by Charles Lamb
“I have Dallas and ALICE insuring their ships are stocked with essentials before they leave Earth,” Kola replied.
“Best that they do,” the Captain replied.
----*----
Patti escorted Sara back to the quarters she shared with Jake while in London, as he, Daniel, Gemma, and a rejuvenated Jacob slipped off after dinner. Nigel and Helen made their own excuses for leaving the four to their own devices. Jake had decided to let the kids talk first to see where this was going.
“So what’s on your mind?” Jacob asked as the four sat in one of the private rooms in the facility. As in the American ALICE facilities, the London location had recreated spaces for the occupants to relax in their off hours. The room they currently occupied was patterned after a proper gentleman’s club, wood paneling and overstuffed chairs included.
A self-service bar at the far end of the room catered to the needs of those who relaxed here. Bookshelves and art lined the walls in all directions. Jake smiled to himself as Jacob took the long way around the room avoiding the bar entirely.
“I was wondering if you might have some open cycles in your production in Hawaii?” Daniel asked directly to Jacob and Gemma.
“Ships?” Gemma asked, sounding dubious.
“No, more along the lines of personal equipment,” he replied.
“What are you thinking?” Jacob asked, the statement getting his interest.
“I was hoping you might be interested in a line of SAS specific gear. Please don’t take offense, but the Marine battle equipment is not tailored to the missions I foresee,” Daniel replied, directing the last at Jake.
“No argument here, if you think you need something special, go for it,” Jake replied casually. He was the last person to object to innovation.
“If you are free tomorrow, I have some sketches and specifications drawn up in my office?” he responded.
“You need me?” Jake asked the three.
“I think we can manage,” Jacob replied for the group.
“Have fun,” he replied as he rose and headed out, leaving the others to continue their discussion. A small part of him was dying to see what they dreamed up.
----*----
Jason got the burst transmission in the middle of the local night. As it wasn’t his turn for watch, it woke him from a dead sleep.
“We are getting a resupply in just under 24 hours,” he passed on to the other three in his team as some had been woken by the same event. The timeline meant the goods must already be on their way, as that was the travel time from the edge of the system.
Checking the details of the transmission, he could see there were five drones inbound, with enough supplies for twice the allotted duration. The drones would hit in a fairly well spaced distribution, so should one become compromised, the others would not be lost as well.
Confirming the team’s location and measuring the distance to the closest two drops, he made the decision to split his team and pre-position them nearby. A quick snatch of at least two of the drops would insure his unit’s survival should things go badly for the rest.
He and the corporal would each take a shooter, and if his calculations were right, they needed to leave about three hours before the drones touched down to be in the right spots. Shooting everyone their instructions, he set his internal timer and went back to sleep.
Chapter 15
Jake and Nigel were touring the area around Westminster Cathedral with a small detachment of SAS. With all the nearby buildings, he had a serious concern about the security of the participants for the wedding. The group was riding in two of the Jeep type vehicles Jake had relocated from America early on.
“You don’t think we need to be concerned about these buildings?” Jake asked as he pointed to the glass and steel structures just across from the entrance to the church. They had stopped in an open area and exited both vehicles at this point.
“We will sweep the area for days before the event and have troopers stationed inside on the day of the wedding,” the SAS officer replied as she pointed to the various structures. Mentally Jake tagged her as a second lieutenant, he couldn’t remember if the Brit’s held the tradition in America of just calling her LT.
“I can give you Marines for the security detail as well?” He said with a quirked eyebrow.
Next to him Nigel was spreading the map of the area out on the hood of the jeep. Nearby, they sat several overhead photos of the area, taken the day before. It was really tight on all sides of the square and he wasn’t comfortable with it.
“If you like, but I can say that the locals do consider this place to be quite sacred. Most days you will find people wandering the area in peace,” the woman replied.
“Besides, who doesn’t like a wedding?” she added with a bright smile.
With that the young woman turned to the troopers accompanying the party. She split her force into two groups, sending each off to sweep the outside of the Church, while Jake and Nigel followed her up to the large front doors.
Expecting them to be bolted, he was surprised to see them swing free, allowing the party easy access into the structure. As they entered, it struck Jake at how clean and organized the interior was. That mystery was soon solved, however as he watched three men approach the party.
“Father, how good to see you again,” Nigel said as he took the offered hand in greeting.
“Back again for more confession?” the priest teased the man.
“Not today Father, and I fear my companion’s confession would tie up most of your day. Father Joseph O’Reilly, may I introduce Colonel Jake Thomas, from America,” Nigel replied.
“Colonel Thomas, I have heard a great many things about you. It is truly a pleasure,” Father O’Reilly replied with enthusiasm.
“Jake, please, Father. I hesitate to ask what stories you’ve been told, but my curiosity overwhelms me. How did you come to be here?” he asked while waving at the building around them.
“Ah, yes, well like most in London now, we are descendants of people relocated from the countryside. Catholic priests established a small seminary here upon their return, and like these seminarians, I heard the calling and came to serve here.”
“So you carry on the faith?” Jake asked, as he realized he had no idea what the state of the Vatican was in Rome.
“As I said, we were fortunate to have Church leaders come in from the countryside to help restore order here,” the priest said.
Jake noted the SAS office had taken a position off away from the group, hand on her holstered sidearm while she scanned the area, alert and on guard.
“Father O’Reilly will be performing the ceremony,” Nigel commented.
“Wonderful, I only hope the Bishop grants dispensations,” Jake added lightly. While he wasn’t positive, he was pretty sure Jacob wasn’t Catholic. Jake also doubted they had a Bishop handy.
“Ah, yes. Well, we will just have to make do,” Father O’Reilly replied with a knowing smile.
“Are you Catholic?” he asked, acknowledging Jake’s understanding of Catholic doctrine.
“No, Father, but I almost married one a long time ago,” Jake said with a laugh.
“Haven’t we all,” the priest replied dryly, adding to the humor.
From there the priest led the group on a tour of the Cathedral, more for Jake’s benefit he was sure. He was fascinated at how well the structure had been preserved, and was equally surprised at the number of individuals about.
He was quite surprised to see a number of women working beside the men there.
“Nuns?” Jake asked as he indicated a small group tending the greenery outside.
“As resources are scarce, we do have a convent of sorts on premises as well. It provides a safe haven for those women who desire a life of servitude in the name of the Lord. The sisters here are very active in the local community,” Father O’Reilly replied.
Jake was starting to understand why this part of London was so well behaved.
�
��Is there anything you require before the wedding?” Jake asked the man.
“Maybe one or two things to help the cause,” the priest replied while indicating those working diligently around them.
“Whatever we can do,” Jake responded, noting an approving nod from Nigel.
“Splendid,” Father O’Reilly said as he produced several folded pages with hand written contents from a pocket. As Jake scanned the pages, he had the distinct feeling he had just been played.
----*----
Robert and Bo knew Jake was in London dealing with family matters, and as such, agreed that their equipment testing should be their own responsibility. While both intended to jump the very last transport for London to attend the ceremony, they saw no need to interrupt their very tight schedule before then.
Today, they had one entire tank platoon and two of the fighting vehicles in the Texas badlands, evaluating the firepower of each. As part of the exercise, they had been delivered by Lanai transport, where they simulated a landing. With them, they had pirated several of Dallas’s target drones for use in the desert as adversaries.
The target drones they had selected mimicked both land craft and flying vehicles, challenging the combat targeting systems in the armor with multiple scenarios. The tanks had been fitted with the larger railgun/energy cannon combination while the fighting vehicles had a smaller caliber pair of each. In addition, the fighting vehicles were quite a bit faster than their heavy metal cousins.
“Let’s try the wedge formation with breaching force,” Bo suggested as the tanks sat in a line, their crews waiting for instructions. The pair of fighting vehicles were stopped just on the other side and had been test firing their guns against flying targets.
With the proper commands issued, the two men watched as the armor reformed with the fighting vehicles centered inside the tanks in a wedge formation. Bo was impressed at how quickly the individual vehicles could reposition, now able to move in all directions like a hovercraft, floating just above the ground.
Using some natural formations as the enemy perimeter, they had the target drones positioned as defenders. The two watched as the units pushed forward, firing as they maneuvered. In a short time, all the drones had been engaged and neutralized before a single tank had been flagged as destroyed by the simulation monitor.
“Again!” Bo ordered as he smiled. Robert nodded in agreement, things were coming together nicely.
----*----
Jacob and Daniel sat in the latter’s office going over the design ideas for the SAS, without Gemma. As was usually the case, or so he was told, the bride to be had far too much to do before the wedding to be distracted while he was left with nothing. Every time Jacob had asked to help, both Gemma and Helen had proposed he find other things to occupy his time.
As such, he embraced Daniel’s request with vigor and the two men walked through the pile of specification sheets Daniel had compiled for the various proposals. After a lengthy discussion, they selected a couple of simple projects and one more complex.
“How soon do you think we can have prototypes ready?” Daniel asked as he watched Jacob working at the terminal. They had long ago extended the ALICE network into the London facility. While they didn’t have an on-site ALICE system, they had direct access to all eight earthbound locations.
“Give Lanai a week, maybe sooner, to work through the details and source the materials. These three will be no problem, it’s the last one I’m guessing will take a bit longer,” Jacob replied as he pointed down the list on his screen.
“Splendid,” Daniel replied with a smile.
----*----
Since their return to Earth, Edwin had been doing his best to remain invisible. While he greatly sympathized with Jake’s domestic problems, he had no desire to be drawn into them. With that in mind, he took the opportunity to mingle with the residence of Patti’s Pit, the primary tactical group in their effort to win the war.
His status as one of the three primary military leaders gave him a certain notoriety among the group, but he tried to do his best not to interfere with their duties. As he watched the room full of analysts, he was impressed by the sheer volume of information they were processing. Fully aware that in the background there were ALICE systems, filtering and directing specific bits of data to particular people; it was still amazing to see in action.
“Colonel, do you have a moment,” he heard from one side of the room. Turning, he could see one of the women on the far side, motioning to get his attention.
“What might I do for you?” he inquired as he approached the young woman.
“Normally I would run this past Colonel Thomas, or at least Patti, but as they are all in London at the moment, I really didn’t want to bother them,” she started out with.
“Admirable,” Edwin replied as he waited for her to continue.
“We are detecting a pattern in the NeHaw ship movements. I think we might have located some form of supply planet,” she explained.
“How are you following their ship’s movements?” Edwin asked, curious as he was under the impression that one could not track a ship in FTL. The analyst paused for a moment before replying.
“First, I must tell you that this is highly compartmentalized in addition to being top secret. Every time we engage the NeHaw, some of the railguns are fitted with a special round that contains a tracker. So far the NeHaw haven’t detected them as they are made to embed in the hull without creating a breach. Every time they drop out of FTL, they call home with their position data. We made them to function just like the NeHaw navigation systems so they are almost undetectable,” she replied with a devious smile.
“Devilishly clever, that,” Edwin replied with a smile of his own.
“Exactly. So anyway, we have seen the recently engaged ships all returning to the same place. They hang around for a day or two, and then they are off to other places. We think they go here to resupply before heading off to their next assignment. It might also be some kind of command and control center, but we think is a supply depot based on its location.”
“Ok, sounds reasonable. What’s the problem?’ Edwin asked.
“I’d like permission to send a reconnaissance drone to check it out. I don’t want to spook the NeHaw, so maybe just a quick in and out to prevent detection?” the woman explained.
“Absolutely, I think it’s a splendid idea. You have my permission,” Edwin replied as the smiling woman turned back to her station and began typing out what he presumed where the instructions to get the mission moving.
“Let’s just keep this our little secret for now, shall we?” Edwin said as he stood thinking.
“No problem, but you do know the ALICEs know everything?” the analyst replied without turning from her work.
“Good enough,” he said with a smile.
Turning to leave, Edwin now had a few calls of his own to make. If this really was a supply depot, he had just the team to go in and blow the place to pieces.
----*----
After returning to Earth Ivan had taken the opportunity to go home to see his own clan. People in America and England continued to mistake the fact that he was not the Ataman of his clan, thinking him in charge, so he tried to make regular visits to update the real leaders. He found the circumstance of little concern to the Ataman and the Starshina as the recruitment for the Patrol ships had given them a significant amount of notoriety in the region as it was.
Russians, Cossack or not, had flocked to Avacha Bay in hopes of joining the war against the aliens. Even though this region was still woefully behind in the recovery, Ivan was amazed to learn that the volunteers had come from hundreds of kilometers away. He was aware that the number of Russians in training exceeded the number of available ships at this time.
Every time Ivan returned to the bay, he tried to bring something back for the good of the community. Sometimes it would just be food supplies or tools, other visits had seen him deliver updated weapons that were an immediate hit. This vis
it had him offloading a pair of hovercycles for the clan to use in patrolling the area around the bay.
He had commandeered one of the V-27 Falcon transports from one of the ALICE hangars to bring them along. Slower and smaller than the Lanai Transports, they were in far lesser demand these days. Even so the aircraft was more than spacious enough for the pair and unrelated additional supplies.
These particular hovercycles were a special order, configured with added instrumentation as the riders would not be wearing the usual combat suits and helmets. For this reason, Ivan had also requested a speed limiter, capping their top speed to 200 kilometers per hour, to prevent rider injury.
Most hovercycle riders took the protection of their combat suits for granted, as it’s not the speed, but rather the impact of any objects they may encounter in the air that made it dangerous. A bird strike at high speed would be deadly otherwise.
“Ivan, you have been away far too long!” his sister replied as she greeted him. She had come in advance of the small party that always gathered at his arrival. Mostly consisting of the community elders, they were destined to live out their lives here by the bay, content to let the younger men and women run off to fight the great evil.
“I have a gift for you,” Ivan replied after she released him from her hug.
“You should not! You spoil me!” she replied, but the look of eagerness in her eyes betrayed her excitement.
Ivan quickly went up the loading ramp and soon returned with a bundle that was long enough to require both arms. As he reached the base of the ramp, where his sister was waiting, he peeled back the material to expose rolls of finely colored silk.
“From China,” was all he said as he passed them back to her. Ivan knew he could have had any of the ALICEs create a wondrous garment for her, but she preferred to create such things on her own. The material he had provided would permit her to design something that would make her the envy of all the others.