The Stars Came Back (43 page)

The three look at each other.
One reaches for his throat mic, and the leader shakes his head urgently.

Team2 Leader:
(Concerned and decisive) I don’t know how but we are
way
outside the plan. Fall back to the rally point, report and get orders. Total electronic silence.
Total
. Clear?

The other
s nod, change direction, start trotting though the woods.

FADE TO BLACK

FADE IN

INT - DAY - Kat’s office in
building 1701

She sits at her desk, Councilor Darch on
a screen. He’s cadaverously thin, with intense eyes, perfect hair, and immaculate shirt and jacket. The office behind him is lavish and large.

Kat: How the
hell
am I supposed to know they’d see your guys and do that so your SAM couldn’t shoot? He didn’t call before they lifted.

Councilor Darch: Don’t
you
advise him?

Kat: I’m his
legal
adviser. I don’t know what he’s doing most of the time and even
then
he’s constantly running hypotheticals by me. I’m not a mind reader!

Councilor Darch: (
Angry) I’ve paid you a LOT of good money! I expect
good
information!

Kat: Everything I’ve passed you
is
correct. You get what I can afford to give! Now get off this unsecured connection and let me see what I can find out!

The screen goes blank
. Kat leans forward, elbows on the desk, and puts her face in her hands, sighing, looking tired.

DISSOLVE TO

Dropping in

EXT -
EVENING - Training field

A temporary camp with tents and a
few simple container-sized prefab buildings is set up near a simple firing range at the foot of a high ridge not far from Adelaide. Recruits are sitting in small groups cleaning weapons and gear. Harbin roars up in a light truck, brakes to a halt in a cloud of dust, and hops out almost before it’s stopped.

Harbin:
BUCK! BRENNEKE! FOSTER! SABOT! PLUMBATA! I need you five volunteers to fall in!

T
hey scramble up and over to him, falling into a more or less straight line facing him, rifles at port arms.

Harbin: You have some recreational
skydiving experience, right?

Buck: Yes, First Sergeant!

Harbin: Good. We got some size four brain cells with a size seven attitude and a mobile SAM battery giving the Colonel and
Tajemnica
a problem. The agreed-to arms level contracts severely limit what we can do, and OpFor is keeping friendlies tied up at the moment, so they offered us a one-target contract to deal with it for them. Think you’re up for a drop-in live-fire field exercise?

Foster: At NIGHT? Right NOW?! FOR REAL?

Harbin: Yes, at night. In the dark, too. A potentially hot LZ, low altitude jump into a wooded area, voice-only communication, against an air-defense unit. Very limited allowed electronics, weapons, and transport methods. Lots of ways to have fun, even more ways to get yourself hurt, lost, or killed. No air cover or support, just us and what we drop with.

The five look at each other, surprised and uncertain.

Harbin: I normally wouldn’t ask this, but you’re better than the average ‘cruits and
Tajemnica
is getting shot at. Right now all they’ve got is us. Can’t order you to go because it is not training or a contract you’ve signed. If you go, you’ll get combat contract pay and coverage, even if the bad guys don’t show up to play target. No shame to not want to get shot at in a night drop you haven’t trained for.

Sabot: So who goes if we don’t?

Harbin: Me, Kaminski, Kaushik.

Foster: Who else?

Harbin: Whatever spirits seem to watch over the Colonel, the Captain, and his scatter-brained ship.

Plumbata:
Just
the three of you?

Harbin: (
Shrugging off their skepticism) Plenty of targets for everyone.

Foster: Didn’t sign up for push-ups. I’m in.

The rest nod agreement, voicing affirmatives.

Harbin: Grab your packs, weapons, and field kit
. We’ll get ammo and the rest back at the pad. You have 90 seconds.

The five scatter at a run to
retrieve equipment.

Harbin:
MEPLAT! CANNELURE! OGIVE! Grab your gear! Armor, rifles, and kit! You get to learn how to play badass crowd control muscle! MOVE! You have EIGHTY seconds!

CUT TO

INT -
NIGHT -
Tajemnica’s
bridge

Helton, Quiritis, Cooper, Lag, Bipasha

Ship AI: (OC) I am picking up some very unusual communications between LT Kat, Councilor Darch, Seymore, and an unidentified fourth party. I believe the information distribution pattern is useful.

CUT TO

EXT -
DUSK - Landing pad D9

Harbin
sits in the cab of a light truck full of bundles with parachute containers on them, the five recruits standing next to it.
Tajemnica
glides in, ramp already down, landing right behind them. Harbin backs it rapidly up the ramp and tromps on the brakes, causing some of the equipment in the back to spill out the back end. The recruits sprint up the ramp to help empty the rest. In a few moments it’s all out. Harbin roars off the ramp, stops at the bottom, jumps out and hops onto the ramp as
Tajemnica
lifts away into the encroaching darkness.

DISSOLVE TO

INT -
NIGHT -
Tajemnica
ramp

Dim red lights.
Three large stacks of gear in cargo netting with cargo chutes on top are piled on the edge of the raised ramp, static lines rising from the bundles to the clip-line above. Three Plataeans and the recruits are dressed in body armor with jump harnesses. The red light blinks, the ramp starts to lower, loose ends flutter in the wind. Allonia gives Kaminski a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. He smiles at her, nods.

Kaminski:
(Confidently) Back before you know it.
With
my shield.

Allonia
: You’d better. Luck!

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Gear 1 and
Group 1, READY!

L
ights flash.

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Group 1, GO!

The men push one pile of gear off the edge and it drops into the darkness. A moment later Kaminski and two of the recruits leap after it one after another, static lines trailing behind them, going taut, then streaming out into the night.

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Group 2, READY!

The lights flash.

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Group 2, GO!

Harbin and a recruit shove their pile over the edge then go after it.

Another short pause.

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Group 3, READY!

The lights flash again
.

Quiritis: (OC, through speakers) Group 3, GO!

The last pile goes over the edge, a very brief pause, then Kaushik and the last two recruits jump after.

Allonia looks out into the night, the wind swirling her hair
. She hugs herself as a cold chill goes through her, a worried expression clouds her face.

CUT TO

INT - NIGHT - Kat’s office

Kat
looks exhausted. She faces a screen with a very angry Councilor Darch.

Darch:
They killed
two
missile teams for sure, and I’ve not heard from the others! You said it wasn’t armed!

Kat:
It
isn’t
, goddamit! Her sensors are good, they must have been seen. If your idiots managed to get themselves killed, it ISN’T MY FAULT!

Darch: (
Yelling) I don’t HIRE idiots! I hire the best, except for YOU! Four ManPADS teams positioned for a clear shot, then NOTHING! Not a DAMNED WORD!

Kat: ManPADS? Those
aren’t allowed in the Zone! How do you know they are dead?!

Darch: They weren
’t
in
the declared zone. A flyby showed a lot of ground damage in their area. They must have been fired on!

Kat:
If you can’t get anyone at the RC then you’ll have to move the main SAM battery.

Darch:
They might be seen if they move!

Kat: There
’s a wooded valleys fifteen kilometers from the pickup point. Right on the edge of the declared zone. They can shift a couple of launchers, be there and set up for the trip after next, if they’re any good. Move in fast and tight, keep electronics off during transit, stay on the valley road. That should be close enough. I can pass intel it’s a safe direction if they stay low. A heavy SAM will never have an easier shot.

DISSOLVE TO

EXT
- EARLY DAWN - Hillside ambush point

Dim predawn light, everything gray and silent. A brushy hillside overlooking a wide, shallow valley with slender pines
and a curving narrow road down the middle. Harbin and recruit Sabot sit in a hastily dug and camouflaged mortar pit about four hundred meters from the road. A light mortar is set up with a dozen rounds ready to fire lined up on the side, fuse safety pins still in, small note cards under each. Two heavy rifles with scopes and lunchbox-sized magazines in them sit at the ready, with extra magazines beside them. Suppressed rifles with magazines and bandoleers lie ready to use or grab and move with. Harbin is checking mortar settings.

Harbin: OK, range and angle that black rock next to the white one near the curve.

Sabot raises his optical rangefinder, a binocular-like device with a short tube sticking out on each side, adjusts it as he finds the target.

Sabot: Middle of the road, next to the black rock next to white rock
. Five eight five meters, forty-one degrees.

He looks at a printed card for a moment, then makes a few notes on
it. He sets the card down and picks up another mortar round from its canister. He puts one propellant increment on its base and lays it down.

Sabot: All laid in.
Now what?

Harbin: We wait.

Sabot: …What if they don’t come?

Harbin: We wait longer. Pray if it makes you feel better.

There is a long pause, a tense look on the young man’s face.

Sabot: What if there are too many?

Harbin: Contract says we get the SAMS.
Then
we worry about how many there. Keep your mind on the mission. We are SAM hunting.
Some
what-if’s are fine; worrying about shit you can’t do anything about just wastes calories. Intel says a couple of launchers, a few support trucks, maybe a platoon of guys. Now, tell me the drill again.

Sabot: Start at the left, fire, read the next card and adjust, drop, and go down the line to the right, read, adjust, pull safety, drop, repeat.
Then shoot any SAMS that aren’t burning with the fifty. Then trucks. Then soldiers. Keep my hands off the clackers.

H
arbin: (Nodding) Good. Remember: only as fast as you can be accurate. Fast misses don’t count in this game.
Read
the card, adjust carefully. Don’t worry about anything else until you’re done with that.

Sabot: …Why not the soldiers first?

Harbin: SAMs can shoot down
Taj,
guys with rifles can’t, and the heavy trucks will stay on the road. I don’t think you will, but you’d be amazed how many people freeze up in combat. With your head down and not worrying about what an exploding head looks like in your scope, you’ll do fine dropping rounds on the road. Once the SAMs are down,
then
we worry about pulling back. Let me worry about the people and selecting good targets. You just lay waste to the roadway and vehicles. Now then, I suggest you work on breathing: in slow, hold,
all
the air out slow, hold.

Harbin stands, takes a final look around. He stretches, flexes, adjusts his gear a little, takes a sip of water from a canteen, then squats down in a corner of the gun pit.

Harbin: Been a long night. Wake me in two hours, or if anything interesting happens.

Harbin adjusts his helmet, hunkers down, closes his eyes, and appears to fall fast asleep. Sabot looks at him in amazement and shakes his head.