"Once we reach our targets, we take out any crews or sentries, as quietly as possible. That's why you have crossbows and knives instead of rifles; they're quieter. Then, each man in turn plants his demo packs while the others cover him. Be sure you try to hide them. If the alarm is raised, they may not find them before they go off. Then we start working our way out. Split up and make your own way back, either to the forest or the river. You'll have twenty minutes before the demo packs go off, but in case of trouble, you all have triggers that will set them off immediately. Don't stay bunched up, and don't try to stay around to watch the pretty fireworks!
"Remember, sneak up on them like they were wild dinos; we have to get to our targets without the star men seeing us. If they do see us, they will gather over a hundred skilled fighters with the light-that-kills, and they will man the weapons we're after. They will find the demo packs and remove them, and we will die in vain." He shrugged. "I would prefer that they be the ones that do the dying." He was rewarded by wolfish grins from all ten men.
"The snipers will be tailing the patrol. As soon as they hear the explosions and stuff from the camp, they'll take out the patrol, and try to cover our escape. Since we won't be loaded anymore, we'll make a run for the forest, straight through the farms, or to the river, if you can swim. It'll all be over by dawn."
The raid had been planned using high-res photos of the colony. New Home, the colony, was laid out in a rough rectangle, with one edge bordering the east bank of the Great River. It was the only development on that side of the river, due to the nomad threat.
The nomads had avoided the area due to the deadliness of the "Cursed Lands." With that threat now removed, that situation was certain to change, and the nomads were sure to begin all-out attacks soon. Ochoa-Mariden hoped to control the entire settled strip by then, and to be able to overwhelm any savages. Cale's destruction of his flitter fleet had put a worrisome dent in those plans. Once he defeated the meddlers, he had vague plans to replace the flitters by off-world trade.
The colonists built a bridge about half a mile north of the Giant Forest, and a wide, paved road meeting the main road between King's Town and Ham's Town. The road was wide enough for the colony's hovertrucks, and negotiations began to widen the rest of the road to King's Town. King Karel had been reluctant, but now that the General was in control, work was ongoing and the road nearly completed.
The landing pad occupied the northwest corner of the colony layout, near, but not bordering the river, since the colonists planned to develop the riverbank as they grew. Warehouses occupied the western border of the landing pad, some containing colony supplies, and some empty, awaiting harvests. To the south, between the landing pad and the bridge was the storage area for the community equipment: simple plas buildings housing the colony's heavy construction and farming machinery.
A large rectangular area east of the bridge was designated for future development as the "colony square" and central business district, though only the Great Hall and a few small commercial shops presently occupied it.
The rest of the large rectangle making up the colony was broken into a checkerboard of farms of various sizes. When they arrived, the colony allocated farm sites by lot, the size determined by the size of a member's investment in the colony.
Ochoa-Mariden and his men had traded farm sites until they had a large, roughly rectangular area nearly ¼ the size of the entire colony to the east of the landing pad. Unsurprisingly, the soldiers had all deeded their farms to the colony militia. No farming was carried on in the "Militia Farms" area of the colony, of course. A sizeable portion of the storage aboard Ochoa-Mariden's Din-class had been devoted to military rations, intended to support the 300 soldiers until the colony could get a crop harvested. Local trade supplemented the rations, of course.
Ochoa-Mariden claimed that Militia Farms was a social experiment, occupied communally to help the veterans transition from a martial to a pastoral life. Actually, of course, it was simply a military base, complete with barracks, NCO and Officer's quarters, and drill fields. Ochoa-Mariden was trying to prolong the illusion as long as possible, and had not felt confident enough to erect walls or fences between Militia Farms and the rest of the colony, though the property line was patrolled.
This meant that the entire northern half of the colony site was devoted to non-farming purposes. Ochoa-Mariden claimed that this was for the colony's protection, so that the militia and the landing pad faced any threat from the nomads, rather than undefended farmsteads.
What he had done was to place the large company-level disruptor in the southwest corner of Militia Farms, not coincidentally within range of the colony's center. The large lasers were emplaced at the northwest corner of Militia Farms, where they could provide defense against aerial attack on the landing pad or Militia Farms.
When he assumed authority, the General had a narrow patrol road built around the perimeter of the entire colony area, ostensibly to patrol for nomads. Since the snipers had arrived on the scene, however, the road was used mostly for daylight patrols and hovertrucks transporting reinforcements; the patrols varied their schedules and routes to avoid ambushes. Still, they would have to cross it, and it was alarmed.
Zant was confident that his people would remember the details of the pictures. Illiterate people tend to be visually oriented, and besides, these had been frontiersmen studying the layout of their territory. He was willing to bet that each of them had already selected locations for booby traps and bombs.
He sighed. Time to wrap it up. "I won't lie to you," he said grimly. "There's very little chance that all of us will make it out, and a pretty fair chance none of us will. The General's people are tough, experienced fighters. Do not expect them to do anything stupid!"
He hurried through packing his own demo pack, so he would have time to inspect those of the trappers, and then spent the next hour advising them on balance and knots.
Overall, though, Zant was pleased with his men. Once packed, they simply waited, perhaps wiping down their crossbow, or talking quietly. There was almost no obvious nervousness. Of course, these were men who could sit patiently in wait for hours for a single shot at a mountain dino or bear.
Then, it was time to set off. Six snipers accompanied them; the usual patrol was six in number, and Zant wanted to make certain that no second shots would be required. If any of the soldiers managed to hit the ground fighting, there was very little chance Zant's crew would be able to slip past.
They made surprisingly good time through the Giant Forest. Zant's men were as skilled at moving through the forest with a load as the snipers were. The night in a fireless camp amid the sounds of life and death around them was hardly comfortable, however.
Before dark on the second day, they reached the edge of the forest, peering from the underbrush edging the trees at the endless rolling expanse before them. Large areas of nearly-waist-high grass were punctuated by wooded patches of trees dwarfed by the monsters of the forest.
Their escorts led them over a series of small hills before calling them to a halt atop one whose crest was a tangle of trees and underbrush. The perimeter road was a straight scar across the land. "We'll wait here." The sniper leader said. "Our runner will know where to find us."
He led Zant to the edge of the wooded patch. "We're between two of their routes here," he said. "Actually, I expect them to use the one north of us; they haven't used it for over a week."
Once again, the frontiersman's infinite patience revealed itself as the trappers settled down in the fading light to wait for word of the route the patrol would take.