Chase turned and jogged back to the elevator.
“Duty calls” said Ivan after pulling on his shorts and tee shirt. He leant down and kissed Jasmin gently on her forehead. She looked back up into his eyes and with her hand brushed back his hair. Ivan gently let her hand go and closed the door.
When Ivan reached the command centre he saw that his boss was also in his tee shirt and shorts. “What’s up?” he asked.
John gave him the same brief he gave Dave and then Dave added “I want you to analyse those transmissions. See if you can identify source and location of origin and map it to the holo by type. I want to know what if any are from official military sources, what relate to rogan operations and what relate to this uprising.”
“OK Sir leave it with me. It’s going to take a bit of time.”
“Do you want me to get Jasmin up here to help?” asked Dave.
“Oh I think she’s helped him already” said Chase with a mischievous grin.
Ivan cut him a disapproving glance and then turned to Dave “Actually that would be good Sir.”
Dave nodded to Chase who was more than pleased to hail Jasmin. “Ivan needs you up in the command centre” he said emphasising the ‘needs’.
Jasmin arrived, also in tee and shorts, with a demur look around the room and then a smile as Ivan patted the seat next to him. Dave noted this.
Jim arrived still trying to tuck his shirt into his trousers. It was all crumpled from where he had thrown it a few hours before. He looked around and saw most of the personnel in their shorts and tees. ‘He does things differently that’s for sure’ he thought.
“What’s happened?” asked Jim. Again John repeated his now well-rehearsed brief.
“Right, so how can I help?”
“Jim” said Dave “Ivan and Jasmin are sifting through the flood of transmissions as we speak. Hopefully they will confirm what I suspect is a rebellion or uprising that’s taking place in Niku right now. The rogan have the spaceport but they don’t have the city. That will be their next objective. We cannot let that happen. That uprising needs to be dealt with.”
“And with the rogan controlling the space and skies the Alliance aren’t going to be able to reinforce Niku are they?”
“No I suspect that those fighters were doing exactly that, interdicting Alliance reinforcements into Niku.”
“Mmm…makes sense. So what, you want us to go down there and put down this insurrection?”
“Probably unless we can make contact with either the military of government down there in Niku and determine that they have things in hand.”
Jim shook his head and said “How did you know this would happen?”
“I didn’t Jim I just knew something wasn’t right.”
“I wish I had your instincts” and he gave Dave a smile.
“OK. Chase let’s go into the briefing room and work up some contingency plans. John are you right here?”
“Yes Sir I know where to find you.”
‘Good man’ said Dave to himself as he turned leading Jim and Chase out of the command centre.
Chapter 11. Niku 0250, 22 May
Cpl Dai Shu was now point. They had been on the move for over seven hours now and all were weary. Art was pushing them relentlessly in a race against the dawn.
It was a shot fired at Sue 100m back down the line that shocked Dai out of her state. It was followed by a lot of shouting and then return fire from the junction she had passed a minute ago. “Contact right” hailed Sue. “Three hostiles 100m down this cross street. Engaging.”
“We’re not staying” ordered Art. “Dakota covering fire till the rest pass.”
“Roger” and Dakota rushed forward to where Sue was taking cover at the corner of the street. Dakota supported her Quanto pulse gun against the wall of the apartment building. She saw two figures now prone about 100m down the street. She took aim as they fired. Their rounds were high. Sue fired a burst at the same time as Dakota pressed the trigger.
“One hostile down” hailed Dakota in a calm voice. She squeezed off another five round burst. “Make that two. Aah, third one’s running Sir.”
“Good” said Art. “Come on. Dai step it out. Dakota were they rogan?”
“No” replied Sue “human.”
“What?” asked Buster.
“Creatures like us” said Dakota sarcastically.
“Very funny” said Buster as he was breathing heavily.
They were all very alert despite their fatigue. The adrenalin was pumping and helping them to pump their legs faster as they jogged to the next junction. The street lights were all out but the darkness was transformed as a vehicle’s headlights blazed from the cross street on their right. Dai shielded her eyes to prevent the thermals from washing out, gave a short burst at the light source and ran across the remainder of the street leaving Art to pull up short on the near side.
“Dai, turn left at the next. We’ll flank left and meet you there” said Art.
“Roger that” said Dai, now feeling very much alone. She could hear shots ringing out from back at the junction but she stepped it out and reached the corner of the next in under a minute. She glanced left and right to confirm they were empty and then ran across the intersection and headed up the street to the left.
A firefight was going on back there. The channel was filled with the voices of Art, Buster and Dakota ordering, reporting and confirming. They seemed to have things in hand.
“Dunstan’s down” called out Reg. “Oh shit I think he’s dead. He is dead. Oh fuck.”
“Come on Reg” hailed Buster “Keep moving.”
Reg could not believe that his mate was lying dead in front of him. He was frozen. He heard Buster’s hail but his mind had already isolated it like it had all other sensory reports other than the image in front of him.
He did however register the shove he received from the tail end Charlie, Specialist Akos Salaman, another Hermes veteran. It literally propelled him to his left a good three metres as Akos barrelled into him from his right. Akos grabbed his webbing with his left hand and literally dragged him across the rest of the intersection as pulse shot twanged around them.
Reg regained his composure. “Leave me alone. I’m all right” he yelled at Akos. Akos released his grip, glanced back at the intersection, saw the lights approaching from the left and realised they were not going to clear the remaining distance to the next intersection.
“Incoming vehicle” he hailed as he went prone in the gutter. He brought up his sniper rifle and looked down the barrel. He would not need the sights. The vehicle entered its right turn and received five aimed shots in quick succession. The vehicle was half way into its turn when the driver slumped, locking the wheels into a full turn which doomed the vehicle to an uncontrolled roll. It rolled once and then its back impacted the wall of the apartment complex, crushing the only passenger from the back tray that had not already been flung off.
One of those that had been thrown off staggered to his feet as best he could. He had lost his rifle and was trying to pull out a pistol when Reg aimed and fired a single shot into his chest from 20m. Reg was now scanning for the other fellow that had come off the back but he could not see him with the wash of the upturned vehicles headlights playing havoc with his thermals.
Reg turned when he received the tap from Akos. Akos was already running now. Reg turned and followed suit. “Hurry up Akos” barked Buster. “No one appreciates me Reg” hailed Akos. Reg laughed. His mind was an emotional washing machine. He shook his head and focussed on the task at hand of running as fast as he could.
Buster was at the next corner propped against the wall and aiming back to give covering fire if needed. Akos raced past him, his big sniper rifle carried in one hand. Reg rounded past him too. Buster saw the lone figure back at the previous intersection surveying the scene of destruction and the bodies on the ground. Satisfied that they were not being pursued he hailed “clear to rear Sir.”
“Alright Buster clo
se up” said Art. He was looking to his console and studying the map. ‘Where are you Dai’ he said to himself. He could see the blue dots for the rest of his team and Dai’s dot was virtually on top of them.
“Is that you Sir” hailed Dai.
“Where are you?”
“Up here Sir.”
Art looked up and saw a flash from her rifle light appearing in a window on the first floor.
“I’ve left the door open.”
Lights were approaching from the nearby cross street. “Move it” hailed Art. “Into the building and hurry.”
Buster closed the door as a truck rolled up and stopped.
“Up here Buster” hailed Sue.
Buster turned to see Sue at the top of the stairs covering the door. That was good enough for him. He took the stairs two at a time, rounding Sue at the landing and then back up to where Art was waving him on. He kept going and into the room whose door was ajar with Dai at the ready.
Reg was at the window from where Val had originally called out to them. Dakota was on the floor with Akos and the other two new chums from 30th Coy. All of them were catching their breath.
Art came in with Sue, leaving Dai out on guard.
“That truck has just stopped” said Reg in a low voice.
Buster took a look out the window. “No one’s getting out. Keep an eye on them.” Turning to Art he asked “So Sir who are these people firing at us?”
“Don’t know - definitely not Alliance soldiers…probably some militia group.” Sue, break out the comms terminal and see if you can make contact with any Alliance unit or HQ. I know it’s a long shot but try.”
Sue nodded and took off her pack, pulled out the comms terminal, connected it to her suit’s comms and then erected the antennae array as best she could inside the room. The cone shaped head of the antennae hit the ceiling and she stopped extending it. She turned it on and opted to scan first on the known Niku Control frequency. Nothing. She switched to the Alliance Niku District command and it was also dead. Going up the chain she scanned the Alliance Beta Phi Command channel. All of a sudden there was an abundance of traffic.
“Got something” said Sue.
“Can you relay it to us?” asked Art.
“Roger” said Sue and she relayed the sound through to the comms channel for the team.
“How is this possible?” asked Buster. “I thought those rogan geo sats were supposed to be preventing all of this comms.”
“Something’s happened” suggested Art.
“Do you want me to try and contact the Alliance?” asked Sue.
“Not yet. I don’t want to potentially give our position away with a transmission. Receive only for now. Try scanning the public media/news reports. See if we can get a handle on what’s happening here.”
Sue switched from the military channels to the civvy media channels. She tuned into the Guardian Independent 24 hour news service operating from Assam. Their hourly service was just starting.
The biggest news story of the hour was the destruction of the rogan geo sats. “That explains it” said Buster.
Next in line was the revolt in Niku led by former Council representative Omar Chagnu who claimed to control all of Niku but that was disputed by Alliance Command who claim to still hold the south west of the city and that a relief force was expected shortly. Their claim seemed to be backed up by reports of clashes in Niku’s southern suburbs.
A news flash interrupted the broadcast with news that eyewitnesses have confirmed that members of the Niku council, including the head of the council Justine Packer have been taken into custody by what Chagnu is now calling the People for Peace Party. The news reader announced that footage to hand clearly shows Council Head Packer in a distressed state being herded off a truck at the Niku spaceport, known to be controlled by the rogan.
“Shit” said Sue.
“Wait” said Art.
The report then canvassed a political analyst who said ‘so the PPP are clearly in cahoots with the rogan.’
“OK turn it off” said Art. There was silence in the room as nine minds all pondered the significance of what they had just heard.
Chapter 12. Resolute over Beta Phi 0315, 22 May
Rihan turned for about the umpteenth time. Finally she remembered about Dave being called out. ‘Aah its useless’ she said to herself and threw the cover off. She pulled on her dressing gown and in her bare feet tip toed out and took the elevator up to the top deck. John gave his spiel yet again and directed her back to the briefing room where Jim thought she made quite an entrance.
Dave smiled when he saw her and turned his attention back to Chase who had been making a point about option Bravo. Chase however was just grinning at Rihan who had just shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly as if a beautiful women entering a briefing room in her dressing gown happened all the time.
Even Jim began to grin. Finally he said “If you don’t mind me saying so Sir I have never ever in all my 19 years’ service had a planning session quite like this one.”
Dave looked at him and then at the others and said “Standard operating procedure around here Jim.” Then they all laughed.
Dave gave Rihan a quick summary of the two overarching options on hand.
Rihan pondered them for a moment. “So basically Alpha is to take the rebellion on first and deal with the rogan second while Bravo reverses this.”
“In a nutshell” said Dave.
“What do you think the rogan have got on the deck at Niku?”
“If we assume each of the caps can carry 100 to 150 troops” chimed in Chase, “then somewhere between 600 and 900, a battalion plus.”
“That’s a lot” said Rihan. The others nodded. “But if we take them on first then the rebellion will probably peter out of its own accord don’t you reckon.”
“That depends” said Jim “on whether the rogan are the only reason motivating these people.”
“Do we know of any other?”
They all shrugged.
“OK it’s getting late” said Dave “I mean early…whatever….Chase which do you favour”.
“Alpha!”
“Jim?”
“Alpha.”
Dave turned to Rihan.
“Alpha.”
“Alpha it is then” said Dave. “How long do you need Jim?”
“We could start in two hours if we wake everyone now but I thought we were going to wait to make contact with the military or government in Niku.”
“Trouble is Jim” said Dave “Art won’t be looking to send for more than another day. The insurrection could have succeeded by then. Time is of the essence.”
“I agree about the need to act now but we’ll be flying in blind. We could get caught between Alliance and rebels not to mention the rogan.”
“Understood” said Dave “but I think it’s worth the risk. Remember that if we are right about rogan ground strength then they are going to be hard pressed to hold the space port and secure the rest of the city. I wouldn’t put it past them to have fermented the uprising for that very purpose. They’ve played this divide and conquer card before. Only now with this ship and our cloaking capability we have a few of the aces in our hand.”
“I suppose the other issue I have Sir is the use of the droids against our own people, albeit rebels.”
“I share those concerns” said Rihan.
“OK what if we use the droids to seal off the space port. In effect provide a cordon between the spaceport and the rest of the city. They bottle up the rogan in the space port till your marines have dealt with the insurrection.”
“Works for me Sir” said Jim. “Let’s hope one marine company is enough or we’re going to have to commit the droids to support us.”
Dave nodded and then said “One company minus one platoon. I’m going to hold them back on board Jim as part of my reserve.”
“Fair enough but it’s going to make it harder.”
Dave nodded. He was getting tired. He looked at the tim
e and said “Well we’ve run out of time too. I would prefer to have your troops on the deck before first light. That means you need to launch by…0510. Wake ‘em up Jim.”
“Right Sir” said Jim. “You OK with me going in.”
“Yes but don’t get yourself killed Jim. I’m only just warming to you” and Dave gave him a wink. Jim laughed as he left.
“Chase get Julian Smythe up here pronto. We need to go through these protocols with him asap.”
“I’m on it” said Chase and started hailing Julian.
Ivan and Jasmin came in.
“You two seem to be working well together” said Dave. Jasmin almost blushed and Rihan cottoned on.
Ivan gave Chase a ‘don’t you start’ look but otherwise ignored Dave’s barb. “I thought you should see this.” Ivan brought down the display screen and hit play on his console. The video showed a group of people being herded from a vehicle into a building by armed guards. It was hard to see much as the camera must have been across the street from where the vehicle was.
“What are we looking at?” asked Rihan.
Ivan zoomed in on the people being herded.
“Oh shit” said Dave. There he saw Pious, Packer, Moon and Sterkze and another ten other people he did not recognise. “Who are these?”
“These two are Council heads” said Jasmin “and that’s the head of the Niku development corporation. Don’t know the others.”
“Where is this?”
“Wait Sir” said Ivan and he fast forwarded it and then froze the frame with a shot of a control tower.
“Niku spaceport?”
“We think so.”
Dave put his weary head in his hands and mumbled “it never rains.”
Rihan placed her hand gently on Dave’s back. She decided to step up to the plate on this one. “So folks it looks like we have to contain the rogan with the droids, put down the rebels with 30th Coy and find someone to free these hostages” said Rihan.
“What about our insertion team” suggested Jasmin.
“If we can make contact without blowing our cover up here” said Chase.
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 15
