Raiders

by Malone, Stephan

  “Great. And what makes you think I am going to do this?” Kama asked.

  “Because,” Colonel Berg returned and pulled his service pistol from its holster with his left hand and pointed straight at Kama’s forehead, “Because I said so, that’s why! You are going to get those kids back safely or I will end you myself! Personally. Alone.”

  Everyone in attendance froze in place, stunned at the General’s unpredicted cholericity. Sergeant Chale spat out, “Sir!”

  The General replaced his pistol. “Relax Sergeant. I’m not serious. Just a little tweaked right now.” He puffed at his pipe and exhaled a cone of smoke to his left side. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Back to the cell or back to your home city to rescue those kids, Kama. It’s one or the other, you decide.”

  Kama paused for a moment and said, “Fine. What’s your beta plan?” She rejoiced in her heart at the prospect of redemption, secretly.

  “You will be part of an intercept team who will travel to Reso by Solarbike. When you reach the outer fringes you will stow the bikes and gear and walk the remaining distance into the enemy city. You will then lead an infiltration group who will sneak into the Reso underground and extract our kids then get them back safely home.”

  Kama said, “That won’t work.”

  “It’s going to have to work, we don’t have another plan!” Berg said.

  “How about this,” Kama offered. “I go in with someone posing as a prisoner. I can walk right in and pretend I was separated from my original group and returned with a capture. Then we rescue from within.”

  “Why is that a better plan than ours?” The General asked.

  Kama said, “Because, General, half the Tia Jing are tripped up on synthmeth and the other half on other things that you don’t even want to know about. If you attempted any attack them by force, the entire city of Reso would rush the group and there would be no chance of escape much less a rescue.”

  “I thought you said that they have no active defense at their entrances.”

  “They don’t. They don’t because there’s no need. The Jia Ting are in and of themselves their own defense. There is no organized force out there strong enough to make a dent in Reso. Not even you. Not even if you sent every single one of your soldiers there.”

  “Really?”

  Kama nodded, “Yes really. I know my own people General. Don’t you think that I know? Whoever you send down there would be captured, killed or maybe worse. Including me.”

  General Berg considered her offer. “Okay.”

  “Your only option is if I go in there as I described.” Kama said.

  “Fine. Give us a moment.” Berg and his six officers discussed Kama’s suggestion in huddled whispers. After three minutes the General announced, “Sergeant Chale. Give Kama a bunk in the Centre. Inform holding. We will draw up the details of the beta plan and debrief all actives.”

  “Sir.” Sergeant Chale said to Kama, “Get in.” Kama sat back down inside the cyclecraft’s cart once more.

  General Berg said to Chale, “Get her trained on a Solarbike. The sooner the better.” He knocked the spent ash from his pipe against a treebase. “And get her leather suit or whatever it’s called conditioned and ready for use.”

  “Yes sir!” Chale said.

  It took five days for the Military senior brass to compile a logistical plan for the risky operation. Their beta plan had to work for if it didn’t then Mirabella, Calliope, and Dusty would have no chance of surviving. They would be lost forever somewhere in the underground prisons deep within the great Reso city. Normally they would have scrubbed the rescue mission since they had already lost more people trying to mount a rescue than were captured. But this was a special situation. The entire Polar City watched and waited for their honored Military to rescue the lost ones. It was the most talked about subject of the day for everyone around.

  The next morning Kama was directed to the motor pool to be trained on piloting a Solarbike. She learned the basics before long and after only an hour she felt at ease as she sat upon the alien craft.

  Kama shifted her thighs and balanced. The Solarbike pushed out a red beam straight out and across the training center floor. “Okay what’s that for?” She asked with a small bite to her voice.

  “Now that my dear is what they call a guider. She’s gonna point you where you wanna go. No way you’re gonna see that the dead logs and rocks and whatnot on the ground, especially in the thicks.”

  “So it predicts the best path. I get it, but how does it work?” Kama asked Kerron, a civilian mechanic.

  “Well she can see the ground, the surface far past your front wheel there. The bike knows what it can handle so it draws out that beam and all you gotta do is keep ‘er straight, parallel to the bike.”

  Kerron smacked a razor utility knife into the large front tire and then pulled it out. The previously straight blade was bent over into an eighty degree angle. “Now these tires here, you don’t gotta worry bout them blowin' on you now. The whole bike too. No worries, she’s all armored over. Even the bottom.”

  Kama rested her feet on the floor and straddled the bike with some difficulty. The Solarbike Series Five had large one hundred and fifteen centimeter tires. The wheelhub assembly was covered in some kind of an ultra-thin and lightly armored cloth. The Solarbike’s frame was one solid arc from the front wheel axle to the rear cassette and was slung high off the ground. It made Kama feel like she was going to keel over at any moment. She had to tippy-toe with her left foot to touch both sides, the right foot firmly down.

  “Hah! Whatcha doin’ there girl? You don’t gotta do that now! This ain’t a bicycle yer dealin' with!” Kerron patted her right outer thigh. “Cmon now, lift ‘em off there. Don’t be fraid.”

  Kama lifted her feet slowly away while she considerdd that he was perhaps the friendliest if not the flirtiest mechanic she had ever met in her entire life. Kerron straddled the Solarbike’s front wheel and faced Kama who instinctively wiggled herself against the unnatural balance. “See there? Gyros keep you right on up an' true!”

  “Great.” Kama relaxed her composure. “Okay so this thing is electric obviously. Why does it also have pedals? This must weigh two hundred kilos. Who the hell can pedal it?”

  “Well the pedals there, they give you option of a manual assist type deal. Never know when you may need a little extra get up and go. Prolly won’t need them though. They’re there anyhow. And she only weighs 15 kilos by the by. I know she don’t look like it but that’s the God’s honest truth. Now the streamers, let me show you those.”

  Kerron leaned over the handlebars until his head was ten centimeters from Kama’s face. She retracted back but said nothing. “Yeah here we go now. Check this out.” He thumbed a rocker style toggle that was mounted on the right-side handlebar and then flicked it up. The toggle warmed itself into a pleasantly dim mistblue glow. The Solarbike whirred and what appeared to be five flimsy plastic ribbons sprang out from the vehicle’s rear. They looked like something that would fly out of a clown car at the circus. “Now these here, they're the chargin’ ribbons. They’ll work as long as there’s sunshine whether you’re movin' or not. Try an’ keep ‘em out as much as you can.”

  “They look like they’ll rip right off the bike!” Kama said.

  Kerron walked to the Solarbike’s tail end. Kama crooked her head to look behind. He grabbed the streamers and tugged and yanked at them with all his might. “Now these babies ain’t goin’ nowhere! See? When you’re movin’ they’ll work themselves out to about ten meters.” He rubbed his left hand on the surface of one ribbon. “Near zero friction. Tangle proof, too! You can buzz right on through the thickest blindscrub and they ain't gonna give you no problems no-how!” He walked to the Solarbike's front and flicked the rocker switch down. The five charging ribbons retracted into the Solarbike’s body with a ffffwwwwwhhrr.

  “This is stupid. We seriously are going to travel all that distance on these things? We have no protection. Why don’t
we just use the Transports they seem like a better idea,” Kama asked.

  “Nah,” Kerron said as he waved his hands with dismissal. “Here lemme show you somethin’ even better than the chargin’ ribbons.” He hopped onto the bike and put his arms around Kama. “Okay now see that switch just to the right of the ribbon switch I used? Flick that puppy on up thar.”

  Kama stiffened up at the abrupt closeness of Kerron, shook her head in mild disgust but complied with his request. Nothing appear to happen or change. “Okay now what?” She felt Kerron release his grasp from her waist. Directly in front of her face the air appeared to waver and slightly warp as if she were looking through rising air heated up from a firepit.

  “Woooo! Wooo-hooo! Lookey here! I’m a, wooo-hoooo! A ghoooosst!” Kerron jumped off the Solarbike and stood in front of it once more. “See now this here camouflage sends out a holo-film deal and it works really really well, yah see. Works even better when you’re on the move!”

  “But I don’t get it, I can see my own arms and now I can see you too.”

  Kerron raised his hands while he talked. “Yeah you sure can! But that’s just because I’m not on the thing any more. Only works when you’re sittin' on it, and you yourself won’t appear invisible to your own eyeballs.”

  “How did they do that? This is amazing!” Kama wondered.

  “Really don’ know. Know how ta fix ‘em though. Mostly modular replacement parts and all that.” Kerron lowered his hands and pointed to the handlebars. “Okay now, turn ‘er off.”

  Kama switched the camouflage function to off. “Why can’t they use this camo thing on the Transports?”

  Kerron scratched his head. “No point, really. They’re way too slow and way too noisy. The camo only works if you’re runnin’ silent and small.”

  “That makes sense,” Kama said. “Just how silent is this thing anyways?”

  “Silent? I’ll tell you how silent!” Kerron reached over to the left side handlebar and grazed Kama’s right breast as he did so. Kama shuddered yet incredibly enough she remained unruffled. He flicked a large unlit rocker switch down. “There.”

  “Great,” Kama said with a detectable sharpness in her timbre. “What was that for?”

  “Heheh. I just shut 'er off! Been runnin’ this whole dang time!”

  Kama looked across the tall front tire’s lines. “Wonderful,” she sighed.

  “Now the camo’s gonna suck about twenty percent of your power there. So either you can go really fast with no camo active, or not-so-super-fast but with the camo goin’.”

  “Got it,” Kama said.

  The training room’s door opened and General Berg walked in with three other officers and two soldiers. Kerron said, “Hey there General! I think she’s got the hang of it now. She should be alright.”

  “Good to hear Kerron. Thank you.” The General looked back to the still opened door and said, “Here’s who we’re sending with you for your team Kama. Guys, come on in.” Kama nearly jumped off the Solarbike. Berg said, “I believe you’ve already met Julian. He’s our most capable field mechanic in active duty. He will be operating the portable auto turret you guys will need and also handle any mechanical contingencies. We assigned Aurelia as well not only because she is only one of three people in the City who can run the neutrino long range radio but also because she insists on going.”

  Behind Aurelia stood a man who looked to be in his later twenties. He was fit and muscular, hair buzzed high and tight with a little tuft of facial hair on his chin. He wore black segmented armor with what looked like small hooks at the elbows and wrists. There were mounting points on the arms legs and torso segments for various bolt-on ordnance. The skin on his neck appeared to shimmer and glint against the training room lights, subcutaneous implants that provided additional protection to the carotid and jugular vessels. Usually nobody opted for them since the procedure was irreversible. Once shelled, always shelled. Kama wondered how many of the implants he chose. Probably his entire body, she thought.

  General Berg said, “And this, this here is Revon. Revon is going to be your travel leader and guide. He'll get you guys down to Reso, sure enough. And from there Kama will go in with her phoney prisoner, either Aurelia or Julian. You guys can fight it out between you two. Get in, rescue the kids out of there, then break away and hold a camp as far as you can away from the Raider city. Aurelia will notify us by neutrino radio when you succeed. Any questions?”

  “Yeah I have a question,” Aurelia asked. She casually pointed at Kama. “Does she really have to go with us sir? I think all us soldiers should just go down there together and kick those fucking Raiders back into the lower Wastes.”

  “Did you or did you not volunteer for this operation? I’m confused here Aurelia,” the General asked as his face reddened.

  Aurelia said, “Yes sir I did.”

  “Okay, any other questions?” General Berg asked with a peppered cadence to other.

  Julian asked, “You really think this is gonna work sir? I mean there’s just four of us and my auto turret. It can handle maybe ten or fifteen Raiders but beyond that, I really don’t know.”

  Berg extracted his pipe from his pocket and then said, “It’s going to work. You have to think that way otherwise it won’t. Logistics group says any more than a team of four will be too slow. We need to be there now. Hell it may be too late already. And don’t worry Julian. You’ve got Revon here. He’s better than any robot gun.”

  Everyone looked at Revon who simply stared at General Berg as if he placidly listened to a lecture on integrals and first derivatives.

  “Very good,” the General said. “You will ship out in forty-eight hours. Got a team who will help you pack what you need. They have all kinds of special stuff they’ve been dying to use for such an occasion. Toothpaste that doesn’t need water, that kind of thing. Anyways soldiers, do your City proud. We’re all counting on you.”

  Aurelia gleamed over to Kama who still straddled the trainer Solarbike. “Yeah this is going to be just awesome,” she said.

  Thirteen

  Two days passed. Julian, Aurelia, Kama and Revon set out from the Polar City. Logistics assigned the best possible travel order for them and determined that Revon would lead (General’s orders), then Kama, Julian with Aurelia in the rear. Aurelia carried the least weight and would be capable of catching up with the pack in the event that she fell behind. They originally thought that Kama should have been third based on the tactical computer simulation runs but the personality conflict with Kama and Aurelia precluded them from being next to each other. The logistics team considered that these were actual, real people who were going to be doing this run, not four computer generated sprites in a clever military simulator.

  On the first day they covered one hundred fifty kilometers without any resistance. Revon started them out slowly first with an average speed of thirty kilometers an hour until everyone became accustomed to the Solarbikes’ idiosyncracies. After that he ramped the pace up to forty, then forty-five or about twenty-five miles per hour. For a normal road or even a clear path it wouldn’t have felt fast but at these speeds the experience felt rushed as they traveled through the heavy foliage. Branches and leaves whipped and snapped at them as they went by although they did not feel anything since the four were fully armored crown to heel.

  The whole affair felt strange and decidedly alien to Kama as they rode along to Reso. The only things that she could see were her arms and her Solarcycle and Revon's vague and blurred outline twenty meters ahead. She felt as if she was alone even though there were three people with her. Kama used Revon’s guidance lasers which sprawled out thirty meters ahead of the pack.

  The Sun set. They stopped and made camp in a lightly forested patch about three quarters of the way up the side of a hill that faced south.

  “My legs are killing me,” Aurelia said. “I kept trying to assist my bike with the pedals. Think I overdid it.” She plopped down onto a overturned log and rubbed her left calf.r />
  “Take these.” Revon reached into his Solarbike’s holding bin and ruffled the contents within. He withdrew a small vacuum sealed plastic sheet. Inside were seven pills of varying sizes and colors. He handed one pack to Aurelia.

  “What the hell are these?” Aurelia asked.

  “Special mix,” Revon responded. “I make these myself before I go out on extended trips. You allergic to anything?”

  “No,” Aurelia said.

  Revon said, “Good. Take ‘em. Get some water out of your bike there.”

  Aurelia screwed up her face and shook the small plastic pack midair. “I’m not takin’ anything until you tell me what's in these.”

  Revon rubbed his neck. “Fine you big baby. Garlic, cayenne pepper powder, an antacid, krill oil, trace minerals. The big one’s a potassium and magnesium pill and an aspirin. They will help you feel better and also increase your blood flow and flush out your lymph.”

  “Fine.” Aurelia broke the pack open and popped them into her mouth. She took a swig from her silvercloth water canteen.

  Julian set up the portable autocannon to protect their small campsite. When he unfolded it the five legged carbonsteel penta-pod rose to a platform about a meter and a half tall. Once the autocannon was set up he secured it to the forest floor with reusable tungsten spikes. He hammered the spikes through wide rings that were welded to the platform footers. The cannon itself looked like a toy-like simple box with a rounded top that was flat black.

  Julian spoke into his armband. “Cannon four one seven seven. Go live.” The small box beeped twice and then once more to confirm that it was activated. The entire assemblage weighed less than it appeared, about five kilograms all told from its feet to the scanner cap.

  Kama vigilantly scanned the camp's perimeter, Coilgun extended and scope collapsed. Her Coilgun’s reticle crossed Julian as he set up the autocannon. Aurelia thought that Kama slowed her visual sweep when Julian came into focus but then supposed that it was just her imagination. Aurelia kept half an eye on Kama nevertheless.