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

something new in the DNA of New
Colorado wolves. Perhaps human geneticists were responsible when
the planet was seeded with wolves. Perhaps evolution took place
naturally. It did not matter. The trait was there, and the wolves’
fury had been building.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “Why are we moving at night?” asked the
spider marine team leader. “We should have camped before
nightfall.”
    “We will camp soon,” replied the spider
marine commander. “I did not want to camp at our last stop because
there were too many wolves in the area. Their howling is
unnerving.”
    “It is too wet to camp here,” argued the team
leader. The mud was up to his knees. “We can not camp in this
muck.”
    “Then the human pestilence cannot camp here
either,” said the commander. “We will have them trapped, too.”
    “Don’t be so sure,” said the team leader. “I
think humans like mud. Have you noticed their flat feet? They
evolved with those flat feet so that they won’t sink on muddy
ground.”
    “You might have something there,” said the
commander. “Their constant need to consume water is probably
because they evolved from slime that crawled out of the river.
Their flat feet helped them live in the swamp.”
    “We can not attack if we are strung out like
this,” said the team leader. “You said we kept moving to get away
from the wolves, but they seem to be closer than ever.”
    The marine commander gave that some thought,
deciding the team leader was right. The wolves are following us,
and on both sides! Maybe they are just curious. “Perhaps they
hope to scavenge our discards.”
    “If we are attacked, how will we defend
ourselves?” asked the team leader.
    “We outnumber the human pestilence ten to
one,” answered the commander. “Don’t be silly. The Legion cannot
attack under these conditions. If anything, the forest affects the
human pestilence even more than it does us.”
    “I am not talking about the human
pestilence,” said the team leader. “I am worried about the wolf
packs.”
    “You fear attacks by dumb animals?” asked the
commander. He had not even considered that possibility. Now that he
mulled over their situation in a new light, however, their position
seemed untenable. “Do not be ridiculous.”
    “There have been rumors,” said the team
leader. “Attacks have been documented.”
    “Isolated incidents are not to be feared,”
said the commander. “It is but the whisperings of females and the
timid. We are a modern army and a force to be feared. We have
automatic weapons, grenades, night vision technology, and air
support. Let the wolves and human pestilence fear us.”
    “I am wet, cold, rained on, and stuck in the
mud. I do not feel all that intimidating,” complained the team
leader. “We need to find dry high ground and set up camp soon.”
    They heard loud screams and hisses from the
rear of the long column, followed by wolf growls and automatic
gunfire. Then silence. More shrieks of terror could be heard, this
time up ahead, followed by a chorus of thousands of wolf howls all
around their position. Spider marines opened up in both directions
with automatic rifle and machine gun fire. Every shadow and
imagined movement drew rifle fire. Then there was silence as
marines reloaded.
    There were more screams in the darkness as
spider marines got picked off by small packs of wolves. The marines
began to group up. It did not help. The grouping increased
isolation and disunity, and the marines were rushed one group at a
time. There was no command and control between the small squads of
spiders. Grasping that, the commander got on the radio and ordered
the battalion to form a united perimeter, and to set up the machine
guns for intersecting fields of cover fire. The sounds of violent
death in the darkness only intensified.
    Rustling of underbrush to the commander’s
left startled him to the point of immobility. The quickness of the
bear-sized wolf allowed the commander only enough