Carnifex

6/3/467 AC, Village of Jameer, Pashtia

The bodies, or what was left of the bodies, were still there when the Tauran, specifically the Tuscan, column arrived, about midday. Flies clustered on those of the women and girls in thick, black, buzzing clouds. Even the nine-year-old, legs splayed, appeared to have grown pubes, so thick were the blood-lapping flies.

Tuscan Brigadier General Claudio Marciano stepped from his vehicle, took one look, and promptly threw up.

"Animals," he muttered as he wiped traces of vomit from his lips and face. "Only animals could do something like this."

Marciano's aide de camp, Capitano Stefano del Collea, didn't answer. Instead, standing next to the vehicle, he simply went pale and shook with hate.

The two were mountain troopers, Ligurini, members of an elite corps. They were the best infantry Tuscany on Terra Nova produced and some of the best in the world. Other mountain troopers from Marciano's command, the Brigada Julio Caesare, worked their way cautiously through the town.

There was no firing as the Ligurini swept through, only sullen glares from the villagers. You promised what you could not deliver. You failed us. So the villager's eyes seemed to accuse.

"What the fuck can we do, Stefano? With three battalions of infantry here in our sector I don't have enough to put even half a squad in every little village. I don't have enough even to put in a single man."

"We could go hunting," del Collea suggested. "We're better men than they are. They may know these mountains but we know mountains."

"It's the only way," Marciano agreed, "The only way and I am forbidden to do it." The general smashed a fist into his palm in sheer frustration. "Forbidden to so much as fire a shot except in point self-defense. 'No offensive operations,' the government says, Stefano. 'Don't risk casualties.' Tell me, Stefano, what the fuck is the purpose of even having soldiers if it isn't to risk casualties?"

The captain just shrugged. He was as helplessly frustrated in this as his commander.

Marciano took off his green, feathered hat and wiped his brow. This was just a demonstration of frightfulness. But the word will get out. By this time tomorrow, day after at the latest, every school and clinic we've built, every well my sappers have dug, will be torn down or filled in. No one will risk this kind of obscenity just to have a nicer building to be sick in or a western style school desk. All the good we've thought we'd accomplished will be undone.

"If I could transfer my commission," del Collea said, "I'd join the FS Army. They, at least, are allowed to fight."

"If I could transfer my commission," Marciano rejoined, "I might join the Balboan mercenaries and take the entire brigade with me. They go out of their way to fight."

"They do have mountain troops, you know, General."

"I know . . . but they're not our mountain troops. I would miss the Ligurini, Stefano."

To that the captain had nothing to add. He left his general to his own thoughts for some minutes. When Marciano spoke again it was to say, "Fuck 'em."

"General?"

"Fuck the politicians. Tell the commander of the company—Romano, isn't it?—to follow those sons of bitches and kill them."

* * *

The device Noorzad carried, the same one brought by the messenger from Mustafa, beeped low. He answered it.

"Noorzad? Mustafa. Some friends inform me that there is a company of infantry on your tail."

The device was surprisingly static-free. Though unmarked, Noorzad was pretty certain it had come from off world; that, or was an offworld technology perhaps manufactured on Terra Nova.

"I can handle a company of infantry," the guerilla chief said.

"Yes, I am sure you can. But you cannot handle the battalion that will descend from the air if you are found, or the air strikes that will come. They are already gathering."

Unseen by Mustafa, Noorzad shrugged. "I understand. I will split my men up, ditch most of the weapons. We can take shelter in the villages nearby."

"You are not concerned they will turn you in?" Mustafa asked.

"After what we did in Jameer? No; word will have spread like the lightning. They'll be too afraid to go against us."