The missile then knew exactly where it was and its gruesome purpose. Guidance was almost not necessary. It could follow the track of slightly warmer air from the radiators of two mech suits. It could rely on the soil compressed by footsteps of those heavy suits. It could also simply follow the scent trail left by one unsuited adult and two young humans, though that was less reliable in the breeze wafting through the jungle.
Racing ahead, its speed confined to two hundred kilometers per hour by the need to weave around obstacles, the weapon flew onward relentlessly, unseen and unstoppable
Then its passive motion sensors detected two objects ahead. Kristang powered armor, running in semi-automatic mode. It accelerated.
Frey hugged the ground as the whine grew loud enough she could have heard it with her own ears. Closing her eyes tightly, she clenched her teeth. Damn you Bishop, she thought. You should have thought of a way to-
The missile came in low, and flashed by only three meters above the figures gripping the jungle floor. Turning on its active sensors, it confirmed what the motion sensors had spotted. Four, three, two, one-
The nose cone split open, releasing seeker warheads that shot out in a fan shape, engaging individual targets. Targets that were now alerted to the danger and turning, not that the action would save them. Detonating within milliseconds of each other, the warheads sent cones of deadly razor-sharp antipersonnel shrapnel at their targets. The enemy wore armor and that delayed their deaths by perhaps a nanosecond, before the shrapnel sliced into the armor. The armor cracked under the multiple strikes, some of the shards turning into plasma and burning through gaps in the hardshell.
Its payload spent, the missile glided onward, slowing and turning to the east. Now in no rush, it flew at minimum speed, letting incoming air cool the turbine. Its last task was to fly out over the swamp and splash down in a deep pool, there to sink with all its evidence.
“Frey? Durand?” I called. “Grudzien?” The feed from the two mech suits showed the occupants were alive and unharmed, though their breathing was shallow and heart rates high. “You guys Ok?” I always felt odd referring to women as ‘guys’, but there was not a good unisex word, and ‘gals’ was not really an option.
“Sir,” Frey’s voice was shaky. “I wish you had thought of an easier way.”
“That was the easy way,” I giggled, my own adrenaline rush wearing off. They had needed to put distance between themselves and one of the groups of Kristang, that meant running toward the other group even though that seemed crazy at the time. “A big explosion might have been seen by the Thuranin. We needed a stealthy attack under the tree canopy. How are your passengers?”
“Passengers?”
“The people you are carrying,” I explained.
“Oh. They’re fine. As can be.”
“Outstanding. Ok, Frey. Time for you to play Paul Bunyan and knock down some trees, to make a hole for your balloons.”
“Paul Bunyan was American, eh?” She objected.
“I thought he was French-Canadian, but, whatever. Get moving, that other enemy team is closing on your position. The Dragon will only have a safe-fly corridor for eight minutes.”
Durand and her two young passengers were first to rise from the jungle floor, being gently tugged skyward by the nanofiber tether while the third tree was still sagging over. Katie Frey waited for the other woman’s feet to clear the surrounding treetops, then activated her own balloon. Out the top of the pack shot a dart, pulling a hair-thin line behind it. There was brief moment of panic when branches snapped off the falling tree and nearly tangled the line, but it twisted out of the way and tugged the tightly-packed balloon with it.
“You sure this can carry both of us?” Grudzien asked, his question prompted by nervous energy rather than fear. He knew that in a pinch, a single balloon could pull aloft two mech-suited figures, though it was best to ditch all their other gear. He still had his rifle and Captain Frey’s was securely attached to her suit. They were as ready as they could be.
“Don’t sweat it, Grudz,” she replied without taking her eyes off the expanding balloon. “Frey Airlines has never lost a passenger yet.”
“Good. Will there be snacks on this flight?”
The tether began gently lifting them off the ground, it felt more like an elevator than a carnival ride. “Snacks? If you don’t keep your mouth closed, you might swallow a bug.”
Justin Grudzien turned his head to watch the ground fall away beneath his feet. “A bug? I need a comment card. This airline sucks.”
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
“Heeeeey, Joe,” Skippy interrupted while I was watching the two Storks approach the island with the camp we had designated as Objective Dixie. “You like trivia, right?”
If he had said a simple ‘Hey Joe’, I might have given him a distracted ‘Yes’ and hoped he dropped the subject. Because he dragged it out into a ‘Heeeeey Joe’ I knew that whatever he was going to tell me, I wasn’t going to like it. “I hate trivia, Skippy. Can this wait until Smythe has the situation under control?”
He didn’t directly answer my question. “Here’s a Fun Fact for you: the Thuranin are already here.”
“Huh? What the f- They just jumped into orbit?” My finger was poised over the transmitter to issue a general recall, but I couldn’t tell my people what the egress plan was until I knew what the hell was going on.
“Nope. They arrived two days ago, jumped in about ten lightminutes from the planet. Based on their initial speed and trajectory, I expect they are within five, maybe four lightminutes of this rock right now. Unless they altered course. Really, they could be anywhere.”
“How the hell- How are you just telling me this now?” I demanded. “We missed it?”
“I am telling you now, because I just learned about it. I have been examining data collected by the defense sensor network, and I realized the lizards missed it. The Thuranin jumped in just behind the horizon of the star, and the local sensors mistook the deflected gamma ray burst for a solar flare.”
“You told me that you had examined all the sensor records from the defense network here! You told me that before I authorized our Dragons to enter the atmosphere.”
“Hey, I did! I only found this info because I was digging deeper, to analyze how efficient the sensors are. The Kristang have no idea the Thuranin are already here, because their stupid sensor network totally missed seeing it. I had to infer the presence of a Thuranin ship from the crappy data that was collected. Also, um, I was kind of distracted.”
“Distracted?” Oh, crap. What even worse problem could have taken Skippy’s attention away? “By what?”
“Um, I hate to say this, but remember how I have been trying to recover my memories? Recently, I thought I was making progress, but it was a dead end. Ugh! So frustrating. So, I went back to Square One and started-”
Never have I wanted to squeeze his imaginary neck and choke him more than I did right then. “Skippy! Can you please put your memories aside until this op is over, and we get back to the ship?”
“If it’s that important to you,” he pouted.
“It is damned important! How can you not see this? Do not go poking your nose into dark scary places again, and sure as hell don’t do it right freakin’ now.” Before he could protest about how mean I was being and how unappreciated he was, I focused on the immediate problem. “You don’t know where that ship is now?”
“No. It’s in stealth. If it was within twenty lightseconds of the planet, I might see it, so it’s likely farther than that. The local sensor platforms are useless, so I am now checking with Valkyrie’s sensor suite. It’s going to be difficult at that distance.”
“Ok, Ok, uh. Can that ship see us? Could they see the Dragons?”
“Ooooh, that is a tough question, Joe. The Dragons are in stealth, and they used a minimal-profile entry. Even if I didn’t have control of the local defense network, I doubt the lizards would see our dropships. Assuming the Thuranin are at least seve
ral lightminutes away, they would have to be looking very carefully for our dropships to see them. Really, the best indication that the Thuranin have not detected us yet is that they are not here. If those little green assholes thought someone was messing around on this planet, they would jump into orbit.”
“Good point.”
“The real risk is that if the Thuranin are watching the Storks, they will certainly notice they have diverted from their original flight paths. That might get the Thuranin curious.”
I shuddered. Our Dragons had remained wrapped in their stealth fields even when they touched down to drop off or pick up people. That was good, and Skippy’s enhancements to the original Kristang stealth technology made our Dragons difficult to detect. No amount of stealth could conceal sand blowing away from turbines blasting in hover mode. Stealth also could not explain where people came from when they ran past the edge of the field. When the people Fabron rescued boarded the Dragons there, anyone watching from overhead would have seen humans shuffling forward in the bright late-afternoon sunlight, then disappearing. Anyone who saw that would certainly be curious. “Skippy, the fake messages you sent, about why the Storks were diverted, the Thuranin could not have heard them?”
“No. Those messages were not sent through the satellite communications network. I loaded the messages directly into the comm systems at the destination. Why?”
“We need to give the Thuranin a reason why the Storks were diverted, and why the humans are being flown around in stealth. Create a message that is supposedly from the local administrator, warning that the former White Wind clan members can’t be trusted, so the humans are being brought to a secret facility.”
“Good one, Joe,” he muttered. “That should buy us some time.”
“Send the message when you’re ready.” The Dragons assigned to Fabron’s commandos were already climbing for orbit, having flown over to the night side of the planet. Same with the Dragon that had picked up people from the pleasure palace and Frey’s team. The question was, should I allow Smythe to continue toward Objective Sierra, to pick up the people there? Checking the map again, I saw there really was not much of a choice. The Storks carrying Smythe and Kapoor’s teams were still an hour away from the island, and there was no land closer where the Storks could set down to transfer people to Dragons. One way or another, we were committed. I pressed the transmit button. “Uh, hey, Smythe, Kapoor, we may have a problem.”
They listened calmly while I explained the Thuranin were likely already here. Smythe kept his typically stiff upper lip about the situation. “I do not see this as a problem, Sir.”
“You don’t?” Damn it, I wondered what I had missed.
“Problems have solutions. This is a potential disaster,” he explained. “The only thing we can do is to continue toward the objective, and pray the Thuranin do not become curious. We cannot do anything to affect the outcome.”
Kapoor spoke. “After we load the people into the Dragons, could Skippy remotely fly the Storks back toward the mainland? The Thuranin won’t know the Storks are empty, that would give them a target to follow. Could buy us a couple of hours?”
“Brilliant,” Smythe muttered. “Perhaps Skippy could send transmissions from the Storks, of the pilots complaining that the human passengers are unruly, or sick?”
“Excellent ideas,” I agreed. We still had the problem that if the Thuranin were watching, they would not see humans lining up and boarding the Storks. “Skippy, the Thuranin are a long way from the planet. Instead of relying on their own sensors, would they be tapping into the satellite network here?”
“I would be surprised if they weren’t,” he stated. “Communications security of the network is poor, there is a lot of signal bleeding off to be easily intercepted. Why?”
“Can you fake video of people boarding the Storks, and obscure views involving the Dragons?”
“Easy-peasy,” he scoffed. “You are hoping the Thuranin are tapping into the local sensors, instead of relying on sensors aboard their ship?”
“Would they do that?”
“There is a good chance they would. With their ship in stealth, they can’t deploy their full sensor capabilities.”
“Ok. Smythe, Kapoor, you are still a ‘Go’. I want Dragons on the ground ASAP after you declare the area secure. Get the people loaded as fast you can, throw them in the Dragons if you have to.”
“That might be traumatic for the people we are rescuing,” Kapoor cautioned.
He was right. It just didn’t matter. “It would be more traumatic if they were captured or killed by the Thuranin. We can explain later. Retract your faceplates or make them go clear, let them see you are humans. From Earth,” I emphasized. Most of their teams were from Earth, plus a handful of Commandos from Paradise. “Get it done.”
“We will handle it, Sir.” Smythe assured me.
Having given the ‘Go’ order, there was nothing for me to do but watch. Until Skippy groaned when the Storks were thirty minutes out from landing. “Ugh. We have another problem, Joe.”
“Is this one of our regularly scheduled problems, or have you cooked up something really special for us today?”
“You tell me if this is special or not. Two of the guards are waiting around the designated landing zone, but the other four guards are marching all the humans into a sort of ravine. The lizards are not being gentle about it,” he added with disgust.
Zooming in the satellite image, I was just in time to see a mech-suited Kristang strike two humans with the butt of his rifle, then kick the people on the ground. When the humans rolled slowly back onto their knees they were kicked again. The pair crawled on hands and knees to get away from their tormentor, finally stumbling back to their feet and running in a broken gait. “Why are the lizards doing this?”
“I don’t- Uh, wait a sec. Ok, hmm, I am listening to their conversations now. The lizards are worried there might not be enough room aboard the Storks to take them with the humans, and they know the humans have priority for transport. The guards are worried they might be stuck on the island, waiting for a second transport flight that might never come. They know how few long-range aircraft are flightworthy. I don’t blame them for being worried about getting stranded there. A complication is that the guards are all former White Wind clan. They know the Fire Dragon s don’t give a shit about them.”
“Damn it!” I swore. Smythe’s assault plan counted on all the guards being near the landing zone. The first Stork would set down and surprise the guards with a hail of gunfire when the back ramp opened, while the other Stork hit the enemy with its maser cannon. Now, we could count on taking out only two guards at the LZ, while the other guards could and probably would, hold the humans hostage. “Smythe, we have another problem.”
His normal British reserve cracked a bit after I explained the situation. “Bloody hell,” he growled. “Do you have any crazy ideas for making this problem go away?”
“No. Uh, unless Skippy could pretend to be the planet’s administrator again, order those guards to have all the people waiting at the LZ?”
“Sorry, Joe,” he sighed. “That won’t work. The guards are already expecting betrayal by the Fire Dragons, and the administrator is a Fire Dragon official. If I faked that order, the two guards at the LZ might also pull back to cover.”
“Shit. Smythe, I think we will need to fight this one.”
“Give us a minute to think,” Smythe requested. “It would helpful for one of our aircraft to fake engine trouble and signal the island about it, force us to reduce speed.”
That sounded like an excellent idea. “Skippy, signal the guards on the island that arrival will be delayed.”
Delaying the arrival bought time, the question was, time to do what? A quick analysis by Skippy determined there was no way for a Stork’s maser cannon to take out the four guards in the ravine, without killing some of the people we wanted to rescue. Even if the guards cooperated by coming out into the open, a Stork’s main cannon was too
powerful to use as a precision antipersonnel weapon, and it would be too slow to switch from one target to another. The only way to be sure of taking out all four guards from the air was to hit the ravine with a missile, a tactic sure to kill every human in the area. Considering how the former White Wind guards did not trust their Fire Dragon clan overlords, they would almost certainly pull back under cover if a Stork was flying overhead. Because the ravine offered scant cover, they might pull humans closely around them, knowing the Fire Dragons would not risk hitting their valuable possession.
Smythe had access to the same info I did, and he reached the same conclusion. “Right,” he said when he called me. “We will have to do this the hard way.”
Instead of slowing their approach, one of the Storks went to full power and dashed toward the island, maintaining altitude until it was just over the horizon, then dropping down to skim the waves. Skippy had control over the planet’s strategic defense network, but Frey’s unpleasant experience at the hospital taught us to beware of local sensors that he wasn’t aware of. Even something as simple and low-tech as a single lizard standing on a hill with binoculars could tell the former White Wind guards that something was very wrong. Fortunately for us, Skippy was tapped into the communications of the lizards on the island, so we knew none of them were acting as lookout on top of the island’s summit.
The lead Stork swung wide around the island, slowing and engaging its full stealth capabilities, which included adjusting the engines to Whisper Mode. That mode reduced engine power and consumed fuel at a prodigious rate, but the fuel state was not a concern as both aircraft had topped off their tanks.
Landing or even hovering was not an option. The engines could not output more than thirty percent power on Whisper Mode, and a hover over the ocean or beach would throw up a column of water spray or sand that might be seen far across the island. The only way to drop troops on the island was a low-altitude jump, a technique the STAR team had practiced many times, including on the planet we called Club Skippy.
Valkyrie (Expeditionary Force Book 9) Page 58
