As soon as the choppers were out of sight they attacked again, wave after wave. Again the 20s mowed them down, but again they filled in and kept coming.
People kept running up to Loka and I giving reports and we acknowledged them, but it was almost an auto response. I knew we were running out of ammo and grenades and we no longer had replacements for the walls. We needed to hold on until the choppers returned one more time.
With the reduction in firepower and numbers on the walls the MKs were all over us and we moved to using bayonets as MK heads presented themselves. Loka and I had been grabbing grenades from now empty firing points and between reloads were stabbing and cussing and yelling. I was so tired.
I heard Tici say, “North wall, help!”
I told Loka to stay and several of us ran to help. The MKs had a big tractor looking thing they were bringing up. “Shit,” I think I said.
I grabbed a handful of 20 rounds, almost the last, a spill pack of ten. I jumped on the wall and threw off the lid. As I dumped them in I felt pain on my head, but I finished and jumped down. “Don’t miss!” I told Tici.
He took the gun control, lined up the sight and squeezed off a short burst, about six rounds of the ten. The tractor thing disintegrated, as in big boom. It was packed with explosives.
Tici fired off the last of the 20mm rounds into a crowd of MKs that gathered to see what was going to happen. Soon they retreated to regroup and we redistributed our remaining people along the walls. I watched as the MKs spread out all the way around the fort, getting ready for another push. I knew in my soul we couldn’t hold too many more pushes.
“Here they come!” Tici yelled from the north wall.
I had camped next to Loka—if it was the end, I wanted to be with her. “I love you dear,” I heard me say.
“I know, now quit the mushy stuff and let’s kick some ass.” She smiled as I took the needler off safe.
They hit again and again. Several times we had to fire inside the fort to an opposite wall that was getting overrun. We were failing, we were losing, but they were paying a huge cost for the privilege of killing us.
“Duck!” I screamed, as the pincer snapped shut just above Loka’s head, bringing me out of my dream state. I stabbed the bayonet into the under area as we were taught, just between the eyes, it screamed in their weird way as my wife fired at it point blank. We each grabbed another grenade and threw it over the wall; we heard the screams as they went off. Then silence—as they came, they were gone. I didn’t think we could last another charge. I checked to ensure Loka was not injured. Runners came by and resupplied us with ammo and the last of the grenades. Finally we had gotten a break in the fighting.
We came looking to find our history, not make it. I stood at the battlements, needler rifle in hand, six grenades lined neatly up along the inside shelf and waited, slowly scanning the horizon for their next attack.
We lost 83 in the last couple attacks. Compiled reports said fourteen were eaten alive, pulled over the walls and pulled apart as we watched, the rest had body parts snipped off, usually the head, or at the waist. If Lucy didn’t get back before dark, we would all be dead. As my mind and eyes unfocused I found I again was dead tired. We’d been at it for twenty-eight hours straight counting the planning and fort setup. We had less than two dozen of us left alive. I didn’t see Tici anymore. I felt hollow, like I didn’t care, as a young soldier said she was scared and asked what to do.
“Fight, we always fight. We make them pay for the honor of killing us. Look at them, they are eating their own wounded just like we thought. Maybe they will get full and go home to sleep.” I snickered at her as I wished I could do that.
At first I thought I was imagining it then I knew I heard it. Loka was yelling, “They are coming, they’re back!” It was the choppers, the blessed or damned choppers. As they got close Lucy said over the earpiece, “Sorry we are late, had a few dozen MKs we had to take out to get reloaded. They are closing in from all over. Have everyone get down on the floor and keep your heads down. I couldn’t see her chopper, just barely heard it above us.
“Everyone down on the floor NOW!” I screamed, and we jumped down off the wall.
“Bomb away, bomb away, bomb away, and bomb away,” Lucy said. I saw a series of flashes—even with my eyes closed tight it seemed like a bright light came on. Then we felt the fort rock to the blasts from all sides. My ears hurt.
“Okay, everyone outside that can move, bring the wounded, we ain’t commin’ back,” Garth said.
As I looked up I could see four well-placed mushroom clouds, one on all four sides of the fort half a mile away. Lucy jumped down and carried a small box. She set it in the middle of the fort floor as the last of us left. “Little present for them.”
We beat feet with the choppers as we went straight to the gate—it was surrounded with 20s and two-hundred troops. As we landed the wounded went first, then the choppers. The 20s were dismounted and the troops withdrew into the door. The last I saw was an ice-block and the darkness of the door as it closed.
I found out the pain I’d felt when I reloaded the 20 was a sniper bullet that caught my neck. I’d been bleeding inside my armor vest, it had been hidden by the collar and I hadn’t realized it. Probably why I was so tired. I guess I passed out.
I opened my eyes and saw a little girl staring at me. She had yellow skin, black pools for eyes that were slanted, and long black hair. Maybe six or seven. I think I groaned as she took off yelling something. I soon saw Loka and eventually Lucy was there too.
“Bit of a scare, love,” Loka said. “Should have told someone you were wounded instead of keeping it a dark secret.”
I was handed a glass of water by Lucy. “Drink it all, has a bit of pain killer in it,” Lucy said.
I sat up, I was on a bed. As I looked around there were others there as well. I focused as I remembered the fight, the wounded, the smell of death. As I finished the water I found I was bandaged around the neck and I told them, “I didn’t know. With the body armor on I thought it was just sweat.”
“Well, as coated as the floors were with blood I never would have seen it either,” Loka said.
“That strange girl, who?” I asked.
“I call her Myla. We inherited several from the village by the gate when we took the first group back,” Lucy said. “They call themselves the Hum-Li. I think it means peaceful ones.”
El showed up, looked me over and decided I was alive. “You see what happened to Tici, Eldon?”
“No ma’am, he was fighting the desperate fight like we were, then I noticed he was gone. Sorry, I didn’t see, we had our hands full.”
“Maybe it’s better no one saw it. For me anyway.” She sighed. “I authorized the children. When our first group came back and we set up skirmish while we rearmed the choppers, a man and a woman showed up at the edge. They never said a word. Each held a hand-sickle but her pleading eyes left no doubt. They wanted us to take their two girls. I nodded and he smiled then hugged me and they kissed the girls and walked back to that first village. They knew death was coming.”
Lucy said, “We soon had almost twenty—others did exactly the same thing, came, dropped them off and left, all without a word. Thirteen girls, three to twelve, and the rest boys around the same ages. What could we do?
“As we carried out the final withdrawal we left loaded rifles behind, with bayonets fixed. Wouldn’t help them much, except in taking a bigger toll and easing the heart. They were getting them as we put up the gate-shield.”
“How many we lose?” I finally asked.
Loka said, “Hundred-three from direct action at the fort and another twenty-six, from shock and trauma and blood-loss.”
“But the mission, as to its original purpose, is a success. I have six captive MKs for study,” Lucy said, almost a human smile now. “We already shipped four to Lord P for study and I have two here. I have surgically implanted bombs in them. If they get away from our transmitters, boom!”
&nb
sp; “Some of Seacodent’s old supporters are screaming doomsday all over. Lucky us, few pay any heed now that the boogie monster has been seen and they know it can be killed,” El said.
“Damn, how long have I been out?”
“Just two days. We feel time is an enemy as MKs have now been positively identified on three of the seventeen planets we have links too.
I was up and about as I realized three weeks have slipped by. We lost three more from their wounds and I was almost back to normal. Lucy had been feeding the MKs rodents and lizards gathered by Lord P from below. He also sent up some chickens but I have to admit, the soup we made was wonderful.
Two of Lord P’s MKs died. From what I read of the report they were basically doing autopsies while they were still alive. True, they are bugs, still…
I mentioned it to El and Loka, and both said the same thing in different ways. The best way to find out how to kill something is to see what kills it. Nothing new had been learned.
I saw the bugs up close. I am sure they appeared just as ugly to me as I did to them. They chittered almost non-stop. I noticed Lucy had surgically removed their big pincer arms. She stood behind me as I watched them and I jumped through my skin when she said, “I have no idea how they talk. The chitters are never the same. I ran test after test, nothing matches.”
Loka came up. “We tried all our viruses and bacteria, nothing works. These bastards are immune to almost everything.”
“Well, they are from a different galaxy—either they would be susceptible to almost everything or almost nothing. I think we need to work on finding that ‘almost that they aren’t’, and soon,” I told them.
El looked at me a few seconds, then nodded. “I see why Lord P likes you two.” She turned and walked off.
I glanced at Loka who shrugged. “I think she was in love with Tici, fearless, young, virile and now, dead. Just a feeling. But she means your curiosity. The way you look at things a bit different than others. Well, enough emotional garbage. I know they communicate somehow, it has to be those chitters.”
Loka said we were going to get some food, be back soon. Lucy dismissed her with a wave of the hand as Myla ran over from a corner where she sat in a small chair. I hadn’t even seen her. She took Loka’s hand and said, “Food?”
We went to the mess hall and ate well. The girl had a big smile as she wolfed down her food. I guess, even on a good day they had little to eat where she was from, or it was different. She talked to Loka like she was an MK, almost non-stop chittering, yet we had no idea what she said, but Loka smiled at her.
Then the girl did something silly that caught my attention. She kept chattering and pointing to her head then to Loka’s and laughing. Loka said, “Yes, wish we could speak that way too.”
I got on the earpiece. “Lucy! Mental telepathy! I bet they use it to communicate.”
“Hmmm, didn’t test that, I will see. I can measure most frequencies. Thanks,” she said.
“Thank Myla, not me.”
Later El said they were going to send all the children down to the capital for proper adoption procedures. Lucy had recorded their language and worked through it enough to start to talk to them, and most, except Myla, were willing to go. She wanted to stay with aunties Lucy and Loka. Damn, it was going to be hard.
~~~
Three days, it was only three days before hell erupted in Castle Gods-Cut. Loka and I were carrying out equipment maintenance by the choppers when the call came from El. “All officers to the mess hall—now damn it!”
We beat feet to it along with the rest. It was full. “I won’t pull bullshit on you. Lucy was going to tell you but I think it is my job. We now know exactly how they can zoom in on food. People, listen, we have an impossible task ahead. We must, absolutely must, evacuate our entire planet, and do it now, today. I haven’t even told Lord P yet. How do we get seven-hundred eighty-three million people off a planet in the shortest time?”
It floored me, I assure you. The buzz started and wasn’t immediately quieted by El as it sank in.
“What happened?” Col Garth asked.
“Fucking MKs happened, what do you think happened?” She was almost yelling.
“El, calm down please? We all know that, but why do we have to evacuate our planet?” I asked.
She apologized and told Lucy to fill us in.
“I ran tests, I know how they communicate with each other. I found how they zero in on food so fast too. They are freaking telepathic, not only that, strong ones. Two or three can project a combined thought wave to…anywhere!”
“You saying they are telling others where we are at?” someone in the back asked.
“Already told. The second we took them to Lord P they were blasting away. Probably are trying from in here too, but they can’t. I checked that, and with certainty they can’t. The warpfield generator cuts them off totally. They don’t know about Honor Gate Central, but they do know about Olgreender, I am afraid.”
“How long we got then?” It was Col Garth again, asking the right questions.
“How fast is thought? However long it takes or took to get to the closest place they are and for them to find a way to transport to here is exactly how long we have. And that clock started ticking almost a month ago,” El said.
“Damn,” Loka said.
“Fits,” I whispered to her.
“Plan in effect now—break up, check all the remaining doors, find a planet we can live on and be as far away from them as we can get. Lucy needs night star charts for the remaining ones. I want all the rest checked in not less than 24 hours. We meet again then. Time has started people. MOVE!” El left no doubt what was the priority.
Soon the place was empty but for us, and Tally, and El, with Lucy.
“Too cocky, we were too damn cocky. We should have waited until we knew more about them before we sent them to Lord P. It was my decision and I may have doomed our people to a horrible death.” El was almost ready to cry. I saw her emotions were raw and on edge since Tici was lost—this was almost the breaking point. I felt I had to say something.
“No El, you did exactly what we would have done. All our decisions were sound and based on what we knew. Lucy will tell you, she does billions of calculations a second and it didn’t cross her mind as being a danger either. The important thing is we know now what must be done, and we need to start this second to focus on saving what and who we can. People first, then anything else we have time for. I need to talk to Lord P. I will break the news to him if you want, but we can’t wait a second, or even twenty-four hours to start working on it.”
“I am in charge, I will fill in Lord P. Tell Garth to start hauling people up…anyone wants to come from anyplace. Lucy, how many can we feed off the dehydrated supplies stored here?” El asked.
“Why? The machines can make enough to support hundreds of thousands,” Lucy said.
“No, we are moving to one of these damn doorways and we have nothing in place for at least a year. Please just answer.”
“We have two-million one-hundred-fifty thousand meals, give or take a few hundred. They can be stretched and supplemented to near three-hundred thousand, but I see what you want. I’ll get all the molecular compilers on it.”
“Lucy, our existence depends on the answer. Are you positive they can’t find this place through the generator thing?” El asked.
“Yes, positive, but I see what you’re worried about. If we can get everyone moved in time I’ll leave it to you and Lord P and Eldon and Loka to decide if we shut it down or not.
“If anyone should have thought of mental telepathy, it should have been me. I’m sorry. Oh, there are several hundred-million of those meals additionally stored in the Earth complex, it was designed to be a nuclear war survival shelter, if we have time. They really were made to last forever.” Lucy had her head down when she finished.
“Thanks Lucy, it will all be about time then. Everyone clear out, I have some bad news to tell Lord P and our people below and I do
n’t want anyone here but Lucy when I do it.”
“Umm, if we are going to use the choppers to move people tell Lord P to make permanent boxes from fort slabs, and add chairs, lots of them, then they drop off the filled containers of people like freight and pick up the empty ones. They know the weight limits. Only need to touch down for crew change, maintenance, and fuel. Just an idea,” I told her.
“Excellent idea,” El said.
“It will still take forever,” Loka said.
Lucy said, “No, only fifteen point five million trips at forty-five people per trip.” Though she snickered it was a sad one.
It was several hours before I had my next brainstorm as I watched Myla. Two actually.
“Umm, Lucy, want to know something I find interesting?” I asked.
“We are busy, Eldon, Lord P is quite upset,” El replied.
“Umm, Lucy, want to know something I find interesting?” I asked it again more for spite than dramatics.
“What is it, Eldon?” she finally said, like a busy worker being interrupted by a kid asking dumb questions.
“Myla is a telepath—not only that, it was she who gave me the idea about it, and she gave me the idea of the boxes, and she just gave me the idea of a ruse to try on the MKs. Just thought I’d pass on that I found it interesting.”
I waited for the explosion I knew would come. Loka half-smiled.
“What the hell are you talking about?” El yelled.
“I am sitting here watching her now and she is smiling. She knows exactly what we are saying and doing. I think it was why they never talked when they dropped the children off. Though they are capable of speech.”
I didn’t know El could move that fast as she came crashing into our apartment on the run. We’d left the door open for them. I ran a couple tests on Myla to ensure I knew what I was saying before I pointed it all out.
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