Jerry Pournelle - War World 1 by The Burning Eye

Author:The Burning Eye
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-04-04T23:22:46+00:00

Deathmaster Quilland was pleased. The fortifications were proceeding well. Best of all, though, were these cattle. They had already mounted several effective, if limited, assaults on his outlying positions. Two Soldiers had been lost, and several weapons, in exchange for only twenty-eight enemy. Quilland had decided that such a ratio meant these cattle showed promise. Haven indeed bred well.

Quilland favored the cattle with a thin smile. Perhaps his favorite example of their character had come only an hour ago. Assault Rank Bekker’s squad had almost been wiped out by his own men; the cattle had taken a Sauron radio from Dyksos’ unit and called in mortar fire from the Sauron RAM positions on the heights, into the Sauron team that was assaulting their position!

When the deception had been realized, only barely in time, all the cattle had escaped. One of his Rankers had asked Quilland if the cattle here could possibly be that good.

It would appear so, Quilland thought.

Diettinger finally shrugged off enough of the effects of the stimulant to reach full recuperative sleep. The state left a Soldier completely defenseless, and was only used when in a secure area. Thus Diettinger had no way of knowing when Second Rank entered his cabin.

Second stood in the doorway a moment, then closed and locked it behind her. She could see that Diettinger’s defensive senses had not awakened him at her entry. Third-level sleep, she decided. Good.

She sat down at the desk in a corner of the room and waited.

“Fomoria, this is Groundmaster Helm. Shuttle now departing.” As in any such operation, in any military, his actual rank was immaterial; while he was the designated Groundmaster, he exercised the power of life and death over anything that moved within his domain, from the lowest ranker to Diettinger himself.

The landing zone was at the northeastern limit of the Valley, directly at the base of the mountain pass in whose upper reaches sat the Citadel. An early attack against the landing zone had been mounted by the cattle and suffered disastrous losses. They had scattered and fled, and had not made the same mistake again.

Sauron patrols had collected local beasts of burden, and these were used to immediately begin the transshipment of materials up into the pass. All technical gear had particular priority: eugenics equipment first, data processing gear second, energy supply gear third, and so on.

Groundmaster Helm felt the most crucial machinery was being neglected and assigned extra men to its security. Fifty Soldiers stood guard over the vast array of heavy machining and engineering equipment. Helm knew the Saurons were here to stay, and even the best-cared-for weapon broke down eventually. With this gear they could manufacture spare parts for all but the most advanced energy weapons in their arsenal. Helm was not about to let anything happen to it.

Unlike virtually every other Sauron in the force, Helm had not embraced the myth they had used to invade Haven; when Diettinger canceled the order to use the code name Dol Guldur, Helm had gratefully reverted to calling the ship by her true name.

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