The Ghost Brigades

  He focused now.

  Jared sucked in suddenly and spat a gobbet of SmartBlood at the Rraey’s face and eye band. The creature recoiled, revulsed, giving Jared the time he needed to instruct his BrainPal to do with the SmartBlood on the Rraey’s face what it did when it was ingested by the bloodsucking bug on Phoenix: combust.

  The Rraey screamed as the SmartBlood began to burn into its face and eye band, dropping its knife as it clawed at its face. Jared grabbed the knife and drove it into the side of the Rraey’s head. The Rraey issued an abrupt, surprised cluck and then went boneless, slumping backwards on the floor. Jared followed its example, lying silently, doing nothing but resting his eyes and becoming more and more aware of the heavy, acrid smell of smoldering Rraey.

  ::Get up,:: someone said to him some time later, and prodded him with a boot toe. Jared winced and looked up. It was Sagan. ::Come on, Dirac. We got them all. You can come out now.::

  ::I hurt,:: Jared said.

  ::Hell, Dirac,:: Sagan said. ::I hurt just looking at you.:: She motioned over to the Rraey. ::Next time, just shoot the damn thing.::

  ::I’ll keep that in mind,:: Jared said.

  ::Speaking of which,:: Sagan said, ::where’s your Empee?::

  Jared looked up at the high shelf the Rraey had flung it onto. ::I think I need a ladder,:: Jared said.

  ::You need stitches,:: Sagan said. ::Your cheek is about to come off.::

  ::Lieutenant,:: Julie Einstein said. ::You’re going to want to come over here. We found the settlers.::

  ::Any of them alive?:: Sagan said.

  ::God, no,:: Einstein said, and through the integration both Sagan and Jared felt her shudder.

  ::Where are you?:: Sagan asked.

  ::Um,:: Einstein said. ::Maybe you should come and see.::

  A minute later Sagan and Jared were at the colony slaughterhouse.

  ::Fucking Rraey,:: Sagan said as they walked up. She turned to Einstein, who was waiting outside for her. ::They’re in here?::

  ::They’re here,:: Einstein said. ::In the cold room in the back.::

  ::All of them?:: Sagan asked.

  ::I think so. It’s hard to tell,:: Einstein said. ::They’re mostly in parts.::

  The cold room was crammed with meat.

  Special Forces soldiers gaped up at the skinned torsos on hooks. Barrels below the hooks were filled with offal. Limbs in various states of processing lay stacked on tables. On a separate table lay a collection of heads, skulls sawed open to extract the brains. Discarded heads rested in another barrel next to the table.

  A small pile of unprocessed bodies was heaped under a tarp. Jared went to uncover it. Children lay underneath.

  ::Christ,:: Sagan said. She turned to Einstein. ::Get someone over to the colony administration offices,:: she said. ::Pull up any medical and genetic records you can find, and pictures of the colonists. We’re going to need them to identify people. Then get a couple of people to dig through trash cans.::

  ::What are we looking for?:: Einstein asked.

  :: Scraps,:: Sagan said. ::Whoever the Rraey already ate.::

  Jared heard Sagan give her orders as a buzz in his head. He crouched and stared, transfixed, at the pile of small bodies. At the top lay the body of a small girl, elfin features silent, relaxed and beautiful. He reached over and gently touched the girl’s cheek. It was ice-cold.

  Unaccountably Jared felt a hard stab of grief. He turned away with a retching sob.

  Daniel Harvey, who had found the cold room with Einstein, stood over Jared. ::First time,:: he said.

  Jared looked up. ::What?:: he said.

  Harvey motioned to the bodies with his head. ::This is the first time you’ve seen children. Am I right?::

  ::Yes,:: Jared said.

  ::This is how it happens with us,:: Harvey said. ::The first time we see colonists, they’re dead. The first time we see children, they’re dead. The first time we see an intelligent creature who isn’t human, it’s dead or trying to kill us, so we have to kill it. Then it’s dead. It took me months before I saw a live colonist. I’ve never seen a live child.::

  Jared turned back to the pile. ::How old is this one?:: he asked.

  ::Shit, I don’t know,:: Harvey said, but looked anyway. ::I’d guess three or four years old. Five, tops. And you know what’s funny? She was older than both of us put together. She was older than both of us put together twice. It’s a fucked-up universe, my friend.::

  Harvey wandered away. Jared stared at the little girl for another minute, then covered her and the pile with the tarp. He went looking for Sagan, who he found outside the colony’s administration building.

  ::Dirac,:: Sagan said as he approached. ::What do you think of your first mission?::

  ::I think it’s pretty awful,:: Jared said.

  ::That it is,:: Sagan said. “Do you know why we’re here? Why we’re out here at a wildcat settlement?” she asked him.

  It took Jared a second to realize she had spoken the words out loud. “No,” he said, responding in kind.

  “Because the leader of this settlement is the son of the Secretary of State for the Colonial Union,” Sagan said. “The dumb bastard wanted to prove to his mother that the Colonial Union regulations against wildcat settlements were an affront to civil rights.”

  “Are they?” Jared asked.

  Sagan looked over at Jared. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m just curious,” Jared said.

  “Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t,” Sagan said. “But either way, the last place to prove that point would have been this planet. It’s been claimed by the Rraey for years, even if they didn’t have a settlement on it. I guess the asshole thought that because the CU beat the Rraey in the last war maybe they’d look the other way for fear of retaliation. Then ten days ago the spy satellite we put in over the planet got shot out of the sky by that cruiser we took out. It got a picture of the cruiser first. And here we are.”

  “It’s a mess,” Jared said.

  Sagan laughed mirthlessly. “Now I’ve got to go back into that fucking cold room and test corpses until I find the secretary’s son,” she said. “Then I’ll have the pleasure of telling her that the Rraey chopped up her son and his family for food.”

  “His family?” Jared asked.

  “Wife,” Sagan said, “and a daughter. Four years old.”

  Jared shuddered violently, thinking of the girl on the pile. Sagan watched him intently. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” Jared said. “It just seems a waste.”

  “The wife and kid are a waste,” Sagan said. “The dumb bastard who brought them here got what he deserved.”

  Jared shuddered again. “If you say so,” he said.

  “I do say so,” Sagan said. “Now, come on. Time to identify the colonists, or what’s left of them.”

  ::Well,:: Sarah Pauling said to Jared, as he came out of the Kite’s infirmary. ::You sure don’t do things the easy way.:: She reached out to his cheek, to the welt that remained there despite the nano-stitching. ::You can still see where you got cut.::

  ::It doesn’t hurt,:: Jared said. ::Which is more than I can say about my ankle and my hand. The ankle wasn’t broken, but the fingers will take a couple of days to fully heal.::

  ::Better that than being dead,:: Pauling said.

  ::This is true,:: Jared admitted.

  ::And you taught everybody a new trick,:: Pauling said. ::Things you didn’t know you could do with SmartBlood. They’re calling you Red-Hot Jared now.::

  ::Everybody knows you can get SmartBlood to heat up,:: Jared said. ::I saw people using it to fry up bugs on Phoenix all the time.::

  ::Yes, everyone uses it to smoke the little bugs,:: Pauling said, ::But it takes a certain kind of mind to think of using it to smoke the big bugs.::

  ::I wasn’t really thinking about it,:: Jared said. ::I just didn’t want to die.::

  ::Funny how that will make a person creative,:: Pauling said.

  ::Funn
y how it makes you focus,:: Jared said. ::I remembered you telling me I needed to work on that. I think you may have saved my life.::

  ::Good,:: Pauling said. ::Try to return the favor sometime.::

  Jared stopped walking for a moment. ::What?:: Pauling asked.

  ::Do you feel that?:: Jared asked.

  ::Feel what?:: Pauling asked.

  ::I’m feeling like I really want to have sex,:: Jared said.

  ::Well, Jared,:: Pauling said. ::You stopping abruptly in a hallway is not usually how I know you really want to have sex.::

  ::Pauling, Dirac,:: Alex Roentgen said. ::Rec room. Now. Time for a little after-battle celebration.::

  ::Oooh,:: Pauling said. ::A celebration. Maybe there will be cake and ice cream.::

  There was no cake or ice cream. There was an orgy. All the members of the 2nd Platoon were there, save one, in various stages of undress. Couples and trios lay on couches and cushions, kissing and pressing into each other.

  ::This is an after-battle celebration?:: Pauling asked.

  ::The after-battle celebration,:: Alex Roentgen said. ::Every battle we do this.::

  ::Why?:: Jared asked.

  Alex Roentgen stared at Jared, mildly incredulous. ::You actually need a reason to have an orgy?:: Jared began to respond, but Roentgen held up his hand. ::One, because we’ve been through the valley of the shadow of death and come through the other side. And there’s no better way to feel alive than this. And after the shit we’ve seen today, we need to get our minds off it right quick. Two, because as great as sex is, it’s even better when everyone you’re integrated with is doing it at the same time.::

  ::So this means you’re not going to pull the plug on our integration?:: Pauling asked. She said it teasingly, but Jared sensed the smallest thread of anxiety in the question.

  ::No,:: Roentgen said, gently. ::You’re one of us now. And it’s not just sex. It’s a deeper expression of communion and trust. Another level of integration.::

  ::That sounds suspiciously like bullshit to me,:: Pauling said, smiling.

  Roentgen sent a ping of high amusement. ::Well, you know. I won’t deny that we’re in it for the sex too. But you’ll see.:: He held out a hand to Pauling. ::Shall we?::

  Pauling looked over at Jared, winked, and took Roentgen’s hand. ::By all means,:: she said. Jared watched them walk off, and then felt a poke on his shoulder. He turned. Julie Einstein, nude and perky, stood there.

  ::I’ve come to test the theory that you are red-hot, Jared,:: she said.

  Some indefinite time later Pauling found her way to Jared and lay next to him.

  ::This has been an interesting evening,:: she said.

  ::That’s one way to put it,:: Jared said. Roentgen’s comment that sex was different when everyone with whom you’re integrated is involved turned out to be a rather dramatic understatement. Everyone but one, Jared corrected. ::I wonder why Sagan wasn’t here,:: Jared said.

  ::Alex said she used to participate but now she doesn’t,:: Pauling said. ::She stopped after a battle where she nearly died. That was a couple of years ago. Alex said participation is strictly optional; no one gives her grief for it.::

  At the name “Alex,” Jared felt a sharp pang; he’d glimpsed Roentgen and Pauling together earlier while Einstein was on him. ::That would explain it,:: Jared said, awkwardly.

  Pauling sat up on an arm. ::Did you have a good time? With this?:: she asked.

  ::You know I did,:: Jared said.

  ::I know,:: Pauling said. ::I could feel you in my head.::

  ::Yes,:: Jared said.

  ::And yet, you don’t seem entirely happy,:: Pauling said.

  Jared shrugged. ::I couldn’t tell you why,:: he said.

  Pauling reached over, kissed Jared lightly. ::You’re cute when you’re jealous,:: she said.

  ::I don’t mean to be jealous,:: Jared said.

  ::No one means to be jealous, I think,:: Pauling said.

  ::I’m sorry,:: Jared said.

  ::Don’t be,:: Pauling said. ::I’m happy we’ve been integrated. I’m pleased to be a part of this platoon. And this is a lot of fun. But you are special to me, Jared, and you always have been. You are my best beloved.::

  ::Best beloved,:: Jared agreed. ::Always.::

  Pauling smiled widely. ::Glad to get that settled,:: she said, and reached down. ::Now,:: she said. ::Time for me to get the benefit of my best beloved privileges.::

  SEVEN

  ::Thirty klicks,:: Jane Sagan said. ::Everyone off the bus.::

  The soldiers of the 2nd Platoon removed themselves from the troop transport and fell into the night sky over Dirluew, the capital city of the Eneshan nation. Below them, explosions pocked the sky; not the violent, potentially transport-shattering eruptions that would mark anti-craft defenses, but the pretty multicolored flashes that signaled fireworks. It was the final evening of Chafalan, the Eneshan celebration of rebirth and renewal. Eneshans worldwide were out in their streets, partying and carrying on in a manner appropriate for the time of day where they were, most the Eneshan equivalent of slightly drunk and horny.

  Dirluew was especially raucous this Chafalan. In addition to the usual festivities the celebration this year had also included the Consecration of the Heir, in which Fhileb Ser, the Eneshan Heirarch, officially pronounced her daughter Vyut Ser as the future ruler of Enesha. To commemorate the consecration, Fhileb Ser had provided a sample of the royal jelly she fed to Vyut Ser and allowed a mass-produced synthetic version to be produced, in diluted form, placed in tiny jars and offered as gifts to the citizens of Dirluew for the final night of Chafalan.

  In its natural form, and fed to a pre-metamorphic Eneshan, the royal jelly caused profound developmental changes that resulted in clear physical and mental advantages once the Eneshan developed into adult form. In its diluted and synthesized version, the royal jelly gave adult Eneshans a truly excellent hallucinogenic buzz. Most of the citizens of Dirluew had consumed their jelly prior to the city’s fireworks display and light show and were now sitting in their private gardens and public parks, clacking their mouthpieces together in the Eneshan equivalent of ooooh and aaaaah as the naturally brilliant and explosive nature of the fireworks was pharmaceutically extended across the entire Eneshan sensory spectrum.

  Thirty klicks up (and descending rapidly), Jared could not see or hear the dazzled Eneshans, and the fireworks below were brilliant but distant, the sound of their explosions lost in the distance and the thin Eneshan stratosphere. Jared’s perception was occupied with other things: the location of his squad mates, the rate of his descent and the maneuvering required to ensure he was both where he needed to be at landing and yet well out of the way when certain events transpired not too far in the future.

  Locating his squad mates was the easiest task. Every member of the 2nd Platoon was blanked out visually and through most of the electromagnetic spectrum by their blackbody nanobiotic unitards and equipment covers, save for a small tightbeam transmitter/receiver each platoon member wore. These polled the position of the other platoon members before the jump and continued doing so at microsecond intervals since. Jared knew that Sarah Pauling was forty meters fore and starboard, Daniel Harvey sixty meters below and Jane Sagan two hundred meters above, the last out of their transport. The first time Jared participated in a nighttime high-altitude jump, not long after Gettysburg, he managed to lose the tightbeam signal and landed several klicks away from his squad, disoriented and alone. He received no end of shit for that.

  Jared’s final destination lay now less than twenty-five klicks below him, highlighted by his BrainPal, which also offered up a descent pathway computed to get him where he needed to be. The pathway was updated on the fly as the BrainPal took into consideration wind gusts and other atmospheric phenomena; it also tracked carefully around three closely grouped virtual columns, superimposed on Jared’s vision. These columns stretched down from the heavens to terminate in three areas of a single building: the Heirarch’s Palace, which served as
both the residence of Fhileb Ser and her court, and the official seat of the government.

  What these three columns represented became apparent when Jared and the 2nd Platoon had descended to less than four kilometers and three particle beams appeared in the sky, lancing downward from the satellites the Special Forces had positioned in low orbit above Enesha. One beam was dim, one furiously bright and the third was dimmest of all and with a curious flicker. The citizenry of Dirluew cooed over the sight and the resonant thunderclap wall of sound that accompanied their appearance. In their simultaneously heightened and diminished state of awareness, they thought the beams were part of the city’s light show. Only the invaders and the actual coordinators of Dirluew’s light show initially knew any different.

  Particle beam–producing satellites are not something the Enesha planetary defense grid would have failed to notice; noticing enemy weapons is what planetary defense grids are for. In this particular case, however, the satellites were well-disguised as a trio of repair tugs. The tugs had been planted months earlier—not long after the incident at Gettysburg—as part of the routine service fleet for the Colonial Union’s diplomatic berths at one of Enesha’s three major space stations. They did, in fact, work perfectly fine as tugs. Their rather unusually modified engines were not apparent externally or by internal systems checks, the latter due to clever software modifications that hid the engines’ capabilities to all but the most determined of investigators.

  The three tugs had been assigned to haul in the Kite after the ship appeared in Eneshan space and asked for permission to repair damage done to its hull and systems after a recent battle with a Rraey cruiser. The Kite had won the exchange but had to retreat before its damage could be totally repaired (the Kite had picked a fight at one of the Rraey’s more moderately defended colonies, where the military strength was strong enough to repel a single Special Forces craft but not strong enough to blast it wholly out of the sky). A routine courtesy tour of the Kite for the Eneshan military was offered by its commander but declined as a matter of course by the Eneshan military, who had already confirmed the Kite’s story through its informal intelligence channels with the Rraey. The Kite also asked for and received permission for members of its crew to have shore leave at Tresh, a resort that had been set aside for Colonial Union diplomats and staff stationed on Enesha. Tresh lay to the southeast of Dirluew, which was just north of the flight path the troop transport carrying two squads’ worth of “vacationing” members of the 2nd Platoon had filed.