Recon- the Complete Series

by Rick Partlow

  I was dead certain sure I was about to take a round to the back, but I reached the next corner untouched. Everything after that was a haze of running and climbing and more running, barely realizing where I was until we reached the hatch and climbed up out of it, Moon and Abdi hauling the Tahni captive up between them somehow. I fidgeted as I waited for them, taking a moment to switch out the magazine of my rifle and loading up another grenade just in case.

  I fully expected a wave of Tahni to come through the door into the chamber and kill us all while we climbed back up to the surface, but even then, part of me knew I was being paranoid. The base only had so many personnel and most of those were hiding out from the bombardment...and I wished I could too. Once we reached the surface, we could see the electromagnetic defense shield lighting up the sky above us, flaring like an aurora as it dispersed the proton beams fired at the base from orbit. Lightning forked across the sky in every direction and the ground shook from the thunder.

  "Get to the LZ," Lt. Yassa told us, her voice tense now, echoing the conviction in my gut that we had to get out of here.

  The Tahni prisoner was awake by now but in a neural restraint web, so he as unable to talk or move. Moon and Abdi looked pretty winded carrying the big guy so Johnny and I subbed out for them. I slung my rifle and grabbed the ugly son of a bitch under the arms, walking backwards while Johnny directed me to avoid falling in the many craters.

  We were moving way too slow and I kept flinching at the thunderclaps as the shield shed one proton blast after another. Sweat was pouring down my back and into my eyes, and I was constantly blinking it away despite the bandana I wore around my head under the helmet. I wanted to drop the Tahni, rip off my helmet and wipe my face clear and the only thing that kept me from indulging that impulse was how much time it would take.

  "Set him down here," Yassa told me and I nearly threw the prisoner on the ground, grateful she was switching us out with Moon and Abdi again.

  Except she wasn't. We were here, at the LZ and Gunny Anderson was crouched next to the LT and holy shit , there was the lander! I could see it coming down on columns of fire from its belly jets, its wings folding up out of the way, ramp descending even before it touched down.

  I stared at it dumbly, gawking like a tourist as dust rose in a billowing cloud around us and debris pelted against my helmet's visor, until Lt. Yassa grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back a few meters.

  "Get your head in the game, Munroe," she said. "We're almost home."

  The words were admonishing, but the tone was friendly and good natured.

  "Yes, ma'am," I responded. "Sorry."

  "Nothing to be sorry about, Private," she said, chuckling as she watched the lander touch down. "You did very well. Everyone did." She turned to face me and I could see the corner of her mouth turned up through her visor. "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you're a Lance Corporal by the time we get back to Inferno. And the best part is, we didn't lose anybody."

  I found a spot in an acceleration couch near the rear of the lander and Johnny strapped into the one next to me, uncharacteristically silent. I linked my helmet systems with the lander's exterior cameras and watched the ground fall away as the jets pushed us back into our seats. Near the horizon, the penumbra of shielding over the base was glowing an angry crimson now as one blast of accelerated protons after another pounded into it. Then there was just one hit too many and it dissipated, the angry glow fading to darkness like a wave crashing.

  As we started to go over the horizon and lose sight of the Tahni base, I saw streaks of fire in the atmosphere from Gauss cannon rounds hurtling downward like the judgment of Heaven. That could have been us , I thought, still staring as it all turned into a faint glow over the curve of the moon, then disappeared behind the clouds.

  "Jesus," Johnny murmured next to me. "We did it, dude. Popped our cherries."

  "Yeah," I said quietly. I looked around at where Lt. Yassa was huddled with Gunny Anderson, going over a mission report on a tablet she held between them. "I guess a lot of us did." I smiled a little, settling back against the seat. In my helmet's HUD, I could see us clearing atmosphere, could see the massive bulk of the gas giant visible now, hanging in the sky in front of us, godlike. For just a moment, I saw a face in that swirling mass of helium and hydrogen, and it whispered to me that it wouldn't always be this easy.

  Chapter Six

  My head felt like it was ready to split open, the bed seemed to be spinning in an opposite direction from the planet’s rotation and my mouth tasted like something had crawled inside it and died. I wanted to keep my eyes closed, but the spinning seemed to get worse when I did, so I opened them and saw a tangle of blond hair and an expanse of tanned flesh next to me. I could tell from the wayward rays of 82 Eridani filtering through the gaps in the window shades that it was light outside, and for a moment I panicked, thinking I’d overslept and missed morning formation.

  Then the thought penetrated my alcohol haze that I was on leave, and on a different planet. The quality of the hotel room should have told me that. Hesperides was a real city, built for the civilians on Eden, with none of the pre-fab, quick-spray, buildfoam bullshit they put everywhere back on Tartarus or everywhere else on Inferno. Eden was one more orbit away from 82 Eridani than Inferno, and a hell of a lot more hospitable.

  The bedside table was high-quality polymer infused with enough cloned pine to make it look like natural wood, and it probably wouldn’t even stain where I’d spilled my drink on it. The sheets weren’t the vat-grown silk that I’d been used to back in Trans-Angeles, but they were a damn sight more comfortable than military issue.

  And the girl… I propped myself up on an elbow and took a better look. She was very nice to look at and I grinned despite the headache. I hadn’t been so drunk, and wasn’t so hung over, that I’d forgotten the club last night. We’d started out at Eden’s official military R&R center outside the city, but Hesperides had beckoned to us like a siren from only a few kilometers away, and I believe I’d blown about a month’s pay last night, counting my half of this hotel suite.

  “Morning,” the girl next to me mumbled, pushing the hair out of her eyes, which were blinking open. She looked young; about as old as me, I guessed, maybe a year older if I was any judge.

  “Good morning,” I said back, searching desperately in my memory and coming up with, “Judy.” I reached over to the nightstand and picked a breath-freshener out of a pack I had there and chewed it quickly, feeling a chill as it killed the excess bacteria in my mouth and on my teeth.

  Once it had done its work, I leaned over and kissed her and her arms slipped around my neck, pulling me down to her with a sound like a purr. She was the first girl I’d been with since Anna, and I was afraid it was going to be awkward, but we’d both been just the right combination of buzzed, bored and horny to make it work just fine. I hoped Johnny had been as lucky, but didn’t know for sure; the rooms in the suite were soundproofed.

  Things were getting intense and I had totally forgotten about my hangover when my datalink started beeping insistently and I broke off what I was doing and glanced at it in annoyance.

  “Why don’t you turn that thing off, Munroe?” Judy asked plaintively, grabbing at my head to pull it back to where it had been.

  “I did turn it off,” I insisted, frowning. “There’s only one thing that could make it turn on by itself…”

  I pulled away from her and grabbed it, checking the screen.

  LEAVE CANCELLED, it read, in the font that told me it was coming from Recon Command. RETURN TRIP BOOKED ON INTERPLANETARY FLIGHT. ORBITAL SHUTTLE LEAVES FROM MILITARY PORT IN ONE HOUR. BE ON IT.

  “Shit,” I muttered. I looked back at Judy. “I’m being recalled to base. I gotta’ go.”

  She squawked a protest as I jumped out of bed and grabbed my clothes, but I was too focused on the deadline to hear it.

  One fucking hour ? I thought. Are they serious ?

  I nearly banged my head on the door as I tri
ed to open it and pull my pants on at the same time, cursing under my breath. I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the well-appointed living room or the bar and entertainment center as I passed through it, hopping on one leg then another as I slipped into my shoes. I was pulling my shirt over my head by the time I got to the door for the other bedroom and had barely raised a fist to knock when Johnny burst out of it, clothes on, if askew, and bag in one hand.

  “This is fuckin’ bullshit, Munroe!” He exclaimed. “We just got back from a fuckin’ mission! We’ve only been here two fuckin’ days! We were supposed to have a fuckin’ week!”

  “Yeah,” I agreed readily, but then shrugged. “But that means it’s probably something big, Johnny.”

  He considered that for a moment, and a grin slowly appeared on his face. “Yeah,” he said. “And it’s something they want us for…First Force Recon.”

  I nodded, grabbing my ditty bag off the couch where I’d thrown it when we’d checked in.

  “Ladies!” I said loud enough to carry into both bedrooms. “Check-out’s tomorrow morning at oh-eleven-hundred! Drinks are on us till then!”

  I heard a “Bye, Munroe!” from the bedroom as I closed the door behind us.

  ***

  “Where the hell have you guys been?” Muhammar Abdi asked as we stepped into the Ready Room in our platoon area, dragging our load-out bags behind us.

  The bare, cavernous hall was packed with the whole Platoon except for Gunny Anderson and Lt. Yassa, and everyone was armored up, except for their helmets, and stuffing gear into their bags from a pallet that had been dropped in the middle of the floor. And the climate control was shit here, which meant it was hot and humid with that many people in the same room.

  “Our shuttle landed like a half an hour ago,” Johnny snapped, dropping his bag next to the pallet, then squatting down beside it. “We were on fucking Eden, man. You know, like the next planet over?”

  I chuckled at Johnny’s acerbic temperament, letting him do the talking while I started grabbing loaded and charged Gauss rifle magazines for my ammo load.

  “Rookie move,” Sgt. Gomez commented, not looking up from the magazines he was stuffing into his tactical vest. He looked like his arm had completely recovered from the wound. “Every time you take leave off-world, some shit’s going to go down.”

  “We both got laid by real, live females,” Johnny countered, grinning broadly now, “in a first-class hotel suite in Hesperides, while you losers were stuck here jacking off to Virtual Reality.”

  “What’s the op, Sergeant?” I asked Gomez, interrupting the banter and bullshit with a question no one else had been willing to answer yet.

  “No word yet,” Gomez told me, shaking his head. “It’s just our platoon, too, from what I can tell. The LT sent us all here to gear up and she and the Gunny have been gone ever since.”

  “Well, ain’t that shit all mysterious?” Johnny mused, checking the feed ramps on a Gauss rifle mag clinically. “I guess word got around of how tacti-cool this platoon was on our last op.”

  “I didn’t get to fire a fucking shot,” Abdi complained sourly. “Me n’ Moon got stuck hauling that big, dumb-ass Tahni around while you guys had all the fun.”

  “If either you or Moon want to get your asses shot next time,” Gomez looked at Abdi like he was being a complete moron, “then I’ll be happy to haul around an EPW for you and let you take my spot.”

  “And blown up,” I added, shrugging. “Don’t forget being blown up.”

  Gomez offered me a forearm and I bumped it with mine. I’d wound up with a slight concussion and a few minor puncture wounds from shrapnel, which made us the two WIA for the op; which, absurdly I thought, gave us both immense street cred with the rest of the platoon. And I’d been bumped up to Lance Corporal, just like Lt. Yassa had said, and also been put up for a Bronze Star. That had blown my mind, but the LT had insisted, because I’d been the one to capture the Tahni.

  “Officer on deck!” Gomez shouted abruptly, jumping to his feet and snapping to attention.

  I followed suit automatically, which left me facing away from the door when whoever it was came through. I expected the LT, and also expected her quick “at ease,” but I didn’t get either. Instead, Captain Kapoor stepped into the center of the room, trailed by Gunny Anderson. Both men were armored and armed, their helmets tucked against their sides as Kapoor looked us over carefully.

  They were a study in contrasts, I thought. Kapoor was sharp and precise, like a sword, while Anderson was a blunt instrument from the flattened, crooked nose to the square jaw.

  “At ease,” Kapoor said finally.

  I shifted to the more relaxed position and turned my head slightly to look at him directly. He was looking at me, as well, which made me very, very uncomfortable.

  “I won’t keep you for long,” the Captain said. “We need to be wheels-up in two hours.” He looked around and nodded. “Two no-shit hours, not ‘get on the tarmac and wait three hours to load then wait two hours.’ This is time-sensitive. I came here to let you know that I will personally be leading your platoon for this operation. This is not because I lack confidence in Lt. Yassa, but because I was personally requested by higher.”

  Shit , I thought. They were leaving the LT behind? That didn’t feel right.

  “Sir,” Sgt. Gomez asked, carefully and respectfully because you didn’t fuck with Captain Kapoor, “can you tell us what the op is?”

  “I can’t tell you,” Kapoor answered, “because they haven’t told me .” My eyebrows rose at that. That really didn’t sound right. “We’re going to be briefed at the rendezvous point. This is need-to-know shit, ladies and gentlemen.” He looked around once more. “All right, get back to work. Squad leaders, you’re out of here and on the trucks to the spaceport in an hour. Everyone got that?”

  “Aye-aye sir!” came the antiphonal chorus of responses.

  “As you were,” he threw over his shoulder on the way out the door, not waiting for the formalities. The hall erupted in voices behind him as everyone in the platoon started expressing disbelief about Lt. Yassa.

  “You heard the man!” Gomez belted, his voice blending with the other squad leaders. “Cut the chatter and wrap this shit up! I want your load-outs ready for inspection in ten minutes!”

  I started yanking my gear out of its bag, checking it one last time before Gomez did. We were all pretty much squared away at this point, but if anyone forgot anything he’d embarrass the shit out of them.

  “Captain Kapoor leading us, man,” Johnny was muttering, not looking up from his gear as he patted down each pocket of his tactical vest to check the load. “And someone up high asked for him. This is some serious shit.”

  I didn’t respond, not wanting to invite a dirty look from Gomez, but I nodded.

  Where the hell were they sending us?

  ***

  “Where the hell are we?”

  I wasn’t sure who’d muttered the question; it had come over the general platoon band. But I agreed with the sentiment. I stared around at the airless, lifeless rock of a moon where the shuttles had dropped us off, stared at the black, star-filled sky and wondered why we’d been brought out here.

  We were gathered on a flat, featureless plain that served as a landing field, far enough away that we couldn’t feel the heat from the shuttle’s landing jets as it returned to the troop transport in orbit, leaving us holding our weapons, our loadout bags and our proverbial dicks. The only other ships on that barren tabletop of packed silicate were three…well, I didn’t honestly know what the hell to call them. They were about the size of the new missile cutters the Fleet had shifted to recently, after we’d lost a good chunk of our cruisers at the Battle for Mars. They were about as small of a ship as you could cram a Transition drive into, maybe a hundred meters long and half that wide.

  But the missile cutters were very utilitarian deltas, not much to look at. These boats…they looked like someone had modeled them on a bat, after taking hallucin
ogenic drugs. They were dead black, and their curves were almost artistic, but I had a sense they were design to shed radar and lidar. I didn’t see any visible weapons mounts or ports, but those were probably internal to avoid sensor reads as well. They had to be experimental and probably Top Secret, Need-to-Know. Maybe that was why we were meeting whoever we were meeting all the way out here, wherever the hell here was.

  They hadn’t told us a damn thing on the ship, and they’d locked us out of the systems so we wouldn’t find out that way, either. We’d been in Transition Space for three days, which was long enough to have gone several light years in any direction from 82 Eridani. Maybe if I had a star-field recognition app in my helmet, I could have figured it out; but I didn’t, and it wasn’t as important as where we were going.

  “Shut up and move out,” Gunny Anderson snapped. He sounded about as nervous and uncomfortable as the rest of the platoon, but at least he could take it out on us.

  We were going off our internal air supply and we were all painfully conscious of how limited that was as we paced across the landing field behind Kapoor and Anderson, heading for a bunker mostly buried under a mound of the same white sand that covered everything else.

  Why the hell would anyone put an outpost on this piece of shit rock ? I wondered.

  We had to cycle through an airlock a squad at a time, and I tried hard not to grit my teeth waiting for the troops in front of us. I hissed out a sigh when we filed out of the airlock into a chamber full of suit storage lockers and spacesuit maintenance equipment, dropped our gear in piles by squad and began to pull off our helmets. The air inside was stale and recycled but at least it didn’t smell like my armpits.

  A nondescript looking little guy in black Fleet Intelligence utility fatigues was waiting for us, talking quietly with Captain Kapoor near the door to a narrow hallway. That answered the question of why this base was here: it was an Intelligence listening post, probably keeping an eye on Tahni movements through a Transition Line hub system.