by John Lumpkin
He laid out his plan to attack the Stoats, and dismissed his officers to brief their units. As Rand and Neil turned to leave, Hellastrae said, “Castillo, Mercer, a word.”
“Sir?” they responded in unison.
“Castillo, I’m not going to micromanage your part of the op, as much as Grogan wants me to. It’s your show; try to stick to the original plan, get those VIPs out and exfil without looking back.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Mercer, you can stay close to me, if you like. Not sure why Grogan insisted you come along; we’ve got our own guys to call in the ortillery. But you’ll be as safe with me as you will anywhere.”
Neil looked around. His M7 carbine felt heavy and clumsy in his hands, while the other soldiers carried theirs like they were an extension of their bodies.
He decided he liked Hellastrae. “If it’s all the same to you, sir, I’d prefer to stay with Captain Castillo.”
The big Ranger nodded. “Suit yourself. See you all back at the rally point.”
Sergeant Aguirre, scouting ahead, transmitted he could see the outer wall of the internment camp. Everyone stopped.
“Dragoon units dismount and stash your suits,” Rand whispered, and the command was passed around the company. “Snipers take up positions on the hillside, below the top.”
He found Staff Sergeant Ruiz, who looked utterly comfortable in the new Paladin suit Grogan’s troops had supplied. “You and the other Paladins stay here until we call for you.”
Ruiz nodded. While dragoons were made to haul troops around, Paladins were meant to be worn in combat, but they were noisy, hot and had enough metal that radar might pick them up. Ruiz and the five other Paladin drivers would wait, as would two medics in Hospitaller suits.
The rest moved downhill toward the city.
They were less than one hundred meters from the wall when a drone gunship found them.
Its missile came in from behind and to the left. It was a small one, but launched from where no one was looking. It roared in and exploded, killing one of Rand’s troopers and badly wounding four others.
Another one lost, Rand thought.
“Maldonado!” he transmitted to the head of his weapons team. “Sir!”
“Need a big hole in the wall.”
Sergeant Maldonado’s response was three bright orange explosions.
“Big enough, sir?”
Rand flipped his handheld to transmit to the entire company. “Everyone, through the breach. Ruiz, join us.”
Aguirre said, “Sir, that’s the civilian internment camp. We’re still several klicks from the VIP prison.”
“Got to get to the prison somehow,” Rand said. The civilian camp was quiet: It was night both in the sky and on the camp’s internal clock, so the curfew kept the streets mostly empty. Rand pointed at a broad north-south avenue a few blocks inside the camp’s eastern wall. “We’ll move along that road and blow through the north gate, and then we’ll be near the hotel.”
“Even if we have to fight the Hans along the way?” Neil asked.
“Better than in the open,” Rand said. He switched on his comm and described the route. “First Platoon will guard the breach and take care of the wounded. Second Platoon will leave fireteams along our route. Command Element, Third Platoon and Paladin section will exfil the prisoners.”
General Xie had a shivering HVAC tech working in the operations center when Shen Liang entered. In the middle of an attack, Shen thought. This is insane.
“What is arrayed against us, Lieutenant Colonel?” Xie asked.
“Several companies, General, possibly a full battalion, most likely consisting of their special operating forces and perhaps some of the surviving guerrillas. We just learned they have split into two groups, the larger of which is moving toward our anti-space defenses south of the city. The smaller is moving into the civilian internment camp. They are well-equipped, General, and supported by mortars and anti-aircraft lasers. We haven’t been able to get a ground-attack drone above fifty meters without it being shot down.”
A drop of sweat fell from the general’s forehead. “I have ordered our forces to protect the anti-space defenses. If the enemy can bombard our positions here, we are lost! What is the objective of the second group?”
“We don’t know,” Shen admitted. Although if you had managed to secure funding for a proper security system within the internment camp, I might have had better answers. “They are moving in small groups, and they may be trying to hide among the civilians, or moving toward another objective.”
Xie’s eyes narrowed. “They are going for their leaders.”
“General?”
“You should pay more attention to political matters, Lieutenant Colonel, as they can influence military ones. Governor Rivera is a political ally and friend of their President. They are going to rescue him before we can move him to Fengsheng. I will send our MP quick-response team into the camp. We are desperately short on fighting men and officers to lead them, so you will take the operations center security unit and reinforce the guards at the Goodnight Hotel. I will send a reserve infantry platoon to meet you en route. You will remove the prisoners and escort them to the port. One of our submarines will be there in four hours to take them on board.”
“Yes, General.” He went to his desk for his combat gear and found his gaze lingering on the photograph of his wife and daughters. You’re wasting time, he chided himself. The old bullet wound in his shoulder hurt for the first time in months.
Rand’s platoon moved out of the tent city and into the part of the camp that contained actual buildings, erected before the war. Fearful of an ambush, they sprinted across an intersection, but no one shot at them.
Neil was out of breath, coughing, as they took cover in the outdoor corridors of an abandoned apartment complex.
“Haven’t seen many of the locals on the street,” Rand commented. “Guess they’re being smart and laying low.”
“Rand, go ahead and leave me here,” Neil said. “I’ve been in space too long, and the gravity’s getting to me. I’m slowing you down. I’ll work my way back to First Platoon.”
Rand shook his head. “Nope. Best way to get back at Grogan is for you to survive the mission, and that means you’re staying with me. I might remind you I outrank you now.”
Neil snorted and rolled his eyes. “Like that’ll stand.”
Rand grinned back and activated his comm. “Third Platoon, that’s enough rest. Let’s go.”
They dashed the last three blocks to the northern wall of the internment camp and blew open a wide and undefended vehicle gate before crossing into an industrial park of low, gray warehouses. The Goodnight Hotel was just beyond.
It was surrounded by an eight-foot high wall of what the troops called “Texas barriers,” for reasons that were obscure to Rand. The entry gate was on the far side.
But we’re not going through the gate. Rand sent one squad up to a warehouse roof with a line of fire into the hotel parking lot, and Maldonado, with Ruiz covering him, rushed forward to a seam in the barriers and stuck a hefty pack of explosives to it.
“Charge is set; thirty seconds ‘til it goes,” Maldonado transmitted. He turned to run back to cover just as a Chinese autosentry drone rounded the nearby corner. It fired a spray of bullets, cutting down Maldonado.
Another one, Rand thought.
Ruiz was midstride when he was hit just below the knee; the Paladin suit’s armor stiffened and absorbed most of the blow, but the Green Beret lost his balance and fell forward.
But servomotors, battle software and muscles were already responding. Ruiz’s gun – an M18 large-caliber automatic rifle – hit the ground pointed at the drone, and he fired.
The drone wasn’t much, a shielded machine gun mounted on a tracked hull, with software that could handle driving over flat surfaces and killing people who it found out in the open and weren’t broadcasting the correct IFF codes. Its armor stopped the first dozen bullets from Ruiz, but the
rest cut into its interior, and it fell silent.
Ruiz rose and limped away, barely reaching cover before Maldonado’s explosives went off.
The hole wasn’t large, big enough for maybe two people at a time. Ruiz’s leg armor relaxed and he charged through, followed by Rand and Patterson.
About eighty meters away they saw panicking Chinese MPs running in several directions; the guards had expected the attack to come through the front gate, and thus had lined up inside the far wall. Rand’s rooftop riflemen opened up, dropping murderous fire into them, even as they sought cover behind the few planters and parked cars they could find. Shots from the guards wounded two of Rand’s troopers, and he left Ruiz and a squad to pull them to safety and cover the exit.
The Goodnight Hotel was three stories and U-shaped, with an outdoor pool in the interior courtyard. Rand, Neil and Patterson’s squad moved behind the structure and clear of the gunbattle. A single guard stood at the back door; Patterson, advancing, fired two rounds into her chest, and she crumpled to the ground.
They rushed inside, breaking into small groups to cover each wing and floor of the hotel. Fireteams moved from alcove to alcove, but no guards were inside the building … nor, apparently, were any prisoners.
Did they move them out already? Neil thought as he and Rand climbed some stairs to the third floor. They shouldn’t have had time …
“Hey, soldier!” said a female voice.
Neil turned. A head, poking out of a door, slightly familiar …
“Captain De Caxias!” CO of the Curtis Le May, lost in the Second Battle of Kuan Yin.
The woman looked stunned at being recognized. “We’re all holed up in here, all twelve of us. Have friendlies taken the city?”
“No, ma’am; we’re getting you out before they can move you off the continent.”
A broad-chested man pushed past her. “We’re ready to go. Where’s the transport?”
Rand stepped up. “General Chalk, I’m Captain Castillo. No transport; we’re going on foot.”
“Then give me your sidearm, Captain,” the general barked.
Rand complied. The other VIPs filed out behind the general, and several of Rand’s guerrillas surrendered their sidearms to the military prisoners. At least they aren’t demanding our rifles, Neil thought. The captives appeared to have been well-treated; they bore no evidence of torture or malnutrition. But three, including Governor Rivera, were advanced in age.
“Are we going to attack the military internment camp? I’ve got a lot of people in there,” De Caxias asked.
Aguirre said, “I’m willing to try.”
Rand shook his head. “We don’t have the firepower. The threat was they would move you guys to Fengsheng. They can’t move thousands of POWs, but we can’t, either. We’ll get them out when the Big Army gets to town. Now, let’s get out of here before we have to fight something more than prison guards.”
Outside, the Chinese guard force was defeated. Rand reformed his platoon, and they moved back toward the civilian camp. It quickly became apparent that the frailest of the VIPs were moving dangerously slowly, so Rand ordered the two medics in the Hospitaller suits to carry away the eldest among them. He sent ahead two more squads with the more robust VIPs, including General Chalk, leaving him with only Neil and Patterson’s squad to protect Rivera.
Governor Rivera was walking gingerly, clearly trying and failing to make his body run. Several of Rand’s troopers surrounded him like bodyguards, but Rand could see their discomfort at moving so slowly out in the open.
“Sir!” one of the squad’s spotters shouted. “Large convoy is coming our way, on the street that runs just outside the wall.”
I guess the easy part’s over, Neil thought.
“Through the gate!” Rand transmitted. He stopped just inside. “That tears it. Neil, Hal, Tim, and Patterson, get over here.”
“Sir?” Aguirre asked when they gathered.
“I’m going to hold the gateway as long as I can and slow down these jokers. Neil, it’s your command, which means you do exactly what these sergeants say. Get Rivera to the rally point if you can; otherwise, hole up in the city and hide.”
He wants to die. Neil opened his mouth to protest, but Aguirre spoke first.
“Sorry, captain, but you need to lead. You don’t get to abandon your people,” he said harshly. “I’ll be the rearguard. Give me someone to help.”
“I’ll do it,” Ruiz said quickly.
Rand looked between them. The hum from the approaching convoy grew louder.
He’s freezing up, Neil thought. The path was clear.
“Okay, Rand?” he said.
“Okay,” Rand whispered.
Neil nodded at Ruiz and Aguirre, and he grabbed Rand’s arm and pulled. “We’ve got to go.”
Maybe they’ll survive, Neil thought.
The squad had traveled about four hundred meters from the gate when they heard the low thumping of Ruiz’s M18, followed by single shots from Aguirre’s M6. Chinese rifles chattered in response. Ruiz and Aguirre had switched to their own private comm channel, but anyone listening in heard Aguirre calling for Ruiz to suppress certain targets, and Ruiz pointing out Chinese forces trying to outflank them.
Rand’s squad was a full klick away when they heard an explosion, and Ruiz’s and Aguirre’s comms and guns fell silent.
“They gave their lives for their country,” Governor Rivera said.
Rand ignored him. “What a waste,” he said, so quietly that only Neil could hear.
Chapter 21
NEW DELHI – In what analysts describe as an historic international coup, Prime Minister Varalakshmi announced Thursday that India had put in the winning bid for colonization rights to most of 10 Tauri V, the potentially terran world within European space, and had simultaneously struck a ceasefire in the ongoing border conflict with China. She announced that India would open peace negotiations with China over “a number of outstanding issues that outside forces have used to drive a wedge between us.” The move is said to have shocked Japanese and American officials, who had been counting on Indian support in the war with China and Korea. Analysts said the move all but guarantees Varalakshmi’s reelection next month, and it may mark a decrease in influence by Tyag Bahadar Singh, the powerful general leading the counterinsurgency in the former state of Pakistan. European Colonization Minister Claude Delvaux said India’s bid amounted to E228 billion plus a number of other considerations involving trade rights on Earth. Europa would also retain the colonization rights to the second-largest habitable continent on the new planet, or 20 percent of the primary continent if the world turns out to be in a single-continent geologic era.
USS Javier Benavidez y Diaz
Many off-duty personnel spent their downtime in the ship’s main mess, watching the orbital bombardment play out on a giant wallscreen. It was the next best thing to looking through a window, but those did not exist on an armored warship. Sequoia continent was coming into view below them, its green coastal patches still dwarfed by the great rusty deserts into which Earth life had not yet advanced.
Donovan was watching, trying and failing to take his mind off the news of India’s sudden withdrawal from the war effort. Ramesh had messaged a brief apology, devoid of explanation, and he had not replied to Donovan’s entreaty for more detail.
If they were misleading us, they sacrificed hundreds of lives in the border war with China in the name of a lie. But to what end? Maybe China agreed to stop funding the Punjabi rebels, or they are secretly funding their purchase of 10 Tauri V. It doesn’t make sense.
Komarov, wearing a solemn expression, entered and sat down across from him. Donovan had figured the admiral would avoid him in the days after learning his true line of work, but the Russian had actually sought him out more often. In their conversations, Komarov’s language had grown more technical and his discussions more revealing, almost as if he was glad Donovan was in the national security community and thus someone he could share his tho
ughts with on an expert level.
“Officer Calvin,” Komarov said, “I have come to say do svidaniya.”
“Admiral, I am not scheduled to drop to the surface for several more days.”
Komarov looked down at the table. “No, I am being … dismissed from the Diaz, I’m afraid. Very shortly a jumper will take me to the Kirov.”
“Dismissed? If there’s some kind of misunderstanding, I can talk to Admiral Cooper. She knows who I am.”
“No, no misunderstanding. The news has not been made public yet, but it will be shortly. I am afraid my government has struck a separate peace with the People’s Republic of China. They are ceding us all of their territory on Kuan Yin, excepting, of course, Sequoia, and they are turning over the Gliese 353, 20 Leonis Minoris, Rho Cancri, and GJ 1134 systems to us as well.”
That’s every way out of here, except for the wormhole back to American space, Donovan thought. All the systems we were going to conquer. They’ve won two wormhole chains that lead to areas outside the desert, so they may find more colony planets. And – my god, with the Indians and Russians out, the friendly fleet still around Earth is suddenly much smaller.
“We will, of course, be allowed passage through Chinese and Korean space to maintain commerce with our new possessions,” Komarov went on. “The Chinese will withdraw their troops from the planet under our protection. The citizens on Fengsheng will be allowed to stay and become permanent residents, or they may purchase passage on one of the European or Federation transports to another Chinese territory, if they wish.”
The admiral paused. He seemed distressed.
“Did you give them Siberia, Sergei?” Donovan asked.
“No, in fact, the Chinese only asked for a slightly greater portion of the revenue from our joint Siberian mining operations and permission to put unarmed monitors in a few places, to ensure Chinese citizens working in Russian territory are not being manipulated or abused.”
