridor battle, but the troops stationed at the first fallback position filled the ranks and their commanders took the vacant spots. The centurion marveled at how easily the serpents sprang in to fill gaps, without regard for personal safety. Everything they did was for the good of the group. The more contact he had with them, the more he could see they were not that different from Romani inside that reptilian exterior.

  After a while, the noise outside the lava tube died down and they could hear serpent feet running towards the tube. The vipers were finally ready for the next attack. The enemy raced around the corner, running right into the serpent shield wall. At first, it looked like a repeat of the battle in the corridor, but this one was different. The enemy pushed some makeshift barriers ahead of them and formed a barricaded front line. They were learning. They had also fashioned long spears from some steel poles to which they attached the short spears they recovered from the dead defenders. The Romani admired the ingenuity of the enemy. The battle continued for a while with minimal injuries on both sides. Finally, the vipers withdrew and that ended the first day of defending the mountain. The defense was costly. Of the thousand defenders Centurion Marshal started with, just over half were still alive, but now reinforced by those from the first fallback position. Enemy losses were even higher numerically, but there were a lot more of them than defenders. In addition, the enemy had vast reserves to pull from which the defenders did not. Marshal put his forces to work building a barricade across the width of the lava tube. They found one of the Mountain Clan still alive in the pile of bodies at the beginning of the lava tube. They pulled the wounded viper back behind the lines and started to minister to her. The Romani were struck with how carefully they treated the enemy and how the enemy responded to the treatment. The viper relaxed and did not attempt to fight her captors. Christopher pointed this out to Sly and asked why they were so gracious to one who wanted to destroy their hatchery.

  “Sss. It is complicated, my friends,” Sly started and, as usual, the humans were mesmerized by her speech. “We do not hate the Mountain Clan, they are our blood also. They feel they have no choice in what they do.”

  The Romani looked puzzled at that last statement. Alaya was the first to seek clarification. “Why would they think any of this was necessary?”

  “Sss. The Romani think that invisible ships make us powerful. If that were true, serpents would not have given the Romani the ability. We are weak and we fear the humans. Our time is ending on our world and it will affect our space. What do the Romani see when they look on our world?”

  Christopher was the first to respond, “I see lush jungles and blue oceans.”

  Sly had a tear in her eye, “Our ancestors tell us it was once a world of all climates and had jungles, deserts and forests. It was once home to many creatures, not just serpents. However, they thought it would be better if the whole planet were one great jungle. Our Primary Jungle, we called it.” More tears were in Sly’s eyes now. “But we destroyed all of the other life that did not fit into the jungle. For millennia, nothing mattered, but in time, we could see that certain critical elements were missing from our food chain. Since then we have been slowly dying for lack of those elements. We looked throughout our part of the galaxy and could not find what we needed. There are few Nova Romae-like planets in space. Once members of my clan moved to Nova Romae, we became re-invigorated. The Romani world has all we need and we do not want to leave it. This would not be a problem if we would have thought to move our hatchery there, rather than start a new one.”

  The Slones saw the problem. The serpents had ruined their planet in an attempt to make it better. Humans had been doing that on earth before the final destruction. If only they could negotiate with the vipers, they could possibly find a peaceful solution. Christopher was still not sure how the one problem could lead to the present circumstance. It looked like the battle was over for the day. The serpent sun was setting outside and the external cameras showed the vipers had retreated into the jungle. A drone flown into the large part of the cavern showed a sizable guard troop making sure no one could exit the mountain. Centurion Marshal kept a small force stationed behind the barricade the enemy placed in the lava tube. Ironically, this barrier worked just as well to keep the enemy out as to keep the defenders in.

  Alaya watched the Centurion walking around, checking the troops and conferring with the commanders. He was tireless when it came to combat situations. In time, he worked his way to the back of the lava tube expansion the serpents were in. this was their way out if the position was overrun and he immediately saw a problem. He walked through the tube and saw that it twisted a few times before he came out the other end. It was gratifying that the serpents at that end immediately challenged him as they were trained to do. He gave the designated response and filled in the commanders there about what had been going on that day. Each combat group was isolated from the others by the lava tubes between the chambers, leading to the hatchery. The ambient temperature also increased as they neared the center of the volcano. Marshal headed back to the first lava cave and went over to the Slones, who were with Sly discussing the problem on the planet. Christopher could see the centurion looked troubled.

  “Come and join us, Bill” Alaya said to him.

  Centurion William Marshal came over and said, “I think we have a problem. If this chamber is overrun, there is no way we can retreat this many fighters rapidly through the rear lava tube.”

  No one questioned the centurion’s analysis. Alaya was the first to speak, “What do you suggest we do then?”

  Marshal gave this some thought. “I think we should keep a small force at the barricade to cover our plans. Most of the rest of the force should fall back to the next position. The lava tube leading away from that one is much larger. I can keep a hundred fighters and those from the barricade to cover the exit. This will allow us to do a more controlled fallback. They will eventually figure out how to turn this position and then we’ll be trapped here by the smaller exit tube.”

  The Slones and Sly agreed with the assessment. Before the centurion left to issue the withdrawal orders, Sly spoke to him. “Sss. Centurion, we do not know what fate will befall us, but I want to thank you from all serpents. You have been a true friend and ally of the serpents and all praise your fighting abilities and know of your sacrifices, since this is not your fight. Sly loves the Slones and now Sly loves you and all Romani as well. All Romani now part of Sea Clan.”

  “For all the Romani, I thank you. I will do all I can to save us, but time is running out. The next position will be our third fall back. There are only two more with the last one being the hatchery. Mos
t of us will not live to see more of your sunrises. I will get the troops ready to pull back.” Centurion Marshal then went over to his group commanders and told them of the repositioning. There were no lack of volunteers to form the rear guard, but Marshal wanted to limit the size of those at risk. He sent 50 to relieve those at the barricade and rotated the rest to the next position. He kept the hundred back who formed his personal century. He looked at them as his troops and they were proud to serve under him. The serpents had formed a great respect for the Romani officer and for what he was doing to help them.

  The night was slightly advanced when all was done. Sly and the Slones moved to the next position and the one hundred and fifty rear guard serpents were curled up and sleeping at their posts. Sleeping up against the wall at the end of the barricaded lava tube was the Romani centurion, sleeping as if he had no care in the world. Any observer would have thought him a serpent in human form. Two guards were awake at the barricade and the night passed quietly until just before dawn. A sharp whistle came from the lava tube and suddenly all of the rear guard serpents were awake and watchful. Marshal ran into the tube to see what the alarm signified. Even before he reached the guards in the tunnel, he could hear the sounds of high-pitched machinery. Evidently, the vipers had been at work again overnight. Serpent night vision was perfect, but humans needed help. Marshal dropped the visor of his helmet and turned on the night vision mode. Just as he did this and moved to the barrier, he could see a machine turning the corner and being pushed by several vipers. The machine was ingenious for its purpose and a bit diabolical. It consisted of four, large, circular saw blades spinning at high speed two were vertical, one above the other and two were horizontal, forming a ‘+’ that filled almost the entire lava tube. The design left only small openings past the blades and it would be suicide to try to get past them. Vipers could be seen pushing the machine forward. As soon as the machine rounded the curve in the tube, the serpent males fired into it with their railguns, but the engines were heavily armored. The vipers pushing it were not as lucky. The rail shot was hitting them and wounding some. When the saw blades reached the barricade, they cut through and shattered it. Centurion Marshal ordered the serpents to retreat and join the rear guard. They ran out of the tube and joined the other unit, while Marshal moved to the side of the tube opening where the machine would exit. As the blades came out, he pulled a grenade from his bandolier. As soon as the drive mechanism pushed through the tube opening, he pulled the pin and placed the grenade next to the engines. He then ran to his rear guard troops and was only half way across the small cave when the grenade went off. The explosion disrupted the drive shaft, which moved slightly out of alignment. The torque of the drive motors then snapped the drive shaft and pulled the engine off its alignment. This resulted in disconnection of the blades as they were flung in four random directions. They did not have the force to reach the serpent troops, but one of them managed to make it to where the centurion was running. It hit him square in the right hip just as he turned to look at the effect of the grenade. The force was partially dissipated by his armor but enough kinetic energy passed through to fracture the neck of the femur and drop him in his tracks. He could no longer get up so he began to drag himself farther. Several of his troops ran to him and quickly pulled him to safety in the lava pipe leading to the next chamber.