Invasion of Kzarch (13 page)

“…In which case, we might manage to pull it off before they can get anything ready,” Frank finished.

“That’s about the size of it, yup.”

“Geez,” said Frank, shaking his head. “We’re really taking a chance on this.”

“There’s
always
an element of chance in military operations,” pointed out Tom. Then he admitted, “…But yeah, this is chancier than most. Still, let’s not exaggerate. From what we can tell, the odds
do
favor us.”

“It’s the stuff we
can’t
tell that’s worrying
me
.”

“Yeah… Well, there isn’t much we can do now. Aside from preparing right, and doing our best.”

“Fsht. Save the pep talks for the troops.”

Tom chuckled.

The two sat silently for a bit, drinking companionably.

“Tomorrow’s going to be bad,” Frank finally said.

“What? Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know… I’m just getting a bad feeling about the whole thing. I mean, it sounded good at first… but I don’t know… With the spy and all… Maybe I’m just getting antsy.”

“That wouldn’t be surprising.”

The lieutenant shrugged.

“But I’m still not happy about it.”

“Wanna change places then?”

“Not on your life. Besides, the general wouldn’t allow it. He wants every Marine on this one.”

“Oh? Guess he’s being careful.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Even ordered that the injured Marines go.” Frank grimaced.

“Really?”

“Yup. At least it means that we’ll have an extra two Marines on hand. And with thirty-seven Marines and six hundred Kzarchians…”

“All you’ll need is a bit of help from God, and you’ll pull it off.”

“Amen.”

They solemnly clinked glasses.

Chapter Twelve

“Move out!” Six hundred Kzarchians got under away, accompanied by a small Marine platoon.

General Juan Val’gor watched with the other senior officers as they left the camp, hidden below heavy stealth, and under strict orders to maintain communications silence. Mentally, he shook his head. It was a shame…

Ah, well,
he thought, turning and heading back into the compound.
We must do what we must to win Kzarch back.

Amongst the group, which only
looked
orderly, various sergeants and officers were quietly yelling and cursing at their men, as they tried to get everyone into the right position.

Lieutenant Harsmith, his platoon sergeant getting his Marines spread around the Kzarchians’ perimeter, was examining the situation through his sensors.

He shook his head.

Despite having nearly a day of planning, or rather,
because
they only had a day of planning, the group was in a mess.

Oh, well,
Frank thought, jogging along.
We’ll be sorted out by the time we get to our destination.

***

“Captain?”

“Well?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Then why are you bothering me?” Bloody Jack wasn’t in the best of moods. Waiting around for something to happen, when he was still wounded, was
not
something he enjoyed.

“You said you wanted to be updated every ten minutes,” Grinner said, backing away slightly.

Almost snarling at him, Bloody Jack paused, then simply nodded his head. Rapping his fingers on his chair’s armrests, he once again considered the situation…

And what he hoped to get out of it.

“Cap’n!”

Immediately, Bloody Jack was out of his chair, and peering over the communication console.

A light was blinking.

“Well?”

“It’s the right code.”

“Good. All right, send it to the main screen.”

Facing it, Bloody Jack watched as it went black. A voice spoke.

“You there?” it demanded abruptly.

“Yeah. We’re waiting.”

“You’d better be. This idiotic idea was
yours
.”

Bloody Jack said nothing. Why should he? After all, he was getting
his
way.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. And I’ll be wearing the bombs.” The tone of the voice was ominous.

“Of course,” Bloody Jack murmured smoothly.

“What was that?!”

“Of course,” the pirate said louder. There was a pause. Then Grinner leaned forward a bit.

“You comin’? We’re waiting to the north; in case you
forgot
,” he said sarcastically.

The screen spat out a bad word, then blinked off.

Bloody Jack shook his head. Then he pursed his lips thoughtfully. He
had
promised… and he was in a bad mood anyway.

Reaching down, he snagged the comm officer’s sidearm.

“I’ll just be borrowing this for a second,” he said, smiling into the pirate’s suddenly worried face.

Turning, he shot Grinner in his surprised face.

BRRUUMMNNN!

Head half blown away from the blast, the former pirate captain fell backwards to the floor.

The gunboat’s bridge crew stared at Blood Jack in shocked silence.

Ignoring them, Bloody Jack returned the gun to its owner’s holster, with a smile and a nod, thoughtfully putting the gun’s safety back on.

Then, speaking aloud to no-one, as if musing to himself, the pirate captain said, “I promised myself the last time he broke com regulations that I’d kill him if he did it again.” He had given strict orders that no-one was to speak when he was on the com.

Everyone digested that for a moment.

Breaking the silence again, Bloody Jack said mildly, “If someone would please remove that carcass? I’d hate to have to give it a friend.”

Hastily, the body of the former pirate captain was borne away.

Sitting back in the captain’s chair, Bloody Jack allowed himself a thin smile. A kill at the beginning of a mission; an excellent omen.

Then he ordered the gunboat to descend. It was time to prepare the welcoming committee.

***

Frank looked carefully at the serene, almost beautiful vista. Not that he was in the mood to enjoy it.

It
seemed
quiet, nothing out of the ordinary…

For a moment, Frank wished he could break com silence, and contact Sergeant Javer. The s-quad leader was currently scouting ahead a bit, and the lieutenant would’ve liked to hear his report.

But no, he’d have to wait until he came back. Lieutenant Harsmith grimaced, and turned to the side, as someone made his way to him.

“It looks like they still haven’t detected us,” he said, for lack of anything else to say.

McKain snorted.

“The
real
question is, how long is
that
going to hold up?”

Shrugging to that unanswerable question, Frank turned towards the distant governor’s mansion once again. Actually, where to where it
would
have been, if he could see it. But it was still over two and a half miles away, and blocked by trees and greenery besides.

Honestly, Frank found it almost amazing that they could’ve come so close without being detected, even with all the stealth devices they were using and with all the experience they had at sneaking around under the pirates’ noses.

Not that the pirates tended to be on top of things, or that they had good equipment, but still…

“Sir?”

“What?”

“I think Colonel John’son wants to talk to you.”

Glancing backwards, the lieutenant indeed saw the commander of the Kzarchian forces heading towards them.

“All right.” The lieutenant went to meet him

“Colonel John’son? Do you want something?”

“Lieutenant,” the colonel snapped, obviously antsy at being so close to the pirates’ central command. “-where’s your sergeant?”

“I’m sure he’s on his way back by now, sir.”

“I don’t need him on his way
back
, I need him
here
! The longer we stand around waiting, the greater the chance of something going wrong!”

Lieutenant Harsmith stayed silent, as the colonel glared at him. Not really at
him
, though, Frank knew, but at the dangerous situation.

“Inform me as soon as the scout sergeant comes back,” Colonel John’son snapped brusquely.

“Yessir.”

Frank repressed the urge to roll his eyes, as the colonel turned and strode away. What did he
think
the lieutenant was going to do?

In any case, it was only several minutes later that the sergeant arrived.

“Sir!” He gave a sharp salute.

Frank returned it.

“Well?”

“Didn’t see much of anything sir, aside from the outposts we know about. The way looks fairly clear, up until we hit their heavy sensor line, anyway.’

“Good. Anything else?”

“No, sir.”

“Okay, then. You’d better come with me, the colonel may have his own questions.”

He did.

“Are you
sure
there’s nothing you missed?” Colonel John’son asked for the fifth time, if phrased in yet another way.

“I think so, sir.”

Intervening before the colonel could ask again, Frank said, “Sir, I don’t think there’s anything he hasn’t told us. Of course the pirates probably have a few surprises, but we’re only going to find out about them when we go in. If Sergeant Javer said he hasn’t noticed anything, I don’t think there’s anything more we can learn from here.”

The colonel grunted, but Lieutenant Harsmith’s point was self-evident.

“All right,” he finally said. “Let’s go.”

Minutes later, the entire group was on the move, changing directions and heading towards their target.

***

Not very patiently, Bloody Jack waited. With him were two other pirates, neither of whom was particularly happy either.

They had been waiting for several minutes already, but their contact had yet to turn up.

Bloody Jack rather suspected that he had actually already arrived, and was now making sure that there was no-one else around but them.

He was wondering how much more of this he could be bothered to take, when the person they had come to meet finally appeared.

Stepping out of the undergrowth, General Val’gor glowered at them. He was walking heavily, limping from his wounds, and the two heavy bandoliers of bombs he was wearing weren’t helping any.

“You Bloody Jack?” he said bluntly.

The pirate chief bowed slightly.

“And you, I presume, are General Valgor.”

“
Val
’gor.” He eyed the pirates suspiciously. “All right, now what?”

“Now, I invite you onto my ship. One second, please…” Tapping on his com, Bloody Jack summoned the gunboat.

As it came down, the general shifted slightly.

“Nervous?” Bloody Jack asked, amused.

“Hardly,” General Juan growled. “I’ve just been wounded recently, is all. Got hit by an energy bomb.”

“Oh, really? I do hope it wasn’t one of my men,” the pirate chief said lightly.

“No, I did it myself.”

Taken aback for a second, Bloody Jack then said smoothly. “Do tell.” At the same time, he waved his guest inside, the gunboat’s ramp now finished extending to the ground.

“Had to get out of being in charge of the mission,” the general explained, stepping into the gunboat. “After insisting I was going to lead it, changing my mind would’ve looked odd.”

“I see.” Bloody Jack revised his estimate of the general, both up and down. Up, that he was willing to take necessary, if risky, action, and down, for doing something so pointlessly dangerous. The pirate captain could think of several other ways General Val’gor could’ve achieved the same effect, without endangering himself as much.

“This way to the bridge, general.”

***

“Where
are
they?” Frank muttered to himself.

They were only a minute or three away from their target, and, so far, they had yet to encounter any real opposition.

Which, as far as the lieutenant was concerned, was utterly unnatural.

There was absolutely
no way
the pirates couldn’t have noticed them by now. Indeed, the original plan had assumed that after their feint towards the governor’s mansion would be detected; and once their
real
aim had been revealed, the pirates would be throwing themselves at the group, if hopefully not reaching them before they could hit the target.

Instead, the sensors showed everything was quiet.

Of course, the pirates could simply have been so sloppy they missed the Kzarchians and his platoon, but that just didn’t make
sense
. After having fought the Kzarchians for the last month or two, the pirates were hardly likely to underestimate them. Certainly not to the point of leaving their main base
uncovered
.

Frank was getting the bad feeling that a trap had been laid.

“Sir?”

If he hadn’t been in his armor, the lieutenant might have jumped. Although he had absentmindedly noticed McKain was approaching, he hadn’t really been paying attention.

“Yes, sergeant?”

“I think it’s a trap.”

The lieutenant chuckled unhappily.

“Just what
I
was thinking.”

“We should tell Colonel John’son that we should turn back.”

“And how do we do that, sergeant? ‘Sir, everything is nice and clear with no problems. We need to retreat at once!’”

McKain grumbled, but couldn’t find an adequate retort

“Anyway, we’re almost there. We just need to hope the pirates won’t get their act together, and maybe we’ll be able to get away scot-free.”

Snorting, the platoon sergeant shook his head pessimistically. Giving a salute, he loped back towards his position.

***

In the gunboat, now hovering in mid-air, General Val’gor and Bloody Jack studied a representation of the situation.

The Kzarchian/Marine force had almost reached their destination.