Slurping through the dirty water, we stepped over the roots and trampled the already blackened leaves. We, with firearms at the ready, tightly covered ourselves in camouflage raincoats so that the rain would not get into our mouths, noses, or ears, and talked exclusively over the radio station through headphones.
“The topology shows that there is a valley to the north of us.”
I heard the scout's voice in the earphone.
"If we go there, we'll drown."
"We're moving straight ahead."
Uwon responded.
“We don’t go astray.”
The charge of electricity for electrical appliances will be enough for a week, after which we will be left without electronics for a long time and will switch to communicating with gestures in case we need to convey a message to each other without attracting too much attention.
We won’t even be able to illuminate our path with flashlights, thereby eliminating the possibility of moving at night. Without communication, things will be much worse for us, but we will endure it somehow. We've more or less memorized the route to those two cargo shuttles and the landing site for the entire 127th Army, so we can handle it.
And while I, holding an assault rifle at the ready, walked to the east, Itami continued to teach the natives the English language using visual parameters, roughly speaking, pointing to water, to movements, to objects and phenomena, calling them in English words.
"Rain. Raining."
"Raining."
The natives spoke.
"Right,"
Itami praised the fugitives.
“And this is a flashlight.”
"Flashlight."
Alza responded, squinting from the light that was directed at her face.
"Bright."
"Sorry."
Itami took the flashlight to the side while continuing to trample the bushes on his way.
At the same time, Sigrun was walking next to Yasmi and talking to her about something. If it works out, then thanks to the engineer we will be able to extract much more information than we originally wanted. Yasmi did share some very surprising details about the Empire and her ability to understand languages.
Firstly, according to her, all our weapons are forbidden artifacts of some dark ones, which are appropriated by the state either for study or for use; alas, we could not clarify this; Yasmi did not know this.
Unfortunately, Yasmi does not know who the dark ones are and even why they are called that, but what is clear is that the dark ones are of alien origin and also came to this anomalous planet many years ago and, apparently, could even perish here.
It seems that their ship crashed somewhere in the west, and the natives stole all the equipment from their ship, and when they realized how dangerous it was, the state monopolized its control. They were probably called dark because of their appearance and, perhaps, I don’t know which race I know fits better with what can be described as dark or they were called that because of certain actions that they committed towards the natives, but by whom Maybe these were dark ones, I couldn’t guess.
Secondly, her ability to understand English. I have suspicions that this is not some special anomaly of this planet, but the technology of those very dark ones that the Empire gifted to Yasmi. And no matter how much she says that this is Sod’s gift, I don’t believe it. It is quite possible that this is an alien universal translator, which may be one of the Fuсult civilizations or an more ancient race in the galaxy that ended up on this planet.
Thirdly, Ashwani is missing. I thought she knew something about it, but I was wrong. She doesn't know anything about it. She just said that some magicians leave traps to kidnap people, but in this case even more questions arise about this.
«Who are magicians? Why do they need Ashwani? Why did everyone forget about him?»
My head was boiling with so many questions that I didn’t pay attention to the very essence of the word «magician».
I still don’t understand all this, but I hope that we will get out of this shit as quickly as possible.
“Fucking rain! We'll soon drown here!"
Will grumbled behind me, knee-deep and stuck in dirty water.
“Yeah. It would be better if we crashed on the Moon.”
Esko added.
“At least it’s not raining there.”
“We would have died if we had crashed on the Moon.”
Forn added.
"So we're lucky."
“Lucky to die in agony here, thousands of parsecs from Earth.”
Itami chuckled.
"Speak?"
A dark-haired native named Niana became interested.
"Rain. Bad."
Itami tried to explain to her the dissatisfaction of the Republican soldiers.
Somehow, but she seemed to understand it well. It's amazing how Itami was able to explain this to her in just a few words. Even though he clearly showed that he did not want to educate the natives, he took on this assignment quite responsibly and successfully completed it. Other natives: Alza, Zaden and Ripun also continued to learn English, but so far progress remains slow.
At this moment I listened to another conversation, namely Sigrun and Jasmi. It seems that the two girls found a common topic of conversation despite the noise of the rain and the mud under their feet.
“I didn’t think I would miss home. The men there are so self-confident, as if they were born kings of the world.”
Sigrun spoke, and Yasmi nodded, stepping over the roots and squelching through the dirty water.
“This is how Sod created men, those who must protect, and the confidence of a man, their arrogance and exaltation is the way to protect the family from evil, to be a shield that envelops our world.”
Yasmi spoke and at the same moment became interested.
“Why are you so unhappy? Do these men treat you badly? I see only respect for you in their faces.”
“These guys treat me well,”
Sigrun responded.
“But the men from my family don’t even consider me. Since childhood, they told me to do household chores and take care of my little brothers and sisters. I was like a slave in my own family. I constantly wanted to tell them: «I am also a human being,» but they always told me: «You’re just a woman, just do what we tell you.» I was so angry with them that I fled to Earth and decided not to return. I found my calling there on Earth, to be useful to people, all people, to have a good, well-deserved life, and not to eat the scraps that were always served to me just because I was born without a wick between my legs.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“As a woman, you allow yourself too much.”
Yasmi responded.
“A woman should be submissive before her husband, be his talisman in a difficult moment of his life.”
"You don't know how we live."
Sigrun grinned.
“We are different people, not like you and your relatives. We are from outer space and in order to get there we treat each other equally, with respect, but my family lives in the past and honors the same things as you.”
“So you betrayed your faith.”
Yasmi said displeasedly.
“Heresy is a much higher unforgivable sin than paganism.”
"Yes-yes-yes, how interesting."
Sigrun sighed.
Sigrun's revelation surprised me somewhat. So that’s why she didn’t want to discuss this with me because I’m a man and might not understand her feelings, her motives for leaving Alsis and going to Earth.
Although I can't imagine how she managed it. Migration between the planets of the republic is simply illusory and even trillionaires can barely afford to move to another planet. Does this mean she robbed her family and ran away? I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it gives me a lot to think about. Sigrun just seems too suspicious to me, or maybe I’m just imagining this. She may not want to tell me this, but later I’ll ask her how she was able to leave Alsis and become an engineer in the 127th Army.
At that moment, the voice of the head of the security group that surrounded us and performed the function of long-range reconnaissance sounded in the headphones.
"Southwest. The approach of the natives."
"Accepted. The entire platoon must stop moving. Arrows take defensive positions. Prepare for battle."
Uwon ordered in an indifferent tone and we hastily began to carry out the order of the junior lieutenant.
Having put tactical glasses on our eyes and learned from them the direction from which the enemy was moving towards us, we began to hide behind trees and roots, having prepared all our small arms. Esko took a higher position, climbing onto the branch of one tree, looking through the thermal-optical sight of a sniper rifle into the dense thicket.
The rest of my guys settled down in a line behind a root, throwing a box of ammunition into the dirty water nearby so that they could quickly reload if anything happened. The soldiers checked the clips, removed the fuses and began to expect the enemy to approach.
Uwon gave orders to the rest of the platoon and, as a result, forty people were ready to repel the enemy’s attack, but until then we waited for the right moment, namely, we let the enemy get closer so as not to frighten off the natives ahead of time.
“Why are we fighting here and not at the shuttle?”
Forn became interested.
“Because we mined it.”
I answered the Martian. Machine gunners settled down not far from us, and on the map with glasses we saw the first points that were quickly approaching us from the west. Meanwhile, the prisoners and wounded soldiers were taken a little further. Surely Yasmi at that moment was praying to her Sod so that she could finally return to her relatives, but the other natives who were with us still did not understand what was happening.
"Itami, stay here with them."
"Yes, sir."
Answered the signalman, threw his rifle over his shoulder and went with the natives to a safe shelter, while we were expecting the enemy to arrive any minute.
"They're close."
We all heard Uwon's voice on the air.
"Fire on command."
The fingers themselves held the trigger, and the eyes themselves looked for visual targets among all this vegetation dying under the toxic rain. And then, after a few minutes, I notice white figures carefully approaching us through the thickets.
They move so that we can see them as if they are trying to lure their prey into a trap and try very hard not to make loud noises while pretending to be predators. They probably think that they are now hunters, while in fact everything was exactly the opposite.
They were already able to find the crashed shuttle and sent only part of their squad here, while we continued to sit in place, hiding behind cover, waiting for the moment when they would get close enough for us to shoot them.
On the map, the glasses showed how the enemy was gathering in small groups and seemed to be preparing for an organized assault, but then for some reason they stopped, hiding behind the thickets.
"Why did they stop?"
Someone's question sounded in the earphone. I also didn’t understand why they did this. Moreover, I was curious to know how they know that they can’t get closer to us? Were they able to notice us in the thickets, especially when we were dressed in camouflage? And even though we couldn’t find out, we decided to attack them first.
"Sir, what will be the orders?"
I asked junior lieutenant Uwon
"Let's attack."
Uwon answered.
"Yes, sir."
I confirmed and gave orders to part of my platoon.
“Ajamal, you and your group are taking the enemy’s southern cluster. Sieghard, northern. I take the central one. The rest remain in the rear to provide support. Is the task clear?
“Yes, sir!”
I heard the senior sergeants in the earpiece.
“Let’s get started.”
Twenty camouflage police helmets rose up, revealing themselves to the natives from their positions. Our overall grouped movement apparently took the enemy by surprise. The fighters of the Ajamal and Sieghard groups fired from hand grenade launchers, as soon as we noticed on the glasses how the enemy groups began to scatter.
Explosive high-explosive fragmentation shells flew in an arc through the thickets and soon explosions were heard in the distance and, in addition to the noise of the rain, the painful cries of native soldiers were heard. At that moment, the first shots from assault rifles were heard at the natives.
As in the battle at the shuttle, their primitive armor was still difficult to penetrate for some reason unknown to us. I aimed my assault rifle at the first native and aimed at his head, after which in one burst I tore off his helmet and skull, splashing out his brains through the bloody haze. A couple more natives appeared behind him, but their fate turned out to be more unenviable.
Among the noise of the rain, there was an unpleasant, grinding ringing of ricochets from shots, the fighters began to pour bursts of fire on the natives, and then about half of the shots were in vain without penetrating the armor of the white natives. Only the explosions of grenades that fell under their feet were guaranteed to kill the most armored soldiers. Soon the first natives appeared in full view from behind the thickets, rushing towards us, holding swords and shields in their hands.
Sappers approached our positions and laid infantry mines under our feet, while other soldiers threw grenades forward and fired back at the natives rushing towards us. We expected to meet some measly hundred native soldiers when we first saw them, but even more targets suddenly appeared on the glasses, as if until now the glasses had not recorded other life forms at all.
“What the hell? Where do they come from?”
A voice was heard in the headphones. Some of the fighters asked a fair question, but no one knew the right answer. Whether there was some kind of malfunction or not, we didn’t know for sure until the very next moment.
At first there were one hundred of them, then there were two, four, and now it seems there are a whole thousand of them here, and besides, they now surrounded us. Among the noise of gunfire, rain and screams, while the bodies of the local inhabitants of the planet fell in front of us, the noise of the rapid approach of thousands of enemy soldiers grew. To be honest, I was stunned by the number of native soldiers that were visible, both on the map with glasses and visually through the thickets and rain. I didn't expect there to be so many of them.
«We saw very well that there were 207 of them. So where are there so many of them?»
I wondered until suddenly I heard an almost panicked scream in my earpiece.
“TURN ON THERMAL IMAGERS! IMMEDIATELY!"
Someone yelled in the headphones and we, having received such aggressive advice, activated the thermal imagers and, as it turned out, not in vain.
I don’t know what kind of trick they used, but some of the natives tried to come at us from the flanks, but what was really strange was that they were not visually visible, as if they were invisible. They were completely invisible until a machine gun burst directed towards them tore them to pieces, and they seemed to fall out of thin air with severe wounds in their bodies.
«What the hell?!»
I wondered while I was shooting single shots at approaching enemies.
«Are they using stealth technology? Or what is this?!»
There was no time to speculate.
“We’re leaving!”
I ordered my entire platoon, after which an organized retreat began, while the shooting of the advancing natives continued.
The natives continued to advance. They tried to shoot at us with bows, but often their arrows simply stuck into trees, roots and branches, and therefore they basically just ran at us trying to defeat us in close combat, but we simply did not let them get close to us.
They quickly adapted to firearms, hiding behind bushes, which made it difficult for us to shoot them en masse. There was not enough free space in this jungle, which is why the natives tried to get around us from all sorts of sides. If we didn’t have thermal imagers, we wouldn’t know exactly in which direction they were from us.
Suddenly, a deafening powerful explosion thundered behind me and for a brief moment, turning back, I saw a fire among the positions where Uwon was sitting and the machine-gun points were located. The painful screams of our guys, who were apparently burning alive, rang in our ears.
«What the hell?!»
I couldn't just look at it. Our main positions were located behind us there, and their loss meant that we were now surrounded. Despite their numerical superiority, the natives were wary of our weapons. Very often the shooters changed clips after using them for suppression fire, which is why I gave the order:
“Do not fire for suppression! I repeat, do not use suppressive fire! Save your ammo!
The noise of the high fire rate decreased sharply. Only single shots were heard. At this moment, the natives did what we had been waiting for, namely, the bulk of them reached the mines. Running along them, they began to blow up on them one after another, but as soon as their vanguard froze with fear in place, they crowded together and the sappers activated remote fuses, after which a series of powerful explosions thundered, and the shock wave almost knocked us off our feet and simultaneously brought down several trees in the distance .
All the enemy dots on the glasses disappeared, and in front of us we could see clouds of smoke behind which could be seen a whole grove of bodies torn to pieces. The spectacle was terrible, and even though we had the upper hand in this small battle, we decided not to stand still and ran to our main positions to put out the fire that was raging in the rear.
«Yasmi. BITCH!»
I guessed who could set fire to all our positions.
She clearly was not sincere with us and did not use her abilities until she found the best moment to escape. At least that's what I thought, but whether it was true or not I didn't know yet. Meanwhile, I ran up to the positions and froze with fear that gripped me.
"Holy crap..."
Will said, seeing a clearing dotted with burnt bodies of Uwon’s platoon soldiers.
And junior lieutenant Uwon himself was now dead too.