Implacable: Vicky Peterwald, #5 Page 6

  The two men with her just shook their heads.

  9

  For the next hour, three drones silently continued their circling over Kromy. Somewhere in that capital city, Vicky was sure, the red-coated security specialists must have their headquarters.

  The thing about a destroyed economy with little to no traffic is that when there is traffic, it stands out. Immediately.

  "I got a van leaving a hotel in the center of town," a second class announced.

  "Put it on the main screen," Captain Blue ordered.

  "Can you put a small drone over it?" Vicky asked.

  "If it stays on the street it’s on now, we should have one over it in five blocks."

  The black van continued to drive up the main artery from downtown toward the suburbs. It soon had a drone cruising along with it, two hundred meters up and matching its speed.

  From the speaker above the screen, they could even hear the engine of the van. It sounded like it had blown a cylinder head gasket.

  "If the redcoats are using a van in that bad of shape, what must the rest of this place look like?" Captain Blue muttered.

  The screen was now split. One main drone hovered over the rig at three thousand meters, giving them a good view of the area while the smaller drone bird-dogged it.

  The picture from the overhead drone began to tell a story.

  Here and there, people flitted from building to building. Vicky could only guess what brought them out when they clearly didn't want be there. However, at the sound of the van, every one of them slipped out of sight. They either got themselves indoors or dashed around to hide behind a building.

  "I don't like the feel of that," Vicky said.

  Mannie came over to stand beside her. Gently he ran a hand up and down her back. No one, however, was able to suggest anything that might make her feel better about that van.

  The threatening rig turned off the main drag into a suburban area of single-family dwellings. The people here had earned a good living before the planet quit letting anyone earn anything.

  Slowly, like a panther on the prowl, the black van stalked up one street, then down another. Most buildings looked run down with lawns gone to seed. Here and there, a burned out hulk raised blackened sticks to the sky.

  "What's it looking for?" Vicky asked no one in particular.

  None of those around her had an answer.

  Finally, the van circled a block and came back down a street a second time. Halfway down the street, it took a hard right into a driveway and screeched to a halt.

  Men in the expected red shirts dashed out of the van. Some ran around to the back of the house while others jogged up to the door. They pounded for admission, but the door stayed locked.

  A moment later, a small explosive sound told those listening around Vicky that a door had been blown in.

  The closer drone picked up shouts. Screams. Gunfire from inside the house.

  A teenage girl dashed out of the back door and right into the arms of the redcoats that were waiting for just that reason. A moment later, another young woman fell into their clutches as well.

  Kicking and screaming, the young women were manhandled around the house and back to the van. At the front door, two of the Red Coats helped one of their own as he stumbled out. He had a long butcher knife sticking out of his belly. The last man out turned and tossed something into the house.

  A moment later, there was an explosion and the house began to burn. The drone picked up the sound of laughing along with screams from the women. Despite the moans of their wounded comrades, there was plenty of laughter among the men, including some at the expense of their own who'd let a civilian knife him good.

  After both of the women were handcuffed, they were tossed in the back of the van. Once all the redcoats were mounted up, the black van sped away from the burning house. It headed straight back to the hotel at the center of town.

  It left behind people creeping from the neighboring houses to see what the redcoats had left behind. Two men entered the flaming home from the back door. A moment later, they dragged a woman from the house. Several people gathered around her, giving what aid they could.

  The small drone glided lower to get a better picture of that scene. The woman bled from two bullets to her chest. She was spitting up blood as she grew weaker and weaker. Finally, they closed his eyes.

  The woman was a far worse case. She'd been gut shot. Unless she had medical help fast, she would die a slow death.

  On the other side of the screen, the imagery from the drone high overhead tracked the raven dark van as it disappeared back into the underground garage at the city’s main hotel.

  Manny shook his head. "I guess they weren't willing to settle just for extortion."

  Vicky stood there, helpless and enraged. "This planet is nothing but a pirate kingdom, literally living out rape and pillage. In the old days, they hung pirates, didn’t they?"

  It was a hard faced Grand Duchess who whirled to face General Pemberton. The order she snapped was firm and cold, "Prepare to land the landing force. Advise your troopers that there is no need for them to encourage any of these pirates to surrender. If you take no prisoners, it would not hurt my feelings at all."

  "Your Grace, are you telling us to take no prisoners?"

  "Of course, not," Vicky said, smiling coldly. "That would be wrong. No, if someone really works at surrendering, accept them. Then I'll see that they are hung before sunset."

  The general's nostrils flared, but he snapped back a firm, "Understood, Your Grace."

  "Mannie, don't you say a word."

  "Vicky, I saw what you saw. There are no words for the likes of them."

  "Good."

  10

  A few hours later, a longboat made another high pass above Kromy. It left in its wake more drones, but these were of a more specific nature.

  The three drones circled back to the airport on the outskirts of Kromy. Like so much of the planet, it looked beaten down and abandoned. One drone flew low over first one runway, then the next, sensors checking them for broken pavement or any other evidence that would suspect a mine had been dug into the concrete.

  It found nothing.

  The next pass, the drone released a swarm of mini-drones. They buzzed around the landing strip and the apron, then found ways into the buildings and began to check them out.

  What Vicky and her team saw in the airport terminal left them speechless, sick and angry.

  Hundreds of decaying bodies lay where they had fallen. It looked like a bloody massacre. Unarmed people had been shot down in windrows.

  Vicky found herself shaking her head, even as her stomach revolted at the sight before her.

  "People must have fled from the city," Captain Blue said, "thinking to find refuge at the airport."

  "Still the redcoats found them," Vicky growled as something inside her changed. She wasn't sure what it was exactly. Not yet. Still, she knew she was a different person from whom she'd been five minutes ago

  In the next large room, they found bodies that showed evidence of execution style killings. In row on row, lay the remains of men, older women, and children, all laid out with almost military precision. Their hands were behind their backs, all cinched with plastic bands.

  Everyone had been shot in the back of the head.

  "Where are the young women and girls?" Manny asked.

  While Vicky and Mannie stood, shocked by the horror before them, one of the petty officers whispered, "We've found people."

  "More dead?" Vicky snapped.

  "No, ma'am. These are alive."

  An enraged Grand Duchess turned to that man's screen. The imagery was of the inside of a hangar. People huddled together in dozens of random groups of three to seven. Some had formed nests of blankets and rags on the hangar's concrete floor or under aircraft wings. Some were in the planes, staring out doors or opened windows.

  Then a few of them spotted the drone.

  A couple of men and women came
together from different groups and collected in the center, together, to eye the drone. One of the men stepped forward and made the universal signal to land, his hands out, flat, waving it down.

  "Your Grace?" Captain Blue asked.

  "Is there a speaker on that bird?"

  "No, ma'am. We can hear but cannot speak."

  "Land it."

  The drone settled to the ground and rolled up until it was in front of them. The camera swiveled around until it was focused on just these four.

  "Can you hear us?" a woman asked.

  "I think some drones may be able to listen, but I've never heard of one that had a speaker," one of the men suggested.

  A younger man knelt down and peered hard at the drone.

  "Move it in closer," Vicky said.

  The drone rolled up to the man, and he got down on all fours to study it.

  "I guess they can hear us," the woman said.

  "I think I've spotted a listening device."

  "Okay, what do we want to tell someone that has drone technology?" the woman said.

  "Could it be from the redcoats?" the other woman asked.

  "If it was from those bastards, it wouldn't have landed. It would be reporting us back to the head SOB and he'd be sending someone to slaughter us like they did those in the terminal. No, this is someone else."

  "Who?" asked the other man, standing nearby.

  "Sorry, folks, but I don't see a maker's mark," said the guy down on his knees, studying the drone.

  The first woman sighed. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Whoever you are, there aren't any redcoats around the airport. That's why we're hiding out here. Least-wise, there aren't any more redcoats here. And yeah, they could come back at any minute, but we have lookouts on the top of the hangar and there are places we can hide so we're still hiding here, even if we are starving."

  She huffed out a worried sigh.

  "If you're gonna come, come. We can help you get to where the redcoat bastards are, okay? And if you ain't coming, then go fuck yourselves."

  "Did you have to say that, Maddie?" the guy on his knees said.

  "Why not, Fylkir? They're either going to help us or not. Do you really think some angry words from a starving old lady are going to put them off?"

  "All I can do is hope not," Fylkir said as he got to his feet.

  "Have the drone take off," Vicky ordered.

  It turned around and did a short roll to pick up speed and get airborne again.

  "Have it fly by them, low and slow, and shake its wings," Vicky ordered

  The petty officer did.

  The five seemed to understand. At least they waved at the drone as it found its way out of the hangar.

  Vicky knew in a second what she had to do. "General Pemberton, do you have any concerns about deploying the landing force at the Kromy airfield?"

  The general frowned in thought. "I can't say it's secure, but I also wouldn't say it's in a high threat area either. I'm willing to put down a reinforced company to secure the strip and then follow up with a full landing force once we have a secure base for operations."

  "Very good, General. Three thoughts. I'd like the follow-up wave to be mobile. I want it to sweep into town fast."

  "Of course, Your Grace."

  "I also want your best sharpshooters. I strongly suspect that when we get to digging those bastards out of that hotel, there will be a lot of hostage situations. I want as few women as possible being held as human shields to be hurt when we blow those SOBs brains out."

  "Understood, Your Grace."

  "Finally, if there is any weight left on the longboats when we launch them, include famine biscuits. I think there are a lot of starving people down there."

  "Within safety margins, Your Grace, it will be done," the general answered.

  "Fine," Vicky said, then tossed in the other shoe. "I'm dropping with the first wave."

  "Your Grace!" and "Sweetheart!" came on the immediate heels of that announcement, just as she expected.

  "I have observed the situation down there and determined that I will be safe," Vicky snapped.

  "But there might be a sniper somewhere out there. We haven't seen any AA, but they could have it," General Pemberton insisted.

  "I will wear battle armor," Vicky shot back, "as well as the spidersilk armor King Raymond sent me. As for AA, we have no evidence of any."

  Mannie eyed her hard, but she didn't flinch. He finally sighed. "We're not going to win this one, are we?"

  "No chance," Vicky answered firmly. "Those are my people. I will see that they have succor in their most dire time of need."

  "Then I guess we both need to get into our spidersilks," Mannie said.

  Vicky eyed her husband. That bit of a belly he'd had when she met him was pretty much worked off. Maybe it was all the running around to meetings. Maybe, she admitted, not at all humbly, it was the great sex she gave him. Whatever it was, he was looking good.

  "Can you use a sidearm or rifle?" she snapped. She really did not want him in the same longboat with her.

  "I'm your husband, Vicky. Of course I know how to defend you."

  "I was just worried that you didn't know how to defend yourself," she admitted, knowing she was going soft-hearted.

  "I assure you, sweetheart, anyone who goes for you will have two new holes in their heart."

  "Then let us get on our play clothes," Vicky said.

  So, hand-in-hand, a vice admiral and a civilian left the bridge of the Victorious for their quarters.

  "Sooner or later, one of them is going to kill the other," the general was heard to mutter.

  "Yeah, but until then the make-up sex will be spectacular," the captain said, grinning from ear-to-ear.

  11

  Vicky watched the three longboats with Company A, 3rd of the 5th Marines as they approached the target airport. She was getting the command feed from the bridge of the Victorious.

  She and Mannie were already strapped into a longboat. They would drop with Company B in the second wave. How strange it was. She was willing to risk her neck but unwilling to let Mannie take the same risks. Was it this marriage thing or the monogamy part that was giving her a soft heart?

  Or maybe she was just going soft in the head.

  The first three longboats detached from the Victorious over an hour ago. They'd taken an orbit to drop from the station to the planet below. Considering how high the station was, it had taken some serious braking to get down that fast.

  Now they were rising above the horizon for Kromy. If there were any sensors active in or around that city, they'd soon find out.

  "Lasers are standing by to react to any threat," came over the command net from the weapons department.

  Vicky was glad she'd kept her mouth shut. It was so hard for her to remember that as an admiral aboard, she was just another passenger. The captain ran this show.

  "A search radar had gone active," said a maddeningly calm voice.

  "Where away?" coolly asked another disembodied voice.

  "About two klicks west of the airport's runway."

  "Could it be part of the air traffic control?"

  "I can't answer that."

  Vicky listened and waited. She imagined the Marines below her were a lot more worried than she was. Or, unlike her, they knew nothing of this potential problem.

  Ignorance is bliss.

  First Platoon was in the lead longboat. By now, the bosun knew he'd been painted and began evasive actions. There was no way to dodge a laser, but it took time to develop a firing solution and thus, the longboat began to bounce, dive, or weave every two or three seconds.

  Now the Marines in back knew their landing was getting interesting. The weather report called for a nice day with light wind. Light winds did not bounce landers around like this.

  Vicky slaved her board to the sensor board. It showed a radar, but no other activity anywhere within a ten klick radius. Maybe this was just an approach radar that had not been turned off when the
last controller left the tower.

  Vicky could hope.

  As the first longboat overflew the radar, nothing happened. The second longboat was fifty klicks behind it, trailed by the third at another fifty klicks. Both were fully involved in the antics of air vehicles that didn't want to take any guff off of AA.

  Meanwhile, the active radar just kept on painting the longboats and doing nothing about them. Such a nice day to be alive.

  The first longboat touched down, hit the brakes, and popped its chute. As soon as it could, it exited the runway onto a taxiway and headed for the building that they knew was occupied.

  The aft hatch opened up and a light gun truck rolled out. It zipped over to the only ladder up to the top of the occupied hangar and dropped off two sniper teams.

  Sensors had spotted two people monitoring the situation from opposite corners of the building. However, they were well camouflaged; only a weak thermal signature gave them away. The snipers had been warned to be alert for friendlies.

  Meanwhile, a platoon had dismounted from the rolling lander. They went to ground. An airfield apron offers very little cover, but bags of famine biscuits tossed onto the ramp as the longboat rolled by added some. With a base of fire established by bounds and overwatch, they hurried to the hangar and entered.

  They would provide security for those people, debrief them, and distribute the famine biscuits. That was a lot to do for a twelve-man squad even with an intel team for augmentation.

  However, the second platoon had another assignment.

  They dismounted as the lander rolled by the airport terminal. They were to secure the building, check out the tower and see if some sort of air traffic control could be set up and keep the entire area under surveillance.

  The mass murder site was in their territory. They'd examine it if they had any spare time. Vicky doubted they would.

  The third platoon deployed from the longboat as it went by the fuel dump. There were a few vehicles parked there. The chances that anything there was in working order were slim, but they had to be checked out.