Vengeance
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: For the last time! I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time: In an AU future.
Storr, who was probably the most vocal of the young men, spoke. "We have many guns and many brave Tarkai warriors. We can kill many, many of the slavers when they come. And when we kill them, the others will be too frightened to come here again."
As before, it was the Tarkai who had been off planet as soldiers who were most in favor of Castle's plan. Warrant Officer Chendoola spoke for them. "You have no idea of what you're talking about, young warrior. I have been out among the stars and I have fought for and against the humans. I will tell you of what I have seen." Chendoola went on to describe that there were not thousands, not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of trained human troops out there. Not just pure mercenary units, but units from planetary governments' regular armies that could be rented out to defray the cost of those armies. He spoke of weapons such as the young men had never seen: Tanks; Artillery; Combat aircraft; Helicopters, both armed and unarmed; Drones and robotic killers and a host of other things.
In the end it was the village chiefs that decided the issue. They were largely conservative men and had no desire to try war unless it was either inevitable or they knew they could win.
With the Golden Life leaves gone and the weapons well hidden, the only thing left to do was to move their food supplies away from the upcoming raid. Like the weapons, the food was hidden in small caches all over the area. Livestock was driven as far away as possible and hidden. Some crops were not ready to be harvested which would mean some hunger for the villagers.
Castle sent messengers to all of the villages in the area, those that had not been interested in supporting him, giving them the news and offering what help he could. Some replied favorably, some did not.
Castle and his troops studied the manner in which prior slave raids had been run. First would come aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary wing. They would drench the villages selected for the raids with bombs containing knock out gas. Then truckloads of slavers would come in, grab the unconscious Tarkai and anything of value and move on to the next village.
They key for success for Castle was to empty the villages before the attack. That reminded Castle of what someone had once said about herding cats.
"I'm sure the gods want their sanctuaries protected, and I do realize we all need places of worship…." Castle hadn't gotten through the sentence before six elderly men and two old women began asking him for help in moving all of the items held in the temples. Although Castle knew that there was nothing there that would interest the slavers, no gold, silver or precious gems, he knew they would destroy the temples just to enrage the Tarkai. His mistake had been in mentioning that to the priests and priestesses. In the end, he had been forced to allocate men to move several tons of religious objects to places of safety.
In the meantime, they kept close watch on the radio traffic the slavers were using to plan their raid. They still hadn't figured out that Castle's communications intelligence people were listening in.
As it turned out, they had plenty of time to move their food supplies and other things to safety. The arguments about the raid went on and on with some slavers refusing to get involved with anything that didn't protect their plantation first and foremost, others who wanted to attack everywhere and everyone at once, and the majority who didn't quite know what they wanted to do, but were willing to talk endlessly on the radio about it.
"Two days, sir. It looks like they're finally getting off their butts and doing something." Corroon said.
"Anything from the recon teams?" Rick asked.
"RT Mamba is on Tefelheur Mountain and has a great view of the southern plantations. They radioed that there are four airplanes and two helicopters at the Brodsky plantation now. The rest should be on their way. Other RTs have seen columns of vehicles headed south. It's on."
Rick went to find Kate. "It's time for you to go, Kate."
She shook her head. "I think I'd be better staying here with you. Let me stay, okay?"
He shook his head. "The one thing we have to do is get all the children to safety. They're our future. The future of the whole planet. The only people we have to look after the kids are some of the older girls and a few old ladies. We need someone to take charge and make it stick. That's you. You need to go now to get the kids as far away as you can. Are you packed?"
Instead of answering him, she kissed him. Hard. Then she was off.
Columns of adults left just after Kate and the children did, carrying what they hoped was enough food to last through the raid. As each column went out, they split into smaller and smaller columns so even if the slavers found one column, they wouldn't catch that many people. The rearguard of each column was a small group of armed Tarkai. The slavers would expect some resistance and would get suspicious if there was none.
The only people left near the villages were some of Castle's people who were equipped with gas masks who'd keep Castle informed as to the progress of the raid.
Kate led the children along a forest trail heading south and then west. In one arm she carried an infant Tarkai whose mother was busy with her four older children. For some reason a small girl had attached herself to Kate and held her hand as they walked along.
Timpo, the scout for their column came running back. He was too young to have joined Castle's company, but he had an old hunting rifle that had been given to him by an older relative and a wicked long knife. "Captain Beckett." He reported. "The stream is not five minutes ahead. The water is clean and fresh. The tall trees come down to the bank and their branches cover the whole stream. No aircraft will be able to see through the branches and spot the children." His tone indicated he did not number himself among the children.
"Thank you, Timpo. You've done an excellent job. I'll tell my husband of your fine work."
The young Tarkai's chest swelled with pride and he ran back to the stream.
The stream was as Timpo had described. When Kate looked up, she could hardly see any sunlight through the tangled branches above her. She motioned for the children to fill their canteens and drink water.
As Kate filled her canteen, she was approached by a group of teenage girls. They stood there giggling until one young Tarkai was pushed forward. "Captain Beckett, are you going to marry Captain Castle? You are…" The girl stopped, not sure how to approach the subject of the two humans having sex together. "You are always together." She finally said.
Kate smiled. "We are very close, and perhaps we will marry one day when things settle down on Tark. In addition, he hasn't asked me to marry him."
Several of the girls whispered among themselves and then one whispered in the first speaker's ear. "Captain Beckett, could you not ask Captain Castle to marry you?" The girl said.
"I could, but we have much to do here on Tark before we can think of such things."
The girl nodded. "Captain Castle is the chief of his own tribe now. It contains members from all four villages and even has members from other parts of Tark that are far, far away, but who have gone among the stars to be soldiers with the humans. A tribal chieftain should have a wife so that they may have children together. This is very important."
Kate nodded solemnly. "I will consider what you have said."
The girls left, still giggling.
Several miles away from the village of Thornod, Private Mally peered out of the tiny vision slit in the bunker he occupied with five other Tarkai. The bunker was well camouflaged with the entrance and firing slits covered with slabs of turf from which grew a noxious weed that would cause humans and Tarkai alike a burning rash if touched. The vision slit was the only part of the bunker not so camouflaged.
Inside the bunker were cases of ammunition and grenades, explosives, medical supplies and most importantly, a large radio. This radio was their only backup to their main radio. Also, in the bunker with Mally were five new recruits. Mally had unloaded their carbines himself to make sure that the recruits didn't start anything.
Mally saw movement just at the edge of his vision. Then five armed humans came into view. He turned to his companions and motioned for absolute silence. One recruit slid his hand towards one of the ammo pouches on his belt. Mally kicked him and glared at him. He moved his hand back.
When Mally looked out again, the humans were almost on top of the bunker. The one began walking straight towards the vision slit. Mally held his breath. Had the slit been seen?
The human stopped right in front of the vision slit and turned around. He then dropped his pants and squatted. After a moment he rose and the humans moved on.
"What do you see?" Whispered one recruit.
"Shit."
Private Mike Bennett settled back in his carefully constructed sniper's hide nearly a mile from the village. He was happy to be using his sniper rifle since the slavers already knew there was at least one in the hands of the Tarkai since the death of the Coonan brothers. He and his team didn't even have to bother with gas masks, although they had them handy. There was a stiff breeze blowing towards the village from where they were.
He looked carefully through his telescopic sight for a good target. He had been told to fire one round and one round only before moving out. Even though the slavers knew there was a very good sniper rifle out there someplace, Captain Castle didn't want any of them to know that there was a very good sniper out there as well. Too many long range shots couldn't be dismissed by the slavers as a coincidence. Bennett didn't like being limited, but he obeyed orders.
He saw one man taking an axe to one of the Tarkai temples and thought about dropping him. Then he noticed a man walking around and yelling at all the others. The others were paying attention to him, so he most likely was some sort of leader. Something else caught his eye. The man was wearing a jacket made out of Tarkai hide. Bennett decided that made him his target. He tracked the man as he input data into his computerized rifle. When he had a firing solution, he pulled the trigger. He saw the man spin and fall. The other slavers took cover and then one saw some kind of movement in a tree not fifty yards from them. The slaver opened fire and as soon as he did, then every slaver in sight did the same. Bennett laughed as the slavers fired hundreds of rounds of ammo into a tree.
"Everybody, we're moving. Don't let any of them see you or I'll kick your ass." The dozen Tarkai who had been behind him moved out.
TBC