Castle's Tanks
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Tanks, but I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Several centuries into an AU future.
Author's note: This is a sequel to Castle's Platoon and Castle's Troop.
"Lieutenant Richard Castle, reporting as ordered, sir."
Colonel Black Jacques Schram smiled through his trademark bushy black beard.
"Good to have you back, Rick. I have a mission for you."
"Is the brigade leaving Thorburn's Grave?"
"No."
Castle frowned.
"I thought there was a truce."
"There is, but the diplomats are working on a peace treaty. They're afraid if our mercenaries leave and the Han Worlds volunteers stay, that'll put too much pressure on the Western Combine to make concessions. So, the brigade will stay for a while."
"Sir, Thorburn's Grave is marginally habitable and that's being generous. My Tarkai would have to wear environment suits and that would nullify their excellent senses."
"But they're still soldiers and I have a mission for your platoon."
"Yes, sir."
"What do you know about New Bavaria and the New Bavaria Armaments Works in particular?"
Castle had to stop and think. He hadn't expected a question like that.
"Um, New Bavaria is in our neighboring sector, the Latin Expanse. Earth like planet, with New Bavaria the only colony there. Large population, quite wealthy and industrialized. That's about all I know about the planet."
"Well, you'll hardly need to know more. What about the weapons they make?"
"They make excellent weapons, sir. As good as any made anywhere else, including Earth."
Several centuries before, the three main powers on Earth, the Russians, the Chinese and the United States, had decided to form the Triple Alliance and run the Earth and its nearest extrasolar colonies, the so-called Core. They had immediately shut down any and all weapons research anywhere in the human occupied galaxy, even outside the Core. They didn't want some other nation to make a breakthrough that would nullify their overwhelming military advantages. And to be frank, none of the three really trusted the other two. Since there had been no advances in weaponry in over two centuries, it was easy for any industrialized society to manufacture state of the art weapons.
The ban on weapons research had gradually widened to include a ban on any sort of research. Medical research could accidentally lead to a new biological weapon. Chemical research could lead to some new chemical weapon, and so on.
"What do you know about Hawk's Company, a mercenary outfit?"
Castle thought again.
"I've never heard of it, sir."
"Neither has anyone else. It appeared out of nowhere in the Latin Expanse led by a Captain Hawk that no one had ever heard of. He had a company of very experienced, veteran soldiers. He was supposed to pick up a company's worth of New Bavarian armored vehicles at a planet called Rendezvous."
"Supposed to, sir?"
"The ship carrying him, and his company blew up shortly after entering the Rendezvous system. The anti-matter containment field breached, and the ship was reduced to atoms."
Castle could not see what this had to do with him, or with the brigade.
"The armored vehicles were seventy-five percent paid for. The final payment was on the ship that was vaporized. Suddenly, the New Bavarians had a nice expensive armored company, mostly paid for, but with no customers. Luckily, we had a commercial team on Rendezvous, and they bought the vehicles at a very good price."
"We had a commercial team in the Latin Expanse, sir?"
Schram nodded.
"We, the United Kingdoms, and the brigade don't have much contact with colonies outside of the Europa Cluster, but there is some contact. We like to keep an eye out for potential friends, commercial possibilities, and the occasional bargain."
"Why would we buy New Bavarian armor, sir. None of their systems are compatible with ours, the logistics would be a nightmare for such a small unit."
"One, there are some New Bavarian weapons in the militaries of the Europa Cluster. UK Intelligence would like to look at some of their state-of-the-art weapons systems. Two, we can sell the armor for a nice, tidy profit. We may be a mercenary unit in name only, but any money we can make on our own is all the good for the brigade."
The Europa Cluster had thousands of solar systems and over a hundred of them had human colonies. The number of colonies on those planets were estimated at between six and seven hundred, depending on who did the counting. There were also several dozen planets inhabited by non-human races.
The wealthiest, and militarily most powerful, star nation in the Europa Cluster was the United Kingdoms. They controlled a solar system with three inhabitable planets and one inhabitable moon. For decades, they'd been fighting what was called the Shadow War with the Han Worlds, three solar systems within a half a light year of each other that had been colonized by Chinese. In fact, they were supported by China back on Earth. Nationalists in each nation wanted their own country to run everything. Earth's Chinese nationalists supported the Han Worlds in hopes of taking over all of the Europa Cluster one day.
A full-scale war between two nations armed with thermonuclear weapons would be disastrous for both sides, so the two sides of the Shadow War rarely fought each other directly. Rather the Han Worlds allowed volunteers to support pro-Han Worlds causes and the United Kingdoms allowed mercenaries to support pro-United Kingdoms' societies. So, volunteers fought mercenaries and neither star nation was technically involved. Hardly anyone believed that the units weren't a part of each nations' forces, but both sides simply said that they couldn't be responsible for what other people thought.
So, Black Jacques Schram's Brigade, and a dozen more "mercenary" units, worked only for the United Kingdoms.
"How does that effect my platoon, sir?" Rick asked.
"I need someone to ride herd on the tanks until they get to their buyer on a world called Dawn, just on the edge of the Latin Expanse near the Europa Cluster."
"Sir, my platoon is made up of foot mobile scouts. They have no experience with armored vehicles."
"True enough, but I can provide you with drivers and a few other technicians and the New Bavarians have recruited some ex-military repair and maintenance troops for you. They'll keep your vehicles in tip top shape."
"Besides," Schram added, "You eventually want to go back to Tark and kill the people who massacred your family and enslaved the Tarkai. You might, in the future, get access to some armored vehicles. Having Tarkai who can operate them would be an advantage."
"When do we leave, sir."
Schram smiled.
"That's the spirit. I have the armored crewmen from the brigade all set to go. Your ship, the Just Deserts, will be here in three days' time. Rendezvous is towards the far side of the Latin Expanse, and you'll be heading back towards the Europa Cluster."
"Will this Just Deserts take us both ways, sir?"
"No. Just to Rendezvous. You'll have to take several ships to get to Dawn, that's why I needed your platoon to ride herd on things."
"I'd like to talk to the people who are coming with me, sir?"
"Certainly, certainly."
Castle could see why Warrant Officer Christophe was leaving the brigade behind for a while. His right arm ended in a metal cylinder that ran from his elbow to where his hand would have been. He was having a new arm and hand grown for him.
"Don't worry, sir." He said to Rick. "I'm left-handed, and they made an attachment for me that will let me operate things with no problem."
"With any luck we won't need you to operate anything in combat." Castle said, knowing that depending on luck was always a bad idea.
He had carefully checked over the soldiers being sent with him. When unit commanders were asked to send some of their people to temporary duty elsewhere, they often sent the people they could most afford to lose: the lazy; the stupid; the troublemakers. It appeared that Colonel Schram had prevented any of that from happening.
Castle told his platoon sergeant, Sergeant Saava, the news.
"We're going to be riding around in armored vehicles, sir?" Said the outraged sergeant. "Our senses are far better than your human senses, even better by a bit, sometimes, than your mechanically assisted senses. Trapped in vehicles we won't be able to hear, see, or smell properly."
"But we're going anyway, sergeant. Is everyone present and ready for duty?"
"Yes, sir. We have four infantry scout squads, a weapons squad, Sergeant Gorad's scouts with chameleon suits, your command group and Sergeant Fa'an and Corporal Dworal, our sniper team, are back from their assignment."
The snipers had been removed from Castle's platoon and sent off on an unspecified mission. Castle had been told to ask no questions about the mission, so he didn't.
Castle had his platoon, plus the armored crewmen, at the orbital spaceport for Thorburn's Grave when the Just Deserts arrived.
Captain Nora Xi was quite young and was quite attractive except for a patch over her right eye and a chrome plated prosthetic left hand. Apparently, Captain Xi was one of the very small number of humans who could not have replacement parts grown for them.
"Good evening, Captain Xi. I'm Lieutenant Richard Castle. You'll be taking my platoon and some others to Rendezvous."
Xi stared hard at Castle.
"I usually don't take passengers and I don't like to have men on my ship. For obvious reasons." She touched the patch over her eye with her artificial hand. "But I needed a quick infusion of cash and Black Jacques Schram was paying well. Most of your platoon are non-human?"
"Yes, Captain. The only humans in the platoon are myself and one of our medics, Corporal Charles. I have thirty other people from the brigade. Colonel Schram must have known about your…dislike of males. Eleven of them are female."
"My entire crew is female. Tell your human males that there will be no fraternization of any sort on this voyage. None. I own this ship and as the old saying goes, I'm captain under God. I will not tolerate any violation of these rules. Understand?"
"I've been briefed."
"Good. Make damned sure your people understand."
"Captain, how long will it take us to reach Rendezvous?"
"A few hours over a standard week."
Castle was surprised. A standard military transport would take a month and a half. A fast transport might make it in three weeks.
Xi could see what he was thinking.
"I have a very fast ship, Lieutenant. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
"I have work to do too."
Castle found he had to work to fit his command into the small cargo bay of the ship. But eventually he got everyone squeezed in. The eleven women even had a curtained off space to live in.
"Why the hell is the cargo bay so small?" he asked. "The ship is pretty big."
"The ship is almost all engines, sir." Warrant Officer Christophe said. "A small cargo area means she carries mostly high value, low bulk items at high speed. To me, that means she's a smuggler."
"We're being smuggled to Rendezvous?" Castle asked.
"No, sir. There are legitimate jobs that need to carry something small in a big hurry. Like us, I guess. But there aren't that many of that kind of jobs around. Mostly, I'd say Captain Xi is a smuggler."
"I hope to hell she's not wanted anyplace."
"I'm pretty sure Colonel Schram would have checked the ship out pretty carefully. There's a bit of money riding on this."
The Just Deserts pulled away from the orbital space station and once it was far enough from a gravity well, went FTL.
When dinner time came, Castle ate with Sergeant Saava a bit away from everyone else.
"Saava, you've heard the no fraternization order I passed on from Captain Xi."
"You don't have to worry about us, sir." Saava said with a grin.
"I worry about the other humans. Have everyone keep an eye out for any human males who act like they might do something stupid."
"No problem, sir. They won't even know they're being watched."
TBC