On O-4, Radar picked up another object.
"That's it!" the captain said. "Abort, we're getting out of here. Damn navy!"
Navigation began plotting the next jump while Engineering spun up the Beam drive engines and Helm sidestepped the oncoming object.
That was when Radar shouted, "More objects! We have to jump now!" Helm tried desperately to sidestep the next object, but it was too close, and the Beam drive engines were still warming up. Long before they reached jump power one of the objects struck Fundy's Tide and it disintegrated, spilling its atmosphere, cargo, and crew into the cold vacuum of space.
The hop from Society 362's system to Kingdom was short, only three light-years, and Beamspace transit took hardly more than twelve hours, standard. As soon as it jumped back into Space-3, the drone began transmitting a Come get me signal. It checked the stars and headed toward the one that showed a large disk. En route, it searched for and found its destination planet, and adjusted course for it. After two days it closed on the fast frigate CNSS Admiral J. P. Jones, the Grandar Bay's sole escort ship, which had been sent to intercept it. The J. P. Jones transmitted the appropriate command sequence, and the drone fired breaking rockets to match velocity with the starship, which scooped it up. The J. P. Jones then returned to Kingdom at flank speed. Four and a half days after being dispatched, far too late to have any chance of helping Fundy's Tide, the drone gave up its messages to Grandar Bay's Communications Division.
The message, addressed to "The Ambassador, Confederation of Human Worlds," was sent unopened planetside on the next Essay.
The message addressed to "Confederation Navy in orbit around Kingdom" went to Captain Maugli, the Grandar Bay's executive officer. The XO was extra busy coordinating the activities of the starship's departments because of the campaign to kill the rail guns and didn't have time for routine messages from merchant starships, so the message sat in his in-tray for a couple of days. When the XO finally had time to read it, he had to check Society 362 in the Handbook of Inhabited and Known Planets to see what and where it was. The entry said little more than it had been investigated by BHHEI and abandoned a dozen years earlier. There was no mention of a current survey that would visit the planet. He decided the message was possibly a hoax and put it aside to deal with later. In Maugli's defense, he was exhausted and only half awake when he read the message.
Ambassador Jayben Spears, on the other hand, was wide-awake when he read the message addressed to him.
The ambassador was already waiting in Sturgeon's office when the brigadier got there from the operations center.
"Good morning, Jay," Sturgeon said. He waved at a chair.
"Good morning yourself, Ted," Spears replied, and sat down.
"Ah, thank you," Sturgeon said to a lance corporal who knocked at his door. "Bring it right in." The corporal carried in a tray with a pot and two mugs, which he set on a side table. "I'll pour." The lance corporal left. "Real coffee," Sturgeon said to Spears. He poured both mugs full and handed him one. "If you want to fancy it up, you'll have to do it yourself."
"Black is fine," Spears said, and sipped. His eyes lit up. "Much better than I expect to find on this godforsaken world."
"A gift from Commodore Borland. He gave me a whole kilo."
"That's one thing about the navy—in some ways they go first class. You're looking well, Ted. You're having success against the Skinks?"
Sturgeon nodded. "We've been knocking out their heavy weapons. I should be able to use my air assets again. And I've got something cooking to flush them out of their caves."
Spears raised an eyebrow, but Sturgeon didn't tell him anything more. "Ah, yes. Operational need to know, and I don't need to know. But you'll tell me afterward how you did it?"
"I will. Now, you wanted to see me."
"Something I think you should see. It may affect your future plans." He pulled a folded sheet of paper from an inner pocket and handed it over.
"Another movement in congress to disband the Marines? They've been doing that for centuries." Sturgeon unfolded the sheet of paper and scanned it. Then he read it again.
S.S. Fundy's Tide
Southern Seas Cargo and Freight
Katishaw
"We Treat Your Goods Like Our Cargo"
TO: Ambassador, Confederation of Human Worlds, The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Saints and their Apostles
FROM: Captain, S.S. Fundy's Tide
DATE: January 15, 2456
RE: Society 362
Sir,
Under contract to the Bureau of Human Habitablity Exploration and Investigation, Fundy's Tide is approaching Society 362. Twice, once on day seven prior to orbit and again on day six prior to orbit, an unidentifiable object has approached this starship from the vicinity of the above planet at a speed that is an appreciable fraction of C. Each time, this starship had to deviate from its plotted course in order to avoid a possibly catastrophic collision with said unidentified object.
By this letter I serve formal notice on the Confederation of Human Worlds that should this happen again, I will abort this survey visit to Society 362 until such time as I have been assured such approach is safe.
Sturgeon looked at Spears. "Sounds like a rail gun."
"My thoughts exactly."
"What and where is Society 362?"
"It's an exploratory world, abandoned as unsuitable for colonization some years ago." Spears hesitated. "It's only three lights from here."
Sturgeon looked into the distance for a moment, then said, "When I get a chance, I'll have Commodore Borland send a drone to Earth with messages for Aguinaldo and the Combined Chiefs. Also any messages you want to send."
"Thank you, Ted. I'll prepare my messages." Spears put his mug down and stood. "I know you're busy, so I won't take up any more of your time. But I thought you should see that."
"You're right, Jay. Thanks for showing it to me." He escorted Spears out of his office, then went back to retrieve his mug. He hadn't yet drunk any of the coffee, and real Earth coffee was too good to let go to waste.
Operation Slay Demons got under way. Four divisions of the Army of the Lord went north by west of Haven, got on line in close order, and advanced to the east, through the Skink-infested wetlands. The divisions were screened by a line of remotely controlled vehicles disguised as Gabriels. Archbishop General Lambsblood was confident that if any of those Skink horror weapons the Confederation had identified as "rail guns" opened fire, the Grandar Bay would destroy them before they could do significant harm to his army.
Brigadier Sturgeon wasn't as sanguine; he expected the Skinks to use buzz saws. Nobody knew if the string-of-pearls could detect them fast enough to neutralize their effectiveness. If the big guns weren't deployed, his Air could deal with the buzz saws. He instructed his FIST commanders to arm their Raptors with Jerichos and have all of them on the ready line. The Hoppers and Dragons all stood by to take on Marine infantry. All recon and scout-sniper teams were in the wetlands observing Skink positions that weren't in the Army of the Lord's line of advance.
The Army of the Lord advanced into the wetlands following its screen of dummy Gabriels. The string-of-pearls tracked them and relayed their movements to the operations center of Marine Expeditionary Forces, Kingdom. Sturgeon watched intently as the two lines, separated by two hundred meters, grew raggedy. Either Archbishop General Lambsblood wasn't paying attention to the data being relayed to his command center, or he didn't feel it was important for his army to maintain formation. The lines began to fragment as some elements moved faster than the elements to their sides, or fell behind because of obstructions. In some places, fragments of the infantry line closed the gap with the fake Gabriels ahead of them; in a few places the gap between screening vehicles and trailing infantry widened. Elements began drifting, so gaps grew between adjacent elements, and some moved behind others.
"Sir," Commander Usner, the operations officer, said. "Should I contact the local C-cubed and advise them to dress their lines?"
He was asking if he should advise Lambsblood's Command, Control, and Communications Center to get their lines back in order.
Sturgeon shook his head. "I want the Skinks to jump at that bait." Sturgeon thought that even after working with and being trained by the Marines, the Kingdomite soldiers would fare poorly against the Skinks no matter how well they maintained formation. And he believed the Skinks would attack them earlier if they were in disarray than if they were in good formation. Further, he suspected that Lambsblood would ignore any recommendations from the Marines.
An element in the right center of the vehicle screen was the first part of the advance to reach known entrances to the underground complex. It passed them unmolested. So did the infantry that trailed those vehicles. More elements approached entrances.
"Three," Sturgeon said to Usner.
"Sir?"
"Contact Kingdom C-cubed. Recommend that they hold up and dress their lines. Tell them why."
"Aye aye." Usner picked up the handset of the open land line to Lambsblood's command center.
Sturgeon continued to watch the display from the string-of-pearls. He swore to himself when he saw the foremost elements stop in place and wait for others to come up, instead of pulling back to straighten the line. He silently swore again when the Kingdomite army resumed its advance into the wetlands before everyone caught up.
"They're going to be in the middle of it," Usner murmured.
"I know," Sturgeon said. He turned to his link to the two FIST commanders. "When you get the launch command, I want those Raptors in the sky immediately and locked into the string-of-pearls."
Brigadier Sparen and Colonel Ramadan answered that their Raptors were ready to launch and their missile guidance systems were already locked in. Minutes later the launch command came.
Sixteen Raptors, all the Marines had, lifted into the air and headed in flights of two to designated locations just outside the wetlands. Data flowed into their guidance systems as they flew, so that when they arrived on station they were ready to fire—and they did. They turned around to return to base and rearm with another load of Jerichos before their first volleys struck. Ten minutes later they were back on station firing second volleys.
While the Raptors were on their first sortie, waiting infantymen scrambled aboard Hoppers and Dragons. They waited for the command to move out.
Symbols showing lines of fire and probable points of origin appeared on the main display in the Marine operations center—points that were probably buzz saws. Some of the Skink buzz saws were too close to friendly units to risk firing Jerichos at them; others weren't. The latter were the aiming points for the missiles. Holes began to appear in the Kingdomite lines as units were wiped out. Symbols indicating lines of fire and points of origin blinked off as Jerichos struck home. More symbols vanished when the Grandar Bay's lasers opened fire on the point targets. Marines in the operations center overheard panicky radio transmissions from units of the Army of the Lord—Skinks were pouring out of the ground, popping up from underwater in ever increasing numbers.
"Launch the infantry," Sturgeon commanded.
Hoppers hopped into the air and headed for the wetlands; Dragons roared onto their air cushions and sped toward the marshes.
The Raptors, already reloaded after their third sorties, headed out to launch even more Jerichos. This time the Jerichos were aimed at the southern end of the Skink area, where the Marine infantry was going.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Hoppers played it safe, flying as low as the squadron commanders dared while keeping as much of the little high ground between their flight paths and the Skink positions as possible. They landed more than five hundred meters from the nearest position. The Marines of 26th FIST's infantry battalion began debarking even before they touched down. Thirty-fourth FIST's infantry entered the area on Dragons and pulled right up to their objectives.
The infantrymen of 34th FIST raced out of the Dragons into a landscape shocked silent by the devastation. It looked like the chunk of the Swamp of Perdition where Jerichos broke the buzz saw ambush that had done so much damage to them early in the campaign. All the grass on the islets and the reeds on their fringes were gone, leaving only a residue of ash. The larger trees were reduced to charred, smoking spikes rising from desiccated ground; smaller trees were simply gone. So was the water where it had been shallow. Bare ground visible through the ash and charring was sere and cracked. At every step ash rose and fried dirt crunched underfoot. Entrances to the underground were clearly visible as burned pits, many with dried and crumbling edges.
There were no Skinks.
By platoons and squads, the infantrymen of two FISTs poured into the gaping entrances to the Skink stronghold. The entire lighting system in line of sight of the entrances was knocked out. Blast and fire damage from the Jerichos was clearly visible for the first fifty to a hundred meters inside the tunnels and chambers. Beyond the first bends in the tunnels, the Skink lighting systems still worked. No Skinks were encountered for more than two hundred meters, though there were random scorch marks near dropped weapons and other gear, which may have been all that remained of Skinks struck by heat waves from the blasts. The Marines went deeper along wide tunnels before any of them encountered a live Skink.
Lance Corporal Schultz, on point for third platoon's Bravo unit, padded swiftly along a three-meter-wide tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel, Corporal Kerr was almost level with him. After the first fifty meters, the tunnel never went for more than twenty meters without a turn. At each turn they paused while Kerr used the motion detector to check beyond it.
Staff Sergeant Hyakowa, in command of the Bravo unit, positioned himself behind Kerr and opposite Corporal Doyle. The data stream from the string-of-pearls couldn't penetrate into the caves and tunnels, and radios could not reach from one unit to another, so each squad or platoon was on its own underground. An inertial guidance system kept Hyakowa's HUD up to date, and Bravo unit's route and first objective were clearly marked on the HUD. They were to join the Alfa unit at the first objective.
The gun team came next, followed by the rest of second squad. Corporal Claypoole and Lance Corporal MacIlargie, frequently looking behind them, brought up the rear.
"We don't need to watch behind us, Rock," MacIlargie objected when Claypoole told him to "check our six." "Nobody there but the swamp."
"There could be hidey-holes. Skinks could come in from the swamp," Claypoole said. "We watch our six."
MacIlargie grumbled, but not much, and looked to the rear almost as much as he watched where he was going. Between them, Claypoole and MacIlargie kept an almost constant watch behind Bravo unit.
They were just four bends from the first objective when Schultz murmured to Kerr that he sensed something. Kerr's motion detector also picked up something ahead of them, but it didn't seem to be around the bend where they'd halted.
Hyakowa moved forward and touched helmets with Kerr. "Let me see."
Kerr pushed the motion detector toward Hyakowa. The platoon sergeant flipped up the lid and studied the display.
"First fire team, listen up," Hyakowa said into the command circuit. Schultz and Doyle acknowledged while the others of Bravo unit listened in. "Someone's moving around the next bend after this one. We don't know who it is. I'll take a look here to verify we're clear, then—"
"Already did," Schultz said.
"You looked?"
"It's clear."
"All right. The four of us will advance to the next bend. Kerr, I want you on the inside of the bend. Hammer, outside, but out of sight. Doyle, behind Schultz. I'll be with Kerr. On my command, one of us will look. Got it?"
They rogered.
"The rest of you, hold your positions; I want space if we have to pull back in a hurry. Taylor, get your gun ready to cover us. Use your infra so you know we aren't in your line of fire if you have to shoot. Got it?"
Corporal Taylor, the gun team leader, acknowledged.
"Second fire team,
use your infras, be ready to support. Third fire team, watch the rear."
Claypoole and Corporal Chan acknowledged.
"Let's do it."
The four Marines moved silently around the corner and took positions at the next bend, twenty meters farther along. Hyakowa, still holding the motion detector, stuck close to Kerr.
Kerr listened to the motion detector's earpiece, Hyakowa looked at its display. Hyakowa spoke softly. "There's less movement than before, but it's in the next straightaway."
"That's how it sounds to me," Kerr agreed.
"Hammer, are you close enough to see anything?"
"A shadow. Wait." Schultz lowered himself to his knees and leaned forward onto his left hand. He held his blaster ready in his right, then stretched forward.
Simultaneously, he pulled back and pressed the firing lever on his blaster. The tunnel wall centimeters from his head burst into rock dust. The chattering roar that filled the tunnel told the Marines the Skinks had a buzz saw set up around the corner.
Kerr stuck his blaster around the corner and fired blindly. Schultz flattened himself and stretched out his right arm to point his blaster down the next length of tunnel and fired away. Brilliant light flared and the buzz saw's roar stopped. Schultz scuttled forward to where he could see.
"No Skinks," he said, and bolted to his feet to sprint the few meters to the buzz saw.
Hyakowa slapped the motion detector against Kerr, who took it and replaced it in its holder.
"Come on, first fire team!" Hyakowa ordered, and pushed Kerr ahead of him.
Nervous sweat washed over Doyle as he followed.
There were scorch marks on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the tunnel near the buzz saw, showing where Skinks had flared, but the weapon didn't seem to have suffered any damage.
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