Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (72 page)

I was safely away from the action
,
pouring over the diagrams of the ship
,
looking for a way to get around our adversary when Tantor came
over
with a periodic report.

“The
‘
Mutes’ as you call them are not attacking with as much vigor as they once were. I believe it to
mean
we are winning
,” he said
.

“Possibly, but I’m thinking they are trying to find a way around us much like we are. I don’t think they were
expecting so many casualties. My concern is if they stop attacking completely that the high command will stop all life support in these sections.”

“They cannot
,” Urlack said
as if he knew this for fact. “That would mean the death of their pilots.”

“At any time in the history of your race
,
Urlack
,
ha
ve
not some been sacrificed for the many?” I asked.

He did not answer, he didn’t seem too thrilled that I had painted him in a corner.

“What do you propose we do?”
h
e said indignantly.

“I think we have to do exactly what the Mutes and the Supreme
Commander
are thinking we
won't
do. We need to go on the offensive. They will not be expecting us to do that and if we can overrun them we have a straight shot for the bridge and this whole thing could be over.”

“It is a solid plan
,”
Tantor said. “Many families will be honored with a war widow today.”

Urlack looked at me and snorted. “That is a compliment in our culture
,” he said
with merriment. “Hu-man
s
are very sensitive
,” he said
to Tantor who still hadn’t seemed to grasp Urlack’s words.

“Dying as a compliment.
I’ll keep that in mind
—
don’t be offended if I have no desire to be counted as one of the ‘lucky’ ones. Let’s
figure out the best place to launch an attack
,” I said
,
changing the subject
.
B
ut I guess I really
had
n’t.

***

Within the hour we had formulated a plan
.
I
t was high risk
with a high reward factor.
It’s easy to distance yourself from the action (and terror) when you are making lines on paper
,
but when you are standing at the ready point waiting for the order the terror becomes a tangible entity
threatening
to overrun every other se
nsation. Why we never made politicians fight on
E
arth, I’ll never know. I would bet everything I had that wars would have been outlawed. Lesson learned
,
I supposed.

Tantor must have rummaged deep to find some armor that almos
t fit me
.
M
aybe one of the Geno
s made some and was planning to give it as a gift
to an infant Geno
. I know the stuff was pretty effective against bullets, at least the non
steel-
jacketed kind
.
I
t
could deflect some of the Geno
s
’
blue rays
but
it might as well have been a coating of powder for all it did against the
Mutes
weaponry.

Some of the Geno
s were now carrying the heavier rifles, I envied them. I had been offered one, thing must have weighed around
forty-five
pounds. I could carry it
,
but it was entirely too unwieldy in a combat situation, I stuck with the
twenty
pound Geno rifle, still heavy for a human
,
but at least I didn’t struggle to keep it on target.

“Michael?” Urlack asked for at least the seventh time.

“I’m short
,
Urlack, they won’t even see me
,” I told
him.

This was where he usually scowled at me and
said I
was not being smart in
my decision making. He didn’t let me down.

The only place our ambush had any
chance of success was on the far
side
of the cafeteria
.
I
t had so far been no-man’s land (misnomer I know since I’m the only man but you get the point). The Mutes had tried three times to come this most direct route and had been driven back with their worst casualties of the night
.
T
hey would not try a fourth.

We had not explored th
at
avenue because
,
first
,
we weren’t on the offensive and
,
secondly
,
it would be their most heavily guarded access point. Yet I had placed myself high up on the front lines
.
I
was
glad I was nowhere near the backhand Tracy would dole out if she knew.

There were somewhere in the neighborhood of
five hundred
of us making this assault.
I
t was really about the maximum amount that would fit in the staging area. There was another
five hundred
waiting at our rear should we break through with the initial thrust. Timing was going to be crucial
,
though. The door
s
that led out were about as wide as a two car garage
,
but that wasn’t nearly as big as would have been des
ired given the size of the Geno
s and the number.

If we broke through, we needed the reserves to be almost behind us so we didn’t get encircled and cut off. If we didn’t make it through and needed to retreat
and
they had already followed us we would be cau
ght in a quagmire of stuck Geno
s. Now I fully knew why politicians didn’t fight
;
because they
weren’t
stupid. My bowels wanted to liquefy, I was thankful I hadn’t eaten much in the last few hours although I far from doubt
ed
I’d be the first person
who
had ever made a hot mess in
his
pants before getting shot at.

I acquiesced a little to Urlack’s desires when he said I should not be on the very front of the charge. I’d seen enough movies in my day to know the f
irst
men in
a charge usually only had cameo
s. I won’t lie
,
I felt I was sacrificing some honor for position but Urlack kept telling me I shouldn’t be in this charge at all
, there were still all the Geno
s on the ground that were going to need convincing and I was the man
who
needed to be the
face of that campaign.

Tantor was at the head of the
pack
.
E
ven from the middle
,
I could see his large hand up in the air as he counted down from four. A typical Geno charge
involved a
lung
emptying war
cry that I had a very difficult time telling them was not in their best interest this time. They had seen the wisdom of my decision even if they weren’t enamored with it.

Tantor finished his count
down
.
T
he large doors swung out, from there he would have a short corridor that led directly into the housing for the
Mutes
. I already heard shooting before we even had the opportunity to move. At first it was slow, small furtive shuffles forward
, then
we moved to a slow trot
, and then we were at a full-
on sprint. Or at least I was
.
I
f I went any slower I w
ould
be crushed. Fuck Pamplona, this was way worse than running with the bulls. Urlack
,
who had situated himself directly in
front of me, realized just how much danger I was in from the rear and with some effort was able to get behind
me
.
A
wesome
,
I’d much rather get crushed
by
someone I knew
.

We were still moving forward but our push was slowing, we had made it through the doors to the
Mutes’
barracks. It was bedlam,
an epileptic’s nightmare
.
S
treaks of high intensity
flash
were everywhere, I didn’t have enough room to bring my rifle to bear and even if I did, I’d only succeed in shooting the legs of the Geno in front of me.
There was a fair amount of hand-to-
hand combat going on, bones snapping was even louder than the percussions the rifles made. I moved over to the left and the wall closest to me. I let the rifle drop down on its tactical sling and grabbed my revolver.

A Mute must have been sleeping when the whole thing started
. It
approached me without
a
weapon. I would have reached down to re-grab my rifle if I thought I had enough time. I planted a
.
357 round straight into his eye
.
G
enetically altered or not, there was no recovering from that. My view became o
bstructed as more and more Geno
s made their way in and fanned out. The
maneuver
had worked
,
at least at first
;
initial contact had caught them with only a small guard presence which had been easily overrun. The
Mutes
ran to the defense, a fair portion not even taking the time to get their weapons.

Our forward thrust began to stall as more and more
Mutes
came to the defense
.
I
t was touch and go for a moment
,
but as if on cue our reinforcements began to stream in. We were gaining precious feet at the expense of Mute blood, the floor ran thick wit
h it. Even with a thousand Geno
s (and one man) spearheading th
e
endeavor
,
we were still in great jeopardy of being overrun
.
O
nce the
Mutes
regrouped and attacked we would be
at a serious disadvantage.

This would begin phase three of our plan and the most vital of them all. As the Mutes around the ship collapsed and came to the rescue of their peers
,
it wo
uld be imperative that the Geno
s who had been in contact with them,
move also
and pursue them. It was going to be risky to say the least and the body count per square foot would rival anything ever seen
on
E
arth.

I kept my back against the wall
,
fearful I would get lost in the din I kept moving
farther
and
farther
along the wall as more beings poured into the cavernous room. I couldn’t see the doors I had entered
through
anymore but I figured to have gone about
a hundred
feet along the wall before I once again found myself in combat. I had my rifle up and was rapidly engaging the enemy. A couple of shots floated nearby
,
but I was mostly going unseen, not that I was complaining. I got dow
n on
one knee to keep the rifle steady
as I repeatedly acquired a target and shot.

I’m not delusional to think I was swaying the battle, but in this small neck of the woods, I think it was safe to say I
was a contributing factor. Geno
s locked in mortal combat with their bigger brethren thanked me as I took
Mutes
out one by one. I don’t know if it was derision on the part of the
Mutes
or
if they did not
perceive
me
as
a true threat
,
but I
was really left alone. Maybe that
was a downfall of the
Mutes
they had never been in combat with humans and maybe had little to fear from them
.
I was doing
my part to make them regret that
decision
.
T
hat was
,
if any of them made it through the day. They didn’t really seem like the type to throw in the towel.