Death to the Insects

Chapter 3: The Return of General Clay

Chapter 3: The Return of General Clay

Mongo peered out into the gloom. He had been clever, yes, very clever. For the past few months he had been living on his own, evading the Insect patrols and even the human scavenger parties, using his talent to the maximum to help him survive. There never was a time that Mongo wasn't hungry; in this environment, it was impossible to have your stomach full all the time; but Mongo was surviving, and doing reasonably well on his own. Sometimes he could see certain circumstances when he would be caught by a patrol, or by a group of slavers, and avoided going to those places until the threat had passed.

So Mongo survived. But he still wore that annoying collar that Angry Red had put on him. He had to stop himself from tugging at it sometimes, remembering that Angry Red had said it had a bomb built into it. Someone like Croft could have removed the collar.

Croft. Mongo wondered what had happened to Croft, and the other annoying ones, the bounty hunter, the one who clapped too much, the pretty lady with the blonde and sometimes red hair. Mongo even thought about the sissy cook. He had made very good food. What had become of them?

Mongo presumed they were dead; at least, he hadn't seen any more visions of them. But then he usually only got visions of other people when they were already near him, or were about to be.

Suddenly Mongo stiffened. For the first time since his escape, he had a vision of a very familiar figure.

It was Angry Red.

He was alive!

Mongo grew taut as he "saw" Angry Red come around a corner, and realize that that was just outside the building that Mongo was perched in.

Cautiously, very cautiously, he peered outside the window. He waited five seconds... ten seconds....

Then a figure appeared on the corner. Looking down at him, Mongo saw he had red hair.

The figure was holding some sort of device that he was peering into. He panned it left, then right. And then up.

And then the figure looked up, and Mongo found himself staring at Angry Red.

Mongo took off at a run. He didn't know if Red had seen him or not, but obviously he had constructed another tracking device.

And then, as he sweated heavily while running, another thought occurred to him--could Red detonate the explosives with his new device?

As he ran, he half-expected an explosion. Nothing happened. Either Red couldn't detonate it, or Red wanted him alive, or Red hadn't seen him yet.

Mongo scampered away as fast as he could.

********

"Me?" said Croft. "I'm not exactly the leader type."

"I didn't say you would lead them, certainly not all by yourself," said the bearded man. "I just said you would save them. And you won't do it alone. Others will help."

Croft started to feel an infusion of self-confidence. Maybe he could do it!

"Wait!" said Croft. "Who are you? How did you find me? What's your agenda? How am I going to defeat the Insects? And lastly, though I'd like this answered first, is how do I know I can trust you?"

The old man smiled, deciding to answer Croft's first question first. "You would feel more comfortable with a name? Very well. You can call me Gaboath."

********

Croft returned to the hideout, followed by his mysterious new friend.

"It's all right," said Croft, gesturing for everyone to lower their guns as Gaboath, or whatever his name truly was, followed him into their hideout. "He's a friend. His name is Gaboath."

"Really?" said Red Sally. "How do you know that?"

"Just a hunch," said Croft.

"How trusting of you, to bring home any hooded stranger who appears so kindly," said Sally tauntingly.

"I know it seems strange," said Croft, "but experience has taught me to trust this kind of feeling." And he wouldn't elaborate further. "Tomorrow we're going to assemble a gang of local fighters, and attack an Insect patrol."

"Just one more question. What have you been smoking, and can I have a puff?" Red Sally asked.

*******

Croft located another ragtag group of refugees the next day. He was accompanied by his team, as before. He once again was preparing to give his sales pitch, to recruit volunteers to attack the Insects. The only difference, this time, was Gaboath.

Croft made his pitch more aggressively than ever before. "We need to give the Insects a bloody nose!" said Croft. "If we don't fight back, they'll overrun us! They've forced us to live like rats, and are slowly exterminating us! Do you want to live, and fight like men, or do you want to die? I say Fight! Fight for yourselves! Fight for your freedom!"

Suddenly, the refugees, who had been murmuring all during Croft's speech, broke out into a chant. At first, Croft thought they were mocking him, but he quickly heard what they were chanting

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Let's fight! Death to the Insects! Death to the Insects!" they chanted.

"Death to the Insects!" Croft shouted back. Despite the fact that he knew the source of the inspiration, he allowed himself to be swayed with the moment. Even Red Sally and others were chanting too.

"Death! Death! Death to the Insects!" they shouted. For once, they didn't pay any attention to how loud their voices were, or what attention they might draw to themselves.

They immediately prepared for battle. The crowd didn't want to wait--they wanted to attack the Insects on the spot. It was as if a match had been lit on a slow burning rage.

Croft looked over to Gaboath, as if to ask, sure, they're excited, but can they really fight?

Gaboath, standing inconspicuously in the corner, gave the slightest of nods, and Croft felt oddly reassured.

*******

The Insect patrols had been strengthened, because of the recent attack on the warehouse. Fifteen Insects slowly walked down the empty street clutching their enormous blast rifles, their multiplex eyes scanning this way and that.

Suddenly, they heard a human voice shout a word, and they were caught in a crossfire, as people came out of the buildings on either side and opened fire. They even opened fire from above, from the first and second stories of the overlooking buildings as well.

The squad was raked by blaster and laser fire. Half the squad was immediately cut down. The ones who managed to fire back were unnerved, to say the least, by this never before seen aggressiveness. One of them fired and hit a resistance fighter, but as the person dropped to the ground another person appeared behind, scooped up his weapon, and started firing again!

In moments it was over. The entire squad had been wiped out, and they had only taken two casualties, and no fatalities. A ragged cheer went up in the crowd. Although they had had the advantage of surprise, and had outnumbered the Insects nearly two to one, it was still quite a victory.

Croft, grinning widely, suddenly found Gaboath standing by his side.

Croft looked questioningly at Gaboath.

"It begins," said Gaboath, with a small smile.

********

Mongo kept running through the street. He was delirious with fear. He could now no longer afford to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time; the fear that Angry Red would catch up to him was too strong. Every so often he would have a vision of Angry Red catching up to him, or getting close.

Suddenly he stiffened and, getting another vision, dodged behind a pillar.

For a long moment nothing happened, and Mongo wondered if he was getting paranoid again. Sometimes he would get visions that Red was closing in on him, and then nothing would happen.

Angry Red chose that moment to step around a nearby corner. He looked at his device as he took a few steps.

Mongo, mostly hidden from view by the pillar, took off at a run.

********

"So just when I've succeeded in organizing the local gang, you take me away," said Croft, as he and Gaboath drove around in an aircar in the dead of night.

"The local gang, as you call them, will survive without your presence for a few days," said Gaboath. "And you are needed more urgently elsewhere."

"It's great that you know my needs better than I do," said Croft. "I'm not accustomed to being guided."

"You are very individualistic," said Gaboath. "That's what makes you a good leader."

"Correction," said Croft. "That only makes me a bad follower. Take this idea of yours of taking a trip 1200 miles to the north on a whim. If I were in full form, I would question the sanity of doing this. I would ask 'Where are we going, Gaboath?', without settling for a vague answer that I'm needed somewhere. I might also question how far we're going to get without being detected."

"We will not be detected," said Gaboath, the wind from their acceleration pulling at his robe.

"How can you be so sure?" said Croft. "You never know when we'll encounter a patrol, and this air car makes a not inconsiderable noise, in case you didn't notice."

"We have passed close to several patrols already," said Gaboath.

"Yes?" said Croft, doubtfully.

"Yes," said Gaboath.

"And why didn't they investigate?"

"Because they didn't notice anything," said Gaboath.

Croft gave him an odd look and said, "Although you talk more, you're even less coherent than the Silencer."

********

"Tzzz-Ta! Tzzz-Ta! Tzzz-Ta!" the audience shouted.

The Silencer blinked at the bright sunlight in the stadium. Thousands of green Insects lining nearly every seat, screaming at the top of their mandibles.

Several dozen feet away stood their top champion, Tzzz-Ta. After dozens of bouts, the Insects had decided to pit him against the best they had, Tzzz-Ta had killed 94 humans with only its appendages. It was a giant, even for an Insect, a little over eight feet tall.

The Silencer squinted, and briefly recalled how he had gotten to this point.

*******

It had been last night, in Czzz's quarters.

"Why is it you never speak?" Czzz had asked. "You are our top human gladiator, and yet you grant no post-game interviews, you do nothing to establish character."

The Silencer said nothing.

"Even now you seek to defy me with your silence. Do you think that you are so valuable that I would not hesitate for a moment to have you terminated?"

The Silencer looked down at the binders he was wearing, and then briefly at the half dozen armed guards around him. It usually wasn't necessary to chain most prisoners when they were brought before Czzz, but as the guards around the Silencer began to drop like flies, they had had to take more preventive measures.

Czzz reached out with a claw to touch the Silencer under the chin. The Silencer felt a stab of pain but didn't flinch. Czzz gently stroked the Silencer's throat.

"It would be so, so easy to terminate you...."

The Silencer still said nothing.

Czzz abruptly released her grip and turned away. "There has been some call to have you face Tzzz-Ta, our most prized gladiator. Have you heard that name?"

The Silencer had indeed heard that name. Every prisoner who had been called out to face Tzzz-Ta had never returned.

"I've grown fond of you," said Czzz. "At least, as fond as one of our kind can be towards one of yours. You're an amusing pet. But if you want to stay as my pet, you have to learn some manners. If you face Tzzz-Ta, you will die. It's that simple. If you want to stay alive, you have to ask me the favor of not fighting Tzzz-Ta."

The Silencer said nothing.

"That's all you have to do, just ask," said Czzz. "Out of kindness, you won't have to beg."

The Silencer said nothing.

Czzz stomped an appendage down on the ground, and stood face to face with the Silencer. "This is your last chance!" Czzz shouted through her translation device. "If you do not speak, you will face Tzzz-Ta, and you will die! What is your answer?"

The Silencer spoke, for the first time.

"Please Czzz."

The guards murmured. This was the first time in recent memory any of them could remember hearing his voice.

"What?" said Czzz, suddenly delighted.

"Come closer," the Silencer whispered.

Czzz came closer.

"Closer," said the Silencer.

"Grab his arms!" Czzz was smart enough to say; for though his hands were cuffed, the Silencer was still capable of violence.

Czzz was now face to face. "Now, what would you say?"

The Silencer slowly opened his mouth, his eyes boring into Czzz's.

"Please," he whispered. "Let me kill Tzzz-Ta."

And then, before the shock set in, he gave a mighty kick that cracked two of Czzz's internal carapace supports and sent her spinning across the room.

*******

The Silencer eyed the two foot long sword he had been given and compared it to the four foot sword Tzzz-Ta had been given. Undoubtedly, this was a final touch of revenge on Czzz's part. The Silencer waved the sword experimentally with his good left arm, to get a feel for it. His right arm still wasn't working.

As the applause and chanting slowly subsided, Tzzz-Ta spoke through its translation device. "Are you ready to die, human?"

"Always," said the Silencer coldly.

Tzzz-Ta charged, brandishing the giant sword like a spear.

The Silencer dodged to the side, but Tzzz-Ta was quicker than most Insects, and changed direction as the Silencer did, and the Silencer was forced to jump out of the way to avoid being speared.

"I am genetically enhanced to be as fast as you, Silencer!"

"How nice for you," said the Silencer dryly. For the first time in a while he faced a real challenge. All right, then, he would have to follow the Graftonite rules of combat: finish things quickly, and finish them first.

Tzzz-Ta charged again, but this time the Silencer did something totally unexpected--he ran away, towards one of the walls of the massive stadium.

Tzzz-Ta followed rapidly, catching up quickly with giant, clumping steps. The crowd roared, thinking the Silencer ran out of fear.

The Silencer never looked back, but when the "clump clump" sounds of his pursuer reached a certain volume, and the shadow over his shoulder grew to a certain length he did a backflip, springing into the air, and--

It was so quick that the holovids had to replay it three times at reduced speeds from different angles so everyone could figure out what had happened. The end result, though, was the same.

Tzzz-Ta suddenly and quite unexpectedly found the Silencer's sword impaling it, from the back of its throat..

Tzzz-Ta fell backwards to the ground, and the Silencer jumped to the side to avoid being crushed. He looked coldly at the crowd which, after a moment of stunned silence, started to buzz angrily.

The only emotion the Silencer showed was to raise his sword, and he yelled one, solitary word at the top of his lungs: "Next!"

*****************

"Halt!" said a human soldier, springing out from behind cover. He was brandishing a very modern looking blaster rifle, and he was quickly joined by two of his companions. All were in army uniforms, Croft noticed with interest, and their uniforms were cleanly pressed.

Croft made no motion, other than to turn to Gaboath, who had led him here.

"We're here to see the General," said Gaboath.

"Who are you?" said the trooper. "And how do you know the General is here?"

"We're expected," said Gaboath. "You'd better check."

The soldier spoke into a throat comm.

"Where are we?" Croft hissed, unconsciously bundling up in the cold. It was quite cool here in the northern sector.

"At our destination," said Gaboath.

They had driven for several days to get here, wherever here was.

The guard listened to his audio input and nodded. "Sorry, sir. You're expected."

"As we should be," said Gaboath soothingly.

"Just make a left and stop by the entrance to the bunker."

Croft started the ground car up again and headed left. He was surprised to see a large courtyard with troops marching in formations.

"What? How?" Croft was stunned by the sight of it.

"Not all your army was destroyed in the initial attack," said Gaboath. "And many who survived fled here."

They got out of the aircar, and walked past a squad of soldiers who eyed them suspiciously, but who had obviously been given orders to let them pass.

"Here?" said Croft. "What's so special about here? Why don't the Insects come-" And suddenly it came to him. "Of course! The cold! The Insects are basically bugs-"

"And bugs don't like the cold," said Gaboath. "They can actually tolerate this weather in the warmer months, but don't have the means to permanently terraform this part of your planet without making drastic climatic changes. But that's not the only reason the military settled here."

They were politely but firmly frisked at the door of the bunker and Croft was relieved of his blaster. A search of Gaboath didn't turn up any kind of devices.

"So what' s the other reason the military gathered here?" said Croft, as they entered the bunker.

"I expect I am," said a familiar face.

Croft was stunned.

It was none other than the legendary General Jeffrey Clay. One of the most famous generals in Alliance history, he was known, in a complimentary way, as the "Norman North of ground combat", having led numerous military campaigns over the past few centuries. But General Clay had retired decades ago.

Obviously, he had come out of retirement.

Croft had met the General once or twice before, briefly, and it was obvious that Clay recognized him.

"Sir," said Croft. "I didn't even know you were still alive, much less on August-"

"Pah!" said Clay dismissively, speaking in an old East-Euro accent, in a way reminiscent of Levi. "It seems everyone has overlooked me. When August was attacked, did they look for me? When the army was being decimated, did they call on me? No. They panicked, or they ran, or they died." The general pointed his walking stick at Gaboath and squinted. "Only this one came looking for me. Some of my former comrades had gathered here, and we began setting up defenses. But this one helped gather many more of the troops who had fled, and sent them here."

"The Insects don't attack here?" said Croft.

"Of course they attack!" said Clay, looking at him like he was a fool. It was then that Croft remembered that Clay was also famous for having little patience. "But not as much as I might like. They can't establish all-year bases here, you see, because of the weather. So they send in long range patrols, and we destroy them."

"How large are your forces?" said Croft eagerly.

Clay gave him a warning glance. "Small, for now," he said. "But growing. Most are regulars, from the uniformed services. But your friend here has the crazy idea that we can conscript new recruits."

"They have the will to fight," said Gaboath.

"But do they have the skill?"

"You'll only find out if you try to train them," said Gaboath. "We don't have the luxury of waiting. Much of the rest of the western part of Concord is about to be overrun. Your forces alone aren't nearly enough to stop the Insects. You need to stop the Insects, or, at a minimum, delay their advance so the civilians who survive in the west can evacuate to the northern sector."

"It makes sense, in theory," said Clay. He snapped his walking stick at Croft, who jumped. "And you? What do you think of this idea?"

"I'm just along for the ride," said Croft weakly.

"So this is the leader of the civilian resistance," said Clay, looking at Gaboath. "If I didn't know that he was one of the Column's Eight, I might have been deceived by his mild manner."

"Hey, who're you calling mild mannered!" said Croft, suddenly becoming belligerent.

"Better," said Clay. "But your people will have to be made of sterner stuff to fight the Insects."

"I have some experience doing just that," said Croft.

"Oh really?" said Clay. "What have you done, sniped an isolated outpost here, or a two person patrol there?"

"Last week we took out a 15 bug troopers," Croft snapped.

"Wow. Fifteen," said Clay sarcastically.