Chronicles of Kin Roland 1: Enemy of Man (26 page)

KIN contacted the quartermaster, who handled last minute supply issues on the open field between ships despite the inconsistent weather. One moment the air was eerily calm, the next minute it seemed bansh
ees had descended on the coast.

Troopers exchanged new power cells for old and lined up for inspection before marching double file into ship loading bays. A small contingent deployed on the perimeter and would be the last to leave. The display inside Kin’s helmet showed he had more than half the available charge remaining, which he thought would be sufficient
, but it was better to be safe.

He waited in line, noticing that Orlan and his men had been allowed to cut to the front and now loitered near a transport laughing and telling stories. Orlan didn’t seem in a hurry to begin the dangerous mission ahead, but neither did he seem worried. He already secured his bounty. His debtors would be pleased at least.

Kin saw Laura arguing with the Crater Town council members. He saw shock register on their faces and before long she had convinced them Commander Westwood had betrayed them. Kin understood they had no options. The Commander was all powerful and his decision had been made. When the entire column of Crater Town refugees turned away from the ship, Kin immediately left the line and ran toward them.

“Laura, what are you doing?” Kin asked.

“We’re staying. Hopefully, someone else will come to Crashdown that isn’t a lying, backstabbing bastard. We’ll take our chances here,” Laura said.

“Did the Commander tell you there’s a hostile army of Reapers just over the horizon? They have weapons and human allies. Not to mention the wormhole is burrowing into the planet. Why don’t you light yourself on fire while you’re at it? Here, let me shoot you in the foot,” Kin said.

“We’re not going to be hunted by a Reaper with nowhere to run!”

“Laura, stop. Get everyone on the ship. When I come back, I’ll deal with the Reaper,” Kin said. “I’ll be on the ship with you. I promise.”

“How are you going to deal with it?” Laura asked. She straightened her tunic and smoothed her hair.

“Trust me,” Kin said. Ideas tumbled in his imagination, but his most persistent fantasy involved a spacewalk to the exterior wall of the Reaper’s cell and a cutting torch. It could work.

Laura looked at him, the desire to trust him plain on her face, but she could probably see his regret already. He wished he had killed the Reaper and let Orlan shoot him in the back. Things would have been simpler.

Laura looked at the people of Crater Town and the transport ship. “I trust you, Kin. But your plan only works if you come back alive. Orlan scares me. I don’t trust him.”

“Me neither,” Kin said. “Do you know where they’re keeping Clavender?”

“Rickson says they have her in the Flagship, under guard.
Commander
Westwood thinks she can control the wormhole,” Laura said. “If I believed what he believes, I’d have asked her to send us home a long time ago. We wouldn’t need spaceships.”

“That’s risky, Laura, even for you,” Kin said. “Try to make contact with her. Extended separation from the Reaper may kill them both. I need you to talk to her.” He saw a brief expression on Laura’s face and understood what she was thinking; if Kin’s theory was correct, the problem of the Reaper being on their ship would end once they were in space. All it would cost would be Clavender’s death. Kin was relieved when he detected revulsion in Laura’s eyes. He wasn’t certain, but the expression on her face looked like guilt.

“That woman is trying to get your attention,” Laura said.

Kin looked back and saw Captain Raien waiving at him. “I need to go. Get everyone on the ship. I’ll be back.”

“If you weren’t so tall in that armor, I’d shove my tongue down your throat just to show that bitch captain what’s what,” Laura said.

Kin laughed.

“I’ll be back,” he said. He went to Captain Raien and her two bodyguards—the men in rougher armor he previously decided were battle hardened veterans and her go-to guys for dirty work.

“Roland, I’ve been advised you are to accompany Sergeant Orlan on a reconnaissance mission,” Raien said. “I’m going with you. I don’t like that arrogant thug.”

“No one likes him,” Kin said. “Thanks.”

They met Orlan who had selected four of his best troopers for the mission. They synchronized their computers, naviga
tion units, and moved out. Two hours at full speed brought them to the edge of the Imperial territory. The Reapers were still in one large group in the center. Apparently, the Imperials didn’t trust the monsters to stand guard.

Kin studied the battle lines of Reapers in armor. They carried weapons with perfect discipline. The sight chilled his blood. He used his FSPAA unit to take photographs and other measurements for his report.

Captain Raien crawled next to him and touched his shoulder. “We need to move around their perimeter. Corporal Pax located an anomaly related to the wormhole that we should investigate. Imperials and Reapers are coming out of it.”

“What type of anomaly?” Kin asked.

“Two parts wormhole, one part crater, from the way he described it. Looks like a good platform to launch an assault, if you knew where it opened,” Raien said.

“Great,” Orlan said. “Our work is done here. We should head back to the ship.”

“Unfortunately, Sergeant, I outrank you. We will continue,” Raien said.

They advanced
through the mountains using ridges and valleys to conceal their movement. Kin led the way. All of them had detailed maps provided by the Fleet’s aerial survey drones, but Kin had explored this area of Crashdown many times. Some terrain features couldn’t be appreciated on a map. He moved quickly, aware the Fleet would leave them if necessary.

“There it is,” Kin said.

Raien and Orlan joined him on the ridge. They looked down to a massive hole filled with dark, swirling light and fringed with the glowing patterns of the wormhole. Kin checked the sky and saw the wormhole he had stared at for years. It stretched over the horizon.

Almost like it’s reaching for the planet’s back door
. Maybe there was only one universal wormhole, just as Clavender claimed.

Row upon row of armored foot soldiers stomped clear of the wormhole in the ground and walked into the valley to form a massive army. The churning abyss in their wake reached out several times, sucking individuals and entire units back into the chaos, but
the soldiers never faltered. They closed ranks and moved onto the marshaling field in perfect military order. Armored vehicles and tanks followed. Next came the Reaper Infantry, shock troops that would strike terror into any army. A strong rear guard followed.

Raien took a moment to appreciate the scene. “Combined with the forces that landed, that must be ten divisions.”

“I’ll take my men and delay them at the pass. If they reach the Fleet before liftoff, our ships will be vulnerable. Give the Commander my regards,” Orlan said.

“You’re going to stop the Imperial Grand Army?” Captain Raien said.

“You haven’t seen me fight,” Orlan said. He raced toward the pass to set up an ambush.

“Corporal Pax,” Raien said
through her communications link. Pax was already out of visual range. “Belay that order. Proceed directly to base. Advise Commander Westwood of the situation. Request all available Shock Troopers, Armor, and Air Support to delay the Imperial attack.”

“Roger that, captain,” Corporal Pax said.

“We will go with Sergeant Orlan to help buy time for the launch,” Raien said. As she spoke, lightning scrambled the sky. The wormhole twisted as though it would spit out a meteor storm, but nothing appeared. Wind cut across the mountain slopes, pelting armor and visors with force. Kin was thankful he was wearing armor.

“It’s still a suicide mission,” Kin said.

“Are you coming?” Raien asked.

Kin thought about his promise to destroy the Reaper and protect the people of Crater Town during their exodus. He looked at Raien and realized he really did like her. If he had to be in the Fleet, he would want a commander like her. She was always in the fi
eld. True, the promise of plunder and loot motivated her, but she seemed willing and ready to fight. Traditionally, that was the realm of grunt sergeants and troopers who had no other choice.

“Lead the way. I don’t want to be left on this rock,” Kin said.

“It’s not so bad—violent extraterrestrial storms, deadly enemies, and gold you can’t spend? What more could a woman want?” Raien said as they ran for the pass.

“I’ve lived here longer than you have,” Kin said. “You forgot lions and tigers and bears.”

When they arrived at the pass, the battle was under way. Orlan and his troopers unleashed a deadly torrent of gunfire, plasma bolts, and grenades from the high ground, but it was clear they couldn’t sustain the fight for long. The vanguard alone was enough to destroy Commander Westwood's forces. Captain Raien and her remaining bodyguard joined Orlan and his four battle tested fighters expending ammunition into the narrow pass at a reckless rate.

“Orlan, move down into the pass and direct all your fire at the rocks above,” Kin said. He fired a short burst of his plasma weapon at the unstable rock face that he wanted Orlan to target.

Orlan paused and looked over his shoulder at Kin. “Are you trying to get me killed? We can hold out until Westwood sends the Shock Troopers.”

“He isn’t sending them and you know it. Trust me, Orlan. The rocks will fall over you and down on the Imperials. It’s the only way to slow their advance. In five minutes you’ll be out of ammunition and fighting hand to hand. A thousand to one odds are bad,” Kin said.

“Better than being buried alive,” Orlan said.

“It’s the only way. Trust me, I’ve imagined this scenario a hundred times.”

There was a smile in Orlan’s tone as he spoke. “You’ve been hiding on this rock dreaming of repelling an invasion?”

Kin shrugged.
“Something like that.”

“Where will you be?” Orlan asked.

“I’m going higher to start a bigger avalanche, but it will take time,” Kin said.

Orlan reached toward Kin, grasped his gauntleted hand and shook it as though they weren’t enemies. “Good luck then. See you at the launch site.”

Kin climbed a steep trail and followed dangerous switchbacks that promised to drop him thousands of feet if he slipped. He paused to observe the battle bellow and saw the Imperials returning fire in discipline cycles. For every team of Imperial troopers that advanced, two teams provided cover fire. They couldn’t dislodge Orlan and Raien’s teams from a distance, but they would eventually overrun the position no matter how many troopers they lost in the assault.

Orlan moved downward each time his men fired over his head. If the Imperials understood what he was trying to do, they didn’t show it. They merely tried to kill him, but found he was too fast and too experienced. He never exposed himself for long and the teamwork of his troopers was flawless. They provided cover fire with the skill of snipers.

There was one moment during Kin’s desperate trek when he was able to look back and see the launch site. It seemed everything was ready. The only delay was the return of the reconnaissance team. Commander Westwood wouldn’t wait much longer. For all his talk of facing the Imperials here, he would flee as soon as he understood the odds. Kin didn’t see the people of Crater Town and assumed they had boarded the transport ship.

The town wa
s deserted. Wind ripped down empty streets. The ocean swelled over docks and washed away the small fishing craft that had helped feed the people of the town for years. He saw Clavender’s humble dwelling on the dune. There were no hopper birds there now. He wondered where they would go if the wormhole consumed the planet.

He climbed higher and attempted to see the landing site of the Imperials, but the mountain range blocked his view from this point. He wondered if Commander Westwood had known they were coming and if he knew more about the wormhole storm than he had revealed. The Imperials seemed unconcerned
by the imminent destruction of the planet. Somewhere in the night, Crashdown wolves howled. Other strange creatures of the planet added to the chorus. Rain and sleet joined the destructive winds and cyclones tore across the bay near Crater Town.

The rock face didn’t welcome him. When he stepped onto the uneven surface, the ground shifted beneath his feet and he nearly fell to his death. He pulled back and regained his balance. The avalanche would be easy to start. The c
hallenge would be to avoid getting dragged down with tons of rock and dirt.

Kin checked Orlan’s progress and saw the Imperials had realized his intention and sent squad after squad to stop him. Orlan ran out of ammunition and repelled them from the heights using a sword in one hand and a maul in the other. For a moment, Kin could only stare. Orlan had always been a savage fighter, but this was like nothing Kin had ever seen. The Hellsbreach veteran struck his attackers so hard and so frequently that his weapons
disintegrated from the repeated impact. With no weapons left, Orlan grabbed Imperial troopers and hurled them down the mountainside.

Kin couldn’t wait. “Watch your head, Orlan.” He didn’t know whether Orlan could hear him, but at least he tried to warn the man. If he were crushed in the avalanche, Kin could at least tell himself he gave his old enemy a chance. He cut free several tons of rock using the plasma weapon and sent half the mountain tumbling down, relatively certain the contour of the slope would bounce the wave of death over Orlan and the others and into the pass below. It was impossible to see through the avalanche, so he ran back along the trail to a place he could meet Raien and Orlan’s team if they survived.