Meddlers In Time
Wayne Watson
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or otherwise able to take legal action against me, is purely coincidental.All the names were pulled out of my memory and applied more or less at random. You ain't that character just because you share a first name and a trade.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Mission: Deep Cover Agent Provocateur
Infiltrate the Imperium in the 35thcentury and facilitate a state of total war with Hegemony forces.
No local assets.
No retrieval.
***
Meddlers in Time
Out of the frying pan, into the fire
I hate getting killed.
It rates right up there as some of my very worst experiences. No matter how or how often it happens I will never get used to it- and I do all I can to avoid it.
Which is not always easy in the more intersting parts of the Empire..
Getting to where I am now has cost me three lives- at about 1.2 million adjusted Imperials a time.
Sometimes I wish my crew wouldn’t try so hard to recover the running backup with the nasty bits on it, but I know there is usually some valuable lesson there- like how I screwed up and got slotted.
But the more ‘valuable’ the lesson I get to learn, the more I would rather be restored from the last full backup.
Still, it could be worse- after all- I am only one of a very few that get to die another day- in this time and place…
Helzin Loyalist Bloc
Special Operations Group
“I don’t like this operation at all Commander, but I have no other choices. The Imperials are demanding we get the last separatist stronghold cleaned out,” said Admiral Haverston. “They can’t get the cruisers over the continent to land their Marines until that PA cannon emplacement is taken out. So your company has to kill those guns- your mission is a go.”
Commander Jamieson gave a dry grin. “I had best get the troops moving then, sir.”
“Good luck Commander”, said the Admiral, as Jamieson strode out of his office. “I hope you can do this or I will have to nuke that Continent bare- of 284 million souls…”
Recon Company
3rd Expeditionary Force
Helzin Colonial Marines.
“The area is tight- signal Cranston and inform him that Breaker is a go. As of now, nobody enters, nobody leaves this base and all communications are cut off after you call Cranston. We load and move at 2530. Make it happen.”
“Aye Sir” said Andrea, the company clerk, who immediately sent the pre-prepared signal and shut down communications on her tablet.
Wayne turned to his 2IC, Tom Phillips. “Tom, it’s a go- get the troops ready to load up. The advance party moves in 90 minutes.”
Tom gave a casual salute and doubled off towards the company HQ.
Six months of training had just come to a head.
Commander Jamieson was one of the first swimmers to reach land. Pulling himself out of the heavy surf onto the rocks at the base of the cliff, he attached a chemical piton to the rocks and waited. As soon as the anchor had cured, he attached the winch and started to wind in his spider line. Waiting for the 5-kilometer monomolecular line to wind in, he flipped down his image intensifier goggles and started to scan the cliff face, looking for the best line.
Jamieson’s alpha team landed, securing the submersible raft and unloading equipment. With the belay anchor for the first leg set, he started the climb, first up a small chimney, then following a crack. As he climbed, he left a trail of hex and cam locks. Climbing may have been a lost art on Helzin, but not to Wayne, who was now exploiting the belief that these cliffs where unscalable. As he climbed, he paused to hammer in plastic pitons for the following climbers to use as hand and footholds. There were plenty of cracks for these- they would not be strong enough to arrest a fall, but would dramatically speed up the climb for the others that would have the benefit of a top-rope.
At the 150-meter mark, Jamieson paused on a small ledge, while a chemical piton cured.
Just nine short months ago, he was a- THE leading privateer, commanding the vessel ‘Wotan’s Fury’. Thirty years of operating in the Empire, working up the ranks- from ordinary spacer to shareholder officer, then his own small command and now commander of the premier Free Company aligned to the empire…
Helzin
9 Months Earlier
Dropping out of Subspace into high orbit about Helzin, Captain Jamieson passed his compliments to the Sailing Master for her usual perfect approach. As the sectors reported in secure, he gave permission for the lighters to approach, to carry their loot down to the markets of Helzin’s Southern bloc. The end of another tour, keeping the Hegemony out of the way while the Helzin civil war ran it's course. Taking the Captain’s gig, Wayne and party descended to the surface to meet with Admiral Haverston- CIC of the Southern Bloc.
Haverston opened a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of genuine New Islay Scotch.
“That was an impressive feat of arms, taking an outie cruiser intact” said Haverston.
“You wanted an intact Crow warship, now you have one, sir. I believe the fee was agreed upon?”
“10 Million, now in your account. Now I know this is a bad time, but we need to talk about the conditions of you warrant”
“My Letters of Marquee are in order- what do you mean?”
“Under the terms, we can second you into our Navy- we are currently under such a condition as making this necessary. Our negotiations with the Empire require that we take control of all nations of our world, for a Class One admission to the Empire. You are now officially in the Helzin navy with the rank of Commander.
We need you, to help us take the Northern bloc. And we are invoking the conditions on your Letters of Marquee.”
“I suppose you have me then”, said Wayne. “I signed the papers and a deal is a deal.”
“Good Man .I had hoped you would see it that way- We are prepared to reimburse you at the standard rates for a private command- we need all the vessels we can get.”
“Good luck Haverston- I signed ownership over to Commander Hendrick before I dropped. As we speak, he will be underway for New Hamburg. You have me- but not my ship or crew.
Haverston’s face turned crimson at that news and he roared- “You bloody pirate.”
“Privateer- Sir.”
As quick as he had turned to anger, Haverston started to laugh- “It would appear I indeed have my man- you slippery bugger.”
Uninvited, Wayne walked over to the sideboard and filled his glass to the brim with whiskey. “I need a good researcher, a procurements officer and command of your best recon team. Now before you blow a blood vessel, I brought my Marine 2IC with me. Let us have a look at your plan to break the Northern Wall.
“It won’t work and it wouldn’t have worked with my ships either- but I think I see a hole- give me a week and I will have a workable plan- it’s going to cost you, mind.”
“Just get those defenses down, so that the Imperials can land- damn them- they don’t want losses.- and the cost will be met.”
“I need Cranston’s air wing too.”
“Who the hell is the Admiral here.”
“Just do what the Commander wants and you will stay an Admiral.- Sir.”
“Ok Sergeant, they say you are the one for procurements- here is a list- I want to see that lot in my stores before the end of the week. Here is another one. This lot needs to be in our mess before the end of work today. If it ain’t- well, I’m not making threats. Let’s see what you can do sarge.
Sergeant Carl Robinson looked at the list and started making calls. This would be easy, but no doubt the boss would have harder tasks before long.
The anchor firm, he fed the top rope through the crab, for the climbers following, hauled up another bag of gear and resumed his climb.
The rock was better here and the second leg of the climb went much faster. Behind, the next party was already on the ledge below, bringing up the winch and fibre optic comms line. At 320 meters, I had reached a chimney near the top of the vertical face. There was no need for the rope now, so I placed a sling around a boulder and gave a series of tugs on the rope, to let the team below know I had arrived. Again, I sent the rope back down below until a tug told me they had the end. I shot up the chimney, scouting around for the spot I had seen on the reconnaissance photos. Having located the wide ledge, I set my last chemical anchors and backtracked to meet the climbers behind me. Along the way, I set the last of my hexs and slings as handholds.
The first of the team was already at the top with the winch, so we returned to set that up while the others brought the rest of our gear up the cliff. As we connected the winch to the anchors, Andrea arrived with the commlink. Once she had that operating, her job was to traverse the top of the cliff and make contact with the second climb- Tom’s lead, 300 meters away. This fiber optic link was the only communications we would have, with us not daring to break radio silence until the attack was under way. Now I could talk to the rest of my team and had connectivity to the submerged weapons platforms not far offshore.
We now had 40 troops at the bottom of the climb, with another seven on or heading up the cliff- plus about five thousand kilos of equipment. I checked my watch- 0135hrs. We were a few minutes ahead of schedule and I hoped to gain some time when we started winching. With the arrival of the carbon-fiber booms and the power pack, that would be happening in a few minutes.
Andrea stopped at the sound of a quiet hiss. She had reached the perimeter of the next beachhead. The sentry passed her through and pointed the direction of their CP.
“Good to see you, Corporal.” said the platoon commander, as she hooked up the cable. This middle position had the easiest climb and was already winching troops and equipment up.
“Anything from Gold?” Andrea asked .
“Nothing so far- they may not have been able to traverse”
She switched on the comms set. “Looks like you were right Sir- they had to send a swimmer with a line around to your landing. They report setting up the winch now.”
“Thanks Corporal- you can head back to your team now- good luck.”
It would be a lot quicker going back now that she had found a path- which was a good thing- it got lonely up here on your own.
With the last of the climbers up, we started winching up the others. The winch could lift 1000 kg up the 350 meters in five minutes. We would attach a padded pole, which four troops would clip onto, and then we would walk them up the cliff face. Once we had most of them up here, we would start lifting cargo. We had done this in 90 minutes in training.
I left the Carl in charge of the winch and started the next part of the operation, sending the scouts out to mark paths through the boulders and low scrub that made up the cliff tops. I now had voice and video from the other two CP’s. Gold was behind schedule, but Omaha and ourselves were well ahead of time. The plan would work with two positions operational, in any case.
The most critical part of the mission, the ability to initiate the three submerged weapons platforms launch sequence was now all go.
Andrea stopped behind a three-meter high boulder and listened for a couple of minutes. Hearing nothing but the wind, she slowly pushed a thin, gray plastic tube into and along a crack in the stone and taped it to the boulder. With the guide tube in place, she slid the whisker of the sensor above the top of the boulder. Invisible to radar or even the eye of someone a meter away, this allowed her to see what was beyond. Satisfied she had a good field of view, she connected the pickup to the CP and crept away to deploy her second probe.
We were getting some good imagery now and had been able to pick out six of the eight point defense turrets and all four of the longer-range heavy lasers. There was also a foot patrol at section strength out there. Heading away from us, but they will still be out there when we would assault the command bunker. Something else to deal with.
0345hrs- Everyone is in place and we are ready to go. The attack starts at 0415 as soon as the air defense system engages the missile attack by Cranston’s aircraft.
A soon as they were painted, the two light fighters launched their probes and broke away from the threatening lasers. Predictably, the heavy laser turrets on the peninsular soon shot down the missiles.
However, the fleeing fighters now had the coordinates of the laser emplacements.
Four squadrons of GS-19 ground attack aircraft closed rapidly on the emplacements. As they approached the effective range of the lasers, they simultaneously launched a mixture of decoys and missiles, attempting to overload the defenses and then broke off sharply.
At the first sound of crackling, superheated air that marked the lasers firing, Jamieson flipped the switch cover and initiated the three batteries launch sequence. On the seabed, the barges fired their gas generators, blowing water from the ballast tanks. As soon as the barges surfaced, the batteries of mortars fired salvos milliseconds apart. From each barge, 300 100mm RAM bombs flew over the cliff tops on a high trajectory and started their free-fall downwards. From here, their seeker heads locked onto targets and a secondary rocket motor propelled them downwards.
Now all the laser turrets were fully engaged, 900 incoming rockets overloaded the deadly point defense system (which also worked against troops on the ground.). We were now free to engage the main turrets. Throughout the rocks of the cliff top, guided missiles- explosive and kinetic- flashed out at the laser tubes. Heavy anti-material rifles added to the point defense system’s problems- DU needles tearing through the turrets, wreaking delicate components.
Within 5 seconds, the defenses were effectively down and the remaining missiles screamed overhead, headed towards the heavily armored particle accelerator. The rest of the aircraft would not be far behind them.
The raiders moved forward to assault the command bunker, following the fleeing patrol, which were now fleeing to cover. They had made their last mistake, that of not looking back.
Imperial Cruiser ‘Tobruk’
Helzin low orbit
“Gunner- you have command” said the pilot. Jenny edged the 180,000 tonne cruiser forward, making minute adjustments to its attitude, as she lined up the spinal mount of the ion cannon with the surface emplacement. This was a devastating weapon, but was a clumsy one to use, requiring the whole ship to be pointed at the target. This would be like an old time gunfight between two men with pistols. A balancing act between speed and accuracy.
As the simulations of the last week had shown, Ensign Jenny DeVries was both fast and shot straight. So good that the captain had given her the gun ahead of his more experienced officers. She was young- in the final year of the Imperial Academy officers training, but no one questioned her nerve- certainly none that had been on a boarding party with her.
Now they were at extreme range- she had a firing solution but it was not optimal. The bridge was unusually hushed with the only sound the hum of the ventilation fans, when the Chief Yeoman broke the silence. “Sir- local forces have successfully engaged the emplacement. Main gun is now being engaged- blast doors are closed, I say again, blast doors are closed.”
“There is your opening Miss- go get him.” said Captain Rodgers.
Jenny moved the cruiser forward at full power, rapidly closing the distance, her fingertips making minute adjustments, and then fired, taking the whole bridge by surprise with her speed.
“What a fuckin’ trip!” said Andrea, passing the handset and codesheet. The shock wave had knocked everyone down and only their NV goggles had saved them from flash-burnt eyes. Further inland, flashes over the horizon showed that the Imperial navy has not wasted any time attacking the capital’s defenses.
“Sword is gone- I say again Sword is GONE.- authenticate 2wzp96- damn fine shooting Tobruk.”
Jamieson shook himself off. “OK people- enough lying around- we have a command bunker to take.”
A short firefight broke out from the left flank, as Tom’s platoon made contact with the remainder of the security patrol. Two minutes later came a call “We have the back door to Utah open.”
In a stroke of luck, Tom had caught the patrol entering one of the hidden doors to the command bunker complex. As we arrived, he was already preparing to assault.
We would distract the command crew by detonating a breaching charge at the main airlock door, with a feinting attack there.
This was the sort of work Tom and I had specialized in as privateers- fighting with blade and pistol in confined spaces. Nasty, messy stuff.
We shrugged off our harness and packs and started pulling on body armour, while the specialists got ready for the assault.
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