Theogony 1: Janissaries (25 page)

“
Two minutes to touchdown,
” commed
Shuttle 02’s
WSO, Captain Jennifer ‘Sweet Jen’ Chapman to the soldiers in the cargo
compartment.

“
All right, you heard the lady,
” said Master Chief, “
two
minutes to touchdown. Gear up!
”

All of the soldiers stood up and snapped on their helmets.
Completing that, they turned to the soldier next to them and checked them out.
Then they turned to the soldier on the other side of them and checked them out,
too. After about a minute, 33 thumbs were up. All of the members of the platoon
were coming with the exception of Deadeye, who was in sickbay for a major knee
reconstruction. Three of the four ligaments in her knee had been torn and
needed medical rebuild.

Cabo Segundo Contreras’ arm had been repaired, and he was
proclaimed fit for duty by the medibot, although the ship’s doctor had
recommended two days’ rest. The princess had asked for him to be her personal
guard, and he had chosen to forego his time off in order to accompany her. He
had already told Top that he was coming, even before the princess had asked for
him.

As the soldiers were checking each other out, the princess
and her fiance stood in the back of the shuttle’s bay. The princess met her
fiance’s eyes, and she asked, “Are you sure that you’re up to this?”

“I have to be,” he replied. “If you’re going, I’m going,
too.”

“
Five seconds!
” commed the pilot, Captain Larry ‘Cuz’
Gage, and then there was a soft bump as the ship touched down. The ramp started
down, and the soldiers stormed out of the shuttle to face the gates of the city
half a mile away.

As the command group came down the ramp, the princess
surveyed the area. “This is perfect,” she noted, as the shuttle blasted back up
to the heavens, passing low over the 15’ walls of the castle on its way back up.
She had asked to come down in sight of the gates for the psychological effect
it would have on both the humans and her own citizens, as well as in deference
to her fiance’s health. Making the people on the walls duck and cower in fear
had been an excellent addition to the plan.

The group formed up into a loose circle around the lizards
and the platoon’s officers, with more to the front than behind, and began
marching toward the city. The land was low and flat, with the smell of the
swamps to the south fetid in their nostrils. Most of the soldiers chose to switch
to the recycled air of their suits, rather than smell the swamps. It was
apparent that the princess felt otherwise, as she took several deep breaths and
smiled. “Home,” she said with one of the lizards’ toothy smiles.

As the group reached about a quarter of a mile from the
gates, they could see the number of people on the wall begin swelling. All wore
red. “
Looks like they’re all armed,
” said BTO, using his suit’s visual
augmentation. “
Most have blunderbusses and crossbows.
”

“
I see them,
” replied Calvin. “
We expected it.
Continue as briefed.
”

“Lord Strell,” yelled the courier, “enemy forces have landed
in front of the town.”

“Stop yelling and tell me what you saw,” replied Strell,
from where he lounged on the throne. “Wake up,” he said, pulling on a chain that
was attached to the throne.

At the other end of the chain, the former queen of the land
hissed as it pulled on the nerve cluster near her tail. “Good,” she replied, “I
hope they’ve come to kill you.”

“Don’t worry,” said the acting king, “I’ll make sure I kill
you before they do, and that I send a message to kill your daughter first.” The
queen subsided at the mention of her daughter, although she continued to glare
at him.

“Now,” said Strell, turning back to the courier, “what is
happening?”

“Something came down from the sky, and a bunch of humanoid
things came out of it. They walk like people and have two arms like people, but
their heads are rounded. They all appear to have some form of white blunderbuss.”

“Obviously, the heat has gotten to your head,” said Strell.
“What looked like something coming down was just heat from the summer day as
they approached. How many of them are there?

“There are about 30 with two of the lizards in their midst,”
answered the courier. “The scouts report that the lizards are saying the two
look like the princess and her fiance.” The queen raised her head at the last
news, her heart lighter than it had been for months.

“It cannot be the princess unless the troops are my
brother’s, which they obviously are
not
. If for some reason the troops
are wearing red uniforms and are my brother’s, let them in; otherwise, kill
them all.”

“Including the two lizards?” asked the courier.

“Especially the two lizards,” replied Strell.

The look on the queen’s face turned to one of horror. “You
would just kill people without even talking to them? Without even seeing what
they want?”

“Were I in Remurn, no, I would not,” replied Strell. “But
I’m
not
in Remurn, now am I?”

“
The people on the walls look like they’re going to fire,
”
commed Corporal James Ball, who had the point of the formation. “
You may
want to keep the high value units back a little ways.
”

Reflexively, Cabo Contreras stepped in front of the princess
to shield her. Irina was a little slower, but when she saw what Contreras had
done, she stepped in front of the princess’ fiance, too.

As the front rank reached about 40 yards from the wall,
someone called “Fire!,” and crossbow bolts began flying toward the men. The
shots were at the maximum effective range for the weapons and didn’t have
anywhere close to enough energy to penetrate the suits at that distance.

“
What do you want us to do, sir?
” asked Night. “
They’re
not using their firearms. It may just be nuisance fire.
”

“
No, we’re not within range of their guns,
” replied
Calvin. “
Those blunderbusses are more like shotguns than rifles. They can’t
hit us here. I’m done playing with them. PLATOON! Clear the walls! FIRE!
”

“
With pleasure!
” commed someone under their breath as
the platoon began firing. The blue beams left afterimages on the retinas of the
soldiers and holes through the majority of the unarmored soldiers on the wall.

Within seconds, there was no one left on the wall. Calvin
thought he had seen at least one person that ducked before the soldiers could
shoot him. He wondered what they thought of the lasers, which must almost look
like magic to them.

With no defenders remaining, Corporal Ball made it to the
gates. “
Sir, the gates are locked tight,
” he reported.

Calvin got the princess’ attention. They had discussed this
possibility during the planning process. “The gates are locked,” he told her.
“Do I have your permission to blow them?” he asked formally.

“Yes you do,” replied the princess, just as formally. “Blow the
gates!” she shouted, having been well coached. While the people in the castle
may have had some experience with black powder, there’s no way they would see
this
coming. Hopefully, they’d at least move back from the gates. For their sake.

Master Chief supervised Mr. Jones as he set the charges,
asking questions here, making suggestions there. When the explosives were set,
the men moved back from the wall. Way back. Based on previous experience with
Master Chief and explosives, Calvin wasn’t sure that moving back to Remurn was
far enough. “
Umm, Master Chief, is everyone far enough back?
” he asked.
“
How big a blast radius should we expect?
”

“
Oh sir, are you still mad about the last time?
”
Master Chief asked. “
Everyone is safe on
this
side of the wall. Most of
the blast is going to go through it.
”

“
OK,
” said Calvin, “
blow it.
”

“
FIRE IN THE HOLE!
” Master Chief yelled. Two seconds
later, a giant explosion rocked the gates.  The men had placed shaped charges
where the hinges would be on the inside, and the gates blew completely off,
falling backward to land on top of two men unlucky enough to be standing behind
them.

The Terrans and the two therapods ran into the courtyard to
find a mass of redcoats waiting for them. Having realized that their weapons
were outclassed by the newcomers, they had chosen to wait for them in the
courtyard. When the gates blew inward, they charged.

The soldiers entered the courtyard in an arrowhead
formation, with Corporal Ball at the point of it, and the slaughter began. The
redcoats fired a volley of crossbow bolts as they charged, which would have
broken a formation of local forces. From the distance they fired, none of them
had the energy to penetrate the suits, except for the bolt that hit Petty
Officer Conboy. His shield switched from repulsion to attraction and accelerated
the metal point of the bolt into him, driving it through his left thigh. “
FUCK!
”
he screamed, looking down at the feathered bolt sticking out of his leg.

The members of the platoon fired as fast as their targeting
symbols could center on the next redcoat. They were outnumbered 203 to 35 (plus
the two lizards) when they entered the courtyard; by the time the local forces
crashed into the left side of the Terrans they were down to 97 effectives. Seeing
the princess in the center of the formation, the one remaining platoon officer
yelled, “Kill the lizards!,” and the forces tried to break through the Terran
lines to get at them. Even though the Terrans were stronger, and heavy in their
suits, the impact of 45 of the local forces hitting three of the Terrans at
once was more than they could stand their ground against, and they were forced
apart.

The redcoats broke through the lines.

The princess and her fiance stood their ground, swords
drawn, ready to fight. Once again, their protectors stepped in front of them,
Contreras in his suit and Rozhkov armored only with her fierce determination.
Contreras pulled a sword from over his shoulder with his left hand to block
some of the blades flashing at him while the laser pistol in his right hand
began thinning the numbers of the redcoats. Rozhkov didn’t back up, standing
her ground with her sword and laser pistol. Seeing the Russian spy as the
easier target, the redcoats charged her, and three men attacked her
simultaneously.

The sword in her left hand was knocked free as she was hit
by an attack that she hadn’t seen, and it fell to the ground. As she moved her
right hand to block a slash from the person in front of her, the redcoat to her
right saw the opening and slashed at her right leg. She saw the attack too late
and still had to block the attack in front of her. She tensed involuntarily,
knowing she was about to lose her leg.

The blow never fell as Yokaze materialized next to her. He
blocked the slash with his wakizashi, while taking the man’s head off with his
katana. He immediately shifted his aim and disemboweled the man in front of
her, and she used the opportunity to pick her sword back up in time to block a
slash from the man on the left. She fired her pistol into the man’s throat, and
he dropped.

The left wing of the Terrans rolled around the remaining
redcoats, sealing the breach and ending the threat. The right wing came around
as well, trapping the redcoats. Within moments, the redcoats were surrounded.
Several threw down their weapons and raised their hands in surrender; the ones
that fought on were killed.

Almost 200 redcoats were either dead or unable to fight;
none of the Terrans had been killed. Several had cuts or crossbow bolts
sticking out of arms or legs, but most were only superficial wounds, as the
swords or bolts had lost most of their energy piercing the suits. The bolt in Petty
Officer Conboy’s leg was the only one that penetrated to any depth; the medic
began working on his wound.

As the platoon began organizing to move toward the palace, a
young therapod ran up to them. “He’s getting away!” he said breathlessly.

“Who is?” asked Calvin.

“Lord Strell,” the boy replied. “He’s going through the east
gate!”

“I can show you!” said the princess.

Calvin made a quick decision. “Night, you take the Space
Force and head toward the palace. I’ll take the Ground Force with the princess
to catch Strell.” He turned back to the princess. “Lead on!”

The princess took off at the therapod’s version of a run. It
was the strangest looking gait that Calvin had ever seen, yet it was faster
than anything he would have been able to achieve without having the suit on.
Even with it, he was hard-pressed to keep up. They made it to the gate in just under
three minutes, in time to see a human leading a therapod through a small door.
As Calvin got closer, he could see that the therapod was shackled with two
chains. One was around the therapod’s neck. The other went through the
therapod’s body, just above the tail.

The princess hissed when she saw it. “That chain goes into a
major nerve cluster,” she said. “That chain would be beyond painful.” Then she
realized who it was attached to. “
The queen!
” she yelled.

Hearing the scream, the man stopped and turned. He was holding
a crossbow in his other hand, which he put to the queen’s head. “Don’t come any
closer or she dies,” he said.

“I don’t care about me,” hissed the queen. “Kill him!”

“If you shoot me, I’m sure it will cause my finger to pull
the trigger and shoot her,” he cautioned. “If you just let me go, I promise to
leave her unharmed.”

The princess hissed her displeasure at him and was joined by
her fiance who came up at a fast walk. Although the desire was there, his body
wasn’t up to the three minute sprint, and he had fallen behind.

“That sounds really familiar,” said Calvin. “That’s pretty
much what your brother said yesterday just before we killed him. You can either
let go of her and surrender or we kill you. It’s your choice.”

“I think I’ll choose to kill the princess and run!” he said,
as he aimed the crossbow at the princess and pulled the trigger. Seeing what he
intended, the queen tried to knock the crossbow out of his hands. She was too
far away and only succeeded in moving it slightly, which changed the aim from
the princess to her fiance, who was looking down, out of breath. He never saw
the shot. Rozhkov saw it as she came running up, having been left behind in the
sprint. Without any other choice, she dove in front of the bolt. It hit her in
the chest at the top of her right breast. She fell to the ground.

“That sucks,” she said before passing out.

Calvin looked up to find Strell had vanished. “He ran
through the door!” said the queen, pointing at it.

“Get him!” Calvin ordered Tiny. He gave a crisp, “Yes sir,”
and went to the gate.

“Aren’t you going after him?” asked the princess.

“Nope,” said Calvin. He nodded toward Tiny, aiming his giant
.95 caliber rifle out the door. “Never try to run from a sniper,” Calvin
commented. “You’ll only die tired.”

The big gun fired, the recoil so great that it even pushed
the large, suited sniper back a little. “Got him,” Tiny said. With that large a
gun, Calvin knew Strell wasn’t wounded. He was dead.

Calvin looked back to find the princess nuzzling her mother.
She was the queen once again.

* * * * *