Scattered Shards

By D G Lamb

After their betrayal on Darnan, Team 237 struggles to recover from the bloody firefight that almost killed them all. Can they function as a viable Team without Joshua as their Assassin? Join Drayev, Sawyor, Sovissa, and the rest of the Team as they learn about the underlying political conflict on Tyler's Moon that transformed their "cakewalk" stealth training mission into an explosive battle for survival. Scattered Shards lays bare the identities of the Shadow Players and addresses the question of why Joshua has been a target for elimination. The answer draws a stark line in the sand that demands a decision each 237 Team member - one that will likely put them in the crosshairs yet again. Who will step across?

• Language: English
• Publisher: D G Lamb
• Release date: Jan 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781734461619

D G Lamb

David Lamb is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist. His day job involves helping people to become more independent after some type of neurological injury. In addition to a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, he has a Master’s in Art Therapy. David has also worked with law enforcement officers to deal with PTSD after critical incidents. While recovering from prostate cancer surgery, his son suggested he try his hand at creative writing. Although his professional experiences certainly informed aspects of this story, he also drew upon his love of cooking and backpacking the mountain trails of Arizona.

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Author’s Note

If you have not read Books 1, 2, or 3, you are missing a great deal of Joshua’s story. If you are familiar with the Driven to the Hilt series, you already know about Dynamic Formatting and can skip over this Note and go right to Chapter 1.

For those of you who are still reading, here is an explanation of the unusual use of ellipses and dashes (among other things) you are about to encounter.

Dynamic Formatting is the label I use for my inclusion of different visual elements to convey additional information within the printed word. A primary manifestation of Dynamic Formatting is the addition of spaces as a substitute for lapsing time, such that the more spaces, the longer the pause in phrasing. Dynamic Formatting also uses multiple fonts. I chose specific fonts for major characters, aiming to enhance character presentation while also maintaining readability. By alternating fonts, dialogue identification phrases can be eliminated (e.g., he replied, she said, George answered, etc.), speeding things up for the reader and creating a more natural flow in the verbal exchanges. Unfortunately, all of this is only available in the print versions of the Driven to the Hilt books.

With ebooks, less scalable reading devices round the fonts up and down differently with different fonts and available fonts vary among devices. Sadly, this forced me to switch to a single font (I’m sorry if some of the speaking exchanges get a bit confusing). Also, the conversion process removes all of the extra spaces I so carefully put into the dialogue. However, the conversion program does allow for ellipses and dashes. So I have inserted those as poor substitutes, trying my best to use them in a consistent manner. Likewise, since slowtime (a unique skill of the lead character) is central to the action sequences, I have made do with the less elegant solution of underling text (it’s better than nothing). So, I have done what I could to translate the Dynamic Formatting experience to this ebook, but you’ll have to get the print version to experience it as originally intended.

Finally, I have placed *** (centered) to indicate an in-chapter switch in character point of view and ~~~~~~~ (centered) to designate an in-chapter break between scenes. Hopefully, all of these limited solutions enhance rather than distract from your reading experience.

Darnan

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◄1►

January 18, 2125 ESD

Drayev was frightened. …It was an unfamiliar feeling and he did not like it. …Not… …one… …little… …bit.

But his ill will for the emotion did not prevent it from swelling as he returned Joshua’s double thumbs up and watched the Team 237 Assassin tap the tactical sheet on his forearm. The split time of 25:00 appeared on Drayev’s helmet faceplate heads-up display, just under the overall mission countdown, which read 110:23. We made good time to his jump-off point. Joshua pivoted away to begin his 20-minute climb up to the Abhorrent Signal Outpost. His departure completed the first objective of the Team’s first live action training mission in what was their first time off of the Unseen Planet since having been Recruited almost five years ago.

At Glin’s hand signal, Drayev reluctantly turned with the Team to resume their jog up to the Abhorrent’s Main Compound. Temporary Team Leader Glin. Emphasis on Temporary. Pushing aside this other major source of apprehension, he adjusted the strap of his Squad Automatic Weapon to distribute the weight more evenly across his broad shoulders. Pulling in a deep breath, he ignored the intensification of the ever-present sulfurous odor, knowing his nose would quickly desensitize again. Fortunately, the prevailing winds were not coming from Cooper City, where the constant lava flow was slowly effacing what remained of the colony’s destroyed capital on the planet Darnan. So much easier than running all the way wearing the respirator.

Settling into Glin’s ground eating pace, Drayev flashed back to their early Primary training on The Cavern’s cliffs, when he had decided Joshua was his man. Joshua had given up their ice cream sundaes to insist that Nesbit complete the objective with the rest of the team. He had later explained, That’s what Teams do. That simple assertion had cemented Drayev’s decision - he wanted to be on a Team with a leader like that.

Loping up a stone road under glowing crimson clouds, Drayev admitted his objectivity had since been compromised, contaminated by his affection no, love for his friend. He was surprised that the bond had grown so strong, given his typically cynical take on human nature. Although his therapist was wrong about many things, Drayev reluctantly admitted he might be right about his longing for someone to trust. And Joshua has certainly proven himself trustworthy. Milestones of their relationship flitted before his mind’s eye: Joshua acting as a decoy and taking all those stimball shots for the team; diverting attention off Drayev in Group Psych with his own confession to murder; setting aside his preference to follow the rules so Drayev could eat real food again; and just before this Mission, confiding in Drayev about the Shadow Players. Joshua had described how these unknown manipulators striking from the dark were making life more challenging for him, sometimes just in the living of it, sometimes in just living at all. He had only shared that confidence with Drayev. Given all of the other warning signs associated with this Mother World Mission, they agreed to wait until after they had returned to the Unseen Planet before informing the rest of the Team.

Knowing this MWM would decide whether they continued covert field training as an intact Team, Drayev’s foreboding intensified. It doubled again when he thought of his something’s wrong but I don’t know what reaction while scanning the invoices on what the Unseen Planet was sending to the Good Survivors on Darnan. But their rushed preparations for their first, real-life, active fire mission had prevented him from digging deeper. The connection still eluded him, adding to his current trepidation. Now, his brother was climbing to complete his solo mission against known killers and Drayev could not help. He eased his grinding teeth apart before checking the split timer.

19:31 That was the time left before his second greatest fear became his first. When Glin would turn over mission leadership responsibilities to him. When Glin and Sovissa would split off to become Special Task Detail Mongoose 1, and Yashe and Sawyor became Hammer 2. When those two Sneak Teams would enter the stronghold occupied by the Bad Survivors, who the intel debriefing made abundantly clear had earned their unofficial nickname of Abhorrents. When Drayev had to lead the Details safely through that nest of vipers to locate their primary objective - the cache of rocket launcher ammo. And he had to do all of it remotely, monitoring their progress and enemy presence by way of sticky eyes, small remotely operated cameras shot from the Sneak Teams’ McLamor MP Stun guns as they infiltrated the lion’s den. And he could only use the Morse code type clicks of his C2 tooth transmitter during the Mission, risking voice transmission only as a last resort in extreme emergency.

15:49 Drayev checked the map on his faceplate HUD. Just over halfway there. Glin’s pushing hard. Even so, his breathing was relatively easy despite the extra weight of his SAW/rocket launcher, the second drums of belted flechette rounds and HE rockets, and his heavier command helmet, augmented to provide additional hi-def images on his HUD from all of the sticky eyes. Constant training over the years had packed 260 pounds of lean muscle onto his wide 6’7" frame and his cardio conditioning was more than capable of moving all that mass up the mountain road. Ever since that day Joshua had convinced him to visualize his legs as springs to successfully parkour up the rock chimney, he had been imagining his entire body as a machine. He could barely wait for the upcoming Combine exoskeleton exercises. IF… we get through this.

Rounding a sharp curve, Drayev’s thermal imaging HUD got color. His SAW was to his shoulder before Glin’s snapped up fist brought the Team to a stop. Locked into a standing firing stance, he watched a lumpy mass of red flow out of the gorge and across the mountain road to stop against a sheer slab of stone on their right. Rock sloths! Drayev clicked down the safety on his SAW as the Team eased into kneeling defensive firing positions around him, trying not to provoke a preemptive attack by the mass of male soldiers. Then impossibly long arms lifted, sharp claws found purchase, and the red wall flowed to the top of the 25-foot cliff. Their exobiology briefing on rock sloths indicated that the larger the herd, the bigger the Mama San and, according to the locals, the more aggressive the dominant female’s reaction to perceived threats. Hope faded as a coppery musky odor assaulted his nose and gangly arms lifted high from the red wall in a synchronized warning wave, the three elongated curved claws on the end of each arm spread wide and swaying to the rhythm of a slow trilling - chee-e-eet - - chee-e-eet - - chee-e-eet. The sloth label was deceiving because although they were named for their long arms and sluggish movements while grazing, their attacks were reportedly explosive. Drayev sucked in his breath when the cheeting abruptly stopped and the arms dropped back into the four-foot high red barricade.

Amid multitudes of claws clicking against the rock road, a massive roundness rose up on the left, stopping a full three feet higher than the bank of soldier sloths. A blocky head emerged from the Mama San’s armored body and Drayev felt her gaze sweep across the statue-still Team. Her head sank back down and she moved toward the cliff face with prolonged ponderous steps. Sliding his hand forward to the rocket launcher’s pistol grip, his Omnivision registered the long barrel of Meegale’s gauss rifle slipping forward as the sniper repositioned for unobstructed shooting. The Mama San stopped in the middle of the road and the odor of sharp cheddar cheese now laced the cloud of pheromones.

It was their worst-case scenario. Although the gauss rifle’s high-velocity rounds would undoubtedly penetrate the Mama San’s armadillo-like armor, they had no idea where to place the shots. Because no one has ever killed a Mama San to locate its vital organs. Only one local had ever survived a rock sloth wave attack. Knocked off a cliff, the herd had moved on without bothering to finish her off. Two days later, miraculously found alive with internal injuries and both legs shattered, she confirmed that the male soldiers had gone down to conventional and flechette weapons, but also attested from personal experience that their leathery skin could deflect a knife thrust. She had sworn that gunfire had bounced off the Mama San. Consequently, if the sloths attacked, Drayev would use the rocket launcher, even though it would alert the Abhorrent’s compound. Their mission compromised, they would signal Joshua to abort and call in the shuttle. And with all of the red flags that have popped up for this operation, maybe that would be best. …Assuming we survive the onslaught, that is.

Then, …in a sudden shimmering silence, the Mama San… …unfolded. When her body finally stopped rising, her extended head towered 11 feet above the roadway. Massive arms lifted her talons another six feet into the blood-red night sky and she began to sway. The soldiers did not join her in the wave, perhaps because her silent display packed enough warning all by itself. At least Drayev thought so, his finger slipping off the rocket launcher’s trigger guard onto the trigger while putting his sights on the Mama San’s center mass. Deciding this constituted an emergency, he tapped his transmitter tooth in C2 code shoot?

Glin’s reply was immediate wait. …Syrupy seconds slipped by, sweat coalescing on Drayev’s upper lip, …-…until… …a coconut/lima bean odor displaced the heavy muskiness in the air. The Mama San lowered her arms to a crossing guard pose, impossibly stretching almost the width of the road. Drayev did not dare even ease his finger off the trigger as small chirps rose from the gorge, slid across the road behind the red soldier wall, and slipped up the cliff. Finally, the chittering subsided and a mass of small red balls with gangly orange limbs flowed up the higher reaches of the mountainside, shepherded by a vanguard of male rock sloths. Burnt aluminum displaced the coconut as the Mama San ambled to the wall of stone and scaled its sheer face with shocking fluidity, given the initial impression of massive weight conveyed by her gait. In just seconds she topped the cliff and disappeared. The wall of red became very still and Drayev shifted his finger to the SAW trigger, but after a single collective warning grunt from the remaining soldiers, they too streamed up the rock wall to vanish up the mountainside.

The entire Team eased their grips and loosened their shoulders, but kept their weapons covering their zone of responsibility. Glin’s hand rose with two fingers extended, then pointed forward twice. The split timer revealed the reason for the double-time command, - 09:12 - since they were still only halfway to their IRP - Initial Rally Point.

Pounding up the road, when silence greeted the total mission countdown’s drop below 90:00, Drayev’s concern mounted. Joshua should have checked in by now. At 87:17 they had recovered the rock sloth encounter time and were gaining some infiltration time, but more importantly to Drayev, the C2 message finally buzzed his tooth. arrived. It was reassuring that Joshua had checked in without requesting assistance, but frustrating that there was no explanation for why he was almost three minutes behind schedule. Especially since Joshua was about to begin the most dangerous part of his solo mission. But, …-…there’s nothing I can do. …Besides, Joshua is the top Recruit in hand-to-hand and the best snapshooter I’ve ever seen. …He’ll be ok.

Drayev was grateful for their arrival at the IRP not just because they were 52 seconds early, but also because it distracted from his apprehension about Joshua. The Team spread throughout the wooded area overlooking the compound, completing thermal and night vision high mag scans of its front walls. When all six had returned with all-clear thumbs up, Meegale gave a salute and faded into the trees, climbing to set up his hide higher on the mountain slope. The remaining five Team members regrouped behind a jumble of boulders near the road leading to the compound gates. This was both Drayev’s Reserve Command position and the Exfil Rally Point where they would meet up with Joshua and head to the LZ for pick up.

Glin tapped C2 code on Drayev’s neck. Command transferred. All exchanging a thumbs up, the Special Task Details headed out, with Mongoose 1 melting into the darkness on the right while Hammer 2 ran into the forest shadows on the left. Drayev completed another thermal check of the wall, scrutinizing its makeshift guard boxes over the entrance gate and on the more distant corners. Placing his SAW and extra ammo and rockets drums near to hand, he set up the multiple segments of his HUD to be filled with sticky eye input, all around a central schematic of the compound. Once done, he let out a slow sigh and sat down, easing his back against the largest boulder in the jumble.

Now the fun part. …-…Waiting.

◄2►

From five feet away, Yashe let go of her satchel to begin active deceleration, reaching palms forward to prevent her body from slamming into the wall. Right behind her, Sawyor waited too long and the impact forced out a soft grunt as he bounced back a step.

They both reflexively looked up to the top of the compound wall 12 feet above, even though the peeper satellite had shown no parapet walkway on this section of the wall, explaining its choice for their approach. After a moment watching for the color of thermal contact while listening intently, Sawyor gave Yashe a small shrug. She could almost see behind the reflective faceplate to his expression of chagrin for having misjudged the approach and grinned in spite of herself. Lifting a thumb, she led the way along the compound’s north wall toward Gorge Corner.

Just as during their sprint through the woods, their faceplates’ high-resolution night vision allowed them to avoid trip falls and make good time. Yashe slowed 50 feet before their final approach, turned her helmet external mic to full gain, and began looking up intermittently because this section of wall over the Mess Hall did have a long walkway. She stopped ten feet short of Gorge Corner, where the wall’s 90° corner abutted a sheer drop off into the abyss on their left. Yashe checked the total mission time. - 80:28 - Not bad. Almost 30 seconds ahead of schedule.

She felt a tugging on her pack and a moment later, Sawyor handed her the three wall steps he had removed. Yashe hung them from her harness webbing and then extracted two more wall steps from Sawyor’s pack. Activating her helmet’s sonar function, she located the aluminum framework behind the wall’s smooth concrete exterior. Turning the D bar handle horizontal, she placed a wall step against a wall cross support and held in the thumb button. Even with her mic at full gain, Yashe could barely hear the whir of the internal gears driving the self-tapping screws through the concrete into the metal. A green dot flashed on her HUD and she repeated the procedure above the first wall step. When only silence filled a short pause, she mounted the first two wall steps and ignoring where Sawyor’s hands were pressing to force her hips against the wall, attached another step in climbing position before placing the last two about 40 inches below the top of the wall.

Regaining the ground, Yashe loaded a stunball into her McLamor MP. Following another brief listening period, two slow tactical breaths, and thumbs up from Sawyor, Yashe climbed into ambush position. Gripping the front edge of the wall top, she pulled her weapon and waited for the sound of approaching footsteps. …-…-…They did not come. …-…When her aching legs began to tremble, she decided to risk it. Popping up above the wall, her extended stun gun swept along the walkway. Nothing!

Yashe felt a flash of pride at finding herself perfectly placed where the walkway met the top of the access stairs. Rolling over the wall and down into a crouch, she froze to listen and scan. Then she heard it! …A soft trickling of water… …from… …below, …just beneath the stairs! …It stopped with a- sigh? -then a zipping sound. Yashe eased out over the edge of the walkway, McLamor pointing down, just as the guard emerged from beneath the stairs. The shock of seeing a real, live Abhorrent only a few feet below her caused her finger to tighten.

poomff piff

Luckily she was on target and the cloud of knock out gas enveloped the man’s head. He lifted a hand in confusion, staggered sideways, then sunk to his knees, finally collapsing forward onto his face. Hearing air whistling between her gritted teeth, Yashe opened her mouth and forced her breathing to slow. Gun aimed at the slumped form, she realized her finger still squeezed the trigger tight. She eased it off and lowered to all fours on the walkway. Come on! Pull it together! At least you shot this time instead of freezing. She scanned between the back of the Mess Hall and the separate food storage building to her left before rising back up to reload the McLamor. Holstering, she remembered Sawyor and leaned over the wall, hand sweeping for him to join her. - 78:19

Descending to the unconscious guard, they pulled him beneath the stairs and Sawyor collected the man’s weapons. Yashe’s scan revealed a narrow gap between the food storage building and the eastern compound wall that the roof overhang had hidden from the mini-satellite. Hmmm, it’d keep us out of sight longer. The narrow passageway forced their shoulders sideways and when Sawyor paused to lay the guard’s guns on the ground at halfway point, the walls began to close in on Yashe. She hurried to the end, where she lifted her McLamor and pied the corner, using the standard close-quarter combat technique for rounding corners into unknown circumstances. She entered a four-foot gap between the food storage building and the original wall for the pre-catastrophe mansion that was the core of the Abhorrent compound. Finding the area clear all the way to the east entrance of the North Barracks, she sighed in relief and then smiled. It feels really good to get out of that… - Squeezeway.

Yashe pointed up on the food storage’s end wall and Sawyor fired a sticky eye poomff… piff just below the apex of the roof overhang. A square flickered on her faceplate HUD and then a green image snapped into place, revealing no movement or color on the far side of the original wall. Sawyor placed two more eyes, one on the barracks and another on the Mess Hall across the yard. Yashe took control of the first eye and swept the view from the garden against the east exterior wall, along the open ground to the pool house, across the yard below the main house’s master bedroom balcony, stopping at the North Barracks. Nothing. Then small green dots began appearing in the southern section of her HUD schematic, indicating Mongoose 1 had infiltrated and was placing, activating, then linking their charges to her display.

Sawyor’s thumbs up signaled he saw nothing on his sticky eye feeds, so she turned toward their next objective - the North Breach. She started toward the torn-down section of the original north exterior wall but froze at a buzzing in her tooth. They are on alert. Immediately recognizing Joshua’s cadence in the C2 signal, her eyes flicked to the total mission countdown, - 74:31 - and then peered into the shadows of the surrounding buildings. What does he mean by that? Her breath eased out when her direct visual sweep produced no color, the sticky eyes showed no movement, and Drayev remained silent. She decided they just had to be extra alert, as if that’s possible. Then a soft smile slowly curled her mouth because… it was… Hammer Time.

Yashe crabbed over to Sawyor and tapped on his neck to confirm he had also received Joshua’s message. At his nod, she scurried to the North Breach and crouched behind the heap of broken concrete bricks at the opening’s edge, again checking the sticky eye feeds. All clear. She pulled a 10-inch rectangular bar from her thigh pocket and pressed the activating button on the end. Just like the Mongoose 1 charges, this located the antipersonnel mine on her HUD compound schematic with a green dot, indicating it was ready to be armed from her tac sheet. Finding the mine’s directional knob, she placed it facing across the Breach at chest height, inside a block’s cavity so bits of concrete would add to the effect of the shrapnel in the mine. Yashe pulled a High Explosive NanoBall from her side pouch. Being between 70 to 100 times more powerful than conventional plastiques, it was about two-thirds the size of a tennis ball, easily concealed in the rubble behind several large fragments of concrete. She loved the ultracompact nanoenergetic charges because they allowed her to carry so many more munitions. Satisfied the choke point was adequately prepped, Yashe again scanned for color before sprinting to the dark corner where the North Barracks met the interior wall.

She crept under the windows, past the east door, and on around the corner to the porch uprights in front of the north door of the barracks. A quick peek from under the wrap around porch produced color in the corner guard box and Yashe’s hand snapped to the stock of her CR-14 Combat Rifle. After 10 seconds of no reaction, another peek showed no color. Pulling two antipersonnel bars, she adhered both to the porch posts at knee height, turning the directional knobs so the blasts would intersect at the door. A quick double press linked the mines to her tac sheet but did not arm them. They did not want a middle-of-the-night smoke on the porch to start the fireworks. She retreated back around the corner and likewise booby-trapped the east door.

Yashe checked the total mission timer, - 69:34 - almost 40 minutes to find the cache. She looked at Sawyor’s kneeling green form beside the food storage building and stretched an upward thumb to her side. He had just lifted his arm in response when her C2 tooth began buzzing and her entire HUD flickered into blobs of crackling green fuzz. What the… She tapped the side of her helmet before realizing the futility of that corrective action, it is designed to keep working after major impacts then tried a manual reboot. Attempts to use C2 during the agonizing ten-second wait failed, and when the HUD finally came back on, it was still scrambled. This is worse than nothing! How can this be happening? Pressing the release, her faceplate rotated upward, turning off as it locked into place. Yashe could barely discern the extra blackness in the gloomy gap that she knew was Sawyor and calmed a bit at the realization of how hard it would be for Abhorrents to see into the shadows without Night Vision equipment. Hoping but unsure if his helmet still worked, Yashe extended her hand forward just out of the porch’s shadow, waited a few seconds to confirm that Sawyor’s black blob was not moving, then withdrew her hand, took two tactical breaths, and ran toward the gap in a low crouch, all the while waiting for a shout, or even worse, a shot. If they don’t miss, will I even hear it?

Once in the shadow, she sank to her knees before her watery legs gave out and grabbed Sawyor’s neck, HUD and C2 out. His fingers tapped back, mine too. Noticing his faceplate was also locked up and off, she signaled for him to keep watch and plopped onto her butt. Great. As the Special Task Detail Leader, she began mentally reviewing the Mission Contingency Plans but was stopped by vibration on her left forearm. Tac comms! Crap. How could I forget that? Lifting and rotating her tac sheet to turn on the dim covert mode red display, she read Drayev’s message.

CP HUD and C2 out?

She tapped up her keyboard, but another vibration stopped her from typing.

M1 yes both.

She quickly entered the conversation, H2 Both also.

CP Can proceed?

Drayev’s Command Post query reminded her of protocol procedures. Question #1 was to assess whether they were capable of continuing the Mission. No one’s injured, there’s no evidence we’ve been spotted, and the Primary Search Objective is relatively close. Besides, I still need to place diversionary charges and meet up with M1. …So, …yes, we continue. Her confidence bumped when she responded H2 Yes well before the M1 Yes appeared. After a slight pause, Drayev replied.

CP Proceed with caution, stepwise tac comms. Out.

Yashe frowned at having to remember to tac type confirmation of every step of the mission until she realized how hard it must be for Drayev. He was all alone and now blind, with nothing to do but watch the compound walls while waiting for updates from the Sneak Teams. She shook off the image and focused on Question #2: Should she make any operational changes? With thermal imaging, we could advance together and have just one exposure. But now we’ll need to make shorter, separate leapfrogs and use our CR-14s to cover each other. …That’s all I can think of. She reached over and tapped her plan to Sawyor, who gave her a confirming tap. Rolling to her feet, they moved toward the breach.

***

Mastiff licked his blubbery lips, snuck a look at the recliner in the living room, then grunted out a rumbling whisper, Yose jist remember, whens Mr. Bloveea wakes up, that yose the one what ordered me to do it, ‘cause I fer sure ain’t fergittin’.

Ernyst studied the gleam on the edge of his combat knife before laying it next to the sharpening stone. After looking at the squat man for a few seconds, he gave him a single nod, walked his fingers around until they pointed over his shoulder at the garage, walked them back and pointed down at the dining room table where he sat, then lifted his chin toward the doors. Mastiff’s returned single emphatic nod made his jowls bounce, then he pivoted his short wide-body and exited the house via the French doors that opened to the pool, easing them closed without a click.

Ernyst looked to the recliner where the leader of The Breed was softly snoring. He again wondered how the man had acquired the rocket launcher, and supposedly, a full case of ammo. But then, Ernyst knew that Blovier had at least two rockets because he had watched the man blow up two sections of settlement walls across the valley. And that show of power had prompted the leader of Ernyst’s gang, The Raspers, to make an agreement with Blow vee a. Ernyst’s mouth twisted sour at the memory of The Breed leader making all The Raspers repeat the French pronunciation of his name in unison during the induction ceremony. What a stupid ass. And he is stupid.

First, Blovier claimed they had just stumbled across the rocket launcher in a caravan raid, despite the well-known fact that all military installations of a size to carry such armament had been inside Cooper City’s lava kill zone. Next, during the tour he had proudly pointed to the shiny electronic signal disruptor mounted on the compound wall abutting the garage, claiming it was another lucky find. Hell, working electronics haven’t been found on Darnan since the Catastrophe and that disruptor sure isn’t decades old. Clearly, it’s offworld. Lastly, Blovier had hinted that the current High Alert Guard Duty was based on secret intel that someone was going to try and infiltrate the valley within the next few days, providing them an opportunity to acquire even more advanced gear. And where would that gear come from? He’s an idiot, but he’s a powerful idiot. That’s why Chief agreed to join.

After examining the edge of his combat knife, Ernyst eased back into the high-backed dining room chair. Part of him grudgingly acknowledged that it made survival sense to sleep while you could, and he also knew it was the nature of things that leaders slept while their underlings did the work. Just like it made sense to join a more powerful gang like The Breed and wait for your opportunity. But as Rasper second-in-command, he did not like being stuck in the compound with most of The Breed while Chief stayed at Little Green Valley to sort out the newly acquired settlement. Especially when he felt so… edgy …and for Ernyst, that feeling almost always meant… …trouble. His teeth gritted at not knowing whether his disquiet reflected how poorly the new alliance was going or if his sixth sense was warning him. But having ordered the signal disruptor turned on, Ernyst decided it was best to wait. He quietly slid his newly honed knife into its sheath. For now.

◄3►

poomff piff

Glin slammed his stun gun into its holster while surging off the wall steps, over the wall, and onto the walkway in one fluid movement, exploding toward the wobbling guard and grabbing his filthy vest just before the cadaverous man’s knees buckled. He guided the now unconscious Abhorrent to the walkway, preventing him from falling onto the roof of the South Barracks a few feet below. He scanned for color. All clear. Turning back, he found Sovissa already on top of the wall steps, so he stopped. Her fierce independence had already been evident in the few M1 rehearsals they had completed before the drop to Darnan. He checked the total mission timer - 79:45 - and together they carried the almost skeletal guard off the walkway to the shadows beneath the stairs.

Glin slipped to the corner of the barracks and eased out his right eye. Only green! poomff…-…piff He placed a sticky eye on the separate head/shower building to the right and when the image showed no movement, he waved forward without looking back. Sovissa swept around him and edged down the barracks’ face. Glin trained his CR-14 on the shower/head door eight feet across from the furthest barracks entrance. A porch covered the entire front of the barracks as well as the space between the two buildings. Sovissa placed her full contingent of six antipersonnel bars on the porch roof posts to cover all three doors, then activated the sensors and linked the charges to Yashe without arming them.

M1 made their way to the Southern Breach, the opening in the compound’s original wall was just north of a large array of girders and roof trusses. A construction project of unknown purpose, its skeletal network of metal beams gave them cover from the southwest corner guard box. Glin placed several HE nanoballs at the choke point and was about to move through when his tooth buzzed with Joshua’s warning. As one, he and Sovissa immediately retreated behind the South Breach debris pile, CR-14s covering their respective fields of fire. Glin checked his timer. 74:27. After 30 seconds, they reached for each other’s neck. The C2 comms provided no helpful insights, so Glin proceeded with the mission, confident thermal imaging would allow them to avoid any active patrols.

Rapidly rounding the South Breach, they moved quickly to the shadowed space between the back of the armory and the north side of the breached wall. Creeping along the side of the armory, Glin glanced toward the huge storage barn ten yards away and hoped H2 was inside They may not have to bypass any locks, but that’s a heck of a lot of space to search. Arriving at the front corner, he peered around and froze, startled to see a short wide red body walking around the back corner of the house. His McLamor stun gun filled his hand and he tracked the tango until it disappeared on the other side of the armory, heading toward the South Barracks. He’s going to bed? Is the alert over?

Having no answers, but knowing that it was unlikely another person would walk the same path for at least a few minutes, Glin slid along the front of the armory to its only door. He finished picking the locks just as Sovissa arrived - 69:47 - and then they were inside slicing their interior half of the pie with the door closed behind them. Seeing no color, he rose and was stepping toward his search area when his HUD disintegrated and his C2 tooth began vibrating. Sovissa’s soft curse told him that she was experiencing the same problems. It can’t be from the building itself since we were already in before this hit. A helmet diagnostics check did not clear the display, so he locked up and off. Seeing Sovissa had already done likewise, he was relieved to find his tac sheet countdown timer was clearly reading 67:58. He had just recalled that its frequency was different for this very contingency when his tac sheet buzzed. It was Glin’s turn to curse under his breath. I should have thought of tac typing!

***

Meegale watched the exchange of tac typing, relieved to know that he had not been discovered and somehow isolated from the rest of the Team. Even though he knew the lack of electronics on Darnan made that highly unlikely, something was disrupting their primary comms channels. Having just arrived at his top overwatch choice and finding it as workable as the sat photos had indicated, he continued setting up his hide while keeping an eye on the rest of the tac type conversation.

***

After Drayev asked tac type Question #1, Glin looked to Sovissa for input, only to find her bent over her pack. His puzzlement evaporated when she rose and displayed a small tube as if she was a model on a pVid prize show. He grinned as he tac typed M1 Yes and within seconds had retrieved his own infrared flashlight and lowered the red-tinted eye plate on his helmet. Immediate problem solved, they got to work. At 56:49, they crouched at the armory door empty-handed. They had documented ammo and weapons stores, placed and linked some charges to Yashe, but had not found the primary objective. No launcher, no rockets, no nothing.

With the Sneak Team rendezvous scheduled for 55:00, they stowed their search gear and readied their McLamors. Glin