Storm Force: Book Three of the Last Legion Series (27 page)

Cumbrians from the fleet, from the moons, smashed at the formation, and the Larissan officers went for the only chance of survival they had — D-Cumbre.

Lights flared in the planet’s skies, the greatest meteor display in history as the Larissans slammed down toward the ground.

Rising to meet them were the Force’s Griersons and Zhukovs, too small to show up on the weapons stations on the armed transports, but more than big enough to kill a spaceship.

Larissan soldiers, half-trained, many sick after the jolting trajectory their antigravity systems had failed to compensate for, felt the shudder as the ships entered atmosphere, some even hearing the dim scream as the transports plunged toward the ground, braking down from Mach numbers, ship skins white-hot.

For some, that was all they’d ever hear or feel, as Goddards struck home.

“All First Brigade elements,” Fitzgerald said calmly. “Find a target, and if you can’t destroy it in the air, pinpoint it when it reaches ground, and relay that to your commanders. If they’re dispersing troops, land and go after them. Let them surrender if they will, but take no chances.”

• • •

“Well?” Jasith Mellusin asked. Her yacht hung on the tail of a Larissan troop transport as it dived through the atmosphere.

Her new captain, Halfin, was not only a fellow Rentier, if one of the bankrupt sort, but formerly one of the ranking contenders in the rich people’s sport of point-to-point, now played with spaceships. But he’d never killed a man, let alone a thousand or so men before. He licked his lips, hesitated.

The transport filled a new screen that had been mounted to one side of his position, hooked to the chin-mounted bank of unguided Fury rockets that uglied up the smooth lines of the
Godrevy
.

“Shoot him, goddammit!” Jasith ordered, and the man convulsively hit the firing sensor.

Furies rippled out, crashed into the Larissan’s drive tubes, exploded. The transport banked to the side, and smoke poured out a hole in its side, then it went completely out of control.

The ship spun down through two thousand meters, hit water as hard as steel at speed, and was ripped apart.

Jasith looked down at the swirling water, and something moved inside her as she thought of the murder of her father by the ‘Raum, the friends she’d lost from the Musth, and again from the bombing raid, and a rather terrible smile came.

Halfin looked at her, then quickly away.

“Now,” Jasith said. “Let’s look for another of the bastards.”

She thought she was starting to understand why Garvin was a soldier.

• • •

“Set it down, next to those Griersons,” Garvin ordered, closing the clip on his fighting harness.

“Sir,” his pilot said, bringing the command ACV toward the ground.

There were a pair of fat Larissan merchant ships that’d tried for a beach landing on Mullion Island. The first had hit the water’s edge and dug a furrow into the jungle that grew right up to the black sand. The second had tried for a landing parallel with the beach, hit a rock outcropping, and split in two.

Half a dozen Griersons from I&R Company were grounded nearby, and a pair of Zhukovs orbited overhead.

Garvin saw jubilant soldiers herding Larissan troops toward an improvised holding area, others, in small patrols, sweeping into the jungle.

He hoped all of the Larissans surrendered, having heard tales from Ben Dill about the monsters living in those jungles and, worse, in the water close to them.

His Grierson grounded, and the ramp dropped. Garvin put on his combat helmet, checked his blaster, and ran out onto the sand. Behind him, two soldiers detailed as his bodyguards swore and followed him.

Jaansma knew he had as much business being on the ground with a gun as he would have swimming naked across the straits to Dharma Island, but didn’t give a damn. It had been too long since he’d had a chance to do anything other than look at maps and studies, and besides, he wanted revenge for what’d happened to him and the other I&R troops on Kura Four.

Garvin heard the smash of blasters from the jungle, grinned tightly, and looked for a patrol to join up within.

“Sir!”

Jaansma stopped, turned, saw Lir.

“Can I ask what you’re doing here, sir?”

“Thought I could help.”

Lir’s smile was utterly malevolent.

“I’m
very
sorry,
Haut
Jaansma, but I simply can’t permit such a valuable staff officer as yourself to risk yourself in this minor mopping up.”

“Goddammit, Monique, I’m serious!”

“So am I,
sir
. And I have to ask you to return to your ACV, to avoid any possibility of your being harmed,
sir
.”

Garvin started to snarl something, realized it would do no good, especially as she leaned close, and her lips formed the words:

“I told you I’d get my revenge.”

There were two grinning I&R men behind her, and there wasn’t any doubt in Garvin’s mind they’d cheerfully relieve him of his blaster and tuck him forcibly back in his Grierson if Lir ordered.

“
Thank
you,
Cent
Lir,” Jaansma said, teeth on edge. “I’ll always remember that you have my best interests at heart.”

Rapid blaster fire came from behind him, and he half ducked, caught himself. He realized neither of the three I&R soldiers had bothered moving. Maybe he
had
gotten a little rusty.

“Now if you’ll forgive me, sir,” Lir said. “I’ve got Larissans to round up.”

Garvin went back to his ACV, was airborne, trying to decide if he should fume or laugh.

• • •

The invasion by Larix/Kura ended in a long, drawn-out whimper. Larissan soldiers, ragged, starving, were still being winkled out of the jungle two E-years later.

One more step, Dont
Angara thought.
A fast one. And then it’ll be our turn
.

The undamaged Cumbrian warships and their crews weren’t allowed much time to rest and recuperate. Angara had kept certain factories out of primary war production, building some very classified, fairly small devices. Now the Force starships went back to the space and N-space around Larix and Kura, sowing these devices around every known nav point.

There wasn’t much risk — the Larissans were shocky by their unexpected and harsh defeat, and weren’t eager to seek and destroy the enemy until they recovered and rebuilt.

So the planting went on, trip after trip after trip.

Then the Cumbrian ships vanished, and Larissan scouts reported the starways were open.

• • •

Ohnce of the Second Generation hung somewhere in N-space, “close” to one of the nav points off Kura Four. Time passed, was counted by its recorders, was meaningless.

Then a sensor responded to input, and the Ohnce came alive. Its circuits found a disturbance in hyperspace, and the Ohnce II, now a globe sitting atop a cylinder, came alive. Its small hyperdrive sent it toward that disturbance, closed on it.

Another circuit came on, a proximity detector.

The Ohnce closed on the disturbance, a ship full of agricultural products bound for Larix Prime. A tidy sort, it sent a signal to a Bohnce, somewhere “nearby” in hyperspace, that another Ohnce would be needed.

A second — if real time existed in hyperspace — later, it exploded as directed, close enough for the blast to remove that disturbance.

Some time thereafter, a
velv
set another Ohnce in place, waiting for the next Kuran ship. Its crew said it was very spooky, as their detectors reported an Ohnce approaching, then tracking away as it “recognized” the friendly ship. “Sniffing like a damned
giptel
,” one technician said with a shudder.

Other Ohnces hung off Larix, and backtracked ships from Kura that used other nav points to travel to the capital system, or laboriously navigated from projected point to projected point to reach Larix, establishing new fixed nav points, after which the Ohnces remorselessly destroyed them.

The destruction of one merchant ship didn’t bother Protector Redruth at all, Celidon only slightly. But then ten, thirty, eighty-six transports from Kura were missing, without ever a distress signal or explanation.

Celidon was the first to note that ships going from Larix to Kura remained untouched.

Insurance firms on Larix refused to write coverage for any ship bound between Kura and the capital system.

By then, it was obvious to Celidon, and shortly afterward to the Protector, what was going on:

Cumbre was starving Larix to death, using some completely unknown weapon.

Then ships outbound from Larix to Kura started disappearing as more Ohnces were built and set in place, these “close” to Larix’s nav points.

The two systems were cut off from each other.

Celidon couldn’t figure out what could be done, even after Larissan scientists discovered the destruction wasn’t being done by raiders, but by unglamorous, unmanned, very deadly mines.

The Larissans never discovered the whimsical names of Ohnce and Bohnce that Dr. Danfin Froude had given the devices, nor, in the short time before the war escalated once more, any countermeasures.

The mines were very unglamorous, and no dashing young officers wearing scarves piloted them, but they were far more effective than the most highly trained
aksai
drivers.

Ben Dill fumed very loudly at the way romance was being taken out of war.

Two E-months had passed since the Larissan catastrophe. Angara’s staff had been very, very busy.

Dant
Angara summoned his commanders to Camp Mahan. “Within one E-month,” he announced without preamble, “the Force will land and conquer Larix Prime.

“It is time for this war to be ended.”

“I think,” Jasith Mellusin told
Dant
Angara, “I want to throw a ball.”

“A victory celebration would be excellent,” Angara said. “And thank you for your faith in the Legion.”

“No,
Dant
,” Jasith said. “Everyone and anyone will be having a party then. I want mine to be now … or as soon as I can arrange things, given your approval.”

“Since you’re evidently asking my approval,” Angara said, “might I ask who your guests will be? Remembering that anyone from the Force will be unavailable in a very short time.”

“I want the entire Force,” Mellusin said.

Angara blinked. “The whole Force?
All
of us? That’s … well, my strength report is classified, but let’s say that would be well over fifteen thousand men and women, given the new recruits.”

“That sounds about right from my people’s estimates.”

“Lord God in a bucket, Miss Mellusin. That’ll be the biggest party in Cumbre’s history.”

“Not quite,” Jasith said. “My father, when he reached his majority, invited all his employees and anyone else in the system to a two-day bash. It shocked the hell out of the other Rentiers, since he made the ‘Raum welcome, too.

“But that’s the dim past. And by the way, it’s Jasith, please.”

“What an impossible idea,” Angara said. Then a thought came. “You know … if our propaganda folk could arrange for this to be transmitted to Larix and Kura, that would certainly be a shock to Redruth, thinking that we had time to play … hmm. Interesting. Possibly not at all a bad idea — even if it is impossible.

“Let me think on this,” he said. “I’ll be back to you within the day. Now, if you’ll forgive me, duty calls.”

He smiled, and blanked the screen.

Jasith turned to Garvin, who’d wangled a few hours away from
Caud
Fitzgerald.

“We’re going to have a party.”

“How can you tell? Angara didn’t say ‘kay.”

“I just know. Women know these things.”

“Why do you want to do this before Larix?” Garvin said.

“Sometimes,” Jasith said, a touch of asperity in her voice, “you’re somewhat thicker than a brick, Gavin Jaansma. Did it ever occur to you that some people are going off to fight who won’t be able to come back to any victory ball?”

Garvin jerked, then slowly nodded.

“And maybe people would like something to think about when they’re out there in a ditch getting shot at,” Jasith said. “I’m going to invite every loose-moraled woman … and man … and some people even I’m not quite sure of … which, come to think about it, is just about the only kind of person I know. And I’ll make sure they know I’ll be very unhappy if they go home alone.

“How much would you like to bet
Dant
Angara figured out exactly what I’m intending?”

Garvin shook his head. “Jasith Mellusin, you’re amazing.”

“I know that, too.”

• • •

“Here,” Monique Lir grunted, tossing a small box across her desk to Darod Montagna. Montagna opened the box and her eyes saucered.

“Uh …”

They were the rank tabs of an
Alt
.

“What’re
they
for?”

“So I can have somebody to drink with,” Lir growled. “
Cents
can’t be hanging out in the NCO club every night.”

“But I’m only — ”

“Twenty?” Lir said. “No shiteedah. Wars get fought by young women, in case you hadn’t noticed, or seen all of the idiots who’ve gotten themselves promoted lately.

“By rights, you ought to leave I&R, so the rankers don’t get familiar. But there ain’t nobody left to get familiar with from the old days,” Lir said.

“Thank you, boss.”

“Don’t bother with gratitude. I’ll work your butt to the bone before we transship, and you’re a lot more likely to get blown off in the invasion.”

The Force
was
changing, very, very rapidly. A soldier returning from hospital or leave might not recognize her old formation. Some changes were from casualties, but more were caused by the Force’s doubling in strength. Experienced officers and noncoms were promoted and transferred, some requiring a direct order from
Dant
Angara before they sullenly packed their traps and changed barracks to become cadre for new formations.

Even I&R, in spite of Lir’s futile rage, had been gutted: Ton Milot and Stef Bassas, promoted Senior
Twegs
, moved to new line units in Second Brigade; Medic Jil Mahim, commissioned
Alt
, to First Brigade Medical, with a promise of civilian medical school after the war; Rad Dref, no longer just a Grierson pilot, now commissioned and an
Alt
in charge of a Zhukov flight.

Some I&R people were still around: Lav Huran, Senior
Tweg
, now First
Tweg
, which meant all three command slots of I&R were women; Calafo, a Tweg and a Second Troop senior noncom; Felder, now a
Tweg
and given a whole section of her beloved “Rumbles” recon robots, yet another change to the I&R’s Table of Equipment; and finally
Striker
Fleam, who refused all promotions and, when forcibly given stripes, made sure he’d gotten in enough trouble by dawn to lose them.

No one in I&R, consequently, had time for any private life whatsoever. Lir refused to lower I&R standards, which meant the old guard spent two-thirds of their time getting ready for the invasion, and the other two-thirds training or testing the new volunteers.

Montagna told Lir she was looking forward to the invasion, so she could get some rest.

“Haven’t you figured out the army yet?” Lir asked. “We do this shit deliberately, bustin’ everybody’s balls, so combat actually comes as a relief. And what the hell, young
Alt
, are you doing wasting time jaw-jackin’ with me? Come on, Darod. There’s work to be done!”

Other formations were equally shredded as new recruits streamed in, and the Force grew toward its newly authorized twenty thousand strength.

• • •

Erik Penwyth saluted smartly.

“You sent for me, sir?”

“I did,” Angara said. “I’m assigning you to a very special mission.”

“Thank you, sir. Might I ask what?”

“You’re going to help put on a party.”

• • •

Njangu Yoshitaro was headed for Angara’s office, carrying a fiche with the latest intelligence appreciation of Redruth’s ship positioning, when one of Angara’s aides, Ushant, stopped him.

“Maybe you don’t want to go in for an hour or so, N’jang. The Old Man’s looking to tear some ass, and I don’t think he’s particular about whose.”

“Why?” Njangu asked the woman. “What happened?”

“
Mil
Liskeard just went in, dropped his wings on Angara’s desk, said he was quitting. Angara could put him anywhere he wanted, court-martial him if he wanted, as long as he didn’t have to kill anybody.”

Njangu blinked. “Liskeard? Shit, he’s a tiger on skates.”

“He
was
a tiger on skates,” Ushant said. “
Dant
talked to him for an hour, tried to get him to change his mind, finally blew up and told him to get his ass out of sight and to Maintenance Section until further notice. He said he’d decide whether he was going to court-martial Liskeard or not after the invasion, and he didn’t have time to waste now.”

“I wonder what the hell happened?” Njangu said.

“My, uh, monitoring of the situation wasn’t that good … I had to take another com … but when I came back Liskeard was saying something about ‘bodies, nothing but bodies.’ I dunno. I guess he just cracked.

“Interesting thing,” Ushant said thoughtfully. “I never heard Angara call him a coward or anything.”

“Yeh,” Njangu said. “Interesting. I’ll go grab mid-meal, try again later.”

He went back down the corridor, wondering what had broken Liskeard, wondering if everybody had a breaking point, thought of the people he’d seen after a firefight, shaking, crying, some just staring. For some of them, something terrible had happened, the bloody death of a teammate, a close call, for others, nothing. Or nothing that anybody could understand. Some came back after a few minutes or some time in a ward, some never returned to the Force.

Njangu hoped it’d never happen to him. He rather be dead. Or so he thought he thought.

• • •

“
All
of you are members of Tvem’s clan?” Jon Hedley asked. There were eighteen Musth in the room, all wearing fighting harnesses, standing in the inverted-V formation Musth soldiers used. The alien in the center had told Jaansma his name was Riet, and he was the most skilled flier of all of them. His accent was perfectly atrocious, but he spoke better Basic, or so he said, than the others.

“Mossst of usss were of Tvem’sss clan,” Riet said. “But sssome of usss from other clansss heard of the losssss of Tvem, decccided we wissshed revenge. Or, perhapsss, what isss your word for an action that makesss the ichor flow fassster and everything more alive isss what we ssseek?”

“Excitement.” Hedley almost added a few extra hisses to the ‘c.’

“Jussst ssso. There are few sssuch eventsss happening within our sssectors. Ssso we wisssh to enlissst.”

“And you’re also
aksai
-trained?”

“All of usss. We are rated Expert or Sssenior Flier-quantified.”

“I may kiss every flipping one of you,” Hedley said. “Hang on. Let me get ahold of somebody named Alikhan. He’s been pretty lonely lately.

“And welcome to the Force. We’ll swear you in as soon as I can get the old man free.”

“Ssswear?”

• • •

“It’s a custom, before we go handing our
aksai
promiscuous-like.”

“Force Headquarters,” Garvin said briskly, touching the
ACCEPT
sensor. “This is
Haut
Jaansma.”

Then he recognized Darod Montagna.

“Good morning, sir,” she said. “This is sort of an irregular call, sir.”

“Uh, right,
Alt
. By the way, congratulations on your commission. I saw it in the General Orders, never got around to calling you. Sorry, but it’s been chaos up here. You’ve got an open chit on me, anytime you want it at the O Club bar, since I don’t seem to be able to break free these days.” Garvin thought he was babbling slightly. “But how may I help you?”

“That’s why I commed you, sir. You already have. Ever since we went to Kura, a lot of things … good things, I think … have been happening to me. And I just wanted to thank you for giving me the chance.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Garvin said.

“Except maybe keep me from getting killed,” she said.

“Or maybe you kept
me
from being iced,” Garvin said, finding a grin. “Teaming works both ways, you know.”

Darod smiled back.

“You know, it sounds a little strange, calling you ‘sir,’ instead of Garvin or boss, since you’re out of I&R now.”

Garvin wanted to say she could call him anything she wanted, fortunately stopped himself.

“Things change,” he said.

“They do, don’t they? Now, and maybe in the future. Sorry to have taken up your time, sir. But thanks again for what you’ve done.”

“Anytime … Darod.”

She smiled again. “One other thing … Garvin. I wasn’t
that
drunk.”

And the screen blanked.

Very irregular
, Garvin thought.
I
probably ought to have Lir tear her off an enormous strip. And it’s probably complicating my life. So why don’t I mind at all?

• • •

“Jasith’s Party” went down in Cumbrian and Force history. Jasith never told anyone how much it cost, and estimates ran between a million and three million credits.

“Only” about forty-seven hundred of the Force showed up. Others were in space, on other planets of Cumbre, or part of the Angara-mandated minimum one-quarter on duty at all times. Others were basically misanthropic or had other ideas about proper recreation. Of course, as the years passed and the tales grew bigger, almost no ex-Force person would admit to not having attended.

Jasith emptied one of Mellusin Mining’s fields, a kilometer square. On each corner a
Kelly
-class destroyer sat on its rear fins. Hung between the ships’ noses, covering the field, supported by small antigrav lifters, was what appeared to be a single piece of gossamer. Actually, it was fiber filter sheets from the mines, each roll held to the next with clips.

In the center of the field sat an
aksai
, a
velv
, and a
wynt
, a Grierson, and a Zhukov. Smiling soldiers offered tours of the ships to civilians. Some of their fellows sympathized with their having to work, until one striker waved a list. “Work my left nipple,” she chortled. “I’ve gotten enough boys’ numbers to get me laid until the millennium.”

The widely respected Seya Symphony played, its music bounced to monstrous speakers ringing the area. Transports shuttled soldiers back and forth from Camp Mahan or other onplanet posts, and they streamed onto the field in full-dress uniform. Invited civilians — and sometimes it seemed Jasith, like her father, had invited the whole planet — parked their lifters and lims and, resplendent in formal dress or simply the best they owned, arrived, and were swept into the throng.

Even Loy Kouro had been sent an invitation. He’d thought of ignoring it, realizing that would make him appear even more of an ass, and so appeared for a teeth-clenched half hour before leaving.
Matin
reported the event … but not on its main menu.

There were tables filed with various foods, light drinks scattered around. No one left hungry, or quite sober.

• • •

Njangu Yoshitaro handed Maev Stiofan out of one door of a lift as Jon Hedley shut the drive down, hurried to open the other for Ann Heiser.

The four stood a moment, considering the panoply.

“ ‘There was a sound of revelry by night,’”
Njangu suddenly quoted. “‘
And Belgium’s Capital had gathered then/Her Beauty and her Chivalry and bright/The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men.’ ”

The other three looked at him in surprise.