Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress)
Read Alien Courage (Rise of the Empress) Online
Authors: Keith Chessell
ALIEN COURAGE
RISE OF THE EMPRESS
By Keith Chessell
Text copyright © 2013 Keith W Chessell
All rights reserved
One
The date was
August 6, 1945. High above the Pacific a B-29
Superfortress
cruised at 29,000 feet on its mission against the Japanese mainland. The crew
sipped hot coffee to ward off the cold as its pilot Colonel
Tibbets
briefed them on the final aspects of their mission. The crew were reticent as
they realised their payload consisted of the first atomic bomb to be used as a
weapon against mankind. A dark page of Earth’s history was being written this
day but in man’s arrogance and relentless search for destructive capabilities
he never realised it was not only Earth’s history that was being written.
Covert forces foreign to Earth had monitored with interest the development of
nuclear technology on this planet; they watched and waited.
Far below on a small island
a platoon of US Marines were
engaged in a mopping up operation.
Their task was to patrol a group of small islands that had been occupied by
Japanese forces as they were driven back towards Japan. Japanese ship watches
stationed on such isolated islands had proven costly to Allied shipping
previously in the war; each island with any strategic importance had to be
patrolled individually.
Lieutenant Peter Boland stretched his
legs and stamped his feet on the ground to get some feeling back in them.
Crouched for hours watching the same clearing in the jungle had taken its toll.
He was convinced if there were any
Japs
here they
would have seen them by now.
“Sergeant Driscoll!” he said sharply.
“Sir.”
The Sergeant replied standing up from behind a tree
and resting his Thompson machine gun on his hip.
“Take a couple of men and scout out that
ridge to the north. Don’t go any further than the trees over there,” Peter said
pointing with his carbine at a patch of jungle sitting just below the top of
the ridge line. “And if you find no evidence of the
Japs
we’ll call off the search here and circle around and come up on the other side.
The cliffs to the top are too steep and slippery to negotiate.”
The Sergeant scratched his weathered
face and looked upwards. “Seems like a damn waste of time this search Sir. Even
if some
Japs
were here the poor bastards would be
half starved and pretty pissed at being left behind. We haven’t seen a live Jap
for weeks now and the dope is we’ll be fighting on the Jap mainland within a
month. Can’t we call it a day and get some chow?”
Peter couldn’t agree more with the
Sergeant but orders were orders and this was the last island in the group they
were ordered to search. Get this one done and it’s time for a little rest Peter
thought. “Just get the ridge scouted
Sarg
and we’ll
discuss whatever you like when you get back,” Peter said with a dry smile.
“Yes Sir,” the Sergeant replied with a
shrug of his shoulders. “Parsons, Ackhurst saddle up. We’re going for a walk up
that ridge. Come on, get a move on.”
The three soldiers set off across the
clearing and soon disappeared into the jungle on the other side. Peter turned
and surveyed the area behind him. Thirty men in his platoon were concealed in
the jungle before him. He could only make out a few of them from his position
but he knew exactly where they were. “OK everyone,” he said loudly enough to be
heard by all of them. “Relax the fingers on those triggers. You can rest up but
keep a keen eye out. Get ready to move out when the
Sarg
gets back.”
Peter felt the tension of his men relax;
for two days they had scouted this side of the island for any evidence of Jap
activity such as trails, camp sites or rubbish from ration packs but thankfully
nothing. He was now hopeful their mission would be over by tomorrow. He allowed
himself to think of his home back in Oregon, his wife and son, a feeling of
nervous excitement swept through him as he realised he might actually be going
home soon.
Suddenly his attention went on full
alert. Like so many times since he first landed as a green soldier on Guadalcanal
a strange instinct swept over him. He dropped slowly to one knee concealing
himself behind the fond of a large fern as he stared up at the ridge line a
mile or so away.
“What is it Sir?” Corporal Mathews
whispered quietly behind him.
“Don’t know. Maybe nothing but I think
we had better be on the alert. Something doesn’t feel right about this island,”
Peter replied.
“Any orders Sir?”
“Get the men to withdraw about twenty
yards into the jungle and no one is to go into that clearing or expose
themselves. I just got this feeling we are being watched.”
“Yes Sir.” Corporal Mathews replied and
silently withdrew to carry out his orders. The Corporal had been with Peter
from the beginning of the war when they were both Privates. They were the only
two left from the original platoon after two years of jungle warfare with the
Japanese.
The rest were either killed in
action or sent home wounded. He had learned to respect Peter’s instincts
without question. Peter’s actions in battle had earned him a field commission
and numerous decorations but he always rejected any notion he was a hero. He
always remained quiet on the subject of his actions in battle but he always
seemed to do exactly the right thing.
High up on the ridge line a single
Japanese soldier stared down into the valley below. He saw three enemy soldiers
working their way up towards him. He knew they would never get to his position
as the cliff face was too steep but he carefully took out his binoculars and
from deep in the shadows of a cleft in the rocks he searched for more of his
enemy.
For quite some time he carefully scanned the jungles
below but could see no one.
Frustrated he could not locate the main body
of enemy troops he became nervous when he lost sight of the original three
soldiers on the ridge below him. He withdrew to report to his Commander.
An hour later Peter ordered his platoon
to remain where they were. He then took Private Hanson with him to make their
way around the clearing to intercept the Sergeant and the two other soldiers
returning from the ridge. Peter could not get the feeling they were being
watched out of his head and didn’t want the Sergeant and the others exposing
themselves by entering the clearing near their old position.
The going was tough as the jungle was
thick with vegetation and the vines easily tangled around the legs. The high
heat and humidity caused the men to sweat profusely and they were very glad
when they made it around to the other side.
“They should be back anytime now,” Peter
whispered to Hanson.
“Yes Sir. What a horrible place
Lieutenant,” Hanson replied crushing a mosquito on the side of his neck.
The slightest noise from somewhere close
made Peter react instantly giving Hanson a violent shove to his chest. Hanson
went flying off his feet and disappeared into the fern fronds just as a long
burst of machine gun fire sliced though the space
where both he and Peter were standing only a
moment before. Peter had dived rolling to the side and crawled quickly away.
“Stay where you are!” Peter shouted at
Hanson as he calculated the machine gun must be no more than the visual
distance in this jungle of fifty yards.
He smoothly had a hand grenade off his belt, pulled the pin and hurled
it towards where he calculated the machine gun would have to be. A deafening
explosion shook the area followed by the screams of a wounded man.
One Officer and four Japanese soldiers
had climbed down the cliff to investigate the sighting of the enemy in the
valley. They had volunteered to remain behind when the main body of Japanese Forces
were retreating across the Pacific. Their task was to hinder any enemy that
ventured onto their island in any way they could and report any ship movements
off the coast. Their radio batteries had deteriorated, gone flat and would not
recharge. They were desperate to capture any enemy batteries.
The Japanese soldiers were close to
starvation and were living off the land. Their desperation had forced them to
take risks they would not normally take and they were now concerned the enemy
would leave the island without a chance of them capturing much needed supplies.
Peter stood up quickly and ran to the
cover of a large tree. Rifle shots rang out as he ran, bullets whistled past
him and made long drawn out sounds as they crashed their way through the jungle
foliage. Peter felt incredibly light on his feet, he saw colours vividly and
everything slowed down in time even though he moved swiftly. At a glance he saw
the muzzle flashes of three rifles and had instantly computed their range and
what cover they were behind. He didn’t know why he did what he did but he
flicked his helmet strap off his chin and threw his helmet high in the air. It
looped spinning in the air and fell crashing into the foliage many yards away.
The attention of the Japanese soldiers
went momentarily to the noise and movement caused by the helmet. This was the
moment Peter anticipated; he swiftly brought the carbine to his shoulder, broke
cover and fired two quick shots before getting back behind the tree again. The
side of the tree suddenly exploded into splinters as a bullet ripped into the
edge of the tree where Peter was just standing. A short distance away two
Japanese soldiers lay dead, one shot in the head and the other in the chest.
Peter did not hesitate when a new
warning of danger materialised in his mind. He took two giant strides away from
the tree and
dived
full length, landing on his
shoulder and then rolled away just as a Japanese hand grenade exploded beside
the tree. In an instant he was on one knee and emptied his magazine firing in a
small arc into the jungle. The unmistakable sound of a bullet striking human
flesh with a sickening ‘thwack’ came to his ears followed by the deep moaning
of a dying man.
Peter remained still and just listened,
his eyes open wide, fully alert. The moans of the dying man ceased, replaced
with an eerie silence.
A rustle of foliage behind him came as a
surprise and in an instant he had his pistol in his hand spinning around. He
sighed with relief when he saw Hanson carefully making his way toward him,
rifle at the ready. Peter felt no danger now and stood up putting his pistol
back in its holster. Hanson had a look of complete surprise on his face. He
hadn’t fired a shot and had missed out on the very quick and noisy battle.