Starfist: Technokill by David Sherman; Dan Cragg

Author:David Sherman; Dan Cragg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Technological, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Life on Other Planets, Thrillers, Military, Marines, General
ISBN: 9780345435910
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2000-07-31T12:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

"Oh, hell! We've got a problem!" the Marquis de Rien's radar tech shouted into the comm to the bridge.

Sly Henderson, the man in charge of the Avionian ground operations, hit the switch that gave him two-way communications with the comm shack. "What kind of problem?" he asked with no more than mild interest. All they'd seen near the ship's planetfall during the months they'd been planetside was an occasional wandering nomad. The nomads never stuck around for long, especially not when he sent out a few men with blasters to shoo them away.

"Someone's coming planetside, and I think they're looking for us."

Henderson shrugged, even though the tech couldn't see him. "So? Those eggheads up there come planetside sometimes."

"Not like this they don't," the tech said. Fear that edged on panic was audible in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Henderson stood as he asked the question.

"The eggheads loop down, take a couple orbits to get planetside. There are two shuttles coming almost straight down."

"Shit," Henderson swore under his breath. "I'm on my way."

A moment later Henderson strode into the comm shack, which was lit only by the displays linked to the surveillance units his crew had placed in a large circle around the ship when they first landed.

"What do you have?"

"Look at this," the tech said. He tapped a few keys on the control board under one of the displays and pointed a finger at the screen. The display replayed what it had recorded moments earlier. The streaks of two fast-moving shuttle craft angled downward across the screen.

Henderson felt his stomach knot up. "What's their location?"

"They'll touch down a hundred kilometers northwest of here."

"How soon?"

The tech peered at a scrolling column of numbers and swallowed. "Right about now."

"Damn!" Henderson had seen that kind of landing approach once before, when he was smuggling military hardware to some rebels on Fiesta de Santiago. Confederation Marines came in; that was the way they made planetfall. When the Marines had raided the smugglers' base, he was one of the few to escape. There was only one thing they could do now.

"Secure this place, we're getting out of here." As he raced back to the bridge he snapped orders into his pocket comm for the Marquis de Rien to launch.

Fifteen minutes later the Marquis de Rien launched.

Henderson knew that keeping the ship ready to go at a moment's notice was a good idea. Now, as he watched the local star swell through the polarized image in the forward viewscreen, he saw confirmation of his caution.

"This is where they were, all right, Skipper," Gunny Thatcher said when he caught up with Captain Conorado. "Looks like they left in a hurry." He nodded at Lieutenant Giordano, the company's executive officer.

Conorado grunted. He'd just finished checking the disposition of his men around the smugglers' base.

The small vale in the side of the ridge was littered with the trash that always seemed to be left behind by civilized men. Without getting close enough to examine the detritus, he was sure some of it was still usable.

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