Read Caterpillar Without A Callsign Online
Authors: Isaac Hooke
Caterpillar Without A Callsign (4 page)
"Nice of you to show up
now
," I said.
"
Hey, I was getting Fret to the corpsman. A bunch of them pinned us down near the Chieftain's house. Got here as quick as I could. Speaking of corpsman..." His expression turned grim as his gaze settled on my face.
I had some witty repartee in mind, but before it left my lips I collapsed.
Bomb showed up in the second ATLAS 5. "You guys are still here? What the hell?"
"
Get Mason out of here," Big Dog said, helping me up.
"
What's going on?" I said.
"We called in an airstrike."
Ah.
The ATLAS mech
glanced up as the thermobaric warheads dropped from the sky.
"Mason, we gotta get out of here, now!"
Bomb said.
And so here we were, back
at the beginning of this story.
Well
, there isn't much more to tell. Bomb scooped me up with his mech and sprinted down the hillside toward the village while Big Dog alternately jetted and ran along beside us.
Above, the mountain just lit up
as the thermobarics exploded a few meters before impact. Huge chunks of the mountainside came tumbling down behind us.
Looking
over my shoulder, I saw the devastation. About half the mountain seemed blown away. The bombs had been targeted with laser-sharp precision, and not one of the tribal dwellings had been affected by the aftermath. Well, except for the "house" we'd been ambushed in near the outskirts of the village. That one was buried in an avalanche of rocks, but there were only dead fanatics inside anyway.
Still,
despite the damage to the mountain peak, I knew Gansükh and his men had survived. The man was too cunning, too full of hate, to go down so easily. I still couldn't believe he'd let me live. There was honor among thieves after all, I guess.
I soon found myself
beside Fret, Lui and Facehopper in the hut of the chieftain, where our corpsman, Bender, worked on me.
"You know, I don't think I want to pilot an ATLAS ever again," I said to
no one in particular.
Lui opened his eyes.
"Hey bro."
"Hey."
Lui grinned. "Heard you got into a little fight with our warlord friend."
"Just a
little one." I bit my lip. Bender was doing some painful stuff to my cheek.
"W
ho won?" Lui said.
I reached out and gripped Lui by the hand. "
We did, bro."
"Good. Good." He
gave me a pained smile, and closed his eyes. "Don't you ever do that again," he added groggily.
"What, take your mech?"
"No. Take it whenever you want. I mean getting shot in the face. Never again, you hear?"
"I won't."
For my act of valor, fighting on against insurmountable odds despite life-threatening injuries, I was awarded the Navy Cross.
To be honest, I could care less about the medal. What was more important to me was the fact I had finally been given a callsign
by my platoon brothers.
T
hey called me Snakeoil.
You know, like those worthless medicines quack doctors sell?
Because when you first saw me, your initial impression was that I was some short guy, almost a midget, a guy who didn't look like much. Too small to be a threat to anyone.
But that was all snakeoil
and trickery, because once the battle started you found out real quick that I was one of the deadliest of all. I put the
snake
in snakeoil.
I still can't believe they gave me
the Navy Cross, though.
Ridiculous
.
I
was awarded a medal for doing nothing other than fighting to save the lives of my platoon brothers. Something they would have done for me any day of the week.
And t
here wasn't any snakeoil in that.
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoyed this short story from the
ATLAS
universe. "
ATLAS
,
" the full-length military science-fiction novel, is now out. Snakeoil, Lui, Facehopper, Big Dog and Fret all make an appearance when Special Warfare Command sends Alfa Platoon on a covert operation 8,000 light-years beyond the furthest reaches of explored space, on a mission that could save humanity. Or destroy it.
To be notified when
my next novel comes out,
click here
to sign-up for my
New Release
mailing list. This list is only for new release announcements—no ads, no blog posts. You can unsubscribe at any time.
NOW AVAILABLE
Please help spread the word about
ATLAS
by leaving a one or two sentence review of the short story you just read. The number of reviews an ebook gets on Amazon has a big impact on how well it does, so if you liked this story I'd REALLY appreciate it if you left a quick review on Amazon. Anything will do, even one or two lines. Thank you!
You can keep in touch with me or my writing through one—or all—of the following means:
Twitter:
@IsaacHooke
Facebook:
http://fb.me/authorisaachooke
Goodreads:
http://goodreads.com/isaachooke
My website:
http://isaachooke.com
My email: [email protected]
Don't be shy about emails, I love getting them, and try to respond to everyone!
Thanks again for reading.
Isaac Hooke is the author of the military science fiction novel,
ATLAS
. His experimental genre-bending action novel
THE FOREVER GATE
was an Amazon #1 bestseller in
both
the science fiction and fantasy categories when it was released in May 2013.
When Isaac isn't writing, publishing, and blogging, he's busy cycling and taking pictures in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
He's been writing since 1997, and he has a degree in Engineering Physics.
