Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (5 page)

“All ships we are T-minus sixty seconds from drop.”  Hans’ voice came across everyone in Shadow Company’s com.  Valerie studied her screen showing the information from the Forward Operating Base Modules passive sensors. 

From the outside, it looked like every other mass transit container attached along the length of the freighter Eric Blair.  Inside it was far from that.  The module was made up of a large vehicle bay able to hold much more than the current load of five Windsoar Helos and the Scarab shuttle, along with large troop quarters and training areas.  Sensor baffles hid its true purpose, to show the outside world what they thought they should see if they scanned it

Over the past nine days in the module, Shadow Company had gone through detailed planning and rigorous training exercises, to prepare for what was about to follow.  The Company was as ready for this mission as they had been for any other and Valerie was proud of them.  She worked her troops hard, pushing each and every one of them to their mental and physical limits, just as she did prior to every mission.

Now she concentrated on the take from the massive, hidden sensor arrays built into one entire side of the FOBM.  They took in every piece of data that was flying around the system, light, radiation, com signals and much more.  The computers on board processed it all, filtered the irrelevant and sent it to her screen.  She could see the movements of all the craft around and on Gomez should she wish to.

Valerie was looking at just those that may be able to see what was about to happen.  As planned, there were none in a position to compromise the mission.  It took four orbital passes of the drop zone to get to those conditions and it was well worth the wait.

“Thirty seconds to drop.”  Captain Benz reported.  The soldiers of first platoon stirred in the troop bay behind Valerie as they prepared themselves.  It was possible with the Helos compensators to fully counteract the G-Forces involved in an orbital drop.  Valerie had decided long ago that it was beneficial for troops going into combat, to feel some of that and the Helos computer was set to allow 40% of the G-forces.  It allowed them to mentally prepare for what they were about to do.

Satisfied it was all clear, just as both Captain Benz in the cockpit and Captain Gibson had done in the Operations Room, she switched to the view of the target area.  “Ten seconds.”  Valerie braced herself against the straps of the chair.  “Five, four, three, two, one.  Dropping.”  The last was unnecessary, Valerie felt the Windsoar being fired out of the FOBM lock, her stomach doing its best to climb up into her mouth.

Many people vomited violently during a 40% combat drop.  The pressures it put on their bodies, too extreme for them to handle.  Some of her own platoon were not immune.  Valerie had never experienced it herself fortunately.  Maybe it was due to her unique physiology.  She didn’t know, she had never had the reason to ask while she had the opportunity.  Those who were affected, wouldn’t let it influence their performance and the others were professionals.

There would be some light joking at the unfortunate persons expense as soldiers do, none of it would be serious and not anywhere near a combat zone.  They would save it for when the company was safe. 

A violent lurch of the Helo, caused by it entering the atmosphere, brought Valerie out of her wool gathering.  Checking the ETA to target, she saw they would be on the ground in under ten minutes.  Valerie switched her com to a direct link to Ops.

“Ops.  Shadow Lead.  I’m not seeing any problems at the target.  Do you concur?”  Though they both had access to the same data, Valerie relied on the computer to send her what she needed to see.  No program was infallible so there were two techs dedicated to sift the raw data in Gibson’s team, ensuring nothing was missed.

“I concur, Major.”  Gibson replied.  “All clear at the moment.  No vehicle movement in the vicinity of the target.  The landing zones are clear of any human life and tech, as far as we can tell on passives.” 

Valerie grimaced to herself.  Gibson was good at his job and a competent XO, but always wanted to cover himself.  The few mistakes he made were due to him making sure he was covered, rather than concentrating on his job.  He hadn’t been her choice.  He was foisted onto her, after her last XO took a very well deserved promotion and Shannon hadn’t wanted the job, even though she was senior.  He came with excellent experience from Heatseeker Company, another Devil action team, and references from senior Generals in the Commandos.  Without a tangible reason, she hadn’t been able to turn down such a well-connected candidate.

Captain Gibson was the only member of Shadow Company she didn’t fully trust.  As she mostly trusted him, she couldn’t justify finding some way to get rid of him, it was just something about Gibson that rang her internal warning bells.  Possibly, it was the way he was more standoffish with the Manual troops than she would have liked.  Until he gave her a real reason, she had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt

“OK, Ops.  Let me know if the situation changes.  Lead Clear.”  Recalling the intelligence briefing in her mind, Valerie ran through everything they knew about the mission for possibly the hundredth time.  Gomez was a terraformed world low on mineral resources close enough to the surface to be mineable.  It took the initial colonists longer to build the industrial base, needed to create the system infrastructure to enable them to mine asteroids and other resources within the system.

While slowly building the industrial base and infrastructure, the economy turned more to farming rather than industry with very slow growth.  This caused colonists looking to leave Earth and the Origin systems surrounding it, to choose the more affluent systems close by that became the Pantheon, slowing Gomez’s growth even further.  Hundreds of years later, farming was still the largest driver of Gomez’s economy and it was far behind the Pantheon worlds.

One area it did excel in, was the growth of Poppy and Coca crops.  The environment turned out to be perfect for the growth of these plants all over the planet.  Despite being illegal in the majority of human space, including Gomez, there was still a great demand for Heroin and Cocaine.  The Government on Gomez did its best to limit the production of these drugs, but it was too ineffective.  There were large swathes of land where they had no influence whatsoever.  This included the jungle Shadow Company was heading to.

In that jungle, far from the Gomez security forces, Liam Boyle, a powerful grower and exporter had his base of operations.  He had built up a massive fortune and used it to create a personal army strong enough to threaten the System government.  Valerie strongly suspected some of the Families of the Pantheon were backing him quietly.  Looking to destabilise the situation, so they could come in and take over.  He was too strong though and if the situation continued, it could result in the utter chaos of a civil war that would not benefit anyone. 

A word would have been whispered into the right ear and Legion Intelligence asked to look into it.  From there, a covert operation was approved, and Shadow Company were now hurtling towards Boyle’s main base of operations.  There he kept the majority of his off-world weaponry, far surpassing those of the Gomez government.  No information had been given about where the weapons originated.  From L.I.’s informants, they believed none of the weapons were in use yet, even at the base.  Boyle was keeping them secret and waiting for more to arrive before training his people.  This in all probability, was the deal he had struck with whoever was backing him.  Valerie had a fairly good idea who that was and it was the reason why their information was so good.

The best option would have been a high level bombing run by the Windsoars, or more appropriately Legion Army Scimitars, the orbital and atmospheric fighter/bomber.  The bosses wanted this done without any noise and without anything to lead them to the Pantheon, which meant boots on the ground.  Her plan allowed for the possibility of those weapons.  They would go in carefully and silently, killing off as many of the guards as possible, before the base was alerted.  If they faced high tech weaponry, Shadow Company carried the fire power to deal with it.

With what they faced clear in her mind, Valerie activated her com and switched to the channel that included all of the senior officers.  “Company this is Lead.  Target is free of vehicle movement and the landing zones are clear.  We are going with plan Alpha.  Sound off, platoons.”

“Lead this is Two.”  Captain Forlani answered first.  “Second Platoon is ready to go.”

“Lead this is Three.”  Lieutenant Pavel Vobruba said.  “Third Platoon is ready to deploy.”

“Lead this is Four.”  Next was Lieutenant Nicki Palicki.  “Fourth Platoon is fully prepped, Major.”

“Lead this is Five.”  Lieutenant Lucy Aycox, replied last. “Fifth Platoon is ready to go and all of the platoon’s Armour is showing green and ready to deploy.”   The tall, bodybuilder was in command of the Company’s only platoon equipped with the Fully Powered Battle Armour and would be held in reserve.  For this mission they would be the sledgehammer Valerie would prefer not to use if she could help it. 

“Excellent.”  Switching channel, Valerie set it to the Company wide net.  “OK, Shadow Company.  As far as our intelligence shows, they don’t know we are coming.  Usual drill, so let us keep it that way until we kick the doors down and don’t presume anything.  Sanitise and clear, that is the mission.  Shadow Lead clear.”

A moment later, Benz was back on the same channel.  “Thirty seconds to braking manoeuvre.  Hang on to your dinners!”  Valerie counted down in her mind and braced a second before the anti-gravs kicked in.  The Helo went from hundreds of kilometres per hour to a complete stop in seconds.  It hovered over the landing site for another moment before Hans brought it down to rest.

The ramp slammed down as soon as the Windsoars landing gear stabilised and First Platoon was out of the door, with Valerie right behind them.  Bickerstaff was already directing the troops to spread out and secure the landing site.  Everyone was dressed in identical black armour and fatigues.  The lightweight armour covered their body, shoulders, arms and legs.  Supple and unencumbering, it gave the troops excellent protection against the light weapons they were expecting, without slowing them down.

“Corporal Nicolas.  Pick two soldiers.  You’re on guard duty for the Helo,” Valerie ordered.

“Yes, Major.”  The Corporal pointed to two men and sent them out into the jungle around the clearing, before heading off herself to form a perimeter.

“Sergeant Major.  The target is that way.”  Valerie said, using her wristcomp to orientate herself and pointing off into the dark.  “Let’s go.”

“Yes, Major.  Button, you’re point and, Wester, you’re slackwoman.”  The two Privates nodded and Button led the way with Wester ten metres behind, in support.  The rest of the platoon moved off in a diamond formation, the point ten metres behind Wester and Valerie in the centre, Bickerstaff right beside her.

“Lead, this Ops.”  The display in Valerie’s helmet showed her Gibson was talking to her over their one to one channel. 

“This is Lead, go ahead Ops.”  Valerie answered.

“All Platoons are down.  Two, Three and Four are heading to the target as per plan Alpha.  I can see One is also on plan.  Five is holding position with their Helo in defensive formation and is ready to deploy at your order, Lead.  Still no vehicle movement at the Target.”

“Thanks, Ops.  Keep the channel clear unless the situation changes.  Lead out.”

“Copy, Lead.  Ops out.”

Valerie turned to Bickerstaff.  “All going to plan, Gil.”

“Are you expecting anything less, Major?”

“I always expect the worst.  You know that.”

“It’s what keeps us alive.”

She smiled in response to the grizzled veteran and it occurred to her, he would be forty-five in a few months’ time.   He had reached the highest rank an enlisted soldier could get to, yet he came from that majority of humanity without Life X.  Both Lieutenants Aycox and Vobruba were older and yet looked more than half his age.  She herself had lived over twice his years and could be mistaken for his daughter.

Soldiering needed a young body, particularly the type Shadow Company was involved with.  Valerie made a mental note to start training his replacement.  Bickerstaff was not ready for retirement yet and he could still match or beat most of the company, so she did not have to put him out to pasture.

It was times like this, Valerie wondered why Life X was so expensive.  The cost had never gone down since it’s discovery over seven hundred years ago.  Other drugs and treatments became cheaper, not enough to make them readily available, but enough to be within reach of many more than the Privileged.  Life X still cost a lifetime’s investment and without a powerful Family fortune, it was all but impossible to get hold of.

Now she would see yet another excellent soldier be retired, his body too old to keep up.  For the Legion it was a waste of training and resources.  For Valerie it hurt her personally to lose people who were important parts of her life.  As they grew old, she stayed young.  Throughout the Legion, Officers kept a level of distance from themselves and the rankers who would age, long before the Officer thought about starting a second or third career.

Valerie could not do that.  She wanted to have that connection to those who served her.  It was a bond and commitment she took seriously, investing her own emotional capital.  She truly cared about each and every officer and ranker under her command.  They knew it and because of it, she had a level of trust from them no other Officer in the Legion could match.