These are chapters from an old manuscript, chapter one is available here. The chapter and my annotations are paywalled for people who actually love me and also love freedom and puppies. So. Time to prove some stuff.
Enjoy the first few paragraphs for free!
Chapter 28: The Lumian Battle Cry
Trinnia brushed at a fly that kept trying to land on her face, and for the third time, Captain Brimstone told her to lie still.
“Suck it up, kid. Korba have sharp eyes, yeah? We move, they'll see it.”
They were on their bellies atop of a short ridge overlooking the road where the Korba would soon be. They had measured the depth of the river a ways off, and Captain Brimstone confirmed that his vehicles couldn’t cross it without building some kind of bridge.
“Can you see the others?” Trinnia asked, squinting at the other ridge a hundred yards away. Captain Brimstone thrust his chin at a thicket near the top.
“Saroset and Barrett are up there. Bazilla has her troops down on the ground behind the boulders; when the last truck comes through, they’ll swing around and cut off the rear. The rest of the boomers are spaced out in a line, so they can get to the trucks quick and take over.”
“I hope Puk is okay,” Trinnia said nervously.
“I just hope he doesn’t lose his radio, these things are expensive. We’re lucky Jinks and Ash had them.”
“How long do you think it will be?” Trinnia asked.
“Could be hours. Who knows? Everyone just needs to be patient.” Captain Brimstone pressed a button on his radio a few times. A moment later, Puk’s voice came over the speaker, small and scratchy.
“I’m in position, Cap!”
“Good job, buddy. Can you sit tight for a while?”
“Yes sir, Captain!”
“Keep the radio on. Don’t get bored and fall asleep out there,” the Captain said.
“Oh that won’t be a problem. I’m too close to the dung heap and it stinks something fierce. There’s no sleeping through it.”
Captain Brimstone pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, and his whole body shook, trying not to laugh. “That’s smart thinking. Stay sharp. Brimstone out.”
“We’re not allowed to move, but we can talk, right?” Trinnia asked.
“Keep your voice low, and yeah.” Captain Brimstone sighed and rested his chin on his hand.
“Is this stuff that you learned from the Andoran army?” Trinnia asked.
“I was never in the army.”
“But everyone calls you Captain?”
“Ha! That’s a joke that stuck around.”
“Oh. Like a nickname?”
“Kind of. It’s a bit of a story, but eh, we’ve got time. It’s like this: we took a government job in a troubled region of Andor. There was, let’s say, tension between a naturalist tribe like Jecco’s, and a group of mecha-farmers. Some of the tribes live a simple life and don’t want extra inventions around them because they think it corrupts their kids or something…I don’t really know, I was just there for work.
“The tribes kept messing with irrigation equipment and a lot of crops died. The farmers decided to make permanent irrigation channels, so they wouldn’t have to keep re-damming the water sources. That caused problems for the naturalists because they suddenly had less salmon and beaver for food and furs. They decided to solve the dispute with weapons.
“We were the ones hired to make those permanent channels, but once we realized we were between two sides in a feud, I pulled the plug on the job. Unfortunately, we were too late. The tribes had brought in reinforcements and launched a sneak attack on us. Well, we’re workers, not warriors, and everything went belly-up in a hurry.
“It was my first job as a supervisor out on the road. Pops…” Captain Brimstone paused, took a breath, “…finally trusted me to do it. I wanted to get it right for him. But my men were scared, or distracted, or whatever, and I worried that they would just fall apart. So, I don’t know, I stopped being timid like I used to, since the alternative was failure and death and all that. I started barking orders and snapping at guys and telling them to fall in line. I’d known army guys before, I just copied them. The crew responded to it, and even though I had no clue what I was doing, and in the end we made it out. After that they called me ‘captain’ and it never went away.” He smiled at the memory.
Again the silence stretched on, and Trinnia's thoughts wandered. Soon she had another question.
“Cap? I…well, I can’t help wondering what’s going to happen if—when—you catch Arnice Dobkins?”
The way he stared off into the distance, she almost thought he hadn’t heard her. Then he spoke, cool and controlled.
“Arnice Dobkins ruined good lives to patch up his wounded pride. He trashed my family name, killed my dad, took my wife and kid, and left us all to die in the wild.
“What do you think I’m going to do to him?”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The CrackerStack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.