Salvage Fleet

by Kevin Steverson

  “There’s been no movement on or near it,” Jayneen answered. “I’ve been monitoring it since Clip connected to the satellite. I did observe two humans exit the back building and go to the barn. They went back a few minutes later.”

  “Could be another vehicle or their operations center in the barn,” JoJo observed.

  “Here’s the plan,” Harmon began. “Major Audell will come in from the east and drop the mechs from fifteen miles up. We need the higher altitude so the mechs can angle in from a greater distance. Once you four are on the ground, come in through the woods so Evelyn and JoJo can get eyes and sensors on the target. I need you to spend some time and get the roving guard patterns recorded. Major Audell, after the drop, you’ll circle back, and when called, come in from the south, flying the contours. Come in fast and low. I don’t think they have radar set up, but we can’t take the chance.”

  “Understand, Captain,” Major Audell answered.

  “Once you know their timing and pattern, Gunny, you initiate a simultaneous attack on the rovers, the gate guards, and that hover tank at…say 0100. I want it to happen in the middle of the night, but not at a time the rotation change may be happening. If you feel the need to adjust the go time, feel free.

  “At that time, I want the dropship coming in fast from the south with the security team ready to bail out as soon as it hits the ground in the open area just south of the creek. Clyde, you and your platoon will move in at a rapid pace, utilizing the wood lines on both sides of the dirt drive leading over the bridge.

  “The security platoon will clear the farm house and secure the hostages. We know they’re in the house because of the photos of the bedrooms. The mechs will provide heavy cover. We can’t take the time to dismount the mechs and secure the hostages, so Sergeant Clyde and his troops will do it. The mechs will ensure any remaining enemy combatants don’t stop the security platoon from completing their task.

  “Clyde, have someone set a charge under the bridge as you go by. When you set the charge, it doesn’t need to be anything elaborate, just blow it after you come back across with the hostages. I’ll leave it up to you how many you leave to secure the dropship.”

  “Roger, sir,” Clyde acknowledged, taking notes on his small slate.

  “Get in and get out with the hostages. After they’re safe, you bring every structure on the farm to the ground,” Harmon ordered. “Every structure.”

  “Will do, sir,” Gunny said.

  “I have Clip and Jayneen widening their observation radius of the target area to ensure they don’t have another safe house nearby with reinforcements,” Harmon said.

  “We haven’t found anything yet,” Clip said. “Or at least anything that looks suspicious.”

  “After the mission is complete, I’ll notify the system president and Admiral Timerton of the situation. When we get in-system, we’ll formulate a plan to clean the rest of them out of the military and the government. We’ll track her down, and when we find where Fritz is holed up, we’ll hit it with everything we can get our hands on, then we’ll get Jayneen plugged directly into their computer network to identify every one of them throughout the entire system.”

  “Sir, to make the time frame, we need to go ahead and get ready to launch,” Major Audell said. “The dropship isn’t as fast as the newer models.”

  “Go. Get them back,” Harmon said. “Evelyn, you’re surrounded by good troops, I know you’ll be successful. I’ll see you just as soon as we can get there.”

  After the communication link had been cut, Harmon sat back in his seat. His hands shook slightly, and he held one out and looked at it. He glanced over and saw Clip watching him.

  “I’ve seen that look before,” Clip commented. “You’re mad enough to breathe fire.”

  “I told you ssomebody wass going to pay,” said Zerith. “When the time comess, my friend. When the time comess.” He picked up the fruit he had been eating and threw it away.

  “Jayneen,” Harmon said. “Finish coordinating the smaller ships locking onto the hull. Make sure everything is good to go, and get us out of this system and on the way home…and get my power plant technician and engine specialist back over here before we head out.”

  “I’ll do my best,” the AI answered.

  “Big Jon,” Harmon asked. “You feel like a work out?”

  As the two of them walked out of the bridge, Big Jon looked back at Clip and Zerith with a look that said, What have I gotten myself into?

  * * * * *

  Chapter Nineteen

  Evelyn turned up the light enhancement in her scout mech. She could now plainly see the other three mechs and the twenty-one members of the security platoon filling the dropship’s bay. One of the mechs, JoJo’s, was a scout mech like hers. The other two were standard battle mechs piloted by Twiggy and Gunny. All were fully charged, and the rounds for the rail guns were loaded. The rocket launchers mounted on one shoulder of each of the larger mechs only held six rockets because of the limitations the damaged factory still had in manufacturing them. Twelve rockets were all that had come up with the ship and the new mechs. Twiggy’s mech looked new, but Gunny’s mech had some scars from recent battle.

  Sergeant Clyde and his platoon were outfitted in light battle armor and combat helmets, each capable of light enhancement and communications. His troops were armed with lasers and railguns. Grenades had been distributed among them as well. The platoon consisted of twelve Leethog, three Yalteen, two Caldivar, and several Pikith. Clyde was going over the instructions for how he wanted the charge placed under the bridge with one of the Pikith, Private Hroth.

  As far as the mech pilots and herself, she wasn’t worried yet about their part of the mission. She was, however, a little nervous about the security platoon. Gunny had reassured her that she needn’t worry. Even though this was their first mission together, all were experienced. The twelve Leethog members had come from the Leethog Marines, and the other members had all been part of the Joth Militia that had cleared the planet Tretra of the remaining Squilla in the last battle and were now seasoned.

  Before they mounted their mechs, she had expressed concerns about a private placing demolition charges. Gunny had smiled and said, “Private Hroth? His family owns a demolitions company on Joth. He’s been blowing things up since he was twelve.” That alleviated her fears.

  “Entering atmosphere,” Major Audell announced over the comms.

  There was some slight buffeting as the older dropship entered the atmosphere, but its shields helped keep it from getting too hot. Twenty minutes later, the dim lights went red.

  The crew chief for the mission, Corporal Kevin Jackson, had come with the ship when Major Audell brought it from the planet to Windswept. He was in position above the door to the cockpit and gave the hand signal for the troops to ensure they were strapped in. When the ramp dropped for the mechs to exit, it would not do for any of them to get sucked out. Clyde checked his belts and tapped the Yalteen beside him. The corporal checked his safety straps and tapped the Leethog private beside him. She checked hers and did the same, until all had been checked and the same tap came quickly back around to Sergeant Clyde. He gave the good-to-go signal to the crew chief.

  The lights flashed, and two minutes later, Corporal Jackson hit the switches. The light went green and the back ramp dropped. All four mechs unlocked from the holding rack and stepped out into the dark. The ramp came back up, and the howling wind subsided. The troops in the back felt the dropship swing around and begin a slow climb to a height where they could circle the area, yet not be observed by the target’s occupants.

  Evelyn checked her stats on the center screen in her mech, and everything was still in the green. After checking, she could see the glidepath they were taking indicated she would be on the ground in less than four minutes. She had performed many drops as a member of the Tretrayon Defense Fleet Marine Corps, so the drop itself did not make her nervous. She trusted her equipment to protect her and get her safely on the ground.
She was a little nervous because it was vital that she and JoJo perform the scouting mission with the utmost stealth. If they were discovered before Gunny Harper signaled the attack, it could cost her brother and Rinto…their lives. She took a deep breath and settled herself, as much as one could be settled while gliding at almost terminal velocity toward the surface of the planet.

  “Thirty seconds,” she heard Gunny say over the link a few minutes later.

  When the timer indicated, she dropped her mech’s legs toward the surface and fired the rockets. She came down in a small clearing, which was easy to see as all four mechs had fired their thrusters at the same time, lighting up the area. They were several miles from the target farm, so there was no worry that they had been seen as they landed. Evelyn heard Twiggy say over the link, “Dang! I done started a fire.” She looked over, and he was stomping out a small flame where his right leg had come down in some small bushes, and they were burning. She stepped over and helped him put out the flames.

  “We’re moving out,” Evelyn said, and she and JoJo stepped off quickly toward the intended target. Ten feet tall, they moved fairly quietly, and slipped into the woods and out of sight quickly.

  “Let’s go, sir,” Gunny said over the link, and he and Twiggy moved in the same general direction, veering slightly north. They were not piloting scout mechs, so they intended to move slowly, but deliberately, to the stacked hay bales behind the farmhouse. Moving slowly, they hoped to remain undetected.

  Standing near a large tree, easily four feet in diameter, Evelyn magnified her view and zoomed in on the two guards near the front gate. She could see they were in light battle armor and armed with laser rifles. They wore the uniform of the Tretrayon Defense Fleet. It didn’t appear as if they were Marines, and they were not wearing the Ground Defense Force uniforms, so she determined they must be members of the Intelligence branch. It figured. The people in the Intelligence branch would be the ones Commander Fritz had the most influence over. Ex-commander, she thought. She knew once Admiral Timerton found out about this, she would be out of the Fleet, if she hadn’t already resigned to run for office.

  The hover tank was parked on the far side of the gate. Now that she had eyes and sensors on it, Evelyn could see that it had a double-barreled turret on top. It was armed with dual railguns. If it fired at the mechs, it could do crippling damage to them and could be a deal breaker in this mission. It didn’t give off any heat whatsoever, though, so she knew that its crew weren’t in it. She relayed the information to the other three pilots.

  “Evelyn,” JoJo called. “The roving team is coming around in less than thirty seconds.”

  JoJo was observing the target area from the woodline near the rear of the farmhouse, so she could cover the building where the roving team had come from. Like Evelyn, her scout mech was painted with an anti-glare paint compound designed to practically absorb light. She was also near a tree, in its shade from the porch lights of the farm house. She had watched the two rotating guards go into the back building, and two different ones came out. One of them was wearing the Tretrayon Ground Defense Force uniform, different from the others she had observed. Evelyn heard her relay the information to the three of them.

  “This squat runs deep,” observed Gunny over the link.

  “Yep,” drawled Twiggy. “Fleet members, GDF, and probably some law enforcement types on that farm. It don’t matter none, they can all get some of this before the night’s over.” He tapped his railgun with his other claw for emphasis. Though she couldn’t see him, Evelyn had an idea of what he had done.

  “I like your attitude, sir,” Gunny Harper observed. “What do you see in the farmhouse, ma’am?”

  “I’m too far away for the sensors to get a good read on heat signatures inside,” Evelyn answered, “and I’m at maximum range now for the optics. I don’t want to trip any alarms before it’s go time.”

  “Same here,” JoJo volunteered.

  “Map overlay shows we’ll be in place behind the hay bales in twenty minutes,” Gunny announced on the main link to all involved. “Does that work for you, Major?”

  “Roger, Gunny,” Major Audell answered. “The timing works; I’ll start my run eight minutes from now.”

  “We can use the relay images sent to us to plan our shots,” Gunny said. “Scouts take out the stationary and roving guards. We’ll take out the hover tank and anything that may be stored in the barn. Then we provide heavy overwatch while the troops do their thing. Twenty minutes from now. On my mark. Go!”

  Miles away, Major Audell banked the dropship and prepared to make his run. In the back, Corporal Jackson flashed the overhead lights and then left them glowing red. At two minutes before landing, he would flash them again. The platoon checked their gear one last time and prepared themselves mentally. Clyde’s foot bounced on its toes even though he was seated. It was almost go time.

  Exactly nineteen minutes and twenty seconds later, Gunny saw a man come running out of the barn toward the back building with his comm to his mouth. The two roving guards sprinted for the farmhouse, while the two near the gate looked at each other for a second and ran toward the parked hover tank.

  “Go time came a little early; light ’em up!” Gunny ordered.

  JoJo fired a burst of railgun rounds and cut the two roving guards to pieces as they ran. She was careful to get them before they went far enough to have the farmhouse silhouetted behind them. She couldn’t take the chance of one of the rounds blowing right through the house.

  At almost the same time, both stationary guards were cut down by Evelyn in mid-stride. Light armor was no match for a mech’s railgun round. Several of the rounds impacted on the hover tank, causing some damage.

  It was nowhere near the damage caused by the four rockets that hit it from Gunny and Twiggy’s shoulder-mounted racks shortly after. The hover tank blew apart when the superheated gas and plasma caused by the fourth shaped-charge warhead penetrated its fuel tank. The turret went flipping into the air and knocked the gate down as it came to rest against one of the large posts.

  Evelyn fired her jets, flew up through the trees, and out of the woodline to land halfway into the front yard. She quickly moved to where she could see down the drive and the front porch. She checked her sensors to determine how many might be in the house. The sensors indicated there were just two heat sources reported; both of them were faint because of the walls between her mech and their location.

  “I have two bodies in the house,” she reported.

  “Roger, I concur. I count two from back here, they’re hot, so they must be in the back of the house closer to me,” JoJo agreed.

  In the distance Evelyn saw the dropship come streaking in, flaring at the last possible second. The ship spun around and settled in the open area with little room to spare on each side. She hit her magnification and saw the ramp drop. Before the ramp even touched the ground, the security platoon was bailing out. She saw them come out and dash for both sides of the road.

  They quickly made their way toward the farm. Though it was two hundred yards down the drive, she noticed two of the troops drop into prone positions facing the farm, and three others race around the ship to guard the front. The troops who went around the front were carrying what looked like parts of a crew-served laser. If anything came down that road, it would be cut to pieces. She approved; she would have done the same if she were in charge.

  “Aw, hell,” Evelyn heard Twiggy say. She turned to see three mechs come out of the front of the barn and engage Gunny and Twiggy.

  Twiggy fired his last four rockets as he made an assisted jump away from the hay bales disintegrating around him from railgun round hits. At least the enemy mechs didn’t have rockets themselves, and Evelyn was glad to see it. One of Twiggy’s rockets hit its target and the mech toppled over, one of its legs completely blown off.

  Evelyn put her aiming reticle on one of the moving mechs and cut loose with a sustained burst. Parts of the armor broke loose, and the mech staggered
back. The mech lifted its railgun arm, but her rounds started penetrating, and the mech toppled over, its pilot dead and the mech’s operating system completely destroyed.

  Gunny sprinted toward the rear building and fired his rockets one after another while he ran. Three of his rockets hit, and parts of the mech’s claw and upper arm came apart. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the arm with the railgun, and the pilot turned, following Gunny’s movement. Before it could fire, the mech staggered backward and to the side from railgun rounds from both Twiggy and Evelyn. Between the two of them, the mech never stood a chance, and it toppled over.

  That was when Evelyn heard JoJo cry out over the link, “Troops in the open! They’re coming out of the building.”

  * * *

  Sergeant Jonny Iffland sat staring at the monitors they had set up on the folding table in the barn. It’s going to be another long night, he thought as he ran his hands through another bad haircut. Now that he was back in the service—well, sort of—he’d had to get one in a hurry, and it had not been a good one. The old man’s hands shook, and he took forever. Jonny had checked to make sure both ears were still in place when he got out of the barber’s chair.

  He wished he was on roving detail tonight instead of sitting here staring at fields, trees, and the length of the long driveway to the farm. Nothing had happened the last couple of nights, and nothing would happen again tonight. He set one screen to show the radar of the surrounding airspace just for something to do.

  Iffland looked over at the card game in progress near the mechs. Three standard mechs stood against the far wall like huge, silent statues. He shook his head at them. That’s why I stuck with commo—you couldn’t stuff me in one of those if you used an entire squad of troops, he thought. He looked back over to the three pilots playing cards with the lieutenant in charge of the whole boring detail. Lieutenant Lilth was an officer in the System Government Law Enforcement. He was an officer in the SGLE, thought Iffland. Not anymore.