Karen sat next to Galen in the seats behind the co-pilot, her head leaned against Galen’s shoulder. The co-pilot said, “You okay? I’ve heard stories about you sleepers.”
Karen smiled. “Never felt better. Where are we anyway?”
The pilot rotated the dropship so that the planet showed through the front viewport. “We’re parked above Juventud. The two transport ships won’t be here for a little while. We got ahead of them because they needed time to de-couple from the jump ship.”
“Lovely,” said Karen.
The pilot rotated the ship back to its original view.
Galen was starting to enjoy zero-G. “What are we looking at now?”
“That’s the direction the transport ships will come from.” The co-pilot pointed at two tiny white dots. “That’s them.”
The transport ships came in backwards, their thrust slowing them down as they approached their destination. The first one went into a stationary orbit half a hemisphere away from being above the crater where its drop boats would land. The second transport took up a position beside Galen’s command drop ship, waiting its turn to unload.
The dropship pilot rotated to give Galen a view of the first transport ship. Drop boats detached from its hull and formed up in a column four boats abreast to make their landing. The side to side spacing was more than four hundred meters, the interval from nose to tail between the landing boats nearly two kilometers. With the boats detached, the cargo ship moved away and took up a position near Galen’s drop ship. Galen flipped the small flat screen up from his armrest and opened a channel with the landing leader, Master Sergeant Sevin.
“Hey Sevin, you ready?”
“Roger, Smaj. Just need to let the planet rotate just a little more and we’ll be spot-on. Just a moment more.”
“Good luck,” said Galen.
“Luck is for amateurs.” The column of drop boats began their decent toward Juventud. The first four boats descended sharply while the rest of the column stayed just above the atmosphere to circle around the planet one time before making their landing. The first four dropped sharply and then leveled off at an altitude of one hundred meters, dropping to ten meters as they passed over the rim of the crater. At the site selected for the space port, the drop boats leveled off at ten meters above ground and opened their cargo doors and extended their cargo ramps. Sevin’s light tank, a Hornet, slid out the back on a drop pallet. The straps holding the tank to the pallet broke and the tank sped along at top speed. Then a tank slid out of each drop boat, followed by infantry fighting vehicles and finally, four engineering vehicles, Hellcat tank chassis fitted with dozer blades on the front, a short gun barrel in the turret and a crane rig on the back.
The drop boats angled up sharply and blasted themselves back into space. The vehicles on the ground stopped and then spread out in a rectangular perimeter five kilometers long and two kilometers wide. The engineering vehicles ran end to end of the new landing strip, smoothing the surface. After making four passes, they moved to the center left side, just outside the perimeter and shoved dirt into a mound ten meters high. Then they parked on-line in front of the mound, facing the landing strip. Sevin parked his tank on top of the mound and popped the hatch and stood tall and looked around.
“All right, we’re ready. Come on down.” Sevin sounded happy.
The rest of the column finished its circumnavigation of the planet and the drop boats came in and skid dropped their cargo. Each platoon of the mechanized infantry battalion took up places in the perimeter, making a solid rectangle around the landing strip. The last four drop boats unloaded the final sixteen vehicles of the engineer platoon.
Finished, the drop boats re-attached to the first cargo ship. The first cargo ship then left, headed back to the jump point. Their job complete, they were now the property of the Ostreich Free Fleet Transport Company.
The engineers went back over the landing strip a few times, first collecting up all the drop skids, then softening the ground, then spraying a liquid into the soft earth, then spreading that mixture of earth and liquid with dozer blades, and then finally smoothing the landing strip with heavy rollers. The roller vehicles went over the landing strip again, spraying a hardening agent to make the surface solid. After allowing the surface to dry for an hour, the chief engineer walked across the landing strip, testing a couple of samples as he went.
Satisfied, he gave Sevin a thumbs-up.
“Hey Samj,” called Sevin. “We’re done here.”
“Roger.” Galen used his drop ship sensors to look over the landing field. “Second cargo ship, you can let my people go.”
The Captain of the second cargo ship called back and said, “Roger.”
Galen called Sevin. “Sevin, how is it down there?”
“It’s all right. The thinner air meant the boats had to come in faster but the reduced gravity meant the impact of the skid-drop was less. But you need to get a whiff of this air. It’s sweet. I really do feel younger.”
“I can’t wait.”
“You shouldn’t.”
Galen let Sevin have the last word.
Chapter Five
Galen went to his cabin and slept. Karen stayed in the cockpit and monitored the landing, unloading and return of the drop boats. She then officially released the cargo ship and its docked drop boats from its obligations to the Brigade and sent it on its way.
Then she awoke Galen. “Hey sleepy head, the fleet is gone.”
Galen undid the strap across his chest and sat up. “Okay. Everything go well?”
“As well as planned. Tad’s got control down there. Sevin has his mechanized battalion and the recon company outside the crater looking for trouble. Nothing yet.”
“Good. This zero-G is getting old. Let’s go see the pilot.”
They went to the cockpit.
Galen said, “How soon can we land?”
The pilot looked over his shoulder. “Ready when you are.”
“Give me a minute to get in my tank.”
“Roger.”
Galen went to his tank crew’s cabin door and knocked. “You ready to do this?”
The door opened immediately. The driver pushed off and floated down the hall.
The gunner came next and said, “You got it, Smaj. This is what I live for.”
“All right.” Galen settled himself into the cupola of the tank and put on his commo helmet and attached its curly spaghetti cord. He then dropped his seat and closed the hatch. The driver and gunner settled into their crew stations and brought the tank’s systems on line.
When the comms system showed a green status light, Galen called the pilot. “Okay, take us down.”
“Roger.”
Galen switched his auxiliary status screen to a pilot’s view from the dropship. The tank was backed into the cargo bay so that it could drive out forward on the ground, but the turret was turned to the tank’s rear for transport. So, Galen sat forward in relation to the ship. He watched as the ship nosed down toward the planet and entered the atmosphere. The deceleration reminded him to put on his lap belt. The ship descended sharply for several minutes then leveled off about a hundred meters above the ground. Galen could see the rounded top of the crater’s central mountain in the distance, growing larger, off-center slightly to the left. Then the ship flew over the rim of the crater, a cliff two hundred meters to the floor. The ship dropped again to fly ten meters off the floor, aligned with the tarmac. At a speed of less than four hundred kilometers per hour the ship’s landing gear touched and then the thrust deflectors of the atmospheric propulsion engines slowed the ship to a mere thirty kilometers per hour. The dropship turned around and taxied to its designated spot at the left corner of the landing strip, then crept backward at a walking pace until it was clear of tarmac, a mosaic of metal sheets laid out on the ground for its parking spot.