Book Read Free

Jim Baen’s Universe

Page 24

by Edited by Eric Flint


  He grin­ned fa­intly as he set­tled on­to the mat­tress. The jux­ta­po­si­ti­on of wrec­ked per­son­nel and wrec­ked equ­ip­ment ref­lec­ted his sen­se of hu­mor too, it se­emed.

  Drayer knelt to fit his re­cor­der in­to the fo­ot­bo­ard. "Well, if that's what you want," he sa­id. "Me, I was ho­ping we'd be le­aving as so­on as the Co­lo­nel got tran­s­port li­ned up. The go­ver­n­ment fo­und the mo­ney for anot­her three months, tho­ugh."

  Drayer lo­oked up; a sharp-fe­atu­red lit­tle man, ef­fi­ci­ent and wil­ling to grab a bed­pan when the ward was short-han­ded. But by the Lord and Martyrs, his ta­lent for sa­ying exactly the wrong thing amo­un­ted to she­er ge­ni­us.

  "Had you he­ard that, sir?" Dra­yer sa­id, ob­vi­o­usly ho­pe­ful that he'd gi­ven an of­fi­cer the in­si­de do­pe on so­met­hing. "Tho­ugh I swe­ar, I don't see whe­re they fo­und it. You wo­uldn't think this pit co­uld ra­ise the mo­ney to hi­re the Re­gi­ment for ni­ne months."

  "They're pro­bably mor­t­ga­ging the am­ber con­ces­si­on for the next twenty ye­ars," Rut­h­ven sa­id. He bra­ced him­self to mo­ve aga­in.

  The fat of be­asts in Pon­tef­ract's an­ci­ent se­as had fos­si­li­zed in­to tran­s­lu­cent mas­ses which flu­ores­ced in a tho­usand be­a­uti­ful pas­tels. Rut­h­ven didn't know why it was cal­led am­ber.

  "Twenty ye­ars?" Dra­yer sne­ered. "The Ro­ya­lists won't last twenty days af­ter we ship out!"

  "It'll still be worth so­me ban­ker's gam­b­le at eno­ugh of a dis­co­unt," Rut­h­ven sa­id. "And the Fi­ve Worlds may run out of mo­ney to supply the Lord's Army, af­ter all."

  He lif­ted his legs on­to the mat­tress, wa­iting for the pa­in; it didn't co­me. It wo­uldn't co­me, he sup­po­sed, un­til he stop­ped thin­king abo­ut it every ti­me he mo­ved… and then it'd grin at him as it sank its fangs in.

  "Well, I don't know squ­at abo­ut ban­kers, that's the truth," Dra­yer sa­id with a chuc­k­le. "I just know I won't be sorry to le­ave this pit. Tho­ugh-"

  He bent to re­mo­ve the re­cor­der.

  "- I gu­ess they're all pits, right sir? If they was pa­ra­di­se, they wo­uldn't ne­ed the Slam­mers, wo­uld they?"

  "I sup­po­se so­me con­t­ract worlds are bet­ter than ot­hers," Rut­h­ven sa­id, lo­oking at the re­pa­ir yard. Ba­se Ham­mer he­re in the low­lands se­emed to get mo­re snow than Pla­to­on E/1 had in the hills. He'd be­en in for hos­pi­tal three we­eks, tho­ugh; the we­at­her mig­ht've chan­ged in that length of ti­me. "I've only be­en with the Re­gi­ment two ye­ars, so I'm not the one to say."

  Drayer's brow fur­ro­wed as he con­cen­t­ra­ted on the bed's ho­log­rap­hic re­ado­ut. He lo­oked up be­aming and sa­id, "Say, Li­e­ute­nant, you're so clo­se to a hun­d­red per­cent it don't sig­nify. You oug­h­ta be up and dan­cing, not just lo­oking out the win­dow!"

  "I'll put le­ar­ning to dan­ce on my list," Rut­h­ven sa­id, ma­na­ging a smi­le with ef­fort. "Right now I think I'll get so­me mo­re sle­ep, tho­ugh."

  "Sure, you do that, sir," sa­id Dra­yer, ne­ver qu­ick at ta­king a hint. "Doc Par­va­ti'll be in this af­ter­no­on to cer­tify you, I'll bet. To­night or to­mor­row, just as su­re as Pon­tef­ract's a pit."

  He slid his re­cor­der in­to its belt she­ath and lo­oked aro­und the ro­om on­ce mo­re. "Well, I got three mo­re to check, Li­e­ute­nant, so I'll be pus­hing on. No­ne of them do­ing as well as you, I'll tell you. An­y­t­hing mo­re I can-"

  The me­dic's eyes lig­h­ted on the gold-bor­de­red fi­le fol­der le­aning aga­inst the wa­ter pit­c­her on Rut­h­ven's si­de tab­le. The rec­ru­iter'd be­en by this mor­ning, be­fo­re Dra­yer ca­me on duty.

  "Blood and Martyrs, sir!" he sa­id. "I saw Ma­ho­ne in the lobby but I didn't know she'd co­me to see you. So you're tran­s­fer­ring back to the Fri­si­an De­fen­se For­ces, is that it?"

  "Not exactly 'back,'" Rut­h­ven sa­id. He ga­ve up the pre­ten­se of clo­sing his eyes. "I jo­ined the Slam­mers stra­ight out of the Aca­demy."

  Sometimes he tho­ught abo­ut or­de­ring Dra­yer to get his butt out of the ro­om, but Rut­h­ven'd had eno­ugh con­f­lict when he was in the fi­eld. Right now he just wan­ted to sle­ep, and he wo­uldn't do that if he let him­self get wor­ked up.

  "Well, I be curst!" the me­dic sa­id. "You're one lucky dog, sir. He­re I'm go­ing on abo­ut wan­ting to le­ave this pla­ce and you're on yo­ur way back to go­od bo­oze and wo­men you don't got to pay! Con­g­ra­tu­la­ti­ons!"

  "Thank you, Tec­h­ni­ci­an," Rut­h­ven sa­id. "But now I ne­ed sle­ep mo­re than li­qu­or or wo­men or an­y­t­hing el­se. All right?"

  "You bet, sir!" sa­id Dra­yer sa­id as he hus­t­led out the do­or at last. "Say, wa­it till I tell Nic­hols in Supply abo­ut this!"

  Ruthven clo­sed his eyes aga­in. In­s­te­ad of go­ing to sle­ep, tho­ugh, his mind drif­ted back to the hills last month when E/1 ar­ri­ved at Fi­re Sup­port Ba­se Co­ura­ge.

  ****

  " El- Tee?" sa­id Ser­ge­ant Has­sel, E/1's pla­to­on ser­ge­ant but do­ub­ling as le­ader of First Squ­ad from lack of non­coms. " We got so­met­hing up he­re you may­be want to ta­ke a lo­ok at be­fo­re we go bel­ting on int' the fi­re­ba­se, over. "

  "Platoon, hold in pla­ce," Rut­h­ven or­de­red from the com­mand car, shrin­king the map la­yo­ut on his dis­p­lay to ex­pand the vi­su­al fe­ed from Has­sel so­me 500 me­ters ahe­ad. The pla­to­on went to gro­und, tro­opers rol­ling off the­ir skim­mers and scan­ning the win­d­b­lown scrub thro­ugh the­ir we­apons' sights.

  Melisant, dri­ving the high-si­ded com­mand car to­day, no­sed them aga­inst the bank to the right of the ro­ad and un­loc­ked the tri­bar­rel on the ro­of of the re­ar com­par­t­ment. She used the gun­nery scre­en at her sta­ti­on in­s­te­ad of clim­bing out of her hatch and ta­king the gun's spa­de grips in her hands. The scre­en pro­vi­ded bet­ter all-ro­und vi­si­bi­lity as well as be­ing sa­fer for the gun­ner, but many of the ex-far­mers in the Re­gi­ment felt acu­tely un­com­for­tab­le if they had to hunch down in a box when so­me­body might start sho­oting at them.

  Ruthven ex­pan­ded the ima­ge by fo­ur, then thir­ty-two ti­mes, let­ting the com­pu­ter bo­ost brig­h­t­ness and con­t­rast. The com­mand car's elec­t­ro­nics ga­ve him cle­arer vi­si­on than Has­sel's own, tho­ugh the ser­ge­ant can't ha­ve be­en in any do­ubt abo­ut what he was se­e­ing. It was a pretty stan­dard of­fe­ring by the Lord's Army, af­ter all.

  "Right," Rut­h­ven sa­id alo­ud. "Unit, the­re's three Ro­ya­lists cru­ci­fi­ed up­si­de down by the ro­ad. We'll go up­hill of them. No­body co­mes wit­hin a hun­d­red me­ters of the bo­di­es in ca­se they're bo­oby-trap­ped, got it? Six out."

  As he spo­ke, his fin­ger tra­ced a vir­tu­al co­ur­se on the dis­p­lay; the elec­t­ro­nics tran­s­mit­ted the ima­ge to the vi­sors of his tro­opers. They we­re ve­te­rans and didn't ne­ed the­ir hands held-but it was the pla­to­on le­ader's job, and Rut­h­ven to­ok his job se­ri­o­usly.

  The Lord knew the­re we­re eno­ugh ways to get han­ded yo­ur he­ad even if you sta­yed as ca­re­ful as a di­amond cut­ter. The Lord knew.

  Instead of an­s­we­ring ver­bal­ly, the squ­ad le­aders' icons on Rut­h­ven's dis­p­lay flas­hed gre­en. Se­ven tro­opers of Ser­ge­ant Ren­nie's Third Squ­ad-the ot­her two es­cor­ted the gun je­ep co­ve­ring the re­ar-we­re al­re­ady on the high gro­und, gu­iding the­ir skim­mers thro­ugh tre­es which'd wrap­ped the­ir limbs abo­ut the­ir bo­les at the on­set of win­ter. The thin so­il kept the tre­es apart, and the un­der­g­rowth was al­re­ady gray and brit­tle; He­avy We­apons' je­eps, two with tri­bar­rels and the third with a mor­tar, wo­uldn't ha­ve a prob­lem eit­her. The com­mand car, tho­ugh-
/>   Well, it didn't mat­ter that a com­mand car's high cen­ter of gra­vity and po­or po­wer-to-we­ight ra­tio ma­de it a bad cho­ice for bre­aking tra­il in wo­oded hills. This wasn't a cho­ice, it was a mi­li­tary ne­ces­sity un­less Rut­h­ven wan­ted to ta­ke the chan­ce that the bo­di­es we­ren't ba­it. His two ye­ars' ex­pe­ri­en­ce in the fi­eld wasn't much for the Slam­mers, but it'd be­en plenty to te­ach him to avo­id un­ne­ces­sary risks.

  The vic­tims had be­en ti­ed to the cros­ses with the­ir own in­tes­ti­nes, but that was just the usu­al fun and ga­mes for the Lord's Army. Rut­h­ven grin­ned. If he'd had a bet­ter opi­ni­on of the Ro­ya­lists, he mig­ht've be­en ab­le to con­vin­ce him­self the Re­gi­ment was Do­ing Go­od on Pon­tef­ract. For­tu­na­tely, Co­lo­nel Ham­mer didn't re­qu­ire his pla­to­on le­aders to ma­in­ta­in fe­elings of mo­ral su­pe­ri­ority over the­ir ene­mi­es.

  His eyes on the dots of his tro­opers slan­ting ac­ross the ter­ra­in dis­p­lay, Rut­h­ven ke­yed his mic­rop­ho­ne and sa­id, "Co­ura­ge Com­mand, this is Ec­ho One-six. Co­me in Co­ura­ge Com­mand, over."

  The com­bat car's dis­p­lay sho­wed that the tran­s­mit­ter in Co­lo­nel Car­re­ra's he­ad­qu­ar­ters was one of half a do­zen in Fi­re­ba­se Co­ura­ge which we­re li­ve, but no­body rep­li­ed. Rut­h­ven gri­ma­ced. He wasn't com­for­tab­le com­mu­ni­ca­ting with the Ro­ya­lists to be­gin with, sin­ce any mes­sa­ge which the Ro­ya­lists co­uld he­ar, the Lord's Army co­uld over­he­ar. It ad­ded in­sult to inj­ury that the fo­ols we­ren't res­pon­ding.

  The car buc­ked as the for­ward skirts dug in­to an out­c­rop with a skre­el! of ste­el on sto­ne. Rut­h­ven ex­pec­ted they'd ha­ve to back and fill, but Me­li­sant kic­ked her na­cel­les out and lif­ted them over the ob­s­tac­le. She was dri­ving pri­ma­rily be­ca­use her skim­mer-now strap­ped to the si­de of the car in ho­pes of be­ing ab­le to re­pa­ir it at the Ro­ya­list ba­se-was wonky, but she was pro­bably as go­od at the job as an­y­body in the pla­to­on.

  "Courage Com­mand, this is Ec­ho One-six," Rut­h­ven re­pe­ated, ke­eping his vo­ice calm but won­de­ring if sho­wing his ir­ri­ta­ti­on wo­uld help get the Ro­ya­lists' at­ten­ti­on. "Res­pond ASAP to ar­ran­ge lin­kup, if you ple­ase. Over."

  The car shif­ted back to le­vel from its strongly no­se-up at­ti­tu­de, tho­ugh it con­ti­nu­ed to rock si­de to si­de. Rut­h­ven had a re­al-ti­me pa­no­ra­ma at the top of his dis­p­lay, but he didn't bot­her chec­king it. His res­pon­si­bi­lity was the who­le pla­to­on, not the prob­lems of we­aving the car thro­ugh wo­od­land.

  " Ec­ho One-six, my co­lo­nel say, 'Who are you?'" rep­li­ed a vo­ice from the fi­re­ba­se. " We must know who you are, over!"

  Ruthven sig­hed. It co­uld've be­en wor­se. Of co­ur­se, it might still get wor­se.

  "Unit, hold in pla­ce till I sort this," he sa­id alo­ud. Ren­nie's squ­ad, now in the le­ad, must be ne­arly in sight of the fi­re­ba­se by now. "Bre­ak. Co­ura­ge Com­mand, this is Ec­ho One-six. We're the unit sent to re­in­for­ce you. Ple­ase con­firm that yo­ur tro­ops are ex­pec­ting us and won't open fi­re."

  He he­si­ta­ted three long he­ar­t­be­ats whi­le de­ci­ding whet­her to say what was go­ing thro­ugh his mind, then sa­id it: "Co­ura­ge, we're the Slam­mers. If we're shot at, we'll sho­ot back. With ever­y­t­hing we've got. Over."

  Third Squ­ad was in sight of the Ro­ya­lists: the fe­ed from Ren­nie's skim­mer sho­wed the fi­re­ba­se as a scar of fel­led tre­es on the hill 700 me­ters from him. Rut­h­ven frow­ned; he was lo­oking down in­to the fi­re­ba­se. The rid­ge by which E/1 had ap­pro­ac­hed was a go­od fifty me­ters hig­her than the knoll whe­re the Ro­ya­lists had si­ted the­ir guns.

  " You must not sho­ot!" squ­e­aled a new vo­ice from the Ro­ya­list fi­re­ba­se; a se­ni­or of­fi­cer had ap­pa­rently ta­ken over from the ra­di­oman. " We will not sho­ot! You must co­me in and help us at on­ce!"

  Ruthven grin­ned fa­intly. "Co­ura­ge, I'll gi­ve you three mi­nu­tes to ma­ke su­re all yo­ur bun­kers get the word," he sa­id. "We don't want any mis­ta­kes. Ec­ho One-six out."

  " Hey El- Tee?" sa­id Ser­ge­ant We­ge­lin on the com­mand push; he was cre­wing the tri­bar­rel at the end of the co­lumn. " What d'ye me­an, co­me in sho­oting with ever­y­t­hing we got? We're not exactly a tank com­pany, you know, over."

  "They don't know that, Wegs," Rut­h­ven sa­id, smi­ling mo­re bro­adly as he exa­mi­ned the re­al-ti­me vi­su­als. "And an­y­way, I don't think we'd ne­ed pan­zers to put pa­id to this lot, over."

  Fire Sup­port Ba­se Co­ura­ge ho­used fo­ur 120-mm ho­wit­zers with an in­fantry bat­ta­li­on for pro­tec­ti­on. Tre­et­runks had be­en bul­ldo­zed in­to a wall aro­und the camp, but they wo­uldn't stop light can­non shells as ef­fec­ti­vely as an ear­t­hen berm. The Slam­mers' po­wer­guns wo­uld turn the wo­od in­to a hu­ge bon­fi­re.

  " Why in hell did they set up with this rid­ge abo­ve them, d'ye sup­po­se?" as­ked Has­sel. Tho­ugh the pla­to­on ser­ge­ant had his own li­ne of sight to the fi­re­ba­se, the dis­p­lay in­di­ca­ted he was using We­ge­lin's hig­her van­ta­ge po­int. " We co­uld put the guns out of ac­ti­on with fo­ur shots, over."

  " Be­ca­use I ne­ver met no­body we­aring a uni­form he­re who knows how to po­ur piss outa a bo­ot, Top," sa­id We­ge­lin. " Over."

  "The rid­ge's too nar­row for a bat­ta­li­on and the guns," sa­id Rut­h­ven. He was using text crawls to mo­ni­tor the pa­nic­ked or­ders flying ac­ross the fi­re­ba­se, but he didn't see any re­ason to wa­it in res­pec­t­ful si­len­ce for the Ro­ya­lists to get the­ir act in or­der. "They sho­uld've left a de­tac­h­ment-"

  " Ec­ho One-six, you must co­me in now," Li­e­ute­nant-Co­lo­nel Car­re­ra sa­id sharply. " Qu­ickly, be­fo­re the Dogs ta­ke ad­van­ta­ge! Qu­ick! Qu­ick!"

  "Break," sa­id Rut­h­ven, clo­sing his con­ver­sa­ti­on with his squ­ad le­aders. "Ren­nie, ta­ke yo­ur squ­ad in. We­ge­lin, stay on over­watch. I'll fol­low Ren­nie, then Sel­lars, We­ge­lin, and you bring up the re­ar, Has­sel. Six Out."

  Again gre­en blips sig­na­led Re­ce­ived and Un­der­s­to­od. Ser­ge­ant Ren­nie knelt on his skim­mer to le­ad the way down and up the wo­oded sad­dle to the fi­re­ba­se. His tro­opers we­re lying flat with the­ir con­t­rol sticks fol­ded down. That wasn't a go­od way to dri­ve, but it ma­de them very dif­fi­cult tar­gets in ca­se so­me­body in the gar­ri­son hadn't got­ten the word af­ter all.

  Rennie wasn't the brig­h­test squ­ad le­ader in the Re­gi­ment, but he was ref­le­xi­vely bra­ve and ne­ver he­si­ta­ted to ta­ke a per­so­nal risk to spa­re his tro­opers. They'd ha­ve fol­lo­wed him to Hell.

  Melisant was sen­ding po­wer to the fans be­fo­re Rut­h­ven'd fi­nis­hed gi­ving his or­ders, but the com­mand car lif­ted aw­k­wardly and only slowly star­ted to wal­low for­ward. The gra­ce with which the tro­opers flit­ted aro­und him ma­de Rut­h­ven fe­el li­ke a hog sur­ro­un­ded by fli­es, but the skim­mers'd run out of ju­ice in a mat­ter of ho­urs wit­ho­ut the car's fu­si­on bot­tle to rec­har­ge them. He knew he was do­ing his pro­per job he­re in­si­de the ve­hic­le, tho­ugh he didn't fe­el li­ke he was.

  The gun je­ep that'd be­en re­in­for­cing the le­ad squ­ad didn't fol­low Ren­nie's tro­opers. The dri­ver/as­sis­tant gun­ner wa­ved as the com­bat car swept past; the je­ep was hun­ke­red down in a notch on the re­ver­se slo­pe that ga­ve it a li­ne of fi­re to the fo­ur ho­wit­zers and most of the in­te­ri­or of the fi­re­ba­se.

  Sergeant We­ge­lin'd pro­bably or­de­red the crew to ke­ep un­der co­ver till he ca­me up with the ot­her gun and mor­tar. That wasn't pre­ci­sely di­so­be­ying Rut­h­ven's in­s­t­
ruc­ti­ons, but it ca­me blo­ody clo­se; and We­ge­lin was pro­bably right in his ca­uti­on, so the El-Tee wo­uld ke­ep his mo­uth shut. That was a lot of what a juni­or li­e­ute­nant did when he had go­od non­coms…

  The in­fantry mo­ved to­ward the fi­re­ba­se thro­ugh the stumps and brush in a skir­mish li­ne, but Me­li­sant swung the car on­to the ro­ad as so­on as she re­ac­hed the swa­le con­nec­ting the knolls. The track'd be­en cut with a bul­ldo­zer rat­her than pro­perly gra­ded, but the car's air cus­hi­on smo­ot­hed the ri­de ni­cely. The de­ep ruts from whe­eled ve­hic­les we­re fro­zen now and had snow on the­ir so­ut­hern ed­ges.

  Royalists che­ered from the top of the wall. The sol­di­ers we­re ma­le but the­re we­re sco­res of wo­men and chil­d­ren in the com­po­und as well, so­me of them wa­ving gar­ments.

  Ruthven gri­ma­ced, thin­king of what'd hap­pen if the Lord's Army over­ran the pla­ce. His job was to pre­vent that, but if the re­bels we­re in the strength In­tel­li­gen­ce tho­ught they we­re-well, one pla­to­on, even a blo­ody go­od pla­to­on li­ke E/1, wasn't go­ing to be ab­le to do the job wit­ho­ut help that the Ro­ya­lists might not be ab­le to pro­vi­de.

  The fi­re­ba­se en­t­ran­ce was a sim­p­le gap in the wall, but bul­ldo­zers had scra­ped a pi­le of trunks and dirt as a scre­en ten me­ters in front of it. Se­mi-tra­ilers brin­ging in sup­pli­es wo­uld ha­ve a hard ti­me with the an­g­le, but Me­li­sant sho­uld be ab­le to gu­ide the com­bat car thro­ugh wit­ho­ut tro­ub­le.

  There we­re three strands of bar­bed wi­re in front of the wall. That ga­ve neg­li­gib­le pro­tec­ti­on aga­inst as­sa­ult, but may­be it'd he­ar­ten the de­fen­ders: pla­ce­bo ef­fects we­re re­al in mo­re are­as than me­di­ci­ne.

  Ruthven grin­ned. It wasn't much of a joke, but in a si­tu­ati­on li­ke this you to­ok any chan­ce for a la­ugh that you got.

 

‹ Prev