her with my body.
“Shrapnel won’t penetrate this place, will it?” she asked.
“Turret One, activate!” I shouted. “Target the source of incoming artillery and return fire!”
The big servos whirred and clicked. We’d already set up a viewing system on one of the walls. A relief- image of the camp stood out in raised, metal lines. With liquid smoothness, the projector swung around to aim east. A thrumming sound built up, the thing was preparing to fire.
I ripped off my hood and shoved it at Sandra. She got the idea and we scrambled to pull it over her head. I didn’t know if there would be any light-leakage inside the turret, but this wasn’t the time to be surprised. I closed my eyes tightly and jammed my fist into my sockets. I told myself that even if I was blinded, the nanites would rebuild my eyes. Sandra didn’t have any such comforting thoughts, however. I could hear her breathing hard inside the hood.
As it turned out, there wasn’t any leakage. A singing sound rang out, and the turret shuddered a fraction. But with the metal hull of the turret sealed around us, none of the brilliance of it got through to us.
“I can hear your men talking in the hood, Kyle,” Sandra said, her voice muffled.
I removed the hood as quickly and softly as I could, but she still complained I was ripping hairs from her head. I pulled the hood on. She wouldn’t need it if she stayed in here.
“Riggs?” said a voice. I realized after a second it was Kwon.
“Riggs here, go ahead.”
“That thing works? What did it shoot at?”
“Whoever fired that mortar at us.”
“Did it hit them?”
“If they stop firing,” I said, “then yes, it did.”
Sandra watched me as I lifted my hood and kissed her. Outside, everything was quiet for now.
“Did we hit them?” she asked.
“Either that, or we scared the crap out of them. You stay in here. Don’t leave, it’s not safe.”
“Duh.”
“Look, I need you in this fight. I need you to call targets. Not everyone will shoot at this turret when they come in. In fact, they are liable to learn pretty fast not to aim at it. Watch the walls, and kill enemy contacts that come in firing.”
Sandra eyed the wall depicting the camp in metal lines. She licked her lips. “Why can’t you put one of your men on this?” she asked.
“There aren’t too many people I trust with my sole laser cannon. You are one of them. Besides, you said you wanted to fight. Here’s your big chance.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be killing people.”
“What the hell do you think fighting is all about?”
She rubbed at her jeans and avoided my eyes. “I don’t want to screw up and burn down one of the good guys.”
Sandra was still sitting, so I squatted down in front of her. I lifted my hood and caught her eyes with mine and made her look at me. I felt a momentary pang of guilt. She looked worried. Sandra always talked so tough, sometimes I forgot how young she really was. Had I helped end her youth and innocence? She had been a carefree coed less than a year ago. Now, she was manning a killer piece of alien technology against the forces of her own government. I steeled myself, telling myself all this wasn’t my idea. The alien ships had ended everyone’s innocence. Now, the Pentagon was getting greedy.
“You’re going to do fine. I need every marine out there with a rifle to protect all the sheds, not just this one. If the enemy gets in close, I can’t have this machine blowing holes in the other factories. We’ll have to use infantry to push them back. You will have to call targets.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay. But can’t I just tell it to burn down everyone who isn’t full of nanites?”
“No. First of all, you aren’t full of nanites. Secondly, I’m not sure the men coming after us won’t have nanites.”
She looked at me sharply. “You mean your own marines….”
I nodded. “Yeah. Why not? Do you really think every last man who joined Star Force was legit?”
— 10-
They didn’t bother shelling the camp with mortars after two more tries. Sandra quickly and effectively returned fire. Each time the big green beam lit up the night, it burned its way through a few dozen trees, stabbing out into the darkness. Trunks of pines exploded. Wispy palm fronds ignited with the passing heat. The beams stayed on for several long seconds, burning their way through intervening vegetation. The results were always the same. The mortars were silenced. After a few seconds, the beam stopped firing and the only sounds were the shouts of my men and the crackle of burning forest.
What really screwed them was the geography of Andros Island. The highest elevation on the entire island was only about a hundred feet above sea level. The island had no hills, no gullies. In the area of my camp, it was particularly flat. There wasn’t anywhere for the enemy to hide, really. They had to come in under fire.
They could have used something bigger than a mortar, of course. Something with longer range, even a Tomahawk missile. But anything that big might destroy the precious factories, and no one wanted that.
At about one a. m., our fireteam returned to camp. I saw the big turret uncoil, tracking them as they approached. I winced, hoping Sandra hadn’t screwed up and ordered them burned down in a panic. But the big laser didn’t fire. I gulped air in relief. I walked out to greet them, recognizing the shape of their suits and their number. I hoped it wasn’t some kind of trap.
The marines halted, facing me. I halted too. I felt a presence at my side. It was Kwon, I could tell without looking. He was the kind of man who you could sense when he came near. He moved the air around him, or shook the ground, I wasn’t sure which.
“Scout squadron, report,” I said.
The men glanced back and forth amongst themselves. They were fully buttoned up in their suits, and I couldn’t blame them for that. The Corporal leading the team stepped forward two halting steps. I recognized him, he was the Indian Ghopak that I’d met at the gate hours before. Seven men stood behind him uncertainly.
“Colonel Riggs?” he asked.
“That’s me. Report.”
“Sir, we made contact with the enemy. Do you know who they are, sir?”
“I have an idea. Fill me in on the details.”
“They were human, sir. Army Rangers. We killed about twenty of them. Once we realized who they were, we broke off and retreated back to base. What the hell is going on, sir?”
I stared at them for a few seconds before speaking. “Okay. I’m going to level with you guys. And I’m not going to try to stop you if you decide to pull out of here. We are under attack by U. S. Government troops.”
There was a rise in the level of chatter all around me. I had a sinking feeling. None of these men had signed on for this.
“This is a tough spot to be in for all of us,” I said. “They seem to want to take us all out, and take ownership of all the alien tech.”
“But sir,” said the Corporal, his voice had a pleading quality to it. “Don’t we have a deal? Don’t they know we are all on the same side?”
I hesitated. “Men,” I began, not sure how to tell them what they were caught up in. “They think the aliens have gone, and now is the time to grab our tech. They think some other country will grab it, if they don’t. They are greedy and paranoid. I can understand that. In times of war, these things happen. If you know your history, when the French surrendered to the Germans in World War II, they formed a government known as the Vichy Government. They were puppets for the Germans. Many French died manning Vichy ships and fighting against Allied troops on the ground.”
I stopped. Everyone was listening. What was my point? “In times of intense conflict, things get confused. I’m
