“Take us 90 right,” the CO said.
“Coming right 90 degrees,” the helmsman said.
After a minute of travel, the CO said, “Solomon, please cloak us and jump us back to our universe.”
Everything flashed, then Solomon said, “We are back in our universe.”
“How does the platform look, OSO?”
“It’s pretty beat up, sir, but still has structural integrity.”
“Are we still in graser range?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Uncloak and fire all grasers until the platform ceases to be a threat.” Two minutes later, the platform was no longer a threat, and the Vella Gulf turned toward the planet.
* * * * *
Chapter Twelve
CO’s Conference Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Togath System
“Okay,” the captain said. “We can use the same tactics we used at the stargate to take out the orbital facilities. It’ll take a little time and use some resources, but they shouldn’t be a big deal. How are you going to get down to the surface without blowing up my shuttle?”
“Very carefully?” Calvin asked with a smile.
The CO frowned, and Calvin continued, “Seriously, though, we’ve been looking at that. As the planet is mostly desert, there isn’t a lot of terrain to work with to help get us down. That would mean, in order to keep the shuttle safe, as well as its valuable cargo—us—we’d have to land a long way away and walk in.”
“Which would give them a long time to put together surprises for us,” Master Chief added.
“And Master Chief hates surprises,” Calvin said.
The senior enlisted nodded. “I do.”
“I thought about trying to pop over to the Jinn Universe to see if an approach that way might not be more feasible,” Calvin said. “But, based on the scans Steropes put together when we were there, it doesn’t look like we’d get a lot of help, as there aren’t a lot of terrain features to navigate by. We could get fairly close to the mine, but not being close enough gives them time to shoot at us out in the open, and being too close means when we jump across, we run the risk of materializing inside a building or something, which isn’t something I want to do.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much not my idea of a good day at work,” Master Chief said. “All things being equal, I’d like to try the commander’s idea of vertical envelopment.”
“Vertical envelopment?” the CO asked. “Has Calvin been teaching you strategy again?”
“No, sir; that’s just what he’s calling the new tactics he put together for use with the suits.”
“Which are?”
“We use the transporters to beam down to about 40 feet above the ground and drop the rest of the way with our rocket boots. The suits are gyro-stabilized, so we can ride the rockets down while firing at the enemy.”
“Why 40 feet?” the CO asked, looking at Calvin.
“We tried lower when we first started working on it in the simulators, but there’s a little bit of consciousness lag when you go through the transporter. If you’re on a transporter pad, you don’t notice it; however, when you’re falling through the air, it’s a real issue.
“Take a drop on Earth, for example. The acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared. So, if it took you a second to acclimate and trigger your boots once you beam in, you’d already have fallen ten feet or so, and you’d be falling faster and faster. The average response time, we’ve found, is about half a second, but it’s as long as a second for some people. And with a little bit of transporter beam inaccuracy…”
The CO nodded. “It’s better to aim a little high than go splat.”
“Yes, sir,” Calvin said. “We don’t like splat. Even though that kind of drop is probably survivable, we’d run the risk of injuries, and we’re trying very hard to avoid them.”
“And going splat,” Master Chief added. “That’s also a bad day at the office.”
“Okay, so you vertically envelop them. What then?”
“We capture the anti-aircraft systems so they can’t be used against us—especially since the lasers have an anti-surface mode, which would be devastating to people—then we mop up any other security forces remaining. As an added benefit, the anti-aircraft systems aren’t destroyed and can be used by Zelph’s forces to defend the planet until any of his follow-on forces arrive.”
“And then, for the second assault?”
“If our shock and awe at the first site doesn’t make them surrender, we will use the Jinn Universe to approach. There’s a little more terrain there, and we can get really close to the town, then pop back over to our universe and catch them by surprise. Hopefully they’ll be expecting us to do the same thing again, and we’ll catch them unaware.”
The CO nodded. “Sounds good. Make it happen.”
* * *
Transporter Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Togath System
Night looked around the pad and got thumbs-ups from the members of Second Squad. “Ground Force is ready. All our weapons are checked non-nuclear.”
“Space Force is ready, too,” Master Chief said. He stood next to Calvin, who was just to the side of the pad. “We’re checked non-nuclear, too.” He glared at Bad Twin, who shrugged and made an ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ gesture.
Calvin nodded. “Solomon, engage!” After a couple of seconds, Night’s group appeared to stretch toward the ceiling and then vanished. Calvin, Master Chief, and the Space Force—minus Corporal Ngata, since there was only room for 12—took their places. Calvin looked around, saw everyone had their thumbs in the air, and said again, “Solomon, engage!”
After a brief moment of what Calvin could only describe as “stretching,” the transporter room disappeared from sight and was replaced with a vista of a desert, whose golden sand stretched to the horizon. Calvin gazed at it a second as he recovered, then he realized he was falling and triggered his rocket boots amid a chorus of “Gluck ab!” being yelled by the rest of the platoon.
The motto of “Happy landings” never seemed so appropriate. He shook his head to clear it as he realized the rest of the squad was already firing at targets beneath him, and he looked down to see laser fire reaching up toward him. There didn’t seem to be a lot of people on the street—which was wise—and the ones who were seemed to be clustered around the targets his squad was headed toward on the northern end of town. Night and his squad had the mine and a couple of defensive positions on the southern side of town.
One beam came within several feet of him, and his targeting system illuminated the person who’d fired. His rifle seemed to snap up to his shoulder of its own accord—having repeated the action thousands of times now—and he fired a three-bolt burst back at the black-clad figure. At least two of the beams hit the man, including one that speared through his head, and the man collapsed.
Calvin searched for additional targets, but the other members of the squad had already neutralized the rest of the defenders in the area. He switched his heads-up display to battlespace monitor as he landed next to a building, and he saw two of his squad had been hit. Luckily, both were minor wounds; medical nanites had been dispensed, and the members were still in the fight.
The Space Force was responsible for capturing two laser defense positions and two missile systems. He rotated the view from the display and could see the troopers assigned to the systems moving toward them. Within seconds, the control vehicles for the missile systems had been captured, as well as one of the laser systems. The icons for Corporal Hogshead and Private Lewis raced toward the last position, located at the top of a four-story building, but then the icon for Private Lewis went red.
“Shit!” Hogshead commed. “Amber just took a round from the anti-aircraft laser through the chest. You can send the medic, but I don’t think there’s anything he can do.”
“I’m on it!” said Ngata, who had transported in after Calvin’s group.
“I’m going to need some help,” Hogshead said. “They ca
n aim the laser down toward the street. They can’t depress it far enough to get me next to the side of the building, but I’m pinned in place.”
“Coming!” Master Chief called.
“Stay on your objective,” Calvin said. “I’m closer and can get there faster.”
The laser was on a building about a block away on the next street over, but running toward it seemed like a good way to get shot like Lewis had. The intervening buildings were all taller than the one the laser was on, though, and Calvin had an idea. Before he could change is mind, he took two steps and jumped, triggering his rocket boots.
Up, up, and away, he thought as he soared up the face of the building. The building—like all the buildings in the small town—had a flat roof to catch the limited rainwater the area received, so he was able to make a fairly easy landing on it. He raced across the roof and eased over to look down at the laser system a couple of roofs away.
Unfortunately, the intervening building was slightly taller than the one the laser was on, and it blocked his view of the defensive position.
“You’re coming soon, right, sir?” Hogshead asked. “Looks like they’re dragging the laser closer to the edge so they can point it down at me. I can see the barrel of the weapon moving farther over the edge.”
“Almost there,” Calvin replied. He triggered his boots again and roared up and onto the intervening rooftop. His landing wouldn’t have won him any style points, but he was able to remain on his feet, and he sprinted across it.
“Shit,” he muttered as he snuck a glance over the side of the roof. The laser team was moving it, and the four-person group would soon be able to have a shot at Hogshead, who he could see below him, plastered up against the side of the building. Calvin knew he didn’t have time to snipe all the crew, so he dialed the grenade launcher up a setting from “Standard Grenade,” aimed at the center of the troops, and fired.
The antimatter pellet flew straight and true, and it detonated next to the man at the weapon’s control station. The man went flying into the air and fell, pinwheeling, to the street below. A second person was also blown over the edge, and the other two members of the crew were blown backward. One lay motionless, but the second tried to get back to her feet. A three-shot laser burst put her back down to stay.
“You’re clear,” Calvin commed.
As Hogshead went to take control of the position, Calvin checked his battlespace monitor; all the other objectives had been taken and showed green. He mentally toggled it over to the other team’s objectives and saw that, while the defensive positions had been captured and were lit with green, the mine itself still showed red.
“Hey, Night! How’s that mine coming?”
“Not so well. If you’re free, why don’t you come down here and take a look?”
“On my way.”
Calvin checked his fuel reservoirs—still in the yellow—before stepping off the building and riding his rocket boots down to street level. Once he touched down, he sped off in the direction of the mine. Although some faces peered out the windows, no one came out or made a move to stop or fire on him.
The town was fairly small, and it only took Calvin a couple of minutes to get to Night’s position, around the corner of a building from the mine entrance.
“Take a look,” Night said. “But don’t stray out there any farther than you have to.”
Calvin edged out to where he could see the mine. “Shit.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said.
Calvin eased out to take a second look and drew fire this time, but he was able to see what he needed to. He jerked back and the laser rounds went harmlessly past. “Looks like they armored up the entrance,” Calvin said.
“Yeah, they have several firing positions cut through it, too, with a killing ground of about 100 feet all around it. They’re going to be tough to get out of there without taking any more casualties.”
“You heard about Lewis?”
“Yeah.”
Calvin eased out for another peek, then looked at his battlespace monitor. “Have you been able to talk with them?”
“Nope. We put out a white flag, but they shot the shit out of it.”
“Maybe they don’t know what a white flag means.”
Night shrugged. “It didn’t seem worth talking about after that.”
“Maybe they’ll be ready to talk in a couple of minutes. Stay here; I’ll be right back.”
Keeping the building between himself and the mine, Calvin walked away from the mine and jumped up to the rooftop of a neighboring building. He ran as hard as he could across it, then toggled his rocket boots and jumped across the street. While that took him into view from the mine, he didn’t figure anyone would be looking up. He didn’t know if anyone saw him, but at least no one shot at him, which he considered a win. Calvin touched down on the opposite roof and jogged over to Staff Sergeant Zoromski, who was standing next to one of the anti-aircraft lasers.
“Mind if I use this a second?” Calvin asked.
“Do we have incoming aircraft?” Z-Man asked with a hopeful note in his voice.
“Sorry, no. We have a mine with a barricade that needs shooting.”
“Um, you realize there’s a building between us and the mine, right? What about the ‘no collateral damage’ rule you mentioned before we started?”
“I said I didn’t want unnecessary collateral damage.”
“And this is necessary?”
“Necessary to keep someone on our side from getting shot, yes.”
“Well then, step aside, sir. Unless you have a download on how to operate the laser?”
“Umm, actually, no, I didn’t get one. There wasn’t time before we left.”
“Well, I got the download for operating both laser and missile anti-aircraft positions. I admit they were Mrowry systems, and not whatever and wherever we are systems, but I had Solomon run a translating program for me so I can at least read the control pad. Between them—and the five minutes I’ve had standing around here to mess with this big-ass laser—I think I can probably make it work.”
“Okay, fine. I want to shoot it over there,” Calvin said, pointing.
“Gotcha, sir. If you’d stand back…”
Z-Man began pressing buttons on the control pad, and the laser powered up. As the machine began turning, Z-Man turned and winked. “It’ll just be a few seconds now,” he said. The machine stopped in the direction Calvin had indicated, and then the barrel started going down. “About there?” Z-Man asked after a moment.
“A little farther,” Calvin said. “A little more…stop! Right there.”
“That’s good?” the trooper asked.
“As good as I can tell with that building in the way.”
“Roger that. All safety gear on? Firing!”
The weapon fired a prolonged blast, which explosively detonated the concrete-like walls on the next building, then burned through the interior floors and walls until it burst out the other side. “How’s that?” Z-Man asked.
Calvin went to stand near the barrel of the weapon and looked down through the smoke and fire of the burning building. A variety of flammable materials had caught, and flames covered most of the line of sight to the mine. Through the flames, though, Calvin could still see that the beam had gone high and left of the barricade at the entrance. The people at the barricade didn’t seem to have noticed the laser strike; he couldn’t see any movement from behind the barricade.
“A little down and right,” Calvin said, then guided him through the re-aiming process. He walked back to where Z-Man stood at the control pad. “That’s it; hit ‘em again.”
Zoromski fired the weapon a second time. The building next to them exploded again in a different spot, then the laser burned through the rest of the building.
“Holy shit!” Night commed. “Did you do that? Half the barricade just evaporated. What the hell did you hit it with?”
“Anti-aircraft laser.”
“Well, looks li
ke you cut at least two of the people behind the barricade in half. The rest are coming out with their hands open and empty in front of them.”
“I guess they give up.”
“I guess they do. Want to come down and take their surrender as the senior ranking person?”
“I’m on my way.”
* * *
Mine Entrance, Planet MC-2325, Togath System
“Are you going to kill us?” the leader of the group asked as its wings fluttered. Twenty-three people had been in the mine—or at least 23 had come out of it when they surrendered—not counting the two who’d been cut in half by the laser. They represented members of four different species. The biggest group were bipedal lizards, which had claws that looked like they could go through solid rock. Two others were mammalian-looking races—an anteater and a cat-like race—and the last was avian. There was only one avian, but it was the leader of the group.
“I don’t intend to kill you, no,” Calvin said. “I just want you to clear out of the mine.”
The avian—which looked like a six-foot-tall archaeopteryx, complete with claws on the leading edge of its wings—fluttered its wings again. “What cartel are you from? You have to be from the Mineral Cartel, don’t you? I don’t recognize you or your gear, but only the Mineral Cartel would attack us. Unless you’re pirates—you’re not pirates are you? Argh!” Its voice rose in pitch and the avian talked faster and faster.
“Easy,” Calvin said, making a patting motion with his hands. “Just calm down. We work for the Mineral Cartel, but we aren’t part of it.”
“Mercenaries! Argh! Illegal! They’re going to kill us all! Argh!” It started flapping its wings and running around in circles, and the cats and lizards began looking askance at the armed men around them. Outnumbered about four-to-one, Calvin could see they were seconds away from a riot.
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