LANCEJACK (The Union Series) (15 page)

‘You
don’t need to worry about the CSM, mate,’ Johnno said, catching up with me
before I managed to return to the platoon, ‘I think he likes you.’

I
stopped walking, ‘I’m not worried,’ I said.

‘Did
you really have to grip Konny by the throat?’

I
wasn’t sure if he was asking whether or not the event occurred, or if I thought
I had been right to do it.

I
nodded to both, ‘Yeah.’

‘Funny
really,’ Johnno said quietly, conscious that others might hear him, ‘I don’t
rate him, never have. He was never even that great in the simulators, but I
never thought he’d be
that
bad.’

I
realised then that Johnno believed me, rather than Konny’s version of events.

‘Nobody’s
been shooting at him until now,’ I pointed out.

‘True.
He did get shot.’

I
kissed my teeth irritably, ‘That was a flesh wound. Have you seen it?’

Judging
by the information I had seen on Konny’s datapad it was little more than a nick
to the skin, nothing as bad as the deep gouge that a dart had cut through my
own arm.

Johnno
laughed, ‘No, but I read his datapad.’

We
both watched the platoon feast on another round of baguettes being brought out
by the conscripts. They must have had a pretty big cookhouse somewhere nearby
in the warren.

‘Your
boss hates me,’ I said sullenly.

‘The
boss hates near enough all of us. He’s a miserable bloke who just has to
disagree with everyone. There’s not much I can do about that, I’m afraid. What
he really hates about you, though, is your medal and your experience. He’s
jealous, I think.’

‘Well
he can have it if he wants, it’s not worth anything.’

My
medal wasn’t worth much more than the metal it was made from. Apparently
troopers had actually tried to sell their medals upon returning to Earth, only
to be quickly caught and ordered to reverse the deal.

‘I
don’t think throwing your weight around really helped much either,’ Johnno
added. I knew that he was right.

‘Yeah,’
I admitted, ‘But I was only doing my job.’

‘I
know,’ Johnno said sincerely, ‘Westy told me you’re a good trooper. Look, let’s
just get on with sorting the boys out, then we’ll worry about the boss later. I
could do with stuffing one of those rolls down my face, too.’

‘Okay.’

‘Try
to get on with Konny, though. Maybe you should be the section commander, and
not him, but that’s not our call to make right now, it’s one for the boss. I’ll
speak to him and try to get him to see sense, but if he leaves it as it is,
then you need to be the bigger man and accept it.’

I
realised suddenly that I actually wanted to take command of the section. Back
in Lash I had dreaded the idea of stepping up from my role as 2ic to take on
the full burden of command, but now I couldn’t stand to see a man I considered
below standard leading my men. That aside, if every time something happened
Konny decided to freeze, then it was only a matter of time before another
trooper died.

‘I
will,’ I said.

Johnno
stepped closer to me so that others might not hear him.

‘If
he does it again,’ he said, as if reading my mind, ‘Relieve him, and don’t hand
back the reins afterwards. I’ll back you up, even if it gets us both in the
shit when we get back in.’

‘I
will.’

He
nodded toward the platoon, ‘Come on, then. We’ll eat, then we’ve got a few bits
to square away before the officers finish sniffing glue.’

I
laughed, ‘Yeah.’

‘Oh,
and from me, you did a good job out there. The boys think it too. You can see
it. You earned their respect today.’

‘Thanks,’
I said, swelling with pride. I hated Konny, and I thought Geany was a little
gobshite, but I liked the rest of my section. I just wished that it was a
section of eight troopers, and not now a section of seven.

We
walked back to the platoon and began to prepare ourselves for whatever was to
come next. Once we had gorged ourselves on Nieuwe Poort baguettes we busied
ourselves with recharging the water reservoirs in our daysacks and replacing
our depleted ammunition with more provided by the CSM and his own company work
party.

‘Top
yourselves up to frontline scales,’ the CSM called out to all of the three
platoons, his voice echoing about the cavern, ‘Help yourselves and ask if you
need more. The conscripts have enough in their stores to last out a month!
Platoon sergeants, let me know when you’re sorted and ensure that your ammo
states are updated!’

I
was in no mood to make any kind of polite conversation with Konny, despite
Johnno’s plea, and I made no effort to smooth things over with him. He had
attempted to get me into trouble behind my back, eradicating any kind of
respect I ever had for him. I was beginning to realise that his attitude wasn’t
anything to do with the loss of his section commander, it was simply the way he
was. Konny couldn’t handle himself in battle, so he made up for it by throwing
his weight around all the rest of the time.

At
one point Konny asked me for my ammunition state, which was a stupid question
because I hadn’t finished distributing the ammo.

‘You’ll
have it when I’m good and ready,’ was my brusque reply, and I fixed him with a
challenging stare.

Konny
suddenly found something to do on his datapad, giving him the chance to back
down from the open confrontation with his 2ic. I knew that he was afraid of
losing face in front of the section, all of whom were close enough to hear. It
was so blatant that I had stared him down that normally I would have laughed,
had I not already been so furious with him.

We
reloaded our magazines and replaced all of our grenades, and I updated our ammo
state on my datapad once I was happy that everything was done. I uploaded the
figures to Konny and then to Johnno, who gave me the thumbs up. Our datapads
were working correctly again now that the rebels couldn’t get to them
underground.

‘That’s
a relief,’ Johnno let out a sigh, ‘I’d forgotten how useful these things are!’

‘Just
goes to show we should never rely on them,’ Jimmy Myers replied.

‘We
could,’ Johnno replied, ‘If  Electronic Warfare pulled their thumb out their
arse. What we need to do now is shut down the whole city, cut the power, knock
out the net and then round them up.’

Jimmy
shook his head, ‘You can’t just shut down the whole city net!’

‘Why
not?’ I asked.

‘You’d
knock out everything; water, air filters, transport…’

‘Every
single civilian carries a respirator,’ Johnno argued, ‘Even if it’s just to
walk half a block. They’ll be fine. But as long as the network is operational
then we can’t set foot back into that city without planning for some serious
casualties.’

Johnno
was right,
I thought as I checked my section, vital readings were now coming through
again. The enemy used electronic warfare to devastating effect, creating a
whole new battlefield that we on the ground had barely any control over. If our
EW team didn’t make some form of breakthrough then any return to the city
without massive re-enforcements would only result in another bloodbath.

Suddenly
I felt my datapad vibrating against my arm. I looked down and saw that it was
flashing at me angrily. Patterson had no vital readings, it said, indicating
that he was either dead or not present. I deleted his name from the section,
leaving the space blank.

Once
the platoon had finished their administration and Johnno was happy that we were
ready to go again, he ordered us all to go to sleep. Nobody needed telling
twice, the platoon was exhausted. All good troopers knew to sleep whenever the
opportunity arose, since we never knew when we might get the chance again. It
was highly likely that the officers that led our company were already hatching
a plan to retaliate against the rebels, and no doubt a message had already been
sent to regimental headquarters in Archer’s Post requesting assistance.

My
section settled themselves onto the ground, arranging their equipment into
makeshift mattresses to keep them off the cold floor. Our armour and daysacks
could actually be quite comfortable to lie on, if you were tired enough!

I
didn’t join them, though. It wasn’t time for me to rest, not yet. I had
something else to do.

The
minutes passed whilst I waited for the last trooper to close his eyes. When I
was satisfied that nobody would notice me I picked myself up and quietly
stalked over to where Konny lay. He had positioned himself against a crate a
few metres away from the section, which would make it easier to get him up
without anyone noticing. We had some unfinished business to attend to.

I
stooped over him and nudged him with my foot.

Konny
stirred and opened his eyes. His eyes widened when he saw that it was me who
had woken him.

‘What?’
He asked.

‘You
know what,’ I said menacingly, ‘You and I need to go somewhere, don’t we?’

He
said nothing.

I
beckoned, ‘Come with me. We need to have a word.’

Fear
quickly turned to defiance, ‘No, we don’t. Go to sleep, Moralee.’

I
seethed, barely managing to keep my voice down to an angry hiss, ‘Get up,
Wysocki!’

I
lunged at him, gripping him by his collar and wrenching him upwards in an
attempt to get him to stand. He clawed uselessly at my hands to try to release
my grip, refusing to get up off the ground.

‘Get
off me!’

I
was strong, but I wasn’t able to completely lift him. I threw him back to the
ground with an angry growl and clasped him about the throat. He tried to pull
my hand away, but by then I’d had enough. I punched him hard in the gut,
knocking all of the wind out of him.

I
brought my face close to his, ignoring his gasps for air, ‘You call me Moralee
one more time and I will end you, Konny!’

He
gasped, Let go!’

I
ignored his plea, ‘I get it, Konny, this is your section, your train set, not
mine. Fine. So do your fucking job and
lead
! You’re gonna get somebody
killed, do you realise that?’

Silence.

‘Do
you understand me?’ I repeated. My eyes burned into his. He had been lucky, I had
planned to do far worse to him had he followed me out of the cavern.

Realising
that I wasn’t going to let go until he agreed with me, Konny nodded.

‘Good,’
I released my grip, allowing him to breathe once more, ‘Next time I have to do
your job for you, it will be permanent! Get a grip!’

I
turned my back on the stunned lancejack, half expecting him to attack me. I
wanted him to go for me so that so that I had an excuse to flatten him, but he
didn’t. I doubted that he was any better in a fist fight than he was on the
battlefield. Konny was all mouth and no trousers.

I
settled myself into my pile of equipment, adjusting my daysack into a pillow.
As I did so I noticed that Okonkwo had opened one eye to watch me. I didn’t
know if he had seen me gripping Konny, but I didn’t care anyway.

‘What?’
I asked irritably when he continued to stare.

‘Nothing,’
Okonkwo closed his eyes again.

I
rolled over with my back to him, not wanting to engage in further conversation.
Unleashing my anger upon Konny hadn’t made me feel any better, in fact it made
me feel worse, and I was still deeply troubled by my encounter with Ev, and
Westy’s revelation.

‘Did
you lose friends during the invasion?’ Okonkwo asked quietly.

I
snapped abruptly, ‘What’s it to you?’

He
sighed, ‘You’re not the only one who’s had a rough ride, Andy. We’ve all lost
friends. Konny too.’

So
Okonkwo had seen, then. I rolled back over to fix him with an angry stare, ‘That
doesn’t give him the right to talk to me like I’m shit!’

‘No,’
he agreed, ‘But he’s afraid. He’s not thinking straight.’

I
simmered, ‘Damn right he isn’t, half the time he isn’t thinking at all. I’m not
taking shit from that little stroker.’

Okonkwo
smiled wryly, ‘I think everybody knows that now,’ he continued with a sigh, ‘Konny’s
afraid. We all are.’

I
said nothing.

‘Aren’t
you afraid of dying?’

I
thought about it. Death for me meant no more guilt, no more nightmares.
Sometimes I longed for it, but I couldn’t bring myself to take my own life.
Perhaps I had returned to New Earth so that somebody could do it for me.

‘Not
really,’ I answered truthfully, ‘But I am afraid.’

Okonkwo
raised an eyebrow, ‘Of what?’

I
was afraid of more troopers around me dying,
I thought. I lived with the
grief of losing so many of my comrades and I couldn’t bear to lose any more.
Every time I grew close to somebody during the invasion, that person had died
or been horrifically injured, and I still felt the pain even two years on. The
only thing that terrified me more than losing a comrade was losing one of the
men under my command, and knowing that there was something that I could have
done to keep them alive.