Princess Rescue Inc (69 page)

Ryans
nodded. “The compound bows are simple so it should be easy for the cottage
industry to replicate,” he sighed. Ryans turned a look on the King. “Your
majesty, have you ever met the King of Duluth?”

The
King coughed and then struggled to sit up. His shoulders straightened as a
nurse tucked a pair of pillows behind him. “No,” he sighed, the effort had
clearly exhausted him. “I've seen a painting of him, corresponded with him,
we've exchanged ambassadors, but this is new.” He waved to indicate the
invasion.

“Well,
he's young and he's got balls,” Perry said snorting.

“Young?”
The King asked. “Nonsense. Richard is older then I!”

Perry
gave him a surprised look. “One moment please.” He mumbled pulling out his
tablet. He tapped at it for a minute making the others restless. He finished
and held it up to the King. “I take it this isn't Richard then?”

The
King took the electronic device and studied the freeze frame with rheumy eyes.
It was a young man wearing a crown. The image was taken from above and the man
was clearly angry. “Harrumph... He's wearing the crown. No.” He shook his head
coming to a decision. “It may be Art’ur, Richard's eldest. He may have been
sent out as the field commander if his father was too ill to ride.”

The
Queen nodded. “Or his father may have passed over the winter and he invaded to
take the pressure off his own reign. We have reports of such but we weren't
certain.”

The
King looked saddened. “This too may be true. We'll have to find out.” He turned
to his minister of spies who nodded, making a note. Perry looked over to the
nondescript man and pursed his lips.

<==={}------------>

After
the meeting broke up Ryans caught Perry. “Problem Lieutenant?” he asked
casually.

Perry
shook his head. “Problem? No,” he shook his head.  “Nope, no problem,” he said
equally casually, quite probably too casually. Ryans gave him an eye. Perry
sighed. “Can't fool you I guess. It's just I'm not too keen about spooks and
human intel resources.” He grimaced. “I was always into the maps and UAVs.”

Ryans
snorted. “The old military intelligence or lack thereof? That's rather odd
coming from an intelligence officer,” he teased and then smiled.

Perry
glared for a moment. “No, it’s the whole spies and torture thing,” Perry
explained coldly. Ryans nodded. “Bribing is bad enough,” Perry said looking
away. “Kinda bad, to get someone to change sides like that, but the whole
torture thing...” He scowled blackly. He'd never liked the idea. The threat of
force was usually enough to get someone to talk. Gentle pressure and careful attention
to detail, coupled with building a relationship of trust with the target
usually got more reliable intel than torturing someone. Ryans nodded.

“It's
easier and better to get small bits from many people than a load of horse pucky
from someone you tortured to the point they'll say anything to make you stop,”
Ryans said softly. “I heard about it before 9-11 and after. It got to the point
where they were making stuff up, spouting garbage and the people at the top
were taking it at face value.” He shook his head. Perry nodded looking away.

“Yeah,
we ran into that over the past couple of years in Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean,
the occasional use of force might get you something in the short term, but fear
of it will give you more. But building a relationship with the source...
gaining his trust... it's harder to do. It takes time and when time is of the
essence...”

Ryans
nodded. “And in too many cases things are happening fast. Or people are just
too damn impatient. They move around. By the time you've nailed down something
the target has been and gone and you're back to square one,” Ryans replied
smiling.

 “That
too,” Perry chuckled tiredly. He ran his hand through his hair. “Need a trim,”
he muttered.

Ryans
nodded. “How are we going with the army overall? Anything I should be aware
of?”

“Well,
we're taking the knights and turning them into officers. Same for the squires
and gentry and anyone we find who we think can handle it. Ticundus for example,
that kid's damn good, he's a treasure,” Perry said. Ryans nodded. Ticundus had
done an outstanding job holding the pass so far. “Men at arms and vets are the
nucleus of our noncoms. It's rough though, we've had to make some compromises.
The current set up is a bit like the ancient Romans had. Pendragon of course had
to have it that way.”

Ryans
snorted. “Roman legion you mean? Centurions and all?”

Perry
nodded. Ryans had missed that meeting with Pendragon when they had set up the
TOE and rank structure. “Something like that. We've got a couple of good
cavalry units. I wish we could get more modern gear into their hands though.
We've got two classes, light cavalry and heavy. Light is good as a feint, or
scouting force. Good to plug a gap temporarily, or chase the enemy down. Maybe
light hit and run raids too,” he grimaced. Pendragon was going to helm the
conventional forces and trained them to his exacting standard. Which meant
drilling them all day and then letting them get drunk at night, then sleep it
off until damn near noon before starting training again the next day. Perry had
siphoned off some of the forces to form what he thought of as a proper cavalry
unit. “The animals they ride are sprinters, not good for fast runs over long
distances. Funky things. I never thought...” He shook his head and took a sip
of beer then sat back.

“And
the heavies?” Ryans asked. He of course knew about the
branacks
. They
all did by now.

Perry
frowned. “Bigger creatures, slower, but with more endurance, they can carry
more and go further than the sprinters. There was another mount, those lizard
things the knights rode, they call them Titans. Predators, Paris called them
rhinotrikes
.
They were slow and a bitch to control. Endurance runners, they were more liable
to turn on their riders in some cases than do what they were told. Not reliable
at all,” he shook his head at that thought. Only their ferocity was keeping
them in the ranks. That and their heavy armor, they were extremely hard to kill
and just plain murder on footmen. Only another titan could take one down.

“Yeah,
I could imagine. Trying to stay alive is hard enough without having your own
mount thinking of you as supper,” Ryans snorted.

“Yeah,”
Perry grimaced. “We're getting the last deliveries of them soon. Pendragon
warned me that as soon as they are here, conditioned and trained he's moving
out ready or not.”

“Ouch,”
Ryans said.

“Yeah,”
Perry said rubbing his scalp. “Max said if we could give him about a year he
could build some light vehicles. Not quite modern, but close enough.”

Ryans
shook his head. “Not going to happen, we don't have that kind of time to play
with.”

“Yeah,”
Perry sighed, draining his drink then getting up. “It's something for the
future though.”

Ryans
sighed. “All things in time. Focus on what we can do for this battle, we'll
worry about the next one after.” Perry nodded.

Ryans
stared, watching the titan beasts amble up the road. They were big, bigger then
a bull elephant with six legs instead of four. They were long and stocky,
longer then a tractor with a trailer, it was insane seeing something like that
in real life. Each animal was decked out in a harness and multiple riders. The
lead one nibbled at the foliage around it with its beak. He shook his head and
made his way around to the back carefully. The last thing he would need was to
be kicked by one of the damn things.

If
it was eating foliage it either had a stomach ache or it wasn't one of the
fabled Titans Perry had mentioned.  He'd seen a few in the royal stables
of course but kept his distance from them.
rhinotrikes
indeed.

“Supply
train in I see,” Princess Deidra said catching up to him. He turned to see she
had exchanged her court dress for a more modern outfit. It was brown, and from
the looks of it new. Most likely an imitation of the outfits the Terran’s were
wearing. It looked like modern gaijin fashion was starting to filter into the
daily lives of the rich and famous more and more now that the new looms were
coming online. He smiled politely to her.

“Aren't
you out of uniform princess? Not to mention perilously close to flouting your
mother's law,” he teased. She blushed. It was surprising to see her blush; she
normally wore a great deal of makeup as well. She had kept her newly repaired
tiara though. That and her belt and jeweled dagger. “Looks good on you,” he
said smiling again, catching some of her blush as she ducked away to examine
the carts. Men and material were being unloaded from each.

“Impressive,”
he said watching one cart loaded with nearly fifty tons of gear being unloaded.
Giant war lizards hissed behind them. He turned to see a quartet under a tree.
They seemed to be fighting over a carcass.

Deidra
looked. “They're downwind, fortunately, or the bos Titans would be spooked,”
she observed. She shook her head. He studied the lizards. The royal castle had
a few of course; each knight had one instead of the classic Clydesdale of
Terran medieval history. Each of the centaur creatures had the four legs and
two arms normal for natives of this world. They were lithe and lean, with two
grasping hands instead of the usual feet. It was weird seeing something the
size of a T-Rex chomping so close. Some had horns, others didn't. They had
crests and cat like eyes.

He
shook his head. “Just when you think you've got used to things,” he chuckled.
She blinked at him. His people had been turning everyone's world upside down
for the past several months and he... and then she smiled catching on. They
ducked as a shadow passed overhead. He looked up to see a massive six winged
pterosaur fly by. It climbed into a thermal and then dived toward the animal
pens nearby.

“What
the hell?” he said shading his eyes. Similar, smaller creatures seemed to take
flight from the rooftops nearby and from the moat. The sky was covered in
fluttering gay colored wings for a moment.

Deidra
looked up and scowled. “Dragon,” she said shaking her head, looking a little
pale. She started cursing softly to herself, measuring the distance between them
and the safety of the castle walls. Men and women were shrieking, pointing or
running around in terror. Soldiers armed with pikes and long bows were heading
to the fields.

The
dragon swooped and caught a prey animal, then beat its two lower sets of wings
heavily to rise. It looked a little ungainly with the limp carcass of a sheep
creature hanging from its claws. “Not good, it must have followed them from the
mountains. We'll have to trap it. Kill it. If we just drive it off it'll set up
a den in the hills nearby and prey on the entire area until it is killed,”
Deidra said looking around.

The
train master came up to her, washing his hands. “Not my fault mistress,” he
said rubbing his hands and licking his lips nervously. “It circled high
overhead once we got through the Brenant pass. There was nothing we could do my
lady,” he bowed nervously. She scowled again.

Ryans
cocked his head. “Princess,” he said softly. The man's eyes widened comically.
Deidra seemed to get some humor from that... for the moment at least. The fat
man bowed low then got on his knees. “Oh get up,” Deidra sighed testily. She
turned away, staring at the beast. “We don't have time for this. You say it
followed you?” she asked, turning back to the man.

The
man nodded. “It would attack at night or near dawn or dusk. This is the first
time it attacked so brazenly,” he scowled. “We could see it circling far
overhead through the hills, but we could do nothing your majesty.”

He
seemed more frightened of her than of the beast. “From the banshee mountains no
doubt,” she murmured. His jowls bobbed in agreement. She sighed again. “We'll
need a lot of nets and line, and strong lances to strike the beast. Fortunately
we've got plenty of hunting arrows,” she said. She looked around.

“Going
to kill it princess?” Ryans asked amused.  He'd expected her to trap the
damn thing and tame it.

She
nodded. “It must be done, or it will set up in a cave nearby and terrorize the
countryside. It will raid the flocks for food at first, but when they leave it
will begin attacking people as well.”

Ryans
pursed his lips in a silent whistle. “Dragon indeed,” he said. He looked around
then touched his throat mike. “Angel five this is six come in.”

Perry's
voice came into his earwig after a moment. “This is five. What's up boss?”

“Did
you see we had company?” he asked.

Perry
snorted. “Hard to miss. Want us to knock it down?”

“Might
be a good idea,” Ryans said catching the princess's look. “Fifty cal may not be
enough though.”

“In
other words it may just piss it off boss,” Perry said nodding.

“Yeah,
I'm not keen on using a missile, but if that is what it takes...”

Perry's
voice cleared. “Yeah, well, I'd like to save them for a rainy day too boss, but
they're meant to be used.”