by E. G. Castle
Several minutes later, Colonel Fil’dwis showed up.
“Tom!” Frank waved.
“Frank! I’ll there in a second!” It took somewhat longer than that actually, but then he was sitting by the lieutenant’s table with a drink of his own.
“What have you been doing lately?” Frank asked, as the colonel settled down.
“Not much,” said Tom, grimacing, then taking a drink. “Since I’m not going along with the supply compound mission, and there aren’t any other missions being readied, I’m mostly just shuffling paper.”
“Make-work?”
“Nah, it’s stuff I really do need to get through. Information on our operations, the pirates, and so forth. It is boring though. I’ve also been trying to find out anything about the assassin, spy, or whatever exactly he is.”
“Yeah?”
“All we really have to go on is that he planted an energy bomb in the general’s quarters; it’s not much. Still, it at least tells us that whoever it is knows what he’s doing; it’s harder to pull off the sort of thing than you’d think. We really need to find out who it is and get rid of him fast, before he causes any more trouble.”
“No kidding. And speaking about him causing more trouble, you think he’ll manage to get word out that we’re planning an attack?”
The colonel considered for a second, then shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve been looking over the set-up the general’s ordered, to prevent any communication from getting out, and it seems solid to me. But all it takes is one crack, and…”
Both were silent for a second, neither looking happy.
“Overall, though,” Tom continued. “I think the spy won’t be able to get the information out. The camp is sealed too tight. No, the bigger and more likelier problem is that he may already have told them that we were planning on hitting their compound. Even if they don’t think we’re coming, they might still set a trap, or change and strengthen their defenses.”
“You think that’s likely?”
“No idea.” Colonel Fil’dwis shrugged. “Really, it depends how seriously they’d take the threat. If it was us, we’d deal with it, no question. The pirates, on the other hand, may figure what they got is good enough; or that there’s no way we’d actually go through with it. Of course, even if they do decide we’re going to attack, they may well not think we’re going to do so immediately…”
“…In which case, we might manage to pull it off before they can get anything ready,” Frank finished.
“That’s about the size of it, yup.”
“Geez,” said Frank, shaking his head. “We’re really taking a chance on this.”
“There’s always an element of chance in military operations,” pointed out Tom. Then he admitted, “…But yeah, this is chancier than most. Still, let’s not exaggerate. From what we can tell, the odds do favor us.”
“It’s the stuff we can’t tell that’s worrying me.”
“Yeah… Well, there isn’t much we can do now. Aside from preparing right, and doing our best.”
“Fsht. Save the pep talks for the troops.”
Tom chuckled.
The two sat silently for a bit, drinking companionably.
“Tomorrow’s going to be bad,” Frank finally said.
“What? Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know… I’m just getting a bad feeling about the whole thing. I mean, it sounded good at first… but I don’t know… With the spy and all… Maybe I’m just getting antsy.”
“That wouldn’t be surprising.”
The lieutenant shrugged.
“But I’m still not happy about it.”
“Wanna change places then?”
“Not on your life. Besides, the general wouldn’t allow it. He wants every Marine on this one.”
“Oh? Guess he’s being careful.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Even ordered that the injured Marines go.” Frank grimaced.
“Really?”
“Yup. At least it means that we’ll have an extra two Marines on hand. And with thirty-seven Marines and six hundred Kzarchians…”
“All you’ll need is a bit of help from God, and you’ll pull it off.”
“Amen.”
They solemnly clinked glasses.
Chapter Twelve
“Move out!” Six hundred Kzarchians got under away, accompanied by a small Marine platoon.
General Juan Val’gor watched with the other senior officers as they left the camp, hidden below heavy stealth, and under strict orders to maintain communications silence. Mentally, he shook his head. It was a shame…
Ah, well, he thought, turning and heading back into the compound. We must do what we must to win Kzarch back.
Amongst the group, which only looked orderly, various sergeants and officers were quietly yelling and cursing at their men, as they tried to get everyone into the right position.
Lieutenant Harsmith, his platoon sergeant getting his Marines spread around the Kzarchians’ perimeter, was examining the situation through his sensors.
He shook his head.
Despite having nearly a day of planning, or rather, because they only had a day of planning, the group was in a mess.
Oh, well, Frank thought, jogging along. We’ll be sorted out by the time we get to our destination.
***
“Captain?”
“Well?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Then why are you bothering me?” Bloody Jack wasn’t in the best of moods. Waiting around for something to happen, when he was still wounded, was not something he enjoyed.
“You said you wanted to be updated every ten minutes,” Grinner said, backing away slightly.
Almost snarling at him, Bloody Jack paused, then simply nodded his head. Rapping his fingers on his chair’s armrests, he once again considered the situation…
And what he hoped to get out of it.
“Cap’n!”
Immediately, Bloody Jack was out of his chair, and peering over the communication console.
A light was blinking.
“Well?”
“It’s the right code.”
“Good. All right, send it to the main screen.”
Facing it, Bloody Jack watched as it went black. A voice spoke.
“You there?” it demanded abruptly.
“Yeah. We’re waiting.”
“You’d better be. This idiotic idea was yours.”
Bloody Jack said nothing. Why should he? After all, he was getting his way.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. And I’ll be wearing the bombs.” The tone of the voice was ominous.
“Of course,” Bloody Jack murmured smoothly.
“What was that?!”
“Of course,” the pirate said louder. There was a pause. Then Grinner leaned forward a bit.
“You comin’? We’re waiting to the north; in case you forgot,” he said sarcastically.
The screen spat out a bad word, then blinked off.
Bloody Jack shook his head. Then he pursed his lips thoughtfully. He had promised… and he was in a bad mood anyway.
Reaching down, he snagged the comm officer’s sidearm.
“I’ll just be borrowing this for a second,” he said, smiling into the pirate’s suddenly worried face.
Turning, he shot Grinner in his surprised face.
BRRUUMMNNN!
Head half blown away from the blast, the former pirate captain fell backwards to the floor.
The gunboat’s bridge crew stared at Blood Jack in shocked silence.
Ignoring them, Bloody Jack returned the gun to its owner’s holster, with a smile and a nod, thoughtfully putting the gun’s safety back on.
Then, speaking aloud to no-one, as if musing to himself, the pirate captain said, “I promised myself the last time he broke com regulations that I’d kill him if he did it again.” He had given strict orders that no-one was to speak when he was on the com.
Everyone digested that for a moment.
Breaking the silence again, Bloody Jack said mildly, “If someone would please remove that carcass? I’d hate to have to give it a friend.”
Hastily, the body of the former pirate captain was borne away.
Sitting back in the captain’s chair, Bloody Jack allowed himself a thin smile. A kill at the beginning of a mission; an excellent omen.
Then he ordered the gunboat to descend. It was time to prepare the welcoming committee.
***
Frank looked carefully at the serene, almost beautiful vista. Not that he was in the mood to enjoy it.
It seemed quiet, nothing out of the ordinary…
For a moment, Frank wished he could break com silence, and contact Sergeant Javer. The s-quad leader was currently scouting ahead a bit, and the lieutenant would’ve liked to hear his report.
But no, he’d have to wait until he came back. Lieutenant Harsmith grimaced, and turned to the side, as someone made his way to him.
“It looks like they still haven’t detected us,” he said, for lack of anything else to say.
McKain snorted.
“The real question is, how long is that going to hold up?”
Shrugging to that unanswerable question, Frank turned towards the distant governor’s mansion once again. Actually, where to where it would have been, if he could see it. But it was still over two and a half miles away, and blocked by trees and greenery besides.
Honestly, Frank found it almost amazing that they could’ve come so close without being detected, even with all the stealth devices they were using and with all the experience they had at sneaking around under the pirates’ noses.
Not that the pirates tended to be on top of things, or that they had good equipment, but still…
“Sir?”
“What?”
“I think Colonel John’son wants to talk to you.”
Glancing backwards, the lieutenant indeed saw the commander of the Kzarchian forces heading towards them.
“All right.” The lieutenant went to meet him
“Colonel John’son? Do you want something?”
“Lieutenant,” the colonel snapped, obviously antsy at being so close to the pirates’ central command. “-where’s your sergeant?”
“I’m sure he’s on his way back by now, sir.”
“I don’t need him on his way back, I need him here! The longer we stand around waiting, the greater the chance of something going wrong!”
Lieutenant Harsmith stayed silent, as the colonel glared at him. Not really at him, though, Frank knew, but at the dangerous situation.
“Inform me as soon as the scout sergeant comes back,” Colonel John’son snapped brusquely.
“Yessir.”
Frank repressed the urge to roll his eyes, as the colonel turned and strode away. What did he think the lieutenant was going to do?
In any case, it was only several minutes later that the sergeant arrived.
“Sir!” He gave a sharp salute.
Frank returned it.
“Well?”
“Didn’t see much of anything sir, aside from the outposts we know about. The way looks fairly clear, up until we hit their heavy sensor line, anyway.’
“Good. Anything else?”
“No, sir.”
“Okay, then. You’d better come with me, the colonel may have his own questions.”
He did.
“Are you sure there’s nothing you missed?” Colonel John’son asked for the fifth time, if phrased in yet another way.
“I think so, sir.”
Intervening before the colonel could ask again, Frank said, “Sir, I don’t think there’s anything he hasn’t told us. Of course the pirates probably have a few surprises, but we’re only going to find out about them when we go in. If Sergeant Javer said he hasn’t noticed anything, I don’t think there’s anything more we can learn from here.”
The colonel grunted, but Lieutenant Harsmith’s point was self-evident.
“All right,” he finally said. “Let’s go.”
Minutes later, the entire group was on the move, changing directions and heading towards their target.
***
Not very patiently, Bloody Jack waited. With him were two other pirates, neither of whom was particularly happy either.
They had been waiting for several minutes already, but their contact had yet to turn up.
Bloody Jack rather suspected that he had actually already arrived, and was now making sure that there was no-one else around but them.
He was wondering how much more of this he could be bothered to take, when the person they had come to meet finally appeared.
Stepping out of the undergrowth, General Val’gor glowered at them. He was walking heavily, limping from his wounds, and the two heavy bandoliers of bombs he was wearing weren’t helping any.
“You Bloody Jack?” he said bluntly.
The pirate chief bowed slightly.
“And you, I presume, are General Valgor.”
“Val’gor.” He eyed the pirates suspiciously. “All right, now what?”
“Now, I invite you onto my ship. One second, please…” Tapping on his com, Bloody Jack summoned the gunboat.
As it came down, the general shifted slightly.
“Nervous?” Bloody Jack asked, amused.
“Hardly,” General Juan growled. “I’ve just been wounded recently, is all. Got hit by an energy bomb.”
“Oh, really? I do hope it wasn’t one of my men,” the pirate chief said lightly.
“No, I did it myself.”
Taken aback for a second, Bloody Jack then said smoothly. “Do tell.” At the same time, he waved his guest inside, the gunboat’s ramp now finished extending to the ground.
“Had to get out of being in charge of the mission,” the general explained, stepping into the gunboat. “After insisting I was going to lead it, changing my mind would’ve looked odd.”
“I see.” Bloody Jack revised his estimate of the general, both up and down. Up, that he was willing to take necessary, if risky, action, and down, for doing something so pointlessly dangerous. The pirate captain could think of several other ways General Val’gor could’ve achieved the same effect, without endangering himself as much.
“This way to the bridge, general.”
***
“Where are they?” Frank muttered to himself.
They were only a minute or three away from their target, and, so far, they had yet to encounter any real opposition.
Which, as far as the lieutenant was concerned, was utterly unnatural.
There was absolutely no way the pirates couldn’t have noticed them by now. Indeed, the original plan had assumed that after their feint towards the governor’s mansion would be detected; and once their real aim had been revealed, the pirates would be throwing themselves at the group, if hopefully not reaching them before they could hit the target.
Instead, the sensors showed everything was quiet.
Of course, the pirates could simply have been so sloppy they missed the Kzarchians and his platoon, but that just didn’t make sense. After having fought the Kzarchians for the last month or two, the pirates were hardly likely to underestimate them. Certainly not to the point of leaving their main base uncovered.
Frank was getting the bad feeling that a trap had been laid.
“Sir?”
If he hadn’t been in his armor, the lieutenant might have jumped. Although he had absentmindedly noticed McKain was approaching, he hadn’t really been paying attention.
“Yes, sergeant?”
“I think it’s a trap.”
The lieutenant chuckled unhappily.
“Just what I was thinking.”
“We should tell Colonel John’son that we should turn back.”
“And how do we do that, sergeant? ‘Sir, everything is nice and clear with no problems. We need to retreat at once!’”
McKain grumbled, but couldn’t find a
n adequate retort
“Anyway, we’re almost there. We just need to hope the pirates won’t get their act together, and maybe we’ll be able to get away scot-free.”
Snorting, the platoon sergeant shook his head pessimistically. Giving a salute, he loped back towards his position.
***
In the gunboat, now hovering in mid-air, General Val’gor and Bloody Jack studied a representation of the situation.
The Kzarchian/Marine force had almost reached their destination.
“It seems they still don’t suspect anything,” Bloody Jack commented lightly.
The general merely gave a deep-throated growl.
Of their own violation, Bloody Jacks lips spread into a thin smile.
Oh, the general may have agreed to it, but to have his own forces ambushed…? Without suspecting anything? Yes, indeed, he was unhappy.
Of course, it had actually been Bloody Jack’s idea; the general’s had been a simple offer: He’d allow the pirates to loot the towns of anything remaining, without attempting to stop them, and the pirates would then leave.
Hardly impressed by the deal, Bloody Jack had offered a counter-proposal. The general would help him destroy the Marines, and then he’d leave.
To complicate both of their problems, they needed to get everything done before the Marine reinforcements could arrive and mess things up. So the general had to resort to the only plan he had ready, that would make sense to send the Marines on… and had ended up having to send a large portion of his own forces along.
While the general had no problem with sending the Marines into the trap, he certainly would’ve preferred to avoid having to send any of his own people in. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been successful. But he had still gone through with the plan; which had made Bloody Jack worry about a betrayal… so he insisted on the general accompanying him while the ambush took place. Of course, he had pushed for that in the first place, but the chance of a double-cross made him press for it all the harder. He had even allowed the general to carry bombs with him, set to a deadman’s switch, so that he’d have some insurance of his own.
And yet, with all the conditions, including placing a considerable part of his forces in danger and even himself as well, the general had still gone through with it.