Battlefield Earth

He prepared a belt pouch with flint and tinder, cutting glass, and a few odds and ends. He folded up a complete suit of buckskins. He made a pack of these and two kill-clubs.

When Terl came back later in the evening and opened the cage door, Jo

“You will be all right, Jo

He didn't feel like smiling, but he smiled. "I’ll make it my first business in all cases,” he said. “Now don't you worry. Put some of that tallow on Pattie's neck and it will help the chafing.”

“Come on,” said Terl irritably, outside the cage.

“How do you like the glass to cut things with?” said Jo

Chrissie said, “It is very good if you don't cut yourself.”

“Well, be careful.” “Hey,” said Terl.

Jo

He put his arms around Chrissie and hugged her. “Please don't worry.”

“For crap, come out of that cage,” said Terl.

Chrissie's hand trailed down Jo

“Be careful, Jo

Terl yanked him out and banged the cage door behind him. While Jo

“At dawn,” said Terl, “I want you down at the landing field ready to go. Perso

Later Jo

He went to bed at last, dispirited, certain that the future was going to be very rough, if not fatal.

Chapter 7

They were aloft at last, flying just to the east of north, rising rapidly to an altitude of over ten miles. Terl loomed over the control panel, silent and withdrawn. Jo

They were late getting off because Terl had personally gone over every fitting and unit of the plane as though suspicious that someone might have sabotaged it. The actual ship number was eighteen digits long and only ended in ninety-one. It was an old ship, a cast off from some war on some other planet, and it showed its scars in dents and sears. It had a forward flight compartment like any freighter, but it was armored and fitted with batteries of air-to-air and air-to-ground blast guns.

The huge body of the plane, now empty, was fitted to carry not ore but fifty company attack troops-there were huge benches, bins for supplies, racks for their blast guns. There were many ports, all armored. The plane had not carried troops or even been flown for ages.

Seeing that breathe-gas compression would be off in the compartment, Jo

Below them the mountains and plains spread out, apparently not moving at any great speed even though the plane was well above hypersonic.

Soon Jo

The chattering console computer was rolling itself out a tape of their successive positions. Jo

“Where are we going?” said Jo

Then he yanked an Intergalactic Mining chart of the planet from a seat pocket and threw it at Jo

Jo

“Well, we're not going up there,” said Terl, pointing a talon toward the north. “That's all water in spite of its looking solid. Just ice. Don't never land there. You'd freeze to death.”

Jo

Scotland was 89-72– 13.

After punching in a new series of coordinates, Terl put the ship on automatic and reached back of his seat for a container of kerbango. He slurped some into his container cover and chewed it down.

“Animal,” said Terl above the roar of the ship, “I am about to recruit fifty man-things."

“I thought we were almost gone.”

“No, rat brain. There are some groups in various inaccessible places on the planet.”

“And,” said Jo

Terl looked at him and nodded. “And you're going to help.”

"If I’m going to help, maybe we better talk over how we are going to do this.”

Terl shrugged. “Simple. There's a village up in the mountains where you see that red circle. This is a battle plane. We just dive in with stun blasts and then walk around and load the ones we want aboard.”

Jo

Hostile, Terl said, “You promised-”

“I know what I promised. I’m saying 'no' because your plan won't work.”

“These guns can be set to 'stun.' They don't have to be put on a 'kill' setting.”

“Maybe you better tell me what these men are going to do,” said Jo

“Why, you're going to train them on machines. I thought you could figure that out yourself, rat brain. You've been ferrying the machines. So what's wrong with this plan?”

“They won't cooperate,” said Jo

With a frown, Terl studied that. Leverage, leverage. It was true that he wouldn't have leverage. “We'll tell them that if they don't cooperate we'll shoot up their village for keeps.”

“Probably,” said Jo

It stung Terl. Jo

“Why won't it work?” demanded Terl.

"If I’ve got to train them, you better let me walk in and get them.”

Terl barked a laugh. “Animal, if you walked into that village they would drill you like a sieve. Suicide! What a rat brain!”

"If you want any help from me,” said Jo

“And then what will you do?”

Jo

With a shake of his head, Terl said, “Too risky. I didn't spend over a year training you just to have to start all over!” Then he realized he might have said too much. He looked suspiciously at Jo

“Crap!” said Terl. “All right, animal. You can go ahead and get yourself killed. What's one animal more or less? Where's the mountain?”

Well short of northern Scotland, Terl brought the perso