Jagged Edge

by Dennis Young

  Rory huffed. “I get that. Less chance to get blown out of the sky, right. We know Nemesis has missiles capable of reaching low orbit. I’m more concerned about aircraft and their own drones.”

  “Which is why I want the teams in place before we even think about talking to Jance. We’re not going to wait for her, or Nemesis, to triangulate our position.” Talice paused. “Once you guys are deployed, we’re taking Bird One back into orbit.”

  Briggs paused his beer. “Well… fuck.”

  Talice grinned. “We can get back within twenty minutes. Basically, just fall out of the sky. Abie says the ship can do it. Hellbores to the rescue.”

  She glanced over her shoulder to the edge of the TacOps niche. “Look… if there’s any way I can, I’m going in with you. Mac and Evans can handle things here. Besides… Aya will be with us, too.”

  Briggs and Rory exchanged wordless glances.

  “She’s going to help with the hostages. I’ve explained to her we can’t afford to protect her, and she’s a former Marine with training, too. But she won’t be involved until we’re inside. Problems?”

  Rory shrugged. “If she can handle a weapon, I’ve got no objection. If she fires, she’ll be another target, and fewer rounds headed our way.”

  “That’s what I love about you, Rory, you’re so damned practical.” Talice grinned again, then looked at Briggs. “What?”

  “I was just thinking, Captain… what about your bugs?”

  “Fuck ’em.”

  Briggs gave her a look. “Be nice to your bugs, they’ll be nice to you.”

  “Yeah, well, until they can carry a weapon, they’re just a nuisance. Give me a break. I don’t want to miss this.” Talice glowered. “Besides… I’ve gotta get Babs out. And I’ve got a date with Jance.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Checklist (Part Three)

  Getting the Party Started

  “I have heard that in war haste can be folly,

  but have never seen delay that was wise.”

  Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

  Crius…

  Bird One’s descent was feather-light and nearly invisible. Abie and her crew took the assault ship gently into the atmosphere, barely raising a contrail, let alone a fiery track across the night sky. It took three hours. By then, Talice was so on-edge Mac nearly had to talk her down.

  They sat together once again at TacOps, watching as they raced across the landscape, subsonic and below radar, nearly skimming the trees. Dosu stood behind Talice, his strong, gentle hands massaging her shoulders.

  She smiled to herself. Good guy. Does his job, never complains, always has a smile or a quiet comment. Works well with everyone. Damn, I forget so many times how lucky we all are to have people we trust watching our backs.

  Briggs entered, just watching the screens. Then Bělinka. TacOps was becoming crowded.

  “Mac, put the view on the ready room screen, please.” Talice stood and gave Dosu a hug, then moved into the ready room. The seats were nearly all taken, and she stood at the back, shoulder to shoulder with Evans. Aya was at his side, their arms entwined. Nikolay rose and offered Bělinka his chair, then stood behind her, a hand on her shoulder. Rory, Martin, and Ollie were arranged on one side as Briggs sat beside Bělinka. It was the only time Talice could remember not seeing the three man-mountains seated together. Junior squeezed in beside Talice, rubbing shoulders. She wondered if his assassin talents might be used on this mission, and if so, on whom. Because Jance is mine. She’s gonna die, if I have anything to say about it.

  Abie put Bird One down ten kilometers south of the Nemesis compound, hiding in craggy hills surrounded by fields of golden grasses. The ship glided on thrusters into a shallow ravine, carefully sliding beneath an overhang. The team watched the ready room screen in silence, mesmerized by Abie’s skill, and how she could maneuver a multi-ton assault craft into such a tight space.

  The ship rotated, bow facing outward, and settled.

  The thrusters murmured into silence.

  The gentlest of bumps announced they were down.

  Then everyone let go their breath. Finally.

  And the real work started after that.

  Talice nodded to herself as everyone turned to face her. “Let’s do our jobs. We have six hours to get the emergency shelters set up, weapons and armor out of storage, and ATVs ready to roll. Eight hours to OpCom. Everyone has their assignments. Let’s get started.”

  “Hua!” The chorus was music to her ears.

  * * *

  The shelters were pumped with air from Bird One’s compressor and inflated, looking like nothing more than any other jumble of boulders in the gully. Rory, Junior, and Ollie were on weapons and HCS detail. Briggs, Dosu, and Martin fueled and checked-down all three ATVs, moved them down the ramps unpowered, and tossed camo-covers over them. Nikolay scanned the airwaves for encrypted signals. Bělinka reviewed the vids for new details of the backdoor mountain tunnels and readied her tracking software and tracer-bugs. She snapped closed her kit and kissed Niky on the cheek, then headed for deployment.

  Evans sat with Mac at TacOps, readying the drones and scanning for Nemesis scouting parties on the ground and aircraft or drones in the air. Aya watched behind them, a hand on both their shoulders. Abie and her flight crew were running a full diagnostic on Bird One; weapons, propulsion, comm, nav… everything.

  Talice watched every operation with critical eyes. This mission might be their last, for any number of reasons. She knew it. They were all getting older. They’d been Marines or mercs for ten years and more, Mac nearly twenty-five. None of them, save Junior, was less than thirty-four years old. Talice would soon be thirty-five. The wear and tear on their bodies, minds, and hearts lay heavy. But none of them allowed it to show.

  She smiled and touched the intercom button. “Report, people.”

  “ATVs ready to roll.” Briggs at the ramp.

  “Weapons check complete, suits ready. We’ve been waiting thirty minutes. Where you been?” Rory, from the armory.

  Smartass. Talice clicked the button. “Taking a nap. Rank has its privileges.”

  Rory chortled over the intercom.

  “Bird One is hot to trot.” Abie in the cockpit. Talice grinned at her Olde Earth Southern drawl.

  “Captain, all comm from the Nemesis base is calm. No indication of seeing our descent. They are busy elsewhere with the Marines.” Niky, under his headphones, with Mac at TacOps.

  “Drones prepped and flight-ready, no sign of activity in the area. I can launch whenever you give the word.” Mac.

  Talice made a quick eyeball check through the ship, then rounded the corner to TacOps. She shared a quick glance with Aya, then turned to the board. “Mac… the word is given.”

  * * *

  They rolled out two hours before sunup. Talice received a curt message from Fawkes saying the Marine battalion had launched their frontal attack four hours earlier, beginning with a heavy bombardment. She hoped they hadn’t killed the hostages in doing so.

  There was still no word from Jance about Babs, the hostages, or anything else.

  Probably trying to save her own ass, thought Talice.

  She was seated in the shotgun seat of ATV3, following the others into the waking dawn. Twenty minutes, she and Nikolay were dropped off, taking up surveillance from a ridge, three kilometers from the compound’s south gate. Junior, driving, would set Ollie and Bělinka at their chosen location for delaying tactics, with Dosu and Martin as cover. All the ATVs would then continue to within one kilometer of the tunnel entrance, Briggs, Rory, and Junior finding their way into Nemesis from there. And Aya, in Junior’s spare HCS. If they could get the hostages out, the ATVs would carry up to twelve each, packed together and very friendly. Still, it would take two trips, assuming everything went well.

  It never goes well, thought Talice. So we’ll just have to find a way.

  She clicked over to their encrypted and location-scrambled All-Channel. “Surveillance in positi
on. Talk to me, Mac.”

  “Stealth drone is at five kilometers, the Marines are knocking on the door. Anything from Jance?”

  Talice glanced at Babs’s wristcom, now affixed to her HCS left vambrace. “No, and I’m fucking worried. What if she got killed in the initial bombardment?”

  “That would be a really stupid thing for her to do. My guess, she’s rounding up the hostages in the confusion. Can you contact her?”

  Talice considered. “That might give away our position, but if I don’t hear from her in an hour, I won’t have much choice. I’ll keep you posted.” She clicked back to Nikolay’s private channel. “Niky, report.”

  “No indication we’ve been seen, Captain. Their attention is certainly elsewhere.”

  “Talice, Briggs. We just dropped off the party. Heading for our station, ETA five minutes.”

  “Hua, big guy. Stay safe.” Talice clicked to All-Channel again. “OpCom fifteen minutes. Once at stations, all teams report.”

  “Talice, I’ve got unauthorized comm coming in. Same channel as before!” Abie, in Bird One’s cockpit.

  “Voice, or commtext?”

  “Voice!”

  Gotta be Jance. Talice clicked over. “Patch it through to me, secure. If you get any indication of a tracker, cut it off.”

  “Got it, give me a minute.”

  Talice waited, gritting her teeth. Static, then a voice.

  “Talice! What the hell is going on? The fucking Marines are beating the shit out of this place!”

  “Hello, Jance. Good to hear from you again.” Talice could barely keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

  “Fuck you! This wasn’t part of the deal! Either they stop, or your little friend is dead!”

  Talice swallowed her first reply and took a breath. “I don’t give the Marines orders, Jance. And you’re the one who started this whole mess, so now you either work with me, or I just might tell them everything is going to hell, and they drop a nuke on you.”

  Silence for a long moment. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to keep your fucking word! Get the hostages together, get Babs ready to be released, then we’ll see what we can do about saving your ass. You’ve got five minutes to make a decision.” Talice cut the circuit, then clicked over to Abie. “When she calls back, put her through.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  “Talice, that was… dangerous.” Mac, on her private line, with worry in her voice.

  “Mac, what the hell else can I do? If she wants to save herself, she’ll be back in about two minutes. Either we play hardball, or everyone is probably dead.” Talice heard Mac sigh on the line.

  “Captain, this is Evans. Too late to turn back now, but be careful. Jance is desperate and might just decide to run.”

  “Well, if she takes the tunnel out, she’ll get a big surprise.”

  “Make her feel safe. Give her an out.”

  “You mean let her go? The colonel would have my head!”

  “No, he won’t. Babs is a Marine. The hostages are all civilians. They’re more important than bringing Jance in. And we’ve had this conversation.”

  Talice shrugged in her armor. “Fucking logic… Alright, what do I tell her? And how the hell do I trust her?”

  “You’ve got her in a box,” replied Mac. “Without her own safety, she won’t cooperate at all. You know that.”

  Fuck! Just… fuck! Talice drew from the tube with the S-H in it. “Okay, understood. I’ll… give her a break.”

  Abie’s channel broke in. “Captain, she’s on.”

  “Put her through, patch in Mac and Evans listening, but no audio.”

  “Hua.” Abie’s voice went away, and a moment later, Talice could hear Jance breathing into the mike.

  “I’m here, Jance. Give me a report.”

  “I’m not on your fucking team, so don’t give me orders!”

  “Fine. I’ll just hang up and you can kiss your ass goodbye.”

  Silence. Then, “I need an hour to get the hostages together. I assume you have a map.”

  “Yes. I suggest a secure place closest to the escape tunnel on the west. Can you do that?”

  “It may take… yeah, an hour, maybe a bit more. The west building is set up as a last-stand bunker. I don’t know if it’s manned now, but I assume it is.”

  Where the hell were you going to put people then? Talice realized suddenly that Jance’s inside help may have abandoned her when the bombardment started. She nodded to herself. “Do you have help to do this? Do you need some of my team to round these people up?”

  More silence. Talice could nearly hear Jance sweating.

  “If you can clear that building before I get there with the hostages, that would save me a lot of time. I can do it, but…”

  “Where is the westmost entrance? And do we need codes?”

  “Just beyond the tunnel entrance into the compound. And yeah, there are codes. I’ll send you a commtext on your little friend’s wristcom.”

  “Do it now, while we’re on the line together.”

  “Fuck, Talice…”

  “Just give me the codes, we’ll get in and clear the building. You do your part, we’ll do ours.”

  “Alright, sending now.”

  Babs’s wristcom lit. Talice copied the message to Mac and Abie quickly as she could. “Okay, got it. Get the hostages rounded up, we’ll take care of the bunker. Call back when you have everyone, and we’ll plan from that point.”

  “Give me fifteen minutes to get to the crèche. I’ll call you then.” The line went dead.

  “Very good, Captain.” Evans again.

  Talice realized she was sweating. Not shaking, not a patch problem, just scared out of her wits for Babs. For the hostages. For her team members she was going to send into a hardened Nemesis bunker.

  She clicked over to All-Channel. “All teams, listen up. Change in plans. Briggs, Mac is going to send you some entry codes. The westmost building is a bunker, likely manned as a final stand location before the tunnel. Get the location of the entries from Mac. We’re going in to clear it out. Jance will bring in the hostages and you can take them out through the tunnel with no resistance. I want Aya to drop back to the Cover Team and Dosu to replace her. Then I want Aya to fall back to Bělinka, and Ollie to move up with Martin on Cover.”

  “Captain—”

  “Just listen, Aya. You’ll get your chance, but I need my best people on this duty. No argument. Understood?”

  No answer.

  “Get this done in the next ten minutes, then prepare for OpCom. Questions?”

  “Numbers, weapons, anything?” Briggs.

  “Likely auto-feeders and miniguns. Anything to inflict the most damage.” Mac. “But ten credit-marks says they’re all pointed away from the back door to the tunnel.”

  “Watch for traps,” said Bělinka. “Send me your camera feeds in high-def and I can spot them for you.”

  “Mac, can we do anything with your drones?”

  “I might be able to send in the minigun drone first. If nothing else, it should set off any traps and clear the way.”

  “And use the grenade drones as our cover when we retreat.” Briggs again.

  “Hell, yes. Mac, how long to the tunnel entrance? And can you control that minigun drone once it’s inside?”

  “No problem. I’ll set one of the grenade drones at the entrance as a relay. Five minutes to the entrance, maybe five more down the tunnel if nothing knocks it out of the air.”

  “Prep for flight. Abie, you still with us?”

  “Right here, boss.”

  “I’ve got an idea I want to discuss it in a few minutes. In the meantime, let’s move. Lock and load, all teams. Daylight is coming fast.”

  * * *

  Talice decided she wasn’t going to wait on Jance again. As the team advanced, she turned to Nikolay, intent at his comm gear. “Pack up. We’re moving, too.”

  “Captain?”

  “We’re going to join Bělin
ka and Aya. Then I’m taking Aya, and we’re going in with the rest of the team.”

  “If you say so…”

  “We need all the firepower we can get, but I need you on the comm and Bělinka watching for traps. We’re only going to be in this place as long and as deep as necessary.”

  “Captain, a moment, please.”

  Talice waited. “What is it, Niky?”

  “She is… Bělinka is pregnant, you know.”

  Talice felt herself pale. “I… what?”

  “She did not want to tell you, fearing you would leave her behind. The team is her life, Captain. I am breaking a promise that I would say nothing… but I cannot remain silent. It is our child.”

  Talice had no words. She shook her head, not knowing what to do. “How long… how far along is she?”

  “She only told me after we departed Theia. Perhaps forty days or so.”

  Talice closed her eyes, drew from her S-H tube, and sighed. Geez, do I say “Congratulations, can the little bugger handle a carbine? Or the FunGun?” Holy fuck, what was she thinking? Level-headed, practical-as-hell Bělinka coming into a war zone pregnant?

  She counted to ten, drew a breath, and glanced at her chrono, knowing they had to go. “Okay, look… nothing we can do right now. Where she is, and where you’ll be with her, is out of the action, so she’ll be as safe as possible under the circumstances. Once we’re out of the compound and loading up, she goes back with the first wave. Understood?”

  “Of course, Captain. But please, I beg you… say nothing of this. I only tell you because… because I must. Because we are friends.”

  “Dammit, Niky… okay, let’s do what we have to do. We’re all in this together. I promise, nothing will happen to her if it can possibly be avoided. We’ll get her back to Bird One as soon as we can.”

  “I understand, Captain. Thank you.”

  “Ready to go?”

  Nikolay snapped closed his kit and nodded. “Hua, Captain. Let us go blow things up.”

  Talice rose to a crouch and made way down the backside of the ridge as Nikolay followed. This mission just became even more weird. If that’s possible. Maybe I’ll wake up soon…