by Mel Odom
Zhoh knew of the woman, though he’d never met her. “She is a puppet of the Terran Alliance.”
“Not exactly,” Mato said. “She has been a strong leader of the Makaum.”
The answer surprised Zhoh.
“Who was it General Rangha was working through?” Zhoh knew the general loved playing at spy games. Rangha was not a true champion of the Phrenorian Empire, only a warrior resting on the accomplishments of his ancestors.
“Tholak. He is also a member of the Quass.”
“Where is he?”
“Currently, Tholak is trying to get his son Throzath from the holding cells in Fort York.”
“Why do they have him?”
“Throzath instigated the attack on Quass Leghef’s grandson this morning. Master Sergeant Sage took him into custody.”
Zhoh barely remembered the report he’d looked at earlier. Since assuming command of the Phrenorian forces, he’d had access to a lot more details of the Makaum campaign. Most of them he’d known from other avenues of intelligence, but he preferred the reports because they were concise and pertinent.
“Tholak is still accessible to us?” Zhoh asked.
“Tholak still hopes to negotiate a position in the Phrenorian occupation of this planet.”
“Have him dig into Quass Leghef’s plans. See if he can find out more about what’s going on.”
“I will.”
“This information about the abandonment of the sprawl is surprising,” Zhoh said, “and it is frustrating, but in the end it will give these beings small solace. After a few days of hardship out in that jungle, they will choose the comfort of servitude over whatever illusions of freedom they are currently harboring. We can let those hardships provide the convincing. Rebels are only a minor problem because they will only rebel until their path becomes too difficult. It’s the patriots that are dangerous. They won’t give up until they are dead.” He looked at Mato. “Where is Sage?”
The fact that the Terran master sergeant had survived the attack in the north sector had been astounding. Zhoh had learned too late that the well had been an opening to an underground river. By the time they had found the other end of it, Sage was gone.
Still, Sage’s continued existence offered Zhoh a chance to defeat the Terran in combat at some later date. Sage would not quit, the Phrenorian general knew, until he was dead.
“Sage is at Fort York, triarr.”
“Do you have eyes on him?”
“No. We have been trying to achieve that, but getting into the Terrans’ inner command circle has gotten much harder.”
“Find him. Whatever the Terrans are planning, Sage will be at the eye of it.”
Mato hesitated. “I will.”
“What?” Zhoh asked.
“There is one other thing. Something I thought you might enjoy.”
“Now I’m intrigued.”
Mato’s pheromones indicated that he was pleased with himself. He tapped the computer keyboard. A moment later, a media story spun onto the screen.
The image focused on Zhoh standing on the aircar with his rifle in his secondaries, bleeding from his chest wounds, and looking formidable.
“What is this?” Zhoh asked.
“This is from a media vidcast on a channel owned by the (ta)Klar,” Mato answered. “They are hailing you as a hero, the newly minted general of Makaum, who is fighting against cowardly Terran forces who tried to assassinate you.”
“The (ta)Klar are only presenting this to incite the Terrans.” Zhoh didn’t buy into the propaganda. “They’ve done this before on planets they gave up on acquiring. Before they pull out, they make sure the Empire and the Alliance are at each other’s throats. The more we pour into war efforts, the less we have to chase the (ta)Klar away from their predations on other planets. They are like krayari beetles feeding on offal.”
Zhoh tapped keys and went back to his reports. The pilots would arrive at the stronghold within a few hours. He awaited confirmation of that.
And he still wanted to know what the Phrenorian Empire planned to do to support his efforts on Makaum.
THIRTY-THREE
Huang Caravan
Southwest of Makaum City
0403 Hours Zulu Time
“Master Sergeant.”
The jumpcopter copilot’s voice came over Sage’s helmet comm and woke him from the light slumber he’d managed to ease into only minutes after departing Fort York. He blinked and pulled up the local map on his HUD. Sitting up a little on the bench seat that ran along the jumpcopter’s cargo area, he ran his hands over his combat harness and checked his gear.
“Yes sir, Lieutenant,” Sage replied. He studied the map in detailed relief. All he saw was jungle except for the wide swath created by the Yeraf River cutting through it 10.8 klicks to the southwest. The blue X that marked the rendezvous point pulsed slowly.
“We’re coming up on your drop point,” the young lieutenant said. “Three minutes out and closing.”
Sage couldn’t remember the woman’s name and had to pull it up on his screen.
Dundee, Alice, First Lieutenant.
“Copy that, sir.” Sage glanced back at the jumpcopter’s cargo area.
Murad, Jahup, and the other thirteen soldiers of his mission op sat armored up and wearing hang glider descent equipment. They were going to join Huang’s caravan en route approximately seven klicks out from the river.
Like Sage, Jahup had taken the time to sleep while sitting in the safety netting on the bench across the cargo hold. All of the other experienced Makaum hunters in the group had slept as well during the hour-long hop at treetop level.
Swaying with the jumpcopter’s movement, Sage stood and nudged one of Jahup’s feet with his own.
Jahup’s helmet rolled from his shoulder to face Sage.
“Time to rise and shine, Sergeant,” Sage said. “Get your teams ready.”
“Copy that, Master Sergeant.” Lithely, giving no indication of yesterday’s injuries or the fact that he’d just awakened, Jahup stood and swayed with the jumpcopter’s movement.
Sage, Murad, Jahup, and Culpepper headed up the four fireteams, each having their own squads, which were further broken down in command. Culpepper was leading the demolitions team, Murad had the snipers, and Sage and Jahup had split the heavy weps teams that would do most of the close-in fighting.
“Two minutes,” the lieutenant called back.
“Roger that,” Sage said.
He went through checking his team’s readiness. All of them packed a grenade-launcher-equipped Roley for lead weapons. They also carried monofilament-edged boarding axes for when they were hand-to-hand inside the vessels if it came to that. Projectile weapons would be dangerous inside the Phrenorian submersibles. The final check was on the glide-assist pack. Without it, surviving the drop to the jungle floor would be next to impossible. The canopy crowned at two hundred meters.
“One minute,” the pilot called back.
Sage stood at the jumpcopter’s rear section and waited as the lift assembly dropped the boarding ramp. Wind rushed by him and moonslight filtered into the dark cargo area but didn’t highlight the armor with the camo function absorbing ambient light.
A sea of trees blew by beneath the jumpcopter, and they would be the most dangerous aspect of the descent. Even with the light-amplifying feature of the armor and the fast reaction provided by the artificial musculature, running into a tree could result in injury or death.
“Thirty seconds and counting,” Lieutenant Dundee said. “Good luck on the ground. Fifteen, fourteen . . .”
At zero, Sage hurled himself out of the jumpcopter and spread his arms. “Deploy glide assist.”
Deploying glide assist, the near-AI announced.
Immediately, the glide-assist pack unfurled along the backs of Sage’s arms and down his legs, becoming a four-pointed wing that gave him some control over his descent. Once it was in place, the wing caught the wind and slowed his descent hard enough to shake him. I
t wasn’t as efficient as the no-see glidesuit, but with the current setup he didn’t have to shed his armor. They were jumping off in the middle of the jungle. Stealth wasn’t an issue tonight.
The line of soldiers deployed behind Sage quickly. He marked the Makaum soldiers in his HUD and watched to make sure they were on task. Most of them had only worked with the glide-assist packs on computers and never physically deployed. The suits’ near-AIs would help with navigation.
As long as they trusted them and didn’t fight them.
“Zhulong,” Sage broadcasted over the frequency they were using for the op. “Zhulong, this is Fox Leader. Do you copy?”
“Fox Leader,” a calm female voice responded. “We read you. We see you. We’re switching on the beacon now. Confirm sighting.”
Zhulong, according to what Sage had been told, was a Chinese dragon of legend. He was also called the torch dragon because he created the day and night by opening and closing his eyes.
A heartbeat later, a reddish-orange beam sparked up from the jungle floor 288.8 meters to the south/southwest.
“Fox Leader confirms beacon, Zhulong,” Sage said. “We’ll be there in seconds.”
“Be safe, Fox Leader. And be careful. We’ve had trouble with kifrik over the last couple days. We think we hit on a spawn cycle.”
“Copy that.” Sage relayed the warning to his teams and adjusted his glide pattern to take him in the direction of the beacon. He watched the shadows spread across the tree canopy, but it was hard to discern details even with the light amplification ability of the HUD.
Kifrik didn’t have a way of controlling their body temperatures, so their internal heat dropped with the arrival of night and they blended in with their surroundings. Still, motion-activated sensors picked up some of them nearby as they scuttled across the trees.
“Webs!” one of the soldiers behind Sage called out. “I’m burning through!”
Fifty meters behind, laser beams torched a widespread web in two horizontal spots. Another laser beam burned through a large kifrik and set it on fire. The arachnid screamed and tried to scuttle away, but the flames quickly overcame it. Burning, it plunged through the trees and hit branches on its way to the jungle floor. Embers scattered, but no trees or brush caught on fire.
Lasers burned through a few more close calls, but the soldiers stayed on track and slid out of line only a few meters.
Within seventy meters of his destination, Sage headed down and tried to avoid the large trees during his descent. Twigs and branches cracked around him, and broken limbs tore at the glider-assist pack. He was still ten meters above the ground when the glider assembly took so much damage it finally shredded and gave up the losing battle.
Sage dropped like a rock and managed to land on his feet. He quickly rolled to shed velocity and got to his feet once more with the Roley at the ready. Instinctively, he took cover behind the thick bole of a tree.
Behind him, the other soldiers fell to the jungle floor as well. The noise they made crashing through the branches and thudding against the ground carried through the jungle.
Sage ticked off the arrivals, flicking through their injury stats to make sure all of the soldiers arrived unhurt. When they were all down, they ditched the remnants of the glide-assist packs and dumped them in the jungle. There was no need to hide them because after tonight the Phrenorians would know they’d been there.
Sage noted the three blips on the HUD’s radar approaching from the south/southwest. He turned to face them with the Roley at his shoulder. He sighted on the lead figure.
“On your marks,” Sage ordered.
The three other members of his fireteam posted up around him and took cover where they could find it.
“No one fires till I say so,” Sage said.
The three figures stopped advancing twenty meters out.
“Lieutenant Murad,” a woman said loudly enough for her voice to carry to the fireteams. She spoke English like a native and her voice held a singsong cadence. “I am Zhulong.”
“Approach, Zhulong,” Murad ordered. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
“I have two people with me.”
“We know. Bring them too.”
The three figures moved forward again and came into view. The lead woman was lean and tall, outfitted in combat armor with her helmet hanging at her hip. Her hair was short-cropped and framed her face. From her features and skin tone, Sage guessed that she was biracial, Chinese and European.
“Master Sergeant,” Murad said, “let’s say hello.”
Sage dropped his rifle into a carry position and stepped out from cover to join the lieutenant in his approach to the group.
“My name is Qiao,” the woman said. “Uncle Huang told me you would be joining the caravan. I am to be your guide.”
Sage glanced at the other woman, a younger version of Qiao, and moved on to the man that accompanied them. He recognized Fachang immediately.
Reaching out to shake the man’s hand, Sage said, “You get around.”
Fachang bowed his head. “As I have told you, Uncle is fully invested in Charlie Company’s efforts to save the Makaum people, Master Sergeant. He felt I would be most helpful in this endeavor. I agreed. If you will allow, I have a group of warriors who will be able to assist with your operation.”
“We’re not taking anybody inside with us,” Sage said. “That would be too confusing.”
Fachang looked like he wanted to put up an argument, but he bowed his head in acceptance. “Then we can cover your retreat should that become necessary.”
“That we’ll take,” Murad said before Sage could say anything.
“Then get your men sorted and let’s get moving,” Qiao said. “You’re going to have to cover a lot of ground quickly if you hope to catch up with the caravan.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sage said. “Just lead the way.”
Qiao waited till the soldiers were organized, then set off at a rapid trot, moving through the jungle like she’d lived there all her life. Fachang and the other woman fell in on both sides, running slightly ahead and on either side.
Sage ran with Fachang out on the right and his team followed as they crashed through the brush and frightened away nocturnal animals. Jahup and his team ran on the left side of the trail and followed the other woman. Murad and his snipers and Culpepper’s demo team ran the main route.
Sage hand-signaled Fachang to go to an independent channel so they could speak.
Fachang nodded.
“How far to the caravan?” Sage asked.
“Seven klicks,” Fachang answered.
Sage estimated the distance based on their current rate of speed. They’d make it just before daybreak and with less than twenty minutes before the appointed meeting time.
“Why so far away?” he asked.
“Qiao’s idea,” Fachang said. “She thought the run might calm your soldiers, get them loosened up, and have them focused on the battle ahead of them instead of lying around waiting for it.”
As he thought about that, Sage realized he would have done the same thing had he considered it.
THIRTY-FOUR
Ackurna Levee
Southwest of Makaum City
0448 Hours Zulu Time
Despite the unfamiliar and rough terrain, Sage knew the soldiers made good time and arrived twenty-two minutes ahead of the arranged delivery time. He crested a tall hill with Fachang at his side and gazed down at the Yeraf River gurgling contentedly in the valley a hundred and twenty meters in front of him at the bottom of the thirty-four-degree grade.
With the moonslight reflecting on the dark green water, the river gleamed blackly in the darkness. The thick stands of trees on the riverbanks looked dense and impenetrable, but narrow alleys ran through them that allowed Sage to scan the small clearing where the caravan had gathered.
Twenty-three vehicles, some motorized and some pulled by dafeerorgs, waited on the riverbank beneath the broad, leafy branches of the tall tr
ees around them. With all the foliage, the caravan personnel would be hard to see from overhead. It would take a low-flying jumpcopter or a drone to spot them, and even then the pilots of either would have to know what was being searched for.
“Qiao cleared out the brush so her sniper teams would have clear fields of fire to the loading area,” Fachang said. “In case they were ever found out by a crew of hijackers. Before you arrived and started hitting the criminal organizations, getting attacked was sometimes a problem.”
“She did a good job,” Sage commented. “If I didn’t know what I was looking at, if we weren’t standing here, I wouldn’t even see these areas. And the fields of fire for snipers are good.” He glanced around at the men and women Qiao had stationed in hiding places as overwatch.
“Uncle holds Caravan Master Qiao in the highest regard,” Fachang said. “She has worked with him on other worlds and she is very good at what she does.”
“She also knows that once we’ve initiated contact she’s to pull her people out and get somewhere safe?”
Fachang nodded. “On that, you can rest assured. To be honest, she is not a willing participant of this ruse. She wanted her team clear of any potential harm and did not wish to be here. Uncle had to bargain hard with her to get her assistance in your subterfuge.”
“If she’ll get them out of the way,” Sage said, “we’ll keep them safe.”
“True, but in either case, her work here as a caravan master will be over.”
“It’s over anyway,” Sage stated. “The Phrenorians aren’t going to hold back now. They’ll go public with all the munitions they’ve got hidden. That attempt on Zhoh provided the Empire all it needs to go to war.” He glanced at Fachang and spoke again in a neutral tone. “And if I’d found out about this operation, I would have shut it down anyway.”
Fachang smiled. “Qiao knows, Master Sergeant. As she’s gone about her business, the threat you have posed has been uppermost in her mind. Other than a betrayal on the part of the Phrenorians, you have been her greatest concern.” He paused. “She has never said that to me, but Uncle mentioned it in confidence.”
