Knight of the Empire
Chapter 24

Deep in thought I headed for the briefing room. We had been in orbit around Farakas for the last two days while Com Ops had mulled over us landing on the surface. First they ruled unsafe due to the amount of signal interference we were getting from the planets surface. Too heavy to be natural we had already lost one probe to transmission failure. The last time we had encountered that much signal interference was on Anoxi just before we dropped and look what happened there. I could understand their caution but I was itching to get down and put my plan into action. Finally they had greenlighted a ground mission. This was my chance to make up for the past few months, happy to be doing something within my sphere of influence.

The door to briefing room slid open and I entered and halted. Seated at the table was Sergeant Hollen from the Elafi I was surprised to see her there she must have transferred to the Orion. She was sitting with a human female of similar rank. A tall woman she was plain faced with buzz cut brunette hair and dark eyes.

Sitting opposite sat two T’Arni both sergeants from the Axon if my guess was correct. There were a number of other unfamiliar faces along with Ross and Lieutenant Tutor, Marines, pilots and tepes. Seated next to the head of the table was Marsha. The top seat was empty a terminal on the table in front of it.

Tutor rose to his feet and yelled. “Attention officer on deck!” He topped if off with a smart salute. I was sure he was playing up to an audience.

The others stood up and saluted.

I returned the salute and said. “Be seated.”

They sat down as I walked over to stand at the head of the table. “Captain Yanik,” I said to her. At least she wasn’t being frosty with me and had said she understood the stress I had been under.

“Please sit Colonel Locke,” she said to me I saw a ghost of a smile on her lips and I relaxed.

Sitting at the table I powered up the terminal in front of me. The holo at the centre of the table sprung to life.

“This is our objective Complex Nineteen.” I tapped a key and the holo showed an image of a floor plan. From any angle it wasn’t good news for my Marine squads.

“As you can see most of C-19 is under ground. A two hundred-metre tunnel runs from the entrance to the first intersection. The tunnel itself is six metres by four metres. No decent cover at all,” I warned them. I enlarged the image on the holo. “Last intel we have is over a year old. Who knows what the Rhosani have altered.”

“How do you know it is the Rhosani?” an anxious sounding T’Arni male sergeant from the Axon asked. Typical for a T’Arni with regulation dark hair swept behind his pointed eyes as if he was to showing everyone that he was T’Arni.

“Sergeant?”

“Sergeant Eleitherios from the Axon,” the man replied.

“Our information comes from the Archives on Melanos,” I lied. I agreed with Marsha and Lottie that it would be better for all if no one else knew about the Thousand. Lottie seemed certain that the Thousand were on our side. I like Marsha had my doubts. The ship we encountered on entering the Direkki system was proof of that they had told us nothing about it.

“And that Terran ship?” Eleitherios pushed his point.

Hollen leaned forward her face grim. I had visions of Eleitherios getting punched. I waved her back and was surprised when she obeyed.

“Com Ops are sending a forensic team from Aurelis Prime to investigate.” Our salvage teams had found nothing. The data banks had been wiped. They would be here in a few days until then we have a ground mission to complete. I carried on. “Until they get here Com Ops have tasked us to investigate the interference.”

“Could it be pirates?” Eleitherios said.

Eleitherios must have had a death wish. He was starting to get on my nerves. His fellow crewmembers looked as if they didn’t want to be associated with him.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. It was something Lottie kept telling me to do. I put her calming exercise into action. I had little faith in the results. “Pirates would not remote fly a ship not one with the capabilities that a River Class Cruiser would have.”

“Or have it hanging around a system,” Hollen interrupted before I could reply half rising from her seat.

“Ok! Let’s focus on the mission,” I warned both of them waving my hand at the holo, “Com Ops seems to think the signal interference is centred on C-19 in the largest chamber which unfortunately is situated at the farthest end of the complex. Our scans can’t penetrate the surface. It seems to be a blanket signal effect.”

“So the signal interference will disrupt our comms signals,” the human female sergeant from the Orion asked.

“Sergeant?”

“Sergeant Janice York ma’am.”

“I have a way around.” I commed Vorra. “Vorra bring your toys in.”

“Aye ma’am,” she replied sounding delighted.

“As you know it shouldn’t effect direct contact.” Touching a fellow soldier in armour with your gauntlets gave you a direct connection to the other’s comms. It didn’t address the fact that other units if separated with not hear the conversation. Yelling wasn’t an option if you were trying to be stealthy. “Specialist Vorra has come up with a solution. Very ancient but effective.” It wasn’t Vorra’s idea but Lottie had suggested it. Vorra had been very enthusiastic about it when I broached the subject to her.

“Has anyone trained at C-19?” I said in the meantime while I waited for Vorra.

They all shook their heads.

“We’ll use overwatch tactics on this mission. Each squad will move it position then the next squad will move to the next position while the first squad covers them. It’s all in your briefing dataslice.”

The door slid open and Vorra entered carrying a large box a broad grin on her face.

“Thank you specialist,” I said to her. “Please put it here.” I indicated a spot beside my terminal.

She saluted smartly and departed. I gave Tutor a look.

“We’re all on the same team here LT.”

He had the smarts to look ashamed. “Won’t happen again colonel.”

I nodded in his direction and opened the box. Inside were a number tubes with a hand grip and trigger mechanism. I was impressed Vorra and the other Ezarans had done a really good job in the time I had given them. With them were a number of colour coded canisters. I took them out of the box and laid them on the table. I felt everyone’s attention on me. Finally I laid several tubes on the table one end had a lens the other side was plain metal.

“These are called flare guns ancient method of communicating long before the advent of comms,” I told them. Snapping open the breech of one of the flare guns I held up a canister. “These are the flares. We may have comms interference but it doesn’t effect visual,” I said. I lied I wasn’t just going to rely on the flare guns. I had the tepes. I know it against regulations to enlist the tepes but we were going up against Rhosani and I wanted every edge I could get. Lieutenant Prousenos was fully on board with my idea. I guessed Hollen would be as well. The Valkyrie had witnessed what the Rhosani capable of first hand. I picked one of the torch-like tubes. “These are strobe lights they’re to identify you to the Havok so there won’t be any friendly fire incidents.” There had been a number on Anoxi. The campaign had been a disaster from start to finish. “These are your mission briefs,” I told the assembly passing out dataslices and the flare guns and strobe lights. “Read your mission parameters and learn them by heart. Lives depend on our success. Captain Yanik will be providing any fire support we need. And remember to keep you strobes on at all times.” I paused then continued. “Hollen you’re squad Elafi, York yours is squad Orion.” I glanced at the other T’Arni squad leader. “You will be Axon Alpha and Eleitherios yours is Axon beta.” I nodded to Marsha. “Anything to add?” I asked.

“Not from me,” Marsha said her eyes on Sergeant Eleitherios daring him to open his mouth. He must have has some sense of self-preservation since he didn’t respond although he did look from Marsha to Hollen.

“Dismiss the squad leaders LT.”

“Squad leaders dismiss!” Tutor ordered.

I waited until they had all filed out before turning to the next group and probably the hardest to convince.

“Lieutenant Prousenos has informed you of what we need from you?” Only recently had Lottie told me what she had learned from the Thousand. Telepaths disrupted Rhosani kinetic shields. I wished I had known that when we discovered the Rhosani masquerading as the Vice President. He would have been a lot easier to kill and wouldn’t have been lumbered with the indignities I had suffered under Valkyrie hands. It made sense as to why they were so anxious to kill any tepe they came up against. I knew how effective their shields were only my shuriken could get through and I wasn’t certain how it did that.

“Disrupt their shields and they are vulnerable to ordinary gunfire. Lieutenant Prousenos will detail you on what is needed.”

Finally there was one more group left the pilots. I was hoping that Ross would help me with them.

“I know you’ve done an Anoxi drop, Ross,” I said to him.

He leaned forward a grin on his face. “It was fun to fly erratically and then dive head first at the ground.” He punctuated his speech with hand movements mimicking the shuttle flying.

“We have no info on any AS Batteries the Rhosani may have. Just because we can’t see them don’t believe there are none. We made that mistake on Anoxi and lost seventy percent of our first drop. I know we lost about fifteen percent on our second. Shuttles are more manoeuvrable than dropships,” I said hoping to get no objections from the pilots.

Luckily for me Ross did the talking. I sat there as he outlined approach vectors and dive angles. Finally he was finished he nodded to me and gave me the thumbs up. Somehow he had got them on board with the plan.

“We drop in three hours,” I said to them getting a blank look in return. It wasn’t the first time I wished I were dealing with GF they understood the terms I was using. “We launch in three hours,” I corrected myself. “Dismissed!”

They filed out leaving me alone with Marsha. “Marsha your thoughts?”

“You covered everything. You’ve said everything you need to say.”

I caught a double meaning in her words. “I don’t know more times I need to say I’m sorry?”

Marsha sat silent for a moment before she replied. “It’s done Sandra time to move on.” With that she left.

“Well?” I asked Lottie relieved that she had been silent through out my briefing.

“You the expert here,” she replied. “I wish we didn’t have to do this but I know how eager you are to do your duty. It’s what the Guardians used against you. They knew you would do your duty no matter how onerous the task was.”

There was no answer I could give to that so I left it at that.

With an hour to go before we dropped I couldn’t think of it any other way I walked into the shuttle bay. Shawna was already there laying out the equipment in preparation for our checks. I hadn’t been able to speak to her before. I had said a lot of things I should not have about the woman she loved.

“Sorry Shawna,” I said to her.

“Oh?” her tone was neutral.

“I lost my temper and was a total ass and that was unforgivable.”

“It was in the heat of the moment,” she said.

“I want us to still be friends,” I said adding hastily. “Off duty of course?”

“Thanks.” I felt relieved that Shawna wasn’t still mad at me. “You are both alike you know. Marsha wrestles with her own problems.”

“Which I added to by throwing a tantrum.”

“You may not be Valkyrie but you both have that quick fire temper.”

I worried about Shawna. I could be quite violent at times. Like the time I was so furious with Tony thinking he had betrayed me that I lost all coherent thought. “Marsha?” I had to ask the question. Shawna wouldn’t be the first woman or man to take abuse in the name of love. I had to deal with such a case while I was with the 43rd. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

“Never with me,” Shawna replied understanding what I was saying. “She only goes Valkyrie with you. She knows you can give her as good as she gives. Marsha knows I can’t. I’ve never seen her angry with me.”

“Shawna,” I warned. Then I was taking Marsha at my own faulty values.

“I do have a big sister to turn to if things went bad which they won’t Marsha loves me.”

It took me a moment to work out that she was referring to me. “Off duty only until then I’m your superior officer.”

“Yes ma’am,” I heard her laugh behind it and relaxed.

I helped Shawna distribute the equipment wondering where the rest of the squad was. The door to the bay opened and Tutor stepped through followed by the remainder of the squad and Lieutenant Prousenos sporting a suit of combat armour. Mine was a lot better and that wasn’t because it was of a Terran design. I suspected that it had been handmade for me it certainly fitted me as well as any Dabos suit I had in my collection. I suspected if I examined it closely it would have had a ‘made by Dabos’ label on it. The armour had all the latest innovations with a tactical HUD and servos.

“You’re late!” I said to Tutor.

“I wanted to made sure I had your plan straight,” he replied.

“You do realise that our plan will go out the window if we hit any resistance.”

“Aye ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

“Good,” I said.

“Sorry ma’am,” Lieutenant Prousenos, interrupted. “Captain Yanik had a few last minute instructions from Com Ops for me.”

“Ok we haven’t started yet,” I told him I was curious about what Com Ops wanted but I wasn’t about to ask. “Bacare help Lieutenant Prousenos with his equipment check.”

I laid out my equipment relishing the routine. “You shout it out LT,” I said.

“Aye ma’am.”

It wasn’t until we started on the weapons that I noticed that Lieutenant Prousenos hadn’t been issued with an AR 32. “Where’s your AR, Prousenos?”

“Never needed one before ma’am,” he replied. “I wouldn’t know how to use one anyway.”

He had a point tepes were not supposed to be on the frontlines. But times were different we were up against the Rhosani a known telepathic race. “A bit late to train you now,” I sighed. I hadn’t considered that I had taken it as read. I should have factored that in. I would have to amend my plans slightly. It wouldn’t affect the whole mission but I would have to factor it in for further missions.

“Your thoughts?” I asked Lottie silent in my mind. She had had been noticeably quiet since the briefing. She took so long to answer that I began to think that she wasn’t still with me.

“I scared,” she said simply. “I’m terrified, this may be old hat to you but I’ve never done this before.”

I wished she wouldn’t use phrases I didn’t know. “What about Mars?” She had been the governor of the world during the Corporate Wars. “Or was that a different Charlotte Turner?”

“I may have had a military title but it was because I was an astronaut. Historically all astronauts came from the military I was a diplomat. I’ve never fired a shot in anger.”

“It’s not what history says.”

“History has always been written by the victor. I know, I’ve read what you’ve read. The lies and the half truths.”

“Ok, ok I am on your side.”

“Only because I’m part of you. If I had the choice I’d rather be your implant then what the Guardians had done to us.”

“That would have never made a difference. I’m your friend we may not see eye to eye on a number of subjects but we in this together.”

“Thanks Sandra,” Lottie said. “But I’ll still go and hide in a corner of your mind.”

“Stay safe Lottie.”

“The same Sandra.”

My armour comms unit bleeped before I could say anything else.

“Yes?”

“The Orion and the Axon have launched their shuttles.” It wasn’t Marsha but her comms officer.

“Very good inform Captain Yanik that we’re are on the way.”

“Aye ma’am.”

“LT!” I called to Tutor.

“Get the gear on the shuttle the Axon and Orion have launched.”

“Aye ma’am,” he said to me then turned to the squad. “Get your butts on board it’s time.”

I was last to enter the shuttle replaceing my seat next to Shawna as I put my helmet of the rack above my head.

“Ross,” I shouted to the pilot’s compartment. “We got a go light yet?”

“On it ma’am,” he shot back.

I slipped on my strobe light and buckled up my restraints. The engines rumbled as Ross powered up the shuttle.

I knew what we would soon be going through. “Sergeant pass me a couple of sick bags,” I said to Shawna.

“Hey Shawna,” Bacare said. “Pass me a couple to.”

The engines changed note we were free of the ship.

“Hey you guys!” Ross sounded too gleeful for what was about to happen. “This is going to be fun.”

I seriously doubted he was right. The die was cast as the Terrans would say. I wondered if we had prepared for every eventuality. Time would tell and I wondered what waited for us on the planet’s surface. Until then I had to hold on and hope I had enough sick bags, fun it definitely wouldn’t be.