“More of our people are going to die here Bishop Marley, unless we counter attack and drive our attackers back, I will lead five men through the forest and attack them on the right flank, we need someone else to lead five more men, and they are to move up on our enemy on their left flank, they can travel along that shallow gully that you can see to our left.” Mark said indicating a gully that he had followed just before sunset yesterday. “It will lead them towards our enemy; however, they must hang back initially, but be in a position to cut off our enemy’s withdrawal. When it happens they must then move in and open fire upon them.” Mark explained. “Bishop, give me five minutes after I leave and then you must lead half of our remaining forces forward from here, but slowly, keeping to whatever natural cover you can find, and as soon as you see our enemy withdrawing you must increase your pace, but please leave our rear guard in place. Oh and please do not fire upon any of our men who are already in contact with the enemy force.”
“Well who do you suggest lead the other five men, if I am to lead those who remain behind?” Bishop Marley asked as two energy bolts almost creased his hair, making him duck even further down in fright until his face was pushing in to the ground.
Just as Bishop Marley asked his question a man appeared behind him. “I will Bishop Marley, I have some experience of this sort of action, I was in military until you accepted my application to join your expedition.” A tall lean man said. He looked to be the same sort of age as Mark and although he looked concerned he kept his fear from showing. “Richard Rider is the name Captain Summers.” Rider said looking across at Mark and introducing himself.
“Good to have you on our little outing Richard, find five other men who are good with a Phaser rifle and be ready to move out in five minutes, and I will do the same. Oh and the name is Mark, I have also retired, OK?” Mark said smiling across at Rider.
“Ok, Mark.” Richard replied and returned the smile and then he left to pick five men from amongst those who had been amongst the first to arm themselves.
The colonists were either hugging the ground or had found themselves something solid to protect their bodies as they returned the vicious Phaser bolts coming their way They had quietened down, now that they saw that someone had taken command of the situation, and many more of them had now armed themselves to fire in the general direction of their enemy.
After finding the five men for his team, and also explaining to Susan why he had to risk his life and lead them, Mark and five of the colonists were ready to leave the encampment. Phaser bolts were still being exchanged between the two parties, however the Aldebrans were no longer moving forward, the amount of Phaser bolts coming their way had first surprised them and then made them even retreat a little, they began to wonder if the earthmen that they were attacking were merely colonists. Lu-Song was more than a little concerned for himself, his new found fear of dying hampering his thought processes.
Mark first checked that Richard Rider was moving into position with his small team, and then he led his own team towards the nearby trees, keeping both their heads and their backsides down they soon found themselves within the forest itself. Once concealed by the forest`s thick undergrowth, they stood up and were able to move much more easily, moving quietly forward along a narrow and rather overgrown animal trail that allowed them to walk almost parallel to the prairie. As they made their way through the concealing forest, they could hear the murderous fire whistling between the two opposing forces, and the occasional explosion when the powerful energy bolt exploded against the stern of the downed starship. Mark wondered why the starship in orbit had not continued to fire down upon the colonists, however, he did not complain, instead he thanked god for it. He constantly stopped to scan the forest ahead of them and on their flank, but he saw no signs that indicated that their enemy had anticipated his move, it was so strange, whoever was in command of the attack was making some bad mistakes. Soon Mark and his team were abreast of the Aldebran soldiers; who were still firing upon the colonist`s encampment, and were completely oblivious to the presence of the earthmen on their flank.
“OK, men, when I give the order I want you all to open fire upon our enemy for just five seconds, then hug the ground, because any of the soldiers left alive will almost certainly turn their weapons upon us.” Mark explained in a soft voice. “Ok men, open fire.” Mark ordered equally quietly.
Energy bolts from Mark and his team whistled through the air, all of them coming from the forest not forty feet away from the nearest Aldebran soldier, the continuous fire immediately taking out three of the troopers and making the others move into cover, or to quickly hug the ground if no cover presented itself. Commander Lu-Song was astonished that the colonists had got over his surprise attack to even consider an outflanking manoeuvre. He had been about to ask the North Wind to fire at the colonists, as so many of them were armed, now though he had other problems to attend to, such as saving the lives of his men.
“Sub-Officer Yang take five of our men with you and see off our attackers.” Lu-Song ordered after hugging the ground after two energy bolts parted his hair and singed it.
He now took time out to check on his injured men; however he found that the three men were dead, but he did not have the time to mourn them, that would have to wait. When Sub-Officer Yang found that he could not cross the open ground between his position and his attackers, and having lost two more troopers in the attempt, he reported this fact to Lu-Song.
Lu-Song had spent the last few seconds thinking over the situation, he had just damned his peoples` intelligence agencies for not finding out more information about the colonists, especially regarding the fact that so many of them were armed. He guessed that he had attacked at least one hundred and fifty armed men, and he now knew that his position was untenable, he would have to retreat and attempt to escape before more of his men were killed. He also damned his chief opponent amongst the colonists, one who obviously had more than just basic military training. He finished by damning himself for not posting any of his men to guard their flanks, but with there being only twenty four of them how could he have split his meagre force? They were now paying for his blatant stupidity and their far too small a force to undertake such a mission against a well-armed foe. Even so, he mused, if the emperor had left them alone for one more day then all would have been well, he immediately blasted himself again for not being strong enough to go against such a blatantly stupid order.
“Get ready to pull back men, we need to put space between us and our enemy, be ready to head further back in to the prairie on my command.” Commander Lu-Song ordered. “Sub officer Yang, you and your three remaining men will prepare to cover our retreat away from the forest, you are to stay here and return fire until the rest of the squad have moved safely away,” Commander Lu-Song ordered and then turned to his radio man. “Call the North Wind again, ask it to fire upon the forest directly east of us, have the ship take out the colonists concealed in there, they can then fire down on the main force who are getting perilously near to us.”
Lu-Song turned to his remaining troopers. “All right men drop back, and be ready to lay down covering fire for Yang and his men when they follow after us.” Lu-Song ordered and then after a look at his Sub Officer he led his team away. He fervently hoped that the young officer and his three men would not add to the growing casualty list of this disastrous mission.
Sub-Officer Yang only waited long enough to see his comrades disappear into the prairie, as he did not want to be hit by the Phaser fire that would soon be raining down from the sky near to his position. Having given what he thought was sufficient time for Lu-Song and the remainder of the squad to get safely away, he led his three men away from the continuous fire coming from his attackers, both from the flanking force and the main group of colonists who were even now closing in on him.
Mark decided that his team had been in the same location for far too long, if he were in the enemy commander`s place, he would use the starship in orbit above New Ca
ledonia to rid himself of his new attackers. That it was capable of very accurate fire had already been demonstrated when it had taken out their communications array atop of their downed starship. In fact he wondered why the enemy commander had not made greater use of its superior fire power, and when he saw signs that the enemy was retreating, he knew that he was correct; it was time to move position.
“Cease fire men, we`re moving further along the animal trail, move it before that ship in space targets us.” Mark ordered and chased his five men further along the track and further away from their camp.
Moments later the ground where they had been hidden was destroyed in a massive explosion as bolt after bolt of energy streamed down to destroy the forest near to where the Aldebran soldiers had been. The five colonists with Mark were stunned by the destruction, caused by the screams of energy coming from the sky as the energy bolts tore through the air, destroying it as they passed through it.
In the meantime Commander Lu-Song and his men retreated back into the cover offered by the prairie, and as they did so, they came nearer to six more armed colonists. Richard Rider had seen the Phaser bolts coming from the forest and was itching to join in, however, he knew how to follow orders, and so he waited until their enemy came towards them, which they soon did. He did not even have to move his men forward for the gully was directly in the path of the retreating force, had Commander Lu-Song been allowed more time he might even have found it and used it himself. Sudden death was no stranger to Rider, it was one reason why he had resigned from the military, so he was able to calm his team, get their minds back on track. They did not need any encouragement to fire at their enemy, for they were all anxious to avenge Mark and his team, who they assumed were now dead, killed by the deadly energy bolts screaming down from space.
“Keep calm men, we will revenge our friends, they are offering their god damned lives to us on a plate, ready, now open fire!” He said in a quiet calm voice that helped his inexperienced team of farmers to keep their cool.
Six bolts of energy shot out from ground level taking out a further three Aldebran soldiers immediately and injuring two more.
Commander Lu-Song did not panic; however he and his men came close to it as he wondered who his nemesis was. “Move towards the north, quickly men, this way.” He called and moved away from both attacking forces. However, retreating forces are liable to lose even more of their men, and this one was no exception. By the time Commander Lu-Song had got successfully away he only had half of his force remaining, all the others were lying dead upon this alien planet.
In space Captain Karin was unable to fire upon the colonists attacking his soldiers, not only for fear of injuring Commander Lu-Song and his men, but because in using the weapon so many times, they had blown the faulty relays again and that in turn had further damaged the motherboard within the fire computer. Unfortunately it had also damaged a far more important system, the normal time space engine was now non-operational and even the environmental systems were in danger of failing, powerful electrical spikes having reaped havoc with everything in engineering because of the lack of surge protectors in the system, these having been destroyed when the problems had first arisen. Yung and Manchu were once again busy repairing the engine, with yet another incentive, which was to stop their ship from being dragged down through the planet`s atmosphere and burning up in a final pyrotechnic display. Neither Captain Karin nor Commander Leander had expected this situation to develop, although even if they knew that there was a chance of this happening, they were duty bound to assist the troopers on the planet.
On the battlefield Commander Lu-Song led his men north west, away from the forest and towards an area of small grassy hills, unknown to them as they retreated they moved nearer to Mark Summers and his team, who had moved quickly along the animal trail and then out onto the prairie. Here they had bunkered down atop one of the hills and waited patiently for their enemy to come to them. Harrying the Aldebran survivors was Richard Rider and his team, slightly behind their left flank, and Bishop Marley and his men who were moving ever closer to the Aldebrans` retreating rear. Rider had left one man behind in the gully; he was not dead, but he was quite badly wounded. Marley had lost twenty of his men, fifteen in the initial firefight and five more while they pursued their enemy; thankfully not all of them were dead, merely wounded.
Lu-Song finally found a place to his liking. “OK, troopers, this looks like a defensible position, we will wait for the colonists to catch up with us here, then we will open fire, we should be able to take enough of them out to cause them to retreat, and tonight we will enter their encampment and finish what we started.” Commander Lu-Song ordered. “Jovan, Parse, you watch our flanks, I do not want to be caught out again.”
As the troopers began to spread out, Mark and his team opened fire from behind the troopers, their weapons taking out another five of the troopers and causing four more to immediately surrender; only Sub-Officer Yang had stayed by Lu-Song`s side firing at the approaching colonists. Commander Lu-Song visibly shrank and he berated his men as he and the sub officer were forced to surrender.
“You men have betrayed your fallen comrades, you families, your planet, and your emperor. I dare not report this to the North Wind, for to do so would see our innocent families suffer for your cowardice, I spit on you.” He snarled.
He wanted to shoot himself, to somehow lessen the guilt he had put on his family, his ancestors, but something inside him held his hand, his surviving men would need him in the days to come, the injured and the cowards. His new found fear also stayed his hand, if there was in fact an afterlife then he needed time to atone for his sins, he must not die just yet.
Mark Summers led his five men forward just as Rider and his team arrived, they were all ecstatic, and it was only the presence of Mark and Richard Rider that prevented immediate retribution, for two of the men wanted to shoot their prisoners out of hand.
“They have surrendered and are now our prisoners, when Bishop Marley arrives with his men we will march them back to the ship to answer some questions, until then they are under my protection. You all owe Richard and myself your lives, and the lives of your families, so you will do as we say and not mistreat these men.” Mark ordered and the colonists nodded their acceptance of his order, later, after their enemies’ trial for murder, they reasoned, they could execute them.
Bishop Marley now arrived with his men, and Mark repeated his order, one that Bishop Marley backed up, although Richard Rider did have some misgivings as to the wisdom of their decision to allow these men to live.
Richard looked across at his team; they were all elated now, and all the more willing to accept his orders. “Men, we need to pick up Johnson, go and collect him and take him back to Doctor Tattersall. I will stay here to help guard our prisoners, to make sure they play nice.” Richard ordered.
All five of the Aldebran troopers who had fallen on the small hill were dead, Bishop Marley marked their position by tying a broken branch to the skeleton of a dead tree, they would be dealt with later, depending on the customs of their enemy, The six prisoners were ordered to carry their two injured comrades back to the downed starship, guarded by two dozen angry colonists. As they came to the other fallen troopers their position was again marked, however, when they came to the bodies of fallen colonists, a man was sent back to base for a tractor and wagon, their bodies would be brought back immediately. The injured colonists from Marley`s team had already been taken back for medical treatment.
Their return to the encampment was a mixed affair, the colonists who had remained in camp cheered their men as they entered it, however, the air was filled with the grief of the widowed women, and the worried husbands and wives whose partners had been injured.
On seeing Mark enter the camp, Susan, who had stayed behind to tend to the injured, ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, her passionate kisses driving away every other emotion that Mark felt, tears were streaming down her face, for she had feared the worse
when she had seen the powerful bolts of energy streaming down from space. The sight of them cheered those colonists who were nearby, it dulled the violence that had scared them so, making them fear for their future, however, this feeling of joy would soon pass, soon fear would return to haunt them and some of them to their graves.
Chapter Five
Interrogation
The colonists now turned towards their prisoners, and they gathered around them, screaming insults and making threats as the prisoners were led into the downed starship. The situation could have turned ugly but Bishop Marley managed to calm everyone down, he reminded them that they were Christians first and last, they were not murderers, they were certainly not like their enemy. This worked for now, but Mark knew that as time went on some of those who had lost a loved one might well look for payback as the anguish ate away at their minds and souls, he would have to help Bishop Marley to ensure that they were not successful, no matter how much he found himself agreeing with them, otherwise it would leave a very nasty taste in everyone`s mouth.
The downed starship was more or less on an even keel now, the heavy weight of the starship pushing all that was between it and the ground deep into the soft soil. Therefore, Bishop Marley and Captain Larson decided to use the 1st officer`s cabin to interrogate their prisoners, however, they all refused to say a word. When Bishop Marley came out of the starship for some fresh air, Mark and Susan approached him.
“Bishop Marley, have you found out who our prisoners are, are they from Earth, or are they aliens?” Mark asked grimly.
“I do not know Mr Summers, I have checked over all of their weapons, and tried to read the papers that we found upon them, but their written language is unknown to any of us, and they simply refuse to talk. Perhaps you might try your luck, you have travelled more than any of us?” Bishop Marley replied.
Mark agreed to try, and he and Susan entered the downed starship, first he looked at the Aldebran Phaser rifles, and then through all of the papers that Marley had found upon the prisoners, he soon recognised enough of the words to be able to understand what was written upon them. He had learned the language the year before when it was thought that the people of the planet Aldebra could become a threat to the interests of Earth, and so a number of officers were put through a crash language course, Mark now turned to the bishop to tell him what he had learned.