The Peacekeepers. Books 7 - 9 (The Peacekeepers Boxset Book 3)

by Ricky Sides

  At the entrance to the shaft, the corporal who had just been extracted stepped aside as an explosion, followed by a low-pitched rumbling sound emerged from the hole. That was quickly followed by a thick column of dust that shot twenty feet into the air.

  The team threw the cable back down into the shaft and waited, but there was no answering tug. A full minute passed before the corporal said, “Bring it back up. I’m going back down for him.”

  “All right, Corporal,” responded the engineer, who reached to activate the winch.

  “It jerked, but only once. Pull it up!” the corporal shouted in excitement.

  A minute later, an unconscious Ralph was pulled from the ventilation shaft and dragged away from the opening. He had been shot five times in the chest, twice in the legs, and he was suffering from a head wound. His armor had prevented the bullets from penetrating his body, but the force of the impacts had apparently knocked his head against the wall of the shaft. The back of his head had been lacerated by the impact, and it was bleeding.

  One of the men leaned over the shaft and peered down into its depths. The sound of gunfire from below told them that the enemy was still attempting to attack. The curious peacekeeper was pulled to safety by another man.

  “Get the Sergeant to the ship,” the corporal instructed. He then helped organize the remaining men in retrieving the equipment that they had used during the rescue. They had to leave the winch and frame over the hole they had just vacated. The engineer disconnected the power cable and signaled men at the rear of the Athens to reel in the line while the corporal’s remaining men carried in the winch and frame assembly utilized in the rescue of the women.

  Chapter 16

  The drones approached the flying houses from the east. They flew in at top speed, stopping only at the last moment. They got off several shots at the three houses before the enemy fighters noted their presence and executed turns to make attack runs.

  The drones left the area and flew back toward the east, leaving the damaged houses, which were gradually sinking toward the ground. In the seconds they had had to attack the structures, the drone pilots had damaged the battery casings in numerous areas as they fired up at the bottom of the buildings.

  The enemy pilots eagerly raced to overtake the drones, which lacked the top speed of the fighters. They caught up to them just three miles to the east and began to attempt to shoot them down. They quickly learned that it was one thing to want to shoot down one of the drones, but quite another to actually manage it.

  The drone pilots were all executing a series of maneuvers that they had executed hundreds of times in training. The maneuvers were designed to confuse enemy gunners. They acted as a pack with most of the drones distracting the enemy while two sought out the opportunity to shoot at the enemy fighters.

  Meanwhile, Hawk and his wingman flew toward the confrontation. Between the drones and the arrival of the two peacekeeper fighters, two of the enemy pilots were blown out of the sky in moments. However, the remaining pilot was either the luckiest man alive or a natural at air-to-air combat.

  Several times, the man escaped death by mere feet as both drones and the peacekeeper pilots sought to box him in and shoot him out of the sky. The enemy pilot was firing back at the peacekeepers and the drones. He had managed to hit one drone with a brief laser strike that apparently affected the operating controls, because the drone operator lost control of that unit and it fell to the ground.

  “Destroy that drone,” Evan ordered. They couldn’t risk the enemy coming into possession of one of their drones. With one in their possession, even a damaged drone could be used for back engineering purposes, and the enemy had already demonstrated a willingness to do that.

  Two of the drone operators hovered near the crippled machine and fired their lasers at it until nothing but a useless slab of metal remained.

  Hawk used the radio and spoke to the enemy pilot on the default pilots’ channel. He knew that if the man had the radio on, the odds were it would be set on that channel. “You’re a good pilot. I really don’t want to kill you, so I’ll make you a deal. Land the fighter and walk away. We won’t attack you.”

  “I wish I could, buddy. I got in over my head and got involved in something I should have avoided. But I just don’t trust you people not to kill me if I do it.”

  “Then, look beside your starboard wing,” advised Hawk.

  As the pilot turned his head in that direction, he saw a drone had pulled up beside him while he had communicated with the peacekeeper. The man knew that from that angle, the drone could destroy him and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

  “I think I’ll take you up on that offer, if it still stands,” the shocked pilot said on the radio.

  “It does,” Hawk replied.

  The enemy flier landed the fighter, opened the cockpit, and got out of his bird for the last time. Hawk, who was hovering nearby, saw the wistful look on the man’s face and knew how he felt. A man who could fly like this man would hate leaving his bird for the last time. Hawk opened his canopy and tossed out his survival pack he always carried in his fighter. It contained two canteens of water, a three-day supply of rations, a fire starting kit, and a folded piece of heavy duty plastic sheeting for use as an emergency shelter. “Emergency supplies,” the pilot explained when the man on the ground gave him a quizzical look.

  “Thanks,” the man said as he picked up the pack and settled it on his back with the ease of an experienced hiker.

  “You’re a good pilot. You just chose the wrong side to join,” Hawk stated. “Head east, and don’t try coming back for the fighter. One of our drones will be here guarding it.”

  Hawk watched for a moment as the man walked away.

  ***

  “Captain, Harvey is reporting that all personnel are now aboard and that he had double checked to make certain no one was left behind. He also says that enemy fire at the extraction point forced the team to leave the winch and framing behind. He wants to know if you want him to organize an effort to recover the gear.”

  “No. Leave it. I won’t risk men’s lives for that equipment. We’ll try to recover it when this is over. Ask him about Ralph. Has anyone determined the seriousness of his wound?” Evan requested and then he waited as the communications officer handled the exchange of information.

  “He said that Sergeant Maroney probably has a mild concussion, Captain. He is stable, but has not yet regained consciousness.”

  “Wasn’t he wearing a helmet?” asked Evan with a frown.

  “Yes, sir. The medic said he had worn his helmet when he entered the shaft and that he must have lost it in the explosion.”

  “Thanks. Order the bay door sealed and then warn the crew to prepare for liftoff.”

  “Are we going to fight now, Captain?” asked the gunner.

  “Our orders are to transport the civilians to the Damroyal. The Admiral wants them there, where it will be safer. We’ll stop and recover the fighter, and then we fly straight to the battle fortress.”

  Turning to the drone stations, he said, “Give us a distraction guys. Buzz the bowl, but try to save your aircraft for the real attack.”

  Two minutes later, eight of the drones flew back toward the bowl. They resumed the attack on the now grounded flying houses. They hit the electrical connection sections on the backside of the houses, thus, making it impossible for the raiders to utilize the power from the structures at all. The loss of the battery system would have been a serious blow to their ability to store power, but that wouldn’t have prevented them from being able to use them to generate and distribute power. That was now impossible.

  The Athens crossed the danger zone represented by the gorge while the raiders in the bowl were concentrating on trying to drive away the drones.

  ***

  “Well done, Evan,” Jim said as he watched the last of the liberated prisoners file past on their way to an entrance on the flight deck of the Damroyal.

  “Thank you, Dad, but
it was a team effort.”

  “Of course, it was. No captain ever shined, but for the hard work of his crew.”

  “I like that. I think I’ll have it printed and framed,” Evan said thoughtfully.

  “Does your crew need to be excused from the attack? Your people pulled some tense duty today. It’s no shame if they need a break.”

  “We’re ready to go. We’re hitting the base tonight then?” asked Evan.

  “Yes, I want to strike before they scatter to the four winds. Thanks to the way you executed your mission, the enemy still doesn’t know what they are up against. All they know is that someone helped the prisoners escape and that the drones and a pair of fighters attacked. That probably has them thinking they are dealing with one of the smaller ships that created a diversion in order to free the prisoners. They probably feel they have a day or two before we can muster a major offensive, which could mean they plan to leave at first light. It would take the raiders most of the night to load as much of their equipment as they can haul away.”

  “So we’ll hit them while they are scrambling to evacuate?”

  “That’s the idea. Of course, it’s all speculation on my part. They could have already left or may be digging in deeper,” Jim explained.

  “I’m thinking they will try to stay and hold the base. From the footage I saw, they’ve invested a lot of work in that base.” Frowning, Evan clarified, “Their slave labor did the work I guess, but you know what I mean.”

  “Yes. That’s one of the reasons I think they’ll stay,” Jim concurred. Then, changing the subject, he said, “Since we are shifting the noncombatants to her, I’m holding the Damroyal in reserve. She won’t be committed to the fighting unless it’s necessary to achieve victory. You should transfer your nonessential personnel.”

  “I asked them during the flight here. I was going to ask, if you didn’t mention the prospect of doing that. I had Ralph transferred for medical observation, due to the concussion he suffered during the rescue. He’s a bit upset about that, but Doctor Sanchez felt it safer if he were in a stable environment. Another blow to the head at this stage could prove fatal. But the rest all respectfully declined the offer.”

  “What about Lisa and Beth?” asked Jim.

  For the first time, Evan appeared troubled. “She said no. When I pressed the matter, she asked if she needed to get transferred to another ship in order to get fair treatment. She said that she wanted special treatment, because of her relationship to me as much as I want it because of mine with you.”

  “Ouch,” Jim said. He knew how sensitive Evan was to such references. ‘But surely she wants Beth evacuated.”

  “Yes, Maggie will be watching Beth for us. In fact, here she comes now,” Evan noted.

  ***

  “You understand the plan?” the Warlord asked Bruno.

  “I do. It will work. They won’t know what hit them,” Bruno replied.

  “Good. Remember, you have to seize as many hostages as you can if this is going to work.”

  “I won’t let you down.”

  ***

  Evan watched the stunned look of disbelief form on Edward’s face as the raider learned that he hadn’t really killed the other two men who had been captured flying the houses. All three men had talked, confirming each other’s stories. Therefore, Evan was honoring his agreement with them, provided none of the recently freed prisoners accused them of killing anyone at the Tennessee Ark site. If they were innocent in that regard, then the Admiral would free them soon. Otherwise, they would be taken from the brig of the Damroyal and executed.

  As the prisoners were led away by a detachment of Damroyal security men, a group of forty-three peacekeepers marched up the ramp and into the cargo bay. When the main defensive weapons of the raider base were eliminated, these men would join the strike force team of the Athens and those of the other ships as they fought the next stage of the battle, which would be clearing the caves one by one. They had been brought to the Damroyal from Base 1 by the Peacekeeper.

  When the door closed, Evan used the intercom to order the pilot to begin the short flight to the base. Then he told the men who had come aboard that the cook had dinner ready and led them to the mess hall. He advised them to eat while they could. They had a thirty-eight minute flight to the base, after which, eating would become problematic as the ship executed battle maneuvers.

  On the way to the control room, Evan stopped by the infirmary to ensure that Lisa was there. It was still considered the safest place in the ship, so he wanted her there during the attack on the base. He found her in the small surgery suite, which was located in an adjacent room.

  “I just came to see if you were here where you’d be safest,” Evan explained. Then he hesitantly asked, “Are you still upset with me?”

  Lisa got up and hugged him. “No, and I’m sorry I got so mad. Mom says my hormones are just out of control at the moment because of the childbirth. She says it’ll pass soon.”

  “That’s okay, Sweetheart. It makes me feel much better to know that you aren’t angry now. I’m not used to us fighting.”

  “I’m not either. I don’t like it. You’ve always been so good to me. You deserve better than an evil old shrew of a wife.”

  “You? A shrew? Oh, now, I think that’s a bit of a stretch,” Evan said and then he kissed her to show that he harbored no ill feelings. He was surprised by the intensity of her response. “Wow, thanks. I needed that,” he said with a grin when the kiss ended.

  “I did too. I just had Beth, but I’d better warn you that all this abstinence has taught me something surprising.” Seeing the interested look on her husband’s face, she continued, “I don’t like it. I’m afraid you created a monster when you awakened my sexual needs, husband.”

  “Good,” Evan said with a broad smile on his face, “Because I gotta tell you, I don’t like this abstinence either. I’m actually counting the days,” he admitted.

  Lisa laughed lightly and pulled a small notebook from her pocket, opened it, and then showed a page to Evan. He saw that she had fashioned a calendar on one of the pages, and was marking off the days until they reached the circled date, which was when their sexual activity could resume.

  Evan kissed her again and then he leaned his forehead against his wife’s. “I needed this moment. Now I’ll be able to concentrate on the coming battle. Let’s never leave angry words between us long.”

  “I won’t. It bothers me too much,” Lisa replied.

  Evan was about to respond when the intercom activated and the communications officer said, “Captain, come to the control room please. You have a priority message from Captain Wilison of the Peacekeeper.”

  “You’d better go, Love,” Lisa said. “I’ll be safe here. I was just making certain that everything was secure and nothing would fall during an extreme maneuver.”

  Evan smiled as he left his wife in the small surgical suite. Now, he felt prepared to face the coming battle.

  ***

  “Evan, I want to congratulate you on the successful raid you pulled on the raiders. That was a well executed operation,” Tim said.

  “We were lucky,” Evan stated modestly.

  “All the luck in the world can’t fix a bad plan. I just looked over the report. The strategy and implementation were both exceptional, but I didn’t call just to talk about your mission. Patricia has picked up some odd messages being sent back and forth among the enemy. According to the code you broke during the interrogation of your prisoner, they are planning to take some peacekeepers hostage.”

  “Who’s the target?” Evan asked when Tim fell silent.

  “We don’t know. They haven’t mentioned the target name or location. The base was just telling someone what they should demand when they took the hostages.” There was a lengthy pause, and then Tim added, “They plan to ask for your Dad.”

  “You mean they want to negotiate with him?”

  “No, Evan. I mean they intend to get him to take the place of the hosta
ges. They are then to bring him back to the base.”

  “What did the contact man say regarding the plan?” queried Evan.

  “He wanted to know if it would be okay to go ahead and kill him once they left the target area. The base responded that if it looked as if the man was about to be rescued, then they were to kill him. Otherwise, they were to get him to the base for a face to face meeting with the Warlord.”

  “Then they mean to kill him no matter what happens,” Evan stated.

  “That’s the way it looks, so we’ve got to try to keep Jim from agreeing to the terms and surrendering himself to take the place of the hostages.”

  “Surely, he’d understand when you tell him what Patricia has learned,” Evan said. When Tim remained silent for too long, Evan asked, “Are you afraid he’ll surrender himself regardless of the danger?”

  “Let’s just say that I know my brother well. Remember that stunt he pulled with Tom Whitmore in Kansas? Then there was the battle in Alabama with those freaks, Clarissa and Flavious. I was there when he stared down over a dozen guns at the slave barn in Alabama, and then he went in and fought two of the men who’d murdered your mother.”

  “The point I’m making is that when someone threatens those he loves, Jim goes all Wyatt Earp. He either forgets he can be killed or he just plain doesn’t give a damn if he dies.”

  “I’ve heard you use that term before, but I’ve never really understood what you mean when you speak of Dad going all Wyatt Earp,” Evan admitted.

  “That means that he’ll go in against overwhelming odds, regardless of the danger. He does it on sheer guts. But you can only get away with that sort of thing so many times. Eventually, the odds are going to catch up to you.”

  “Okay, I understand. So what are we going to do about this?” asked Evan.

  “Pol and I have issued orders to all peacekeeper bases to double their security. We’ve dispatched security teams to every Ark community too. We still haven’t ruled out the possibility that they know the locations. I don’t see how they could, but they had months while we were in seclusion to look around the country unopposed, so we can’t rule out the possibility. That leaves our ships to consider. They will be vulnerable on the ground. We’ve sent orders to all ships through the computer network. Those orders emphasize extra security when they are grounded, regardless of their location. We also sent word to Ramon in Cuba to be alert for a small group trying to grab peacekeeper hostages because the Warlord has tried twice to attack them.”