With Your Shield

by Chris Kennedy

  * * *

  Sansar leaned back in the chair in her office and frowned after reviewing the report from Major Enkh and counter-intelligence. They had quickly identified the sensor as one that was used by many races and mercenary companies—no help in narrowing down who else might be on the planet. One thing was certain; someone else was here, and they were watching. She set up a meeting with Major King, Major Enkh, and Lieutenant Nicolos as soon as they could all arrive.

  Within ten minutes, they were assembled in her office. She had an image of the sensor on a Tri-V display. “This is…disturbing, to say the least. Spartan, you saw them; give me your impression.”

  “Well, ma’am, my first thought was the fact that they were up high, and I didn’t find any on the ground. Either they were set to deactivate when disturbed, if that’s possible, or they were placed after we’d finished all the clear cutting and fortifications. Probably the latter, since we didn’t find any evidence of them before.”

  Sansar and Major Enkh both nodded. “I had the same thought,” Sansar responded. “Based on what we know of the technology, thanks to counter-intel, they probably can’t see inside the walls based on range, but they can definitely time our patrols. My first instinct was to start varying the patrol times…”

  King continued for her, “But then they’d probably know we’ve spotted them.”

  Sansar nodded. “Exactly. So, we’ll keep patrols on a standard schedule, but I want you to brief all your troopers so they know we’re being watched. I don’t want any variations on routes outside of the norm, but they need to keep a very close eye on the tree line.”

  Sansar frowned as another thought hit her. “Damn…what if this whole thing is a set up?”

  Everyone else in the room looked confused.

  “Hear me out. We’re on a year-long contract, way longer than we typically need. We’re on what seems like a perfectly good planet that no one else was using. Granted, there doesn’t appear to be any ore or anything else on this planet of note, but it’s certainly habitable by several species…why hasn’t it been settled?”

  There was a collective shrug among the gathered staff. Major Enkh spoke up after consulting her slate. “I don’t see any previous requests to lease the planet with the Cartography Guild, but that may not mean much.”

  “This place crawls,” Major King said with a frown.

  Sansar nodded. “I’ll put a rush on all the cabling for the fortification-mounted defenses and speed up the training for the Zuparti. I have a feeling we’re going to be needing them. We’ll chip in for the Jeha to help if necessary.”

  Sansar looked at Markus, who seemed to be lost in thought, and sighed. “Thank you, Major King, Major Enkh, that’ll be all for now. Spartan, stick around for a minute.”

  The majors stood and left, closing the door behind them. Sansar leaned forward in her chair, elbows on her desk. “Problem, Spartan?”

  Markus shook his head. “No, ma’am. Just…thinking.”

  “Don’t think too much, Lieutenant. Remember, if it weren’t for your Hoplite—I like that name by the way—we wouldn’t know they were there, and we would have been caught flat-footed when whoever is out there came at us. Your work has already paid off.”

  Markus nodded. “I know, ma’am. I’m prepping the drones to go out next time and scout around. We don’t have many, so hopefully the return protocol works as planned, and we can re-use them.”

  She nodded. “Good plan, Spartan. Keep Major Enkh up to date on anything you find.”

  Markus nodded and stood. “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted and left the office, closing the door behind him.

  Sansar leaned back again and sighed. It looked like they were going to earn their pay on this one…as usual.

  * * *

  Kelfor-6, Elsewhere on the Planet

  General Betreth walked into his command center. “What was so important?”

  Captain Stor-Al saluted and said, “Sir, we noticed some irregularities in the humans’ patterns and thought you would want to know.”

  Betreth growled. “What kind of irregularities, Captain?”

  Stor-Al stood his ground. “Put it on the screen so the General can see, you idiots!”

  A time-lapse sensor overlay displayed on the screen, showing what was a normal patrol pattern, then he saw that one of the humans mechs wandered into the jungle and paralleled the rest of the machines.

  “Hmm. Any indication they saw anything?”

  “No, sir. Their normal patrols used to have ten people, and then they started sending eleven. We think it is a commander checking the perimeter.”

  Betreth nodded with a grunt. “Maybe. Send a few scouts to get eyes on their base and tell the bugs to ready their fighters. We may have to strike soon.”

  “Yes, sir. We still have a few teams about a half-day’s walk from their base. We’ll get them a message to move back in.”

  Betreth bared his teeth. “You did well to summon me, Captain Stor-Al. The time to kill the Humans may come sooner than we thought. I may let you have a few of the Zuparti for a feast.”

  Stor-Al saluted as Betreth left the room. “Send First Squad to scout the perimeter,” Stor-Al ordered. “They are not to get any closer than the sensors, but I want to know what’s going on with that one mech that keeps going into the trees. I will contact Major Ketaryl myself.”

  Stor-Al sat down at a communications console and raised Major Ketaryl.

  Ketaryl answered in a few moments. “Yes, Captain?”

  “The general orders that the fighters be ready. We may launch our strike to eliminate the Humans soon.”

  “I thought we were to wait until the Zuparti received a shipment?” Ketaryl objected.

  “If you would like to question the order, you can certainly talk to General Betreth yourself if you so choose.”

  “No…we will have the fighters ready in a few hours.”

  “I thought so. We will notify you when to launch.”

  Stor-Al cut the channel and growled. Having to rely on the bugs for part of the plan was not his preference, but he was being well paid.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Twenty

  Kelfor-6, Zuparti Base

  The next day, Markus walked into the warehouse to man the Hoplite, intent on using the drones on patrol. Kawa and Burke were waiting for him, along with his normal maintenance crew.

  “Don’t tell me there’s a problem…”

  “Oh, no, sir,” Kawa assured him. “Well, maybe a bit. Anyway, we had an idea…”

  Burke nodded.

  “Okay,” Markus said, then waited.

  “Well, sir, we were thinking about how the crate, well, if it were full, would be a good idea, but since it’s not…” Kawa started.

  Burke continued, “We could activate the dragonflies, then let them sit on the armor. Then you could program their patterns and deploy them. They would just fly off and execute, then return here.”

  Markus scratched his head. “They can grip onto the armor?”

  Burke answered. “Yes, sir. There are micro-magnets on the ends of some of their legs, and they have small pincers on others so they can hold onto something like a tree, like a real dragonfly could.”

  Markus rubbed his chin. “Hmm. Okay, let’s give it a try.”

  Kawa shifted his feet. “Glad you said that, sir. They’re already attached to the back of the Hoplite, ready to go. We placed them by hand, so they wouldn’t block the camera pickups.” He grinned.

  Markus chuckled and shook his head. “I should have known.” He looked up and saw the crate wasn’t mounted on the shoulder. He grunted. “Should have noticed that.”

  “Okay, you said there was maybe a bit of a problem?” Markus asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Kawa said. “The power levels you returned with were much lower than we expected. We might have done the math wrong on the power consumption of all the extra sensors.”

  Markus crossed his arms over his chest. “How much higher?”


  “Well…” Kawa shifted his feet.

  Volk, who had walked up behind them, rolled her eyes. “It was down almost 25 percent, Spartan…it looks like the operating time with the sensors at full is only about 12 hours, maximum, but it may be a sliding scale. We’re just not sure.”

  He sighed. “Damn…” He looked up at the Hoplite while he thought.

  After a few moments, he shrugged. “Oh well, nothing we can do about it now…I need to map out the rest of these sensors, then we’ll see what we can do.”

  Volk and Kawa nodded.

  Markus climbed into the CASPer. “All good, Hobo?”

  “You’re all set, Spartan. Good hunting.”

  Markus gave him a thumbs up and got himself connected and ready. A moment later, he was following Irish’s squad out the gate once again, this time covering the opposing two sides of the fortifications.

  Once again, a bit into the patrol, he ventured off into the jungle. This time, every time he detected a sensor, he sent a few of the drones on a search pattern, with instructions to return to the warehouse when they were down to an hour of power. That would give them plenty of time to scout around. The only downside was that he wouldn’t get live data back as they’d had to remove the transmitter to incorporate the laser comm receiver. They would still execute a bearing trace if they detected a laser of any kind, but he wouldn’t be able to see the data until later.

  The patrol was otherwise uneventful. He mapped out the sensors he expected to be there. As he looked at the overall mapping on the way back to base, he was convinced they had been placed after the clear cutting had been done. The spacing wasn’t perfect, but the overlaps meant there was literally no way to exit the area without being detected. That was a discomforting thought. Their fortifications kept them inside by choice. These sensors kept them inside by force.

  Since an announcement had been made about finding the sensors, every trooper was definitely on edge. Knowing they were being watched—and not doing anything about it—wasn’t optimal. He had his own ideas on that, but he left those decisions to people with more experience than he had. Either way, his gut told him something was coming, and it wasn’t going to be good.

  Once they were inside the walls, he transmitted his new sensor mappings to Major Enkh and Major King for review. They would take care of briefing Colonel Enkh and making the decisions.

  When he climbed down from his CASPer, Kawa was waiting for him. “Did it work, sir?”

  Markus nodded. He was glad the dragonfly idea had been successful, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood to celebrate. “That was a good idea. Thanks.”

  Kawa frowned. “More sensors?”

  “Yes…similar spacing. We’re boxed in. No way to walk through the jungle without being seen.”

  Irish walked up in time to hear the last. “I was afraid of that. What do you think we’ll do?”

  Markus shrugged. “Above my pay grade, Staff Sergeant. I know enough to know I trust Colonel Enkh to do the right thing, and for Majors King and Enkh to give her the right analysis of the situation.”

  Irish nodded. “Glad to hear it. Off to debrief.”

  Markus waved and nodded. “The drones should be back here in a few hours. Have Baker let me know when they start getting back. I want to see that data as soon as possible. I’ll also talk to Major Enkh and make sure intel goes through it all.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Markus walked over to Hobo, who was directing a few of the crew to start maintenance on Irish’s CASPer. “Hobo…”

  “Sir?” He kept working, but Markus knew he was listening.

  “Be sure my assault CASPer is ready…I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  Hobo stopped what he was doing and looked at Markus. “Yes, sir. I’ll see to it personally.”

  Markus gave a quick nod and headed to his quarters to get some sleep before the dragonflies got back.

  * * *

  A little over an hour later, the first drones flew back into the warehouse. Burke commed Markus to let him know, and he pulled out his slate to look at the data. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, there was nothing to see. The dragonflies reported the sensors that Markus already knew were there, so that was something, but there was nothing else. Only ten of the twenty drones had made it back. The other ten were likely consumed by the local avian population, which was considerable. He hoped the dragonflies gave them heartburn. After a few hours of looking over the footage, he sighed and was about to go back to sleep when there was a knock at his door.

  He furrowed his brows and picked up the pistol that was sitting on his nightstand. “Who is it?”

  “Markus…it’s me,” Carrie said from the other side of the door.

  He put the pistol down. “Come on in, Carrie.”

  She entered and closed the door behind her, leaning back against it.

  He tilted his head, standing up. “Rough day?”

  She smiled tiredly. “Knowing you’re out there glowing like a floodlight for whoever is out there to see…”

  He shook his head and walked over to wrap his arms around her. “It’s my job.”

  She sighed and rested her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around him. “I know. It’s just…”

  “Come on…we both need some sleep,” Markus said. He led her over to his bed, and they cuddled up and quickly fell asleep on the small cot. Markus smiled as he drifted off, not thinking at all about what tomorrow would bring.

  * * *

  The next morning, after seeing Carrie off, he headed to the warehouse again. He had decided to go out a little ahead of Irish’s squad to launch the dragonflies. There was another squad out on patrol, so he wouldn’t be alone. Kawa let him know the remaining ten dragonflies were in place on the back of the Hoplite and ready to go. He had decided to send them all straight out in a bee-line for as far as they could fly before having to return. It wasn’t a standard search pattern he would use, but he wanted to see if there was anything else further from the base.

  They made their way out uneventfully. Markus noticed that the Zuparti were becoming more comfortable manning the gate and weapons stations along the walls. He had heard there would be a large Zuparti trading ship coming within the month. It would land on the pad to test it with the full weight of a trade ship. It would also be bringing materials for several more warehouses and whatever else they had contracted the Jeha to build. Markus wasn’t exactly xenophobic…but being a member of the Golden Horde, he had something of an ingrained distrust for anything that didn’t come from Earth.

  After he set the last dragonfly on its course, he came back to the gate, where Irish and his squad were just coming out. “Got an early start today, sir?” Irish asked.

  “Yep. Wanted to get the dragonflies—what’s left of them—out on patrol. I want to know if anything else is out there.”

  “I’m sure we all share that desire, sir. Ready?”

  “Lead the way, Staff Sergeant.”

  Irish took the squad out, and Markus once again made his way into the jungle a bit.

  * * *

  In the room being used as network operations, Major Enkh was just coming on shift with Sergeant Baker and her team.

  Baker went up to Sergeant Clark, who stood and stretched. “Anything new, Aaron?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing, really. Patrol shifts just changed too. Lieutenant Nicolos went out early to send the drones, so they should be back in about two hours.”

  She nodded. She and Markus had gotten a little bit of time together since they’d been on-planet, but not much. Last night was nice, just being there with him, but in some ways, it made today harder. They had both agreed that while they were here, they needed to keep their heads straight and focus on what they were doing.

  “Okay, thanks, Aaron. Go get some rest.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that, I will!” He grinned and waved as he left.

  She shook her head. Aaron was a bit…odd, but a good analyst. The
n again, you had to be a bit odd to be a merc, she supposed.

  Major Enkh came over as she was getting settled. “Your team will be ready for the drone data?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Sergeant Clark just finished the handoff. I’ll brief my team and have them waiting.”

  Enkh nodded and moved on to her next order of business as Baker started reviewing the last shift’s information. There really wasn’t much, which she supposed was a good thing.

  Only ten minutes later, something flagged Baker’s attention, and she looked at the sensor returns from the fortifications’ radar. Her eyes widened, “Major, we have a problem!”

  Major Enkh hurried over. “What is it, Sergeant?”

  “You know we have a special flag built into the radar system in case we detect the same kind of jamming that was used by the Besquith when Markus…er…Lieutenant Nicolos’ squad was ambushed?”

  Enkh nodded and looked over Baker’s shoulder. “Are you sure that’s what you have?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We can’t see through the jamming, but it’s definitely there. Exact same signature. The Lieutenant was dedicated to making sure we could identify it if we ever saw it again. I’ve got readings on the north and west sides. Looks like at least four different sources. That’s all we can tell.”

  “How long until the drones are back?” There was a sudden urgency in Major Enkh’s voice.

  “At least an hour and a half for the first set, assuming they weren’t eaten by the local birds.”

  Enkh grimaced. “Okay, keep working on it. Alert the squads that are on patrol right now. I’ll notify the colonel.”

  Carrie stared at her screens for a moment. Markus was out there, and the same creatures that nearly killed him once were probably out there too. She took a deep breath to settle herself. She could not allow anything to get in her way now. She had a job to do, and Markus—all of them, actually—were counting on her and her team.