“Battalion, Bravo,” Mullins said as the tracks rolled onto the hilltop. “Objective has been secured. Orders?”
“One Dragon Six says dig in, consolidate and prepare for counter-attack,” an RTO replied.
“Roger,” Mullins said as the BFT chimed.
“Exercise Terminated. Exercise Terminated. Blue Force, 20% casualties, all objectives completed. Red force, 70% casualties, no objectives completed.”
“And that is what they call balling the ace,” Mullins said, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. “Cutter’s gonna owe me several beers. Oh, hell, I’ll take it out in paperwork. Wonder if everybody else is having this much fun?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“The ship is primarily crewed by Marro,” Mosovich said, bringing up a hologram of the snake-like enemy. “Call ’em Snakes. Standard weapons are flechette shotguns for the majority of the enlisted and rail subguns for the officers and senior NCOs. They’re ship’s crew so they’ll have some training in security but Himmit indicate that weapons for the enlisted are locked down unless they are preparing for boarders.”
“That would be us,” Mueller said.
“Correct,” Mosovich replied. “But we are supposed to be hitting them by surprise and fast. If we hit them fast enough, they’re not going to get many guns distributed. And they’re Navy, they’re not going to be highly trained in them. Himmit concur on that.”
“The Himmit don’t have to fight them,” Mueller said.
The briefing was taking place before the whole SRS group and the mentats. It had been carefully explained to the latter that Mosovich and Mueller went way back and Mueller was always the devil’s advocate.
“Another race we may encounter is the Kotha,” Mosovich said, bringing up a hologram of the massive cephalopods. “They’re leaders of the Hedren forces and may be in officer positions.”
“Ugly,” Mueller said.
“And they can use all those tentacles to wield weapons,” Mosovich noted. “Keep an eye out for these guys; they’re reputed to be very bad news.”
“The main threat is going to be the Porkies,” Mosovich said, bringing up a slide of the Glandri. Who did look, a bit, like porcupines. “They’re primarily trained as populace controllers but they’re also the Imeg’s body guards. We’ll know we’re close to the Imeg when we hit them. They’re primary weapon is a neural scrambler. At low power it’s a very painful stunner. At high power it tears up neural pathways and has an effect like nerve gas. Our armor has had a layer of metal fibers added that might mitigate the effect. But don’t bet on it. Getting hit with one of those things is purely gonna suck.
“Three shuttles. Each will carry one third of each team, the command team will be distributed and the adepts will be distributed. Lock on to this zone, breach with firepaste. Clear the compartment and head out.
“The ship is about three hundred meters long and just chock full of compartments. The Himmit’s best guess on where the Imeg is going to be hanging out is here… ” he said, pointing to a spot on the hologram. “It’s a portion of officer’s country that sometimes is converted to carry a squadron commander. That will be the primary target for Alpha Team.”
“Got it,” Major Kanaga, the Alpha Team leader said. His team name, Moustache, dated to when he’d been a very junior officer and attempted, unsuccessfully, to grow one. The huge bulge of Redman in his cheek, however, was his real trademark. And he still couldn’t grow a mustache.
“Charlie Team’s mission is to secure the mentats that will be accompanying,” Mosovich continued. “They have some capacity to defend themselves but they are primarily going to be defending us from the Imeg and that’s probably going to be occupying all their time. Do not hesitate. Kill anything that gets near them.”
“Clear,” the Charlie Team leader said. Major Sheldon ‘Boxcar’ Hildyard was tall and lanky with bright red hair. Also fast as a thief in combat.
“Bravo Team will move behind Charlie in support,” Mosovich said. “You’re our reserve and back-cover.”
“Clear,” the Bravo Team leader replied. Major Reuben ‘Ugly’ Kimple got his tall and blond looks from both his maternal and fraternal grandmothers. He got his bulk from his maternal grandfather. Where he’d gotten his movie-star gorgeous face was a mystery all the family was still trying to answer.
“Upon securing the mentat we won’t screw around with finding a different way out,” Mosovich said. “Bravo will follow the trail of bodies and blown hatches. Alpha will cover the rear. Ingress and egress will be trained with at least two routes in and out and multiple side-options. Clear?”
“Clear,” the team leaders chorused.
“Mentat Chan?”
“We are taking fourteen adepts,” Chan said. “Two masters, myself and Indowy Master Shaina, nine class six adepts and three class five. During the preparatory phase they will work to support and improve the Des Moines’ cloak. We believe that this will permit us to close to within no more than five thousand meters of the Hedren cruiser before we are detected. Eight of those adepts are human. Five will remain on the Des Moines to shut down the cruiser and its defenses. Three, including myself, will accompany the strike team. The six Indowy adepts will remain on the Des Moines. They will ensure that the Des Moines remains combat functional through the entire engagement and give support to the assault adepts as well as preventing broadcast by the Imeg or the ship. Assuming that between the adepts on the cruiser, myself and the two sixth level that will accompany me we can prevent the Imeg from interfering, we believe we can prevent the cruiser from escaping or even firing its weapons. If we cannot, things will get interesting. I would make a note.”
“Go,” Mosovich said.
“The purpose of this mission is for we adepts to gain an understanding of the methods of our enemies,” Chan said. “We may determine, quite early, that fourteen adepts including two masters cannot successfully hide a ship from Imeg and or cannot successfully secure them. We simply do not know the abilities of the Imeg. In the event this is the case, the mission should be aborted.”
“For anything involving sohon, you’re calling the shots Mentat Chan,” Mosovich said. “If you say abort, we abort. On the basis that we won’t, I’ll continue. Upon securing the Imeg adept we will move to the shuttles and egress from the ship. Upon rendezvous with the Des Moines the cruiser will be destroyed.”
“What if they grab our shuttles?” Mueller asked. “Or blow them?”
“Chance we’re going to have to take,” Mosovich said. “We’re short bodies as it is. And more bodies means more shuttles.”
“Rig ’em,” Mueller said.
“We can do that,” Ugly said. The Bravo team leader grinned ferally. “Plenty of ways to make them not want to touch them. Stuff we can turn off on the way back.”
“Works,” Mosovich said. “Questions.”
“We’ve got pics of the Kotha and the Snakes and the Porkies,” Moustache said, rolling a ball of Redman in his cheek. “What’s an Imeg look like?”
“The Himmit don’t know,” Mentat Chan said. “They have no images of one. Because the Himmit do not or cannot use sohon, they cannot approach an Imeg without being detected. They assume that some of their lost scouts did so but that is an assumption. We are going to be the first beings outside the Hedren Tyranny to see one. From Himmit accounts, even the Kotha rarely if ever see one in the flesh. They are very secretive. Equally, no one knows what the Hedren look like. But let us first examine the Imeg before we consider facing their masters.”