A Planet's Search For History

by Burbaugh, MF;

  “Destroy weapons, fall back to line two!”

  We maintained our lines as we walked backwards out of the trenches, never stopping firing. Left and right the 20s and needler cannons exploded.

  When we were twenty yards behind the trenches, I told Lucy, “Fire the trench!”

  I heard her say, “Roger.”

  A huge wall of flames erupted along where we had been. I prayed for the wounded souls that didn’t make it out in time but it was a game of numbers and timing and inches as we backed into another trench. Of my fourteen hundred I doubt more than two-hundred-fifty made it to the second trench alive. Lucy had already sent reinforcements.

  “Line secure, all systems fire!” I screamed, as this series of needler cannons and twenties came alive. The MKs were visibly slowed by the fire wall.

  El said, “All sides at stage two now, keep sticking it to them, only a few billion to go.” She snickered. She was on the command link so only us in the know heard her. To our front the scene repeated, MKs piled higher and higher and inched closer and closer.

  “Air dispersion systems have fully deployed the spray. Our ships are airborne and hitting them from behind. Damn, people, even I didn’t foresee this many.”

  “We’ll manage, if nothing else they will have one big ass bloody nose,” said Tici from the right flank.

  They were affected by the spray. Some seemed confused, others just stood for long periods but we found the spray’s effects were temporary and we had no more. At least a few hundred million of them would be sterile.

  All day and into the night we held at the second stage but a sudden surge by them forced us to the forts, the last line before the cave entrances.

  We abandoned the second trench and pulled behind the final wall—it was a solid ring of needler cannons and a second ring of twenties firing over them. Forts providing key points along it, men and women running their asses off with carts or flat trucks hauling tons of 20 ammo out and wounded back. Organized chaos at its finest.

  I don’t know when—I was punch drunk—I think it was the next day when the first fort fell in spite of our massed efforts to save it. I think two thousand of us were slaughtered there. I vaguely remember the screams as we were in hand to pincer combat. Stab, shoot, stab, slash, I just couldn’t see straight.

  El said, “Final stand, destroy equipment and fall to the caves.”

  I lined up the last ten or twelve people we had and we slowly backed toward the caves—somehow a group of MKs had slipped behind us from one of the flanks. I remember turning to shoot them when I saw a pincer. I reflexively threw my hand and rifle up and it was lights out.

  ~~~

  I had visions of lights swinging above me, movement but not mine, hurting. I was being dragged across the ground. I vaguely remember someone saying, “Shit!” and others saying, “We’re holding, they won’t get through.”

  I felt time had passed, how much I couldn’t say, but I was in Honor Central. I was on a metal table and someone said, “You’ll be fine, sir.”

  I kept falling in and out of consciousness. Four men and a woman stood over me, no, it was Lucy. “No choice,” someone said.

  “Do it then,” Lucy said.

  She saw me awake, and said, “Sorry Eldon, the arm has got to go.” I saw a needle and that was all.

  The ceiling was the first thing to be seen clearly. Flat white and bright neon lighting. I heard beeping then I saw a face, a young woman in green. “Ah, Commander Eldon. Welcome back to the living. How do you feel, sir?”

  “Like shit. Massive headache. Where am I and what happened?”

  “Wait a few minutes. Loka and Tici are on the way.”

  When I saw Loka it was clear she had been crying. She came up and gave me a kiss, tears running down her face. I saw Tici limping in with a crutch.

  “Children?” I asked.

  “Fine, Eldon. They want to meet their father.”

  “Damn, what happened? We were ambushed from behind.”

  Tici came forward. “We held at the entrance. You were caught near it. Sorry Eldon, you lost your right arm. A young Lieutenant hauled you back into the cave. He lost most of a leg but refused to let anyone touch you until he pulled you inside. Made some comment about conquering fear.”

  I lifted my right arm—it felt odd but was there. “It feels funny but its fine,” I said.

  “No Eldon, it is a Lucy special. Feel it, it’s metal like her,” Loka said, and started crying again.

  I placed it against my face. Okay, cold and no sense of touching me from it.

  “Loka, it’s okay. How is the battle going?”

  Tici said, “Thanks to Garth we won.”

  “Garth?”

  “He and his choppers were flying run after run from the gate and the two supply dumps we had set up. The same MKs came in behind you got control of a 20 and needler cannon before they were destroyed. How that Lieutenant got you through all that fire alone is a mystery to everyone. The forts and line collapsed suddenly. El was killed with her staff. I was trying to get to her. She was using her ceremonial sword to stab them, and a pistol to shoot them—then she was dead, no head.” He clearly was in pain at the thought.

  “We all pulled into the caves but the MKs opened up on an entrance with the 20 and needler cannon. It was a slug-fest for a while. From what I was told Garth saw it but was out of ammo. He crashed his chopper into them and probably saved the complex from being breached.”

  Loka took over, “They kept you alive for four days in the cave—they had to burn your arm off to stop the bleeding. You almost didn’t come back to me, Eldon.”

  Tici said, “We beat them back, they soon abandoned the planet. Still a few million strong but we slaughtered hundreds of millions of them. Did Lucy tell you about the spray?”

  “Sure, it would saturate the atmosphere and sterilize all of them on the ground.”

  “Millions left. She didn’t tell anyone, to ensure the MKs couldn’t find out by chance. Eldon, any other MKs, any of them that they come in contact with, will slowly become sterile too. It is a virus, any kids they have will be sterile. Depending on how long before they realize it is happening we could effectively eliminate half of all they have in our galaxy.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “None of us did. Like she said, she couldn’t take a chance,” Loka said.

  “The planet, it is safe now?”

  “Maybe, they are worried about plagues. So many dead MK bodies. We’ve been burning them non-stop but it may take months to get them all. Lucy is designing bio filters for the caves and issuing suits. They may have to stay underground a few months but they will survive.

  “Us?”

  Tici said, “As expected, 62% died and 20% are some kind of walking wounded. Like you and I.”

  “I’m mad at you for that, Eldon, you said El expected light causalities.”

  “You had a baby to worry about.”

  “My heart is big enough to worry about you too!”

  I sat up slowly, head pounding. “Damn, how long have I been out?”

  “Five weeks heavily sedated,” Lucy said, as she walked in. “I needed minimum movement as your nerves knitted to your new synaptic devices and muscles blended with metal. How does it feel?”

  “Strange but functional.”

  “Good, your fingertips will take a few days more to develop tactility and feelings. Until then don’t hold Eldon Junior in that arm.”

  Loka held my real hand, and said, “Reta lost both her husband and one wife after they came to fight at the gate entrance.”

  Tici said, “We lost all the choppers and both ships but we gained a few thousand they left behind. As soon as we recover we can take it to them.”

  “No Tici, afraid not, not yet. I want to monitor the spread of the virus for a few years and modify all the ships to include needler cannon systems and integrated fire control systems. We’ll make other stands down the road, but you will not be part of it. I need you and Eldon
and Loka and the others to start rebuilding worlds, having children, training next generation fighters. I guess they call it being retired.”

  “I want to kill MKs!” Tici said.

  “You can’t bring El back. Go find a young lady or two and make babies, Tici, you may find that almost as much fun as killing MKs,” Lucy said.

  “Reta will be looking for a virile man once her mourning is over. She will add another wife or two,” Loka said, and smiled.

  “I…you, dang women!” He turned and limped out as Lucy and Loka smiled.

  “He loved El very much,” I said.

  “Yes, but she was too old for children. He isn’t and it is what we need now,” Lucy said. “Eldon, this war will go on for a few hundred years. We can get the upper hand now. I’m training a crew, we will start linking in new Honor Centrals and expanding the grid once more. The Klag are smart enough, I’ll set up a full center there and they can start expanding as well. We will destroy the MKs were we find them and we will bring more people into the system as we locate them. Think about it, we have mixed many cultures and different planets, all with the same desire: to kill MKs. We can and will win eventually.”