quite competent, in fact, and a precious few could even comprehend how what they did related to other things.
The training aircrews were on an entirely different level; all were “Hij,” or “elevated” specimens that generally exhibited levels of intelligence on a par with young adult Japanese. They were enthusiastic learners, and though insular and as slavishly devoted to their “Celestial Mother” as many Japanese youths were to their emperor, they demonstrated a hungry curiosity. He was beginning to form some rather radical ideas about their “allies’” society, and though he still loathed the Grik in general, he no longer hated them individually. He supposed he even felt vaguely attached to some of the aircrews! Regardless of the terrible waste of time, training, and resources, deep down, much of the sudden anxiety he felt regarding his orders stemmed from the simple fact that he just didn’t want his students to die. He felt torn and confused.
Grik Ceylon
General Halik hissed and slashed at the map with his claws. “They are monsters!” he howled. “Each attack we send against them is savaged, and many turn prey!” He looked at Niwa. “Those who do are not destroyed, but they are so far gone, I fear they may never recover-or become useful for anything but fodder!”
“Give them time,” Niwa said. “You’ve seen it before.”
“But we don’t have time! I want victory! A victory, any victory, to show General Esshk that Ceylon can hold. Only that will gain us aid!”
“That was not our mission,” Niwa reminded him.
“It becomes mine,” Halik snapped. “If I were… accustomed to failure, I would not be alive. Only victory in the arena deserves life!”
“But this isn’t the arena, and we’ve accomplished the mission we were set-to engage and assess the enemy; learn how they fight and what they fight with. That was the greater mission. Saving Ceylon was never expected of us.”
“I expect it of myself, ” Halik replied in a quieter tone. “I cannot help it. Despite my ‘elevation,’ I’m not- cannot be-dispassionate.” He straightened. “Nor does it seem I have gained the wisdom General Esshk expected of me. I don’t have the troops being bred and trained for defense, but as you said, wise offense can counteract that. I know it is so! I just can’t… make it happen, and I chafe!”
“You still talk of attacking with your shield, as you did in the arena,” Niwa observed, “but you know that sometimes a shield is just a shield, a tool to deflect a blow. Even your lowliest Uul understand this.”
“Ha! You expect them to line up in the face of the enemy and deflect his lead spheres, arrows, cannon, bombs, with shields? They cannot stand that. They will attack, and nothing I can do will stop them!”
“And they are slaughtered.”
“Yes.”
Niwa sighed. He understood how Halik felt, and he felt for him. At some point, he’d finally stopped thinking of Halik as a creature, a Grik he somehow got along with. Maybe it was his isolation from his own kind, or perhaps it was the prestige of his position and his real power over the Grik of Ceylon. Maybe it was just the camaraderie of battle. Whatever the reason, he considered Halik a friend, and he couldn’t help it any more than Halik could prevent suffering under his own burden. Oddly, Niwa wasn’t even conflicted. He hated Kurokawa and had no real attachment to any of his “own” surviving people. Nor did he feel anything for the enemy other than a measure of admiration, even though he knew he had far more in common with them than any Grik. In spite of everything, they were the enemy. Halik, on the other hand, was honest, loyal, and brave. He was perhaps a true samurai in all the ways that mattered, and Niwa respected him for that.
“Then use your mind to shield them,” Niwa suggested. “You already laid the groundwork for our ‘surprise’; is it complete?”
“Not yet. Everything has happened so quickly, and the enemy moves like a machine! I never imagined anything like it. Now our front collapses to the south, and all we…” Halik stopped and stared at the map. “All we can do is take from one place and put it in another,” he said softly. “The enemy will see that-their thrice-cursed aircraft-but they cannot see what we do in the dark!”
“That’s true,” Niwa said. “They occasionally fly at night, but they can’t really see.”
“They’ll expect us to take from the highland front to reinforce the southern plains. The highlands are difficult country, and though they don’t know it, that was precisely why we amassed such power there, emplaced your ingenious devices! But they won’t come!” He paused. “Or will they?” Excitedly, Halik peered at the map. “They will watch us take forces from there to a place where they have made it necessary! The highland passes will appear to have been abandoned, while the plain grows more formidable! They will come where we want them, thinking it an empty road!” Halik snarled again, in triumph this time.
“Excellent,” Niwa said approvingly. “But the movements must be convincing, and the troops and guns we leave must be well concealed.”
“Of course,” Halik agreed, “as well as the warriors we return there!”
“How do you mean?”
“As we both agree, they cannot see what we do at night. We’ll move nearly everything out of the highlands! Prod them into attacking just as Uul will chase wounded prey! Under the cover of darkness, we put it all back!”
“Chancy,” Niwa said, “all will depend on concealment and exaggeration-two things they will not expect of Grik, based on those they’ve met before.”
“Indeed,” Halik said with a self-satisfied gurgle. “We must see to it ourselves. The warriors we leave, those trained on the cannons, will have to hide-not an easy thing to achieve in itself-and…” He paused. “When we shift the warriors back to the highlands in darkness, we will fill the lines south of the city with the city’s inhabitants themselves. Use the noncombatants.”
“What will N’galsh say?” Niwa asked.
“He will wail as if being flayed alive. All his followers, merchants, artisans-his preparers of food!-all the privileged Hij in the city, along with their own little armies of Uul forced into the company of ungroomed warriors…!” Halik could barely contain his glee. “Perhaps we’ll even arm them!”
Niwa chuckled himself. “The idea of N’galsh wielding a sword is amusing… but can he if he must='3
“Of course not, but if we fool the spies from the air, we will know it soon enough. The enemy will pause before the ‘mighty force’ we assemble before it, long enough to strengthen itself, while his lighter center force that slogs slowly through the mountains to the east will charge headlong into the trap! Once we destroy it, we’ll attack the western force from the side, the ‘flank,’ as you say!”
“It could work,” Niwa allowed, studying the map. “If we do it, it must work, because nothing remains if it fails.”
“Yes,” Halik agreed, sobering. “Either we achieve a great victory-or depart as originally planned. By then that might be… difficult!”
CHAPTER 18
New Ireland
T he once almost-pacifistic Major Chack-Sab-At was a veteran of many battles now, but the wild melee that erupted in the darkened streets of New Dublin was something new in his experience. It was somewhat like the climax of the battle at the Dueling Grounds on New Scotland, except here it was on a completely different scale, sprawling through the congested streets of a large, unfamiliar city. He couldn’t even tell which direction was which, because the smoke from guns and burning buildings hid the sky and blotted out the stars. Few of “his” Imperial troops had ever been to New Ireland before, and even fewer had been in this Company city. Most were as lost as he was in the confusion of this bizarre battle.
Blair’s attack down the slope and across the field toward the city had succeeded far better than expected. The enemy positions had been devastated by the aerial bombing and mortar attack, and the remaining Doms were completely surprised when assailed through the smoky darkness by a force they’d been sure was withdrawing. They broke. Blair’s regiments charged onward, yelling like fiends, flush with success-and lost all cohesion. The Imperial Marines weren’t real professionals after all, Chack had reflected sadly, and he tried to round up as many clumps as he could when his own division went in, but when they continued advancing-while trying to maintain some contact
