Children of Steel (69 page)

The camp's lights and alarms all went off at
once and people started running out of doorways just as the
buildings we had mined started to explode. There had only been
enough charges to cover about six of the structures so we quickly
found ourselves in a firefight with about thirty of the enemy
troops. Kay our sharpshooter was picking them off from her position
on the rise behind them, and Brasile had a good flanking position
as well. With the remaining four of us concentrating fire from the
front, it didn't look too good for them. But I was still surprised
when they started waving a white flag.

"Hold your fire!" I called over the comm
circuit.

"You sure you don't want us to just finish
them off?" Came back Brasile's reply on the comm.

I looked at the buildings that they were
still holding, if they retreated back into those they could hold us
off for hours, and I still had no idea which one was the control
center. "No, let's take 'em prisoner. I don't want to sit here all
day. Be careful though everybody! I don't want to fall into any
traps.

"Throw down your weapons and stand up with
your hands on your head!" I called out, and watched carefully as
they complied. "Okay, now march single file over to the perimeter
fence!" I again watched as they followed orders.

"Kay," I spoke into the comm, "If they try
anything, cut 'em down."

"Sure thing Sir," she replied quietly.

"You two go and start a building to building
search," I pointed to two of the three with me, "Take it slow and
careful, if you're not sure toss in a grenade or something
okay?"

"Yes Sir!" and they started off across the
grounds.

"Cover me Hess, I'm going to check these guys
out," I said as I started cautiously over towards the prisoners.
There were actually about sixteen of them and none of them looked
like real soldiers, about what you'd expect for a prison camp
detail I guess. I checked my watch; it was still about four hours
until the main forces were due to hit.

"Okay, who's in command here?" I growled at
them. "Keep your hands on your head!" I yelled and pointed my rifle
as one started to raise his hand.

"I am sir," he said putting his hands back.
"I am Colonel Ulm of the Work Camps division. I run this camp."

"Unn Raj," I heard the Corporal's voice on
the comm, "We got people starting to come out of the buildings and
they're headed this way."

"What are they?" I asked,

"Looks like a real mixed group from here,
both Hum's and ani's. Mostly ani’s though. Any orders?"

"Not yet," I turned my full attention back to
the Colonel. "Okay Colonel, is this all of your staff?"

"All that survived, that building you
destroyed over there had another six in it, and I don't know what
you did to my four guards on duty."

"Where's the command center?"

"It's the building your men are checking
out," he nodded with his chin in its general direction.

"Fine, now what is the purpose of this camp?"
I was scanning them over carefully. A few seemed pretty nervous
about the whole thing. I made sure I had my rifle on full auto in
case anybody tried anything. They all looked at me as I flipped the
selector.

"You're not going to execute us are you?" the
Colonel started shocked, "We're prisoners!"

"Just answer the question," I growled, "Your
side is the one that goes in for executions."

He looked a little nervous for a second, "The
present purpose of this camp is to provide workers at the factory
inside the camp."

"What do they make?" I asked curious.

"Computer chips, and optical equipment.
Nothing dangerous, just thing's we need for our economy."

"And war effort too, right?" I stated
bluntly, at least it didn't sound too bad.

"Sir, you should take a look at this!" Came
Tran's voice over the circuit, "I found skins in the commander's
office,
Cat
skins!"

"What's the name on the door?" I asked.

"Colonel Ulm," she replied angrily.

"Colonel," I said flipping my visor up so he
could clearly see what I was, "I've just had an interesting
discovery reported from your office," I stared at him, "Any last
words?"

"What? Those were from escapees! You can't
execute me, I'm a prisoner!"

"Watch me," I said coldly and zapped him
right there in front of his people. I started at the head and just
cut straight down, "Any other junior taxidermist's in the group?" I
looked at the others; one in particular wasn't looking too well at
all.

"Maybe you?" I asked and started to point the
gun at him.

"No please don't, I haven't killed anyone!"
he was looking desperate.

I was aware of Brasile coming up behind me
with several others; I guess they were from the camp.

"Soldier, please don't shoot that man!" I
heard somebody say behind me.

It was like being struck with lightning,
every strand of fur stood up on my body, my tail went rigid and
started to quiver. I
knew
that voice.

"Cassy?" I turned around and let my rifle
point at the ground. I looked at the female Leopard standing with
Brasile. Her coat was pretty ragged and she was thin as a rail, but
it was her alright!

"Raj?" she asked peering at me through half
closed eyes, dull from malnutrition.

"Cassandra!" I yelled and grabbed her, "I
thought you were dead!" I hugged her for all I was worth.

"Raj, please! Not so hard," she gasped, then
as I eased off, "I didn't think I'd ever see you again either! It's
been really bad; a lot of us didn't make it this long."

I turned and looked over my shoulder at the
prisoners lined against the fence; both Hess and my Corporal were
keeping an eye on them now. "So why shouldn't I shoot the rest of
them?" I asked snarling.

"Please Raj," she said quietly, "let the
others here decide what to do with them. But as to George over
there," she pointed to the man I'd had been thinking of shooting
next. "He was one of the better ones and helped a lot of people
survive, including me."

"You, George," I motioned to him, "Come
here!"

He walked over very quietly.

"In a few hours all hell is going to break
loose, if you got any family I suggest you grab them and go hide in
the woods."

He looked at me.

"You're free to go," I said quietly, "You
saved her life, so I'm giving you yours. I suggest you take it." I
then called out on the comm and told everyone to let him pass.

"Thank you both, very much!" he said, and
then took off running like the devil himself was after him. Maybe
he was.

"What happens in a few hours?" asked
Cassandra as I started walking to the command center with my arm
around her. By now the other former prisoners had picked up the
discarded weapons and were searching the new prisoners. Some they
weren't treating too gently either.

"Brasile, you're in charge out here. Tran go
join Kay and keep an eye out for the enemy." I unkeyed the mike on
the comm circuit and turned back to Cassandra, "In four hours the
main forces are going to start their landing. The ships are
probably entering orbit even now."

"How many do you have with you?" she asked
looking around as I sat down in a chair by one of the security
consoles. I pulled her down onto my lap.

"Just the squad, we were sent to take out a
local sensor array. After that we came down here to stir up some
trouble, I sure didn't expect to find a prison camp, or even you!"
I started kissing her then.

"Oh that feel's nice," she smiled at me, "But
I don't think this is the right time. Plus I'm really not in the
best of shape right now," she smiled again.

"I don't care," I grinned myself. "But you're
right; I've got you so I can wait a little longer." I started
looking at the displays. The gear was all still active, so I
started seeing what could be used to scan outside the walls. The
automated guns on the towers would only face inside of course, but
their cameras would scan outside as well.

"So how did you end up here?" I asked keeping
my arm around her and not letting her off my lap.

"When we were hit on Trundle, they came in
such a large force that there was no way we could resist. Once we
surrendered they took those that they thought they could use." She
stuck her face in my chest then, "and they killed the rest!" She
finished quietly. "It was terrible Raj, the things they did, and
the things we had to do to survive. I did a lot of things I'm not
proud of, believe me."

"Hey, as long as it kept you alive, I don't
care what it was okay? I mean that, whatever you had to do is
alright with me." I kissed the top of her head again. "You know
you've got a nice little case of ringworm here?"

"Yes silly," She laughed, "I know all about
it. It's one of the things they keep circulating around the camp to
keep us depressed. They kept our claws cut to nubs as well, and
threatened to pull fangs if you didn't behave."

"Ugh, what about the Colonel?"

"You mean the one you tried to cut in half
with a rifle?" She frowned at me. "Yeah he was a bad one alright,
so were a lot of his staff. I really don't think many of them will
be alive come tonight. A few like George will survive though; he
didn't like some of the things that were being done. Felt that if
we were dumb animals like everybody said, then they had a
responsibility to treat us better."

"I'm surprised they let him live!" I said
shocked.

"He kept his mouth shut around the brass,
believe me, he does have a family and didn't want them to go
hungry.

"So how did you end up in a special ops
combat group?" She looked questioningly at me, "I thought you were
assigned to a transport?"

"Well, about the time you got grabbed I was
on a survey. The Astra got in battle someplace else and had to go
straight to dry-dock; I guess it took a beating. Anyway things went
bad on the survey and we weren't rescued for quite awhile. When I
heard about you, you can imagine what happened. Then I volunteered
for the worst thing I could find and this was it."

"You couldn't have been too bad," she
snuggled a little bit, "I mean you're still among the living!"

"Only because my friends stopped me before I
went too far," I admitted, "I was pretty bad there for a while
though, did some pretty nasty things myself."

She looked into my eyes for a while then, "I
don't know Raj, you look okay to me."

"Wait till you hear the stories the troops
tell," I winced, "I even deserve a few of them!"

"Sir! I have a truck approaching on the
road!"

"Damn!" I keyed the mike back on, "How far,
and what's it got?"

"Look's like five minutes max and I'd say it
was empty."

"Okay, get everybody under cover. If they
come within range, open up on them. If they just see the damage
they may think nobody's around, so don't show yourselves."

They didn't come near however, as soon as
they saw the six destroyed towers; they backed up and took off.
That was fine with me; I sure didn't want to have to defend this
place.

"I guess we've talked long enough, I better
go see about holding this place until we can get some
reinforcement's here," I got up and sat her back down in the chair.
"What condition are these people in? Can any of them fight?"

"Oh, they'll fight, don't worry about that
Dear! They'll fight!"

We did manage to set up some defenses. It
didn't take long to get the guns out of the towers and break into
the small local armory. There were about five hundred prisoners in
the camp, and I had arms for about seventy of them.

The only trouble we had though was when a
copter flew over to check us out. We weren't able to shoot it down,
but we did hit it. Shortly after that our forces’ main attack
started, and I managed to raise one of the command ships on our
radio. After hearing our situation they promised us some more
troops and told us to sit tight.

Normally I would have been upset that I
couldn't just go looking for trouble, but for once I was happy with
the situation. The rest of my squad kept looking at me with
disbelief, as I told them to relax, take it easy, and just keep
their eyes open for any trouble.

Maybe it was the idiot grin I had plastered
on my face?

Out of the fourteen prisoners that we had
taken, only four survived. I didn't ask the former prisoners what
they did with them; I felt that was their business. The four they
left alive we kept locked up however, I didn't want to take any
chances.

Our reinforcements showed up about six hours
after the invasion started, we got four squads of light infantry,
one of which had a couple of handheld mortars. So I was fairly
confident about the military situation. They also airdropped some
supplies, and those with medical training among the former
prisoners started treating everybody who needed it.

They never did come and try to take back the
prison camp. We were there for ten days while the battle raged
around the planet. We lost our four squads three days later when
the area was declared secure. They set up a field hospital here
though, taking advantage of the number of doctors that had been
among the prisoners, so a lot of the walking wounded ended up on
the perimeter keeping their eyes open, in case anybody did show
up.

The battle ended quicker than a lot of us
expected. Once they saw that they were going to lose, they turned
on their leaders and executed them all, quite a few of the
population suicided too. Then they surrendered unconditionally. The
drop ships came in to pick us up four days later. The ice that was
caked on the landing gear answered my question as to where they had
hid out during the battles.

Each unit was going back to its own frigate.
I waited for the second trip myself and walked with Cassandra up
the ramp. I hadn't let her out of my sight once since I had first
put my arms around her, and had no intention of starting now.