Chapter Eighteen
“Hold your fire! God damn it! I’m going to shove that gun up your ass and pull the trigger myself if you fire it one more time, soldier!
Those are friendlies!” Connor’s second, Griffin, bellowed and then stomped down the walk and punched the man in the face who’d discharged his weapon, knocking him flat.
A ‘flock’ of around fifty Izun warriors landed in the courtyard directly behind the ‘incident’.
Fortunately, due to poor marksmanship and luck, the young man that had ‘accidentally’ fired his weapon, missed.
He did manage to piss off a lot of people, though.
Belle sure was glad it was him and not her.
Because she was pretty sure if he lived long enough he was going to be catching hell for that for a while.
Torr, she saw, had led the group in.
He looked around when he landed, spied her, and tensed as if he would immediately join her.
Connor and Ryne appeared. Connor was carrying a notebook as he strode towards the group of Izun.
He summoned his second, Griffin, when he caught his eye and then Connor, Griffin, Ryne and the other warriors gathered around and studied the holograph Connor pulled up and discussed the pros and cons of the geological features.
A handful of latecomers among the Izun arrived that included Roque and Terran.
The discussion between the warriors-soldiers went on for more than an hour by Belle’s best guess, but finally everyone seemed to agree with the plan they’d come up with.
Griffin returned to the walk and strode down the line of people manning defense, tapping the shoulders of every second militia soldier.
Each one he tapped left the wall and headed down to join Connor and the Izun warriors.
Two of the soldiers were sent to retrieve the extra weapons they had and then they showed the warriors that got them how to use them.
There weren’t enough to go around, but the warriors had weapons of their own that they were completely familiar with.
Hand to hand weapons, primarily.
Nothing long range like their guns except something like a bow used to shoot pointed projectiles that more closely resembled darts than arrows. Or like arrows with short shafts.
About thirty minutes after that, the group formed up and left the compound--the soldiers marching in formation, the Izun simply following.
Belle didn’t know about the others, but she began to grow tense almost the moment the last of them disappeared into the forest.
Griffin appointed a handful of defenders for KP duty and sent them off to prepare food. When the tone sounded to allow everyone to know the food was done, Griffin ordered everyone to remain at the wall and then told every third person to head down to eat and report back in ten minutes.
They jogged.
Dusk had settled over the compound before the last of the defenders managed to grab a bite to eat. Belle hadn’t even managed to make it back to her post when there was a deafening explosion that shook the air, the ground, and the walls.
Half of the women screamed.
Including Belle.
Some of the men, too.
And ducked.
When Belle finally spied the results of the explosion, she saw that the fireball and smoke seemed to be miles away.
And nearly had heart failure when she caught sight of the Artemis.
“Oh my god! It’s the Artemis!” she cried out, trying to figure out how it was the Artemis.
Why she had no problem understanding. That had been a cannon shot--from the ship’s near object deflection guns.
“It must be the AI flying it! That was a plasma bomb. Captain Connor must have programmed the AI to attack,” a man further along the wall announced.
Belle’s heart swelled with pride and relief.
She should’ve known Connor would think of something!
It hadn’t occurred to her that they could use the ship’s defense system to protect them, though--because it hadn’t occurred to her that the AI would be able to maneuver the ship to use them.
She was distracted by noises of an engagement closer to the colony once the echoes of the explosion died down. But on the heels of that there were several more hard explosions in rapid succession.
She couldn’t imagine the ship was attacking the enemy army directly--with the cannons.
Maybe it was their camp?
Or some structures she hadn’t seen before?
Something like the place Ryne and Torr had taken her?
That thought resurrected warm memories in spite of the situation, but it wasn’t hard to banish it and focus on the warfare going on close enough she could hear it--especially considering Ryne and Connor both were caught up in it.
And it occurred to her that some of the noise seemed to be getting closer.
In fact it was.