(eng) Mike Shepherd - Kris Longknife 06 by Intrepid

Author:Intrepid [Intrepid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

29

Kris was glad to see Jack’s rig being waved in by her scout troop. They motored up and down the breaks that were the prelude to the hills ahead. At the bottom of many of the low, rolling hills were small streams, fed by the distant mountains. The sun had been up for only an hour, but it was already hot.

Jack reported with a salute and a smile. “Good to see you again, Princess. You’ve got quite a following,” the Marine captain said, taking in the lines of trucks behind her.

Kris returned the salute. “Where are your troops?”

Jack glanced over his shoulder at only three trucks. “I didn’t see much use in bringing them back and forth. They’re out ahead of you, digging holes in the croplands. It’s not going to be a lot of fun walking in their footsteps.”

Kris gave over to her captain any doubts she still had. He might be a short-timer in the Corps, but he’d been a long time looking after her hide.

“Oh, I passed that zoo you sent forward. Lot of unhappy campers. And not just the pigs and goats,” he chuckled.

Kris shook her head. “They’re all just looking for a fight. And not a second’s thought for the butcher bill.”

“The butcher’s bill is never in the vids,” Jack said.

“And if these young fools don’t pay it a bit of mind, they’re going to run when the first penny comes due,” Kris said. Just once she’d like to lead a real command with trained troops.

No, she had done that finally, and they’d all been just as eager for the first shot. But none had run at the first casualty. Marines wouldn’t think of doing that. The locals she had strung out behind her might be another matter entirely.

“The Wasp’s about due over the horizon. Let’s see what Drago has to show us,” Kris said, changing the topic.

Captain Drago greeted them cheerfully, as someone might who’d slept in his own bed and eaten in his own wardroom. Kris tried not to grumble; her quarters for the night had been a hayloft in a barn. Her breakfast, a canteen of water and a half loaf of the hard bread they made from the roughly ground grain of the perennial grass they were driving over.

There was a reason she had joined the Navy.

It took Chief Beni a moment to organize his sensor feeds into a coherent picture and download it to Kris. “Colonel Cortez appears to have spent the night at the end of that causeway and is just now moving north.”

Jack ran his fingers over the orbital image. “He’s deploying his light infantry for flankers and a van. His heavy infantry is holding his center with these carts. Looks like he’s using his hostages for mules. And has them in front.”

“You booby-trapping the road?” Kris asked.

“Nope, but plenty of holes around it. Should be rough on the van and the flankers.” An update of the image came through. The picture Nelly projected on the back wall of the truck they rode in wavered and settled down.

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