7UM-832
Jonathan "Lumberkilk" Hughes
"We'd finish a lot faster if we could just take a few trees back to base and chop them up," grumbled Cpl. Michaels.
Sgt. Greene just stared squarely into the mildly defiant eyes of the grousing soldier until the corporal shrugged and quietly resumed collecting fallen branches. "Yeah, you do that, and then when it comes to the choice between dragging your broken body or a cord of firewood, I know which one I consider more useful."
The work continued in silence for a few minutes more, then the soldiers lashed the bundles of wood securely and slung them onto shoulders to cart the branches back to base.
Once en route, one of the privates towards the rear of the procession timidly ventured, "But nobody's seen that Klik for months now."
At the front of the line, Greene cocked his head to the side, as if identifying the speaker by voice, "Ellins, isn't it? This is only your first trip outside the perimeter, if I recall correctly."
"Yes, sir, correct, sir," came the earnest reply.
"Since it's your first trip, I'll be nice and answer you without making you carry my load. Educating grunts is tiring work, you think?"
"Urm, yessir," came the bemused reply.
Emphatically, the sergeant began, "I don't care if we don't see that crazy Klik for a decade, nothing will convince me to risk troops needlessly, even those who deserve it. When we first moved into the area, the Klik on the nearby gear warned us not to enter the woods. They stopped coming into the woods some time before that apparently. Well, we weren't about to let a bunch of tick-tocks tells us how to operate, so we ventured into the woods. We went cautiously at first, but gradually with more complacency. Sure, every now and then a soldier saw something in the woods, but nobody ever could prove what they'd seen."
Shifting the bundle on his back, he continued, "I had just made corporal when we were ordered to clear-cut an open expanse to the north, both for the materials and as a defensive buffer. Our saws powered through the trunks quickly and soon the first tree began to tumble sideways."
Greene paused for a moment, as if trying to make sure his next words were unfailingly truthful. "I watched three good soldiers die before that tree hit the ground."
The platoon marched silently for a few minutes before Greene resumed speaking, "It was a tripod, but not like anything I'd ever seen. Crystals jutting out from it joints, swinging a massive metal shaft infused with even more crystals. It bludgeoned some to the ground where they wouldn't move. Others, those crystals on that strange weapon sliced through armor and flesh, leaving them dying. I was one of the smart ones that day - I panicked and ran."
"We spent the next few weeks trying to trap the tripod, destroy it, get our revenge. But it knows these woods too well. We lost more and more in this futile hunt."
"Eventually we declared the woods off limits, just like the Klik. But of course, sometimes the forces of commerce succeed where military might fails."
"One enterprising soldier in the PX started sneaking into the woods, collecting wood. Of course, trying to be stealthy, she didn't have access to any tools or power equipment. Instead, she'd collect fallen limbs and sold them surreptitiously to a select few for much less than other fuels. Eventually scuttlebutt betrayed her, and she was to be court-martialed for endangering the base."
"For reasons I won't go into, I thought she was in the right. So I busted into the machine shop before Reveille and liberated a power saw. I marched straight into the woods and fired that sucker up, even gave it a few practice swipes. Sure enough, I looked over my shoulder at that accursed tripod was there, its crystals glowing in the dawn's light. I turned around and dropped the saw, which sputtered to a stop. Then, right in front of that blasted Klik, I started scooping branches, limbs, anything from the ground I could. The whole time, it just watched me. When I couldn't hold another twig, I turned back towards the base. Again it didn't move at all. I started to leave, but shouted at it, 'What do you want?'"
"After a few awkward seconds, it slowly replied, 'You are part of the machine that is healed. We must heal others.' And then it melted back into the woods, vanishing from view."
At this point, the soldiers reached their destination. Eager for sleep, most dropped their bundles and quickly headed to barracks. But Ellins held back, quietly addressing the sergeant, "Yours was the last confirmed sighting of that Klik, wasn't it?"
Greene merely grunted his assent.
"Don't you think that's the last time we'll see that Klik?" continued the private.
Greene shuddered as he recalled the unworldly sound of the Klik, the strange powerful echo behind the words. "I always hope so, but I don't think so. I really don't."