Castle's Recon
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've found that I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Following Castle's Tanks.
Castle was stunned for a moment.
"Captain Castle, sir? Have enough Tarkai arrived to form a full scout company?"
"No, I'm afraid not. However, I have a plan that will involve forming a small company for you to command. I'm afraid the promotion won't be permanent. As soon as your mission is over, you'll have to go back to being Lieutenant Castle."
"I'll be happy to take the mission, sir."
"Now, what do you know about our current situation?"
"Not much, sir. Except that it's been very quiet lately. No more than the occasional skirmishes between patrols and such."
"That's more or less intentional. The surrender of Brabant has made our other enemies think. Our intelligence indicates they're considering asking for a cease fire."
"That's what we've wanted, isn't it, sir?"
"Yes, but those pushing hardest for the cease fire are those who want to keep fighting. They hope that if they can get a cease fire in place, after a while, perhaps six months, perhaps a year, Saint Ann will get tired of paying for us to not fight and we'll leave. Once we leave, Courland's enemies can start fighting again. Even those among our enemies who know we really work for the United Kingdoms know that the UK can't keep a force like ours here indefinitely."
"Then again, the so-called peace party isn't that strong, so they may not prevail. In any case, the current lull in the fighting is good for us as well. We can repair and resupply our forces and we've helped out the duke's troops. He has three good battalions of infantry now, supported by artillery, engineers, and the rest. The duke's best battalion has been integrated into our own force so that we've formed a complete airmobile infantry brigade."
"How does this involve me taking over a company, sir?" Castle asked, curiously.
"Not every neighbor of Courland is at war with them, although if Courland should weaken, they'd want to get in on the kill like a pack of jackals. What you and your company are going to do is to visit some of the neutrals on a friendly, show the flag mission. We've gotten permission for this from the governments involved. Well sort of."
"Sort of?" Castle didn't like the sound of that.
"You'll have to go through the so-called Debatable Lands. As you may recall, the area is claimed by both the Duchy of Caen and the Duchy of Harlech. Neither one of them actually controls a square inch of the land. The whole place is overrun with bandits of all kinds."
"Now, you'll be taking a company drawn from the Gordon Highlanders Light Cavalry. Don't worry about them being light cavalry. Their tanks and other armored vehicles may not be as well armed or armored as our main battle tanks, but they're damned good vehicles and they have damned good men in them. You'll have a platoon of five tanks, then your own scout platoon in infantry fighting vehicles, plus a platoon of the Gordon's armored rifles, one of their heavy weapons platoons, and a headquarters and support platoon. That'll have your command vehicle, a communications vehicle, an engineer vehicle with an engineer squad, a heavy vehicle repair and recovery vehicle, an armored bridge layer, and a few lightly armored supply vehicles. If you need help, just call and we'll come running."
"My troops aren't going to be happy riding around inside armored vehicles." Castle said.
"Can't be helped, I'm afraid. I also want to find out as much as I can about our neutral friends in case they decide to join our enemies. There's no one better at finding out things than your Tarkai scouts."
Castle was right. None of the Tarkai liked the idea of riding in armored vehicles.
"We won't be able to hear, see or smell a damned thing, sir." Sergeant Saava said.
"I know, but those are our orders."
Saava, as a good NCO, said nothing.
Castle looked over his new command. The tanks were lighter than those used by Schram's brigade and the other armored units under his command. The tanks were 45 tons and mounted a 105mm main gun. The rest of the vehicles were based on the tank's chassis, but lacked the heavy turret, usually mounting nothing heavier than a 30mm cannon. The one exception was the armored recovery vehicle. As it often had to pull tanks out that had become mired in swamps or bogs, it needed to be larger and more powerful.
He was happy with the Highland troops he was in command of. Lieutenant Keith was in charge of the tanks, Lieutenant MacNeill commanded the Highlanders' infantry platoon and a lieutenant named Mackenzie was in charge of the heavy weapons. Castle had been unable to meet the commander of the support platoon, Lieutenant Grant, something about a run in with the Tartan Caliban, whatever that might be.
"What do you think it is?" Sergeant Saava said, looking at the feed from a drone in Castle's command vehicle.
"This is the Debatable Lands, so I suppose this is some sort of a local debate." Castle replied.
Sergeant Saava, even after many years with humans, still was unsure of their sense of humor.
"That is a nicely set up bunker complex." Saava said. "Interlocking fields of fire, no dead ground."
"There can't be more than a half a dozen people in those bunkers, but they're holding off four times their number of enemies."
"Can we take the drone up a bit and look around, sir?"
Rick did so and Saava asked him to check several places more closely.
"What are you looking for, Saava?"
"There's no sign of any supply dump or any logistics vehicles. I'd say the people attacking the bunkers only have the food, ammunition, medical supplies and whatever that they're carrying. Unless they're suicidal, they won't charge the bunkers. In a while they'll have to leave. Of course, I could be more sure if I could use my own senses and not those of a drone."
"We have no idea who those people are or what they're fighting about. We have no reason to interfere and risk our own lives. We'll continue and leave them to their debate."
The next day their drones found a village ahead.
"Looks like something's going on in the village." Sergeant Saava said.
Castle examined the drone feed.
"Someone armed with a sword and a knife is faced off with someone armed with a spear. There's one casualty already, the fellow on his back holding his knee. The rest of the village seems to be giving the fight a wide berth."
"The road goes right through the village unless we want to go into the mountains." Saava said.
"We'll go through the village and see what's what."
Castle ordered Lieutenant Keith to stop his tanks short of the combatants and allow room for Castle's command vehicle to come up beside the lead tank.
That done, Castle opened the hatch and got halfway out.
"Good day, I'm Captain Rick Castle, Black Jacques Schram's Armored Brigade. We have the permission of both the Duke of Caen and the Duke of Harlech to travel through your lands."
'The Devil take both of the dukes and the Devil take you. Now go away so I can kill this foul harlot." Said the man with the spear.
Castle saw that what he'd taken to be a swordsman was actually a swordswoman. She was dressed in tight black shorts and a baggy, sleeveless top. The man on the ground, holding his knee and moaning, had a belt with scabbards for both a sword and a large knife. Castle assumed the woman had disarmed him.
The woman laughed.
"Kill me? You old fool. You sent your so-called champion to try to kill me and look at him now."
"Harlot! Witch! Blasphemer!" Screamed the man.
"If you two will settle down, maybe we can settle this peacefully." Castle suggested.
"I'll be more than happy to settle this peacefully." The woman said.
"The only peace there'll be here is when I've spitted her evil heart on my spear!" the man shrieked.
"Sergeant Saava, would you please watch that man and if he makes any kind of a move, go ahead and kill him."
Sergeant Saava aimed his assault rifle at the man.
"My pleasure, sir." Saava said, aiming his assault rifle at the man and smiling.
"Miss, if you could back towards me a bit so we can talk?"
"But of course."
She walked backwards, keeping an eye on the spearman and everyone else in the village.
"I'm Captain Richard Castle, Black Jacques Schram's Mercenary Armored Brigade, part of the Courland Defense Force."
"Enchante, Captain Castle. I'm Simone Renoir." She said with a dazzling smile.
Castle could tell that she was a very beautiful woman with dark, curly hair and a beautiful face. From what he'd seen from behind, she had a very nice body.
"What exactly is going on here, Miss Renoir."
"I have been travelling through the countryside and I came across an elderly lady who told me her daughter was ill. The symptoms she described were those of cholera. I have medicine for that, and I treated her. Then that nasty old man arrived and accused me of witchcraft."
"She is!" Screamed the old man. "She's a witch."
Simone just shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Where is your patient?"
"In the hut by my wrecked motorcycle. Those idiots trashed it."
Castle grabbed his mic.
"Corporal Charles, go to the hut by the wrecked motorcycle and check the sick woman there. Miss Renoir says she has…"
"Roger that, sir. I've been paying attention."
Charles got out of the track and went into the hut. He came back in about five minutes.
"She has cholera all right, sir, and I found the medicines that Miss Renoir gave her. It's what any good doctor or combat medic would use. The girl will be all right if these idiots don't do something to her."
"Miss Renoir, it looks to me like your ride is too badly trashed to repair. You'd better come with us."
"Certainly, Captain. Will you please have your man get my backpack from the hut and the saddlebags from my bike?"
"Can do, ma'am." Charles replied.
Simone walked over to the disabled village champion.
"Please don't hurt me." He cried.
"I'm not going to hurt you, but you're a terrible village champion. You're a big strong boy, but you never learned to fight properly. I'm taking your sword and dirk, so you won't get hurt. I need your belt and the two scabbards."
He handed them over wordlessly.
"Will I be riding with you, Captain Castle?" She asked, winking at him.
"No, my track is filled with people and equipment. There'd be no room for you. You'll ride with Corporal Twaan in track three. That's two tracks behind mine."
Castle got back on the radio and told Twaan to get ready to take Miss Renoir with them.
She went to the track and climbed aboard. She discovered she was the only human aboard; all the others were non-humans.
"Good day to you and thank you for taking me with you. May I ask where you're from?"
"We're Tarkai from the planet Tark, ma'am." Corporal Twaan said stiffly. "We have excellent senses, so we're much in demand as scouts and trackers. We have other abilities, of course."
"But how did you end up as mercenaries for humans?"
Twaan explained how Tark was the home of a medicinal plant much in demand by another alien race. Plantations had been set up by Richard Castle's parents and they had treated the Tarkai fairly. But a greedy man named Demming had killed all of the Castles but Rick and enslaved the Tarkai. Castle had become a soldier so he could return one day and liberate Tark.
Simone shuddered.
"I sincerely hope he can do so. Slavery is evil."
TBC