Friendly Planet

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own neither Castle nor planets. Rating: K. Time: After my story Deadly Planets.

"You do have a radio in this thing?" Castle asked.

"She does." Rifleman Than replied. "A very simple one. We'll have no trouble contacting her people with our radio."

"So how far is your base?" Rick asked.

"About five miles that way." She said, pointing.

"If you're dead anyway, why carry a pistol?"

The girl shrugged.

"You're supposed to kill as many of the Gods' enemies as possible and save the last round for yourself."

"Why do you think everyone outside of the base are the enemies of your gods?"

"That's what the Gods told us."

"Do you believe we're the enemies of your Gods? We've never heard of you or your gods before."

"I suppose not."

Rick decided he wouldn't give her the pistol back any time soon, just in case.

Pilot Tharon Abbler led them to a steep hill from which they could observe the base. Castle and the snipers examined the base.

"I don't see any weapons inside the base that could hit us from there. Tharon, are there such weapons?"

"Of course not. If anyone tried to attack us the perimeter weapons would stop them."

Castle described the defenses to his company over the radio,

"There's a wall around the base with no entrances or exits. The wall is maybe thirty feet tall with some sort of gun towers about every two hundred feet. There's concrete all around the base for maybe fifty yards. No cover there. Then there's razor wire all around about fifty yards thick. I can see small gun turrets all over the place. Oh! There's something white at the edge of the mine field. It's a dead White Death, or rather, just his torso and one arm. Looks like local carrion eaters have been eating on him. We're definitely not getting in there unless they can turn off the defenses which Tharon says they can't do."

Zoe tapped Rick on the shoulder.

"I'd like to talk to Tharon and tell her what's really going on on this planet, and the Great Game."

"I can't stop you, but I doubt she'll listen."

"Maybe not now, but when she sees the rest of this planet, she might come to understand what's been done to her and her friends."

"Take her off someplace so she doesn't get embarrassed in front of everyone."

Zoe led Tharon off a hundred paces from the rest of the company. As Castle had predicted the conversation was short and ended with Tharon screaming at Zoe.

"That's nothing but lies. I've known the Gods and their way since birth. You know nothing."

She ran back to where Rick and Kate were with the radio.

"Are you okay?" Kate asked.

"Give me a minute."

She took several deep breathes and then held out her hand for the mic.

"This is Pilot Tharon Abbler calling Command Pilot Tenna Obrict. Respond please."

Almost at once there was a reply. The voice sounded young and male.

"Tharon! Is that you? Are you alive?"

"Bellin! Of course I'm alive. How could I call you if I were dead?"

"Of course. Let me get Command Pilot Tenna Obrict. The rest of the pilots will want to listen in, too."

It took several minutes, and they could hear an increasing amount of excited chatter in the background.

"Command Pilot Tenna Obrict calling Pilot Tharon Abbler. Respond." The voice was female and probably older than Tharon.

"Command Pilot Tenna Obrict, I'm alive and I'm on the hill to the north of the base."

"Tharon, you can't get back in. I'm sorry."

"I know. I'm with some people, humans and non-humans. They number over a hundred and are well armed. They're ground soldiers and they've been good to me. They don't seem to know about the Gods, but they don't seem to be the Gods' enemies. I'm going to go with them."

"Very good, Tharon. Your job, as always, is to fight the enemies of the Gods. If you've found allies that's good. The Gods haven't mentioned anyone like that, but the ways of the Gods are not to be known by mere mortals."

That caused Zoe to snort.

"Goodbye Command Pilot Tenna Obrict and all of my comrades. May the Gods prosper."

"May the Gods prosper." Replied everyone over the radio.

Tharon handed the mic back to Kate.

"Thank you." Tharon said and then began to cry.

Castle checked the position of the sun.

"We won't get very far before dark. We'll move back deeper into the trees and dig in. I want a fire team sized observation post to keep an eye on the airbase."

Four Gurkhas, led by Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu, dug in on the hill overlooking the airbase.

"Look! They've lit up the base like a Christmas tree. What terrible security. A mortar team could rain death down on them." Said Rifleman Tikendra Dewan.

"Ah, the village idiot speaks." Replied lance Corporal Limbu. "Have you seen the dead White Death? Those so-called gods have excellent weapons. Since they are the penisless scum that set up this wretched world for people to die in, they must know of mortars, rockets and other artillery. They have a counter, I'm sure."

"While you were berating Rifleman Dewan," said Rifleman Kailash Limbu, "something large has been approaching the base."

All four turned to look.

"Very large." Said Lance Corporal Limbu who had the binoculars. "It appears to have six legs. Its coloring is very dark. Hard to see at night. A predator, I'm sure."

The dark animal sniffed around what was left of the White Death but apparently found nothing left. Then it headed for the bright lights of the base. The mines moved too fast to be seen and four of them hit the beast, tearing it apart.

"Radio the Saheb Captain and advise him of what the explosion was." Said the lance corporal.

They left the hilltop and marched for two more days. At the end of that day, Castle called his command unit and his platoon leaders together for the usual discussion of how everything was going, any minor problems or anything going unusually well. There were rarely any of the later.

"Two more things before we quit." Rick said. "Anna, you've gotten close to Tharon. How's she doing?"

"She still thinks of herself as fighting for the gods, but since we don't seem to have any enemies of her gods, she's not doing much about that. On the other hand, she's fascinated by everything around her. Her training base was in the middle of a huge desert on another planet, and there was nothing interesting at all on or in her airbase. She's never seen trees and flowers and everything else up close. She's interested in where everyone else is from and what their societies are like."

The Ukrainian medic looked around to make sure Tharon was nowhere near and lowered her voice.

"At Zoe's suggestion, I asked her something. I wanted to know why the gods, who are supposed to be all powerful, didn't do more to kill their enemies. They only have a dozen aircraft at the base at any one time and they always go out with just one aircraft to fight the gods' enemies. I wondered why the gods didn't send a hundred aircraft here and send them all out after their enemies. She just said the gods' motives were unknowable, but I think it made her think."

Castle nodded and smiled.

"Secondly, how are our virginal clones doing? Kirta, you've been keeping an eye on them."

"As far as I know, none of them have had sex with a man, although I think they have sex with each other. I think being around us Moreans, and Alice, has at least got them wondering. But nothing more."

The meeting broke up and Rick snuggled down with Kate.

"Jesus. How did I ever get into something like this? Worrying about a pre-teen fighter pilot and a bunch of cloned virgins. They don't teach this kind of shit in the US Army."

"Well, perhaps if you had more experience with sex, you could do more?" Kate said in a husky vice.

"Why didn't I think of that?" he said, pulling her close.

The next day they saw seven people on a small hill ahead of them. Castle checked them out through his binoculars. He found himself staring at someone else who was looking at him through binoculars.

"They aren't running, and they look human. In fact, I'm pretty sure they have US weapons and I'm pretty sure they're wearing US Army OCP camouflage uniforms. And they're headed this way."

They walked towards Castle's troops, and they stopped at their leader's raised arm about fifty feet away.

"I'll be dipped in shit. Richard Castle?" He said.

"Red Barnes? Is that you?"

"It sure as hell is. Are you in command of this unit? And what the hell kind of unit is it?"

"Come in and sit down. We'll have a cup of god awful MRE coffee and I'll tell you all about it." Rick turned around. "Zoe, front and center. You'll have to 'splain things again." He raised his voice so the whole company could hear. "This is Red Barnes. He was my squad leader long, long ago when I was a young PFC in Iraq. I'm afraid I don't know the rest of his people."

Everyone sat and Rick and Zoe explained what had happened.

"Okay, Red, your turn. How did you get here? Still in the US Army?"

"No, I retired a few years back, but I got bored. We work for Silverleaf International. That's a PMC, a private military company."

"You're mercenaries?" Espo asked.

"Not really. We only work for the US government or people the government likes. We were in Darien, Panama. Know anything about it?"

Rick nodded.

"Never been there, but it's a jungle hellhole in the south of Panama and goes off into Columbia."

Red smiled.

"It's also where people trying to get to the US of A travel to head north. Not just South Americans, but Africans, Asians and anyone else. They got smuggling rings to get them through Darien and onto the US. Recently, some jihadis have been trying to bribe the smugglers to take jihadis to the US. The smugglers don't usually like to take that kind of risk, but the jihadis are offering big money. Now the Panamanians have them a well-armed police force, but no real army. The Panamanians said they wouldn't allow any American soldiers in country, but if some nice American civilians should be traveling in Darien and happen to run across the jihadis, they couldn't complain about that. As long as everything was real quiet. There was one jihadi moneyman and three or four bodyguards, so I got a team ready, and we went to Panama, picked up our gear at the US Embassy and headed south. Then, before we knew it, we were here."

"How long have you been here?" Rick asked.

"Six days. Although it seems like six years."

"Any combat? Any losses?"

"The first day we were attacked by something like damned pterodactyls. Big mothers that tried to pick us up and carry us off. We killed about half of them, and the rest flew off. "

"That it?"

"No. We got attacked by a damned sniper two days back. He had a rifle that looked like something out of an old movie. It was a bolt action and used smokeless powder, but the bullets didn't have enough velocity to do more than bounce off of our protective vests' plates. By the time he figured out he needed to take head shots, we had him. Little fellow, probably human, with a grey beard down to his belly. He had a selection of ears from various races on a cord around his neck."

"Red, I'm in charge of this company and I'd like you to join us."

"You're Captain Castle now? I always knew you'd do well. Me and the boys sure ain't gonna do anything in damned Darien, so we're your newest recruits."

TBC