Chapter X: A New Kind of Foe
The soldiers of One Platoon marched silently through the forest, watching th trees intently. They were sent out on a patrol to find an Eldar forward outpost, but had had no luck.
Most of the soldiers kept silent, but some talked quietly amongst themselves.
"You know, Jim, I'm not exactly thrilled to be going against these Eldar," Mack said.
Jim looked over at him. "No? Why not?"
Mack looked up and sighed. "Superior guns, superior armour, superior tanks, hell, superior everything."
Jim frowned. "No. Not everything."
"What do you mean?" Mack asked, his face showing bewilderment.
"They're still mortal just like us. They can be beaten, Mack. They may have all these fancy gizmos, but in the end they can still be hurt, they can still bleed. All we have to do is make them bleed, and bleed good."
"You make it sound so easy."
"It is," Jim said.
"Read the dossier?"
"Sure."
"Then you know what they've got."
"Yeah, and I know how to beat it. Out distance them. Take down their tanks with our big guns and missiles.
Don't let them close, and if they do try to beat them at the game of one on one combat." Jim
held up his rifle. "This little baby can hurt them, and I plan on doing so."
"But that technology..."
"It's nothing. The Tau were superior in that field, and we still beat them."
"But the number of soldiers we lost?"
"Sure, they hurt us. But we still got them back."
"Lost a lot of friends doing it."
"True," Jim said, his voice lowering for a moment. "You know, out of all our losses, it's like the sergeants were charmed. None of them took it in the chest or anything. Not a one of them died."
Mack shook his head. "Pure luck."
Jim nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. It's just
weird."
* * *
Mel walked alongside the other members of quad two,
watching for any signs of the enemy.
He didn't have to find them, however. They found the platoon.
A dozen
'toofs' sounded out, and a few soldiers grunted as they were hit by small needles. Some pulled out the needles and were quickly attended to by other soldiers. Some weren't so lucky.
Mel looked up and saw a dozen shapes moving about in the tree tops. He pointed his rifle up at them, as several others did so as well. They let loose on the trees above, indiscriminately spraying fire. Though many shots whipped through the trees and shredded foliage, many managed to hit their targets,
knocking them from the trees, or killing them instantly.
One of the Eldar was knocked to the ground by another's flailing arms. They began to get to their feet. Out of the corner of his eye, Mel saw someone run at the Eldar and jump them.
* * *
Bob jumped on the Eldar, flipping them onto their back. He quickly straddled the alien's chest, pressing them to the ground. In anger, he ripped the mask off his captive.
A beautiful face looked up at him, eyes of pure amber staring terrified at Bob's face. His mind briefly flickered through
emotions brought on by seeing such a lovely face, but such thoughts were quickly shoved to the back as his rage took over again.
He pulled one of his knives from his belt and pressed it to the female alien's neck, the blade almost drawing blood.
"Tell me, alien, where are the rest of you?"
The Eldar looked up, unspeaking, regaining some of her composure.
"I know you can speak Gothic!" Bob yelled. "Tell me where the others are!"
The Eldar still didn't speak.
"Dammit, I'm asking for the last time. Where is your base?"
The Eldar's response shocked Bob momentarily. She reached up, grabbing his head, pulling it to her own. His surprise was far greater when she kissed him passionately, and he began to pull himself back, trying to figure out just what she was pulling. But before he could, he heard a gasp, then felt the hand on his head slacken its hold.
He quickly drew back, looking down at where the alien had pulled herselfinto his blade, her throat now sliced open. She looked up for a moment, her lips curved into a smile. "Your lust betrays you, mon-keigh. You'll never learn from me now."
And with that, his captive was dead.
Bob stood up, punching a tree in anger. "Damn it!"
He cursed himself for showing a momentary weakness, one that the alien could use to her advantage. But more than that, he found himself admiring the alien's quick thinking, and the clever trick of throwing him off balance long enough to prevent him from realizing she was killing herself. No captive, no information.
These Eldar would certainly be a handful.
* * *
Sara looked down at the slumped body of Ralph Wheeler, saddened by the knowledge there ws nothing anyone could do to help him. He took his needle in the throat, its poison getting to his system in seconds.
Sergeant Hoover would have been a different matter, if he hadn't insisted on others being helped before him. His participation in the brief firefight accelerated the poison, which could have been drawn out.
Jim reached down and squeezed her shoulder. "Nothing you could've done, Sara."
She nodded, but said nothing in reply. There were just no words that could free her from feeling this way.
Becker moved about the platoon, checking on casualties. When he was finally certain only two men were down, he ordered them to be carried along with the squad until they had returned to base. He also put Bob in charge of squad two.
She looked over at Bob, seeing him looking down at the limp body of what appeared to be a young female Eldar, dressed in a camo cloak and with a rifle slung on her back. He throat was cut open; Bob held a bloody knife, and Sara connected the two. She shivered.
"Mack shook his head, walking up beside Jim and Sara. "That was the weirdest thing I ever saw."
Sara looked over at him, puzzled. "What?"
He looked over at her, then back at Bob. "That Eldar was being interrogated at knife-point, then she just pulled Bob in for a kiss while she cut her own throat on his knife."
"Say what?" Jim said.
"I saw it, man. Craziest damn thing I witnessed in my life, and I've seen some weird stuff."
Sara turned away, feeling a bit repulsed by the whole thought. She envisioned the whole thing happening in her head. The events Mack described were
gruesome. How could someone do that?
Jim's words echoed hr thoughts. "This ain't the same
ol' alien anymore. This is a new kind of foe here."
* * *
Mel walked along behind Bob, and stopped when he held his fist up,
signaling for the people behind him to halt.
They were looking down off a hill into a small clearing. The clearing wasn't natural, it was definitely artificial. And in the middle of it sat a large compound.
Barracks, mess, training ground, the works. The compound had it all. But it was no human compound. It was the Eldar base they'd been looking for.
Bob looked over at Becker. "Found the base, Lieutenant, but I don't think we'll be tackling it. Looks too big."
Becker walked up beside Bob, looking down at the compound. "I estimate about five, six hundred soldiers. You?"
"The same," Bob said.
"I'm afraid you're right, then. We're going to have to head back home."
Bob nodded. "Yes, sir."
He motioned for his squad to turn and march back toward base, as Becker notified the ret of the platoon of the decision.
Mel shrugged. No way a handful of guys could take on that many Eldar. So it was back to base.
* * *
Bill sat on his bunk, feeling very much better having had a chance to sit for a while after the long walk to the Eldar base and back.
"So we told HQ of the
base and where to find it, and they're sending someone out to take care of it?"
"Yep," Paul answered. "Send out some other shmucks to take out those guys."
"I hope they shut it down," Bill said, leaning back. "Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy getting some rest."
Paul laughed. "Not for long. New recruits are in at the end of the week. And we
gotta' break 'em in."
Bill sighed. "Fresh blood. Great."
Paul smiled. "Ah, what I wouldn't give to be Paul Coffey, Drill Instructor, right now. I'd teach them new recruits what it really means to be a soldier."
"Hate to burst your bubble, Paul, but you do know that relations between the DI and female recruits are strictly prohibited, right?"
"Really?" Paul said, sounding surprised. "Fine, then I don't want the job."
Bill shook his head. "Really, why would you want it anyway? Yell at a bunch of kids, give orders, just so they can be ungrateful and hate you? Not my idea of fun."
"No, but that's what we're going to be imitating. Just you watch, Dennis'll have us teaching these kids everything. How to shoot, how to use camo, how to be silent, everything."
"Yeah, sad that they never teach people these things before they hit the field."
Paul nodded. "It is. Might not be so many dead soldiers if they took a little more time to train."
"True. But training costs money, and you know the bureaucracy. People are cheap, money's not."
Paul stood up. "Well, enough of this small talk. It's making me depressed. I plan on getting around, having some fun the next couple of hours, then getting some sleep."
"Mind if I come with you?" Bill asked.
"Sure," Paul said. "Just don't expect me to pick up your women for you."
Bill shook his head and rolled his eyes. This
was going to be interesting.
* * *
Bob's dreams disturbed him during the night, and not in the same way most of his recent dreams disturbed him.
In his mind, he saw himself in bed with a young female Eldar, very beautiful, amber eyes and brown hair. In fact, the very same 'girl' he'd seen during the day. He made love to her, very passionately, and the two were very sensual with each other.
But as the lovemaking reached its climax, he suddenly reached to a dresser beside the bed, picking up a long knife and quickly slashing it across the girl's throat, severing her main artery. Her blood splashed onto his hands and chest, and she gave him an incredibly sad look as she lay there dying.
He tried reviving her, or stopping the blood loss, he wasn't sure which. Maybe both. But nothing worked. And as she lay ther on the bed, her life pouring out of her, Bob drew back, looking at his hands.
They were drenched in her blood.
Bob sat up quickly, his eyes snapping open. All around him, the dark bunk room was silent. Nobody stirred in the barracks. Soft sighs and muffled moans told him that others were having a myriad of dreams, some good, some bad. But not a soul stirred.
Except him.
He sat in his bed, sweat running down his forehead, trying to figure out what he'd just seen in his dreams, and why he'd seen it.
Was it guilt? Hatred? Lust? Sadness? Loneliness? A combination of emotions?
Bob shook his head, and whispered silently to no one in particular.
"Damn these Eldar. Damn them all to hell."
END OF CHAPTER X
Continued in Chapter XI: Fresh Faces
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