Becca jerked awake as Kovac tossed in his sleep, he was drenched in sweat and as she reached out for him Kovac sat upright with a gasp, he looked around wildly and then a shudder seemed to pass through him. Becca reached a hand out to touch his shoulder, he flinched violently and stumbled out of the bed, there was a crash as he overturned a bedside table.
"It's ok, it's ok, baby it was only a dream," Becca hurried round the bed to his side, Kovac turned to her, nude and gleaming with sweat, his eyes were wide and he was still shaking.
The door burst open and Knickers was in the doorway, a pistol in her right hand supported on her left wrist, in her left hand was a long bladed knife. She scanned the room and on seeing Kovac, his back to the room his muscles taut and his breathing heavy she lowered the weapons and hurriedly crossed the room.
"Same dream big man?" She asked softly.
Kovac blinked and looked down at her, He nodded mutely and let her reach up and hook her fingers round the back of his neck, she pulled his head down so their foreheads touched. They paused like this for barely a moment and then pulled apart, Knickers nodded to Becca and turned for the door.
Becca stared after the soldier for a moment and then turned to Kovac who looked calmer again. "You alright?" She handed him a glass of water.
Kovac took a drink and nodded, "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"
"One of these days you're going to explain to me why I have no problem with you and Knickers sharing a naked cuddle in our bedroom...does she know what your dreams are about?"
"Then why don't I? Look I love the woman but I've known you longer, we go back to the academy."
Kovac closed his eyes for a moment and then turned to face Becca directly, "When you and Wolf and all our old friends were settling into your first commands I was burying a wife and child and when she..." he pointed after Knickers and then paused, "we've been through a lot together and we've helped each other out."
"Ok, are you alright now? Do you want to talk? Look if the dream keeps happening maybe we should retire, you've been through enough surely."
"I sleep fine after battles Bex, that has never been my problem, I'm alright," he kissed her, "Thank you, I might go down to the gym, not going to sleep much more tonight."
Dawn found Becca sitting with Wolf watching Kovac in the ring, "didn't fancy facing him yourself today?"
Wolf shook his head, "No fear, not in this mood, I'll stay out of his way."
In the ring stood Ty a soldier from Captain Dorman's 3 Troop and probably the largest man in the squadron, nearly equal in height to Kovac's 6 and a half feet, he was bigger in build, the Major and Trooper had enjoyed a competative sparring rivalry since their days in the 88th.
The two men circled one another, and locked up, Ty's dark black skin contrasting against the white of Kovac's hair as the Major was forced to one knee. The watching crowd stood and roared it's approval as the Major had to break free.
Becca could barely see as she heard the shouts of the soldiers.
"That's it Ty batter him, don't let him out of the corner, keep the pressure on,"
"He's gone southpaw Ty, look out!"
"No, move quicker, don't let him circle you like that!"
"No stop him moving, lock it up, use your strength."
Wolf who was standing on his chair looked like he was close to joining in he was so animated, "god Kovac is quick, COME ON TY!, GO ON SON PIN HIM IN THE CORN....OOooooh."
Becca clambered onto her chair to look over the heads in front, Ty was staggering backwards but unloaded a thunderous right hook that Kovac ducked under before straightening and with a jump bringing his own left cross into the side of Ty's jaw. Ty dropped to his knees clearly dazed and Kovac applied a sleeper hold, it was over moments later.
When the two officers reached the front Kovac was shaking hands with Ty who was in full flow explaining the origin of the term "southpaw".
That afternoon in Kovac's office after Staff King had been by to reprimand the Major for injuring himself and a trooper Kovac delivered the news everyone had been expecting.
"We've been back for long enough, time to go out to Fo-ro-shall and deal with the Bartuq. Gilly is content with the set up out there although he would like some bigger guns...wouldn't we all."
"The sergeant-major has been briefing the sergeants so stay out of their way, let them do their jobs and look closely at the new info Gilly sent back."
"Bartuq pirates are a nuisance out there but isn't it more of a concern that any troop movement out there is going to stir up the Xhost? Do we need permission to carry out our operation?" Becca asked, it was a question she had asked before.
"That's being handled." Kovac replied.
The exact solution to the issue was revealed the day after the Dark Horses had deployed en masse to Fo-ro-shall the Towoli planet. Kovac was sitting with Wolf when Capt ain Gillespie arrived with two others in tow.
Wolf saw them coming and stood, Kovac turned and copied his Captain.
Gillespie stopped and turned to introduce the man on his right, "Major I'm sure you're pleased to make the reacquaintance of Staff Sergeant Sam White, call sign 'Ugly', Gunner extraordinaire of Griffin Battery and," said Gillespie turning to his left, "needs no introduction but I like saying it; Brigadier-General Michaela Jones."
The four officers shook hands, "Major, how are my soldiers?" The general asked.
"Well ma'am, it's good to see you," Kovac said to the small heavy set woman opposite.
"Your soldiers ma'am?" Ugly asked.
"Oh not anymore, not since Kovac stole them," Michaela replied with a grin.
"Still your soldiers ma'am, like their OC they'd follow you anywhere, I'd have invaded Hell if you'd led the way"
"I think with two more of you I could conquer it, but I think the day this lot were anything but yours is long gone, gone up in Aprasi smoke," the general said taking a seat.
"That's right I heard about this, you were on Doltoi-4 when the Korlax attacked and you received orders to retreat," Ugly said leaning out of his seat to point at Kovac.
"The Aprasi had declined membership to the Galactic Council and so were not entitled to our defence was the decision, so when the Korlax Dominion struck and were systematically wiping out whole villages we were told to retreat to Council space." Kovac said.
"The Major here, fresh from whatever heroics he'd pulled in the Reinax system decided he wasn't going anywhere." Michaela said with a faint smile.
"We'd been there as an envoy, a good faith mission, 1st batallion the 88th Combat Engineers had been constructing some new planetary docks as a hearts&minds effort," Gillespie said, staring into the night, "we saw first hand what the Korlax were doing."
"I saw the parents of the Aprasi young form a living wall between the Korlax and the creche...mothers and fathers facing down war machines, so I decided I was going to have their backs." Kovac said a little harshly.
"And you pinched a batallion of combat engineers to do it," the general teased.
"I ordered my men off the planet and then I went about my business," Kovac said calmly.
"To a man, the 88th followed Kovac," said Gillespie proudly.
"I heard that because a whole batallion defected they couldn't hold all those courts marshal so they just let you all go as a band of mercenaries?" Ugly queried.
"With the help of a sympathetic Brigadier," Kovac said nodding to the general, "it was bad press, hero humans save the day and get charged."
"Human pack-bonding is how it was sold to the media," said the General.
"It wasn't, was just the right thing to do," said Kovac, "We were engineers, ubique, quo fas et gloria ducunt and all that, seemed the right thing to do. So I reformed the survivors into a squadron and we became the Dark Horses, the Brigadier as she was then made sure we were looked after."
Michaela waved the comment away and gave a gesture to the darkness, "what is the situation here Major? What are you dealing with?"
"Short version? The Towoli are getting raided by the Bartuq and the presence of the Xhost border is stopping any involvement of the GCDF, nobody wants to rile up the zealots. We've been approached to deal with the raiders."
"It's unlikely the Xhost will take offence at the presence of a mercenary unit but I'll do what I can to ensure them we have no intent to increase our presence here."
"And the presence of the EDC near Thresh?" Kovac asked.
"Is not the purview of a mercenary leader nor of a Combat Engineers Squadron leader," the general replied a little abruptly.
Kovac and Gilly shared a glance and Gilly turned to Ugly, "you know Kovac is with Becca? Uhh Captain Hayward?"
Talk moved away from the past to the present and the future, and thoughts moved away from the violence that was to come.
Dawn broke on a cold grey morning, the Dark Horses shivered through stand to, and then broke camp and the three troops were moved into position.
Captain Gillespie looked through his omni-goggles and called positions through his comms, 1 troop advanced quietly as 3 troop pushed forward hard, racing to get in position.
For a minute there was peace and then the silence of the morning splintered as Griffin Battery opened their first volley, directed to their targets by Captain Gillespie one more time, in the years since they had worked together Ugly and his men had lost none of their skill and in the 10s flight time of the first shell the guns sounded twice more, in less than a minute the 18 targets were reduced to rubble and Griffin Battery fell silent.
On the sound of the first gun Captain Dorman led his men out, the guns sounded their last retort as Gray led his men through the new breech. The outer defences reduced to rubble Wolf led his men forward into the killing ground and as the Bartuq defenders opened fire 2 Troop started to hammer their position. Gillespie directed howitzer fire to the centre of the Bartuq defences, many of the shells were deflected off but they were enough to limit the Bartuq defence.
Inside the Bartuq fortifications Captain Dorman and his men were hard pressed, Dorman knelt over the wounded trooper Ito shielding him from further harm. He shouted orders and directed fire as the defender's numbers started to count against his men. Aware he was being flanked Dorman pulled some of his men back and raced round the edge of a building.
Attacking a group of armed aggressors with hand to hand combat was not wise or logical but it was unexpected and would hopefully buy his men the time they needed to receive the back up from Wolf. Besides Dorman was a human and that counted for something, the Bartuq would be more afraid that humans were attacking than they would by superior numbers, or so he hoped.
Hearing the approach of the Bartuq unit Dorman closed his eyes and repeated the only prayer he thought might work, "God I hope I live through this."
As they rounded the corner the Bartuq were met by a single human, armed with a knife and a side arm he dropped the first three amphibians before the creatures could react. Dorman did not have the skill of Wolf nor the speed and power of Kovac but he was a human, powered by human adrenaline and fear and he was frantic. By keeping in their midst he neutralized their weapons but he couldn't do much about their numerical advantage, his attack lasted nearly 30 seconds and he injured over a dozen before they knocked him off his feet and the shots rang out.
Dorman had his hands over his head when Fluke reached him, "sorry sir, couldn't open fire till you were down or we may have hit you. We're in sir, Captain Wolf asks if you can regroup your men and move to the west post for the next advance to contact."
Dorman thanked the sergeant, took a moment to ensure he was bullet free and turned to find his men, Sergeant Webb had them in position when he joined them, the career soldier gave his commanding officer a nod and dropped back.
The Dark Horses pushed through the defences of the Bartuq meeting stiff resistance but only suffering minor casualties. Wolf and Dorman used their troops to good effect, capturing choke points and stopping the enemy from organising.
The humans didn't have it all their own way, the Bartuq rallied and counter attacked cutting off a small group of soldiers, the attack itself was stopped by Captain Becca's 2 Troop who were moving behind the two advance troops for precisely that reason. Communications relayed the situation, Kovac had been cut off with three soldiers, Ty, Costa and Butlanska.
"We can't cut our way out, but we can hole up till you push through, over" Kovac assured his concerned Captains.
"Wolf is going to hold position, Dorman and I will push through together and get to you, over" Becca said, she lowered her communications device and gestured at her Sergeant "why was Kovac that far advanced!?" Knickers gave a shrug.
"Negative, maintain the advance, this is what they want, they want to break us up and big us down, maintain the advance, Wolf must keep pushing forward. We can hold until Dorman gets to us, 2 Troop must maintain the screen, acknowledge, over" Kovac's voice came over the communicator.
Becca swore, "confirmed, continue advance, over,"
"We're secure here, we're able to..." Kovac cut off.
"Kovac!?" Becca sent the call repeatedly.
"Wait. out," came the terse reply.
Kovac and Costa flattened against the wall as the Bartuq hurried past, Kovac growled in irritation, "these counters are going to keep happening unless they keep the pressure in and we'll end up just rescuing people all day."
"Can we not fight through sir?" Costa asked.
"Not bloody likely, we can still be a thorn in their arse though, god knows you and Ty have enough practice..." Kovac broke off as two Bartuq rounded the corner.
Costa raised his rifle but lowered it as Kovac sprang into the gap, he drove his body into the Bartuq on his right and stabbed out with his long bladed knife at the amphibian on the left. He rounded on the winded Bartuq and stabbed it through the skull.
The two humans fell back to the room Ty and Butlanska were concealed in, both were nursing injuries, neither life threatening but enough to put them at risk if attacked. Kovac checked them both and returned to the doorway.
"Listen Costa, the only way we stop them from clearing us out is by making them think we are more than two non-injured soldiers. That means no extended firefights, get in close and personal. Side arm and that damn kukri I'm not supposed to know you carry," Kovac clapped a hand on his shoulder, "you're quicker and faster than the Bartuq but remember they outweigh us, a frog your size will have significant weight on you so avoid a wrestling match."
"Sir I'm not sure I'm up to this, I'm not you or Captain Wolf or Sergeant Knickers." Costa said weakly.
"You're afraid? Good, fear makes you quick, human adrenaline is a black market drug in the outer rim," Kovac turned to face Costa, "stick a collar on that beast in your chest and ride it till we're done. If you want to keep waking up with Ty and sneaking back to your own room then you'd best fight to keep them away from that room, and trooper while we're on the subject, it's been 3 years, you're a couple just accept it." With that Kovac leapt out on three Bartuq.
For the rest of his life Costa remembered that afternoon as a blur, the Bartuq seemed to move at quarter speed and all the while he battled a fear that threatened to overwhelm him.
When Sergeant Knickers led a sortie into the tunnels they found dozens of Bartuq dead, Kovac was covered head to toe in the purplish blood of the Bartuq, Costa imagined he must look similar. The Major gave him a nod before heading off to meet with his captains.
The Bartuq had suffered heavy casualties and lost much of their equipment, their heavily defended compound was captured but two more bolt holes had been found and would need clearing before they could go home.
It's a subject of much debate wether humans are the galaxy's best warriors. Many would say the Flet are superior and it's accepted that the Rhul are both stronger and faster, certain other races like the Frell possess weapons of mass destruction to rival the human's.
In my experience humans don't all possess an affinity for war, but those trained to do it can tap into a level of ingenuity and physical capability that no other race possess.
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