She rotated her right arm clockwise and the torso moved to the right. She rotated it anticlockwise and it moved to the left. She rotated her left arm anticlockwise and the whole body of the mech turned left. She did this again with the left but rotated the right one clockwise. Now the mech was fully aligned forward and facing the far wall where Art and the others were watching with some apprehension. There apprehension was understandable because of the near disasters that had occurred when they were first trialling these in the hold on the Resolute.
Sue made a fist and moved her left arm forward and the mech began walking toward them. She bent her knuckles down and it increased speed causing her team mates to run. She brought her knuckle up abruptly and it stopped just before the wall. “Oh come on guys, scared of little ol’ me” she hailed.
“Very funny” said Buster.
“OK Sue I’m a believer” said Art. “You better come on down now. We have to get going.”
Sue got down. “I think I should stay here.”
“Why?” asked Art.
“It’s the only way we can exercise control over our greatest asset.” Sue could see that Art was in a quandary. “Come on, you know that’s true” she said.
“Alright but I don’t want you here alone.”
Before Art could continue she cut in “that won’t work Art, unless they can operate one of the other command mechs. Once the attack gets underway they will be a liability here rather than an asset.”
“Oh dam it” said Art.
She came over to him and kissed him on the cheek. “Go on. I’ll be alright.”
Art put his free hand around her waist and pulled her into him and kissed her on the lips. She felt his tongue and responded in kind. She loved his passion. He withdrew and touched his hand to her cheek and then turned and caught up to the rest of the team who had discreetly retired outside.
Chapter 6. Niku 1015, 22 May
Sgt Belinda ‘Bel’ Rickets peered through her sights at the Council Chambers building in downtown Niku. She was only across the street in the department store they had entered a few minutes ago. They hadn’t needed to break in. The looters had done that already. In fact they had nearly shot two of them as they scarpered out when they came in.
But she was not here to ward off looters. She was more concerned with the movement on the first floor of the council chambers building across the road.
“PK” she said to her offsider, Cpl Peter Kimba, “I can’t see anything.”
“First window, third floor” said PK.
“Oh hell” and she shifted her scan up two floors. “Ah got it.” She zoomed in with her sights. “You’re right eagle-eyes. Now ain’t that interesting. Check this out.” She saved a snap and PK looked it up on his console. He ran the image search and tapped the first result. But before he finished another image appeared and then another.
“What is this, a convention” asked PK. Let me know when you’re done and I’ll do a group search.
“That’s the lot that I can see.”
PK ran the group search. A few seconds later it came up with the first matching mug shot, then another and another. “Looks like we hit the jackpot Sarg.” He tapped her on the shoulder and thrust his console under her nose and pointed to the first one.
“Shit hey” and Bel gave him a big smile. “Well the boss is going to be pleased.” She then hailed “Maam.”
“Yes Bel what have you got?” said 1st Lt Ginty Martell.
“Two aces – clubs and hearts.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive ID.”
“How many others?”
“I can see five in the big conference room on the third floor at the front of the building. There are about a team of rebel soldiers on the ground floor out front. Well we can see six for sure plus another two that came out of a truck that pulled up down the street. Any chance you can send that drone over and check out the back. It’s all open ground around Council Chambers.”
“Yeah will do. Stay put and keep eyes on.”
“Sure are we going to hit them?”
“That will be up to the old man. Just find out as much as you can about what defences they have there and don’t get spotted.”
“Roger that. But what if the Aces come out. Do we have a crack at them.”
“Not until I’ve spoken to the boss. Is that understood?”
“You got it.”
Ginty shook her head back at Coy HQ. ‘She’s a bit too keen that one’ she said to herself. Ginty had gone into this op a little worried that Bel might not be up to it. She had been one of the new draft taken in a month ago and had not seen active service before. But Ginty had been more than impressed with how Bel handled her team at the road block engagement.
Ginty rubbed her thigh on her left leg where she had taken a knock during the earlier engagement for the road block. Her firm thighs were all muscle, like most of her body, but it still hurt. She was grateful for the opportunity to stay off it.
“Sir” she called out to Jim who was in a conversation with Tammy several workstations further along “We’ve got ‘em.”
That got Jim and Tammy’s attention. They knew she had taken a knock so they got up and came to her. While they were coming Ginty turned to order her platoon Sergeant, Morice ‘Kong’ Renoir, “Kong get that drone over chambers and check out the area out back of it.”
“Sure” said the big voice that went with the big frame. As he stood to head down stairs, there were no prizes for guessing how he got his nick. He was an old soldier compared to most of the others ‘young’uns’. His thick black hair was now greying at the temples so he made sure he kept it razor short. Little surprised him now days.
Jim liked his laconic style and wry wit and the fact that he was safe hands in a dog fight. He had teamed him up with Ginty when she was a greenhorn one pipper three years back. It had been an inspired choice even if the initial period was not without its tensions. They had seen action together and now there was mutual respect and even a bit of affection – not quite father and daughter, more like wise counsel and dynamic energy.
Ginty briefed her boss and waited. As a one pipper she had been like a terrier always talking, always asking for an immediate response. But experience and a few talking-tos had mellowed her. She sat there with her big brown eyes and wide round face, her thick dark brown hair held back with a strong band. She resisted the temptation to tap her fingers, a practice she was consciously trying to stop.
She knew her boss well by now. She knew he liked to think things through. She liked the way, that once having made his decision, he was all go. So she waited.
“It’s too good an opportunity isn’t it?” asked Jim.
Again Ginty waited, deferring to the XO.
Tammy wasn’t so convinced. “Sounds too easy. Too predictable, don’t you think? I wouldn’t setup my rebellion HQ in the most obvious seat of government. I reckon it’s a trap.”
“What do you think Ginty?”
“What are they going to trap us with. At best they have a platoon and maybe one or two AFVs but we don’t have any intel on AFVs around the Chambers.”
“How could they be so stupid?” asked Tammy.
“Or arrogant” suggested Jim. Tammy shrugged her shoulders.
“Why don’t we wait for the drone and use that time to move the rest of my platoon up. We can conduct some more recon while we wait for your decision.”
Jim received a message from Art on his console advising him that the new attack time would be 1400. “Hey they did it” said Jim “that Sue she’s something else. The diversion attack is set for 1400. It would be good to sync any attack on Chambers with that HHour. We’ll need about an hour to move and form up. So do your recon Ginty and let’s aim for a 1230 decision. Any questions?”
“No” said Tammy.
“None from me either boss. I’m Oscar Mike” said Ginty. She stood up a bit gingerly, grabbed her webbing and rifle and headed out. She had slung her webbing on her
short torso by the time she reached the door.
“Don’t push it Ginty” said Jim. “I need you on your feet for this whole op.”
Ginty smiled to herself as she left. “No worries boss.”
Chapter 7. Niku 1100, 22 May
“Akos” hailed Art “where at the RV, where are you.”
“Looking down on you, boss. Look up” said Akos.
Art looked up and sure enough there was Akos’ long, smiling face and dark eyes staring down at him from the sloping roof of the warehouse building. “Where’s Reg?”
“He’s on the first floor. Come on up. I’ll meet you there.
When Art came in he found Reg had dozed off. He was not impressed. They were all tired but this was not the time to be taking such risks. “What do you think you are doing?”
Reg woke with a start and had reached for his rifle which was now in Art’s hand. He looked up with eyes that were almost pleading.
“You’re not going to live long marine.”
“I’m sorry Sir. It won’t happen again.” Reg was trying to avoid the judging eyes from the rest of the team. This was basic 101 soldiering and he’d been found wanting and he knew it.
Art leaned closer to him and said in a soft but serious voice that no one would take lightly “Do that again and you’re dead.” Art then turned to the others. “Come on we have a rescue to pull off.”
Akos arrived and wasn’t sure what was going on. He could see the expressions, a mix of disappointment, annoyance and on Reg’s face shame, yes that’s what it is he thought. He didn’t need to know. It looked sorted.
“What have you got for us Akos” asked Art.
Akos pulled out his console and brought up the map display. He described the layout of the spaceport. Two runways, one running east-west and the other NE-SW dominated the spaceport.
On the northern side of these were six complexes. On the southern side there was one sprawling complex comprising the huge freight terminal, hangars and ancillary services buildings.
On the northern side from east to west there was Terminal one for interstellar spacecraft. It was boomerang shaped with 12 smaller bays on the inside and 12 larger bays on the outside.
On its west was the big round Ground Terminal hosting bus and rail facilities. Immediately south of it were the multi-storey carparks. A four lane dual carriageway road fed these from the spaceport entrance. The road went under the east west runway via two tunnels – one for each carriageway.
To the west of the Ground Terminal was Terminal Two used for domestic civilian craft. It was U shapes with 12 large bays on the western side, 8 smaller bays on the southern side and another 8 on the eastern side.
Further west was terminal three used for military craft. It was an H shape with 6 fighter bays on the western side of the western vertical and 6 fighter bays on the eastern side of the eastern vertical. At the very extreme west was the now destroyed surface to space missile battery.
Pointing to the freight handling terminal Akos said “We’re here just south of that building. It’s the freight handling terminal. The main entrance is about a kilometre east of here.”
“Nothing’s happening in and around Terminal 1. At the moment there’s a pile of civvy craft around terminal 2 that understandably haven’t moved but there’s also 3 rogan light shuttles. There’s been a fairly constant flow of trucks and even a few AFVs into this terminal.”
“Terminal 3, the old fighter base had a light shuttle out front but it took off a while back. It was fired on by the droids further west but I think it missed.”
“Anyway there has been some vehicle traffic around Terminal Three but not much. Most of the action is at Terminal Two” said Akos. He turned on the enemy forces overlay. “Here you can see that the bulk of the enemy are deployed around terminal 2. So I’d lay money they’re in there.”
“Makes sense” said Art. “Look at all that open ground across the two runways. What about the northern side?”
“That’s all open too, farmland mainly.”
“Ideas anyone?” asked Art.
“That diversionary attack is coming in from the south west straight across into terminal 3” said Art. “The rogan are going to be hard pressed and will have to shift the bulk of their forces over to the western edge. If we can get into the ground transport terminal and wait for that attack we’ll have our best chance of gaining entry I reckon.”
“Yeah but three small items of detail” said Buster. “How do we get over there undetected, how do we find our hostages and how do we get them and us out?”
“I think our best bet” said Akos “is to get a vehicle of some sort and drive through the tunnel. Note how once you go through the entrance the road slopes down and these walls here on either side mask any traffic along that road from Terminal 2. On the other side we take the first turn right into the carpark before the road climbs back up onto level ground.”
“They’ll surely have that covered” said Buster.
“But it depends on what they are looking for doesn’t it” suggested Dai. “We could be mistaken for rebels, especially if we grab one of those three tonner trucks they use.”
“Maybe” said Art though he wasn’t that convinced.
“How are we going to just drive through the entrance” said Dai. “Look at that roadblock there.”
“We could use the droids to take it out” said Art. Time it for just after the diversionary attack.”
Buster nodded to indicate he thought that might work. “OK let’s assume that gets us in. How do we locate our hostages without doing a room by room search. That’s one big terminal.”
“Buster’s right” said Dai “maybe we should postpone this rescue till we can pinpoint them.”
Art shook his head. “Well we don’t have time. We have to go and just pray we find them.”
Buster didn’t like the sound of that but he thought better of challenging Art over it. So he focussed instead on the next of his items of detail. “Let’s assume we get them. How do we get them out. We don’t know for sure how many there will be. That video looked like a whole trucks worth. But there could have been other trucks behind that one. At a minimum we need two trucks.”
“What about a bus” suggested Dai. “Surely there must be one in that terminal” and she pointed to the ground transport terminal.
Buster looked at Art earnestly. “So it boils down to three assumptions. One, we don’t get spotted on the way in. Two, we can find these hostages pronto and three, we can secure ourselves a bus from inside the terminal.”
Art nodded. “Anyone got a better idea?”
“What if we drive in on a bus” piped up Reg, who up until this time had been content to listen “there’s a workshop full of them next door”.
Art looked a little incredulously at Reg. He thought about it for a few seconds and then said “a very good idea Reg.”
“So much can still go wrong with this plan” said Buster. “We have no idea how strong they are inside Terminal Two. We have no back up while we’re in the spaceport itself. If we get bottled up inside one of those building we won’t be coming out alive. It’s a high risk strategy for an improbable gain.”
“The alternative is we make an assault across open ground on foot in broad daylight against an alerted enemy” said Akos.
“Akos is right Buster” said Art “the alternative is not an alternative worth considering. Have you got a better idea?”
They all looked around at each other but no one had a better idea.
“OK” said Art “Buster go with Reg and secure us two working busses. Akos get back on top and focus on terminal 2 and see if you can get a glimpse, anything that can help us pinpoint where they are. I’ll ask Sue to organise the droid attack on the main entrance.”
Chapter 8. Resolute in warp to Klaster 1210, 22 May
‘That bloody klaxon again’ thought Rihan from in the middle of her dream. She was in the buggy again tearing down that track to the mine. ‘Those bloody nukes.
That turn into the dock.’ Her hands were on the wheel turning into the corner. She physically rolled onto Dave as he lay asleep beside her. “WHY?” she screamed.
Dave was abruptly woken, her elbow digging into his chest. He pushed her near shoulder up with his free hand and then grabbed her shoulders. “It’s all right Rihan. It’s just a dream.”
She looked at him wild eyed. He just held her there for a few seconds until her heaving chest subsided and her breathing was brought down a bit. “Rihan it’s all right.”
She saw him now and then took in her surroundings. His words were yet to penetrate. His grip on her shoulders she registered and felt reassured by his strength. Her mind was transitioning back into the awake state. She relaxed her body and Dave pulled her into him. She rested her head into his shoulder and began crying. “Why Dave” she sobbed. “Why did I have to lose my baby?”
Dave patted her back and whispered “It’s alright now. It’s alright.” He took hold of her shoulder with one hand and the back of her head with the other and lowered her back down onto the bed. She stopped crying and rolled over onto her side into the foetal position. Dave cuddled into her lightly and stroked her head gently a few times till her breathing became steady.
She was asleep again now and Dave rolled back over to check the time. It was past midday but he still felt tired. He rolled back onto his back and reflected on their loss. ‘Was I wrong to ask her to join me here? Am I really that insensitive, that selfish? He found his chest tightening and forced himself to take a deep long breath.
‘But could I live for two years without her?’ He shook his head. ‘No I cannot. Fuck this war!’
Chapter 9. Niku 1215, 22 May
“Contact front 400, 1 AFV and ten foot soldiers” hailed Meg Kenau from Tango 3 “engaging!”
Before Jim could hail her back he heard the searing tearing sound of a beam weapon slice through the windows below. “Christ” he yelled lunging for his rifle. He could hear the thumps of 80mm pulse being fired down the street outside. “Take cover” yelled Jim.
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 21
