by Danny Loomis
Lambert mulled it over for a moment. “You may be right. What do you have in mind?”
“I want to map out the tunnel system as much as possible. There are two shuttles full of sensor equipment I brought down with me that should help. One of our technicians modified some mining equipment so it will send out minor shock waves through the earth. By placing sensors throughout the city, we’ll be able to establish a pretty good map of the tunnel system.”
“Excellent,” Lambert said. “Then what?”
“Then we go in after them. I know it can be tedious work, but we should be able to clear the tunnels in two or three weeks.”
Lambert looked skeptical. “With one battalion? I know the Commandos are good, but not that good.”
“No, sir. I would suggest using your storm troopers for this. They are probably eager to come to grips with the bastards who’ve been nipping at them.”
“Too true. But what about your forces?”
Vogel smiled. “We shall be setting up a trap for the Confederation forces.”
“Confederation!” Lambert was thunderstruck. “How in the hell—what makes you think there are confederation troops on this planet?”
“The last report you sent, Sir. Remember your concern about the three soldiers who died from strange puncture wounds?”
“Needler wounds. I should have thought of that…”
“You did, Sir. For which the Grand Admiral sends his warmest thanks. We’ve come up with a plan that should flush them out, to be destroyed by my Commandos.”
“How many do you think there are?”
“There can’t be many. Only one ship came close enough to the planet to offload any attack shuttles, and it had a very short window of opportunity. I’d say no more than ten or twelve attack shuttles. We’re conducting a close-in search of the planet, to find where they went to ground,” he said. “In the meantime, some showed up in Vanport. I’ve devised a plan to trap them, but it will mean a halt to the execution of civilians. At least for the time being.”
Lambert looked resigned. “It wasn’t working anyway. Just seemed to inflame the situation. Let’s hear this plan of yours.”
Another half-hour passed, while the shuttle continued its orbit of the city. At the end of the briefing, Lambert was grinning. “Major, would you like a permanent job as my Operations Officer? Just say the word and I’ll fire the worthless sonofabitch that’s got the job now.”
“Thank you but no, General. Being in charge of the Commandos will be reward enough for me.”
“By God! You mean that, don’t you?”
Vogel smiled. “There is nothing I enjoy more than killing Confederation scum.” He rubbed the ridge of scar tissue on his right cheek, his smile turning vulpine. “Especially if they’re reconnaissance scum.”
* * *
“Only two tunnels, Major. One for each warehouse. You can see on this projection where they come to the surface.”
“Thank you,” Major Vogel said. He studied the monitor screen intently, especially the last two hundred meters of the two large tunnels before they ended in the warehouses. He had chafed at the delays, but the placement of the sensors had taken more time than he anticipated.
Once operational, the results had flowed in. The thumper device was a large piston which impacted the ground with the force of a small explosion. Sensors located throughout a small area were able to locate underground caverns. He had four such units.
The map on the screen showed underground systems in and around the warehouses holding hostages. For two hundred meters out in either direction, all tunnels were shown. As the Sergeant had said, only two tunnels directly connected, one to each warehouse.
“You’ve done good work, Sergeant First Class Tolliver,” he said. “Now your real work begins. I need a complete map of the underground systems throughout the entire city.” Tolliver winced in dismay at the task before him. The city was a good ten kilometers in diameter, not counting the spaceport. “Don’t worry about how long it takes,” Vogel said, as if reading his mind. “Keep working at it, and no one will fault you on the time involved.”
“Yes, Sir. Will there be anything further?”
“No—wait, yes. Be sure and keep me updated twice a day on your progress. You have an entire company of stormtroopers at your disposal. Use them well.”
As Tolliver trotted off, Lieutenant Waldemar replaced him. “Sir, you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, Lieutenant. You are my public affairs officer, is that right?”
“Yes, Major. Also your Assistant Signals Officer.”
Vogel hid a smile at the obvious pride in the young man’s voice. “I want you to get with the Division public affairs personnel and devise a way to get word to the resistance that we will execute all of the hostages in seventy-two hours if they continue to resist. Keep it simple and to the point.”
The Lieutenant’s eyes bugged out. “Kill all—er, yessir. Execute all the civilians in seventy-two hours.”
“I know it seems harsh, but we must take immediate steps to pacify this planet. In the long run it will save many lives.” Even Lieutenant Waldemar seemed to have trouble swallowing that one, he noticed. “In any case, that message needs to go out immediately. So get on it at once.”
With a snappy salute, the Lieutenant was off at a dead run. Vogel shook his head. Such energy! If every Alliance soldier had such, they would secure this planet in a week. He turned away, thoughts on the next project.
“Sergeant Major! Where’s my explosives experts? I need those tunnels mined immediately.”
“Antipersonnel mines, Sir?”
“No, not this time. Let’s plant charges that’ll knock them down for a good hundred meters of their length. Radio controlled detonation, if you please.”
He turned in a 360 degree circle and watched the purposeful activity with satisfaction. Nothing would escape this trap. Nothing.
ENFORCER HEADQUARTERS (DAY +34):
Ian was awakened from a dreamless sleep by a light touch on his head.
“Forgive my intrusion on your sleep,” Enforcer Aosi said. “But the Council wishes to meet with you.”
“Give me a minute. I’ll be right there,” Ian said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He felt a stirring of his original unease when he’d last met with members of the Council. What did they want to see him for? Stanton and Brita were the leaders. Nevertheless, he hurried his preparations.
Minutes later he joined Enforcer Aosi and Brita in the passageway. “Please follow me,” Aosi said. “This shouldn’t take long. I’ll have you back before breakfast is ready.”
By the time they reached the council chamber, Ian had become hopelessly lost. There were so many twists and turns in their progress his sense of direction was numb. The chamber itself was large enough to seat twenty people around a u-shaped table which faced towards them. All seats were filled with mask-clad figures.
Elder Enforcer Yoshida stood and gestured to the chairs in the center of the chamber. “Please be seated. Forgive our formality. We just concluded a rather long session, and wanted you to hear the latest news concerning your forces. They were successfully moved into a large cavern closer to Vanport, and have settled in. We’ve borrowed several types of your weapons, plus a Wasp and attack shuttle. Soon we will be able to arm our citizens.”
“You mean you have no weapons?” Brita asked in surprise.
“Besides rather primitive ones, no. Only bows, arrows, and spears. These have been all we needed for hundreds of years. But we do have the ability to reproduce copies of your weapons, and some we’ve captured from the Alliance. We should have several thousand firearms within the next ten days.”
Ian was astonished. “So soon? You must have a heck of a strong industrial capability to do that.”
“We will also be working to upgrade your Wasps, and make several of our own. Your pilots were very eager to provide us with ideas to improve on their ships,” Yoshida said. “However, another reason we called you here is to infor
m you that we wish to take part in the rescue attempt you’re planning. How many of our Enforcers can you use?”
“We were thinking of using our own troops, Sir,” Brita said. “But it would be ideal if we could use your Enforcers. They know the territory, and the people we’ll be trying to rescue will respond better to them.”
Yoshida nodded. “Undoubtedy true. Just let us know the numbers you will need, and they will be provided.”
“I have to warn you, this is an extremely risky mission. We may all be captured or killed if luck turns against us,” Brita said.
“That is acceptable to us,” Yoshida said. “Whatever the outcome, we will all be deeply in your debt, Staff Sergeant Weiss. And now, if you would please wait in the next room, we must discuss something a bit different with Ian.” They waited silently as Brita looked at Ian curiously.
“Don’t ask me,” he said. “Ever since they met with us last time, all the Enforcers have been acting weird around me. Maybe now I’ll find out why.” Shaking her head, Brita left the room. The door closed with a solid thunk behind her.
“Ian, I am sorry if we’ve caused you any discomfort,” Yoshida said. “The last time we met it became apparent you are different from your friends. There is an aura about you that Elder Enforcer Nim was able to see.” To Yoshida’s left the smaller figure nodded to Ian.
“What aura? What’re you talking about?” Ian asked, feeling a touch of unreality about the conversation.
“You have had a bio implant installed in your skull,” Nim said. “It is different in its output and function from those of your pilots. Yours is much more active and able to interface with other electronic structures a lot easier.”
“Yes. In fact the doctors had to inoculate it to keep it from killing me,” Ian said. “Mostly they were successful, but I’ve always felt I could do a little more than others with the same implant.”
“Not the same, Ian. Not the same at all,” Nim said. “Yours seems to have gained a more intimate contact with various portions of your brain. This could prove most valuable to us. Would you submit to an examination by our medical and electronic experts?”
Ian felt a brief touch of fear. He’d almost lost his mind, literally, the last time they poked around in his head. “What—what would this exam be like? I’d be reluctant to let anyone cut on my head again.”
“No, no. There would be no physical incursions on your bio implant,” Nim said. “This would merely be an electronic scan, done with a minimum of fuss.”
“Well, it’s okay with me, if it’s all right with Captain Stanton. I wouldn’t want to do something that would compromise any security restrictions.”
“Agreed,” Yoshida said. “When you return from this rescue attempt, we will discuss it further. Thank you for your time, Ian.”
Recognizing he was dismissed, Ian came to attention and saluted the council. Surprisingly, all twenty stood and bowed deeply to him. Spooky, he thought, as he hurried from the room.
* * *
Conversation was limited on their return trip, which gave Ian a chance to gather his thoughts. Time to focus on the mission.
Entering their living quarters they were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Warrant Officer Boudreau, seated at a table with his ever-present coffee.
“Hi, Warrant,” Brita said. “You decide to join us in our little vacation retreat?”
He smiled as they both sat. “Vacation, huh? When I heard you planned on playing some games with the bad guys I couldn’t resist. Plus the coffee here is out of this world.” He took another large swallow.
Brita sat down with a sigh. “Ian had another of his bright ideas. Thought we should put together a rescue attempt of the hostages. Did you happen to bring anyone else with you? Like a couple companies of space marines?”
“Ran into some difficulties. Seems the Alliance has tumbled to our presence on the planet, and started an intensive search. Makes it hard to move anyone above ground. So everyone’s coming by tunnel. God, I’ve never seen a planet with such an extensive array of caverns. Fascinating!”
“Damn. We were hoping for a little more support,” Ian said, sighing in resignation. “Back to the drawing board, I guess.”
“We did manage to get the rest of the squad here. Will that help any?” Boudreau asked.
“Oh, yeah. That’ll work just fine,” Ian said with a pleased smile.
“They should be settled in by dinner time. How about a mission briefing tonight?”
“Perfect,” Brita said with a nod. “That way we can kick it off tomorrow morning.”
* * *
Evening chow was cheerier than it had been in quite some time. With the squad back together and a mission in the offing, morale was at its peak. When they finished eating, several Enforcers drifted in and sat down, introducing themselves as they arrived. Like before, Lissa sat next to Pointy. From his reaction it was apparent he more than welcomed her closeness.
“What’cha think, Irish? Pointy found a new girl?” Brita asked, leaning close to be heard above the cheerful din.
Inhaling deeply, Ian marveled at how wonderful she smelled. With a start he came back to himself. “Yeah. It’s the first time he’s shown an interest in a woman outside of a whorehouse since I’ve known him.”
Brita snorted in amusement, and then looked thoughtful. “Wonder if they have any sexual taboos?”
“I think we’ll find out tonight,” Ian said, watching the increasingly animated interplay between Pointy and Lissa.
At a signal from Warrant Boudreau, Brita pushed back her chair and stood. “If I can have your attention, we can begin the briefing.” The room stilled.
“Tomorrow morning we are going to rescue the hostages.” This brought a susurrus of almost soundless noise from the Edoans. “There are at least twenty-four hundred of them at the last estimate. To accomplish this we have one squad of long range scouts, and one hundred Enforcers.” She keyed the pad on the table in front of her and brought up a three dimensional view. “These two warehouses have approximately one company of guards per shift. That means there are a total of three companies in the immediate area. They stay in these two barracks.” She pointed at two low buildings less than fifty meters to the east of the warehouses. “Only two tunnels come up in these warehouses, one in each. They open in offices on the south wall of the buildings. The next closest tunnels are two hundred meters to the north of the warehouses. At that location five tunnels join, acting as a major transport junction for this particular industrial area. The tallest buildings within one kilometer are the warehouses themselves, at two stories in height.” She shut off the holo.
“If there are no questions about the physical layout, Irish will give you the tactical briefing, since it was his brain child.”
As Ian stood he felt a brief flutter of nervousness. What if the mission failed? All these faces, so bright and alive… He shook off his doubts and began. “This mission is risky, but it may be the best chance we have to rescue the hostages. For that reason, we’re only taking volunteers.” No one moved.
“To begin with, we must assume the enemy knows we’re going to try a rescue of the hostages. That means they’ll have a heightened alertness. To take advantage of that, here is what we are going to do…”
After the last question had been answered, Ian turned the floor over to Warrant Boudreau. “Staff Sergeant Weiss, Enforcer Aosi, please meet with me. The rest of you have the next twelve hours off. We will begin preparations for the mission at that time. Dismissed.”
Ten hours later Ian was shaken awake. “Irish. Hey, guy. Wake up.”
“Whazzat?” Ian mumbled as he sleepily peered at a broadly smiling Pointy. “What the hell?”
“She’s got a nose, Irish. She’s got a real nose.”
“Most of us do,” Ian said, swinging his feet to the floor.
“Yeah, man, but hers is big as mine!”
Ian dropped the shirt he was trying to pull on, and stared at Pointy in openmouthed astonishmen
t. “Big as yours? That’s something I’ve gotta see to believe.”
“I know. It knocked me for a loop when she took off her mask. And she likes me, man! She likes me.”
“That’s great. And now that you’ve disturbed the last sleep I’ll probably ever get, let’s clean and check our weapons.”
Without missing a beat, Pointy unclipped the heavy needler from the foot of his bed and began to disassemble it, beginning with the scope. “She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. And she thinks I’m interestin’.” By now Ian had caught up with him on disassembly, and both their weapons lay in pieces on both bunks.
Just then Brita rapped on the door frame. “Let’s go, guys. Fifteen minutes till chow.”
* * *
At least they could run comfortably in these taller tunnels thought Ian, trotting down an endless corridor. Ten meters ahead, Brita slowed to a walk. “Time for a break. Take five, guys.”
Ian slumped against the tunnel wall and absently checked the safety on his heavy needler. For the past two hours they had moved through a tangled maze, until his sense of direction was mixed up. Luckily there were two guides in their group. Two other groups split off fifteen minutes before, Boudreau leading the other fire team to the eastern tunnel. Aosi took the bulk of enforcers with him, and would hold his forces at the junction of tunnels just north of the warehouses. Brita was leading them on the westerly route.
“Two Eagles, come up front,” Brita whispered. Ian was still amazed at how well sound traveled down here. She was fifteen meters away, and sounded right next to him.
“From this point on, we need to be on the lookout for booby traps,” she said to Two Eagles. “We’re only two kilometers from the entrance.” With a nod he was off, an enforcer close behind him. Fifteen seconds later the rest of them followed.
Another tense half hour passed, with movement slowed to a virtual crawl. “Found one,” came Two Eagle’s disembodied whisper. “Not a booby trap, though. Just a bunch of explosives. Looks like they’ve placed ’em every ten meters or so. Tried to hide ’em pretty good, too. I’d say they plan on knocking the tunnels down on us. The detonators are radio controlled.”