"What are we going to do sergeant?" Private Nial Evering asked as he watched two Clan technicians slowly replacing the wheel on their 4x4 as three Mortizian 'soldiers' and a Clan warrior looked on, bored disinterest evident on their faces.
"We watch, we observe and move out at night as planned." Sergeant William Zhao replied, his voice barely above a whisper. From his observation post he had watched the morning's aerial battle, had seen a dropship arrive and then depart and immediately realised what that meant for his troops and for himself. Marooned, left behind on an enemy planet with no immediate means of extraction. Still, that possibility had been foreseen and contingencies planned. Every outpost had rations that could be made to stretch to four days if necessary and transport hidden nearby. All they had to do was wait until nightfall and then slowly make their way back to the emergency landing zone. Once there, they could hide out until the Warspite could come back for them. A small voice in the back of his mind insisted on adding an 'if' to that statement.
"But, they could have the intel we've been looking for." Nial continued insistently. William gave it some thought. It was true that the regular weekly shuttle between the HPG Generator and the city had the look of a courtier service. It had also only started up after Comstar had realised he had set up a radio mast to intercept any transmissions they might make. But, the 'left behind' protocol was quite straight forward in this case, avoid contact at all costs.
"It's only two hours till night fall and there's only one unsuited Elemental and three rent-a-cops. It would be like taking candy from a baby." Nial pressed his point fiercely but quietly. For his part William was torn. Taking out the small 2 vehicle convoy would be child's play if he brought the rest of the squad up. Only the Elemental would be a threat and he seemed utterly disinterested in the whole affair, likely infuriated by being assigned such a low prestige job. It did go against protocol and his best judgement for that matter. But, he hadn't joined a 'commando' unit because he always followed protocol or listened to his better judgement.
"Ok, we're doing it. Go get the others." He ordered, ignoring the wide grin that sprouted on Nial's face and continued watching the Clanners as his younger companion crawled back to where the rest of the squad where hidden. He was half cheering the technicians on as they wrestled with the spare wheel. If they completed the job before his squad could be roused, then he could hardly be blamed for letting them go. But they worked slowly, almost lethargic. William wondered if they were like the rent-a-cops, conscripts from the local population rather than proper Clanners.
He didn't have long to wonder, the rest of his squad crawled through the undergrowth to meet him. Silently he signalled for his lance-corporal to take the second fire team with the machine gun further up the road to cut off anyone making a break for it. He waited silently with his fire team until the second was in position. "Wait for my shot." He whispered as he eased the safety off his laser rifle and aimed at the Elemental. He took a deep breath, held it briefly, then exhaled slowly before firing.
His shot struck the Elemental high in the chest, dropping him instantly. The rest of his fire team opened up as well and soon two of the rent-a-cops were down as well, killed before they had even realised they were under attack. The third bolted down the road trying to reach safety. He didn't make it as the machine gun cut him down.
Signalling the others to stay down, William stood up and slowly crept forwards, rifle up and ready as he advanced cautiously towards the vehicles. He gave each body a kick as he went by, before checking behind the vehicles. He found one of the technicians crouched over her colleague trying desperately to stem the bleeding from a wound on his leg. Shaking, she raised two blood stained hands to the sky as she stared down the barrel of William's rifle. He hesitated for a moment, looking round for further threats before slipping a field dressing out of his shoulder pocket and pressed it into her hand.
"Use this." He ordered and then turned about and signalled his squad to join him. Quickly he set up a perimeter and then he and Nial started ripping apart the vehicles looking for evidence. They didn't have to look far.
"Got something." Nial said as he pulled a large brown folder out from under the passenger seat. He opened it revealing page after page of scrambled numbers, letters and symbols with no obvious pattern.
William craned his neck to look over Nial's shoulder. "That will do." He declared as he signalled for his squad to break off back to their observation post.
"What do we do about them?" Nial asked, gesturing to the two technicians.
William hummed, then used the butt of his rifle to smash the vehicle's radio. "Leave them, they aren't going anywhere and someone will come looking for them sooner or later." He said as he ran over to the second vehicle and destroyed its radio as well, slashing the tires for good measure.
"We might regret that." Nial commented.
"You want to kill them?" William asked bluntly.
"Well no." Nial admitted, sounding embarrassed at the question.
"Good." William said firmly. "Now get back and help the others."
As Nial disappeared into the wood, William made a last check of the vehicles before heading back himself. Quickly he gathered up his backpack, already prepared for moving, and started chasing the rest of his squad to hurry up. To his surprise he saw Nial had sat down on his pack and was reading the contents of the folder.
"What are you doing!" He demanded angrily.
"I think I know what his is." Nial said, offering up the folder.
"You can read the code?" William asked doubtfully, instantly switching gears from angry to intrigued.
"No, but, there's a pattern. Look, every line starts with a random set of characters of differing length, but then there is always 7 characters, followed by 3 then 2. That's a date time group. Then the next bit is always..." William was impatiently making a hurry up gesture with his spare hand. "I think it's a name, followed by a date, followed by a galactic coordinate, followed by another date then another coordinate. I think this is a shipping schedule."
"And how would you know what a shipping schedule looks like?" William asked, still not convinced.
Nial blushed slightly. "I wanted to be a navigator when I was a kid, but you know son of two coal miners and all that."
William still looked doubtful, but also worried now. "If you right, this could be their invasion plans." He cursed under his breath and dragged Nial to his feet. "We need to run. Now!"
"Like we stole something?" Nial asked.
"Like we stole fire from the gods." William replied as he pushed Nial forwards. "Move it people, we are leaving now!"