With Your Shield

by Chris Kennedy

  “So Irish left me here…”

  “So that you could kill the assassin that was good enough to kill me, thereby saving your squad and completing the contract. He’s setting you up for success and wants you to feel like you’re part of the team so he can integrate you.”

  “But not everyone likes me.”

  “Hey, sometimes brothers and sisters fight. It happens in every family. But at the end of the day, you join hands to face the enemy from outside the family as one.”

  “Okay…maybe that’s possible,” Walker said. “But what happens if the assassin shoots me first.”

  “Hey, no plan is perfect. This at least gives him a 50-50 shot at things working out. How well was it going before now?”

  “Not good.”

  “So, 50-50 is better than that.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And, even if you’re the one who gets shot, then at least you provided a service to the squad and he can thank you for helping the squad complete the contract.”

  “So, this is my chance to become part of the squad?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Okay, fine. What do I need to do to make it happen?”

  “Come to my position, and then go into the jungle about five meters and take up a defensive position. When you’re ready, I’ll drive her your way.”

  “Are you going to get killed in order to do so?”

  “I’m going to try not to. Even though this is a simulator, I try to avoid getting killed wherever possible. Train like you fight, you know?”

  Walker moved past him and into the jungle. After about thirty seconds, she said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

  Markus walked about fifty meters to his left along the outskirts of the settlement, trying to see if he could spot the assassin. The person on the controls could make the assassin do whatever he wanted, so Markus didn’t really know whether the assassin was still in the settlement, but it was the only thing that made sense. If she were a really good assassin, she’d try to get past Markus and Walker so she could complete her mission; as such, the assassin should want to make a break for it past Walker.

  Of course, if the assassin made it past Walker and actually killed the queen, Markus was going to look like a complete idiot for allowing it to happen. He shrugged. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. He picked out the spot he wanted to land, took a breath, let it out, and toggled his jumpjets.

  As he rose over the settlement, he saw it was even worse than he had expected—the settlement was nearly an unbroken mass of linen—there was no place to land. He aimed for the biggest gap he could see and crashed through a sheet. Happily, there were no Slugs underneath him, and he didn’t land on a hill, which would have thrown off his balance.

  Unfortunately, the assassin had been making her way back toward the jungle; Markus had come down a lot further from where she’d been than he’d expected. She rose like a quail that had been flushed and flew over the last 10 meters of the settlement, dropping back down before Markus had a chance to get the giant sheet off him.

  “Contact!” Markus sent over the common frequency. “She’s headed back the way we came!” He toggled his jumpjets again, and only had a split second to target her before she was gone into the jungle.

  Markus heard a crash, but no weapons firing, as he touched down outside the settlement and raced into the trees. About 10 meters into the jungle, he came upon the assassin, lying face down in the dirt with Walker standing next to her. The assassin’s arms and legs were splayed out, and Walker had a hand on her back, holding her down.

  “I figured she wouldn’t look up into the trees,” Walker said on her external speaker, “so I hid up there and came down on top of her. I probably broke her legs, but she didn’t get away.”

  “Nice job,” Markus said. He switched to the squadnet. “We got the assassin. Walker caught her.”

  As the squad reached them and started cheering Walker on a job well done, she brought up the private net with Markus. “Hey, sir?” she asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.”

  * * *

  “So, did I get her?” Markus asked after the squad had departed from the simulator.

  “Who?” Hazard asked.

  “The assassin, at the start of the sim.”

  “Yeah,” Hazard said. “It would have been a killing shot—it went right through her main organs.”

  Markus gave him a smile.

  “Not really fair, though, since you obviously knew what was going to happen. You made it to the queen in time to keep the assassin from killing her.”

  “13th Law of Simulators,” Markus said.

  “What’s that?” Hazard asked.

  “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

  “Well said.”

  Markus winked. “Besides, I wrote the program.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kelfor-6, Zuparti Base Camp

  Terax smiled to himself. The base was taking shape nicely. Now that they had stopped Panot from operating heavy equipment, there had been no more accidents. The ship carrying the largest modular building parts had arrived and was offloading. A landing pad was in the process of being built. When complete, it would be capable of supporting the heaviest space ships that could land on the planet. The engineering had been done by the Jeha, as the Zuparti were traders, not builders. All they had to do was follow the plans provided, and the structures would work. Of course, to be safe, they had also decided to contract a small group of Jeha to assist and make sure everything was done correctly.

  He had to limit the team’s interaction with the Jeha—essentially four-foot-long millipedes—because they tended to make his team nervous. Typically, the Jeha were known as ship builders, but they were such good engineers they could plan pretty much anything. He didn’t know how much his guild—the Merchant Guild—had paid the Jeha for this contract, but he was glad they had. There were only 20 of them, but he could see them everywhere, directing the members of his team who were least nervous around them.

  They had included their computer setup in the defense contract with the Golden Horde. Terax didn’t know much about the Humans, other than that they were good at defending things, and reputedly were exceptionally good with computers. His guild had purchased and brought some of the equipment; it sat in containers beside the growing tower that would be central control.

  Suret had determined the resin would work on their temporary structures, and the metals used in the permanent structures were immune to the bugs, so they only had to worry about them for a short period of time. Terax had sent a message to the stargate so that when the Golden Horde arrived, they would be aware of the metal-eating bugs. He knew their mechanical suits were made of metal and hoped it wouldn’t cause a problem for them. According to their timetable, they should be arriving any day now.

  Terax looked up. Somewhere above him, the space station was starting to take shape. At first, it would be a quite simple structure. The only areas with breathable atmosphere would be one loading bay and the central control center. The rest would be storage that would not need atmosphere. There was a central hub where the control center would be, and a ring along the outside, equipped with thrusters so it could be rotated to provide gravity. In the basic design, there would only be two docking collars, but more would be added later, depending on how much business came through the system. He considered that in a few years, a small city might even sprout on the surface to handle the needs of those who stopped at the planet.

  Within the next few days, they would have communications with the station—besides what they got from the dropship—and would be able to communicate directly with incoming vessels, which would be good for when the Humans arrived.

  * * *

  Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony, Hyperspace

  Sansar had called her department heads together for one last briefing before arriving in Kelfor. “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we’re one day out from emergence. O
ur data shows it will only take about three hours to reach the planet once we get in system. The loadmaster has already determined the best deployment plan. The transport ship will dock with their station, assuming it’s ready, and start offloading the equipment for the station first, and then we will start shuttling down materials to the planet. Major King?”

  King stood. “Ma’am. The first transport run will drop off a fire team at the station to assist with offloading and to start the setup. For the planet, we’ll be setting down the rest of the CASPers first, and they’ll set up a defensive perimeter for the rest of the offloads. If they’re on schedule, the Zuparti should have a warehouse built where we can set up maintenance and control for the mechs. The second load will be the equipment for that, including maintenance racks. I’ll need one fire team from each of the squads to assist in moving them into place. I’m leaving the platoon and squad leaders to handle the details. From there, the squads will switch off to receive the rest of the equipment. A few squads will be specifically detailed with accompanying APCs to the perimeter once they land so the engineers can set up the waypoints for the wall anchors.”

  King sat down.

  Sansar nodded in approval. “Very good. Major Enkh, is Intel ready?”

  Major Enkh stood next. “Yes, ma’am. We’ve received our order of deployment from the loadmaster, and our equipment for the surface is ready. We should have basic sensor deployments completed within the first day after planetfall. Until then, we’ll be reliant on the scouts. One of the first orders of business will be the radar vehicle.”

  Sansar nodded as Enkh took her seat. “Very good. I know there are some unknowns when it comes to the planet, and we may have to do some clear-cutting since we want to set up a kill-zone outside the barriers. Major King, we’ll need a few squads on-call for that if necessary.”

  King nodded and made a note on her slate.

  Sansar continued, “Based on the schedule, it will take the better part of a day to offload everything, given the size of the structure we’re building. We do not know of any opposition, but we need to be ready for anything based on the intel we have, and what we’ve learned. Any questions?”

  “Ma’am,” King spoke up, “there’s a growing rumor mill about what Lieutenant Nicolos and his team have been working on. Some of the rumors are, well, insane. It might be best to let the cat out of that particular bag soon.”

  Sansar grinned. She knew well what troopers could do with even a hint of a rumor. “Yes…I expected that. We’ll be lifting the veil once we’re on the planet.”

  There were a few glances around the table, as even some of the department heads who weren’t directly involved in the project weren’t in the loop.

  “Anything else?”

  There was nothing, so she closed out the briefing, and everyone went to get their teams ready.

  * * *

  Markus met with Hobo in the hangar with the Hoplite. “The loadmaster has the Hoplite going on the last load,” Markus said.

  Hobo raised an eyebrow. “Any idea why?”

  Markus shrugged. “I think Major King probably wants me in my assault CASPer to help out with the offloading or defending. Then I’ll ride back up before the last landing.”

  Hobo nodded. “So, they’re easing you back into combat anyway.”

  “That’s my guess, but I have no plans to leave intel.”

  Hobo grunted. “Tough call. You’re a damn good trooper, Spartan, but it’s good to have someone who’s seen the elephant in intel looking out for us.”

  Markus grimaced. “You know everyone in intel is always looking out for everyone.”

  “Sure, but…” It was Hobo’s turn to shrug.

  “I get it.” Markus looked up at the CASPer. Its canopy was closed, so the Spartan helmet design was looking back at him. He hoped it would be the difference he wanted it to be.

  “So,” Hobo said, “how’s Sergeant Baker handling this?”

  Markus glanced at him. “Sorry?”

  “Oh please, Spartan…”

  Markus grunted. “She gets it, too.”

  Hobo nodded.

  * * *

  Kelfor System, Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony

  They arrived without incident and headed toward Kelfor-6. The only other ships they detected in-system were their contracted transport and a registered Zuparti transport, which checked out with what they expected. They were 30 minutes from orbit and the first load of dropships were ready and loaded.

  The communications officer on the bridge looked back at Captain Cole. “We have an incoming communication from the Zuparti space station, Captain.”

  “On screen,” Cole responded.

  A Zuparti appeared on the Tri-V, and Captain Cole fought back a slight shudder. It had a smile on its face, he thought, and all those teeth looked a bit disconcerting. “Greetings, War Pony, this is Kelfor Control. We have you on our sensors approaching the planet.”

  Apparently, this particular Zuparti was accustomed to dealing with people, Cole thought to himself. “This is Captain Cole of the Golden Horde. We estimate orbit in thirty minutes. Our accompanying transport will dock to offload if you have your docking collars set up.”

  The Zuparti nodded and smiled wider. “Yes, Captain, we have it ready for you. We will send the information to the ship. The arm it will dock with is atmosphere-capable. Will you require gravity?”

  Cole was impressed they had already set up that much. “Negative Kelfor Control. Not for the offloading, at least. It’ll be easier for our CASPers to work in zero gravity. Speaking of which, our dropships will also need to dock to offload our troopers.”

  “Yes, Captain, we anticipated this as well. There is a docking station on the next spoke of the arm they can use. It is not capable of atmosphere. Is that a problem?”

  Captain Cole fought the urge to laugh. “Negative…they are quite fine working in their suits without atmosphere. Thank you, Kelfor Control.”

  “Kelfor Control, out.”

  Cole shook his head as the channel cut. He passed the information along to their transport ship and the dropships, and took the ship into orbit to offload before heading out of system to handle other company business.

  * * *

  Of course, Sansar would be on the first dropship that landed and the first person to step off onto the planet, surrounded by the best troopers the Horde had to offer. This served two purposes…first, it showed her troopers that she wouldn’t ask them to do anything she wouldn’t do; second, it let her get to the clients to meet them as soon as they made planetfall.

  She had reviewed the notice from the Zuparti about the metal-eating bugs but wasn’t too concerned. She had doubts that armor which could withstand laser fire would succumb to a bug, but it wasn’t something to take lightly either. She had warned the entire crew, and Major Enkh had assigned a few of her intel folks to immediately capture some of the bugs and start experimenting to determine if there were any issues.

  As soon as they got settled into orbit, the pilot called over the comms. “Doors are opening and we have a green light; prepare for atmospheric re-entry.”

  They all felt the dropship’s magnetic clamps detach from the hangar bay’s deck, and the craft started moving out of the ship. A few moments later, the G forces built up; going through atmosphere was never much fun. They all held on as the dropship buffeted through the atmosphere, shaking their CASPers in their racks. Thankfully, after only a few minutes, it was over, and the dropship was on approach to the Zuparti base.

  A red light came on in the dropship’s cargo bay, and the pilot commed, “Thirty seconds to landing.”

  The troopers made last-minute checks to make sure the transit through the atmosphere hadn’t caused any issues, and Sansar saw all of her troopers marked green, ready to go.

  * * *

  Kelfor-6, Zuparti Base Camp

  Terax let his team and the Jeha know that the Golden Horde had arrived as soon as he received the communication from the station. Mo
st of his team had fled into the buildings, fearing that something would go incredibly wrong when the Humans’ ships landed. Terax swallowed hard as he saw the first of the ships coming in and fought the urge to run inside and hide under the nearest desk. The Jeha kept working, unconcerned; they had a contract to fulfill.

  Terax couldn’t help but cringe when the first dropship landed. It came in at an angle and vectored its thrust to come down directly on the landing pad they had completed the day before. It disgorged twelve of the CASPers—he had looked up what they were called—and had taken off again immediately as another dropship moved in to land. He was slightly awed by the sight, so much so that he forgot to be afraid as one of the large machines, flanked by several others, started moving toward him. Others spread out around the landing pad; some sort of defense he assumed.

  He shook himself from his reverie as one of the CASPer’s front parts opened, and someone climbed out. He noticed that two of the others opened as well, and the Humans who came out retrieved weapons from the legs of the large machines.

  They all removed their helmets, and he saw that one of them was a woman, who came toward him. His translator picked up her speech.

  “Colonel Sansar Enkh of the Golden Horde. You must be Terax?”

  He nodded emphatically. “Yes, yes. Terax. Welcome to Kelfor-6.”

  She nodded and looked around. “Thank you for the notice about your metal flies. We’ll have some of our team working on them once we’re unloaded.”

  Terax smiled; he had already pleased the Humans, which was good. Their machines looked exceptionally dangerous. “Yes, yes. Suret has been experimenting. He has some captive.”

  “Excellent. We’ll start getting set up. I believe you have a warehouse where we can set up our maintenance section?”