Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank - Basketful of Crap

And I left it there. Soulful. Mournful.

“With what?” she asked quietly.

“With being less bitchy.”

The morning of the raid I sent word to assemble at the warehouse, getting my officers in place first.

This was the fourth time I had called everyone together so we could get in practice and hopefully throw off any spies. My own spies had never reported any changes in Intergalactic Brands Ltd activity.

My other spies, Cad and his friends, still hadn’t reported back from their work trailing the Gandrine, but I couldn’t bother with that now.

I had sergeants in the warehouse handing out equipment in a semi-orderly fashion and bashing the heads of those who tried to take more than they were allotted.

The officers organized the men into squads, platoons, and regiments. We didn’t know if those were the right names but they were the first ones we came up with. Without Garm’s help we would never have even left the warehouse. We weren’t exactly an efficient machine but at least we weren’t a mob.

I had one job only, and that was to pay people. Half up front.

You’d think it would be a simple job, but I had people show up who weren’t on the list, people try and claim their money multiple times, people use the names and identification of others.

Likewise, I knew men were going to be streaming in over a long period of time. These guys weren’t exactly early-risers. But that gave us time to sort things out.

After four hours, I figure we had just about everyone we were going to get. From my tally it was 753 men. I had signed up a little over 900, so a combination of cold feet, hangovers, and whatever else had dwindled our numbers. Hopefully the worst had dropped out, but logic told me it was the poorest with the least to lose who had stayed.

Delovoa had provided incendiary devices to about fifty of them. They were basically my anti-tank units. Because he was right, I didn’t have any guns that could take on heavy armor. But we could cook those inside nonetheless.

Balday-yow walked up to me.

“I think you should give a speech.”

I looked over the sea of 753 fighters. I did a few tele calculations.

“Gentlemen, ladies,” the crowd grew quiet. “I have decided that instead of 15,000 credits at completion I owe you, everyone will instead get 16,872.”

Exhilaration! I had planned on saying a few more things, but I couldn’t be heard over their cheers and it would be anti-climactic at this point.

Now we had to move.

Quietly. Quickly. And without killing one another.

I didn’t even have a moment to think how in over my head I was, as my officers were constantly asking me questions.

We took five different routes using three trains. We knew how long each train took and how long it would take to reach each train. We coordinated by tele so we would hopefully arrive at the same time. Delovoa had worked all this out.

My group departed last because I was taking a train as directly to the corporation as possible. My regiment had to move at my speed and I was slow.

“So what do you want me to do?” Bronze asked, enthusiastically. I had made him my personal valet.

“Stand behind me. If you get hurt, Garm will murder me.”

“We’re splits, you know. I have a new lady now.”

“Yeah, well, Garm has a long memory.”

There was very little talking as we rode the train. There was even less talking as we walked the last blocks to the rendezvous. The boyish high spirits that had pervaded earlier practice runs were long gone.

We reached our street and waited for the other groups to signal they were in position. We stood there for tense minutes, which felt like hours. We were two hundred men wide open in the street. Just blocks from the corporation we were to attack.

What if the other regiments’ trains failed? What if gang fights broke out amongst them?

Finally, I got a tele confirming the other groups were in position.

The spies reported no response from the corporation.

I took out my autocannon and readied the straps. I didn’t load it because I wasn’t sure what I would be fighting yet.

I gave the tele command to march forward.

Balday-yow was the commander of one regiment. He reached the corporation first. We could hear gunfire and explosions from the next block.

I tried to hurry up.

My tele showed the other groups had made contact. The sounds of fighting were coming from all sides now. The metal buildings of Belvaille amplified and distorted the combat.

We got in view of a sandbagged emplacement at the end of the block.

I loaded an HE shell into my autocannon but the rest of my army surged past me, screaming and shouting and firing their guns. I couldn’t shoot through them.

But it didn’t matter. The two helmeted soldiers didn’t even get a chance to move before they were shot.

I watched as my army ran ahead of me, all semblance of order gone. It was like little children playing glocken. Except with firearms.

I saw a grenade go off in the distance and witnessed several enemy soldiers fall off roofs. My men were out of control now and steamrolling through the corporation territory, shooting anything that stood still.

These were the avenging hands of Belvaille come to take back their city from the corporations! I couldn’t stop them now if I tried.

We pushed deeper in and I looked at my tele for an update on the others.

My tele was blank!

I grabbed another slow-moving soldier next to me and got him to look at his tele. It was also blank. A completely dark screen.

No one could jam teles except the Navy.

As I was wondering how this was possible, the lights overhead went out. The latticework went dark!

This was impossible.

The hoots and hollers from the soldiers died down and were replaced with hundreds of concerned mumbles. The shooting mostly stopped as they couldn’t see anything to shoot at.

I kept going forward to try and reach the bulk of my men. I grabbed Bronze to make sure he stayed next to me.

“Hold your ground,” I called out. “Stay together and keep your eyes open.”

There were a few flashlights here and there that men had. From what I could see from the light, my army had completely lost its momentum and was just milling around, confused.

I heard a roar behind us. From the direction we had originally come from. It was metallic, high-pitched and deep at the same time.

Suddenly we were bathed in blinding white lights from dozens of spotlights. We stood there stupidly. The once-conquerors reduced to shielding our eyes.

BOOM!

Two explosions happened simultaneously. One from the direction we came and one right in the middle of our troops.

That wasn’t an APC. It wasn’t an armored fighting vehicle.

That was a tank.

A real tank with a real tank gun. Now I knew what Delovoa had meant when he made the distinction. It took up the entire street.

Panic!

Tracer rounds erupted from all around the tank, blanketing our position. It was impossible to tell how many men they had firing at us, but it was substantial.

I heard an explosion up one of the adjacent blocks so I knew the other groups were facing the same thing we were.

This was a set-up.

“Throw incendiaries! Throw your firebombs at them!” I yelled.

I wasn’t expecting to roast the tank, it was too far away, and its armor probably too thick, but we couldn’t see anything.

A few piles of fire ignited in the road. I repeated my orders. More appeared.

From that, we could see the soldiers. Their uniforms showed they weren’t Intergalactic Brands Ltd. There were hundreds of them swarming around the tank.

We had our backs to the very edge of the space station with tanks between us and freedom.