John Ringo: Honor of the Clan

“There are other things to concentrate on,” Blevins growled.

“It’s just that…” Widemann said. “I guess you haven’t seen it, huh?”

“I’ve seen it,” Blevins said then paused. “I think. Weren’t there some sequels?”

“I think those were prequels,” Hines said. “The skinny dude with the magic sword was really the emperor or something.”

“The point is,” Widemann said, trying to recover the thread. “There’s this scene in the beginning of one of the movies. Just before the guy in black armor shows. Bunch of guys in light armor, guns pointed…”

“Damn,” Blevins said, starting to laugh. “You Bane Sidhe son of a bitch.”

“I mean,” Widemann said, “am I the only one with a sense of déjà vu?”

“The banging’s stopped,” Hines said.

“Yeah, that was a bad sign in the movie, too,” Blevins said. “I mean, all we need is white helmets and a steely eyed guy…”

“That would be me,” Corporal Doyle said from behind them.

“Dammit,” Blevins said, setting his grav-rifle on the barricade. “You and your movie trivia!”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Hines said angrily, dropping his to the floor.

“How do you catch a unique rabbit?” Corporal Doyle asked, kicking the weapon away.

“I don’t know,” Widemann said, raising his hands. “How do you catch a unique rabbit?”

“You nique up on it.”

“Just one problem,” Widemann said, shrugging. “We can’t be captured.”

“But you are,” Hutch pointed out, coming up behind them.

“Heads full of secrets and all,” Blevins said sadly. “Crap.”

“Look, fellas…” Doyle said uneasily.

“Nice to have met you,” Hines said, then bit down on something.

All three dropped to the floor.

“Bloody hell,” Doyle said softly. “Bloody fucking hell.”

“Four more WIA, no KIA,” Shelly said. “The teams are bypassing points but the points can follow their progress and are maneuvering skillfully.”

“Not skillfully enough,” Mike said. Now that he’d gotten the feel for the enemy commander he could pretty much anticipate where they were going to remaneuver to and the teams were actually getting there faster.

AIDs, with just a glance, could spot not only that there was an enemy but identify individuals. The schematic marked them with a T (tango or target) and a numerical designator. So far fifty tangos had been ID’d, many but not all of them former DAG.

Fourteen of those fifty were dead. Seven had been, temporarily, captured. One of the captured had then politely noted that she was going to commit suicide and the ACS might want to back up.

Which they did and she did. With C-9 that could, conceivably, have done some damage to the ACS.

The rest had commited suicide in less spectacular ways.

It was the strangest damned battle.

“This is stupid,” Mike said. “And annoying. Shelly, call for a cease fire.”

“They’re hitting us from every direction and moving too fast for us to reposition,” Tommy said. “We’re getting slaughtered.” His tone was odd. “I had a pretty good layout, even to take on ACS.”

“I know,” Cally replied. There was a time for grief and a time to lock it down. She knew Papa was dead. She wanted to scream, to shout, to kill something. But for the first time in her life she and her people were getting killed. And she knew why. It wasn’t just the technology, it was the guy behind it.

“They’re taking us apart like a chicken,” Tommy said.

“I know.”

“We need a better plan.”

“Such as?”

“Get into position on the Gamma entry,” Tommy said, pointing. “All the heavy equipment means that they’ll have to come at us head-on. We couldn’t do it before because we were still evacuating the base. Most of the evacuees are in Gamma at this point.”

“We’re in contact,” Cally pointed out. “We don’t have time .”

“Call for a cease-fire?” Tommy said.

“Rebel commander…”

“ACS commander…”

“You sound young,” Mike said. There was no visual. “Juv?”

“Of course,” the female voice said.

“General?” Lieutenant Cuelho said. “Be aware that they’re piping this into their announcement system. Everyone is hearing this.”

“Good,” Mike said. “I’m not planning on saying anything I don’t mean.”

“Neither am I,” the woman replied. “That’s why I pumped it.”

“Your people are very good,” Mike said. “Not just the DAG that went rogue but the other ones as well. And your tactics have been… fair.”

“Coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“An honest one,” Mike said. “I want you to understand that I admire your dedication and professionalism. I will even admit that I, too, don’t particularly like the current political situation.”

“What?” the voice said sarcastically. “Like extra-judicial killings? Complete trashing of not only the Constitution but every bilateral legal treaty we’ve ever negotiated? Deliberate manipulation of the war and since to reduce the human race to beggars dependent on Darhel ‘charity’? Duty, honor, country? Remember those words? General ?”

“All of the above,” Mike replied calmly. “Agreed. Arguing your side is rather easy. Arguing mine somewhat harder and I’m not going to bother. The bottom line is that I’ve got a job to do. The job is to arrest certain persons in this base and turn them over to Fleet Penal for questioning. Surrender your weapons and you spare your lives.”

“Sorry, been with Fleet Penal before,” the voice said. “I’d rather go down fighting. Hell, I’d rather go down in a burning aircraft. It’s quicker.”

Mike paused and blinked.

“You were the woman captured in the penetration of Strike Base,” he said.

“Got it in one.”

“Then I have a question for you,” Mike said coldly. “Were you involved in the killing of General Stewart?”

The reply was a barked laugh that settled into a giggle that sounded very much like a little girl.

“No,” the voice said with strained humor. “Uh, you could say that the answer to that is a definite no. We were, among other things, lovers. If they didn’t give you full disclosure, the only reason I was caught was that he’d been shot, by someone else I’ll add, and I stayed to save his life. For which I was then subjected to a month of torture. So you’ll understand if I’m not willing to go that for you .”

“Shelly?” Mike said.

“Accurate,” the AID replied. “I have been given access to the information on that. What she says is correct.”

“Question for a question,” the female said tightly. “More a confirmation. One of our people had the mission of removing the commander of your force.”

“It was a legitimate forlorn hope,” Mike said gently. “I was forced to return fire. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry ?” the voice said angrily. “Oh, you have NO idea how sorry!”

“I take it you were close.”

“You might say that,” the woman replied. “He was my grandfather.”

“He was very good,” Mike replied. “Very, very good. I am truly sorry. But I think that this makes the obvious point that you don’t have a hope in hell of surviving. Please surrender. I’ll see what I can do about—”

“And we both know how far that will fly,” the woman said. “I know you would,” she said, more gently. “But we both know that the Darhel are going to pull us apart like a chicken. I’ve been there and most of my people know the story. We’re less than enthusiastic about surrendering. A clean death is preferable.”