Battalion 1

Lieutenant Turley gasped and his eyes fell out of their sockets. “Sir? Captain….Captain Rhodes? But…you’re dead! I saw you! I saw you get hit by that Duster!”

Rhodes’s stomach plummeted into the shoes he no longer had. “Yeah. You did.”

“But….what are you….?” The words died on Turley’s lips when his vision cleared enough to see Rhodes’s implants.

“Do you know these guys, Sir?” Coulter asked.

“Yes, I do.” Rhodes took a deep breath and faced the Legion soldiers. “We’ll stay here as long as you need us to reinforce the Gap. Your three platoons obviously can’t hold it on your own.”

“So……” Turley’s eyes shot to Rhinehart, Coulter, Thackery, and Fuentes.

“It’s a long story.” Rhodes turned to Vernick. “What resources can you call in to help hold this place? Can General Kaufman send in any ships from down on the coast? This Gap won’t hold much longer.”

Just then, two more Strikers shrieked overhead. Dietz and Henshaw pulled into formation with Lauer and Oakes.

Henshaw’s Striker SAM, Titan, contacted Rhodes through their interface. “General Kaufman says another fleet of Ravagers is coming in to bombard the planes. He says he plans to lift off these platoons and replace them with fresh troops.”

“You four hold the Gap until they come,” Rhodes ordered. “The five of us are all suffering from malfunctions. We won’t be able to help you.”

“You got it. We’ll hold ‘em.”

“Who are you talking to, Sir?” Turley asked.

Rhodes pointed up at the four Strikers. “Those are my people up there. They say Kaufman is sending Ravagers to lift you off and replace you with fresh platoons. You’ve held the Gap long enough.”

A sigh of relief went through the surrounding troops listening to their conversation.

“How do we know you really are in contact with Kaufman?” Upshaw interrupted. “I mean….” His eyes dragged down Rhodes’s body. “How do we even know you’re the real Captain Rhodes?”

“Of course he is!” Turley countered. “Look at him! This guy lost his life saving us on Luluna.”

“Then what is he doing here?” Upshaw asked.

“Saving it again,” Rhinehart cut in.

Rhodes stopped him by raising his hand. “Who I am and what I am doesn’t matter as long as we hold the Gap. Those are my people up there blocking the Emal from coming through. We’ll stay there and hold this place until the Ravagers lift you off. That’s all that matters.”

“If you’re lying, Kaufman won’t be lifting us off,” Upshaw pointed out.

“You son of a bitch!” Turley snapped. “Don’t you dare call him a liar after what he did! You’re standing here alive because of him.”

“I’m standing here alive because of someone who got crushed under a burning Duster,” Upshaw returned. “No one could survive that.”

Rhodes didn’t say again that he didn’t survive. All of this happened a thousand miles away from him. He barely felt like he was even part of this conversation anymore.

What the hell difference did it make in the end who he was or what he was or whether he was telling the truth?

Nothing mattered but doing the job. He could do that no matter what anyone thought of him.

Turley turned back to Rhodes. “Don’t listen to him, Captain. We’re thrilled to have you with us again.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Rhodes murmured.

Just then a bunch of other soldiers from the 217th Platoon came over. One of them curled his lip at Rhodes and his people. “What the hell is that?”

“You know him, Cantrell,” Turley pointed out. “This is Captain Corban Rhodes of the 249th.”

“Captain Rhodes is dead.” Cantrell wrinkled his nose at Rhodes again. “I don’t know what the hell that is.”

“We’re the suckers that just saved your asses, fool,” Rhinehart snapped. “And we can take it just as easily.”

He took a step forward. Rhodes shot his arm in front of Rhinehart to stop him. “Pull your guys in line, Tate,” Rhodes told Captain Vernick. “If you still have communication, you can contact General Kaufman yourselves and confirm the order. If it’s genuine, you’ll have enough to do to get ready to evacuate. You and your men won’t have time to worry about what we are or what we’re doing here.”

Captain Vernick frowned at him. “Now I know you’re Captain Rhodes. He’s the only man alive that would have the balls to say something like that.” He turned to Cantrell and the other soldiers. “Go get to work getting ready to evacuate.”

“Aren’t you going to confirm the order?” Lieutenant Upshaw asked.

“I just did,” Vernick snapped. “Now move out.”

Upshaw glared at him, but Upshaw eventually mumbled, “Yes, Sir,” and left with most of the troops.

“Don’t listen to them,” Turley repeated. “They’re idiots.”

“Just do me a favor and keep out of the platoon’s way,” Vernick murmured. “I’m grateful to you for coming to our aid, but your presence will only cause problems.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll hold the Gap while you get ready,” Rhodes replied. “A few bad apples won’t drive us off.”

Vernick hesitated for a minute and then stuck out his hand. “I’m glad you made it. We really missed you.”

Rhodes had to adjust his grip not to crush Vernick’s hand. He shook Vernick’s hand and then Rhodes shook hands with Turley.

Rhodes tried not to see Turley’s enormous grin. At least someone around here was happy to see Rhodes alive.

“You should have let me thump that asshole,” Rhinehart snarled after the soldiers walked away.

“The Emal are already thumping them enough, Lieutenant,” Rhodes murmured. “They don’t need us to do it for them.”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Thackery asked.

“Do about what?” Rhodes asked.

“About their attitude. We can’t let them talk to us like that.”

“Did you really expect it to be any different?” Rhodes countered. “You’re living in a fantasy world if you expect gratitude or good feeling from them.”

“Some of them seem like good people,” Coulter remarked.

“They’re all good people,” Rhodes replied. “I know every one of those guys and I would give my life for each of them. You can’t expect people to just accept us as though none of this ever happened. Count your blessings that this is my old platoon and not someone you know.”

Rhodes turned away. He shouldn’t have been so harsh with his people, but this situation was really starting to wear on him.

Of all the rotten luck, he just had to get sent to the 249th.

His comments shut the five friends up at last. They didn’t go near the soldiers and the soldiers didn’t come back, not even Turley or any others that might have wanted to wish Rhodes well.

Their absence flooded him with relief. He didn’t want to see anyone he knew, not even people who wished him well or who said they were thrilled to have him back. He didn’t want to be back—ever.

He took the battalion to the other side of the shelf closer to Rio. The SAM was still active. He interfaced with Rhodes and Fisher. “Show me the rest of the battle line,” Rhodes told them.

Fisher brought up The Grid of the area. “There are four more gaps down this line of mountains. All those points are in danger of breaching.”

“If Kaufman is bringing Ravagers to lift off these platoons, why doesn’t he use the ships to bombard the planes?” Rhodes asked. “He could drive the Emal back, fortify the gaps, and reinforce his position on the beach.”

“Maybe he doesn’t have the resources to do all that,” Fisher pointed out.

“Then maybe the battalion can help him.”

“How?” Fisher asked. “We only have four Strikers in the air. The five of you are stuck on the ground.”

“But we’re the closest to the Aevod Gap. We’re even closer to it than the four remaining Strikers. The Emal seem to understand that this gap is the most important.”

“What are you planning to do?” Fisher asked.

“I’m just thinking out loud right now.” Rhodes rotated The Grid to get an aerial view of the mountain range. “I’ll be damned.”

“What is that, Captain?” Fisher asked.

Rhodes zoomed in on one part of the Emal horde right behind the Aevod Gap.

Hundreds or maybe thousands of aliens crowded the mountains back there. They surrounded the Gap on the other side.

Dietz, Henshaw, Oakes, and Lauer hammered the Emal to stop them from getting through the choke point, but that didn’t deter the aliens at all.

They kept sending wave upon wave of their numbers against the Gap even as the four ships cut them down.

The Emal had to climb over their dead comrades’ bodies just to get near the choke point.

Rhodes made a few more adjustments to The Grid. He could manipulate it any way he wanted to now.

The Emal carried laser rifles in their many limbs. Rhodes changed The Grid, rotated the lines in three different directions, and then removed all the laser rifles from the image.

“Do you see that?” he husked.

“The Emal….it looks like they’re using some kind of hand tools,” Fisher remarked.

“They’re boring into the mountainside. They’re trying to widen the Gap. These numbers—they aren’t trying to breach the gap at all—not yet. These numbers are a distraction. We have to get over there and stop them.”

“But the Emal have millions of aliens over there,” Fisher pointed out. “They’ll only send more to replace any that we kill.”

“I have an idea. Interface with Koenig and Van. We need to change our strategy.”

Fisher connected with the other two SAMs, but right then, a different soldier from the 278th came over to them. His name was Sergeant Dominic Stillwell. Rhodes knew him as a steady, reliable man who never let anything ruffle him.

“Captain Rhodes, Sir, Captain Vernick asked me to come and get you. He’s in communication with the command dome. Colonel Jenner is asking to speak to you.”

Rhodes followed Stillwell to a tent where Captain Vernick bent over an out-of-date computer terminal barely holding power. Colonel Jenner and General Kaufman stared out of the screen.

“We’re bringing in Ravagers to swap the platoons, Corban,” Jenner told Rhodes. “We’ll need you and your people to hold the Gap while we lift everyone off. Then we’ll evacuate the beach. We can’t hold Ohait any longer.”

“We have a problem, Sir,” Rhodes told him. “The aliens are trying to widen the Gap. They’re using their numbers to mask what they’re doing. You might not be able to land Ravagers if the aliens break through.”

General Kaufman frowned at something off the screen. “I don’t see any indication that the aliens are threatening the Gap. We would have picked up any heavy equipment in the area.”

“That’s because they’re hiding what they’re doing. They aren’t using heavy equipment precisely because they don’t want you to see what you’re doing. They’re using these numbers to sneak in hand tools to bore into the mountainside.”

Colonel Jenner raised his eyebrows. “Hand tools? You can’t be serious.”

“I can send you the evidence—or you can get it yourselves. All you have to do is eliminate their laser rifles from your scans. Then you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about.”

General Kaufman blustered. “We can’t change our plans now. The Ravagers already have orders to go up there and lift off the three platoons. I’m sure the aliens aren’t anywhere near breaching the Gap. They won’t get through in time.”

“My evidence states that they will breach it in time,” Rhodes replied. “Ravagers won’t be able to land. These three platoons will get overrun and gunned down.”

Colonel Jenner started to say, “Send us your evidence…..”

General Kaufman cut him off. “We don’t have time for this. Just hold the Gap until the Ravagers get there. You don’t have to do anything else, Captain.”

Rhodes barely managed to say, “Yes, Sir,” before Kaufman cut the line.

Rhodes glared down at the blank screen. He could almost believe Kaufman didn’t listen because the information came from Rhodes.

Would Kaufman have listened if anyone else brought him this evidence? Kaufman didn’t even look at the evidence.

Was that because the evidence came from The Grid? Kaufman didn’t know about The Grid….or the SAMs….or anything else.

Captain Vernick brought Rhodes back to reality. “How close are they to getting through?”

Rhodes looked up. He’d worked with Tate Vernick for years. Rhodes and Vernick trusted each other.

“I have an idea,” Rhodes replied. “It just means taking my people over the mountain. You and the other two platoons will have to hold the Gap on your own for a while….”

“We can’t hold the Gap on our own. You’re the one who just said that’s why you were sticking around.”

Rhodes lowered his voice, but he couldn’t stop it from shaking. “Listen to me, Tate. In a few hours, the Emal are going to break your choke point and swarm all over this shelf. The Ravagers won’t be able to touch down to lift off the platoons. Then Kaufman will have to evacuate the beach and everyone on this shelf will die. Your only chance is if my people and I go over the mountain.”

“What are you going to do over there?” Vernick asked in a tiny voice.

“That’s my business. What matters is that the Ravagers will be able to land and get you and your men the hell out of here. My people and I will take care of ourselves.”

“So you can get yourself killed again?” Vernick countered.

Rhodes bit back a smile. “I’m already dead, Tate. Cantrell is right about that—but don’t worry. My people and I will make it out of this. I’ll see you again. I’m certain of it.”

“What do you want us to do? Can’t we help you at all?”

“Pull your men off the evacuation and concentrate everything on the choke point. We’ll need to time this. If my battalion crosses the mountain before the Emal breach the Gap, we’ll blow our wad and we won’t be able to pull the aliens away. We need to wait until the last minute—when the Ravagers come in.”

“The Ravagers could come in before the Emal breach the Gap,” Vernick suggested.

“Just concentrate your firepower on the Gap and prepare your men to defend it. I’ll take care of the rest.”

End of Chapter 27.