The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) (26 page)

Arepno walked up the grassy hill behind them. "We have trouble, brothers," he said through the translator.
"We're ready for trouble," said Swan smugly.
"Trouble is my middle name," said Raton with a mock sneer.
An odd look passed across Arepno's face. His translator unit appeared to have difficulty translating the idiom. "It is a good thing you are ready, Manuel Trouble Raton," said Arepno. It sounded like he was trying to make a joke, but he was deadly serious.
"What's going on, old friend?" asked Swan.
"The Tejans have a force, nearly five times the size of your army moving through the northwest mountains." Arepno pointed to the high peaks on the horizon.
"That doesn't make any sense," said Swan, shaking his head. "The northwest mountains are too high. You can't get troops through there. No hover vehicle will function across terrain like that. There's not enough oxygen."
Raton frowned deeply. His moustache drooped nearly to his chin. "While it's hard to believe that the Tejans would march an army through there, it is their best option. It's the only border that a large force could come through undetected."
"The only reason I noticed them was because of their lights at night," said Arepno, imitating a nod. "Once they get through the mountains, if they have hover craft with them, they can make it here with little trouble."
There was a little cloud of dust on the horizon. It built up rapidly. The three watched to see who was coming. The hover set down on the ground next to Raton's adobe house. The occupant climbed out and looked around then ascended the hill. When he was about half way up the hillside, it became clear from the walk and flowing, white hair that it was Firebrandt.
He was out of breath. "I'm not used to climbing hills anymore." He looked at Arepno. "I got your message and came as soon as I could."
Arepno turned to Firebrandt. "I just arrived, myself, old friend."
"I also got word from my grandson. He's returning to his ship. He sounded pretty upset," said Firebrandt. "He just had a meeting with Governor Hill and figured that something like this might be in the making."
"Well the question is, what do we do?" Swan shrugged.
"We could ambush them as they come out of the mountains," said Raton.
"Nice idea," countered Swan. "But how do we know where they'll come out?"
Firebrandt and Raton nodded to each other. "There are a lot of routes out of those mountains, true," stated the captain, "but there's only one pass large enough to get an army that size through."
"Camlan," said Raton knowingly. "Seems like old times."
"Camlan?" asked Swan. "Isn't that where Arthur and Mordred had their final battle on sixth century Earth?"
"You remember the story of those Tejans I sent to hell all those years ago?" asked Raton. Swan nodded. "The secret to beating them is that they tried to come through this same pass in the mountains. There's a wide river bottom that leads out; wide enough to march an army through, but it's like a canyon with high walls. They called it Camlan Pass because of how badly they were defeated."
Firebrandt looked down at the army marching below. "That army might just defeat a large Tejan force coming through Camlan Pass."
"How long before the Tejans make it to the pass?" asked Swan.
Arepno thought about it for a bit. His purple moustache wiggled slightly. "They should be there in another day."
Swan kicked the dirt, cursing. "There's no way we could march the troops there in a day!" He shook his head. "Even if we could, they would be so tired they couldn't fight off an army of Tejans!"
Raton grinned. "You are thinking like your friend King Arthur, amigo." Raton ran off toward the house and returned with an amplifier. He pinned it to the collar of his white shirt and looked out at the crowd. He held up his hands in the way that was supposed to signal to the platoon leaders that one of the generals had an announcement.
The group down in the meadow stopped marching. They moved in unison up the hillside, then sat in the grass facing Raton. He walked down hill a little ways. "Those Tejans are up to their old tricks. They think they can fool old Manuel by coming through Camlan Pass." There was an uproar of laughter. "We need to get there tonight so we can outsmart them. I want everyone to take their weapons and get to their hovers. Drive to the meadow below the pass. I want the platoon leaders to reform your groups there. We'll camp out tonight and wait for them to poke their heads out tomorrow."
The crowd cheered. As with most armies engaged in training exercises, they were bored. The prospect of action was too much to resist. They broke ranks and ran to their hovers, shouting and singing.
"Hardly an efficient, organized fighting force," grumbled Swan under his breath.
"You can keep your efficient, organized fighting force. That's what the Tejans are sending," said Raton, carefully extracting the amplifier pin from his shirt. "Our people are defending their homes. Whether our people are efficient or not, it will be almost impossible for enough Tejans to get through that pass tomorrow."
Swan nodded. "Then we'd better get there ourselves."
"We had better, amigo," said Raton.
Firebrandt looked at the two men. "I'm not much good in a fight anymore, but I have a grandson in a destroyer over our heads. I'll have him keep an eye out on the Tejans. There may be something he can do to lend a hand."
Arepno nodded. "I will return to my ship and transmit coordinates to Ellis' ship. He will need them to find the troops in amongst the mountains."
"How did you find them?" asked Firebrandt.
"Our sensors are better than human sensors," stated Arepno. Firebrandt heard no intonation. Still, he wondered if Arepno was joking.
"Let's go!" Swan clapped his hands together. The group split apart. That night, Swan and Raton's fighting force camped at the base of Camlan Pass. They all checked their weapons. All of them knew they might die the next day, but they were there to defend their home. They spent the night singing happy songs, reassuring themselves.
* * * *

John Mark Ellis spent a fitful night aboard the
Firebrandt
. His alarm woke him before local dawn. He padded into the head across from his bunk. While he was in there, he looked at himself in the mirror. He considered removing the facial hair, but decided not to bother for another day. He splashed a little water on his face and padded back to his bunk. The commander pulled the curtain and got dressed then stepped out to the bridge.

"Commander on deck!" said Rubin. Ellis was always amazed at how alert and cheerful Rubin seemed in the morning. He never understood, but on mornings like this, he was grateful that someone of that energy acted as first officer.

Ellis retrieved a cup of coffee from the dispenser to the side of the command seat and plunked down. He cursed mildly as some of it spilled, splashing his knee. "Status, Mr. Rubin," mumbled Ellis groggily.

"We're still monitoring the movements of the Tejan ground forces. They marched through the night and seem to have come to a stop some ten miles from Camlan Pass, sir," reported Rubin.

Ellis sniffed as much as drank the coffee, trying to wake up. "Let me know if they move." He brought up a series of charts and maps on his display, considering how best to support the New Granadan forces.

"Communication from the planet, sir," reported the communicator.
"Go ahead, Mr. Weiss," said Ellis, absorbed in the maps and nursing the coffee.
"The New Granadan forces have engaged the Tejans at Camlan Pass, sir," reported Weiss.
Ellis sat up, suddenly wide-awake. "Mr. Rubin, have your sensors shown any movement?"
"None, sir," said Rubin, apologetically.
Ellis swallowed the remainder of his coffee and tossed the cup in the recycler. He searched his jacket furiously for a cigar. He found one and held it silently, thinking. "Mr. Rubin, what wavelength region have you been scanning?"
Rubin's eyes darted rapidly from his display to Ellis. "I've been looking at low band EM radiation from their supplies. Scanning for their power packs and storage units. It's easier and more reliable than looking for the IR emissions from the people themselves, sir."
Ellis nodded. "That's okay, B-Com. Scan the IR. I know it will be difficult given local dawn, but let's try to find out where those troops are." Ellis bit off the end of the cigar, thrust it in his mouth and lit it.
"Aye aye, sir," said Rubin. He typed several commands into his console. A visual image of the pass appeared. He displayed the supplies in green. A few moments later, a fuzzier red display showed. There appeared to be a mass of people out ahead of the supply train, backed up in the pass.
Ellis puffed on his cigar for a while. "There doesn't appear to be anyone with the supplies."
"Certainly not enough people to show in this display. The great mass of the troops is ahead of the supply train, sir," said Rubin.
Ellis smiled, holding the cigar with his center teeth. "Prepare my launch. Adkins," he said to the gunner, "come with me."
"Aye aye, sir," said the gunner enthusiastically. She was young and had never been on an actual raid before. They walked back through the ship to the launch bay and stepped through the airlock into the tiny space vehicle.
"Mr. Rubin reports launch is prepared and ready to castoff," Weiss' voice came over the intercom.
"Thank you, Mr. Weiss," said Ellis. "Disengaging." The airlock doors closed. The clamps that held the vehicle in its pocket on the side of the ship let go. Ellis gave a very gentle burst of the thrusters and the launch moved perpendicular to the ship. He stared out over the panorama of space, with the planet extending beneath him. Vast, white clouds played over the surface, the water sparkled blue with a tinge of green.
"Test your guns, Adkins," ordered Ellis. "I don't want any misfires when we get down near the surface."
"Aye aye, sir." She grabbed the handles that maneuvered the hepler turret mounted atop the launch. Several bursts of green light appeared in front of the tiny ship. "Weapons functional and ready, sir."
"Then here we go." Ellis located the northwest mountains on his scanners and entered his course. The ship shot down. He put Sufiro's sun behind him so their entry into the atmosphere wouldn't be seen. As the ship hit the atmosphere, automatic shields popped on. Flame shot around the craft as it bounced and tumbled through the atmosphere. "Reentry, the old-fashioned way!" declared Ellis, gleefully.
Adkins gripped the armrests of her seat. Her eyes were tightly shut. "This is almost worse than an EQ, jump, sir," she said. "At least with a jump, you're not usually conscious!"
Ellis laughed. "This is exhilarating!" As the boat got within twenty miles of the surface, thrusters kicked in controlling the descent. The mountains came up extremely fast.
"Sir, we need to be careful," said Adkins, her voice trembling.
"Mind your guns. I'll mind the boat," barked Ellis. "Hang tight! We're going to get even closer to those mountains."
"That's what I'm afraid of!"
The craft fought against an updraft, but continued its dive. Ellis took manual control. There were variables that the computer would not be able to compensate for. "Begin scanning for that supply train!" ordered Ellis.
Adkins struggled to control her stomach. She reached across and turned on the scanners. She grabbed the turret controls. As they approached the supplies, she let her attention get drawn into the scanner. The nausea slowly receded and she was able to concentrate. The craft suddenly lurched to one side as Ellis swerved to miss a peak that was higher than was indicated on the computer map. On the screen, Adkins could see the supply train clearly now. The guns on the launch were not designed for long range. They would have to get close. She could tell Ellis was accelerating. The train was almost in range. As the craft swerved again, she was grateful she wasn't looking out the windows. Suddenly, the train was in range. She fired several bursts. There was a loud roar and gravity shifted under her back at three gees. She forced her eyes to look at her targeting computer. The supply train had exploded. Ellis was rushing the craft out of range of the blast and back to the ship. "We did it?" she asked.
"We did it!" called Ellis, spiraling the craft into a gentler ascent. "You did it!" They let out a yell simultaneously. * * * *

On the ground, a column of fire and smoke rose just before the shock wave of an earth-shattering explosion knocked most of the ground troops off their feet. The Tejans looked around and understood immediately. McClintlock rose bloody and bruised from the ground and watched the column of fire. "Damn," he whispered.

Swan had been out of action almost since the battle began. The first Tejans out of the pass had been cut down very efficiently. Swan's stomach could not take the strain. He left Manuel Raton in charge of the action. Meanwhile, he found a gully nearby and stayed there groaning. When he felt the explosion, he looked back. He examined the fiery pillar with his computer eye. In front of his field of view an estimate of the amount of energy in the blast printed out. "That's a hell of a blast," muttered Swan.

Raton and his troops raised a cheer at the sight of the explosion. Raton knew immediately that the only way an explosion could have that much energy was if it was the Tejan energy weapons blowing up. He led the troops in a massed charge.

The Tejans themselves were demoralized by the explosion and lost much of the will to fight. The New Granadans poured over them, mercilessly. All the anger and the frustration came out that morning. The memories of disciplinarians and the pain of slavery were unleashed upon the Tejans. Over half of McClintlock's force was slaughtered. The colonel ordered retreat.

Raton called off his troops. They watched as the pitiful remainder of the Tejan force struggled back through the pass. Swan staggered back to Raton from the gully. Raton grabbed Swan and hugged him, then stood back. "You are a mess," Raton said.

"We won?" asked Swan, dazed. Swan saw the bodies strewn in the meadow and had to grab Raton to keep his feet.
"We won, amigo," said Raton. The sheriff turned back to the retreating Tejans. He turned on his amplifier. "Adios amigos, come back when you want to play fair!"
The sound of an amplifier turning on echoed in the pass. "You got lucky!" Swan looked and saw McClintlock raising his fist in anger. Despite his attempt to sound fierce, it was obvious his voice was shaking. "This isn't over! We'll crush this continent!"
"Aw, blow it out your ass!" shouted Raton. He switched off his amplifier.
Swan looked at Raton. "Shouldn't we go after them?"
"Nah," he said. "They're finished. We'll stay here for a time, just to make sure they don't just go up there, recover and try to come back."
"We should bury the bodies." Swan fought back another wave of nausea.
"Why?" asked Raton. "They're nothing but Tejans. The carrion bats will deal with them."
Swan fell to his knees. "They may have been wrong, but they were human. You were a Tejan once."
Raton saw the pained look on Swan's face. He knew it was simple nausea. At the same time, he knew his friend was correct. The Tejans deserved better in death than to be allowed to rot. Raton left to find out how many of his people survived and organize a burial detail.
* * * *