Star Risk - 03 The Doublecross Program (13 page)

"Not," Riss said, "that they've been guilty of that so far."

They waited for the counterattack.

It took two weeks in the coming, and by then the Shaoki on the ground were dining on their fingernails. Star Risk, wondering what was taking the Khelat so long, wasn't in much better shape.

But a snitch satellite, planted on the fringes of the system, eventually sounded, and Star Risk's second stage was implemented, as Khelat ships blipped into real space from hyperdrive.

The Shaoki and Hore's mercenaries boarded the waiting transports and lifted off. They used the moon for a mask, jumped for N-space and eventually home.

The Khelat closed in on the desecrated, conquered, and occupied world.

"Interesting," Goodnight said. "Not as big a fleet as we'd expected."

Star Risk, less King back on Irdis, were in the command center of Inchcape's destroyer. They and the other mercenary ships, plus a carefully selected group of Shaoki's best warships.

"More interesting," Grok said. "The transmissions my techs have intercepted are from normal line units, not the Khelat assault divisions you would've thought to have been committed to a major battle."

"And where are they?" Riss wondered.

"Dunno," Goodnight said. "But let's take what we got while we got �em."

"Patience," von Baldur said. "I think Inchcape can best determine when she's ready to grab them by the throat."

"Madam," Inchcape said to her com officer. "Make a signal to all ships� Set ordered synchronization to this ship."

"We're within range," she said. "Now, let them get a few millimeters closer� Goddamit!"

One of the Shaoki cruisers had launched a volley of missiles.

"Oh, well," she said, nodding to von Baldur. "We always forget about first-timers and amateurs. You may start the battle, if you wish, Miss."

"This is Star Risk Control," Friedrich said into a throat mike. "All units, all units. You may fire when ready."

He grinned bashfully.

"I always wanted to say that, from when I was a child."

"You forgot to say �Gridley,' " Goodnight suggested.

Grok looked at him in astonishment.

"You know where the saying came from?"

"Probably the only thing I remember about history," Goodnight said. "I saw it in a holo once, about old-timey water ships."

Inchcape was paying no attention, listening to her weapons officer report targets acquired, being tracked, and missiles launched.

The Khelat had no idea that there were warships off Hastati on full alert until the first missile flashed on the screen of a Khelat destroyer, less than a second before impact. The destroyer's entire nose section vanished in a flare, then the rest of the ship blew up.

On one of Inchcape's screens, blips flared, vanished. Each was a Khelat warship, and its crew, dying.

Riss doubted if, in spite of orders, many of the Khelat had put on the bulky, clumsy suits.

"Prepare to jump on my synch," Inchcape said. "Four� three� two� now!"

The Shaoki fleet made a one-second in-out into N-space, reappeared "above" the ecliptic and the Khelat ships.

Riss fancied she saw the lead elements shaking their heads back and forth, like hounds who've lost the scent.

"All ships," Inchcape said. "Acquire targets and fire."

Again missiles spat out, and more Khelat died.

"All units," Inchcape said. "Cease fire and jump for home."

All but two Shaoki cruisers obeyed, and those two became the only Shaoki casualties of the battle, spraying missiles at any target even as they died.

Inchcape's destroyer came out of N-space, surrounded by other ships.

Their coms were yammering at each other.

Riss made out a blurt from the Shaoki flagship, someone shouting about fifty, maybe more, Khelat destroyed.

"I made it seventeen ships," Vian's weapons officer said.

"Any bets," Goodnight said, "that it'll be a hundred by the time we get back to Irdis?"

There were no takers. "Pretty good short, sharp shock," Riss said. "It is. What worries me," von Baldur said, "is where the hell their elite units have gotten off to." They found out within the week.

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TWENTY � ^ � Uh," the scar-faced man said, twisting his garrison cap nervously, "we've got a problem, Miss King."

Jasmine held back a smile. The mercenary, Llaros, one of Hore's artillery specialists, must have seen a dozen wars, but was behaving like a raw recruit.

There were three of his fellows behind him.

"It's about my contract," he said. "Or rather, my money."

The others nodded.

"I'm only drawing twenty percent due me," he explained. "The rest the Shaoki are supposed to send home� to my mother. And she hasn't seen any allotments in four pay cycles."

"Oh." Jasmine cursed to herself. She'd gone for the easy and let the Shaoki payroll departments take care of all monies sent out-system. She should have known better.

"Are you sure they've got the right transfer address?"

"Yes'm," the man said. "And when I asked what was wrong, their finance department didn't seem to give a� give a hang. And these other fellers have problems the same."

"We can't have that," King said.

She was about to summon one of her clerks and put her in motion, on a priority, when the general alarm went off in loud clangs.

"All troops, all troops, man your emergency positions. This is no drill. This is no drill."

The four mercenaries spun and doubled out.

Jasmine shrugged on the weapons harness that hung behind her computer station, went for Star Risk Central.

Thur, the capital of Shaoki II, was being attacked by the Khelat.

This wasn't a raid, but an invasion.

Banks of coms were being trundled into Central and tuned in by technicians.

Von Baldur sat in the middle of chaos, seemingly imperturbable.

On the two center screens were Colonel Suiyahr of the Shaoki Council and a beribboned general.

"We must strike now," Suiyahr was saying. "Hit them with everything."

"Yes," the general agreed. "First, give me soldiers on the ground to hold my city, drive them back before they seize all of Shaoki II."

"Maybe," von Baldur said in a neutral voice.

"Look," Suiyahr said. "Screen eleven. They're deploying on the ground, and they're in the open. Hit them now."

"Yes," the general agreed.

"Very well," von Baldur said. "Bring in your air."

Both Shaoki started issuing orders.

"You," von Baldur said to one of the techs. "Put screen eleven on the master."

The technician nodded, and the street scene in Thur filled the three-meter-wide screen in the center of the room.

Riss was just coming into the room, buckling her combat harness, saw what was wrong instantly, as did von Baldur.

"Cancel that order," he snapped, not pretending to be just an advisor.

But he was too late.

Two Shaoki destroyers came in on high cover, and half a dozen patrol ships roared in underneath them. One of them was part of Vian's unit, the others were Shaoki.

The thin wave of Khelat infantry on-screen carried no blasters, but had small ground-to-air missile launchers.

They didn't seem shaken by the ships attacking them, but rather aimed carefully. The sky was suddenly filled with missiles reaching up.

They were too small to be acquired by the patrol ships' countermissile system, no more than a meter long, but big enough to destroy their enemy.

Four patrol ships were hit, tried to lift away. Two exploded in midair; the other two wobbled, lost control, and smashed into the ground.

That was the patrol ship that was part of Vian's unit.

There were more missileers in sight now, their launchers being aimed, and the screen suddenly zigzagged, went blank.

"Get eleven back," von Baldur said.

"Trying, sir," a technician said. "Can't. We've lost contact with the pickup man. I think he's hit."

Von Baldur scanned his assortment of images, chose another. A distant view of the battlefield bloomed on the center screen.

One of the Shaoki destroyers had taken a hit and was limping away, and there was no sign of the patrol ships.

"Give me a scan," von Baldur said. "And put up a radar picture of Thur."

"Yessir."

The radar sweep was spotty, broken, and there was no sign of any ships in the air. Then a wave of blips soared into sight.

"IFF them," von Baldur ordered. A technician touched a sensor for the Identification, Friend or Foe, and all of the blips glowed red.

"Shit," von Baldur muttered under his breath, then forced control.

"The Khelat appear to have air superiority," he reported to Suiyahr. The screen with the general on it fuzzed to black suddenly.

"They've hit our command post!" Suiyahr said. There was an edge of panic in her voice.

"So it appears," von Baldur agreed. He slid out of his chair. Behind him were the other members of Star Risk.

All of them wore Shaoki uniforms�it does not pay to look special in combat unless you have to�but had current Alliance harness and weaponry.

"Chas� I think we could do with a little analysis. I may be missing something, and do not want to be cowboying around unnecessarily."

Goodnight nodded, touched his cheek as he sank into a chair, went bester.

"Current situation," he said. "I would suspect the Khelat, with air superiority, now will continue bringing in troops, and moving them into contact. I would anticipate other landings shortly, as soon as Thur appears to be secured."

"I could have guessed that," Riss said.

"How about strength?" von Baldur said.

"Thin on the ground," Goodnight said tonelessly.

"It looks as if they put in the missile crews without much in the way of backup, from what I see on-screen. If we hit them now and drive them back, we have the advantage. If they can hold Thur, the situation may be in doubt, so we need to put a rod up the arse of the Shaoki without any delay."

"Come on out," von Baldur said, and Goodnight unbestered.

"What a crock," Chas said wryly. "For this I let the Alliance rewire me? Any sojer could've figured that out. Even a marine."

Riss was about to respond, and von Baldur held up a hand.

"I think," he said, "it is, unfortunately, time to go be brave in a public place. I don't think we'll have time for anything but noble inspiration. Try not to get killed."

Two waves of armed transports had crashed into Thur's center, where a great park provided an excellent landing field.

The Khelat landed a command and control ship in the midst of the assault wave, and three very large cruisers orbited above it.

Star Risk had made quick decisions, was deploying.

All of them except King had gotten instantly airborne�von Baldur to the central Shaoki command center, Riss to a armored lifter unit, Chas to a commando team. Both units were in motion toward Thur, and the Star Risk operatives had their lifters drop them on the units without ceremony.

Grok should have taken charge of the overall communications division, had growled a refusal, and was just landing at a self-propelled artillery unit, already rumbling into Thur's outskirts.

Jasmine had wanted to go to Vian's patrol leader ship, but Grok's independent action had stuck her at the com center.

She promised herself some sort of revenge on the furry alien, paced back and forth as dusk fell, watching screens change to available light, infrared, or radar, and the flurry of commo specialists.

The Khelat should have pressed their attack.

But they did not, as if they weren't sure what part of their success to pursue.

Their launcher teams took shelter where they could, without much infantry backup.

At least, Chas Goodnight thought, these commandos were half-trained.

Which was better than nothing.

They'd infiltrated through the fragmented Khelat positions into the rear.

He took two "volunteers," crept forward on a compass course. It felt good, he thought, to be back doing what he'd been trained to do, sliding through darkness, moving silently, slowly.

He didn't need any of his bester skills.

Goodnight crouched regularly, looked around for man-shaped lumps in the darkness.

He saw a pair of soldiers and a almost man-length launching tube.

A dagger slid into his hand.

Goodnight waited, breathed, then rushed the two.

One managed a gurgle as Chas slit his throat; the other was struck speechless.

He died, as well.

Goodnight motioned his backup onward.

Ahead of them, just where it should be, was a sharp rise, with two or three shattered apartment buildings atop it. That would be his new home.

"I think," Friedrich said calmly, seemingly unbothered by the confusion around him in the Shaoki command center, the semihysterical orders being shouted by various members of the council and the unfolding defeat on screens around him, "it might be time to consider sending in your air."

"With what target?" Suiyahr demanded.

"Why, I'd suggest the nice fat transports and C&C in downtown," Friedrich drawled.

"But� what about the Khelat ships in space?"

"They are not bothering us at the moment, so let us not bother them."

"But�"

"I am sending in my own forces," von Baldur said. "Your naval elements are welcome to accompany them� Your commanders have my signal operating instructions."

"But� very well," Suiyahr said dubiously.

"Fire mission," Grok said, gave coordinates, and the SP battery around him fired on command.

The range was very close�less than a thousand meters. The rounds barely armed themselves before impacting.

One tube was a little late in firing, and Grok sent the battery commander over to wreak havoc on the gun captain.

He wished he had another ten�no, make it a hundred�guns that he could put track to track and level the terrain in front of him.

Or else a forward observer with some courage that would give him hard targets, instead of this firing into nowhere, hopefully over the heads of the Shaoki infantry in hasty positions ahead of him.