by Charles Lamb
It was for that reason that he had his team constantly on the move, repeating the duties required from different hides every night. This was very fortunate as they discovered a disturbing fact, as they crossed over a place they had previously used.
One of the miraculous abilities of their combat suits was its ability to recycle water from both urine as well as external sources. However, it was a well-known fact that defecation was not a product the suit handled well. In fact, the suits Jason’s team were using had been specially modified for long term use. They were set up in a way that allowed the wearer to go cleanly, jettisoning the waste product rather than retaining it.
All one had to do was dig a little hole, activate the waste cycle function, squat, do your business and then cover the hole. On the whole, it was the fastest, easiest way he had ever gone in his life. There was, however, an apparent down side.
“Sarge, you gotta look at this,” one of his shooters said as they entered an old hide from several days before.
Jason knew immediately what the woman was referring to as he looked around the spot. Being well trained, there was nothing left behind that would have ever betrayed their use of the space. However, over to one side, at the spot they had used as the latrine, every bit of plant life was dead and shriveled.
It was very apparent that human excrement was toxic to the plant life of this world. At the moment, all Jason could think of was how many spots they had used as a latrine that would be visible from above.
----*----
Daniel was sitting in his quarters near the bridge, going over the latest Intel on the target planet K-82734. Unlike the Chinese objective G-43578, they didn’t have eyes on the ground, scouting the area for them. As such, the analysts had set up irregular drone runs that would pop in, scout the planet for detailed data on the target areas and then FTL off before the locals got wind of their presence.
Frequently, the drones caught various NeHaw ships in orbit and on the ground, taking on supplies. There were two particular image captures that Daniel suspected depicted resupply vessels there to replace depleted inventories. Their massive size and extended presence implied a significant amount of material to move.
It was hardly surprising as that was the intent of this particular location, close enough to the action and centrally located. The appeal to Daniel was the opportunity to not only destroy the depot, but also cripple the movement of additional supplies in the future.
The unfortunate thing was without further data, they had no real way to coordinate their strike with a delivery from one of these ships.
----*----
“You got no right to lock me up!’ the man behind the clear partition screamed as Jake and Abby sat calmly on the other side. It had been two days since the snatch and grab, and the three prisoners were just now starting to wind down.
Jake had ensured they were all well fed, the thrown food from the first temper tantrum an anomaly after they didn’t eat until the next meal cycle. In addition, he made sure that none of the detainees knew of their compatriot’s plight. All thought that they were alone in their incarceration.
“You attacked my people,” Jake replied calmly as he waited for the man to stop pacing. It was very obvious to him that none of these men had been challenged in a long while. Their attitude of self-entitlement was pervasive.
“You stuck your nose where it didn’t belong. If you don’t let me go my people are going to gut you,” the man replied as he stopped pacing to face the two.
“And the things they will do to you,” he said while pointing to Abby and making a clicking sound with his tongue. Jake was proud that the young woman didn’t take the bait.
“Why would they care, you think you are someone important?” Jake asked, taunting the man.
“You just wait and see how important I am,” the man said sarcastically.
“Good idea,” Jake replied as he dropped the transparency setting on the wall.
With that Jake and Abby repeated the process with the reaming two prisoners, challenging each to try and get them to reveal who might be in charge. At the end of the day, the two convened a meeting in a small office to compare notes with the ALICEs.
“I think its number one,” Abby started as they settled back in padded chairs while drinking what Jake liked to call low cal. lite beer. While neither he nor Abby were big drinkers, the stresses of the day had taken their toll. The low alcohol content of this particular brew was a good compromise.
“Abby may be correct in her estimation,” ALICE-5 replied.
“Thanks Five,” Abby replied with a smile.
“He seemed the most outraged at the snatch, blustering at us as if attempting to intimidate without specifics on how that would be accomplished. The other two displayed more deference in their manner,” Jake said thoughtfully.
“Is there a point to this exercise beyond entertaining ourselves until the attack ships reach Kola?’ Abby asked aloud.
“I believe we are trying to ascertain if these people can be reasoned with,” ALICE replied.
“Bingo,” Jake replied with a smile while holding his glass up in a toast.
“It’s clear we are not going to adopt these guys and bring them in as recruits. We might, however, be able to strike a bargain, a treaty of sorts,” Jake added.
“Jake, are you considering arming these people with better weapons?” Five asked with a tone of surprise.
“Not on your life. We can, however, give them non-lethal aid. So far, I haven’t killed anyone. We simply slipped in and snatched their top guys. That has to rattle them some. If we make a point of respecting their turf, we might get cooperation,” he answered.
“Are you serious? I can never tell when humans are joking,” Five replied.
“At this point I have no interest in trying to civilize New York. We are barely making headway in Los Angeles, with Chris bearing the brunt of it. Oh, and in case anyone has forgotten, we are fighting an all-out war in space at the moment,” he replied, while referring to Chris Wade in Los Angeles.
“What do you suggest?” ALICE asked Jake.
“Let’s let them see each other now. Can you make the walls between the cells transparent?”
“It would be best to relocate them, but yes, it can be done,” Five replied.
“Knock ’em out first and then move them while they are asleep. I don’t want any incidents where they get an idea they can run. It would be a setback if we had to kill someone, though at this point I am not completely opposed to it. Then let’s let them talk and see what we can learn,” Jake replied, knowing his frustration was showing.
“You are the boss,” Five replied with a less than convincing tone.
----*----
Robert had his crews running drills the entire run to the edge of the system. For this mission, he had doubled up on the regular complement, both for a proper crew rotation on a 24 hour clock, but also to man the new weapons he had installed in Nevada.
Besides delivering the Chinese to their drop points, he had every intention to engage any misguided NeHaw vessel that was foolish enough to challenge them. His ships had shields equal to any Earth combat vessel and almost as many guns now that the upgrades were complete.
They were having to deal with a few glitches as they traveled to the edge of the system where a waiting Kola would take them aboard. His technical staff were working around the clock to insure there were no issues by the time they were required to place these ships in stasis for the trip in FTL.
“Major, Colonel Bo would like a word,” his communications officer said.
“Thanks, I’ll take it here,” Robert replied as he sat in an open weapons station. Activating the display, he found Bo’s face staring back at him.
“What can I do for you Bo?” Robert asked. He had developed an informal relationship with the Colonel, in great part because of the extended number of hours they had spent getting ready for this mission.
“Robert, my people report that some of the syste
ms on Transport 2 are malfunctioning. Will this be a problem?”
“The doors on the starboard pod are not indicating operational. The only way I can test them is to open them, something that is not conducive to the health of the troops in that space. Once we get aboard Kola I can verify if they are working properly.”
“And if they are not?” He asked calmly.
“We will fix them if we can before we go to FTL. If not, those troops can exit behind the armor out the main doors. It’s really a minor thing and one that we can work around if necessary. They got messed up when we installed the gun turret right above the opening. The guns do work in case you are curious.”
“I hesitate to mention the food on this Transport?’ Bo said hesitantly.
“Yes look, I am really sorry about that. That’s my fault. I should have made sure that the food be loaded as a cultural mix. I had no idea that you had only the supplies intended for the American and British members on board. Please feel free to take anything with my name on it as compensation,” Robert replied.
In the rush to get airborne, they had hurriedly loaded all the supplies without consideration of cultural needs. In this case they left the entire US food supply on Transport 3 while 1 and 2 had mostly Chinese.
“I do appreciate that; however, can you please explain, what is Tex-Mex?” Bo asked.
----*----
As the three transports closed in on Kola, nearby the Phantom had preparations of their own to complete. Every so often at irregular intervals, a drone would transmit the raw Intel dump from the last fly by, providing Daniel with the latest images of their target areas. He was beginning to see the value of all the time he had spent with Patti and her analysts as he updated their attack plans.
The thought of Patti sent a shot of guilt through him. She had been less than pleased at his decision to lead this mission, although he noted that she didn’t appear all that surprised when he announced his plans to take the SAS off world.
The discussion was fairly one sided as Patti completely understood the need for the mission. What was lacking was a good reason for Daniel being the one to lead it. In the end, she had just accepted the fact that he was going and she made sure he experienced the depth of her emotions regarding him that night.
Patti accompanied the mission team to Texas, where they boarded the Phantom and was, at this very moment, in Patti’s Pit in Nevada, scrubbing data for him. It gave him great comfort to know that she had his back on this mission.
Clearing his mind, he went back to assessing the targets, looking for any indications that the aliens had increased security.
----*----
Jake was running out of time. Both the Phantom and the Chinese invasion force were almost to the edge of the solar system. Once they all went to FTL, he wanted to be in Nevada, where he could be accessed easily should something go awry. With Banks on the Phantom and Chao with one of Robert’s transports, he was the only ranking officer on Earth.
He needed to resolve this New York situation soon or it would become a lingering problem, and he hated lingering problems. The desire to send in the Marines and just have them clear the area out was temping, but he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do,
Like it or not, the gangs there had set up a stable environment and even if it wasn’t to his liking, it wasn’t at all like LA. There wasn’t the same destructive activities where groups were constantly shooting it out with one another.
Here, they had established boundaries, each marked off their territory, and protected their turf without seeking out violent confrontations with others. His reports indicated life inside the gang zones was actually pretty calm, with small families and clusters of communal living.
There was something here that gave Jake cause to consider the situation with the NeHaw. The idea wasn’t quite formed yet, as it had started in the workshop before, but he filed it away for further consideration.
“Five, any updates on our guests?” he asked as he sat in the small office he had commandeered.
“Abby’s guess was right. Number one is our leader. The other two are his closest lieutenants, and they were all quite concerned that no one was left in charge,” she replied.
“Have we seen any activity in New York to indicate that there are problems now?” Jake asked, concerned that he may have upset the apple cart.
“Not at this time. I believe the term is, they are all laying low,” Five replied.
Jake wasn’t sure if his encouragement was the reason the ALICEs attempted these sayings or if they did so naturally and he encouraged it, but he had to laugh with each one.
“Well, that won’t last,” he said more to himself.
With that, Jake made his way to the detention area and divested himself of any weapons, pocket knife included before heading to the access panel. Letting himself into the room with the gang leader, he surprised both the man and the guard standing just outside, who rushed to notify the shift commander.
“You a brave man to come in here unarmed,” the leader of the New York gang said to Jake as he entered the holding cell.
Pulling up the single metal chair, Jake took the seat as the man stood staring at him from across the room. The two men just stared at one another before Jake finally spoke.
“Are you done posturing, or did you have more to say?” he said without emotion.
“What do you want?” the man finally said as he sat on the edge of his bunk.
“Uninterrupted access to the museums of New York city,” Jake replied, taking the man by surprise.
“Why?” the man finally asked after regaining his composure.
“To save what we can of the world’s art before it’s destroyed by vandalism and neglect,” Jake answered.
“What’s it to me?” the man snapped back.
“Do you like the way you live? Are you happy scrounging in the city?” Jake asked, changing the subject.
“We do alright. I got the biggest gang in the city,” he answered with pride.
“That’s good. If you work with me, you still will. All I want is for you to convince the other gangs to leave my people alone and we won’t interfere with your life there. In fact, we can make your world a whole lot better,” Jake replied, dangling the carrot.
“Ha, you ain’t nothing. We chased you off…” the man started to say before Jake cut him off.
In a move of amazing speed, he leapt from his chair, closing the distance between himself and the gang leader. Grasping the man’s throat with one hand, he lifted the struggling form off the floor, holding him high, as his feet dangled freely.
“Listen you little turd, I pulled my people away before they made the streets run red with your blood. The only reason any of you are still alive is you are no threat to me or any of my people. If you play ball, not only will you survive this little indiscretion, you might actually come out ahead,” Jake snapped.
“You should listen to him man,” Jake heard from one side. As he looked around, he could see the walls had been made transparent and the other two prisoners were watching the incident with keen interest.
“I’m listening,” the man replied hoarsely after Jake set him down.
As Jake outlined his proposal, he could see all three men nodding in agreement. The basic proposal was as he indicated, they would leave them alone to do as they had been for the last 80 years, and the gangs would steer clear of any art recovery activities. For this, Jake would provide food and medical services, even setting up a regular mobile clinic visit and emergency medical services should something unexpected come up.
“What about guns?” the man asked cautiously.
“No weapons. I am not going to destabilize your current environment by arming you or any other group with superior firepower. You should be glad for that because it means I won’t supply your rivals either.”
In the end, they agreed to accept Jake’s terms, at least for now, and he saw to it, they were returned with sufficient supplies to convince any doubters of their in
tent. As the three were escorted into the hangar for the flight home, Jake also made sure an excessive number of troops were visible, all armed to the teeth.
----*----
As he worked in his office in the High Command, General KaLob was not satisfied with their current state of combat operations. The events of the attack on the Wawobash shipyard had shown promise, but the cruiser from that engagement was still unavailable for combat duties.
With that cruiser currently tied up in phase two of the upgrades they had created, KaLob had assigned two more warships for the same weapons evaluation. Unenhanced with the hull upgrade the cruiser received, they would next travel to G-43578 once the cruisers there were complete.
Until then, he had to satisfy himself with the constant harassment they were inflicting on the human allies interplanetary shipping. Absently, he wondered what the humans were plotting at that moment.
Chapter 19
Kola dropped out of FTL at the very edge of the gravity well created by the target planet’s sun. At that very moment she stopped, the stasis bubbles encasing all the ferrous metaled ships in her holds disappeared as well. She knew that Robert and Colonel Bo had prepared their crews and passengers for immediate loading once their ships were made available.
After leaving Earth, they had made one stop prior to arriving here. In that stop, all the heavy equipment and supplies that could be safely moved in FTL had been loaded back into the transports. This allowed any training or gear prep to occur during the voyage to the system, avoiding any last-minute emergencies. She only needed to wait for them to load up and she could release them to space.
It was, with some surprise on her part, a fairly short wait as the two combat patrol, three transports and two fighter squadrons were ready to depart and requesting permission to launch within minutes. Captain Isabella Connor granted the request, and the flight operations officer gave them the sequence with which they were to depart.