Intrepid by Mike Shepherd

Author:Mike Shepherd [Shepherd, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Women marines, Longknife; Kris (Fictitious character), Interstellar travel, Navies - Officers, Navies
ISBN: 9780441016518
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 2008-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Thorpe scowled at Whitebred. He’d taken to summoning the businessman to the bridge whenever he talked to Cortez. “Those pharmaceutical precursors could still bail us out,” Whitebred said. “We have four years of harvesting already on board. They’d pay our costs even if we made nothing else.” “I don’t care about that,” Thorpe snapped. “I want to know if those beasties dig holes that are causing problems for our infantry. Do they dig holes people step in?” “How should I know?” the representative of the expedition’s financiers said with a shrug. “We buy what comes to market. We don’t care how it came there. What it looks like in the field. The smelly stuff is repulsive enough.” For another uncountable time, Thorpe noted how different businessmen and warriors looked at things. And how poorly prepared the intelligence was for this operation. Next time he did something like this … But before next time, Thorpe had to finish this time. He pounded on his commlink. “Mr. Whitebred once again is a glowing fount of ignorance. We’ll search our telemetry to see if we can spot anyone digging the holes that are troubling you.” “I’ve been looking at what you show ahead.” “It doesn’t look like much,” the spaceship commander said. There was a long pause before he got a reply from Cortez. “Someone’s in the hills overlooking us. I assume that’s a scout reporting our progress. I also see you’ve got some heat signatures under bushes and trees ahead of us along the road.” “But they’re too spread out to be worth an eighteen-inch laser shot,” Thorpe pointed out. “I bet,” Whitebred offered helpfully, “that as soon as we aren’t overhead, they start digging your holes.” “You know that for sure, sir,” Colonel Cortez said.

His “sir” was gauged to flail half the skin off Whitebred. “No, no, I don’t know anything for sure,” came in a crestfallen voice. “Thank you, sir, but I don’t need any half-baked guesses from orbit,” Cortez said.

“There is a group of people on the south side of the river,” Cortez said slowly. “They’ve been moving along slowly, showing up every pass, and growing larger. But they haven’t crossed the river. They keep the swamp between them and me.” “When they get to the causeway, they can either cut your line of communications or move to attack your rear.” Thorpe knew he was saying the obvious, but he needed to measure the morale of his ground contingent. Officers who lost the fighting spirit started looking over their shoulders for ghosts in their rear. “Not a problem. My supplies are in my carts. Once I destroy the main force, I can sweep that one up on my way back.” “Assuming the main force is ahead of us and not that one over there,” someone on the ground added. “There is that, Major Zhukov, there is that,” Cortez said. “Well, Captain Thorpe, if you don’t have anything else, my latest broken leg is now sedated and we are ready to move.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.