With Your Shield Read online

  “Hmm. For what purpose?”

  “I’m going to see if I can modify the code so the drones can recognize when they fly through a tight beam laser communication stream and report it back.”

  “Interesting…Okay, I’ll release the code for your access. You understand that it’s not to be shared out, even with your team?”

  “Of course. Thank you, ma’am.”

  The channel closed, and Markus received a notification he had new files ready for his access. He muttered to himself, “Well, that was easy.” Now comes the hard part.

  He downloaded the files to his pinplants. The files were now stored in his memory, so they would always be with him.

  He opened the source code and started going through it, using the display on his slate to force himself to slow down a little. This would not be easy at all. Taking a deep breath, he set his comms to reject any request that wasn’t an emergency, then he fell into what he considered his ‘code mode’ and got to work.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Fourteen

  Computer Operations, Golden Horde HQ, Uzbekistan, Earth

  Corporal Enkh, formerly a member of Markus’ team, opened a channel to Major Good. “Sir, you’ll want to see what we just picked up.”

  A moment later, Major Good stood at her shoulder. “What do you have, Corporal?”

  “Sir, we intercepted more traffic about Kelfor-6. Something about a base being set up and supplied.”

  Good crossed his arms over his chest. “Our base?”

  “No sir, it mentions a name I’m not familiar with. General Betreth?”

  Good grimaced. “Besquith. He’s good. Runs an assault mercenary company based on Bestald, the Besquith home world. We had a run-in with him a few years ago, where we got the better of him. Any details?”

  Enkh shook her head. “No, sir. It’s short, obviously meant for someone who knows what’s written between the lines.”

  Good sighed. “If Betreth is waiting for them, they’re in for a pretty big fight. Have we received anything else from the Zuparti?”

  “No, sir. Nothing since the contract confirmation, but that’s not surprising. It’s at least two jumps away depending on the route.”

  “Any warning we send would get to them...” He consulted the schedule. “About a week after our group arrives, and that’s assuming any ships actually enter that system to drop it off. Let’s go ahead and send a warning through the Net, though. Better to try and fail than not try at all.”

  Enkh nodded. “I assumed you’d want to do that and already have it drafted. I’ll send it to your queue, so you can add anything you want and transmit.”

  “Good job, Corporal. Keep on it.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Good walked away from her station, frowning slightly as he added his signature to the message and sent it off. If Betreth was already on Kelfor-6, then either their clients lied, which was unlikely given the contract terms, or they were well hidden. Either option meant bad news for the Golden Horde. Thankfully, Colonel Enkh herself had gone along on this contract, so at least there was that.

  * * *

  Horde Transport Ship EMS War Pony, Hyperspace

  Specialist Kawa stood with crossed arms and looked at the stripped CASPer. A Tri-V display showed the same thing projected from the work table beside him.

  Specialist Volk walked up beside him and broke his reverie. “Are we ready to start putting it back together?”

  Kawa nodded. “Yep. I’ve fit every new sensor on it that we can, and I can’t think of anything else we need to add, at least to the bottom half. I’m still thinking about this whole drone crate launcher being in the way of the MAC.”

  Volk nodded. “Okay, let’s get started on what we can get done then.”

  Kawa glanced around. “Where’s Sergeant O’Borne?”

  Volk shrugged. “Got called away to oversee an issue with another CASPer. He should be back later.”

  Kawa nodded. “Okay, let’s get to it.”

  Over the next day, while the rest of the team worked on their own areas of the project, Volk and the rest of the maintenance team, under Kawa’s direction, put the armor back on the new design up to the waist.

  * * *

  Captain Cole, who was in charge of the transport ship, leaned back on his command couch on the bridge. There wasn’t much for him to do in hyperspace, other than make sure the hyperspace generators didn’t fail and drop them into…whatever “great beyond” existed there.

  Colonel Enkh walked onto the bridge. “Everything good, Captain?”

  Cole nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We should be coming out in…whatever the hell that system is called, in three days.”

  Sansar nodded. She didn’t like going into the unknown, but she had to at least try to track down the buoy. Plus, she’d brought along some physical credits and planned to make a stop at the stargate to find out who had been in and out of the system.

  “Good. Once we arrive, we’ll check out the coordinates we have for the buoy. Then I’ll want to take a dropship to stargate control on our way out and have a little chat with the gate master.”

  Cole rubbed his chin. “You know, I’ve been checking, and this system isn’t listed as active in the Cartography Guild’s database. Who knows what kind of people they have manning the gate here.”

  Sansar grinned. “That’s what I’m counting on, Captain. Very likely it’s someone who got exiled here and won’t turn down a few credits for some information.”

  “Or maybe someone who shoots first and asks questions later.”

  She shrugged. “If that’s how they want to play it, we can go that way, too. We know that whoever has been in and out of this system has had information about at least two of the Horsemen. Given that, I don’t particularly care how they want to go. I’ll get the information I want one way or another. I’m sure we have a few people on board who could hack their computer if necessary.”

  “Isn’t that risky, ma’am? Pissing off the Cartography Guild?”

  “Being a merc is risky, Captain. Besides, anyone out here at the ass end of nowhere like this has already pissed off people and will probably welcome the opportunity to get a few more credits. I doubt they will complain to the guild.”

  Still, she understood his concern. The Cartography Guild manned the stargates and could easily deny transit to any ships they wanted to. It would cause a ruckus, but what they said, went. Each stargate had a control station. For level three stargates, which she assumed was what the system would have, the control stations were small—not much bigger than a ship. There would be no docking area, and they would have to use a dropship to mate up with the station.

  Cole nodded. “We’ll be ready, ma’am.”

  “I know you will, Captain. Thanks.”

  * * *

  Markus leaned back and rubbed his eyes. He’d been working on the code for the drones for several days, although he’d set alarms for himself to make sure he ate and slept and got in one visit to the gym to work out. He’d finished the code and started simulations to see if it would work, but there was only one way to find out for sure, and that was to update a drone and test it. Now he just had to work out the rest of the sensor software for the additional sensors Specialist Kawa had added after his last update.

  He sent a quick communication to his team, letting them know to be in the hangar first thing the next morning to start testing. He noted they only had two days before they emerged from hyperspace and got back to work.

  * * *

  They’d finished getting the armor on the CASPer, and Kawa looked around, confused. “Where the hell is the canopy and chest armor?”

  Volk shrugged. “Hobo said he had something he wanted to do with it, so he moved it out last night. Said he’d have it back by the time we all meet up with Spartan tomorrow morning.”

  Kawa threw his hands in the air. “Well that’s just great.”

  She laughed. “Hobo has his own way, and he considers this his mech, just as muc
h as Spartan’s assault CASPer. Get used to it.”

  “Okay, let’s look at this drone launching system you’ve come up with.”

  She nodded and led him over to her work bench, where she had an armored crate sitting on its side. She indicated the mounting system she’d welded to the bottom of the crate. “Here. It’s the same mounting system we use for rocket launchers or MACs. I’ve added a sensor that will detect a MAC mounting signal and jettison the crate. When it jettisons, the top will fire these explosive bolts on the hinges and lock, and it will let the drones fly.” She turned the crate so he could see the top as she was talking.

  Kawa rubbed his chin, turning the crate to look at it from every angle. “You know we’ll have to test that, right? I’m not too sure Captain Cole would like it if we tested explosive bolts on his ship.”

  Burke walked up to the table, nodding. “That’s not your only problem.”

  Volk and Kawa both turned. “What’s that?” they asked in unison.

  “Well, the drones are manually activated. Spartan told me he wanted to start with the dragonflies, since they should fit in pretty well with the planet we’re going to, which makes sense. Here’s the problem.”

  She held up what looked to all appearances like a real dragonfly from Earth. “See the little button on the top? That’s what activates them. There’s no way to just automatically make them fly.”

  “Well, there’s no way for them to detect laser communication beams either,” Volk said. “Spartan’s a hell of a programmer; I’m sure he’s taken that into consideration.” She was a bit protective of Markus, having worked on his CASPer since they both joined the Golden Horde. She’d seen him move up from a front-line private to a squad leader. She had been there the last time he piloted his mech in combat, and she had worked on the mechs of most of the people who lost their lives that day.

  * * *

  Staff Sergeant Brandon ‘Irish’ Johnston buttoned up his CASPer and selected the squadnet. “Okay squad, report in.” His squad was scheduled for training all day. He had a new private, thanks to one of his men who had a problem with zero gravity. The private had sustained a head wound and a broken arm trying to get to the galley on the first day in space, and now Irish needed to get the new squad member working as a part of the unit.

  He got green lights from all but one CASPer. “Private Walker, is there a problem?”

  “Fucking thing doesn’t fit right.”

  Irish rolled his eyes and sighed. “We can have the maintenance crew look at it when we’re done. Things happen in combat; deal with it, and let’s do this.”

  “Screw that!”

  “Private Walker, you will get your ass into that CASPer and get buttoned up, or you’ll spend the next month polishing armor with a toothbrush!” He’d been warned that Walker was a bit of a spitfire. “You have exactly one minute to report ready, Private!”

  Almost exactly one minute later, her status signal finally turned green. “Fine, I’m as ready as I can be in this piece of shit.”

  “Private, if you have issues with being in a CASPer, I’m sure Lieutenant Quinn will be glad to find someplace else for you to be. Perhaps the ship’s maintenance crew needs someone to scrub toilets.”

  “No, sir.”

  “That’s what I thought.” He brought Lieutenant Quinn, who was at the sim control station, into the net. “Squad’s ready, sir.”

  “That ready time needs work, Sergeant. I can’t have you on a ready five status if it takes your squad ten minutes to get buttoned up.”

  Walker piped up. “Yeah, well this suit…” Irish squelched her comms.

  “Apparently Private Walker has an issue with her CASPer setup. I’m sure we can get it fixed once we’re done today, sir.”

  “Copy that, Irish. I’ll have someone from the maintenance crew waiting after the first sim. Okay, Staff Sergeant. Prepare to load up. I will load what our best estimate, based on intel from the Zuparti, is of what Kelfor-6 will look like. Zuparti are friendlies.”

  “Roger that, sir. Squad prepare to disembark.”

  Suddenly, thanks to the simulation software, each member of the squad saw a 360-degree representation of the inside of a dropship. Not only that, but they could feel it thanks to the manipulation of their sensory inputs through their pinplants. It was just like real life. The dropship hit the ground hard, and the rear ramp dropped. The squad executed a perfect deployment, except for Walker, Irish noticed.

  “Walker, cover your sector!”

  “Coming,” she said in a grouchy voice.

  As soon as she exited the dropship, the ramp started to close, and the dropship powered up to take off. “Spread out and cover!” Irish ordered. He could see a few Zuparti cowering beside buildings; otherwise, they were surrounded by jungle.

  The squad spread out as they had practiced, mostly, and Irish sighed to himself. Then he heard the telltale hypersonic crack! of MAC fire coming in. “Ambush! Scatter and fire at will!”

  As if triggered by one person, everyone in the squad hit their jumpjets and moved out further from the dropship…well, almost everyone.

  The first fire team, Sergeant Chris ‘Dusty’ Johnson, Corporal Mya Greer, Private Lia Stafford, Corporal Malachi Morton, and Private Ashley Black, accompanied by Johnston, executed perfectly. They landed closer to the Zuparti and formed a defensive line.

  The second fire team fared almost as well. Sergeant Mohammed ‘Moh’ Bridges, Sergeant Hafsa ‘Happy’ Saunders, Corporal Charmain Essex, and Private Lauren Dunn executed their jumps, and landed further away, facing their best guesstimate on where the MAC rounds were coming from. Private Brigid Walker was a second late taking off and took two MAC rounds to the chest. Her mech immediately locked, and her comms were cut as she was now ‘dead’ in the simulation. Several others took hits, but they didn’t anything consequential.

  The dropship took several rounds, as well, but appeared to still be in good shape as it started moving. Lasers and MACs from the dropship started firing into the jungle as it built up thrust to take off.

  Dusty and Greer triggered their shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and fired a spread into the jungle over the heads of the second team. They coordinated their fire so it lashed the jungle at different depths. Irish triggered a few bursts from the MAC he carried on his right arm, hoping for a lucky shot, but otherwise conserving ammo. The remainder of the fire team held their fire until they had something to shoot at. Black, who was carrying heat seekers, brought up the rack on her shoulder and scanned the sky in case of air attack. The team, as one, kept moving to avoid being an easy target for the enemy.

  Knowing the first team was behind them, the second fire team, minus Walker, stayed down and moved laterally once they landed. Moh and Dunn fired their own rocket salvos, but they weren’t coordinated with first team, so some of the rockets landed in the same places, which was a waste of limited ammo. The other members of the team scanned for enemy movement, waiting for something specific to engage.

  Irish noticed something odd, just a moment too late. Checking the environment around him, he noticed that none of the Zuparti had moved to run away. He yelled into his comms. “Ambush behind, move away from the buildings!” Unfortunately for him, the message never went out. Just as he was about to transmit, his CASPer was holed by a heavy laser from a crew-served weapon on the roof of the building behind them. Before they could react, Greer and Black were down, as well, as the laser operator swept the laser across them.

  Dusty took over as designated. “Fire from behind, spread out! Second team into the jungle and find them! Dropship One, we could use some CAS on the jungle here.”

  “Dropship One copies, fire coming in six-zero seconds.” The dropship had lifted off, and it turned back toward the engagement.

  With that, the first fire team triggered their jumpjets and vectored to get both the original ambush site and the buildings in front of them. As they flew back, Stafford triggered a long MAC burst onto the roof, taking out the crew manning the
heavy laser. Irish was still able to see the overall picture of the battle, even though his comms were out and his mech was locked up, and he saw her fire her jets again instead of continuing down. He wondered what she was doing, then he saw her trigger a MAC burst to take out a second group of Besquith, just as their laser fired and nearly cut her CASPer in half. She’d probably known she was going to die but had taken out the other emplacement. Her CASPer fell lifelessly to the ground.

  Dusty and Morton, the only two remaining members of the first fire team, trained their weapons on the building, waiting.

  The second fire team triggered their jumpjets, moving forward toward the MAC fire they were taking. As they descended to where they were going to land, just short of the jungle canopy, Essex and Saunders chewed up the trees and anything in them with MAC fire. As they landed, Happy took three MAC rounds, one of which, the simulator determined, would have penetrated and taken his head off.

  Bridges took a few rounds to the left arm, disabling it, but he was still combat effective, and returned fire with his MAC as the rest of second team waded into the jungle. The jungle was thick and overgrown, causing problems for the large CASPers. Dunn spotted a crew-served MAC and took it out with a slicing stream from the laser she carried, cutting the Besquith who manned it in half while Bridges used his MAC to take out another team of Besquith who were reloading.

  “Dropship One, firing in three, two, one.”

  Bridges, Essex, and Dunn crouched low in their CASPers as the dropship thundered overhead, spitting missiles and MAC rounds into the jungle. A half-second later, it seemed like the jungle exploded around them as dropship missiles hit the ground.

  After a few moments with no more weapons fire, the simulation ended, and everyone was able to move and talk again. Quinn came over the comms. “Okay, everyone out and stretch, and let’s talk about what happened.”