Desperado (Murphy's Lawless: Watch the Skies Book 2), Kevin Ikenberry [reading the story of the txt] 📗

Stewart. When he finished, the young man looked at him for a long moment. Bo could see the indecision on his face. “What is it?”

“Have things really changed that much? I mean from when the Ktor disappeared me to when they got you?” Stewart snorted and smiled. “I mean, I hated officers. Now, I am one.”

Bo blinked. He’d expected to talk about the operation at hand, but Stewart clearly had other things on his mind. “What do you mean? You know the Army goes rolling along, as the song says,” Bo replied.

Stewart chuckled. “I get that. I guess I’m talking about how we did business. In Vietnam, all I can recall is one clusterfuck after another. I mean, we had officers, but we hardly ever saw them. We did all kinds of stuff, and it didn’t really seem like anybody had a plan. We knew a lot about the enemy and what they were doing, but most of the time it felt like we were all fighting with one hand tied behind us. The officers wouldn’t lead us into combat. Here, you’re expecting officers to do just that. How do you know we can?”

Bo looked at the dirt by his crossed legs. He had never counted on counseling a Vietnam veteran as part of his duties. By the time he’d commissioned, most of the Vietnam vets had long retired. He’d run into a few, but they were more an aberration than a constant in the Army he’d joined.

“I commissioned in 1987,” Bo began. “At that point, we were fifteen years past what they said was the end of the Vietnam War. Its effects were still pretty real, though.”

“Specialist Devolo says it was pretty rough. He heard rumors about the guys going home and getting spit on, called names and shit. Just made me think about—hell, I don’t know—why keep doing what I do?”

“There’s not much of an alternative here,” Bo said.

Stewart smiled in the starlight. “No, there’s not. But it makes me think about what would’ve happened when I went home. I mean, if I made it home. I know the only reason I’m here is because a bunch of sorta alien humans thought I was going to die. I don’t know, sir. I just think about it.”

Bo nodded. “Sometimes thinking about what might’ve been is one of the biggest hang-ups of being a soldier. It’s hard to think about it. I was in the same boat. We were doing our jobs. You were in combat, and I was headed home. I believed it was the best thing left for me in the world. I was pretty sure my career was over. My marriage was over. I realized that I’d been watching too many people die for stupid reasons to really ever be normal again. Then I woke up here. Talk about a change of pace.”

Stewart’s voice was soft. “We’d just been ambushed. My whole squad was on the point of the maneuver. Charlie just nailed us. We couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear him. All of a sudden, they were there and that was it. We hit the ground and tried to return fire.” Stewart paused. “My buddy Cotton was right next to me. I looked over as he was pulling a grenade off his vest. He got ready to throw it when it seemed like about a hundred rounds ripped right through his head and neck. His freaking helmet did nothing. His head splattered all over me. That was the last thing I thought about until everything stopped. I’m kinda glad I’m here, but I can’t help thinking how it might’ve been if I’d made it home. But I know I wasn’t going home anyway, sir.”

“I get you, Johnny.” Bo’s use of Stewart’s first name did exactly what he wanted it to. The younger man smiled and visibly relaxed. “I knew the same thing when the chopper started going down. I think I said, ‘Oh, shit,’ and that was it.”

“Really?”

“Pretty much,” Bo said. “Look, when the time comes, you’ll do what you need to do. As for the Army, we learned from those mistakes in Vietnam. You didn’t get to see the fruit of that labor, but now we’re here and doing things the way they need to be done. Lead from the front, and everything will fall into place, Johnny.”

The young lieutenant looked up in surprise and met Bo’s eyes. “Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it. Now, why don’t we figure out how to skin this cat instead of sitting here wondering about things we can’t change?”

Bo smiled. “Sounds like a great idea, and I’m glad you asked. Part of it revolves around you taking out that cache site and diverting their attention while we attack the town.”

“When?”

“As soon as Aliza tells us she’s ready and not a moment later.”

* * *

Army doctrine from Bo’s time described the set of tasks a leader needed to secure a defensive position. While there were no plans for his position to become defensive, since it was mostly a pre-attack assembly area, there were still things that needed to be addressed. Since arriving, Lieutenant Stewart and his indig non-commissioned officers had completed all these tasks and secured the area so they could focus on the greater mission at hand.

The next priority was their readiness to attack and seize Imsurmik. That meant engaging and destroying the different packs of warlords and their fighters. From Aliza’s latest report, the once-peaceful town had become a well-defended hub for armed caravans collecting food, medicinals, and other resources in advance of the Harvesters.

Bo’s own excitement rose, and his brain, formerly addled by his inability to communicate with Aliza, had quieted into full focus upon the mission. He didn’t think about reuniting with her at all. His attention was devoted to the assault, occupying the town, and limiting casualties and damage to his own force while