Story Time 1.6 Heir Hunt

WARNING: The following is not edited and there will be spelling and grammar mistakes. Sorry.
Please read forgivingly (and if you have the time corrections are welcomed).

 

Chapter 4

The cadet hut was little more than a log shack put up lovingly three summers before by the cadets with help from their doting parents and it was completely deserted when the marines arrived in the early embers of morning light. The wood for the hut came from trees felled in the clearing so there was an open space around it, minimising the effort that went into the building and giving the cadets a good space for their exercises and games. It also made it easy to see that all around was empty of bodies living or otherwise.

Chase made sure a thorough check was made in the surrounding area before heading inside, but Se-se could have told him there was no one there even as it came into sight.

She moved to walk into the hut, but Chase held her back. “Me first, you stay with Felton.”

Felton, knowing exactly what the Captain was thinking, placed a gentle hand on Se-se’s shoulder and moved her to one side so she would have no view inside once the door was opened.

Taking a deep breath, Chase opened the door.

The single large room was empty.

Along the left wall, lined up neatly and precisely, were a series of slug thrower hunting rifles beside what looked like an older model M82, the military standard assault rifle the marines were all carrying, and an L84, it's heavy energy cousin. On the other side were benches and tables pushed up against the wall to make space and on the far wall was a clean whiteboard.

Chase let his shoulder’s drop with relief. “Clear.”

Se-se pushed her way inside before anyone could stop her. She stopped beside Chase and looked around. “Chakua.” She muttered.

Behind them, Braddow coughed. Of all the soldiers he was the only one who understood what Se-se had just said and even though the language was the one his parents spoke, he was sure he had not learnt that word until he was about twenty years old.

“Something went wrong here.” She then said so everyone could understand.

“What? It looks fine to me.”

Se-se rolled her eyes, it was obvious. “Castleman would never let us leave rifles like that. Propped up against the wall still loaded? It wouldn’t happen, we never leave our rifles behind. And the whiteboard is never clean, ever.”

“Check the room.” Chase ordered.

Se-se undertook the order even though it was aimed at the marines, carefully checking each rifle over. The magazines were all full, without exception, and there was a round in the breach. They were also all in perfect working condition, even the energy rifles were fully charged. She stared speculatively at the whiteboard. Surely one of them would have left a message. Why would they have left without their weapons and not said anything, unless of course they had been forced out. Castleman would never let any of the cadets be harmed so if they had been given the option to surrender without a fire fight he would have taken it, but they had killed everyone else so why take the cadets alive? Except both her Aunt and Uncle had been convinced that people would look for her and all the squad were within a few years of her age. She should have been with them, and would have been if Bella had not been having a difficult time with her first calf.

The whiteboard was never clean.

She reached up and pulled, but Castleman had made sure it was not coming down in a hurry. “Someone help me.”

Jona and Shaw both jumped to help, taking a side each and pulling.

The whiteboard came down with a crash, and a small polished stone rolled away.

“There’s nothing here, honey.” Jona shook his head.

Se-se ignored him and picked up the stone. “Seesna la tak eem-a.”

Again Braddow coughed. “Erm, who’s the smart arse?”

Se-se blinked, she had not thought anyone would be able to understand her. When she swore she habitually did it in the most obscure language she knew. “This is Dosser’s lucky stone, he picked it up when we went on a trip to the mountains.”

“You think he left it there for a reason?”

“No, I think Castleman did, and he thinks I’m a smart arse.” Se-se looked at the stone, her expression locked in a deep frown. “Those so called aliens who killed everyone else have taken them to the mountain caves.”

“Right.” Chase found no reason to doubt the girl, she had been trained by the legendary Colonel after all and if the man thought she was a smart arse then she had to be good, he was reputed to never settle for second best. “Tell us how to get there.”

“No, I’ll take you there; and if they’ve hurt anyone in Babel squad I’ll kick their testicles out through their ears.”

Chase opened his mouth to berate Se-se for her language but then thought better of it. It was probably better for her to be angry than scared. “How far away is it?”

“Erm, we normally do it in a two day march but if we don't stop we'll be there before midnight.”

Chase nodded. “Could you find the place in the dark?”

“I could find it blindfold.”

“Right. Felton, we’ll rest here for a an hour, then we'll just have to march in the dark again.” He walked over to one of the benches and gestured for Se-se to join him. “Why is it called Babel squad?”

Se-se smiled slightly as she sat down. ”Our families all speak a different first language so when we were younger we developed our own language which is a mix of everything. The Colonel always complains that it’s like being in the tower of Babel,” she shrugged. “Hence the name.”

“So how many cadets are there altogether?”

“There are seventeen, no eighteen now Liz has just joined up in Nova, that’s for the younger ones, but when the ships came it was only Babel who were training and there are twelve of us.”

“How old is everyone in Babel?”

“Joe’s the youngest, he only turned thirteen two months ago and came up from Nova. Mike's seventeen and apart from him I’m the oldest.”

“How many of the local teenagers joined the cadets then?”

“Pretty much all of us.”

“All?” That made a terrible sense, the missing older children were all taken by the Colonel, they were the cadets who would have been with him when it all kicked off.

Se-se nodded agreeably. ”Our families like it because they can get us out of the way two evenings a week and we like it because the Colonel teaches us all sorts of stuff that our families would hate if they knew.”

“Like?”

Se-se grinned. “Mobile shooting, fighting, trap setting, picking pockets, computer hacking, pretty much anything we want to learn that we know our family won’t teach us.”

“Picking pockets?” Chase found that one hard to believe. Colonel Castleman was a decorated war hero, what would he be doing teaching children how to steal?

“We have to be prepared to survive in any situation by any means, therefore we must be able to acquire anything we need.” Se-se spoke as though quoting from a well read manual. “He’s taught us some of the finer points of burglary as well.”

“I see. Maybe I should be checking my pockets more often.”

“You don’t have anything I need.” Se-se shook her head.

“How would you know that?”

“Because I checked last night.” She was quite happy to admit this. She had been unable to resist the temptation to check the Captain’s things when remembering her Uncles last words to her. She was growing increasingly sure that this group of soldiers were the ones looking for her who would do anything she commanded, if she were to believe that, but she still had to be certain. Chase’s pocket contents had revealed nothing useful to ascertain that fact or supplement the equipment her Aunt had given her, but the chocolate had been a nice bonus. She was still wondering whether she should tell the Captain the code her Aunt had given her, she had no idea what it meant and if he would understand it or not. The chances were it was something that would need to be verified and that could not be done when they admitted they had lost their ship and with it all of their off world communications. Quite apart from that it was nothing Se-se had heard before and she knew all the standard military codes.

Chase gave the girl beside him an appraising look there was something about her that he couldn't put his finger on, something strangely familiar, but they still had to get to Castleman, that was their priority. “Rest whilst you can. We’ll have to travel at a quick march so you might want to leave behind anything you don't need.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Chase resisted the urge to pat his pockets as he walked away.

Knowing they were heading into the mountains, Se-se reluctantly removed everything she could bare to be parted with from her pack but knowing the marines were giving up nothing, pride would not let her rely on them. She was only a child but she was determined to not be helpless.

She returned to the hut then to take what ammunition she could for her rifle and pick up any other useful items she could find.

The marines were also scavenging for equipment and Shaw had his eye on the L84 propped in the corner. The heavy rifle was a favourite of his but they had not broken out their own from the ship before heading out to explore the colony. Before he could reach it however Se-se picked it up.

“Stick to your hunting rifle, lass, leave that to thems as can use it right.”

Se-se treated the marine to a blank look. “I can use it right and unlike you I have the owner’s permission to use it.”

Shaw was not put off. “I like your spirit but you’re not trained or strong enough.”

Se-se hefted the weapon. “1. I am trained, 2. I’m more than strong enough.”

“Let her keep it, Shaw.” Chase spoke from the door. “I’m sure she can handle it just fine, after all she has been trained by Colonel Castleman.”

“Yes, sir.” Shaw was reluctant but he backed away and began searching the rest of the hut.

Chase ambled over to Se-se as she slung the heavy rifle. “You are trained in how to use that, aren’t you?”

“Of course, 0.76 scoring average.” Se-se quoted her official training score for the weapon, a score well above the standard military 0.65 requirement to be allowed to use it. “Are we ready to go yet?”

“You’re sure you know where we’re going?”

“Positive.” Se-se looked out of a window. “Castleman's always says I'm a natural leader, but I don’t think he meant it this way.”

This prompted a look from Chase but no comment. He straightened and whistled. “Break’s over. Shaw, Jona, on point. Haddson, at the rear. The rest of you spread out, just like we’ve been practising. Jump to it, this isn’t a picnic.” He turned again to Se-se. “Direction, Sergeant?”

Se-se pointed.

Promptly, Shaw and Jona disappeared into the forest.

Over the next long hours Se-se led the marines through heavy forest with the confident steps of one who knew exactly what they were doing. She wished she did. Getting to the caves was no problem, but what to do when they got there was. Castleman had invested many lessons to teaching all of Babel about tactics but Se-se was very much aware that the marines would have ideas of their own and they might not be as benign as they were acting even if her judgement was telling her to trust them. There had to be a way of getting to her friends without needing the assistance of the marines but she could not see it, any more than she could see exactly where in the caves her friends were being held.

“So how extensive are the caves?” Chase broke the silence as he marched beside the teenager.

“They go on for two or three miles, but most of that is small and narrow. Only the first few hundred yards is really usable in any way.”

Chase looked off into the distance, he had been hoping that caves meant one or two holes going maybe ten metres or so, but miles would make things far more difficult for them. He could hardly go charging in hell for leather, guns blazing, when there were children being held inside, especially with what children were being held in there, they were the only survivors of a terrible massacre. He needed to find out exactly what was happening and figure out some sort of plan to free them and hopefully capture at least some of the ‘aliens’ alive so they could be questioned.

“How many ways in are there to these caves?”

“There’s only one main entrance.” Se-se paused. “There is a back way, but you’d be too big to get in, I can only just fit if I lose everything but top and trousers.”

Chase shook his head, useless. He found his eyes drawn back to the just visible Felton, she was barely bigger than Se-se and Chase knew for a fact that she could handle herself. In the past more than one burly soldier had made the mistake of thinking they could get one over Felton just because she was small in stature and the realisation of that mistake was mostly bruising at best. “How many people know about the back way?”

“Only Babel, and you, it took us two months to track the route, but not even all of us can fit through, Mike and Jay are just too big and Jayne’s too top heavy now, and of course the Colonel would never get through.” As Se-se spoke she knew it was the way she was going to get in. The back way was perfect, it came into the cave system at the back of a dead end passage that was never used for anything because it was so low. It was a slog to get through and there were lots of confusing twists and turns but she was sure she could navigate her way through. Then it would just be a case of getting Babel out and dealing with the killers.

There was the plan. Chase felt a lot better knowing he had a way in, even if it would just be for Felton to evaluate the situation in the caves. From there he could form a real plan and hopefully get away from the planet with his life and career intact and some survivors in tow.

FraidyKat Runs - from reality