Eric Flint The rats, The bats and the Ugly

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.Myself and a handful ofrats and bats were the only survivors in our bunker."The colonel snorted."A likely story.And you fought your way out, and then found your way back here."Chip could see where this was heading.So he thought he might as well do it properly."Yes, sir.That'sright, sir.But to get out we had to destroy the Magh' force-field generator.So we did.We killed acouple of hundred thousand Maggots, rescued Ms.Virginia Shaw, liberated a scorpiary for the army,and here I am.I knew you'd be pleased to see me here at good ol' Camp Marmian again, sir."The company clerk poured her coffee onto her keyboard.Chip nearly killed his first officer by giving himapoplexy.It was fascinating.To get a lobster to go that color you had to boil them.The colonel, it appeared, was too incoherent to talk properly.But he did have Private Chip Connollydragged off to the stockade in record time.* * *An hour later the company clerk came over to the cells."Private, I need some details for the chargesheets.The computer system has locked up most of your data as you're still being captured as dead.""Best time to capture someone, when they're dead," said Chip cheerfully.He was still lost in that headyarea of lightheartedness which comes out of not being dead, when you expected to be.Somehow, beinglisted as dead brought it all back.She was not amused."The colonel is already going to throw the book at you at the court-martial,Connolly.Don't make things worse for yourself.""Oh, good.I've always wanted a book," said Chip giggling."I could use something to read in here." Hewent and sat down on the bunk, still laughing."This isn't a laughing matter," she snapped."Be afraid, Private Connolly.You're in dire shit!"Chip got up and walked over to the bars."Listen, Corp.I've been in dire shit for so long that I've kind ofrun out of 'being afraid.' I've survived nearly six months as a front-line soldier.I've seen Maggots kill mostof my squad.My girlfriend bought it in that attack.We got buried alive and over-run.We dug ourselvesout inside the frigging scorpiary.We spent days on the run from the Maggots.At one stage I had achoice of starving to death or being eaten by the rats.We decided that as we going to die there, we weregonna take a lot of Maggots along with us.And in the end of it, me and a handful of crazy bats anddrunken rats blew the crap out of the whole scorpiary.We took on ten-million-to-one odds, on a junkyold tractor without any brakes.And some of us died, Corp.But I didn't.Between us we cracked theforce field and killed the Maggot colony's brains.When the paratroopers got there, I was getting luckywith a really fantastic girl, who also happens to be rich and beautiful.My mates were getting drunk andhaving Maggot barbeque.Major Van Klomp told us that we're an invaluable military asset, and a bunchof useless drunks."Chip rubbed the stubble on his chin."So when I come back to my unit like a good little soldier.Thecolonel craps me out for not having shaved and puts me in the brig, because I'm dead." He shook hishead at the corporal."And you tell me it's no laughing matter.Well, if I didn't laugh, I'd have to cry.AndI'm too happy to be alive to cry."The colonel's clerk looked at Chip as if actually seeing him for the first time."You're either completelycrazy.or you're not joking." She turned to the sergeant who was in charge of the cells."What do youthink, Ngui?"The sergeant scratched his chin."Well.Like you say, he's either crazy or telling the truth.I'd saycrazy if it wasn't for the fact that it's been on the news last night.The scorpiary being captured.Shaw'sdaughter being rescued.Only they said it was some Special Services commando that did it."Chip's shoulders shook."Commandos, my ass.We told them we were just a bunch of grunts in thewrong place at the right time.The reporters wouldn't believe us.That's all there was to it, Sarge.TheMaggots didn't know how the hell to deal with us, once we were inside their nest.We got lucky, and wegot out alive.And now I've come back."The both stared at him.Finally the corporal spoke."But.did they just send you here without anytravel instructions?" The colonel's clerk plainly lived by paperwork.It was obviously hard for her toaccept that anything could be true without it."Who's 'they,' to write it in the first place?" asked Chip, shrugging."Lieutenant Rosetski isn't writinganything without an Ouija board.He died the first hour of the Magh' assault.And the next officer I sawwas Major Van Klomp.He was told by some major general at HQ to send Ginny Shaw back at oncewith an armed escort.Ginny told him that she wanted us for an escort.So he radioed the general andsaid he was sending her back with us."Chip had to grin at the memory.Van Klomp had described the rats and bats as "the toughest commandogroup in the HAR army.Really special Special Services soldiers." Which, as Van Klomp had saidafterwards, was a fine description so long as the major general didn't actually see them."Major Van Klomp organized an escort back to line three," he continued, "and a driver and transport totake us to divisional headquarters.Weather was really down and the choppers couldn't fly.""But.didn't he get his clerk to cut you any orders?" demanded the colonel's clerk.Chip looked pityingly at her.She was a slight young woman with a pale face, and she walked with apronounced limp.He would wager a guess that she was probably stationed in the camp because she wasmedically unfit for combat duty.That was hardly her fault, even if a lot of women would like to swapplaces with her.She obviously knew very little about front-line conditions."Things were kind ofconfused, Corp.There were a lot of Maggots still around, and not one hell of a lot of paper.We had anescort from the major with us back through to the vehicle.There was supposed to be an escort waitingthere for us, but it got delayed, and we didn't wait."She thrust her head forward inquisitorially."Then how did you get back here from divisionheadquarters?""I asked some brigadier.Charlesworth.Yeah, that was his name, where we should go now.He waskind of taken up with fawning over Ginny and was in a flap because somebody had locked him up in hisown headquarters.You can't believe the chaos there.I thought the captured scorpiary was a mess, butthat camp was more like a disturbed ants' nest than a camp.He said we should get to our units as soonas possible.I asked around and they told me that the remains of my unit were sent back to CampMarmian.I tried the transport officer.He didn't know or care who some grubby Vat was, but he told methat I could go on next Vat redeployment trucks in a week or two, if I could find space.Or make myown plan.He said much the same but worse about the rats and bats.He was too busy trying to pleaseexplain why they'd cooperated with Major Fitzhugh and would I bugger off.So I did.I cadged a lift withone of the trucks transporting the captured Magh' stuff back to the university research unit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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