by Chris Hechtl
“Good to know,” the Veraxin replied as he took his saddle seat. “I caught the last part about EMPs and heavy weapons. I'm all for that. Getting them in the right place at the right time though …”
“That is what our resident spooks have been working on for us. But I'd like to get at least some off to everyone if possible,” the colonel said. She got up and got a refill of her coffee. “Anyone?” she asked, holding the near-empty carafe up.
“I think we need an entire pot, ma'am,” Captain Silverman said, suppressing a yawn. “I'll get mine later though. Thank you,” she said.
“Okay,” Dana said as she set the pot back. “Don't say I didn't ask,” she said as she finished with her coffee and then resumed her seat.
“So far the enemy has been leading with just the suits, which makes me wonder where the rest of them are,” Major R'nz stated. “We know they've got eyes and ears in the towns, cities, and countryside. They had their stooges in the cities.”
“Sacrificial lambs. We've concluded none were Horathians by the way,” Major Zedeal stated.
“Ah, I had thought as much,” the brigade commander said with a flick of his antenna. “So, where are the rest?”
“Well, I was wondering about that myself. I was also thinking about what our spooks said about the suits having to be underground. That is pretty much the same for the rest of the Horathians I presume. So, we need to know where they are. Logic would dictate caves,” Dana said.
“We … can ask the locals to assist there, ma'am. It might not be wise to send them in; they might not come back,” Lieutenant Liu warned.
“Canary birds,” Captain Silverman said. “Bird dogs,” she said.
“Excuse me?” Major N'v'll asked.
“Sorry. Similar examples. Canary birds are used in old-school mining methods to make sure the air is still breathable. Bird dogs are sent out to flush out quarry for the hunter to shoot,” the captain said.
“Ah,” the Veraxin said. “Carry on.”
“It isn't nice to think of them as bait. Negative information doesn't mean a contact point. It could mean someone was hurt or the victim of bad weather,” Major Zedeal warned.
Dana sat back as she listened to them go back and forth. The spook's plan was a long shot at best. The EMP weapons may or may not take a suit down in the right hands … but giving her people something to fight back with was all she could do for the moment.
<)>^<)>/
“Folks, we're making some headway despite what we've seen and heard. Remember, the Horathians only have so much with them, only so many people. Each time they expose themselves we or the Marines take them out.”
“Now is obviously not the time to get complacent though. We've got a request from the Marines. Does anyone know the location of old caves or mines? Any will do. Places where you think the enemy might be hiding, where people went missing. We know some might be where the resistance is; that's fine. They aren't the enemy. But finding where the enemy is, is important.”
“So, if you know where they are, tell someone. Go to your mayor or Marine outpost and let someone know,” Jean Claude said.
“Don't check them out on your own, but if you know of one, tell your local Marine team or your sheriff or mayor. Make sure the Marines get the word. This is one way we can do our part to route the pirates out and off our planet once and for all.”
<)>^<)>/
“Frack,” General Drier said mildly as he heard that. “It shouldn't matter for us; we're in the outback. But some of the bases closer to the towns …”
“Yes, sir,” Captain Goddard said. “And we've got three mines occupied,” the captain warned, pointing to three marks on the map.
The general rubbed his chin as he studied the problem. “They'll have to be moved. Preferably now, before the enemy pinpoints them if they haven't already.”
“Sir, if we evacuate them now we might lead them to other nearby bases,” Captain Goddard warned.
“I realize that. So, we need to evacuate them covertly. Have them go out in small numbers from various exit points to staging locations, cabins, whatever we've got around.”
“That will work, sir,” the captain said slowly. “We can hump stuff out one load at a time, the gear that can be carried. If we can get some pack animals in, it might be easier, but the trails will give them away to locals. But it might work.”
“Of course it will! As long as they aren't picked up by the damn resistance,” the general growled. “Order patrols out in those areas. Push back anyone who comes nosing around. Kill them with hunting weapons or preferably up close and personal.”
“I'll pass that on, sir,” the captain said with a nod as she made a note.
<)>^<)>/
Two of the general's mine bases were evacuated. However, before the third could be fully evacuated the Marines were tipped off by it. A long-range surveillance drone confirmed it was occupied when a train of pack horses was seen being led out of it. A study of the images and video led them to conclude that it was occupied solely by humans.
They did their best to trail the people coming out of the caves but lost them in the dense woods. “It's an evacuation; it has to be Colonel,” Major Zedeal said.
“I agree, ma'am,” Major N'v'll stated.
“How far along do you think they are?” Dana asked. The two officers indicated they didn't know in various nonverbal ways. She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Send in a Reaper strike. Two Reapers, hit them with bunker busters.”
“Ma'am, we won't get all of them. We won't know how much we'll get of them. There is still a chance we'll get to follow the others …,” Major Zedeal protested.
“I realize that, but I have my doubts. I don't want them to get away. I'll accept a piece of them,” the colonel said.
“And if they are the resistance?” the Veraxin asked.
“Then I'll take the heat. Go get them boys.”
“Aye aye, ma'am,” Major N'v'll said as he forwarded the order to the air units in the area.
<)>^<)>/
Base 44B was half evacuated when a sentry reported the sight of a drone overhead. The team about to lead a pack train out swore and pulled their mounts further into the mine and around a bend to be safe.
They weren't safe enough, however. The first Reaper fired off a pair of BL-113TB missiles. Each missile had a series of submunitions in the warhead. The first was a series of tiny sensor rounds that sprinted out faster than the main missile body to scout ahead.
They sent signals back to the main missile which detached submunitions to follow them. When they got as deep as they could, the submunitions detonated, rocking the cave with thermobaric rage and hellfire.
<)>^<)>/
“Sir, we've got a report from observers near Base 44B. It's been destroyed,” Captain Goddard said.
The general looked at the map and then swore. “How bad?”
“They didn't say. There is a column of smoke coming out of the cave, a massive one. It looks like our own ordinance cooked off … or the enemy sent in a bunker buster.”
“Understood. Keep me posted,” the general growled.
<)>^<)>/
Harambe was suspicious of the call for support but decided he needed to help. He had a lot of pressure from his supporters to do something other than live hand to mouth. He'd lost a quarter of his people, many with families. Fortunately, not all had died due to illness, accident, or mischief; many of that number had returned to their former homes. He knew some of his other people were chafing at remaining in the mountains and playing it safe every day. His own family wanted to move on and let the professionals do their job.
But if he was anything, it was stubborn. He refused to leave but wouldn't stand in the way of anyone who wanted to go. But he could do something. He provided what intelligence he could over the radio. He confirmed his people had control of that area but couldn't be everywhere.
“Thank you. We'll check the more distant caves,” Lieutenant Liu replied.
�
��You're taking my word for it?”
“Mister Debois vouched for you as did Miss Kiki,” the human replied. “We have your voice print on file, sir.”
“Kiki is alive?”
“Yes, sir. She is recovering on the Colonel Harper. She was critically injured at the Smith farm.”
“I didn't know. I thought she had just walked away or … whatever,” the ape said as his oldest daughter came over and rubbed his shoulders.
“No, I'm happy to tell you she's alive. She's getting tired of hospital food or so I've been told,” the lieutenant said.
“Okay. Good to know. Pass on that we wish her well and hope she recovers soon,” the leader said as Bordou wagged his ears and nodded. “We heard about the mine strike. Don't do that here. Please,” he said.
“We won't. We have your location locked. We look before we strike,” the lieutenant replied. “But if you have any more information, please pass it on to us. I'm trying to get a more secure radio to you.”
“Have someone drop it and anything else you want us to look at in one of the towns. I'll … send someone to look at it,” Harambe said with a grimace. He was starting to regret not having some of the people who had left report back by some means. He'd become entirely too reliant on the black cat he realized. Without her he was cut off from the towns except by radio.
“Understood. We'll keep in touch,” the lieutenant said.
“You do that,” the gorilla said as he hung up the microphone. He turned to see expectant eyes around him. “What?”
“I think we need to do more,” Bordou said.
The gorilla's brown eyes turned on the dog. After a moment, he chuffed. “Yeah, I know.”
“I'll go to town,” the dog said. “I think we need to get off our stick and help these Marines,” he said.
“Agreed,” Chuck said. “Freya and I've been talking. We're considering returning to our place in Fallbrook … if it is still there.” His wife put her hand in his. “But we owe you for taking us in. We can buy our eyes and ears in town … and send help when we can,” the blacksmith offered.
Harambe stared at him and then nodded slowly.
<)>^<)>/
Captain Zhukov saw the extra air coverage around the spaceport and area. He heard the radio intercepts of Debois asking for information about caves on the planet. He grimaced. The enemy was getting wise and catching on. He didn't like it.
He really didn't like the report of the destruction of Base 44B. The mines were the most problematic of all of their bases, the most exposed … other than his own. But so far his blessings from Lady Luck was holding.
He heard that the Marines were concentrating and stepping up patrols in his area. He needed to step down communications and curtail his activities. But that meant telling General Drier, and he was certain that his boss wouldn't be happy.
His platoon was a hammer; one that had been very successful. To the uncomplicated view of the general and the other Horathians, everything was a nail. That had to change. Convincing him was going to be a problem.
Setting up the radio call was harder than he thought. Private Askdall and Mackie had been forced to go outside in their civvies and set up a series of additional communication's relays for them to use. The two warned him repeatedly to keep it short and sweet.
He'd missed two check-ins. By the time he did call in, the general was relieved to hear his voice.
General Drier didn't like it, but realized if they lost the Death's Head base, they'd lose most of their ammo, parts, and most important of all, power.
“Lose the base, lose our unit, sir. We'll lose our ability to power our suits and half our weapons, plus, all of the gear and engineering supplies here. We're down until they look elsewhere.”
“Damn it …,” the general scowled. He realized he'd made a mistake in letting Dimitri keep all his eggs in one basket. The loss of 44B had proven the enemy could take out a base with a minimum of effort. He wasn't certain how many of the thermobaric rounds they had left in inventory and he was in no hurry to find out.
“We need to wait until the heat is off, sir. Which means, it is now up to you, General. Get them to divert attention away from us, and I might be able to slip some personnel out again. I'll have my people see if they can dig out another back entrance that the enemy won't be able to see.”
“I knew we should have moved you while we had the chance. Damn it!”
“If we had, we would have exposed the fact that we were alive to the natives and would have required major lifting capacity to get our gear out of here to some place safe. The enemy would have been able to pick apart stories from the locals to get a general bearing on where we went,” the captain explained patiently. He had liked operating under the enemy's nose. It made him feel like a naughty kid getting away with something, but there was a risk involved. He was where they would least expect, but when they did find him, he was for sure going to get pounded. They no longer had the ability to dig him out with their own armor, so if he was in their shoes, he'd pound them with a KEW strike.
“Damn,” the general muttered.
“We'll wait them out, sir.”
“But you are saying up until they pull off or give up, you are grounded.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, this conversation is also a risk—one for both of us.”
“Understood. I will see what I can do. Alpha out.”
“Delta Baker out.”
<)>^<)>/
“We got a sniff, sir,” PFC Fowley said, looking over to Major Zedeal. The major came over and looked over human's shoulder. “We detected radio transmissions here and here and here, sir. Line of sight here,” the PFC said pointing to red icons on the map. “We know we picked up some of their radio transceivers in the bush. Per your orders, we left them alone and monitored them. They gave us a bit more of their network now.” Lines were projected on the map. Some were false trails. Others went off in unknown locations, however. The further away they went, the larger the search cone.
“Okay …”
“I think someone is here close by, sir. And they are talking with someone further away. The transceivers need line of sight when they use their lasers. We're still tracking that down, but we've got a general direction.”
“Ideas on who they are talking to?” the major asked. He had one, but he wanted to draw the private out.
“Sorry, sir, their conversations are encrypted. We believe they are text or audio only. They keep it short and shift encryption keys. General Murtough has been crunching away at it but hasn't gotten anywhere.”
“Darn,” the major said mildly.
“If I was a betting man, I'd say the other end was a command and control or a relay to a command and control,” Fowley said.
“I agree,” the major said with a nod. “Can you get any better on this end?”
“No, sir. Sorry, sir. We're still running it down. It's allowed us to narrow the search zone by a couple of kilometers. We've also ruled out some areas due to terrain,” the PFC said, pointing to areas on the map like the nearby river and lake.
“You don't think they could be under water? Remember, that one unit that hit the spaceport jumped into the river,” the major said mildly.
“That … didn't occur to me,” PFC Fowley said in an aggrieved tone of voice. “Damn it …” he went back and rezoned to cover those areas again.
“Don't kick yourself. I would have ruled them out eventually. Unfortunately, we don't have the gear to look under the water.”
“Satellites aren't geared for that. And ground penetrating radar stops at a meter or two depending on the soil type and compaction, sir,” Fowley said. “We have to get in closer, like on top of the ground to get any more on depth. And if we did, we'd give away what we're trying to do.”
“Right. So, we need to get creative. See if we can talk to the natives, see if any of them have seen anything. Get someone to go fishing.”
“Sir?”
“Talk to Logistics. See if they can rig a sensor pack
age we can tow behind a boat. At the least, we could rule out the lake,” the major said, indicating the lake. “Those suits went into the water here,” he tapped a point on the map. “And the dam and lake are upstream of them. But there is a lake downstream.”
“Unless they used misdirection, sir,” the PFC said. “Go in, come out somewhere else, and then double back.”
The major grimaced. “Parroting my own lessons back at me?”
Fowley winced. “Sorry, sir.”
“No, it's okay; you have a point. But we have to start somewhere. Rewrite your map. Use different shades to indicate orders of probability on where they might be hiding. We'll take the biggest first and go over it with a fine tooth comb.”
“What about stirring up a hornets' nest, sir?” the PFC warned.
The major nodded internally. It was something to keep in mind, especially since they had little armor in the area. The robots they had were just cannon fodder, though some of the sentry guns might give the suits a run for their money. He'd rather not find out though. His current objective was to find them but remain hands-off and hopefully keep them from knowing he knew where they were until reinforcements arrived to dig them out. “That is a problem. Which is why we'll stick to the basic long-range sensors for the moment. Keep mapping, keep watch. Make sure the computers in General Murtough run daily comparisons for changes.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 57
The Roy Boehm transitioned the Antigua-Protodon chain in record time for a ship of her class. Each jump lasted on average twelve days, with a four-day average sublight transit time crossing each star system to the next jump point.
Jethro took that time to introduce Lil Red to his Cadre companions. He kept it light and low key and didn't make a big deal out of it since he knew she didn't like large groups. Most of the teams were busy reading up on Destria and racked out half the time anyway.
He'd tried to keep interaction with the RECON squad on board to a minimum. He realized though their cover was going to be blown eventually. A check of his orders didn't cover such an eventuality so he wrote a series of emails asking for clarification that he intended to fire off in Protodon.