Hard Luck Hank: Basketful of Crap (19 page)

I was up to 641 confirmed for the
upcoming attack. Wasn’t enough.

Back at my place I noticed the
Gandrine had returned. I teled Cad to ask him where they had gone but he didn’t
answer.

Annoyed, I walked past the Gandrine
I was supposedly trying to spy on, and up the street to the apartment where Cad
and his friends were hiding.

It was empty.

There was a card table, lots and
lots of empty bottles, some take-out food packages, chairs, and two beds. The
smell of multiple guys who had been sitting and eating in one room for a week
hung in the air.

Hmm.

I wasn’t sure who Cad had hired to
keep him company so I couldn’t call them.

I left Cad a tele message to get
back to me. Peering out the window I could see the Gandrine easily. I watched
them for a few minutes. Yeah, I could see becoming an alcoholic doing this job.

They might have gone to get
supplies, but still it was very irresponsible. At least one of them should have
stayed on duty.

Back at my place I tried to relax. It
wasn’t easy. I was leading a full-scale invasion against an enemy whose
capabilities I didn’t know, but assumed to be considerable. Still, I needed to
take my mind off things so I didn’t become a nervous wreck.

I got a tele from Delovoa.

“I have the list planned,” he said.
“But, can I ask you, how much do you trust these guys you’re hiring?”

“Trust like how?”

“Trust to not steal valuable
weapons and armor you give them.”

“Very little. I probably know only about
a quarter of them. A lot of them don’t even like each other. They’re from
different gangs. It’s only the money bringing them together and the chance to
sock it to a corporation.”

“That’s a problem, Hank. What if
you give them all this equipment and they don’t show up? Or they steal it? Or
they go tell the corporation you’re going to attack? Or go work for them at a
higher rate?”

“Well…that would suck.”

“I’m not going with you, so it’s
not my neck, but I don’t want you to think you’re marching out with 800 guys
and only 300 show up.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to see that
either,” I exhaled. “I guess I could only pay them half at the morning of the
attack. Then half after. And we only equip them right before the attack. But,
we’re not going to get any training done.”

“I thought about that too. Where
would you train anyway? How are you going to train 800 people?”

“I don’t know. Put down ten
thousand bottles in the street and shoot at them? This hasn’t been done before
on Belvaille. I’m kind of playing it by ear. I don’t even know where we’ll put
all this equipment we get from the corporation.”

“We’ll need a warehouse,” he said.

“And how am I going to move my army?
Ride the train? It will take us three hours just to get everyone in the same
spot. And it’s not like we can all walk up one street. We’d be shooting each
other in the back.”

“No, you’ll need to go from
multiple directions. Come over, we’ll look at some maps of the city.”

“Did you ever figure out who stole
your corpse?” I asked.

“No. I suspect it was one of the
corporations.”

“I don’t want to do any planning
there if you’ve been infiltrated by a corporation. It could be the one we’re
attacking. You should come over here.”

“Do you still have Gandrine sitting
in front of your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I’m not walking by them. I
think my place is safer.”

“Let’s meet at City Hall.”

“Will Garm get mad?”

“No, I just did some work for her.”

At City Hall Colonel Delovoa and I
spoke and it became clear just how terrible this war was going to be.

Naked Guy had given me the name of
the corporation and location. It was Intergalactic Brands Ltd. They were
located in a small section just north of the docks. Their colors were brown
with a green cat. I knew nothing of them beyond that.

“You’re going to need to do
reconnaissance,” Delovoa stated.

“Yeah, I should have started a
while ago, but…well, I didn’t. I’ll tele some guys and set up an
around-the-clock watch.”

I looked at the map.

“We have very limited areas of
attack. We can’t move an army through the dock, it’s too crowded and we’ll get
held up by heavy machinery. We can’t go from the east because there is no east,
that’s the edge of the station. Too far north and you get into the rich
neighborhoods and they have private security.”

“And they might shoot at you, or
worse, your army splits off and starts robbing people,” Delovoa said.

Looks like we got these four blocks
on the west, but that’s awful narrow. Two hundred untrained gang members, armed
to the teeth, who all dislike one another, bumbling down each street.”

This job was not giving me a warm
feeling.

“Thad Elon’s Teeth,” Delovoa
exclaimed.

We stood in a warehouse that we had
previously appropriated for storage. I had given Delovoa’s list back to Naked
Guy which detailed what equipment we would like from his Colmarian United
Supply.

The building was absolutely filled
with military hardware. Row after row of guns and armor and gear. It was beyond
counting.

“How are we ever going to use all
this?” I asked, dumbfounded. “I mean, how are we going to give it to people?
Have them line up at the door and pick whatever they want?”

We wandered through the aisles of
equipment. Nothing was labeled and it seemed to be ordered haphazardly. There
were racks of pants next to a box of grenades next to signal flares next to…

“What is this?” I asked, picking up
an odd device.

“It’s for water breathing.”

“We’re on a space station, why did
you ask for this?”

“I wanted to see if they would give
it.”

I twirled around looking at the
mess.

“How long will it take you to
inventory?”

Suddenly, Delovoa grabbed my arm,
his face looking desperate.

“You still have the money, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.
Off Belvaille.”

“What? Why?”

“Look!” He said, gesturing at our
armory. “It—I guess it hadn’t been real in my head before this. But this isn’t
a gang war, it’s a real war.”

“But we have all this equipment to fight
with.”

“Do you know how to use all this
stuff? I don’t.”

“I thought you were an expert
engineer.”

“I am. But knowing how to build it
and use it in a war are two different things. I’ve never been in a fight in my
life. Just go. I’ll come with you—if you want. Belvaille is lost anyway. This
is proof.”

“We can’t, Delovoa. Do you think
they gave me all that money and all this stuff and they’re not going to find us
if we leave? We probably won’t make it to the Portal. I have to get these guys
ready to fight. It’s the only way out of this.”

I cast the net out far and wide
looking for more recruits.

I was giving my officers signing
bonuses if they could get able-bodied men willing to march to their deaths.

Garm lent me her skills when it
came to organizing the warehouse and how to disperse it to my soldiers
efficiently. She also made a list of the number and types of squads we would
have.

It was a vast improvement over what
I had been going to use: a huge crowd of guys with guns walking forward. We
really were starting to resemble an army.

My reconnaissance units didn’t have
a lot to report. It’s hard to get an accurate tally of soldiers who are clones.
There were no tanks, but there were roof snipers and emplaced machine guns.

Again, I tapped Garm to help me
with tactics.

“You know this is suicide, don’t
you?” Garm said pleasantly.

“How can you say that after you’ve
seen all the men I have and all the equipment?”

“You’ve hired a bunch of loan
sharks and counterfeiters and drug addicts. Giving them automatic weapons isn’t
suddenly going to make them capable warriors.”

“What do you want me to do, Garm?”

“Keep your eyes open. This whole
thing stinks. Why are they using you when they have far more competent people
on their own payroll?”

“They’re not even paying them,” I
muttered.

We had told Garm about the clones
but it didn’t faze her. I doubted she cared if the corporations used magic
spirits as long as she got paid.

“When are you going to attack?” she
asked.

“Can’t say. I’m not letting anyone
know until the hour, hopefully it will keep it a surprise.”

“You advertised it in
The News
…”

“Not the date and which corporation.
I’m going to have a few drills with the boys. If anyone is tipping off the
corporation, we’ll see them react.”

“Well. Good luck,” Garm said, after
taking in a deep breath.

“Thanks.”

She gave me a hug. She wasn’t a big
woman, but she was strong.

“You’re making me feel like I’m
never going to see you again,” I said sadly.

“You have to see me again. You owe
me money.”

I thought she was making a joke.

“What do I owe you money for?”

“This. Helping you put your
structure together.”

“You said it was free!” I yelled.

“No, I didn’t!” She yelled back,
obviously not joking.

“You’re going to fleece me right
before I go off to war?”

“It’s not like I made you. Besides,
I’m probably saving your life.”

“Unlikely. How much do you want for
this theoretical help?”

“A hundred thousand.”

“You’re nuts! I wouldn’t give that
if you walked in front of me and took the first bullet.”

“Yeah, like someone is going to hit
me when they have your fatness as a target. You’re paying these toothless
codgers 30,000—”

“To fight! Not to scribble notes.”

“Fine, I’ll take my organization
charts with me.”

“I already stored them to tele.”

“I hope you die in your stupid
fight,” she said, storming away. She got halfway to my door when she stopped. “Good
luck, Hank.”

“Thanks, Garm. And good luck with…”

And I left it there. Soulful.
Mournful.

“With what?” she asked quietly.

“With being less bitchy.”

The morning of the raid I sent word
to assemble at the warehouse, getting my officers in place first.

This was the fourth time I had
called everyone together so we could get in practice and hopefully throw off
any spies. My own spies had never reported any changes in Intergalactic Brands
Ltd activity.

My other spies, Cad and his
friends, still hadn’t reported back from their work trailing the Gandrine, but
I couldn’t bother with that now.

I had sergeants in the warehouse
handing out equipment in a semi-orderly fashion and bashing the heads of those
who tried to take more than they were allotted.

The officers organized the men into
squads, platoons, and regiments. We didn’t know if those were the right names
but they were the first ones we came up with. Without Garm’s help we would
never have even left the warehouse. We weren’t exactly an efficient machine but
at least we weren’t a mob.

I had one job only, and that was to
pay people. Half up front.

You’d think it would be a simple
job, but I had people show up who weren’t on the list, people try and claim
their money multiple times, people use the names and identification of others.

Likewise, I knew men were going to
be streaming in over a long period of time. These guys weren’t exactly
early-risers. But that gave us time to sort things out.

After four hours, I figure we had
just about everyone we were going to get. From my tally it was 753 men. I had
signed up a little over 900, so a combination of cold feet, hangovers, and
whatever else had dwindled our numbers. Hopefully the worst had dropped out,
but logic told me it was the poorest with the least to lose who had stayed.

Delovoa had provided incendiary
devices to about fifty of them. They were basically my anti-tank units. Because
he was right, I didn’t have any guns that could take on heavy armor. But we
could cook those inside nonetheless.

Balday-yow walked up to me.

“I think you should give a speech.”

I looked over the sea of 753
fighters. I did a few tele calculations.

“Gentlemen, ladies,” the crowd grew
quiet. “I have decided that instead of 15,000 credits at completion I owe you,
everyone will instead get 16,872.”

Exhilaration! I had planned on
saying a few more things, but I couldn’t be heard over their cheers and it
would be anti-climactic at this point.

Now we had to move.

Quietly. Quickly. And without
killing one another.

I didn’t even have a moment to
think how in over my head I was, as my officers were constantly asking me
questions.

We took five different routes using
three trains. We knew how long each train took and how long it would take to
reach each train. We coordinated by tele so we would hopefully arrive at the
same time. Delovoa had worked all this out.

My group departed last because I
was taking a train as directly to the corporation as possible. My regiment had
to move at my speed and I was slow.

“So what do you want me to do?”
Bronze asked, enthusiastically. I had made him my personal valet.

“Stand behind me. If you get hurt,
Garm will murder me.”

“We’re splits, you know. I have a
new lady now.”

“Yeah, well, Garm has a long
memory.”

There was very little talking as we
rode the train. There was even less talking as we walked the last blocks to the
rendezvous. The boyish high spirits that had pervaded earlier practice runs were
long gone.

We reached our street and waited for
the other groups to signal they were in position. We stood there for tense
minutes, which felt like hours. We were two hundred men wide open in the
street. Just blocks from the corporation we were to attack.

What if the other regiments’ trains
failed? What if gang fights broke out amongst them?

Finally, I got a tele confirming
the other groups were in position.

The spies reported no response from
the corporation.

I took out my autocannon and
readied the straps. I didn’t load it because I wasn’t sure what I would be
fighting yet.

I gave the tele command to march
forward.

Balday-yow was the commander of one
regiment. He reached the corporation first. We could hear gunfire and
explosions from the next block.

I tried to hurry up.

My tele showed the other groups had
made contact. The sounds of fighting were coming from all sides now. The metal
buildings of Belvaille amplified and distorted the combat.

We got in view of a sandbagged
emplacement at the end of the block.

I loaded an HE shell into my
autocannon but the rest of my army surged past me, screaming and shouting and
firing their guns. I couldn’t shoot through them.

But it didn’t matter. The two
helmeted soldiers didn’t even get a chance to move before they were shot.

I watched as my army ran ahead of
me, all semblance of order gone. It was like little children playing glocken.
Except with firearms.

I saw a grenade go off in the
distance and witnessed several enemy soldiers fall off roofs. My men were out
of control now and steamrolling through the corporation territory, shooting
anything that stood still.

These were the avenging hands of
Belvaille come to take back their city from the corporations! I couldn’t stop
them now if I tried.

We pushed deeper in and I looked at
my tele for an update on the others.

My tele was blank!

I grabbed another slow-moving
soldier next to me and got him to look at his tele. It was also blank. A
completely dark screen.

No one could jam teles except the
Navy.

As I was wondering how this was
possible, the lights overhead went out. The latticework went dark!

This was impossible.

The hoots and hollers from the
soldiers died down and were replaced with hundreds of concerned mumbles. The
shooting mostly stopped as they couldn’t see anything to shoot at.

I kept going forward to try and
reach the bulk of my men. I grabbed Bronze to make sure he stayed next to me.

“Hold your ground,” I called out.
“Stay together and keep your eyes open.”

There were a few flashlights here
and there that men had. From what I could see from the light, my army had
completely lost its momentum and was just milling around, confused.

I heard a roar behind us. From the
direction we had originally come from. It was metallic, high-pitched and deep
at the same time.

Suddenly we were bathed in blinding
white lights from dozens of spotlights. We stood there stupidly. The
once-conquerors reduced to shielding our eyes.

BOOM!

Two explosions happened
simultaneously. One from the direction we came and one right in the middle of
our troops.

That wasn’t an APC. It wasn’t an armored
fighting vehicle.

That was a tank.

A real tank with a real tank gun.
Now I knew what Delovoa had meant when he made the distinction. It took up the
entire street.

Panic!

Tracer rounds erupted from all
around the tank, blanketing our position. It was impossible to tell how many
men they had firing at us, but it was substantial.

I heard an explosion up one of the
adjacent blocks so I knew the other groups were facing the same thing we were.

This was a set-up.

“Throw incendiaries! Throw your
firebombs at them!” I yelled.

I wasn’t expecting to roast the
tank, it was too far away, and its armor probably too thick, but we couldn’t
see anything.

A few piles of fire ignited in the
road. I repeated my orders. More appeared.

From that, we could see the soldiers.
Their uniforms showed they weren’t Intergalactic Brands Ltd. There were
hundreds of them swarming around the tank.

We had our backs to the very edge
of the space station with tanks between us and freedom.

My men began firing, finding any
cover they could, which was scant.

BOOM!

Just the shockwave of the explosion
behind me was deafening.

There was no way we could fight
this.

“Retreat!” I screamed. I said it as
many times as my voice could handle.

I fired the HE round that was in my
gun and I saw a dozen enemy soldiers fall.

I loaded a canister round and fired
and saw more drop.

But it was like trying to stop an
ocean tide by throwing rocks at it. The clones were marching forward and they
didn’t seem to care about cover or HE rounds or dying.

I fired another high-explosive,
aiming at a wall to their right, and dozens dropped.

I dropped my autocannon. It was
only when it was off that I realized I had somehow stayed on my feet when I
fired it.

“Run!” I said to everyone again,
and then I saw blackness.

I looked around. I was on the
ground. Lots of people were on the ground. I had to get off the ground.

I struggled to my feet. My feet
hurt. They were bleeding. I needed shoes.

I saw someone next to my feet.

It was Bronze. I picked him up and
threw him over my shoulder.

South.

Through the docks. That was the
only way. Tanks couldn’t drive through there and an army couldn’t follow easily.

I hobbled through the connecting
alley to the next block. They were faring no better than we were. My soldiers
were in a pitched battle shooting their rifles at tanks. One was partially
ablaze and from that light I could see several more tanks behind it. And
countless, absolutely countless corporate soldiers.

I tried to tell them to retreat. I
don’t know if I did or not. If anything came out of my mouth.

I saw the decals on the tanks were
different than the ones in my block. It was a different corporation.

I kept going south.

Men were running past me. Running
around me. Running into me.

My feet hurt. My body hurt.

The lights were off even here. I
walked into walls. Into crates. I saw a heavy lifter sitting there loaded with
goods and I thought about getting in it to try and drive to safety. I was so
tired. But a heavy lifter was slow and a huge target.

I had to stop somewhere. I had to
rest.

If I stop, I’ll pass out. And
they’ll find me. Find us.

Bronze. He was still on my
shoulder.

Come on, I knew this city.

No one knew this city like I did.
Maybe Garm. Maybe Orgono Dultz, the guy who worked on the sewers.

I didn’t need light. Think. Where
could I hide?

I headed deeper into the dock, to
the port itself where the ships were anchored.

Fumbling through, I found a small
freighter.

You couldn’t access the passenger
compartments without going through quarantine, but you could access the hold.
No one would go into the hold of a ship, as you would be instantly killed if it
disembarked.

Let’s hope it didn’t disembark.

I closed and locked the hold. I put
Bronze down and I pushed over several heavy boxes in front of the door,
doubting it would help if they actually found us.

“Bronze. Bronze!” I leaned over
him.

His eyes were glassy and
half-closed. There was blood on his face and chest and hands.

“Bronze!” I screamed.

But he was gone.

I didn’t know the man. Not well at
all. But in that cargo hold I sat down and wept for him. I had never shed a
tear for anyone who had died before. And I’ve seen many people killed in my
time.

But I cried for Bronze Badel Bardel
because it felt like something of me died. Something bright, and happy-go-lucky,
that always smiled, and got even Therezians telling you their life stories.

Some part of me that might have
been but never got the chance.