Almost before the pair reached the disc Seeker of Moons was lifting-off and heading back in the direction of the space port to drop Kang and his commandos off to begin their mission.
Dressed in the rough and ready civilian clothes of Walendia province, Kyle felt very vulnerable, they did not have armour, nor their heavy duty dominator rifles, not even the old plasmet shields. They were limited to hand weapons and each had an old style pistol in their belts, as well as a katabashi military knife which are famous for their hardness, sharpness and powered oscillating blade. They had one hand held communicator between them though they could use their short range communication implants as long as they were in close proximity to each other.
Kyle had a large back pack, which contained a change of clothes for them both and two ionic pistols. Pixie was relieved not to have a back pack to carry but instead she had a lightweight shoulder bag containing two days rations, some female necessities and two Lillindian sticky grenades disguised within round cookie wrappers.
In the intense heat of the day he removed his outer jerkin but Pixie kept well wrapped up, including the heavy shawl she wore around her head to comply with the religions demands she adhered to. Kyle put his own old and battered forage cap on his head which was at least comfortable.
The duo climbed onto the disc which had angled itself into the sand and Kyle followed the basics from Kang’s training to get it up into the air. There was a strained whirring from the electromagnetic motor and the craft lifted a bit too quickly showering the two occupants with sand before levelling out. Using an ancient handheld compass that Buzz had given him, Kyle set his course for Walendia city, which he estimated lay two hundred and fifty miles to the east.
Across the arid red sand they sped not seeing a sole or any indication of human endeavour. There was now no discernible noise from the electric motor, but on many occasions they were buffeted with strong gusts of wind which caused the disk to rock and the unprotected parts of their skin were stung from the abrasive sand.
After four hours or so Kyle and Pixie were discussing when to land as they did not want to be spotted by the city’s outposts, but a loud ‘ping’ and a wild rocking motion from the disc told them that they had probably left the undetected landing plan a little too late.
Underneath the deck of their craft was totally alien technology which the Seeker of Moons crew had not had the chance to explore. There was an antigravity motor powered by magnetic drives based on alien metals and a system of gyroscopes designed to stabilise the disc in flight. The good news was that the gyros were undamaged behind their protective shielding but the anti-grav motor was not so lucky and the hefty impact caused a disruption to its power supply creating an immediate loss in height.
Kyle had only learned how to fly the disk and not how to crash land it so he was a little overtaken by events. He was too busy wrestling with the manual control switch to think straight, but fortunately Pixie grabbed his arm and pushed his hand towards a diamond shaped button, which when he pressed it turned purple. Kyle suddenly felt the controls go limp in his hands and some unseen force was now controlling what was left of the discs systems.
Although they were only twenty feet above ground they had been travelling at high speed, which should have meant a potentially fatal collision with the nearest dune but the disc steadied, elegantly glided down and gently slithered to rest in the depression of a sand bank. Immediately the pair grabbed their backpacks, jumped over the handrail and ran in the opposite direction from the gunfire.
Running side by side he looked at his petite partner and wondered how somebody so small could know so much, how did she know the purple button was there and how did she know it was a crash management system?
They ran for some time, then hiding behind the brow of a large dune they looked back to see if they were being followed. Kyle had left his pane behind as it would be hard to explain if they were captured, but he did have a pair of pocket binoculars liberated from one of the Edenfall pirates. At first he was relieved to see no one following but the second time he raised the glasses he located a number of dots in the distance, six, seven, eight and something else running on in front of the group. Zooming in Kyle could see the movement was from a creature that was sometimes on two legs and other times on four it certainly wasn’t human, he passed the glasses to Pixie for her opinion but for once she had no knowledge of the beast.
“It’s certainly neither a dog nor an ape but whatever it is they are using it to track us.” He agreed with her view and took one last look at the shambling tracker, which he noted had a short coat of grey hair and a face like an extinct tapir with a long nose that twitched from side to side sniffing the air. He had seen enough and returning the glasses to his backpack he threw it over his shoulder, prodded Pixie and set off across the sand.
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Kang and his team of four mandroids had landed far enough away from the spaceport so that their arrival went unnoticed. The five of them, Kang, Den, Shaky, Troll and Basha used the remaining flying disc to close the distance between them and the encircling attackers, but had to ground the craft early as a flight of government fighter planes flew over. Their targets were six heavy calibre photon canons arranged in an arc around the spaceport and it was these that had brought down the trader, which was still burning over to the east.
This air attack consisted of five ‘flying monkey’ two-seater fighters, and they strafed the massed ranks of attackers with plasma shells before moving into position to attack the big guns. Forming up in-line the leader started his bombing run, only to be blown out of the crimson flecked sky by a ground battery firing air defence plasma bolts. The second plane met the same fate but the third was flown with greater skill and the pilot threw the plane into a spiralling dive before levelling out and releasing a high explosive cluster bomb over one of the artillery positions, which disappeared in clouds of smoke and flame.
The fourth plane met the same fate as the first two but the fifth had learned from their mistakes and again it twisted and turned before unleashing death and destruction on another gun position. After their attacks the two surviving planes raced away at low level, with the two crews counting their blessings that they had survived.
Smoke together with flames from the crashed planes and the bombing made visibility difficult unless you were a mandroid, all of the team had at least one bio-engineered eye and had no problem viewing distances and objects.
Kurko’s infantry had made little progress against the fewer but more professional government forces defending the main spaceport but they knew it was only a matter of time before their own artillery would start firing again and the base garrison would soon have to surrender.
The remaining four large photon canons were dug in a little way back from the front-line to protect them from the government forces medium calibre weapons. Each gun was mounted on a massive flatbed which transports the gun on an-antigravity field until it is in position, after which the base automatically levels before being secured by ground anchors.
Kang allocated each of the mandroids a gun emplacement to attack and one by one, Den, Basha, Troll and Shaky slipped away from their hidden positions and into the drifting smoke of battle. The huge plasma canons each required a firing team of six and there were another dozen soldiers guarding each weapon, but like most of Kurko’s army they were poorly trained and badly led so when accurate plasma rounds broke through the smoke, taking down guard after guard they were in panic. The defenders of the gun pits could not see who was shooting at them or where from and they fired blindly and wildly into the smoke.
As a planned tactic the mandroids ceased their own fire as they got closer to their objective and they slipped through the rings of defenders, partly due to stealth and partly due to their speed of movement. Wearing the castorian armour, which mimicked the smoke, flame and daylight in colour, the attackers were like shadows and switching their dominators to projectile munitions the mandroids were able to kill
even more defenders without giving their position away.
Absolute panic was gripping the surviving defenders of the artillery bases and at the first emplacement the crew and guards could not cope with the tension any further and one after another they abandoned their positions and ran away as fast as they could, some even throwing away their weapons to enable them to run faster.
Once the teams at the other emplacements saw their comrades running away their own resolve gave out and they too abandoned their positions.
After capturing the big guns, Kang instructed his men to leave one artillery piece intact and remove all accelerator cartridges from the rest, this was a simple cartridge fitting and was done in seconds. Troll, was delegated to gather up the cartridges, which he placed in a backpack left by one of the previous occupants of the emplacement.
They all joined Kang at the remaining operational gun and as all the mandroids were ex-military they knew exactly how this gun operated. Its main barrel was designed to deliver an ionised plasma shell, which would explode on impact releasing a local vortex of fire which would then cling to anything it touched.
The plasma reservoir was checked and found to be half full, so Kang ordered his team to depress the barrel of the gun, modifying the range and aiming for a target closer to them. Firing the canon depends on the development of a stream of ions passing through the plasma reservoir and eventually the stream reaching maximum pitch to release the super charged particles into the firing chamber. Kang took control of the computer sighting and zeroed in on the densest concentration of Kurko’s troops who were dug in waiting for their artillery support.
In their trenches the awaiting troops were taken totally unawares as the first green and gold trail of light hit the ground like a bolt of lightning. A ball of flame erupted and many of the poor unfortunates in the immediate area were vaporised. Their comrades were at first frozen by the sudden attack from the rear and after the second salvo landed more of the pirate army dissolved in full view. Trauma turned to panic and the hundreds of would be attackers stampeded like a swarm of rats, away from the inferno which was devouring them. The escape route took the deserters into the crossfire laid down by the spaceport defenders they changed direction again and further rounds were unleashed by the captured plasma canon and although they did not cause as many casualties as the first two rounds they did add to the overall chaos.
There was absolutely no cohesion in the pirate army so you could not really say that they retreated but there was a total collapse in their ranks, the lucky ones found flying discs to escape on, frequently with desperate bodies clutching the handrails and being pulled along as the discs tried to leave the ground. There were others who jumped on hover scooters and some riders were pulled off their machines by frantic former comrades who were equally intent on escaping.
Lastly, there were those who had no access to any vehicles, they ran this way and that to escape attack from behind and in front, before following the dust clouds of those who had fled by machine and they too disappeared into the distance.
Kang and his team had stopped firing and watched events with interest. There was movement from the barricades around the spaceport and makeshift gates opened to allow a convoy of military vehicles out to stream across the plain, recently packed with enemies. The convoy consisted of around two dozen hovering flatbeds, all of which were packed with government infantry in tan combat fatigues and silver helmets with silvered visors. Their transports were cumbersome and slow in comparison to the flying discs but eventually the lead truck pulled up by Kang’s position, the troops dismounted and surrounded the five mandroids with guns being deliberately aimed at individual members of the group.
An officer broke the circle and was about to challenge the group of armoured strangers when Kang got his introduction in first.
“Is this your way of thanking us for rescuing you?”
“We didn’t need rescuing from that rabble and how do I know that you are not Kurko’s men that were left behind?”
Kang sent a mental instruction to his helmet visor to rise and it sliding back over his brow he could now use his optical enhancement to study the face of the young government officer.
Kang pointed to the dead bodies of the previous gun crew scattered around.
“These guys have been left behind and you will find the other gun crews also ‘at ease’.”
“How many men have you got here?” questioned the young lieutenant
“It only took the five of us.”
The lieutenant still seemed a little sceptical but if this were true he wasn’t sure that one truck load of his troops would be enough to take on these five unknowns.
“Who are you if you are not with the pirates?”
“I am Lieutenant Kang a member of a Council of Worlds task force, engaged in a mission against your friend Kurko and I was despatched to break up the pirates attack on your base.”
This seemed to register with the young officer, “Pleased to meet you Kang, I’m Lieutenant Jean Goudrie of the Chamtofi Army or what is left of it. Yes, you are correct we do need help and I am pleased you dropped by. I would like to know more about your mission but I am tasked with harassing the pirates back all the way to Walendia. Do you want to come along? I think you’d give us an edge.”
“Thanks for the offer and maybe we will catch up later but my orders are to disrupt the aggressors’ attacks, so if you could tell me where the next critical point is we’ll get going.” Kang was very matter of fact.
“Well there is no shortage of work today for you on Chamtofi, the rats seemed to have shown up everywhere. A number of our smaller towns and settlements have fallen but we have beaten them back in most places. Intel reports that Kurko put most of his assets into capturing the port and the government buildings, my unit….with some help from you have prevented the first and god willing the presidential guard and gendarmerie can prevent the second.”
Kang wanted to know what the latest situation reports were for Chamtofi city and was disappointed that there was nothing confirmed, other than the city had not yet fallen but the government defenders had retreated back to the Senate and administration buildings.
“It seems like we know where we can help next, my men and I will go to the city right away,” Kang informed his counterpart.
“Now the port is no longer under threat we have scraped enough men together to try a relief operation and we are organising air support too. Do you want to go along with that group?”
“Sorry, but we will be a lot more use to you if we go now, without waiting for an expedition to be ready. You can do us a favour though and pass the word that they will be getting help from troops in golden armour and would rather not be shot at by friendlies.” Then without saying a word Kang’s thoughts changed the perceived colour of his armour to shimmering gold, a process followed by his men.
Kang gave Goudrie a courteous salute and started to turn away but turned back with a parting comment for the younger officer, “Be ready for anything, it may be more than the pirates that you come across.” Kang was not going to give a greater explanation because he didn’t know himself but he did know that Kurko had connections with the boneheads and that might spell trouble. He hefted his dominator over his shoulder and strode off back to the flying disc as Troll lengthened his stride to catch his leader, “Sir, I know we have to be recognisable to the home side but ‘Gold’, won’t that make us more of a target?”
“Damn right Troll but this is show business!”
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Shiner and the skeleton crew of Seeker of Moons had wasted no time after the drops on Chamtofi in reaching a strategic orbit of the planet. Their mission was to disrupt enemy formations and to maintain a corridor of entry and exit appropriate for fast extraction in the Walendia area.
There was just one problem, there were no enemy ships, certainly no visuals and nothing on the orbital or stellar scanners in close proximity. Shiner did detect activity around the Walendia
's own spaceport but large parts of it were underground and his ground scanning was not very accurate at such a high altitude. In fact the only ship they encountered at all was a government drone sweeper making a recon of the sector. Brief contact was made between the ships, both reporting no activity and the government ship gave a report on Kang’s intervention at the spaceport, though Shiner already knew.
As acting commander of Seeker of Moons, Shiner up to this point was basking in his new status but now he was forced to find his own plan and called on both Speedy and Bambi for their thoughts. Together they decided to drop into a lower orbit which would make the extraction quicker and give them a better chance of observing the pirates base. Bambi wanted to know if there had been any word from Getaway but Shiner explained that his receiver implant was only useful over a short distance and the hand held communicator would not be used if he thought he was being tracked.
Seeker of Moons began its descent but the crew remained wary, it should not be this easy.
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In the desert of Walendia the sun was taking its toll on Kyle and Pixie, the heat reflecting off the red sand was extreme, burning both their skin and feet. They had not seen their pursuers or the strange tracking beast for a while but Kyle drove Pixie past the point of exhaustion. Finally they came to a depression between two large dunes and at the deepest point was the upright trunk of a long dead tree. At last there was some shade and Kyle knew that Pixie would be a danger to both of them if she didn’t stop for a rest. He helped her sit down and for the moment they were out of the sun and savage wind, which he hoped would cover their tracks.
Pixie fell asleep almost straight away and slumped over until her head fell into Kyle’s lap. It was then that he realised how diminutive his companion really was and it made him think that he should not have brought her along, she seemed very fragile and vulnerable.
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 21