Chapter Twenty-Four: The Defense of Norton

They attacked three days after you left, Andy told the group. It was a small strike force of Idealists, not from the Spacing Commission, but one of the planetary militias. There weren't any markers on the ships though, which I found to be odd. The first run just flew overhead. It gave us enough time to prepare for what was coming. The colonists didn't really have any weapons, but Grinder had gone through stores and found a number of things that would do the job. Like the people on Mars you told me about during the Destruction, Jonathan. We weren't really a match against the incoming ships, so Grinder had us take to trying to escape without them noticing. We were on the outside of the forest when the ships passed by again, this time bombing the buildings.
Only one of the rovers was in the town when the attack came, and it was hit with a missle. After the last explosion, the ships came down on the colony, surrounding it. Troops filed out and walked through the burning remains of the town, looking for, well, us, I guess. Grinder and I had stoped to look back. Grinder drew he rifle and used a sight - he managed to pick off one or two of the officers before the men returned to their ships. They knew then what was happening.
Grinder told me to take the colonists somewhere safe. I immediately went for the nearest hills, thinking that they could provide the cover I we needed. Grinder ran off in another direction, purposefully leaving himself open so that the ships could track him. One of them did, unfortunetly the rest continued to search for all of the rest of us. It was a dangerous situation.
There were five ships flying out a quick search pattern over the terrain, covering a lot of ground fast. Another one was hovering slowly after Grinder. I could hear the chain guns firing and as concerned as I was, I knew if they didn't stop he wasn't dead.
As we were climbing a short cliff-face, maybe three metres high, I heard a concussive boom and looked around behind me. The ship following grinder was spewing black smoke and listing down towards the ground. Grinder had used one of the two rockets he brought with him. I presumed it was because he had no other way to escape, otherwise he would not have used it with the odds stacked against him. Almost immediately, two ships peeled off and started towards his position. Although it bought us enough time to get up over the cliff face, there were three ships searching for us still, and Grinder had to deal with two himself!
I'm told by an expert on the situation, Grinder himself, that he managed to escape from further ataack by slithering under a boulder and finding an opening into a cave of sorts. A very tight fight for a man of his size, he told me, but apparently it was deep and long. He wound his way through the caves and tried to find another way out. He knew that there would be people helping the wounded on the crashed ship, and would be spotted if he exited through the same hole. unfortunetly the system of underground tunnels was expansive and it seems that Mr. Grinder has a certain lack of direction underground. He was lost until the next day, when the battle was over.
I was left alone running across that surface of the world, looking after the colonists with nothing more thatn a sidearm and a rifle and some home-made hand to hand weapons spread out among the colonists. i tried to lead them throught the areas with the most cover, but eventually it came down to a bare feild between us and the first rank of boulders on this series of hills I could see the dense woods on the peaks of the hills and knew that if we had to mount a defense, it would be the best place to do it. I couldn't do anything else, they could easily surround us where we were, concealed in light foliage. The trees on this world are solid. I thought, maybe, up on the hill the chain guns on the ships might not be too effective when they had to chop through an acre of hardwood to hit their target. Plus the close quarters would allow us to ambush the troops if we had to. However, the woods were across the open feild and up a steep rocky hill. The boulders might have afforded us some protection, but it looked dangerous.
I talked it over with the colonists, and they agreed that we had to take the risk; there was no way we could survive if discovered where we were.
So, en masse we stood up, and began running for the hills, literal as it may be. I'm afraid that I was trying my best to cover our retreate so I managed to fall to the back of the group, twirling around and looking behind us to see how safe we were, preparing to shout that we should get under cover.
We were doing well, I mean, we were almost at the top of the hill. I could barley run. It was a combination of the fact that I had tripped and cut myself, the slippery rocks underfoot and that I had been travelling fast on foot for a long time; I was getting tired.
The end was so close, I was so determined to get there that i gave up my dillagent searching of the sky. When I heard the thrumming of the engine, it was too late. I started to turn to see our situatuation when I heard the whir and clacking of a chain gun burst. I guess it was the fact that it wasn't a continuous burst that saved maybe. I don't know why it wasn't a continuous burst, maybe they were running low on ammunition, I don't know. The shot went wide, but the bolts obliterated the rocks around me. Shards started flying all around. I didn't even feel it when a sharp piece of sedimentry rock bit into my leg - almost through it.
I fell to the ground and passed out.
Afterwards, when I woke up, the colonists told me what had happened. The ship had moved on, leaving me for dead. Most of the colonists made it into the woods. As it turns out, the woods dis protect them from the bolts fired from the chain guns. After expending a lot of ammo, the ships just took off. There were distant explosions and then silence. The idealists had bombed out the rest of the buildings in the colony.
The colonists had enough medical supplies with them to patch me up enough so that I could survive, but there was no way of saving my leg. They did their best, and I guess this my life now. I'm going to write down everything that happens, Marcelle. I'm going to write it all down so that people will know years from now what we had to fight for, what we went through. People will know, Marcelle, because you did it and I wrote it down.