LANCEJACK (The Union Series) (11 page)

‘Jesus
Christ,’ Okonkwo gasped. The troopers of the section forgot themselves and
stood in a cluster beside the police truck, their minds struggling to come to
terms with what they were seeing. I knew the feeling that they were
experiencing – horror and revulsion - and I felt it too, though perhaps to a
lesser extent. I had seen much death and disfigurement in my relatively short
service for the Union, but I hadn’t become indifferent to it. The day that
happened, I believed, I would cease to be human.

Nevertheless,
I didn’t want the morale of the lads to plummet any lower by appearing to be upset
by the gruesome spectacle.

‘Spread
out, lads, and observe your arcs while we wait to get tasked,’ I ordered, ‘Stay
professional.’

I
waited for Konny to do or say something whilst the section quickly took up fire
positions either side of the street, and eventually he noticed my impatient
stare. I raised an eyebrow expectantly.

Konny
suddenly realised that he had a job to do and snapped back to reality with a
jolt, ‘I’m, er… Gonna see the boss for instructions.’

I
nodded. That would do.

The
platoon had effectively surrounded the target building, I saw, and the street
had become swamped with police, allowing for the conscripts to safely tend to
their wounded. It appeared that the conscripts had come under attack from their
own LSVs, judging by the damage that had been done to the street, forcing them
to take refuge indoors. A pair of burnt out LSVs further up the street
confirmed my assumption.

‘It’s
crazy, isn’t it?’ My headset translated a voice from beside me.

Our
police driver had stood right beside me by the truck.

‘What
is?’ I asked.

‘It’s
crazy that we still kill each other. After the war, the people of New Earth
should want peace. Instead they want this,’ he pointed at the bag of human meat
being sealed by a pair of conscripts.

‘You’re
from Earth?’

The
policeman laughed, ‘Of course not, I was born here. Sometimes, I wish that I
wasn’t. There is too much death here. Perhaps it will be better when you are
gone, I think.’

‘You
think the Union will give New Earth independence?’

He
shrugged, ‘Maybe. Eventually the Union will become fed up with this planet. Its
people will not accept all of this slaughter forever.’

‘I
don’t think you understand the mentality of the Union,’ I said with a grim
smile, ‘We will never give up New Earth, and neither will Russia.’

The
people at home had very little knowledge of the conflict in the Alpha Centauri
system other than propaganda released by the military. The Union and its
Russian allies controlled all travel to and from Earth, and they both shared a
common interest in keeping their populations keen to continue the fight. Even
if the people did decide they wanted to let go of the first planet ever to be
colonized by mankind, they didn’t really have a choice. New Earth was of great
strategic importance, to the military as well as the corporations keen to take
advantage of its high-tech manufacturing industry. If the planet was given
independence, then the Chinese would only invade a month later.

The
policeman walked away from me and ordered another building crowd of civilians
back into their homes.

I
found myself wondering what the people thought. Were they on our side,
indifferent, or completely against us? Surely they knew that it was the Union
that had liberated them from Chinese rule? To be fair, half of the population
of New Earth
were
Chinese, from the era when the colonial powers had
divided the planet and co-existed peacefully. But the people of Nieuwe Poort were
European colonists, they ought be on our side.

‘They
don’t want the Chinese either
,’ Sergeant Evans had said once, when
somebody had suggested that the New Earthers were traitors, ‘
They just want
to be free.’

‘Andy,’
Konny’s voice pulled me back to reality, ‘Johnno wants a work party to help
with casualties. The rest of the blokes will stay here.’

‘No
worries,’ I said flatly, and called over Okonkwo and O’Leary, both of whom
appeared strong enough to carry casualties with ease and weren’t burdened by
heavy weapons.

It
didn’t take long to help the conscripts onto the trucks, as there were plenty
of extra hands to help between us and the police. We were in a hurry to get
moving, since our communication network was still down and the enemy might be
preparing for another attack. Also we were becoming increasingly wary of our
casualties, some of whom had received no specialist treatment for well over an
hour. Eindhoven had a medical facility, but nobody had ever thought to take any
medics out on the ground with us, we had never needed them in the city before.
All troopers and conscripts were trained to carry out basic life support and
the treatment carried out by our combats automatically was often enough, but
there was a limit to how much we could do for the severely injured. We needed
to get out fast.

‘We
could take them back to the hospital?’ a policewoman suggested to Johnno as we
moved a bloodied conscript who had lost both his legs onto a stretcher. He was
barely conscious, and he whimpered quietly when we set him down.

‘No,’
Johnno answered, ‘We have what we need at Eindhoven. Don’t worry mate, you’ll
be alright,’ he raised his voice to speak to the injured conscript and squeezed
his shoulder gently, before a mixture of troopers and police took him away.

‘Our
hospital is closer,’ the policewoman insisted, ‘And well equipped.’

‘I
said no,’ Johnno snapped angrily, ‘Sorry.’

‘That’s
the last of the casualties,’ I told him, and he nodded slowly.

‘Those
poor bastards.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Right,
let’s get the boys back in the trucks! Dave!’

A
conscript caked in blood from head-to-toe looked over to us from the back of
one of the trucks, ‘Yes?’

‘You
happy that’s all your blokes accounted for?’

‘Yes,
thank you,’ the translation sounded chirpy in my headset, but I knew the man
would be anything but happy. He was the platoon sergeant for the conscripts,
and he had lost half of his men. It was their blood that coated him.

‘I’m
loading up, tell the major to give us a horn blast when he wants to move off,’
Johnno then shouted so that the whole platoon could hear, ‘Prepare to move!
Load up! Section commanders give me a shout when you’re good to go!’

I
took one last look about the ruined street as troopers and conscripts ran to
their vehicles. I would never look down on those conscripts again, because
whether they were poorly trained or not, they were still young boys who had
endured the terrible horrors of war.

The
local civilians were growing in confidence, venturing out of their homes
despite the police insistence that they stay inside. Men, women and children
came to see the broken Union soldiers fleeing from their city.

As
I looked at the civilians I suddenly saw somebody that I  swore I recognised; a
tall man somewhere in his late twenties staring over at us from where he stood
at the top of a cellar stairwell. His towering figure and chiselled jaw gave
him an almost god-like appearance. He was wearing a civilian visor, which made
it difficult to tell, but he was looking right at me, as if he knew who I was.

Johnno
patted my arm, and I jumped, ‘Andy, let’s go, mate.’

‘Yeah.’

I
looked back into the crowds, but the man was gone.

We
loaded back onto our truck, carefully squeezing around Patterson’s motionless
body lying down the middle of the compartment. Konny shouted out to Johnno that
our section were all in, who returned a thumbs up as he walked the length of
our convoy to ensure that nobody had been left behind, as was his job. Once
Johnno was happy that we were all good to go, he would then tell Mr Moore, who
would move when he was ready, leading the convoy back to Eindhoven with the
conscripts bringing up the rear.

I
looked about at the frightened faces of the section. They had seen enough of
what NELA could do to them, and the feeling of powerlessness was almost
overwhelming.

‘Calm
down, lads,’ I soothed, breaking the silence. I knew too well that it was those
periods of silent contemplation that could eat at a trooper’s mind, ‘We’ll be
back in Eindhoven soon. Stay focused.’

‘Why
has nobody come for us?’ Jackson asked, ‘Somebody must have noticed what’s
going on by now?’

‘Nobody
has,’ Konny answered gloomily, ‘The boss briefed me.’

Okonkwo
frowned as he leant forward in his seat, ‘Briefed you what?’

‘The
major’s signaller has been trying to get through to Eindhoven, but he got
something else instead. It’s us, doing our patrol.’

‘What
are you on about?’ Geany demanded rudely. I would have told him off for stepping
well across the line between trooper and NCO, but curiosity had taken over. The
hairs rose on my neck as I realised what Konny was getting at.

Konny
shook his head as he spoke, as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying, ‘NELA
has duplicated our comms chatter. To everyone outside the city we sound like
we’re still on task.’

‘Shit
the bed!’ Leaman exclaimed as what Konny was saying sunk in.

‘What
about the orbital platform?’ I asked, ‘Can’t it see us?’

‘We
have no comms with it, so who knows, but I doubt it.’

‘Eindhoven
know what’s going on, though,’ Geany said angrily, ‘They can hear us with their
own ears, let alone on the net!’

I
grimaced at the outburst, ‘What are they gonna do? There’s barely enough of
them to defend Eindhoven, let alone come for us.’

‘So
what if, we get back to Eindhoven and we’re still cut off?’

‘I
said they can’t come for us, I didn’t say they can’t do anything at all.’

Geany
sneered, ‘What else can they do? Get the kettle on?’

I
pointed a finger straight at Geany’s visor, ‘You want to remember who you’re
talking to, mate!’

‘Oh
yeah, sorry, Lance Corporal Moralee, Union Star, the greatest…’

I
roared so loud that even Konny jumped, ‘I don’t care about no fucking medal,
you little piss stain! Who do you think you are? You talk like you’re one of
the best troopers in the platoon, but all I see from you is shit! You are  living
proof that seniority counts for nothing, because right now I don’t know if I
can trust you as far as I can throw you!’

Geany
was shocked into silence, as I still shook with rage, my finger still pointed
at him like a cocked pistol.

‘Andy…’

I
switched fire, ‘And you want to shut up an’ all, Konny!’

Stunned
silence. I sat back in my seat and enjoyed it.

It
didn’t last. Okonkwo tested the water carefully, ‘Corporal?’

‘For
God’s sake, call me
Andy
. I don’t like being called Corporal.’ It still
didn’t feel right being called by my rank, though I wasn’t going to tell anyone
that.

‘Andy,
you said the blokes still in Eindhoven wouldn’t do anything. What
are
they gonna do then?’

It
was a genuine question, and I thought about it as we felt the vehicle begin to
move, ‘If I was them I would try to alert the outside world.’

‘How?’

‘I
don’t know,’ I said irritably, ‘By firing a few smart missiles in the direction
of the nearest base?’

‘That’s
a bit dodgy, ain’t it?’

‘Why
is it? They’re called
smart missiles
for a reason, they won’t detonate
on friendly troops, but they would definitely wake everyone up!’

Jackson
nodded excitedly, ‘That’s a good idea! Do you think that would work?’

‘Well,
I don’t know, but failing that it won’t take long now for somebody to realise
something’s up, what with half the population not going to work
.
The rebels can’t shut off an entire city and
expect nobody to notice, no matter how good they are on the net.’

‘Fair
one.’

We
were picking up speed, which meant that all of the vehicles in the police
convoy were moving. I peered through a tiny opening into the cab and the street
beyond to see us weaving through rubble and the wrecked LSVs. Crowds continued
to gather on the pavements.

The
sun, Alpha Centauri Alpha, had lifted above the buildings to drive away the
last of the shadows and caused the glass dome above us to shimmer brightly.
Just as it had been shown on my tour in the simulators, Nieuwe Poort, with its
magnificent buildings, marble arches and towering pillars was an architect’s
dream.
It was strange how a place so utterly beautiful could harbour such
menace
, I thought to myself.

I
watched the angry faces of the Nieuwe Poort population who now lined the
streets, growing in confidence as they hurled insults toward the convoy that
carried the Union army out of their city. I remembered the strange man that I
had recognised in amongst them. It couldn’t have been, could it? I could swear
the man looked the spitting image of Sergeant Evan - Ev - my old platoon
sergeant.