The dust was clinging to everything. It looked as if none of this area had been claimed for years.
Since Alphonse had agreed to cut the deal for the turf, I knew that as rich in salvage as this area
was there had to be a catch. I knew that starting my own horde was a risk. Alphonse and the deal
he cut let me know two things, the area was rich, and he didn't think we could hold it. We the 7th
Mutigan Rifles were in for a rough time of it. My situation was not desperate but we needed a base
of operations and quick success to attract more followers.
I had with me a core of 4 squads, trained veterans having at least seen some action. This would limit
my options and responses. We mutants breed fast and mature early the result of genetic engineering
before the fall. My lone advantage was that all my people had been bred to soldier. With a base
camp of 259 all able bodied and quick healers I could afford to field more than 1/10 of my people as
the meggers did. My downside was that I couldn't create an effective manufacturing and agricultural
base if I did. With these problems and 75 percent of the take (25 to Alphonse), I would now take my
turf and hold it.
We had barely settled in when Tress found the droppings. Bringing them to me "General it looks as if
we have company." She said in her charming domineering way. "It appears that we may have a rat problem."
Indeed it appeared that there were rat signs about. "Damn it looks to be a small scavenging party, we
need to secure the food and ammo, they will take anything not nailed down!" "It looks as if they came
from the south. Take the scout detachment and secure the southern perimeter, we will need a forward
command post."
We had discussed the possibility of needing to respond quickly to any threat. We felt speed of
response was or greatest weapon. To insure quick response we set our response teams to 5 squads
(4 man fire teams) each led by the most gifted available geek. We had two teams with one always
ready to go. Since we intended to know our territory better than anyone else the squads setup as
follow, three light squads; infiltrators, and two heavy squads. As yet our production base could not
support vehicles. So we dispatched Tress' response team to secure our southern perimeter.
We had radios so I was able to hear the chatter as they approached our perimeter in the remnants of
Gary. "Tress we have rats in the forward listening post!"
"How many, and are there leaders?" demanded Tress.
"I can't tell. What about you Balzer?" asked Primer.
"Tress this is Balzer I see ten little rats one big ugly one in the corner, over" replied Balzer.
"Tress I have a second squad two runts behind a car!" exclaimed Oggles.
"Tress this is command, take the forward post and eliminate all rats inside. All decisions now yours,
on site, Command, out!" I passed command to her on site.
"Balzer, Primer, take the building! Oggles, get that squad behind the car!" Tress ordered.
"Command, I am committing all forward elements to assault, heavies will follow."
What followed these orders was a textbook pincer move on the forward post in seconds they had taken
out the entire rat forward team including a Hulker. Oggles and his team fired up the team behind
the car. In the return fire the rats killed two but Oggles and Primer settled their troops nicely.
Balzer saw the next threat.
"Tress we have a problem I see a large rat pack advancing on our position! Over." Shouted Balzer.
Request instructions! Over!"
"You are instructed to hold the building until relieved! Is that clear?" demanded Tress.
"Yes ma'am I am clear. Over." stated a surprisingly clear Balzer.
"Balzer has command. All infiltrators hold until relieved. Heavies to me! We must relieve that
building our brothers need us forward. Over". Screamed Tress.
"Oggles, get behind that car they are running. We need to keep them pinned in that park!" Balzer
demanded. "Or they will overrun us! Over."
"I'm on it." Replied Oggles with confidence.
"Primer, I need you to stop those Hulkers from flanking us!" shouted Balzer just before a Furburner
round exploded in the forward post. "Primer has command. I am taking them out before they burn us out."
Just as a burning Balzer broke cover with his remaining squadmate another squad of rats poured into
the park. "Damn get them some cover guys.," shouted a surprised Oggles . Popping over the car he poured
it on the small ratlings in the park. Oggles entire squad peppered the rodents. The rats died before
they could cut off the heroic Balzer.
Seeing two burning muties charging must have surprised the rat flame-throwers, they hesitated. It
was their last mistake. Screaming his hatred and pain Balzer cut them down with his Castigator.
This action seemingly broke their will and the rats withdrew.
My arrival on the scene was about an hour later, after the communities supplies had been secured.
It was then I found out the real reason the rats pulled back.
"Tress what are our casualties?" I asked.
"We took about 50% to our Infiltrators dead and injured. We took no casualties to the Heavies.
I think however they were just doing a recon." answered Tress. "We found this in the forward post."
She handed me a camera.
"Do we have any prisoners?" I asked. "It would be nice to know who they were taking pictures for."
"We have one, the Hulker in the post. He refused to talk until you showed up." Tress smiled.
"He believes that you will free him for the information."
"It may be prudent if the information we receive is true." I replied. "They may in the future
provide us with the same service. It is good you left this one alive."
"General won't we appear soft if we allow this on to live?" asked a confused Primer.
"Primer you and the Infiltrators hammered them with a minimum loss on our part, they know we mean
business. The rats live for barter, they will do jobs for anyone but will also spill their guts
if caught. This one seeks to trade his information for his life. If we do the trade and hold him
till his information pans out we establish ourselves as shrewd and respectful." I replied.
"Don't question me again."
"Yes sir," replied Primer.
"Let's see the prisoner," I ordered.
I was taken to our forward post where the troops held the Hulker. I was surprised he was almost
my size, a brood leader of some sort. "Let's get down to business, you were taking pictures. I
want to know who wanted them and why. Tell me and you live, don't and you die…. Painfully, understood."
I said an inch from his quivering nose.
"Weee underssstand each other, onccce the employer lied to the brood we owe no loyalty. The meggersss
sssaid that nooo one wasss here, wanted picturesss of old hospital. SSSelk SSalvage company.
SSSaid that only orgss maybe few muties not organisssed army." Answered the rat. "SSSelk will come
in three days all rats to be gone."
His answer shook me. We had decided to use the hospital as our meeting hall. "You know the price
of lying," I said trying to keep my voice steady. "Emergency council meeting!" I bellowed.
The council meeting was a loud affair. In the end only my voice mattered but I held the meeting so
that I might hear other opinions. It was decided that we might hit the meggers but we would need to
fall back, as we had no heavy gunners. We decided to hit them as they entered the ruins. Since profit
was all to meggers if we made it too expensive They would fall back. The trick would be minimizing
our losses.
At dawn two days later I sent our response team to the outskirts. It was our worst possible combination
they had heavy vehicles and we did not. Radio transmissions to follow.
"Response Team One to base they appear to have two squads and two walkers." Reported Primer.
"Base this is Jaws, Infiltrator team 2, we have an infiltrator bogie looks like a Lord of Tech, nasty
looking mother." Balzer's second running his team till he recovered from his burns.
"Base, this is team three we have a second Techie trying to sneak in. We have the angle request
permission to open up." Came Tress' request.
"Team commanders hit them then pull back. Op code Bounty hunt" I gave the order.
"Ok team light up the techie", shouted Jaws. Jaws' team fired up the techie. He died under the
hail of flayer ammo.
"Team Tress smoke them!" Tress ordered. The first squad of Selk Salvage died quickly.
"Infiltrator team three take that squad!" Oggles bellowed. His squad struck Selk 2nd squad with
furious effect.
"Teams disengage I ordered regroup point beta." I ordered the teams back to our main force. We had
been incredibly lucky.
The stunned salvagers chose this moment to regroup. Their remaining gunner targeted Tress' squad.
Killing one, wounding another. And our withdrawal began to resemble a route. Then jaws did a very
heroic thing, he and his squad attempted to overturn a stalker. They almost made it. As it was his
decision stopped Selk Salvage's advance. Their radio traffic showed that they had no wish to pursue
crazed juiced up Muties. Score one for our side. Jaws sacrifice has bought us time to prepare our defensee for our new home.
