The lighted eyes in the forest surrounding the clearing were probably the planet’s version of wolves. Danny called Kip. “Topa to Duke, over.” A click answered Kip was ready. “Lots of eyes shining at approximately one meter off the ground in the forest surrounding the landing zone clearing. I am thinking compound bows at the ready on point with silenced, non-battery CRTs on either side of the wedge formation as backup if needed?”
“Affirmative,” came the reply. “Move out.”
Danny had Sierra Team lead the wedge, set Tango the task of flanking, set up three leap-frogging snipers, and let Team Charlie go to silenced CNT’s by pulling their batteries and changing magazines to heavy break-away needles.
“Topa…Duke here; I have air cover using two surface to air missiles. Click twice to acknowledge, out.”
Danny smiled and double clicked. THAT’s what I was missing. Glad he caught and covered that. I was running out of bodies to assign.
They got through to the forest. None of them liked having to shoot animals. The canines were noisy but got the hint quickly when one attacked and sprouted three arrows mid jump. It gave a small yelp mid-jump and the rest fled. That bothered Danny. Why did they just vanish like that? Oh, damn…
Danny keyed the team channel, hoped the electronics were as secure as they were supposed to be, and said, “Topa to teams, one canine shot with arrows while entering the forest. The other canines vanished immediately. Be alert to...” (his message was interrupted by loud, high-pitched, tearing screeches) “…big predators.”
Two giant flying lizards resembling overgrown Komodo dragons with oversized, leathery wings and clawed appendages swooped in. One grabbed the dead canine and started to eat. The other circled once before settling down next to the first. The first held up what was left of the dog. The second devoured the head in one chomp and the rest with the next bite. Bones did not seem to be a deterrent at all.
The team net clicked twice. “Duke to all teams, the big flyer is a Kratch. They hunt in pairs and have extremely sensitive noses. Everyone circle up. There’s no way to keep them from smelling you. They are normally carrion eaters but lose patience with severe hunger. Assume they are hungry and will attack. A silent solution would be nice. Their screams are commonplace here but shots or energy discharges at night will give us away.
Double click on the network then, “On topa’ it, Duke. Buckshot bring your shooter. Thudman bring that double-recurve bow with some penetrators and cover our six. Let’s go meet the birdie-lizards.”
The three seemed to meld together while moving toward the now wary pair of Kratch.
Buckshot said softly without his comm, “What’s the plan Topa?”
“It is a field test for you Corporals. I run around like live bait and distract the birdie-lizards and you two kill them before they can eat me. If ya’ll manage to fail on this evolution, those grading the exercise will be extremely pissed…as will my Syrt, even while it is being ingested. Do not hesitate and do not miss. Questions?”
“How did you survive this long in combat with bat-shit crazy plans like that?” asked Thudman.
“By not being timid and knowing that when the plan goes to hell we can always improvise. We are close enough. Get your equipment ready.”
Kip, listening on the command channel, stifled a laugh. Damn I’m glad I have this guy on this mission. Good luck you crazy, aggressive, son-of-a-respect-worthy-lady!
Fortunately, both had their weapons ready to go. Buckshot’s heavy laser rifle would leave a good-sized hole but no visible discharge. The question would be whether he had time to shoot it more than once to find a vital spot. One could usually count on a head shot doing the trick but it was a big head and a small brain might require more than one tap. His laser had a 0.51-second recovery time.
Thudman had preselected arrows that, one second after penetration armed the very small charge in the arrowhead. The head would fragment internally driving shards in an eight-inch radius. It worked on various predators on several planets so far. The one major mistake came when he hit a big amphibious beastie in the head with one. The thick bone did not allow penetration but the arrowhead charged and detonated. While not very loud, it gave their position away. He eventually lived it down. It was a good thing that he already had a team name at the time. He could imagine the moniker that incident might hang on a newbie.
The Kratch looked at the three for a moment, apparently confused. They were not used to lunch walking up to it. Could it be a threat?
Thudman and Buckshot stopped and took aim while Danny kept walking forward. Danny hoped that most of the animals on the planet were not as fast or nimble as a Shadow. The nearest Kratch started toward Danny. The farther Kratch launched himself into flight slowly and with a lot of flapping. The other took long wing-assisted hops directly toward Danny. Danny drew his long knife, picked an area that he thought would offer a clear and close shot to Thudman and Buckshot, and went down on one knee. Wow, these things could kill with their bad breath alone. Backed up sew pipes are tame compared to this. I hope their breath is not flammable.
The flying Kratch circled looking for an opportunity. The one approaching Danny took one last flapping jump aimed to let it connect teeth-first with Danny. Only Danny wasn’t there. He waited until the last possible second and dived to the side. An arrow appeared in the Kratch’s neck just below the chin and a laser entered one eye and exited the back of the head. A small thump indicated that the arrowhead detonated. The Kratch skidded to a halt amid death spasms.
The flying Kratch zeroed in on Danny who was near the dead Kratch waving his arms and jumping up and down. The Kratch took away Danny’s strategy by flying only a couple of feet off the ground. Danny dived and rolled next to the downed Kratch. To clear the four-foot rise created by its dead mate, the Kratch had to pull up. It pulled up directly into a laser head shot that did not have enough time on target to do much other that put one eye out of commission and make the avian very angry. Its wings fully expanded and it stopped mid-flight. It dropped about five feet to the ground, spun, and headed for Danny.
Danny watched a first and second arrow hit it in the neck about two feet below its fanged beak. When both internal explosions thumped, it reared slightly and screamed. By the time it came back down Danny had jumped straight at it, landed in a forward roll, jumped forward again, and slashed what he thought would be the hamstrings on the left leg. He let his momentum carry him about four feet past the Kratch. He landed hard but jumped again directly to his left and stole a look.
There were two new arrows in the Kratch’s neck about a foot below its mouth. Both eyes were now holes made by the laser, and the Kratch crawled toward Danny using one wing and one leg. It shuddered and died shortly into the journey.
Click, Click, “Topa to Duke, safe to resume mission, out.”
Click.
Plans rarely survive first contact and this was no exception. The pirates used hundreds of small sensors that resembled small spiders. They climbed trees and sat passively until movement triggered them and they started broadcasting. The pirates that watched the many screens for the last few months were no longer amused at the occasional predator chasing down a meal or an amorous frog getting lucky. Even though they were lax, when several spiders activated within minutes of each other, they paid rapt attention.
Of course, the Shadows knew they were found out as soon as several tree sensors snapped to life and started transmitting. Fortunately, they had cast several backup plans for just such an occurrence.
“Duke to all teams, we are busted. Go to plan Nightwalker. Move out.”
Of the three backup plans, Danny liked Nightwalker the best. It let Shadows do what they did best: be physical and improvise within a defined game plan. The race was on. In less than ten minutes, Danny started getting confirmations from teams, snipers and other specialty players.
Click, click, “Topa to Duke, the ice is melting.”
Click, “Duke to teams, make the drinks strong.”
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In the next five seconds, arrows sprouted in four pirate chests and three other pirates gained laser holes in the center of their foreheads. A member from each of the three squads each released a handful of mini drones that quickly flew to designated spots and blew up. The results were many very small, clean, non-nuclear explosions that sent directional electro-magnetic pulses (EMP) that covered the pirate enclosure and the areas to the side and back of it. Unless they had some very serious shielding, the pirate’s communications devices and electronic controlled weapons were toast.
Danny smiled. This was a close as pirates came to meeting the wizards of Teaman technology. He never minded making these introductions.
“Topa to Duke, over.”
“Go Topa, over.”
“Starting Dervish now, out.”
Danny triple clicked the team com giving all three squads the green light to execute their final phase game plans. Within seconds, Danny, with Kip listening in, started receiving sit reps in low monotone whispers.
“Target a-3 wiped. Targets b2 and b1 wiped. Targets c1 thru c3 wiped, correction, c1 thru c-4. Kilroy, say again Kilroy, target b4 is airborne and b3 is wiped. Sniper wipe on b4, watch out in sector bravo east for crash….”
Danny was very happy with the calm professionalism he was hearing over the first five minutes of the engagement. Then the inevitable bad news showed up. They had taken out all but nine of the pirates but had at least eight prisoners unaccounted for.
“Slash to Topa, I have eyes on eight, possibly nine, female hostages. Of the nine pirates that were there, we splashed five. Both Ice Pick and I have laser wounds, have limited mobility, but can lend cover fire. Topa, you are the designated “go to” for us. Sending map overlay with positions highlighted. Over.”
“Topa to Slash, received highlights. I will pass your three o’clock in twenty seconds. Out.
Slash and Ice Pick targeted the remaining Pirates last locations to add cover fire or distraction. Both noticed a slight movement where Danny said he would pass. As the watched, one by one the Pirates raised and slumped.
“Topa to team, clear.”
Slash and Ice Pick stood up and helped each other limp to the compound where they found two pirates with throwing knives in their throats, one with a throwing knife completely embedded in his left ear, and the last pirate with his throat cut almost all the way through. The prisoners were covered with blood but oddly calm. However, four of them had grabbed Danny in hugs that made him smile. Danny smiling in the midst of the blood and hugging women was a sight that Slash didn’t think he would ever forget. Danny smiling at any time was cause for concern.
“Damn,” said Ice Pick softly to Slash. “He had to throw those knives while he was running full-tilt at the last Pirate. I need to change my diet to whatever he is eating. I thought he was just an exceptional sniper. Damn.”
Chapter 8 – Flashback to Shoot ‘n Scoot
"Yo boss," called Danny from the living room of Kip’s house, "there is another guy on the line that wants to sell you five percent of his business for a dollar. He has the grocery store two blocks down from your pub. His name is Alexei Schmidt. He says the Death Merchants disappeared and a new gang showed up to take over their protection game. They asked him right off if you owned part of the business or had a business within a block. We are getting famous. What do I tell him?"
"I have been expecting calls like this," said Kip walking into the living room from the hallway to the bedrooms. He was carrying a reproduction of a very old management book by an old earth author, Peter Drucker. The book was The Effective Executive. "Tell him," said Kip sitting down in an old-fashioned reading chair with an ottoman with a thoughtful look growing on his face, "that GalTech would be happy to buy 10% of his business for book value."
Kip often reverted to using Danny’s Shadow team name, Topa (for “on top of”) or to Top which is what most called the highest ranking non-commission officer in a battalion. A wise Battalion commander knew that Top was the guy that made everything work, both administratively and politically. Kip’s team name was Duke.
“Topa, do you still have the house computer recording all that we say with a fifteen-minute auto-erase unless intervened?"
"Big affirmative on that, Duke. These days, a good deal of what you say is either vision, policy, or instructions that I do not want to miss. If we were still Shadows, I would not ever want to ask a General Officer to repeat himself. My little man inside is starting to think you outrank any General this Empire has. When I clench my fist twice in site of any holo-cam, the computer considers the prior segment to fall within one of the categories I mentioned. It saves it, flags the file on my personal system, and will bug me daily until I figure out what to do with it. All of this is max-entangled-photon-encrypted and keyed to my combination of pheromones, retina, voice, whole hand print, aura and a personal password phrase."
"That is outstanding, Top. Whoops, I am sorry. Now that you finally finished that degree in Business Management and started on a Master’s, you would not be a good Top Sergeant prospect in the Shadows. There would be too much separation between direct leadership and the troops on the Cromwell IQ-General and Specific Knowledge Scale. Someone who paid attention to that sort of thing would insist on a brevet promotion that made you at least a Major. More probably, considering all your experience, they would make you a light Colonel a week after leaving command school. By the way, this ancient Peter Drucker book you found in the TU stacks is outstanding."
"And while we are speaking of delegation Colonel, you need a staff—soonest! GalTech has more money in our bank account than several thousand staffs would cost. The key with the first group is security."
Danny did his best to look wounded. "Kip, I respond really well to Top Sergeant, Top, Topa, Danny, or even Shithead if you are not afraid of the payback. If you called me Major or Colonel or anything else, I would not know who the heck you were talking about. I am already working on the staffing issues. You will have an outline tonight. Shall we get back to Mr. Schmidt?"
"Well, I guess I can talk to him, Top."
"Uh, Kip, what does that book say about delegation and Executives that want to do it all themselves? This is a routine matter. Your job is policy and strategy and my job is to provide tactics and execution; or to delegate those things, just like back in the Shadows. Have I got it right?"
"Actually Danny, you do have it right. So let us quickly continue where I left off before you handle Schmidt."
"I will want to have real board meetings at least twice a year and I want to have one of our guys attend those board meetings. Tell him we will also give the right to buy the stock back for 125% of the average past year's book value any time within the following four years. If we cannot add value to his business, he need not put up with us. We will not be part of any business that is not disciplined and well run. While we do not want to smother creativity and entrepreneurism, we are first-and-foremost a profitable business.
“We are always willing to support and participate in neighboring profitable businesses. I do not mind spending money on consultants or staff to train some of our future partners in whatever business knowledge they both need and lack. We will pay for that and not charge their business. But let’s make that a requirement for our participation."
"Danny, we may encourage him to expand when our representative to his board thinks the time is right. We may even help secure financing from a reputable bank. We will be happy to guarantee our share of debt. If he ever wants us to guarantee more than our share of the debt or inject additional equity capital, we need a proportionately bigger piece of the pie. Again, he can buy it back at any time within four years of the event. Beyond four years, we want either four times earnings or our proportionate share of three times book value, whichever is greater."
"If that appeals to him, set up a meeting and recruit us a Certified Teaman Accountant who we can trust and who personally owns at least one small business. Danny, try to find a CTA who is a mil
itary veteran, who understands what Shadows are, and who has a sense of integrity. Heck, maybe a retired Shadow went that route. You and I need to spend an hour over a beer with whomever your recruit as a business rep. Then we can decide how much of the purely business picture to paint for him."
"Mr. Schmidt ought to meet you and this new business representative before making a decision of that magnitude. If you think I should meet with him, I will. I want to make sure he understands that he is not exchanging one protection gang for another. If he wants to tell his neighboring business owners, that would be fine. He can bring them along. The more the merrier. Then call the other two that called about the same thing and make them the same offer. We would never be able to hire anyone who could manage a business unit for us as well as a person who owns a significant part and has been operating the business profitably for years. Without having to pay protection, they will make more money and so will we. Again, I do not want to make us simply a more affordable protection racket. We must find ways to add value to his business or withdraw from it."
"I would bet that many of these guys wanted to expand but were afraid. There is always profit in eliminating fear. This might prove a great cookie cutter for growth. We want to talk to Ramos Short. He can help us get the story of what we do for Mr. Schmidt on the grapevine. I’ll bet we can end up owning parts of several businesses in the next month. Danny, these are all businesses that were making a profit in spite of the protection theft."
"Danny mused, "I would also bet that at least a third of those businesses will successfully grow over the next year. All that pent up ambition and nowhere to grow is bound to result in explosive growth. Are you sure we can provide that kind of financing Kip?"
GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Page 9
