Resilience (Warner's World Book 6)

by Dave O'Connor

  “Shit” called out Chase as he dived onto the road, ending up in a large puddle of water. “Stop your firing” he yelled at the top of his voice. With the competition from the rain it was only just loud enough. After a few stern remarks from Chase the marine escorted him to Lizzy.

  His fatigues were now well and truly drenched but he was glad to be out of the rain. He found Lizzy with her subordinate commanders gathered around for an orders group. She looked up, surprised to see Chase, but didn’t say anything.

  “I need to have a word…straight away” said Chase. He could see by the pained expression on Lizzy’s face that she had changed. She was not the same person he had known only fifty minutes ago. But he knew that combat and especially killing could do that to you.

  “What is it then” said Lizzy making no attempt to move.

  Chase would have preferred to deliver the message in private but time was of the essence. “The boss wants you to focus on this location here he said pulling up his portable console. That’s where the 4th ISS Detachment is holed up. They seem to have found the devices we’re after and the entrance to the tunnel system that will lead us to it is there. It’s imperative we break through to them asap.” Chase looked at the wary faces looking back at him. But he knew he had to add this next bit even if he felt damm uncomfortable delivering it. With the most serious demeanour he could muster, he stated “Time is more important than casualties.”

  “Is that all?” asked Lizzy, a hint of indignation in her voice.

  “That’s all.”

  “Leave it with us then” she stated without breaking her gaze. Chase knew she was telling him to piss off.

  Chase nodded his head. He didn’t fancy going back out into the rain but he didn’t want to be breathing down Lizzy’s neck either. So he made his way back to the entrance and sat down on a crate that some frustrated soul had kicked a hole in when they made their break into the building. Chase took a sip of water. Surprising with all the rain, he felt particularly thirsty.

  He knew he should go back in and check up on their plan. He decided to give her two more minutes. After only one he was surprised to hear a volley of grenades and then so much pulse fire that the twangs merged into a blur of sound as the automatics and rifles let rip.

  Chase stood up and made his way back to where the orders group had been in progress. No one was there now. He could hear a quanto firing from the floor above. He found the stairs and climbed the steps three at a time because they were built for smaller legs. He heard a huge explosion out in the street. He came up behind the gunner and his mate to see what it was. The gunner’s mate glanced to see who he was but then faced back ahead of her and fired off another shot. There were some flashes from across the street and Chase had to duck as some incoming fire flew over their heads.

  As quickly as the storm had started, it ended – just a few desultory drops and then it was finished. Steam billowed up from the hot pavement and mingled with the dust and debris from the explosion. There was a huge whole in the wall of the building across the street. A marine body lay next to a destroyed droid.

  It was the movement of the shapes below that caught Chase’s eye. A phalanx of six droids pushed through the breach. Grenades, rockets and pulse fire erupted from within. A line of marines followed quickly behind. Chase recognised the one in the centre as one of the subalterns at the orders group. He saw him fall as he crossed the breach but the other pushed in.

  Chase felt a wrenching in his gut. He knew that he was partly responsible for this. He took a deep breath in as another group of marines charged in. The support fire from this side of the street ceased as the enemy abandoned its position. A figure came back from the breach and in the now fading light waved its arm to beckon the others forward.

  Chapter 2. Lewista 1830, 21 September

  “What makes you so sure?” asked Dave inside the Mintoslum building that Kalima claimed as her own. They were crowded around the terminal driven by Branish.

  It had taken one more breaching operation before Lizzy had broken through and that had claimed another of her subalterns. She had a bitter expression on her face when Dave had thanked her for breaking through to the objective. But he did not have time now to address the feelings of his subordinate.

  He hadn’t been too sure of the expression on Kalima’s face when she first saw him hobble in using a metal rod as a support staff. But that too was of no concern. What was driving him more than anything now was the need to secure or eliminate those devices.

  Dave was now seated next to Branish. Dave did note the grin on Branish’s face. That was unmistakeable as were his large dark green eyes that almost seemed on fire. ‘Drugs?’ queried Dave of himself. But he put that aside too. Now it was Dave’s dark blue, smoky eyes that scrutinised Branish.

  For the first time in a long time Branish felt the power of a strong intellect penetrating him. He acknowledged the moment with a nod to Dave that almost but not quite conveyed mutual respect. With a flick of his finger Branish brought up the manifest for the Casement. He then started dismissing the items with a flick of his finger till the top of the list showed one particular item. “That’s one of the devices.”

  Dave knew that was not an answer to his question and he could feel the frustration rising within him. ‘Temper’ he reminded himself and took a breath in deliberately letting out long.

  Branish gave a quick smile and then added “The reason I know that is because I have correlated every instance of this item prefix and they all relate to this project here.” Another flick and the screen changed to show a progress report. You see that there …Grendolium Ningtitis. It means New Dawn Final Test.” Branish hit another control and up came a message. “This is from the project manager to a logistics officer requesting conveyance of a consignment to the fleet base at Lewista spaceport. The dates I believe coincide with the departure of the IRS Fustus as reported in that Resistance footage publicly broadcasted.”

  “Interesting” said Dave not totally convinced. “But it could just be for some standard comms gear.”

  “Nothing is standard or comms related about this project. Let me show you something else. Here is a manifest for the delivery of a huge quantity of materials, none of which are regularly used in communications equipment. If it smells like a rat?” and Branish gave Dave a knowing look. “Besides do we waste more time debating or are we going to secure this location now.” Branish looked up into Dave’s eyes with an even bigger grin on his face.

  Dave gave him a smile back. “Fair enough then.” Dave looked around at the others. “So can we get vehicles down this elevator?”

  Chapter 3. Lewista 1840, 21 September

  It was a weary Hecton that finally made contact with his 3rd Brigade comrades. It had taken him an hour of tedious walking just to bypass the enemy and then another half hour to cover the few kilometres to the Treasury.

  It had been a tense time. At one point he had to hole up inside an office building as an ISS vehicle debussed its occupants who promptly entered the adjacent building. While his two bodyguards stood guard he used the time to good effect. He had looked up the financial account details for his ex-wife. It had been over ten years since he had last seen her. While he had felt bad about the way he had abandoned her physically and emotionally he had maintained his financial payments to her to support their two children.

  His eldest was now seventeen and he wanted to provide for their future. He wasn’t going soft or anything like that he reassured himself. But if he was honest with himself (and he was not) he would acknowledge that it was sentiment more than guilt and more than pragmatism that motivated him. He had copied the details to a file and uploaded it into a device he retrieved from his pocket. It resided there with another file containing his personal bank account details and a thousand other files, each of which contained the bank account details of a well-known public charity.

  Major Hecton Malessium might be a henchman responsible directly for many dozens of deaths and indirectly
for hundreds more but he was determined to go out on a good note. He had been the instrument of some of the most ruthless low lifers that aristocracy could proffer, but that would end very shortly.

  He was sanguine about his own prospects of survival. A decade of war had made him a fatalist on that count. If he could, he would slip away, but the opportunity might not present itself. But that was war for you. He had put the device back in his pocket as one of his guards had beckoned him to come to the window.

  Now he was being directed into the Treasury building by a sergeant he vaguely recognised. They had made their way down to the vaults where a frustrated looking Meeka Sallusam waited. When he laid eyes on Hecton all Meeka said was “About time” and pointed to the terminal outside the vault.

  As Hecton sat down he knew Meeka was not here for the precious metals, gems and other tangible treasures stored in the vaults. It was, as before, a ruse for an even bigger heist. Hecton took out several devices from his pack and placed them on the workstation.

  Meeka hovered over him impatiently while he attempted to log in. With each attempt he failed. Finally Hecton turned to him and said “If you want this done in a hurry leave me to get on with it. I will call you when I am ready. You have the instructions ready?”

  Meeka hated being told what to do, especially by a lowly major. But he bit his tongue, patted his pocket and walked out leaving Hecton alone save for an armed warrior at the doorway. Hecton deliberately failed the log in again just in case Meeka came back. But he didn’t.

  Two minutes later he was in. He uploaded the files from his own device and then called for the guard to fetch the Fleet Admiral. Meeka must not have been far for he re-entered quickly. Meeka handed over the memory stick to Hecton. “All of it” commanded Meeka and he leaned closer to ensure Hecton uploaded the file containing his own bank details.

  “Are you sure this is the account you want to transfer from” asked Hecton. The details of the Quazor trust account number three were displayed on the screen.

  Meeka smiled. “Oh yes, that’s the one.”

  Hecton hit the commit control and a message seeking confirmation appeared. Meeka leaned over and said “allow me.” Without waiting for a reply he hit the control confirming the transaction. He gave Hecton a big smile and even gave him an uncustomary slap on the back.

  Hecton gave Meeka a big grin in return, knowing all too well that the trust account funds were now being transferred to 1,003 accounts on a pro rata basis. Meeka then broke out laughing and Hecton did likewise. The guard by the door even smiled.

  Chapter 4. Resolute over Checklin 1850, 21 September

  It was an anxious Ivan that waited for confirmation from Derrick that the space above Checklin was theirs. They had just warped back in from behind the outer gas giant. He had not been prepared to wait the requisite four hours for the light to travel from Checklin to the outer edges of the system to confirm the presence or absence of enemy ships.

  “No detections above” advised Derrick “other than some fighters on CAP over Lewista.”

  “Whose?” asked Ivan.

  “Well they’re rogan but I can’t tell whether friendly or otherwise.”

  Ivan knew that but he couldn’t help himself verbalising the question. He nodded to Derrick. If they were hostile, then he would have to beat them off with only his close-in defence systems. All his ships were out of missiles and all his own fighters were either safe down there or destroyed.

  “Is the warp locked in?” he asked to no one in particular.

  “Yes” acknowledged Sue who was still manning the Ops station.

  “Signal ready to go?” he asked Jasmin. She nodded. Ivan took a deep breath in. “Send it.”

  “Decloaking” announced Crystal.

  “Sent” announced Jasmin. “Neeblo Control this is Resolute” hailed Jasmin.

  “Fighters haven’t reacted” announced Derrick.

  “Resolute this is Captain Wilson at Neeblo Control. Are we glad to see you.”

  The next few minutes were spent updating the situation. Jeb finished by saying “The Commodore wants the Phantom’s marines and droids to insert at Echo 1, where they will be met by Lt Kahn, who will direct them from there. He said to tell you that NOW would be good.”

  “Of course he did” said Ivan. A smile crept onto his face as the adrenalin was subsiding. He felt so relieved to hear that his fighters were all safe. He could see the first batch of them marked on the holo and now climbing to rejoin the flotilla. Once he had them rearmed, he had both a defensive and offensive capability.

  It took Ivan a further five minutes to brief Aubrey. He offered her two extra warthogs so she could insert all her marines in one lift.

  “Li” hailed Ivan “how long before you have a flight rearmed and ready to escort the insertion?”

  “Not for twenty minutes yet” replied Li. “They’re still not aboard.”

  “Aubrey” hailed Ivan “we can’t wait for an escort. Go now.”

  Chapter 5. Lewista 1900, 21 September

  After Dave saw the faces of Lizzy’s marines he knew they were not up to another heavy engagement. For most of them this had been their first real combat action. Dave recognised that look of shock and strained nerves, the faces hollowed out with pain etched where there had previously been joy. The deep eye sockets with glazed eyes that avoided contact.

  They had lost one third of their number in the series of assaults that finally saw them attain their objective. With over twenty killed and another thirty odd wounded no one had been spared the loss of someone they cared about.

  Dave knew that it was unrealistic to expect that veteran troops could endure that degree of loss, incurred in such short space of time, and carry on. They were no longer ‘green’ but they were at this point extremely fragile. It wouldn’t take much to tip them over the edge and if that occurred in an attack they would surely rout.

  They needed time to recover. But Dave had precious little of that. He needed to press on quickly and secure the devices.

  Jim reappeared from the lower floors, caught Dave’s eye and shook his head. ‘So we can’t take the battlewagons down’ thought Dave. They would have to either go another way or stay put here. He opted for the latter. He needed to deny access to the tunnels from this location anyway.

  “Lizzy” said Dave “We need to press on but we also need to secure this location and deny access to the tunnels. I want your force to secure here.” Lizzy looked at Dave but he doubted she was really focussing on what he was saying. “Listen to me Lizzy.” He waited till he saw a shift in her expression and knew that she was now really focussed on him. “Secure this area. I’m leaving Argha here to guide the Phantom detachment when it arrives. After that you are on your own here.”

  “Right Sir…time to deploy” she acknowledged. “Are the tangoes still under command?”

  “Yep. You good?”

  “We’ll be OK.” She trailed off for a moment and then added “Good luck Sir.”

  “You did well back there.” She gave him a weak smile, then turned and began rounding up her subordinate commanders.

  Jim came over to tell him that the good news was the elevator would take a truck. “Good, I want all of your troops and droids down in those tunnels and enough vehicles to lift them. Merge Argha’s troops into Ginty’s platoon and have her lead off as soon as enough vehicles are down. I will go with her.

  It took a good ten minutes to get the first five vehicles down. Dave was not prepared to wait any longer. He boarded the second truck and told Ginty in the lead vehicle to get going. Jim would martial the rest of the force from the Resolute’s detachment. Lizzy would secure the Mintoslum building now referred to as Echo 1. Argha would wait for Aubrey to arrive and then guide them to their destination.

  Dave had bought along Branish, not because he was good company, but because he might need his skills at the other end. Chase and the twenty five marines and ten droids accompanying him represented half of the surviving Resolute detachm
ent. They had paid a very heavy price in the defence of the Mintoslum facility. Dave was determined that it would not be in vain.

  As they moved off, Dave wanted to stretch out his left leg but the satchel charges on the floor of the vehicle prevented that, so he lifted his leg up and rested his calf on one of the satchels, grateful for a bit of relief.

  “How’s the foot?” asked Chase.

  “I’ll survive” said Dave. “Thanks for delivering my message.” Chase gave him a weak smile. “You dry yet?” asked Dave.

  Chase’s smile strengthened. “Well the fatigues are but my jocks are still damp. I’m going to put in a report about the need for quick drying jocks.”

  Dave gave a laugh that drew everyone’s attention.

  Chapter 6. Neeblo 1910, 21 September

  Felis was mentally drained. He had been operating on high revs all afternoon without a break. He had just finished berating the commander of the 3rd Ecrustian Brigade who had wanted to rest for the night before conducting an assault to clear the spaceport at Lewista. The other two Ecrustian brigades, which began the battle already depleted, were spent having fought the 1st Endosian Bde to a standstill. Each side held part of the spaceport thus denying it to the other. Neither side had the strength to wrest control.

  With the risk of Sallusam’s surviving ships warping back in Felis desperately needed control of the spaceport to deny what was left of the Endosian division a portal to escape from. He could not allow Sallusam to leave with the devices. He was still unsure if the devices were in fact in the Casement tunnel complex. Even if they were he doubted Warner’s depleted battlegroup could hold it against the enemy’s 3rd Endosian Bde which was believed to be at full strength.

  He had agreed with Warner to destroy the devices if he found them rather than risk them falling into Sallusam’s hands. But he had no intel on whether Sallusam’s forces were already in possession of the device or not. He could not afford to take that risk and so he had to deny the obvious escape route for Sallusam.