Caine's Mutiny by Charles E. Gannon

Author:Charles E. Gannon [Gannon, Charles E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Action & Adventure, Space Opera
ISBN: 9781476782195
Google: N6TCDAEACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2017-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Nine

OVERLOOKING THE KAKAAGSUKH RIVER VALLEY, BD+56 2966 TWO (“TURKH’SAAR”)

Caine and Bannor watched the Cayuse swing north, staying beneath the backslope lip of the ridgeline. The Special Forces major glanced at the electronic map. “I was coming over to update you. The Hkh’Rkh only sent three drones across the river last night. Civilian models. Our snipers put them down before they got fifty meters inland. If that’s an honest measure of what they have in their remote sensing golfbag, then Yaargraukh’s report on them is accurate; they are definitely minor league.”

“You can trust him, Bannor. Whatever he’s not sharing, it’s because he’s Honor-bound not to.”

Rulaine nodded. “Fair enough—particularly since our other observations bear out what he either confirmed or revealed. There are scores of enemy scouts hidden along the opposite bank of the river. They’re stretched out along the five-kilometer stretch where all three vehicle-rated fords are located.”

“Any fire from them?”

“No, but our people have been observing a lot of hand signals, a lot of movement to and from their rear area. Just like you and he were mentioning.”

Riordan nodded. “The Hkh’Rkh tend to stick with the basics. You saw that in Indonesia.”

“Yeah, but there it was harder to tell just how basic Hkh’Rkh tech and doctrine was. I figured they were just leaning on the Arat Kur for secure comms and sensors.”

Riordan began studying the electronic map more closely…just as a half-hued red icon blinked into existence just ten kilometers away from the impact site, straddling the southern edge of the display.

“Suspected contact,” Bannor muttered. “Do we retask one of the EXHALTEDs to conduct detailed surveillance on those coordinates?”

Riordan shook his head, hated doing so. “We can’t. Those two sky-eyes are the only reason we’ve got this good a picture of enemy activity. We start zooming in here and there and we could miss a large movement, or at least see it too late to react properly. Do we have any drones down there?”

Rulaine stared. “That’s completely out of the AO, Caine. Any Hkh’Rkh south of the fords can’t get to us. The river is totally unfordable at that point. It’s too rough for boats, even: there’s a series of waterfalls that starts just downstream of our positions.”

“Then why the hell are they sending a scout unit toward the site?”

Bannor’s voice was reassuringly level. “Commodore, we don’t know there’s a Hkh’Rkh unit moving in that direction. All we’ve got are sensor returns indicating an enemy force may be at those coordinates.”

“True, but we have to presume that it’s an actual contact. Which means we—or rather Dr. Sleeman—has trouble on the way. And her only option is to leave, since the site is on the Hkh’Rkh side of the river.” And why the hell haven’t you called in yet, Melissa?

Bannor studied the region more closely, zoomed in on it. “It’s mostly open terrain, but that enemy unit—if it’s a unit—has a long walk ahead of it.”

“But why go there at all unless old, embedded sensors have detected Sleeman’s presence?”

Bannor frowned.

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