by Smith, T. L.
Remy fumed at being rejected, at being left on the sidelines. That wasn’t conducive to his personality.
Unfortunately I agreed with Schaef. “If I stay, you stay.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The recall of our sister ship was approved. It would be restocked and armed, but would take two weeks for them to arrive. In the meantime we had to act as if we didn’t know the other camp existed and hope the spy didn’t get wind of our plan.
The Parredet helped us maintain surveillance on the enemy, sending data on the mining operation for Remy to analyze. Our soldiers were brought into the forest, as close to enemy territory as possible, then paired up with Parredet to help them trek the rest of the way in.
Schaeffer handled the soldiers while I played diplomat, schmoozing the matriarchal village leaders. Clan Mothers, as Lizzy corrected me often. She and Yinet were virtually inseparable as Lizzy worked to translate their history and culture, discovering children’s sign language a great tool. The writer in her was in heaven.
I kept Batista’s bouts of jealousy in check, not letting her out until the end of the day, when Remy and I were finally alone.
Two weeks seemed like forever, but it took that long to set up our invasion of the mining camp. The soldiers from the sister ship would be shuttled downside once the assault was ready to start, creating extra confusion for the miners.
As we transferred to the front line, I felt the war between my two sides surfacing. Outside of boot camp, Batista had no assault training. Kazan had trained extensively from the beginning, the Corps never sure what they’d run into as we explored outside our own solar system.
Even so, I’d never used the training, until now and had Remy and Lizzy to worry about. I also had the Parredet to worry about, creatures who’d shorn their warring ways, and we’d brought that poison back to their world. I looked at Yinet and Gerret, regretting ever coming here.
They’d joined us on the shuttle ride, but were no more amazed by it than the rest of our technology. The pilot flew up a ravine, staying below the ridge to reach the advance team’s camp. Here our team would split up.
Lizzy stayed at Yinet’s side, since she was the best at communications. Yinet’s English had improved massively and her tribe had picked up many of the essential words the soldiers needed. But there were still moments that needed translations.
When we reached the clearing the shuttle team started setting up our command post. The rest of us were matched up with Parredet who would take us to the front lines. I worried about stealth, how quiet we could be, but our friends lived this life. The dropped us far enough from the forest edge to not be seen or heard.
Remy and I walked the last few meters, dropping into a crouch as we reached the ridge overlooking the mining camp. All the vids hadn’t done the operation justice.
They’d maintained the trees about the mountain face, but rubble and trash was strewn about the floor of the forest. This particularly angered the Parredet. These men didn’t respect any species. The bones of wildlife were strewn into the garbage piled at the forest’s edge.
Remy slipped back behind the rock we’d been spying from. “Filthy animals. I’m ashamed of being in the same species.”
“They’ve always been around.” I joined him, ignoring the rock pressing between my shoulder blades. “What did you see of any significance?”
Remy pulled his thoughts back to the assignment. “Their equipment is vulnerable. We can take it out easily enough, but we’ll need to get to their shuttle. I need a closer look.” He crawled back into the foliage, before standing up again. I was on his heels.
Under the shade of the trees, our escorts waited. Remy pointed where he wanted to go and they grabbed us up for the treetop tour. It had taken nearly a day for me to dare to open my eyes and watch, but now I couldn’t take my eyes off of the vantage point they gave us. I clung easily, aided by a harness the Parredet fashioned for us.
Our escorts carried us deeper into the forest to avoid detection. When we reached the other side of the valley, the Parredet cautiously dropped down to a ledge across from the miner’s shuttle. They dissolved back into the forest and let us do our surveillance work.
Remy wriggled between two boulders, giving him a perfect vantage point. His quietness made me uneasy. I was about to prod him when he slipped back out of the boulders.
I didn’t like the look on his face. “Well?”
“They’re virtually the same design as our shuttles, right down to the rivet placement.” He shook his head. “That confirms an inside job. Someone passed them the plans.”
I wanted to crawl out for a look myself, but we were taking a chance as it was. “Let’s get back to command. Schaeffer needs this info out on the next comm-link.”
Remy crawled behind me, back to where we’d been dropped. Our escorts showed up, taking us back to our command post. Remy didn’t speak at all, not until Schaeffer returned from his own reconnaissance. Campfires were out of the question, but we gathered around our food storage unit. He got his meal and quietly ate with Lizzy.
No one talked until we dropped our containers into recycling. Schaeffer leaned forward, setting his comm on the food box. “Let’s get this over with. The link will be open for only a few seconds in the morning, so I have to have this coded and ready to go.”
Each team leader reported in until it was our turn. Remy downloaded his surveillance vid, bringing up the mining equipment. “First, this will be the easy part. We can wreck it with just a few carefully placed explosives. Pop some charges along this shaft and it’ll never be repairable.” He ran his finger along the display, a line transmitted to everyone else’s coms.
It was as simple as he’d claimed, but it was more than dismantling their mining equipment. The men in their camp looked rough and were armed. That added to the challenge of capturing as many of these men as possible, and finding out who hired them.
From equipment, Remy went to the shuttle. A projection appeared on everyone’s screens and I could see why he’d been so quiet. “This is our largest threat.” Their shuttle was identical to ours, except for the weapons.
Remy zoomed in on the engine exhausts. “This would be the ideal spot to disable their ship from flight, but we need to take out the weaponry. I’m an engineer, but without a better look, I can’t tell you how to best destroy them. We need to take them out before we can bring in the second wave.”
“Our recon should have caught this.” Schaeffer tapped at the weapons mounted on the upper half of the craft, enlarging the image.
“Maybe, but we had to get up close to see the modification.” I interrupted before he turned to the recon leader. “They were under orders to keep back a distance. We were close enough to throw rocks and hit it.”
Schaeffer gave me a nod. “A wise choice. It does confirms what recon observed. There’s no one manning the shuttle. If they’re that lax on security, we should send a team to secure it.”
“Better than destroying it.” Remy seemed to relax next to me. As an engineer, any plan to destroy the machine probably grated on his nerves.
I only gave him a glance, focusing on the mission, not Batista’s whispering in my head. “What about their mother ship? Any word on it?”
“Our probes haven’t detected any other ships. It may be they time their passage to avoid us. They come in, load what ore they can and take off again. So, we might have just missed them.” Schaef nodded.
“Then they’re not due back for weeks. Unless they know we called in our sister ship.”
“If they know, they haven’t notified these guys. I see no change in their operations.” Schaef faced the group, getting no more input. “Tomorrow we send our reports on the lowest broadcast range possible, then it’s a go.”
One of the officers pointed out several men. “We’ll take the shuttle.”
Schaef nodded, pleased this group seemed on top of the action. He stood up. “Hit the sack. I need you all on your top game in the morning.” He waite
d until all the other team leaders left, looking at me. “You too.”
Morning came with a knot of apprehension that Lizzy’s mother would say was premonition. I hoped it wasn’t, suiting up in full military battle gear. Remy sat by the fire when I came out of the tent. He had on full battle gear too.
“What are you doing?” I walked up and flipped the open epaulet. “You don’t need all this. Not here.”
Remy looked up at me. “If I was staying here.”
“You are!” Both my personalities stepped up. “There’s a big difference between basic training and assault training. Schaef!”
Remy stood up, blocking my path. “I’m going! Someone needs to be on the shuttle team who can decipher what those weapons do and figure out any changes in the original design.”
“Yes. We do.” Schaeffer stepped out of our shuttle, slinging a laser rifle over his shoulder. “Either we have someone who can instantly unscramble engines from weapons, or we destroy the shuttle.”
“Then destroy it.” I had to step around Remy. “This was never part of the deal.”
“It was!” Remy pulled me back around. “I joined the same Alliance you did, accepting the same risks you did. There were no guarantees we’d serve it all in peacetime, never having to defend our oaths.” He jerked his thumb to the rest of the teams. “I have a job to do and I’m going to do it.”
Batista raged inside me, while my Kazan half stepped back. He was right. Schaeffer said nothing, already knowing what was probably going on in my head. “Yes, you do.” Batista kept screaming at me. “I know you know this, but follow your team leader’s orders, to the letter. If you get hurt, I’ll kill you myself.”
Remy didn’t smile, but pulled me back towards him. “I’ll be careful.” He gave me a quick kiss, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. “You be careful too. This is for real.”
“I know.” I reached up and fastened the epaulet to secure the rifle strap for his trek through the forest. Off to the side, Lizzy had a look of apprehension to match my insides. To my other side was his team, waiting. “You better go.”
Remy marched off with his team, greeted on the edge of the clearing by the Parredet. In seconds, they were gone.
Schaef was also readying his team to move out. I wanted to slap him, or was that Batista. I rubbed my forehead. Maybe this was reaching full integration, not knowing whose emotions were whose.
Just in case, I gave Batista a push back into the recesses of my mind. The last thing I needed was emotional distractions. I joined my team.
It wasn’t the job I picked, but dictated by Parredet. I was the equivalent of Yinet in their eyes, the leader of the humans. I could go no further than the perimeter line. As leader, I had to remain a step up, a step outside of battle in order to see the entire picture.
At least that was how Lizzy explained it. All our women soldiers, who had earned their positions, were assigned to perimeter teams, leaving the invasion to ‘the men’. Not that we wouldn’t see action.
Once the assault began, the miners and security would seek cover in the forest, where we ‘women’ would be waiting. Except for Lizzy, thankfully.
She remained at the command post with Yinet, waiting to help where ever needed as wounded were brought in to be triaged. There would be wounded and in the end we all had one job, to defend the Parredet.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Schaeffer broadcast the order.
From the tree line, our soldiers flooded out into the camp. The surprise attack worked. Miners fumbled about, confused to see Alliance bearing down on them. The ones with their wits about them pulled weapons, too slowly for the snipers in my group. They fell where they stood.
Some tried to make a run for the forest, but were tripped up by the debris they’d so carelessly tossed aside. If they made it into the trees, and past my line, the Parredet would be waiting for them. The assault was on.
From my vantage point, I could see the entire field. The miners who didn’t run looked for leadership. I followed their searching glances, seeing a cluster of armed men by the drill. They used the massive tires as shields. “Schaef! Under the drill. Expect fire from that location. Whoever’s in charge is there.”
“Confirmed!” Schaeffer waved a team around to a position to get a bead on them. At the same time I set snipers on them. I let myself look towards the shuttle. We couldn’t bring in our shuttles until we captured or destroyed theirs.
The third team’s advance party charged the plateau, reaching the shuttle with no resistance. The rear access was open wide, not a miner or security person close enough to stop them. They gave the signal for the second half of the team to rush the shuttle.
From the drill I could see them realize they were about to lose their shuttle. One man viciously waved his arms and two security men made a run for the ramp carved in rock from the valley to the plateau. “Team Three! A couple armed security coming up. Snipers, take them out!”
“Yes, ma’am!” I got multiple responses and saw the two security dodging the hail of bullets and laser fire coming their way now. One went down, the other jumped to the valley again and gained cover.
The one who’d sent them shoved another man from the protection of the drill’s massive body. He made it to the far side, hiding behind another tire. I passed the information to Schaeffer and our line to work around to his position.
I looked back to the shuttle as the other half of the team appeared at the edge of the forest and made a dash for the shuttle. I saw the first of our men hit. He staggered, but recovered.
“Where’d that come from?” I swung around to the various trajectories and saw two men on the other side of the valley, what must have been their perimeter security. “Snipers, Southeast…” I passed on the reading from my visor. Immediately we returned fire, trying to provide cover as the team made the shuttle.
I could see Remy, inside a knot of soldiers. The security detail didn’t let up, even under combined fire. Remy jerked and fell.
“NO!” I started to lunge forward, through the perimeter, but my liaison officer drew me back. I struggled against her grip, looking to Remy. “REMY! Report.”
Two soldiers grabbed him by the arms, towing him up the ramp while the rest of them closed ranks.
“REMY! REMY!”
“Col. Kazan!” The liaison officer jerked me around. “Kazan! Col. Schaeffer reminds you of battle protocol. Maintain open channels.”
“Let go of me!” I jerked loose. “I know protocol.”
“Col. Kazan! This is Team Three. Batista says to chill!”
It was what he’d say, relieving me slightly. “Fine. Secure that shuttle. Kazan out!” Knowing they had him, I returned my focus on the battle. As hard as our first line tried to keep the miners contained, the purpose of our second line was tested.
From my higher vantage point we passed on the coordinates of weak points in our line. Orders were clear, return fire, but subdue anyone surrendering. I doubted there’d be many with valuable information, other than those under the drill.
I kept Schaeffer aware as they moved closer to the cave opening. “Schaef, the one in the grey jacket is in charge. We need him.”
“From the heavy fire they’re laying down, I doubt this will end well.” He’d sorted out his own assault team, our snipers providing backup as Schaeffer moved closer and closer to the drill.
The grey-coated man kept himself surrounded by his security people, but part of them had moved to the other side of the drill, where I’d seen the man earlier. They started to return our fire, covering him as he climbed up onto the drill. Our snipers took out several of the men, but he made it into the operator’s box.
As he started to pull the drill from the hole, I saw the operator’s intent. “Schaeffer, that’s a laser drill. Get the men in the east quadrant out of there.” I turned to the officer in charge of the second line. “We need to get him, at all costs.”
Freed from the rock
face of the mountain, the laser started cutting a swath through the camp. The operator was shooting a slow broad band of laser fire, strong enough to cut through rock. He didn’t need to aim, simply sweep an area and destroy anything in the beam’s path.
“Everyone clear that quadrant, come around from the backside… wait!”
He shifted the laser upwards as he moved closer to the plateau. “He’s going for the shuttle! Team three, get that shuttle out of there, now!” I shouted the order, just as the skids lifted off the rock.
“They won’t shoot their own shuttle down.” My liaison officer tried to sound confident.
“Yes they will. This is a kill or be killed scenario.” I felt sick saying those words. Sicker as the weapon crested the cliff. “Get out of there!” I shouted over the comm, but nothing could stop what was happening as the laser grazed the port engine.
It exploded and the shuttle started spinning. Whoever was piloting fought the controls, but the spin brought it back into the beam, slashing into the fuselage. A second explosion in the damaged engine did what the pilot couldn’t, throwing the shuttle away from the ledge, out of range of the laser and into trees.
“Shuttle, report!” I was on my feet before my liaison could stop me.
The only ways to the plateau was the camp or the forest. Without the help of the Parredet, I couldn’t make it all the way around on my own, so I plunged down the steep path to the camp, ignoring the shouts of my liaison.
I ignored Schaeffer too, but not my training. I had my weapon charged and used it as I made my way across the rubble. The ramp to the plateau was on the other side of the drill. With the shuttle no longer a target, the laser was cutting down the cliff, rotating towards me. No, towards our second line.
Reaching Remy was my first priority, but duty kicked in. I slipped between tents and mining equipment, making my way to the drill.
Schaeffer wasn’t yelling at me anymore. Crouched behind an ore crawler, I saw him between a rock crusher’s tires. He signaled me to stay put, but that wasn’t going to happen.
