“How the hell’d that happen?” she said, an anger growing in her. “I thought they had protection.”
“Well, they did,” the nervous man said. “Everything was peaceful, friendly, they brought out food and drinks, and lots of stuff to trade. Good stuff. Then they invited them inside this little shop, and the next thing, before we could slip a mini-bot inside, we heard shots, lots of shots, and all hell broke loose. Next thing we know, our other guys–military, you know–are shooting and racing to the lighter. Our other people got out OK...”
“The UN reps?”
“Yeah. They’re OK. Scared, is all.”
“Lucky them.”
“Yeah. Then this crowd is there, dragging the others outside. I think they died pretty quick.”
The view from the surface jumped and jiggled, the cambot had been spotted, and heavy rifle fire was now directed toward it. The cambot, hit several times, withdrew upward. Now only a couple of micro bots followed along, relaying the scene.
Lori’s screen, and all the screens, showed blazing message alerts–the other ships, and other people were calling, angry as well. From the lead of the messages, she knew they demanded immediate retaliation. She sighed again. What a fuckin’ planet.
“Their lighter?”
“The natives rushed it, but we pulled it up and out, it took a few hits, but the pilots got it away. Morales was there, too, fired a few shots from his lighter, and the ‘copters and then the crowd ran off.”
One thing to be thankful for, anyway.
On the screen, the morbid procession wound through a last narrow alleyway, and into the wider opening of a plaza. They went to the far side, to a slight oval, a raised platform on one end, with buildings all around. Crowds of natives streamed into the area, and the bodies were hauled around the perimeter, while people pelted them with rocks, sticks, even their feet and hands. The screaming rose to a tumult, the crowd incensed. While that was going on, Lori was conferring with some of the senior members of the expedition, and the other ships. She called Morales, who said he was almost back to the ship and he’d be in the conference room as soon as he could.
Most others she spoke with called for an immediate assault, to reclaim the bodies, and kill as many of the natives as possible. Or just nuke the town, and be done with it. Isn’t that what she’d promised that Borrelia guy not long ago?
Now, on the ground, the procession seemed to be ending at the raised area, the bodies dragged up the half a dozen wide steps, and left on display at the top. Several natives began haranguing the crowd, to cheers and screams, and hands held high, fingers clenched into fists. More talkers, soon the top of the steps was crowded with agitators, all screaming. A translation of sorts began to run, what was picked up by the small micro bots anyway, basically calling for death to the invaders from space, death to the infidels, death to the betrayers of god, and death to the foreign devils. And all praise to T’ming, Protector of the Realm.
The com team accessed a local TV station, and showed that view on another screen. Better translation followed. It all disgusted Lori.
Lori called for another meeting, as soon as possible. Within the hour, people of several races began arriving, soon filling the room, standing and watching the screen. And Lori. The Kobi remained rather quiet, the Pokoniry among the most vocal, demanding retaliation. Bigboys brooded against the wall, watching and waiting. Major Morales stood near Lori, his face contrite.
She looked at the UN reps, sitting silently and sullenly at the far end of the room, one nursing a reddish welt on his cheek. After calling for their report, and hearing their remarks, she said, “Do you have any suggestions to make now?” she asked them. They kept looking at her, and remained silent. “Very well,” she said, looking away, and at the military staff. Up to her now.
“Major Morales, we have lost two members of the expedition on the surface,” she said in the silence of the room.
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Major, go to the surface and retrieve their bodies.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He began to move toward the doors, his phone out.
“And Major,” she said, stopping him. He looked back at her. “Don’t come back here until you do.”
Yes, Ma’am,” he said a third time, and hurried out, already speaking into his phone.
Lori conferred some more with the other ships, calling for an immediate halt to any planned trips to the surface. Two others were in progress, in different provinces, and the members warned not to enter any buildings, and to be on the lookout for treachery, stay away from crowds, and to depart as soon as possible in any case. Military air cars were sent to each site, screaming into the atmosphere, piloted by illi-illi daredevils. She hoped they wouldn’t arrive too late.
Almost immediately, the Major sent several cambots streaming toward the surface, to the town where the bodies still lay, subject to near contiguous abuse. If they didn’t get to them soon, they’d be little left to retrieve.
The screen showed a sudden hush on the crowd, which looked upward and around as a pair of sonic booms sounded. Now the view improved, the ground rushing up from the rapidly approaching, armed and armored, military cambots. The two AG devices screamed around the edge of the plaza at rooftop level, drawing a scattering of rifle fire. But most of the natives began to run out and away, rapidly disappearing into alleys and doors. Buy the time the cambots slowed and stopped, the plaza lay empty, even the platform vacant, save for the battered bodies lying on the steps in the overhead sun, a small, dark stain below them.
A silence grew.
“They’re not shooting at them?” someone asked.
“No,” Lori said. “This is an ambush site. They’re waiting for us. Infra red?”
Sensors in the cambots began to scan the building around the plaza. All showed many individuals and the signatures of the metal rifles and other weapons common on the planet.
“They look like they’ve been there for a while,” someone said.
“Yeah, they sucked us into this all right.”
Lori felt stupid, and foolish, for having allowed her people to drop onto the planet, into that area of it controlled by T’ming anyway, and now become the bait for yet more mayhem. Again. Well, they’d been warned.
“The area where they landed was totally clean,” a voice told her. “We scanned that repeatedly, and it was clear.”
“Did we look here?”
“No, it’s pretty far from the meeting site. And they have guns everywhere on this planet.”
“No, not the people, just the military. These are military arms.”
“And likely to be more than just rifles, too.”
Lori said, as she stood up, “Tell the Major, get this info to him.”
“He’s got it.”
“I’m going to the command center,” she said and left the conference room, to a loud buzz of voices behind her.
The command center reeked of action, and adrenalin. Every screen, dozens of them, all showed military symbols, or infeed from cambots on the scene, radar and infrared images, and tactical and analytical plans or figures. A clock showed the TOD–several hours away. Communication systems seemed to be at max, or overloaded, as ship to ship, and ship to the air car scouts already racing downward, streamed with data.
All this to retrieve two bodies. But Lori knew it was not just a retrieval. This was a test–the sky people against the locals, old, heavy tech against the light and speed of anti-gravity and guns of laser and energy. Xenophobia against acceptance.
A harried telemetry tech noticed Lori standing just inside, beckoned her over, and pointed to a screen. It showed the ghostly pale green and lime images of the scanners, the solid parts of the buildings surrounding the plaza hazy blurs, the people inside brighter blips that moved and swayed.
“Lots of locals. Lots of guns, too, see them?” she said, pointing to the darker, short straight lines. “More of both keep arriving, must be underground passages, below the street. But ground vehicles are b
ringing them in, too,” she said, flipping to another screen, that showed many dark vehicles arrayed in several locations nearby.
“These all military?” Lori asked.
“Hard to say for certain, but we presume they are. Not a few are armored, for sure.”
“Heavy weapons?”
“Some rocket launchers, hand held, some bigger caliber guns, maybe a few missiles, shoulder fired, we think,” she said, and several of the images of the buildings showed orange colored circles around some of the guns. “The vehicles all carry larger weapons of one sort or another. Like our tanks of old days.”
“They shooting yet?”
“No, but there’s nothing to shoot at yet, except the cambots. And they’re ignoring them.”
“Any civilians around?”
“If there are, we haven’t seen them.”
“The team won’t get there for three hours?” Lori said, looking at the clock, just a trifle of annoyed impatience in her voice.
“No. Maybe longer. The major is calling for more air cars. He wants the bigboys to be on backup, too. It’ll take a while to get everyone in position.”
The major called her at that point. Lori sat at a desk, put on earphones to take his call.
“Lori, with the buildup of people and guns in the buildings, I’m afraid it’s not going to be just a snatch and run. I think they’re getting ready to put up a big fight. It’s likely to get ugly.”
“Yes, I agree. Maybe the purpose of killing our people in the first place. Test us. See what we got. What are you going to do?”
“Going to try to get in and out fast–minimal time, hope it catches them off guard. But I got to be ready for a heavy firefight, and for that, I’ll need more air cars, armored ones, and the armored military lighters. It’s all gonna take a while to get set up. We’re running some scenarios on the computers now, to see what works best.”
“You know what they’re going to do?”
“No. We can only guess.”
Lori hummed, “Mmm. OK. How much longer?”
“It’ll be four, maybe five hours, maybe more. I won’t go in until we’re all ready. The dead won’t move, and maybe it’ll give the natives a case of boredom.”
Lori looked at him and nodded. “OK. Just don’t wait too long. Good luck, Major.”
When she finished, and looked up, the TOD clock now read 4:30, and was not moving. Activity seemed to be in a bit of a lull, so Lori left. She called Eagle One, and conferred with it. The air car was aware of the situation, asked if they would be joining the group, and Lori said no. “It’s our turn to sit and watch,” she said. “But I want you to keep track of what’s happening, and keep me informed of your analysis.”
She called the com center. “Look, I want TV broadcasts of what we do, to that entire province down there, full spectrum. The rest of the world, too. Live, as it happens. Precede it with some clips of what they did to our people.”
A short silence. “You think that’s wise?”
“Yes, very wise.”
More silence. “What if we lose, don’t get the bodies...”
“We won’t. But I’ll go for a five second delay, OK? Just do it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“They might try jamming the signals again.”
“Then alert the bigboys to take appropriate action. They’ll know what that is.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Five hours later, she returned, took a seat near the back of the cramped room, holding Eric. Hunter sat at one of the consoles, relaying messages between the ships, but with little to do now, too. The main screen showed the deployment of the retrieval group.
She gave her baby her breast, as she thought, Man, every air car and lighter in the fleet must be en route down there. The screen showed dozens of symbols, each tagged, in loose groups.
A tech called to her, she looked over, and he motioned to the earphones. Lori put them on, and Major Morales’ voice said, “We’re in final approach now, Lori. Everything very quiet on the scene. It’s high noon, very bright, good for us, better for them.”
“How are you going in?”
“We’re using six attack cars, and the one, small, battle tank lighter from Ixixil...”
“The illi-illi are in on this?”
“They volunteered for the main role, yes. Bigboy and Kobi are on station, with the Pokoniry in reserve, along with every air car that has a gun on it. We’ll deploy directly down, after a super-sonic flyby, then try to get the bodies and get out fast. It might work. Might not.”
“Major, get those bodies out.”
“We’re prepared to do that, but it may get messy.”
“I understand. Good luck.”
“I’ll call you later. Out.”
Scarcely sixty seconds, later, the on-planet cambot showed the glittery passage of four air cars, seen, then heard in the form of thunderclaps, as they broke the sound barrier over the plaza. Three more air cars and the battle tank immediately arrived, seemed to appear suddenly, and formed into a diamond pattern, one above the center of the diamond, the other below. Quickly, they descended into the plaza, and stopped in front of the bodies. Nothing. No reaction.
The tank-lighter dropped in behind them, the rear door slammed down, and a drone AG with a sled slid out toward the bodies.
If a signal was given, the sky people missed it. But suddenly, the air in front of the buildings blurred in heat and faint smoke, as countless guns fired as one, shattering the stillness with a blast wave of noise. Fast as they were, the computers were faster, they did not need a signal, the sensors saw the sudden appearance of metal objects, and were already rising as a kilotonne of metal screamed in from all directions to collide and pass in mid-air where the air cars had been a micro-moment earlier, and absolute shatter and wreck the stone wall just behind.
The drone and sled were blown away, bits and pieces flying all over.
The surface guns followed the air cars upward, began pounding them. And they reacted. Weapon pods popped open, and computer driven guns tracked the sources of fire, and lasers began winking on and off, so rapidly, it seemed like a constant stream of pencil thin light swept the buildings, shattering windows, hitting who knew what, while bright blips of energy followed, crashing into and through windows, to explode with heat and light in small rooms, that flashed and glowed for an instant, before erupting outward in debris and flame.
Meanwhile, other air cars began shooting from the sides and rear of the buildings, sending more laser strikes into and through the walls, moving along, drawing little fire themselves, the natives apparently not expecting attack from the sides and rear.
In the open plaza, the air tank moved to the forefront of the formation, taking a lot of the fire, its own heavy cannon firing repeatedly, already blowing holes in the stout stone of the surrounding buildings, filling the air with flying pieces of rock and mortar and stone dust. The other three battle cars formed up just behind the air tank, countering missiles and adding their lasers to the general melee. RPGs streamed at them, many at first, then just a few, leaving dirty smoke trails in the air.
From just outside the plaza, the armored native vehicles bivouacked there began firing on the other air cars on station above the action, and raising missile launchers, a mistake. The bigboy and Kobi hagazzii reacted immediately, pounding each vehicle with a variety of HiE lazer and plasma weapons. Those that didn’t disintegrate in colorful explosions all turned to burning, melting slags of metal.
Lori looked at the screens showing the battle in the plaza, all alive with data, as she nursed her son. The relay from the combat air cars showed the bright orange pips in the buildings, the source of the gunfire directed against them, and the targeting systems and arrays. They couldn’t take them all on at once, but a pattern of winking lights showed the reaction, and the steady neutralization of the native fire. Another screen showed lines of numbers, target locations, firing sequences and orders, which disappeared in groups as the computers fired th
e guns, and more lines of numbers appeared, the next targets, the lines rising on the screen, to disappear as the guns they directed fired.
The air cars, now bright with weapons firing continuously, exhaust heat waves pouring out vents as power cells roared at maximum, drifted downward again, back toward the ground. The smaller ground weapon fire rained against them, most deflecting up and away, as if the air cars were sending fireworks and sky rockets upward. Some missiles hit and glanced off, some were destroyed in intense, if bright explosions in the middle of the plaza. Some of the buildings were starting to burn, fires glowing orange and yellow inside, and licking up the wooden interiors or forming dark holes in the walls, sending up grey and black smoke into the clear air.
Meanwhile, bigboy and Kobi air cars continued attacking more armored ground vehicles racing to the scene, who had started sending missiles and anti-aircraft shells into the air against them. That engagement was brief–soon all were destroyed, left wrecked and burning, each sending a tall, thin column of dark smoke upward, a harrowing backdrop to the fierce battle in the plaza.
A separate large screen showed the picture being sent to the ground, all over the globe, on the television frequencies. It came from a cambot above the fray, the small, tight formation of air cars and the tank in the forefront, battling it out with the unseen forces arrayed hidden in the buildings surrounding them, the targets of countless guns. The air cars fired in all directions.
The loud din of battle seemed to be ebbing downward, when the northern most air car took a direct missile hit, wobbled, and sank downward.
Instantly, heavy fire poured on it, more missiles targeted it, most were hit in mid air by anti-missile fire, but two more went off against the damaged air car. The others moved closer, reformed to protect it, overhung it, and battled on, sending plasma energy spheres against every missile launcher. Three, then four more armed air cars dropped down and assembled over the plaza, pouring yet more laser and energy weapons fire into the remaining pockets of native forces, adding to the din, leaving blazing explosions all over, and a confusing and incredible intermix of light and dark, of sound and flashes.
T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6) Page 35
