Act 1

The Birth of Harbinger Unit

Chapter 3

“Shit!” Anita gasped, looking at the crack in her pistol’s suppressor. “Of all the times… Falkner, do you have a spare silencer?”

“Negative.”

“Damn it. Alright head over to the far tank and start taking out their crews. I’m going to have to start doing this the hard way. Move it!”

Falkner scrambled off without a word, sliding from one set of treads to the next and pointing out patrols to Anita while he was in sight.

Anita, however, was able to pay scant attention to Falkner as she reviewed her mental catalogue of opposing forces’ vehicles. Muttering to herself the entire time.

“English heavy armor… designated Halberd… wiring for the turret should be…come on… ah-ha!” Anita placed her hand on a small square access plate just below the first exhaust pipe. Upon prying the panel loose Anita saw a tangle of wires, none marked aside from the varying colors.

“Okay, power to the turret should be… parallel black stripes on… red…? No, yellow. I hope.”

Making a mental prayer Anita quickly cut the cable with her knife and waited for a sound of alarm from the pilot. When none came she exhaled in comfort and quickly replaced the panel she had removed. When that was done she slid quickly under the body of the tank and began searching for another panel, finding it almost immediately.

“Power to the fuel pump and engine… disabled. And Falkner should be finishing up with number two right about now.”

“How are they doing?” Kevin asked impatiently.

“They’re fine for now. The patrols seem pretty lax, all things considered. Either the troops here aren’t prepared for anything to happen on the border, or they expect to be done soon. I can’t tell yet,” Kain followed one of the guards with his crosshairs as he lazily paced outside the entrance of a hastily erected tent.

“Kevin,” Drake said abruptly. “Do you trust Cosgrove?”

“I trust that he’s a man who places a high value on his own life. And I trust that, thanks to your little ‘accident’ with the comms, he knows he’s only safe so long as he can follow orders. Beyond that, I don’t think he’s the kind of man that could be trusted to watch my cat. Why do you ask?”

“Just wanted to see where you stand,” Drake shrugged.

“I don’t think so. You don’t strike me as that kind of guy.”

“Oh? And how do I strike you, then?”

“It’ll have to wait,” Kain said urgently. “There’s the all-clear. Are we moving in to finish up?”

“Drake and I are. You stay here to keep us covered.”

“I could do a better job of giving you support if I were closer, you know,” Kain said, standing up beside Drake.

“No. I need you to stay here to keep Cosgrove in check. If anything seems out of place with him, get in touch with me over the radio soonest. I don’t care what kind of situation we’re in.”

“Will do. Good luck in there.”

“Thanks. Drake, on three.”

With the threat from the tanks eliminated Drake and Kevin had regrouped with Anita and Falkner quickly and began discussing the plan from there.

“How many guards on-site?” Kevin asked Anita.

“We’ve identified four patrolling the camp. Five minute intervals between them, give or take thirty seconds. All said, security’s way too loose for what seems to be going on here. Especially if there really is an officer supervising all this.”

Sirens blared at that moment, not giving any more chance for discussion. Men came pouring from their tents, weapons at the ready, and went immediately to the tank Kevin and the others were hiding behind. Slow footsteps sounded on the gravel coming toward them before an authoritative voice called out.

“We know you’re back there and we’re well aware of your vehicle on the plateau, but we’ll deal with that nuisance in due time. Why not come out and make this easier on yourselves? No doubt you’ve killed most of the men in these vehicles, and that makes for more than enough blood for one night. Though if you take too long one or two of these men might get excited and let a shot or two slip. If that were to happen, well…” The speaker let his words trail off suggestively.

Kevin nodded to his party, each showing their hands before standing up and stepping into view of twenty men arranged in a loose semi-circle around one highly decorated officer. The officer smiled and waved off his soldiers, who slowly lowered their weapons before stepping back a few paces and falling into a loose formation.

“Tell me, with what nation do you align yourselves?”

“We’re not recognized by any nation’s armies,” Kevin answered without hesitation.

“Of course not. But that isn’t what I asked,” the officer flashed a lady-killing smile. “Guerilla units like yours are rarely given official recognition by anyone, but you still act in the interests of a very specific country. Given the nature of this attack and how close it is to the former German border, I’m willing to guess you work for the R.C.A. But I wonder, being as young as you are, if you know the history behind that army.”

Falkner grinned, answering without any consideration of whether the officer might have been setting a trap. “The Royal Conquest Army got its beginnings as a group of nomadic mercenaries that hired themselves out to warring factions within governments. As they traveled they were known to recruit members of the defeated factions and throw out multiple operating branches to increase income and growth rates. Eventually they came to be large enough to form their own army and called their leader a king. That was King Bradley, who first ordered the march against old Germany and Italy and used his knowledge of the enemy to ensure the victory of his men. King Bradley was killed in a later battle at the border of Austria and his leading general took the throne to become King Joseph. King Joseph made an alliance with the Austrian forces and settled into a tenuous truce with your Queen Maria of England. However, an assassin hired by the Duke of Spain murdered King Joseph in his sleep before the treaty could be signed, throwing the two nations back into a sort of cold war. King Reynard took the throne and has worked diligently to forge a lasting peace between his people and England during his reign.”

“Someone’s read their textbooks. But what would you say if I told you that everything you know about the founding of your precious nameless country is a lie? What would you do if you learned that even now, there is an association of men planning the demise of your King Reynard in order to put another in his place just as they’ve done for the past thirty years? Hmm?”

“I’d say you’re a terrible liar,” Anita spat. “There are documents and witnesses that prove the death in battle of King Bradley, and King Joseph’s assassin confessed in front of thousands of witnesses. He even brought the contract and showed the payments into his account from the Duke.”

“Documents and witnesses can be forged and created as necessary, girl. I can provide hundreds of witnesses at a whim that will say I and my men were never here. And confessions can be coerced just as easily. And do you think the Duke of Spain would really leave such an obvious paper trail that leads directly to him as a written contract? No. And for the governing powers of your country not to have seen that, there must be powerful people indeed pulling the strings of this shadow organization.”

“So what?” Drake growled. “Where are you going with all this?”

“To be perfectly honest,” the officer smiled and swept his hair back under his cap. “I’m not entirely sure. At first I thought you may have been a routine border patrol that had come to investigate and eliminate the threat that had gathered here, but that theory was shot to Hell the moment I saw the handiwork of your friends here. So then, I thought you may have been a team sent by the previously mentioned organization to help us along. Of course, if that were the case we likely would never have known you were here at all. So then the question remains, why are you here?”

“We’re deserters from the R.C.A,” Kevin grumbled. “We thought we could obtain supplies and crossing passes here, maybe even capture an officer to use as leverage. I apologize for my subordinate’s actions regarding your tank crews. He’s always been overzealous.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m not upset about the men. Men can replaced; retrained. Only, when are you going to stop lying to me? If you were deserters how would you have come across a vehicle such as that? There’s no knowledge of it in any record or intelligence report, and it’s nothing you could have pieced together from scrap you would find on old battlefields. You’re going to talk eventually, and I’m going to make sure I’m here when you-”

The jolt of a bullet’s impact in the officer’s chest came before the sound of the shot had reached anyone’s ears. Three more came after it, claiming two of his nearby guards before Falkner and Drake sprang into action, clapping their two nearest captors in choke holds and firing their side-arms from behind their human shields. Several men fell in the initial chaos.

Anita and Kevin were only slightly slower in response. Kevin dashed for the officer’s automatic pistol, but cursed when he found it was not loaded, no doubt a precaution against escape attempts during interrogations. Fortunately it was not long before he heard the motor of the tank on his left begin to turn the powerful gun until it aimed into the camp. Kevin, taking his opportunity manned the machine gun atop the turret and began firing at the still shocked soldiers beneath him while Anita used the main cannon to destroy the missiles and their launch platforms. The skirmish lasted forty-five seconds from Kain’s first shot to Falkner slitting the throat of his captive, marking the last enemy accounted for.

With the enemy presence annihilated, Kevin tried to contact Cosgrove over their designated radio frequency, but found that Cosgrove was unable to receive. Repeated attempts to reach Kain also came up negative.

“Falkner, I can’t get in touch with Kain or Cosgrove. Go with Anita and check in with them. Drake and I will deal with any interference down here while we scavenge for what we’ll need for the mission.”

“Will do. Should we move the transport closer if we can bring her down safely?”

“Yeah, go ahead. We may find more than we bargained for here, and that’s not exactly an easy haul to begin with. Drake, let’s get to it.”

“What, exactly, are we looking for, Kevin?” Drake said calmly as he searched the fresh corpses for anything of use or value.

“A long range rifle of English manufacture, for one. Beyond that, I haven’t quite decided yet. Operational timetables, intelligence reports, and other documents are always a bonus, but use your best discretion for supplies other than the rifle.”

“So,” Drake said after long moments with no contact from Falkner or Anita. “You never did answer my question. What sort of man do I strike you as?”

“The kind that wouldn’t turn on someone in his own unit unless it was for the greater good. The quiet, dependable guy that always seems to turn up at just the right moment. And there’s nothing more suspicious than showing up like that. How did you know the other team was coming during those drills?”

“I can’t say that I knew for certain, but I had a hunch. It was like there was something in my head that knew, and I got to pick up on a little of that.”

“And you expect me to believe that?”

“That’s up to you; I’m just telling you what you asked. If there’s anything I’ve learned about you so far it’s that you’re not exactly the trusting type. Good thing for us we just need to follow orders to stay alive, huh?” Drake smirked before ducking into a tent where he called for Kevin immediately.

“This was that officer’s quarters,” Kevin said with sudden clarity as he examined the orderly stack of footlockers and folders. “I doubt he’d be dumb enough to keep anything of real value in here. Which is exactly why we’re going to tear this place apart whenever those two get back here.”

“Harbinger One, this is Strike Team Leader,” Falkner’s voice came over the communications receiver in Kevin’s ear. “You’d better come back to the transport, sir. Better make it double-time, too.”

“Damn it,” Kevin kicked a stack of folders over.

Drake stooped and picked up a loose bundle of papers that had fallen out. It depicted a map of the capital city and the interior of a house, showing complete views of every room and marking important locations.

“Nothing is ever simple,” Drake muttered aloud before stuffing the stack into his coat pocket and dashing out behind Kevin.