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Authors: Peter Grant
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me. One of us may haveta do the same for me before long.”
He aimed carefully and fired one round straight down into Ridvan’s torso. The wounded man jerked and gasped. He took a few more shuddering breaths, then all sound and movement ceased.
The leader turned back to the others, holstering his pulser. “Any food left?”
“We saved you a sandwich,” Meriam said, indicating a plate on the sideboard. “We’ve got two days’ field rations for the march. That’s all.”
“An’ the nearest resupply is three to four days away in Surush. We’re gonna be hungry by the time we get there. Are your groups ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be. We got away from the city using different routes, so I guess we should use ’em to go back, too. That way, if one group’s spotted the others may still get through.”
“Good idea. With any luck the Colonial Guard won’t be lookin’ behind ’em, so they won’t see us move. Let’s be on our way.” He picked up the sandwich, took a big bite, and slung his rifle over his shoulder with his free hand. Through the mouthful of food he mumbled, “We’ll rendezvous at Miller’s farm four nights from now. See you there.”
June 24th 2850 GSC
“Whaddaya mean, ya can’t get us any ration packs?” Bairam hissed angrily. “You gotta! There’s two, maybe three hundred fighters comin’ in today an’ tomorrow!”
“Sorry,” the other said with a shrug. “You see those guys around the warehouse?”
Bairam adjusted the magnification on his battle helmet’s visor and looked down from the hilltop at the spaceport below. “Yeah.”
“They’re building techs. They condemned the structure yesterday, and they’re movin’ all the rations out of it. They’ve already locked out all civilian cargo-handlers, and they won’t let us back until they’ve repaired the damage and reinforced the structure. I can’t get at the ration packs, I tell you.”
Bairam thought for a moment. “Where are they puttin’ the rations?”
“Huh?”
He rolled his eyes in frustration. “If they want to work on the building, they’ll have to put the stores inside it somewhere else. We might be able to get hold of some while they do that.”
“Oh, I get it. They’ve been setting up a depot for the Marine engineers at the old Carsamba facility, four clicks down the road. They’re going to move them there until the repairs are complete.”
“All right. Let’s plan to divert a transporter or two on the road. That’ll give us enough rations t’ get by while we figure out how to get more.”
“Won’t that make them suspicious?”
“Of what? A coupla missin’ cargoes? What’s your loss rate at the spaceport?”
“Right now it’s running ten per cent or better, mostly because everything’s still so disorganized. It’s not that most of the missing stuff’s been stolen; it’s just that no-one knows where t’ find it.”
“All right. Can you jigger the records to make it look like the missing transporter loads were never sent?”
His contact frowned dubiously. “I can do it on our side, but that won’t square with the Marine depot’s records.”
“That’s all right. Let’s cause as much confusion as possible. While they’re sortin’ it out, at least we’ll be able to eat.”
“OK. I’ll set it up. Don’t start anything ’til I tell you it’s done, because I gotta cover my tracks.”
“Make it fast. We’re hungry! You’ll find us at Hayri’s farm.”
~ ~ ~
Beams of dawn sunlight slanted across the walls, lighting the stacks of containers with a warm orange glow. Already Carsamba Depot was bustling with activity. Dumpsters dropped the last detritus of its demolished buildings along the roads and paths between the stacks of containers and plastic shelters. The ‘borrowed’ bulldozer crushed them smaller and smoothed them out, followed by the roller to level the surface.
“We have to return the heavy equipment this morning, Sir,” Gunnery
He aimed carefully and fired one round straight down into Ridvan’s torso. The wounded man jerked and gasped. He took a few more shuddering breaths, then all sound and movement ceased.
The leader turned back to the others, holstering his pulser. “Any food left?”
“We saved you a sandwich,” Meriam said, indicating a plate on the sideboard. “We’ve got two days’ field rations for the march. That’s all.”
“An’ the nearest resupply is three to four days away in Surush. We’re gonna be hungry by the time we get there. Are your groups ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be. We got away from the city using different routes, so I guess we should use ’em to go back, too. That way, if one group’s spotted the others may still get through.”
“Good idea. With any luck the Colonial Guard won’t be lookin’ behind ’em, so they won’t see us move. Let’s be on our way.” He picked up the sandwich, took a big bite, and slung his rifle over his shoulder with his free hand. Through the mouthful of food he mumbled, “We’ll rendezvous at Miller’s farm four nights from now. See you there.”
June 24th 2850 GSC
“Whaddaya mean, ya can’t get us any ration packs?” Bairam hissed angrily. “You gotta! There’s two, maybe three hundred fighters comin’ in today an’ tomorrow!”
“Sorry,” the other said with a shrug. “You see those guys around the warehouse?”
Bairam adjusted the magnification on his battle helmet’s visor and looked down from the hilltop at the spaceport below. “Yeah.”
“They’re building techs. They condemned the structure yesterday, and they’re movin’ all the rations out of it. They’ve already locked out all civilian cargo-handlers, and they won’t let us back until they’ve repaired the damage and reinforced the structure. I can’t get at the ration packs, I tell you.”
Bairam thought for a moment. “Where are they puttin’ the rations?”
“Huh?”
He rolled his eyes in frustration. “If they want to work on the building, they’ll have to put the stores inside it somewhere else. We might be able to get hold of some while they do that.”
“Oh, I get it. They’ve been setting up a depot for the Marine engineers at the old Carsamba facility, four clicks down the road. They’re going to move them there until the repairs are complete.”
“All right. Let’s plan to divert a transporter or two on the road. That’ll give us enough rations t’ get by while we figure out how to get more.”
“Won’t that make them suspicious?”
“Of what? A coupla missin’ cargoes? What’s your loss rate at the spaceport?”
“Right now it’s running ten per cent or better, mostly because everything’s still so disorganized. It’s not that most of the missing stuff’s been stolen; it’s just that no-one knows where t’ find it.”
“All right. Can you jigger the records to make it look like the missing transporter loads were never sent?”
His contact frowned dubiously. “I can do it on our side, but that won’t square with the Marine depot’s records.”
“That’s all right. Let’s cause as much confusion as possible. While they’re sortin’ it out, at least we’ll be able to eat.”
“OK. I’ll set it up. Don’t start anything ’til I tell you it’s done, because I gotta cover my tracks.”
“Make it fast. We’re hungry! You’ll find us at Hayri’s farm.”
~ ~ ~
Beams of dawn sunlight slanted across the walls, lighting the stacks of containers with a warm orange glow. Already Carsamba Depot was bustling with activity. Dumpsters dropped the last detritus of its demolished buildings along the roads and paths between the stacks of containers and plastic shelters. The ‘borrowed’ bulldozer crushed them smaller and smoothed them out, followed by the roller to level the surface.
“We have to return the heavy equipment this morning, Sir,” Gunnery
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