The Oppressed Read online

  “Who was on board when it detonated?” Sasha asked.

  “About half of Viper. Any ship on the flight deck is gone.”

  “What about the crews?”

  Dauod hung his head. “They’re still getting accountability. But it’s bad.”

  They resumed their silence, trying to find some words but finding only shock. The flight crews struggled to think about anything other than the terror of being on a venting ship surrounded by belching fire, unable to escape. None would admit to it, but all had long considered the possibility of such a death.

  “With Lead out of commission and Two gone...” Quinn started, by diverting to a problem they could try to solve, he broke some of the tension and fatalism rapidly descending upon the ready room.

  “Yeah, Jean and I are the new Lead.” Sasha completed the sentence.

  “She’s still going to do all the Lead-related paperwork, right?” Costeaux asked, trying not to think about all of the leadership, staff work, and military bureaucracy that came with leading a fighter squadron. If he’d wanted that job, he would have taken it the first time the command offered it to him. Instead, he got Sasha and bumped to the number three spacecraft. And kept his sanity.

  “Yeah, she said she’d help us out with that.”

  “What about...” Quinn looked around, trying to see who else could overhear them even though they were alone in the room. “The other thing?”

  Sasha shrugged. “I assume we’re still on. I haven’t heard otherwise”

  “She pawned most of those on us anyway.” Jean said. “I’m guessing we’ll just have a couple more long flights.”

  “We have two scheduled for next week.” Dauod complained. “We’re going to be exhausted if we take both. So much for crew rest.”

  Jean pushed himself up from where he sat on the coffee table. “Then, speaking as the new Lead, we should probably get used to it. Besides, you don’t think those guys down on Earth get any crew rest, do you?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Getting fifty armed civilians from multiple villages to a rally point undetected so they could move en masse to the objective proved more challenging in reality than in any of the training scenarios. Bryan’s instructors, both in prep for Operation Aeneas and a few years before in the Special Forces Qualification Course, mentioned that the process would be more difficult, and one or two had attempted to simulate some of the problems, but Bryan felt largely unprepared for the reality. He had built plenty of buffer into the timetable to compensate for the challenges. Everyone was going to start trickling into the remnants of the state park towards midnight. He gave specific instructions to stagger their arrivals and vary their routes. The first few vehicles didn’t arrive until after one, and at five-thirty, half an hour after Bryan had intended to launch, more had yet to arrive.

  He broke the group into three squads, and a Green Beret with each. Four more operators filled two Hetarek vehicles, with their mounted weapons, Bryan remained unmounted, as did Jess and Kendrick, and walked with the first squad of recruited civilians. By “with,” which was what his report would say, he really meant far enough ahead of them so that they wouldn’t be a liability if things started to go bad. It was a five mile walk through relatively easy terrain, smaller hills, lightly wooded, with few ruins to make their way through, and it should have taken no more than two hours. The trucks rolled along a road going roughly parallel to their route, less suspicious to the casual observer than a group of armed men and women instead of Hetarek.

  The local partisans kept stopping. No matter how hard the team had trained them in the preceding months, they couldn’t seem to understand the importance of pace or formation. Bryan kept looping back to the rest of the squads, spending a few minutes with each to make sure everyone was doing fine. Then he’d have to jog back to his place at the head of the formation.

  Their target village was administrative, rather than agricultural or industrial. That had been a conscious choice, because Bryan hoped to be able to reach more Metic Ahai working in closer proximity to humans. Bryan had brought along more videos and documents from the Ahai fleet in hopes of converting them to the cause.

  Kendrick finally announced over the radio that he had the village in sight. The vehicles acknowledged and rolled into a supporting position. Bryan, Jess, Kendrick, and the first squad of civilians would be the first to enter the village, followed by the trucks and the remaining three squads. The closer Bryan got, the more he appeared to let down his guard. He didn’t want to rush up with his weapon pointed at the village leaders. It was a sign of trust that he held his rifle casually pointed at the ground. The other Green Berets did the same. Unlike most of the other communities, this one had no wall. Only a line of kept-up houses separated the inhabited portion from the ruins around it. The neighborhood looked much older than some of the others, with more open space.

  The leaders smiled and waved, and Bryan did the same. He motioned for the vehicles to take position in the middle of the town and distributed his civilian squads into a perimeter. Bridget and Jedynak started making rounds with their bags of medications. They would go and provide basic medical care to some of the inhabitants while Bryan and Jess spoke with the leadership. The leadership brought the team to a larger house in the middle of the neighborhood. Jess and Kendrick went in first to check that it was clear.

  Bryan grabbed the radio from Siskind. “Serpent Eight-Two, Beast Two-Two is Time Out.” He handed the receiver back and entered the house.

  The eldest leader wore an actual suit, threadbare and in desperate need of dry cleaning, but a suit nonetheless. He offered the team tea and praised Bryan for his team’s bravery and offer of help.

  “This is really a chance for you and your people to help out.” Bryan started. “There’s only a few of us and we can’t do this all alone. You can see we brought people from across the mountain. We’ve been able to train them and arm them. When the time comes, they are going to help bring free humans back to Earth.”

  “And when is that time going to come?” The man asked.

  “Soon.” Bryan answered, intentionally vague.

  “How soon is soon?”

  There was no way Bryan was going to tell the man about any timetable. He couldn’t risk someone telling the Hetarek, voluntarily or otherwise. “Your wait is nearly over. I’m sure you’ve been here since the evacuation.”

  “Yes.”

  “In fact,” Bryan looked at the weathered faces around the room. “I’m willing to bet that everyone in here remembers the time before the evacuation.”

  “Yes, we all do.”

  “Wouldn’t you like to have the power on? To have medical care. To not worry about Inventories.”

  “Of course we would, but we also remember what happened immediately after the evacuation. There’s uncertainty to a return. And the Hetarek could easily wipe us all out or return things to they way they were twenty years ago. Those were challenging times.”

  “I’m not going to tell you that it’ll be easy, and I’m not going to tell you that there’s no risk, but I will tell you that we’ve been able to free several planets occupied by the Hetarek in the last few years. To them, this is just another backwater planet. To us, it’s our home and we’re going to fight like it’s our home.”

  “Talk to me about weapons and training.”

  “If you have anyone here who would like to volunteer, we’ll arm them and train them out in the mountains. Because of how close you are, we wouldn’t want more than a few volunteers so as to avoid suspicion.”

  Bryan shifted in his seat as he redirected the conversation to where he really wanted to go. “I understand you have Metic Ahai living here with you.”

  The old man became visibly uncomfortable. “Yes, we do.”

  “How many?”

  “Twenty six.”

  “I don’t see any of them represented here.”

  “This isn’t their home, as you say.”

/>   “No, but we are working closely with the Ahai fleet.” Bryan said. “And they can help as well. Is it possible to meet with them?”

  The old man nodded and pointed to one of his colleagues. “Christopher will take you to them.”

  Bryan nodded at Kendrick, who followed the gentlemen outside. As he did so, he heard O speaking into the microphone. “Serpent Eight-Two, Beast Two-Two, go ahead... Beast Two-Two copies.”

  O stepped out of the room before Bryan heard his voice on the local channel through his headset.

  “Loki reports four heat signatures on the hill to the northwest. It can’t tell if they’re human or Ahai, but they’re not Hetarek. They took up position a few minutes ago.”

  Bryan didn’t react, not wanting to display any concern for his hosts, but he heard acknowledgments over the radio from the rest of the team. Jess excused herself from the house, doubtless to see if she could get a better look.

  The conversation continued for another thirty minutes. Bryan offered to leave medical supplies behind for the village, as well as instructions on how to get in touch with the team. He would use cut-outs, Julian and Ava, as an extra precaution.

  Bryan walked outside, smiling and thanking everyone for their time. Alan had managed to buy some food, bread and vegetables, mainly, from some people in the village and was loading it into the back of the truck.

  A hiss went by Bryan’s head, and he felt the heat and air disturbance against his ear. A black mark and a puff of smoke erupted from the dirt beside him.

  “Contact!” He yelled. The civilians stood around, unsure what was happening until more rounds started flying by, striking the dirt, the sides of houses, and the civilian vehicles parked along the street. With practice reflexes, the team dove for cover. Bryan found himself beside a car, staring at Siskind who had taken cover behind another vehicle across the narrow street. Each cover was only good from opposite directions.

  “I think one of us is gonna get shot.” O yelled.

  More rounds went overhead, but too fast for that Bryan to know where they came from. He was covered for rounds coming from the northwest, O from rounds coming from the southeast. “Which one?”

  His question was answered as metal exploded next to him. He scrambled to the other side of the small street until he was next to his radio operator. He reached out his hand and said nothing as O put the radio in it.

  “Serpent Eight-Two, Beast Two-Two!”

  “Beast Two-Two, go for Serpent Eight-Two, over.”

  “TIC TIC TIC. Size unknown, taking small arms fire, direction southeast, distance unknown, returning fire with organic weapon systems.”

  Alan started firing the heavy weapon on the Hetarek truck. Laser rounds flew over Bryan’s head to the southeast. The nearby civilians ran into their houses. O stood up and started firing in the same direction.

  “Beast Two-two, Serpent Eight-Two copies all. Be advised, Loki has eyes on three sets of muzzle flashes five hundred meters southeast of your position. Signatures indicate they are on Hetarek LMG and two by Hetarek small arms. Unable to PID shooters at this time. Over.”

  “Beast Two-Two copies. Break.” Bryan switched to his local radio. “Loki’s got muzzle flashes five hundred meters southwest. Who’s got them.”

  “I got them.” Kendrick said.

  “Me too.” Jess announced. The distinctive retort of their specialty rifles followed.

  “Serpent Eight-Two, have Loki scan for other positions.”

  Metal erupted next to him again, this time definitely coming from the other direction. Siskind didn’t notice, so Bryan grabbed him by the arm and shoved him in the direction he wanted to go towards one of the houses.

  By now, rounds were erupting everywhere. His civilians, the one’s he’d trained, appeared to be firing randomly at the hills in the general vicinity from which they were getting shot at. That was progress, at least. The second Komodo opened up on the northwest position. Bryan and O threw themselves into an abandoned house not far from the Komodos. Not surprisingly, it had been where Bridget had set up her clinic. Torn open medical packets lay over the floor from her treatment of the locals, some of whom were huddled in what used to be a pantry. Bridget was firing steadily, and an empty magazine already lay at her feet.

  “Beast Two-Two, Serpent Eight-Two, radio check. Over.”

  “Serpent Eight-Two, Beast Two-Two has you lima charlie. We’re busy right now.”

  “Roger, Beast Two-Two. Be advised Loki reports the northwest position has muzzle flashes now too, over.”

  “No shit.” O said, firing off a few well-aimed rounds at the same hostiles.

  “Good copy, Serpent Eight-Two.” Bryan flipped over to the local channel. “Alona, can you take your squad up the northwest hill?”

  “Roger.”

  “Starek, hit the southeast position.”

  “On it.”

  The heaviest fire let up for a moment. Bryan waited ten seconds to see whether the gunner was merely reloading. He wasn’t.

  “I got the heavy weapon.” Kendrick said over the radio.

  Perkins called in from the back of one of the trucks. It was hard to hear him from the repeated concussion of the repeater firing from atop the vehicle. “Sir, I’m picking up radio traffic in the clear. It’s scrambled, but there was just a burst of it. Trying to decrypt now.”

  “Is that the first you’ve gotten?”

  “Roger, sir. It’s not a Hetarek frequency, either.”

  A loud roar and rush of air flew outbound from the house. One of the team must have launched a rocket at one of the positions. A few seconds later, there was a loud pop echoing through the hills. Rounds from the southeast stopped. Slowly, rounds from the northwest tapered off as well.

  “Beast Two-Two, Serpent Eight-Two. Loki reports four hostiles from the northwest position are running. There’s good effects from the AT-Nine and there is no movement at the southeast position at this time. Over.”

  “Beast Three-Two copies all. Over.”

  Bryan checked his watch. The entire engagement had lasted less than eight minutes.

  “Alona, SITREP.” He requested, figuring that the team should have made it to the first firing position.

  “We got some shell casings and a bunch of scorch marks.” She called back. “There’s a blood trail but it goes into the mud. I can’t tell who was here.”

  Bryan looked over at Siskind, who checked his small monitor. “Loki’s got nothing. It lost them in the hills.”

  “Alona, you got any idea who was shooting at us?”

  “There’s one dead Hetarek for sure, but I don’t know about these other marks. They don’t look like Hetarek claw marks or extra footprints to me. Blood trail doesn’t really match, but it’s pretty muddy. I don’t think they were only Hetarek.”

  Jess gave Bryan a hard look. He met it, understanding but not wanting to say anything. Other humans had started gathering around and could overhear at least his side of the conversation.

  “I copy. See what you can pull off of the Hetarek and let’s get out of here.” He looked back at the rest of the team and the humans starting to come out of cover, hoping his sudden worries didn’t show.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  "Sir, I think you should take a look at this."

  Xander had finished his briefing in the morning update brief, and had been leaning against the back wall of the operations center while the Amersvoort gave an over-complicated his explanation of their supply situation. When Tennison tapped him on the shoulder, he caught the Colonel Tamaka’s eye and received a barely perceptible nod. He didn't need to ask permission to step out. She understood what it meant when the NCO came for her intelligence officer.

  Xander disappeared behind the hatch. The intelligence cell, though crowded with computers and analysts, still gave him more breathing room than the floor now packed with staff.

  Tennison pointed him towards a computer screen, where a lone Hetarek tru
ck, much smaller than a Komodo, drove down the remains of a highway.

  "We think that's Objective Claudius." Tennison said.

  He searched his memory for the long list of identified and targeted Hetarek. "Which one is that again?"

  "His name is Dund Kamed, he's their regional minister for the Northwest."

  "Is he the one who..."

  "Cut all rations for anyone over fifty so they could just starve to death? Yeah. That's him."

  He stared at the image, trying to figure out where Claudius was. "So what's the deal?"

  "He's just left Spokane on the old interstate headed west towards Seattle. For about the next two hours, he's got nowhere to go but straight. We got some reporting from Objective Banquo through Two-Two that says there’s a major meeting going down in the city." Hernandez, the local Speaker, had proved reliable over the previous months.

  “The meeting with Hamlet? I saw that report. Too bad we can’t get him.” Taking out the Hetarek Executor for Earth would dramatically improve their chances of liberation. Of course, the higher-value the target, the harder the target.

  Tennison shook her head. “We have no idea where that meeting’s going to be... not enough to action it, at least. But that’s Claudius right there.”

  He considered the implications. They had a target who they knew where he was and where he would be. "How sure are you it's him?"

  "Pretty sure."

  "Ok, let me get Berne and the commander."

  When he reemerged into the OPCEN, he drew everyone's eyes. The signal officer was explaining some computer issue, but everyone watched Xander as he approached Lieutenant Colonel Berne. The operator stuck behind a desk looked glad for the distraction. "I think I've got an objective we can hit.” Xander whispered in his ear. “There's s two hour window."