The Helavite War (19 page)

Tim took the left flank, Jake the center and
Arr the right. They were making good progress when all of a sudden
Tim came to an abrupt halt. He motioned for Jake and Arr to get
down. When Jake peeked up over the rock he was hiding behind, he
saw the hard green shell. There was no mistaking, even though he'd
never seen one first hand, he was staring at the back of a
Helavite. So this was what Tim was pussy footing around. Now his
suspicions were confirmed.

Jake didn't notice that Arr froze in his
tracks and stood transfixed. He was directly in the path of the bug
if it should turn, and it did turn. Jake caught sight of the gap
between the back and front shell just as the Helavite drew a bead
on Arr with its blaster. Jake fired. The bug collapsed in the
dirt.

"Wake up kid," he hissed through his teeth
at Arr. "That one almost took your head off."

Arr snapped out of his trance and scurried
quickly to Jake's side.

"We've bit off a pretty big chunk to chew
this time," Jake said to Arr, as he scanned the area for more
bugs.

"I was afraid of this." Tim said, as he
joined them behind the rocky outcrop. "When you said, you didn't
hear any space chatter it just wasn't natural. They're Helavites!
We've found their nest at last."

Arr just kept staring at the Helavite.
"They're
The Others
," he finally
said in a stunned voice.

Tim and Jake both looked at him in
shock.

"You mean the ones who attacked your
planet?" Jake asked.

Arr nodded.

Jake looked once more at the dead Helavite,
"Well, looks like it's payback time."

On the return to Madelor Tim and Jake agreed that
the GO should be brought in on this mission. Mercenaries and the
authorities of the universe didn't always see eye to eye, but there
was too much universe and too few officials so the Galactic
authorities usually turned the other cheek where the mercenaries
were concerned. They left them alone. There was no precedent in
history for the two groups ever having worked together. However,
they would need all the fire power they could get to eradicate the
Helavites. History was about to be made.

The gathering of the troops at Madelor had
to be done secretly. Nothing of the coming operation could leak
out.

Andrew brought in all his security teams.
Jake got a good turn out from his request for the mercenaries.
Close to fifty mercenaries showed up with their cruisers to pull
into orbit around Madelor and await instructions. The Galactic
Officials arrived shortly after being summoned by Andrew. They
brought four large ships and eight short range fighters. When they
received the news that it was the Helavites they would be fighting,
they sent word for a half dozen more ships and a dozen more
fighters.

Two months after the initial sighting of the
Helavites stronghold the forces of the universe moved against
them.

They couldn't have won the air war against the
Helavites, were it not for Arr. He could not duplicate the bug's
language, but he could understand it. Where the Helavites always
had the advantage against their prey because of their unique
language, it failed them this time. After listening to their clicks
and grinding for a relatively short time, Arr could predict their
every move for the invading fleet.

The mercenaries were the ones chosen to go
in first for the ground warfare. They were well known for their
ability to function on their own. In a battle like this there would
be little time for orders to pass down the official chain of
command. They needed men who could think for themselves and act
accordingly.

The Helavites were stuck on the planet now.
All their cruisers were destroyed. Getting them routed out was
going to be a major achievement. Most of them ran underground and
the ones that were still fighting were almost impossible to kill.
Their vulnerability was so low due to their shells; it was pure
luck if you could get off a good shot at that gap in their
armor.

The mercenary forces fought for three full
days before the rest of the combined galactic forces were brought
in to help route out the Helavite's concentrated below ground. The
question was how to get to the ones that were underground. A direct
assault would only succeed in getting men killed. They needed
something to flush the bugs to the surface. A strategy meeting was
called aboard the Galactic Cruiser, GC 40.

A small group of battle weary, but
determined officers and men stood around the projected holo-vid
replica of the Helavite planet. The reinforced underground chambers
of the enemy were pinpointed by red on the surface of the three
dimensional holo-vid.

"Why not flush them out with fire?" Arr
suggested, thinking of Jake's numerous retellings of how he forced
the Hydra from their lair years ago. This time there would be no
worry about hostages or prisoners they could just burn the bugs
out.

Jake leaned forward placing his hands on the
edge of the platform that projected the image they were studying.
"Better yet, how about laser burn?" Jake glanced around the room at
the few remaining leaders left. Admiral Soltau of the Galactic
Forces nodded solemnly as he too studied the image closer with
Jake's suggestion in mind, his bushy, grey eyebrows knitting
together in concentration.

Jake turned painfully on a very sore leg. He
took a fall the second day of action while trying to avoid a
Helavite's attack. It irritated that old Arcanian injury from years
ago. "Andrew? Are your trade vessels still equipped with those
solar disks for emergency power use?"

"Yes." Andrew was not a military man, nor
was he known for his physical capabilities, but the sheer number of
personnel under his command allowed him a place in history among
these other beings battling this ultimate of foes.

"Good! We could detach the solar disks from
Andrew's vessels and position them on the planet's surface." Jake
removed his hat, running fingers through sweat dampened hair. "If
we position them just right we could direct the combined power of
all the remaining ship's lasers on the first disk, and with some
help from your statistical team Admiral, to determine the correct
alignment," Jake said glancing the Commander's direction, "we could
bounce the beam from disk to disk enabling us to shoot a beam down
each tunnel. I assure you those we didn't kill with the blast
itself would come to the surface pronto!"

"Excuse me, sir?" The Senior Science Officer
of the ground forces, Captain Tregg, spoke up. He was grimy from
the battle on the planet's surface and his head wore a bloody
bandage from some hastily dressed wound. "I happened to have an
opportunity to see the terra firma up close." There was a general
chuckle around the room, releasing days of tension and prompted by
the knowledge that Captain Tregg's current appearance could not
have been generated by an air battle alone.

"Go on Captain," the Admiral urged as the
merriment died down.

"The soil down there has a very high sand
content. You put that much laser power on it and it may melt,
sealing the burrows shut."

"Show me a visual 'Geochem' of the soil,"
the Admiral ordered. The insigne programmer at the table moved
quickly to produce the display.

A colored graph appeared floating beside the
image of the planet showing the chemical composition of the soil.
Silica was the highest registering element.

"Then we seal up the mouths of the tunnels
and wait for them to burrow to the top, where we pick them off as
they surface with the hand held flame throwers and whatever else we
can get our hands on that will do the job." Jake glanced around the
room for approval of his plan, there being no dissension, the
meeting was adjourned and all returned to the work at hand.

*****

The Helavites never made it to the surface
to battle further with the combined forces. The intense heat
generated by the lasers, magnified by the solar discs, melted the
soil into a bubbling mass. It incased the Helavites forever in a
glassy tomb.

The mop up was slow. The Galactic Officials
insisted on all the Helavite bodies being cremated and the planet
thoroughly searched for possible hideouts. The officials wanted to
be certain the bugs didn't return. Arr wandered down toward the
fields with Jake to check for signs of life. The toll among the
mercenaries was high. Over half their forces had died. Luckily Tim,
Jake, Arr and Kay-o were among the survivors.

Arr looked out over the fields wistfully.
"The crops are ready for harvest. It's a shame they'll go to
waste".

"Funny, I never thought of the Helavites as
farmers." Jake reached over and snapped off the top of a stalk. As
he studied it his gaze traveled down to the ground. There was a
footprint in the soft dirt at the edge of the field. Not the unique
print of a Helavite or the waffled tread of a spacer's boot, but a
sandaled foot. Not far from it was the bare foot print of a
humanoid.

Jake called Kay-o to his side. "Seek," he
commanded, as he pointed to the foot prints.

Arr and Jake followed at a distance as Kay-o
skirted the edge of the field. He came to a halt at the far corner
going down on his belly and waiting for his two masters to catch
up. Kay-o found their objective. There was another burrow. It had
been totally missed. There was no fortification around the
entrance. It was just a hole in the ground with a pair of Helavite
antennae sticking out of it listening for sounds of life.

Jake tapped Arr's shoulder and pointed at
the ground. The soft dirt was covered with footprints all headed
toward the mouth of the burrow. The Helavites had other beings
working their fields. They had hostages after all.

Arr motioned to Jake that he was going to
try to get around behind the Helavite sentry at the mouth of the
tunnel. Jake nodded his approval.

It took Arr almost three quarters of an hour
to silently circle the fields back the way Jake and he came to get
behind the Helavite. When he was in place close enough to lunge
forward onto the sentry Jake moved noisily from his hiding place to
draw the bug out. The head of the Helavite came up for a better
look. Arr dove in and grasped the Helavite around the neck. The
head retracted and the shell closed down over it. Arr struggled to
get a grip as he dangled over the mouth of the burrow. He had his
gathering knife in his hand. As the Helavite started to backup into
the tunnel Arr sank the knife up to its hilt into one of its large
segmented eyes. Under Arr's weight the Helavite and Arr tumbled
head long into the tunnel.

Jake and Kay-o rushed to the mouth of the
burrow when they saw Arr drop out of sight. They were ready to
follow when Arr poked his head up and motioned to them to be
silent. He could hear more Helavites below.

*****

Jake could hardly see. He couldn't hear
anything in the tunnels and he kept bumping into Kay-o. He
considered turning back, but thought that if the other Helavites
found the sentry dead, they might kill their prisoners before he
and Arr could return with help. He would have to depend on Arr's
highly tuned senses to get them through this time.

Arr was moving ahead slowly down the tunnel.
He could hear at least three more Helavites directly in front of
them. When he came to a bend in the burrow he stopped. He signaled
to Jake that they were just around the corner.

Jake heard the now familiar clicks and pops
as they got closer. Though his eyes had adjusted to the dim light
he still couldn't see well. He hoped the hostages were safe out of
harm's way so he could use the flame thrower he was carrying on the
bugs.

Jake signaled that he was ready and they
stepped around the corner to do battle with the Helavites. The
three Helavites were directly in front of a huge cage full of
prisoners in a large open cavern lit by torches. Use of the flame
thrower was impossible. Blasters were going to be pretty much
useless as well in these close quarters. The Helavites were armed
with short electrified whips that they obviously used to drive the
slaves. The bugs recognized the protection of the slaves. They
placed themselves squarely in front of the cage. Jake dropped his
flame thrower, which left him virtually defenseless against an
enemy that had proven it was almost invincible. This was going to
be a hand to hand combat of the first order.

Arr made one of those swift Henu moves to
his right. When one of the Helavites made a grab for him he feinted
back to his left and got behind the bug. He intended to do this one
in like the one at the mouth of the burrow. He jumped on its back
taking a stab at its eyes with his knife. The blow glanced right
off the heavy armored hood as it pulled it down tighter over its
head. The Helavite maliciously backed up into the bars of the cage
and began to crush Arr with the weight of its body.

The other two Helavites had Jake and Kay-o
busy with their whips. Jake took a couple of harsh blows from those
nasty weapons. He was trying to avoid another when he saw Arr being
crushed by the Helavite. He ran right into the arms of the bug
holding Arr. When it grasped him he shoved his blaster between the
beast's shell plates and fired. The Helavite turned to dust beneath
its shell. Jake and Arr found themselves facing each other as the
empty shell dropped to the floor. The remaining two Helavites
pressed the attack.

Jake tried to lead the bugs away from Arr
until the kid could catch his breath. It didn't work.

Kay-o almost succeeded in severing one of
the bug's legs. He was being dragged by the Helavite toward Arr.
The other Helavite advanced on Jake with its whip.

By the time the Helavite got to Arr he was
on his feet again ready to fight. The kid was too fast for the bug
with Kay-o in tow, when it struck at Arr it missed. Arr side
stepped it and came down hard with his knife on one of the
Helavite's arms. The arm dropped off, green liquid oozed out the
severed stump. At that moment Kay-o succeeded in tearing the leg
off. The bug fell to the floor on the four remaining appendages.
Arr jumped on its back, shoved his blaster between the shells as
Jake did and the bug disintegrated leaving Arr sitting on its empty
shell.