The Randall Garrett Omnibus: Eleven SF Classics, Page 2

  The Imperial Army, consisting of upwards of fifty thousand troops, was extremely mobile in spite of the handicap of having no form of transportation except their own legs. They had no cavalry; the only beast of burden known to them-the flame-beasts-were too small to carry more than a hundred pounds, in spite of their endurance. But the wide, smooth roads that ran the length and breadth of the Empire enabled a marching army to make good time, and messages carried by runners in relays could traverse the Empire in a matter of days, not weeks.

  And into this tight-knit, well-organized, powerful barbaric world marched Commander Frank with less than two hundred men and thirty carriers.

  CHAPTER VI

  It didn't take long for the men to begin to chafe under the constant strain of moving through treacherous and unfamiliar territory. And the first signs of chafing made themselves apparent beneath their armor.

  Even the best designed armor cannot be built to be worn for an unlimited length of time, and, at first, the men could see no reason for the order. They soon found out.

  One evening, after camp had been made, one young officer decided that he had spent his last night sleeping in full armor. It was bad enough to have to march in it, but sleeping in it was too much. He took it off and stretched, enjoying the freedom from the heavy steel. His tent was a long way from the center of camp, where a small fire flickered, and the soft light from the planet's single moon filtered only dimly through the jungle foliage overhead. He didn't think anyone would see him from the commander's tent.

  The commander's orders had been direct and to the point: “You will wear your armor at all times; you will march in it, you will eat in it, you will sleep in it. During such times as it is necessary to remove a part of it, the man doing so will make sure that he is surrounded by at least two of his companions in full armor. There will be no exceptions to this rule!"

  The lieutenant had decided to make himself an exception.

  He turned to step into his tent when a voice came out of the nearby darkness.

  "Hadn't you better get your steel plates back on before the commander sees you?"

  The young officer turned quickly to see who had spoken. It was another of the junior officers.

  "Mind your own business,” snapped the lieutenant.

  The other grinned sardonically. “And if I don't?"

  There had been bad blood between these two for a long time; it was an enmity that went back to a time even before the expedition had begun. The two men stood there for a long moment, the light from the distant fire flickering uncertainly against their bodies.

  The young officer who had removed his armor had not been foolish enough to remove his weapons too; no sane man did that in hostile territory. His hand went to the haft of the blade at his side.

  "If you say a single word—"

  Instinctively, the other dropped his hand to his own sword.

  "Stop! Both of you!"

  And stop they did; no one could mistake the crackling authority in that voice. The commander, unseen in the moving, dim light, had been circling the periphery of the camp, to make sure that all was well. He strode toward the two younger men, who stood silently, shocked into immobility. The commander's sword was already in his hand.

  "I'll spit the first man that draws a blade,” he snapped.

  His keen eyes took in the situation at a glance.

  "Lieutenant, what are you doing out of armor?"

  "It was hot, sir, and I—"

  "Shut up!” The commander's eyes were dangerous. “An asinine statement like that isn't even worth listening to! Get that armor back on! Move!"

  He was standing approximately between the two men, who had been four or five yards apart. When the cowed young officer took a step or two back toward his tent, the commander turned toward the other officer. “And as for you, if—"

  He was cut off by the yell of the unarmored man, followed by the sound of his blade singing from its sheath.

  The commander leaped backwards and spun, his own sword at the ready, his body settling into a swordsman's crouch.

  But the young officer was not drawing against his superior. He was hacking at something ropy and writhing that squirmed on the ground as the lieutenant's blade bit into it. Within seconds, the serpentine thing gave a convulsive shudder and died.

  The lieutenant stepped back clumsily, his eyes glazing in the flickering light. “Dropped from th’ tree,” he said thickly. “Bit me."

  His hand moved to a dark spot on his chest, but it never reached its goal. The lieutenant collapsed, crumpling to the ground.

  The commander walked over, slammed the heel of his heavy boot hard down on the head of the snaky thing, crushing it. Then he returned his blade to its sheath, knelt down by the young man, and turned him over on his face.

  The commander's own face was grim.

  By this time, some of the nearby men, attracted by the yell, had come running. They came to a stop as they saw the tableau before them.

  The commander, kneeling beside the corpse, looked up at them. With one hand, he gestured at the body. “Let this be a lesson to all of you,” he said in a tight voice. “This man died because he took off his armor. That"-he pointed at the butchered reptile-"thing is full of as deadly a poison as you'll ever see, and it can move like lightning. But it can't bite through steel!

  "Look well at this man and tell the others what you saw. I don't want to lose another man in this idiotic fashion."

  He stood up and gestured.

  "Bury him."

  CHAPTER VII

  They found, as they penetrated deeper into the savage-infested hinterlands of the Empire of the Great Nobles, that the armor fended off more than just snakes. Hardly a day passed but one or more of the men would hear the sharp spang! of a blowgun-driven dart as it slammed ineffectually against his armored back or chest. At first, some of the men wanted to charge into the surrounding forest, whence the darts came, and punish the sniping aliens, but the commander would have none of it.

  "Stick together,” he ordered. “They'll do worse to us if we're split up in this jungle. Those blowgun darts aren't going to hurt you as long as they're hitting steel. Ignore them and keep moving."

  They kept moving.

  Around them, the jungle chattered and muttered, and, occasionally, screamed. Clouds of insects, great and small, hummed and buzzed through the air. They subsided only when the drizzling rains came, and then lifted again from their resting places when the sun came out to raise steamy vapors from the moist ground.

  It was not an easy march. Before many days had passed, the men's feet were cracked and blistered from the effects of fungus, dampness, and constant marching. The compact military marching order which had characterized the first few days of march had long since deteriorated into a straggling column, where the weaker were supported by the stronger.

  Three more men died. One simply dropped in his tracks. He was dead before anyone could touch him. Insect bite? Disease? No one knew.

  Another had been even less fortunate. A lionlike carnivore had leaped on him during the night and clawed him badly before one of his companions blasted the thing with a power weapon. Three days later, the wounded man was begging to be killed; one arm and one leg were gangrenous. But he died while begging, thus sparing any would-be executioner from an unpleasant duty.

  The third man simply failed to show up for roll call one morning. He was never seen again.

  But the rest of the column, with dauntless courage, followed the lead of their commander.

  * * * *

  It was hard to read their expressions, those reddened eyes that peered at him from swollen, bearded faces. But he knew his own face looked no different.

  "We all knew this wasn't going to be a fancy-dress ball when we came,” he said. “Nobody said this was going to be the easiest way in the world to get rich."

  The commander was sitting on one of the carriers, his eyes watching the men, who were lined up in front of him. His voice was purposely
held low, but it carried well.

  "The marching has been difficult, but now we're really going to see what we're made of.

  "We all need a rest, and we all deserve one. But when I lie down to rest, I'm going to do it in a halfway decent bed, with some good, solid food in my belly.

  "Here's the way the picture looks: An hour's march from here, there's a good-sized village.” He swung partially away from them and pointed south. “I think we have earned that town and everything in it."

  He swung back, facing them. There was a wolfish grin on his face. “There's gold there, too. Not much, really, compared with what we'll get later on, but enough to whet our appetites."

  The men's faces were beginning to change now, in spite of the swelling.

  "I don't think we need worry too much about the savages that are living there now. With God on our side, I hardly see how we can fail."

  He went on, telling them how they would attack the town, the disposition of men, the use of the carriers, and so forth. By the time he was through, every man there was as eager as he to move in. When he finished speaking, they set up a cheer:

  "For the Emperor and the Universal Assembly!"

  * * * *

  The natives of the small village had heard that some sort of terrible beings were approaching through the jungle. Word had come from the people of the forest that the strange monsters were impervious to darts, and that they had huge dragons with them which were terrifying even to look at. They were clad in metal and made queer noises as they moved.

  The village chieftain called his advisers together to ponder the situation. What should they do with these strange things? What were the invaders’ intentions?

  Obviously, the things must be hostile. Therefore, there were only two courses open-fight or flee. The chieftain and his men decided to fight. It would have been a good thing if there had only been some Imperial troops in the vicinity, but all the troops were farther south, where a civil war was raging over the right of succession of the Greatest Noble.

  Nevertheless, there were two thousand fighting men in the village-well, two thousand men at any rate, and they would certainly all fight, although some were rather young and a few were too old for any really hard fighting. On the other hand, it would probably not come to that, since the strangers were outnumbered by at least three to one.

  The chieftain gave his orders for the defense of the village.

  * * * *

  The invading Earthmen approached the small town cautiously from the west. The commander had his men spread out a little, but not so much that they could be separated. He saw the aliens grouped around the square, boxlike buildings, watching and waiting for trouble.

  "We'll give them trouble,” the commander whispered softly. He waited until his troops were properly deployed, then he gave the signal for the charge.

  The carriers went in first, thundering directly into the massed alien warriors. Each carrier-man fired a single shot from his power weapon, and then went to work with his carrier, running down the terrified aliens, and swinging a sword with one hand while he guided with the other. The commander went in with that first charge, aiming his own carrier toward the center of the fray. He had some raw, untrained men with him, and he believed in teaching by example.

  The aliens recoiled at the onslaught of what they took to be horrible living monsters that were unlike anything ever seen before.

  Then the commander's infantry charged in. The shock effect of the carriers had been enough to disorganize the aliens, but the battle was not over yet by a long shot.

  There were yells from other parts of the village as some of the other defenders, hearing the sounds of battle, came running to reinforce the home guard. Better than fifteen hundred men were converging on the spot.

  The invading Earthmen moved in rapidly against the armed natives, beating them back by the sheer ferocity of their attack. Weapons of steel clashed against weapons of bronze and wood.

  The power weapons were used only sparingly; only when the necessity to save a life was greater than the necessity to conserve weapon charges was a shot fired.

  The commander, from the center of the fray, took a glance around the area. One glance was enough.

  "They're dropping back!” he bellowed, his voice carrying well above the din of the battle, “Keep ‘em moving!” He singled out one of his officers at a distance, and yelled: “Hernan! Get a couple of men to cover that street!” He waved toward one of the narrow streets that ran off to one side. The others were already being attended to.

  The commander jerked around swiftly as one of the natives grabbed hold of the carrier and tried to hack at the commander with a bronze sword. The commander spitted him neatly on his blade and withdrew it just in time to parry another attack from the other side.

  By this time, the reinforcements from the other parts of the village were beginning to come in from the side streets, but they were a little late. The warriors in the square-what was left of them-had panicked. In an effort to get away from the terrible monsters with their deadly blades and their fire-spitting weapons, they were leaving by the same channels that the reinforcements were coming in by, and the resultant jam-up was disastrous. The panic communicated itself like wildfire, but no one could move fast enough to get away from the sweeping, stabbing, glittering blades of the invading Earthmen.

  "All right,” the commander yelled, “we've got ‘em on the run now! Break up into squads of three and clear those streets! Clear ‘em out! Keep ‘em moving!"

  After that, it was the work of minutes to clear the town.

  The commander brought his carrier to a dead stop, reached out with his sword, and snagged a bit of cloth from one of the fallen native warriors. He began to wipe the blade of his weapon as Lieutenant commander Hernan pulled up beside him.

  "Casualties?” the commander asked Hernan without looking up from his work.

  "Six wounded, no dead,” said Hernan. “Or did you want me to count the aliens, too?"

  The commander shook his head. “No. Get a detail to clear out the carrion, and then tell Frater Vincent I want to talk to him. We'll have to start teaching these people the Truth."

  CHAPTER VIII

  "Have you anything to say in your defense?” the commander asked coldly.

  For a moment, the accused looked nothing but hatred at the commander, but there was fear behind that hatred. At last he found his voice. “It was mine. You promised us all a share."

  Lieutenant commander Hernan picked up a leather bag that lay on the table behind which he and the commander were sitting. With a sudden gesture, he upended it, dumping its contents on the flat, wooden surface of the table.

  "Do you deny that this was found among your personal possessions?” he asked harshly.

  "No,” said the accused soldier. “Why should I? It's mine. Rightfully mine. I fought for it. I found it. I kept it. It's mine.” He glanced to either side, towards the two guards who flanked him, then looked back at the commander.

  The commander ran an idle finger through the pound or so of golden trinkets that Hernan had spilled from the bag. He knew what the trooper was thinking. A man had a right to what he had earned, didn't he?

  The commander picked up one of the heavier bits of primitive jewelry and tossed it in his hand. Then he stood up and looked around the town square.

  The company had occupied the town for several weeks. The stored grains in the community warehouse, plus the relaxation the men had had, plus the relative security of the town, had put most of the men back into condition. One had died from a skin infection, and another from wounds sustained in the assault on the town, but the remainder were in good health.

  And all of them, with the exception of the sentries guarding the town's perimeter, were standing in the square, watching the court-martial. Their eyes didn't seem to blink, and their breathing was soft and measured. They were waiting for the commander's decision.

  The commander, still tossing the crude golden earring, stood tall
and straight, estimating the feeling of the men surrounding him.

  "Gold,” he said finally. “Gold. That's what we came here for, and that's what we're going to get. Five hundred pounds of the stuff would make any one of you wealthy for the rest of his life. Do you think I blame any one of you for wanting it? Do you think I blame this man here? Of course not.” He laughed-a short, hard bark. “Do I blame myself?"

  He tossed the bauble again, caught it. “But wanting it is one thing; getting it, holding it, and taking care of it wisely are something else again.

  "I gave orders. I have expected-and still expect-that they will be obeyed. But I didn't give them just to hear myself give orders. There was a reason, and a good one.

  "Suppose we let each man take what gold he could find. What would happen? The lucky ones would be wealthy, and the unlucky would still be poor. And then some of the lucky ones would wake up some morning without the gold they'd taken because someone else had relieved them of it while they slept.

  "And others wouldn't wake up at all, because they'd be found with their throats cut.

  "I told you to bring every bit of the metal to me. When this thing is over, every one of you will get his share. If a man dies, his share will be split among the rest, instead of being stolen by someone else or lost because it was hidden too well."

  He looked at the earring in his hand, then, with a convulsive sweep of his arm, he tossed it out into the middle of the square.

  "There! Seven ounces of gold! Which of you wants it?"

  Some of the men eyed the circle of metal that gleamed brightly on the sunlit ground, but none of them made any motion to pick it up.

  "So.” The commander's voice was almost gentle. He turned his eyes back toward the accused. “You know the orders. You knew them when you hid this.” He gestured negligently toward the small heap of native-wrought metal. “Suppose you'd gotten away with it. You'd have ended up with your own share, plus this, thereby cheating the others out of—” He glanced at the pile. “Hm-m-m-say, twenty-five each. And that's only a little compared with what we'll get from now on."