Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (29 page)

“
The c-4
,”
s
he whispered
,
“t
hat’s what he was
messing around with in his lap.”
The guards were momentarily frozen as they watched the small
green bag just clear their bone
ridged heads. But
in
milliseconds they trained their weapons back on
Mike and
in a few more milliseconds he would be dead because his rifle was still leaning up against the tree where he had left it. Tracy involuntarily shuddered as the first volley of shots was fired, the surprise never left Mike’s face as the two nearest guards fell in a heap
,
lethal wounds erupting blood like small volcanoes. Mike saw his chance and dove for cover
grabbing his rifle as he did so
as more small arms fire flared. Blue laser shots whipped through trees in the area that Mike had just vacate
d. Tracy watched in semi-
horror, not fully u
nderstanding what was happening.
S
ome crazy bastard was running like a madman right at the guards, they had been surprised for the moment but they were quickly adapting to th
e
new threat. Several of the guards pinioned and began to fire at the man that was screaming obscenities
,
most of which Tracy was sure she had never heard before. Mike’s rescuer
would have been
cut in two, but Mike had recovered and was on one knee laying down savage deadly fire on the guards that were nearest. The crossfire had them addled, the one that had seemed to be leading them was dead and no new orders were being issued, survival instinct reared
and
the guards broke for cover as the hail of bullets began to wither their
numbers. Reinforcements were having a difficult time getting to the fray
because of
the ones retreating. Tracy could still see this was a losing battle
.
N
early twenty of the big brutes were with a leader and headed straight for the man she would later learn was Dennis
.
B
rave
,
dumb Dennis. Dennis had dropped to one knee and was
futilely
attempting to put
a full magazine into his rifle. The gua
rds were almost past their make
shi
ft defenses and would have him i
n their sights when
,
without warning
,
the earth moved. The blast sent death and debris everywhere,
no one
within
fifty
f
ee
t
survived the blast
.
Mike
underestimating the power of the explosives
was saved only by blind luck as the tree
he was hiding behind
took the majority of the energy released. The bark from
the bottom of the tree to
half
way up was sheared off. Dennis was
luckily out of the main part of the blast zone but was still unceremoniously deposited on his ass from the concussion.

Who knows maybe it’ll knock a little sense into his head
—
what the hell was he thinking? I owe that man a kiss
, Tracy thought,
and it was
pretty much the same thought Mike had
, without the kiss, well maybe the kiss too.
A crater ten feet deep formed in the asphalt and dirt of the parking lot, small rocks rained down, what was left of the soldiers were being quickly disposed of as Tracy saw from the North side of the parking lot what looked like a
small band of Marines doing mop-
up duty. There was no more fight left in the
Genogerians
but Tracy knew
this would be a short-
lived victory if she didn’t get her squad out of there now.

“
Sergeant
!”
s
he yelled, more so because she was afraid that after the blast she had gone deaf, she was
relieved when he answered her and she heard him just fine.

“Ma’am!”
h
e answered, possibly a little too loud.

“Must be having the same thoughts I am.”

“Ma’am?”

“
G
et the men
.
L
et’s get the hell out of here.”

“
Yes sir
, I mean ma'am
.”

In an instant
,
they were on the
move,
c
aution
in their movements, speed on their minds.

CHAPTER FORT
Y
-FOUR

Eastern Seaboard Ground
Occupation - Location Southwest of Boston

“
Sir,
one of our fighters has reported
a battle in the town the
h
u-mans call Walpole
,”
t
he underling said
,
more than a little exasperated at being the bearer of bad news. The underling didn’t like this savage backward little planet. Nothing good had come out of it so far, it just didn’t seem to be worth the effort when the
re were so many less
inha
bited planets scattered through
out the universe. And the multi-colored
, ugly-
looking puny hu-mans. They were like feral
fahquar
(dog like animals)
on his home planet, not t
o
o bright
or to
o
big
,
but they could pack one hell of a bite if provoked.

“How many of the hu-mans have been killed and captured
?”
t
he
Ground C
ommander asked, not even pondering any other outcome.

“
Sir,
the fighter couldn’t be sure.”

“Well,
if his radio was broken
,
why didn’t he just land and ascertain the situation himself?” the
Ground Co
mmander still not understanding the flow of the conversation.

“Sir.” The underling gulped.
“
There wasn’t a safe place to land his ship.
”

Recognition finally
began
to ignite in the commander’s soulless eyes
.

“Ruthgar
,
what exactly do you mean?”

“
Sir,
the entire detachment plus the reinforcements
,
from what the pilot could tell were completely wiped out.”

“That’s impossible
—
there had to be
over
one hundred
front line genos there!” The commander yelled.

Ruthgar backed up. “A hundred and twe
nty-
five
, sir
.”

Pure savagery echoed in ever
y
mannerism of the commander. “Could the pilot estimate how many of the hu-mans had perished
?” he asked
with a menacing snarl.

“He couldn’t see any
, sir
, but
…
” he answered
before the
Ground C
ommander could explode, “They aren’t quite as primitive as we thought, they may have taken their dead with them.”

“Perhaps
,”
a
nswered the
Ground C
ommander
,
but even this notion did not calm the savage beast within. How could he possibly
call the mother
ship and tell them of this new devastation
?
Simple.
H
e smiled. He wouldn’t.”

“Sir?”

“Get all the troops loaded up
,
they
’re moving out.”

Ruthgar hoped beyond hope that he meant off th
e
stinking little insignificant planet, but he knew better
. He could smell the blood
lust scent gland from the
Ground C
ommander from across the room. “May I ask where
, sir
?” Ev
en though the answer was a fore
gone conclusion.

“To Walpole, Ruthgar. Where else?” The
Ground C
ommander smiled now that he had a plan in mind.

“Home would be nice
,”
Ruthgar
responded
softly
.
A
nything less than total commitment
w
ould be construed as weakness and weakness generally got
you killed.

CHAPTER FORT
Y
-FIVE

Paul’s men had made quick work of what was left of the alien detachment. Paul noted with interest that when their commander fell the rest of the survivors had become a disorganized mass
,
barely mustering a defense. He wasn’t sure if it was fallout from the concussion of the explosion or something even more significant. Paul strode quickly to where Mike and Dennis were hugging and exchanging greetings. Paul could only hope their reunion would be so cordial.

“Hello
,
Mike
,” Paul said
as he approached still a
good
fifteen
feet away. Mike turned from his embrace with Dennis. Paul couldn’t be sure but he would have sworn he saw a glimmer of malice flash across Mike’s face and in an instant it was gone. The coolness however in Mike’s voice was not.

“Hello
,
Paul
,
”
c
ame the flat reply.

Paul had closed the remaining gap phy
sically but now he had to try to
bridge the gap in their relationship. Nothing truly inspiring came to mind.

“Took you long enough
,” Paul said
.

“Well
,
I got a little lost
. I took a left
hand turn and ended up in France
,”
Mike added.

Paul could not tell if this was a jibe or a joke, Mike’s face belied nothing.

“Good to see you
,
man
,”
Mike said as he pulled Paul close into a bear hug
.
Paul reciprocated, a visible release of tension exiting his body.

“I guess I owe you both, you really saved my skin today.” Mike beamed.

“That makes us even
,
Mike
,” Dennis said
solemnly. “I’ll never forget the day you pulled us out of that car
, even if I wasn’t awake
.”