“Uhhh--” Eve started to say.
“I feel as if this might be the most likely tunnel,” the miner said as he pointed at the east most spot, “but this would be my second and third. We aren’t going to have enough explosives to give to each person.” Jatal pointed at the southern and then western location.
“Once they confirm, we can do a fly-by and drop them the explosives,” I said.
“Wait, but what about--” Z started to say again, but Jatal interrupted her.
“That could work. The other two scouts could take cover in the tunnels. It would be risky for them, but my men are willing to do what it takes to save our people.”
“Then we just make the drop, and then circle back in the shuttle,” I said as I made a line on the map with my finger that extended outside of what I thought would be the missile targeting zone.
“Who is circling back? I feel like you fucks aren’t even listening to me!” Z stepped in front of the map.
“We are, in the shuttle,” I said with a shrug.
“So, who is flying the shuttle? You? I vote you.” Z crossed her arms and glared at me.
“No,” I said.
“Oh fuck. Me? Not me. We are going to be almost in missile range. They are going to--”
“No, not you,” I said with a laugh.
“Oh,” she sighed and put a hand to her chest. “For a second there, I thought you were going to have me do something craz--”
“Jatal. As soon as we figure out which tunnel it is and blow it, we’ll need to get into the camp as soon as possible.”
Z stared at me as if a second head had suddenly emerged from my shoulder. “Why the hell would we do that?”
“So we can make sure the missile launchers are deactivated in the confusion,” I said. “We don’t know how the tunnels will collapse. It could take out their entire army, or it could only take out a segment. Right after the blast, we are going to sneak into their camp and get to the missile launchers. You’ll hack them, and then we can use Persephone to finish them off.”
“We are going to run into the camp of an enemy ar--”
“Sneak in,” I said. “They will be distracted by the cave in. We’ll be fine.”
“You’ve said that before.” Z sighed.
“What before?” I asked.
“We’ll be fine, just plow head first into a spray of bullets. I have big muscles and a big shotgun. Grrr!” Z changed her voice to sound like me and she finished with a cat growl.
“You’ve been fine so far.” I shrugged. “I don’t have any other ideas. Do you?”
“Do you even know how to fly a shuttle?” Z asked Jatal.
“Somewhat. I’ve piloted a few heavy-grav lifters.”
“How many hours have you clocked?” Z asked as she leveled a finger at the man.
“Not that many,” he admitted.
“How many is ‘not that many’?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Maybe… five? I think?” he grimaced.
“No way.” Z turned to me. “He’s not flying my babies.”
“Your babies?” Eve asked with a smile.
“Yeah.” The blonde hacker signed. “I wish I’d read the manual. I bet I can drive everything from the bridge, but since I haven’t, I’m just going to fly the shuttle, okay? We’ll drop off the explosives and then we’ll land near Persephone and make our way back to the missile launchers.”
“I can fly,” I said.
“No, you are terrible. Last time you flew, we almost had three missiles shoved up our ass. I’m not a real pilot, but I’m better than you,” Z said as she shook her head.
“I thought you didn’t want to--” I began to say, but the blonde woman scrunched her nose at me and waved her hand.
“I know I didn’t want to fly the damn shuttle, but now I want to fly the damn shuttle. I’m allowed to change my mind.” Z looked at Eve and then pointed at me. “Tell him I can change my mind if I fucking want to!”
“She can change her mind if she wants to,” Eve said to me with a careful smile.
“Okay, Z. You are flying the shuttle and coming with Eve and me into the enemy camp once the tunnels go,” I said.
“Uhhh. I guess,” she said with a sigh.
“So, we have the plan then,” I said as I turned my eyes to Jatal. “How soon can your men have the explosives put together?”
“Fifteen minutes. Can you move your ship closer? That will make the drive over easier.”
“We can do that,” I said as I turned back to Z. The blonde woman nodded and then stepped toward the pilot’s chair.
“I think this plan will work,” Eve said.
“It sounds insane, but you three seem to be able to do the impossible, and I don’t think we have any other options,” Jatal said.
“Agreed. Let’s hope it works, and we are able to shatter the last of Alloprize’s forces,” I said.
“And that we get out of it alive!” Z called out from her chair.
I went down to the hold with Jatal to help his men get ready. I wasn’t experienced in putting together explosives, but I helped them move the three Alloprize trucks to the front of Persephone's bay ramp. Then we ran through the plan again with Jatal’s three volunteers. They were from the group that came with us to meet the strange cave worm aliens, and I knew the men well enough to understand the look on their faces.
They knew this was probably a one-way trip.
“Hey, Captain.” Z’s voice came over the speakers in the cargo hold. “I’ve set down about two kilometers east of the east most location. We are out of Alloprize’s missile range, but I’m guessing that they know we are here, so our friend in the truck needs to get a move on.”
“You understand the plan?” Jatal asked the man as Persephone's iris shutter hatch opened.
“Yeah,” he grunted as he reached through the opened window of the military truck to grasp arms with the blue-eyed man. “I’ll let you know what I find. Till we meet again.”
“Till we meet again,” Jatal replied, and then the purple cloaked soldier drove the vehicle out of the hold.
“East Truck is out, Z. Let’s get to the next spot,” I said through my transponder.
“I’m heading to the south point next,” the hacker said as Persephone lifted off the ground gracefully. Z was really getting decent at flying the large starship, and I wondered if we needed a pilot. I knew she would insist, but the woman also seemed to lack confidence in anything that wasn’t computer related.
She has had a hard life. Perhaps she will share her story with you if you ask.
I turned to Eve and smiled at the beautiful woman.
“I’ll do that,” I said. “After we--”
“Yes, I know. We have much work to do,” Eve said.
“We’ve got thirty seconds,” Z updated us over the speaker. “Make sure the next guy is ready to go, Alloprize is sending some hardware east to try and intercept the first one.
“Will do,” I said as I waved at the next driver. Then I pointed to a spot right before the hatch door, and the man drove the truck up to where I gestured.
“I’m landing!” Z called out as Persephone began to lose altitude. The moment I felt her settle on the ground, I opened the hatch, and we gestured the man to drive.
“South Truck is out,” I updated Z as the man’s rear tires rolled off the ramp and onto the purple rock.
“Heading to the last spot,” she said, and I closed the hatch again.
“How is the camp looking?” I asked.
“Uhhh, like an anthill that someone just pissed on,” Z replied. “They know we are doing something, but they don’t know what.”
I motioned for the last driver to move his truck into place, and we waited the half minute for Persephone to land. As soon as the hatch opened, the man hauled ass, and the West Truck dropped off the ramp before it was lowered all the way.
“Last one is gone!” I shouted to Z as I pushed the button for the hatch to close.
“I’m going to land
her to the southeast; about twenty kilometers father out of the radius of the East and South points,” the hacker said.
“You are doing a good job piloting,” I commented.
“Yeah, thanks. It’s getting easier. We still need a--”
“I know. I’m going to load the explosives in the shuttle.”
“Okay. I’ll be down as soon as I land. We are going to be cutting it close. Alloprize is sending vehicles and soldiers to where we dropped the first guy. If that is where the tunnel is, we might only have a few minutes.”
“Hmmm,” I said as I looked to Eve. My plan had been riddled with holes to begin with, but I hoped that we would be able to drop the explosions off, get out of the area, and give the miner enough time to plant the explosions before Alloprize got to him.
Now it seemed like we would have to buy them some time.
“Let’s fit as many of your people as we can in the shuttle,” I said to Jatal. “We might need to defend the tunnel while your man plants the explosives.”
“That will cost us time toward getting to the missile launchers,” Eve said.
“There isn’t any way around it.” I grunted. “If we don’t blow the tunnels, we won’t even have a chance of getting close.”
I felt Persephone decelerate and then drift down toward the ground. A few seconds later she settled on the moon’s surface, and I was directing the remaining men in Jatal’s group into the shuttle. It was cramped, but we managed to get everyone inside of the space before Z got in and took the pilot seat. I sat copilot, Eve sat behind the blonde hacker, and Jatal sat behind me so he could easily glance over at Z piloting the craft.
“I’ll take her out of the hold, so we are ready to scoot when they give the signal,” Z said as she engaged the engines. The smaller craft lifted off the bay floor, spun slowly in the air, and then drifted down the ramp out of Persephone.
“Jatal, I’ve found an entrance to a cave. I think this might be it,” one of the men said through our transponder.
“Which location are you?” Z demanded.
“That is Gaul, he’s at the east location. First drop we made,” Jatal clarified.
“I’m going to enter the tunnel. I have my transponder map open. I feel good about my location. I‘ll let you know in ten minutes if I think this is the one,” Gaul continued.
“Fuck, he doesn’t have ten minutes,” Z said as she looked at the map. “We probably should have done the West one first, then all the Alloprize idiots would have sent troops there instead.
“I’ve found an entrance as well. I‘m at the south point,” a voice said through our transponder. “I’ll investigate.”
“Alloprize is sending some troops there also,” Z said as she pointed at the map displayed on the dashboard of the shuttle. “We probably have a bit more time before they reach there, but we can’t be two places at once. Where should we make the drop?”
“Let’s head to the east point and land. If it isn’t the spot, we can launch and head to one of the others,” I said, and Jatal gave me a nod.
“Heading east,” Z said as she pushed on the controls. The shuttle leapt forward through the air, and it cast a bird-like shadow against the purple terrain.
“We’ll probably have a minute or two before their vehicles show up,” the hacker said with a long sigh.
“Are they bringing missile launchers?” I asked as I looked at the stream of red dots on the map. We really needed the miner to tell us he was in the correct spot so we could deliver the explosives.
“I’m not sure. If they are, we might not be able to get off the ground once we land. Hell, we might just get blasted to fuck while we are sitting there.”
“I am still moving through the cave,” Gaul said with a panting voice. “It appears that I am going in the correct direction.”
“Hurry,” Jatal said.
“I am!”
“We are at the spot, you sure you want me to set her down?” Z asked as she pointed at the map. “Might be a bit too hard to get away if they catch us on the ground.”
I looked at the map and then glanced out the window of the shuttle toward the distant horizon. I could see puffs of smoke there from where the Alloprize caravan was. If they were bringing missile launchers, we would be in trouble, but we might waste precious time landing if Gaul found out that this was the correct location.
I suddenly missed my days as a marine. Even when I was in the Yakuza, there had been little decision making. I was just told where to go and who to kill. I only had to worry about the most efficient methods for doing the job.
I was rather good at killing people.
Now I had to figure out how to save people. A decision to land could mean that we all died. A decision to leave now might mean that we couldn’t return, and Jatal would lose this battle for his people. We were completely out manned; out gunned, and had little options. My crew should have left this moon as soon as we dealt with Cynthia’s drones, but that would have left Jatal in a hard spot.
We were committed to helping his people now, and helping people was always going to be the right decision.
“We’ll give him some more time. Get lower to the ground,” I instructed Z.
“Aye, Captain.” I thought she would have had a sassy remark, but I knew the hacker didn’t want to be the one making these decisions.
We waited, and the cloud of smoke in the distance grew larger as the red dots on the map crept nearer to our location. No one spoke, but I could hear everyone’s heart hammer in their chests, and my nose caught the scent of their dread.
“Gaul, do you have an update?” Jatal said after a half minute of painful silence.
“Still moving!” the miner’s voice was a pained gasp. “It looks like I am going in the correct direction still.”
“Can you pull their locations up on the map here?” I asked Z as I pointed at the shuttle’s dashboard. “They are wearing our transponders.”
“Fuck, I should have thought of that earlier,” the hacker said as she ran her fingers across her terminal interface.
Three yellow dots appeared on the map. The one closest to us was just a bit beyond the cluster of red dots heading toward us. Gual’s route did look as if it would take him under the Alloprize camp, but it could easily twist up ahead and lead him in another direction.
“They are close enough now to use zoom,” Z said as she clicked on a few keys. The screen next to the map showed the lead Alloprize truck, but I couldn’t see if there was a missile launcher because of the dust in the air.
“West location here, I’m not finding any sort of cave. Should I abort?” one of the miners asked, and I glanced back at the map.
“Continue searching, they have not sent any troops to your location,” I instructed him.
“Understood,” he answered.
“South point here. Tunnel I’m in is taking me toward Alloprize’s camp. I won’t know for sure for another five minutes,” the second miner said.
“Continue on course,” I ordered.
“Uhhh… Does that look like a missile launcher to you?” Z asked as she pointed at the zoomed display.
“Yes,” I replied as I studied the upright box shape of one of the rear vehicles. It wasn’t very clear because of the dust cloud, but the silhouette was convincing.
“We’ve got about thirty seconds,” Z hissed.
“I believe that both the east and south tunnels will merge. I have been studying the map and thinking about what the friendly creatures told me,” Eve said.
“Land,” I ordered.
“Aye,” Z replied, and the shuttle sunk down to the dirt.
“Jatal, who is running the explosions?” I asked.
“Rojar is,” Jatal said, and a lean looking man in the back of the shuttle raised his arm.
“Shuttle door opening,” Z said a second before it did so.
“Get going,” Jatal said as the man elbowed his way toward the door. He was wearing heavy looking packs across his chest and back.
> “Till we meet again,” the man said to his friends, and they repeated the phrase as he dashed toward the entrance to the cave. My eyes focused on the truck, and an idea popped into my head.
“If we take the East Truck, they might not think that anyone went into the cave. If they see us holding the entrance, they might realize what we are doing,” I said as I looked at my friends.
“They will see the footprints,” Jatal said.
“We’ll fly the shuttle close to the ground to blow them away. Who will drive?”
Two men raised their hands, and Jatal nodded.
“Continue heading east. Go for speed and we’ll hope they chase you,” I instructed them. They ran out of the shuttle and made a straight line toward the Alloprize truck.
“Closing the door. I’m going to do a close fly over, then we need to get the fuck out of here,” Z said as the shuttle lurched.
We tilted to the side a bit and then floated over the space between the truck and entrance to the cave. I couldn’t actually see any footprints on the ground, but the thrusters on the craft suddenly fired hard, and we rose quickly into the air.
“That should do it,” the hacker said as she twisted the controls.
Then the alarm started to scream.
“Missiles!” Z shouted as she punched the acceleration.
Our shuttle leapt forward through the air, and I felt my back slam into the leather seat. The other men in the shuttle were standing, but the space was rather packed, and I didn’t hear anyone fall behind me.
“It’s gaining on us!” she shouted after a few seconds. “Fucking military bullshit tech!”
“Go left!” Jatal shouted over the cries of his startled men. “There is a giant cave two kilometers away. The entrance points south, so you’ll have to flip around to fly in it!” The blue-eyed man pointed with his finger to a drop into a canyon, and Z angled the shuttle in that direction.
“Where?” Z asked.
“It’s under us!” he answered.
“Hold on! Shhhheeeeeeeeeeiiittttt!”
The shuttle corkscrewed to the left and then dove like a brick. I felt my stomach get left behind by the falling motion, and the blood rushed to my head. The glass view of the shuttle showed nothing but purple rocks for half a moment, but then the shuttle pulled up, and I saw the maw of a giant cave. I had been worried that the entrance wouldn’t have been large enough for us to fit in, but the mouth of the tunnel probably could have fit two shuttle craft flying side by side, so Z had no problem steering into the entrance.
Space Witch: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 2) Page 18