"Danny, that meeting I had on Monday at GalTrust Bank was more than I would have in my wildest dreams expected. I will tell you and Mos’ about it in detail when we have dinner tonight. Believe me when I tell you that thousands of times that amount financing will be no problem. The problem is to make sure that the investments are sound, growth is done using sound basic business principals, we follow the first rule of management religiously, theft and graft are minimized, and profits govern."
"While we want to be decent people and good corporate citizens, we have to remember that the only way society has to show us they approve or disapprove of any business venture is to allow it to make a profit. Any business or new venture that cannot make a profit in 12 months without an iron clad reason and business plan to the contrary, is one we ought to close."
"Uh, jump backward a moment, Boss. What is this First Rule of Management?"
"It is one we have to use to govern most of our plans and decisions in the future. It is also simple to say. IT IS NOT WHAT YOU EXPECT—IT IS WHAT YOU INSPECT. To that end, we need to sublease a small storefront or upstairs office area down near our Pub. We will want our Business Rep physically to be there at least half of the time. That will be our first inspection point. You need to assure we are getting adequate inspection reports and set up a method to inspect the inspectors. Dam it Danny, you are clearly going to have more fun at this than I am! Remember, I resigned a commission once to get back into the action."
"Hey Kip, you want a pity-party? I can order some cake and beer. If you are really depressed, I'll even spring for a clown or a stripper to jump out of the cake!"
Kip rolled his eyes but could not help a silent chuckle.
"From what you told me so far, this is a bigger deal with a lot more riding on it than any level of Shadow assignment. It is not like there are many people who can replace you if you spend your time to picking fights in the ghetto, right? You can beat any ten non Shadows to a pulp but you can’t dodge a lucky laser hit."
"You know, Danny, you are right. And may a Kratch fart in you face! I get weary of you being right when I am about to do my poor-me act. Any good officer knows that soldiers bitch about the service for lots reasons other than unhappiness about the thing they are bitching about. Bitching is self-inflicted therapy for many things. I just needed some and you're the only one around for my therapy session. Unless, of course you want me to hire some shrink that thinks he is Freud reincarnate but in reality only pushes psycho pills. So, Kratch farts on you again, and thanks for letting me have this little therapy session. Bitching is just stinkin' thinkin' leaving the brain through the mouth."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you really put up with me Kip because you know I that I have seen you screw up before and I still liked you. I promise you here and now, no matter how important you get, I will occasionally remind you that your farts are flamable."
"You do that Topa. I promise to bitch about it and not really mind. You had better take care of Mr. Schmidt now. Ramos is coming up in about ten minutes and we have a lot to cover before dinner. By the way, read Ramos as a wise-ass with substance, scars, integrity, honor and humor."
"Great, he will be a welcome contrast to Mr. Schmidt who has just one of those traits overlaid with gobs of anxiety. I will meet Ramos at the elevator. The receptionist is expecting him. We will join you across the hall in the Big Shot Office."
Danny caught his breath and looked toward a holo-cam. "Holo, continue with call."
An anxious Alexei Schmidt appeared as a living three-dimensional bust in front of Ramos. He was not sure what to do with his hands, but managed to clasp them together.
"Mr. Schmidt, I am very sorry to have kept you waiting so long. Your request inspired some policy decisions. Our CEO has now made those decisions. I am happy to tell you what we can do with you."
Danny tried not to smile. He preferred his rough top-kick image. You know, this business stuff is not going to be boring at all.
After a long afternoon of making things happen for GalTech followed by a long workout on a heavy bag and free weights, Danny settled on an overstuffed couch with a tall juice drink. The smell of the juice brought back the memory of a Shadow mission on a colony planet on the fringe of the Frank Republic. Danny decided that reflecting on the past would be good use of the next half-hour since he rarely let himself indulge in reminiscence.
Wadi was a jungle planet with slightly more gravity than Terra standard. The colony had just branched out to its fourth city when it discovered the pirate base on the unexplored second continent. They wasted no time contracting with the Shadows for help.
The pirates were not directly bothering the colony yet. Shadow Evaluation and Contracting decided to send two teams and an officer. Twenty-five years earlier, Shadow combat teams usually consisted of four headed by a Sergeant Major. If a heavy weapons specialist was added to the TO&E (Table of Organization and Equipment), the team was expanded to six: one to handle the heavy weapon and the other to a spot for the shooter and to trade off carrying the weapon and ammo.
For Danny, this would be his fourth mission as a Shadow and his first as a heavy weapons shooter. He never minded the many hours it took during the eight-weeks required to earn the HWE (Heavy Weapons Expert) certification by the Heavy Weapons Training Office. Most HWEs chose only one heavy weapon because of the requirement to range-qualify every month. The heavy weapon of choice was the charged slug thrower, or CST. The CST was the very big brother to the CNT that Shadows carried. The reason for its popularity was that it and its ammunition were lighter than other heavy weapon choices. However, it was not a line of sight weapon like a laser. Gravity affected both the slug and the plasma that the slug turned into after passing though the charge at the end of the barrel. The slugs were not heavy. The charging batteries were good for about one hundred rounds, weighed a little over a pound, and were about the size of a hand. Upon contact, the energy of the plasma infused that energy into the molecular components of the target to create an explosion. The mass of the target dictated the magnitude of the explosion.
The second weapon Danny qualified with was a Wide Aperture Laser or WAL. It used a cartridge about the size of half a banana. It was heavy because the chamber had to contain an explosive discharge of the cartridge that drove the firing of the laser for one and seven-tenths of a second. There was not much that the WAL could not penetrate. It was good for sniper missions, anti-aircraft, anti-vehicle, and against any sight-visible target. The bad news was that some lighting or weather conditions made it easy to trace the shot back to where the shot originated. Shoot and scoot far was the accepted methodology to avoid responding artillery. The cartridge disintegrated with only a slight carbon residue and the barrel internally mirrored so heat buildup was not a thermal give-away.
Until an HWE completed two missions as an HWE, they had to go out as the spot-and-hump member of the two-man team. The good news about being an HWE-2 was being exempt from ever being the spotter on a heavy weapons team.
Team Sgt. Major Tab shook Danny’s hand and showed him into the office at the airfield hanger where the rest of the team was hanging out. Most were cleaning or calibrating their CNTs and rifles.
"Guys, meet HWE-2 O’Malley. Danny, welcome to the Crunch Bunch. This is a newly formed team to replace The Herd. You might have heard that they had bad luck on their last mission."
Danny nodded solemnly. He went through basic with a guy assigned to The Herd. None of them made it out of the ambush on Nettler’s World. Forty BAWs with very expensive laser rifles and another twenty on fleschette mortars were high odds for a four-man counter insurgency team. None of them made it back. The follow-up company that was sent got the job done and eliminated the BAWs, but that did not fix dead.
"Danny, I know you were given background on each team member. We are all using our team names from our last team. Mine is Cobra. Going around the room, we have Mad Man, Silk, Frog, and your spotter Pusher. Gentlemen, Danny’s team name is Topa. Not like Top Sergeant, but l
ike on top of it. I was told that was about the only phrase he used on his first two missions. I was also told that he indeed was on top of it on both missions. And just so you know, I called Sgt. Major Kanaka over at Heavy Weapons to check on Topa’s skill level. He said that when you start with an incredible amount of natural ability and then work three times as much as you are expected to, you get downright scary. His assessment of Topa was that he is the scariest HWE-2 to go through the range in several years. He also said he would have approved him for HWE-3 if he would have asked."
Danny smiled as he reminisced and sipped his fruit drink. It’s funny what bits and pieces the mind remembers most. They say you remember the traumatic and the absurd with the most clarity. Well, that mission was certainly traumatic.
When the team un-assed the shuttle at 9,000 feet, Danny again hoped the antigravity harness would work and he would not have to use a reserve parachute. The field case carrying the heavy weapons and ammo had a backup grav unit and a triple redundant emergence chute. They were jumping into jungle and would need anti-grav to navigate gently through the trees at averaged fifty feet tall. A back-up parachute would not be an either fun or safe alternative. The only play with a back-up chute would be to target a limb and grab it before the chute grabbed something for you. The grab would be iffy, even for a Shadow. With all the weight he was carrying on him and in his break-away pack, climbing down would be an event to tell about over beers.
Happily, the anti-grav units worked for the entire team. They gathered over a holographic map. Cobra spoke in a clear but soft voice.
"Major Hoops, team name B-Ball, and the Hot Damn team just got down safely over here on the east side of our target. We are here on the southwest side. We both have about a six-klick walk to get in position. We let Topa and Pusher find and mark several shoot positions and a couple of retreat cover positions that we hope we will not need. They will prioritize targets for them and for us on our western half of the encampment. When they tell us they are ready with a single full-second click on channel 5374, we move up and get holo updates from their observations.
"Again, don’t use voice transmissions. Pirates are paranoid and buy good monitoring equipment. A single click should will look like static. Program your ear-com to jump to channel 1116 after the click. Only click if there is an emergency after that."
The six kilometers through jungle carrying a lot of weight turned the light fatigues under Danny’s camouflage a nice shade of wet. He and Pusher were both dripping when they set down their equipment at the first acceptable SP (shoot position) overlooking the pirate stronghold. After a good look at a larger pirate base than expected, Danny watched Pusher sizing up the location and frowning. When he looked done, Danny tapped him and pointed to the base of the rocks of their SP. Pusher so far proved to be solid.
He wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t qualified and he had three missions under his belt before going HW. Still, it is hard to trust someone else with your life.
Danny whispered, "Pusher, let’s compare target priorities. First give me what you have for us."
Pusher unfolded his paper thin, flexible, computer. He said, "First, I have the com tower. Second, the laser mount half way up the com tower I call L1. Third, the laser mount on the northwest perimeter post is now designated L2. Fourth the laser mount on the southwest perimeter post is designated L2. Fifth, the three unknown clusters attached to the perimeter fence posts I am calling C1 thru C3 going from north to south. Sixth, is the half-bunkered metal shipping container just south of the com tower that probably contains ammo or critical equipment is now D1 on your map. After that, the people targets of opportunity are probably more important than anything inanimate, since our cover will be blown.
Danny was impressed. He showed Pusher his list. They were almost identical.
"I only have one additional critical target that I put as number two. The box on top of the tallest hut has an electrical conduit but no hoses or plumbing. At first, it looked like a cooling unit but I think it houses an attack drone. If so, I would rather hit it there than try to hit it in the air while taking responsive fire."
"Damned Topa, I totally missed that. You have to be right about that. How do you want to do this?"
"Well Pusher, we are close enough that I don’t need a spotter. I will take the first three with the WAL while you start on the second three with the CST. After that, you take even numbers and I take odds. When we run out of numbers we shoot at anything that shoots back, anything that shoots at our teamies, or targets of opportunity that will add to the fun of the party."
"Great Danny, I’m on top of it."
"Sorry Pusher, but that’s my line. Ya’ll go right, I go left, let’s each come up with five more SPs we can jump to. Back here in fifteen mikes."
Pusher smiled, turned, and vanished. Fifteen minutes later they both slipped silently behind the boulders of their first Shoot Position, now designated SP5. They touched the corners of their data cards to update the screens that now showed seven additional SPs which the data cards now labeled SP1 through SP8 using the north to south convention.
Danny sent the single click that started the rest of the team moving toward him. He tapped his data card twice and a two-foot square holograph of the target camp and the surrounding ten kilometers rested on a low rock at their feet. Cobra quietly slid into the area and took a knee in front of the holo. Danny blinked and was surprised to see Silk and Frog appear on one knee on each side of Cobra. He became aware Mad Man three feet away sitting in a lotus position and staring at the holo.
Cobra opened his data pad and pressed it to the corner of Danny’s. To copy the data, the rest of the team followed suit. Next, he donned his thin wire head piece with an ear cover and a mike that also projected a one directional holo in front of the wearer. The wearer could see the holo. Only those four feet would see the projected hologram.
Cobra held up a hand and made a fist. The team all turned on their headset earphone, microphone, and holo. Cobra asked Danny to comment on each item highlighted and numbered. When he was done, Cobra made assignments and then asked for comments or questions.
"Cobra, do you want us to stop after we clear our numbered objectives?"
"No Mad Man, but don’t go into the Hot Damn AO (Area of Operation.) Look back around and see if you can help a teamie or clear any more BAWs in our AO. I just put an orange tint on our holo to designate our AO and a green tint on the other half to show Hot Damn’s AO."
Cobra waited a moment and said, "There, I just sent a data burst to B-Ball so he can pass it on to Bull Dog, the Hot Damn team leader. He just responded that we are go in twenty minutes. Do your last minute equipment checks here and move to your launch points. Topa and Pusher, shoot ‘em up good. Watch out for any big discharge lasers from tree platforms we might have missed. Easy to put a blind in this thick of jungle and there is too much heat to get a decent thermal image." One usually only got one shot at a Shadow. Most Shadow deaths came from line of site weapons fired from over five hundred feet away. Shadows hated heavy discharge lasers and shots from too far away to sense or hear. An old school fifty caliber round from a distance that let the round hit before the sound did would be equally lethal to a Shadow since body armor could not deflect the force of the impact.
Danny marveled at the scents of the jungle. With his symbiont enhanced ability to smell, he could pick out several different plants and flower, rotted vegetation, and even smell the heat driven moisture in the air.
In less than sixty seconds, the four Crunch Bunch attackers had silently melted into the jungle. Danny and Pusher moved to their first SPs, got their ammo organized, and scanned the trees for the tenth time. They waited for the double click that signaled the start of the festivities.
Danny was bothered by an uneasy feeling. Again, he checked the trees. When he glanced down at a small puddle in a boulder depression, he saw a brief glint in a cloud overhead. Cautious not to look up at the cloud, he tracked it intensely by looking at the pond.
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"Cobra, team, stay covered from the sky. I have some kind of weapon or observation platform in the cloud directly over SP5. Pusher, upon the double click, roll onto your back and fire into the cloud. Pop three rounds, move to SP6 and continue the fire mission."
Danny received Pusher’s acknowledgement just before Hoops sent the double click. Danny and pusher both rolled and fired into the cloud. Danny at least knew where the glint came from. Both fired three rounds spaced about five feet apart, starting on the two sides and working in toward the middle. There was a series of small explosions and then one loud whump! By the time the anti-grav two-man laser platform finished its flat spin from 2,100 feet and hit the far side of the boulder of SP5, Danny and Pusher were already at new SPs taking out their targets in priority order.
The platform they just took down delayed them and Danny found that his first target was already launching its drone. Harder but not impossible, he shot it dead center with his WAL, held it for about one second and then moved it slowly to the left. The result was not just a hole completely through the drone but an eight-inch slot he could see through. Scratch one drone. Danny smiled as he sighted and nailed the com tower.
After Danny and Pusher finished their priority targets, they looked for BAWs that might threaten their team. Pusher saw a weapon barrel poke through a small window in the building under the com tower. He put a CST round through the building wall where he figured the fellow holding the weapon ought to be. The weapon fell out of the window followed by a head and shoulders.
Danny picked up on three BAWs trying to sneak up on the door that Mad Man went through a minute earlier. Starting with the BAW farthest back, Danny popped him. When he shot the second BAW the first turned around to see his partners down. Shock registered on his face at the same time Danny took out his heart. Danny caught sight of Mad Man coming out of the window next to the door he entered earlier. Mad Man flipped a quick salute to where he thought Danny probably was and then ran for and dived into a window in his third priority building. Danny grinned when the building started to explode at the same time Mad Man dived back out of the same window.
GalTech and the Shadow Warriors: Growth of a Star Empire Page 10
