Part 15 (1/2)
”What is it, Shan?”
”General, we are facing heavier resistance than expected. The human aircraft are shooting my warriors from the sky.”
”And?”
Shan was taken aback. The problem was obvious-they were outnumbered and faced superior technology. He was suddenly torn between backing down from his superior and continuing to express his reservations. Before he could decide, General Soo's voice cut through the command center again.
”When your forces land, the human fighters will cease their attacks. We experienced the same here. In the sky, the human craft are superior, but on the ground, the humans are no match for our trained warriors. Tell your soldier at the console to accept an incoming video channel.”
Shan nodded at the male seated at the controls, and half of the video wall lit up with a scene from the other side of the planet. Shan immediately recognized the panorama that filled the view. Minith warriors were aligned in a cla.s.sic battle line. The formation of soldiers fought their way easily through the timid human defenses. The defenders rarely had a chance to fire their strange projectile weapons before being cut down by the relentless a.s.sault of the advancing line. It was no contest.
As he watched, half a dozen carriers landed to the right of the battle line. Scores of additional warriors exited the vehicles quickly and joined in the slaughter of the humans.
”Questions, Shan?”
”No, General,” he responded abruptly.
”Good. Now get your forces into that building and capture the human leaders.h.i.+p.”
”Yes, sir,” he said, but the communication path between the s.h.i.+ps had already been cut by Soo. Shan felt like a scolded child and began pacing.
The third wave of carriers departed his s.h.i.+p.
Shan appreciated the scene he had just witnessed. He hoped Soo was correct in his a.s.sessment of the situation. If the human fighters continued to attack them after they landed, they had little hope of success.
The wall of screens showed two carriers from the third wave explode less than a hundred meters from the s.h.i.+p. The sight only served to heighten his concern, but all he could do was push on with the orders he had been given.
The alien vehicles approached the center of the city and dispersed to the buildings surrounding the park. As Randalyn watched through the third-floor window, the Minith carriers landed on top of the buildings and began rapidly unloading soldiers. The move was a surprise. She-and probably everyone else-had expected them to land on the ground and fight their way to the Leaders.h.i.+p building.
It was a problem she had discussed with Grant before. The strategy of battle was not something that could be learned easily. He told her it was his major concern, should Earth be attacked. Specifically, their forces would be at a disadvantage against trained, experienced commanders. The ability to antic.i.p.ate what your opponent will do, and establish proactive countermeasures before they do it, was a key component to success. Without experience or training, commanders are often at the mercy of their instincts-which usually means reacting to the enemy's actions instead of planning their own. She now understood what the ancient warrior meant. The commanders in the park across the street were probably wondering how to respond to the Minith's unexpected move. The battle had not yet begun, and they were already in reactionary mode.
”They are also going to land on our roof,” Primo Esteval announced calmly. Randalyn glanced in his direction and recognized the truth in his statement. She mentally kicked herself for not considering the same thing. If anything, the Minith would concentrate as many of their forces as possible on this building.
”What?” Quasan stopped pacing. The frightened look on his face was mirrored in several of the other Culture Leaders. Sabatina quietly picked up her weapon from where it rested.
”The Minith are landing on the rooftops,” Suyung repeated. ”I have been on this roof. There is room for two or three carriers to land. No more.”
”We have soldiers on the roof. They will protect us.”
”I am not sure if we can rely on that as a certainty, Quasan,” Esteval responded. The sounds of weapons being fired suddenly entered the room from above and through the windows. The battle had begun. The Leader Elect hefted his rifle and thumbed the safety b.u.t.ton, sending them a clear message. They needed to be ready, just in case.
Quasan countered by restarting his pacing and muttering a Peace mantra.
Randalyn tuned out the sound of the battle beginning outside and forced herself to ignore the others and consider the problem rationally. What would Grant do? That was her primary thought, and she gave herself over to the problem.
The Leaders.h.i.+p Building had been specifically designed as a simple building. Forgoing the opulence and glamour of the past, their predecessors went for minimalism. They correctly understood that leaders of a Peaceful society did not require pomp or circ.u.mstance. Like many of the buildings in this part of the city, it was relatively small and squat at five stories tall. That meant the roof-and the aliens landing there-were only two floors above them. It was unlikely that the aliens would attempt to use the elevator, so the stairway at the center of the building was the most likely avenue by which they would come.
Randalyn raced around the table to the chamber door. Ignoring the confused looks from her fellow Culture Leaders, she opened the door and confronted the trio of guards posted there. Across the large outer office that separated their chamber from the hallway beyond, another trio of soldiers waited. All turned to face her.
”The Minith have landed on the roof,” she told the six as she squeezed by the first set of armed men. She rushed for the far door that led to the hallway beyond. ”They will be coming down the stairway just down the hall. Let's go.”
”Randalyn, is this wise?” Primo Esteval was right behind. His question had merit.
”I don't see any other choice. Do you?” She pushed through the guards outside and made for the stairs thirty meters away.
The soldiers looked at each other, confused by the sudden change in their orders. But they were trained by a lifetime of civility and tradition to obey anything a Culture Leader said. They quickly followed, as did Esteval.
When they reached the stairway, Randalyn turned to one of the soldiers.
”Go downstairs. Send up reinforcements. We have to keep the Minith from getting inside.”
”Yes, Culture Leader.” He nodded and rushed down the stairs.
”Everyone else, we are going up,” she informed the five remaining soldiers. Before setting off, she turned to Esteval. ”You should wait here with the others.”
In response, the Leader Elect slipped past her and headed upwards, quickly followed by the five soldiers.
”You are not leaving us behind,” Suyung Trey announced as she and Diekela Mamun reached the stairway. Randalyn looked beyond them. Sabatina and Quasan were nowhere in sight, which was probably best. She offered a curt nod and headed up, racing to catch the group above them.
The sound of rifle fire increased as they ascended the wide marble staircase, a testament that a battle raged up top. Similar battles were no doubt taking place on most of the buildings surrounding this one. Randalyn did not know how many alien carriers were involved, or how many troops each could carry, but that did not matter now. As Grant was fond of saying, it is what it is.
Shan observed the battles that were beginning on the rooftops of the target and surrounding buildings. As Soo had suggested, the human aircraft had ceased firing upon their carriers once they landed among the human forces. Apparently, the humans were concerned with killing their own forces. It made no sense to the commander. Why not continue to pour fire upon their attackers? Sacrificing a few of your own troops for ultimate victory was the correct strategy. Withdrawing their aircraft from the battle was a poor tactic and an obvious weakness. It was a weakness that gave him an advantage, though, so he reveled in it. Perhaps the humans had not changed as much as he had feared.
The waves of fighters being delivered to the enemy had taken a serious pounding while en route. Hundreds of his warriors had died without ever firing a shot. Now that they were engaging in direct soldier-to-soldier contact, the advantage had pa.s.sed to his forces. The ma.s.ses of human soldiers a.s.sembled in the open areas and streets below the buildings were effectively out of the fight, which evened up the numbers substantially. The scenes unfolding on the rooftops proved that the human soldiers were no match for his fighters.
The tide of the battle rapidly turned in favor of his forces. On several buildings, the human defenders had already been eliminated. In those cases, his forces protected their rear from attack while also firing on the humans below. The defense was heaviest on the building which housed the human's Leaders.h.i.+p Council. That was no surprise. He expected that they would defend it more heavily than the others. But even there, his troops were systematically eradicating the much larger human force.
Shan was appreciating the events unfolding on the Leaders.h.i.+p Council building when something marvelous and completely unexpected happened. The doorway to the roof slammed open and a group of humans joined the fray. The best part was that some of them wore the royal blue jumpsuits of the human Leaders.h.i.+p Council.
Quite unexpectedly, his targets had arrived.
He immediately sent revised orders to his leaders on the building.
Randalyn did not know what Esteval was thinking when he reached the top of the stairs and continued onto the roof. Her plan had been to set up some type of defense in the stairway, perhaps take out any aliens who made it that far. But that went out the window as soon as the Leader Elect crashed through the door ahead of the five soldiers on his heels. At that point, all she could do was try to catch up and help in any way she could.
She cast a glance over her shoulder to find Suyung and Diekela right behind her. The look in Suyung's eyes was resigned trepidation; in Diekela's, fierce determination. The Afc'n Culture Leader nodded and pointed her weapon toward the door that was swinging slowly closed. Without further thought, Randalyn pushed through the door and found herself behind a ragged line of human soldiers.
The sounds of battle, which seemed fierce while inside the stairway, increased tenfold. The concentration of noises merged with a confusing myriad of foreign sights and smells. Wisps of smoke, glimpses of sprawled bodies, and the mingled smells of bodily fluids and spent ammunition combined to paint her first mental picture of war. She did her best to ignore the red splashes of gore that formerly represented a living being and rushed forward to join the soldiers who were crouched behind a series of pipes and electrical boxes. She could not discern the purpose of the metallic maze, but it offered protection from the deadly red pulses of the alien weapons, so she gladly ducked behind a large gray box-like structure. She thought it might be an air-conditioning unit-not that it mattered.