The Prize: Book One (51 page)

“Brody!  That wasn't your name before…”  Ellis hissed.”  …it was…  Marks!  General Clayton Marks.”  Brody came half out of his seat in shock, reaching for his weapon.

“What the hell!  How did…”  There was no way IMPSEC could know that.   General Clayton Marks died in the attack on the base.

“It was you! “  Ellis whispered, a sheen of perspiration on her upper lip.

“What… what was me?”  Brody stammered.  Suddenly feeling trapped.

“It was you that put me into the culvert and told me to run.”  Brody froze.

In a flash, it all came back to him, the night attack on the base, the rape gangs, and the slavers coming through the gate.  He'd personally killed the son-of-a-bitch who opened the gate for them.  They fought, God how they fought, but there was just too many of them.  He kept pulling his people back into a tighter and tighter circle as he lost men, until there was nowhere to go.  He remembered the girl, a lovely auburn hair girl, screaming in the hands of a slaver.  He'd ripped the man's throat out and stuffed the sobbing girl into storm water culvert, screaming at her over the gunfire and explosions to run and hide.  He knew he couldn't stop them, but he might be able delay them for a while.  Maybe long enough to give the children a chance to escape.  They fought for an hour or more, losing track of time until something hit him in the head and he sank into merciful oblivion.

“You can't be her…”  He looked again, trying to see the girl inside the woman.  ”God, she'd be thirty something by now.”

“I always wondered if I'd ever get a chance to say thank you.”  Ellis reached across the table to take his hand, but Brody jerked it back.

“No… you can't be her!”  He felt oddly betrayed somehow.

It couldn't be her, his brain screamed.  This was some IMPSEC trick, it had to be… maybe a way to help them track down the rest of the kids?  No, that didn't make sense, not after all this time.  If Ellis was hurt by his rejection, she didn't let it show. Imperial Military Service had taught her the importance of hiding her real emotions.

“If you're who you say you are, prove it.”  He didn't bother trying to hide the anger in his voice.  He was torn between two conflicting emotions, the hope she was who she said she was, and the fear that this was some kind of IMPSEC trick.

“And how would I go about doing that?”  Ellis asked.

Marks thought for a moment until one question sprang to mind.  All he had to do was ask her something that the young girl in the culver would never forget.

“And who might your grandfather be?”  A simple question, but one with a complicated answer.  She smiled, and he knew that she knew.

“He's not really my grandfather.  He's… he's my adopted grandfather.”  Marks face remained blank, giving no hint to whether she was right or wrong.

IMPSEC might know, not that there were any official records as such.  He'd made sure of that, personally destroying everything, electronic and paper.  If anyone survived the attack, beside himself, they might know half the story.

“And what was his name?”

“Chief Tommy Standing Bear, War Chief of the Chiricahua Apache nation.”  The words seemed to catch slightly in Ellis's throat.  Penn knew her well enough to know that it was pride that caused it, pride in the man she called grandfather.

General Marks took a deep breath, feeling as if his whole world had just turned upside down.  He looked at the two a fresh, still suspicious.  It was in his nature to be, but that was what had kept him alive so long.

“You might be wondering if this is an IMPSEC or Imperial Intelligence trick of some sort.”  Richard spoke out loud exactly what Clayton Marks was thinking.  Penn slid the box across the table.  ”As a gesture of good faith.”

“And this is supposed to prove what?”

“Just that it’s just a fraction of what I can get my hands on.”  Marks looked at the box for a long moment.  ”You in the market for several tons…”  Penn said.  ”Sorry, several thousand tons.”

“So?”  General Marks didn't know what else to say.  No one had that much Cg material available, it was impossible.

“I have a planet covered in the stuff.”

“Now, I know you're lying.  You can only get…”  He started to say, but Penn cut him off.

“…contra-gravity material in the photosphere of a brown dwarf.  I know.  I've heard it all before, Richard finished for him.  Marks felt his mental compass spinning again.

“This is going too fast for me.”  He growled.  ”Just what the hell do you want?”  The young man smiled at him.

“What I want is your help to build an army General.”  Penn made it sound as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Oh hell!  You would have to go and say something like that.”  Marks sighed.  Just when he was started to think he might live to a ripe old age along come two starry-eyed kids who want to go save the fucking world!  He was too old for this shit, way too old.  After a long moment Marks let out a long sigh.

“So what do you want me to do first?”  He said at last.

                                          The Beginning

For those reader who enjoyed the first book, I have included the prologue of book two of the continuing story of Richard Penn and Sub-Major Ellis as they continue searching for a way to, not just to save Earth, but to take the fight to the Tellurian Empire.

THE PRIZE

By

Rob Buckman

(Book Two)

PROLOGUE:                            “The yellow rose of terra….”

Younger, vibrant, General Marks stood in front of his troops on the parade ground inside the huge cavern.  His face a masks of professionalism as he eyed the troops standing before him.  The entity called Michael had given him back his youth.  Richard Penn had given him a reason to live.  Behind those dark brooding eyes tears threatened to spill out.  Tears of pride at what he was looking at, and what they'd accomplished in three short years.  Now it was time unleash the dog of war.

Before him stood the cream of a united humanity, one-hundred thousand battle ready troops.  Trained and armed to the teeth with ever lethal weapon man's ingenuity could devise.  If the entity call Michael thought the weapons in its fake arsenal were advance and equal to the technology of the Empire, the Thrakee, and the Silurian's, he soon found out what human ingenuity could do.  One look at the handbook Richard had secreted in his backpack and the geeks were off and running, coming up with a bewildering array of upgrades and advancement.  No sooner, had they seen the diagram of the replicator Michael provided and there was no stopping them.

In less than six month they had built even larger units and produced the first updated battle rifles.  They didn't last long, made obsolete by new advancements and sent to the recycler as raw material for the next evolution.  At times, even Michael seemed at a loss for words by what human engineering could do after just one look at something.  From a simple pair of combat boot to high powered artillery, there seemed no end to man's ingenuity.  Even now, three full battle fleet waiting in orbit for orders to advance.  All that was missing were the troops before him.

A slight smile touched General Marks lips hearing about Michael's reaction, but then again, Michael hadn't seen the incredible advances humans made in less than one hundred year.  At the turn of the nineteenth century, the human race was traveling around in horse and buggy, and yet, in less than eighty years they were walking on the moon.  Even so, he agreed with Penn.  Had the human race got to the stars on their own, the outcome might still have been the same.  No way could the human race have expected to run into the Tellurian Empire, the Thrakee, or the Silurian, but then again, maybe they should have.  Either way, we would probably still have gotten our collective butts kicked by any one of them.  Not this time.  Now they were ready, and Emperor Cytec's worse nightmare was about to come true.

He eyed the troops awaiting his order to embark to the waiting starships above.  Soon, they would be taking the fight back to the Empire on better then equal terms this time.  If the Empire thought they'd fought the crazy human's before, they were in for a rude awakening now that Earth's troops were properly armed and motivated.  This wasn't about territory, or about who was right or wrong.  The moral issue didn't even come into it.  These men and women from all over the planet were going out there to kick ass, and make those Imperial asshole's pay a terrible blood price for the four billion men, women, and children they'd slaughtered during the invasion.  They were going to find that you don't come into human's backyard to steal, rape, and kill without paying a very high price.

“The ships are standing by, and I am ready to embark the troop, General Marks.”
Michael's cybernetic voice whispered in his ear.

“Thank you, Michael,” he replied,  “as soon as I've had a few words, you can begin embarking them.”

“Yes, General.”

“All-hands frequency.”  He intoned, seeing the 'all-hands' icon light up in the corner of his helmet HUD.

“Men and woman of Earth,” he began,  “just by standing here today you have all proved that you have the right to yourselves to call yourself United Terran Marines.”

“Hurrah!”  One-hundred thousand throats answered in union.

“If you weren't you be running home crying for your mommy.”  The air inside the great cavern seemed to pulse as the man and woman laughed at his joke.

“You are about to embark of a great journey.  And for once in our history as a united species,” he paused for a moment to let those words sink in.

“But this is not just any journey.  This is a journey to establish once and for all, and for all time to come that the human race is not.  I repeat not, to be fucked around with!”

“Hurrah!”  The roar in response to his words shook the wall of the cavern and sent flocks of bird screaming into the air.  General Marks smiled, like a shark before it strikes.

“Too right, hurrah.  That's what I want to hear.”  He nodded to himself.  ”Mount up!”…