Deadenders
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle reached a dead end with Season 8, but it's going strong here. Rating: K Time: The far future.
Once it was dark enough, Castle and Strelkov's troops began moving out. Strelkov's people left first as they were going to deploy behind Demming's gang while Castle's troops attacked from the flank. The way was led by Silent Smith who was charged with taking out the sentries. A half an hour after leaving, he came back to Castle.
"Three sentries are dead." Smith said. "Two of the dumb fucks were asleep and the other was taking a leak with his weapon twenty feet from him. There are two more sentries facing Strelkov that I can't get to, but they're silhouetted against the skyline. Strelkov's people should have no trouble taking them out. But, we have a problem."
"What?"
"I got close enough to see that they have about six or seven women tied up by the big tree in the middle of the camp. Sex slaves, I'm thinking."
"Shit. We can't use the mortars or a missile. Too big of a chance to take the women out."
Castle called Strelkov on the radio and told him what Smith had said. Then he told his own people about the captive women and told them to be very careful.
"Do you want to start things by taking out the two sentries?" Rick asked Strelkov over the radio.
"It'll be my pleasure. I'll be ready in a minute."
In less than a minute there were two shots from Strelkov's position. Someone from Demming's camp yelled to stop the damned shooting. People were trying to sleep. Seconds after that, the area erupted in gunfire.
All of Castle's troops and all of Strelkov's humans had night vision devices. If Demming's people had any, they had taken them off and were scrambling to get ready as bullets tore into them.
It took only three minutes to silence Demming's men.
"Cease fire." Castle yelled. "Cease fire, dammit. You're wasting ammo,"
The gunfire slowly stopped,
"Strelkov," he called on the radio, "How are you doing?"
"I have three walking wounded, but about seven of the bastards got away on horseback. I sent my Ka Rara riders after them."
"How many's that?"
"Eleven. The humans don't seem to be good riders, but the five Ka Raras are, and they know the country."
Castle then checked with Parish and Ryan.
"Two wounded? How bad?"
"I've cut myself worse shaving." Ryan said.
Castle decided they'd move in slowly, being very careful of anyone still in the mood to fight. There were none.
Ryan and Parish went off to check the enemy wounded and came back to report to Rick.
"They have five wounded. Two were hit in the head and are still technically alive, but they won't be for long. Another's been hit in the chest and stomach. He'll last a bit longer than the other two, but not by much. Another has had his legs shot up. He might be savable if we really cared." Ryan said, getting a look from Dr. Parish. "The last one is Demming. He's been gut shot and I think the bullet severed his spinal cord."
"The women were taken from their homes by Demming's men and raped." Dr. Parish said. "Physically they're in good shape, but mentally and emotionally, not so good."
Castle went to see Demming and the other wounded enemy.
"You shot us up real good, you bastard." Demming said.
"You needed shooting up, you bastard."
Demming just laughed.
"That's them." Said a female voice. "The two of them. The bastards."
"Who are these women?" Castle asked.
"I'm Madelyn Quinn. That bastard Demming grabbed me and my sister Chelsea outside our ranch. They overran the O'Halloran ranch and took the other four girls. They're all that's left of their family."
"The young one stabbed my brother Timothy in the stomach. They all laughed at him when he begged for help. He died and they laughed. Then they raped us." One of the O'Halloran's said.
Castle pulled out his knife and held it out to the girl.
"If you'd care to send him to hell?"
The girl looked at the knife for a long time, then shook her head.
"No. I won't be like them."
"Just put a bullet in our heads." Demming said.
"I don't think so. I'll just leave you two here as you are. Being shot in the gut is a really painful way to die. Takes a long time, too. Then again, the steppe wolves will be out as soon as the scent of humans goes away. I'll leave each of you a knife. That way you'll have a chance."
"A knife against steppe wolves? That's no chance." Said the man with the shot up legs.
"All the chance you're going to get."
"Captain Castle, these men should be taken into Alphaville to stand trial. To leave them out on the steppe, wounded is…barbaric." Kate said.
"We live in barbaric times, Miss Beckett. I will not waste medical resources on these two and they're highly unlikely to live long enough to make it to Alphaville. All that will happen in Alphaville is that the girls will tell their story and these men will be executed. This isn't Earth. There's no higher court than the one court in Alphaville and we don't have the resources to operate a prison. The only sentences are death, banishment or a fine."
"It's still barbaric."
Kate walked off.
Castle saw the Ka Raras that Strelkov had sent out coming back with four riderless horses.
Castle walked over to where the Ka Raras were reporting to Strelkov.
"They got four, Captain Castle, but the enemy Ka Raras know the country here abouts. Three got away."
"Okay. We'll collect the weapons and equipment and any loot they have. Maybe we can return it to their rightful owners. I'm going to have to take the girls back to the Quinn ranch. We'll have to go off of the main road, such as it is, and go across country. That'll take us a good two days out of our way."
"If we could, I'd like to stay with you for a while, Captain. The longer my wounded can ride, the healthier they'll be when we do leave you."
"Fine with me."
It took several hours to gather up weapons and gear. All the time the two wounded outlaws begged for someone to finish them off. No one did.
They stopped at the point where they had to leave the road to go to the Quinn ranch.
"There's a nice hill here so we can see anyone coming. Good place to stop." Castle decided.
They parked the trucks and the troops dug in for the night.
"How much coffee did you get?" Kate asked Rick as he poured her some coffee after dinner.
"Five pounds."
"Five Pounds?" Kate said. "I will have to be nice to you." She didn't say anything for a moment. "I need to apologize. Aurora isn't Earth. Things work differently here. I shouldn't have gotten angry with you. I apologize."
"Apology accepted. I've been to lots of planets, including some non-human ones. It's hard to give up what you consider to be the way things should be done."
Getting to the Quinn's ranch took longer than they had hoped. They had to drive slowly to avoid going into a pothole and wrecking an axle. They lost an entire day trying to get around a steep sided stream. But finally they were within ten miles of the Quinn ranch.
"Rider coming in." Kate said, sitting next to Rick in the lead truck. "He's in a hurry."
The rider, a Ka Rara pulled up next to Rick.
"Dust cloud. North. Many people. Ka Rara riders come. Maybe twenty. Maybe more."
Rick stopped the column and put the trucks into a defensive square.
"I know them." Rick said as the riders approached. "That's War Chief Stendanno of the Ka Droonga. They're friendly. I'm going to go talk to them."
Rick jumped out of the truck, followed by Kate. He thought about telling her to stay back, but decided that would be a waste of time.
He spoke to the Ka Droonga in the native language.
"You have been riding far and fast, War Chief Stendanno. Your horses are tired. They look like they may collapse at any moment."
"Yes, Ka Sal of the Ka Reng. We were attacked by the motherless outlaws of no clan. Fifty or more. Our wagons with our old, women and children are ahead of us. You can see the dust of their passing. We have fought with them, but they have many guns from Earth, and we have few. And they captured our horse herd."
Castle could see that the Ka Droonga had two assault rifles, one battle rifle, about six locally made bolt action rifles with the rest being armed with flintlock muskets or rifles.
"The war chiefs of Earth have heard of the brave Ka Droonga. They have sent me with weapons for you and your warriors."
That was a lie, of course, but no one on Earth would ever hear of it. Castle turned around.
"Reynolds, bring us a case of assault rifles, a case of battle rifles, a small case of grenades and two cases of ammo."
When the weapons and ammo were handed out, Castle spoke again.
"My people will join you against the clanless outlaws. I think that behind that ridge would be a fine place for us to fight."
"Yes. They will not see your wagons nor your people. A good place to fight."
When he got back to the trucks he spoke to Strelkov.
"This isn't your fight. You can sit this one out."
"Not a chance. I want people to know that the Ka Strelkovs fight against clanless outlaws. We'll be accepted a hell of a lot sooner that way."
Everyone settled in on the far side of the ridge where they couldn't be seen by the approaching enemy. The outlaws came at a slow trot. Having extra horses from the stolen herd, they could switch off mounts and keep their horses fresh.
"I count fifty-seven of them." Espo whispered into the mic of his radio. Being a sniper, he had the best optics and with his sniper's ghillie suit on, he was too camouflaged to be seen by the outlaws. "They're riding together all bunched up, laughing and talking like they hadn't a care in the world."
"They'll soon learn better." Rick replied.
"Shit." Espo said. "Something's wrong. They're stopping. Their horses look nervous or something."
Castle crawled up to the top of the ridge and looked.
"Their horses can smell our horses. They're figuring out that someone is behind the ridge."
"They're pointing this way." Espo said.
"Everybody up and open fire! They know we're here." Castle yelled.
A weak volley hit the outlaws that grew as more and more people joined the fight.
"They're running for it." Someone yelled.
Indeed they were. Although a good dozen or more outlaws were down, along with a number of horses, the rest were running, heading in all directions. The Ka Droongas were firing as fast as they could with little regard for aiming, but the humans were better trained and made each shot count.
The firing tapered off as the enemy disappeared. Soon only the snipers and the machine gunners were firing. Then they stopped.
"We got maybe half of them." Espo said.
The Ka Droonga rose and charged their wounded foes.
"Any wounded won't last long against that bunch." Reynolds said, coming up to Rick.
They didn't.
"Ryan! Parish! Any wounded?" Castle yelled.
Dr. Parish walked up to Rick.
"Just one wounded."
"How bad?"
"Not bad. You haven't even noticed you're wounded yet." She pointed to his arm.
Castle looked down and saw a thin red line on his right forearm.
"It's nothing."
"It's a wound." Dr. Parish said brusquely. "Now hold still while I put some antibiotic gel on it and bandage it."
The horses that survived were given to the Ka Droonga as were the weapons found. War Chief Stendanno thanked both Castle and Strelkov, promising eternal friendship. Then the small column of trucks headed once again for the Quinn ranch.
"I sure as hell hope nothing else happens before we get to the Quinn's place." Castle muttered.
TBC