Through a porthole, a patch of blackness resolved itself into a mess of geometric shapes as the shuttle closed on the cloaked Banshee. They entered the main hangar, and Rose felt her heart leap as she caught sight of the large drop ships clustered at the far end, Rangers in full combat gear wandering between them. When she limped off the shuttle, the crew, obviously assuming she had a good reason to be there, ignored her. She looked around wildly, wondering if she should ask to speak to the Captain.
“Rose?” a familiar voice called, and she whirled around to see Christie stepping off a smaller dropship, staring at her with an expression of pure amazement.
She looked fierce in her full combat suit and was carrying a strange-looking backpack. Rose limped over and hugged her friend.
“What are you doing here? Why are you limping? I thought your recovery was going well?” Christie said.
“Um, well,” Rose began, “I put two and two together about you being out here, and then the Rangers deploying, and well I had to get out of the hospital to come over here, and I squatted four hundred kilos which basically destroyed my leg again—” Rose stopped herself when she realized that she was rambling.
Christie stared at her, then down at her leg.
“Well,” Rose tried again, “I just wanted to be here, and I don’t know, maybe I can stack supply boxes or something?”
“If the Banshee’s Captain finds out about this you’re going to be in serious trouble. You’re basically a stowaway.”
Rose’s smile twisted into a crazed grin. “Okay, well, I might have to tell them that you told me you were coming to Caldera, which I’m pretty sure is a big no-no in the intelligence business, so… hah!”
Christie stared at her in amazement. “Who are you and what have you done with Rose?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Did Kayla brainwash you or something?”
“The doctors had me loaded up with horse tranquilizers for a while, so that probably turned my brain to mush. Anyway, can you tell me what’s going on? When are you going in?”
Christie briefly outlined the operation, and Rose was appalled to learn what had been brewing under the surface of her planet. That so many colonists had been kidnapped to be turned against her own friends and family was terrifying, and she couldn’t imagine how Kayla must be feeling.
“Jump off is still a few hours away,” Christie said, “but I’m not going in on the ground. I have to sit on the ELINT—Electronic Intelligence—ship. I will be spending the entire battle scanning for enemy radio signals with this fun little toy.” She slapped her backpack.
“That sounds awesome,” Rose said jealously.
“Hmm,” Christie replied, suddenly lost in thought.
“I guess Thandi is over there in a dropship. I probably shouldn’t go over and say hi.”
“Hmm,” Christie said again, then looked around conspiratorially. “I have an idea. Come with me and we’ll get you a combat suit.
“Won’t people get suspicious?”
“Oh, they don’t question intel girls—they generally have no idea what we’re doing. Plus, my team leader is sat in the Operations center with a shoulder wound, and… well, she trusts me—hah!”
“Disobedience starts to grow on you, doesn’t it?”
Christie grinned. “I know!”
Once she had gotten Rose kitted out and armed with a weapon, Christie brought her back to the hangar where she approached the pilot of her dropship.
“Chief Dayo—it appears that this Ranger broke her leg in an accident and was looking at sitting out the operation. I know you are setup to fly light and quiet, but it couldn’t hurt to have a bit of extra security, could it?”
The warrant officer looked Rose up and down. “You can stand up okay, I guess?”
“Yes Chief,” Rose said.
“You’ve operated the minigun before?” she asked, referring to the dropship’s mounted weapon, which was capable of firing a stream of bullets so fast that the tracers resembled a laser beam scything across the sky.
“Yes Chief,” Rose lied. She recognized the weapon system from the technical manuals she had been reading in the hospital. With a little effort she managed to recall the operating instructions she had learned.
“Show me.” The pilot led them over to the dropship. Rose ducked inside, quickly locating the wall mounted control unit which powered up the weapon. She flicked it on, stared at the controls for a moment, then span up the barrel until it became a blur.
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Chief Dayo seemed happy with this and gave her a thumbs up. “Great, glad to have you on board,” she said. “I know I’d hate to sit this one out, too. Now, we’re going in quiet, so don’t engage anything unless I give you the green light—got it?”
“Yes chief,” Rose acknowledged, barely able to control her excitement, as she returned Christie’s fist bump.
As the sun set once again behind the mountains, Urtiga’s team ate a quick breakfast, gathered their gear and set off along the ridge line towards their objective. The second night’s hike was even more intense, as they needed enough time to both conduct the seismic survey and reach an overwatch of the cave system, wherever it might be hidden amongst the deep valleys. They would need to do all this while retaining enough hours of darkness to begin the assault. Through her own exhaustion, Kayla noticed that even Urtiga was beginning to reach her limit, panting hard and chugging down more water than usual, as sweat streamed off her brow.
While her heart hammered to escape her chest, and her muscles burned with acid, Kayla thought back to the endless fast march that had marked the end of boot camp. She remembered the flood of relief once it was over. Now, suffering through the same pain, she understood why the course had been so hard. The team had to push as fast as they could without killing themselves, but there was no instructor to watch over them for injury, nor a nearby medical center. The end of the march would not be met with a truck ride and sleep, but by the enemy. If they were successful in achieving surprise there would be a brief rest. If not; a desperate gunfight for their lives.
But the first leg went smoothly, and when they arrived at the final waypoint below one of the major peaks, Kayla collapsed gratefully onto a rock. Urtiga verified their coordinates against a positioning satellite constellation launched by the Banshee, and Masey unpacked the sensor they would need to collect seismic data. The device consisted of a long stake with a sharp needle end, which she drove into the ground with a powerful shove.
“Set,” she said.
“This is Tiger One,” Urtiga said quietly into the radio. “I pass ‘Sentry’.”
They waited in total silence.
Somewhere amongst the surrounding peaks, other Tiger teams were setting up their own sensors. The thought gave Kayla a shiver, because even if she knew where to look, they would be too well disguised to be visible. And that meant that if a Helvet Special Forces team was also out there in the darkness, quietly preparing to kill them all, she would have no idea until it was too late.
While they waited, the team watched the surrounding ridges and slopes for movement with their night vision vizors. Urtiga listened to her headset as she received confirmation from the other Tiger teams that they were also in position, and their sensors activated. Kayla felt her stomach lurch as the last team took much longer to check in. Fortunately, they had only encountered difficult terrain and had been delayed in reaching their checkpoint.
Finally, Urtiga spoke the momentous command into her headset. Kayla didn’t hear the response, but she knew that high above her head, an invisible dot in the night sky was loading a kinetic pile into a high-powered railgun, to be launched towards the planet faster than a meteor. It would not burn up, however, but streak down to an empty spot in the mountains, and impact with incredible destructive force. She braced for the violence and found herself counting the one hundred seconds it would take for the projectile to arrive.
“Switch to sun vizor,” Urtiga warned, and they tapped discreet switches in their headsets.
The hazy green landscape turned black.
High in the night sky, a distant point of light appeared. It began as a shooting star, racing across the sky towards them, growing rapidly in apparent speed and brightness. To Kayla, it looked like a fiery arrow shot directly at her, and she cringed as an old memory threatened to overwhelm her with panic.
It came so close; a brilliant sun passing overhead, illuminating the silent mountain range almost as bright as day. Seconds later, the air was torn apart by a terrific ripple of sonic booms, followed by an explosion that shook the whole mountain. Kayla had the dim impression that even her brain had been shaken inside her skull, and she found herself dazed, unable to take her eyes away from the warm glow of the impact site.
“Get some,” Gucci said, making the devil’s horns with her fingers. She glanced at Kayla. “Hope your friend’s brain is as big as she thinks it is.”
Kayla nodded and switched back into night vision mode. Glancing back at the sky, she again caught sight of the moon and willed it to disappear behind a cloud.
In the Banshee’s Tactical Operations Center, Zhang watched data streaming in from the geophonic sensors. She punched a key to activate the ship’s powerful central computer, which began to process the information into a readable map of the region’s geological strata. The data stream was enormous, covering several hundred square miles, and the program took several minutes to execute. When it was finished, Zhang activated the holographic display of the mountains and layered the data on top.
“Right there,” she said, pointing for Chieftain Symrna’s benefit.
Nestled inside one of the valleys, and only several miles from the Tiger teams, neat geometrical tunnels ran through a series of caverns. A giant artificial looking well, located at the deepest part of the base, probably indicated a geothermal power plant. Zhang immediately punched in a command to the computer to download the map to the ground teams.
“All Tiger call-signs,” she radioed, “objective located. Downloading the data to you.”
“Roger Banshee,” came back Urtiga’s crackled response. “Tiger teams, select overwatch positions around this valley. Move quickly, but be wary of observation posts. Remember, we are running out of darkness—out.”
Acknowledgments came in over the net, while Zhang continued to study the map with the other officers.
“I would hazard a guess that this will be where the main device is located,” she said, pointing to a large central chamber.
“It is a large fortress,” Smyrna mused. “I wonder what else will be discovered within?”
“It’ll be a treasure trove for the Collective,” Zhang replied.
Smyrna sighed. “How I long to be on the ground again. Avoid command, Major, for as long as you can.”
Zhang laughed, then winced as she flexed her partially healed, but still stiff, shoulder. “I did my best, but that drone had a different opinion. Anyway, where would we be without your accumulated experience and wisdom, General?”
Smyrna snorted. “You graciously call me old. Once your shoulder heals, remind me to meet you in an Octagon. I will show you what age can do.”
“You’re on, ma’am.”