The Blood Service by Allen Ivers

Author:Allen Ivers [Ivers, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

15

Riley

They looked drained, like acrid water at the bottom of a tapped out well. The Capitals were dragging their feet, shoulders slumped, and gasping for a moment’s breath. Whole platoons stopped their marches to redistribute loads. They even traded words with their instructors.

They’d gone soft at the edge of a softer hand.

Riley hadn’t held out any hope to see grand success stories, but in his wildest dreams, he had not predicted such extensive deterioration. Their fortitude paled against the most basic expectations. And with the casualties mounting, the failing Capitals were tasked with tighter and tighter rotations. By the grace of God, the alien attacks had lessened in the last week, but field accidents -- and even some friendly fire -- continued to sap their numbers.

The day seemed particularly gray, even before this depressing discovery. The Thumpers laid by the deep recon returned a nightmare scenario. The compacted slate of the mountains might have spelled doom for the locals, but after an epoch of dead tectonics, the stone had fused into one solid block.

That mountain was a literal fortress and any sufficient orbital bombardment from the Thor’s Hammer satellites risked fallout on the civilian population. Enough kinetic breakers might do the damage, but there wasn’t a proper battlefleet orbiting the planet. And there wasn’t enough nerve gas in three systems to dose a chamber the size described. Those creatures were dug in like ticks, and nothing short of a manned assault was going to remove them.

Conservative casualty estimates ran in the thousands -- Riley had less than two hundred good men.

These Capitals weren’t going to break the margin, even if they stood up to muster. The only hope was to last long enough for the cavalry to show up.

And arrest him.

No. Worry about that time when it comes.

Sergeant Bray trudged from his barracks, a reluctant answer to a rather stern summons. The grizzled veteran looked more salty than usual, with heavy bags under his eyes and puffy cheeks, like he was hiding the rest of his mounting failures from view. His sickly look didn’t stop him from snapping a crisp salute to his commander.

“What do you have to say for yourself, Sergeant?” Riley asked, in no mood for delays as his eyes scanned over the pathetic excuse of a regiment.

The Sergeant’s eyes narrowed, as if to close the gates on any treasonous thoughts that might deign to show themselves, “They’re Capitals, sir.”

“So this culture of hugs comes from the Mining Pits, does it?”

Bray glanced over at the heavy-feet of a passing platoon. Despite keeping time, their feet scuffed the pavement with each step, grating on the ears. “Soldiers have to fight for something, sir.”

“Soldiers, sure,” Riley pointed at stumbling Capital at the rear of a formation, “They’re not soldiers, Gunny. Not yet, they’re not.”

“They bleed like soldiers, Colonel.”

Riley raised an eyebrow, “You gone native on us, Bray?”

“I bleed Blue and White, sir,” the Gunnery Sergeant retorted with a bit heavier grain than he should have, and he began to follow

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.