Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (60 page)

“In due course. This is just the first stage” responded Art. He rubbed his arm.  “It’s just my old wound giving me a hard time” said Art wincing in pain.

Ebinu didn’t understand the expression but asked “You have old injury?”

“Yeah, I need to take some pain killers. If you’ll excuse me” said Art. He gave Nick a look with an odd expression before he walked back over to where they had dumped their kit.

Nick assessed correctly that Art was signalling him, so he followed Art saying “I’ve got some in my pack.”

Art went through the motions of downing the pain killers and sitting down on the ground. Nick did likewise. “This is going to get real ugly when those rogan come out” said Art in a low voice. “I think our sleth friends are bent on revenge. I suspect the rogan deserve it but I’m not going to be party to a massacre. We need more force down here now.”

“Does it really matter?” asked Nick. “Our mission is to secure those nukes. We do that once these rogan are out of that magazine. As you said these bastards are probably the ones who committed those atrocities. Why make a rod for our own backs?”

Art cocked his head and looked disapprovingly at Nick. “That may well be, but it’s not our call to be judge and jury on this. I’ve got more than enough blood on my hands as it is. I don’t need any more.”

“Captain Simon’s” called out Ebinu as he was walking over towards them. “We need to get on with this. Our transports are on the way. Colonel Elinth will be on board and he won’t be happy if this is not resolved.”

Art gave a nod to Ebinu, who was satisfied with that response and turned around to head back to what was his temporary headquarter position.

Chapter 8. Audacity over Slenthsl 1745, 14 November

Aubrey had just finished showering and was dressing for dinner when she received the hail from the command centre. She arrived in the centre a minute later and took the call from Art. “Art, this is Aubrey. What’s up?”

“Codeword Geronimo and make it snappy.”

“Why?”

“Don’t have much time. Put the boss on” directed Art.

Aubrey had to hail Dave, who was in his office. Dave ran into the command centre. “What’s going on Art” hailed Dave. Art explained the situation and emphasised the deadline of 1930. “OK I’ll come down with Obri and the reinforcements. Don’t do anything till I get there.”

A few minutes later Dave was in his cabin kitting up when Rihan entered and demanded to know what was going on. “I’m going down to avert an incident. Art thinks the sleth are going to butcher the rogan when they surrender. Elinth is on his way right now. I need to get down there and talk some sense into him.”

Rihan raised one of her eyebrows. “Don’t worry” said Dave as he withdrew his pulse rifle from its harness in his cupboard “I’ll be talking softly but the 1
^st
Bn will be my big stick.” He gave Rihan a reassuring smile. “Oh, can you go back up to my office and grab me the ePaper from Fowlsit. It’s in my safe. You have access to it.”

“Gordon could do this” countered Rihan.

“No, it’s best I do this. Please, just go and get that document and meet me in the hangar.”

Rihan entered Dave’s office and went to the safe and withdrew the document from Fowlsit, the sleth Chief Minister. As she closed the safe an alert chimed on Dave’s terminal which had not been closed down. It automatically opened a message from Charles Chen. Intrigued Rihan read the first paragraph. It was all she needed to realise that Dave had been keeping something really huge from her. Her blood began to boil but she forced herself to regain her composure. She dismissed the message and walked out holding the ePaper.

As she made her way along the automated walkway across the bridge to the starboard hull she debated whether to raise this right now. Her dander was up and it was her first option. But she resisted her old ways and decided to leave it till later.

In the hangar she gave it to Dave who pecked her on the cheek before he hopped into the warthog and departed. As she made her way back, the adrenalin drained away and she felt sad. He had kept this from her and she felt betrayed.

Chapter 9. Mexl 1830, 14 November

“We don’t need your transports” said Ebinu forthrightly. “Ours are due in in five minutes.”

“It’s best this way” said Art as he watched the warthogs and droid pods touch down near the entrance to the magazine, where Feris, who was acting as the ground controller, directed them.

Ebinu was getting extremely agitated and then his face hardened as he saw the marines and droids disembark. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“We’re just making sure these prisoners don’t get the wrong idea” said Art. He watched as one of the hippos, the heavy lift shuttles, touched down and they offloaded a mobile scanning unit. Troops had it setup outside the entrance as the battlewagons disembarked from the other hippos.

“Art” hailed Dave as he stepped onto the ground.

“Over here” hailed Art and waved his arm.

“I see you. Be there in a sec.” Dave marched over with Colonel Obri and two armed marines. “Colonel Ebinu I presume” said Dave offering out his hand.

Ebinu shook it warily. “Admiral there was no need for you to come down.”

“Oh I think there is. There seems to be two conflicting stories about what happened here earlier today. There’s a lot at stake here and I need to be sure that we’re all going to do the right thing.” Dave looked into Ebinu’s big eyes scrutinising him for any response.

“Colonel Elinth will be here in a few moments. I think it best we wait.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing your boss again” said Dave “but time is of the essence. I am going to bring the rogan prisoners up now and take them into our custody.” Before Ebinu could respond Dave hailed and gave the order to bring the prisoners up.

“You can’t do that” said Ebinu. “They are responsible for atrocities here and they must…”

“Face justice?” interjected Dave.

“Yes, justice” said Ebinu his face hardening.

“So we agree that justice needs to be served here” said Dave. He could hear the sound of more transports coming in and he knew these would be carrying more sleth troopers. “This will be justice sanctioned by law not motivated by revenge.”

Ebinu looked at Dave with a mean face. He caught sight of the sleth transport landing 100m away and turned towards it as he received a hail from Elinth. “Sir, I’m over here” responded Ebinu and he barked an order to one of his nearby troopers, who ran to meet Elinth. Ebinu turned to Dave and said “I think you will find that this is sleth not human territory and it’s our law that prevails here.”

“What prevails here?” demanded Colonel Elinth as he joined the party flanked with his own troopers and another half colonel that Dave did not know.

Ebinu gave Elinth a salute and said “they are attempting to take the rogan prisoners.”

Elinth looked at Dave and then at Obri. Elinth’s eyes scrutinised Obri trying to assess his mood but Obri remained impassive. He turned back to Dave and said “This is a sleth matter. These are sleth prisoners and they will stay here. They have crimes to answer for. Please hand them over.”

“I don’t think so Colonel” said Dave. He pulled out the ePaper he had rolled up into his pocket and showed it to Obri. Obri nodded. He had seen it before. Dave handed it to Elinth.

“What is this?” demanded Elinth.

“It’s the authority your Chief Minister invested in me at the start of this operation. It gives me full authority over all sleth forces operating in this sector. Note that authority extends to military and civilian jurisdictions. In short Colonel, you come under my command and you do as I say.”

Elinth threw the ePaper on the ground. “I don’t recognise this authority and I certainly will not be obeying you on this matter. My forces” said Elinth as he waved his hand towards where his first battalion was now formed up “answer to me alone.”

Elinth was so focussed on Dave that he failed to see Obri’s pistol. But he did hear its report and feel its pulse shot. Elinth fell back and onto the ground clutching his head but only for a brief moment.

“Put down your weapons” ordered Obri to the sleth troopers that had flanked Elinth.

Another shot fired, this time from the solid shot pistol of Nick Hope. It struck Ebinu in the right shoulder at close range forcing the tall sleth officer to drop his raised pistol. It span him around as he fell to the ground.

Art put his hand on the other half colonel’s arm and pressed his pistol into his side as he said “There’s been enough bloodshed don’t you think?”

“And you are supposed to be our allies?” spat out the half colonel.

“And you were supposed to be sleth officer’s” barked Obri, his anger clear for all to hear. “Tell your troops to stand down, NOW!”

The half colonel obeyed as Nick’s platoon of commandoes formed a ring around the group.

“Right” said Dave letting out his breath in almost a sigh “that was exciting. Thank you Obri, Art, Nick.”

“Sir” hailed Capt Chip Anderson, commander of the 1
^st
Bn “I need you over here. We have a problem.”

Dave looked back to the magazine entrance and then he addressed Obri and Nick. “Tidy up here, will you. Art come with me.”

Outside the entrance artificial lights lit up the area around the scanner. It was like the body scanners at the spaceport. Chip took Dave aside and asked “What happened over there?”

“A command reassignment. Don’t worry” said Dave “Colonel Obri’s now in charge of the sleth. We should have no more problems from that quarter. What’s going on here?”

“We’ve disarmed them” said Chip. “But this rogan major refuses to go through the scanner.”

Dave could see Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Buster Williams was trying to get his attention. Buster was Dave’s tech expert. He and Sgt Kali Chada were manning the scanner. “What is it Buster?”

“Excuse me Sir, but I’ve already used this” said Buster in a low voice as he pulled out a hand held device from his suit pocket “and there is definitely something we want to remove from that rogan major.”

“Right, thanks Buster” said Dave. He walked over to where Etina stood with her hands on her hips defiant at the head of a column of her disarmed warriors. They were surrounded by armed marines and droids. By the looks the warriors were giving to the droids Dave assessed correctly that they were probably more afraid of them than his marines.

Dave turned to the solid looking marine sergeant a couple of metres away. “Sergeant, are your droids covering those prisoners?”

“Yes Sir, they are indeed” answered the sergeant in an almost menacing tone.

“Good” said Dave and turned to Etina. “Now major what’s the problem?”

Etina recognised the face as soon as it came into the light. “Admiral Warner no less” she responded. “I heard you were an honourable man.”

“I heard that too” said Dave and gave her a tired smile. “Do you not understand the instructions?”

“I understand them alright. I am just not prepared to comply for obvious reasons.” She looked directly up at him.

“We’ve complied with our part of the bargain. You need to hand over any electronic device now. That’s what those bins are for.”

“And as soon as I do that you will hand us over to the sleth. I’m no fool. That bastard Ebinu will massacre us for sure.”

“Both Ebinu and Elinth have relinquished their commands” said Dave. Bending over towards her he added “You heard the shots.”

Etina was somewhat surprised and it took a lot to surprise her. “Those bastards both dead?” she asked.

“Ebinu will probably recover but Elinth is dead.”

“Good” spat out Etina. “Pity about Ebinu.”

Dave knew all too well the hate that is generated between occupying forces and the local resistance. He wasn’t about to fuel this any further. “So you have nothing to fear” said Dave and waved towards the scanner. Etina though still hesitated. Dave was feeling his frustration shift more to annoyance. He took a deep breath in before saying “Look, I’m not going to wait any longer. I’ve reluctantly despatched one problem officer tonight. If need be there will be a second. You will not be coming on my ships with any electronic devices end of story. Be smart and hand over the trigger now.”

Etina reached into her pocket. She felt Art’s pistol against the back of her head. “Very careful now” said Art. “We don’t want any mishaps do we?”

With a smirk Etina withdrew the trigger device slowly and handed it to Dave. Dave took it in one hand and passed it over to Buster. He in turn used another device from his bum pack to scan it, identify its power source and deactivate it. He then tossed it in the bin nonchalantly before ushering Etina towards the scanner.

It took a good twenty minutes to process them all. Those processed ended up in a huddle surrounded my marines and droids. During this process another tech team went down into the magazine and reappeared giving the all clear.

“Cuff them” ordered Dave. He ignored Etina’s protest. “Load them onto the transports. Not those. Those ones over there” directed Dave as he pointed towards the sleth transports.

“So you can’t be trusted either” shouted Etina.

Dave stepped closer to Etina and was now within a metre of her as one of the marines was applying the restraints to her arms. “Oh you can trust me alright, to do the right thing and deliver justice. There are war crimes to be investigated that implicate your unit. If you were not involved then you have nothing to fear. Trust me; you will get what you deserve, nothing more, nothing less.”

When Etina cursed him, he knew he had done the right thing. He had a word with Obri to ensure he had all the support he needed to take over the ground forces. After the admin and command arrangements had been sorted Dave said “I want to thank you for doing this. I know it must have been hard dealing with Elinth.”

“He was out of control. His own words dammed him. I would rather have not killed one of my own but I saw no other choice” said Obri. His leathery forehead was tensed but it relaxed a little when Dave put his hand on the sleth’s shoulder. It was a bit of a stretch for Dave to do so as Obri was a good 30cm taller.