Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [65]
Nevertheless, they raised their guns and shot the treeling out of Nahton's hands, shattering the pot. The small worldtree splintered. Nahton let it crash to the floor, staring in astonishment.
Captain McCammon charged into the room, his face flushed. 'Halt! All of you!'
But the men had other orders. Stricken, Nahton raised his hands in surrender. That didn't stop them from opening fire.
Thirty-seven
Davlin Lotze
In the afternoon, Klikiss scout parties returned to the Llaro settlement carrying five human bodies. The victims were refugee farmers who had fled when the Klikiss razed their holds. Without any guidance or safe haven, they had wandered the countryside, hiding themselves wherever they could. Without sufficient food, they had become careless. The Klikiss had found them.
Standing on rooftops and makeshift scaffolding inside their walls, the trapped townspeople watched the scouts march toward the main alien city. They shouted questions and challenges, insults, curses. But the Klikiss didn't attach any particular significance to the bodies they carried, the innocent people they had killed.
Davlin knew he had to do something to ensure that it didn't happen again. He had to keep more of the desperate human fugitives from being killed just because they had no place else to go. He had to give the colonists an option, offer them some way to defend themselves. Margaret had told him everything he needed to know so that he could start forming a plan.
He had interviewed the colonists, compiling a mental list of their skills and expertise. They were talented farmers, miners, and true pioneer types. Very few were EDF veterans, and none of them was a crack soldier. Those willing to accept the Hansa colonization stipend were usually disenfranchised, cut off from other opportunities.
None of the original Llaro colonists or Roamer detainees knew much about the EDF weapons the soldiers had possessed before their barracks were wiped out. However, because Llaro was a holding zone for so many reluctant Roamers, Davlin hoped that the paranoid Chairman had stocked the armoury well.
Outside the wall, the main EDF hangar and a few maintenance sheds were far enough from the alien city that the Klikiss hadn't touched them yet. But with the rapid expansion of the hive, those buildings would soon be in the way. Davlin knew he had to raid them as soon as possible.
He waited until the pastel sky deepened into darkness before he slipped away with nothing more than a small handlight, using it only when absolutely necessary. With good eyesight and an excellent grasp of his surroundings, he made his way to the remaining EDF supply shacks and the hangar. He broke in using Hansa override codes he had memorized long ago.
Davlin studied everything the hapless soldiers had left behind. He found the locked armoury, complete with fifty weapons, mostly wide-dispersal scatter shots and twitchers used for stunning crowds (no doubt intended to keep Roamer prisoners in line). He found explosive projectiles, grenades, shoulder-mounted jazers, and old-fashioned smoke canisters. Another bunker held bulk explosives earmarked for mining and construction. He didn't know exactly what he would do with everything, but he intended to cache all the weapons for later use. He was sure the colonists would eventually need them.
The next bunker was a fuel depot containing three barrels of in-system fuel, enough to keep the camp's Remoras flying, though not with stardrive engines. Next, Davlin shone his light around in the large empty hangar. One of the dedicated Remoras had been destroyed when faeros fireballs had arrived in the skies, one was undergoing maintenance, its two engines dismounted for cleaning and by-the-book inspection. Davlin cursed under his breath. He wasn't sure anybody on Llaro had the engineering background to reassemble the craft and make it flightworthy again.
The last Remora, though, was fuelled up and ready to go. Davlin's plans quickly fell into place.
For the next several nights,