Warriors For The Working Day

Chapter Twelve

By
(UCSBdad)

Disclaimer: Stolen about equally from the Henson Co., David Drake and a bit from George MacDonald Fraser. Shakespeare is in the public domain, I hope. In any case, no money changes hands here. Rating: T due to language. Time: Some twenty-five plus years after Peacekeeper Wars.

I was about to quietly exit the room when I noticed that the man was trying to pull open the top of the woman's one piece orange jump suit. The kind of suit prisoners wore. A closer look confirmed that woman was Lieutenant Redd. Her partner pushed the top of her suit down her arms and off and began kneading her breasts. Redd wrapped her arms around her lover's neck and then wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him passionately.

I could now see that both of the lovers were gray haired. The man was Gunner Ismaili.

I managed to get out of the room, much embarrassed, as Redd and Ismaili began to pull their remaining clothes off.

I got to the bottom of the stairs with my plate of food still in my hand to find Rudy waiting for me.

"I presume the slight flush I see on your face indicates that Gunner Ismaili and Lieutenant Redd are enjoying themselves?" Rudy asked.

"Is that any of your business?" I shot back.

Rudy nodded. "I told you that Redd could be valuable to us. With a human lover, or at least a recreation partner, Redd will be more inclined to favor us."

"You sent Ismaili to seduce Redd?" I asked.

Rudy smiled and shook his head. "For some reason Aida and Kathleen are inveterate matchmakers where Ismaili is concerned. But they seem to think he needs some young, bouncy lass who'll bring him his pipe and slippers in the evening and then snuggle up to him and tuck him into his bed at night."

I had to grin. "Ismaili would hate that."

Rudy nodded. "It seemed simple to ask Redd to take a quick look at our weaponry, without giving her access to anything classified, and asking her opinion about whether anyone here could duplicate them or come up with any countermeasures any time soon."

"Ismaili, being a weapons expert, would be the perfect person to supervise her. All I had to do then was let nature take its course."

I stopped and thought for a microt. Redd was a lifelong Peacekeeper. She'd enjoy recreating with a human, especially one who was a soldier like her. And, if they developed any kind of friendship, so much the better for her. So much the better for Ismaili, for that matter.

I gave Rudy a smile. "You are devious. But in this case, I think you're right, too."

"Of course, I'm right!" He shot back. "And I'm only devious when I need to be."

I decided not to ask how often he needed to be devious.

It was well I went to bed early that night as the next day was very busy.

"Aeryn!" called a voice outside of my door. "Time to get up."

Frell! It was Kathleen.

"What?" I mumbled. "What the frell is it?" I stared at the clock by my bed. "Do you know what frelling time it is, Kathleen?"

"We have intel about John."

That got me up. "I'll be ready in one microt." I called to her.

"Take your time." She called back. "We have a meeting set in an hour and a half with some people who don't know that the human Lt. Col. Claudine de Castries is really the Sebacean Aeryn Sun Crichton. They just know we are interested in a human named John Crichton. We'd like to keep them in the dark as much as we can."

I still got dressed as fast as I could. In under an arn, I found myself having breakfast with the three O'Donnells and Rudy.

"You know about the Scipio Africanus?" Eddie asked.

I nodded. "You use it as a smuggling craft to pick up intelligence about this universe."

"Scipio Africanus has been doing business with a Sebacean settled planet not too far from here. They recorded a lot of communications traffic the last time they were there and we ran it through our computers. We came up with one un-coded message sent only nineteen days ago. It attracted our attention." Eddie handed me a data flimsy.

"The package for John Crichton will arrive as expected." I read.

Aida looked over my shoulder. "The addressee and the sender appear to be two minor functionaries in the palace at some place called the Royal Planet. Ever heard of it?"

I nodded. Oh, yes. I had heard of the Royal Planet. I explained as rapidly as I could how John had been forced to marry Princess Katralla, but had managed to leave with Katralla wedded to her lover, Counselor Tyno, but pregnant by John.

"But why would he go to the Royal Planet? And what does the message mean?" I asked, more to myself than anyone. I already had some ideas.

Rudy shrugged. "Coincidence? If John is being chased by hired assassins or kidnappers, he might have to grab the first available ship. The ship turns out to be headed for the Royal Planet. So he makes a virtue of necessity and sets up his operation to find you there."

Kathleen tapped her copy of the data flimsy. "And this is an unbreakable code. Someone set up the meanings of these words beforehand. The "package" could be money, a ship, a fleet of ships or just an actual package. "As expected" could mean to look for the money in your bank account now, or look for the ship at the spaceport in a week. Or anything else. And, it's just one of billions upon billions of clear text comms. No reason for anyone other than the intended recipient, to suspect it means anything anyone else would care about."

I thought for a micron. This didn't make sense. "Why would we need to keep this secret from anyone? Neither the sender or recipient of this message, or anyone else, knows about me."

Kathleen put a data chip in a reader. "We also received this from another mercenary commander. By a courier, who's here waiting for a response."

The micron I saw her smile, I knew she was in trouble. Of course she was in trouble. She was trouble.

"Hi, Aeryn." Chiana's image said. "Jool and I heard about your friend John Crichton, you remember him, right? I had a few ideas to help him out." The smile increased in size. "Um, things didn't quite work out like I'd planned."

"Oh, frell!" I muttered. "Of course they didn't."

Chiana's image ignored my comment and went on. "The nice man here has been very helpful, but he has run up some expenses because of us, and he won't let us go unless someone reimburses him. I knew you wouldn't mind."

Chiana's bright smile actually faded. "Um, I know you don't like her, but she has been a help and I said you'd be happy to…"

Chiana's image disappeared, to be replaced by that of a human male. He had a round head that had been completely shaved except for a luxurious blond mustache. Little else could be seen of him or his surroundings.

"Hullo, Marshall O'Donnell. I heard you've been looking for a human called John Crichton. I have three ladies here as my guests who share your interest. The local money hereabouts is called the krendar. You can have the women for a thousand krendars apiece. You don't have to pay for all three, of course. I can always find a use for women. One way or another."

"Who are these women? Do you know who the third one is? The message was cut off. Is that significant?" Eddie asked impatiently.

I explained as rapidly as I could who Chiana and Jool were and that I would gladly reimburse them the ransoms for the three women. Aida told me not to worry about that.

"I have no idea who the third woman could be." I went over the women Chiana would know I didn't like, starting with Commandant Grayza. I added in Sikozu for good measure and then added Empress Novia, because John might be connected somehow to the Royal Planet. Noranti? Great Cholak! Let it be anyone but Noranti.

Rudy nodded. "We'll run their names past the intel computers to see if we can find out anything about those women." Rudy then leaned back in his chair and rubbed his long jaw, staring at nothing in particular.

"This Chiana is smart."

Well, I could argue with that.

Rudy went on. "She apparently hasn't let Knowles know that Aeryn is Mrs. Crichton. And all that Knowles knows is that we're looking for a human named John Crichton. Since he's only asking for a thousand krendars apiece for them, he doesn't know John's value to us. Hmmmm!" Rudy continued rubbing and staring.

"Who the frell is Knowles?" I interrupted.

Aida answered. "Sir Robert Knowles. He commands a unit called the Grand Company. It was about a standard sized armored division, but now he has only about half the infantry and armor for a standard unit." She stopped. "He still has his full complement of artillery, though."

Kathleen continued the story. "Knowles is best known for making war very profitable. For that reason a lot of soldiers follow him."

"Isn't that what mercenaries are supposed to do? Make a profit?" It seemed a reasonable question.

"Knowles is little better than a well-armed bandit." Rudy suddenly said. "He'll descend on a lightly defended planet and terrorize the least defended parts. The towns would get "Knowles' haircuts", that is they'd be flattened. The citizens would get "Knowles' neckties". Their throats would be slit and their tongues pulled down to stick out their throats. After a while, Knowles would approach the larger and better defended towns and tell them that for a sum of money, he'd go bother another part of the planet. Most would pay up rather than face destruction. Of course Knowles would pull the same trick on every other city on the planet until he got back to his original victim, who by now had accumulated a bit more money for him to steal. When their money ran out, Knowles would demand the cities provide him with goods he could sell off planet. Things such as jewelry, precious metals, works of art from local museums, and when that ran out, he'd ask for attractive young women. And men."

Aida finished the sad tale. "Eventually, with the planet half ruined, Knowles would head for another planet and start the whole thing over again."

I glared at the four of them. "And why the frell doesn't someone stop him? By the Goddess! You have enough troops to flatten Knowles."

Eddie shook his head. "Knowles' troops know that they can't lose a battle. The winners would hang every damned one of them. I'd like to hang every one of the bastards, but I'd lose too many soldiers in defeating them. And, I'd antagonize people like Prince Paul, who see nothing wrong with using Knowles and his kind. I'm positive I can defeat Prince Palsy, but I'd wreck my own army doing it. I didn't bring my people here just so they could find their graves!"

"And Knowles isn't alone now." Rudy said quietly. "He has Daimyo Kurita Hideyoshi with him. Lord Kurita has a regiment of infantry with him. Oh, dear me! He must have five or six thousand soldiers, if little or no armor or artillery."

"Kurita's troops are survivors of the Yamato Civil War. The Yamatoans prized loyalty above all else, and each side in the civil war thought the other to be disloyal. So, they took no prisoners. They just murdered anyone who surrendered, military or civilian. Needless to say, Kurita's troops will fight to the death. "

"Someone else has joined Knowles." Kathleen added. "Graf von Brunswick and the Brunswick Legion are there, too."

"And they are?" I asked sourly.

"People originally from a place called Central Europe back on old Earth. Their ancestors had an irrational desire to go back to a simpler time. A place where hard working peasants tilled the land, thrifty tradesmen worked in the towns and villages, and a small and deferential middle class took care of the learned professions, as they called them. All of this to be run by the noble count in his castle."

"That doesn't sound so bad." I replied, still sourly.

Kathleen shrugged. "It wouldn't have been. Unfortunately a group called the Levelers arrived and set up a colony of their own. The Levelers were another European group who wanted to set up a perfectly equal society. A place where absolutely no one had more of anything than anyone else. Naturally, both groups despised each other."

Rudy laughed. "You'd think that two small groups of humans could manage to stay out of each other's way with a whole planet to share. They couldn't, of course. Brunswick was the richer and better armed society and the Levelers the more numerous. Eventually, Count von Brunswick and his troops were driven off the planet. The civilians either followed him or joined the Levelers. Most left the planet and most died. So von Brunswick became a hired gun for anyone with a reactionary point of view. He has a deeply ingrained hatred of anyone who is opposed to the established order."

Rudy reached across Aida and turned on a holographic map display of the Uncharted Territories. A star began blinking.

"We're here," Rudy said, pointing at the star, "at Arsenal."

A second star began blinking. "Knowles has taken over a Sebacean colonized world called Jolo here."

Yet another star began to blink. "And the Royal Planet is here. As you can see, they're more or less on a straight line."

Eddie took over. "And now were starting to have problems."

I didn't like the word "problems". "Eddie, if there's any problem, I can continue the search for John by myself. You've done far more than I had any right to expect as it is. If you can give me a spare Prowler and some money…"

Eddie laughed. "Aeryn, what I haven't done is what I said I'd do. Get John back to you. And that, among other things, is exactly what I intend to do."

Eddie used his hand, rather than the computer program to show us the problems he was worried about.

"Knowles is here at Jolo. And while the planet isn't exactly the crossroads of the universes, other people are learning there's a heavily armed human army in the neighborhood."

Eddie touched another star holo. "Brother Saul is negotiating with the Delvians. While no one will mistake Brother Saul for that bastard Knowles, it's more evidence that heavily armed humans are in the area."

Eddie ran his hand through an area lying between the Hynerian Empire and the Scarrens. "Several human pirates have begun operations in this area. Not to mention the alliteratively named Captains Billy Bragg and Hubertus Ho. Those two aren't quite pirates, but they're a pair of rare adrenaline junkies and scoundrels, and they do love trouble."

Eddie moved his hand to the other side of the Hynerian Empire's border with the Uncharted Territories. "Word is Pedro de Vargas is operating around here, John Chrysostom, Chen Li and Asaf Humayun are there somewhere, too. Neither one of them is a match for Knowles in sheer viciousness, but anyone who meets any of these people is not going to have a high opinion of the human race as neighbors."

Eddie sat back and stared at the map. "There are a couple of dozen small warships, destroyer size or smaller, that came through the Artifact that we haven't been able to track. And there are more, smaller human mercenary units that we haven't picked up yet. Every damned one is going to cause me problems when they start operating here."

"And what are we going to do?" There. I was referring to us as "we" again.

Eddie glanced at Aida and then Rudy who both gave him small nods.

"I'm going to take the fleet out on a reconnaissance. I'll leave Admiral Cunningham in charge here. The defense of Arsenal is a naval problem anyway. We'll take the ships that are fully manned and repaired and leave the rest here. Even damaged warships with raw crews are useful if all they have to do is defend a planet."

Eddie rubbed his lower lip. "There are still people coming here from the other side, but damned few large, formed units are coming and nothing resembling a hostile fleet is on the other side of the Artifact ready to come through. Cunningham can handle the newcomers."

"So we'll take what?" Aida asked.

"Three BatDivs, all of the operational armored cruisers, say sixty percent of the other cruisers, and escorts to match. We'll also load up our transports with our best units. Then we'll go out and say "Hello" to our new neighbors."

Rudy chuckled. "I think that Lt. Col. Claudine de Castries has outlived her usefulness. From what Chiana told him, Knowles will be expecting someone called Aeryn." Rudy stopped and stared at the ceiling for a microt. "Yes! Major Erin O'Riley. The major will be an intelligence officer, of course, running Chiana as an agent of ours. There'll be no need for a fancy legend, since if Knowles asks about Erin, Chiana, or this John Crichton, we'll just give him a polite smile and tell him that if he wants intel from us, he'll have to pay for it. "

And so I changed my identity once more. It wasn't that hard, since tens of thousands of troops had recently joined Marshall O'Donnell and thousands continued to arrive from the other side of the Artifact. As Eddie said, few were in any sort of formed units, but were simply large groups of ex-soldiers who for one reason or another had nowhere to go and no skill to sell other than their skill at arms. Most were easy enough to integrate into existing units to bring them up to strength, or to use to create new units. What loyalty they had was to Marshall O'Donnell who gave them food, shelter and a purpose in life.

As a Peacekeeper I had taken part in a few Fleet actions, but at the level of a Prowler pilot. As one of Aida's aides, I had a view of events from a much higher level.

Admiral Cunningham was a type I had met before. I was sure he drank a flask of chakon oil at breakfast and then complained it was too weak.

"I must protest, Marshall, at being left to defend a planet while the bulk of the fleet I have commanded heads for combat." He growled the next day when advised of his new duties.

"I must point out you are guarding our only planet, Admiral. Arsenal is, and will for some time be, our only logistics base. We cannot lose it, nor even allow it to be raided." Eddie said soothingly.

"Do you lack confidence in Admiral de Coucy's abilities to command the fleet?" Rudy asked.

Since de Coucy was Cunningham's protégé, he had to confess that de Coucy was perfectly capable of commanding the fleet. Cunningham was soon reconciled to his new job and set to work with a vengeance. More moonlets were dragged into orbit around Arsenal and missile batteries installed in record times. Damaged ships went into space dock and were repaired ASAP, or someone had a short, unpleasant meeting with the Admiral. Ground units were formed, equipped and begun training so fast that we ran out of barracks to house them in.

It was an odd sight to see Admiral Cunningham demanding of his mostly civilian agronomy staff as to why the wheat in Sector 9 North was growing so slowly. I'm sure if bellowing at the wheat to grow faster could have done anything, Admiral Cunningham was just the bellower to do it.

A few days later I was trying to eat something called a bagel while calling up data for Aida. As I ate and typed, another officer came in and saluted Aida.

"Admiral Cervera, how good to see you." If I hadn't seen her do this so many times before, I would have believed she actually was glad to see Cervera.

Cervera, a tall, spare officer with a thin face and a receding hairline, carefully brushed back, remained at attention.

"Vice-Marshall O'Donnell, I must protest your actions. Only my two armored cruisers are being left behind here. All of the other armored cruisers will accompany our first expedition in this new universe. There is no reason for this as my ships are perfectly capable of any operations required of them."

I worked hard at bringing up data on Cervera's ships, but luckily Aida was ahead of me.

"Admiral Cervera, both Carlos V and Don Juan de Austria have damaged main engines. The repairs were jury rigged and could fail at any time. In addition, your offensive and defensive missiles are of a type used only by your own ships and you have less than half a load out of each all together. Would you like me to discuss the damage the armor on your ships has suffered?"

Cervera gulped, but he wasn't done. "A brief time in space dock will…"

"Three months in space dock, Admiral. For each of your cruisers." Aida interrupted.

Cervera kept on. "Then I respectfully request to transfer my flag to the destroyer Furor so that I may…"

"No!" Aida said forcefully. "No, Admiral Cervera. A destroyer does not need a rear admiral to command it and you are needed by your entire squadron."

Aida took a deep breath to settle herself and went on. "One day, if we live long enough, Pelayo will limp in here hauled by her tugs, and when we've repaired and upgraded her, and the balance of your ships, you'll have a task force strong enough to face down ninety-five percent of our potential enemies out here. I will not throw away that future task force, Admiral."

Cervera was still angry at being left out, so Aida threw in a sweetener, to use a human phrase. She made a show of consulting the data I had sent her from my workstation.

"Carlos V's weapons systems are in the best shape. If you transfer all of your missiles to her, we could move Don Juan de Austria up on the schedule for the space dock as she'd no longer have an operational mission."

When he had left, I shot Aida a smile. "Well, if he didn't go away happy, at least he went away."

She smiled at my small joke. "Cervera can be the biggest pain in the eema, but he's the most honorable pain in the eema I know. At least when we send him out on a mission, we know he isn't going to set up his own empire somewhere."

Aida went back go studying something on her desk. Then she raised her head. "Aeryn, put something else on the "to do" list. Cervera uses his marines as gunners on his ships because he's short of people. If we provide him with trained spacers, he could form a battalion for landing operations."

Later.

"Vice-Marshall, this is madness." That was from a tall, slender and immaculately dressed naval officer, Admiral Douglas.

Douglas was the commander of the system defense boats that formed part of Arsenal's defenses. SDBs as they were called, lacked interstellar drives, so they couldn't leave their home solar system. But, they could use the space the drives would have used to pack in more and bigger missiles. So, a destroyer sized SDB had the firepower of a light cruiser.

Opposite him, slouched in a chair and wearing a battered coverall and a week's growth of straggly beard was Captain Dunkel. Dunkel was a merchant captain who commanded Arsenal's only asteroid mining vessel, the five hundred thousand ton Red Dwarf.

"Madness," replied Dunkel, "is pulling my ship into orbit around Arsenal just when our factories most need the metals and gasses we mine. We mine from asteroids so we don't have to go to the enormous expense and difficulty of lifting them out of a gravity well. That's why we build our bloody ships in space. And the best and highest concentrations of those metals are in the debris rings around Blue Eye."

Blue Eye was a gas giant that was the sixth planet in Arsenal's twelve planet solar system.

Douglas glared at Dunkel. "And Blue Eye is one hundred and twenty six local astronomical units out from Arsenal. Far beyond the range of any of our orbital missiles. Admiral Cunningham, rightly in my mind, won't commit any of our battered fleet units to defend Red Dwarf, and that leaves just my SDBs. If I try to defend both Arsenal and Blue Eye, I can be defeated in detail and we could lose both planets. I cannot provide any support for Blue Eye without risking Arsenal, which I cannot do."

Dunkel began to reply, but Aida waved him into silence. She went over data on her workstation for a few microts.

Finally she looked up at the two. "We'll have all of the nearby systems picketed in six days. If we do get attacked, we'll have about twelve hours' notice. How close can you get Red Dwarf to Arsenal in twelve hours?" Aida asked Dunkel.

Dunkel scratched his head. "It'll take me longer to recall the mining teams…" he began.

"No!" Aida cut him off. "How close can you get to Arsenal with twelve hours' notice if you start as soon as you get a warning?"

Dunkel shrugged. "Halfway. Maybe a bit more."

Aida nodded and turned to Douglas. "You could put a dozen SDBs near Red Dwarf to slow down any attackers. That should get Red Dwarf well inside our defensive missile array."

Douglas nodded. "What about the crews on Red Dwarf's boats and those at the temporary mining camps?"

"Captain Dunkel, have your ships boats and mining camps stockpile air, water food and other necessities in caves on small moonlets. If we get attacked, they'll have to ride out the attacks by themselves. If Arsenal is destroyed, well, then they are obviously on their own."

Dunkel whistled softly. "Well, no one told me asteroid mining was the way to die old and in bed."

Aida smiled. "Admiral Douglas was at First and Second Pharsalus. He knows all about not dieing of old age."

And so I spent two weekens helping Aida prepare Arsenal for the departure of the vast human army and fleet that now called it home. And each night before I fell asleep I prayed to gods I really didn't believe in for John's safety.

At last we were in a ship's boat, headed for the fleet flagship, Donegal, 120. O'Donnell's massive flagship sat at the center of the fleet. Humans, like some other races, used a globe formation. The battleships were in the center. Outward from them were the armored cruisers, followed by the rest of the cruisers, then destroyers and missile frigates, assuring that any enemy would face the full firepower of the fleet no matter which direction they attacked from. The transports with their troops and the fleet train with our supplies were similarly arrayed well to our rear.

At the front, flanks and rear of the entire fleet were scouts. These were destroyer sized ships that consisted about equally of engines, sensors and weapons with the crews crammed into any available space remaining.

The trip to Jolo took another two weekens.

"What do you make of that?" Aida asked me as we sat in the CIC on Donegal staring at the holo reproduction of the Jolo system that our AIs had provided.

I knew exactly what to make of that. An icy feeling started in the pit of my stomach. "Charrid corsairs, no doubt about it. I make it four of them. No wait, six. There are a good dozen merchant ships in orbit around Jolo. I'm not sure about the rest, but the two in high polar orbit are Delvian."

"Were Delvian." Aida corrected. "They're Charrid prizes now."

"Marshall." said one of the sensor operators. "There are readings from the outer solar system that are a lot like what we're getting from the corsairs. Maybe another pair."

"Any ideas as to why they'd hide out there?" Aida asked me.

I shook my head. "Lots of ideas, but no evidence of anything."

Aida looked across at her husband.

He smiled at her. "Well, my love, I suggest that I go a calling on Sir Robert and see how much this will actually cost us."

Aida was about to say something to him, doubtlessly another complaint at being left in command of the fleet while her husband went planet side. She was interrupted by the comm officer.

"Communication from the ground."

There was a burst of static and then a panicky voice from the ground. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Eddie laughed. "Don't be worryin', me bucko. T'is only Marshall Edmund Burke O'Donnell and a part of Human Forces Command come for a friendly visit with Sir Robert. Will you let him know that I'm about?"

Now assured that he wasn't about to be vaporized, the voice on the ground became more assured. "The Viceroy is aware that you've arrived. As this planet is a war zone, he authorizes you to bring a battalion sized escort for the trip from the spaceport to the Viceregal Palace. Once in the palace, you may bring an escort of no more than a fifty man platoon."

Eddie smiled. "As I will be in a war zone, I'll be bringin' a battalion with me. But inside the palace, I'll trust myself to the well-known courtesy of the Viceroy."

Eddie nodded to the comm officer and comms were cut.

"And I'll trust myself to the fact that Knowles knows my dear wife will have his skull for a drinking cup should anything befall me."

Aida still looked unhappy. "What the frell is this about Knowles being a Viceroy? Jolo's an independent planet." She glared at the staff members crowded into the CIC, but none of them had any ideas.

"Doubtlessly he's puttin' on airs, my love." Eddie said softly. "I remember the best thing about bein' Captain O'Donnell when I was young was bein' able to impress a certain alien soldier with my new rank."

Aida shook her head. "It was never your rank that impressed me."

"I know that now, my love, but I was young and foolish then."

Before Aida could accuse him of now being old and foolish, Eddie turned to face his staff. "I believe the second battalion of the Guards has the duty, does it not?" A Guards officer nodded in reply. "Well, then let us be off to see how Knowles could ever become a Viceroy."

As Major Erin O'Riley, I accompanied Eddie. Everyone except Eddie and Rudy were in power armor and the battalion battle group of the Guards probably had as much combat power as any regiment on the planet below us.

On the way down, I moved over next to Rudy. "Finding Charrids here is bad. They may be good soldiers, but they're sadistic bastards at heart. When Knowles starts taking young people to sell off planet, the Charrids will buy them. They won't use them for sex slaves, but for food."

Rudy patted my armored arm. "We're aware of the Charrids, Aeryn, and what they're like."

Frell! There was no point in arguing with him. No one really knew what Charrids were like that hadn't seen them and the aftermath of one of their raids.

The spaceport we landed at was a good two arns from the so-called palace. The spaceport appeared to have been shot up in the initial invasion and little had been done to make repairs.

Knowles had provided an escort for us, of sorts. Colonel von Peppel had taken service under Count von Brunswick. His "regiment" consisted of less than two hundred men mounted in old open topped combat cars and in very lightly armored blower trucks. The troops' personal armor was worn and patched and their weapons were obsolescent. After seeing O'Donnell's troops, they were not impressive. Unless you were an unarmed citizen of Jolo.

Von Peppel was equally unimpressive when we finally found him. The Guards battalion was ready to go, but von Peppel was mysteriously absent. Our battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Hope-Grant, a tall and imposing officer with skin the color of the space between the stars walked over to von Peppel's command bunker. I tagged along behind.

"How the fuck can I pay you for the damned artillery? That old bastard won't hand over the cash just because I ask for it, now will he? The mayor is going to need a couple of rounds dropped on his damned town…"

"Hello. Hello." von Peppel screamed at his comm.

"Division Artillery cut the connection, sir." A bored voice announced from deeper in the bunker.

Von Peppel finally noticed us. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Hope-Grant. Commanding Marshall O'Donnell's escort. Viceroy Knowles advised us you'd provide our escort, so we don't get lost or something." He replied politely.

"Knowles said that? Well, the main road to the palace is right out front. It's long and flat and…" Suddenly von Peppel stopped and a sly smile spread over his face. "What kind of escort do you have for this Marshall?"

Hope-Grant shrugged. "Not much. A battle group of the Marshall's Guard Regiment. Two tank companies, two armored infantry companies, an artillery battery, cavalry troop…."

Before he could finish, von Peppel pushed his way past us and out of the bunker to look at the Guards battalion drawn up in front of their transports. "Holy fuck!" He exclaimed. "Look, if we cooperate, we can make some money here.."

It was Hope-Grant's turn to cut off von Peppel. "Marshall O'Donnell is paying a courtesy call on Viceroy Knowles and we're in a hurry. Now, if you could provide a few people to show us the way, we'll be off. That road over there, I believe you indicated?" Hope-Grant said gesturing vaguely to his left.

Von Peppel shook his head violently. "That road? For a guest of the Viceroy's? No way. It's lousy with mines and ambushes. I know the sweetest shortcut to the palace. You just follow me and I'll get you to the Viceroy with no problems."

Without waiting for a reply, von Peppel began bellowing to his troops to mount their vehicles and move out. We headed out with von Peppel's rag-tag troops in front and the Guards trailing behind.

The first twenty or so metras were depressingly similar. Along the sides of the road were burned out villages and some Sebacean bones. Crops and orchards had been carbonized by the mercenaries' power guns. After twenty metras we began to see crops growing in the distance, but no other signs of life.

Finally we came to a small city on a hill. Around the outskirts were recently dug trenches and everything beyond the trenches had been torn down to deny cover to an approaching enemy. A bright bolt of green light shot out from the town, setting fire to a tree a hundred motras from us.

"Mining laser, I believe." Rudy said. We were riding together with Eddie and Kathleen in a command vehicle. "No problem at this range, but if von Peppel got close enough to use his 2cm tri-barrels, his troops would get fried."

Eddie just nodded.

"I've got von Peppel's comms up." A voice said.

I heard him through the comms in my power armor.

"I don't give a fuck what I said before, the price is now fifty thousand krendars. If you don't pay up, well, I finally got the balance of my regiment here and I'll blow your stinking shithole town down around your ears. And the last thing your precious fucking daughters will ever see is my face. Do you fucking understand me?"

I suppose we could have told the mayor that our battalion wasn't part of von Peppel's unit and that we had no intention of attacking him, but we didn't. The mayor agreed to pay and von Peppel sent two trucks and a combat car into the city to pick up the money.

I sat on the rear deck of the command vehicle and watched von Peppel's troops as their vehicles came back with their loot. They didn't trust their commander one bit, and I didn't blame them. They insisted that the money be shared out there and then. Then they began arguing about the split.

While they were arguing, one of von Peppel's soldiers walked out of the forest and between the command vehicle I was in and the tank behind us. He had a young Sebacean woman with him, a gag over her mouth and her hands tied behind her. They crossed the dirt road we were on and disappeared into the trees.

I turned and gave a savage glare to Eddie. Before I could say a word, Eddie turned away from me to face the trees on the other side of the road. As he did so, he moved his hand oddly towards the forest into which the mercenary and his captive had just vanished.

Was he telling me to follow them?

Frell! I had no trouble deciding what to do. I dropped the helmet down, snapped it shut and dropped to the ground, all in one motion. I had gotten much better at using power armor than I had been back on the mis-named pleasure planet.

I caught up with them in microns. Perfect! The bastard was facing away from me with his captive backed up against a tree. He was too busy tearing her clothing away to notice me. My armored hand shot out, grabbed his neck and twisted, hard. I felt a very satisfying snap.

"Run. Go home!" I whispered to the woman, tucking the dead soldier under one arm. Not ten metras away was a monster tree. I climbed up it a good thirty metras and wedged the dead body between some branches.

When I got to the ground again, the woman was still there, staring straight ahead and crying.

"Get out of here! Go back home!" It was no use. She was too terrified to move. I picked her up and walked back to the road. Von Peppel's troops were still fighting over their loot and there wasn't a single Guard to be seen anywhere.

I walked the woman across the road and a good twenty metras into the trees on the other side.

"Go home!" I barked at her and gave her a shove. This time she ran.

I pulled myself back up onto the rear deck of the command vehicle. As soon as I was settled, Rudy and Eddie opened their hatches and joined me. Neither said a word.

I had hoped that no one would notice or care that one mercenary was missing. No such luck. My next hope was that they wouldn't find him. Again, no luck. Von Peppel didn't trust his troops not to lose or sell their weapons, so all weapons had tracers in them.

In a few microns, one of von Peppel's officers was standing at the base of the tree with a squad of mercenaries. He was ordering one of the soldiers to climb the tree, with little success. Hope-Grant and I stood a few metras behind them, observing.

Von Peppel's officer wasn't having any luck getting anyone to climb the tree. He had started out with orders, then turned to threats and now was reduced to trying to bribe a soldier to go up and look. The soldier stood at the base of the tree, looking up and shaking his head.

Hope-Grant shouldered his way through the soldiers in front of the tree. Easy enough, since he was wearing power armor and they weren't. He made a show of examining the tree.

"I say, but you have a sciora on this planet. Look at those claw marks!" He said cheerfully.

"A what?" Was the reply.

"Local predator out here in the Uncharted Territories, don't you know?" He turned back and rubbed his armored hand over the trunk. "Big bastard, too. Must weigh eight hundred pounds if he's an ounce."

The officer examined the tree, where the marks I had made climbing clearly showed. "What the fuck is a sciora?"

"Predator." Hope-Grant responded lightly. "A lot were taken off their home world to be hunted, you see. At least one must have ended up here." Hope-Grant expounded further on the non-existent predator. "They have eight legs, don't you know? Like a spider, except the sciora are mammal analogs. They live in the trees and swoop down on their prey, break their necks and take them to the top of the trees to let the bodies rot until they're nice and tender."

It suddenly occurred to me that the humans had excellent sensors in their vehicles. Hope-Grant would have had no trouble at all tracking me through the forest, even if he couldn't see me.

"Is there just one of these things? Or do they hunt in packs?" Someone asked.

Hope-Grant thought for a microt. "I think they do when it's mating season? Or is it after mating season? Or perhaps…"

"Back to the vehicles, now." The mercenary officer barked to his troops.

"What about Wim?" Someone asked.

"He got himself up there, he can get himself down."

True enough from my point of view, even if his comrades would have thought differently if they had known the truth.