Frays In The Weave 67 Battlefield: 2

"They're dead! I don't believe it. They're all dead!"

Granita looked at him.

Heinrich shook his head. Otherworld had proven it wasn't toothless, not even against federation equipment. He wasn't even certain he could have stood up against those body walkers with his own unit. So many! And we never even knew they had them!

"Listen up everyone!" He let his gaze linger on each face turned to him. "We got whipped. Otherworld just won the day against Goodard's troops. As far as I know the launch port is undefended, and I don't think anyone remaining there is interested in trying to hold it against what I just saw."

He looked at the ashen expressions around him. Yes, we got whipped good. What the h.e.l.l happens now? The thought was slightly disturbing, but it was in a way also exhilarating. He had expected a ma.s.sacre, but never in his wildest nightmare had he expected it to take this turn. We're the Terran Federation. We just got slaughtered by a bunch of farmers!

"What happens now?"

Heinrich turned to Arthur. So there were more thinking the way he did then? "I don't know. We violated the Perth treaty. I hope Admiral Radovic signs our surrender as fast as possible."

"Surrender?" One of Granita's crew voiced the question.

"Yes, surrender dammit! Federation's supposed to be there to make d.a.m.n sure everyone keeps that treaty. How do you think I feel knowing my own people broke it?"

"You're so holier than anyone else, and..."

"Shut it!" Granita ordered. "Heinrich's not part of this. Don't think anybody but that f.u.c.ker is."

And his goons, Heinrich thought. How the h.e.l.l did we end up here? Our own d.a.m.n military let a b.l.o.o.d.y missionary through! d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n! d.a.m.n! "It's al-right. I think I kind of deserve it on behalf of my idiot fellow soldiers." It was true, but the truth didn't make him any happier.

"So, we surrender, and what then?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know. Not my problem, or at least not my decision to make." And that was another truth, and this one did make him happier, or at least relieved.

"I apologize," Arthur surprisingly admitted. "You lost good men back there."

They hadn't really been his men, but Heinrich accepted Arthur's words. Six TADAT dead. He nodded some kind of thanks. "I guess we continue south anyway," he said. "Goodard probably isn't among the dead. I wouldn't be surprised if he just abandons the launch port and comes after us with whatever troops he has remaining."

Arthur's eyes showed he hadn't expected that. They were wide open, almost comical to watch, and Heinrich allowed himself to smile for the first time that day.

Slowly they went to gather their belongings, and he had Elisabeth oversee the packing of the portable alarms. They needed them now, maybe even more than before.

The news from Orbit One about Goodard was all but comforting. He wondered who would have to clean out that mess back home, but first they had to escape a madman. Once again he wondered how they had arrived here. What it was that made someone go insane with greed or fanatic belief. There were no easy answers to those questions.

Arthur and Ken mounted their horses, and they were on the way south again. There would be long days to come, days with a lot of mental looking over the shoulders. At least they had a good head start.

He climbed his body walker, strapped himself inside and turned on the engines. It made a small squeak, one that he had once wondered about, but now it only made him feel at home. A very mobile home.