With Your Shield

by Chris Kennedy

  “I’m not sure what to do from here,” he said. “This is at least a year-long contract, plus transit times, and it might get extended. Plus, now I’m an officer, which makes a royal fucking mess of everything.”

  “Look…” Carrie laid a hand on his knee. “Good knows about us, right?”

  He chuckled quietly. “Sure, he does. A few others might have figured something out, too, but if the major knows, the colonel knows.”

  “Don’t you think he would have said something to you if there were a problem?”

  “Okay, let’s say that’s right…but we’re going to be deployed. Have you ever been off-world on a contract deployment?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ve never been off-world at all.”

  “Well, it’s a completely different experience. There’s not much privacy on a ship, and once we’re planet-side, even less. There are no secrets once we get on that ship.”

  “Damn, Markus, do you think there are any secrets here? Do you think everyone around us doesn’t know? I don’t know about you, but I can’t just turn off how I feel. Trust me, I never planned to fall for another merc. I never planned to fall for anyone! Hell, I just thought it would be fun...and it has been.” She winked suggestively.

  He grinned and nodded. “True. But we have to admit things have changed.”

  “What’s changing? Explain it to me.”

  “Carrie, I’ve lost people on contract before. I’ve lost an entire squad of people. I know how it feels to lose someone like that.”

  “Stop right there, Markus. Okay, I get it, you’ve been through shit I can’t even imagine; I know that.” She paused, reaching out to tilt his head so he was looking into her eyes. “But that doesn’t change the way I feel. I know you’re an officer now; I know how others are going to see that, but we’re within regs. I can’t just suddenly not care, and you are not going to stop me from going along if that’s what you’re thinking. You need someone to watch your ass, and that’s me.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Ten

  Golden Horde HQ, Uzbekistan, Earth

  The two weeks passed quickly due to the projects Markus was in charge of, and loading his gear was almost complete. Given the size of the contract, the area to cover, and personnel needed, this was one of the larger deployments the Horde had done in a while. Logistics had calculated everything multiple times, though, and everything was ahead of schedule except for the dragonfly drones. The last company to go out on contract had taken the majority of their inventory, and acquiring more was proving to be difficult. They would have the ones they needed…but not many spares.

  Markus watched as the last of the dropships loaded up his project gear, which had all been approved. One thing he learned early in his career was to let the loadmasters do their job. Getting everything to orbit in the fewest number of trips seemed like more of an art than a science, and they were damn good at it.

  Lieutenant Alimova watched every crate and every load. Even the company they had contracted to take their extra equipment for this contract was letting her handle the loading order. He had heard their loadmaster had his nose a little out of joint over it, but you didn’t argue with the client, especially when they were one of the Four Horsemen.

  With a wave from the loadmaster after the last crate was secured, Markus turned and climbed into his assault CASPer—open and waiting—and powered it up with practiced ease. He still had mixed feelings about it, but the one thing he knew was that it was better to be in a CASPer than not…and Carrie wouldn’t be. He spared a glance for a new feature in his cockpit, an image of Carrie and him together during one of their days off-base, and sighed as he backed his mech into the docking hooks on the wall of the dropship.

  “Spartan, secure and locked in,” he reported. He had decided to ride up to the ship in his CASPer and relaxed while the final preparations were made.

  On previous contracts, he only had two goals—do the job and come home alive. It was more complicated than it sounded, but everything really boiled down to those two precepts. Now he had several goals…stay alive, work with his team to build the prototype recon CASPer, and make sure Carrie stayed alive. He knew he had to put the last one out of his mind. This was a job, and they each had their roles. That was the reason they couldn’t have been together if they’d been in the same chain of command. The same rationale still applied, though; he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted.

  He closed his eyes and prepared for takeoff as the engines started up, wishing he had gone to Major Good to see if Carrie could stay behind. He supposed the fact that Major Good was sending them both was an indication of his confidence they could focus on the job. Well, he thought, I’ll certainly have plenty to keep me busy. All thoughts went to holding on as he felt the dropship lift off.

  * * *

  Markus’ Quarters, Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony, Earth Orbit

  After his CASPer was hooked up and powered down, Markus headed to his quarters to get squared away. He would need to keep an eye both on the software progress as well as be hands- on with the CASPer build. He looked around his cabin and shook his head. It was tiny, but for the first time in his career, he had some privacy onboard a transport ship. Just as he stored his limited gear, there was a knock on the door…something else he wasn’t used to.

  “Come on in.”

  The door opened, revealing Carrie floating in the zero gravity. She had a grip on one of the hand-holds built into the bulkhead, and she smiled. “So, Lieutenant, you have your own little haven from the chaos.”

  He chuckled and motioned her in. “Yep, trust me, it’s completely new to me. I’m used to being in CASPer country in a rack with absolutely no privacy.”

  “Well.” She closed the door behind her. She struggled a bit because she wasn’t used to zero gravity. “You have privacy now…” She winked.

  Markus laughed and shook his head. “We’ll be getting underway soon, you know. Maybe another hour to lock everything down, then I have a staff meeting to get to.”

  “In that case,” she said as she started undoing her uniform top. “We’d better hurry.”

  * * *

  An hour later, Markus sat in a room with his team, which had been designated a “dark project” team before leaving. Sansar didn’t want what they were doing circulated, though he wasn’t sure how they’d keep the secret when they were going to be tearing apart a CASPer in the hangar.

  They all either had a leg looped around the leg of their chair, or had a strap keeping them from floating off.

  “Okay folks, are we all set?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir. We’re set up in a sectioned-off part of the hangar. We have a workshop and all the tools we should need set aside,” Hobo answered.

  Markus nodded and looked around the room. He met the eyes of each member of his team. “Okay folks, you heard the man. No gossiping about what we’re doing. If we need more expertise on something, let me know, and I’ll see about bringing in the right people. Don’t get so drunk that your lips get loose.” He stared pointedly at Specialist Kawa on that comment, who grinned sheepishly and nodded.

  “Good, so where are we with planning?”

  Volk pulled up the inventory list of their parts on a screen on the bulkhead. “We’ve got everything crated and waiting in the hangar. We’ll have to get everything out and organized, then figure out what to tackle first. Our team will take care of the hands-on with the CASPer to start with. We’ll probably start by trying to enhance the sensor suite with Specialist Kawa leading the way. You’ll have to decide what to give up in order to add the new equipment, not to mention programming the interface to handle the new input.”

  Markus shook his head. “That part’s easy, pinplants can handle that processing.”

  “Sir, you might want to rethink that,” Kawa said. “Some of the processing needs to be handled by software in the CASPer. Considering everything you’re asking for, there wouldn’t be much left over, and you’ll still need some a
ttention to spare for piloting and staying alive. Not only that, but all these active sensors are also going to make you glow like a supernova in the electromagnetic spectrum.”

  Markus nodded. “Good point. That’s why you are all here, so don’t hesitate to speak up when you see problems. Sure, this is my crazy idea, but I need all of you to make it a reality. Once we know what we can realistically fit inside the armor, I’ll figure out the software.”

  Volk spoke up again. “This idea you have about launching drones in large numbers…we’re having trouble there. I mean, you could use a missile rack, but even that’s not going to get you the numbers you want. We could create a large magazine to get them out one at a time, but getting out a large number of them will still be a problem.”

  Markus leaned back in his chair and stared off as he considered. After a few moments of silence, he sighed. “I don’t know either. Keep thinking, though. If we have to use smaller numbers, that’s what we’ll do, but it won’t be as effective. What about the drones themselves? Any ideas on that?” He looked at Specialist Burke.

  “Well,” Burke said, leaning forward. Markus had been told she was a genius when it came to miniaturization. “We’re not sure yet. I’m still working on putting together a drone concept that would fit into whatever launcher we decide to use, but of course I can’t finish that until I know what I’m designing for. We haven’t tested the intercept ability yet, so that’s something we’ll work on in the hangar. We’ll start with a translucent surface and add in the reflective coating in micro layers to see what might work. We also have small-scale laser communication transmitters and receivers to practice with.”

  “Good.” Markus nodded. “Unless that works, the rest of this is useless.”

  Hobo shook his head. “Don’t start getting negative on us yet, Spartan. Even if we don’t accomplish everything you want right away, this harebrained scheme might come up with something good long-term. Even enhancing the sensors and putting sensor drones out could save some lives.”

  “True. Well, get some rest and start thinking until we make the first transition—then we get to work. Speaking of which, I’m guessing most of you have never been through a stargate?”

  Kawa and Burke both shook their heads. Hobo and Volk grinned.

  Markus chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing but a moment of…well, everyone describes it differently, but it’s no big deal. One word of advice though; don’t get it in your mind to find a window and look outside the ship. There’s nothing to see…literally nothing, and it’s been said that some people can go crazy from looking at it. So, stay focused on your work. We have a lot to do.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  Communications Room, Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony, Hyperspace

  Major Megetu Enkh, the leader of the communications section for the contract, approached Carrie’s station in the Communications Room shortly after entering hyperspace. “Doing okay, Sergeant?”

  Carrie turned and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Just a little disoriented at first, but I’m good now. The team is analyzing the traffic we picked up at the stargate.”

  “Good, we’ll have more tasking for you as well. Colonel Enkh has decided to visit the system tracked down by Lieutenant Nicolos to see if there is anything we can find. Since Spartan is busy with his project, you’ll be leading that effort from a communications standpoint.”

  “No problem. I hadn’t looked at that part of the message much, but I’ll pull it up and review it.”

  “You have about seven days before we arrive at the system. From there we’re going to need anything you can find to guide us to where this mysterious buoy may be.”

  “You’ll have everything we can find.”

  Carrie turned back to her station and commed her team. “Okay folks, I need you working on the traffic we picked up at the stargate—anything that seems fishy, and especially any references to contracts. I’ve got to work on this buoy location that Spartan found.”

  Her team acknowledged and got to work while she started digging through the traffic Markus had decoded. A countdown clock displayed on the wall told them how much time they had until they arrived at their destination.

  After only a few minutes, she found the information Markus had tagged and transmitted the coordinates to Major Enkh, to be further passed along to the command crew. Almost as soon as that was sent, Private Levni, the most junior member of her team, pushed a message to her queue. She reviewed it and saw it was from the last dump they received just before entering the stargate, and it was encrypted with the same new key. It was a simple message, but certainly worth noting. “Good job, Private.” She nodded in his direction and headed over to talk to Major Enkh, who was reviewing her slate.

  She looked up as Carrie approached. “Good job on those coordinates, Sergeant. I assume you’ve got something else?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I figured you’d want to see this.” She pushed the message to Enkh’s slate.

  The major read it out loud. “Communications traffic, change to Code Echo, routing shift Bravo.” She pursed her lips. “I assume we have no idea what that means?”

  “No ma’am. We’re reviewing the rest of the traffic as quickly as we can, hoping to find other references to it, but nothing yet.”

  “Good, stay on it. I’ll update the Colonel. Also, prepare a message to be dropped into the system once we emerge from hyperspace. Let’s get the analysts back home working on this, too.”

  * * *

  CASPer Hangar, Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony, Hyperspace

  Markus floated up to the door of the hangar area where his project was and paused. He could hear work going on inside already, probably the team starting to strip down the brand-new scout CASPer. He had led troopers on patrols and stood strong against enemy assaults as a squad leader, emulating the Golden Horde’s motto—We Hold What You’ve Got—and was proud of that. Leading a team that was essentially undertaking the design of a completely new build for a CASPer was something different, and it was scary in an entirely new way.

  He pulled himself down to a bench and slipped on a pair of magnetic boots that would keep him solidly on the ‘ground’ to prevent floating into anything important or dangerous once he went in. With the boots on, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out before opening the door and heading in.

  He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but what he got wasn’t it. He’d seen CASPers partially torn down for maintenance, but he’d never seen one taken down this far. Every bit of armor had been removed, and all that remained was the skeletal structure underneath—hydraulic lines, electrical lines, and a half-ton of metal. Three members of his team—Hobo, Jimmy, and Specialist Kawa—floated around the mech, working on one part or another. At a long table nearby, several of the techs worked on their own parts of the project, using straps and velcro to hold things down. Hobo turned and nodded to Markus. He pointed, likely giving Jimmy directions on what to touch and what not to touch, before pushing off to fly over to Markus. He touched down, engaged his magnetic boots, and snapped a salute.

  Markus returned the salute and smiled. “Didn’t know you knew how to salute, Hobo.”

  “Oh, I run into someone that needs it now and then.” He grinned.

  Markus chuckled. “Okay, so where are we?”

  Hobo shrugged. “We finished the basic teardown, as you can see. I can tell you I’m really glad we brought a few of the folks from Maintenance Control. Kawa has been really helpful. Honestly, this is the kind of project we should be working on back home.”

  Markus nodded. “I know, and if we could, we would, but the boss wants us working on it here, so we’re working on it. You having second thoughts on me?”

  “Hell no! I’m behind you 100 percent. Just a little worried ‘bout working on all this in zero gravity.”

  “We should be getting rotation soon.” The captain of a ship could rotate it on its central axis, giving them some semblance of gravity. It was a norma
l procedure during long periods of travel, such as while they were in hyperspace, to allow work to be done more easily.

  As if on cue, an announcement came over the ship’s intercom system. “Prepare for rotation in ten minutes.”

  “There you go.” Markus grinned. “No more excuses.”

  Hobo headed back to the CASPer as most of the workers stopped what they were doing, waiting for the gravity that would make their jobs easier.

  Markus walked over to a long work bench that was covered in crates and micro-electronic workstations. “So, what do we think?”

  Specialist Burke turned to salute.

  He returned the salute and nodded. “How are we doing, Specialist?”

  “Doing well, sir. Now that we have some gravity, we’ll start working on the ability to detect laser transmissions with our existing drones. We have the full spectrum to work with and a small transmitter and receiver to test with. It’s difficult in zero gravity, but now we can really move forward.”

  Markus nodded. “Good luck. Carry on.”

  She nodded and returned to the work bench as her team started to unpack various drone models from the crates nearby.

  Markus moved on so as not to hover or get in the way, then headed over to where Specialist Volk was disassembling a MAC. He observed quietly, knowing better than to interrupt. She paused in her work after a few moments, attached her tools to a mount in front of her, then turned and snapped a perfect parade-ground salute. “Good day, Lieutenant.”

  He returned the salute and chuckled as both their arms came down. “Seriously, Steph?”

  “Hey, you got the whole officer thing going on now.” She grinned and winked.

  “Yeah, yeah. You’ve also been working on my CASPers since you came into the company, so relax, eh? No one to impress, here.”