“Muunokhoi?” Walker asked. “That’s a mouthful.”
“It means ‘Vicious Dog.’”
“Wow, your parents didn’t like you very much, did they?” Walker smiled to show he was kidding.
“There is a Mongolian tradition to give unpleasant names to children whose parents previously lost children, especially during birth, so evil spirits won’t steal the next one. Not only has everyone in First Squad lost siblings, we are also orphans; we all lost our parents as well. Sansar Enkh adopted us and took us in. Now the unit is our family, and we fight for each other.”
“Uh…I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Don’t be. The Golden Horde is the family we never had growing up. Coon’s real name is Khunbish, which means ‘Not a Human Being.’ Try growing up in an orphanage with that name, and you will know what it means to be unloved. Also, when you meet Sork, it’s short for Sorqaqtani, which means ‘Pox girl.’ When we joined the unit, we all took on the same name that Sansar did, Enkh, which means ‘Peace.’”
“That’s also why there are so many people in the unit who have the same last name,” Polanis said. “Normally, we just use their first names instead.”
“That’s not Sansar’s real name?” Walker asked. “I had heard her name meant peace, but I never believed it. It always seemed kind of ironic, you know? A merc, whose business is fighting, has a name like ‘Peace?’ I never knew she had chosen it, though.”
“Nobody knows what her real name is, or what it was before she became a member of the Horde. She also took on the name ‘Sansar’ when she was adopted, too, which means, ‘Outer Space.’”
“So, the name of the leader of the Horde is ‘Outer Space Peace?’”
“It is, and we bring it with us, wherever we go.” Mun shrugged. “Come on, let’s go meet the squad.”
Maintenance Bay, Underneath Golden Horde HQ, Uzbekistan, Earth
“Hey, Lieutenant, is this right?” the technical sergeant asked, holding out his slate. “It says here the new finish we’re using for our CASPers is made on Chitaa, the home planet of the MinSha. I didn’t think Colonel Sansar wanted anything non-Earth in origin inside our CASPers.”
“And there is nothing inside them from off-Earth,” Lieutenant Sommerkorn stated. “All of our CASPers, including their external weapons systems, were all made right here. The problem is, we don’t have anything like this new coating that increases a CASPer’s laser reflectivity. Besides, I know the guy who imported this, and they will soon be making it here on the planet. We must have received one of the batches from Chitaa that had gotten into the supply lines inadvertently. Don’t worry about it. They’ll be producing it on Earth soon.”
“Are you sure you want to make that decision without asking the colonel?” the tech sergeant asked. “She was pretty specific about it the time I heard her talking about it.”
“Let me tell you something,” the lieutenant replied. “I’ve been fired from the other three Four Horseman companies, and every time it was because I couldn’t make a timely decision. I always had great stacks of data which proved my analyses; I just didn’t get it to the decision makers in time.
“This choice is easy, though. We don’t have it on Earth, and they do on Chitaa; therefore, I bought it, and we’re going to use it. Not only that, but by being the first company to purchase it on Earth, I got a great deal on it; they are actually going to pay us to be their distributor for the coating here on Earth. I’m not only making our CASPers safer, I’m going to make tons of money for the company. In fact, I’m making so much that the importers are going to give us the coating for free—I don’t even have to include it in the budget!”
* * * * *
Chapter 5
Computer Operations, Golden Horde HQ, Uzbekistan, Earth
“Hey, Major Good, I think I’ve got something,” Corporal Bolormaa Enkh said.
Major Good walked over to the sergeant’s station in local operations. “What’s up?” he asked.
“We just had a Veetanho courier ship enter the system.”
“Okay, certainly they’re rare here, but I don’t see what the issue is.”
“Well, it entered the system and passed along all the messages it was carrying.”
“Still, that’s not odd,” Major Good said. He could feel himself getting frustrated; he didn’t have time for this. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Was there something significant in the messages?”
“Well, no sir…not directly. Most of the messages went to the Veetanho ship that’s sitting at the Tashkent Starport, and all of them were in the new code we can’t break. There may be something there, but I can’t determine what they say. The thing is, though, there was a personal message to a junior spacer onboard from his wife or girlfriend back on Karma station, and it wasn’t encoded.”
“Girlfriend?” Sergeant Nergui Enkh, the tech next to Corporal Enkh, asked with a snort. He chuckled. “You’ve never been to Karma, Corporal. If she’s on Karma, it’s far more likely she’s a prostitute.”
A flush crept up from Corporal Enkh’s collar. “Well, what she is, isn’t important,” the tech said. “Her message is what’s important.” She pointed to her screen.
Major Good and Sergeant Enkh both looked at the screen and the contents of the message.
Sergeant Enkh chuckled again. “Yeah, that’s a prostitute all right. The spacer must have overpaid her, and she wants to make sure she gets his business the next time the ship stops there. What’s the name of the ship?”
“It’s a diplomatic ship from the Veetanho government,” the corporal replied. “It translates as Pride of Veetanho.”
“That sounds familiar,” Sergeant Enkh said. He returned to his station and typed the name into his system. “Huh,” he muttered. He typed a few more queries. “That’s odd,” he said finally. “The ship’s got diplomatic clearances, but it doesn’t ever seem to go to the home world of the Veetanho. It’s spent most of the last year making runs between here and Karma.”
“You’re right,” Major Good said. “That isn’t normal behavior for a diplomatic vessel.” He noticed the corporal was looking at him funny. “What is it, Corporal?” he asked. “Did you have something else?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “You haven’t begun to touch the strangest portion of this.”
“Which is?”
She pointed to the portion of the message that showed when it was received. “This message was received by the courier ship for transmittal just before it left the Karma system,” she said. “The ship received it after it had already received its download of messages, so it didn’t get encoded with the rest of the messages.”
“Okay,” Major Good replied, “I understand that, but the message isn’t of any value. I agree with Sergeant Enkh; it’s from a prostitute to one of her…customers.”
“I agree,” the corporal said, “but what’s important is when she wrote it. Look at the date—the woman wrote it five days ago.”
Major Good’s eyes widened significantly. That was odd, and it was something Sansar would want to know about immediately.
Medical, Golden Horde HQ, Uzbekistan, Earth
“I’ll take you to meet the rest of your squad,” Mun said. “That is, if you’re feeling up to it.”
“I’d like that,” Walker said as they walked toward the door. He added, “Anything to take my mind off the fact my head may explode at any moment.”
“Your head isn’t going to explode,” the first sergeant advised, “but it’s going to feel like it might for another week or two, until all the new information gets stored away. We just increased the amount of data in your brain by about a factor of 100.”
“No wonder my brain feels full—there’s no room left!”
Mun laughed. “Your storage capacity was increased even more. Even with all that’s been added, you aren’t even using 10 percent of your total capacity. Your processing speed had to be similarly upgraded or it would take far too long for you to access a
ny information you needed.”
“I guess it would have to be,” Walker said. “I never thought about it, but I guess that makes sense.”
Mun nodded then looked over her shoulder. “Good,” she said. “Polanis isn’t following us.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because I want to activate your communications system, and I didn’t want to have to listen to him whine about it.”
“But I thought that was a ‘Day Two’ thing.”
“Normally, it is, but we’re going to the maintenance bay, and it’s really loud in there. Besides, you’re doing well with your implants so it should be okay.”
“If it hurts this much, and I’m doing ‘well’ with them, I’d hate to see what it looks like when it’s going poorly.”
“Most people require at least one day of bed rest in a dark room,” Mun replied, “and quite a few need two.”
“Oh. Ouch.”
Mun nodded and stopped at what looked to Walker like a set of doors for a freight elevator. Mun pushed a button next to it, which illuminated, confirming his guess….even though it didn’t make sense.
“Is this an elevator?” Walker asked. Mun nodded. “I thought the buildings here were all one story.”
“We’re not going up,” Mun said with a smile; “we’re going down.”
The doors opened, and the pair entered the enormous elevator. Walker whistled softly as he looked around the space—the conveyance was big enough to hold a squad of CASPers, and, based on the size of the dents and a significant number of scratches, it apparently had.
There were only two buttons on the interior; Mun pushed the bottom one, and the elevator started down with a lurch.
And continued down.
When the elevator showed no signs of stopping after 20 seconds, Walker raised an eyebrow at the senior enlisted woman. “This does stop somewhere, right?”
Mun smiled. “We’re almost there.”
After a few more seconds, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened onto a 30-yard-long corridor that ended in a set of massive blast doors that spanned the passageway. They exited the elevator, then Mun turned and smiled at Walker. “Ready to see what your new upgrades can do?” she asked.
“Uh…yeah…I guess,” Walker replied. “Promise this won’t make my head explode?”
“I promise. Besides, we have too much invested in you now to risk your life…outside of combat, anyway. You may not know it, but all of those upgrades aren’t cheap. That’s why we have you sign the contract before we put them in; we want to make sure we get our money’s worth back out of you.”
“We?”
Mun nodded. “The Horde is my family. It may be dysfunctional at times, but families sometimes are. I would put this family ahead of any others I’ve ever met. I’m not going anywhere.”
“So I better learn to trust your judgement, like an older, streetwise sister?”
“You know, we may get along after all,” Mun said, “despite your past background.”
Walker winced. “You know about that? I was kind of hoping to keep the past…in the past.”
“Colonel Enkh tells me everything,” Mun replied, “and I tell her everything I know, as well.”
Walker winced again, then sighed. “Is there anything you want to know about my past? There are things I may not be proud of, but I’m not going to hide it or lie about it. I’ll tell you anything.”
“No,” Mun said. “Like most adoptees, I believe in getting a second chance at life, and this is yours. As long as the past doesn’t intrude negatively on the present, I’m content to let it stay in the past. The first time you try to order me around, though, or usurp my authority in front of the rest of the Horde, then we’re going to have a problem.” Her eyes gazed unwaveringly into Walker’s, and it felt like she was staring into his soul. “Are we going to have a problem, Staff Sergeant?”
Walker met her stare and held it, unflinching. “No,” he said. “We’re not.”
“Good, then your past can stay in the past,” Mun replied. She smiled. “Now that we have that behind us, let’s go through some of your new capabilities.”
“Sounds good,” Walker said, happy to change the subject. “What do I need to do?”
“It’s easier to do if I initiate it the first time,” Mun explained. “Here we go.”
She didn’t seem to do anything, but a line of red text suddenly appeared in Walker’s vision, as if he were looking through a head-up display. First Sergeant Enkh is calling. Accept? Yes/No.
“Just focus on the message and think ‘yes’ when you see it,” Mun instructed.
Walker did as he was told, but nothing happened. “That didn’t work.”
“Okay, well think about clicking on the ‘Yes,’ like you would with a slate.”
Walker clicked on the ‘Yes’ in his HUD, and it was replaced with a picture of Mun. “There you go,” she said, the lips in the picture moving in tune with the voice. The simulation was perfect; it looked like he was having a face-to-face conversation with her.
“Just think about talking to the image,” Mun urged, “and say something back.”
“Uh…hi,” Walker said, both out loud and over the link.
Mun smiled. “Close enough,” she said, terminating the link. “In time, you’ll learn how to do it without speaking out loud. You can also think the word, ‘Call,’ and then someone’s name, and it will initiate the link. There are a few other words that are active, like ‘Conference Call’ when you want to link up a number of people, or ‘Squad Call,’ and ‘Platoon Call.’ As a squad leader, you have access to all the group calls. Don’t abuse the ones for anything above the company level.”
“Cool,” Walker said. “That’s helpful.”
“The whole list is in the documentation you received for the system.”
“Uh, I wasn’t given any documentation, First Sergeant. I just woke up from surgery, remember?”
“What do you think this is, the 21st century?” Mun asked with a wry grin. “All the documentation you need for any of your new upgrades is already loaded into your memory. Just think, ‘Call’ and ‘Help,’ and the documentation should show up on your in-head HUD.”
Walker tried it and the document appeared in his HUD. This would take some getting used to…but he liked it. He could also see several logical uses for the system. “What about tactical information for enemy systems or information on other races? Was that part of the download, too?”
“Absolutely,” Mun replied. “You should have a baseline download for all of the enemy systems you are likely to run into, as well as all the major races. Earth-produced systems are also in there, in case an alien race acquires them either through purchase or capture. The minor races are in there, but they are covered in less depth. Races you’re unlikely to ever see are just a picture and a name to save space, or aren’t covered at all if they are restricted to a single planet.”
“What about likely tactics and strategies?”
“The latest intel debriefs are in there as well,” Mun said with a nod, “and you will get detailed mission briefs when we go out on a contract that cover everything we know about potential allies and enemies you may encounter. You can also set your system to auto-download the latest briefs and info when you are near a Horde network, and it will keep you up to date automatically. I think that is the default setting, in fact; it will keep the software in your head updated as well.”
“Huh,” Walker said, as the enormity of what he now had in his head threatened to overwhelm him. “That’s a…lot,” he said. He chuckled. That sounded lame, even to himself. “How do you keep track of it all?”
“Whenever I get new downloads, I like to at least skim it so I know what’s available,” Mun replied. “Truthfully, you’ll get used to it, just like you get used to operating a CASPer. It seems overwhelming at the start, and you wonder if you’ll ever be able to fire a weapon while you’re moving without falling down, but after a little while it all becomes secon
d nature. Running the in-head system is the same way. The more you do it, the more natural it will become, until you don’t even notice it anymore.”
Something occurred to Walker. “What happens if I should ever leave the Horde?”
“If you chose to leave after your contract is up, we deactivate the system,” Mun replied.
“I can imagine that, once you get used to it, not having it anymore is like cutting off an arm,” Walker guessed.
“Both arms, I’m told,” Mun replied. “I’ve never had it done, but I hear it is like becoming handicapped. There are very few people who have it happen who don’t immediately re-enlist in the Horde.”
She gave that thought a minute to sink in, and then she smiled. “Hey, that’s not something you have to worry about now, though. We’ve got you for the next eight years; there’s plenty of time to obsess about it later.”
Walker realized she hadn’t said what would happen if someone tried to leave without completing their contract. As jealously as they guarded their secrets, he doubted that he really wanted to know.
“All right,” Mun said, after a pause; “ready to go meet the squad?”
Walker nodded. “You bet.”
Mun punched a code into the keypad on the wall, and the massive doors slid aside. Walker eyed them thoughtfully as he walked through the opening. “Those are some pretty serious doors,” he noted. “I take it this facility is designed to take a nuke?”
“Two actually,” Mun replied. “Theoretically, it can take two 500-kiloton nuclear blasts. I’m sure it can be breached if an enemy used a big enough weapon, but if they succeeded in breaching it, none of us would care because we wouldn’t live through it.”
“Isn’t that kind of paranoid?”
“The offices of the other Horsemen here on Earth are in Houston, in the United States. They have many other defenses in the area, and since they are in the middle of a big city, most mercenaries wouldn’t use a nuke on them. We are well away from the closest city, though, and somewhat more open to attack.”
The Golden Horde (The Revelations Cycle Book 4) Page 7