Kyle announced that he was pleased to have each and every one of them on board and promised them action sooner rather than later.
All he had to do now was get on to the surface of Chamtofi.
**********************
Dressed in civilian clothes, which for Chamtofi were as old as you can get, as dishevelled as possible and as smelly as you could make them, Pixie and Kyle Cassidy sat strapped into the crew seats on the bridge.
The plan agreed by Kyle, Kang and Speedy was to latch onto the first Walendian bound craft heading back to the planet and to clone its data profiling. Buzz and Kang would upload a comms stream to the monitoring stations on the planet which would then indicate one large ship rather than two smaller ones. This would only work if the ‘Judas’ ship did not see or detect them. The matt finish of its paintwork used the same technology as the castorian armour, which meant that anyone looking directly at Seeker of Moons would only see a pattern of stars, blending the craft with its background. This was supplemented by the powerful computers of Seeker of Moons, which would block and confuse its flight partner’s ability to scan at close quarters. It was agreed that the plan was theoretically sound but the trouble was that no-one on board had ever attempted this, let alone in a hostile situation.
It was just a question of remaining undetected and being patient, though it seemed like hours before Buzz reported a target. The ship in question was an armed trader, probably twice the size of Seeker of Moons and totally oblivious to their presence.
On Seeker of Moons the atmosphere was like an old time submarine, it was tense and with a total communications black out the crew concentrated on every flicker of the data screens. Speedy gradually edged their ship forward, until she received a ‘thumbs up’ from Buzz indicating that their ship was now close enough to their quarry to merge into its ID profile. There was now only open space to be seen from the forward viewscreen, but when the downward view was switched on, the ship below seemed close enough to touch. Speedy sought to maintain her position just above the thrust fairings of the transport, with concentration and numerous adjustments she drew admiration from those who saw her at work.
Ossie as co-pilot was monitoring the communications between ground stations and the incoming trader and two things very quickly became clear. The first was that Seeker of Moons had not been detected as yet and the second was the destination which was confirmed as the Chamtofi spaceport.
The gamble that they could land in the next province to Chamtofi seemed to have failed, as the merchant craft continued to fall towards the surface and followed a course east across the planet’s equator.
Chamtofi was largely a desert world except for a verdant band of greenery around its equator and several scattered oasis. There were a few lakes on the edge of the greenery, the largest locally called Talangi was an immense area of blue bisecting the girdle of green and had most of the towns and settlements of Chamtofi around it. There was one exception and that was Walendia, originally an Oasis but now a fortified settlement and this lay in the deserts of the north-west.
Underneath them the Trader started manoeuvring for a run into the central spaceport but Speedy was holding off separating from the host, waiting for a bank of cloud ahead to mask their escape. They were dropping lower and the port could be seen in the distance, Speedy raised the nose of Seeker of Moons in preparation for a dash to the clouds, but their craft suddenly shook from the nearby blast of multiple energy weapons.
Pixie shouted, “They’ve seen us, they’re firing at us!”
Kyle spun the nearest viewscreen around to see what was happening below and the trading ship was now being hit by round after round of energy bursts fired from an arc of plasma canons surrounding the spaceport. Speedy’s reactions were amazingly quick and she threw the small warship into an angled climb, whilst Ossie programmed the repeller field for maximum protection on the surfaces exposed to the ground fire.
Kyle set the viewscreen to track the beleaguered merchant craft below, its pilot was desperately applying maximum thrust and lift to try and escape the bombardment, but it was too little too late.
On the ground the gunners had time to program their weapons at a hard target and the erratic manual aiming was being replaced by deadly accurate automated fire. The trader’s rapidly deployed defensive shields but these were gradually overwhelmed by blasts of energy bolts and impacts on the hull multiplied until plates buckled, burst and fires snaked throughout the stricken craft.
Pointing upwards and vainly reaching for the stars the mortally crippled ship began to sink tail first towards the ground. At that point the clouds engulfed Seeker of Moons and the rear viewscreen was filled with cotton wool filaments, but when a bright orange flash cut through the murk everyone realised that the trader and all aboard were lost.
Kyle thought back to his own crash on Edenfall and could easily imagine the terror on board the doomed ship.
The need for silence was now gone and it was Shiner that came on the comms system first, “What the hell happened there?”
Buzz gave the response, “We seem to have wandered into a war zone.”
“Expand Buzz, what do you mean?”
“Listening to the comms from the ground, it seems that the pirates and bandits of Darian Kurko are attacking the forces of the Chamtofi government and the first shots were fired at the merchant ship because the pirates thought it may contain re-enforcements for the spaceport garrison. From government transmissions coming through our monitoring equipment, attacks by Walendian irregulars are being initiated all over the planet. It’s my opinion that this Kurko has decided that he’s no longer satisfied with just Walendia and he wants to control the whole planet.”
“What are his chances of success?”
“It’s marginally in favour of the government on the ground as they have more troops and a small air force, with some fairly modern planet based fighters. Once you look at the space fleet’s position, the pirates have three times as many ships as the government and as we have already seen, any attempt to lift off from the spaceport will see the government ships wasted by the pirate’s artillery.”
“Thanks Buzz, we are in a war zone and will be targets for both sides but in a way it may also help us, Kang and Bambi meet me at the mess in 5 minutes. Speedy, it’s on to plan ‘B’, when you find a large gap between settlements break out of the cloud cover and head North East, getting us as close the dz as possible. Use your discretion on height and speed but do your damnedest to prevent detection.”
In the Mess and without refreshment Kyle waited for the other two to join him, Bambi was first and sat next to him, immediately pulling the seat even closer so that their knees were touching.
“I prefer you in your uniform, no I even prefer you in your armour rather than the tramps clothes you are wearing.”
“Me too but the mission is more about stealth than brute force, so we are just going to have to put up with the smell for a while.”
“Look after yourself, I don’t know why but I have a bad feeling about this, promise me Kyle that you will look after yourself.” Bambi had a note of desperation in her voice but knew that she could not talk Getaway out of his mission.
Equally, he understood that having lost her old love on the planet, she did not want to lose her new one too and he gave her hand a quick squeeze promising that he and Pixie would be back.
The sombre mood was lifted when Kang strode in and sat on one of the flimsy chairs which gave way under the combined weight of him and his armour. Once he had picked himself up and found a better seat he said, “I think I can guess why you have called Bambi and myself in.”
“Go on.”
“You think that with the chaos on and around Chamtofi, we are now going straight into the pirate’s den.”
“No, not exactly though it did cross my mind. Assume we did hit their base and rescued the prince but also freed a large number of captured space crew, we cannot get more than 140 people in Seeker of Moons, which means w
e would have to leave people behind and I am not doing that.
How will our ship stand up to combat with other ships of human origin, from an engineering and gunnery point of view?”
“The reactor and ionic generators are as good as anything I’ve worked on and the force field generators are all 100%. Power shifts to the weapons systems are all tested and the standby accumulators are all 100%.”
“Engineering are ready for anything,” Bambi offered confidently.
“Our weapon clusters are tested and are all 100% functional, although we have had to make some re-arrangements having lost Sunshine and Boots is not with us, so I have allocated two of my men to port and starboard guns. They are naturals and their accuracy at aiming and speed of firing would be superior compared to humans Three of the Lillindians are now out of the sick bay and have been trained to operate the canons, one of them, named ‘Windy’ has a very special talent for hitting targets with max power first shot. The missile launcher has been linked through to a console controlled by Shiner and everybody is ready,” Kang reported with some pride.
“Thanks guys that is fantastic and based on what you have told me I think the plan will work.”
“Come on Getaway, let us in on it,” Kang said impatiently.
“The way I look at it is that the Government here must be desperate, they are being attacked all over the planet by a well-armed enemy, they know they will get no reinforcements and if they deploy their air force it’s likely to be intercepted by the pirates space fleet, which may ultimately be called in to bombard ground forces.
The government here may be feckless and should have dealt with Darian and his criminal band years ago but the civilian population do not deserve the same sort of treatment that Edenfall had. I want to push the odds in favour of the government by taking out some of the pirate corvettes and causing a bit of mayhem on the planet and then I hope that the government may help us.”
“Sounds good and we need extra transport but what is my role?” Kang queried.
“Simple my friend, you and four of your mandroids are the mayhem.”
Shiner was briefed to take control on the bridge, he was to select the targets and co-ordinate attacks, whilst Speedy was briefed not to argue with Shiner and also to look after the ship.
Down on the planet, Darian the Destroyer paced about his command centre, located in the tunnels below his palace in Walendia. His interest was in the large monitor at the centre of the room displaying a rotating globe. On the globe there were numerous blue triangles indicating objectives for his forces, some had turned green already showing successful outcomes around smaller objectives and a couple had turned red indicating failed attacks.
Darian now wore the uniform of a general and the command centre operatives wore sand coloured camouflage fatigues with light green stripes, the uniform of the ‘Walendian Army of Liberation’. He strode over to one of his comms operators, “Contact Trope at the Spaceport and find out what progress is being made, then contract Masters, on board ‘Dragon’s Teeth’ and ask if he’s found the government fleet yet, if he hasn’t they are now recalled to Walendia for new orders. I’ll be in my quarters and I want success, tell them I will not tolerate failure.”
He stalked out of the room and the atmosphere lifted. The operator moaned to his colleagues that it was just his luck to get the requests, because if it went wrong Kurko would blow his head off.
Back in his quarters there were tasks he wanted to do, firstly to contact Lord Burzot, the Envoy of the Infinite Empire to confirm he was in the process of taking over Chamtofi. Darian Kurko had always planned to take over the whole planet, as Burzot had questioned Kurko’s standing and influence on Chamtofi. The Infinite Empire would not soil their hands dealing with riff-raff and had severe doubts about the pirate’s morals and abilities.
A translation program featuring bezmetithe the official language of the empire had been supplied by the aliens and this had been uploaded to Kurko’s personal communicator. In some trepidation he entered the required security codes and waited for the monitor to connect with its counterpart on the ‘Kreznan’. A large green face with hooded eyes and a beak of a nose formed on the 3D platform screen.
“Who calls his Excellency Lord Burzot, Envoy Exceptional and Sword of the Infinite Empire?” the practised voice of the empire came through Kurko’s comms speaker.
“General Kurko of the Walendian Army of Liberation seeks an audience with his Excellency Lord Burzot, Flame of the fiery stars …..”
“Enough Kurko you insignificant being, why are you wasting the empire’s time,” he hissed. The image of the Envoy’s head, now wearing a crystal helmet scowled straight into the pirate chief’s eyes.
“Lord Burzot, I wanted you to know that my takeover of this planet and its forthcoming allegiance to the empire is underway. I also wondered if there had been any further incursions into the frontier worlds from the dogs beyond the clouds.”
“Kurko you are wasting my time. Tell me when you are in control of the planet not before it’s done. As for your question about human interference in this new outer zone of the empire, I am insulted that you ask the question. We have destroyed one feeble attempt and I have positioned forces by all of the nearby cloud gates to ensure all other attempts are similarly dealt with.
Before I leave you to secure your pathetic piece of space rock, I want you to know that your inability to meet the deliveries of human females has been noted in high places. I advise you not to miss the next delivery or things will not go well for you, do you understand?”
“Yes sir, your highness Lord Burz….”
The screen and its three dimensional image cut off dead and Kurko thought that this could well be his fate if his plans were not successful.
The second thing he wanted to do was to look in on the captive prince and his lady friend, who were in adjoining cells in the heart of the complex.
There was a uniformed guard, on each door and Kurko nodded to the one outside Prince Morgan’s cell, who input the individual entry code permitting the General to push open the door. Inside it was quite bare; there was just a single bed, a chair and a small table containing a civilian pane, which was being monitored from the command centre. The small room also had its own toilet which was the only concession to luxury.
“Your Highness, I trust we are treating you well.”
The young man stepped out of the shadows, “Kurko you will pay for your actions.”
“On the contrary Prince Morgan, I am hoping that you or your father will pay me for your freedom.”
“You know that we will never pay hostage takers.”
“That would be a shame Prince because I have no other reason to keep you alive and I am already impatient. If your government does not come up with the ransom in the next 24 hours, regrettably you will be shot and the Lady Khadisha will be added to the next shipment of females for the aliens. Can I suggest that you try one last message to come up with the ransom? If you get any success then please let your guard know, otherwise I will say good bye to you now in case we do not meet again.”
The prince made a lunge for Kurko but the guard stepped forward and intercepted the punch with one strong arm before bending the royal’s arm behind his back and throwing him on to the bed. By the time Prince Morgan picked himself up the cell door had closed again and he was left alone in despair.
Finally Kurko went back to his communicator and called up his Head Jailor, a nasty piece of work known as ‘Cutter’ for reasons that were all to obvious.
His internal communicator was only two dimensional which was probably just as well, because Cutter had a hideous face disfigured by burns and a fixed snarl that would turn milk sour.
“What’s up Kurko?”
“To you, General Kurko, unless you want to be inside the prison instead of guarding it!”
“Yeh, whatever you say General.”
“What’s today’s prisoner count?”
“Well, we lost a few overnight just t
o set an example like but we have around 280 men and 45 women.”
“Ok listen up, I need to get a 100 females together for a shipment to Barbedua tomorrow evening, there may be some more women brought in today as a result of our attacks, but if we still have less than 100 send men into the town to seize enough women to make up the difference, plus another ten just to be sure”.
“What, you mean our own women General?”
“That I do Cutter and if you cannot do this for me just say so now!”
“No, it will be done.”
“I knew I could rely on you,” and with that Darian Kurko cut the link.
**************************
On Seeker of Moons Kyle gave his final instructions to his command and to Speedy in particular.
“Speedy, it’s down to you now, don’t let us down. Two drops please and just long enough to unload a flying disc at each one.”
“Sure Getaway, think of it as the Chamtofi Express bus service, no dramas.”
“The one thing I do know is that it will not be like a bus ride but you are the best there is for this sort of thing. When you get back to immediate space it will be over to stage 2 of the plan and serious combat, do not and I mean do not risk the ship unnecessarily, too many people will be depending on this craft arriving downside. Is that clear Speedy?”
“Crystal, Lieutenant Cassidy.”
“Getaway is fine between you and I Speedy and I am not sure that I would trust anybody else to perform the required flying manoeuvres. Can you set Seeker of Moons down nice and gently for Pixie and I to step off?”
“You bet Getaway you won’t feel a thing. Trust me!”
Twenty terrifying minutes later, after their ship had dived to the height of the dunes in a near 90 degree drop then levelled out before traversing like a snake at high speed, reverse thrust was activated and Speedy set the craft down on its stubby legs. Kang opened the personnel access door, Kyle and Pixie leapt out on to the warm red sand. Simultaneously four of the mandroids dropped the cargo hatch ramp and slid one of the flying discs down into the sand some twenty metres away.
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 20