Survivors, p.10
Survivors, page 10
part #1 of SSG Vanhorn Series
“Won’t they spot the armory right away?” Trip asked. “It’s a lot bigger than what we came down in.”
“We have it partially concealed,” I explained. “Plus, Trix and the captain are near there. We have to get to them in case they need our help.”
“You want to risk our lives for some dumb lance corporal?” Emery sneered.
“Are you deaf? He’s talking about the captain, too. And anyway, you’re just some dumb security officer yourself,” Trip snapped.
“Can we stop bickering? Look, I’m going back,” I said. “If you want to stay here, be my guest. You’ll just slow us down anyway.”
“You better watch your mouth,” Emery said. “You wouldn’t be talking so big without all those weapons and armor.”
I grinned. We were stranded on a planet controlled by our enemies, and yet human nature and vanity still drove us. For my part, I wanted to punch the mouthy security officer’s teeth out. There was nothing to gain from such an action except momentary gratification—it certainly wouldn’t help us survive—so I refrained.
“Stick around long enough, and you just might get a chance to see how I talk without these weapons and armor,” I said. “Right now, we’re going. You can come or stay, I don’t give a damn.”
“I’m going,” Trip said.
The seamen didn’t hesitate to get to their feet. Everyone was loaded with gear, including their own water containers.
“Fine,” Emery said, struggling to his feet. “Whatever.”
“Keep up,” I warned him. “We’ve got ten klicks still to travel. If you fall behind, you’re on your own.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Emery said. I ignored him.
Leonis B had two small moons half the size of Earth’s moon. They bathed the desert with a ghostly light. My helmet’s visor enhanced the light from the moons and the stars. I couldn’t see far, but I could make out everything around us—the trees, the spring, the boulders. The helmet also had a built-in compass, and I knew what direction the base camp was in. It was enough to find our way back to camp. I hoped that the darkness would conceal us if more Orrkasi ships passed by.
“Stay close, and no lights,” I ordered. “If you need to stop, speak up.”
“Yes, sir,” Trip said.
“We’re ready,” McShera added.
“All right—let’s move.”
Chapter 9
What should have taken two hours took four in the darkness. I stopped often, resting my stiff joints and doing my best to ignore the pain. When the hills came into view, I felt a huge sense of relief, but it wasn’t until my little group trudged into camp that I let my guard down a little.
“You made it!” Trix ran over to us, relief evident in her voice.
“We had to wait until dark,” I said.
“Because of the ships?”
“We saw one—I take it you did, too,” I said.
“Trix!” McShera said.
“Ilsa, is that you?”
“In the flesh. Shanon, too,” McShera said excitedly.
“I can’t believe it,” Trix said. “Thank goodness you’re here—the captain is hurt.” Without wasting any time, she took the two seamen to check on Dunning.
“This is your camp?” Emery asked. He had grumbled the entire way across the desert. “It’s nothing.”
“Shut up and get some sleep,” I retorted. “Those ships could be back at any time.”
“Sleep where?” Emery demanded.
“Wherever you want—I really don’t care,” I told him.
“You want us to sleep on the ground? I thought you said the armory was here. We need it for shelter.”
“What we need is for you to keep your voice down,” I said, my patience wearing thin. “This is our base camp. We’re not staying in the armory. That’s the first place the Orcs will look for us.”
“Makes sense to me,” Trip said.
“There’s not even a fire,” Emery complained.
With that, my patience officially ran out. “This isn’t a camping trip,” I snarled. “We light a fire, and the Orcs will see it for ten klicks in every direction. Now shut your mouth and get some sleep.”
“Who the hell put you in charge?” Emery puffed himself up.
“I did,” Dunning said. I hadn’t even heard her approach, but she was there, with Trix at her side. I couldn’t make out many details in the dark, only the bandage that Trix had tied around her head. “Officer Emery, please do as you have been told.”
“Aye, Captain,” he replied in his usual sullen tone, deflated.
With that situation defused, I turned to Trix to debrief. “We saw two ships,” Trix informed me. “One was round—like a zeppelin, almost, but even rounder—with some sort of protrusions sticking out of it.”
“I think that’s a sensor ship,” I said. “What about the other?”
“It was smaller, with guns on the bottom,” Trix said.
“Where were they?”
“They passed by here,” Trix explained. “Lucky for us, we were at the oasis. They passed pretty close, moving slowly, but didn’t stop. I don’t think they saw us.”
“Did they do anything around the armory?” I asked.
“They didn’t find it, at least not this time,” Trix said.
“They’ll be back,” Dunning said, her face drawn.
“I had hoped we would have more time,” I admitted. “Trix, do you have the scouts running?”
“Yes, the same as last night.”
“Good,” I said. “Petty Officer Malik and I will go down to the armory and begin moving as many of the weapons and munitions as we can.”
“I can help,” Trix said. “With Shanon and Ilsa here, I don’t need to stay with the captain.”
“I’ll be fine,” Dunning corroborated.
I glanced around the camp. Everyone was close except for Emery, who was lying on the ground under the trees. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed that he was already asleep.
“Fine—the three of us will start gathering supplies. In the morning, we’ll move to the mountains and stash what we can in the caves.”
“There are caves?” Dunning asked.
“It looks that way; we haven’t had a chance to explore them. We can send the scouts once the sun is up,” I said. “In the meantime, we need to get as much from the armory as we can. It’s only a matter of time before the Orrkasi find it. When they do, we’ll lose everything.”
“I agree,” Dunning said. “Start with what’s most vital. And make sure we have enough weapons for everyone.”
“Copy that, sir,” I said. “It won’t be a problem.”
When Trix suggested that I stay and unload the armory while she and Trip carried items up into the hills to our camp, I balked. The hardest part of such a tense survival situation—of any such situation, really—was understanding and accepting my own limitations. Deep down, I knew that trudging through the night would sap most of my remaining strength, and the two of them could probably work faster without me slowing them down. Reluctantly, I sent them back to the camp with a case of LARs and crates of batteries.
While they made the trip back, I broke into the containers where the explosives were kept. I wanted to save as many of them as possible while also setting charges inside the armory as a nice surprise for any Orcs that happened upon it. If we couldn’t have the equipment inside, I certainly didn’t want them getting their greedy hands on it. I placed several plastic explosives around the door and inside the container, running a detonation cord from one brick of plastique to the next, then inserting the blasting caps and setting up a remote so that we could trigger the explosives from a distance. There were still four large crates of explosives that were taken to the camp.
By the time the sun came up, we had most of the weapons, ammunition, batteries, survival gear, and solar charging equipment out of the armory and stashed at our base camp. The only goods that remained were the nonlethal weapons and ammunition. We didn’t need them—we weren’t planning to pull any punches in a fight. It was enough gear for three rifle platoons and three demolition teams. Our tiny band of survivors would never be able to use it all, but I knew there were more humans out there. I thought about the tracks I had seen leading away from the third escape pod I had found. Someone had survived and was out there somewhere; I couldn’t help but wonder if it might be Jordan.
We made our final trip back to base camp just before the sun rose. When Dockery wordlessly handed me a pouch of survival food, I realized I hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours. I accepted it gratefully and watched the sun rise with Trix and McShera.
“Captain Dunning is sleeping,” McShera said. “Should we wake her?”
“No, there’s no need. We can’t do much in the daylight. We’ll be seen.”
“You think those ships will be back?” Trix asked.
“Yes,” I admitted. “They won’t stop looking for us. The fact that they couldn’t find the armory will be all the proof they need that we’re alive and covering our tracks.”
“What should we do?” McShera asked.
“Hide, survive—whatever it takes,” I said.
“For how long?” McShera pressed the question. “We can’t do that forever. Nor will we need to—I’m sure the fleet must be sending backup to rescue us.”
“Eventually, that’s likely; but who can say when?” I asked. “It might be a long time.”
“If at all…they might decide we’re not worth the risk,” Trix added.
“Dear God.” McShera looked sick.
“Either way, we have the means to survive for some time,” I continued. “We’ll send the scout drones to inspect the caves. Once we’ve got a defensible base, we can begin gathering resources.”
I took a bite of my food. It wasn’t good, but so great was my need for food that my body tricked my mind into believing the emergency rations were delicious.
“What about other people?” McShera said. “Surely there were other survivors.”
“We didn’t get to all the pods that showed up on radar,” Trix said.
“We’ll do what we can to get to the other survivors, as long as we don’t risk our safety or the location of the camp,” I said. “The good news is, there aren’t many Orcs on this world. Those that are here won’t hunt us forever.”
“So we just hide and hope they never find us?” McShera said. “We just assume we’ll never get off this planet?”
“That’s not what he’s saying—is it, Van?” Trix said.
“You’re right, Trix. Survival is just the first objective,” I clarified. “Once the captain is awake, we’ll find out what she knows. Then we have to get that information to our people back home.”
“You mean send a message somehow,” McShera said. “I don’t know if we can manage that from the armory.”
“The comms gear only has a short range,” I agreed ruefully. “We don’t even know if the communications buoy the Rihla dropped upon entering the system is still out there. Even if it is, we’d need a much more powerful transmitter to reach it. Letting them know we were attacked isn’t enough, either: we’ll need to put together a report on who attacked us, what their strengths are, and what our people should expect.”
“Simple,” McShera said sarcastically.
“Yeah, what are we waiting for?” Trix added.
“It’s not going to be easy,” I told them, “but it falls to us. This world is the real treasure: atmosphere, breathable air, liquid water that’s readily accessible—it all adds up to the kind of discovery the fleet will fight for. Thinking about it this way will give us a purpose, and everyone needs that. From the ashes of this disaster, we can rise again. We can make this more than just a survival mission.”
“It’s a recon op,” Trix said.
“Exactly. We stay alive and do whatever it takes to send the intel back home.”
“That’s all well and good to say, but remember, we’re not Marines,” McShera said. “We don’t have TAC team training.”
“Consider it on-the-job training,” I said. “The truth is, we don’t really have a choice. Our needs and the objectives of the mission are the same.”
The sun rose soon, and with it came the Orrkasi ships. From the hill where we had established our base camp, we could see them in the distance. They moved across the horizon like bugs on a windowpane. It made me nervous: the one thing we didn’t have was weapons strong enough to take on a ship. We would need to be careful when we moved out.
While Trix and Trip caught up on their rest, I sent the scout drones to check out the caves. Most were small depressions in the rock, not true caves. There was plenty of evidence of animals nesting in them, which seemed odd, since we had seen almost no animal life on Leonis B. A few hours after sunup, Scout 2 entered a narrow crevice like a tunnel in the side of the mountain. The notch turned back and forth before widening into a large depression. It looked like an amphitheater: the space in the solid rock face of the mountain was concave, and the floor sloped down to where a pool of water waited.
What a find, I thought excitedly: it would offer protection while still allowing fresh air and natural light into the space. The mountain’s sides converged closely over the cavern, but the crevice rose all the way up. The drone panned up, and I could see the sky through the crack. The path of the crevice continued past the cavern and emerged on the other side of the mountain. We could easily protect both ways in and, if attacked from either direction, flee out the other side.
The adrenaline rush caused by this find couldn’t carry me indefinitely after such a long night. By midday, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I found my pack and stretched out, ordering the scout drones to return. We would need them to recharge before nightfall, and while we had plenty of chargers storing power, it would still take several hours to transfer the power to the small devices.
“I’m going to take a nap,” I told Dockery. “If any of those ships come close or land, wake me up.”
“Yes, Staff Sergeant,” she replied.
Everyone else was napping, and Dockery looked nervous. “Seaman,” I said softly, “are you all right?”
She shrugged. “I’m trying to hold it together.”
“You’re doing fine. Everything is going to be okay.”
“I don’t know how you can say that,” she replied.
“It could be far worse. At least the planet isn’t hostile.”
“Not hostile? There are aliens flying overhead,” she said incredulously.
“I can’t deny the presence of the Orrkasi. We have an edge on them, though: we know they’re here and can prepare accordingly. And this is a big place, where they won’t find us easily.”
“What happens when they do?” she said, sitting down on the ground beside me.
“Then we fight,” I said.
“And that’s exactly the problem: I don’t want to fight,” she admitted. “I joined the service to help people. I’m a medical professional, not a warrior.”
“We’ve got a few surprises for anyone who comes around,” I said, thinking of the large-caliber autonomous cannons. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but soon we’ll get settled, and you won’t feel so exposed. When the time comes to fight, I’ll lead the charge.”
She smiled. Shanon Dockery had delicate features and a warm complexion that suited her. She was pretty and young, like Trix—so very young, I realized with a pang. As smart and capable as these officers were—you couldn’t be a slouch if you were to succeed in the fleet—and as hard as they were trying to be brave, their inexperience and uncertainty shone through. It made me wonder how anyone could send children to war before I remembered that I had been just eighteen years old myself when I had joined the Marines.
“I’m going to close my eyes for just a few minutes,” I said, stifling a yawn. “If you need anything, wake me up.”
“I will,” she said.
I closed my eyes and fell asleep instantly, only to be awoken what felt like a second later. Someone was nudging me in the side with their boot, and they weren’t being gentle. I opened my eyes and saw the barrel of a LAR pointing at my face. I started to reach for my own weapon before remembering that I had set them all aside. The laser rifle in my face was most likely my own, and even if it wasn’t, I had no chance of bringing my gun to bear before my assailant pulled the trigger. I shifted my focus from the gun to the person holding it.
Emery looked at me with a wicked expression on his face. “Time to wake up, cripple,” he said. The softness of his tone was surprising.
“What are you doing?” I asked, not bothering to move. I knew I couldn’t spring into action. My body felt stiff, and the muscles in my back were burning. I needed to stretch, but I didn’t want to make any kind of move while Emery had the gun in my face.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he smirked. “I’m taking control of this disaster before you make it any worse.”
I could see that his eyes were dilated. It didn’t take much to realize he must have woken up, gotten a weapon, and forced Dockery to give him some of the pain meds from the trauma kit.
“Okay,” I said placatingly, “you’re in charge. What would you like me to do?”
“Not so sure of yourself now, are you, Staff Sergeant?”
He said my rank like it was an insult. Somewhere out of my field of view, I could hear someone crying softly. Anger was building up inside me like the pressure in a volcano. How could I have been so stupid as to leave weapons where this unstable brute could get to them? I should have known better, but there had been so much to organize. In all honesty, I hadn’t thought Emery was in good enough physical shape to be a threat. That mistake might have cost me my life.
“I’ve known your type for a long time,” Emery said. “You think you’re better than everyone else. You think that all these people—the entire fleet— will serve your pleasure. Well, think again.”
“I’m not thinking that,” I said, trying to sound calm. I even smiled, although I doubted it was convincing. Inside, my mind was racing. Emery had the upper hand, the better positioning; I needed some way to gain an advantage. There would be no way to fight my way out of this, so I’d have to try a different route.
