“I'm surprised by how much he's been able to do in such a short time,” the general stated mildly. He pointed to the electric light overhead. Others looked up at it, followed the wiring and then nodded.
“You can't pick and choose technology,” Doctor Ramirez stated. “If you need vaccines you need the technology to make them. It spreads from there. The same for basic tools.”
“At least he's limited gunpowder,” Doctor McEntire stated.
“Yeah. I was actually surprised by that given the reports of their basilisks and other beasts,” Doctor D'tebensha stated. She was a raven-haired woman with a snub nose. She had been born in France but had spent so much time abroad her natural accent had morphed a bit.
“I …,” Doctor McEntire nodded politely as a platter of biscuits were placed down in front of them. The native woman took the empty and then left. He waited until she was gone and turned to the others. “Mankind had brought nothing but hardship to other people less fortunate than their own. Americans are notorious for it. They are so arrogant,” he said with a sniff of disdain. “So confident that they know what is right for everyone.”
“Well, not here,” he insisted. “They've brought nothing but war, disease, and misery. We need to get this sorted out, and it starts by getting them back to earth.”
“There are laws against technical transfers,” Doctor D'tebensha insisted with a nod to her colleague.
“Which is one of many reasons we are here,” the general stated mildly. “For the moment, enjoy the meal, and we'll discuss it later.”
He hoped and prayed it wouldn't be on the ride where he was trapped but he was pretty sure his luck wouldn't last on that account. They'd already thrashed it out on the first leg of the journey.
~~~^~~~
Once the Terrans had gone to bed, a group of soldiers and staff met with the legatus to discuss them.
He'd initially thought they'd have the same reaction he had, wonder at meeting more. But that wasn't it. He heard them talking about the Terrans contemptuously, which surprised him. He stopped his impulse to step on that in order to listen and hear them out.
“We listened to them. Some understood a few of their words. I know a little; I took classes,” one of the junior technical smiths said, tapping his chest with a thumb.
Tyron nodded.
“They were so full of their self-righteousness, believing rectitude, that the king and others are a contamination. It made me want to spit. They are helping!"
"Not these though?"
“No!”
“Not all. Some were quiet. The group that sat apart,” another miles insisted.
The Legatus Tyron got a transcript of the conversations and then quietly had his radio woman pass on a warning to the capital through a side channel. Someone needed to be warned. She confirmed they received it and he felt a bit of relief. At least it was out of his hands.
The following morning the pilot arrived with her plane from the border fort. He wasn't sure why she was returning but wasn't going to complain.
When he got a report that another plane was flying in from Emory, he shook his head. Apparently, his command was turning into an airport. He was just glad the Terrans weren't around to take advantage of it.
~~~^~~~
The following morning the new Terrans piled into their vehicles after breakfast and began the next stage of their journey. It was slow going despite the partially plowed road. The snow delayed a lot, slowing them down, forcing them to watch where they were going.
The lead vehicle had a native guide who kept them on track. The plan was to stop at the duchy to refuel and regroup before moving on to the castle.
~~~^~~~
The Gateway Plateau
Cordell was on watch when the gateway suddenly exploded with energy. He called to the guard when some sort of flying contraption came out in a roar of light and sound, making him instinctively duck.
He heard a mechanical scream, one long and then a loud crash. When he looked again, there was some sort of contraption burning in the snow and stone beyond the gate.
He saw something like a door open and someone spill out. The thing was on fire though, and pieces dotted the area. He called out the news and a detail of men were rushed out to investigate and recover who they could.
~~~^~~~
On the road
General Periot received a garbled radio report that the first Uh-60 aircraft had come through the portal and promptly crashed. Apparently, the vortex and energies had prevented the bird from getting clear.
His jaw worked to the point where he felt pain on the right side. He couldn't help but feel pissed at the loss. At least the surviving air crew had been pulled from the wreckage.
“Send someone back. Send anyone wounded. Tell them …,” he paused and then continued. “Tell them not to try that again,” he said firmly.
“The crash site is blocking the gateway. The natives are working on it now,” the major replied. He had first sounded shaken, but his voice was clearing and returning to a more professional tone. “There is a storm coming too. It is on the horizon. The natives believe the crash is drawing the storm to us.”
The general looked at the people around him. The two scientists shrugged.
“Very well. If you can't go now, go when you can. But we cannot afford a repeat of this,” he growled.
“Understood.”
~~~^~~~
Imperial Capital
“Stupid !” Max grumbled when he heard the report with Eugene. “What the hell is their problem?” They'd established through their own experiments that the air around the vortex was unstable. A UAV that was shot through it usually lost a lot of altitude before it recovered … if it could.
A helicopter taking off at ground level to go through the portal had no chance at all to recover in such conditions. Not moving slow.
“I'm more interested in how they got that to work,” Eugene said thoughtfully. Max turned to him. “Remember the gateway chamber?” Max nodded and then his eyes widened as he caught on. “Right. We built the gateway into the center of the room. We dropped the vehicles down the lift to the neighboring room, and then fed them through there. A helicopter is a bit bigger.”
“So, they what, widened the gate?”
“And most likely brought it upstairs out onto the deck,” Eugene stated. “My question is, why? To what purpose?”
Max frowned and tried to consider why but then shook his head. “It doesn't make sense; they'd be exposing the equipment to the elements. It's bad enough here. We've just got the emitters to pin this end here. I mean, we built shelters for them but still.”
Eugene nodded. “Yeah, so it makes me wonder who's really in charge on the other side? Obviously not who I left behind.”
Max frowned but then nodded.
“And why did they think it was so important to send the helicopter through?” Max said. “I mean, we sent UAVs through but they were small. Most crashed, they just couldn't handle the energy at the vortex. So, what made them think a chopper could handle it?”
“I don't know. I do know someone owes us some answers.” Eugene said grimly. But he then sighed, surprising Max. “The problem is, I've got another issue, the rebellion in the north. We've got to deal with that too. For the moment, the gate will keep.”
“Yeah.”
~~~^~~~
Eugene went back to the royal suite to talk to Deidra as they got ready for dinner. He was surprised by how quiet it was. He frowned thoughtfully as he looked around. “Deidra honey?”
He thought she was in with Hermione in the nursery but that was empty.
When he came back, the door behind him closed, and he turned in time to see her out of the corner of his eye as she pounced on him.
Instinct for combat warred with the realization that it was his wife. She had her own form of attack in mind though, and he laughed as her fingers dug into his sides. “You … that's for the other morning!” she said, smiling evilly as he tried unsuccessfully
to defend his vulnerable flanks.
They fell to the bed laughing, and he retaliated in order to distract her. That turned into a pillow fight.
He was careful not to use his weight and strength to pin her; he knew that was one of her trigger points. It made it a bit harder though. Speaking of harder things …
He oofed as a flaying heel landed a bit too close for comfort. It had the fortunate side effect of loosening up the blood flow down south though. It did distract him as she tried to climb onto his back. He ended up tossing her onto the bed and then sitting down on the edge. He reached out and caught a foot to tickle as she guffawed and tried to pummel him to death with a pillow and her fists until she cried uncle.
He grinned at her and then massaged the foot as she puckered at him. He chuckled as she punched him a few times for good measure as she sat up. He wrapped his arm around her and hugged her.
“You planned this?” he asked softly.
She blew her hair aside and then used her fingers to comb it away. “Yeah. It didn't work out as planned though.”
“Oh, I don't know, I kinda liked where it was going,” he said as he turned and kissed her.
She smiled. “Yeah, I like that part too,” she murmured as nature took over and they made up for lost time.
~~~^~~~
The capital received a series of radio relay reports from the spies sent north. The scouting aircraft had been used to drop a pair of spies every other day behind the lines to make their way north. Only two had gotten to a village near the capital. They reported that there were not many people going to the capital, most were leaving it. Despite their native-bought clothing, they stood out, but so did the refugees from the capital. Unlike the refugees, they had money though, which also stood out.
Most of the people resented what was going on. The refugees were bewildered and bitter over the events. They wanted their country back but were united in opposition on how the conspirators had gone about it, and how they'd treated their own people.
Some were bitter over broken promises. Many compared the gloved hand of the princess against their own people's harsh methods.
All of that was deep background for the intelligence community. But it was the tidbit that some of the hostages had been recently broken up into groups and sent to different castles that made them sit up and take notice.
It also made many consider the mission to take the castle as a foolhardy one.
“This is a problem,” the general said.
“Actually, it is also an opportunity,” Eugene said.
“Ah? How so, sire?”
“They broke them down into smaller groups. Some may be in transit. If we can localize them, we can nail them down and catch them on the move. We can also take advantage of their slow communications and hit some of the outer keeps and castles. That will give our people some practice for the main event, and the enemy will have no idea that it happened for a while.”
The general nodded.
“We don't know where the princess is,” the decurion warned.
“Oh, I'm pretty sure they kept her in the castle,” the king replied, tapping the spot on the map. “It's where their command and control are and they want to keep her close to protect their own hides.”
The officers around the room nodded.
~~~^~~~
There was a delay in the next exercise so Eugene decided to do a bit of guest lecturing at the tactical hall rather than return to the castle. To his amusement Answorth was in attendance.
It was a packed house, something he was also mildly amused by. He smiled and plunged into a bit of Terran history.
His lecture was more on strategy over tactics, but he was pretty sure no one would complain. He brought up Ghengis Khan and how the Mongol leader had divided his force in the face of a larger enemy in order to raid and go on the offense. “What he did was avoid a direct confrontation. He sowed confusion and terror and forced the enemy to divide their force to pin them down to protect territory and therefore forcing them on the defense and preventing them from going on the offense on their own.”
He put up an image of the Mongols. “The Mongols were primarily a cavalry unit. Fast strikes. They had composite bows and could fire very well from horseback. For them, mobility and surprise were key.”
He turned to look at them grimly. “No force can be strong everywhere. Morale is hit when a portion of the defenders is attacked over and over with raids. It generates confusion and frustration in the troops and civilian population. The civilians want protection. Combine that with hitting the logistics and it generates a situation where the enemy lacks supplies, and eventually the troops get into a near mutiny situation.”
“It also allows the attacker to pick and choose his target and use superior numbers to pick off the defenders.”
“In history there have been others to use this. Timor, or Tamerlane, I forget the name. He was another Mongol leader. Forest was a mercenary in Italy who employed a similar strategy with psychological refinements during medieval times.
“As I mentioned before, the Mongols primarily used ranged weapons and feigned retreats. They would draw the enemy onto fixed defenses on poor terrain for their enemy to use. They were ruthless, striking fear and terror into their enemies.”
He paused to look at them. “There was one other thing Ghengis Khan was most noted for. A little psychological tactic, he passed through a seemingly impenetrable desert to strike at the enemy's rear. We're going to do a similar thing here soon enough.”
~~~^~~~
Max worked with a nervous Charlie to oversee the construction of another batch of flashbang grenades. “You know, I built an FAE with corn starch, a funnel, tube, and a torch in high school. And I loved attaching rockets to things,” Max admitted.
“That explains a lot,” Charlie said dryly.
~~~^~~~
After the lecture, Eugene went to check on the training. The first group was about to move out; they would be staging through the various points until they got to the base in Duluth. Only when everyone was there would they move forward with the next phase.
There were three squads in the initial team. They were cross-trained to cover each other's mission goals if necessary. And there was one squad that was backup.
There was a bit of a problem though, something he noted and decided to bring to the opposition team's attention. He waited until they finished the briefing and then took the front stage. “I wanted to talk to you about how you are going about this. And I wanted to point out that you are doing it wrong,” he said.
That earned a surprised look from the legatus.
“You aren't doing us or them or the princess any favors by letting them win. You don't learn from easy wins. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from getting beat. It makes them do it better, get it right the next time,” he said, looking at each of them.
“These are your friends, yes, but put that aside. Fair is fair but you need to make sure they are the best. They need to work for it.”
A few heads nodded.
“Now get out there and kick ass!” he growled. They cheered.
~~~^~~~
When the exercise finished and the assault team looked chagrined at the loss, the decurion came over to the king. “You were right; the opposition force was holding back.”
“Told ya,” Eugene said in an aside. “You have got to train hard. Training should be as hard if not harder than the real thing. The more you sweat the …”
“ … Less you bleed. Got it.”
“Good.
~~~^~~~
Evan hated being out in the cold, but he knew his job was important. He'd taken a lot on for electronics and software, to the point where he'd become something of a specialist. He still explored 3D modeling and programming but he liked to get hands-on with the electronics too.
He went up and dusted the snow and ice off the dome on the tower. When he felt the winds pick up, he made sure his harness was secure. That was something he and ever
yone who worked for Max appreciated; the man was big on safety. He really ripped into someone if they were lax about safety.
It showed he cared. He might be a grump, and he might brush it off as caring more about the gear and the investment in training, but they knew he actually cared about their wellbeing too.
The black dome was from the small radar array that had been on the top of the RV the Terrans had brought. It now served the capital airport and capital itself.
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 54
