Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-7

“It doesn’t appear like they haveany long guns, major. They do have sidearms, but I can’t tell whattype they are. Regular speed. They don’t appear to be in any greathurry.”

No, they wouldn’t. The Raiders had noplace to go. Retreat was cut off, plus we couldn’t zoom east. If weheaded west, we’d be in an open field with one army in front of usand two behind. We’d be squeezed to death.

I looked up. “And there are no dronesin the sky? No air weapons of any type?”

“No, sir.”

“Ritter!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Set up a defensive perimeter. We dohave long guns. If they charge up we should be able to take themoutbefore they can reach us.”

I took one look through the binocularsat the Soltarians. They were as ugly as ever. But where did thelizard guy come in? At one time General Conbor had two-leggedlizardsas his allies. Where did he pick up the Soltarians? Besides, theSoltarians didn’t like any outside contact. How did the generalbecome their leader? Not that the guy didn’t have some basiccharisma. He did, as most dictators do. But I doubted humancharismainfluenced the hairy Soltarians. Something was amiss here…

“What are you thinking? Making thisour battleground?” Astrid said.

“Yes, at least we’d have adefensive position. If we have three armies converging I don’t wantto fight them on open ground. They would have the advantage. But ifwe establish a defensive posture we might be able to take out aboutninety-eight percent of them while they charge.”

As the Soltarians marched closer, Ihoped they knew very little about combat, or at least about thecombat they were about to engage in. In this age, armies did notclash by night, or at noon. In the space age, high-tech weapons hadended such fiery engagements. But it appeared there might be someold-fashioned warfare if the three groups kept heading our way.Perhaps their commanders didn’t know the results of a battle whenarmies charged a well-defended position. World War I generals hadlearned that lesson. Or at least some of them did. A few stupidonesdidn’t. Gen. William Sherman had learned that long before the FirstWorld War. He never wanted a one-on-one engagement. He keptmaneuvering his army so the Confederates could not dig in. MaybetheSoltarians last ground battles were three hundred years ago andhopefully they had forgotten the lessons of history.

Even without binoculars I could vaguelysee the black-clad soldiers marching from the castle.

“Where are our other two squads?” Isaid.

Rab had the second squad. If somethinghad gone wrong he would have sent one soldier back to inform me ofthe problem. But no one had appeared.

We stripped ourselves of guns andjetpacks. Three Raiders used their lasers to slice through treetrunks. When the trees fell, it sounded like thunder as the groundshook a few seconds. We sliced off the branches and used the treesasbarricades. It would not be a solid fortress, but the wall of treeswould be the best we could do in the time we had. We were allsweating after three minutes of the labor. Sweat poured down myface.I began to miss the frozen emptiness of Sandeling, three hundredyears in the future. I kept looking toward our landing spot, abouttwenty yards away, hoping to see the second squad materializing.Butnothing.

I checked the scanner. The closest armywas still about six miles away and we had some of our barricadesup.There would be holes in our defenses, but the wall of trees was notspecifically for keeping the enemy out. I hoped no Soltariansoldierwould ever get close enough to leap over the wooden wall. I hopedwe’d kill them before they got within six feet of the wall. But thewood would deflect their shots.

I didn’t think the general lived upto his name. Perhaps even Conbor, for all his brilliance, didn’tknow anything about ancient warfare. But if we didn’t materializeat the valley, we’d have to take a chance. We’d have to hope theyonly brought sidearms.

We had laser riflers instead. Whichmeant the Raiders could kill their enemies a long way off. A mileaway a Soltarian soldier might be marching swiftly one minute andhave a hole blasted into him the next moment. Unlike the Americansdug-in on Bunker Hill during the Revolution, we didn’t have to waituntil we saw the whites of their eyes.

If all went well, the Soltarians wouldrepresent the Confederates and we would represent the Union on thisspace version of Gettysburg. But ever since we had landed onSandeling, things had not gone well.

“Rab, where are you?” I said.

Chapter 15

In the cavern three hundred years inthe future, Cajun aimed her laser rifle at a seven-foot-tallSoltarian. When she fired, the laser bolt blasted a hole in thehairycombatant. Blood and orange hair flew through the air. With theirsurprise attack, a few Soltarians had breached the Raiders’ lines.As her gun was knocked away by a blood-drenched hand, Cajun whippedout her knife. A second later she embedded the blade in a hairythroat. The Soltarian gasped and died. She picked her rifle as shewatched Rab send laser blasts into a group of chargingorange-soldiers. When he stopped firing, only one was leftstanding,bleeding from two laser blasts. He tried to make one more step withan orange paw, but his legs buckled and he fell to theblood-stainedground.

The attack was being turned. TheRaiders had the advantage, helped by their thin but tough bodyarmor.The Soltarians’ weapons had a difficult time penetrating theshields. They became disoriented fighting in the small corridorsandoften their fire hit their own men. The Raiders were comfortablefighting anywhere. They did not panic, become disoriented orconfused. Their fire hit their enemies, not other Raiders.

Rab guessed about fifty Soltarians hadmade the unexpected charge. Now the enemy was down to singledigits.With one arm shot off, one last Soltarian soldier tried to raisehisother arm and fire. Two blue lasers cut him in two. He was deadbefore he hit the ground.

Six other Soltarians ran down acorridor. Rab fired again and three fell forward but didn’t moveagain.

“Johnson!” Rab yelled.

One of theIntrepid’s securityofficers ran up and saluted.

“Yes, sir.”

“Take your men and track them down.Capture or kill them. I don’t care which. But I don’t want anyenemy soldier roaming free.”

Johnson saluted again and waved to hismen. They ran after the retreating Soltarians.

Angry, Rab rushed to an adjoining roomand pointed his laser rifle at Tarum. The bronze man shook hishead.

“I knew nothing about that. I didn’tknow there were any Soltarians left here,” Tarum said.

The butt of Rab’s rifle smashed intoTarum’s face. The force of the blow crashed Tarum into a cavernwall. He slumped to the ground and didn’t move.

“For some reason, I just didn’tbelieve you,” Rab said. “Taylor, You’re standing guard. I wantthis man here when I get back. Don’t let him out of your sight.Hog-tie him if you like.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ladies and gents, get to thedeportation chamber. We are leaving!”

Now, if nothing else will go wrong,Rab thought.

The attacking Soltarians had to havestayed in a special chamber, below this level. And somehow theyblocked the scanning waves. Then, they waited for the right time toattack…

Chapter 16

Matt Ritter, sweating with all theeffort of building the defensive wall, took a break and peered atthecastle again. He was surprised when he saw a human walk along thewall.

“Major,” he yelled.

“What is it, Mr. Ritter?” I said.

“Is the General Conbor you spoke of atall guy with sort of an oval face, pointed nose and chin?”

“If I remember correctly that soundslike him,” I said.

“He’s on the wall, sir.”

“What?”

I stepped over and raised thebinoculars to my eyes. When I focused the lenses, General Conborcameinto view. It had been a long time since I had seen him, but Irecognized him. He hadn’t aged much. Obviously, he wanted to surveythe battle. What surprised me even more than seeing him were thetwoplump lizard men walking beside him. I had forgotten what he calledhis alien allies on Vanodor, but as I watched them walk, the namecame back to me. Kollaws. So how did they fit into the picture withSoltarians?

I was not going to make the mistake ofallowing him to escape again. I’d put him in chains and take himback to face Federation justice or kill him. The latter option waseasier, but the Federation would probably prefer him in acourtroom.He stopped, turned and looked toward the forest.That is him,I thought. The same beady little eyes.

“We meet again,” I said aloud.

A half-dozen Raiders saluted as theywalked up. They held their long laser rifles.

“You’re going to be our snipers.Climb up the trees. When the Soltarians get in range, fire on myorder. And keep firing. Looking at their physical shape I’mguessing our enemies can’t run that fast. I’m guessing they’revery slow on the ground. I’m also guessing they haven’t seen anyground fighting. Those two things will be deadly for them.”

The soldiers nodded and startedclimbing the trees. With the barricades up, the other Raiderscheckedtheir weapons. The first squad had sixteen men and women, so wewereconsiderably outnumbered. But with our weapons, those numbersshouldn’t mean much. General Conbor had an extremely high IQ, buthe was not a military man. Even a very intelligent man, ifinexperienced, can make mistakes. Conbor, I hoped, was about tomakesuch a mistake.

“Major Ryvenbark! Major LoganRyvenbark!”

I looked through the binoculars again.The general had some type of megaphone he spoke into. Had to be apowerful one.

“I know you can hear me, major. So Iwill make you an offer. Your command can be wiped out in a fewminutes. But I have another option for you. You will die here and Iwill kill you. The defeat on Vanodor was humiliating and I haveplanned vengeance for ten years. But if you meet me on the field ofbattle I will let your soldiers leave. One against one. Knifeagainstknife. Your squad may return unhindered to the future. Only youwillbe left here. Think about it for a few minutes, major. I have amessenger who will bring a means of communication to you. When hearrives, give me your answer. If you don’t, my armies willattack.”

I checked the scanner. The three forcesmarching toward us were black dots on a green screen, inchingcloser.

“Don’t do it,” Astrid said. “Notthat you wouldn’t mind stabbing him.”

“I wonder if he would actually gothrough with it. The only people he knifed on Vanodor wereprisonerstied to a stake. Besides, we’re not here for my personalconvenience. Mr. Ritter, how close are our adversaries?”

“They should be within range in aboutsix minutes, sir.”

“You know, brilliant people are notbrilliant in every area of life. They can make mistakes just likeanybody. Conbor is not all that wise in wanting a battle. From whatIcan tell we have better weapons than his forces. But I do like hisploy. If I go out and play swordsman with him, his armies can creepcloser to our positions; close enough they could overwhelm us in anattack. But I’m not going to play his game. We fire as soon as theSoltarians get in range.”

I looked up. Our snipers nestledcomfortably in the branches. They had clear shots at the advancingarmies. The Soltarians to the east could be seen clearly nowwithoutbinoculars. Tall and ugly. Not exactly a trained military either.Thecolumns were ragged. They did not march in precision. I doubtedtheywould stay calm when we poured fire and lasers into their ranks. Ismiled at Astrid.

“I think this shows that Conbordoesn’t think on his feet well. He expected us to materialize inthe valley, where his shooters could pick us off without danger tothemselves. I don’t think he had a good backup plan.”

“You have a backup plan?” Astridsaid.

“I sure do. But my backup plan is thesame as my first plan. We win. They lose,” I said.

The Soltarians broke ranks. Soldiersspread out. Soon they could link up with the Soltarian force fromthesouth. When the group from the castle arrived, they could easilysurround us. I forgot the name of the general in the Korean War whofaced the same situation. “They have us surrounded, boys. That’sgreat. We can fire in any direction!” That’s a paraphrase. But hesaid something very similar.

A horseman – Conbor’s messenger –rode toward us. He wasn’t in a hurry. He rode slowly. No doubtcommanded by the general to go at low speed. The more time he tookgetting to us, the more time the armies had to surround us. TheSoltarian messenger didn’t look too comfortable in the saddle; heprobably hadn’t ridden too many horses back on his home planet. Ilike riding, but horses are not ubiquitous across the galaxy. Thebear-like rider almost fell twice. His hand grabbed the horse tosteady himself. His feet were too big for the stirrups. With theirsize, the Soltarians weren’t graceful creatures, but the riderlooked more awkward than most. When he slowed for a stop, he pulledthe reins too tight. The horse neighed and reared up, knocking therider to the ground. He hit with a solid bam on the hard earth. Hestood up, growling, and started to walk toward the horse.

I stepped out from the forest.

“Climb on your horse and get back tothe general. Tell him that no matter how much I would enjoy aone-on-one with him, his deal is unacceptable.”