Conscripts, p.12
Conscripts, page 12
His voice strengthened as he continued. “In order for us to accomplish these goals in a timely manner, we need to utilize the augmentations that were given to us to their fullest potential. We want to combine the use of the best military strategy and our heightened abilities to maximize our effectiveness on the battlefield.”
As he continued, he was dimly aware that he was trying to use simple terms and sounding a bit like he was talking to a child. He hoped that Commander Sauk wouldn’t be offended. “First off, we should always arrive on the battlefield with enough time to prepare a strategy, get geared up, and get supplied. Second, our equipment is not built for us …”
Now that he was off and running the words poured out of his mouth. “We’re five times stronger than your average soldier, so our gear could and should be heavier, stronger and more powerful. Like the swords that you gave us. They’re small and lightweight and built for your soldiers’ strength. But what we needed were larger, heavier weapons that would be more effective when fighting the Rha’ket’gar in hand to hand.”
He then looked down and stated the obvious: “If we would have had ammunition for our compression rifles we could have met the enemy at the top of the hill, maximizing the amount of damage we could have done. We’re also capable of carrying the larger, more powerful compression rifles that you have mounted on the defensive platforms, even though they’re three times as heavy. We practiced with them in the training room, so I know it can be done … think how much easier it would be for us to stop a charging attack if we had those.”
Jacob shared the rest of the ideas the group had come up with, including their request for their own combat medic team. He ended by reminding Commander Sauk that the control was in his hands, and that they wanted nothing more than to complete their charge and return home.
Commander Sauk sat quietly listening, a small grimace on his face. He didn’t like all of the ideas that Jacob had presented, but he was a shrewd man with a strong sense of self-preservation. If he allowed the Earthlings to fight the way that they wanted to and were successful, then he would look good in the eyes of The Rigian and his Party. And if the Saje’s failure was to be as spectacular as he thought it would be, he could both save face and deliver a scapegoat.
With a glance at the handlers sitting nearby, Commander Sauk frowned slightly and then demanded: “Present a plan to me in two days.”
And just like that, with a wave of his hand, Jacob was dismissed.
CHAPTER 11
1
When Jacob returned from the Commander’s office, he found everyone huddled in little groups, quietly talking while they waited for his return. As everyone moved in closer to hear what he had to say, he recognized several additional faces that were not there when he’d left.
The mood of the room was solemn, and his fellow Humans looked at him expectantly. The horrors of Two Hills—as the battle had been coined—were etched on their faces, still raw in their minds. They were all fearful of what the future would hold.
Jacob held up his hand for silence. “Is this everyone?” he asked.
“There are seven still in their rooms,” someone responded.
“Six…,” said a small voice as Jenna, her left hand over her face, meekly stepped out of her room and found a seat at a table next to Nicole.
Her hand shook as she removed it from her face. “How does it look?” she questioned, turning to Nicole.
Nicole looked at Jenna’s face in disbelief, having seen for herself just how bad her wound had been. “It’s completely healed, Jenna,” she answered. At this, Jenna broke into tears and hugged her friend.
“The six that still aren’t here are the ones we weren’t sure if they would make it,” said a guy named Shawn, leaving out that they had put Jenna on that same list.
“We’re all glad you’re alright Jenna,” Jacob said, giving her a smile.
Then, he turned and addressed the entire group. “Well, I spoke to Commander Sauk …” At this, some groans and perhaps a few choice words were mumbled, leaving no doubts about what the gathered Saje thought about the Commander.
He started again: “The Commander has agreed to listen to a proposal of what we think we’ll need to defeat the Rha’ket’gar during ground engagements … we don’t have much time though, because I will need to present our plan in just two days.”
“You really think that will do any good?” someone spoke up. “Do you really think he’ll listen to us?”
“There is no doubt in my mind that they will make us fight again,” Jacob answered. “The Khonians want to defeat their enemies. That’s why we’re here. Commander Sauk would ship us back home tomorrow to save himself the headache, but this Rigian character seems to think they need us to win. So unless we want a repeat of Two Hills, this is our one chance to convince him it’s in his best interest to let us do it our way.”
He slowly looked at the faces around the room before he continued. “So I am asking you to work with me and come up with a plan … a plan that will keep us as safe as possible, while still accomplishing the tasks that they give us.” There were nods of agreement within the group but no enthusiasm. “They will not take us home until they have won this war … so we have to either help them until the end or at least until we can find a way to get home on our own.”
When no one spoke, Jacob went on. “Ok, then I will work with Kent and Nicole to come up with a command structure and then we will all vote to fill the positions. After that, we’ll organize some committees to work on the plan, and we’ll make sure we have consensus before I present it to Commander Sauk. We don’t have a lot of time, so even though we had wanted to wait until everyone was finished healing, I think we’ll have to get started immediately.”
When again no one said anything, he threw out one more plea to give everyone, anyone, one more chance to speak up. “Any questions, comments?” he blurted, nearly begging for someone to say something.
There were a few quiet murmurs of agreement, but the majority just sat looking dejected.
“I just don’t think I can go out there again,” Jenna quietly spoke up, her voice trembling a little. “I was a nurse’s aide back home. I wanted to help people …”
Jacob looked at her and saw the fear, so transparent, tears brimming in her eyes. He thought of the harsh ultimatum that Commander Sauk had warned him about. He missed his home, his loved ones … and there was no way he wanted to be away from them for years. Jacob knew that the group could not go back into another battle like Two Hills in the mental state they were in.
He looked around the room again and something deep inside of him stirred, a dormant lesson being pulled to the surface. “Look, I know you’re scared,” he said. “I know because I’m scared … what we went through was horrible and the idea of having to do it again is hard to accept. And why should we? Why are we fighting? We’re being forced … unfairly … to fight in a war that is not ours, for reasons we don’t believe in. They brought us here because as humans, we have tenacity, a strength that they themselves do not have. They know they will lose this war unless they can counter the strength of the Rha’ket’gar in ground battles, and now that they know we can, they will never let us go home until it’s done.
“So, Commander Sauk listened to me today because he knows if we are forced to fight that way again they are dooming us to fail unless we, right here and now, change things,” he continued. “While it’s completely wrong and unforgiveable of the Khonians, we don’t have a choice to not fight. They are going to throw us out there again, my friends, and no amount of protest is going to save us. It’s only going to kill us.”
Jacob's heart pounded. “But we do have a choice in how we fight and why we fight,” he said passionately. “So, my friends, we need to fight on our terms and fight hard for those same terms. We aren’t fighting for the Khonians. We have to fight for ourselves. We are fighting for a chance … for each other. We must fight so that we can return home. We must fight so we can see our families again. And for that, we are ultimately in control of what happens next, in how we move forward from this point on.”
Jacob paused for a moment and let a memory play in his mind. “As my uncle used to tell me, you always have a choice. You can choose … to either be all in … or all out. The consequences of the latter are known. And there’s no room here for the somewhere in between. So … we have to decide to be all in, and all in together, or we have already lost this battle.”
He paused and glanced around at the faces of the Saje … his people.
“So, I vote we choose to be all in.” His voice rose with emotion. “I’m all in. I will go home … and if you promise to help me get home, then I swear to you, that I will do everything I can to make sure you get home as well. If each and every one of you are all in … then we will be strong enough to do what we have to. I need your help to be strong. I need each and every one of your help …”
He stopped again and waited. “We’ve been dealt a tough hand here, but that in itself does not dictate our path, does not make us who we are,” Jacob said. We must continue to endure the pain and suffering that the Khonians have put upon us … we must survive the battles that are forced upon us … and we must work together to make sure that we all make it home alive.”
The room stirred and Jacob could feel a shift in its energy. “Will we continue to let them put us in situations where we have almost no control … or do we control our own chances? Will you stand up and be part of the solution that gets us home … or will you sit and hope it happens eventually?” For our loved ones … for ourselves … are you all in?”
Kent stood and slammed his fist against his chest. “I’m all in, mate!”
Nicole rocketed to her feet. “Me too!”
“Come on … we will do this for ourselves!” said Jacob. “We must endure, survive … so that we can all make it home alive!”
“Yes, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can go home!”
“ALL IN!”
“Yes, ALL IN TOGETHER!” someone called out. “Endure, Survive, make it home alive …”
Others echoed it, and soon it became the resounding cry. “ENDURE, SURVIVE, MAKE IT HOME ALIVE!”
And, with that, Jacob’s first real act of leadership had been accepted.
2
An hour later, sitting on the floor of his room with Kent and Nicole, all his earlier confidence had faded. He knew that the only reason Commander Sauk had put him in charge was because he was the first Earthling not to die. And, after all his uncle’s military stories he was fairly certain that “just not dying” didn’t qualify anyone to be a leader.
“Well, anyone have any ideas?” he said, only half-joking, hoping that if he threw it out there, together they could come up with something great.
Kent breathed heavily like a man deep in thought and Nicole gave a nervous little laugh just audible enough to hear.
“I’m just not sure that I’m qualified to be leader,” he said quietly.
“Well, Sauk made you the Captain,” said Kent. “So it is what it is … and he said we’re to be your lieutenants too, so since you picked us to help with this command structure thingy, you have inevitably confirmed our part of it. He tried to lighten the mood. “So, whether we like it or not, we’re all in this together,” he said.
“Nice going Captain,” Nicole chimed in with a smirk, as she sat absent-mindedly twirling a lock of her hair around her index finger.
“Ok, well then,” Jacob said quickly. “We already have groups set up by the handlers, so each group can elect their own leader who will report to the three of us.”
“Yup, and you’re the Captain … and we are your loyal lieutenants,” said Kent. He laughed as he shook his head.
“Sounds good to me,” Nicole agreed, both stating their support for Jacob as the group’s leader.
They decided that to alleviate any confusion, each group’s elected leader would simply be called squad leader. And within all of five minutes of planning they left his room and presented their plan to the overall group … who voted unanimously with very little discussion. Nicole laid out some quick instructions for electing the squad leaders and within 20 minutes the whole issue was decided. A pretty basic but important first hurdle had been cleared.
The next step was not as cut and dry. Facing the newly-elected squad leaders, Kent explained their first assignment. They each needed to work with their respective groups to identify changes and ideas that would increase their chances of success. They would then bring those ideas to the Saje Council, as they called themselves, so that they could group the different ideas together. Then, as an entire group, they could vote on the ideas and decide which ones they would move forward.
They spent the remainder of the day brainstorming in their smaller groups. When the food arrived, they broke for dinner, and the Saje Council grabbed their plates and headed into a quiet alcove of the rec room to go over each group’s ideas while they ate.
Once the ideas were sorted through and organized, they all reconvened in the larger room and spent the rest of the evening presenting, discussing and voting on their ideas. Whether it was an order from Commander Sauk or the lack of a scheduled download, but the nightly sleep announcement never came; so they were able to work well into the night until they were finished.
Before they went off to bed, they came up with their plan for the next morning. They assigned committees to the seven different categories of ideas they’d voted forward. Each committee—with all groups represented—would be tasked with coming up with recommended solutions for each.
Of the seven, the first four were the most urgent as they would be presented to Commander Sauk the following day. Those committees were to present their progress at lunch. The other three, being nonmilitary and escape-related—and could not be talked about when the handlers were near—would have to be worked on in secret.
Blurry-eyed but with a sense of purpose, they finally took to their rooms.
3
The next morning, breakfast was eaten in a hurry, and they quickly broke into their committees and got to work.
The first committee category was based on a fairly simple principle … the basic premise was that no one wanted to get hurt. So there were many ideas on things that could be done to make their armor provide more protection.
Category two was focused on weapons … taking full advantage of the fact that the Humans had superior strength compared with the Khonians, they needed bigger, more powerful weapons that could more than level the playing field when fighting the Rha’ket’gar.
The third category was less specific … an all-encompassing need for better tactics. They had been thrown into the first battle without any understanding of what was going on, or any semblance of a strategy. And even though they might not be military-minded, they all knew there was something intrinsically wrong with being attacked from above.
Category four was a Council addition and based on the need for better, more durable communications equipment so that they could coordinate with each other on and off the battlefield.
The last three categories were escape-related and focused on how to get themselves home, if all else failed. The fifth category was full of ideas on how to learn about or steal the Khonians’ technology that would enable them to return to Earth on their own. The sixth was focused on how to block and stop the pain-inducing node implanted on the back of their heads. And the last committee—the most dangerous if caught in the act of planning—was to figure out possible ways to incapacitate or kill their captors in order to study their technology until they knew enough to get them home safely. Knowing they were being monitored, the last three committees would have to work together very carefully, in bit and pieces when they could.
While the committees worked diligently that morning, Jacob, Kent and Nicole spent the time trying to figure out how to manage and dissect the certain jobs they would have to get done when they were in the field.
They had decided that the more self-contained they were the more it helped with learning the Khonian technology. They agreed that there should be two rotating chore lists, like his mom had used at home. A groupwide list would tell the squads which chores they had that day while a squad-specific list would ensure the tasks were divided equally. Jacob hated to admit it but his mom’s old system, which he disliked as a kid, sure came in handy now.
Jacob was surprised that when lunchtime rolled around the first four committees were not only ready to report their progress but handed in their recommendations as well. Even more surprising was how common-sense based they were.
For example, the first committee recommended new, custom-fit armor at least double in thickness. The Khonian armor was designed for the leaner Khonians—too narrow for the stockier Earthlings and incredibly lightweight to not hinder their soldiers’ movement. The Saje were far stronger and could support much stronger, heavier armor without sacrificing mobility.
The weapons committee had come back with similar ideas. The Khonian swords were far too light and fragile for the Saje. During the battle of Two Hills there were multiple instances of swords breaking or harmlessly bouncing off of the enemy’s armor. In contrast, the Rha’ket’gar had used much heavier hand-to-hand weapons, like their axes—that were nearly twice the weight of the Khonian swords—and nearly twice as effective. If the Saje could wield heavier, stronger weapons they might not break on them as often, enabling them to do more damage.
In addition, the Khonian compression rifles fired a seven mm slug and weighed in at a mere five pounds, but that caliber of weapon often didn’t have the penetration power to pierce even the weakest areas of the Rha’ket’gar’s chest armor. In one of their training sessions, the Saje had seen an automatic defense sentry—armed with a weapon firing a 21 mm slug—that couldn’t have weighed more than 30 pounds fully loaded. That’s the kind of weapon they should use because there is no way the Rha’ket’gar would charge across an open area, with no regard for getting hurt, if they were getting ripped to shreds by nearly 200 of those rifles firing at the same time.
