Chapter Six

1200 Hours, 20 Ostermon, 1065 (5th Age of the Empire)

City of High Keep

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

The maps Ather had poured over with Orlon were now spread across the desk in his own study, each instance of where this new foe, the Spor-Ten, had struck were marked down with the approximate date. Next to it was a parchment detailing the distances involved between attacks, plus an account of the incident at New Bridge. Ather had glanced over it in the hopes of learning something new, but came away with even more questions.

Reports from the survivors and witnesses said explosions had erupted across the surface with little to no warning, outside of perhaps a slight whistling and some kind of percussion thumps a few miles away. Did this mean this group had access to cannons of some kind? Mortars? Ather had his doubts considering such things were only a recent invention and their range was only a few hundred metres, not a few thousand.

Even if such a cannon existed, it would need to be hauled into place and that took horses and wagons in such numbers that it would be impossible to conceal. Some of the locals would have seen them, or at least found their tracks leading up to whatever position the Spor-Ten had fired from.

Ather leaned back in his chair and, not for the first time, tried to wrap his mind around the abilities this group appeared to possess. They were able to move faster and further than anyone else within the Empire, or the Jirul and Sanga for that matter, and possessed a technical craftsmanship that far outstripped everything else.

The Bull-It Ene and Zwo had found was standing upright on the desk and was the focus of Ather's attention, his eyes taking in the perfectly uniform rounded edges over and over again. The insides was blackened, suggesting an explosive powder of some kind had once been contained within, and the lack of a cap to hold it inside seemed to imply that whatever had held it in was gone. Perhaps the cap was flung off when the powder inside was ignited, but how was that accomplished?

There were no holes in the casing for a fuse to enter, and neither did Ather believe the people used explosives that could be detonated simply by slapping them hard enough to ignite. Such a thing was dangerous to everyone, the wielder especially. This Spor-Ten and the people it led were a strange bunch, that much was certain.

A knock at the door roused Ather from his thoughts and he blinked once, calling for the person to enter. The door swung open to reveal Saria on the other side, a tray of food in her hands as she said, 'It's lunch and you hadn't come down. I thought you might like something.'

She gestured at the tray and the meal it held, a simple stew that Hannya had no doubt prepared for them all. Ather nodded and gestured for Saria to bring it over, returning his gaze to the Bull-It and the questions it posed.

'Have you made any progress?' Saria asked when she saw the maps and papers, taking care to avoid placing the tray on any of them.

'No,' Ather said. 'As much as it pains me to say so. I answer one question and get faced with two more. The Bull-It, for example. It is designed to contain an explosive of some kind, which in turn blasts the stopper cap off when ignited, but the method of ignition eludes me. I have no idea as to how the cap is supposed to kill someone from more than a few dozen feet, either. It must be the size of my thumb.'

He held it up to demonstrate just that, though his thumb was too thick to actually fit down the neck of the casing. His little finger was a better fit but still, it was too small to have any real chance of travelling anything more than a few dozen feet whilst still being lethal. The distance between where Greyson had fallen and where the Spor-Ten had hidden was close to four-hundred metres by Ather's own guess. An expert archer with the best longbow would be hard pressed to hit their target at such a range.

'Perhaps Mella is right,' Ather said. 'This group's capabilities seem completely beyond our own.'

'Enough that you would contemplate surrender to them?' Saria said.

'I cannot truly say,' Ather said. 'If they treat their prisoners like they apparently do their mounts, I would rather die than admit defeat.'

'Suicide is not condoned by the Church,' Saria said.

'But falling in battle is,' Ather said.

'Let's hope it doesn't come to that,' Saria said as she sat in his lap, running her fingers through his hair. Like Ather she was out of her armour and dressed casually, revealing a lithe and willowy body that Ather wrapped his arms around and drew close, letting out a soft sigh. 'Perhaps instead of staring at a map trying to figure out where the Spor-Ten resides, it would be better to draw them out.'

'And how do you propose this?' Ather asked.

'They must have some manner of watching us,' Saria began. 'To know where to strike us, like at New Bridge, or who. We could present them with a target too good to pass up and set a trap around it. If we don't capture or kill them, we may at least be able to follow them back to their base.'

She slipped from Ather's grasp and stood by the desk, placing a finger on the northern reaches where they shared a border with the Sanga and Jirul, and where clashes between the three groups were common. A state of war hadn't been declared, yet, but fresh troops were always being sent to the region to reinforce the Empire's position. Most of the settlements in the area weren't actually settlements but semi-permanent bases, their populations ebbing and flowing in tandem with the intensity of the border clashes.

'If the Spor-Ten wishes to hurt us, they could strike at one of the outposts here,' Saria said. 'Deprive our forces of their supplies so that the Sanga and Jirul can do the work for them. We could then wait nearby to watch and follow.'

It was a sound plan and one Ather had contemplated earlier, but it required a heavy investment of resources to accomplish and could well blow up in their faces. Should the Spor-Ten manage to destroy enough supplies, the troops keeping the border secure would then suffer in turn and give their foes a golden opportunity to establish footholds within the Empire proper. On the other hand, it was probably their best option at fully determining who their enemy was and where they might be based.

'I'll suggest it to the Emperor this afternoon,' Ather said. 'Perhaps he will agree to it.'

'Perhaps he will,' Saria said.

She turned around and returned to Ather's lap, straddling it this time, and added, 'But we're not due to meet with him for a few more hours yet, are we?'

'No,' Ather said. 'We're scheduled to meet at three o'clock. Time enough to refine the plan.'

'Among other things,' Saria said as her hands came up to cradle Ather's face.

1515 Hours, 20 Ostermon, 1065 (5th Age of the Empire)

City of High Keep

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

'It could work,' Orlon said after listening to Ather explain the plan to lure out the Spor-Ten and their forces. 'There's a high risk involved, but yes. It could work.'

They were back on the balcony overlooking the city, the same three maids from before lingering nearby. On the table were the same maps, plus more detailed ones of the border regions where Ather hoped to spring this trap, assuming Orlon agreed to it.

'We can take pains to limit losses to our troops,' Ather said. 'The caravans we send only need to appear to be filled with equipment, or carry defective items that won't be missed. Their sole purpose is to lure out the Spor-Ten.'

'I suppose,' Orlon said. 'But can you be sure the Spor-Ten will take note of this? We still don't know how they pick their targets.'

'They'll take notice,' Ather said. 'If they're as good as they seem to be, they'll notice this.'

'And if they deduce it to be a trap?' Orlon said.

'Then they'll attack is anyway,' Ather said. 'If only to prove to us they can, or that they're smarter than us.'

Orlon gave a noncommittal hum and rubbed his chin in thought, staring at the maps. Both men knew that ego was often a deciding factor in things, especially combat, that need to prove one's superiority over the other. The Spor-Ten had to be subject to that same flaw, especially given their barbaric nature. Ather had never come across a humble barbarian in all his years serving the Empire and he knew exactly how much their emotions ruled them.

'Very well,' Orlon said after a moment. 'I'll leave the details up to you, Ather.'

0830 Hours, July 10, 2555 (Military Calendar)

Marine Camp Rory

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

'That's a lot of troops they're moving,' Sergeant Sato said as he, Cobb and Chavez watched the latest feed from Primo Victoria, this one showing a column of horse drawn wagons departing from Camelot and making for the northern stretches of land.

It was the third such caravan in the past two days, each numbering no less than fifteen wagons. Assuming every wagon carried twenty people that made for nearly a thousand troops, around a full battalion's worth, which was definitely something of interest to the Marines.

'Where's their projected destination?' Cobb asked.

'North,' Sato said. 'Best I can give you right now. The first caravan is still moving, though another thirty klicks and they'll be outside Victoria's footprint.'

The corvette was still holding position right above them and training her sensors down on an area roughly a hundred kilometres across with Camp Rory as the central point. Beyond that the images started becoming distorted due to the angles and distances involved, and while she could adjust her orbit to check on another area it would leave the Marines exposed, even if only for a little while and Cobb didn't want that.

'Well, it's less troops for us to worry about,' he said. 'Always a good thing, I guess.'

'We can always insert a fireteam to keep a closer watch,' Chavez said. 'If they head out of range.'

'No,' Cobb said, shaking his head. 'I want to keep everyone close by, just in case. Besides, your Marines aren't trained for that kind of long range deployment.'

And outside of the NCOs they lacked the necessary experience, but Cobb kept that to himself. Inwardly he wished the battlegroup had detached a platoon of ODSTs to join him, or better yet fellow paratroopers, but because this was flagged as a low risk mission he had a green platoon of Marines. That, and there hadn't been any paratroopers attached to the battlegroup to begin with.

'Tell Victoria to track them as far as she can,' Cobb said. 'If they stop where we can see them, we might swing by and say hello. If they don't, we won't. I'm not willing to spend resources chasing after troops leaving our AO.'

Sato nodded and powered up their communications link with the corvette, relaying Cobb's orders, and as he did Chavez asked, 'So what are we going to do instead?'

'There's some farmland twenty klicks southwest of us,' Cobb said. 'Looks to be built on floodplains with levees and dams nearby regulating the water levels. I imagine that after six weeks of rain they'll be close to full.'

'I imagine they will, sir,' Chavez said.