Deadly Planets
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own a lot of things, including Castle. Rating: K Time: This begins at the end of my previous story, Deadly Planet.
"Let's hear it."
"As you know, the Game never sends the players back to where they came from. So, bending the space-time continuum to take someone from, say, Earth, is set up automatically. But to do it in reverse, to send someone back to Earth, the space-time continuum would have to be manually adjusted. Since no one has ever done that, it's possible mistakes were made."
"I think it's obvious a mistake was made." Kate said acidly.
"I mean that this wasn't the owners of the Game trying to get rid of you. They'd have sent you to an airless moon, or something." Alice replied.
"Wait." Castle said. "They bend the space-time continuum? They don't use a space ship or something? How long does it take?'
"Travel via the space-time continuum is instantaneous."
"So, we won't get back to Earth and find a century has gone by, or something?"
"No."
As they spoke, the villagers were shooed out of the hall, leaving Castle and his troops behind.
"Everyone, gather around. I want to reorganize the unit. The command team will be me, Beckett as my RTO and Kanakredes as the Sergeant Major. My strong right hand."
Kanakredes held up his massive, furry hand. "And a very strong hand it is."
"Platoon medics will be Ryan, Konev and Medic Tal. Next is the sniper section. Sergeants Esposito and Milton, Than and Anber, and Sniper Herftood and his team. Herftood has the best equipment, so I'm putting him in charge. Anyone have a problem with that?" No one did. "Sergeant Pellon and Sergeant Breede, I understand you use your snipers more like we use our designated marksmen, so I'm leaving them in your units."
"Next is the weapons platoon. Sergeant Moronta, you're in charge. Sergeant-Aspirant Kirta, I'm leaving you with your two machine guns, but I am taking your mortar. I'll need a two-man team for that. Gunner Choda, your team will also be assigned to weapons. For the time being, the other machine guns will stay in their respective units as you don't have anything comparable to our squad automatic weapons. Sergeant Grant, you have a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle in your unit?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'll also need a two-man team from you then."
"First platoon will be my old squad, with Sergeant La Pierre's Marines and Sergeant Grant's Scots. I'm putting them together because their weapons and equipment is all NATO standard and being part of NATO, they're used to working with each other. Sergeant Glesko will be in command."
Second platoon will be the Moreans, Kirta's people, Sergeant Pellon's people and Sergeant Breede's. I'm putting Breede in command. Any questions or comments?"
There were none.
He looked at the two non-military women in his unit. "Janice, I assume you'll want to be with Bill Milton?"
She nodded.
"Okay, you can haul extra ammo and gear and provide close in fire support." He looked over at Sharon. "Where do you want to go?"
"I'll stay with the Moreans. I've been telling them stories about my love life back in Texas. Some of which are true,"
Castle discovered that the Moreans operated on an eight-day week. Morean men worked, if having sex was work, for four days and were off four. The villagers abided by the same custom. So, Castle's men had sex with the local women for the first four days. Things, however, were very organized. The Moreans were very, very good at determining when a woman was fertile, and only those women were allowed to have sex until they were no longer fertile. Some men found themselves having sex with husky fisherwomen, who smelled of fish, and not hot young blondes. But they managed.
On the fourth day a young, dark haired and completely naked, Morean ran out of the room that Beckett and Castle shared. A topless Kate Beckett ran after her in close pursuit. Castle grabbed her around the waist and stopped her.
"Whoa! What's going on?"
"That slut was hiding in our bed, hoping she could jump you. Let me go. When I catch her, I'm going to stuff her boobs in her mouth and kick her in the chin. Then I'll…."
Castle shut her up with a kiss. After a long minute he broke the kiss. "Let her go. You know the only woman who'll ever jump my bones is you. Right?"
Kate nodded. "You know I get jealous."
"I get jealous, too. Especially when you're running around topless for everyone to see."
Kate looked down and put her hands over her boobs. "I'll be right back."
The next four days, Castle's troops trained. He began with a march around the island, which was about fifteen miles. They were followed by most of the village, who had never heard of men walking such a distance and certainly not with packs, weapons and ammo. They were quite amazed that the men handled the march with no problems. Kanakredes showed off by running backwards the whole way.
The next day, Alice came to see Rick at dawn. "Guess what?"
Rick looked up from his breakfast. "What?"
"No, guess?"
"I'm not that interested."
"I had sex last night. With one of Breede's men and a Morean woman. It was fantastic. Why don't we get you and Kate, and me and Ryan and Anna and Bill and Janice and have an orgy. They told me all about them. Doesn't that sound like fun? I think sex is great. I want to do it all the time."
"You'll have to leave Kate and me out of it. I doubt the others will be interested." Rick took a sip of coffee.
"There's something else."
"I can't wait." Rick said sarcastically.
"We got more supplies. Food, ammo, weapons, all sorts of stuff."
"Where is it?"
"Down by the wharf. Some of the Moreans are bringing everything here."
As Alice finished, Kate sat down, joined at once by Ryan and Anna.
"What's she talking about?" Kate asked.
"Tell everyone what you just told me."
Alice smiled. "I want to have an orgy. You can all come and we'll…"
"Not that!" Castle yelled. "About the supplies."
"We've got all kinds of supplies. Ammo, food, weapons, batteries, spare parts, medicine, all sorts of stuff. The Moreans found it by the wharf and are bringing everything here."
Rick looked over the supplies that had been gathered. "I think, and I hope, that this means Alice's people aren't done with us. They know we weren't sent to where we were supposed to go and want to make sure we have enough supplies to get back home."
Than looked at the supplies. "I'd be happier if there were none here. That would mean we'd just all be picked up here and dropped back at our own homes. This looks like they may send us all to one planet, drop off one group, and then on to the next planet."
Castle shook his head. "We'll find out. But we do have a whole lot of ammo now. I think that we'll spend the next two days setting up a firepower demonstration for the locals. I want to make sure that Lieutenant Bortha, the navy officer, sees us. I want the local authorities to know we really are soldiers. I've heard the occasional snide comment that men can't really be soldiers".
It took three days, rather than two, to set up the firepower demonstration, but Castle was sure it would impress the local Moreans. The entire village showed up to watch, including Lieutenant Bortha. Being a fishing village, there were lots and lots of binoculars and telescopes with which to witness the fun and games.
Castle addressed the crowd. "Ladies, welcome to the firepower demonstration showing our military prowess." He heard a few chuckles from those who didn't believe in male soldiers, but continued on. "First up are Sergeants Esposito and Milton. If you look carefully down range, about a thousand yards away, you'll see a small metal drum, about three feet high and two feet across, roughly the size of a human torso." He turned to Espo and Milton who were already in position. "Sergeant Esposito would you please put three rounds in the drum and then let Sergeant Milton fire the last two."
Having already made his calculations, Espo fired three times in quick succession. Each hit the drum dead center. Then he and Milton changed places and Milton put two rounds into the drum.
There were some appreciative mutterings in the crowd which pleased Castle. "Next up we have Sniper Herftood."
The extraterrestrial considered a thousand yards to be practically point-blank range, but he dropped to the prone position and fired three times. As his weapon made hardly a sound, the Moreans weren't sure anything had happened until they noticed that there were three new holes in the drum and that the edges of the holes were white hot.
"Now, ladies, my sergeant major, Theokrates Kanakredes, will shoot."
The huge alien didn't see any reason to go prone for this demonstration, so he stood upright, brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired in one smooth motion. The 40mm bullet from his rifle hit just under the drum, shooting it into the air. His second shot sent the drum spinning away.
"I've always been a bit of a show off, Captain." He said with a smile.
Castle laughed and then turned to the assembled Moreans. "Now, ladies if you'll all move a bit to my left, we have another demonstration for you."
Six machine guns and their crews were lying prone facing their targets some 800 yards away.
Castle spoke. "If you'll look down range, you'll see six boards have been set into the ground. The boards are twelve inches wide, two inches thick and are six feet above the ground. Each team, in order, will fire at a target and attempt to cut the board in half with their fire. We'll count the time it takes and the number of rounds. We'll multiply that together to decide the winner." Castle grinned. "Although I think we know who the winner will be. But, first up will be my very own Sergeant Moranta and his Team, who will shoot at the board the farthest to the right. Ready Moranta?" Moronta nodded and Castle started his stopwatch and yelled, "Open fire."
Moronta put the first burst of four rounds about a foot in front of the board, but still damaged the board. He aimed a hair higher and the next burst sent splinters flying. The next burst stopped after two rounds. Moronta cursed and raised the feed tray cover. He pried a dud round from the weapon and threw it as far as he could. He slammed the cover back down and resumed firing. However, his first burst went to the right of the board. He brought the weapon back on target and chopped the board down. There was a smattering of applause. Moronta just shook his head.
Next were machine gun teams from Sergeant Kirta's group, then Sgt. Pellon's, Color Sergeant Breede and finally Sergeant Grant's machine gunner. They all did better than Moronta.
Last up was Gunner Choda and his 15mm heavy machine gun. In the time they had been in Morea, he had adapted his weapon to use an optical sight and a laser range finder. He fired one seven round burst and saw his board slowly topple over.
"If you ladies will move again to my left and please do not cross the white line for your own safety. We're going to demonstrate the Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifle. The target is a barrier made up of eight 12 inch by 12 inch timbers held in a frame so they won't just fall down. The Scots will be using a high explosive round at a target a thousand yards away. Are you ready?"
TBC