Burnt Ice (42 page)

‘And we will be naked when they
arrive, cameras rolling, Topaz.’

‘Yes. Quite fitting, don’t you
think, Harry? All hail the naked conquering heroes. The viewers have wanted to
see you lot unclothed for a long time!’

Harry glared at Topaz as the
major gave a tired laugh.

‘OK, people. Let’s do it. Stuffed
if we do and stuffed if we don’t!’

Harry looked at the major and
shook his head. ‘Not wrong there, boss, not wrong.’

They disengaged their external
heavy armour, outer helmet, additional power packs and weapons. The suits
protested that their containers were not present, so everyone overrode them
with emergency protocols. The various parts then thumped down onto the sand.
Together, without saying a word, the crew followed the Hog downwind for some
two hundred metres away from the structures and the AIs. Then with arms raised
and legs splayed they all rotated in front of the Hog as Glint sprayed the
dicyanoacetylene over every part of the suits, drenching them. Marko fervently
hoped that the ACE had remembered to safe the igniters.

Once the dicyanoacetylene was
exhausted, Glint retreated. The suits’ seal warnings were now sounding
continuously. As the seals and then the suits themselves failed, literally
falling away, the only good thing was that the biohazard warnings had stopped.

It was horribly cold waiting for
the frigates to arrive. They orbited overhead as the Games Board frigate left,
gathering the last of their equipment. A lander detached and swept down,
landing with the minimum of disturbance beside the shivering human
Basalt
crew. The outer door opened and they trooped inside the hold into a full
decontamination suite. At least at the end of it they had clean, warm overalls
to wear and a meal waiting for them. Another lander gathered their equipment,
the AIs and the ACEs for further decontamination.

The last AV images, which had
rave reviews, were of the five all-conquering heroes, hungry, thirsty, bruised,
naked and shivering in the predawn desert under the harsh lights of the Hog.

~ * ~

Part
Four

Refit

~ * ~

One

‘So
just what the hell do you want us to do with the Gunbus and the Hog, major? We
should have left them be on the planet. 27 could have sorted them out.’

‘Nope. I like them, Harry. Pull
them completely apart, rebuild them to our standards and give them both some
serious capabilities, then hangar them here on
Basalt.’

‘Yeah, OK. So I can do anything I
like with them? Nice. I’ll grab the guys over a beer and we’ll talk about that.
That Hog could certainly do with a bigger engine, upgrade the hydraulics, sort
the cockpit, and maybe a rail gun for a bit of serious punch. OK. The Gunbus
could do with a great deal of work. Might make up another one as well. I see
that the sales from the bits we left strewn across the desert went very well.
Huge interest in those dead clones, but the Games Board pulled them off the
official post-Conflict memorabilia auction site. Not the same rules for everyone,
eh? Big fight across the auction sites about the monitors’ powered suits. All
sold for extreme prices — and we get a cut as the victors. Nice.’

After the Conflict, AI 27 went
back to his cheerful egocentric self, having been cleared of any involvement in
the action. He told a very interesting story, which did not impress Ernst and Topaz.
Of
19 Rose Foxtrot,
the crew had no knowledge. Fritz tried to find out,
but there was nothing.

Things quickly went back to
normal. Marko, quietly making bread in the main galley pantry, overheard a
conversation between Glint and Stephine. She roundly told him off for stealing
prime ground beef. He said it was not stealing and that he was merely
liberating it for a higher cause. Marko knew that since Glint really liked
Stephine, and respected her, he would come up with a plan that, in the future,
did not involve her produce.

Marko had the pleasure of handing
over the beautiful dragon to Baron der Boltz’s intermediary. Some weeks later
he received a note from the baron saying how delighted he was. The crew also
received a note from Sirius saying that she hoped they did not mind her not
telling them of the plan of the action around 27. Marko was not in the least
surprised. The crew had had a series of discussions on what Sirius may have
known or not about the ambush, but it was all supposition as she was not
returning any of their messages. They judged her to be as enigmatic as always,
wondering if it was not a little payback on her part for their tampering with
her reports as all was judged fair in love, conflict and entertainment. Fritz
thought it a pure shitty idea and that they should fire her immediately. The
boss smiled and told him to leave it be.

~ * ~

‘So
I have to call you “sir” now, Veg?’

‘Yes, Marko, but only around
officers. OK? That’s an order!’ He roared with laughter and punched him on the
shoulder, which to Marko felt like being hit with a sledgehammer.

‘Don’t mind him, Marko. Veg upset
all the instructors on our course by knowing much more than them — on every
subject. He just couldn’t control himself. Quite embarrassing.’ Stephine turned
to her ACE. ‘So, Nail, you acquitted yourself well. I am proud of you. Now, I
don’t want Glint making any more missiles out of our meat, OK? Your job is to
keep him away from the stores. It’s too good to allow such a wicked waste. I’m
relying on you.’

‘Oh
goody.
But he is so
good at it, Stephine, and it’s very funny.’

‘Yes, but nothing from
Basalt.
That’s final. The gardens look very good. My thanks to you, Michael.’

‘You set them up so I had very
little to do, Stephine — apart from eat the produce. Funny, really. No amount
of pleading for equipment will make these station types budge but offer them a
bag of fresh fruit or vegetables and the doors just fly open!

‘OK, crew. Fritz has created a
piece of tech that he calls Harpoon. I asked him about its creation some time
ago and he has finally sorted it. I would like to trial it in atmosphere on an
Earth-like planet. Harry?’

‘There is one which fits the
bill,’ said Harry. ‘Seven-point-two light years from here. There is a large
base established recently — well, it was established while we were away. Nice
big ocean, single large continent and a lot of islands. Some extremely diverse
northern jungles as well. They have everything we need, so I have requested a
short development and proof of concept time for us to perfect the Harpoon and
get it operational.’

‘Good work; so it will suit all
of us. Administration likes the concept of the new missile,’ said the major, ‘so
it’s going to pay our costs upfront. There is also a major metal mill on site —
Harry get us stocked up on everything you need for the rebuilds of the Gunbus
and the Hog. For you, Stephine and Veg, the planet has interesting flora to
investigate. Here are the files.’

They all spent ten minutes going
through the files.

‘Jan, as training NCO,’ said
Harry ‘can you pull the flight simulations for the aircraft
Aurora 11?
I
am not familiar with the upgrade, but need to be as we will be flying it on the
test mission for the missile. I hope it is as nice as the original. Loved that
aircraft. They also have the new Mk 29 combat hovercraft, which we don’t know
enough about, either. I want everyone in the simulators. Make yourselves
perfectly familiar with this new equipment.’

‘That’s right,’ said the major. ‘Jan,
could you also do your thing in regards to medical? Make sure everything
requested has been delivered. Fritz, check all our comms and computer systems.
Clean out any crap that the repair engineers and techs left behind. Check
everything, then bring it all back online. I will check over navigation. Harry,
Veg, Marko, I want you to go over everything that was done to
Basalt.
Make sure that it is perfect. If not, I want to know about it right away. OK, I
would like to depart in forty-eight standard hours, if possible. I’ll be over
at the station for a little while. They have a nice Albatross lander in
storage. I’ll see if I can get it. Stephine, can you also make sure that we
have been credited for all expenses as the Games Board Expeditor assured us
please? By the way, you are now officially purser and purveyor for
Basalt.
So
that makes you First Mate. Veg, you are now officially an engineering officer
in name. Right, let’s get this show back on the road. Oh, ACEs: Flint, help out
Harry, Nail and Glint check the ship from top to bottom for anything out of the
ordinary and any stowaways. You ACEs also now have control of ship’s internal
security between yourselves and Patrick. As such, you also control the ship’s
drones if you need them. Topaz and Ernst, just carry on with your usual survey
of all external data feeds. Right, see you all at dinner.’

As the major walked away, Marko
looked at Harry. ‘Albatross, Harry?’

‘Yeah, new one on me as well,
mate. Fritz, get the files on it. Flash it to all of us.’

Seconds later the files arrived
in their wrist units.

‘Yum, like this. Twin docking for
the skuas. Hey, Marko, you’d better add those to your list for flight checks.
Twin propulsion system. Limited jump capability. Can take all of us and keep us
going for two weeks. Nice weapons, excellent comms. Deal of armour! Shit, look
at the price! Hmm, not sure. Will only just scrape in through the main hangar
doors. Patrick, do you have these specs?’

‘I do, Harry. May I suggest that
if Major Longbow is able to obtain one, we upgrade the manoeuvring thrusters to
give optimum control? That way I could easily bring it in. Only the most
skilled of biological pilots could do so without scraping paint and wrecking
door seals.’

Over the next two days they
opened every inspection panel on the frigate, ticked off the work that had been
done, loaded supplies, gingerly manoeuvred a brand-spanking-new black and
orange Albatross into the main hangar, and tested all
Basalt’s
propulsion and antimatter generation modules, which had even had incorporated
in them some of the technology improvements that they had made on the long trip
back. Then they tested the new weapons, including a state-of-the-art
big-calibre linear accelerator capable of boosting a missile to very high
speed, installed down the centreline of the frigate where the lift had been.
Harry was like a kid with that particular toy. Their rebuilt suits arrived a
few hours prior to departure. Harry mused that it would be a nice little job
for everyone to check them during the trip to the new base.

~ * ~

Part
Five

Pincer

~ * ~

One

‘Boss?’

‘What’s on your mind, Marko?’

‘How could we afford the
Albatross, let alone the new equipment throughout the ship?’

‘Variety of factors. Admin made a
huge contribution to keep us happy to stay in service — even though we own the
ship,
they
brought
Basalt
up to full-line capability. This ship
made a lot of coin for the Games Board from the tech discoveries at the
Octopoid Library, to say nothing of the AVs and such. Stephine and Veg have
made a considerable contribution. Also, I unashamedly leant on the
Administration bosses at the base. Certain elements are very keen to see us on
our way, as we are a source of some embarrassment. There are individuals, who
were part of that whole rogue monitor setup, who want to see us taken down a
peg or two. But we didn’t die
or
embarrass ourselves. So, Marko, we are
now even more popular and, I’m sad to say, therefore targets for a lot of
factions.’