LANCEJACK (The Union Series) (30 page)

The
last private in Johnno’s work party turned back to pass the message, ‘One rebel
dead.’

So
we weren’t alone, then
, I thought. My heart raced again as my body
prepared itself for combat. Although we weren’t yet under fire, we had found
the enemy and it was only a matter of time before battle resumed.

Johnno
looked back to us again, and beckoned for us to follow on. We crawled the
remaining distance, just as Jimmy had done, keeping our heads low and resisting
the urge to take a look over the top of the plateau to whatever lay in store
for us on the other side.

I
could see the top of a rocky escarpment that ran parallel to the ridge half a
kilometre away, and I presumed that a valley of some sort ran in between,
snaking its way up toward Rottenberg in the distance. The escarpment caught my
eye because the rock had a strange green tinge to it, but I didn’t take the
time to admire the strange coloured rock. I was far more interested in getting
my section out of view from it. If I were the enemy, I knew that I would
certainly put positions on the escarpment, and I would ensure that they could
mutually support the pillboxes on the ridgeline.

As
we rounded the pillbox I realised it was connected to another by a hundred
metre long trench. Both of the pillboxes shared dominating vantage points over
the top of the ridge and onto the low ground to the west. Mr Moore was right,
the defensive position was definitely protecting something to our east, perhaps
something within the valley beyond.

We
slid into the trench behind the first pillbox, and I took a quick look inside.
A rebel lay dead in a pool of blood. Beside him sat some kind of ration pack,
probably Chinese judging by the writing on the box. One of the packets had been
opened and its contents spilt all over the ground.

Jimmy’s
point man had seen the open entrance to the pillbox, and dropped in from the
edge of the trench while the unsuspecting rebel ate his breakfast. Before he even
managed to turn around, the trooper had stabbed him several times in the back.
The hapless rebel’s respirator was still pulled back from his face to allow him
to eat without his straw, and a spoon lay discarded beside him where he fell.
There
is nothing dignified about death,
I thought to myself, but war was never
meant to be dignified.

‘There’s
some simple surveillance equipment in here,’ Johnno observed from within the
pillbox, pointing out to me an array of gadgets spread in a disorderly manner
across the floor, ‘I doubt this bloke even knew how to use most of it, not that
he was even paying attention anyway.’

‘They
were relying on their little trap outside the tunnel,’ I replied.

‘Looks
that way,’ Johnno agreed. His brow furrowed in puzzlement, ‘Still, you would
think they would have this place set up a little better. It all looks a bit
rushed. This guy’s all on his own and armed only with a rifle. It’s like
somebody just dropped him off and said
‘Stay there, mate, see you in a few
days
.’’

I
looked away from the pillbox to see where the rest of the platoon were. Jimmy
had spread his section along the trench, leaving two of his men watching out of
the pillbox slits, covering the rear. I looked for Two section, but I couldn’t
see them anywhere. I assumed that they were somewhere further along the trench,
about to push into the second pillbox.

It
wasn’t long before the message came back for me to push forward, and I led my
section along the trench, squeezing past Jimmy’s section in pursuit of the
boss. Jimmy gave me a friendly nod as I passed him, evidently relieved to have
reached and cleared the pillbox without coming under fire. If he had, then I
doubted he would have taken the pillbox without taking heavy casualties,
despite the fire support that we would have given him. Jimmy’s point man
glanced up at me as well, fixing me with a cold-hearted stare. I saw that his
visor was spattered in droplets of blood, and a tiny piece of flesh hung from
his bayonet. He was as young as I was, but he had already seen far more than
his fair share of death.

I
finally arrived behind Mr Moore, and I took a knee beside him whilst I waited
for further instructions. Ahead of us two section had left a link man on a
corner in the trench, as it would have done all the way along its advance.
Since we couldn’t use our net, link men were required to pass messages back.

The
signaller and EW operator eyed me warily, before returning to scanning the
frequencies for any sign of enemy activity. Westy gave me a wink.

I
glanced back at Okonkwo, who crouched five metres behind me. His eyes darted
nervously along the edge of the trench. We would often stand troopers up so
that they could protect us from any enemy wishing to attack from above the
trenches, but if we did that then we risked being seen along the ridgeline.

‘You
alright?’ I asked.

‘Not
really,’ he admitted, ‘I’d only just got used to fighting in enclosed spaces,
then we end up out here! We should call for the company, it’s proper dodgy
doing shit like this on our own.’

I
grinned, ’It could be worse…’

‘How
could it possibly be worse?’

‘Keep
the noise down,’ the boss hissed back at us angrily, ‘Two section should be
going into the assault any minute now!’

We
waited for ages, but nothing happened. The pillbox remained silent, and there
was no sign of any of our second section along the length of the trench. I
began to wonder if something had gone wrong, but then I reminded myself that if
it had, then surely I would have heard something.

I
turned my attention back to the lip of the trench.

As
I did so something caught my eye, a dark green patch on the wall beside me, as
if it had been painted. I reached out a hand and touched it with my finger.
Little flecks of green came off on my glove, and I ground them curiously between
my fingers, watching them crumble into dust.

‘What
is it?’ Okonkwo asked, seeing me inspecting the strange patch.

Surely
it couldn’t be,
I thought, everybody knew that nothing could survive on New Earth, we had been
told enough times, ‘It’s lichen…!’ I whispered.

‘What’s
lichen?
’

I
spoke slowly, disbelieving my own words, ‘
A kind of plant
…’

The
link man from Two section suddenly cocked his head to hear a message being
passed to him by somebody further up the trench.

He
turned back to the boss, ‘Position clear. One enemy dead. One enemy captured.
Corporal Matthews says he needs to speak to you about the prisoner.’

We
all exchanged surprised glances, and Mr Moore made his way up the trench.

‘Tell
Konny to hold the section here,’ I told Okonkwo, and I followed, keen to find
out what concerned Corporal Matthews about his prisoner.

‘He
was already dead,’ Matthews explained when we arrived in the pillbox, pointing
at a rebel who lay on the ground with a knife in his back, ‘Then we found this
guy with his hands up saying “
Don’t shoot!
”’

We
all looked at the other rebel. He was being searched by a trooper from Two
section, who ran his hands over the rebel’s clothes in search of a weapon. He
was short and slightly built, hardly the sort of man I would have expected to find
on the battlefield. He wore virtually no equipment other than his respirator
and a small utility belt about his waist. Despite being surrounded by several
blood-red, fully-kitted troopers he glared back at us defiantly, fixing us all
with a steady gaze that caused us to take notice. I noticed that one of his
hands was dripping with blood.

‘I’m
not one of them!’ the man said in a thick German accent, flicking his head toward
the dead rebel.

‘Everybody
seems to be saying that these days,’ Mr Moore replied.

Undeterred,
the man went on, ‘
I
killed him, but there are more,
many more
.’

Westy
peered out of one of the pillbox slits, seeing how it overlooked its twin
position where Jimmy’s section had assaulted, ‘Looks like this guy may well
have saved our bacon.’

‘Hardly,’
the boss rebuked, ‘They’re not exactly well armed!’

‘You
know what I mean.’

The
boss ignored Westy’s reply, switching fire to the prisoner, ‘Who
are
you?’

‘Klaus
Gaertner,’ the man replied warily, ‘I am a friend of the man you’re after,
James Evans.’

I
couldn’t contain my excitement, ‘
You know Ev
?!’

‘Yes,’
Klaus replied, ‘He is a good man. We have known each other since the war ended.
You knew him also?’

I
pointed to myself and Westy, ‘We were in his platoon.’

‘Let
me see,’ Klaus looked to the ground thoughtfully, ‘You are Andy and Westy?’

‘Yeah,’
Westy replied for us both, ‘We served with him…’

‘…During
the war,’ Klaus finished Westy’s sentence, ‘Yes, I know. He spoke of you many
times. He told me that you were here on New Earth. He saw you in the city and
went to save you from an ambush.’

‘So
he
was
one of the rebels,’ Mr Moore concluded smugly, ‘How else would he
have known about the ambush?’

‘Ev
wanted nothing to do with the rebellion,’ Klaus replied, and his vehemence
silenced the boss, ‘They forced themselves onto this place, and he tried to
stop them. We came here to find peace, not war.’

‘
Peace?
’
The boss made a show of looking around himself, ‘All I can see are trenches and
pillboxes! Oh, and that man you just killed. You’ll find no peace here.’

‘Those
are just old relics from the war, you will find them everywhere. As for him,’
he indicated the dead man, ‘I did what I had to do. I am trying to help you.’

‘Was
it you who switched off the gun back at the tunnel?’ I asked.

‘Yes,
Ev said that you might come. He said that you were our only hope to stop this
madness before many people die. So I have waited here for you. Many of us
turned to the rebels, thinking that they are the only way for us to free
ourselves from Earth, but not me. The rebels think that I am one of them, but I
do not want them here, this is not a place of war, it is a place of peace.’

I
looked down at the bloodied corpse of the rebel Klaus had killed, and I had to
question his idea of peace.

‘What
are you doing here in this valley, if you aren’t part of the rebellion?’

Klaus
smiled as though he was remembering something wonderful, ‘We are growing a
garden. A beautiful garden. That was before the rebels came.’

‘Right,’
the boss nodded patronizingly, ‘So what you’re saying is that Sergeant Evans
abandoned his post, came here and took up a hobby gardening in a greenhouse.’

‘There
are no greenhouses in this garden,’ Klaus replied, not rising to the bait, ‘Here
we do not need them.’

The
boss had already had enough, ‘What are you talking about, you
idiot
?’

I
realised what Klaus was trying to tell us, ‘You’re genetic engineers?’

Klaus
nodded, ‘Yes. But we are more than that. I like to think that we are artists,
and the garden we have made is our masterpiece. Soon we will show it to the
entire planet.’

‘So
you grow plants,’ the boss said, trying to run the facts through his head until
they made sense, ‘And you mess around with them so they can grow on New Earth
without a greenhouse?’

‘Yes,’
Klaus agreed, ‘But they do more than that. The plants we have created breathe
in the poisons and turn them into a harmless by-product. They clean the air!
Terraforming!’

‘So
why are the rebels interested in some damn garden?’

Klaus
laughed harshly, ‘They don’t care about the garden! They are like you, even though
they claim that they’re not. Their leaders only want power, and their followers
are too blinded by their hatred of Earth to see it. The garden offers the rebel
leaders nothing, if anything it offers to remove the power from government.
Imagine a green New Earth, where nobody had to worry about where their air or
food came from…’

The
boss stopped him, ‘So if it is possible, why hasn’t anybody done it here before?’

‘The
Union doesn’t want New Earth to be green, neither did the Chinese. The
atmosphere gives them
total control
over the population, so that they
can use them to make the weapons they need to continue their war.’

‘So
what you’re saying is that this garden of yours, if it exists, is illegal,’ the
boss concluded, ‘It must be pretty small if our ships haven’t noticed it.’

Klaus
smiled, ‘Your ships cannot see it. That is why the rebels want this place.’

17

The Garden

Klaus
explained that the garden had been a project cooked up in the minds of students
and lecturers displaced from their university on Jersey Island by the war. They
wanted to smuggle themselves onto the mainland, to find somewhere isolated
where they could carry out their research. Somehow this led to their meeting
with Ev, who was himself on the run after deserting my old battalion. He
listened to the students’ idea to build a green world and he had been enchanted
by it.

‘He
knew a lot about how to get past Union security in the chaos after the
invasion,’ Klaus recalled, ‘He knew where your men would be looking, and where
they weren’t. There were not many of us then, maybe twenty, but no more. The
Union were more interested in rounding up the Chinese and their supporters, so
they didn’t care about us.’

I
remembered the aftermath of the invasion, hopping from one location to another
in our dropships in an effort to restore order. It was a huge task. There were
thousands of us, but there were fifty million people living on New Earth, of
which twenty million lived in Chinese provinces that had never been under Union
rule before. Nobody would have noticed a deserted trooper and a small band of
students making their escape from Jersey Island.

‘Even
then it was difficult to make the crossing, but Ev had got to know somebody in
the military who was sympathetic to our cause who could help us…’

I
nodded, of course… ‘
Ruckheim
.’

‘Yes.
He had been based on Jersey Island. He helped to forge documentation that
allowed for us to make the crossing.’

Despite
their successful escape onto the mainland Ev knew that the Union would never allow
for the planet to be terraformed, and so he had taken them into the mountains.
Having a vague understanding of the Chinese defences in the province, he knew
that there were many abandoned positions there, and it hadn’t taken the group
long to find the site for their garden. During that time, Ev had become their
leader, for even though he lacked any scientific knowledge, he made up for it
with his charisma and his thorough understanding of Union global strategy.

‘The
most important thing was to make ourselves invisible to them,’ Klaus said,
poking his finger up toward the sky, ‘So we found an old Chinese electronic
warfare centre down in the valley below.’

The
valley was perfectly sited. It couldn’t be seen unless a craft passed directly
overhead, but it still caught the rays of the sun throughout most of the day.
Ev used his growing friendship with Ruckheim to their advantage, relying upon
him for supplies and equipment, and somehow the major managed to keep all of
the Union saucers and patrols away from the area. He took great interest in the
garden project, often meeting with Ev in Archer’s Post to discuss their
progress.

Eventually
the major had himself posted to Nieuwe Poort so that he could have even greater
influence over any Union operations near to the garden, removing any chance of
a trooper accidentally chancing upon it during his patrol. The students and Ev
believed that Ruckheim too dreamed of a beautiful green planet without
borders.  But the major wasn’t interested in the garden itself.

Klaus
continued, ‘We knew that we couldn’t do anything unless we made ourselves
invisible to your ships. We spent many months hiding in the electronic warfare
centre, using the data created by the Chinese when they attempted, and failed,
to hack into your ships. We saw that the Chinese had already done the hard
work, identifying the layout of Union code and how and when it was sent. In
effect, they had identified the door, but they hadn’t managed to open it.’

I
didn’t like where this was going. Our ships were supposed to be impossible to
hack, we had been told so enough times. They sported the most advanced super
computers known to man, and crewed by some of the brightest, hand-picked
electronic warfare teams in the Union.

‘And
then what?’

Klaus
shrugged, ‘We couldn’t get the door fully open, naturally. If we had done then
the Union would have noticed and we would have been blasted into atoms. Instead
we opened the door by a fraction, and simply dropped a tiny piece of code in
the right place to keep us unnoticed. We have done so ever since, to every ship
that has ever passed over us.’

‘What
is this code?’ The boss demanded.

‘It
is very simple. It causes the ship to duplicate a small area that it sees and
superimpose it onto another. You see, there are two separate programmes working
when the ship scans the ground below it, one that compiles the data received by
the sensors, and one that assesses it for anything worth highlighting to the
crew. All we are doing is changing the data on the first programme, before the
second one sees it. Does that make sense to you?’

‘Wow,’
I said, considerably impressed and alarmed at the same time, ‘And nobody ever
noticed, all this time?’

‘Why
would they? What we were doing was so small, none of the ship’s crew would have
ever seen it. Ruckheim became more and more interested in our programming. He
even visited once or twice. We thought he just wanted to see the garden. Then a
few months ago the
rebel fighters
started moving in, using the tunnels
beneath us to move to and from Nieuwe Poort, and we realised that Ruckheim was
not at all what he seemed.

‘Many
of us did nothing, but when the fighting started Ev tried to stop it. He stole
access codes to the computers in the EW centre and kept them on a disc hidden
out here in the mountains, so that the rebels couldn’t tamper with our
programming. He then followed Ruckheim to Nieuwe Poort using the tunnels in an
attempt to end the madness.’

Mr
Moore looked as though he was trying to piece the story together, ‘So the
rebels just want to control this place so they can make themselves invisible to
our ships? They’re using this place as a staging point to attack the city?’

Klaus
shook his head gravely, ‘No, they want to do much more than that. They only
want to control this place because it holds the key to the door.’

‘Stop
talking in damned riddles!’

‘It
gives them access to
your
ships.’

‘Hold
on, you just said that the ships will notice if you do anything too big. If the
rebels tried to access them, they’d just rain bombs down on this place until it’s
flat. Game over.’

‘They
don’t care. They only want to open the door and throw something in, then they
will go.’

Mr
Moore frowned, ‘Throw what in?’

‘A
state of the art military programme produced by the Union,’ Klaus explained, ‘A
virus designed originally to be used against Chinese ships, stolen from the
Citadel by the rebels. It will give them control of any Union ship it gets into
- just for a limited time - maybe as little as five seconds. But five seconds
is a
very long time
inside a computer!’

‘My
God…’ I gasped, ‘Does it only work on that ship?’

‘No,
once the programme is in, it automatically instructs the host ship to send it
to the others.’

I
looked at the boss, my eyes wide with fear, ‘Boss, we need to order our ships
away!’

‘But
what about the Chinese?’

‘There
are no Chinese, Boss, don’t you get it?’ I shook my head in dismay, ‘Ruckheim
left that code for
us
to find. He wanted
us
to bring in
our
ships.
He’s going to turn our own guns on us!
’

Klaus
raised an eyebrow, ‘You have called in
all
of your ships? Then this is
far worse than I thought…’

#

We
quickly formed the platoon up along the trench, ready to go into the assault.
We didn’t have much time.

The
commanders of the platoon huddled around the boss to hear his plan, regarding
Klaus wearily.  We all distrusted New Earther’s, but we knew that if what Klaus
said was true, then the rebels were already preparing to release the virus onto
our ships – with consequences that didn’t bear thinking about.

‘As
soon as we are in position, the assault will be initiated by the smart missiles
and fire support from Two section,’ Mr Moore explained to us, ‘When that
happens we will punch downwards. One section will take the lead, followed by me
and Three section. Corporal Johnston will bring his work party down, but he
will leave the launchers on the high ground.

When
we go noisy, your restrictions on comms are removed, since my signaller will be
firing up a situation report straight away anyway - with an immediate
instruction to NEJOC to withdraw all ships from orbit.’

He
took a deep breath, ‘If I should go down, the lead section commander is to take
over from me until the situation allows for Corporal Johnston to get forward. Everybody
needs to understand the main effort, so that the platoon can continue to fight
even as the commanders perish. The main effort is as follows;
fuck them up
.’

We
shared a nervous laugh as the boss continued.

‘
Fuck
them up, and don’t stop
, even when your ammo’s running low. We must stay on
the offensive until the cavalry arrives. The first unmanned craft should arrive
within minutes after our message for help, but the first boots won’t hit the
ground for a while longer. We must remain on the offensive. Pick out targets
you assess to be of high value, anything that looks like communications
equipment, buildings, bunkers and anybody who looks like he’s in charge. I want
to cause maximum chaos and confusion. We must sacrifice ourselves, if
necessary, to stop the rebels unleashing that virus. The lives of thousands of
our fellow Europeans depend on it.’

We
nodded gravely, understanding what had to be done. We were on a conventional
battlefield, in our own element, but we were going on the offensive against an
enemy of unknown strength with no fire support other than what we carried in
our hands and on our backs. There was a very good chance that we weren’t all
going to survive. We were drop troopers, though, and facing unfavourable odds
was what we did best. The fate of our comrades across New Earth depended upon
us.

‘Gents,’
the boss regarded us all as though this were the last time he would see us all
together, ‘It's been a wild ride. I know I can be a pain in the arse, and we
haven’t always got on,’ he was looking at me when he said that, ‘But it has
been a genuine privilege to lead this platoon, and it has been an honour to
have known all of you. I wish you all the very best of luck,’ he paused… ‘For
the Union,’ he said softly.

‘For
the Union,’ we chorused quietly.

‘For
peace,’ the New Earther whispered instead.  We ignored him, having convinced
ourselves that he was mad;  there would
never
be peace on New Earth…

I
saw my section further along the trench, watching us expectantly. They knew
what was about to happen - we were going over the top - into the unknown.

Drops
of water landed on my visor, and we turned our heads up to the sky as the
heavens began to open up.

‘Right
on cue,’ Westy joked, ‘Nothing like a battle in the rain, eh?’

‘I’ll
see you down there,’ I said to him.

‘Hopefully!
I’ll be the one without any kit!’

Sensing
that enough time had passed already, Mr Moore nodded to us respectfully, ‘Let’s
do this.’

The
rain was beginning to fall steadily when I returned to my section, the wind
driving it hard against the side of my visor. I closed the section in together
so that I could pass the plan down to them. It didn’t take long, since there
wasn’t much of a plan at all. All Klaus could tell us was that there were a
number of occupied bunkers along the high ground either side of the valley, and
numerous rebels lurking in the garden below.

Satisfied
that my men knew what they needed to know, I sent them back to their positions,
catching Konny just before he left.

Konny
eyed me nervously, bracing himself for me to either strike or insult him. I
remembered the speech the boss had given, and I remembered what Okonkwo had
told me. It had been an honour to command my section, and Konny was part of it
too.

‘Konny,
I know you can do your job,’ I said, ‘What happened to Geany, it wasn’t your
fault. You were only trying to do what you thought was right.’

Konny
said nothing, but then nodded. His eyes glistened.

I
patted him on the arm and smiled, ‘He’ll live, Geany will. Judging by our odds,
you probably saved his life!’

He
laughed, though his eyes were still filled with sadness. He knew that at least
some of us were likely to die. Beneath all of his false bravado I could see
that Konny didn’t belong in the dropship infantry, but not because he was a bad
person. He simply loved life too much.

‘Work
with me Konny,’ I urged, my eyes burning into his, ‘We can get through this.’

‘Okay.’
He smiled.

I
patted him on the arm, and turned to make my way back to my fire team. It was
time to go.