Vivid Stars Online

We packed both squads and all their gear into the gunboat the following day. If not for Linnea handling the piloting, we probably wouldn't have fit; as it was our twenty-three-person team was two over the usual twenty-one-person capacity.

Thankfully, Elana had managed to squeeze an extra pair of seats into the back and run the math to ensure we could handle the additional weight. It would burn some extra fuel on the trip, but we'd make it.

Of course, we would have all fit in the frigate easily, but I was wary of taking that away from the safety of the town. The shadowy and still unidentified group of foreign spies had already tried to break into it once.

The last thing we needed was to incite an attack on the above-ground team while I was busy down in the tunnels. I might be confident in the strength of my strike teams, but that was just too much of a risk.

It is much better to leave it at the town where it was well inside the radius of our patrol routes.

I'm going to have to do something about that going forward, I mused as the gunboat smoothly lifted into the air. At some point, I'll want to bring it with me; it's just too useful as a support base.

I might need a dedicated defense team for it. That would help on the ground and also if we got boarded in a space battle. Something like the strike teams, but with equipment better suited for the task.

Can we even fire guns inside it without risking a hull breach? Surely, the Arkathians would have advanced enough tech to prevent something so obvious. I'd better check with Elana, just in case. She might also have some ideas on internal defenses.

It wasn't something I technically needed to meet my repair quest or make the Duchess happy, but I wanted to do more than the bare minimum. I would be putting the lives of every crew member at risk when I took it into battle; anything I could do to mitigate risks now might save people later.

Elana was sitting a few chairs down, but it wasn't difficult to swap mid-flight. As long as we weren't in combat, the gunboat flew so smoothly that we could have all stayed standing if not for the lack of space.

The discussion was fruitful and took up a considerable portion of the flight. After running the math, Elana was confident that any small arms fire should be fine. The reinforced outer hull was too tough to be breached by that level of firepower.

However, something like Linnea's plasma cannon posed more of a risk. The odds were still good that the hull would withstand a shot from it, but subsequent shots, or simply bad luck, might result in a breach. Grenades were in the same 'don't risk it' category.

That was good to know and gave us a solid baseline to work with. With the basics down, I called Captain Hendricks and began going over what we would need. Given our timeframe, we had to get started on training a group of soldiers now if we wanted them to be ready.

The captain quickly picked up the idea and suggested that a combination of rifles and melee weapons would be best given the close quarters. Much like the tunnels we were about to venture into, it would be easy for someone to get in close on the ship.

We ended with a general plan, which he would work on further as training began. With that out of the way, Elana and I finished with a discussion on automated defenses. There, time and funds turned out to be the issue.

In an ideal world, we would fit all hull-adjacent corridors and rooms with automated turrets that could be activated to counter a boarding action. I'd always wondered why ships didn't have those in movies, and in real life, at least, the reason was the cost.

The frigate was simply big enough that fitting turrets everywhere would be enormously expensive. The only places that would be worth it were the cargo bay and the airlock.

Anywhere else would be in trouble if the enemy managed to cut their way in. Eventually, we decided to beef up Elana's drone presence on the ship. So far, it had been entirely engineering drones, but with this plan she would also expand into combat drones.

They wouldn't be as good as real soldiers, but they should at least manage to hold the enemy off long enough for them to arrive. Since I didn't want to have dozens, or even more, soldiers covering every part of the ship at once, that was the minimum I was happy with.

It would still cost a significant amount of money, of course, but far less than my original turret idea would have. That meant it would have to wait until after we began selling our harvest, putting it right up against the earliest time we might need to be ready.

By the time we'd finished, more than four hours had passed, and we were only about an hour from our target. It was astonishing to think that a months-long journey on foot could be completed in half a day via air.

It was enough to make me wish we could just fly everywhere first, but I'd seen enough to know that wasn't possible. We'd almost lost the gunboat to a beast attack once because I hadn't been careful enough, and even the army didn't send aircraft in without intel.

The danger was too high if you didn't know what the local beasts were like. Just on this trip alone, Linnea had avoided several areas we'd identified on our trip as having flying species dangerous enough to threaten the gunboat.

I spent the rest of the trip reviewing the plan with the two squad leaders. We'd all been over it multiple times before, but it was best to be sure. This was going to be a dangerous mission, and even a single second of indecision at the wrong moment could get someone killed.

The first squad was out the door only seconds after the gunboat touched down. While they lacked the heavier weapons still in storage, they each had a rifle or shotgun.

The second squad wasn't far behind, and I tracked their movements on my scanner as they spread out around the shuttle. Linnea remained seated in the pilot's chair as I did so, ready to take off again if needed.

This was an army tactic we'd learned about in our training before the mission. For missions far away from backup or resupply, keeping your transport safe was the highest priority.

If it got damaged or destroyed in a fight, we'd have no choice but to hold our for hours before anyone else could get here. The only exception would be orbital drop troops, but that was a level of support I wasn't even sure I could swing if needed.

I'd fought enough massive beasts to know that the ship could be in danger from even an errant swing or a missed Psi attack. If the squads encountered any significant danger, we would take off and circle until they defeated it or retreated out of danger.

Each squad encountered a couple of small red dots, but each lasted only seconds before they started moving again. It was clear they really did know what they were doing.

"Nice not to have to do the grunt work for a change," Linnea called back, her tone tense despite the small laugh that accompanied it.

"As if. Anyone who's ever met you knows you must hate this," Elana responded with a snort. "Just admit it; you'd much rather be out there in the action than sitting here waiting."

I nodded with her, though only Elana could see with Linnea's eyes still locked on the controls. "I agree; you don't need to put on a front. Thank you for staying at the controls; I know it has to be hard for you."

Linnea sighed with a slight shake of her head. "OK, yeah. It's hard just to sit here knowing people are out there fighting for us. That's supposed to be my job. But I wanted to be a pilot too, and this comes with the territory."

"Just… maybe don't ask me to do the non-combat piloting too often. Yeah?" Her tone was soft enough to take any bite out of it, but I could still tell she was serious.

"Of course. We'd have used one of the normal pilots if we hadn't already been over capacity. Since we'll be getting dedicated VTOLs for our ground troops soon, we shouldn't have the problem again."

She nodded, still with her eyes focused on the controls, and we waited for another couple of minutes before the all-clear came in. We all relaxed at that, and Linnea pulled me into a hug as we moved to the exit. It looked like there weren't any hard feelings, but I'd have to be more mindful in the future.

Leading people was just so damn complicated, with so many moving pieces to consider. Sometimes, putting people in certain positions seemed like the perfect, logical answer, only for it to be entirely wrong.

I thought I was gradually improving, but I still had a long way to go. Hopefully, the tutoring I had planned would help.

With the area secure, both squads unloaded their heavier weaponry before helping Elana with the generator. The primary attack squad, the one joining us underground, had already determined that the elevator was dead again.

While that was expected news, it was still annoying and inconvenient. Not only would we need to wait for Elana to hook the generator up, but it would also put a definite time limit on the mission.

"We've got three days of juice with the spare fuel we brought," she said while turning the generator on. The lights above us flickered, then stayed steady.

"After that, they'll have to start siphoning the gunboat's tank," she continued with a gesture at the secondary squad. "I've walked several people through how to do that, but it won't be an infinite supply."

"I figure we have maybe another week after that before we risk not having enough to fly back. That's assuming we leave the generator running twenty-four-seven, of course," she finished, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"We'll have to," I responded with a sigh. "the tunnels are a long way down, and I'm confident there's a system in place to cycle air through them. I don't know how long we'd have if we turned the power off, but I don't want to risk it.

Elana shuddered, nodding vigorously. "Ugh... yeah, let's not risk suffocating down there."

She spent several more minutes running diagnostics before announcing that the system looked fully functional. With the elevator running again, we could finally start sending people down.

Given how late in the day it was, the plan was to initially scout the situation, then return to the surface to sleep. On subsequent days, we might sleep down there if we had to travel far enough from the elevator, but with it so close, there was no reason to risk it today. It would also give us a few hours where we could save fuel.

We sent Linnea along with the four close-combat soldiers and a medic in the initial descent. While the elevator was theoretically large enough for us to all squeeze in, being packed in like that would be horrible in a combat situation.

It was possible that they would be attacked as soon as they opened the doors, so keeping some room to maneuver was a must. Six was the best number for that.

If they could secure the corridor, I would continue with the remaining squad members. Then Elana would come last. Today, she would be in a mostly empty elevator, but going forward, she would bring down our extra supplies in case we stayed down there.

I'd wanted to go down with the first group - I was certainly used to leading from the front - but Linnea insisted I stay back. Apparently, I had to 'start acting more like a count,' but I was pretty sure it was just minor payback for getting her stuck in the gunboat during our landing.

The elevator descended without issue, and we soon got an all-clear message back. I followed with my group, soon finding myself back in a familiar corridor. This time, it was at least lit, with the generator above connected to the underground power grid.

Apart from us, it was empty and quiet, the only sound being twelve people carefully checking their gear. Not long after, the elevator returned one last time with Elana. We would leave it down here on the bottom level in case we needed a quick escape.

In that instance, we'd likely chance all packing ourselves in. Leaving some people behind waiting for the elevator would be suicide, particularly if we got another wave attack.

With everyone assembled, I did a final check to ensure we were ready before giving the command to move out. As planned, the four close combat troops moved out first, spears ready to defend against any surprise attacks.

I was behind them with the scouts, the tunnels being unsuited to their normal skills. Here, they would just add firepower and an additional line of defense for the people behind us.

Elana and the two medics came next, far enough back to avoid immediate attacks but still well within the formation. While armed, the three of them were considered the most vulnerable of our group.

They were also some of the most valuable. The medics would be needed to keep any wounded alive, and Elana would need to work with any Arkathian tech.

Lastly were Linnea and the two heavy weapon squad members. While all three were armed with plasma cannons, they currently had their rifles out and were walking backward, covering our rear.

It was a formation we'd drilled endlessly over our days of training, and we worked almost seamlessly as we advanced. At the junction, we turned right and moved toward the Arkathian living quarters.

As a dead end, it was best to clear it first so we could be more confident that our backs were safe. There was also still a small hope that the generator down here would be intact, which would remove our time limit.

In short order, we came to the entrance, which should have been almost blocked by a wall of bodies. Instead, the corridor was empty, with only splashes of blood to indicate that a fight had ever happened.

Did they eat the corpses? I wondered with a shudder as we continued to advance. When the first soldier moved through the doorway, he paused with a curse.

"I think I just broke some kind of trip-wire or web," he called back. "It's almost invisible, but I saw it move when it snapped."

I had barely enough time to register what he was saying before a terrifyingly familiar screech echoed around us.