Aleksi glanced between Yulia and I. ‘I need to go, and you’re both coming with me!’
Yulia didn’t argue with Aleksi when he waved us both out from the sangar, leaving her bewildered comrades behind. She didn’t know as much as we did, but she clearly knew the situation was serious.
‘Follow me!’ the Scandinavian ordered as he took up the lead, running across the barracks with the rest of us trailing behind him.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked, panting as I raced to keep up with him. Aleksi was surprisingly fit - though he wasn’t carrying as much equipment as I was.
‘The south-eastern sangar!’ he answered. ‘To where your casualties are being extracted!’
I wasn’t the only one who wanted to know what was going on. The sergeant major then spoke up on the net, having noticed our withdrawal from his vantage point in the southern barrack building. ‘Poltergeist-One, this is Blackjack-One-Zero, where are you going? I can see you extracting with my men?’
‘Apologies, Blackjack-One-Zero!’ Aleksi answered quickly. ‘A situation has arisen that requires my immediate attention, and that of Corporal Moralee! We are going to leave this location by aircraft. I suggest you extract your platoon now. I will return Corporal Moralee and his men once I am done with them.’
I took a sharp intake of breath, knowing that the sergeant major wouldn’t take such a response lightly. Though we were ultimately under Aleksi’s command, we were still his platoon. We had taken multiple casualties during our assault onto Trondheim, and I doubted the sergeant major would be happy knowing that there might be more.
There was an elongated pause, before he spoke again with barely concealed frustration. ‘One-Zero, message received. I am on route to the south-eastern sangar, where I will expect a face to face . . .’
The sergeant major arrived at the south-eastern sangar compound shortly after we did, exploding through one of the mouse holes on the northern wall and almost knocking one of Kam’s men to the ground in his rage.
He stalked across the darkened compound, his predatory black eyes locked onto Aleksi. ‘What the hell is going on? Who do you think you are, running off with my men without even speaking with me first? Special Forces or not, you can damn well show this platoon some respect and explain yourself before you take my troopers off on a jolly, do you understand me?’
Up until our arrival Kam’s men had been busy preparing all of our casualties in the centre of the compound, but now they all stopped to witness the epic clash between their sergeant major and the man who had dragged us all into battle.
‘I’m sorry, Sergeant Major,’ Aleksi replied, visibly shaken by the outburst. I doubted he was used to working alongside Union troopers anymore - if he ever had done - and so the dressing down probably came as a shock. ‘It seems those missiles you were chasing were far more important than I originally thought. Corporal Moralee believes they might be being sited to ambush the Russian ships as they make their escape from Europa.’
‘They were in Edo all along!’ I blurted, coming to Aleksi’s aid. I jutted an arm southward. ‘They were taken along the pipeline to a chemical plant on the west coast!’
‘Sergeant Major.’ Aleksi held up a hand for calm. ‘I promise you that I will bring your men back. This time it will be my men doing the work, but I need Corporal Moralee to recognise Bhasin and any of his followers.’
‘And the boss . . .’ I added.
The sergeant major glanced at me, but this time there was no irritation in his glare. Was it intrigue that I saw in his cold, heartless eyes? Or was it hope? Perhaps he too had found himself considering the possibility that our trail had warmed up once more.
‘Bring them out, lads!’ Abs called out, bringing an abrupt end to the deadlock.
There was a commotion within the compound as our casualties were lifted in their stretchers and filed out through the single mouse hole on the eastern wall. Leaman, Puppy and Myers were all amongst the cluster of yellow and green crosshairs, their names flashing on my display. Weatherall was there as well, helping to carry his worse-off comrades.
Aleksi ushered for us to follow on after the casualties. ‘Our lift is here . . .’
Even the sergeant major forgot his anger as curiosity drove us to follow Aleksi like a herd of sheep, ducking through the mouse hole to see where our injured comrades were being taken.
There was nothing to see outside the barrack perimeter, other than the small fires that still burned within the nearby slave camp and the freed Boskers scattering into the forest. As the flames slowly died, the shadows crept back toward the shredded tents, reaching out to swallow the camp once more. Our casualties were all held aloft beside the mouse hole, their stretcher-bearers waiting patiently whilst Van-Zyl paced up and down through the grass about twenty metres away. He eventually stopped his pacing and simply stared out toward the slave camp, as if he was expecting something to happen.
I was about to ask Aleksi where his supposed aircraft were when I saw something unbelievable. I gaped in astonishment, scarcely believing what I was seeing.
The view of the slave camp appeared to be wobbling, as if the light was rippling in a heatwave, but it wasn’t the heat from the small fires that effected my view. There was something there. A large craft of some kind, almost as wide as the sangar compound, except it was virtually invisible. No, not one large craft, but several of them, lined up in front of the casualties, each one the size of a dropship.
‘What on earth are those things?’ I whispered reverently, as if speaking too loud would cause them to disappear.
‘Stealth saucers,’ Aleksi said. ‘Our workhorses.’
‘They’re . . . invisible!’
He chuckled. ‘Not quite. They bend the light around themselves to create that effect. No heat signature, no radio signature, nothing. Pretty advanced stuff . . . and entirely secret.’
As I watched, our casualties were carried toward the waiting craft, suddenly blurring out of existence. Shortly afterward the stretcher bearers emerged once more, trotting back toward the sangar compound.
‘That was beyond weird,’ Abs commented as he passed us.
‘No shit,’ Griffiths agreed.
‘Sergeant Major,’ Aleksi prompted. ‘I really do need to get moving.’
Somehow subdued by the sight of such advanced aircraft, the sergeant major nodded slowly. ‘OK, Aleksi, you can take my men. My orders are to assist you, so I have no choice anyway.’ He then returned to his senses as he turned and poked the Scandinavian in the chest. ‘But if you don’t bring my men back, I’ll be looking for you!’
‘Of course,’ Aleksi agreed, looking slightly awkward. ‘Good luck, Sergeant Major.’
‘And you.’ The sergeant major’s reply was curt. He turned to me. ‘Find our boss, Corporal Moralee. I have faith in you.’
‘I will, sir,’ I replied. I turned to Aleksi. ‘Let’s go!’
As Aleksi led us to within a few metres of the stealth saucers, one of them seemed to materialise in front of me like a strange, ghostly apparition. It was similar to our ground attack saucers, I noted, though slightly larger so that it could carry troops and cargo. An access ramp similar to our dropships touched the ground, and we stepped inside, finding ourselves within a spacious, well-lit circular crew compartment lined with six comfortable looking leather seats.
‘How long have we had these things?’ Griffiths asked, clearly impressed.
‘Longer than you think,’ Aleksi said. He gestured for us to sit down. ‘The technology isn’t that new, but it’s ridiculously expensive, and kept secret for obvious reasons. Our colonial enemies probably have similar aircraft.’
As I sunk into the soft leather of my seat, I became aware of a message flashing at the bottom of my visor, highlighting the option to synchronise with the saucer.
‘Do I sync with it?’ I asked cautiously.
‘Of course,’ Aleksi said, taking his seat beside me. ‘You can’t fully appreciate this aircraft until you do!’
I tapped at m
y datapad, accepting the option to sync with the saucer, and suddenly the walls of the compartment disappeared, leaving us suspended in the air in our circle of seats like fun-seekers on a fairground ride. It wasn’t the first time I had seen such an effect, our LSVs on New Earth used synchronised external cameras to give us a similar view, but I had never seen it on an aircraft. And supposedly dropships didn’t come with such a function because it often led to troopers freaking out during entry to the atmosphere.
Yulia sat down on the opposite side of me, leaving the seats on the opposite side of the circle for Griffiths and Wildgoose. Once all of us were seated and buckled in, Aleksi touched his datapad, causing the ramp to raise. We then suddenly lurched upward like the riders of a circular flying carpet, catching one last view of our awestruck comrades and the smoke-shrouded barracks before we hurtled southward, accelerating away from the battlefield. We continued to accelerate, rising high enough to see the ongoing exchange of bombs and missiles on the northern horizon before we were consumed by the clouds.
Yulia reached over and touched my arm. ‘What is happening, Andy?’ she asked as the clouds whipped past us.
I realised that during my rush after Aleksi I had forgotten to tell her what was going on, and so I quickly explained what I knew, gently breaking the news of how everything she had done up until now was helping Bhasin. She didn’t argue with me, as I had expected she might. She had learned to trust me, as I had learned to trust her.
‘How could I have let this happen?’ she asked herself, shaking her head in dismay. ‘The agents who met me after Dakar said they were FEA. They looked like FEA, and they told me things I thought only FEA would know. I believed them–’
Aleksi cut in. ‘Who told you to attack the Russian ships?’
‘Marcus told me,’ Yulia replied. ‘I do not know who told him, though. Many of the Bosque fighters were saying it. We are all being tricked. We are fools . . . I am a fool.’
‘We’ve all been taken for fools,’ I said in agreement.
‘I’ll bet the Boskers are attacking Russian ships all across the province,’ Aleksi said, ‘despite our best efforts to stop them.’
Yulia turned her head down in shame. ‘I cannot believe I have let this happen.’
‘Well, you can make up for it now, Yulia,’ the Scandinavian replied. ‘I will need you to tell me what you know about the chemical plant.’
The saucer banked onto its side, skimming the clouds with its edge as it gave us a view onto the chemical plant, its cameras adjusting the image so we could see in the dark. Sited on the edge of a sand beach almost a kilometre across, the plant was nowhere near as large as I had expected it to be. It was comprised of little more than a single building no more than a hundred metres wide, a couple of large cylindrical tanks, and a snaking network of pipes that connected everything together. The pipeline itself ran into one side of the building before passing out the other, cutting its way across the sand dunes before plunging into the sea.
Six circular pits had been dug around the chemical plant, surrounded by mounds of freshly dug soil. Each of the pits contained a large piece of equipment sat on four sturdy-looking support legs, pointed toward the sky like artillery pieces poised to fire. Figures scurried around them like disturbed ants, seemingly preparing for something. My heart jumped as I recognised the equipment within the pits. I had been searching for them long enough to know what they were.
‘Those weapon pits were dug recently,’ Aleksi observed as we slowly circled the plant. ‘I presume you know what they are, Andy?’
‘STORM launchers,’ I answered.
‘Their missiles won’t get anywhere now,’ the Scandinavian assured me. ‘Your brigade has moved your B Company dropships out to sea, a few kilometres east of here. There are enough Vulcan cannons there to stop anything getting through to our safe corridor. We will use their gravtank railguns to engage the missile positions.’
I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t known that Aleksi had spoken with brigade, or that my old company had been moved. Presumably they had been contacted directly, cutting EJOC out of the loop in case somebody tried to stop us. ‘Are we sending in B Company’s troopers?’
He shook his head. ‘No. We can’t put Union dropships over Edo soil now, the Alliance warships are watching. My men will conduct the strike instead. How do we get in, Yulia?’
She pointed down at the chemical plant. ‘There is an entrance at the base of the building, on the western side facing the beach. It leads into the ground floor of the pumping station, where the machinery is kept.’
‘What’s the building like on the inside?’
‘There are two storeys and a basement. It is very simple on the inside, but the machinery will make it difficult to move through.’
Aleksi didn’t appear bothered by that. ‘Can you draw a basic layout for me, from memory?’
‘I think so, but how?’ She held up her hands, indicating that she had nothing to draw on.
‘On here.’ Aleksi produced a tablet from somewhere beneath his seat and handed it to her.
Whilst Yulia drew the building layout on the tablet, Aleksi reached out with his arm and pointed out all six launchers, marking them all with red crosshairs. Once he was finished, he spoke over the net. ‘Hammersmith call signs, do you have eyes onto my targets?’
A familiar voice responded in my headset, and I quickly recognised it as that of B Company’s OC. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha, yes, we have eyes on. We are ready to engage with an estimated round flight time of two seconds.’
‘Thank you, Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha. Stand by for my call to engage. Louis, I want a ten-second countdown on your approach. The Hammersmith call signs will engage all the marked targets at minus three seconds, which should see their rounds strike just before you dismount.’
‘No problem,’ was the reply.
Having finished her drawing, Yulia passed the tablet back to Aleksi, who promptly tapped at the screen, presumably sending it to his comrades.
‘This is a rough building layout,’ he said on the net.
There was a short pause before Louis responded. ‘Received. My team will enter through the western entrance as marked on your layout. Do we know anything about the door?’
Aleksi looked at Yulia. ‘Describe the door.’
‘It is a steel airlock door,’ she said. ‘It opens outwards.’
‘Not a problem.’ Aleksi switched back to the net. ‘Louis, the southern entrance is reinforced and opens outwards. It will require explosive entry. Let me know when you’re in position for a ten-second approach.’
‘I’m in position now,’ was the instant reply.
Aleksi spoke to B Company again. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha, my assault team will shortly begin their ten-second run in. Listen for the countdown, and open fire on three seconds.’
‘Understood,’ the OC answered.
‘Louis, start your approach.’
‘Moving now. Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . .’
As Louis continued his countdown, I imagined his stealth saucer hurtling toward the chemical plant from over the sea, just like our dropships would do, except that his was virtually invisible.
‘Hammersmith call signs stand by . . .’ Aleksi warned.
‘Five . . . four . . . three . . .’
‘Fire!’
‘Two . . . one . . . on position!’
From our high vantage point, the incredible, near perfect timing of the strike was jaw dropping. All six defensive positions were engulfed in smoke and flame as high explosive railgun shells landed amongst the unwitting Guardsmen. A fraction of a second later, two teams of six figures materialised right next to the pumping station, as their stealth saucers unloaded them on position. Having already identified the entrance point to the building, they charged toward it, pausing briefly at the entrance before storming inside in another puff of smoke. I didn’t see what they used to gain entry, but I presumed it was some form of explosive. Within a matter of seconds, both teams had disapp
eared inside the pumping station, whilst the outside defensive positions smoked.
All of us gasped, amazed at how such a sturdy-looking defensive position had been destroyed in the blink of an eye without the occupants even knowing what was coming.
‘That was incredible,’ I said, genuinely amazed. ‘Are those guys part of your team?’
Aleksi shook his head. ‘No, mine are still back at Trondheim. Louis and his men work this area, so they know a great deal more about the people here than I do. They probably already know this Bhasin character, and the president’s inner circle that you mentioned before.’
Whilst Aleksi was talking I leant forward in my seat, noticing something emerge from amongst the winding pipes of the chemical plant before following the pipeline toward the coast. It was a man, running across the sand, wearing some kind of white bodysuit.
Aleksi squinted as he tried to work out what I was looking at. ‘What on earth is that . . .?’
He waved a hand at the figure, creating a large bubble around it like the lens of a magnifying glass. As he zoomed in the image, it became apparent that the man wasn’t wearing a white bodysuit at all . . . he was naked, and running for his life.
‘It’s one of ours!’ I blurted. ‘Aleksi, it’s got to be one of our missing troopers!’
The Scandinavian didn’t hesitate. ‘Saucer, take us in!’
The saucer dropped like a stone, causing my guts to lurch as it tilted downward and angled itself toward the naked man. We were probably about a kilometre above him, but we closed the distance in less than a few seconds.
It had to be one of ours. I told myself. It had to be.
We shot over the man’s head, missing him by only a few metres and causing him to stumble and fall face first into the sand. The ramp fell open, and I unbuckled my straps just as the saucer slowed to a halt.
I leapt out from my seat, hurrying down the ramp. My boots slapped against slick wet sand as I ran toward the man, who remained face down, his bare skin gleaming white against the darkened surroundings.
During my last few bounds I unclipped my helmet and removed it, before tossing it down onto the ground. I then took a deep breath and pulled off my respirator, ignoring the flashing warning icons on my visor as it came away from my face.
RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) Page 34