Her quarterstaff workouts and hand to hand were usually divided into one on one sparring matches and six way free-for-alls, sometimes two teams against one another and sometimes her against all of them. Tarafau and Arvid pushed them hard.
"Weapons are all well and good," Arvid told them, "and we'll start working with some distance weapons soon, but better yet is the surprise element of being able to defend yourself in close quarters with nothing but your hands and feet to defend yourself. Most of your enemies won't expect this of you and many of them never bother to learn hand to hand beyond simple punching and brawling. As you have seen, force directed against you, when properly re-directed can be a powerful asset in your favor."
When they finished and had cleaned up, Jenny headed into the situation room only to find everyone else gathered there and nearly all talking at once. They quietened as Jenny entered.
"Listen to this," Lova said, and began to read from the file in front of her, "Message received from headquarters: 'Operation to begin in three Earth weeks. Have (unintelligible word) in readiness…' Alligators? What are you talking about? Attack? What do you mean? Run! Run!"
Lova couldn't suppress a chuckle, but immediately got serious. "He didn't end up reading the rest of the message. We're assuming the word we couldn't understand was a technical term for a weapon or strategy. We also believe that this is the document he was reading when so rudely interrupted by mosquitos and gators and is the encrypted document that forensics is working with. This small snippet from this extraction could be the key to that message. This also means we are working on an extreme deadline.
I forwarded the transcript of this extraction to Alliance headquarters. By the time they finish decoding the document, we will have to move quickly, as we are now 4 days into that three week period. This means everyone needs to be on extreme alert and ready to move within minutes as soon as the translation is received. We will have next to no time to come up with a strategy and we can only hope that there will be a clue as to the whereabouts of their secret base somewhere in the document."
Jenny looked around her. She was so proud of her team. On every face was stony determination. If it could be done, this team would do it.
"OK, then," Jenny said, "I want each of us to assemble every tool we think we might be able to use as well as clothing and rations.
I want everyone on the team to host one of Burt's little bug friends. It may be important at some point to be able to track you as things heat up.
Bob, I need you and Aliki to continue to inventory Lizzie's MDPs, so we know exactly what our local resources are. Knowing what is there and extracting the things we need ahead of time is going to be important.
Even with all the preparations we need to make, everyone needs to get as much rest as possible, so when we move, we'll be prepared for what will likely be a grueling time with not much opportunity for sleep. Also, one thing I learned as a hiker was to 'carb up' before a long and difficult hike to give our bodies the resources for energy and stamina in a long haul.
Burt, notify all the Guardians who are not here. Not all of us are going to be 'on-the-ground' in this effort, but everyone needs to know the plan. Lova, notify the Council that we are making preparations and to have Troopers standing by. Let's do this thing."
They all separated to their various tasks. Tarafau approached Jenny, concern in his eyes. "I've seen that look on Lizzie's face before, Jenny. You intend to be 'on-the-ground', right in the middle of it, don't you?"
Jenny straightened to her full 5 feet 4 inches and looked him in the eye. "Isn't this what I have been preparing for? Gariel will be directing troop movements and strategy. I don't think I can handle sitting here watching, while my team is out there risking their necks. I know I'm not a warrior maiden out of some fantasy tale, but I'm invested in this and I won't sit on my hands."
Tarafau cocked his head. She could almost see cat ears pointed forward and a twitching tail in his expression. Then he shrugged and sighed. "I could never keep Lizzie out of it, either. I will be with you and your Guards, regardless of what part you play. You won't go haring off on your own?"
"I'll stick with my A-team," Jenny agreed. "I've got business with a certain sneaky person and I won't hand that off to anyone else. And I'll get one of Burt's tracking thingies, so you can't lose me."
"The Gatekeeper usually doesn't go into combat situations. We can't afford to lose you. But I know better than to argue with someone who is so much like your aunt. I would like to suggest that you take on the role of a field commander. You'll be close to the action, but not in the middle of it. Will that do?"
"For now," Jenny agreed.
Lova looked up from the file she was reading. "We need to go to the gate," she told Jenny. "Troopers will be coming through and we need to get them set up in our field barracks."
"You have barracks?" Jenny asked in surprise. "Why would you have barracks?"
"Technically, we don't have barracks, but we will in a few minutes." Lova answered mysteriously. "Come on, I'll show you."
They got to the gate just as Troopers came spilling out. As the uniformed troops emerged, they ordered themselves into ranks, standing at ease. There were a couple hundred of them, by Jenny's estimation. Gariel came out of the gate last.
"You have your orders," he called out in a commanding voice. "Proceed."
"Over here," said Lova, moving to a level, cleared field, a few hundred feet away. A man Jenny assumed must be a platoon leader, walked to about the center of the area and from his MDP he drew a cube about a foot on every side and placed it on the ground. He then went another 50 feet and repeated the process until there were four cubes laying at angles with one another.
He pressed a button on what looked like a utility belt and the cubes simultaneously began to expand. In less than a couple minutes, four buildings stood there, complete with windows, doors and tent-like roofs. Jenny gaped. She could see where a non-tech person would consider this sort of thing magical. The only thing lacking was a wand or a staff and some magic words.'
"Would you like to see inside?" Lova asked Jenny, her mouth twisting in amusement.
"Sure," said Jenny, following Lova through the door of the closest building.
Inside there were cots similar to the standard army cot, a small break space with tables and chairs and what might have been a privy. All of it was lined up very meticulously with spaces between beds, enough for 50 people.
"Wow," Jenny said. "Just when I think I'm used to all of this…"
As they exited the barracks, Jenny noticed there was a fifth building being erected, somewhat larger than the barracks. "The assembly building, so they can brief all the soldiers at once without distractions. All of these buildings are shielded, and communications are in the admin building," said Gariel.
The empty field was beginning to look like the barracks had always been there. But, unlike standard Earth Army barracks areas, there were no vehicles or weapons in evidence. The gates were all the transport they required here, and their weapons were stored in their MDPs. None of the soldiers wore backpacks. Any transport they might require on the battlefield or when they did not have gates available would also be stored in their MDPs.
Jenny imagined this made for a very mobile force which could march farther and respond faster than any earthly force she was aware of.
Then, Jenny realized that this was a very small force, if the numbers reported regarding the hidden Gorga force were even close.
"Where are the rest of the troops?" she asked Gariel.
"This is just the advance party," he replied. "The rest will be deployed once we know where we need to be. "The Troopers in this unit are the elite and their main purpose is to scout and gather intelligence for the rest of our forces. Remember, that one of the requirements of this operation is to leave as small a footprint as possible to the watchful eyes of satellites and other intelligence devices on Earth.
We don't want to cause concern to the governments of your planet
. This battle must be waged as quietly as possible. We hope to develop a stratagem that will lure their troops off world. That would be the ideal situation, but if not, we will use every resource at our disposal to make this conflict as brief and as quiet as possible."
"That would be preferable on so many levels," Jenny agreed. There was something about Gariel, even with his squirming beard and his commanding air that was very comforting. He exuded a vibration of cool competence. She never had seen him at rest. Every minute he seemed to be on point. This, of course, was a trait to be desired in a military commander, but Jenny wondered what he was like when he had the opportunity to relax. She suspected that it was a rare thing, considering the scope of his responsibilities.
Burt strode up, his wild hair fluffing in the breeze and his blue eyes intent. "Hey there! Looks like that snippet from that extract has done its job. They have finished decoding the document. Meeting in the situation room in five minutes." He turned on his heel and headed back to the lodge.
No one hesitated. Gariel, Lova and Jenny followed on his heels. The situation room was crowded. Most were standing, but they had saved Jenny a seat. Arvid stood, what appeared to be a dispatch in his hands.
"The message contained in this document is long, so I will summarize. The Groga have assembled themselves in the Vale do Javari, a part of the Amazon jungle about the size of Australia. This massive jungle is inhabited by just over a dozen small indigenous tribes of just over 2,000 people, which leaves a vast hole in the center of the jungle that is not populated. Furthermore, the canopy is so dense that nothing, but very expensive high-tech equipment can penetrate it.
The closest gate to the Vale do Javari is in Puerto Rico. There are about twenty five hundred troops located deep in the heart of the jungle. They chose their spot well. Getting a large enough force in there to attack them without anyone's notice will be quite a feat, especially in the time allotted.
Based on our current intelligence, they must be guarding one of their portals there and in about 16 days they will be transporting those troops to another dimension to raid. From what we can deduce from the document, they have been staging their latest raids from earth all along.
So, our priorities will change for the moment. Instead of trying to annihilate this force, as pleasant a thought as that may be, we need to use their position and this potential raid as an opportunity to find the gate, get some readings and more intelligence. Once we discover their destination, we will attempt to put troops in their way to hopefully protect their target.
Once the bulk of their troops are through the portal, the troops here in Sanglarka should be enough to get into their camp with very little resistance. And we'll leave them a little surprise before we vacate the premises. Nothing, of course, that will damage or harm the indigenous people.
There were no references to the portal, other than as transportation, so we must assume that the commanders of this force are already trained in its use, or they have documents existing somewhere in the camp with that information. Either that, or they use a device such as a Gatekeeper or Guardian key to access the portal. If that is the case, we will need to capture one, preferably with the person attached to it." At this he gave one of his evilest grins. "Bonus points," he growled.
The rest of the team gave an approving chuckle.
"Looks like we have our work cut out for us," Burt said ruffling his wild hair. "Tactical team, meeting. Now."
The room half emptied. "Aliki, since Bob will be in the Tactical team meeting, can you head up a group to inventory the remaining three MDPs? We'll need anything we can use in the Jungle environment. I can only hope that may include some kind of watercraft, considering that the Amazon jungle is crisscrossed with rivers that have some nasty surprises for those who are unprepared." Lova, said.
Aliki recruited Adelle, Dhakirah and Megan and they left for the other library which had been co-opted for MDP research.
That left Lova and Jenny. "Let's take a cup of cocoa out on the balcony and catch our breath," Lova said. "I have a feeling things are about to get really intense before the day is out. I sent a message for Juan to join us, now that he has the Puerto Rico gate secured. He has a really great companion in Luz. She is so much more than just a wife and hostess. Did you know she is an awarded sharp-shooter? She has more medals than anyone on the team, except maybe Brendan."
They sat on the balcony looking out onto the peaceful valley and up to the snow-capped mountains sparkling in the sunlight.
"The days are getting shorter," Lova sighed. "In another month it will be dark more than it will be light. It has a different kind of beauty, the dark. From our lovely little valley surrounded by mountains and far from city lights, some nights the stars are so bright, it's like you can reach out and touch eternity. Where we live, we have the opportunity to truly appreciate both. But when it comes to the darkness of the soul…" she trailed off.
Jenny nodded. "I think I am only beginning to understand what that means. You'd think someone who writes for a living would be more based in reality, but even knowing what I know, I tend to focus on the good things in the world. I think I get that from my mom. And I've been fortunate, as I don't write about world events. Most of the time what I write is more about technology, science and industry than anything else.
I know there is evil on the earth, but it seems so far away from my comfortable little world. And now I come up against it on a scale I have not imagined in my worst dreams or nightmares. The idea of multiple dimensions was so much science fiction to me. None of the research I have read about has come to any firm conclusions about their existence and more often than not it is pooh-poohed as pseudo-science or the over active imaginations of a small group of physicists."
Lova agreed. "Reading some of the 'scholarly' works of those who disbelieve in other dimensions makes me smile. We have so far to go before we are ready for what's 'out there'," and she gestured toward the startlingly blue sky, as if to encompass all of time and space.
Suddenly they heard raised voices from inside the lodge. As they burst through the glass doors, they realized it was coming from the library where they were doing MDP research.
She quickly realized it was not panic or fear. Someone was celebrating.
Chapter 32: Out of the Frying Pan
There might as well have been confetti in the air. Aliki and his team were doing what could only be described as a "happy dance.” Whooping with hands in the air and jumping up and down and hugging in congratulations.
"We found the motherlode!" Bob exclaimed as he saw Lova and Jenny walk through the door, followed rapidly by Jenny's guards and the rest of their comrades. "That Lizzie is a pip! I don't know how she acquired all of this, but I doubt she ever threw anything away that was of any use. The fourth MDP was a goldmine of tech and equipment. Also, enough rations to field a small army as well as more of those cubes that make barracks buildings. But, on top of that, it turns out that Fidget has cousins!
We have about 50 little robots along with manuals. And let me tell you, these little guys can do some pretty amazing things. For one thing, they can fly. They are armed, and they can lift as much as a forklift, but they are so small they look inoffensive. They can color shift to blend into their environment, and they can communicate through the Alliance broadband network. In addition, they can be tracked, even through a gateway. Whoever designed them evidently put a version of Burt's bugs in them. These would work as a nice little advance force.
I don't know if this was what Engoza was looking for, but, if not, we haven't finished exploring these MDPs. One of them even has the equipment for a field hospital.
But when I said we hit the motherlode, I was being literal. There's gold in them thar MDPs." This last was said with a drawl, his fingers in imaginary suspenders. "She has a stash of gold coins like I've never seen before as well as a goodly hoard of gemstones. What was she preparing for? Did she have some kind of premonition? Or was she under orders we don't know about?"
Jenny wondered herself. How had her aunt obtained such a wealth of resources, even over 60 years as a Guardian? She itched to get out her tablet and talk to LizzieAI, but she decided it would be best to do that in private until she knew more.
"Congratulations, MDP team," she said effusively. "This should give us an edge. Aliki, please take this list to the tactical team, so they can decide how best to use this in their plans. Some of this will want to be distributed among various MDPs for our unit and this may alter their tactics and will hopefully save some lives."
As she said this, it suddenly loomed in her mind that this wasn't just an adventure, with happily-ever-afters at the end. There would inevitably be injuries and deaths. So far they had managed with few casualties, but that would not continue. The force they were up against was formidable and they had no compunction about harming others, in fact, they gloried in it. She steeled herself, realizing just how unprepared she was, on a personal level, for what was to come.
She wasn’t sure how Lizzie had acquired such wealth, but the interesting thing was that the gold had to be the least important of their finds. With the resources of the Alliance to draw on, money didn't seem to mean much.
They went back to work, knowing that every moment had to count. Once again, Arvid set up a buffet table that people could dip into and take their plates back to where they were working. They took breaks only to work out and they did that in shifts.
Lova had been teaching Jenny how to discern the strength of another person's mind control and Jenny was struggling with it. Lova had told her that this was important, because if you didn't know this, you could mistakenly attack someone who could easily break you. It was difficult to shield yourself when attacking. But for purposes of shielding, knowing what you were up against was a helpful skill.
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