Jack spotted the sudden movement of a shadow falling over the path ahead. He brought his rifle to his shoulder and aimed at the edge of the hill. “Here they come,” he shouted as the first Chitin came on.
Jack fired a burst into the first Chitin. The slime spurted out from the holes the pulse rounds tore through the rubbery flesh. The Chitin fell to one side, the tentacles thrashing on the ground, but it kept coming in a lurching, scuttling pace. A second Chitin appeared and scurried over the wounded one.
“Open fire,” Jack called. He knelt, aimed, and fired another burst into the second Chitin. And then came a third and a fourth.
Torent stood next to Jack and fired. “Take them down. Open fire.”
The rush of Chitins overcame the fire laid down by Jack, Torent, and the recruits. They were quickly overrun, disarmed by the flailing tentacles, and carried away by the Chitin drones.
The recruits were taken away by the Chitin flesh drones and dropped into a pit. A sign was staked out at the edge of the pit that read, ‘Killed by Chitin scum. Welcome to hell.’
“You should have flanked right when I told you to,” Torent said bitterly.
“You shouldn’t have shouted out. You brought them all down on us. Now the other squad is going to win the exercise.”
A hill with the Chitin flag was taken down, signaling that the other squad had beaten the Chitins and won the day.
“Should have flanked right,” Torent mumbled.
The squad stood in line. Before them stood Jack and Torent. Lieutenant Crippin paced in front of them.
“Forge,” she said. “Your squad leader tells me you disobeyed an order.”
“Sir, it was a bad order, sir.”
“All orders are bad, hayseed. You follow them all the same. Maybe you think you should be squad leader.”
“Sir,” Jack shouted, “no, sir.”
“And why not?” Crippin paced behind the pair.
“Don’t want to be in the military at all, sir.”
Crippin stopped behind Jack. She leaned close to his ear. “Yet you are countermanding a squad leader’s orders and suggesting your own strategy. Don’t split the force, did you say?”
“Sir, yes, sir. I wanted to win the game.”
“This is not a game, hayseed. You get me?”
“Sir, no, sir. It is a game. We were fighting drones. These are not real Chitins.”
“No, they are not. Do you want me to throw you into action against Chitin scum without practice?”
“Sir, no, sir,” Jack shouted. His brother had been killed by the Chitins and no one had more reason to hate them that Jack. But Jack wanted to study, not fight.
“And why not?” Crippin resumed her pacing.
“I don’t want to fight Chitins at all, sir.”
“Coward, are you?”
“Sir, no, sir. I don’t think we should be fighting them at all, sir. We came to this system. We colonized Eros and Ares, we took all the moons and then we started pumping H2 out of their home planet’s atmosphere. We attacked them. They are only defending themselves, sir.”
“Sergeant Hacker,” Crippin shouted. “Take this traitor to the punishment ground.”
Hacker grabbed Jack by the collar and hauled him off the ground. Jack’s feet barely touched the ground as he was dragged away.
The punishment ground was a small patch of beaten earth at the rear of the squad bunkhouse. A post was planted in the ground and stood four meters tall. Straps hung from the top with loops at the end. Hacker pushed Jack’s face into the post and pulled the loops over Jack’s hands. The straps were pulled tight and lifted Jack up onto his toes.
“Recruit Forge is guilty of insurrection.” Crippin stood in front of the assembled recruits. “We are fighting for our lives. We cannot tolerate traitorous comments from any of you. Forge will receive three lashes. From each recruit. Squad, line up.”
The first lash stung like a hornet and snatched his breath away. The second stung like a swarm. After the third lash, Jack gasped for air before he screamed in pain.
The beating was fierce and Jack slipped out of consciousness. He was jolted back to life by a mild sting from Hacker’s tazer, a low yield shock designed to revive rather than stun. Finally, Torent himself stepped forward and delivered three of the heaviest lashes. Jack yelled in pain. He felt the straps slacken and heard Crippin call out for Torent to assist Jack.
Jack fell to the ground. He heard Crippin call out to Hacker as she walked closer. “Sergeant Hacker. Administer the final lashes.”
Jack fell to the ground and looked up, pleading for mercy, but then he saw Hacker grab Torent and fasten him against the post. A short whip was in Hacker’s hands. He quickly delivered three sharp lashes. Torent yelled out at each one and cried out, asking why.
“You ask why?” Crippin said to Torent as he crumpled to the ground. “Because you refused to listen to good advice when it was given and brought the whole pack of Chitin scum down on your group with your shouting. That’s why. A good squad leader listens to his squad.”
Chapter 9
Jack woke in his bunk, his cuts from the flogging covered in a sticky ointment that stuck to the rough bed sheets. It peeled away with a scratchy, scraping pain as he sat up. It was the start of a day of rest and recuperation for the squad. Hacker had delivered a stack of ration bars. Crippin had delivered the news that they were free for one day.
Torent stood at the side of Jack’s bed and pushed him back down. A group of Torent’s allies stood around.
“You are trouble, Forge,” Torent said.
“Give him another thrashing?” one of Torent’s gang said.
Torent stared at Jack with murder in his eye. “No,” Torent conceded reluctantly. “Give him a chance to recover. I need my squad fit if we are going to beat those Chitin scum tomorrow.”
“But he don’t want to kill no Chits,” the ally said. “He’s a coward.”
“He’s a good shot,” Torent said. “He can help us win.”
“If he decides to fight.”
“He will,” Torent said, pushing his fist against Jack’s shoulder and pressing him down to the rough bunk. “He will or I will snap his kraving fingers off.”
The bunkhouse was rowdy, the recruits inventing games and blowing off steam. Jack carefully pulled his recruit uniform on over his lacerated skin. He left the bunkhouse to wander around the complex.
Crossing the parade ground, Jack walked toward the hill. He climbed to the summit and looked around the entire camp for the first time. The training ground below was empty and still. The complex of buildings around the bunkhouse included the small buildings that served as Crippin’s residence. And the last building in the complex was covered in antenna and was most likely a communication office.
Jack spotted one other building set away from the training ground and the small complex. It was not far off. Jack could have made it in a few minutes at full sprint if he had been fit, but in his worn and battered condition, he knew it would be a long yet manageable walk.
The training moon was barren in every direction. In the hour it took Jack to wander over to the building, the terrain didn’t change at all. It was all rocks and dust, the same dark, barren rock. No life except for the recruits, Crippin and Hacker, and whatever other vermin the transport craft had brought to the small moon.
The building was rundown like everything else Jack had seen, apart from the brand-new pulse rifle he’d been fighting with the day before. The walls of the building were the same composite that the military spacecraft were made of but it was pitted and cracked. Jack rubbed his hand over it and its surface flaked off and crumbled away to dust.
Walking around the perimeter, Jack came across a window, a transparent section of the same composite material. It was also cracked and flaking away to the touch. Inside, Jack saw a series of workbenches. There were dust covers thrown over some hidden piles of what looked like machinery.