The sun was just rising when they left their camp, using the two smaller tracked vehicles to take them as far as the main track, there the two drivers left them to return to base, they would be back to collect them one hour before sunset that day, and each day after that until the team returned. The two small vehicles had been overloaded with the colonists and all of their equipment, but no one complained. Mark did not know it, but limiting the use of the vehicles probably stopped his team from running into one of the ten squads of troopers who had moved into the forest the day before, and who now lay in wait for any unsuspecting team of colonists to pass by their position. Each squad comprised of twelve troopers, their orders to stay out until recalled, they had taken just their food, water and a few personal possessions to see to their hygiene. Three of the teams were still moving forward, bringing them ever nearer to the colonists’ camp, soon, Oshiro hoped, they would be ideally placed to take out the feared commandoes of Earth.
After leaving the two vehicles, Mark and his team walked slowly along the main track, a track wide enough to take an armoured vehicle with room to spare. Their every sense searching for signs of their enemy, with half of them hoping that today the patrol would be uneventful. They would have preferred to move off the main track and take to one of the narrower side trails that were impassable to the heavy vehicles. Mark though was of the opinion that the enemy would patrol the forest in the safety of their armoured halftracks, as they had done before, and the noisy diesel engines would give them adequate warning of their approach and allow his team to move off the trail. At the moment he did not realise that the enemy now held a distinct advantage, for not only were no longer using their vehicles within the forest but they were now mounting an anti-insurgency operation.
They had been walking for two hours when Mark decided that his team would soon be in need of a rest stop, he did not want them exhausted, should the need to move fast occur. Richard knew of a small grassy meadow nearby, it was one hundred yards along an almost invisible side track that they were fast approaching, he mentioned it now in the hope that Mark would call a rest stop, and he was thankful that Mark did.
“OK everyone, we are moving off the main track, we can rest up in the meadow that Richard has just mentioned, he came across it on his earlier voyage of discovery into this part of New Caledonia.” Mark told the rest of the team in his usual quiet voice when on patrol, used to ensure that it did not carry through the quiet woodland to a nearby trooper.
He moved forward then to speak to Peterson who was taking his turn as their point man. “Chief, turn off when you reach that narrow trail that you can see just ahead of you.” And then Mark waited for the others to catch up with him before continuing on.
Chief engineer Peterson duly turned off up the narrow trail and when he reached the small meadow he sat down on a fallen log because he was more than just tired, not being used to so much exercise. He had decided he would allow the rest of the team to join him before getting to his feet and would enter the meadow with the rest of the team, The meadow was small, about one hundred feet in diameter, it had obviously not been grazed by the planet`s deer lately, for the grass was thick and over a foot in height. As they entered the meadow from one side, an unsuspecting Aldebran squad of troopers had already entered it from the other side, meaning to make it their centre of operations. The Aldebran troopers were about half way across the meadow when the two sides saw each other, and at the same moment. Both sides immediately hugged the ground while bringing their weapons into a firing position.
Mark looked for Susan, and found her, he knew that they were in a very dangerous situation and he wanted a way out for Susan, and also for the rest of his team. He glanced back at the trees, they were less than ten feet behind his team, and they offered solid cover. “Edge slowly back to the trees, but keep your butts down.” Mark ordered as he squeezed off a shot in the general direction of the troopers, the powerful bolt of energy whistling through the grass, burning it as it went.
Both sides began to open fire, and for the first few seconds no one had been killed on either side, although Captain Larson`s arm had been badly burnt when a Phaser bolt had whistled passed him. Heads bobbed above the grass to look for a target and Mark had his hair parted when he lined up a shot, he could smell his singed hair but Susan had hastily assured him that his hair was not alight. Then the powerful Phaser bolts began to hit their targets, two Aldebran troopers screamed out when their lives were taken, and then Chief Engineer Peterson slumped face down, a Phaser bolt had exploded in his face.
“Call for assistance, tell them we are battling the Earth commandoes.” The Aldebran Sub Officer ordered his radio man.
Unfortunately, the North Wind was not in the air at the moment, Chief Engineer Yung was just finishing off servicing their atmospheric engine, Karin wanted to ensure that the recent repairs to the starship were holding up under constant use. Maybe he should not have done it when the troopers were actively searching for the colonists, but tiredness had addled his brain. It took fifteen minutes for Yung and Manchu to put the engine back together, and only then did they lift off and head towards the fire fight, moving at their best possible speed to make up for lost time.
While Yung was working on his engine, energy bolts were criss-crossing the meadow, the loud whistling sound they made as they destroyed the air that they were passing through sounded like a dozen enraged demons. Mark and his team finally reached the cover of the trees; here they fanned out, using the cover provided they sent a stream of energy bolts screaming across the meadow, the troopers now found themselves at a massive disadvantage. Even so they did not retreat, two energy bolts from their rifles exploding against the tree that sheltered Mark, for a moment he was temporarily shocked, but he had been under fire before. He returned the fire and immediately took out one of the troopers, who had being lining up for another shot on Mark. Three more troopers died where they lay in the grass, taken out by the sharpshooters that Mark had selected for this sortie. The remaining six troopers broke and ran, exposing their backs to the earthmen; the colonists sent seven bolts of energy chasing after the fleeing troopers. Five died almost immediately, but one, shot by Karl Meiser, who was an expert marksman, was only hit in his right leg, he collapsed to the ground screaming in pain, his own rifle laying in the grass and forgotten now.
Mark and his team moved from behind the trees and ran forward to check on their enemy, they found only the last one to fall was still alive. Mark scanned the nearby ground searching for the body of the sub-officer, he wanted to take any documents that he had on him, what he saw was the radio laying in the cropped grass, it was still on, and knew that they had but minutes to get away, maybe only seconds. Mark looked over at the fallen trooper, who looked more like a scared rabbit than a man; the trooper was waiting for an energy bolt to finish him off. When Mark moved towards him to tend to his wound he shrank away, fear filling his eyes, fearful that the knife in Mark`s hand was about to be used to kill him.
“Do not wet yourself Trooper; I am only going to patch up your leg.” Mark assured the trooper in his broken Aldebran, and then used the knife to quickly cut the trooper`s trouser leg off.
He now turned to Rogé Patel. “Rogé, find the body of the officer and see if he has any papers on him.” Mark called across to his friend.
Knowing that time was short he quickly tended the trooper`s wound while instructing his team to cut down four poles from the nearby trees for use as the supports of a stretcher. When he had done all he could for the man, he gave the man an injection, it was a sedative to send him to sleep, to make the task of conveying back to their camp all the easier. Mark carried the injured trooper over his shoulder while Rogé Patel carried the dead body of their friend, Chief Engineer Peterson. John McIntire walked behind them to support them if it became necessary. Richard took Karl Meiser and Ricardo Malic with him, when they reached the point that the narrow trail met the main trail, Richard stood guard while Karl and Ricardo made up two stretchers
out of survival blankets and the stout poles that they had cut. Susan and Captain Larson took point duty and moved back along the main trail to ensure that another Aldebran patrol was not coming hot foot to the rescue of the first one. They did not walk far along it before coming to a much narrower and much overgrown side trail that they had not even noticed when they had passed it earlier. It went deep into an overgrown part of the forest, here Susan waited for the rest of the team to join her while Captain Larson investigated this narrow trail. Susan felt very alone as she waited for her friends to catch up; she looked up and down the trail, fearful that at any time an Aldebran patrol would find her. Her thoughts dwelled on their fallen friend; she had rather liked him, now he was dead. A single tear slid down her cheek which she quickly wiped away and she then swore at herself for being so emotional.
The survival blankets carried by the team had already been prepared, amongst other things, for use as stretchers after their first mission that had failed so badly, so all Ricardo and Malic had to do was to tie the blankets to the poles at four points making up a strong but temporary stretcher. Then the two bodies were put on them and the stretchers were born by the six men, Mark knew that the logical thing to do was to leave their dead friend behind, but he was damned if he was going to do such a thing unless forced to by circumstances. They soon caught up with Susan who smiled at her husband, feeling much safer now that he and the others were back with her. She immediately took over one end of one of the stretcher poles, and then they hurried after Captain Larson, it was just as the North Wind arrived over the meadow. The crew of the starship saw the dead bodies, but Captain Karin decided not to land, in case the commandoes were lying in wait to ambush them as they had done so successfully before at the Aldebran camp.
Mark and the other members of his team would all take a turn at Point duty, although they were mainly occupied being a stretcher bearer, in this way they would become more experienced in this sort of war, also they would get a rest from being a stretcher bearer. When they were well away from the meadow where the fire fight had occurred, and also hidden from view by the all-enveloping tree canopy as well as from the ground by the trees and whatever vegetation could grow beneath the canopy, Mark ordered a rest, as they had been tired before the fire fight, never mind now they were stretcher bearers. Thankfully, they did not see or hear the North Wind, for it had flown away from them and towards the waiting Aldebran troopers who made up the other nine squads.
Oshiro now moved all of the drones into the area around the meadow and then he searched outwards from there, but Mark and his team used their remaining survival blankets to hide from them, allowing them to take more useful rest stops. They reached the pickup point two hours ahead of schedule and stopped to rest. One hour later their taxis arrived, early, the two drivers were elated when they heard of the battle, but their joy was lessened by the death of yet another of their friends. Mark felt just as bad as the rest of them, however he knew that more deaths would follow before they finally overcame their enemy, the others coped by hiding this fact away in the deepest recesses of their minds.
When they finally got back to camp Doctor Tattersall was there to patch up Captain Larson`s wound and then to tend to the injured trooper, when he had done so Mark asked Doctor Tattersall if his patient was up to answering some questions.
“Yes he is Mark, not like our chief engineer, he will not be answering any more questions because those rats killed him.” Doctor Tattersall replied angrily.
With a positive answer from the doctor, Mark asked Robbie to assist him again, in his roll of bad guy, but only if he was up to taking on the roll.
“I am fine Mark, maybe not up to another long trek yet, but threatening an Aldebran might even speed up my recovery.” Robbie jested.
Mark and Robbie then had Richard and John McIntire help them to carry the Aldebran out into the forest on his stretcher, the prisoner being unable to put weight on his wounded leg.
“You may have won this battle Earthman, but you will all be dead soon for trespassing upon the emperor`s planet.” The trooper boasted, his eyes telling more about what was really on his mind than his words, for he wondered why he had been taken into the forest, away from any witnesses, he wondered anxiously about what might be about to happen to him.
“Your emperor had better send more troopers to this planet, for the ones that are here now do not appear to be up to the job.” Mark said, contempt fairly dripping off his tongue and then he sent John and Richard away.
Robbie now entered the conversation, he moved forward, pushing roughly past Mark and grabbed the trooper by his jacket, pulling him up from his stretcher.
“Enough of this Mark, question him about the two downed starships or I will.” Robbie demanded, menace dripping from his mouth, his words of course were in English.
However, the trooper understood enough to be scared, and he immediately looked towards Mark, and like the other young trooper who they had interrogated he too demanded protection, Mark looked anxiously at Robbie before replying to the trooper’s plea for help.
“If you answer his questions in full, I should be able to keep him off you, if you refuse then my commander will demand that I kill you, it is as simple as that.” Mark replied sounding very apprehensive. “He was mean enough before but after being wounded he got a lot worse, so be careful.” Mark warned the young trooper.
“What is it that you want to know then, tell me so that your commander will let me live?” The trooper begged.
“The question is a simple one, and you will not have to betray anyone if you answer it, all we want to know is what happened to your two starships?” Mark asked.
The trooper looked at Mark quizzically. “Is that all, well the answer is that we do not know for certain. An unknown armed freighter arrived over the planet, probably from Earth, and it took them both out, even though they were both unarmed.” The trooper replied angrily. “They must be part of your brave space fleet.” The trooper said contemptuously.
Robbie was really into his roll now, and he certainly did not want to stop this early into his part, so he pulled out his knife and looked towards Mark.
“Mark, this one also appears to be holding something back, order him to tell us the rest or by god I will slit his throat.” Robbie demanded angrily.
The trooper was crying when he next spoke. “What is wrong, I answered your question, why is your commander still so angry?”
“He believes that you have not told us everything about the freighter, what are you holding back, tell us now or I will be ordered away so that I cannot witness him torturing you.” Mark begged of the trooper.
“The freighter is jamming our communications, we cannot call for help.” The trooper screamed out fearfully.
When Mark repeated what he had learned, Robbie broke into hysterics. “Mark they are stopping us from calling for help, and their unknown attacker is doing the same thing to them, it would be so funny if we were not fighting for our life.”
Mark smiled at his friend. “Oh but it is funny Robbie, the gods do have a sense of humour after all.”
It was almost midnight when Mark had the wounded trooper locked away with the other prisoners, then he and Robbie turned in for the night, tomorrow the colonists would hear what he had learnt and how it affected their future.
**********
Commander Oshiro knew that his decision to send his teams into the forest had proven to be correct, even if one of these teams had been taken out, but the captain of the North Wind had been responsible for that, for not having his ship ready for instant action. He had learned one thing from the tragedy, the leader of the earthmen had once again only been using a small force of men to attack his own force, could their commander be squeamish about losing his men, only using the minimum of the colonists as soldiers? If so then the advantage was definitely on Oshiro`s side who was able to use all of his remaining force against the earthmen. He now improved on his initial decision to spread his men throughout the fo
rest. He had already delegated twenty five men to guard the salvage vessel when it was on the ground, when the crew of the salvage vessel were working. He now ordered the twenty troopers who he had been holding back in reserve to go aboard the North Wind; there they would act as a rapid reaction force. He now went to the farmers, for he had orders to give to them.
“Listen all of you, you have been given this planet so that your families can grow up strong, more farmers will follow this initial colonization, you will now begin turning this area of the prairie into your farms. My troopers are about to begin the final phase of driving the earthmen from your planet, you will then be able to live and farm in peace.” Oshiro declared loudly to the assembled farmers.
Leaving the farmers he boarded the North Wind and ordered Captain Karin to visit each of his nine squads of men, for he had a message for each of them. It was to move forward towards and past the meadow where their comrades had died, their killers were almost certainly not far away from his area.
Andreas was less than impressed by Oshiro, he turned to his fellow farmers with news that Oshiro had not wanted them to have. “I heard one of the troopers speaking, it seemed that the earthmen fought a battle against one of our patrols, they killed all twelve of them and then disappeared into the forest. He went on to say that the troopers are all scared and want to leave this planet immediately.”