Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (71 page)

“Sounds like fun.”

“It is not
,” Urlack said
.
“The concussion is strong enough to kill a man.”

“Urlack
,
I think that you have a low estimate of just how strong we are.”

“I am telling you
,
Michael
,
the concussion is strong enough to re
arrange a man’s internal organs.
T
hey die a terribly painful death.”

Urlack wasn’t speculating, he had witnessed it. I didn’t want to know if it was a test or Mutes merely playing
.
E
ither way
,
I hated them and they would have to pay.

Intense fighting was concentrated to our front
.
W
e were still a good two hundred yards when a door to my left opened up. Not sure which of us was more surprised, the huge Mute nearly fell over me. Urlack put a round in its shoulder
.
I don’t even think it noticed as it saw me tangled up in its legs. My rifle was not going to be effective, I let it go, the sling
kep
t
it from clattering
to
the ground
.
I reached into my holster and pulled out the
Colt.
Urlack was hesitant to shoot as
the Mute bent over to get at me
.
I twisted away from his hand as I placed the cold blue steel of the
.
45
against the exposed back
of his knee.
No padding there.
I thought as I pulled the trigger.

Urlack
jarringly extracted me from the Mute as he collapsed
, a three-
inch around hole blown into its knee pad.

Bet that fucking hurts.
I was thinking, but even with that crippling wound it was still seeking to
aim its weapon
at
me.

Url
ack put a shot in its forehead
.
I
f it didn’t die now, I was thinking of maybe joining their side. I was saved from that decision as it slumped to the floor.

“He sure is ugly
,” Urlack said
.

He looked bigger sure, but they al
l looked ugly to me. Except Dee.
A
nd I
was wishing he was with me right about now.

“Has the barracks been breached?” I asked Urlack.

The Genogerians were housed across the hallway from the Progerians
combatants in the arena
, that
more than anything let the
Geno
s know their
station
in life.

“Perhaps
no
t. It is a
large area to defend
with not enough troops.”

“Well,
we can’t let them get behind our guys
,” I said
,
heading into the barracks.

“Agreed
,” Urlack said
as he waved a few Geno
s to come with us. I didn’t think it was enough
,
but I didn’t voice my concerns.
We ran
into the barracks
.
T
his end
was far quieter than it should have been. It had that air of expectation. Our t
roops were already stretched thin
,
so we had the foresight to cripple a bunch of the doors
forcing
the
Mutes
into a choke point.

A few Geno guards had been posted
at
every few door
s
just as back up, but I didn’t see them. My guess was that they had abandoned their posts when they had realized all the action was happening elsewhere.

“Something is not right here
,” Urlack said
.

The air smelled of ozone from all the blue shots arcing throughout the ship. We moved slowly forward. Right at the edges of my hearing
,
I thought I could hear muted whispering
.
I motioned for our small ban
d to hunch down. You really don’t
get the desired effect when an
eight
foot Geno stoops, still looking at about a six and a half foot s
ilhouette. That would have to do.

“What is it?” Urlack asked softly.

“You don’t hear that?” I asked.

“From our studies of your species we have deduced that one of the few attributes that you possess better than us is hearing
.
B
ut our scientists attribute that to the fact that you were hunted for the majority of your evolution, whereas we have been at the top of our food chain for untold millennia.”

“Yet you still have absolutely no tact or humor. Go figure. Anyway
,
there is some low talking up ahead and I don’t think it’s our side.”

“Then the one we killed was a scout
,”
Urlack stated.

“It would appear that way. Any thoughts?”

“Attack
,”
he said.

“Well,
I guess we’re in agreement
.
L
et’s get in as close as we can
,
though
.
M
ake our shots count.”

“I hear them now
,” Urlack said
after another fifteen feet of slow moving.

I slowly peaked my head around an upturned
bunk
.
O
ne of the heavy doors had
somehow
been pried open slightly. By ‘slightly’ I mean
t
I could walk straight through and have room at both shoulders to spare, the Mutes were having difficulty getting through
.
T
he ones already on our
side were pulling the others in.

“Twelve and counting
,” I told
Urlack coming back around to him
. “They have two keeping a look
out and the rest are starting to get themselves ready
for
battle
.”

“I will ask because I must
.
I told Drababan I would look ou
t for you. Will you stay behind?
”

“Not a chance
,” I told
him.

“I have fulfilled my obligation
,” Urlack said
.

Our shots had to
count
.
E
ven with the element of surprise
,
we were clearly out matched in numbers, training, weaponry, size, demeanor. But the one thing we did have on our side was a cause
.
W
e were fighting for something
and that had to trump all else
or we were in a world of shit.

I thought Urlack was gonna go with the
whole stealthy thing
,
so I was wholly
unprepared for his battle
cry as he rushed past me and leapt over the bed, immediately followed by the four other Genogerians.
I had time enough to see Tant
or and about a squadron of Geno
s heading our way but this fight would
be decided one way or the other, before they had time to get there.

We caught them unawares
,
but they recovered quickly
.
R
eturn fire was already heading our way
.
H
ad I been any t
a
ller I would have been decapitated as I made my way across the bunks.

Four Mutes
lay
dead or dying as the first of our band took a round. His body armor was ineffectual against the heav
ier rifles the Mutes were using.
T
he bolt it shot looked to have a greenish hue to it and was thicker in appearance. Didn’t matter much to me, either one would cut me in half. And I wasn’t overly concerned about
them
not being able to identify
my
remains, considering I was the only human around.

The g
reater numbers and greater fire
power were beginning to sway the tide of th
e
battle
,
but still Urlack pressed on, overturning furniture as he encountered it, trying to make himself less of a target.

Another Geno dropped
.
W
e had to stop
but there was no cover
. Ahead was certain death and we
couldn’t move back,
we were being
pinned down.
T
he
cavalry
was on the way
,
we just had to hold on for
a few more seconds.

“We cannot stay
here
,”
Urlack bellowed.

I was going to have to make up a nick name for him. Maybe General? Colonel? Major? Captain? Yeah
, that worked
, he was Captain Obvious! The Mutes
’
fire was ripping through the overturned fur
niture Urlack had spread around.
I
t was only a matter of time until they got lucky.

The corner of the bed I was hiding behind had landed on a small table and was propped up maybe a foot at best. I ducked down and could see what appeared to be some type of leather-clad feet coming
toward
us. It wasn’t much of a target but I was going to make the most out of it.

My first shot sheered off t
he foot of the approaching Mute.
H
is face landed less than ten feet from min
e
as he hit the ground heavily
.
H
is fa
ce contorted in pain and still he made no discernible noise of his agony. He turned up to look at me just as I drilled him in the skull with another shot, the hiss as the blue round cooked
his
brain was a little too visceral for my liking. The Mutes had not
yet learned w
h
ere the shots were coming from and another one immediately stepped into my field of fire. I didn’t get as clean a shot off this time
,
but the effect was the same as he landed on top of the one I had already killed.

Hands reached down and were pulling their injured comrade up and away. I had halted their advance for the moment. I was just about to pat myself on the back when my table burst under a couple of rounds, the only thing
saving
my life was the bed crashing down to fill in the void.

Urlack gave me a thumbs up and pointed behind us. Tantor was fast approaching with what looked like a full platoon. I saw a few green shots come over our position but those were immediately drowned out by a high volume of our fire.

Tantor stopped as he got up to our position. “They have gone back to rethink their
strategy
,
I believe
,” he said
.

“Fortui
t
ous for us
,” Urlack said
.

“Understatement
,” I said
,
finally feeling safe enough to stand. “Thank you
,
Tantor
,” I said
as I reached out to clasp his forearm like Dee had shown me. He seemed hesitant at first, maybe he thought he would break me or he had not yet fully come to accept our alliance. In
the end he accepted my thank
s.

We had lost three Genogerians in the brief
but inte
nse fighting.
The Mute
s lost seven and had at least one injured and out of action. Those were better odds
,
but this was going to be a costly battle.

The next hour was a stand-
off
.
T
he Mutes attacked at every point available to them
,
but were thwarted. We tried to reason with them when we could
,
but they seemed extremely happy with their
lives
especially now that they were actually doing some fighting. Didn’t matter in the least to them that they were in a battle with their own people
—
killing was killing.

The only good thing I could say about the whole a
ffair was we were blooding them.
I
t was close to a near even exchange
and
should have been much better considering we were in the defensive position
, but one-for-
one right now was still sustainable numbers. I kn
e
w the Genogerians were now my allies except for a select few
, however,
I still carried a great deal of animosity
toward
them, maybe if I got real lucky they would all take each other out.