CHAPTER 12


   The possibility of a drop zone being overrun, particularly right after your butt rolled over the ground, was always a very real danger. Lolita Vega knew that was particularly true on this jump. In fact, she had not even really been sure what to expect. Despite having gone to jump training, at Fort Benning, then having been in airborne capable units from that time on, this was the first combat jump that Lolita had ever made. The one thing she would have never dreamed of though, was who overran them and why.
It was no sooner than Lolita had started cutting away the lines to her parachute when she found an army of hands grabbing at her. Then she was jerked back to the ground, by the lines she had not cut, before being dragged along a few feet. When the cords were finally cut, Lolita knew she was not the one who had sliced them. She almost panicked until she finally realized what was going on. They had been surrounded by a horde of civilians, mostly human, who were grabbing whatever they could from the new arrivals from the sky. The parachutes seemed to be especially coveted by this army of what looked to be hungry, tired, and desperate people.
Dawn Dixon had landed not far from Vega and was having similar problems. She actually fired a burst in the air, from her battle rifle, before yelling at the horde, “get off me mother fuckers!” Her attempts to scare them back were of little use. There seemed to be other things that scared them far more than the paratroopers. It was only after she was back to back with Vega, and after a few more pulls of the trigger, that the majority of the mob started backing away. Only then did Vega and Dixon realize that the main reason for the sudden retreat of refugees was because most of them seemed to think they had gotten everything of worth.
It was as Vega began trying to put together her improvised fire team that the actual problems started to sink in. Did they actually land in the right place? Without GPS or even a descent map, it was nearly impossible to ever know for sure. Fortunately, as the team leaders gathered on Colonel Hogan, there was at least some good news. Curwin Losmun, who was limping worse than normal, had managed round up a few people that he knew, from the army of thieves. He got a complete report on the situation in the area and then confirmed, “we’re right on target.”
Hogan nodded in appreciation and then asked the real question, “do we have danger close? Are the bad guys around?”
Losmun did not mince words, “yes they are. There is some good news even if it’s not much. According to my people, we scared the living crap out of the Orcs by dropping in on them like this. A lot of them fled their roadblocks and are scattering to the west, out in the marsh.”
Vega weighed in at this point, “that’s better than not much Mister Losmun. We don’t have the ammo to go toe to toe with somebody dug in and waiting on us.” She pointed to the guys who had gathered with him and angrily said, “those fuckers ripped us off! I think I’m missing half my load.”
Captain Alderman added, “yeah and what we got on us is all we got. All the re-supply containers are gone.”
Hogan snapped at them, “that’s enough! You’re officers here. Act like it.” He was looking right at Lolita when he said the last part. Then Hogan turned his attention back to Curwin and said, “we’re going to have to get word to First Brigade. I’m not counting on NIKA having got through to them. We need to let them know we’re here. We’ll need some scouts.”
Curwin went to a knee, obviously in pain, and after he collected himself he said, “we can handle that. The last word we have is that the airbase is still in our hands. I’m betting most of your people are holed up there. The problem is, if the rumors are true, there’s an Orc army marching into the outer suburbs of Uea-Au, even as we speak. If they penetrate far enough in, they’ll be between us and Seau-Neaut.”
Hogan figured as much but, he pointed out, “all we have to do is secure a few LZ’s in the area. We can chopper in whatever we need from that point on, including reinforcements.”
Curwin managed to stand back up and he nodded as he did, “that’s a sound plan colonel. A counter attack from this area will give us a better axis of advance. All we need to do is let General Landry know that. If I can get back to my house, we might not need to get all the way to the base. I have a direct line to brigade headquarters there, I can call them.”
“Then don’t let me stop you,” Hogan replied. He nodded to Vega, “rally your people on Mister Losmun, here, and go with him.”
Lolita had to wonder if Hogan knew the score. She was pretty certain that if he even had an inkling that she wanted to go there then, he would have probably grabbed someone else for the job. As things stood, Lolita figured, Hogan was giving her the task just to get her out of his hair. Still, everything seemed to work out for everyone but, that was until Lolita heard some shooting on her left, coming from the direction of her Fireteam B. Lolita was letting Dawn run it. They might have been short of officers but, she was so new that no one trusted her too much.
Lolita had jumped for cover when she first heard the shooting. A minute later she stood up and grumbled all the way to the B team. Lolita realized the only sounds she was hearing were coming from one of their own Battlerifles. It was a large caliber weapon, made specifically to shoot an Orc, and had a very distinctive “woof.” When Lolita found Dawn, she also found the source of the shooting. The young Lieutenant was babbling on, “it might not have been an Orc but, it might have been one of those dinosaur things!”
Lolita and one of her sergeants crawled out in the field to check it out. As they crawled back to the line, Lolita saw they had been joined by their lead scout, Curwin. He did not even have to go out there to realize what had happened, “it was an Alcotta, wasn’t it?”
Dawn winced, “a what?”
Lolita almost laughed and this time she used Dawn‘s nickname with some scorn, “you shot some poor farmer’s cow, Jill.”
She wanted to babble on but, Lolita slapped a hand over the girls mouth and looked to Curwin, “we found something else though. We weren’t the only ones that heard the shooting. We ran into a couple of scouts from an elf patrol.” Losmun looked almost as if he had expected to hear the elves had fired on them and were now dead along with the cow. That had not quite been the case, “they didn’t speak English too good but, I think we made a deal. They’re bringing in the rest of their guys and are going to watch our right.”
Losmun was most definitely not happy. He pushed himself up and prepared to go back to what he was doing. As he did he said, “you handle it Lieutenant. I’m already pissed off enough as it is.” He stopped before heading back to the front of the line, “just one word of advice. Watch them as close as you would an Orc.”
As Lolita found out, he was not kidding. From what she gathered, these guys were Olyan-Notae. They were not wearing all the furs and other ridiculous get up that those guys normally did in the field. It made Lolita think that they had been a part of the garrison in Uea-Au but, the language barrier made it hard to get that kind of information out of them. They also vanished as quickly as they had showed up. Lolita first noticed when they reached a country road. She had been checking on them often so, she figured, they were not gone for long when she lost track. Lolita did not see it as any great loss.
Curwin had the patrol hold up at the road. There were a few civilians using it. It was really not much more than a dirt trail and the bushes and trees obstructed it at many turns. Lolita was kind of in with the idea that they would now stay on it. It provided for concealment at least. That was not why Curwin wanted to use it though. He told Lolita, “we’re already on my property. Those people just came from my place.”
That caused Lolita to feel an instance of relief, “so everything is ok there?”
Losmun detected the tone and then put two and two together, “you’re Melanie’s buddy, aren’t you? I don’t know why I didn’t think of that till now. She mentions you from time to time.” The “buddy” part was an understatement but, Lolita figured this guy did not need to know that part. He was preoccupied anyway and sounded slightly angered when he continued, “don’t get your hopes up Lieutenant. They were attacked in the first round of fighting. I don’t know any details past that. We’re going to have to go in and find out.”
Lolita did not have long to find out and, as they approached what must have been the outer perimeter of the actual estate, Lolita had to admit she was becoming very concerned. It was a mess and it was also unguarded. The only thing that she saw which, gave her any recourse for hope was that civilians, from several species, were wandering in and out. None of them acted as if they were all too worried about what was around and, if Lolita guessed, they all acted like they were at a shopping sale. As it turned out, that was not too far from the truth. The place was being looted. The fact that most of them fled when they saw soldiers approaching, was also a good sign.
No sooner had Lolita stepped on the property when she heard shooting. She quickly found the source and, as it turned out, several of her troopers had gunned down a few Orcs. Lolita noted that the creatures had loot in their hands and appeared as if they had been running for an escape route. She doubted if they were enemy combatants but, Lolita was not about to discourage her people from shooting at those things. She might have chewed her guys a new ass hole if it had been twenty four hours earlier but, the rules had changed now. Then Dawn found Lolita and they changed yet again.
It was not exactly a pit but, it might as well have been. Just the fact that the mangled bodies had all been brought to this depression was enough information to tell Lolita that these people had been alive when they were brought here. Dawn could not look at the gore and Lolita just wanted to puke. It was not that she had never seen guts and mangled body parts before but, there was every possibility that one of them was her friend.
One trooper spit, probably to get the bad taste out of his mouth, and then he asked what was probably on many minds, “you think the looters did this?”
“Hell no,” Lolita almost bit the guys head off, “did you see anything on those people that could have done this? It was axe heads on staff weapons that did it. The Polmarij must have overrun this place.” The look on the faces around Lolita told her enough. She had to do that leader crap now. She stepped forward and tried not to let her own sickness show, “you people remember this. The Orc, they don’t take no goddamn prisoners. They want to do this to all of us.”
As if on cue, a low rumble practically drifted through the air and it was coming from the north. It grew louder and more intense. Flashes of light on the distant horizon began to follow. Dawn Dixon could not take her eyes off of it. She gulped because she knew what it was. Just a glance down at the pit told her what was in store for anyone in Uea-Au. She huffed and then quietly said, “they’re attacking the inner city.”
Lolita remained hostile as she snapped back at her fellow officer, “and it ain’t our goddamn problem right now.” Lolita began barking, “finish sweeping the area then I want a perimeter set up.” She began pointing in general directions and letting them know where she wanted her positions. As most of the troopers ran off, Lolita had to actually snap at Dawn, “Lieutenant Jill! Get your ass in gear!”
With her people on the move, and once satisfied they were not screwing everything up, Lolita went to the main house. She was sure she could find Losmun there and she was right. He was in some big hall that had probably been a dining or banquet room. Like most of the house, it was wrecked now. Despite it’s condition, Lolita could tell that this place had been swag before it got clobbered. She figured Melanie must have loved working here.
Losmun was surrounded by several other humans in tan uniforms. They were armed even if it was substandard by Lolita’s way of thinking. Oddly enough, the guys looked clean so, it was a safe bet they were not here when this place was attacked. One of them wanted to stop Lolita from entering the room but Losmun waived her through. The expression on his face was one of pain but, the man was doing what he had said he would. He was on a phone that looked to have been spliced into some wires that had been ripped from a wall.
When the man was done, Lolita removed her helmet and meekly said, “uh sir, I don’t want to be the one to tell you this.”
He cut her off even if he did not look at her, “I heard Lieutenant.”
Lolita nodded and stumbled for her next words, “you know, Brigade has got these forensic people that can…”
Again he cut her off, “I know. I already asked for them.” When the American obviously had nothing left to say, Losmun told her, “as you can probably hear, the city is under direct attack now. There’s an Orc army, the size of which we’ve never seen, bearing down on them. I’ve ordered my people to begin assembling on the south side of the river.”
Lolita stated the obvious, “those people in the city are going to be defenseless.”
Losmun was not deterred, “they’re digging in, for what it’s worth.” He now looked at her and took his glasses off. As he began wiping the lenses he told her, “our best hope is to concentrate and counter attack. If we try and defend piecemeal, well, we’ll get slaughtered. Your General Landry agrees.”
There was hope in Lolita’s voice, “you reached Brigade?”
“Yes,” Losmun answered in a matter of fact way. After he issued some orders to his own people, in his own language, he told the young girl, “don’t worry Lieutenant. You have reinforcements on the way. Landry had most of his people up in the Hurt. Probably dealing with a diversion but, now, he’s managed to contact most of them. First Brigade is redeploying. We’ll have more boots on the ground within the hour.”
As she rechecked her new perimeter, Lolita found Dawn and told her the good news. The girl had a strange look on her face and Lolita had not expected it. For lack of a better term, Dixon looked almost angry. It made Lolita want to laugh and Dawn noticed so she told the senior officer, “don’t worry Vega, I’m with you.”
“I noticed,” Lolita replied before asking, “you were at the induction center when they snatched you, right? How long you been in country?”
Dixon thought about it and then said, “I don’t even know what a fucking day is, here. I don’t know, seventy two hours, maybe?”
“They popped your cherry quick,” Lolita snorted out. She paused as the sounds of low flying jets drowned out all other noises. A few moments later the distant northern horizon lit up like a fireworks show. Lolita smiled and laughed, “that’s always a sweet sound out here.” When it was clear that Dixon was not impressed, Lolita slapped her on the back and then said with a wink, “since nobody told you already, and for what it’s worth, welcome to the five-oh-six.”