The three fire teams that we had taken down into the warren had all been there when the EW operator had made his shocking discovery, and those who hadn’t would have been quickly told. Rumours could spread between troopers faster than lightening, and we would be lucky if half the company didn’t already know what was going on.
The OCs lips tightened, and he sighed, ‘That’s unfortunate. We need to attempt to nip that in the bud straight away. Have your men removed from the sangars and your entire platoon separated from the company. The other two platoons will have to relieve them. Tell them that they have been placed on enforced rest, and no doubt they need it.’
‘I’ll get that done now,’ Johnno said, and he waved Konny and the other section 2ics to follow him out of the room.
The OC looked down at his feet as though he were thinking of what to say or do next.
‘The city is back under our control,’ he said finally, ‘The rebels have withdrawn from every key location, but they continue to mount sporadic attacks onto our forces that seem to follow little or no pattern.’
‘They’re trying to delay us,’ I said under my breath, but a few people heard me and the OC nodded.
‘Correct. It is my belief and that of the commanding officer that the rebels are keeping us pre-occupied whilst the main force withdraws. Included within that force are Ruckheim and Evans, and a large amount of stolen military hardware. What exactly has been taken will not come to light until after the dust settles and the corporations look back into their stock. What our enemy plan to do next is uncertain, but if it is in conjunction with the Chinese then we can expect something pretty spectacular.
The issue we face is that we do not know where they have gone. Cutting the Nieuwe Poort network worked in our favour because it protected our communications and robotic hardware, but it also allowed the enemy to move without being picked up by the city surveillance system. Coupled with that, the chaos caused by the battle and the panic within the population has left us without any witnesses. We might well find some, once the police regain control, but until then there is nothing we can do.’
‘What about the ships?’ One of the other two platoon commanders jerked a thumb upwards, ‘Can’t they pick up movements within the tunnels?’
Mr Moore rolled his eyes, experienced enough to know the answer.
‘No,’ the OC replied, ‘They can detect seismic movements caused by large bodies of troops and vehicles, but not from deeper transit tunnels that run away from the city, of which there are many that we don’t even know about. Unfortunately…’
‘I know where the tunnel is, Sir.’
The OC stopped. Everybody looked around themselves to see who had spoken, but I already knew who it was. It was Westy. His eyes briefly flicked to me before he went on, ‘I can take you to the tunnel.’
The OC’s eyes narrowed, ‘How?’
‘Ev… Evans was my platoon sergeant during the war. I met him a while back in Archer’s Post.’
‘And why exactly have you waited until now to tell us this?’
‘He was my friend, I didn’t think he was a rebel. He wanted New Earth to be independent, but he didn’t want to kill anybody in the process. I think he’s become wrapped up in something he can’t get out of.’
‘That’s not your opinion to make, Corporal Weston,’ the OC shouted, ‘Sergeant Major, disarm that man!!’
The CSM responded to the order in a heartbeat, punching Westy square on the jaw. Westy fell backwards and before he could even attempt to pick himself back up he came face-to-face with several bayonets. The CSM quickly ripped Westy’s rifle away from him and stripped him of his ammunition. Once satisfied he pulled him to his feet and a corporal cuffed his hands behind his back.
I looked in dismay at my friend, who within seconds had gone from being an acting platoon sergeant to an accessory in Ev’s betrayal of the Union. But despite his confession, I knew that Westy was no traitor. He had been a fool - we both had - but it had only been because we had tried to protect a friend who we believed was innocent.
I couldn’t allow Westy to take the flak on his own. I had known of Ev as well and I hadn’t said anything, which made me just as guilty.
Sensing that I too was about to speak up, Westy fixed me across the room with a stern look and gave me the subtlest shake of his head.
The OC stepped toward him, ‘Corporal Weston, where is this tunnel?’
‘I’ve never seen it,’ Westy said, struggling to speak after having been struck on the jaw, ‘Ev gave me directions to find it, that’s all. He didn’t tell me where it goes, only that it’s a ‘Utopia,’ and the key to ‘the salvation of New Earth.’’
‘That sounds like a load of rebel rubbish to me, Corporal,’ the OC scorned, ‘And it alarms me to hear it coming from your mouth!’
‘Those were his words, Sir,’ Westy insisted.
‘And what do you think?’
He lowered his eyes, ‘I don’t know. I never thought that Ev could be a part in all this. I still don’t believe it.’
‘Perhaps you too have been tricked by the enemy. Whether or not you are a part of this conspiracy, and what punishment you receive, is something that will be decided later. Your co-operation will work in your favour, and so I will ask you again, where is the tunnel?’
Westy looked up to the sky as though he was trying to recollect his drunken conversation with Ev, ‘There is a maglev station near the smallest of the corporate skyscrapers. He said that there is a large warehouse opposite.’
‘And the tunnel is there?’
Westy nodded, almost reluctantly, ‘Yes, Sir. That’s what he said.’
The OC paused to think, ‘This will work well. Lieutenant Moore, your platoon will deploy to this warehouse along with me and Corporal Weston.’
‘Yes, Sir,’ the platoon commander affirmed. So much for our rest.
‘The remainder will stay here in Eindhoven under the company 2ic and the sergeant major. I want one platoon to stand by as a quick reaction force in case our arrival at the warehouse is opposed, and three platoon manning the sangars. The company EW team will continue to take over all of our conscripted friend’s electronic assets so that we might use them if required. Is everyone happy?’
We chorused our agreement, but Westy’s platoon commander looked unhappy, ‘Sir, what about my platoon sergeant?’
‘I don’t think Corporal Weston here,’ he almost spat the name, ‘Will be acting as your platoon sergeant for a while, Lieutenant, so I suggest you step up your next available NCO. We live in difficult times. We must make-do and compromise. Understood?’
‘Yes, Sir.’
‘Good. Sergeant Major, see to it that Corporal Weston is loaded straight away onto my dropship, and that he has a suitable escort in case he does something stupid. I want everyone loaded up and good to go in the next fifteen minutes, while I pass on to the commanding officer the unfolding plot. We must act quickly if we are to effectively exploit this information. Fifteen minutes. Any questions?’
There were none.
‘Let’s go, then.’
The sergeant major looked around at all of us, ‘Let’s get moving then, fifteen minutes! If the company isn’t squared away by then, I will be looking at you!’
I didn’t have a chance to speak to Westy before he was quickly marched away, and Mr Moore ordered us away to collect our sections and get ready for the dropships.
As I ran with the other NCOs out of the major’s quarters I couldn’t help but feel a sense of impending doom. I was in free fall, my most trusted friend was held as a collaborator while another was believed to be a rebel leader, and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it. All I knew was that Ev was in a lot of trouble, and that somehow he was important to the rebels’ plan whether he was willing or not. He was also the key to proving Westy’s innocence.
Westy had to be innocent, I convinced myself, he had to be. I hoped to God that he was, because if he wasn’t, then there was every chance that we were
being led into yet another trap.
14
The Warehouse
The domes of the city flickered orange as fires burned in the night, casting long dancing shadows across the landing pad. Pillars of smoke drifted up into the sky, reminding me of the sight of Jersey Island after our ships had dropped their bombs upon it. I shuddered at the memory. How could something like this still happen on a planet so tired of war?
I didn’t notice Johnno before he caught me by the arm as we loaded onto our dropships. His eyes burned into mine suspiciously.
‘What the hell is going on, Andy? The boss just told me about Westy!’
Johnno knew of my friendship with Westy, and now he wondered if I too was involved. Nobody trusted anybody anymore. Perhaps that was what the rebels wanted, I thought, they had created an environment of fear and distrust within our own ranks.
‘I don’t know,’ I said, returning his stare.
I wasn’t lying, because I didn’t. All I knew was that New Earth was quickly turning ugly again, as an armada of warships steadily grew high above us.
Johnno took a second to study me through my visor, seeking any hint of guilt. Finally his glare softened, ‘I hope so, mate, because this shit is starting to get messy! I’ve given Konny a fresh load of ammo for your section. See you on the other side!’ He slapped my daysack, propelling me toward my waiting dropship.
My section waited for me inside, and they all looked up at me as I entered the compartment and took my place in the section commander’s seat. They all wanted me to explain what was going on, and to give them reassurance. Even Konny and Geany watched me expectantly, waiting for me to say something.
‘We think we know where the main force of the rebels escaped,’ I explained as I clipped the straps about my body and stowed my rifle away, ‘There is a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Apparently there’s a tunnel in there somewhere.’
But they weren’t interested in that.
‘Is it true?’ Jackson asked worriedly, ‘Are the Chinese coming?’
‘No,’ I replied quickly, ‘The EW bloke made a mistake.’
‘He looked pretty certain,’ Okonkwo said as the ramp raised and the dropship began to whine.
‘Well, he was wrong.’
Geany shook his head angrily, ‘That’s a load of crap and you know it!’
I was about to rebuke the senior private when Okonkwo nudged me, ‘Well?’
I sighed, ‘Let’s just focus on what we have to do, alright?’
‘Well, then, there’s our answer.’
On that note the dropship lifted and we lurched against our straps as we hurtled toward our new objective. We were there in well under a minute, and the dropship banked hard as the pilot encircled the supposed location. I listened to the crew chatter as they searched for any sign of Westy’s warehouse.
‘The whole city is swarming with troopers and dropships,’ the commander told me, ‘I don’t think the rebels will be up to much anymore. Apparently they just released the governor, and the police are back on the streets cleaning up. Oh… what have we here, then?’
‘Do you see the warehouse?’ I asked.
‘Yeah,’ the commander replied, ‘Which is funny because I can’t see it on the map. It’s been erased.’
‘Ruckheim,’ I said.
‘Makes sense, he has the access and the rebels have the hackers. Your OC wants us to go in, top level entry onto a flat roof. When we land you’ll have one section to your left and Two section, plus the command group, to your rear. There’s some kind of roof access directly to the front as you debus. Happy with the landing zone layout?’
‘Yeah, roger,’ I quickly repeated the message to the section and we braced ourselves for the landing. Dropship pilots liked to get in and out of their LZ quickly, since the craft was at its most vulnerable when it was static, and they weren’t afraid to throw their cargo about. That I knew all too well!
We suddenly changed direction, and then fell like a stone. At that moment I was glad that I hadn’t eaten anything.
‘I’m gonna fire in a second,’ the gunner warned me, ‘Don’t be alarmed. Just breaking through the dome.’
I hadn’t thought about how we might gain access to the warehouse, ‘Can we do that?’
The commander laughed, ‘Normally no, but we can do pretty much whatever we want, now!’
The dropship vibrated violently as it fired a burst into the dome that protected the small part of the city from the New Earth atmosphere. I imagined the glass raining down on the streets below, and the warbling sirens telling the civilian population to don their respirators. It wouldn’t do our already tarnished image any good, but we had no choice. By the time our dropships managed to negotiate their way through the dome airlock the rebels would know that we were coming and would be prepared.
Our descent ended dramatically, this time sending our guts plummeting into our boots. The dropship decelerated hard, and as it did so the ramp fell away, revealing the warehouse roof and the darkened cityscape beyond it. As I had imagined, the sirens blared, but there were no other sounds to accompany them.
Twenty or so metres behind us I could see the platoon commander’s own dropship coming in to land, and I knew that the two other ships of the platoon would be to our side.
My straps disengaged and I turned to my section, grabbing my rifle from its rack, ‘Let’s go, lads, debus right!’
Okonkwo charged out into the dark, quickly followed by me, Jackson and the rest of the section. Shards of broken glass cracked beneath our boots as we rushed to get into position, peeling out into a line facing the same direction as the dropship. As soon as the last man left the ramp it raised and the dropship shot up through the hole in the dome and into the sky.
I quickly scanned around me. The warehouse roof was made of solid concrete and was at least four hundred metres across. It was dotted with various pipes and vents that appeared to follow no obvious pattern. Directly in front of us on the far side of the roof was a raised structure with a single door, which I presumed was the roof access mentioned by the dropship commander.
Jimmy’s section had debussed just off to my left in a line identical to my own. To my rear left was Two section in reserve, and straight behind me was Mr Moore and his signaller. I saw that Johnno was moving with his work party away from the platoon commander and toward the reserve section. He had to be loaded onto the same dropship as Mr Moore because his party couldn’t fit anywhere else, but once on the ground he needed to be away from him – to avoid the possibility of them both dying at once – but close enough so that he could read the battle. If Mr Moore died, it was Johnno’s job as acting platoon sergeant to take over from him and continue to lead the platoon in combat.
We had been on the ground for less than ten seconds when a pair of blue cursors appeared on my visor display. Mr Moore had marked the roof access and a point fifty metres to the right of it.
Wasting no time, he gave his instructions, ‘Moralee, move to the doorway and prepare for explosive entry. Myers, prepare a mouse-hole on the other mark. Go!’
The platoon advanced rapidly across the roof, the two lead sections running toward their respective objectives. The platoon commander followed, whilst Johnno kept the reserve section a bound behind, ready to be launched forward if required.
As we neared the doorway I ordered Konny and his fire team to stay back and provide me with cover. We approached the door from an angle, in case a rebel decided to fire through it, and we crept the last few paces with our weapons raised and ready to fire.
My finger hovered over the trigger, twitching slightly in anticipation. I was in the zone, focused again on the kill. If anybody was waiting on the other side of that door then he was in for a nasty surprise.
I gripped Okonkwo by the shoulder and he stopped just before the door. I leant close to his ear and whispered so quietly that nobody could hear me without a headset, ‘Entry charge.’
Okonkwo nodded, and I opened his daysack, kno
wing exactly where he kept it. We were all made to keep critical kit in the same place as each other, so that everybody knew where everything was. I found the entry charge and handed it to him. He carefully fixed it to the door without making a sound, and the pressure he applied activated it.
Our headsets beeped a warning that the charge was armed, but we remained close to the door. Unlike its larger cousin, the entry charge didn’t have a lethal back blast. A trooper could stand right next to it when it detonated and not have a scratch on him, so long as it wasn’t facing him!
I looked back to Mr Moore and gave him the thumbs up, we were set and good to go.
‘Stand by,’ he ordered, ‘One section will initiate the break-in. They will detonate the mouse- hole first. I am anticipating a large part of the building to be hollow, if that’s the case then the mouse-hole will be used for fire support while you make entry. If not, and the mouse-hole enters a room, then one section will make entry and you are to wait for further instructions. Understood?’
I nodded, exaggerating the movement of my head so that he could see me.
The platoon commander turned toward one section, who had just finished placing out their own charge, ‘Myers, understood?’
‘Roger, that’s us set.’
‘Good. Go.’
With a plume of dust and chunks of concrete, the mouse-hole detonated. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Jimmy ran toward the smoking hole with one of his mammoth gunners. Taking a knee right next to it, he observed through his sights into the warehouse.
‘It’s hollow,’ he confirmed.
‘Roger! Moralee, go!’
‘Go!’ I repeated, and Okonkwo detonated the charge.
Troopers were well experienced in the use of explosives, and we didn’t jump or freeze at the loud thump that rattled our bones as the charge blasted the door from its hinges. Quite the opposite, in fact, because it was the explosion that compelled us to action, like a starter pistol in a race.
We stormed through the gaping doorway and down a stairwell that took us into the warehouse. Although we moved quickly, Okonkwo and I worked as a pair, our weapons covering every angle of the stairwell, Jackson following close behind.
LANCEJACK (The Union Series) Page 20