“I know,” said Clint.
I turned to look at him, shocked. From the way Kra-ort had been talking, I had thought I was the only one he had told about the complexities of the Swrun Empire. “Really? I thought he only told me.”
We were flying in Susan on our way to wherever Clint had left the rest of the squad. He had shown up at our house a day early because he figured I was recovered well enough. I think he missed me. As soon as I got the chance, I told him everything Kra-ort had told me. I had expected him to be shocked or confused. What I didn’t expect was for him to be calm and unresponsive. This was big news, he should have some reaction, even if it was just blinking.
We could use this to our advantage. Since we were supposed to go behind enemy lines to cause havoc, getting some of the Swrun on our side would be very beneficial. They could provide us with shelter, information. When this all escalated into full blown war, it would be useful to have men behind the lines. At the very least, Clint should be intrigued by the thought that not every Swrun was a war-mongering slaver.
“Well, I didn’t know exactly,” Clint said, shrugging. “But no race is all bad. On Earth, there were several regimes who were terrible, inhuman organizations. They were responsible for some of the darkest times in our history. From the outside, they all looked evil and sick. But when you got inside, there were still those who held onto the good, who were nice, decent people. And that’s not counting everyone who fought against those dark regimes.”
He looked over at me. “Are you following?” I nodded, unsure where he was going with this.
“What I’m getting at here is that I knew there had to be some Swrun who were decent, but for the longest time, I didn’t want to accept it. It was just easier to hate them all. Easier to accept killing them that way. But I’ve started to accept what happened to Earth and I’m willing to accept that not all the Swrun are bad.”
He looked over at me and must have noticed the look of shock on my face. He should have because only once before in my life have I stared slackjawed at someone and that was for an entirely different reason. This was Clint Stone, saying that there were Swrun he didn’t want to kill. The very idea threatened to implode my brain. I knew there was Kra-ort, but he was a special case.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Clint, his face getting that familiar dark look when he talked about the death of Earth or the Empire. “I fully intend to kill every last Swrun involved with the death of Earth. Hye is going to pay dearly and the Admiral will wish his race had never crawled from the mud, but I am not going to kill an entire race. I can’t have another one on my conscience.”
I glanced at him and I could see the regret and sorrow etched in his face. He still blamed himself for his people’s death. He thought it was his fault that Hye had managed to draw the Swrun there and Clint had told the command that it would be alright if a group came down to talk. They had proceeded to murder everyone on the base and then the planet. Clint closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Enough of this dark stuff,” he said, his voice picking up. “You’ve got some catching up to do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our new team. You’re second in command, you need to know who they are.”
I turned my head so fast I could hear my neck click. I couldn’t find the words to say and so I just stared at Clint, my brow furrowed so tightly I thought it was going to meld together. He glanced at me, his eyes flicking to the side. Pushing on his chair, Clint rotated it to face me. “What?”
“Me? I’m second in command? I don’t know anything about leading or being in charge of anything.”
“That makes two of us, Tedix. Do you really think I know what I’m doing?”
I had always assumed Clint did in fact know what he was doing. He always seemed so in control and had a natural air of command about him. People just did what he said and what he said always worked out in the end. He had yet to lead me, or anyone else, wrong.
“I had assumed so, yes,” I said dryly.
Clint barked a short laugh. “Well, I have no idea what I’m doing. I just go from decision to decision, hoping none of them come back to bite me in the ass. Besides, you won’t have to do much. All you have to do is back me up and maybe lead an op on your own once in a while.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, ‘all I have to do is lead an op by myself.’ I’m not qualified for that. I haven’t had any training or experience. You’re the one with the training and experience. It makes sense for you to be the leader.”
Clint grinned and shook his head. “I’ve got about as much experience as you. What do you say we just wing it together and make sure the other one doesn’t screw up too badly?”
I laughed. “Alright. But you take the blame if we do mess up.”
“Tedix, if we mess up out here, I doubt we’ll be alive to take the blame.”
That put a sobering tone to the conversation. “So who are we working with?” I asked to break the grim air. Clint’s face lit up.
“You know,” he said, “I don’t think I’ve seen a group of beings more suited for destruction and mayhem.” He looked over at me. “And I’ve looked in the mirror.”
I snorted. Clint gave a little chuckle as well. “There are five. Louth, Heras, Vyena, Kor’keq, and Juiwa.”
That last one caught my attention. “Juiwa? I thought he was with Gem in the War Hunters.”
Clint shrugged and said, “I guess he requested a transfer to the Bandits.”
“The what?” I had not heard that name before.
“Us,” Clint replied, “the new unit. We’ve got some official military designation, part of the 3rd Special Forces Group, but we’ve nicknamed ourselves the ‘Illorian Bandits’. It was Heras who came up with the name. He based it off the location of our base and what our assignment is.”
“We have a base?”
Clint nodded. “Yeah, an old pirate cave on the moon of Illoria IV. It’s a nice place, it’s got power, fresh water, a nice view. But we’re a little low on supplies, which is where we’re going.”
“I thought we were going to where the rest of the team was.”
“We are. They’re on Lier, near a minor Swrun supply post. Hope you’re ready, because we’re going to see combat soon.”
I glanced out the front view screen and I noticed a planet growing closer. It looked like I was going to see combat much sooner than I had thought. I looked forward to it.
Juiwa crept through the tall grass, his body low to the ground and his steps careful. The supply post was a simple cluster of buildings with no walls or high towers to watch for attackers. Juiwa guessed that the Swrun assumed that they were safe here, on this backwater planet with no strategic value to speak of, safely inside Empire controlled space. There was no need to defend against attack if there were no attackers. This planet was mostly uninhabited and those who did live here were too afraid of the Empire to do anything. The Swrun thought themselves safe on this planet. And they would be right, if not for the Bandits.
He shook his head at that thought. The Illorian Bandits, this group had named themselves. It was ridiculous. You could not name a group before they had even seen combat. The War Hunters had been named after a particularly difficult mission in the jungles of Jurnjen, and only by the General. But the Fnera, Heras, had declared this group the Bandits and it had stuck. Juiwa spotted a Swrun sentry moving in the distance.
Crouched low, his chameleon suit providing enough camouflage to keep him hidden, Juiwa watched the sentry. Not that he needed to. The sentry was marching back and forth, clearly bored. He did not act as he should, examining every detail and observing everything. Had that sentry been with Juiwa in the old days, back when he was Wraith, the Commander would have hung that sentry up by his ankles and left him for hours. A poor sentry was a danger to everyone, the Commander had said. And he had been right.
Juiwa pulled himself out of the past and focused on the present. He rubbed his wrist absently, feeling the ridges. He was confident enough in his skill and the sentry’s lack of it, to allow himself that simple movement. The sentry moved in a pattern, back and forth around the perimeter of the cluster of buildings, his eyes just glancing about. Juiwa had seen his like before. The ones who were convinced there was no danger and so they didn’t look for any. Juiwa had proved them fools many times.
Sneaking around the other side of the supply post, Juiwa observed everything he could. He was to report back to the team after he had determined the extent of the security and the layout of the various structures. After twenty minutes of careful inspection, Juiwa had identified the largest building as the warehouse, used for the storage of food and other general supplies. The smaller, but much sturdier constructed building next to it was the armory. A third low lying building was the barracks. Juiwa could see several Swrun moving inside. The fourth and last building was the mess and leisure hall.
There seemed to be a fair number of Swrun wandering the outpost but only the one seemed to be on any form of security duty. From what Juiwa could see, perhaps thirty Swrun soldiers called this place home. There may be more, but the size of the barracks only indicated around thirty. His task done, it was time for him to return to the rest of the team. After one last glance at the inept sentry, Juiwa backed away carefully and made his way towards the temporary camp the team had set up while waiting for Clint and Tedix.
He was not sure what he thought of Clint leading the team. On one hand, Clint was very good at causing mayhem and destruction, which was why the Bandits had been created in the first place, but on the other, Clint was reckless and rushed into things much too fast. Juiwa liked to think things through before acting. Patience and precision got a being much farther in the long run than brash, impulsive action. Fire burned, meat tasted good, and patience paid off.
Juiwa glanced over his shoulder and noticed the Swrun outpost had faded from view, hidden by the distance and the tall grass. That was another sign of the Swruns’ incompetence, that fact that they had left the grass standing anywhere within three miles of the outpost. Tall grass allowed for enemies to sneak up unseen and undetected. This was a good thing if you were the enemy, but it was not so if you were the ones defending.
But Juiwa did not concern himself with that. If the Swrun wanted to help Juiwa kill them, that was alright by him. The grove of trees where the Bandits had made their camp appeared on the horizon. Deactivating his chameleon suit, returning it to a light gray color, Juiwa stood at his full height and approached the camp, making sure to be as obvious as possible.
Unlike the Swrun, the Bandits did have a good sentry. Kor’keq waved at Juiwa, his furred body hidden in the leafy boughs. If Juiwa had not known the Kantim was up there, he wouldn’t have seen him. Well, Juiwa would have, but no one else would have. As soon as he had waved, Kor’keq turned his gaze back across the plains, watching carefully for any sign of trouble.
He should have been watching the camp. As Juiwa walked into the center of the grove, the branches forming a thick roof that provided a shaded space for the rest of the Bandits. Heras lounged against a tree, cleaning his pistols for the fifth time that Juiwa had seen. Louth was pacing around the space, hands moving in strange patterns. The Ghurk was always moving. In the last six days, Juiwa had only seen him stop moving to sleep. He found it very annoying.
His gaze fell on the last of the Bandits. Vyena sat against a tree on the opposite side from Heras, her eyes closed, looking for all the world asleep. But Juiwa knew she wasn’t. He could see the faint flicks of her ears that told him she was listening to everything going on around her and the relaxed way she was sitting was not the relax of sleep, but that of a coiled spring. Her deep brown eyes opened and locked onto his. A faint smile touched her lips and he looked away hurriedly.
It was not that she scared him, but rather the opposite. She intrigued him. He had never seen a j’Kuine in combat, much less a female. It was not an uncommon sight to see female fighters, but Juiwa did not think that Vyena looked like a fighter. She was not big, or scary, or tough looking. What she was was smart and fast. She deserved her place on this team and she had only had to prove it once.
Louth had taken it upon himself to question the fighting ability of a woman who ‘looked like she should be on the arm of some rich diplomat not on the battlefield’. In response she had punched him in the stomach. But it had not been intended to damage, only to enrage. Clint had watched with a calm air, letting them solve their own problems. Juiwa had assumed that was what he was doing. It was what Juiwa would have done. If Clint had stepped in and defended Vyena, it would have been seen as a sign of weakness on Vyena’s part. That would have undermined her position on the team and there would be questions as to her placement here.
Instead Clint had sat by and watched as Vyena utterly devastated Louth. In a flurry of blows too fast to follow, she blew past Louth’s defenses and drove him to the ground. When he tried to stand, she grabbed a pistol from Heras’ belt and held it in his face. That was the end of that. Vyena was accepted into the team without question. Juiwa had never seen anything like it, hence his intrigue.
“Juiwa. Good, you’re back. We’ve got a plan to make.” Juiwa watched as Clint Stone walked out of the shadows. For such a large being, he could hide well. And Juiwa should have noticed him, but he had been distracted by Vyena. This was a problem. Juiwa never got distracted. Fire burned, meat tasted good, and Juiwa was focused. Tedix walked out beside him, looking surprisingly well for a being who should have died six times over. When Juiwa had heard that story, he had not believed it at first. Then he remembered the way the jahen had been during the liberation of Byrea.
“Did you get a good look at the layout?” Clint asked. Juiwa nodded. He walked over to the center of the shaded space and drew his knife. As soon as Clint had started speaking, the rest of the Bandits had gathered in a circle around him. Using short, efficient strokes, Juiwa drew the rough outline of the supply post. He pointed out each building in turn. “Barracks,” he said, “Armory, Warehouse, Mess.” He used as few words as necessary. What was the point of using dozens of words when you could get your point across in four?
“How many soldiers?” Tedix asked.
“Thirty, maybe forty.”
Clint rubbed his chin, nodding. “I think this will be a straight forward mission. Does everyone have their IPDM suits?”
A chorus of yeses and sirs followed that. Juiwa simply nodded. When Clint had first taken them to Tailor’s, the team had been skeptical. After all, what could cloth do against plasma? They had been pacified when Clint had demonstrated what the suits could do. Juiwa was the only one not surprised by the capabilities of the deceptively light cloth. He had worn one on Byrea and it had saved his life more than once. On the battlefield, these would be a major tipping point.
“I told you all, there is no need to call me sir. Captain Stone or just Captain is fine.”
Juiwa did not understand that. Sir was a shorter word and therefore required less time to speak it, making it less of a waste. He did not plan on calling Clint either of those titles. He did not intend to speak much at all.
“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. Seeing as there are only a few soldiers, we might as well try a simple head on attack. We’ll split into groups and attack from different directions. I want all of the Swrun dead this time. In the future we’ll leave some alive as messengers, but I want this place wiped from existence.”
Clint looked around at the groups surrounding him. “Louth and Kor’keq, you’ll attack from the north. Heras and Vyena, the east. Tedix, Juiwa attack from the south. I’ll cover the west. Just march through the post and kill every Swrun you see. Avoid damaging the supplies, because that’s what we’re here to get. Get into position and wait for my signal. You’ll know it when you see it. Good luck.”
The inept sentry marched back and forth across his path. Juiwa could see the shallow trench showing where the sentry had passed, thousands of times. Tedix stood beside him, crouching in the tall grass. He made a passable attempt at hiding, enough to hide from the sentry, but Juiwa would have seen him in seconds.
A loud click sounded out across the plain, and Juiwa tensed in preparation of attack. Tedix gripped his arm and shook his head. So that was not the signal. Indeed, Juiwa could see that the sound had come from within the camp, just outside of the armory. A Swrun soldier had dropped a large metal crate on the steps and that was the source of the noise. Juiwa could see the soldier’s commanding officer scolding him from here.
When was the signal going to come? They had been in place for the last five minutes, plenty of time for the rest of the team to position themselves. The officer continued to berate the soldier. A flash of light appeared from the side and passed through the officer’s chest. He dropped to the ground, dead, faint wisps of smoke curling above his body. The soldier he had been yelling at dropped a second later, before he even had time to register the fact that they were under attack. That was the signal.
Tedix leapt up from his hidden position and fired at the inept sentry. He missed, but the shots continued past and hit the barrack’s windows, shattering them. Juiwa fired from his crouched position and the sentry dropped. Juiwa had been aiming at the sentry since they had gotten into position. It just showed that patience paid off.
Tedix let out a wordless battle cry and charged at the buildings, weapon blazing. He dropped several Swrun before they could fire and flattened himself against the wall of the barracks. Juiwa stayed in his hidden position and watched the windows carefully. A Swrun head popped up, looking for the source of the plasma fire and Juiwa pulled the trigger, the plasma whispering as it left the barrel. The Swrun dropped back down, smoke rising where he had been.
Scanning the area in front of him, Juiwa could see no more Swrun. Still, he waited a few more seconds before he ventured out into the open. Tedix was making his way down the wall, gun at the ready. Sounds of plasma fire and screams of pain came from the other side of the barracks, coming from the Swrun as the rest of the Bandits attacked them.
Juiwa broke from cover and raced to the other side of the barracks. There were times for haste, such as when you were in the middle of killing Swrun. Juiwa’s tattoo itched on his cheek, but he ignored it. Pushing his back against the wall, Juiwa poked his head around the wall. He could see no immediate danger and he slid around the corner, gun at the ready. The loudest screams were coming from the west, where Clint was attacking from. No surprise there.
Juiwa reached the front wall of the barracks and looked around the corner, catching Tedix doing the same. Tedix motioned to the front door, mimicking opening it and filling the room with fire. Juiwa nodded. It was a good plan. Efficient and simple, with no waste. Tedix crept up to the door and Juiwa kept an eye on the space between the barracks and the mess, watching to make sure no Swrun snuck up on them. None did. The screams had ceased in the west. Juiwa assumed Clint had finished with the Swrun there.
Tedix reached the door and Juiwa followed him. As soon as Juiwa was level with him, Tedix stood and swung the door open. He burst into the room, gun blazing. Juiwa stepped in behind him and filled the left side of the room with fire. There were five soldiers in the barracks and they all died before they had a chance to scream.
Tedix bent and looked out the window. Juiwa did the same. He could see no movement outside. There was no sound either. It must be over. That was confirmed by Clint Stone walking from behind the mess hall, his arms waving over his head.
“It’s over, they’re dead,” he called. Tedix lowered his gun and thumped down the steps, drawing even with Clint. Juiwa followed. Clint waited in the center of the buildings as the rest of the Bandits gathered. None of them looked injured in the slightest. Several had burn marks on their clothes, but the suits had prevented the bolts from penetrating the flesh.
“I think that went well,” said Clint. “Any problems?”
“No, Captain,” said Louth. The rest nodded. Clint clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
He strode over to the armory and pulled at the door. It did not open. Clint raised a finger and a blue blade erupted, glowing with plasma. Juiwa watched it with interest. He had known Clint had a metal hand, but he had not known it had extras. The rest of the Bandits seemed surprised at this new development as well. Tedix did not seem fazed, he had been with Clint forever. Undoubtedly he knew everything there was to know about Clint Stone. The blue blade cut through the door with ease. Clint stepped back and let it fall with a thump as it hit the dirt.
Inside the armory, Juiwa could see rows of guns, rockets, explosives, and a variety of other military hardware. The rest of the team noticed as well. Vyena whistled. “Is that a pallet of CGS-43? Damn. How much of this are we taking, Captain?”
“All of it. I’m going to bring Susan around and we’re going to load it up with all of the weapons and as much of the food as we can. If we’re going to cause some damage, you can never have enough explosives.”
Vyena grinned. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
It took them an hour to load all of the weapons and the food. There was not a single foot of spare space left in Susan when they were done, crates and boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling. It didn’t take nearly as long to unload it into the cave that the Bandits were using as their base. Clint gathered them in the main chamber when they had finished. He passed around a number of glasses.
“It’s not alcohol, but I’d like to give a toast. Raise your glasses,” he said, realizing that they had no idea what a toast was. Juiwa raised his glass. “To a job well done and to battles yet to come, may they be as clean and quick as this one. To the first strike in our personal war on the Empire.”
Clint drank and the Bandits followed suit.