The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
Since their enemies had no tanks or armored vehicles of any sort, the Thada's tanks had no anti-tank rounds, just high explosive and anti-personnel rounds. The first rounds fired were high explosive and tore into the enemy troops. They rose from the grass that they had hoped had hidden them and charged the tanks and APCs.
Using tank rounds was overkill, since the JCLs kept in small groups and the small groups kept well away from each other, but they kept firing. A few of them began firing on the tanks, although most of them understood that their weapons couldn't damage the tanks' armor.
When the JCL troops got to within seven hundred yards of Thada's unit, he had the heavy machine guns open fire. Each tank had a 15mm heavy machine gun mounted on the turret's roof which could be fired and even reloaded from inside the tank. Short bursts knocked down groups of enemy infantry, but they came on.
The 13mm machine guns on the armored personnel carriers were inside a turret and the gunner was safe from enemy fire. But, as Sergeant Thada had feared, the guns jammed repeatedly, but the gunners did manage to clear their weapons and continue to fight.
About sixty men survived to get close enough to the tanks and APCs to try to blow them up with hand held explosive charges. The enemy would be killed as well, but they would try to take a tank crew with them.
The gunner was busy with the 7mm coaxial machine gun that was mounted next to the tank's main gun, so Sergeant Thada ran the 15mm gun. He killed four enemy troops in a row that tried to place an explosive charge on his tank, only to have a fifth man grab the charge from the dead body of his comrade and duck under Thada's line of sight.
"I have a suicider on me with a charge. Someone…" That was all Thada could say before there was an explosion and the turret rang like a bell.
"Anyone hurt?" Thada yelled to his crew.
One by one, they announced they were fine.
"How about you, Sergeant?" Brot asked.
Thada realized he hadn't checked himself for wounds. He looked and decided he had the same number of arms, legs and eyes as he'd started with. In fact, he was fine. He got on the radio.
"Tank Two! Look me over. Am I damaged?"
Sergeant Fodda replied from Tank Two.
"It looks bad, Thada. Really bad."
"What is it?" Thada demanded.
"The whole…The whole cooler is gone." Fodda said, not able to stop laughing. "We won't have anything to drink after this. Oh, I think your bedrolls are shredded and your turret's bustle rack looks like spaghetti."
Thada made a few comments which will not be repeated here.
"What about the enemy?"
"I can't see any movement." Fodda said. "And the heat signatures are getting dimmer."
"They're dead or dying then." Thada said. "We'll head back to base to rearm and refuel. I'm sure were not done."
Sergeant Thada still didn't like his job, but he thought he'd done a good job. And he was right, they weren't done.
Back at General Izem's headquarters, Castle and everyone else, had little to do with actually running the battle. This was a battle fought by platoons and companies. There were battalions that went for days with no action but their artillery and mortars pounding distant columns of enemy troops. Other battalions were attacked by small groups for days at a time.
Eventually, reconnaissance showed that what few enemy troops remained were within a few miles of the dug in Berbers. Castle launched his two armored units. Not in the grand, sweeping double envelopment he'd envisioned, but a short swing around the flanks to attack what was left of their enemies. Pounded by aircraft, artillery, infantry heavy weapons and now by tanks and other armored vehicles, the remaining enemy forces were crushed.
A cease fire was arranged over the radio and such enemies who'd survived as prisoners were sent back to their homelands. The various nations themselves were in chaos. The number of deaths was far more than anyone had expected and even those not touched by the death of a family member or a friend, had had to pay enormous taxes to support the war, or in the case of the anarchist Free Landers, "voluntary" contributions.
From the intelligence they were getting from all sources, it appeared that it would be a long time before any of Saint George's enemies were in any shape to resume the war.
That did not mean all was well.
"They're using some old tricks from what we can tell." Castle told his assembled staffs. "Our for former enemies are telling their people that they were attacked by the United Kingdoms and their local allies. Their governments are making it sound like they scored a major victory by just surviving, rather than the truth, which is that they attacked us and got their asses whipped. The JCL colony was a religious dictatorship to begin with and Free Cornwall and Quebec Libre were very authoritarian and are now even more so. Even the anarchists, who technically abhor any kind of government, are being pushed to "make compromises" in their beliefs for "their own survival."
"So, we'll have to do this again someday?" Admiral Paredes asked.
"Not exactly the same thing." Castle replied. "Your government is negotiating to join the Europa Cluster Defense Organization. While you don't have a lot to offer in terms of military power, you have a useful location for organizing and protecting convoys in this area of space."
"In the meantime, almost all of the assets that were sent here will remain for a while. The Han Worlds are still in a mess, so we can afford it. The aerospace wing will remain as will the ground troops. The heavier Royal Space Navy units will be replaced with destroyers and frigates on a rotational basis and there will be escorts for convoys coming in."
"Berberia is going to sign a treaty of alliance with Saint George and with the UK. Berberia has a much more powerful army now and it'll get better. For a lot of reasons, we don't have to worry about the Berbers trying to overrun the planet."
"The military of Saint George will expand. You now have a full reinforced commando battalion in place and we're going to build that up to a commando brigade. At some point in the future, you'll have a division sized unit of all arms: Commandoes; Armor; Infantry; Artillery; Engineers; and all the supporting arms and services. You'll also be getting modern aerospace combat craft. One day you'll be able to take over from the UK's aerospace wing and our ground forces."
Castle stood up and smiled.
"Now, gentlemen, and ladies, we've had a long hard time. I want everyone to take two days off, get some rest and get ready to come back here and get Saint George ready for her new military."
Rick and Kate did have two peaceful days off and got back to the more mundane work of building up Saint George's armed forces.
"Captain Beckett, I just got a call from Prime Minister Douglas' office. He wants to see me. You'd better come to and Sergeant Saava, you'll need to…"
"Your vehicle is on its way, sir." Saava finished for him.
When they arrived at the Prime Minister's official residence, they found he was in another car, ready to go.
"We're headed for the University of Saint George, General Castle." Prime Minister Douglas told Rick. "Please follow my car."
At the University, they were led into an office building and then downstairs. There they found what Castle and Beckett took to be a group of professors and probably graduate students gather around something covered in a tarp. Castle thought it resembled a coffin.
"General Castle, may I introduce Professor Ann Hastings, the head of the Archeology Department." Douglas said.
Hastings was a tall, slender blonde who looked too young to be a full professor. Castle wondered why an archeology professor would need to see a general.
"Ready, sir?" Hastings asked Douglas.
"Go ahead."
Hastings pulled the tarp off and they were shown a rectangular object, some six feet long, three feet deep and a foot thick.
"Care to examine it, General?" Douglas asked.
Castle knelt and looked it over, then stood up.
"It's a very large artificial diamond. Most industrial diamonds are manufactured these days, but gem quality stones can be found cheaper on any planet with carbon, heat and pressure. Interstellar Technologies back on Earth made a twenty-pound gem quality diamond a few years ago, just to show they could. I don't know what anyone would do with a diamond that size."
Douglas smiled.
"Professor Hastings? Care to comment?"
"Its not exactly a diamond, General. It has other components other than carbon and we're not sure how it was made. But did you notice the markings on one side?"
Castle knelt again and examined the gem.
"Its not any alphabet I know of. Decorations?"
"You know of the Jai Havai, General?" Hastings asked.
"Certainly. Another space going race. They've actually had FTL drives a few centuries longer than humans, but lack humanity's desire to colonize new planets and explore for the sake of exploring. Is this from them?"
"No, but the jai Havai have found similar artificial diamonds before. They've found them on several planets and dated them to over two hundred thousand years old. Pretty obviously they were left behind by an ancient and advanced space going race."
Hastings tapped the gem.
"The markings are almost certainly writing, but no one has ever deciphered it. Have you ever heard of the Rosetta Stone, General?"
Castle admitted he had not.
"It was found in Egypt, Earth, about two centuries before spaceflight. The ancient Egyptians had left behind a written language many thousands of years old, but no one could read it. Then a group of French, I think they were, found a stone with writing in both Egyptian hieroglyphics and Greek. The Greek language was still known and by assuming the two languages said the same thing, scientists were able to translate the ancient Egyptian at last."
"And?" Castle said, not sure what this had to do with him, or with anything for that matter.
"This was brought in by a group from the Outback. Someone thought the diamond would be valuable as a gem. There are others out in the Outback, and the people who brought this in copied the markings on several of them. Some of the markings are in ancient Jai Havai script. They have a much longer recorded history than we do, going back some thirty thousand years. This could be our Rosetta Stone for the language of an ancient space travelling civilization."
Castle figured it out.
"So, you need a military expedition to go to the Outback pick up all the diamonds and bring them back here. No problem. Colonel Esposito has a helicopter battalion, both Colonel von Tarlenheim and I have air units…"
"And the RAF can provide air cover and send along some of our VTOL rescue ships as well." Colonel Gibson finished for Rick.
"Who would you suggest as the commander?" The Prime Minister asked.
"Myself." Rick said with a smile. "I've been stuck behind a desk for far too long. I need to get out and stretch my legs. And it doesn't sound like the Outback is that dangerous."
From the corner of his eye, he could see Kate glaring at him. He knew they'd have a talk later.
"I'd like you to meet the Outbackers who brought the gem in. They're in the next room." Professor Hastings said.
There were forty-seven Outbackers out of sixty-two who'd started out. They were dressed in rough clothing, mostly homespun cloth and leather. All were men and all were bearded. Rick later found out that their weapons were almost all bows and arrows, swords and knives, except for two battered assault rifles they gotten in trade from somewhere.
Their leader, Tom Cranston, shook hands with Rick.
"We gonna get some money for the diamonds?"
Douglas answered that.
"Since you do live in a dangerous area, we'll provide you with modern weapons and a few instructors, plus radios, medicines, a few doctors and a great many other things."
Douglas turned to Castle.
"There seem to be more Outbackers than we'd thought. A lot more. We'd like to establish a presence there to keep abreast of what's happening out there. A small hospital, eventually and some intelligence personnel should be enough."
When they got back to Rick's office, Kate walked in right behind him.
"What do you think you're doing?" She demanded.
"I just want to get out into the real world."
"The real world is dangerous." Kate snapped.
"I know that. We both know that."
"I'm going with you."
"No, you have to stay and look after JJ."
"I have a dozen or more Tarkai babysitters underfoot all the time."
"You're still his mom. You have to stay. You're a wife and a mother now."
Kate glared at him, but the glare faded. She put her arms around him.
"I'll stay. But you're a father now, so you'll have to be there for him, too."
"This is overkill!" Castle yelled over the intercom to Colonel Gibson. The noise of the helicopter was so loud he had to yell even over the radio.
Gibson shrugged.
"Once Colonel Esposito decided he'd go with us and take all of his aviation assets, Colonel von Tarlenheim did the same. You decided to add to our aerial armada with all of your aviation assets. So, the RAF decided we had to do the same. All we have that can land in the Outback is our VTOL rescue birds, but we went all out. We've had reconnaissance aircraft go over every inch of the way to the Outback, we have electronic warfare ships looking for any kind of electronic problems below us and we have attack and fighter bombers above and below us, as well as on all sides."
"I'm sure if the navy could get their ships to move on dry land, they'd be here, too." Castle grumped.
"Oh, the Saint George Navy sent a dozen commandoes along with us. They're in Bison Twenty-Two." Gibson said with a smile.
They arrived at the town of Two Valleys and Cranston and his people were put down to assure everyone that the people coming meant no harm. They'd traded in their homespun and bows and arrows for cammies and assault rifles.
The town itself held some twenty-five hundred people. All the houses were set among trees which made them nearly impossible to see from above. Electronic warfare assets couldn't pick them up as they had no radios of any sort. Their only industry was a pair of blacksmiths and their fields were scattered across the two valleys.
Professor Hastings was ecstatic when she saw the ancient diamonds. The writing was both the unknown ancient writings and ancient, but understandable, Jai Havai. Her archeology team began loading the diamonds to be sent back to the university.
It took Castle no time at all to set up a small team to train the Outbackers on their newly acquired modern weapons and equipment, and set up a small medical team.
Then they left and went back to Saint George.
Kate greeted Rick in their quarters with a kiss and a surprise.
"We have a visitor."
Sir James Pilkington walked in and smiled at Rick.
"Major General Castle. You've done very well here and you seem to have also helped to solve a very old riddle. And I believe I may have an interesting mission for you."
The End
Author's note: We will see more of this Rick and Kate, and they do live in interesting times. But for the next story we'll be returning to the 12th Precinct for The Death and Life of Teresa Wyler. Teresa Wyler was murdered by her husband and he's been in prison for fifteen years for his crime. No reason for Rick and Kate to get involved, is there?