Kara Discovered: Episode 21, Under Surveillance
Jeffries and the legion get a surprise as they find themselves be watched.
Steps later, Jeffries came upon Private Preston, dust covered, uniform in tatters. Controlling his rage, keeping his voice calm and precise, he asked, “Why are you such a mess, soldier?”
The man snapped to attention, his voice hard and firm, “No shower or clean uniform, Sir,” he said just as if making a standard report. “I’ve not crossed the gate since we first got here. I can now see close to two hundred meters, and no one wants to risk me losing that by crossing the gate.”
He was a good man. “Wilson!” Jeffries bellowed.
“I’ll fix it, Sir,” Wilson said from his right.
He looked toward the voice but only saw a blur. “Not just him. Uniforms, blankets, even tents for every man in every platoon!”
“Holy shit!” Preston barked.
Jeffries’ head snapped back and saw Preston looking past him over his shoulder and up, fear on his face.
In one smooth motion, he pulled his lance from the quiver of them strapped to his leg and hip, turned and threw in the direction Preston was looking just as he had practiced so many times on the station, hoping no one was in the area it would come down in.
Preston’s voice trembled. “You missed sir, and the lance came down near one of our people scaring them.”
“What did I miss? Where is it?” So, he hadn’t cleared the camp with that throw after all. He needed to check his range here to have a better idea of how things fly.
“It’s gone, flew off. You’re going the think I am insane.”
“I already know you’re insane, you’re a legionnaire. Spit it out.”
Preston relaxed and smiled at that old line that every NCO has used on his men. “It was one of those lizards, standing on a flying carpet.”
The fear still in his eyes said he was reporting it as accurately as he could. Carpet shaped hover-plates had been a fad on some planets, but never on Heinlein or Armstrong.
“Tompson, top priority; I want slings and slingstones made of sapphire for every single man in the legion. You yourself will cross back, get that started and report to General Hillock via com. Tell him we have been under aerial surveillance by operatives on hover-plates. Opponents have higher technology than previously reported. We request permission to release prisoners and withdraw all personnel across the gate.”
Wilson interrupted. “They’re not going to withdraw the legion. But might reassign you.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to be here. It is too dangerous with too many unknowns, and every man here green. We just got caught with our pants down, again. Our men are not trained for this level or kind of threat. We had an enemy overhead. Not one man here reacted, by following up my throw with ones of their own. I made my whole career studying this kind of warfare before ever joining the legion. No one here is ready for it.”
“Dawson’s right. You need to be in charge here,” Wilson said. “No man here realized until you just pointed it out that when you reacted, they should have, too. Now that you said it, it is obviously how we should have reacted if under threat. I should make that report, not Tompson, and I should do it through Dawson. I can make it plain to him that all of your officers agree that we should pull back.”
“Fine, you do that, but get your ass back here, ASAP. We are going on the assumption that we are going to be here a while and could be attacked at any moment until I here back. I have too much to do to do my job and yours too.”
“Yes Sir,” Wilson said, snapping him a salute, then turning and marching towards the gate with purpose in every step.
“If you will excuse us sir, we can get those patrols out as you ordered,” Tompson said, also saluting.
“Make it quick, there are other things we need to go over,” he said, returning the salute.
As the three officers left, he turned to Preston. “Can you see if any of the privates that made up my staff are back across the gate?”
Screaming erupting from the area of the gate, forestalled any answer Preston may have made. Snapping out another javelin, he pounded in that direction, Preston right behind him. He passed others pulling out their javelins.
The blur resolved itself into a man on the ground holding his head just this side of the gate. As he watched, two men picked the man up and took him back across, cutting off the sound.
What in the hell was going on now?
Episode 1, 2, 3, ….. 18, 19, 20,
Vikings Of Asgard Chapter 1 Welcome to Asgard
In 1984 a street gang in Cincinnati break into the wrong place and are transported to an alternate earth five million years younger than their own by the mysterious King Peter for his own reasons.