Alliance Hunter
Chapter 19

The last six weeks had been the worst of my life. Six weeks of Jervic ignoring me. Oh he couldn’t get away with it that easily. I was still his commanding officer both Kelli and Runa had made that clear to him. With the sting of his rejection still an open wound I’d thrown myself in to training. Now that was over the ship was currently in orbit above a frozen world in Jamaica System. The name a holdover from when it belonged to the Empire. I sat in the briefing room along with Runa waiting for the rest of my team to arrive. I guess I was tense. Not for the mission but for having to deal with Jervic. The door slid in and my team entered. It was just Jervic, Kelli and Denassi. Jervic sat at the end of the table facing Runa. Runa had her back top the screen on the wall and I sat on the side next to her. Both Kelli and Denassi took their seats. Kelli at my side as she had been for the last six weeks and Denassi facing her. Which left the seat opposite me empty. I think it was deliberate.

“Good most of us are here,” Runa said touching a datapad she had on the table in front of her. Suddenly she glared at Jervic. “Lieutenant Gorana who told you to sit there?” She aggressively pointed to the seat opposite me. “Here!”

Jervic’s face coloured. “Ma’am?”

“Do as you are ordered soldier.” She pointed to the spot. “Otherwise I’ll put a report on your file for insubordination. Admiral Komana put me in charge with Lieutenant Hunter as my 2iC.” She gave Jervic another glare. “Are we clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” Jervic said rising to his feet. “I will not jeopardise the mission.” He sat in the seat indicated.

I was tempted to say something placating but the hurt ran too deep.

The door slid open and the two Valkyrie we had shared our quarters with entered. Both saluted smartly their movements precise. We had become friends but I hadn’t known that Runa would include them with us.

“Sorry about that,” Bergljot said she had been the more talkative of the two once we had got to know them better.

Runa merely nodded. “Sit down I want to get through this as quickly as we can. The longer we tarry the greater the chance we will be detected.” She pressed a button on her datapad. A holo map appeared above the centre of the table.

I peered hard at the holo trying hard to make any sense of it. All I could see was a sea of treetops. “These certainly is a lot of greenery,” I said out loud.

“That’s because it is the Chiltern Rainforest that belts the main continent,” Runa told me.

“That seems an odd place to land?” Jervic queried. At least he was still talking if not to me.

“Because we are meeting a contact there,” Runa stated firmly.

I caught the hidden meaning in her words she was annoyed by Jervic’s high handed treatment of me.

“This person why meet there?” I asked. “There must be easier places to go?”

Kelli spoke before I could say anything more. “Excuse me Commander what is the rainforest like? I’d like to know what to pack in my medical kit.”

“We’ll get to that in a minute.” Runa waved off Kelli’s question. “To answer your question Gwen. You are to check out rumours of a hidden base.”

I gave the holo another look. There were the tops of trees that covered the image as far as I could see. There was no sign of any place to land let alone anything else. I asked my next question to Denassi. “Denassi could a base be hidden in this?” I glanced to Runa. “I assume the area has been scanned.”

“Yes,” Runa replied.

“Optical camouflage,” Denassi said thoughtfully.

“Holo camouflage isn’t that effective any orbiting ship could pick up the EMR?” Runa addressed Denassi.

“EMR?” I asked the dumb question.

“Electro magnetic radiation,” Runa said.

“I did factor that in ma’am. The power generators would be deep underground. The holo emitters only give out a small signature difficult to pick up unless you know where to look for it?” Denassi said.

Scrutinising the holo I considered what Denassi was telling me. “So we are trying to replace a hidden base in a sea of trees. More likely a needle in a haystack.”

I got a confused look from Jervic but both Runa and Kelli nodded at the reference.

“This contact will have details?” Jervic asked covering his confusion.

“We have a vague idea but that is all.”

Runa’s statement didn’t fill me with a whole lot of confidence.

“This is where you come in Gwen, you and your team,” Runa said and added. “Recon only locate and observe.”

A number of unsavoury scenarios flicked through my mind. “We pull back if we run into trouble?” I asked Runa.

“Exactly, no heroics,” Runa stated her eyes on the two Valkyrie.

“We understand Commander,” Bergljot said her hand briefly touching her chest.

Another of those odd Valkyrie gestures that had to mean something.

“Locate and mark the base only.”

“I see,” Jervic said. “We mark the position of the base and withdraw to a designated LZ?”

“Correct,” Runa said to him.

I had my doubts that it would be that easy. “The Black Stripes are a danger to all, can’t the locals help us?”

“We can’t rely on the local help, there is a chance some are covertly working with the Black Stripes. Our orders are to locate and observe. We need the info. Once we have this we can send in strike teams.”

That made sense to me. But I couldn’t see any strike teams on board this ship. I think she must be referring to another Valkyrie ship. One she hadn’t mentioned I suppose she had her reasons. “Ok we need to plan.” I wasn’t sure how but putting a plan together was better than going in and winging it. Although circumstances might mean we would have to discard any plans and go with the flow. I looked at Kelli. “Kelli?”

“I just want to know what to pack in my medkit.”

I turned to Denassi I know the Ezaran had a few tricks up his sleeve. “Denassi?”

“I’ve got a few toys I’d like to try out. I’ll get those ready.”

I turned my attention to Jervic unsure if he would answer me. “Jervic?”

“Nothing!” His sharp reply had everyone looking at him. “To add,” he said hastily seeing the others’ taut expressions.

“Certain?” Runa said to him. Her tone made even me wince.

“No ma’am, I mean yes ma’am.”

“Good!” Runa said like she considered the matter closed.

“Is there anything you’d like to add,” I addressed the two Valkyrie.

“No ma’am you covered all points,” Bergljot with a nod from Kadlin.”

“Commander?” I asked Runa.

She passed me a small plastic square the Confeds referred to as a data slice. She did the same to the others. “All relevant info is contained within these data slices. That includes any medical data. You’ll have plenty of time to study it it’s an eight hour journey to Davenport by shuttle.” She gave me an apologetic look. “It’s as close as we can get without getting detected.” Her eyes flicked to my team. “Equipment check in thirty minutes. Dismissed.” As we got up she added. “Except you Lieutenant Gorana.”

With a last worried look at Jervic I hurried out following close on Kelli’s heels.

By the time we reached the shuttle bay someone had set out a number of green holdalls. Kelli walked up to them and after some consideration she picked one up.

“What happens now?” I asked her. Kelli may have taught me the basics of being an Alliance officer but this was beyond my hasty training.

“Oh course we never covered this in training. What we do now is take the contents out and lay them of the floor in a line.” She flashed me a smile. “Don’t worry we’ll go through it one by one.” She shook herself. “I haven’t had to do this since basic.”

I walked across to the holdall and saw one with my name on it. “Hey these have our names on them?”

“Runa I expect.” She was about to say something else when Bergljot and Kadlin walked in dressed in combat armour helmets in their hands their coil assault rifles strapped to their chests. Each woman walked to the holdalls, took one and began to empty the contents onto the floor of the shuttle bay.

I to my shame copied their movements laying the items of my holdall onto the floor. Jervic and Denassi were the last to enter. I noticed he wasn’t wearing his combat armour.

“Jervic?” I asked.

“Ma’am?” he replied.

“No armour?”

“On the shuttle I didn’t want to spend hours in it before we reached the planet.”

I suppose it made sense with what I had learned about combat armour. Trouble is that they never brought up things, like having to wear an adult version of a child’s diaper under the armour on the vids.

“Jervic you call it out!” Kelli said and knelt on the floor clutching the first object she had put out.

I was glad she did I was out of my depth here it was that obvious. I hadn’t a clue to what I was supposed to be doing. I followed her movements echoing everything she did. Slowly we went through the list of items one by one. Holding each aloft as Jervic called it out.

“Right pack them up. Weapon check next!” Kelli shouted.

Packing the items into the load bearing harnesses we had took longer than expected. With the weapons I was more familiar this was territory I’d covered while under Thirika’s tutelage. I did miss her, Runa had tried hard but she was no Thirika. I examined the weapon I had been issued with. I preferred my pistol, the Confederacy issue coil assault rifle was a weapon I was familiar with. The Confed’s called it an AR 32 it’s tungsten ammunition could punch a hole through most combat armours. Without thinking I stripped down the weapon and reassembled it. I saw Kelli and the two Valkyrie nod approvingly.

“Armour check,” Kelli called out to the two Valkyrie the only ones wearing armour. I wasn’t sure how they would cope on the journey in. Then they were Valkyrie and more likely just stubborn to boot.

“Kelli?”

She must have guessed what I was asking. “I’m Navy I was never issued with any,” she stated simply.

“I was in engineering,” Denassi stated.

I left it at that.

The door into the shuttle bay opened and an unfamiliar Valkyrie with her blonde hair cropped short strolled in carrying three more holdalls.

“I’m Audbjorg you’re pilot,” she announced. She smiled and nodded. “Commander Hrutdottir’s compliments these are for you.” She passed one of the holdalls to me and the others to Kelli and Denassi.

I unzipped my holdall. Inside was a set of security armour consisting of knee and arm guards, a vest and a helmet. All in the green, grey patchwork all Confederacy armour was painted in. Also in the holdall was a pair of Confederacy combat boots and a grey jumpsuit. Those close to your skin as skin jumpsuits they called skinnies in grey. Which made more sense than the dark blue dress uniforms both Kelli and I were wearing. Kelli stripped out of her uniform and into the skinnies before I could raise an objection. Reluctantly I followed suit. But I drew the line at stripping completely naked. Then from what I knew about Kelli most T’Arni never wore underwear. Denassi had no problems stripping out of his blue skinnies and exchanging them for grey ones. At least he had shorts to hide things I’d rather not be seeing at this time of day. Especially as I hadn’t had any bed action for a long while.

“We could have changed in our quarters?” I grouched.

“And miss the fun of having the Valkyrie blush,” Kelli said.

She was right the three Valkyrie were blushing. I guessed that it was because of Denassi. I’d been to Alfheimir and had trained with the Valkyrie. They trained in the nude without worrying. It was when foreigners were present that they had a problem. I had been classed as a Valkyrie although a vaihdokas.

“At least we didn’t have to talk about liners. That would have done it for me,” Kelli stated her face taking on a rosy flush.

“Liners?” I had to go and ask a dumb question.

Kelli blushed.

“Kelli are you blushing?” I asked her teasingly. It surprised me that she would be uncomfortable by that.

“Er no,” she lied her cheeks going redder.

I decided to stop it there. I didn’t want to push her too far. I had enough problems with Jervic and his attitude. One thing I was glad of was he wasn’t doing it now. I suspected that Runa had said something to him. “Ok let’s get this loaded.” A sudden thought occurred to me. None of the Valkyrie had commented on us changing in front of them. They had blushed but I had expected them to say something or even raise an objection. “Sorry about that,” I said to the Valkyrie.

Bergljot waved my apology off. “We were GF. We’re used to things like that.”

Which wasn’t true otherwise they would not have blushed the way they did. I suppose what I had heard was correct. The Valkyrie in the GF changed on their own even with other females present. Which begged the question what besides my vaihdokas status allowed me to train with them on Alfheimir. I clearly looked human on the outside despite what my conflicted mind told me.

The chirp of my comms brought me back to reality I answered it. “Hunter here?” I said like I’d be anyone else answering my comms.

“Commander Hrutdottir is on her way down,” an unfamiliar voice informed me.

I glanced at my team including Bergljot and Kadlin in that. “The Commander’s on her way down.” As I said that she strode through the door making a beeline for me. I automatically saluted.

“I’m glad I caught up with you before you dropped.”

“Dropped?” I asked.

“Tell you later. We lost comms with our contact.”

I chill filled me. It had to be important if Runa had come down to tell us, instead of via her comms.

“Ma’am,” I said.

“Her last comms was that she had been hit and was going down.”

That I could understand, several scenarios flicked through my mind. “How bad?”

“I’ve sent her last position to your comms. We need to locate her.”

“I understand ma’am.” I knew we were eight hours too far away to make it a rescue mission. “Are we going in closer?”

“No, we can’t compromise the secrecy of our mission.”

That was the Valkyrie way. Mourn later and take your vengeance then. “Do we know who shot her down?” I wanted to focus on the details.

“Uncertain.” Runa scrutinised my face. “But the fact that she was close to where we assumed the hidden base was may have some bearing.”

I digested her comment my mind racing.

Runa continued. “Which makes us think they were willing to shoot down a shuttle to keep their location safe.”

“And unconcerned about local objections?” I added.

“Exactly. She did activate her distress beacon.”

“So she alive, but for how long?” Solstrid even though fatally wounded stayed alive long enough to speak her final words to me. I shivered at the memory. Then after a short reflection no matter what happened later I would have still taken her bangle back to her clan.

“That we do not know.”

A thought occurred to me. “Isn’t it in Confederacy law that everyone is supposed to answer a distress call?” I had asked Gudbjorga once after I had been picked up. I remembered Monica telling about the rescue shelter.

“They should.”

I heard the doubt in her voice. “But this might not be the case?”

“Our intel says no one goes into the rainforest.”

I found that hard to swallow. “Not even scientific expeditions?”

“None, there are a few survey flights no one on the ground.”

“I do replace that hard to believe. And I suppose these flights only fly over certain areas?”

“Exactly, see now what we are up against.” Runa paused. “So be careful out there all of you.”

Although she made her warning generic I suspected she was saying that to me. “We will,” I replied.

“Do so.” Runa abruptly turned and strode out.

I looked at my team. “Bergljot and Kadlin get your butts on board.”

“Aye ma’am.”

I picked my armour and put it on. “We best get aboard,” I told the others.

Kelli and Denassi donned their armour. Not the best but it was all we had to work with and boarded the shuttle.

I sat in my seat and buckled myself in and spoke. “We’ll take things one step at a time. We’ll get through this!” I assured my team. It was a lie to myself. I had no idea of what we’d encounter. I just hoped I was ready. Runa had done all she could to prepare me. I just had not to freeze at the wrong time. The rumble of the engines as we took off told me there was no going back. The die was set and for good or ill I’d see this through.