RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) (42 page)

‘And you.’ The sergeant major’s reply was curt. He
turned to me. ‘Find our boss, Corporal Moralee. I have faith in you.’

‘I will, sir,’ I replied. I turned to Aleksi. ‘Let’s
go!’

As Aleksi led us to within a few metres of the
stealth saucers, one of them seemed to materialise in front of me like a
strange, ghostly apparition. It was similar to our ground attack saucers, I
noted, though slightly larger so that it could carry troops and cargo. An
access ramp similar to our dropships touched the ground, and we stepped inside,
finding ourselves within a spacious, well-lit circular crew compartment lined
with six comfortable looking leather seats.

‘How long have we had these things?’ Griffiths asked,
clearly impressed.

‘Longer than you think,’ Aleksi said. He gestured
for us to sit down. ‘The technology isn’t that new, but it’s ridiculously
expensive, and kept secret for obvious reasons. Our colonial enemies probably
have similar aircraft.’  

As I sunk into the soft leather of my seat, I became
aware of a message flashing at the bottom of my visor, highlighting the option
to synchronise with the saucer.

‘Do I sync with it?’ I asked cautiously.

‘Of course,’ Aleksi said, taking his seat beside me.
‘You can’t fully appreciate this aircraft until you do!’

I tapped at my datapad, accepting the option to sync
with the saucer, and suddenly the walls of the compartment disappeared, leaving
us suspended in the air in our circle of seats like fun-seekers on a fairground
ride. It wasn’t the first time I had seen such an effect, our LSVs on New Earth
used synchronised external cameras to give us a similar view, but I had never
seen it on an aircraft. And supposedly dropships didn’t come with such a
function because it often led to troopers freaking out during entry to the
atmosphere.

Yulia sat down on the opposite side of me, leaving
the seats on the opposite side of the circle for Griffiths and Wildgoose. Once
all of us were seated and buckled in, Aleksi touched his datapad, causing the
ramp to raise. We then suddenly lurched upward like the riders of a circular
flying carpet, catching one last view of our awestruck comrades and the smoke-shrouded
barracks before we hurtled southward, accelerating away from the battlefield.
We continued to accelerate, rising high enough to see the ongoing exchange of
bombs and missiles on the northern horizon before we were consumed by the
clouds.

Yulia reached over and touched my arm. ‘What is
happening, Andy?’ she asked as the clouds whipped past us.

I realised that during my rush after Aleksi I had
forgotten to tell her what was going on, and so I quickly explained what I
knew, gently breaking the news of how everything she had done up until now was
helping Bhasin. She didn’t argue with me, as I had expected she might. She had
learned to trust me, as I had learned to trust her.

‘How could I have let this happen?’ she asked
herself, shaking her head in dismay. ‘The agents who met me after Dakar said
they were FEA. They looked like FEA, and they told me things I thought only FEA
would know. I believed them–’

Aleksi cut in. ‘Who told you to attack the Russian
ships?’

‘Marcus told me,’ Yulia replied. ‘I do not know who
told him, though. Many of the Bosque fighters were saying it. We are all being
tricked. We are fools . . . I am a fool.’

‘We’ve all been taken for fools,’ I said in
agreement.

‘I’ll bet the Boskers are attacking Russian ships
all across the province,’ Aleksi said, ‘despite our best efforts to stop them.’

Yulia turned her head down in shame. ‘I cannot
believe I have let this happen.’

‘Well, you can make up for it now, Yulia,’ the
Scandinavian replied. ‘I will need you to tell me what you know about the
chemical plant.’

The saucer banked onto its side, skimming the clouds
with its edge as it gave us a view onto the chemical plant, its cameras
adjusting the image so we could see in the dark. Sited on the edge of a sand
beach almost a kilometre across, the plant was nowhere near as large as I had
expected it to be. It was comprised of little more than a single building no
more than a hundred metres wide, a couple of large cylindrical tanks, and a
snaking network of pipes that connected everything together. The pipeline
itself ran into one side of the building before passing out the other, cutting
its way across the sand dunes before plunging into the sea.

Six circular pits had been dug around the chemical
plant, surrounded by mounds of freshly dug soil. Each of the pits contained a
large piece of equipment sat on four sturdy-looking support legs, pointed
toward the sky like artillery pieces poised to fire. Figures scurried around
them like disturbed ants, seemingly preparing for something. My heart jumped as
I recognised the equipment within the pits. I had been searching for them long
enough to know what they were.

‘Those weapon pits were dug recently,’ Aleksi
observed as we slowly circled the plant. ‘I presume you know what they are,
Andy?’

‘STORM launchers,’ I answered.

‘Their missiles won’t get anywhere now,’ the
Scandinavian assured me. ‘Your brigade has moved your B Company dropships out
to sea, a few kilometres east of here. There are enough Vulcan cannons there to
stop anything getting through to our safe corridor. We will use their gravtank
railguns to engage the missile positions.’

I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t known that Aleksi had
spoken with brigade, or that my old company had been moved. Presumably they had
been contacted directly, cutting EJOC out of the loop in case somebody tried to
stop us. ‘Are we sending in B Company’s troopers?’

He shook his head. ‘No. We can’t put Union dropships
over Edo soil now, the Alliance warships are watching. My men will conduct the
strike instead. How do we get in, Yulia?’

She pointed down at the chemical plant. ‘There is an
entrance at the base of the building, on the western side facing the beach. It
leads into the ground floor of the pumping station, where the machinery is
kept.’

‘What’s the building like on the inside?’

‘There are two storeys and a basement. It is very
simple on the inside, but the machinery will make it difficult to move
through.’

Aleksi didn’t appear bothered by that. ‘Can you draw
a basic layout for me, from memory?’

‘I think so, but how?’ She held up her hands,
indicating that she had nothing to draw on.

‘On here.’ Aleksi produced a tablet from somewhere
beneath his seat and handed it to her.

Whilst Yulia drew the building layout on the tablet,
Aleksi reached out with his arm and pointed out all six launchers, marking them
all with red crosshairs. Once he was finished, he spoke over the net.
‘Hammersmith call signs, do you have eyes onto my targets?’

A familiar voice responded in my headset, and I
quickly recognised it as that of B Company’s OC. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha, yes, we
have eyes on. We are ready to engage with an estimated round flight time of two
seconds.’

‘Thank you, Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha. Stand by for my
call to engage. Louis, I want a ten-second countdown on your approach. The
Hammersmith call signs will engage all the marked targets at minus three
seconds, which should see their rounds strike just before you dismount.’

‘No problem,’ was the reply.

Having finished her drawing, Yulia passed the tablet
back to Aleksi, who promptly tapped at the screen, presumably sending it to his
comrades.

‘This is a rough building layout,’ he said on the
net.

There was a short pause before Louis responded.
‘Received. My team will enter through the western entrance as marked on your
layout. Do we know anything about the door?’

Aleksi looked at Yulia. ‘Describe the door.’

‘It is a steel airlock door,’ she said. ‘It opens
outwards.’

‘Not a problem.’ Aleksi switched back to the net.
‘Louis, the southern entrance is reinforced and opens outwards. It will require
explosive entry. Let me know when you’re in position for a ten-second
approach.’

‘I’m in position now,’ was the instant reply.

Aleksi spoke to B Company again. ‘Hammersmith-Zero-Alpha,
my assault team will shortly begin their ten-second run in. Listen for the
countdown, and open fire on three seconds.’

‘Understood,’ the OC answered.

‘Louis, start your approach.’

‘Moving now. Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . .’

As Louis continued his countdown, I imagined his
stealth saucer hurtling toward the chemical plant from over the sea, just like
our dropships would do, except that his was virtually invisible.

‘Hammersmith call signs stand by . . .’ Aleksi
warned.

‘Five . . . four . . . three . . .’

‘Fire!’

‘Two . . . one . . . on position!’

From our high vantage point, the incredible, near
perfect timing of the strike was jaw dropping. All six defensive positions were
engulfed in smoke and flame as high explosive railgun shells landed amongst the
unwitting Guardsmen. A fraction of a second later, two teams of six figures
materialised right next to the pumping station, as their stealth saucers
unloaded them on position. Having already identified the entrance point to the
building, they charged toward it, pausing briefly at the entrance before
storming inside in another puff of smoke. I didn’t see what they used to gain
entry, but I presumed it was some form of explosive. Within a matter of
seconds, both teams had disappeared inside the pumping station, whilst the
outside defensive positions smoked. 

All of us gasped, amazed at how such a sturdy-looking
defensive position had been destroyed in the blink of an eye without the
occupants even knowing what was coming.

‘That was incredible,’ I said, genuinely amazed.
‘Are those guys part of your team?’

Aleksi shook his head. ‘No, mine are still back at
Trondheim. Louis and his men work this area, so they know a great deal more
about the people here than I do. They probably already know this Bhasin character,
and the president’s inner circle that you mentioned before.’  

Whilst Aleksi was talking I leant forward in my
seat, noticing something emerge from amongst the winding pipes of the chemical
plant before following the pipeline toward the coast. It was a man, running
across the sand, wearing some kind of white bodysuit.

Aleksi squinted as he tried to work out what I was
looking at. ‘What on earth is that . . .?’

He waved a hand at the figure, creating a large
bubble around it like the lens of a magnifying glass. As he zoomed in the
image, it became apparent that the man wasn’t wearing a white bodysuit at all .
. . he was naked, and running for his life.

‘It’s one of ours!’ I blurted. ‘Aleksi, it’s got to
be one of our missing troopers!’

The Scandinavian didn’t hesitate. ‘Saucer, take us
in!’

The saucer dropped like a stone, causing my guts to
lurch as it tilted downward and angled itself toward the naked man. We were
probably about a kilometre above him, but we closed the distance in less than a
few seconds.

It had to be one of ours.
I
told myself.
It had to be.

We shot over the man’s head, missing him by only a
few metres and causing him to stumble and fall face first into the sand. The
ramp fell open, and I unbuckled my straps just as the saucer slowed to a halt.

I leapt out from my seat, hurrying down the ramp. My
boots slapped against slick wet sand as I ran toward the man, who remained face
down, his bare skin gleaming white against the darkened surroundings.

During my last few bounds I unclipped my helmet and
removed it, before tossing it down onto the ground. I then took a deep breath
and pulled off my respirator, ignoring the flashing warning icons on my visor
as it came away from my face.

The naked man wasn’t moving. I grasped him by the
shoulder and pulled him over, seeing his face for the first time. It was the
boss, his eyes pained and wide open.

I pressed the respirator onto his face, pushing it
down at the sides to make sure it sealed properly. My respirator was made to
fit my own face rather than his, so I needed to be sure the seal was correct.
The tiny motors whirred loudly as they forced the bad air out.

‘Breathe, boss!’ Wildgoose urged, having just
arrived at my side. He shook the platoon commander by the shoulder.

Mr Barkley suddenly took a huge gasp of air, his
instinct for survival kicking in as he realised that he was being provided
clean air to breathe.

‘Give him this, Andy!’ Aleksi said from behind me,
holding out a facemask respirator similar to those that he gave to the Boskers.

I quickly swapped the respirators, and Wildgoose
made sure the facemask was correctly positioned on our platoon commander’s face
whilst I returned my own respirator to my face.

Mr Barkley continued to breathe in large gasps, as
his lungs fought to re-oxygenate his body and his circulatory system battled
with the toxins he had already inhaled. He blinked at us, looking bewildered.