Castle's Tanks
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Tanks, but I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Several centuries into an AU future.
Castle spoke too soon.
"What the hell is that?" Someone yelled over the radio.
That, was an enormous tank, far larger than any of Castle's tanks and mounting a huge gun. The gun fired but only tore the turret bustle off of one tank, scattering the crews personal gear far and wide. Castle's tanks fired at the other tank only to see their armor piercing rounds bounce off the front of the tank.
"Try to get a shot into its side armor or back. Try to knock a track off." Castle yelled.
His infantry fighting vehicles fired anti-tank missiles at the lone tank, but they appeared to do no good.
While Castle's vehicles weren't as nimble as they would have been with experienced crews, the lone enemy tank was even less maneuverable. They could hear its gears grinding when it moved and the tracks squealed loudly, probably from not being adequately lubricated.
One tank got a shot at the side of the turret and while it didn't bounce off, there was no evidence that it penetrated the tank's armor or did any damage at all.
Another tank managed to damage one of the road wheels of the tank, which slowed it down more, but didn't stop it.
Castle's tank was the first to get hit, luckily by a high explosive round. The tank's armor wasn't penetrated, but Castle had his head slammed back into a protrusion, knocking him out momentarily. When he came to, he saw that Sergeant Saava was bleeding from the ears and that the tank had stopped.
"Saava! Are you okay?"
"No, I can barely hear and my head hurts." Saava shook his head which caused him to grimace. "I'll be okay."
"Gefreiter Kohl!" He yelled to the driver, one of the men sent by the New Bavarians. "Are you okay. Is the tank okay?"
Kohl mumbled something in German and in a few seconds the tank's engine started up again.
Saava fired another round at the other tank's running gear which did no harm.
Meanwhile, Rifleman Minkis was, at least for the time being, a tank commander. He yelled to Rifleman Phu'un, acting as his gunner.
"Look! The motherless oaf with no pubic hair turns his turret away from us. Fire an anti-tank round into the back of his turret."
"There's some sort of hatchway on the back of the turret." Phu'un said as Minkis kept yelling at him to fire. Phu'un lined up his sight on the hatch and fired. Nothing seemed to happen.
"Idiot!" Screamed Minkis. "You missed! Only a demented cub could have missed!"
"Please observe one thing, esteemed tank commander." Phu'un replied. "There is now a hole in the hatchway. Perhaps the glorious and talented tank commander would give me the order to fire a high explosive round through the hole?"
Before Minkis could reply, Phu'un fired a high explosive round. There was a half second delay and then the enemy tank blew up, tossing its turret high into the air.
"Phu'un! You are the finest tank gunner in all creation. You destroyed a tank none of the others could. You are my older brother!" Minkis said.
"We are brothers now." Phu'un said. "I wonder if one day we will command war machines like this one?"
"Perhaps, but I can hardly hear properly and all I can smell is the stink of the inside of this machine, but it is a most powerful machine. One wonders."
Castle saw something.
"Someone's waving a white flag. I guess some of Kirov's people want to surrender. Pick 'em up but be careful."
Lance Corporal Twan led his fire team to the dugout where the white flag was being waved.
"Come out with your hands up. No weapons. We're professional infantry, so don't think you can fool us." He yelled.
What came out was not a soldier, but a human woman. A completely naked human woman. Twan thought she might be attractive by human standards but wasn't sure.
"Okay, relax. Believe me, we have no intention of attacking you." She said.
"Are there more of you?" Twan asked.
"Nine more. All human women. We've been held hostage by that bastard Kirov and used by his men. Are all of you non-humans?"
"Our commander is human as are some others. Please have the rest come out."
As the women filed out of the dugout, Twan got on the radio to report.
Castle's tank drove up and he hopped out of the turret.
"I'm Lieutenant Richard Castle, Black Jacques Schram's Mercenary Brigade. Only my platoon of Tarkai scouts is here and a few other humans."
The woman smiled at him.
"I'm Carolyn Conners. I was in charge of the girls that idiot Colby brought here. Is he still around and if he is, do you mind if I kill him slowly?"
"Colby left the planet a while ago, I'm afraid. Is this all the women who were brought here?"
"There were two more. They died. Kirov thought beating up women was great sport. Did you capture him by any chance?"
"According to my sergeant, we captured no prisoners. Apparently, they all ran off into the night."
Conners smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile.
"Good. This is a harsh planet. Without food and water from the mine, they'll all die slowly. The slower the better, I say."
"I'll have Lance Corporal Twan load all of you into his track. It'll be a squeeze, but you'll be okay. I do have a human medic. He can check you out when we get back to the mine."
"We'll check him out as well."
After a meal, a good night's sleep, and having some clothing donated by the miners, Conners announced that she was ready to go into business. She made an agreement with the miners who brewed their own alcohol and bought cards and dice and other gambling gear so she could go into business for herself.
"I'd like to give you and the other humans some free samples of our wares for saving us, but I was raised to never, ever give out free samples. Sorry, Rick. It would have been great."
"You have no idea."
They waited until the next ship arrived to take them on the next stage of their journey.
A dropship took them down to the planet and to a very nice dirtside spaceport. There was even a small orbital spaceport.
Castle spoke with the spaceport's manager, a Ms. Olden, a rather motherly looking woman.
"This is a pretty nice spaceport for being out in the middle nowhere."
Ms. Olden smiled at him.
"Anatolia Mining has a half a dozen mining operations on planets and moons within five light years of here. Not one of them is habitable by humans, so almost all their food comes from here."
"Almost all?" Castle wondered.
"Top management gets gourmet items sent from elsewhere. I've heard they get food and drink from Earth."
Castle looked at the view from Ms. Olden's office.
"Odd that there are two towns here, just a mile or so apart."
"Not odd at all. On your right is the Cattlemen's Association. They do more than cattle, though. They raise pigs, sheep, chickens, just about any kind of animal you can eat. Hungry miners appreciate a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and maybe a breakfast steak."
"I can see that the Cattlemen would be popular with the miners."
"But, to make alcohol, you need fruits or vegetables. Oh, you can ferment milk and make a drink, but I've tried it and it's awful. So, the Farmer's Alliance is also very popular with the miners. You're going to be popular as well, having a well-armed mercenary force. The two sides have been fighting with each trying to take over the other for years. Low level gun battles are a regular occurrence around here. Oh, they don't bother the spaceport. They know better than to mess with me."
"You'd think there'd be more colonies on a planet like this. Is there a problem?"
"There are two other colonies. One is run by some Christians who believe they should all live in virtuous poverty. The other is a colony of philosophers."
"Philosophers?" Castle said, "You can't be serious."
"They're funded by the estate of some wealthy woman from the Core, I forget which planet. Anyway, they have a sentient computer and lots of machines to run the colony while they think about…whatever philosophers think about."
"Still, you'd think that a planet like this would attract another colony or two."
"The Latin Expanse is a bit different from your Europa Cluster. It's about fifty percent bigger and it has more than two hundred and fifty human habitable worlds. There's an old rule of thumb that you need a minimum of one hundred thousand people to keep your colony on the same technological level as the world you left. Two hundred thousand is better and a half a million is best."
"I've heard of that."
"Now if you just want to go some place to live in poverty, any number will do. But, if you decide to put your colony on a world where there's already a colony or two or three, you can get by with less people. The colonies already there will have all the specialists you need to keep your colony up to date, you can trade with your neighbors, and a million or so people on a planet the size of Earth won't get in each other's way. So, there's no reason for colonists to come here where the two largest colonies hate each other and the other two can't help you at all."
"Makes sense, I guess." Rick said after thinking about it for a moment.
"And you'll be very popular, Lieutenant. If either group can hire you, they can crush the other group."
"I have a mission from Colonel Schram. I can't take on another one."
"Glad to hear it."
Castle did quickly get a very ruminative offer from both groups. He had to decline, of course. He made sure that if any of his human troops got an offer, they'd decline it as well. He didn't have to worry about the Tarkai. In spite of being turned down, the two groups continually asked Rick to drop by for a steak dinner with all the trimmings, or a wine and cheese party. He declined.
Rifleman Prebo was sitting on the open hatch of a tank, enjoying the sunset and eating a can of pineapple chunks. While Tarkai preferred their own food, grown by Tarkai farms now located in the UK, Tarkai did like some human foods. Prebo loved pineapples.
He finished the can as the sun dipped below the horizon. He heard a loud metallic clang on the front of the tank. He quickly dropped down into the turret and grabbed the radio mic.
"Contact." He yelled. "Sniper. Single shot. Looking for him now."
Prebo used all the sensors but found nothing.
Castle's troops took up their stations, but there were no further shots or any sign of anything. An examination of where the bullet had hit indicated the tank had been hit by a copper jacketed lead slug that appeared to come from the general area of the Cattlemen's Association.
"None of the sensors picked up a sniper in that area?" Castle demanded.
"No, sir." Warrant Officer Christophe replied. "There are two groups of cattle out there, moving away from us. A good sniper could hide in among them. At a range of a couple of kilometers we wouldn't be able to pick up one heat signature among all the rest."
Castle contacted both parties. Each proclaimed their own innocence while blaming the other. Castle thanked them for their help, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
"One of the bastards is lying." He said to his command group. "And we can't tell which one it is. The Farmer's Alliance would probably send a sniper to shoot from the Cattlemen's side, but the Cattlemen might try to fake us out by shooting from their own side and blaming the Farmers. We'll have to keep a better watch. I'll set up a new sentry rotation."
TBC