Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank - Basketful of Crap

“I thought about that too. Where would you train anyway? How are you going to train 800 people?”

“I don’t know. Put down ten thousand bottles in the street and shoot at them? This hasn’t been done before on Belvaille. I’m kind of playing it by ear. I don’t even know where we’ll put all this equipment we get from the corporation.”

“We’ll need a warehouse,” he said.

“And how am I going to move my army? Ride the train? It will take us three hours just to get everyone in the same spot. And it’s not like we can all walk up one street. We’d be shooting each other in the back.”

“No, you’ll need to go from multiple directions. Come over, we’ll look at some maps of the city.”

“Did you ever figure out who stole your corpse?” I asked.

“No. I suspect it was one of the corporations.”

“I don’t want to do any planning there if you’ve been infiltrated by a corporation. It could be the one we’re attacking. You should come over here.”

“Do you still have Gandrine sitting in front of your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I’m not walking by them. I think my place is safer.”

“Let’s meet at City Hall.”

“Will Garm get mad?”

“No, I just did some work for her.”

At City Hall Colonel Delovoa and I spoke and it became clear just how terrible this war was going to be.

Naked Guy had given me the name of the corporation and location. It was Intergalactic Brands Ltd. They were located in a small section just north of the docks. Their colors were brown with a green cat. I knew nothing of them beyond that.

“You’re going to need to do reconnaissance,” Delovoa stated.

“Yeah, I should have started a while ago, but… well, I didn’t. I’ll tele some guys and set up an around-the-clock watch.”

I looked at the map.

“We have very limited areas of attack. We can’t move an army through the dock, it’s too crowded and we’ll get held up by heavy machinery. We can’t go from the east because there is no east, that’s the edge of the station. Too far north and you get into the rich neighborhoods and they have private security.”

“And they might shoot at you, or worse, your army splits off and starts robbing people,” Delovoa said.

Looks like we got these four blocks on the west, but that’s awful narrow. Two hundred untrained gang members, armed to the teeth, who all dislike one another, bumbling down each street.”

This job was not giving me a warm feeling.

“Thad Elon’s Teeth,” Delovoa exclaimed.

We stood in a warehouse that we had previously appropriated for storage. I had given Delovoa’s list back to Naked Guy which detailed what equipment we would like from his Colmarian United Supply.

The building was absolutely filled with military hardware. Row after row of guns and armor and gear. It was beyond counting.

“How are we ever going to use all this?” I asked, dumbfounded. “I mean, how are we going to give it to people? Have them line up at the door and pick whatever they want?”

We wandered through the aisles of equipment. Nothing was labeled and it seemed to be ordered haphazardly. There were racks of pants next to a box of grenades next to signal flares next to…

“What is this?” I asked, picking up an odd device.

“It’s for water breathing.”

“We’re on a space station, why did you ask for this?”

“I wanted to see if they would give it.”

I twirled around looking at the mess.

“How long will it take you to inventory?”

Suddenly, Delovoa grabbed my arm, his face looking desperate.

“You still have the money, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go. Let’s get out of here. Off Belvaille.”

“What? Why?”

“Look!” He said, gesturing at our armory. “It—I guess it hadn’t been real in my head before this. But this isn’t a gang war, it’s a real war.”

“But we have all this equipment to fight with.”

“Do you know how to use all this stuff? I don’t.”

“I thought you were an expert engineer.”

“I am. But knowing how to build it and use it in a war are two different things. I’ve never been in a fight in my life. Just go. I’ll come with you—if you want. Belvaille is lost anyway. This is proof.”

“We can’t, Delovoa. Do you think they gave me all that money and all this stuff and they’re not going to find us if we leave? We probably won’t make it to the Portal. I have to get these guys ready to fight. It’s the only way out of this.”

I cast the net out far and wide looking for more recruits.

I was giving my officers signing bonuses if they could get able-bodied men willing to march to their deaths.

Garm lent me her skills when it came to organizing the warehouse and how to disperse it to my soldiers efficiently. She also made a list of the number and types of squads we would have.

It was a vast improvement over what I had been going to use: a huge crowd of guys with guns walking forward. We really were starting to resemble an army.

My reconnaissance units didn’t have a lot to report. It’s hard to get an accurate tally of soldiers who are clones. There were no tanks, but there were roof snipers and emplaced machine guns.

Again, I tapped Garm to help me with tactics.

“You know this is suicide, don’t you?” Garm said pleasantly.

“How can you say that after you’ve seen all the men I have and all the equipment?”

“You’ve hired a bunch of loan sharks and counterfeiters and drug addicts. Giving them automatic weapons isn’t suddenly going to make them capable warriors.”

“What do you want me to do, Garm?”

“Keep your eyes open. This whole thing stinks. Why are they using you when they have far more competent people on their own payroll?”

“They’re not even paying them,” I muttered.

We had told Garm about the clones but it didn’t faze her. I doubted she cared if the corporations used magic spirits as long as she got paid.

“When are you going to attack?” she asked.

“Can’t say. I’m not letting anyone know until the hour, hopefully it will keep it a surprise.”

“You advertised it in The News …”

“Not the date and which corporation. I’m going to have a few drills with the boys. If anyone is tipping off the corporation, we’ll see them react.”

“Well. Good luck,” Garm said, after taking in a deep breath.

“Thanks.”

She gave me a hug. She wasn’t a big woman, but she was strong.

“You’re making me feel like I’m never going to see you again,” I said sadly.

“You have to see me again. You owe me money.”

I thought she was making a joke.

“What do I owe you money for?”

“This. Helping you put your structure together.”

“You said it was free!” I yelled.

“No, I didn’t!” She yelled back, obviously not joking.

“You’re going to fleece me right before I go off to war?”

“It’s not like I made you. Besides, I’m probably saving your life.”

“Unlikely. How much do you want for this theoretical help?”

“A hundred thousand.”

“You’re nuts! I wouldn’t give that if you walked in front of me and took the first bullet.”

“Yeah, like someone is going to hit me when they have your fatness as a target. You’re paying these toothless codgers 30,000—”

“To fight! Not to scribble notes.”

“Fine, I’ll take my organization charts with me.”

“I already stored them to tele.”

“I hope you die in your stupid fight,” she said, storming away. She got halfway to my door when she stopped. “Good luck, Hank.”

“Thanks, Garm. And good luck with…”