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“I got an ‘X,’ Sir!” Shinzato called, his eyes glued to the binoculars trained on the fortress ahead of them.
“Okay,” Ben said, handing his M-31 to Baird. He had sent for the staff sergeant as soon as he had settled on this plan. If things got hot, Baird would have to take over the platoon. “Don’t start shooting unless you’re certain we’re screwed,” he reminded him.
“No worries, Sir, we got you covered,” Baird told him. The NCO had already placed designated marksmen to positions with good shots at the center of no-man’s land. If it looked like the Va’Shen were up to no good, they’d be able to cut them down pretty quick.
Unfortunately, he was pretty sure the Va’Shen were doing the same thing.
Ben turned to Bao Sen. <Prepare?> he asked.
Bao Sen’s tail whipped back and forth in a combination of fear and anger. She did not relish exposing herself to so many weapons, but she understood that she was the only one who could actually speak to the Va’Shen on the other side and try to explain things. It could be the only way to get her huntress back, so she had agreed to the plan.
<Prepared,> she grumbled simply.
“Okay,” Ben said again, taking position at the front of Rozan’s stretcher. “Just like we planned.”
Bao Sen took the other side and the two lifted. At Ben’s signal, they started forward into the barren no-man’s land that led toward the Va’Shen ridge.
The two moved slowly and carefully, not wanting to risk dropping the prisoner or falling themselves. They were aware that if they made any hostile-looking movements, the commandos would open fire on them. Out here with no cover, there was nowhere to hide from it.
The Huntress muttered a prayer to herself as she walked. She wondered if this was why vixens were prohibited from military service. Maybe tods were immune to what she was feeling right now: the fear, the pounding heart, the sweating. She wondered if her brothers had felt like this when they fought and hoped they hadn’t.
Ben, swallowed dryly, feeling much the same as Bao Sen. They were totally exposed. If they shot him here, he’d hit the ground before he felt the blast.
Finally, the two reached the halfway point and lowered Rozan to the ground in front of them. They waited for several moments, and finally they saw two Va’Shen coming forward.
Turan had wanted to come alone, but upon seeing two figures walking forward, protocol dictated that he bring a second, and so Sayuno walked alongside him, unarmed.
<Remember,> Turan told him. <If anything were to happen, you are to run back to cover as fast as you can, and report what you have seen and heard.>
Sayuno’s tail whipped about, his teeth grinding on the orders. He did not want to abandon his captain, and, in truth, had no intention to. Turan could take his other ear if he liked, but after they were both safely back in the tunnels.
The two approached and stopped several yards from Ben and Bao Sen. Sayuno’s eyes went wide. <Rozan!>
<Be silent,> Turan hissed at him. <Betray nothing.>
Sayuno shut up but looked worriedly at his friend lying in the stretcher between the two groups. He grit his teeth again as he concluded they must have brought him as a shield so that Eruto and the others wouldn’t fire on them.
Bao Sen stepped toward him and pointed at Ben. <This is the Overlord,> she said. <Gib-san. I am Bao Sen, Huntress Leader of Pelle until the return of my father.>
Turan looked the Overlord up and down. He was taller than the prisoner they held, with lighter skin, and held himself with assured power and pride. He looked like an overlord.
<I am Turan,> he returned. <Captain of the Fourth Commando of the Third Princess’s Windsabers. This is Able Guardsman Sayuno. What do you want?>
Bao Sen took a breath. The Va’Shen officer before her betrayed no sign of nervousness or concern. She wondered if this whole thing was boring to him somehow.
<The Overlord has told me to tell you that he is returning your commando to your care.>
Turan’s tail slapped the ground, betraying some level of surprise. However, he said nothing, waiting for Bao Sen expectantly as if disappointed in the incompleteness of her report.
<He is wounded,> Bao Sen explained, doing exactly what Turan wanted. <The Dark Ones have done what they can for him, and I think he will live.>
<And the price for this mercy?> Turan demanded.
<That you hear the Overlord’s message,> the Huntress answered.
<That is all?>
<That is all.>
Turan looked over Rozan and took a breath. He might be boobytrapped. He couldn’t let him back in until they checked him over, but he was, indeed, alive. His eyes were closed, but his chest moved up and down.
<What is the Overlord’s message?> he asked.
<The war is over,> Bao Sen explained to him. <Your actions violate the promise the Emperor made to the Dark Ones that we would not fight them. You have to surrender.>
<Is that it?> Turan asked.
<Have you harmed my Huntress?> she asked, her eyes boring into Turan’s.
<If I have?> Turan asked.
<I’ll kill you,> she said simply.
The Va’Shen captain studied her for several moments before his ears twitched just a bit. <Then it is good for me that I have not. She and the Dark One are alive. The Dark One has been interrogated, but we have done so within the directives of the Gods.>
<Will you release them?>
Turan’s ears twitched again in amusement. <If I release them, you will unleash your full force against us,> he said.
<What will it take?> she asked him. <What will make you surrender?>
<I am not authorized to surrender this position,> he told her matter-of-factly.
The Huntress took a breath. This was getting them nowhere. <Then who...>
She broke off as her ears caught an unfamiliar sound on the wind. A steady vibration that shook the hair on her tail. She saw that Turan and Sayuno heard it too, and a moment later, the Overlord turned behind him to the sound and looked up at the sky.
“Oh, Hell!” he growled.
The Pawnee cleared the trees and banked toward them.
Bao Sen turned back to Turan, her tail swishing against the air.
The commando captain glared at her. <Liars,> he breathed.
Sayuno cut him off before he could say more, grabbing his captain by the shoulder and starting to pull him away. <Captain! Run!>
The other commandos watching from the ridge had caught onto what the sound meant and started firing at the Rangers across no-man’s land.
<Wait!> Bao Sen cried at them. <We didn’t...> The words died on the wind as Ben grabbed her arm and pulled her into a crouch, dragging her as fast as he could toward the human position.
“Of all the frigg’n rotten timing!” he yelled at himself.
Machine gun fire answered the blue lasers that reached out to them with red tracers of their own. A few of the hard light guns reached up, trying to cut the helicopter above them into pieces. One of the lasers found purchase where the fuselage met the tail, and the chopper jerked violently in an effort to get away.
As this all happened, Turan pulled away from Sayuno and ran back to Rozan’s stretcher. Grabbing the handles near the commando’s head, he began dragging the wounded tod back toward the ridge, ignoring the violent bumps that were probably agonizing his soldier. Sayuno grabbed the other end and lifted, and the two started running.
“HOLD FIRE! HOLD FIRE!” Ben screamed as he and Bao Sen cleared one of the berms and found cover. “HOLD YOUR GODDAMN FIRE!”
The word went up and down the line, and the roar of the human weapons died off.
Ben looked up and searched the sky for the Pawnee.
But there was nothing there.
* * *
“I think we got a landing site, LT,” the helicopter pilot shouted back to Patricia over the sound of sobbing Va’Shen. “We’re going to give it a try.”
“Gotcha!” Patricia shouted back. She looked out the window and saw what the pilot was talking about. It looked like someone had gone in and cleared out the trees and brush already, and she could just barely make out a human uniform and one or two Va’Shen tails. That must be one of the Rangers and the Huntresses.
The Pawnee dipped low behind a ridgeline, trying to remain concealed until necessary. As they moved closer to the LZ, the helicopter popped out from below the trees and banked right to get into position to land.
And then all Hell broke loose.
Bolts of blue lightning spat from the hill that sat on one side of the clearing, tearing into the trees on the opposite side. Then some of those bolts reached for them.
“HARD LEFT! HARD LEFT!” the co-pilot cried, and Patricia had to hold onto her seat as the helicopter lurched to the left fast enough to make her almost lose her lunch. The vixens in the seat behind her screamed in terror. The interpreter looked up at Denesta, who, despite the serene look on her face, was grasping her seat hard enough to make her knuckles white.
<So...> she said. <I argue today.>
She heard two sharp SMACKS come from the rear of the chopper, and an alarm in the cockpit went off.
“WE’RE HIT!” the co-pilot called back to them. “EVERYONE HANG ON!”
Patricia’s stomach leapt into her throat as the helicopter began swinging violently from side to side. Were they crashing?! Was that what it meant?! She looked around her. With all the high-speed maneuvering, the crew chiefs hadn’t even had the opportunity to fire back with the mini-guns. They were too busy holding on for their lives.
Up in the cockpit, the pilot checked over their systems. “They must have hit the tail rotor, we’re starting to counter rotate,” he said calmly.
“Shutting down the engine,” the co-pilot replied, hitting several switches over his head.
Shutting down the engine?! Don’t we need an engine to fly?! Patricia’s mind screamed at her.
The violent swinging began to subside, as the pilots continued crashing.
“We need a place to land,” the co-pilot commented.
“I know how to crash a helicopter, you know,” the pilot replied with mock-snark.
“You certainly got enough experience,” the co-pilot replied. “It’s just like Epsilon all over again.”
The pilot hit a few more switches as the chopper started to descend. “Why you gotta bring up old shit?!” he demanded.
“I’m just saying that we crash an awful lot nowadays,” the co-pilot told him. “Got a field ahead.”
“Yeah, that should do it,” the pilot agreed. “And Epsilon wasn’t my fault! I didn’t go looking for that dust storm.”
Patricia turned her head to look up at the cockpit. Somehow, the crew’s steady banter made the situation seem less horrible.
“I’ve got purple smoke!” the co-pilot announced. “Yeah, well you didn’t exactly avoid it either,” he added.
“Roger that. Purple smoke. And I got a Broken Wing Award out of it, and you got shit.”
“I don’t need an award for crashing a helicopter! Just a sec...”
Patricia saw the co-pilot turn to them. “We’re okay!” he called back to her. “We got another LZ! This one is secure,” he finished in a mutter. She nodded quickly at him, trying to get her heart to start beating again.
“Coming down...” the pilot said. “Flaring...” The nose of the helicopter came up as it continued to float down, the unpowered rotors slowing steadily along with it. “And... down. You’re always so negative.”
The helicopter touched the ground and settled.
“There, see?” the pilot told the co-pilot. “Everything’s cool.”
Patricia tried desperately to keep from throwing up.
* * *
“Of all the goddamn worst timing!” Ben growled as he stalked toward Burgers. Bao Sen followed him, unsure of what else to do. “She was reaching him too! I could see it!” He finally reached the NCO, who was staring over the berm at Fort Fluffytail. “Where’d that chopper go down?!” he demanded.
“It looked okay,” Burgers replied. “Headed south-east, toward the casualty collection point. I got a fire team heading that way in case they need help.”
“Great,” Ben huffed. “Lost a prisoner, screwed up the negotiations and only maybe lost a chopper.”
“Just another fun-filled adventure in the U.S. Army,” Burgers commented. “If he lives through this, Ramirez is going to have to pay one helluva bill.”
“What’s Todd doing?” he asked, changing the subject.
Burgers looked back at the ridge through the binoculars. “The two you were talking with made it back okay,” he said. “They took the prisoner with them.”
As angry as Ben was at the situation, he was a little relieved at that news. If Rozan had been left in the middle of no-man’s land, he’d have to make a choice between going to get him, trying to convince the Va’Shen troops that they won’t fire if they wanted to go get him or leave him there to bake in the sun.
Nothing was worse for morale than having to listen to someone beg for help and knowing there was nothing you could do to help them.
“What next, Sir?” Burgers asked him.
“Hold here,” Ben ordered. “Let’s see what condition the chopper and crew are in. Then we’ll reassess.”
“Roger that, Sir.”
* * *
Patricia sighed at the sight of the three Mikorin on their knees, their hands up as if in surrender, praying. They had been doing that nonstop since the helicopter landed and the doors had opened five minutes ago.
The crew chiefs were still checking the damage sustained during the aborted landing. Mina had rushed toward the small group of Rangers who had been waiting under the tree-line, so Patricia was left relatively alone to take a look at the small clearing. A few trees had been wrapped with det cord and blown down to make enough room for a helicopter to land. The remains of a purple smoke grenade nearby gently sputtered out.
One of the unwounded Rangers trotted up to her and she instantly recognized Specialist Shinzato. “You okay, Ma’am?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she replied. “Where’s the captain?”
He chucked a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s where the action is. Northwest about two klicks.”
“How is it going?” she inquired. “Ramirez okay?”
“They think he’s okay,” Shinzato told her. “But Todd’s dug into the hill, and he don’t want to come out.”
“Any casualties?” she asked tentatively, dreading the answer.
“Mills broke a leg,” he told her. “He’s not urgent, but if they can get that chopper flying, we’d like to get him out of here.”
Patricia sighed in relief. She had never had to deal with casualties before, had never even seen a dead person before. She didn’t want to either.
“Not sure about that,” she answered him, a chill taking her spine as she thought of them crashing. “It looks like you found the Va’Shen, after all.”
“Oh, we found them, all right.”
“I need to take these three vixens to Captain Gibson,” she said. “Can you take us there?”
“CHOCOLATE!”
They turned to the sound of the call, and Shinzato yelled into the woods. “COOKIE!”
Three armed Rangers emerged from the trees to their left. They saw Shinzato and Patricia and jogged up to them.
“You all okay?” the lead Ranger asked.
“Took some fire on the way in,” Patricia told him. “But we’re all okay.”
The fire team leader nodded but paused when he saw the vixens praying nearby. “Who’re them?” he asked.
Reminded again of her mission, Patricia turned back to him. “I need to get them to Captain Gibson. ASAP.”
“It ain’t safe,” the Ranger told her. “Y’all should stay here. Todd may be on defense, but he’s good at it.”
“It’s important,” Patricia asserted. “One of them is from the Va’Shen village these guys come from. I think she can talk them down.”
The Ranger bit his lip, uncertain of taking three women in dresses and a lieutenant into a free-fire zone.
“We also have our new medic here,” Patricia pressed, pointing at Mina, who was getting Mills ready to fly as soon as they got the word from the pilots that it was safe.
It was enough to tip the scales. “Okay, we’ll take you in,” he said. “Tell the foxes to stay quiet and not draw attention to us. They call out to Todd, compromise our position, and we’ll ghost them. Copy?”
“They’re on our side,” Patricia assured him, letting the threat pass by.
The Ranger looked at her uncertain. “We’ll see.”
* * *
<Rozan! Rozan! Are you okay?>
The commando groggily raised his hand to his head and was surprised when he was actually able to touch it. He was no longer tied down. He opened his eyes and found himself in the commandos’ dimly lit infirmary inside their base.
<Sayuno?> he muttered. <Is that you?> His leg still hurt like nothing else, but the fact that he was back with his commando was enough to make his ears stand up.
<We have you,> Sayuno assured him. <You’re going to be fine. The healer is checking your bandages now.>
<Rozan,> he heard from the other side. He turned his head and found Turan looking down at him. <I know you are in pain, but can you tell us anything about the Dark Ones attacking us?>
The scout swallowed dryly. <Is there any water?> he asked.
<I will get some!> Sayuno told him and dashed off to find a canteen.
Rozan turned back to Turan. <They asked how many of us there were.> His ears twitched in mirth. <I told them a million.>
Turan’s ears twitched in reply. <You did well.>
<Captain, I don’t think there are as many as we thought there were,> Rozan continued. <I saw very few of them.>
<They’re probably spread out...> Turan began.
<Captain,> Rozan told him. <I kept my eyes open. There were very few across the field. Unless our estimate was wrong, they have moved hundreds of them away.>
That thought alarmed Turan. Why would they move the bulk of their forces away from the battle?
Unless they needed those forces to be somewhere else!
Turan clasped Rozan’s shoulder and squeezed. <Rest.>
Before the wounded tod could reply, the captain was already rushing to his command post.
They were about to be hit.
* * *
Patricia had expected this to be much harder for the vixens. In their beautiful hanboks and with their long hair, she had anticipated snagged dresses, cries of pain and tangled hair, and complaints of exhaustion.
Instead, Alacea, Hestian and Denesta seemed to flow silently through the trees like the breeze. A few times, the Ranger leading them had snapped his fingers at them and gestured angrily to stay behind the soldiers.
They’re natural hunters, Patricia thought. It’s second nature to them to move like this.
What if the technology gap between the two species had been closer to even? If the Va’Shen had drones, armor, bomber aircraft and advanced sensors, would the war still be going on?
Or would humanity have lost by now?
She shuddered at the thought of Va’Shen troops creeping silently through the forests of New Plymouth, sneaking up on unprotected neighborhoods and cities.
We won. Just be grateful, she thought.
The Rangers stopped and froze in mid-place for a moment before giving them a signal to get down. Patricia found a crimson-barked tree and knelt behind it. The only thing she could hear was her own breath, sounding like a wind tunnel in her mind.
Another Ranger poked his head up not far ahead of them and waved them past. The group continued on.
One wounded. She wondered how bad it was on the other side. She hoped they weren’t too late to prevent many casualties. She glanced briefly at Alacea, who was walking just behind her.
She had to suppress a chuckle as she remembered their conversation back on the FOB, the vixen ordering her to take her to Kar’El on her authority as the captain’s wife. It only seemed like Patricia was following that order because she thought her plan was worth a try. She wondered how the priestess would have reacted if Patricia had told her to pound sand.
Her lip twisted as she realized it wasn’t actually all that funny. She didn’t know how much authority an overlord’s wife held on this world, and if she didn’t at least pretend to respect that authority, Alacea could still make their lives very difficult. If the other Va’Shen perceived that Alacea’s authority was not respected by the human Rangers, they might not respect her authority when the Rangers tried to work through her with them.
For the millionth time, she wished she knew more about them, how their social hierarchy worked.
Because if there were really no way for the captain to peacefully annul their marriage, they were stuck with her.
* * *
“It’s quiet,” Ben remarked quietly, searching the ridgeline with his binoculars. He lowered them a moment later, his eyes narrowing. “Too quiet.”
Crouched next to him, Burgers shook his head. “Why would you say that, Sir?” he asked in exasperation. “Why would you put that kind of evil on us?”
Ben ignored the question. “No counter-attack,” he commented. “No movement. No harassing fire. No attempts to break out. Those little bastards are up to something.”
“Maybe they’re buying time while they dig themselves a tunnel out of here,” Burgers quipped.
Ben tried to put himself in Turan’s shoes. He knew the commando leader had no comms, otherwise he’d know about the surrender already. God only knows how long they’ve been entrenched up there or what their food supplies looked like. And if Bao Sen was right, they thought they were facing a battalion of hostile aliens.
What would he do in the alien’s place?
“My center is yielding. My right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking.”
World War I General Ferdinand Foch’s words perfectly encapsulated the Va’Shen’s situation... and the only option left to them short of waiting to starve.
“Baird,” he said. “Get everyone ready. We’re about to get hit.”
* * *
<WINDSABERS!>
The assembled commandos smashed the stone floor with their hard light rifles three times in unison in response to the captain’s call.
Crammed into the tiny Va’Shen command post, all the commandos who were not watching the Dark Ones outside had assembled and were waiting to hear the words of the tod who had led them since the war began.
<The time has come!> Turan called over their heads. <After all of our waiting, all of those hungry days and damp, cold nights, the God of War offers us one chance, just one, to defend our Emperor!>
The Va’Shen slammed the butts of their rifles against the ground another three times.
<We cannot call for help,> Turan continued. <Running is not an option, even if we were willing to dishonor the Third Princess in such a way.> He paused and waited for the sounds of hissing to stop. <The Dark Ones have offered us the convenience of their presence. All that is left now, is to show the God of War our courage.>
Three more slams against the stone. They were hungry. They were cold. They were sick. They were angry. But it was finally their time.
<No more hiding!> Turan told them. <No more sneaking about! We shall fall upon the Dark Ones and smash into them like a storm of swords! For the Emperor!>
<FOR THE EMPEROR!>
<For the Third Princess!> he shouted.
<SHE PROTECTS US!>
<And for the Gods!>
<UNITE US!>
<Each of you has a simple mission,> Turan told them. The commandos were practically hopping from one foot to the other, eager to get things done and over with one way or the other. <Kill five Dark Ones,> Turan told them. <After that... you can die... If not, you will kill five more.>
The Va’Shen slammed their rifles on the ground again, but this time didn’t stop.
Turan raised his arms over his head to quiet them. <Pray now,> he told them. <Then go to your assembly points.>
<TURAN! TURAN! TURAN!>
As the captain walked out of the command post, the Va’Shen corporals took charge of their tods to dismiss them. He took a breath, his ears and tail going slack in defeat.
Because he knew that’s what this was; a defeat. His tods were weakened by illness and hunger, outnumbered, and more than likely fully surrounded. With the bulk of the Dark One forces missing, he had to assume they were encircling him. There were not enough commandos to repel an assault from all sides. But he may have just barely enough to strike at a weakened front line, where he knew the Dark One leader was.
If they struck hard, fast and with resolve, they may be able to deal just enough damage to pause their advance, if only for a little while.
And if the Dark Ones wipe them out, at least his tods will be able to tell their loved ones a proud story in their eternity in The Glade. It was better than the weeks of torture they could expect if captured.
It was the last thing he could give to his commandos.
But before that, he had one last bit of business to conduct. He started down the hall toward the storeroom where he had kept their prisoners.
As he entered through the room’s doorway, he found the two of them still chained to the floor. They looked up at his approach.
“Sounds like a pretty kick’n party out there,” Ramirez told him. “Any cake?”
Turan ignored him and instead reached up to the ceiling. Secured to the hard-packed dirt was a crystal orb which he gently removed. Ramirez saw the sphere in his hand and sucked in a quick breath.
<You’ve seen these before,> Turan said, noticing the reaction. He turned to Alzoria and held it up. Having never seen a Va’Shen glass grenade, she had no reaction except curiosity.
<The entire tunnel network is rigged with these,> he told her before opening his pouch and securing it inside. <They are being set to go off when the Dark Ones reach the command post, when there is likely to be as many of them as possible in here.>
<Revenge launched from The Glade is a sin,> Alzoria scolded him softly.
<It is not revenge as much as it is an attempt to continue serving the Emperor as long as possible,> he retorted softly, without heat. He knelt next to her and released one of her wrists from her restraints. A moment later, he left the confused Huntress and stepped back through the door, returning a moment later, an old and very well-used spade in his hand. He looked at Alzoria and tossed the tool, it landing against the wall next to her with a loud, echoing CLANK!
The Huntress looked up at him in confusion. Turan responded by pointing at the wall opposite of the door, between where she and Ramirez sat.
<The mortar is weak there,> he told her. <And there is perhaps only a few meters to outside. Once we have left, if you can remove your other shackle, you should be able to dig your way out.> He glanced at Ramirez for a moment before his eyes returned to her. <Whether you take the Dark One with you is your decision.>
<You don’t have to do this!> Alzoria screamed at him.
He ignored her plea. <If you ever find your way to Kar’El, please tell our kin we served our Emperor until the last moment.>
<You can tell them that yourself if you just listen to me and stop fighting!> she rebuked him.
“Hey! Are we giving out free shovels?” Ramirez asked. “I wanna free shovel!”
<Will you please shut up for just two moments!?> Alzoria screamed at the human.
She turned to continue her argument with Turan, but the commando captain was already walking out the door.
Alzoria, her ears digging into the top of her head, grabbed the shovel with her free arm and started smashing it against the chain that held her other wrist.
If the commandos set off those grenades, the wood supports for the tunnels would turn to delicate glass, and the whole place would collapse.
With her and Ramirez still inside.
