Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (24 page)

No one spoke. “OK then, prepare a message to the rest of the ships to RV here (and he indicated a location on the holo). Copy it to Neeblo and Task Force Warner. When it’s ready we’ll break cloak, broadcast and hightail it away.”

Chapter 19. Neeblo 1440, 21 September

Hec gave a big smile to the rogan hopper pilot who had picked them up and he was grateful the translator protocol was still working in his suit. The descent and landing in the escape pod was pretty rough and his suit kept throwing up a series of seemingly random alerts, all of which proved false.

Meg’s mood had not improved and she looked decidedly impatient. “Where are we headed?” she demanded of the pilot upon strapping in.

“Neeblo Control” replied the pilot as he tore the craft off the ground and banked hard while keeping the craft very low to the ground. They touched down in the same open space where Dave had had his accident a short while before. The pilot pointed to a guard standing outside an entrance and they made their way there.

A minute later they met Jeb outside the Control Room. “I don’t have much time” explained Jeb. “Go with this chap here and he will take you to a comms centre where you can coordinate the recovery of your personnel. He will also arrange for you to be issued weapons. Our force is at Mintoslum. They’re in trouble. So hurry things along. Any questions?”

“What, we’re being committed as ground troops?” asked Meg.

“Yep…desperate times. OK I have to get back in there.” With that he left them. The rogan sergeant led them to a nearby room where there were banks of comms terminals. He gave them a quick intro of how to work them and gave them the call sign for the hopper that brought them in. He stayed around till they got the hang of it, but then left them to it.

Hec put out a call on their emergency frequency asking each of the pods to report in. He quickly formed a list and scheduled the pickup sorties required. While he was busy doing this Meg was asking questions about why her ship’s crew were being thrown in as ground troops. The marines yes but she could not believe they would be throwing away highly trained ship’s crew like this.

Hec tried to ignore it but finally it got to him. “For heaven’s sake can you let me get on with this.”

Meg was surprised for sure but something shifted in her awareness and she realised it would be good if she did something constructive. “I’ll chase up with the gear then” she said.

“That would be good.”

“Right, where did he say the armoury was?”

“Up one, second on the right.”

“Right…I’ll be off then.”

Hec breathed a sigh of relief once she left him.

Chapter 20. Mintoslum Facility 1445, 21 September

Sgt Dice Seshadri had just finished checking the demo charges. All that was left to do was configure the remote detonator. He hailed Jim “We’ll be done in two minutes.”

Jim gave Dave the thumbs up and Dave nodded his authorisation for the next phase to commence. “Phase 2 everyone” hailed Jim over the force wide net.

The support droids commenced their covering barrage as Ginty pulled her bashed and battered company back from the transport centre and across the open ground in a mad dash to the southern entrance of the facility.

Omar was doing the same on his side. He was straining to ensure that his forward troops were withdrawing when enemy mortars began ranging onto the open area between his position and the facility. “Fuck it” he called out to no one in particular and turned and ran to catch up to his marines who were now only a 100m from the facility.

The next thing he realised he was flying forward propelled by the blast some thirty metres behind him. Despite or because of the shock his grip on his pulse rifle tightened and he found himself focussing on the charge pack housing. It seemed like he had all the time in the world. Just as suddenly he crashed back to earth, his outstretched left hand taking the full brunt of the impact with the ground. Thankfully his battle gloves held together.

One of his marines ran back and helped him up. It was only then that he realised he must have fractured his left forearm. It was aching like crazy but he knew now was not the time to take a closer look. He was literally pulled through the entrance by another marine who shut the big doors behind him.

To the west Lizzy Kaleb rose to her feet. A strong south westerly breeze was blowing. Despite the tough nature of the material, her cam suit seemed to flap around her wiry frame in the stiff breeze. She looked around to ensure that her Tenacity troops were rising with her. She urged her fourth platoon to begin the march away from the facility. They were soon on the march.

They were being supported by a pair of battlewagons and these were cautiously advancing behind an arrowhead of droids and marines. There had been no reports of enemy in this sector but Lizzy was well aware that that could change at a moment’s notice. She glanced up to her left and made out the figures moving along the ridge that ran west-sou-west. They were her left flank guard. If the enemy from the south got wind of the withdrawal they would flank across to that ridge and then her force would be in real peril.

She scanned across to her right across the ground that sloped gently down to the north. It was very lightly wooded. A clump of buildings about two clicks ahead dominated the otherwise open terrain. That was her current waypoint and she hoped to reach it within twenty minutes. It wasn’t going to be a problem for her droids or battlewagons but her marines were laden down with gear. Those not carrying a quanto were either carrying rizstorms (anti-armour/anti-pers rockets) or nocklars (anti-air rockets).

“Pick up the pace” hailed Lizzy and there was a noticeable increase in tempo. She glanced across to her right. She had opted not to put a flank guard out there, relying on their ability to observe a long distance in that direction. It was tense work and physically demanding especially for someone as diminutive as Lizzy. She really had to pace it out to keep up. She was soon perspiring.

With a click to go to reaching the first waypoint she checked behind and could see her 5
^th
and 6
^th
platoons now fully shaken out into their arrowheads. The 5th was behind and to the left while the 6
^th
was behind and to the right. Together the three platoons made their own arrowhead.

“Hurry it up Lizzy” hailed Dave who was propped up against the western entrance of the facility. He was keen to leave this place behind and blow the demolition.

“Double time” ordered Lizzy to her troops. She groaned as she pushed off harder with her legs.

Soon there was room for Dave’s command group to move off. He gave Argha a pat on the back as he hobbled past him. “As soon as Ginty comes through” he reminded Argha. Argha nodded. Their eyes met and Dave was reassured that Argha had recovered from his earlier ordeal.

Now it was Dave’s turn to break into a trot but his injured left foot caned him with each impact. Chase came along side and put his right arm under Dave’s left shoulder and together they stumbled forward like contestants in a three legged race. Chase began to laugh as he realised how ridiculous they must look. The pain Dave was experiencing didn’t lend itself to merriment but after a minute he too laughed, albeit laced with a little pain.

Jim stayed behind with Argha and anxiously counted off his troops as they came through. He gave words of encouragement and urged them to hurry up and shake out into their allotted formation sub groups. He was mightily relieved when Ginty came through the door. He gave her a pat on the back and told her to hightail it. Ginty didn’t need the encouragement. She began barking orders to her rump of a force to form up and she began moving off within a couple of minutes.

Finally Kong came through, his face actually betraying some concern, which was unusual for him. “That’s it?” asked Jim. Kong was trying to catch his breath. He nodded and then added “they are probably in already” referring to the enemy.

“Right then, you can rest later Kong” said Jim and he waved him off. Kong with a shrug started to jog away after his platoon commander. “Come on Argha” said Jim “it’s time to blow this place.”

Argha had organised his small force into two groups. Group One was three hundred metres west of the facility, deployed and ready to cover the withdrawal of Group Two. “Group Two pull back” hailed Argha. He and Jim joined them as they broke into a run. They kept running for a good 100m past Group One.

Jim however dropped off at Group One and gave Dice the order to fire the demolition. At first he thought it had failed to go off properly. There were a series of thuds and a rumbling sound that seemed to be moving in a circular motion around the facility. Jim looked anxiously at Dice.

“Wait for it” said Dice. There was real excitement in his dark brown eyes as his left thumb kept moving up and down on his clenched fist. “Wait for it…” and then the great domed roof lifted off the facility in a massive explosion. Concrete, brick and metal pieces hailed down around them.

Jim cursed “fucking hell!” He quickly regained his composure. “Right this is no time to dally lads. Let’s go.”

Dave like everyone else in the withdrawal could not but turn and witness the demolition. A smile came across his face.

“Fuck you Sallusam” yelled out Chase triumphantly and they both laughed again as they began to hobble off.

Chapter 21. Rogintinam over Cheklin 1500, 21 September

“NO!!” exclaimed Meeka as he slammed his fist into the arm rest. His eyes were bulging as he focussed on the enemy icons on the holo, which was zoomed in onto the Mintoslum facility. “Launch the fighters. Hunt them down.” He bellowed.

“Hold on” interjected Haina. “We’ve already lost 22 fighters. I’m not losing any more on a fleeing enemy.”

“Are you questioning my order?” asked Meeka.

“We agreed to consult, remember” said Haina standing her ground. “Let’s just consider our options first.”

“I’ll be dammed if I’m going to let them get away.”

“Well maybe if you had spent a little more time considering before you act you would not have lost the combined fleet over Polaris.”

Meeka felt the stinging rebuke. His blood was boiling. He could feel a swell of rage rising within.

“We’re being hailed” announced the comms officer grateful to deflect the impending explosion.

“Who is it” bellowed Meeka.

“Ciantus Melnar.”

The name struck Meeka like a slap from an open hand. He leaned his head back while he hurried his mind to come to grips with the significance of the caller. Finally he nodded and opened the channel on his communicator. “Ciantus.”

“Well Meeka look what’s just happened” hailed Ciantus with a half mocking tone. “Couldn’t help yourself, hey? Just thought you would take it and now it’s all gone up in smoke in front of your eyes. I bet you feel a tad foolish right now, no?”

“If you’ve called just to gloat Ciantus then you’re wasting both our time.”

“Humour me Meeka. It would pay you to eat a bit of humble pie occasionally and especially right now if you still want to get your hands on a functioning device.” Ciantus paused to let the significance of what he had just said sink in. “You do still want it don’t you?”

“What do you want for it?”

“Well guess what, the supply side has taken a massive hit. Twice what I originally asked Meeka plus I want to be appointed Governor of Checklin when you finally get your act together and seize control and I want a contract to rebuild my facility.”

“How many devices?”

“Two that I am prepared to sell to you now.”

“What, you have more?”

“Let us just say that I will be keeping a little insurance.”

“Where are they?”

“I will tell you that when I see your payment.”

“There is no way I can raise that amount now.”

“Well Meeka, come back when you have it and if I haven’t found another buyer maybe we can do business then.”

“What about a part payment now and more to follow in one month.”

“Don’t take me for a fool. I’ve just sent you a contact number. Have a nice day Meeka.” Ciantus hung up with a big smile. It didn’t make up for the loss of his facility but it did help.

Not more than 200 kilometres away from where Ciantus sat, Arkimon Fetula rushed down to the comms room in the Lewista ISS HQ. He listened to the recording. “Definitely Melnar” he said to Salinta. “Where is he? Just find him. I need to call Draag.”

The news robbed Felis of the small pleasure and large relief he had experienced at the destruction of the Mintoslum facility. He was still worried about the situation at the Lewista spaceport. He had spent all his ground based missile stocks. His fighters had fought valiantly but there were only 36 left and they only had one loadout left. Everything depended on how the enemy reacted to the loss of the facility.

Back up on the Rogintinam, Meeka sat back into his chair and began to think of how he could lay his hands on the cash needed to pay for these devices. Haina looked on keen to know what was on his mind but reluctant to push Meeka any further than she had already. She was never one for patiently waiting on others. She began to fidget with her hands.

“Enough Haina” said Meeka, not with any trace of annoyance but rather with a soothing tone. A smile crept onto his face and Haina cocked her head away from Meeka and stared back at him as if the extra distance provided some added measure of protection.

Meeka turned to her and took her restless hands in his. “You were right my dear we need to consult before we act. We find ourselves temporarily stymied by bent of bad luck down on the surface. But as chance so often fluctuates a new door opens. We need to find some cash, a paltry amount in the great scheme of things, but a not too insignificant amount nonetheless. The good news is I know where we can lay our hands on some. All we need do is conduct a withdrawal from the Imperial Treasury in Lewista.”

Haina raised her eyebrow at this. “We don’t want to get bogged down in downtown Lewista.”

“Don’t worry my dear. Julsian’s had some practice in this line of work. It will be a quick break in, grab the loot and withdraw. With a bit of luck we can still wrap this up by tomorrow. Shall I call him now?” Haina nodded her approval.