Guerilla (23 page)

 

TWENTY-­EIGHT

Outside Cheapdock

Makaum

0237 Hours Zulu Time

T
he security fence is no problem, Top,” Corporal Pingasa said as he surveyed the seven-­meter-­tall plascrete barrier only centimeters away. Even in armor, he was a small, compact man with a soft voice. He held his hand out and a blue light field stood revealed only a few centimeters above the surface of the sec wall. “I can bypass a section of this wall easily enough.” He pointed to two small boxes at the top of the wall that were twenty meters apart.

According to Halladay, Pingasa was the best sec tech at the fort and usually worked on the drones and automated systems. He'd grown up in a village outside Llongwe, Malawi, where his father had worked as a cybernetics professor at the University of Malawi. Pingasa's mother had designed security programs. He'd had no problem getting them past the first layer of security outside the starport.

“Sounds good.” Sage had used foolies on similar sec architecture himself. As he stood waiting, feeling the pressure of time passing by, he also felt fatigue creeping over him. He'd been up, more or less, for sixty-­nine hours straight except for the quick nap in the med center. He was running on empty, but he didn't want the stim the suit's near-­AI regularly recommended because the payback for that would drop him like a rock in a few hours and he didn't know where the present op was going to lead. “So what's the problem?”

Pingasa reached into his chest pouch and removed four drones about the length and thickness of his forefinger. As he held them in his palm, the drones opened and spread small rotors that doubled their size. The rotors spun over the skeletal body that was left and they deployed with an almost silent hiss. A pair flitted toward each of the small sec boxes and the other two stayed together.

Two of the drones landed on the boxes while the second pair met in midair and started spinning a single gossamer strand between them. They worked slowly and Sage chafed at the delay, feeling exposed even in the underbrush. As the strand elongated, the two drones flew in opposite directions.

“The problem is that this network is also wired into drones and into the bashhounds walking perimeter.” Pingasa moved his hands in front of him, twitching and gesturing, controlling the drones. “It's a three-­deep system: stationary, mobile drone, and mobile flesh-­and-­blood. We have to take a drone and one of the guards walking this perimeter as well.”

Sage pulled up Pingasa's faceshield vid and saw the intricate visual representation of the work being done. All of the corporal's work manipulated the drones, pulling them together.

“The drone and the guard have to be taken at the same time, and they can't get any farther than twenty meters apart when we shut them down.” Pingasa continued working and his hands flashed more quickly. “They'll be wired to each other. If one signal goes down, the other is alerted, and if they're separated, the general alert goes out and we'll be eyeball deep in bashhounds. Green Dragon doesn't mess around when it comes to sec.”

“Understood.” Sage dropped out of Pingasa's feed, overwhelmed by the layers and layers of images the corporal was sifting through. “How do we get by that?”

“I've got a foolie for the drone. Someone will have to take out the guard. Without killing him. If his vitals crash, then the alarm is triggered. I can't work around that.” Pingasa dropped his hands.

On the wall, all four drones had joined up. The gossamer strand stood taut between them only a few centimeters above the barrier. They scuttled over the sec boxes and cut through the cover with small lasers.

Pingasa held his hand out again. The section of wall in front of them remained dark, but the sections on either side still glowed with blue energy. The strand also glowed blue.

“Okay, now we can climb the wall, but you and I will go first, Top.”

“How are you planning on taking out the bashhound without crashing his vitals?” Kiwanuka asked.

“With a Pacifier,” Sage replied. The paralytic drug rounds were used to knock down civilians during an urban firefight and keep them out of harm's way so soldiers could do their jobs. They were often used in cases when opponents used human shields. The paralytic turned the hostages into limp, dead weight, allowing a sniper to shoot the hostage taker.

“A Pacifier round isn't going to penetrate armor,” Kiwanuka said.

“It won't have to,” Sage said.

Before Kiwanuka could ask him what he meant, Noojin spoke up. “The guard walking this perimeter is smoking
drequeurn
. I have smelled it both times he has been by.”

“That's right,” Sage said, impressed by the girl's alertness.
Drequeurn
was a mildly narcotic local plant that was one of the first trade goods the corps had insisted on.

Noojin turned her head to look at Sage but her faceshield showed only darkness. “You have opened your faceshield to know that.”

“I did. The first thing you learn about an AKTIVsuit is that it can't completely replace a soldier's senses or translate a battleground.”

Noojin glanced at Jahup and crossed her arms. Her body language suggested that he had said something over private comm that she didn't particularly care for.

Sage chose not to intrude on that conversation. He opened the Roley's action and started to insert a paralytic round.

“Not to demean your skills, Top, but I'm a sniper.” Kiwanuka readied her rifle.

“Agreed. Go.” Sage pocketed the Pacifier round. He was getting tired. He should have suggested Kiwanuka make the shot. He was running a team, and some of these soldiers had more skills than he did.

Slinging her rifle over her shoulder, Kiwanuka surveyed the bypassed barrier and stepped to a section where the verdant growth hung low over the wall. In another few days, the tree branches would have to be cut back so they wouldn't foul the security. Sage made a stirrup of his gloved hands and she stepped into them. As he lifted her up the wall, she popped short claws from the palms of her gloves and the toes of her boots, then climbed slowly to the top of the plascrete barrier.

Sage opened his faceshield slightly and the redolent, sickly sweet odor of the
drequeurn
drifted into his helmet. The bashhound was circling again. His circuit was fifteen minutes long. If they missed him this time, they'd have to wait another fifteen minutes, and every minute they stood there was risky.

After Sage gave Pingasa a hand up, the man climbed to the top of the barrier as well. He reached into his chest pouch and took out another drone, then sent it off, staying clear of the bypass strand. As he waited, he removed another device, this one as large as a deck of playing cards, from his chest pouch as well.

Kiwanuka reached the top of the wall and locked on with her left hand, the cyber limb easily managing her weight. Slowly, she eased her sniper rifle into position atop her arm only a centimeter under the strand. She held her position, moving only slightly to follow her target.

Tense, making himself breathe naturally, emptying his lungs and drawing air back in to keep his oxygen levels up, Sage accessed Kiwanuka's and Pingasa's vid feeds. He didn't allow himself to think of all the things that could go wrong in the next few seconds. They had their exit strategy in place.

The starport was a thousand meters distant through jungle that was already nearly a meter high, growing in the gray ashes of the latest burns. Three hundred and seventy yards to the southeast, a pair of powersuits trekked through the jungle, burning down a taller section of the growth.

A shuttle flared through the sky as it descended and the crackling thunder of the solid fuel engines washed over the area. On the tarmac, two shuttles were busy unloading and taking on cargo. In addition to their black-­market dealings, Cheapdock also did legal business with small corps and individual companies and haulers.

Automated units as large as crawlers beeped and flashed as they resurfaced the tarmac over gray ash where plant growth had been burned. Maintaining the starport against the encroaching jungle was a full-­time job.

Thirty meters away from the wall, the flat, black circular drone hovered two meters above the jungle growth and moved ten meters behind the bashhound smoking the
drequeurn
stick. The bashhound's faceshield was raised just above his top lip, providing just enough room to smoke. The coal flickered bright blue for an instant, then dark purple haze spewed from between his lips.

Kiwanuka's sniper rifle reticule centered on the sliver of the bashhound's face revealed through the raised faceshield. Her voice was calm and steady when she spoke. “Ready when you are, Corporal.”

“It will be just a moment.” Pingasa flicked his fingers and the code vids filled his faceshield again.

Sage withdrew from the tech's view and concentrated on Kiwanuka's. She kept the reticule steady as the bashhound came toward them. Eight meters away, Pingasa's drone flitted slowly, mimicking the insects that flew around it.

“If you don't get the drone there soon,” Kiwanuka warned softly, “I'm going to lose the angle on this shot.”

Sage made himself relax and remember that Kiwanuka was a better marksman than he was.

Pingasa's drone flitted and slid sideways as it closed on the guard. The sec drone continued on. Pingasa whispered, sounding hypnotized. “Three seconds, Sergeant. Three . . . two . . .
one
.”

The small drone swooped just as Kiwanuka's finger tightened on the trigger and pulled through to fire her weapon. The Pacifier round struck the bashhound at the corner of his mouth and left a yellow dye splotch the size of a demicredit to mark the hit.

At the same time, Pingasa's drone mounted the sec drone. Sage couldn't see anything that was taking place there, but the sec guard toppled over and went limp.

“I have the drone,” Pingasa said. Careful of the strand bypassing the sec barrier, he threw a leg over the wall and dropped to the ground on the other side, crouching to show only a low profile. He raced toward the fallen bashhound. Only a few meters away, the sec drone continued on its path.

Kiwanuka also dropped to the ground and took up a support position with her rifle in a kneeling pose. She wrapped the sling around her forearm and waited. Her biometrics never shifted off of normal.

Jahup approached the wall and popped his claws.

“Wait,” Sage ordered. “If Pingasa finishes the foolie, then we go. Until then, we stay here to cover any retreat we may have to make.”

Jahup lowered his arms and backed away from the wall. “All right.”

From his tone, Sage knew Jahup wasn't happy with the command. Jahup and Noojin were inexperienced at working as soldiers, but they knew the jungle and they knew how to survive. Maybe they didn't understand tactics in a military unit, but they had a better chance on an op like this than some of the green soldiers back at the fort.

And the few experienced ­people in the ranks needed to remain there in case another attack took place this morning.

Reaching the fallen bashhound, Pingasa dropped to his knees and scanned the man with the device he held. Sage tracked the sec drone and pinned a distance reference on it and the bashhound. They were now four meters apart and the twenty-­meter invisible tether between them was steadily running out.

Sage made himself wait. Pingasa would be aware of the distance himself. Reminding the corporal of that wouldn't help.

Moving smoothly, as if he had all the time in the world, Pingasa took out another small drone and ran it under the device he held. The sec drone was at sixteen meters. Just before the sec drone hit nineteen meters, Pingasa flicked his hand and tossed the small drone forward to follow the Green Dragon unit.

The distance separating the sec drone from the downed guard hit twenty meters, then twenty-­one. Nothing happened.

Sage released a tense breath.

“The second drone is cycling the guard's biometrics.” Pingasa stood and took small computer chips from his chest pouch that were no bigger than shirt buttons. “It's programmed to follow the sec drone, which is blind to us now, so their sec system is going to show this area as secure.”

“Good enough, Corporal.” Sage went to the base of the barrier and motioned to Jahup and Noojin. “Let's go.” He cupped his hands together to make a stirrup.

Noojin stepped into Sage's hands and he eased her up the wall, then he did the same for Jahup.

While the two Makaum worked their way up the wall using claws, Sage turned his attention to Corporal Dundee and Private Selzler. “You two are here to cover our retreat.” He pointed to the barrier. “Mine that wall so we can drop it in a hurry if we need to. Set up some anti-­personnel claymores from here to the river. If anybody comes after us, I want to stop them or slow them down.”

“You got it, Top.” Dundee was an experienced munitions man and he'd picked Selzler after he'd seen her work in training. He and Selzler broke out their equipment and set to work.

Sage cupped his hands for Culpepper.

“Not me, Top. You're next.” Culpepper shouldered his heavy plasma rifle and cupped his hands. “When I cover your six, it stays covered as long as I'm drawing breath.”

“Copy that.” Sage stepped into the other man's hands and maintained his balance as Culpepper lifted him over his head. Sage popped his claws, leaned into the plascrete, and climbed. He reached the top, checked Kiwanuka's vid to make certain the way was clear, navigated the bypass strand, and dropped to the ground, sinking into a crouch immediately and freeing the Roley.

A moment later, Culpepper dropped into position behind him.

Pingasa handed one of the button chips to Jahup, then offered one to Sage.

“What is it?” Sage asked.

A smile sounded in Pingasa's voice. “A little something extra. These button chips are coded with Green Dragon sec information. Their sec system will read them and assume we're starport guests.”