Out of Space

Chapter 37: Disaster Relief

SSGT Pike leaps off the half-track and bangs the rear container housing troops and medical personnel. "Alright men, unload! Form up by your sections!" The half-track starts unloading people and supplies, "Jeeps cover the pass." The two jeeps slowly roll forward through the crowd of amazed elves into the pass, to cover the approaches with their mounted Pk-229s.

"Staff!" Collins threw a salute and gave a quick report to SSGT Pike. "So far we got 227 of the natives wounded, with another 59 probably won't be able to make it unless they get to the med bay quick." He gestures to the pile of half-naked bodies dumped down the mountain slope. "112 enemies confirm KIA, 48 wounded and in custody. I think it might be some kind of war going on between two countries."

"Great work." Pike nods, crouching at the edge of the slope and looking at the bodies. Already the local scavengers have started to feast on the dead. "Why not burn them? Won't it cause an epidemic?" Pike asks.

"I think the locals think it is too much work, plus," Collins gestures around the barren mountain slopes, "not much firework around. Better to feed the wildlife here."

"How do they fight and what weapons they use?" Pike questions Collins.

"Mostly with sword, spear, and shields. For ranged, they use bows or crossbows." Collins points at the battlefield. "They mostly fight in a shield wall, using heavy armored infantry to anchor the enemy, while their croc cavalry charges in like a hammer."

"Hmm very similar like our own medieval tactics," Pike observe the nearby elven soldiers, looking at the armor covering their bodies. "Our weapons effectiveness?"

"Overwhelming, Staff. The bullets over penetrate in fact, and with them standing in formation, our rounds go through them like paper." Collins grins as he remembers the fight. "They might as well throw away their armors and shields."

"Understood." Pike nods before turning around and hops up a boulder, shouting for the team leaders to gather up for a briefing.

"Alright everyone, so we are dealing with some kind of alien elves in an alien world. All fun and games here!" Pike rubs his hands together. "We are going to treat this as a disaster relief mission, medical team leads are to organize your men to help with the wounded, support teams are set up cook tents and sleeping areas for the refugees." He points to the rear of the pass.

"Our supplies are limited but we will do what we can for them." Pike hops off the boulder, clapping his hands, "Get to work! Thank you!"

Pike turns to Collins and asks, "Who's in charge of the goldies?"

"Him for the troops and her for the civilians I think." Collins points towards a grizzly looking vet standing next to a wagon pulled by a giant croc thingy before pointing to another lady with pink blonde on the other side.

"Got it." And he heads toward the vet where Collins points first.

"Sir?" Pike executes a perfect parade square salute to the grizzled veteran wearing some sort of golden robes under a chest plate.

Lord General Joesph eyes the approaching stranger in that confusing green brown pattern clothing. The strange short ears are wearing an unfamiliar cap style, with a matching shirt and pants in that confusing blend of green and brown, what appears to be a chest plate colored the same way as his clothes with lots of small pouches and bags. And that crossbow-like weapon, that spits fire and thunder strapped to his chest diagonally.

With his years of experience as a soldier, he recognizes a fellow soldier from the way he walks and holds himself. That man is dangerous, thought Joesph, returning the salute, by thumping his left hand over his chest. Not only their weapons are formidable, even their armor and items of clothing look finely crafted!

Pike follows up with a salute to the beautiful lady with the pink blonde hair, dressed in a dust-stained ivory-colored dress with a slender golden belt. Damn elves, even the old man looks handsome. Shaking his head, he gestures the both of them to follow him, once he is sure that they understand what he is trying to convey, he leads the way over to the pass.

Sherene glances at Joesph, wondering what this strange man is bringing them to see. She notices two more of those magical wagons parked on both sides of the pass, with what appears to be their soldiers and those strange thunder weapons of their standing guard. "Do you think they meant us ill?" She whispers to Joesph.

Lord General Joesph eyes the strange soldiers and their gear, recognizing their level of professionalism, with the way they stand and hold themselves. "If they meant us ill, we are completely at their mercy, especially with those thunder sticks of theirs! We can only hope they treat us fairly."

The strange soldier points towards a group of people in the distance at the bottom of the slope, they appear to be setting up some tents. The soldier points to the direction of their wounded and mimics a carrying motion and points to the tents at the bottom again.

"He is trying to tell us to move the wounded there?" Sherene asks Joesph, who nods, confirming her guess. "Alright, I will get them to be moved down."

Pike seeing the two elves understanding his instruction, then points to the group of civilians milling around. He then mimics walking with his two fingers and points to another site, where some supplies were dropped earlier.

Both of the elves nods again, Pike pleased with himself, gestures them to get their people moving, before he turns and jogs down to the half-track turned temporarily command center. He pulls open the rear hatch of the half-track and climbs in. Set on the side of the compartment, are several communications devices and computer screens set up. He gestures the tech sitting on the console to connect him to Base as he prepares to make a report.

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Bouncing up and down at the rear of the jeep, Ensign Clara hugs the micro comp tightly with one hand while the other held dearly on to the handhelds on the side. The speeding jeep with an escort at the rear, burst through the foliage like a rally racer, the jolt of the crude suspension slams her hard against her rear.

"Woooo weeeeee!" Pvt Mills whoops and flexes his knees while he grips tightly onto the empty gun mount when all four of the jeep wheels left the ground. "Damn that was fun! Let's do that again!"

"Bartley, I didn't know you could drive like that!" Cpl James hooks his arm against the hand grip on the co-driver seat, grinning, enjoying the wind and the roller coaster-like ride through the forest. "Madam, you all good behind?" He yells over the wind.

"You Marines are CRAZY!" came back the reply.

Mills looks back from his perch, grins, yelling, "Come on! We are not crazy!." He grins wickedly, "Just INSANE! WAHAHAHAHA."

The speeding jeeps bounce over the grass plains and pull to a stop next to the command half-track. "Cpl James with a party of four and Ensign Clara reporting for duty!" James reports to Staff Pike as they formed up before the half-track with a pale-faced Clara.

"You guys made it fast here eh?" Pike looks at Clara, and asks, "Are you alright madam?"

"Just peachy, Staff..." Clara swallows an urge to vomit, while the rest of the Marines tried to keep a straight face. "I will go set up inside after I get some air first." She stumbles off to the side of the half-track while hugging her computer.

"Now, what did you sons of bitches do?" Pike places his hands at his waist and glares at the five of them standing in attention.

"Nothing Staff! Just a bumpy ride, Staff!" They chorus together in tune.

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Feeling better, Clara climbs into the rear compartment of the half-track and places down the microcomputer loaded with the universal translator and boots it up. She rubs her forehead and pats her chest to smoothe away the nausea feeling. Damn jugheads, but she had to admit the speeding jeep through the forest was pretty exciting and fun, except for getting carsick.

Alright to work. She connects her tablet to sync up with the microcomputer and inputs the commands to the universal translator software, which was older than her, used at the time for the first contact with meeting other alien races when mankind just started exploring the galaxy.

She read the manual before heading over in that hellish drive, the translator will require comparisons from the language you want to translate and the language to be translated to. For example, the word Tree will require both languages to be input. The more references the better, as the system will learn and get better and better over time.

Her tablet beeped twice, indicating the transfer is completed and the software is in sync with the universal translator. Now what I need is an elf to chat with.