The War for Profit Series Omnibus (33 page)

The screen showed streams of automatic fire coming from six vehicles, and after a few seconds, a secondary explosion. Then a dozen bursts near the trucks became a solid sheet of green light, and then winked out. A faint afterglow of green flickered as a flat puddle, flames at a distance from the wrecked trucks.

“We neutralized the threat with mortars. An inspection of the target area indicated that four of the twelve attacking personnel were at one time, professionals. One was a former member of the Jasmine Panzer Brigade who mustered out six years ago. A Captain Semenko.”

Galen said, “Any prisoners?”

Sevin narrowed his eyes a bit. “No.”

“Thank you, Master Sergeant. Anything else?”

“I sent a text report with video support to Tad. Pretty much what I’ve just said.”

“Roger.” Galen gestured at Tad.

Tad said, “Out,” then waited a moment to hear the connection from Sevin end before he turned off the 2D projection and put his personal communicator into the top left pocket of his coveralls.

Koa said, “I’m going to go through Seventh City transmissions and signals to see if I can piece things together from their perspective. I’ll have a full analysis by 0600.”

“Good.” Galen nodded at Tad.

Tad said, “We’ve alerted a Hellcat tank company and will send them out through the tunnel at 0400, then stand them down for crew rest until noon, then pass them off to the operational control of Sevin at that time.”

“Good, very good. Spike?”

“I’ll stay up. I’ll get you out of bed at 0600. Twelve hour on-call shifts?”

“Sure, I’ll split it with you. But anything I need to know about, wake me up.”

“You got it.” Spike leaned back in his chair.

“Karen?”

“Well, the tap line has a valve at the top of the tunnel. I’ll send two armored fuelers from Brigade trains up top and attach them to the Hellcat tank company. And I’ll brief Chief Polar.”

Galen stood and the rest stood along with him. “Very well. Is there anything else?”

Galen waited a moment, looked into each face, then said, “Dismissed.”

Galen met up with Tad on his way to the chow hall for breakfast and they sat in the last booth nearest the exit. The sturdy metal building was complete, but was still serving canned rations.

Galen pulled the heat tab and waited. “So, pretty quiet last night?”

Tad removed the lid of his food container and punched out the perforated spork. “Yes, real quiet. But I did get a pretty good analysis from Chief Koa.”

“What was that like?” Galen pulled the lid off his breakfast container and punched the spork out and stirred his scrambled eggs.

“Well,
Seventh City forces have claimed a brilliant victory over our horrid, oppressive, murderous regime. The video of our dummy outpost getting ripped apart by their gun trucks is all over their news. The part where the gun trucks were obliterated is, of course, not shown. But they show their crews dancing around their trucks in victory, celebrating. Not sure if anyone cares that the battle scene is right after sunset, and the victory scene is around noon time.”

Galen shrugged. “Let them have their fun. Are they planning anything else?”

“Well, it’s not certain yet.”

“What?”

Tad swallowed his eggs. “They put in a bid for a mercenary unit to support their rebellion.”

Galen stuck his spork into a cube of Spam. “That’s their right, as a rebellion. Wonder who they’ll get?”

“Not sure. Would you take their contract?” Tad drank his milk.

“Not just no, but hell no.”

Tad finished his chow and ran his finger around inside the container to get a few more pieces of food. “I hope they get somebody just tough enough to give Sevin something to do.”

Galen stood. “I don’t think there is such a unit. The entire Mosh invasion didn’t keep him amused for very long.”

They dropped their used containers in the recycler on the way out of the chow hall. Tad swept his left hand forward at waist height and said, “Come check out my ops center.”

They walked to the spaceport terminal and followed a narrow interior corridor wedged in between the souvenir shop and the snack bar. At the end was a plain steel door, which Tad opened and held open for Galen. Galen descended the steps and opened a second door, which led in to the main area of the operations center, an eight meter square room with three meter high walls and a sturdy steel conference table surrounded by eight metal folding chairs.

A Corporal stood from the command chair and said, “Good morning, Sergeant Majors.”

“Carry on,” said Galen.

There were two control terminals on desks along each side wall, a technician seated at each, and a fully functional command chair at the head of the table, facing a full-D view screen on the wall of the entrance door. Behind the command chair was a metal door, which Tad opened.

“My office, and beyond that, my quarters.”

Galen said, “Just like Alamo.”

“I like it. How long before they get things set up on the mountain?”

“About a month. That’s also when we start training the EugeneX security people. Are you going to move then?”

Tad sat at his desk. “Yes. I’ll have to hand this place over to range control to track training. Chief Mortinson is slotted to handle that.”

Galen sat on the couch and put his feet on the aluminum coffee table. “Well he’ll do a fine job. Doesn’t he retire after this contract?”

Tad said, “Yep, if he wants too. Maybe we can change his mind.”

“Not likely. He’s got a house paid off, his wife, three grown kids and five grandkids on Mandarin. He’s applied to work part-time at the armory at the welcoming center. And I’ve approved his retirement already.”

“Buzzkill. Okay, have you looked at that logpac plan your girlfriend turned in?”

“Karen? No, first I heard of it.”

Tad said, “That’s good, that she’s keeping personal separate from private, running her ideas through proper channels.”

Galen said, “She’s my logistics officer, she works for me.”

“Well she pitched her plan through Spike, your executive officer, last night while you were not on call. It was the right thing to do, and helped avoid an appearance of impropriety. She’s being professional.”

“All right. So what’s her plan?”

“She wants to have combat after-action logpacs stacked in the tunnel, along with transport. That gives the supplies greater protection and keeps them closer to the units, so during an emergency they can get up top faster.”

“And what’s the down side?”

“The builders will have to widen a section of the tunnel.”

Galen thought for a moment. “How long will that take?”

“About three days.”

Galen calculated a quick cost-estimate in his head and realized it would be negligible. “Okay.”

“Spike already approved it.”

“Well I might as well climb in that command jump ship and go home. You all don’t need me for anything.”

“Hey, calm down, hero. We need you to make decisions when Spike’s asleep.”

Galen laughed and stretched out on the couch. “Want to go up top?”

Tad said, “What for?”

“Check on Sevin, see what he’s up to.”

“All right.” Tad keyed his personal communicator. “Hey driver, how long to have the skimmer ready?” a pause, “Okay, meet me in front of the Brigade conference room. Bring a Vehicle Commander and a laser gunner and lunch for five; I’ll be riding in the back with the Commandant.”

Tad said to Galen, “We’ll leave from in front of your place in fifteen minutes. Let me get my war gear on and I’ll walk over there with you.”

***

Galen sat on the right seat in the back of the skimmer, Tad across from him, the laser gunner standing up between them, far enough forward to not be a nuisance to conversation. The skimmer entered the tunnel.

Tad said, “Hey, this is my first time coming through here.”

Galen said, “It looks a lot better now, with the lighting strips installed and the surface paved and marked. And the center divider, I like that too.”

Tad said, “Construction ahead, for the logpacs.”

The skimmer slowed as it went past the construction. Work crews used grinder machines to cut into the side of the tunnel and a boring machine to make a smaller parallel tunnel long enough to hold an entire logpac convoy, plus enough room to store two more pallets of logpac supplies.

Galen said, “It’s a brilliant idea, we should have planned for it before.”

Tad said, “Well we didn’t know we’d be picking a fight here. Now we do.”

“I wonder what else we should store down here.”

Tad shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re not making this our permanent home; we’ll be gone in about a year.”

“You’re right, let EugeneX worry about it.” Galen adjusted the chin strap of his ground troop helmet.

A metal cylinder a meter across and three meters long hung from the tunnel’s ceiling, directly above the median divider of the roadway. It held a turbine fan that ran to push air along. Galen noticed that one was hung about every eight hundred meters or so. Some turned slowly, others were off and a few ran at full speed.

The skimmer ascended the up-slope of the end of the tunnel and came out through the compound built around the exit. The defensive lasers and rail guns were installed, and Hellcat tanks and light Hornet tanks and IFVs were in smaller bermed positions on either side, and fixed bunkers were built into the berms as well as two meter high half-crescent concrete structures behind the bunkers to provide sleeping areas that were resistant to light and medium artillery.

The skimmer exited the secure area and turned right and skimmed along at half a meter above ground at near top speed. Galen leaned forward and looked at the nav screen; Sevin’s rendezvous point was clearly marked, less than eighteen kilometers away. The vehicle skimmed smoothly over dry creek ruts and stubborn little scrubby plants, although the driver did decide to detour around a small crater that was about twelve meters across. At the marked coordinates, the driver glided in to an easy stop and let the vehicle sink to the ground by letting the fans wind down on their own, the power to them put on standby. Galen and Tad dismounted by jumping over the sides, something a lot easier to do here on Juventud, with its gravity of only point eight Gs.

The ground rumbled, then twenty meters ahead, a steel rectangle a meter wide and two meters high emerged from the ground. After it rose and much of the dirt and dust fell away, Galen recognized it as the roof extension of a command post carrier. Its door opened and Sevin stuck his head out.

Sevin waved to them. “Hey, come on in!”

Galen and Tad entered and climbed down the ladder to stand inside the command vehicle. It was a tight fit, but Tad and Galen stood to either side of Sevin. He took a half step forward and turned around, his back to the wall. “Gentlemen, welcome to my humble abode.”

Tad said, “So how’s it going up top?”

Sevin waved his left hand at a command terminal. “Here we have position and location information, and on my right is a control panel that’s wired in to the heavy guns and mortars. Behind you are two more stations, ready to give and receive orders and reports.” Then he pointed toward the driver’s compartment, “and my lovely assistant.” A Chief in coveralls slept, slumped over, head resting on the steering yolk, a block of packing foam his pillow.

“You’re tied in to Guns already?” Galen said.

“That’s right. The 240mm batteries went hot this morning, and the space defense lasers are on-line too. The ground-mobile rail guns are rotating through to charge off the Hornets every twelve hours, to keep their batteries above eighty percent. There’s some delay for fire response at times, because the guns with live crews have to approve their weapons fire, to ensure they are safe.”

Tad said, “You expecting some action?”

Sevin smiled. “Not yet, but it seems that in a few days we’ll be up against some professionals. I’ll be ready for them.”

Galen said, “I heard that Seventh City was taking bids.”

Tad said, “Why don’t they come fight us themselves?”

Sevin said, “They have more money than courage. Besides, all their muscle is tied up with racketeering. Extorting protection, loan sharking, and guarding their turf from other gangs. They have nothing left to fight us.”

“Well let me know if you need anything,” said Galen.

Sevin said, “I’ll do that. I don’t hesitate to ask for help.”

Galen said, “Okay, now prepare to be challenged.”

Sevin stood at attention and said, “All right, what is it?”

“I’m going to get in your business and tell you how to run your unit.”

Sevin’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

Galen looked into his eyes. “You and your battalion and the recon troop have been up top this whole time. You can’t all stay up here forever. You will come up with a rotation plan, where your people spend fully one third of their time in the crater, goofing off, walking around in garrison caps, taking it easy. This is a requirement, it includes you, and it begins in three days.”

Sevin relaxed. “Is that all? I thought it was going to be something stupid I’d have to fight you about. No problem, Smaj, I’ll work it out.”

Galen said, “Well, I’ll be going now.”

“Later,” said Sevin.

Tad and Galen climbed the ladder and stepped away. The roof extension retracted back into the command post carrier. Tad and Galen kicked loose dirt back onto it and got back into the skimmer. The driver brought the fans back up to speed and headed back to the tunnel.

Galen said, “Now what?”

“Back to your office.”

Galen checked his wrist chronometer. “We’ll be back in plenty of time for the chow hall’s first real meal.”

“I heard about that,” said Tad.

“It’s a big deal, like a grand opening. I’ll give a little speech and cut a ribbon.”

“Ah, the burdens of command.”

***

Galen stood in front of the chow hall, Karen to his left and the chow Chief to his right. A yellow ribbon three centimeters wide spanned the main entrance door. A growing crowd of nearly three hundred troops waited, ten minutes before the official chow time, to enter. It was the Brigade’s first real meal, made from fresh ingredients.

Galen raised his left hand in the air to get the attention of the troops. They became quiet and turned their attention to him.

“All right, troops. I have spoken with the chef and he has declared this food fit for human consumption. Jeff?”

The head cook said, “We got some meat and some eggs and some veggies from the town five hundred klicks away, and I’m impressed with what my cooks managed to do with it. I think you’ll like it too.”

Karen said, “This is only the beginning. Real food for you guys from now on.”

Galen held up a meter-long pair of plastic scissors and cut the ribbon. “Enjoy.”

Karen, Jeff and Galen stepped out of the way and let the troops enter the chow hall. Jeff leaned in close to Galen and said, “Do you think they’ll notice we don’t have any fish?”

Galen smiled at the line of troops and said quietly, “Probably not for a while. I don’t think it will be a problem.”