Wasteland Survivor - Growing - ch11
#12 of Wasteland Survivor
Well, after I promised Fox I would keep writing her in AND that she would get a little bit more limelight she returned my mouse and let me use my computer again.
As always, vote and comment if you can, the story keeps flowing but stars and a chat are incentive to work faster :)
'Jennings, as of reading this note, and the other officers reading theirs, you are immediately promoted to the rank of Captain. Yes I realise this is, as far as we are aware, the highest rank in the Australian military excepting my own. My reasons for this were many but can be summed up simply by a few points. You have the best field command experience in this environment, you have a quickened ability that gives you a superior advantage when commanding in the field and the time between your decision and orders being received is of the essence. But the primary one is that you were already earmarked for fast promotion, sigops managed to get me limited access to records remotely, because you were an excellent strategist who only, and I quote, lacked field experience. Good luck with your command, I know Crystal and yourself mesh well as civilian and military command. Major Thomas Davies'
Tears welled up as I read the post-humus last order from my commander, before I turned to the waiting officers, who were likewise reading their notes, I took a second to dry them.
"Well, Jennings, Sir, it seems congratulations are in order, permission to notify the troops?" Lieutenant Jessup asked.
I turned, "Very well Lieutenant" I replied, almost stunned.
This was almost too much, almost. Then the training came back in, I was up to this, I had to be, the Major said I was.
"Ok the rest of this is just junk, gather the 'eyes-only' stuff and have that sapper, Private Burk, make sure no eyes can ever recognise it again. Lets get the troops moving for the first leg of this journey the Boss has us taking. Dismissed!" Burk would love to ply his trade, I was almost ready to give up when he was knocked out while we were driving here in the APC, and so wanted to give him something fun.
A round of "Sir!"s signalled the finale of the meeting.
I was getting my mind around things, but being the 'top dog' would take some getting used to still.
-
We were making good time, Jennings was relaying information back from Fox and Drathnial so we could avoid any of the nastier road blockages, the troops were restive but not so much that they wouldn't be ready to snap to deadly action were it required, I almost relaxed, almost. The word 'relax' and its derivatives were not in a sergeants vocabulary however.
"Sergeant, Fox reports there's another road block about two clicks down this road. She said there is no way around it without a wide detour. Says she can't detect anything moving but that's not to say there isn't something waiting very patiently." The newly promoted Captain advised. "We will need to get through it quickly if we want to make the rendezvous by nightfall, I have called Fox back and she will scout it on the ground with Drathnial backing her up."
Fox and that dragon were a huge morale boost to the troops, 'if something as awesome as those two are fighting for us, how can we lose?' was the general thought, one that was hard to disbelieve myself after seeing the body-count at Davies Field.
If more had been with us with the routing unit that had brought up the rear they would be looking at the Boss and thinking that too, for the moment they only followed her because of her brains.
"Sir, I will notif-" I began.
"I was briefing the other Sergeants while I was telling you, its all in hand Nicols." She gave a grin that only another echidna could love, well an echidna or a soldier who found his job significantly simplified by a highly talented commanding officer.
"Sir!" I returned a grin, this was even better than regular comms.
We came within sight of the roadblock, the dragon was pacing around looking very threatening while Fox was working on moving some of the vehicles. When the population was suddenly thinned it left a lot of vehicles suddenly rolling, their engines running with no one at the wheel, even in the wee-smalls of that morning, people were active.
All at once a gunshot sounded, and then several more, fox looked stunned crouching on the ground, with a handful of bullets suspended in mid air around her, out of the corner of my eye I could see Crystal's eyes glowing, I put my hand on her shoulder lightly, "keep her shielded, let us do our job Ma'am." I received only a curt nod from her.
Hitting the controls for the APCs gun mount, I told the optics to do a fast scan for weapon-heat, it showed up five rifles that had just fired, scratch that, were still firing, I punched the loudspeaker, "Cease hostility at once, you are shoo-" I started when Fox vaulted onto Drathnial and flew off.
"I ordered her to evac, after checking all the minds out there, they only seemed to be aggressive at Fox, some thought themselves to be our protectors. Some intel on this area would be good..." Jennings supplied.
"Well then you want me to play 'good ol' human' and go out there and establish their intent, Sir? Crystal here can shield me if it turns to shit." I offered, someone had to put their arse on the line, and you can be sure none of the officers would, oh no, this was a sergeants job.
"See to it Nicols, and Crystal, don't let them perforate him, he is too useful to us as is." the Captain confirmed.
"Got it Sir." Crystal replied with a wink. What was up between these two?
After reconfirming with Jennings the hostiles locations, we opened the hatch on the APC and I climbed out with the interior out of their view.
~"Their minds just focused, they are ready for anything."~ my commanding officer supplied.
"Well, lets ease their minds a little." I whispered almost silently, knowing she would hear it regardless.
"Don't move another inch there fallah, we got our eyes on ya. Ya mighty lucky we scared that demon off, damn things are attacking honest types all over these days." A voice yelled from within the trees overlooking the ambush site.
"Yeah, we passing through, been a big fight some of em started out west, we skirted around it but thought a more suburban environment might be a little more welcoming to our kind." I tried to avoid giving away anything too much, I wanted some information from these bastards before we dealt with them.
"Heard a ruckus from that-a-way, good to see another human face out here, too many of those damn demons." the voice came back.
~"He is warming up to you, two others, two that didn't fire on Fox before, are worried you might be crazed like the 'rest'. Fox is circling, I have advised her we might have a few good eggs in there, she said she would try not to kill too many. Crystal says she has you covered all the way to the tree line and further if she can keep line of sight on you, so feel free to push"~ simplified my arse, talents or no talents.
"Time to test some things out then." I sub-vocalised again, keeping my lips from moving and no perceivable sounds from passing my lips. I was getting the hang of this.
I started walking forward, "Hey buddy, we got some spare ammo and supplies if you need them." I lied, "come on down and we can see what we can sort out."
I was almost to the tree-line, ~"The two who were scared have moved off on their own, Crystal has managed to foul their guns when she saw them briefly, the rest are getting antsy and are likely to-"~ her mind-speech was fast, she could send a whole conversation in a fraction of a second, but a bullet is faster. Thankfully there are faster things still.
The bullet slowed and stopped right in front of my eyes, I reached up and picked it out of Crystals grasp, "Hrmm, you need to use less powder, your rounds are showing signs that the barrels rifling is damaged, that could decrease accuracy don't you know?" They were shooting for all their worth, when a roar sounded among them, the gun shots slowed down till one last rifle blast and a cry cut short signalled the end of Foxes wet-work.
The rest of the bullets floating around me fell to the ground and Crystal and Jennings stepped out from behind the APC, determined looks on both their faces, but something else registered on the muzzle of the echidna hybrid. My echidna facial recognition training was sorely missed at this point.
"Sir, all active hostiles are neutralised, we have the last two being herded here now by Drathnial, don't worry Sirs, he will refrain from eating them... I hope." Fox reported with a lopsided grin.
Two men stumbled out of the forest just before a draconic hole was rent in the foliage and Drathnial leapt out and stood proudly behind his mock prey.
~"Your two lost puppies, I avoided their vitals, no need to thank me, really. Hrmm, your mind is much easier to work with, it seems proximity to that telepathic cactus on legs really opens you mortal up"~ Drathnials course voice commented in my mind.
"Thank you warrior, your aid is much appreciated" I sub-vocalised back.
~"And learning manners too. I must feed!"~ and with that the dragon stalked back in the direction of Fox's kills.
I sighed, dragons, women, officers. What's a sane man to do in this new world?
-
Drathnial was stalking back to the forest, a guess as to what his gruesome plan was, strangely, didn't turn my stomach, considering those same men not five minutes ago tried to shoot and kill me.
"So, why didn't you shoot when the others told you to?" Crystal opened in on the men, it seems the military part of this exercise was over and it was down to Crys to work out these men's fate.
"We... they said 'we' had to stick together, that the 'demons', begging your pardon ma'am, had to be destroyed. Fact is I knew one of 'em, err you, back a few weeks, just like normal folk." One man said.
"Yeah, but if we had of said that, we would have ended up like Ernie." the other countered.
"Who was Ernie?" Crystal asked, her 'Boss' voice getting a real work out.
"Ernie was... he started out human, said the furry folk might not be too bad, then we ran into one that was wounded, Ernie tried to help them, when Mike saw, well, Mike is a damn good shot with, was a good shot with, his rifle. Ma'am" The first guy explained. The 'voice' seemed to work, she had them 'Ma'am'ing just like the soldiers.
"And what's your opinion of 'us'?" She asked, not even a glance at Jennings who had positioned herself out of the men's line of sight, eyes glowing.
"Hell, we all gotta live in this fucked up world now don't we?" The second man said.
"Yeah, folks is folks, only 'demons' I seen so far were those arse holes that the fox dude dealt with back in the trees." The first seconded.
At Jennings' nod, Crystal held out her hand to the first, "Well, good to have some open minded people around, want a lift? Crystal 's my name by the way."
"How-" One replied, but I had had enough.
"DUDE? DUDE! Who the fuck do you think I am, I ain't just no d-" I began, winding up.
"And young lady is Fox, SHE is trying to point out that due to her putting her arse on the line, we were able to sort out this mess and gain two new companions rather than just a pile of corpses in a tree line for the crows to pick at." Crystal cut in very diplomatically.
"Thanks Ma'am!" First one then the other of our new companions said.
Being thanked takes the wind out of your sails pretty quickly, and I turned on a grin instead of the snarl I had been building, "Its cool, glad you have no problems with 'us'." I offered my hand to shake.
The first guy, now not to be interrupted, held out his hand and said, "Howard, uh..." he looked down at our squelching hand shake, oops, time to go wash up.
"Bob 's my name. Tell me, was that really a dragon? It was so awesome, I was scared shitless!" The second man replied a little awed.
~"See, I told you I was, now if only you could appreciate the majesty I am"~ I groaned a little, dragons...
"Yes, that fine specimens name is Drathnial, he is helping and protecting us." Crystal replied, not knowing of the dragons reply directly to my mind.
"Not helping with his ego trip babe, really not helping..." Argg, dragons and women...
Wait, I am one.
This is confusing.
The old guy just had to have the last word. New people met and welcomed, Fox gets to have fun again, although I think some will see fun in some other characters futures.