This is also July 5th and the #5 story in the 31 stories in 31 days of July challenge!
The Beasts
The enormous armored vehicles sped
across the desert, sand thrown up by their treads raised a cloud
behind them. Each of the Beasts was forty feet tall, two hundred and
fifty feet long and thirty feet wide controlled by a crew of thirty
and carrying a hundred armed dragoons.
“What does it matter whether we win
or not?” Corporal Wexler complained, ignored by the soldiers in the hold with him “They'll just bombard us from
space until we're all dead. Then they'll say we were killed by aliens
and only keeping them in power can save Earth.”
The lie had kept them in power for
almost a century now. The alien menace was only held at bay, everyone
was taught from childhood, by a big strong and authoritarian central
government led by the Czar. Wexler knew that everyone around him
already knew this, but he was the type to talk and speak the obvious.
In fact all of them had been drafted
into service for the benefit of mankind against this galactic threat
and sent to protect this planet. Then half of them were forced to
work the mines of this dirt ball called Cochrane while the other half
played prison guard. The Viceroy was just doing his job and didn't
want to be nuked from space by the forces of the Czar any more than
any one else.
A race was on to find and destroy any
of the remaining forces loyal to the Viceroy, or his henchmen, and
then force the Viceroy to report an “all fine” message to the
Imperial Fleet. Anything else, even silence and the fleet would
destroy everything on this empty world.
Wexler didn't know if Commander Marco
was up to the task, he was still pretty young for the guy who
launched the revolt and took over these Beasts. He even managed to
turn entire Beast crews against the Viceroy's goons when it looked
like the last battle was lost.
Corporal Wexler closed his eyes. That
battle had been a nightmare. Beasts on both sides launching salvo
after salvo of missiles, knocking most of them out of the sky, then
the belchers made it impossible to see your hand in front of your
face.
Even radar and sensors couldn't
penetrate the smoke from the belchers. That led to hand to hand
combat. Lieutenant Avers had been run over by a Beast, and his friend
Maxwell had been blown up by a mine dropped by one of the Beasts in
the darkness. Even Marc had been thrown out of a gouge in the lead
Beast when it struck a mine.
It had been impossible to tell one side
from the other, even the soldiers wore the same uniforms! It had been
a nightmare from the get-go. Somehow though, Commander Marco Rubin
had pulled it off and come out with a victory for the rebels. The
Viceroys goons only had a couple of the Beasts left, their own crews
forced to fight with a gun at their back.
We got this, Wexler said, if it wasn't
for the likelihood of being nuked from orbit for the trouble. At
least we'll die as free men and women, although nobody would ever
know. Instead their deaths would be blamed on an alien menace that
doesn't exist, propaganda to keep the same tyrants in power for
another generation.
Mack Dillon, the Viceroy, had been
no-where near the mining-prison camp when the revolt took place of
course. He was probably on the other side of the world studying the
plants and creatures of this planet instead of doing his job. Finding
him would be a big problem, he no doubt knew about the revolt by now
and would be running away of whatever rebels were sent to catch him.
He had to be captured alive of course.
Viceroy Mack Dillon knew the codes, he knew what to tell the fleet
when it came through. Only the Viceroy could keep them alive, as
strange as it sounded.
If anyone could figure out how to make
this work its Commander Marco Rubin and his new second-in-command
Stacie Marsh. Those two were quite a pair. Glad I'm on their side,
Wexler thought to himself.
The overall plan was to survive and
then somehow get a ship and bring down the Czar. This, of course, was
not going to be that simple. Corporal Wexler day dreamed about
plowing through Capitol City with a dozen Beasts and bringing down
the system. A glorious but impossible dream. A more realistic
dream... following Commander Marco Rubin and helping to make it
happen.
Alarms sounded. Red alert. Corporal
Wexler stood up and grabbed the combat helmet and addressed his squad
“Okay, grunts, on your feet, check your neighbors combat suits!”.
They had located and were closing in on
the enemy Beasts, he could feel the vehicle moving faster, he could
feel the vibration in his feet. Missiles were probably already in the
air, anti-missile missiles would soon be launching. They would close
on each other, start the belchers and then soon enough, the big
hatches will open to a black world and he would lead his squad into
battle.
“Let's try not to shoot each other
out there” he told them “I want you all to live long enough to
pay a visit to the Earth Czar!”
They all lifted up their battle rifles
and growled in agreement.
------------------------------
You can help support me and this science fiction blog by buying New Arrivals (hey, other ebooks are on the way!)
No comments:
Post a Comment