"See there! I knew this wouldn’t be boring! Yeah, old Buford ought to work real well. I think I hear the men’s room calling now. Put me in coach." And with that, Danny headed to stay out of sight in the men’s bathroom in the corner of the Pub. He was grinning happily.
Seven young men swaggered into the Side Rail Pub before the bathroom door finished closing behind Danny. The leader walked up to the Kip since he was the only one sitting at the bar. One burley Arian accompanied the dark skinned Asian leader. The rest sat down at two empty tables. Fortunately, there was not much business at two in the afternoon.
"You the main wiz?" the young man asked in a voice much louder than necessary.
"Yes, I am. You are a representative of the Death Merchant organization, I take it?"
"Yeah, that’s me. The name’s Guns Chang. I came to tell you like it is."
"Hey, that’s great. Follow me. The money is out back." Kip turned and walked to the end of the bar and through the door to the kitchen without looking back to see if the gang members followed. Most of the customers had already filtered out the front door. Only a few let curiosity override their instinct to flee.
The leader pointed to the table where two of his men stood. "You two have a seat and stay out here. The rest of you come with me. This snake better have some money for us or I might have to put his ass in a major strain."
He and four of his crew walked through the same door to the kitchen and found the kitchen empty. The back door was open to a high-fenced back yard. They went through the back door in search of Kip.
About then, Danny emerged from the bathroom and walked up to the two that remained at the table in the bar. He put on his best "worried" look and said, "Oh, my word. Ya’ll didn’t let your friends follow that guy into the back yard did you? Didn’t anyone warn you about that guy? He is a real killer."
The two looked at each other. Both launched themselves out of their chairs on the run while drawing some fancy chromed slug throwers. They were so intent on getting to the back yard to warn Guns Chang that they did not notice Danny following them.
The two made it through the kitchen and into the fenced in yard to just as Kip finished telling the others to expect them. Of course, Guns made an issue of how his men would never budge if he told them to stay in the bar. The two did not like the frowns that greeted them from the rest of their group.
"Now that you are all here, I can get my point across. I am a businessman. I want to make a profit. You are in a gang. People join gangs out of fear. Gangs show aggression to hide or overcome fear. I will not even try to stop that process. I am not that good. Therefore, I will just stop any gang that even thinks about messing with my businesses or my profit. You can all pull out your weapons if that makes you feel safer. I am not threatening you at all. I am just laying a little reality on you."
Guns looked confused but then blustered. "So, where’s the money that you are going to lay on us? Yo’ outta yo’ mind if you think there is any fear going on in this street child. Show me the credit chips or I am going to hurt you. I should’a fried you yesterday."
He was holding his E-DUD (Energy Depletion Upon Discharge) pistol steady and pointing it at the bridge of Kip’s nose while Kip slowly raised his hands to ear level. Danny started moving very slowly to his left. Danny was left handed. Kip was right handed. The small team tactics of confronting a larger armed force was to move them into as tight a group as possible, which limited their fields of fire.
Both he and Kip would attack the packed group by going under and into the midst of the pack. Continuing always in the same circular direction, each would grab one or two of the pack and eliminate them while holding them as shields against the other’s weapons – all the while continuing to move in both small tight circles for a four count and then in larger circles for a four count; weaving into and out of the pack. When one opponent was dead or incapacitated, another would be grabbed. Of course, Shadows did this at a fast enough speed that everyone left in the pack would be getting in each other’s way. Few shots would be fired and most of those would hit members of the pack.
Suddenly the E-DUD that Guns held went off. Instead of hitting Kip, it blew fist-sized hole through Guns throat. Only then did Guns realize that Kip’s hands had moved. With blinding speed, Kip slapped the gun downward while grabbing the hand that held it. Kip’s other hand turned into a tight fist that swung in a circle and landed against the elbow of Gun’s gun hand. The elbow popped as Kip’s other hand squeezed the pistol hand tight enough to trigger the weapon. The blast caught the thug standing behind Guns on the left side of his face. He screamed and clutched his bloody face. Before he could finish wondering whether the blood was his or Guns, an arm like a steel band was whirling him in a tight circle. Kip’s other hand crushed the fingers that were on his oversized slug thrower. Kip finished breaking all his fingers and grabbing the 45 caliber chromed handgun as he heaved the thug up in the air while going down on one knee. He shot the kneecap in front of him with the 45 while spinning right to grab the next thug’s weapon, a Charged Needle Thrower. Kip directed the weapon at the thug’s kneecapped buddy just as the CNT went off. The colloidal metal needle had enough time to pass through the energy field at the end of the gun and turn into raw energy before it hit the hapless thug’s chest and vaporized everything that could have been heart and lungs a moment before.
The grunts and screams from Danny’s direction told Kip that Danny was through and that Kip was holding last of the gang members. He was going to let the thug off easy until he pulled out a knife with his free hand and swung it at Kip. To a Symbiont-enhanced Shadow in the middle of an adrenalin rush, the knife seemed like it was in very slow motion. Kip used an Aikido move to help the knife describe a smaller arc and bury itself in the thug’s other wrist. He promptly dropped the CNT into Kip’s waiting palm. Kip doubted that this character would have the stamina to pull out the knife, ignore the spurting blood and try to use it on Kip. Nevertheless, since anyone with military training would do just that, Kip doubled him up with an elbow to the solar plexus. As he went down, Kip plucked the knife out of his wrist. He surveyed the yard and grinned. Lots of blood, lots of bodies, it makes for a lovely day when a hastily contrived plan works well.
Based on the fact he called the play, it was a given that he would take four and Danny would take three. Since the Buford was a tactic to leave as many alive but damaged as possible, the alive part was more up to Danny than Kip. Danny had managed to leave all three of his opponents alive. All three seemed to have multiple broken bones and very bloody faces. The face wounds were bleeding freely but their eyes and noses seemed undamaged. All would need extensive dental work. Kip killed two. But the other two could make it back to their turf under their own steam. One would limp until he found a good surgeon. Danny finished collecting all their weapons and patting them down for hidden reserves. The small team training doctrine, which Kip had developed and field-tested for the Shadows, considered a Buford successful if one BAW (Biological Ass Wipe) survived alive. This then was a rollicking success.
"Ok, all of you listen up. My friend Danny here is going to ask you some questions one at a time in the privacy of the kitchen. You either come back out as men or you come out later as ground up and packaged hamburger—your choice. He better get the same answer to each question from all of you or I will have to do a bit more damage to what’s left of your gang."
The thug with the broken hand spoke up. "You two are Shadows, yeah? Yeah, you are. Well so is Gorbo. And Gorbo is gonna be real mad. He gonna come here, yeah."
Danny smiled at Kip. He shook his head and chuckled. "Gorbochevski Moho is the head of your gang?"
"Uh, yeah, that’s him. And he was a mean firkin Shadow. He will do you."
"Oh bless, Kip. This is just too easy," quipped Danny. "Look here, ya’ll are not even good enough to be a punching bag on a Shadow gym. You poor pinheads will do good to attain the status of dirty oil on the dipstick of a settler with a gas engine. You are lu
cky that I just happened along. Otherwise, Kip would have just killed all of you himself and sent the heads back in a bag with whomever he let live. Since I happened along, he felt that this would be a little more sporting. Ex-Shadows are expected to not start trouble. If we do, the paperwork is a pain. However, we are flat damned allowed to react to trouble that some other moron starts. Thanks for being morons. Now that I don’t have to work out again today, my world is just Skippy."
"As for Gorbo, you go tell that half-assed lug nut that you ran into Top-Sergeant Danny O’Malley today. He has until tomorrow at 9AM to get off the planet or to go apply for the retread program in Maui. I finish my morning workout at nine. Then I am going to go looking for him. If I find him, he and anyone I find with him will die a slow painful death. I want each one of you to tell him that so the message gets through clearly. Please do not mention that Kipling David was with me. I don’t want him to have a heart attack and die of fear. I just want him off planet before I find him or have to inform Shadow Command what he has been up to. They definitely will not be either impressed or happy. Tell him that is a lot more than I owe him and our slate is clean. The next time I see him anywhere but Maui, he is dead."
"You dip sticks better find another gang to join. This one is defunct. Moreover, when you join the next gang, you had better warn them to find out which businesses belong to Mr. David and stay at least a block away. You see, we find that, in spite of the paperwork, killing breeze fouling meatheads is much more fun that sparring with each other. Now, each of you lads is coming into the kitchen with me to tell me exactly where I can find old Gorbo and the names of the other members of your little social club. The first one to get it wrong gets to be a real ugly example to the others. Let’s start with the lug nut with the knife wound in the wrist. Maybe we can scare up a bandage so you don’t bleed all over Mr. David’s kitchen or die before our conversation is over."
The remaining toughs drew stares as they hobbled out to the sidewalk at an obviously painful pace.
"I am not blowing you any kind of breeze, Ned. Those two move so fast you can hardly see them. That Colonel dude, he could probably bring in hundreds more like them with just a phone call. When Gorbo found out about the Top-Sergeant, he went quiet for a while. Then when Jinx told him about the Colonel, he went to his safe, got his money and a couple guns. He told us if we was half-smart we would change our names and move. He said if we were dumb enough to stick around, we could have his building. He did not pack or nothing, Ned. He just ran."
"Gorbo went rabbit? He had all you street beaters to back him. Is he that afraid of just one man? You blowing hot breeze, Ned? That man can’t outrun bullets."
"Gorbo is not alone, Ned. All the Death Merchants that he killed had guns and knew how to use them. He was bear handed. Us that lived did too. The guns were all pointed at that Colonel. He chomped on our breakfast anyway. We left that building and that territory. The territory was big bucks fer us, too. But we left. We came to you ‘cause you not even near that block. We hear he got houses tween 17th and 35th. We stay’n away from there, too. We got lots of guns and we been blooded. We are just not going to be tangling with the big bird. So long as you know that, we would join up under you. So, you want us?"
"Hell yes I want you guys. Uh, what do you mean the bird?"
"Ya know, Colonel, eagle—bird. Eagle is a big bird. And this one is real big and real mean."
"How about the other guy? You said Top Sergeant?"
"He seemed just as bad as the Bird. Only he be on the scary side of crazy. He kept asking in some fried chicken twang if we could bring more guys next time. That guy just loves ass kick’n and fight’n. He don’t worry much about guns either."
Chapter 7 – When the Plan Goes to Hell…
Fish turned from the four people he was talking with in the large break room to address Sergeant Major Danny O’Malley in the informal team talk Shadows used on missions and upon declaration. “Okay, Topa, who is this Captain Kipling David? What do we know about him?” asked Fish.
Danny liked the new teams they slapped together for the next mission. He found himself unable to dodge the extra stripe this time and led Team Tango as its new Sergeant Major, or SM in the informality Shadows liked when no officers were around. The new stripe kept him from the HW2 sniper role he usually preferred. Too many medals and having the most hazardous duty hours of all Shadows were his downfall. Like the Colonel pointed out, “the men will listen to every word you say because they respect the hell out of where you’ve been and who you are. No way am I going to saddle some poor Sergeant Major with someone who undermines his authority just by being there and already being a legend. Put on the fricking stripe Sgt. Major!”
The rest of his six-man team and half of Sierra Team waited silently for his answer.
“The word I have from a few that know him is that he leads from the front, is smart, listens to his teamies, pulls his weight and is a real problem on the sparring mat.”
“What kind of problem is he on the mat?” asked Buckshot.
“I was told to not ever go up against him one-on-one without a medic handy. Even three to one is iffy. No one knows anyone who has beaten him. Other than on the mats, he is supposed to be a really good guy. If I am not mistaken, that looks like him being dropped off in front of the building now.”
Kip walked in and asked for SM O’Malley. After the obligatory pleasantries, he suggested a walk.
“Danny, I am Kip or team name Duke to you. It’s your choice. Put the word out that we are in team talk all the time unless someone shows up that outranks me. Of the three teams, you are the newest SM. Have you sparred with the other two SMs?”
“Several times, Sir…uh, Kip.”
“Has either beat you yet?”
“No.”
“How about them both against you? Try it?”
“Three times, and yeah, I won. Is this going somewhere?”
“Danny, I am usually going toward a definite “somewhere” with anything I say or ask. In this case, was checking to see how much flak we are going to catch when I make you the Group SM. And no, you can’t talk me out of it. Neither can they. Now to business. Black suits, night insurgency into a forest, quiet weapons that don’t flash or leave a night trail, noisy backups and explosives, double ammo and we will do a backup drop with the primary drop…got it so far?”
“Yes and I have at least a few that are good with a compound bow?”
“Yep, bring them with extra quivers of arrows. You pick the rest of the weaponry or approve their choices. We need to take down a captured space facility that has become a permanent pirate base catering to drugs, weapons, precious metals and human trafficking of girls and medical people. We are looking at around seventy BAWs, maybe eighty. They are heavily armed. We need to plan on them using small drones. Let’s take a bunch of bumble bee mini drones with a quiet electromagnetic pulse. I want to try to get there and free the prisoners quietly if we can. After that, it is pure shoot and scoot with assigned sectors. I will have plans to you and your teams in twenty mikes. Look at them with your SMs. After you get input from your teams, I want you to make a gear and weapons recommendations with the rationale behind each selection. You make the call on snipers: how many, what, and where they shoot. Get them fed and working on gear. Bring the other SMs to the HQ conference room A as soon as you are ready. We will eat and plan with wheels up in twelve hours. The supply team wants an early guess as to what you need soonest. I will save you some time. There are too many carnivores to study. The ones to worry most about either fly or slither. Most are bigger than a hog but smaller than an elephant.”
Danny smiled, nodded, and started jogging to the barracks area. I think I am going to really enjoy working for this guy. Lordy, it will be hard to remember to call him Duke. He would stand out as a decision maker in any crowd. He is bright enough to let his NCOs carry the load for him. By the time they get that smart, they usually get sucked into a desk job.
The team SMs were
surprised that their new captain left most of the details and many of the decisions to them. They were absolutely shocked when they found that he expected their suggestions in a planning meeting over lunch. When Danny told them that he was appointed Group SM one said, “Just shows that the Captain has his head screwed on right. We would have taken your lead no matter who was appointed. Shit Topa, you have twice as many actual combat hours as the two of us put together. Who else would a sane man pick? If he picked me over you, I would have objected myself and then have to worry about how bright he is.”
The planning meeting was to the point. Kip expected competence and got it in spades. Every suggestion made he accepted because it made sense. He threw in a couple that they missed. He was pleasantly surprised by a few he did not expect. You just have to love professionals that do their job with enthusiasm and proficiency. If Danny is half as good a field operator as he is a leader and planner, I am one lucky bastard!
Night HALO (high altitude low opening) jumps were always a bitch on unknown planets with weather sensor data from drones that constantly changed. Any electronics they used to keep the group tight was readable by the BAWs, so they had to rely on their night vision and their Syrt-enhanced senses. It worked pretty well. Use of an anti-gravity unit with side thrusters was also out for detection reasons. Low-tech parachutes were still the preferred fallback. They all made it down without broken bones. Danny only had to wait for one straggler who had to extract herself from a tree. She was efficient and obviously pissed. Danny was amused and glad that he wasn’t that tree.
GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Page 8
