Still, I am on my way to Delas, as duty and honor demand.
* * *
General Kiel stared at the holographic images as the Bolos advanced, supported by General Rokoyan’s troops. Lieutenant Veck was beside him, but from the start of the attack, hadn’t wanted to be.
“I belong with Rover,” Veck had said.
“At the moment, you’re needed here,” Kiel had said. “Rover will do just fine without you. And you can stay in contact through your headset, can’t you?’
Veck had agreed, because he had no choice. But Kiel could tell he didn’t much like it.
Kiel didn’t care. He needed Veck at his side. He was expecting some sort of trap from the Kezdai and he needed Veck to help think their way out of it.
“I don’t see Kal on this image,” Veck said, pointing to the hologram of the battlefield. On it each Bolo was shown as a bright green dot, with the name of the Bolo on the dot.
“Kal isn’t showing up on the tracking at the moment,” Kiel said.
“And why not?” Veck asked.
Kiel pointed at the mountains. “I sent Kal the long way around through the mountains. If there is trouble, the lone Bolo may provide an unexpected surprise for the enemy.”
* * *
Jask poked his head over the top of the boulder and almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A real Bolo was headed down the valley right toward him.
He couldn’t believe it had finally happened. The Bolos were coming to rescue him.
He ran back to Bessy, where the unconscious Orren lay. “Lieutenant Orren! Lieutenant Orren, wake up!”
Jask shook him. Orren stirred, but didn’t wake up.
“Come on, Lieutenant,” Jask shouted. “It’s the Bolo! The Bolo is here.”
Under him the ground was shaking from the tracks of the Bolo and it plowed forward, knocking down trees and brush as it came. It was everything he could have ever imagined.
Jask gave Orren one more shake, then gave up. He activated the headset and ran down the hillside to the floor of the valley. The Bolo was coming right at him, hard and fast.
Jask stuck the headphone on. “Ziggy, it’s us. Stop!”
He waved his arms as the battleship sized tank bore down on him.
“Ziggy, don’t you hear me? Stop! Stop!”
“Jask, I am on my way, but I am not there yet. If you in fact see a Bolo, it is not me. Use extreme caution.”
Jask gasped as the Bolo got closer and closer, the ground shaking as if it were a soft bed.
And the noise was massive, swallowing Jask with its thunder.
“Jask, do you read me?”
* * *
General Kiel, with Lieutenant Veck at his side, stood and watched through both holo images and live vid feeds as the Bolos advanced across the flat, open land, all guns blazing.
The enemy was falling back, but slower now, as though the ground was somehow important to them.
“This is making no sense at all,” Veck said.
“I agree,” Kiel said. “I’m getting a bad feeling here.”
Then the explosions started.
A uranium spear ripped up from a Bolo mine through the center of one of the Mark XXXIVs. Its A turret exploded, followed by secondary explosions as the ammunition in its magazines began to ignite.
“All Bolos. Dead slow!” Kiel ordered. “Start scanning for mines!”
The Kezdai forces, a moment ago in full retreat, suddenly dug in and redoubled their efforts.
“Damn it all to hell,” Kiel said, as then the spearfall began.
“Where’s that all coming from?” Kiel shouted.
On screen, the Bolos were taking turns firing flack cover and pounding their Hellrails at the ships in orbit, all working together as a unit.
“The Kezdai’s ship with the sensor scrambler is back again,” Veck said, studying one screen. “The number of false sensor returns has vastly increased.”
“Damn,” Kiel said. “The Bolos won’t hit it the way they did last time.”
“Why not try anyway?” Veck suggested. “Who knows, they may get lucky.”
“At this point,” Kiel said, “that’s what its going to take.”
* * *
General Kiel reports that our forces are under attack. From my current position I should be able to move in on the Enemy’s eastern flank and catch them by surprise. I must hurry. Already losses are considerable.
As I move, I contemplate several anomalies on my sensors. First, my seismic sensors are detecting the beginnings of a massive armored movement somewhere to my east. My scanners do not otherwise register them.
Also, as I have been for the last hour, I detect traces of a tightly beamed, broad-spectrum scrambled transmission on a Bolo command band. The source of these transmissions is somewhere in space. But now I am detecting a still weaker return signal from a ground-based transmitter. That transmitter is quite close.
Could this be part of the enemy trick we have been expecting? If so, I will not be deceived by it. I proceed at best possible speed.
My low-level defense systems detect a movement in the valley ahead consistent with a foot soldier. An anti-personnel battery snaps to target it. But then my sensors detect a human profile. It is directly in my path, and the valley offers me no way to divert. I am loath to be the cause of a human casualty, but thousands of lives may depend on my speedy arrival on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, the human is not clearing the way.
He is waving his arms and yelling something.
With supreme regret I direct an audio pickup to record the human’s last words.
Shock.
The human is yelling a valid Bolo command code.
It takes only 0.0023 seconds for me to apply full braking, but I will not be able to stop in time.
* * *
It took every ounce of courage that Jask had to stand and watch the Bolo come at him. All the time he kept shouting the code that Ziggy had given him. Over and over.
As loud as he could shout.
But the massive noise of the Bolo bearing down on him was almost more than he could stand. Under his feet the ground was shaking and he was having trouble even breathing.
The Bolo seemed to be ignoring him.
Over and over he shouted the command code, even though he was sure no one could hear him.
He was also sure the Bolo couldn’t see him. Compared to the size of the Bolo, he was just a tiny pebble in the road.
Just when he thought he was to die for sure, when it seemed it was far too late, all the Bolo’s mighty treads locked at once, plowing up a wall of dirt, then spinning into reverse.
“It can’t stop in time!” Jask shouted to Ziggy.
“Crouch low!”
Jask covered his head and ducked, just as the huge tank lifted off the ground and flew over him. Hurricane-force winds ripped at him as the massive treads zoomed by inches away.
The Bolo hit the ground with such force it bounced Jask into the air, landing him flat out on his stomach.
But then it was over.
The Bolo skidded to a stop, turned in its own length, and moved back to stop in front of him.
Jask stood and said to Ziggy. “It stopped.”
“Do as I recommended.”
Jask walked fearlessly up to the huge tank, the very thing he had been hoping to see for a long, long time. There he took off the headpiece and pressed it against the Bolo’s hull.
At that moment, all he could do was smile.
And cry just a little bit.
* * *
Kal finished his report and Kiel shook his head in disbelief.
“What is it, General?” Veck asked.
“There is a Kezdai armored column moving out of the mountains to attack our forces from the east. There’s more, but you won’t believe it. Just make sure we’re as ready as we can be for the secondary attack.”
Veck looked at Kiel with a puzzled look, then turned to go back to work.
For a moment the general stood there stunned, then laughed and rejoined Veck to help where he could. But at this point in the battle, he knew there was little either of them could do.
At this point it was up to the Bolos to win this war.
* * *
Nine
I am again in communication with headquarters. When Jask placed my command headset against unit KEL-406’s hull, he was able to download my scramble codes by direct induction, allowing us to communicate directly. I have advised him of my situation. He has taken Lieutenant Orren aboard where he can be treated by the command couch’s autodoc. Young Jask will be taken aboard as well.
I am approaching Delas rapidly now.
I make no attempt to decelerate.
I have solved many problems in my journey, but I now admit to myself that a soft landing will be impossible. Even if my hydrogen stores were not running low, I lack the fine control such a landing would require. But my regiment is under attack by overwhelming forces and I can still provide them one last service.