Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (49 page)

Burgton pursed his lips. “It wouldn’t be politic for me to agree with you, but there might indeed be something to that. Congratulations,” he said again, and handed her the case containing her bars.

“Thank you, sir,” Richmond said and saluted.

Burgton shook hands with each of his new lieutenants and handed them their insignia. Sixteen handshakes later, First Battalion was ready for war.

Richmond still looked stunned. She was clutching the case containing her bars as if afraid to open it.

Gina grinned. “You okay?”

Richmond nodded jerkily. “I will be.”

“…duties as well as the privileges that rank confers,” General Burgton said. “Platoon leaders will remain behind, the rest of you are dismissed to quarters. I suggest you take time for an early dinner because we have a lot to get done later today. Dismissed.”

“Attennnnnn-
Hut!
” Stone ordered, and everyone briefly stood to attention before leaving the hold.

Gina automatically fell in with Alpha Company’s newly promoted lieutenants as they moved on mass to join the senior staff standing around the holotank. Captain Hames was CO of Alpha Company. As such, he was her immediate superior. He gestured for them to join him and they did so.

“Fuentez, I want you to take First Platoon,” Hames said and handed her a compad. “Study that. If you have any questions come to me and we’ll go over it together. The drop has been scheduled for zero-five-hundred tomorrow. That’s just before dawn at Zuleika.”

“Yes, sir.” Gina quickly scanned the contents of the compad. It was a mission overview, but before she could ask for a more detailed ops plan, she found it. “The terminal building?”

Hames pointed to the holotank that was again displaying the spaceport. The General was studying it, while the Colonel pointed to this or that detail.

“The General has designated the northernmost building as a terminal. It’s an arbitrary decision and for reference only. We don’t actually know what the natives use it for, but we had to call it something. The buildings to the east look very much like hangars, so as far as we’re concerned that’s what they are until the natives tell us different.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Good,” Hames said and handed each of the other platoon leaders a compad. “Dengler, you take…”

* * *

Zuleika, Child of Harmony, Shan System

James Wilder, professor of history turned resistance fighter, ducked as the Merki death squad opened fire on his position. He huddled behind the wrecked ground car, waiting for a chance to fire back, and prayed. He hadn’t been one to rely upon prayer before visiting Child of Harmony, but he’d been doing a lot of it lately. He figured it couldn’t hurt. He could use all the help he could get.

He hoped his friends had got away alright. They had been searching for survivors, as they had done many times before, but this time James had become separated from the rest of his group when the Merki death squad appeared out of nowhere. Tei’Adeladja, their raid leader, had ordered them to scatter. By splitting into smaller groups, he had hoped to lead at least some of the people they had found to safety. He understood Adeladja’s reasoning, but if James had been in command he would never have given that order.

James crawled along the ground, trying to find a better view of the enemy, but he had to duck back into cover when a crater was blasted into the road’s surface. With his back to the wreck, he looked around for inspiration; an escape route, a clever attack plan, someone to help him… anything! There was no sign of the others, and he couldn’t think of anything clever to defeat the Merki troops or escape. He hugged his knees, trying to make himself smaller as the wrecked car slowly disintegrated, gradually reducing his hiding place to nothing. This was it then, he thought, gripping his beamer tighter.

He wished he could tell Brenda he loved her one last time.

James surged to his feet, firing his beamer at anything that moved. The Merkiaari continued their methodical advance toward him laying down a barrage that would have made the Fleet proud. James ran in a crouch across the road, firing without aiming and expecting to die, but determined to go out fighting. One of his shots burned through a Merki female’s arm, but it didn’t faze her. The sudden flurry of shots from further up the street was another matter. She went down in a charred heap, and the other aliens scattered into hiding.

“Fall back, James,” Shima yelled. “I’ll cover you.”

Shima had come back for him. Thank god!

James ran to her, dodging left and right. Shots sizzled passed him, but none were close. He managed to duck around the corner where Shima stood tall, firing back the way he had come. The Merkiaari stayed down, acting more like Human soldiers than the Merkiaari of old. It made perfect sense to him to take cover, but they weren’t supposed to react this way. In the last war, they had been ferocious killing machines, deadly but seemingly stupid without a leader to tell them what to do.

Something had changed, and it scared James to imagine what it could be. Two hundred years was quite a long while. Even with nano technology increasing life spans, the last war was a distant memory in the Alliance. James suspected the Merkiaari had used the time to analyse how humans had defeated them and then adapted. He feared what other things they may have learned.

“Let us pull back, James. They are moving through the buildings to trap us.”

Although Shima’s eyes were weak, the Harmonies were strong in her. In Human terms, she was an empath. Her talent made her an excellent hunter; her tracking ability bordered on the miraculous. No one and nothing could hide from her.

“I hear,” James said, and ran as fast as he could, trying not to hold Shima up.

Shan were fast runners on two legs. If they dropped to all four, they were blindingly fast. Shima stayed on two, and kept pace with him until they put more buildings between themselves and the Merkiaari advance.

“Are… we… clear?” James panted. He was much fitter than he had been, but fifty years of easy living wasn’t overcome so quickly.

“I think so. We will meet with the others and plan what to do next. Tei’Adeladja has led us well.”

“He… has, but I still think we should… contact the other fighters, and try to kill the Merki’s First Claw.”

“But you have seen that it will do no good. Kill him and another will take his place. And besides, he will be heavily guarded. Many of us will fall just to reach him.”

“It’s true that another will take his place, but will the replacement be as good a warrior as this one? If we kill enough of their leaders, we might have a real chance of taking back the city.”

“But to what purpose? The city is nothing, James. Let them have it. My people are all that matters.”

“I know how you feel, Shima, but if you let them have their way here, they will spread out and take the countryside from you. Before you know it, they will be breaking into the Keeps. We have to contain them in the cities.”

James’ breathing settled after a few minutes, and he paced himself to reach the rendezvous without completely exhausting himself. The city was eerily silent one moment, and then shattered by the sound of battle the next. The elders had ordered every city evacuated as soon as it became obvious the Fleet was doomed, but as always, some were either unwilling or unable to leave in time. Most of the city’s population had escaped and were hidden deep underground in the keeps. Some, like Shima, routinely left safety to fight and save those left behind. Most did not return from the raids, but there was no end to those volunteering to fight. This was James’ eleventh raid. He was becoming used to the constant fear now.

All Shan were trained to fight at an early age. It dated back to the time called the Breaking of Harmony or simply The Breaking. The survivors of that time had stumbled forth from hiding to find their cities devastated, and their race close to extinction. They had vowed to build the Great Harmony anew, but they failed in that. What they created however, was admirable for many reasons. A law introduced in those first years required everyone to learn how to fight, it changed their culture from a carefree and peaceful one into one based on the need to fight and survive another Merki incursion. Until now, they had believed themselves well prepared.

Shima ducked into the residential block designated as the emergency rendezvous for their group. James quickly followed his friend inside and learned their group had been badly mauled. Grief clogged his suddenly tight chest. These people were his friends and comrades; most knew him from his first day in the keep. He looked around hoping to see the familiar kinked ear and spotted fur of Adeladja. The leader of their group had been a crewman on a light fang before it was destroyed. Somehow against all the odds he had managed to pilot his escape pod down safely. He was a good leader.

James’ heart sank when he failed to find him. “Where is Tei’Adeladja?”

“Dead,” Nadisu said from where she sat slumped dejectedly upon the floor.

Dead. James still needed more practice with the Shan language, but he knew that word very well. It was one he had heard too often on these forays to mistake. It was always spoken when he asked where a familiar face was. If he had to ask, then that person was dead. He looked around at the sadly diminished group, and then at Shima who flicked her ears. She had no idea what to do either.

He crouched down on a level with Nadisu. “Who is Tei now?” Everyone looked at each other and then back at him. “Now wait a damn minute! I can’t be Tei, I’m not even Shan!”

“It does not matter. When you die, we will choose another,” Nadisu said.

“Thanks a bunch,” James said, and then laughed at his situation. A lone human—an alien visitor to an alien planet, leading aliens in a war against aliens.

His friends watched him laugh with puzzlement that gradually changed to amusement. The wiggling ears and drop-jawed grins made it worse, and James howled with laughter. He sat on the dirty floor and hung his head, gasping for breath until his hilarity faded.

“The others still hold the north?” James asked, thinking about the future. He would not let them down.

“Yes, Tei. They are doing good work. The Murderers have not killed them all.”

Not yet, at least. What they really needed to do was join up with the others and make a real effort to hold the city. While the Merkiaari were fighting here, they couldn’t be looking for the Keeps. Brenda was waiting for him in one of those sanctuaries. He would do anything to keep her safe.

“We will join forces with the others in the north,” he said firmly. “We will throw the Merkiaari out of our city, or die trying.”

His order was met with yips and growls of agreement.

* * *

Aboard ASN Grafton in geosynchronous orbit

Gina watched Richmond giving one of her team some last minute instructions. She smiled when she remembered the look of horrified panic that had flashed on her friend’s face during the promotions. There was no sign of it now. It hadn’t taken Richmond long to settle into her new role.

“I’ll see you when the company assembles for the push on the city,” Richmond said, turning to Gina at last.

Gina nodded slowly and took her friend’s hand. “Good luck to us all.”

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Richmond said with massive confidence, and trotted up the ramp of the second transport.

Gina, with Lieutenant Dolinski of Second Platoon by her side, climbed the ramp of Viper One. “Listen up,” she said to her platoon as Dolinski continued forward to the other troop hold. “We hit the dirt in less than fifteen. The General will be coming down just two hours later.” She closed the ramp behind her and leaned against it. “We do good work. Everyone knows First Platoon is the best in the Company.”

“Damn straight!”

“Everyone knows we kick arse!”

Gina spoke over the comments. “I don’t want any mishaps. I want the enemy driven well clear of the spaceport before the General comes down. Clear?”

“Sir, yessir!” the platoon shouted in synch.

Gina strapped herself into a seat. It was the closest to the ramp. “First Platoon set,” she said over the comm.

“Ten seconds…” the pilot announced.

Grafton
held position in synchronous orbit over the spaceport. To starboard,
Sutherland
lay not too far off in astronomical terms, ready to deploy her fighters.
Grafton’s
bay doors slowly cranked open, and two
Wolfcub
class transports were ejected from her launch rails.

“Shit!” one man cried, as the sudden intense acceleration shook the ship.

Viper One sped away from
Grafton
riding out on the impetus imparted by the mag cradles. At five hundred metres, the pilot went to max thrust and headed for the LZ.

“Who the hell is driving this thing?” another unit said, grunting as the gees built.

“My pet monkey.”

“Yeah…”

Gina ignored the complaints while she concentrated on TacNet. She was pleased when the pilot went to max thrust and bored into the atmosphere. The faster the better as far as she was concerned. Who knew what kind of anti-ship capabilities the enemy still had? Better to get dirtside before they found out.