Tawn and Harris sat in the colonel's office.
Harris rubbed his forehead as the colonel talked about charts and tables displayed on his wall. “The pacifists at Dove are being stubborn. Their water reserves are down 60 percent. Our offer to move them to Jebwa has been voted down three times.
“They are convinced they can conserve and get by. Last night we shut the well down completely. With their current reduced needs they will be out of water in less than a week.”
Tawn asked, “Why haven't they explored getting a new well drilled?”
The colonel shook his head. “They don't have the funds.”
Harris glanced up. “Have we offered them water for concessions? You said the tax they have been looking at was close to being passed. I'm surprised they haven't rammed that through as a bargaining chip. You pay the export tax and we'll buy the water.”
“They don't want that co-dependence. To date they have been fully in charge, only yielding to pressure from Domicile. They don't like or trust us or the Earthers.”
Harris replied, “Sounds like we need someone from Domicile to convince them.”
“Not going to happen. The connections there are the pacifists in the senate. The senators already don't like what we're doing. Titanium is viewed as a military-use metal.
“The less there is the less likely there is to be war. As far as their allies back on Domicile are concerned, they want us and the Earthers gone from here. They don't have sufficient pull to make that happen, but they can influence the inhabitants of Dove to stay.”
“How's managing the well at the Rumford Mine going?”
The colonel nodded. “As good as can be expected. They still have no clue as to what's happening. I'm expecting to see a new wellhead and drilling gear brought in any day now. They'll have to move their flow-pipe, but that would be a minor effort.”
“If they drill a new well,” Tawn asked, “how long would it take for us to tap into it?”
The colonel frowned. “Four days to be up and running. They have a very large cistern there. Four days of full flow could fill it halfway. That would be enough resource to begin ore processing. They couldn't sustain operations, but it would allow them to flesh out any startup problems they may have, bringing them that much closer to full-rate production.”
Harris said, “That sounds like it might be a good opportunity for a clandestine attack on their pipeline. I would think we could stall the flow for a day or two, if not longer.”
The colonel sighed. “True, but they would know who was responsible and reciprocate. I'd rather not risk lives over a tit-for-tat with them. They injure or kill a few of our civilian workers and we might have a hard time recruiting. As it stands, we currently have a waiting list.”
Tawn asked, “How's the second dome coming?”
“On schedule. We're starting to move workers into the first of the housing. We were expecting to have the first run of a production line in another week. Our budget problems are pushing that back about ten days. Shame too. I think this second unit would have allowed us to turn a profit much sooner. With the single unit, we'll be lucky to break even.
“On a different note, I was able to pass our rail cannon needs off to Mr. Morgan. He said he expects to have a design ready to evaluate in about a week. He's going for a twin cannon design, housed in a turret that will give us three-sixty coverage. First run will install four units that look like radar facilities.”
Harris waved his hand over his head in reference to the facility they were currently inside. “This dome have all the inhibitor boxes installed?”
The colonel nodded. “She's as shielded as any warship and then some. Given the thickness of her titanium plating, and the fact we're in an atmosphere, she should be able to take a couple dozen shots to the same spot before things begin to break down. Nothing I'm aware of on the ground will do her harm. And if we get the rail cannons, we can keep plasma weapons at a distance if they attack in warships.
Harris chuckled. “Sounds like we should have named her Fort Fireburg.”
A comm came in for the colonel: “Major Rollington, sir, you asked that I report in with results from our Banshee testing.”
“Go ahead, Major.”
“Sir, the pilots report all systems appear to be functioning normally. Atmospheric as well as spaceborn tests have all gone according to expectations.”
The colonel nodded. “Excellent. Move to phase two of the training, Major. And remember, escort duty comes first. All training will be conducted during free time.”
The comm closed.
The colonel smiled. “Looks like we have a pair of winners. Congratulations on pulling that off.”
“Now if we can just keep them out of the hands of the Earthers,” said Tawn.
“This is good timing for us as well. That Rumford ore ship is nearing capacity. We plan to move ahead with commandeering it.”
Harris asked, “What's the plan?”
“We have a team of ten who will be dropped in the desert about fifty clicks from their compound. An overnight run will have them in position for a midday raid. We plan to go in when the sun is hottest. Observations have shown that to be the least guarded time. They will hit the expected three guards with sniper shots and should then be able to stroll aboard.
“From best count, we expect four Earthers to be on the ship at that time. They will be taken out quietly. That should leave us with five to eight minutes to power up the ship and to fly it away. They have two spotter ships in orbit. We'll have half an hour of flight minimum to reach a jump point.”
Tawn said, “So the Earthers have a thirty minute window available to stop us? Any way for us to stop their spotter ships from reporting?”
The colonel shook his head. “Short of attempting to shoot them down, no. And we attempt that and they will call in reinforcements anyway.”
Harris winced. “So how do we get that ship up through the atmosphere and out through a portal? Seems like a suicide mission.”
“Unfortunately, at the moment it is.”
Harris stood. “I have an alternative. Your team flies that ship out into the desert where we rendezvous with it. They can set waypoints for the ship to take on its own. We'll take the team aboard the Bangor and fly along on the hull of that freighter until it's safely away. If the Earthers follow it, we can separate from the hull for a fight. You could even jump the two Banshees through for an assist.”
The colonel tapped his fingers on his desk in thought. “Hmm. Not a bad idea. Keeps our people alive. And gives us a better shot at getting that ore away to a safe place.”
Tawn said, “You know, we could make use of the skin on the Bangor for this. Take a snapshot of the hull of that freighter and upload it as a skin choice. Park right on the hull and enable that. We'd look just like a part of that freighter.”
Harris nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking. We flip on our signal stealth and they wouldn't even know we were there.”
The colonel leaned back in his chair. “Might be as soon as tomorrow. You gonna be ready?”
Tawn grinned. “We're ready right now. Any way to move this up?”
Harris cut in: “We could even be the ship that drops the team off. With our stealth, we move them in as close as five kilometers instead of fifty. Would leave the team a lot fresher when they arrived for the fight.”
The colonel replied, “We've passed midpoint of the day today. Let's plan on tomorrow. And your offer of a ride out is a good alternative.”
The colonel stood. “I can give you a full briefing in the morning. Our own freighter should be in and out before noontime, so the escorts will be free. You two up for lunch?”
Tawn chuckled. “He's the last one you have to ask about that, Colonel. Lunch is his game and he plays it to win.”
A short walk had the three Biomarines seated in the cafeteria with full plates in front of them.
Just before picking up a bogler rib, Harris asked, “Any good stories from the war, Colonel?”
Robert Thomas took in and let out a deep breath. “You're right, Miss Freely, he plays this lunch game to win. Throws out a wide open question and then digs into his food.”
Harris gestured in a swirling motion with his hand. “Please, take a few bites before answering.”
The colonel said, “Have you ever been aboard an Earther cruiser?”
Harris shook his head. “A destroyer once. Turned out to be a trap. We barely escaped.”
Tawn shook her head. “Same here. Go on.”
The colonel took a sip of his beverage. “The main docking bay on the Earther ships is aft. We shot in on a transport. Our mission was to steal the computer core, which was a ruse that would allow the planting of a recorder and tracker. Command hoped to listen in on the bridge crew to get a better understanding of how they operated. They wanted to know the standard tactics used during a battle or an assault.
“Anyway, we stormed this boat, a hundred eighty-six crewmen to our thirty-two. We went right for their contingent of Marines, knocking them out before they had a chance to mount a defense. The remainder of the crew was a turkey shoot. We took out half before the captain and the rest surrendered. One team of four pulled the computer core while the other planted the recorder.”
“You got an actual core?” said Tawn. “Why would you need the recorder? The logs in that core should have told you everything you wanted to know.”
The colonel nodded. “It would have, but as we suspected, the moment it was pulled it scrubbed itself. After running a few tests to make it look like we were trying to copy the data, we left it sitting on the deck of the bay before leaving. They never knew or suspected the device we had planted.”
Harris said, “I thought messing with each other’s ships was banned.”
“It was, but this was sidestepping that issue. The rules were that we wouldn't take over and capture each other’s ships. There was also a direct rule that once a ship had been damaged in battle we wouldn't take parts. That had a seventy-two-hour time restriction. After that it was fair game.
“There was nothing in any agreement about stealing parts from a fully operational ship though. That changed after the raid on the Chouluta. Two months later, one of our spy ships shadowed her and retrieved the data using a secure broadcast.
They never knew it happened. That data changed the way we fought against their fleet for the last three years of the war. Just one of the many reasons we were winning there at the end.”
Tawn shoved Harris on his shoulder, causing a rib to slip from his hand and fall on the floor. “I told you we weren't winning just because of you.”
Harris scowled. “Now that was uncalled for. You made me lose a perfectly good rib. Apologize.”
The colonel laughed. “More concerned with his food than his reputation I see.”
Tawn smirked. “He'd steal that ship tomorrow himself if you offered him a side of bogler beef.”
The colonel cautioned: “You'll want to keep quiet on our plans in here. These walls have ears. We caught another Earther spy coming in with the latest load of recruits. That's three this month.”
Tawn frowned. “Sorry, sir. Got caught up in the moment. Won't happen again.”
Harris shook his head. “Knocked a good rib to the floor and tried to give away our plans. Which side are you on?”
Tawn sighed, taking a bite from a large roll, consuming half of its size.
“What about you?” the colonel asked. “I'm familiar with the Helm Engagement. You have any other unusual fights?”
Harris thought for a moment. “I was in a team of three—I believe it may have been on Jebwa actually. Anyway, we got dropped in to surveil an Earther outpost. They managed to spot us and then got the drop on us. We held them off, but our time was limited as we had no incoming supplies.”
Tawn chuckled, “How'd they spot you? You drop a rib?”
Harris scowled. “No.”
“Well, what then?”
Harris hesitated. “Well, just as we all have to do daily, duty called. I selected a rock outcropping about fifty meters from our position and got down to business. Imagine my unease when I was just finishing up and heard footsteps. I managed to slip away, but not before leaving a steaming pile of evidence behind.
“Ordinarily it probably wouldn't have been noticed. We bury it or kick dirt over it as we've been trained to do. This time I didn't have time to. Anyway, the scout who wandered across my position was wearing infrared gear. So my deposit stuck out as a bright spot on an otherwise cool day.”
Tawn busted out laughing. “No way! You have to be making that up.”
Harris shook his head. “Nope. And they figured it out after the scout called his lieutenant. Jebwa has the super-tall, ultrathin trees. They poked at it with a stick from one of those trees for few minutes before deciding it was definitely human. After that, they flooded the hills around us with soldiers and we ended up in a fierce firefight, a fight that went on for several hours. We were way outnumbered, but with our location they had no way to get to us without fully exposing themselves.”
Harris scratched one of his eyebrows. “They had us if they would have just waited us out, but their lieutenant decided he wanted to make sport of it instead. They had a sergeant—the guy was just over two meters in height and weighed in at about a hundred forty kilograms. He was all muscle. His forearms looked almost as big around as my neck.
“Anyway, the Earther lieutenant made us an offer. If any one of us could take Gregor in a fistfight, they would back off and let us walk.”
“How'd you know it wasn't a trap?” Tawn asked.
Harris shook his head. “I was certain when Gregor walked out from behind a boulder. He was a monster.”
Tawn looked on with interest. “And…?”
Harris sat back, setting the partly eaten rib in his hand carefully on his plate. “I accepted. I was seventeen. Thought I was invincible. What stump would back down from such an offer? Not that I really had a choice.”
Tawn chuckled. “So you had this brawl with an Earther on the surface of Jebwa. You're here, so you kicked his ass?”
Harris rubbed his chin with a grimace. “I wouldn't call it that. I first stepped out in the open to face him down. When I got close it turned out he was bigger than I thought. I'd guess he had a thirty-five centimeter height advantage. His reach had me from halfway down his forearm to the end of his fist. Being a stump in this instance wasn't an advantage.
“I nodded, he grinned, then the beating began. I got in the first two blows—did I mention he was quick as well as insanely strong? Those first two punches landed solid. At least they felt solid. I was expecting him to fall back. He hardly moved. Instead he spat a little blood and gave me another grin.
“I got in the next three blows before he caught me with a roundhouse to the jaw. I wobbled to one side before doing a face-plant on the ground. Stars were swirling in my eyes for a few seconds. He was kind enough to wait for me to get up.
“I was bleeding—split lip, couple loose teeth, dirt all over my face. So I got serious. I worked over his ribs and midsection as I bobbed, weaved and dodged, ducking his massive hammer-fists.
“This lasted for a good fifteen minutes before I could tell he was getting tired. I could tell because my energy level was dropping off the charts. But the big mook just kept grinning and kept coming. His face was bloodied with several splits of his own, but he was loving it. Probably the first time in his life he had been challenged, and he still liked his odds.”
Tawn asked, “This where you made the comeback?”
Harris shook his head as he chuckled. “Hardly. He nailed me with an uppercut that picked me off my feet. I'm sure my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. I fell back hard on the ground in a daze. I was finished. That's when my partners opened up on the celebrating Earthers. Took out fifteen of their thirty, including their lieutenant. The others retreated, leaving their hero standing there weaponless to defend himself.”
Harris went back to eating his rib.
Tawn dropped her jaw. “You can't tell a story and then just leave it like that! That's just not right. What happened? How'd it end?”
Harris took a sip from his beverage, washing down the half-chewed chunk of meat he had just stripped from a rib bone.
“So my teammates had their weapons on him but they didn't fire. I slowly stood, spat out a wad of blood and dirt, gave him a nod and then gestured for him to leave. He returned the nod and walked off into the rock-covered Jebwa landscape. I picked that story to tell because it was a bizarre, somewhat civilized encounter during an otherwise ruthless and brutal war.”
Tawn huffed. “Civilized? Your team mowed down half the enemy while they were standing in the open.”
“It was civilized up until that point. Anyway, I thought I'd tell that one because you'd find it entertaining.”
Tawn chuckled as she shook her head. “You let some Earther beat the crap out of you. That's not entertaining, that's embarrassing.”
Harris looked at the colonel. “See what I have to put up with every day?”
The colonel returned a half smile. “Your partner is a slug. Were you expecting sympathy?”
The three Biomarines began to laugh, hardy laughs that lasted all of thirty seconds before they again tore into the food on the plates in front of them.