“Ifleta’s the owner?” I asked.
“Yeah. Senior counselor—like a president—in Hamny’s Consortium, and boss of Sigma Combine. This is his little hideaway—should have been a colony but he got here first. What I figure is this is his price for bringing Hamny’s in free: three human-settled worlds, two of ’em industrial. Worth it, that’s one way of looking at it. Trade a couple thousand Marines for three allied planets, populations to draft, industrial plants in place, and probably a good chunk of money as well.”
I grunted, because there’s nothing to say to that kind of argument. Not in words, anyway. Then I asked, “Does the major know?”
The captain shrugged. “You heard me—I told him. I told him yesterday, when they found the house. He doesn’t care. Rich man wants the aliens out of his property, that’s just fine—treat Marines like mercs, he doesn’t give a damn, and that, Tinker, is what they call an officer and a gentleman. His father’s a retired admiral; he’s looking for stars of his own.” It was a measure of his resentment that he called me by that old nickname… the others that had used it were all dead. I wondered if he resented his own lost patrimony… the rich bottomland farm that would have been his, the wife and many children. He had been a farmer’s son, in a long line of farmers, as proud of their heritage as any admiral.
“Best watch him, Captain,” I said, certain that I would. “He’s likely to use your advice all wrong.”
“I know. He backstabbed Tio, got him shipped over to the Second with a bad rep—” He stopped suddenly, and his voice changed. “Well, Gunny, let me know how that number three post is loaded.” I took that hint, and went on; we’d talked too long as it was.
So now I knew the whole story—for one thing about Captain Carl Dietz, he never in his life made accusations without the information to back them up. He hadn’t accused me when it might have got him a lighter sentence, all those years ago. If he said it was Ifleta’s place, if he was sure that our losses bought Ifleta’s support, and three planets, then I was sure. I didn’t like it, but I believed it.
The pressure was constant. We had no time to think, no time to rest, taking only the briefest catnaps one by one, with the others alert. We knew we were inflicting heavy losses, but the Gerin kept coming. Again and again, singly and in triads and larger groups, they appeared, struggling up the hills, firing steadily until they were cut down to ooze aqua fluid on the scarred slopes. Our losses were less, but irreparable.
It was dawn again—which dawn, how many days since landing, I wasn’t at all sure. I glanced at the rising sun, irrationally angry because it hurt my eyes. What I could see of the others looked as bad as I felt: filthy, stinking, their eyes sunken in drawn faces, dirty bandages on too many wounds. The line of motionless mounds behind our position was longer, again. No time for burial, no time to drag the dead farther away: they were here, with us, and they stank in their own way. We had covered their faces; that was all we could do.
Major Sewell crawled along our line, doing his best to be encouraging, but everyone was too tired and too depressed to be cheered. When he got to me, I could tell that he didn’t feel much better. One thing about him, he hadn’t been taking it easy or hiding out.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said. I just nodded. Speech took too much energy, and besides it was obvious. “There’s only one thing to do, and that’s hit ’em with a mobile unit. I’ve been in contact with the Beta Site survivors, but they don’t have a flyspy or good linkage to ours—and besides their only officer is a kid just out of OCS. The others died at the drop. They’re about four hours away, now. I’m gonna take a squad, find ’em, and go after the Gerin commander.”
I still didn’t say anything. That might have made sense, before the Gerin arrived. Now it looked to me like more politics—Sewell figured to leave the captain holding an indefensible position, while he took his chance at the Gerin commander. He might get killed, but if he didn’t he’d get his medals… and staying here was going to get us all killed. Some of that must have shown in my face, because his darkened.
“Dammit, Gunny—I know what Captain Dietz said made sense, but our orders said defend this strip. The last flyspy image gave me a lock on what may be the Gerin commander’s module, and that unit from Beta Site may give me the firepower I need. Now you find me—” My mind filled in “a few good men” but he actually asked for a squad of unwounded. We had that many, barely, and I got them back to the cleft between the first and second hills just in time to see that last confrontation with the captain.
If I hadn’t known him that long, I’d have thought he didn’t care. Sewell had a good excuse, as if he needed one, for leaving the captain behind: Dietz had been hit, though that wound wouldn’t kill him. He couldn’t have moved fast for long, not without a trip through Med or some stim-tabs. But they both knew that had nothing to do with it. The captain got his orders from Sewell in terse phrases; he merely nodded in reply. Then his eyes met mine.
I’d planned to duck away once we were beyond the Gerin lines—assuming we made it that far, and since the other side of the strip hadn’t been so heavily attacked, we probably would. I had better things to do than babysit a major playing politics with the captain’s life. But the captain’s gaze had the same wide-blue-sky openness it had always had, barring a few times he was whacked out on bootleg whiskey.
“I’m glad you’ve got Gunny Vargas with you,” the captain said. “He’s got eyes in the dark.”
“If it takes us that long, we’re in trouble again,” said the major gruffly. I smiled at the captain, and followed Sewell away down the trail, thinking of the years since I’d been in that stuffy little courtroom back on that miserable backwater colony planet. The captain played fair, on the whole; he never asked for more than his due, and usually got less. If he wanted me to babysit the major, I would. It was the least I could do for him.
We lost only three on the way to meet the Beta Site survivors, and I saved the major’s life twice. The second time, the Gerin tentacle I stopped shattered my arm just as thoroughly as a bullet. The major thanked me, in the way that officers are taught to do, but the thought behind his narrow forehead was that my heroism didn’t do him a bit of good unless he could win something. The medic we had along slapped a field splint on the arm, and shot me up with something that took all the sharp edges off. That worried me, but I knew it would wear off in a few hours. I’d have time enough.
Then we walked on, and on, and damn near ran headlong into our own people. They looked a lot better than we did, not having been shot up by Gerin for several days; in fact, they looked downright smart. The butterbar had an expression somewhere between serious and smug—he figured he’d done a better than decent job with his people, and the glance I got from his senior sergeant said the kid was okay. Sewell took over without explaining much, except that we’d been attacked and were now going to counterattack; I was glad he didn’t go further. It could have created a problem for me.
Caedmon’s an official record, now. You’ve seen the tapes, maybe, or the famous shot of the final Gerin assault up the hills above the shuttle strip, the one that survived in someone’s personal vicam to be stripped later by Naval Intelligence after we took the hills back, and had time to retrieve personal effects. You know that our cruisers came back, launched fighters that tore the Gerin fighters out of the sky, and then more shuttles, with more troops, enough to finish the job on the surface. You know that the “gallant forces” of the first landing (yeah, I heard that speech too) are credited with almost winning against fearful odds, even wiping out the Gerin commander and its staff, thanks to the brilliant tactic of one Marine captain, unfortunately himself a casualty of that last day of battle. You’ve seen his picture, with those summer-sky-blue eyes and that steadfast expression, a stranger to envy and fear alike.