Free America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 3: Silent Invasion by Walter Knight

Commander. “What
is this?” he shouted.
    “You started a provocation even I cannot
stop,” said the Fleet Commander. “The Emperor himself ordered that
I take Camp Alaska to create a buffer between the Legion and our
oil fields. The Legion is ordered to withdraw to Finisterra and to
the New Mississippi River or face annihilation.”
    “This is an outrage!” said General
Kalipetsis. “You can’t do this.”
    “I already have,” said the Fleet Commander.
“You are badly outnumbered. The outcome of this little skirmish has
already been decided. You lost. Do not worry. All peace negotiators
will be allowed to leave on the Legion shuttle parked at the
airstrip. We will arrange a prisoner exchange later.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    “Hey Guido!” called out a spider guard from
the checkpoint across the fence from the Legion guard shack. “I am
going to do you a favor!”
    “Oh?” asked Guido. “Excuse me if I put my
hand on my wallet while you are doing me this favor.”
    “I am serious,” said the spider guard. “You
do not have much time. Look up in the sky.”
    Guido first looked both ways down the
streets. Then he looked to the sky. “What the hell is that? If it’s
a training exercise they are going to drift to the wrong side.”
    “It’s an invasion, Guido.” warned the spider
guard. “You need to get out of town fast, or you will be killed or
taken prisoner. Because you have taken the money of so many of our
marines, I suggest you not be taken prisoner.”
    Corporal Tonelli gave that some thought. He
dropped everything, and ran like the wind for the airstrip. He had
seen the general’s shuttle land earlier, and hoped to catch the
last flight out. Guido just made it, throwing himself into a seat
right next to General Kalipetsis.
    “You sure screwed things up good this time,
huh General?” commented Guido casually, as he lit a cigarette.
“Yep, you really screwed the pooch big time.”
    “When you do right nobody remembers,” replied
General Kalipetsis. “When you do wrong, nobody forgets.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    I ordered the armored car destroyed. Then I
led one hundred legionnaires south through the forest toward
Finisterra. We got about forty-five miles away before we stopped
for a rest. It was well into the night. Spider helicopters could be
heard looking for us, flying a grid pattern. As long as we stayed
under the cover of trees, we would be safe. It started raining, as
it does every day in the North. That negated some of the spider
technology being used to locate us from the air and space. The
spiders would have to put troops on the ground and find us the
old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, they had plenty of troops, and
they knew which direction we were hiking. About a thousand spider
marines waited for us between here and Finisterra.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Wolves hunted in packs. When a scout found
prey, he howled, signaling the pack to join him.
    A herd of spiders, a thousand strong, was
attempting to move at night through forest marshland. The spiders
were strung out over a long distance, winding through the stumps
and trees. It was stupid to attempt such a move at night. But herd
animals never were too bright. The darkness would conceal the
attack of the wolf packs.
    The pack leader answered the call of the
scouts. The smell of humans was on the wind, too. Humans gave off a
foul, dirty smell. They were camped to the north. Both spiders and
humans were dangerous, but there was something about humans that
made the pack leader nervous. He hated humans and had no problem
killing them. But he also had an instinctual fear of mankind,
ingrained by millennia of evolution. Caution was needed in dealing
with either humans or spiders. The packs would probe the spider
herd at its thinnest flanks.
    The wolf pack leader was driven by hatred of
spiders. It was a hatred recently learned. Spiders shot and killed
wolves on sight. Even females and cubs had been lost. An
instinctual need for revenge was