*
When the MAT-14s were in position, Blade gave the order to commence the operation. Simultaneously, the four shuttles moved over their designated buildings. Two of the shuttles hovered over the facility where the slaves were reputed to be warehoused. As the Marines began rappelling down ropes to the roofs, the nighttime sky over the capital suddenly illuminated from a series of brilliant flashes. While the ground shook from the explosions, huge swaths of lights all over the city began to wink out and fires were burning at many power generation and distribution locations. The darkened city made the fires seem even larger and brighter.
Blade's team was the first to have boots on the roof of their target, and they immediately started taking fire from the lone guard tower on a perimeter wall. As the team secured the roof, they began to reciprocate and poured a torrent of deadly laser fire into the guard tower. Within seconds, the fire from the tower ceased. Infrared scanning showed the single occupant of the guard tower to be down and unmoving.
"One down, hundred to go," Blade said. "Let's get that roof door open."
One of the Special Ops team slapped explosives against the door and yelled, "Charges placed. Take cover."
As Blade yelled, "We're clear. Blow it," the door began to open. The noncom who had placed the charges flicked the detonation switch and the door closed again in the blink of an eye. The bent, broken, and twisted door and frame wreckage then continued inwards, crushing the two guards who had been about to exit onto the roof in response to the city-wide attack. When the first Marine poked his head into the large opening to assess the danger, he grimaced and said, "Two down, hundred to go. We're clear."
The 'hundred to go' slogan was an axiom of Blade's. It meant they had no idea of the force size they were facing but were prepared to take on any they encountered. Blade and the team members climbed over the door wreckage, including the bloody pulp that used to be two bodies, and disappeared down the stairs.
* * *
Chapter Fourteen
~ January 23rd, 2287 ~
A noncom on the roof of their assigned building with Lt. MacDonald's team tried the handle of the door, but discovered it was locked. As he waited for one of the Marines to attach explosives, the door suddenly opened outward. The guard might have been sneaking out for a smoke or perhaps hoping to see the situation in the city from a rooftop perch. Whatever his intent, he suddenly found himself staring into the barrels of a dozen laser rifles. He was immediately thrown to the ground and checked for weapons. After being relieved of a pistol and stun stick found on his body, he was stunned with his own weapon and left on the roof to sleep it off.
As MacDonald's team penetrated the building, they split into four pre-designated groups and began moving to their assigned floor in the stairwell. The plan was to begin the attack on the three floors simultaneously. Two fire-teams would clear the top floor and work downward in support of the others as the floors were cleared. The lights appeared to be on throughout the building.
On a signal from MacDonald, all teams opened the doors on their designated floors and rushed into the corridors. Guards on duty reacted quickly to the sudden appearance of the Marines and pulled their weapons, but most died before they could fire a shot.
The top floor of the building was dedicated to offices, and three of the Qummuc guards didn't even have a weapon on their person. They meekly threw up their hands in a gesture of surrender. MacDonald, coordinating the mission from the roof, had the three guards brought to her.
"I want to know where the Yolongi are that were captured at the cave a few days ago."
When none of them spoke, she checked to make sure her external speaker was on and the translator was set to Yolongus. They were.
"Last chance," she said pointing her laser pistol at the guard whose facial expression made him appear to be the one least likely to talk. "Where are the Yolongi who were captured at the cave a few days ago?"
Three seconds later she pulled the trigger, and as the Yolongi guard crumbled to the floor, she pointed her weapon at a different guard and asked the question again. This time there was no hesitation. He answered the question immediately. MacDonald then relayed the information to the team on the second floor before assigning two of her team to bring the remaining two Yolongi guards to the roof and stun them.
"We've got them, L.T.," the team on the second floor reported. "They've been tortured and badly beaten, but they're alive."
"Take them to the roof."
"We've found a couple of Terran males, L.T.," the first floor team reported. "It looks like they've been here for a while. They're on their last legs."
"Bring them to the roof. Carry them if you have to."
"What about the other Yolongis in the cells?" another team leader asked.
"Set all of them free and let them take the guard's weapons. But don't bring them to the roof. We can't take them with us. All teams return to the roof."
MacDonald was waiting on the roof when the team who found the Yolongis arrived. The report had been accurate. The Yolongis had been tortured so badly that they could barely walk.
"Wait a minute," MacDonald said as it became apparent that all of the Yolongis from the cave were not on the roof. "I was told there were seven in the cavern. Where's the other one?"
"He was an informant," a young Yolongi male who was limping on injured feet spit out. "It was he who alerted the Qummuc about the ship coming to pick us up. He was released almost immediately after he identified himself to the Qummuc."
"I see. Well that explains a lot." To the Yolongi male who had just spoken, she said, "We have to prepare to leave here and I need someone to guard these three Qummuc until we go. Do you think you could handle the job?"
"What do you intend to do with them?"
"We have to find a way to make sure they can never identify who attacked the building. I'm sure my captain can suggest a way to ensure that."
"Yes, I can guard them."
"Okay, here's a laser pistol."
MacDonald turned and had just started walking towards where the shuttle was setting down when she was called back by the Yolongi. When she returned, he said, "I'm sorry," with no regret or sadness. "I guess I'm not familiar enough with this weapon. It seems to have discharged several times as I held it. At least we don't have to convince them to keep silent now."
The three Qummuc prisoners who had been stunned now had a neat laser burn hole directly between their eyes. Since they had been sleeping, they never consciously felt a thing.
"I understand. No problem. I'd better take that back though."
As the Yolongi handed her the pistol, his smiling face reflected the satisfaction he felt. MacDonald was glad he had understood the situation and acted.
As MacDonald climbed into the shuttle, the pilot said, "Lieutenant, we're needed over at the third facility."
"Sitrep."
"They have too many slaves to transport."
"But they have two shuttles."
"Aye, Lieutenant. And each of them is already so full they had trouble closing the hatch. It's standing room only in the rear cabin. And the airlock and head are already occupied. The two ships have lifted off to keep people from getting hurt while trying to climb onto the exterior of the ship. And our Marines are still down on the roof with more slaves."
"How many more slaves?"
"They estimate about two hundred twenty more."
"Two hundred twenty? More?"
"The slave pens were filled to overflowing. I guess they were having a big auction in a few days."
"There's no way we can transport that many slaves to the Justice with four shuttles."
"We can't just leave them there, Lieutenant. And your people are still out on the roof as well."
"We may have to leave most of them there. We've got to be away from this city before the Yolongi get their forces organized. I'll contact the Major."
*
"Sierra-Leader," Blade said in response to the call from Mike-Leader."
"We have a serious issue, sir. Facility Three was overflowing with Terran slaves. The shuttles are packed and about two hundred twenty still remain on the facility roof. My people are also on the roof and the shuttles have lifted off to stop slaves from trying to climb aboard the exterior of the ships any way they can."
"Good Lord. We can't transport that many, and we have to vacate this city— now."
"Yes, sir. My team is ready to leave this facility. Should I proceed to Three and pick up my Marines?"
MacDonald heard no response for several seconds, so she repeated her message.
"I heard you. I'm thinking. Mike-leader, pick up your people and as many slaves as you can squeeze into the shuttle. My team is done here at One. We'll proceed to Three and fill up also."
"Wilco. Mike-Leader out."
"Sierra-Leader out."
*
"Captain, we've just received a message from Sierra-Leader," Sydnee heard in her CT from the com chief. "The shuttles and fighters are returning."
Activating a carrier she asked, "Is everyone okay?"
"They report there were no fatalities. That's all they said."
"Okay, Chief. ETA?"
"About six minutes."
"Thanks, Chief. Marcola out."
Sydnee breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned back in her office chair. She had begun to worry because the force was over an hour late. Without the ability to contact them on the planet, all she had been able to do was worry.
*
The fighters were instructed to complete their docking maneuvers first. Once all ships were back inside their container bays, the four shuttles were allowed to dock with the Justice. Sydnee was standing by when the hatchway to Shuttle-One was unlatched and opened. Blade was the first one out.
"I'm getting real tired of standing on shuttle flights," he said as saw Sydnee.
"You stood? Why?" she asked.
"We folded the seats to their cargo transport storage positions and made everyone stand so we could get as many people on board as possible."
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" she said. "First, I assume the mission was a success. Second, there were only supposed to be about twenty-five people to retrieve."
"The mission was half successful. And there were a lot more slaves than we had counted on."
"How many more?"
"A lot more."
"But you were able to bring them all back with you?"
"We brought as many as we could— but we had to leave a lot behind on the planet. We just didn't have the capability to bring more, or I would have. As it was, the air was getting really thin in Shuttle-One. There were too many people breathing the limited air in the rear compartment for the ship's systems to accommodate, even with supplemental oxygen pumped in from the reserve tanks."
"You're saying there are over sixty people in the shuttle?"
"About seventy-two when you count the pilots."
"Seventy people in a rear cabin intended to hold no more than forty?"
"Only sixty-six were in the cabin. We squeezed two people into the rear airlock, and two in the head."
"So how many did you bring in total?"
"Two hundred fifty former Terran slaves, two Terran male freighters who had been arrested on charges of entering Clidepp space without a visa, and six Yolongi. The freighters were hands aboard a Clidepp freighter who had hired on in GA space after a few Yolongi deserted while in port."
"And how many people did you leave behind?"
"About two hundred thirty-five slaves, all from facility Three. Apparently there was a big slave auction scheduled for this week. The slave pens were filled."
Sydnee sighed. "It's a shame you had to leave anyone behind, but you brought all you could. It doesn't sound like you could have fit even one more aboard."
"No, we couldn't— but…"
"Save it for the briefing. You and I, the Colonel, and MacDonald will meet in the mess hall as soon as we get our new passengers squared away."
"Aye, Captain."
*
Once the new passengers had been subjected to a preliminary interview to record their names, they were taken to the habitat container being used to house the people rescued from Yolongus. The senior officers then convened a conference in the mess hall.
"Colonel, your people did an excellent job," Sydnee said. "I think the Yolongi capital city is going to be dark at night for many months. The broadcasts from the planet are blaming the attacks on the Rebels. We don't know yet if the Triumvirate honestly believes that, but I suppose we'll learn in time. Based on the reports filed by our interviewers here aboard the Justice, only six of the Terran slaves from the group recaptured by the Qummuc and six of the seven Yolongi taken at that same time are now on board. And we still have not seen Winston. Major, where's Winston?"
"He wasn't at facility One where he was reputed to be. We were told by one of the dying guards that he escaped two days ago. The facility was actually undermanned because they have squads of Qummuc special forces out looking for him."
"So it was a wasted effort. And we might have dragged the GA into a war for nothing."
"I wouldn't call it a wasted effort," Blade said. "We recovered six of the Yolongi taken from the cavern and identified an informant inside the Aleoxlene Reqoppl organization. I'm sure Golwoggin will take care of that little bugger when he learns of it. How are the Yolongi who were tortured?"
"Our medic says all will heal physically, although there will be scars. He's not trained in psychiatry. Were there any Qummuc left who could identify our people?"
"None that we know of. Most showed a preference for fighting to the death, so we accommodated them. Then, after downloading everything we could get from their computers, we destroyed all video equipment, recorded images, and blew the computer centers in every facility into tiny little pieces just for good measure before setting fire to the places."
"Good."
"What are we going to do about Winston, Captain?" Dennier asked.
"I don't know that there's anything we can do. If he did really escape, he could be anywhere on the planet. He's been undercover here for years so I'm sure he has numerous contacts. At this point, he's probably not willing to reveal himself to anyone other than the people he trusts most. I guess we'll have to accept that and take our cargo of people back to the GA."
"What about the other slaves?" Blade asked.
"The ones you had to leave on the planet?"
"Yes."
"By now the Qummuc have probably moved them to a different facility and we have no idea where that is. We can't perform another attack to rescue them, even if we knew where they were. I was only able to justify this raid because it was combined with a search and recovery effort for Winston."
"Uh, I guess I never finished giving you all the facts about the slaves we left behind," Blade said. "I couldn't leave them at the facility, only to be taken again, and we wanted to burn that place to the ground anyway."
"And?" Sydnee said.
"I decided that we could move them to the cavern that hadn't yet been discovered by the Qummuc. The flight was only twenty minutes each way, and we had four shuttles. We should have been able to move everyone in just two trips. The Colonel could have stayed near the facilities and provided protection in case the remaining people came under attack while we made the first run."
"So the slaves you left behind are at the cavern?"
"Uh, no. After a few minutes of reflection I decided that since the Qummuc knew about the one cavern, it might not be completely safe."
"So where are they?"
"I took them to our embassy compound in the Capital. It was only two air minutes away from the facility. Although our ambassadors have been recalled because of the civil war, the embassy is still technically GA territory, just as Clidepp ambassadorial ships are considered Clidepp territory when in GA space."
"Major, that points a finger directly at the GA as being responsible for the attack tonight."
"I realized that, Captain, so I put them all down in the underground bunker where no can see them."
"There's an underground bunker at the embassy compound?" Sydnee asked in surprise.
"As far as I know, all of our GA embassies have underground bunkers— even those built on planets in the GA. Where embassies are required to be located in major cities, they're normally built at the very outskirts where the excavation can be performed without damaging the foundations of other major buildings. The GA Senate prefers to build down into the ground rather than above ground where the building makes an easy target in air strikes or from space. That's why most embassies are only two stories high. On Yolongus, the embassy compound is enormous, covering almost three hectares, and the underground complex is about two-thirds as large. It's also five levels deep and nearly indestructible."
"Do the caretakers have access to that area?"
"No. The caretakers have their own quarters on the grounds and have done an excellent job of keeping vandals out of the embassy compound, but they don't have access to the below-ground levels. I learned there's a tremendous amount of emergency food rations stored in the underground bunker on Yolongus. My special access code allowed me to open the bunker and get the slaves settled in on level B2. There's a shuttle and vehicle bay on B1, so we were able to enter the underground with the shuttles. No one ever saw the slaves when they left the ships."
"How do you access the underground bay?"
"The tennis court in the yard behind the embassy rolls back to reveal part of the bay. Once below ground, almost the entire B1 level is available for shuttle parking. There's a diplomatic shuttle down there, but the flight deck is all pulled apart. It appeared it was being worked on when the embassy was closed and the ambassador was recalled. After the slaves were settled in, I took out enough of the food stores to last them for several weeks. I assumed that by then you'll have decided how to proceed."
"I left four of our fire teams to protect the embassy from intrusion by Yolongi or other forces," Lt. MacDonald said. "But they have orders to remain out of sight."
"I didn't know there were massive long-term food stores at the embassy," Sydney said.
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