Vengeance
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: For the last time! I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time: In an AU future.
O'Hara quickly got the teams he previously chosen together and loaded the weapons and ammo into the trucks. Then, with only humans visible, and the Tarkai hidden under the canvas tops, they roared down the road towards the plantations.
Once they reached the southern most plantations, they headed for the Kambala River. Roads ran along both banks of the river. Not paved roads, but they were graveled and better than the dirt tracks found elsewhere. Few people were on the roads and those that were paid little attention to what appeared to be just more peaceful travelers on the road.
After twenty miles, they stopped in front of what appeared to be a very prosperous plantation house and turned around. O'Hara's men pulled down the canvas top and the top's framework. O'Hara aimed the recoilless rifle at the plantation house and put an explosive round through the front door. A second round went through an upper window where they hoped the plantation owner had his office. A burst of 15mm machine gun fire followed and then the two trucks sped away to do the same to the next plantation.
There was very little return fire from the plantations. Most of the best guards had been on the raid and there had been some garbled radio transmissions indicating something bad was happening. In addition, the plantation owners were unsure if the two vehicles they saw were hostile until O'Hara and his crew opened fire. O'Hara hadn't had this much fun in years. Some people did notice a redheaded young woman in one of the trucks, laughing and waving at the plantation houses.
O'Hara got back to the ambush site as the last of the porters were loading up and headed south. He stopped in front of Castle and jumped down from the truck. "Sir, this is a great vehicle. With the tracks we can go almost anyplace. We should take it with us. We can use some vehicles in the future. How about it, Colonel?"
"I've decided to take a couple of 4x4 vehicles back with us, and a truck. We may as well take these two vehicles. We'll have to figure out some way to hide them, though. Those tracks leave a trail a blind man could follow."
O'Hara happily hid the two trucks in two different places and had dozens of Tarkai filling in the tracks the vehicles treads made and covering everything with leaves. He even took the spare track pieces off and used them to make phony tracks going to a lake. If anyone followed the false tracks, they'd think the trucks had somehow been sunk.
Castle decided to put more pressure on the slavers. He sent our squads armed with recoilless rifles, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, and sometimes just rifles and grenade launchers to stage hit and run attacks on plantations nearest the forest. The slavers seemed to be in a purely defensive mode. Rarely were any of the squads counter-attacked, and when one the squads began retreating, they were never followed very far.
There was one plantation that Castle wanted to hit very badly. He planned to use his best company, C Company, and the bulk of his weapons company for the attack. He had had Demming's plantation under surveillance for some time, using his very best reconnaissance troops. Demming had done a better job of fortifying his plantation than most. He had planted a mine field around his house and around the guards' barracks. However, if anyone wanted to leave the property, there were three areas clear of mines. He also had coils of razor wire around the buildings. And he had guards on patrol 24/7 and two guard towers with searchlights. It would not be enough.
It was a moonless night when the attack began, not that anyone on the Demming plantation noticed the start. Tarkai soldiers wearing stealth suits began the attack by using engineering tape to mark the paths through the minefield. The tape would be visible to soldiers wearing night vision goggles but not to Demming's guards.
Then they pushed Bangalore torpedoes, metal pipes filled with explosives, under the coils of razor wire. Other soldiers prepared to shoot "snakes", hoses filled with explosives, onto the edges of the minefield. The snakes' explosion would set off more mines, widening the cleared path. When all was set, the soldiers retreated back into the cover of the woods.
"We're all ready, sir. Care to do the honors?" The soldier held out the transmitter that would fire the Bangalore torpedoes. Castle took it and thought for a moment at how long he had waited for this moment. He felt Kate's arm slip around his waist. He turned to her. "Do you want to push the button with me?"
Kate shook her head. "You should do it."
He took a deep breath and pushed the button, firing the torpedoes. The blast was successful. As soon as they were fired, the snakes were shot into the minefield and fired, dozens of mines went off in sympathetic explosions. Every weapon available opened fire, everything from recoilless rifles to assault rifles, blanketing the house and guards' barracks with fire. The guard towers were destroyed with heavy machine gun fire and grenades.
After thirty seconds, red flares arched into the air, signaling the start of the ground attack. Heavy weapons fire ceased and soldiers ran out of the forest and through the gaps in the minefield. The main target was the guards' barracks. Grenades were thrown or shot through the blasted out windows and doors of the barracks. A squad of soldiers armed with machine guns and wearing gas masks pushed their way into the barracks and soldiers outside threw asphyxiating gas grenades into the barracks. As the guards gasped for breath, they were cut down. None survived.
Castle had wanted to lead the assault on the plantation house, which Kate and all of his officers refused to let him consider. While Kate's idea of chaining him to their bed had a certain attraction to him, he agreed that he would command the attack from a safe place in the rear.
As he saw the first assault troops enter the house after a barrage of grenades and machine gun fire, he began to edge forward. He felt a hand grab his belt. "Not so fast, soldier boy. You aren't going anywhere yet."
"You never let me have any fun, Kate." He grumped, but smiled at the same time.
"I'll show you all the fun you can handle when this is over." She whispered.
The radio broke in. "Charlie One Four to Alpha Six. Over?"
"Alpha Six Actual to Charlie One Four. What do you have?"
"Alpha Six Actual, this is Charlie One Four. The house is clear, from the basement to the attic. The barracks and everyplace else is clear. Over."
"Charlie One Four this is Alpha Six Actual. I'm coming in. Alpha Six Actual, over and out."
Although they had declared the house cleared, Castle's troops surrounded him with a phalanx of bayonetted rifles as he walked into the house. The house itself was wrecked. Clearing a building was an art that had been perfected over many centuries. First, kick in or blow in a door. Next, throw a couple of grenades into the room. Then fire bursts of automatic weapons fire into the room, enter the room and shoot anyone inside. Go to the next room and repeat. Keep doing that, not stopping for anything, until the entire building is clear.
Castle entered the main room of the house. He could smell the battle, the stink of burned cordite, the coppery tang of spilled blood and the stench of urine and feces let lose when the dead had lost control of their bowels and bladder." "Where is he?"
"Upstairs, last room on the left, sir." Said a voice in the darkness.
Up the stairs they went and down the hall.
"Looks like the 15mm caught them in bed, sir." Someone said unnecessarily. "Got his legs shredded, but he's still alive. Sort of. The woman took some rounds that would have gotten him."
Castle looked at the man who'd slaughtered his family, now about to die. He looked smaller now to Castle. He was older and had grown fatter with age.
"Who the fuck are you?" Demming whispered.
Castle decided that conversation was useless. He raised his assault rifle and shot Demming in the head.
"Who's the woman?"
"Some hooker from the town, sir. Recon says he has them send out a new one every week or so."
He felt Kate put her hand in his, "You okay, Babe?"
"He's finally dead, but my whole family is dead still."
"You have a family." She whispered in his ear.
"Thanks. You have no idea what that means to me now."
They went back downstairs where the troops were collecting weapons and anything useful to take back with them. Kate suddenly stopped and looked down.
"What is it?" Castle asked.
"She's just a girl." Kate pointed at the tiny corpse on the floor. "A child."
"My youngest sister was eight when Demming and his family raped and murdered her."
"She wasn't even born then."
"I know. If I could, I wouldn't let something like that happen. But I can't."
"I don't know if I will ever be able to forget her face."
Castle put his arm around her. "Me either."
The destruction of the slavers' convoy and the assault on Demming's plantation brough another surge of volunteers for Castle's forces. Even with the arrival of the Pink Zephyr with more troops and weapons, plus everything that had been salvaged from the convoy still left Castle with more troops than he could arm and equip.
While re-organizing and training his troops, Castle continued to send out platoon sized raids to keep the slavers on edge. Then things changed.
Rick, Kate and all of the officers and many of the tribal chiefs sat in the longhouse, listening to the recording that had been being broadcast continuously.
"This is a message for Richard Castle who calls himself Richard Rodgers and to the members of the so-called Tarkai Anti-Slavery Alliance. I am Roger de Lauria, executive vice president of the Geiser Corporation for Administrative Affairs."
"That means he's their enforcer." Someone muttered.
The recording went on. "The Geiser Corporation does not intend to allow anyone to interfere with their legal operations on Tark. Accordingly, we have hired Davidson's Legion to take over security for our Tark operation. Should that not be enough, we can and will hire more mercenaries. In addition, we have asked our government to deploy a warship to Tark to prevent the smuggling of illegal weapons onto the planet or illegal immigration of people. If you have any sense, those of you who can, should leave this planet and those who cannot should retreat as far as you can to avoid our vengeance. I assure you that our vengeance will be swift and merciless."
The recording began to repeat and someone shut it off.
"I don't know about anyone else, but I don't have any sense." Castle said.
There was a roar of agreement from those around him.
TBC