Salvage Fleet

by Kevin Steverson

  Captain Rogers and two of his crew members were in the meeting. One of them, Micktar Jarth, was his executive officer; the other, Stump Elton, his chief of security. They stayed mostly silent during the meeting but observed everything.

  Marteen was there as well. He and a huge man named Don Nicholson were there representing the Bentwick light cruiser, now registered as Desert Shade. Former-Specialist, now Lieutenant Nicholson was probably the first enlisted Marine to ever get battle-promoted all the way to lieutenant in the Tretrayon system. Well, sort of—he was no longer in the Fleet; he was an employee of Tomeral and Associates. Big Nick, as he was known among the other mech pilots, had been content to do his job as a mech pilot. Because of his size, at well over six feet, he had also doubled as his platoon’s heavy weapons expert when they were doing any training not involving the mechs. Tomeral and Associates now had a Big Jon and a Big Nick, though the two would never be mistaken for each other.

  He was sharp—he knew his job inside and out, as well as the jobs of those around him. He also wouldn’t take any squat, so Marteen had talked Harmon into promoting him. He was one of the five mech pilots Harmon had hired after the last system invasion. He was also the big man Harmon had beaten in his first combatives match in the competition. Big Nick didn’t hold a grudge about his loss, and Harmon appreciated that, though he may hold a grudge forever now, since he had been promoted to officer. The thought made Harmon smile.

  “Speaking of insane,” Harmon said. “I’m thinking about calling the Dalgit frigate the Skrittle and crewing it with Leethog for the upcoming battle. They can handle more G-forces than the rest of us, and it’ll give the ship a better chance to maneuver and avoid some missiles.”

  “I’m afraid to ask this,” Evelyn asked, “but who will command it?”

  “Hank and Stan,” Harmon said without hesitation.

  “Yess, that iss insane,” Zerith said, nodding. He popped a mini-muffin into his mouth and started chewing.

  Hank and Stan grinned and high-foured each other. After a moment, both of their eyes went wide, and Hank slowly turned to see what his mate Kyla thought of this. He held his breath and waited.

  “They will do a fine job,” Kyla said, surprising everyone. “They may laugh and joke and sing inappropriate songs, but they are fine pilots and not afraid of any challenge, even if they have to give up much. Harmon, they will do a fine job.” Her tone was matter of fact and serious. So much so, Harmon didn’t notice she had called him by his first name, something she never did. Vera nodded slowly along with Kyla.

  “You know,” Clip said, looking up. “That is truly a ship of fools if there ever was one.”

  “Aw, them boys’ll do just fine,” Twiggy said. “They can both fly like nobody’s business.”

  “Did they have an idea this was coming?” Marteen asked. “On the trip between gates, they actually shut down one engine, tore it apart, rebuilt it, and, from what they said, increased its output by twenty-five percent. Then they did the other one. I was a nervous wreck the entire trip. I could see us coming through the gate without any thrust at all.”

  “No,” Harmon said. “That’s a frost of an improvement, though.”

  “I will select their power plant and engine technicians,” Kyla stated. “There will be no more of those two doing things like that unsupervised.”

  “What will you do with the four destroyers?” Jayneen asked.

  “We may have to let the fleet crew them,” Harmon said. “I haven’t decided, but we’re stretched thin now. We have enough crew members, with a few to spare for repairs, but that’s it. We could reach out and hire some more, but I don’t know if we’ll have time. Jayneen has noticed increased communication between the Squilla system and the Krift system. They’re finalizing things and may be coming sooner than we thought.”

  “Great,” Evelyn said. “I hope it’s still a week or two at least. I need JoJo healed enough to be on the bridge with me.”

  “It had better be after the planet-side operation, or we really are in trouble,” Harmon agreed.

  “Planet-side you say?” Captain Rogers asked. “Will there be face-to-face fighting now?”

  At this, both of the officers who had accompanied him to the meeting sat a little straighter. Face-to-face? A little hand-to-hand, maybe some horn-to-horn fighting? Ears flicked forward.

  Harmon explained some of what had happened, and the reasons for tackling it now as opposed to waiting until after the upcoming battle. As he was explaining the actual mission, and the fact that they would probably lose troops accomplishing it, Captain Rogers interrupted him.

  “You know, a drop is not the only way to get there and take out the defenses so you can land the bulk of your troops,” the Rincah said.

  “Is there another option?” Harmon asked, intrigued.

  “Sure, me and my kin can climb a mountain like you climb a ladder, you know,” he stated.

  “Once they do that and get on the plateau itself, we can fly Sweet Pea down through the valleys and pop right up on them, hover low, and your mechs can just hop right out,” Cameron volunteered.

  “Interesting,” Harmon mused. “I like it. I like it a lot.”

  “Do you wish to change the operation orders this close to go time?” Jayneen asked. She was still learning how to be a leader, and this confused her. Decisions had been made, and the entire mission had been approved by the system president himself.

  “Yeah, I do,” Harmon said. “Scratch that whole plan. I’m about to lay one on you that has a much better chance at succeeding, with the possibility of far fewer casualties.”

  “You gonna tell the brass?” Clip asked.

  “Nope,” Harmon answered, “I’m not. We’ll move the time schedule up four hours, too, so when the time comes for them to expect updates, I can let them know the mission is already complete. Hey, sometimes you have to do things without permission and beg for forgiveness later.”

  “Itss a good philossophy,” agreed Zerith.

  “That’s Skrittle’s new motto,” Stan said. He reached up to high-four his brother, saw the look on Kyla and Vera’s faces, and put his hand down. Hank never even raised his; he had known better.

  “Here’s the new plan…” Harmon began.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Harmon looked around the bay of Sweet Pea using his mech’s cameras and was amazed the thing was flying. There were open panels in the ceiling and along the back wall. It seemed as if every drawer and cabinet where the technicians kept their tools was open. It went against everything Harmon knew about ship maintenance, safety, and general life aboard a warship. He had no idea how the Lormells managed it, until he looked closer using magnification, and saw the drawers were locked open, and each tool was fixed in place. They were easily accessed, but not a danger during erratic maneuvers. Interesting, thought Harmon. Method to this madness.

  There were twenty fighters lined up tightly over to one side of the bay. Like Cameron had said, “twenty different fighters.” They were different; that was for sure. No two were the same; even though several looked to be the same original type, modifications had made them very different. Harmon wasn’t sure of the make of many of them, much less what race had built them to begin with. It did look as if six of them were designed for atmospheric flight. Five of them were in differing states of disassembly, almost as if they were there for parts.

  Closer to Harmon, and near the bay door, were the mechs, with their pilots ready in the cockpits and a couple of Lormell technicians finishing some repairs to a large three-legged mech. It didn’t really have three legs for maneuvering, since the third leg came down from the back when the pilot prepared to fire its main weapon, a huge cannon cradled in its claws. There was a large clip holding five 70 mm sabot tank rounds, with a spare clip hooked to the waist of the mech on the opposite side of the canon. There was also a small railgun fixed to one of its forearms. Even with the third stabilizing leg, firing that cannon had to rock the w
hole war machine.

  There were two more of the Lormell mechs going on the mission. Both of them were more in line with the majority of the mechs used by various races throughout the galaxy—bipedal with two arms. They had a small version of a railgun on one arm and a large laser rifle in a bracket on the leg. Harmon thought they looked like human-designed mechs, maybe several generations old, but there was no telling how many modifications had been made to them.

  One of the modifications was a missile rack on both shoulders of the one closest to him. Harmon could see five rows of ten holes where small missiles came out of each rack. The number of missiles it could launch more than made up for the missiles’ small size. For all Harmon knew, they might be filled with an explosive more powerful than the one used in the Tretrayon-made missiles his mech fired from its launchers.

  Cameron wasn’t mounted in his mech. It was over near the fighters, and in an obvious state of disrepair. Harmon had never seen a mech of that design. It had eight legs, like some kind of giant mechanical spider. Harmon could see the barrel of a flamethrower mounted on the top left, and a burned section on its back where a fuel tank may have once been. Several of its legs were broken off, and there was a huge dent in the head.

  The ship’s owner and captain was on the bridge, seated at the helm for the duration of the insertion mission. For the type of flying the plan called for, he had insisted on being in total control of Sweet Pea. Harmon couldn’t fault him for it.

  Counting Harmon’s mech, Tomeral and Associates had sent a total of nine mechs, making twelve mechs, total, for the mission. JoJo’s mech had been destroyed, and Twiggy’s had been rendered inoperable until major repairs could be made to it. More would have been better, but even if they had been available, JoJo was still healing, and Twiggy was needed to fly Harmon’s personal Zax III as part of the plan.

  Hours earlier, Harmon had contacted Fleet and the planet Tretrayon to let them know Sweet Pea was going to go down to the surface and do a little sightseeing, similar to what Cameron had done on the planet Joth. Fleet had been apprised of the ship’s journey to the desert planet, so this request was not surprising. It was approved.

  Little did Fleet or the planet’s authorities know that the ship had a Zax III fighter locked to the outside of a shuttle that had been converted to a dropship, itself locked to the hull of Sweet Pea. Beside it was Hauler, locked on as well. The converted shuttle had not been registered yet as it was one of the many Harmon had purchased from Mike & Mike.

  The rest of Tomeral and Associates’ ships were all safely out of range of the three huge weapons located on The Plateau. Clip would slowly move Salvage Title into orbit at the original plan’s time, ensuring he kept it in orbit on the opposite side of the planet from the ship killers, just in case the base’s occupants had the railguns primed and ready to fire.

  “Alright, let’s run through the basics,” Harmon said over the linked comms. Everyone involved had been linked into one command network. “Cameron, don’t squash Twiggy or the Rincah assault climbers with G-forces.”

  “Or me!” Major Audell called back. He was piloting the assault-modified shuttle full of twenty Rincah Marines, wearing light battle armor and climbing gear for the mission. He had found working with Captain Tomeral much more fulfilling than his job in the fleet. Corporal Bahroot was sitting in the copilot’s seat in light armor, with a backpack containing Jayneen, a slate, and a power cell.

  “Yeah, don’t squash us,” drawled Twiggy. “My arm is still a little sore.”

  “Right, go slow,” Cameron answered back.

  “Sloooooooooooow,” somebody said over the net. It might have been Ralph, because Cameron laughed before cutting his feed.

  “Them boys ain’t right,” announced Twiggy.

  “Cut the chatter,” Harmon said, though he was smiling.

  “When we get down and come around to the beginning of the valley through the mountains, the shuttle will detach,” Harmon said. “The shuttle will fly the contours and stay well below the radar horizon. The craft will land, and the climbers will make their way to the mountain and begin their climb.”

  “It should take us no more than a couple of hours to make the climb,” Captain Rogers said. “If it looks like it’ll be an easy climb when we get there, I’ll be letting you know.”

  “Good. We can adjust the timing if we need to,” Harmon agreed.

  “We’ll provide cover once they make the top and take out the air defenses on the back side,” Major Audell added.

  “From there, we can take out some of the other defenses, maybe put a dent in those big ol’ ship killers,” Twiggy added.

  “Right,” Harmon continued. “Once the defense is taken out on the backside, Sweet Pea will come zipping through the valleys and straight up the cliff, where Cameron will slow it enough for us to make a drop with all twelve mechs…and my attached rider.”

  Big Jon was in the heavy battle armor he preferred to use. Zerith had produced a detachable magnetic clamp so the staff sergeant could make the drop with Harmon’s mech. The large mech had enough rocket boost that it shouldn’t be an issue. In theory, anyway. Zerith was confident in his design and assured Harmon it would be fine. He would use more jump fuel than a normal drop, but they weren’t dropping from a great distance, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.

  “We’ll move as a platoon, sweep the base from rear to front, and take out the base defenses as we go,” Harmon went on. “We’ll face at least ten mechs and the tanks. Hopefully we can get the drop on them and even the odds from the beginning. Twiggy, concentrate on the tanks. The shuttle can take out the railguns with its quad gun. They should be able to destroy the towers, but those rounds may not penetrate the tanks, and we’re limited on our supply. Mike & Mike didn’t have any extra to sell us.”

  “After we take out the resistance, they may have reinforcements,” Harmon instructed. “If they do, Cameron, take them out. It’ll probably be the first time a ship of that size has ever fought within the atmosphere of Tretra, so it’ll be a sight to see.”

  “I’ve got three missiles that do just fine in atmosphere,” Cameron said.

  “Three?” Clip asked. He had been listening from Salvage Title. “I thought you said you had twenty missile launchers.”

  “We do,” Cameron answered. “Twenty different ones. Some big, some small, a few with a lot of extra missiles in inventory. One of them, I only have four missiles for. Ship shockers. They hit, bury themselves, and then emit a huge electrical surge and fry ships’ systems.”

  “Magnetic pulse?” Evelyn asked.

  “Nope,” Ralph answered for his captain. “They just shock the crap out of the ship. Everyone close dances around onboard and fries. Kinda nasty.”

  “After we clear the base of air defense, Bahroot will offload from the shuttle with Jayneen,” Harmon continued. “Bahroot, wait until Brickle arrives in Hauler and offloads both Salvage Title and Windswept’s security platoons. Sergeant Clyde will use both platoons to sweep the buildings. There’ll be resistance inside, and the mechs are too big to clear buildings properly.”

  “Once we get to the operations center,” Jayneen said, “it won’t take long to determine the names and locations of the rest of the movement. I’ll be able to get the information; what’s done with it is a different story.”

  “True,” Harmon agreed. “Not everyone in the rank and file will be someone committing treason or involved with it. There’ll be plenty of names of Tretrayons that were duped, have strong opinions, or are just set in their ways. Like I said, we can’t kill everyone that thinks differently. That’s not how it works.”

  “Yes, I agree,” Jayneen said over the net. “There’s right and there’s wrong. There are gray areas I’m still studying, as defined by humans, but that definitely falls into the wrong area.”

  “Alright,” Cameron announced several minutes later. “We’re going in. It’s time to ride the valleys.”

  “Hey, boss,” they heard Ralph say. Cameron had
neglected to close his link. “Don’t catch a ridge this time.”

  “I know, right?” Cameron laughed as the link cut.

  “Wait! What?” Harmon said loudly.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The huge ship hovered, more or less stationary, deep in the valley below the mountain. Captain Cameron had managed to fly through the mountain valleys well below the radar horizon of any system The Plateau may have had. He had entered the mountain region many miles away, like Harmon had informed the authorities he would. Fleet and traffic control had known his ship would be in the atmosphere, but not where it was now. The ship’s trip to Joth to fly the mountains had made this one still seem a little strange, but not overly suspicious. With all the damage to the airfields and their radar systems from the last invasion across the planet, Harmon had bet on the destroyer being able to get into the valleys and disappear.

  Major Audell detached the dropship from the hull of Sweet Pea and flew closer to the mountain itself. When it got close, he landed it and waited for Twiggy to fire up the Zax and fly off of it and land nearby. Then he dropped the ramp.

  Brickle had detached Hauler before the big ship had started its run, and he had followed behind. He flew to the same landing area and settled near the shuttle. He did not lower the ramp. His part of the mission would come later, when he would drop off both security platoons on top of the plateau.

  Twenty Rincah warriors came down the ramp of the shuttle. They were wearing light battle armor and skull cap helmets. The helmets were designed to account for the Rincah’s curved horns. All of them had climbing harnesses on, with coils of very thin rope. The rope may have been thin, but it was designed to hold a team of four climbers weighing in excess of one thousand pounds with gear. With rifles slung over their backs, the Rincah began to climb, and the five teams quickly scrambled up the nearly vertical mountain.