This is a continuation of This Post. So far there are three sections to this story, this being the third. It's not necessary to go back, but, it might be worth it.
Quim Dert was on his way up to the higher deck, to meet personally with Brigadier Runish, and Brigadier Yittias, who had been the sole leader of the Trisk invasion force, or what was left of it. The word on the lower levels was that Yittias had lost over 50 ships to the enemy boarding parties, some of which being capital ships. A further 27 were destroyed, most of which being carriers.
Funny how they knew not to send boarding parties to the carriers. Their intelligence must of worked overtime prior to the invasion of Free Space. Quim and his squad were rearing to get down planet side, but, for what felt like days the opposing fleets were at a stand-still.
He made it to the doors of the meeting hall and as he passed through he could hear the voices of the other men. Not just the two Brigadiers, but there were some Rotchi guards, as well as a few officers. One person he recognised was the worn-out old face of commander Ohearah, Quim had carried out a lot of missions for him over the years.
"The man of the hour. We were just talking about you." Ohearah said, with that sideways smile that pulled at the scars down the left half of his face. "Every time I see you smile I'm reminded of that trip to the farming colony," Quim replied plainly, concealing a smile of his own.
"Gnosian pirates," Ohearah said wistfully while rubbing at the side of his face.
Brigadier Runish stood, gesturing to an empty seat at the table. With a slow nod, Quim walked to it and sat down, followed by Runish. "I have heard a lot about you and I think you and your men might be able to do a job for us."
"I'll be the judge of that Brigadier, I won't be putting my life or my squad's lives on the line for a fool's errand," Quim spoke coldly as he took out a Mistick and lit it. After taking a drag and blowing out a plume of smoke he sat back in his chair. "What's the brief?" Runish glared at Quim without saying a word.
"Trisken AA weapons," Runish said softly. "AA installments. Just blast them from orbit." Quim replied. "It's not that simple Quim" Ohearah interjected. He then went on to press a button at his desk which projected a hologram of a Trisken in the center of the table. "This is Herzart of the Dead Lake Brood. He has survived countless assassination attempts and is from a particularly tough patch of Trisk. He has amassed a small army planet side, who were particularly effective when it came to Yittias's assaults." Ohearah spoke slowly.
"There were three attempts and each of them failed. It was like they knew where we were going to be each time, they had some kind of long-range missiles which are devastating against our ships. More than that, they have mobility." Yittias solemnly stated.
Brigadier Runish coughed. "We received a report from a downed drop ship, which crashed somewhere in the mountains west of the Trisken capital. Before comms died they mentioned huge beasts that are as fast on two legs as they are four. The Triskens are using these creatures, mounted with AA artillery. Apparently, the mountains are crawling with them. They attack and then disappear within a network of caves." Quim nodded as Runish finished speaking.
"It'll take a while to kill all those things, but I'm sure we can manage," Quim said confidently. "No. We don't want you to kill the beasts. We want you to capture or kill Herzart. He's the one leading this group, his death should break their morale and will hopefully shatter their chain of command. Also, this should divide their fleet, giving us an advantage over the enemy. If you can carry out this job and kill or capture Herzart, it would be a massive blow to their ground forces, then we could safely land troops planet side. Which in turn should divide their fleet and give us an advantage."
Quim nodded as Brigadier Runish finished. "Many men ejected from the carriers as they were destroyed. There are thousands of our troops stuck on the surface of that planet and they need support." Yittias told Quim with a look of desperation on his face.
Quim stood up from his chair and finished the last of his Mistick, he then dropped it to the ground and turned on his feet to walk out the door. "I'll assemble the squad and get them loaded up on our transporter. You send me the relevant data."
"The long-range comms are being blocked, but when you're down there you may receive short-range signals. If you can help anyone while on the surface, do, but your main priority is Herzart. Captured would be better, but, if you can't do that, kill him." Brigadier Runish exclaimed his sentence to the back of Quim, who left the room shortly after Runish finished talking.
While on his way to the hangar, Quim called his squad and had them meet him at the ship. Quim was the first to arrive. He looked up at the battle-worn troop transport, which had served him and his men for many missions. Quim had given her the name, Tera, after an old fling back on his home world. It was painted, so it wasn't uniform with any of the other ships in the hangar and it was an old model, the only one of its kind in the fleet. The side of the ship slid open to reveal the inside of it, Quim sat on the ground of the ship facing out at the hanger, with his legs dangling, while he waited for the others.
The first of the squad to arrive was the huge ex-farmer known as Triple, on account of the number of rations he ate, compared to everyone else. He was an explosives expert, as well as a door gunner. The second was the weedy pilot known as Bird. She was their engineer, but, took to piloting after their first pilot was eaten by worm crawlers back on a small colony planet they were assigned to. She had personally kept Tera running over the years and had even given it upgrades here and there. The Third was Lags The Eye, he had lost his other eye during an evacuation operation when molten fluid spilled on him. He had it replaced with a cybernetic one but still used his remaining real eye for sharpshooting. The fourth and final member of their squad was a Free Spacer who joined them a few years before the war, they called him Doc Freeman, and the squad decided to keep his origin to themselves. He was their medic, but he was good with rifles and close-quarters weaponry.
The squad was known to the other Confederation troops, as "Lifers." They weren't careering, or part-time, none of them had anywhere or anyone to go back to, each of them knew that this was it for them. All they had was each other, they didn't mind that, they were like a messed-up family. Suppose everyone needs one. Quim thought to himself when the last of the team arrived at the hangar. As they all stood there looking at him, he stood up, to address them.
"Another job is it Dert bird?" Triple asked in his usual gruff voice, desperately trying to hide a jovial expression. "No, I brought you lot down here because I love looking at your ugly mugs," Quim responded, to which Triple started to laugh.
"It's a capture or kill job lads, some Trisken warlord has been causing trouble and stopping us from landing the big carriers. The second mission is to give support to any Confederation soldiers we find down there, so Gizmo. Keep an eye out for anyone." The squad started to hoot at Lags.
"Bird, get Tera set up and ready to go. The rest of you. Load up. We might be going into a hot zone, so get behind the door guns, but, don't fire unless fired upon. We'd like to stay hidden as long as we can." With that Triple jumped up to the ship and offered a hand to Bird, but she refused. Triple then sat comfortably on the Swivel seat of his door gun.
As Quim watched the others board Tera he heard a familiar voice call out his name. "Dert." Quim knew it was Ohearah before turning.
"Oh, you're in trouble Dert bird." Triple said as Quim turned around. He watched as Ohearah walked down the hangar to them, shadowed by Five soldiers.
"I got some company for you. Think you can take this lot along for the ride and teach them a thing or two?" Quim looked at the sorry excuse for troops Ohearah had brought with him. "Them?" Quim looked them up and down. "Raw? I don't know about this Ohearah, bringing a bunch of raw recruits with us doesn't seem like a good idea."
"I recall a similar situation a long time ago. Bandit's raiding a small planet called Cudd IV, that my squad was sent to stop." "Okay, fair point." Quim tried to cut Ohearah off.
"Then who comes along? Only a sniveling little pup called Quim. None of us wanted to take him, on account of the crying, but, reluctantly we did. So, call this payback." Quim sighed to the jeering coming from his ship. "Always remember Dert Bird, first impressions last." Ohearah continued.
"Are you coming down as well, Ohearah?" Triple asked after he stopped laughing. "Me? What? Do you want me to wipe your ass and call you the bravest boy in the Confederation too?" Ohearah responded.
"We'll save that for after the mission Commander," Triple responded in an excited tone. Ohearah turned around to the people following him and gestured for them to get on the ship. Once they started sheepishly walking he turned and walked back the way he came.
Quim watched them pass by until one stopped. "Captain, it's an honor to meet you." "Cut the rank talk kid, call me anything other than Captain," Quim said, barely looking at the newb's wide-eyed expression.
"Raw. I like that name, can that be my nickname?" "No, and since you asked your nickname can be twinkle toes. Now, get on the ship, we have work to do." The wide-eyed expression turned into disappointment, as they turned and slowly got onto Tera.