Invasion of Kzarch (4 page)

“Sir, I agree we should attempt to make contact with them,
if
they exist, and
if
we can find them. But I feel that our only realistic course of action is to wait for reinforcements to arrive. A single platoon is
hardly
enough to take on an army.”

The lieutenant held down a flicker of annoyance at being argued with. He had already told them he intended to continue pursuing offensive operations as originally planned. But he had to admit the sergeant made a fair point.

“I don’t quite agree,” he said mildly. “Yes, the odds are bad, on the face of it. But they won’t have much battlesuits, if any at all. Nor do they having our training. Along with the Kzarchian forces-”

“It
still
isn’t enough.” Sergeant Lovel’s tone was still respectful, but getting less.

“Aw, common, Georgeh, it ain’t that bad.”

“Kate, it
is
that bad.”

“They only have about a regiment, not an army,” pointed out Sergeant Abe Von Hervitz.

“A regiment’s quite bad enough!” This was from the platoon’s q-squad’s sergeant, Martin Kanova.

“I think that we need to find out more, about what’s going on,” opined the scout sergeant.

Frank let the argument rage for several more minutes, then asked McKain, who had been fairly silent so far, “What do you think, McKain?”

The rest of the sergeants fell silent, all turning to McKain, suddenly curious themselves. All of them had a great respect for their more experienced platoon sergeant.

McKain shrugged, a bit bothered by all the attention.

“Not much, sir, to be honest. I don’t think we really know enough to make plans; so we obviously we need to hook up with the group the mayor mentioned. But on the other hand…” The sergeant looked unhappy.

“I think, whether we like it or not, we’re going to have to fight. Even if we hid ourselves, they’d be certain to find us… And attack at a time we won’t be ready for them. If we keep trying to move around, we’d be all the easier to detect. Further, even if we managed to hide ourselves, how long would we have to remain that way?”

“In all, I think we’re going to have no choice but to pursue offensive operations; if for no other reason than to keep them off-balance.”

This time there was a moment of silence. The platoon sergeant had laid their situation bare, as well as the few choices remaining to them.

“At any rate,” Frank said briskly, “It seems our next move is to head to Newholm. Once there, and hopefully after we’ve made contact with the guerrillas, we’ll be better able to decide what further actions to take. And we’ve gotta get moving
fast
. Undoubtedly, the pirates are searching for us already. Let’s get to it, people!”

A chorus of, ‘Sir, yes, sir!’ answered him, then the sergeants dispersed.

***

“I still don’t-”

“A question once asked is but a question, a question twice asked is foolishness, and a question
thrice
asked is insubordination.” The speaker paused for a second, then smiled a thin-lipped smile.

“You don’t want to be…
insubordinate
, do you?”

The other started sweating. It was at first hard to see why. The person at the head of the table was only of average height, with a slight build, black hair and brown eyes. Indeed, such a person hardly seemed to be dangerous. But that was only so until you looked into his eyes. Eyes filled with the darkness of the soul, with a restrained and focused brutality and violence, which you knew were only being held back because their owner thought you could be yet of use… So
far.

“N-no! I, ah-”

“Good.”

The pirate leader let the silence stretch out a bit, then spoke again

“I will say again, for the
final
time, that a full fledged attack on these… Marines, would have been
highly
inadvisable, especially since their full strength was unknown. Even after committing half of our Blastfires, we lost one for absolutely
nothing
.”

“That’s true,” agreed Hamil, his operations officer. As much as pirates
had
officers, anyway. “But the fact remains that we now know they only have a platoon.
And
we know where they are. Perhaps…?”

“Where they
were
,” the pirate captain pointed out. “To be sure, their destination is obvious; that stupidly named town, whatever it is. But they won’t remain there long.”

“Still, if they do something dumb like staying there for a while, we could easily catch them off-guard!” broke in Bloody Jack’s second-in-command, Mad.

“And throw down a barrage of missiles? Until the town is simply a plain of overlapping craters?” The smiles around the table grew bloodthirsty at the thought, though the thirstiest was on the face of their leader, Bloody Jack.

The smile was still there, as Bloody Jack continued.

“And, of course, losing most if not all our gunboats, for maybe a couple of Marines?” Everyone elses’ smiles suddenly disappeared.

“Battlesuits and Marines are
tough.
If they activate their shielding… We’d have get a missile within less than ten yards to guarantee a kill on them. And how,
exactly
, do you expect to be able to locate them in a city? Plus the fire from an entire platoon of Marines would wipe away our gunboats in short order.”

“Our sensors-” Hamil began.

“Won’t be able to locate them. As soon as they learn we’re coming, and they
will
, they’ll activate their ECM and keep moving. And even without that, they’ll be nearly undetectable in a city, with all of a city’s emissions. No, wiping out a town to get them won’t work.”

“What if we launched from far enough away that-”

Bloody Jack leaned forward.

“Do you
really
think that’d work, Mad?” His second-in-command’s real name was Madeline, but no-one called her anything but Mad after knowing her long. “At best, they won’t be able to kill any of our gunboats from that range… but chances are, we
still
won’t be able to kill them either. All we’d end up doing is waste a lot of missiles. Missiles, which, may I remind you all, we cannot replace.”

“What if we use
Superior Fortune
,
Whydat
, and
Anne’s
-”

Bloody Jack snorted.

“Please. Spaceships are hardly designed for atmospheric use. And we don’t have a large supply of
their
missiles either.”

Mad made a moue, but finally held her peace, not able to think of any other practical way to commit mass slaughter.

“However,” Bloody Jack continued, raising a hand to attract attention. “We still need to investigate. Grinner, take your Blastfire and scout it out. Check their landing spot first, then the town. Do
not
attempt to make contact. If they’ve left town, or if you detect them
in
town, report back before do anything further. Is that clear?”

Grinner leered, although, considering the way his mouth was fixed by a multitude of scars, he could do little other.

“Oh, very.”

“Excellent. Now
get moving
, before I set you on fire to speed you up,” Bloody Jack said, fingering the weapon at his side.

“Going!” Grinner hastily departed, knowing his commander was offering no idle threat.

Abruptly, Bloody Jack stood up.

“If anyone else has anything to say, you can flap your gums all you like.
I’m
going.” And suiting actions to words, Bloody Jack strode out of the room.

His mind was busy.

Things weren’t developing quite the way he had intended. He had been expecting a company or more of Marines, not just a platoon. And he had been forced to restrain his officers. Of course, everything he had said had been
true
, but nonetheless, he hadn’t thought such stratagems would be necessary. It looked like he was going to have to modify his plan…

He grimaced, then smiled a cold smile, causing a pirate he was passing by to flinch.

Oh, well. This way he’d at least get to kill more Marines.

***

“Hey, captain.”

“Yes?”

“You told me to report in, after I spoke with the mayor.” Actually, that wasn’t quite what Bloody Jack had ordered, but he was in no mood to argue.

“All right. Then?” he said, after a pause.

“They’ve been and gone. The mayor said they dropped by for a few minutes, then left, after hearing we were around. She also claimed that she ordered them away immediately.” Grinner’s tone dripped with disbelief, a disbelief Bloody Jack fully shared.

“I see. Of course, I suppose she couldn’t inform us, the communication tower being down…” His tone was idle. Then he shrugged.

“Kill her. Now.” Grinner’s grin was even worse then usual, as he casually pulled out a pistol and began shooting to the side of the camera.

Waiting for Grinner to finish, the pirate captain frowned mentally. Grinner had called with the mayor nearby? It demonstrated a severe lack of security consciousness.

It hardly mattered any more, of course. Nevertheless…

Bloody Jack made a mental note to kill Grinner the next time he did it.

Grinner finished shooting every last bullet he had in his gun, and began reloading, nodding to his captain.

“Done.”

“Good. Then I want you back here.” Bloody Jack shut the com down without waiting for his subordinate’s reply.

Chapter Three

“We’ve made fair time, sir,” the platoon sergeant pointed out. “Perhaps they’re simply behind us.”

“Maybe. But I don’t like it. Where
are
they?”

The platoon had spent what remained of the previous Kzarchian day, as well as half of the current one, traveling towards their new destination, hiding in trucks they had ‘borrowed’. However, as hidden as they were, all of them had been expecting an attack from the pirates’ Blastfires. And certainly, to at least detect them going by overhead.

“They could just be being cautious. They already lost one Blastfire to us.”

“And have eleven more!”

“We only have the mayor’s word for that. And I don’t… That is, I’m not sure how, ah,
accurate
her information could be.”

Frank’s lips twitched, despite himself.

“True. Still, it makes sense to assume the pirates have more than less, regardless of what they actually have.”

“Yes, sir.” McKain’s voice indicated complete agreement.

The lieutenant then said hopefully, “In any case, it looks like we may get to our destination without
too
much trouble.”

“Hopefully, sir.” The sergeant’s voice was doubting.

***

“Mad, you are
not
to simply shoot at anything that attracts your attention. We do
not
have the missiles for that. Clear?” His second-in-command was silent. Bloody Jack’s hand dropped to the gun strapped to his waist.

“
CLEAR?
”

“Yes, Bloody,” she finally grumbled.

“Good. Remember,” he hated to have to repeat himself, but with Mad annoyed it was probably worth it. “Keep the Blastfires circling. With your sensors, you should be able to spot the Marines before they get too close. Then immediately com me.”

“I
know
, Jack.”

He frowned at her.

“
Bloody
Jack,” she corrected.

“If you get a positive confirmation of the Marines on the sensors, and
only
then, you can fire. Clear?”

“Clear,” she glumly said, obviously feeling he was sucking the fun out of things.

Minutes later, as Bloody Jack watched her leave, he wondered how badly she was going to disobey him. Being the way she was, the only question was by how much.

Then he shrugged. As long as she didn’t waste too many missiles killing civilians, he’d ignore it.

***

“Sir? I think you should see this…”

They had traveled quite a distance over the last several hours, heading towards the planet’s capital. The journey had remained fairly boring so far, but, as the more experienced troopers informed the less, that was only to the good.

Even so, the trip had the platoon more on edge then usual, with a constant underlying tension. They simply couldn’t know when the pirates might find them and attack.

Getting up, Frank clumsily made his way to the front of the truck. Although he was used to moving in unpowered armor, doing so in a bouncing truck was no easy task.

Peering through the small window set between the front of the truck and its back, the lieutenant wondered what the driver, Sergeant Von Hervitz, wanted.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Sir, look over there.” The sergeant pointed ahead, out the windshield.

Frowning, Frank did.

“That’s… What
is
that?”

“I think it’s a Blastfire. And if you keep watching…” Doing so, Frank saw the Blastfire wing away around one side of the horizon… then a minute later, another appeared on the other side.

“
Shit
. They’re guarding the capital.”

“I think so, sir. Also, they’re doing so pretty far out. They’re covering at least a hundred-fifty mile circle.”

“Right. Good work, Abe. McKain!”

“Yes, sir?” The so-far silent figure in the passenger seat spoke up.

Although he was surprised, having assumed the platoon sergeant had been in the back, Frank continued smoothly.

“What do you think? Should we continue to the guerrillas? Or will the pirates be screening them as well, in case we try to make contact? After all, they
are
supposedly near the capital.”

McKain hesitated before saying anything.

“Well… Actually, sir, for all we know, perhaps the pirates already exterminated them.”

The lieutenant blinked. He genuinely hadn’t thought of that. But now his sergeant had pointed it out, it was an obvious possibility. After all, their information was several weeks old; it was hardly as if the pirates were likely to leave any opposition running around for that long. Still…

“Be that as it may, we can’t be sure. And, even if we can’t meet up with the guerrilla forces, we’ll still need to penetrate the pirates’ defensive line.”

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant’s tone didn’t indicate agreement… but neither did it convey disagreement.

“Very well. I think we will continue proceeding then. However, Sergeant Hervitz,” Frank habitually dropped the ‘Von’ in his sergeant’s name. “Stop several miles outside their sensor range. We’ll decide then how to proceed, whether to continue on foot or by truck. McKain, I want you in particular to keep your eyes out for anything unusual.”

“Yessir,” the two chorused.

***

Raising his head slightly above the rock he was crouched behind, Frank examined the ravine his platoon was about to move through.

In the end, it had been decided that the platoon would continue on foot, making its way towards its hoped for rendezvous with the ‘guerrillas’.

Unfortunately, it had also been decided that they would travel in unpowered battlesuits.

While it was part of basic training to do so; it was hardly easy. Though the battlesuits were lighter than they looked, they were still heavy enough to make moving difficult. Hiking in them, therefore, was near torture. And, unfortunately, they had had to do so for several hours, to travel the last fifteen miles to their destination.

But by now, they were almost there.

“Sir, I think…” That was Sergeant Javer, who had come up as the lieutenant had been examining the ravine.

“What?”

“I’m pretty sure the guerrillas are guarding the ravine. It looks like they’ve got outposts; there, there, there and over there.” His hand waved vaguely.

“Can’t be pirates either. Wrong style, positioning is off for a trap, and too ‘professional’. For a group of pirates, anyway.”

“Hmm…” Although he hadn’t seen them at first, now his scout sergeant had pointed ‘em out…

“We’d better go easy then. Don’t want to surprise them into doing anything rash. Sergeant McKain! Get the platoon moving again! But take ‘em in slow!”

Proceeding cautiously, the platoon slowly made its way into the valley. And did so while being quite hard to see. Although their battlesuits weren’t on, the camouflage function only required power to change from one camo to another, though it was less effective when shut off, as it couldn’t shift colors and shades to better match with the surroundings.

“Lieutenant?”

“Yeah?”

“Why haven’t they hailed us? I don’t like it.”

“Hail us how? Our coms aren’t up.”

“Doesn’t matter. A warning shot, then.”

“Maybe they didn’t see us.”

McKain grunted.

“If they haven’t managed to notice us by now, they ain’t gonna be worth much.”

“We
are
camouflaged.”

The sergeant snorted, but didn’t make any other reply.

In fact, it took another ten minutes before something finally happened. One of the scout squad, ahead of the rest, was suddenly shot. Several times.

“Ow! Stupid, freakin’,
triggerhappy
-” The scout immediately dropped to the ground, swearing.

“Jar, damage?”  McKain called.

“Just some dents, sarge.”

“Good. HEY! Stop firing!” the lieutenant bellowed, several more shots pinging around the front of the platoon.

A last, single shot, hit a bush near the lieutenant, who had dropped to the ground.

Then a voice called out, somewhat distant, “Who the
hell
are you?!”

“We’re a platoon of Marines! Sent to deal with the pirates!”

There was a short pause.

Then, incredulously, “A
platoon
?!”

Frank gave a grimace.

Was
everyone
going to react that way?