Suns (LGBT - Sci-fi - Romance)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

Connell called the Captain on his wristcom and gave him his report as factually as he could. Given Rice's evident opinion of him he hoped he would take him seriously, he was half afraid he would belittle his observations, but to his surprised relief Rice only asked a few questions before telling him he would be there as soon as he could assemble the team.  

Rice was surprised at how excited he was by the news from Connell. At last, something he could get his teeth into, an opportunity to show the men he was more than an authoritarian figurehead. He had excelled in tactics at the Academy, an operation like this was right up his alley. He gave short clear orders as he assembled his team, making sure they all wore protective clothes and carried gas canisters as well as two stunners. In less than half an hour he closed the station doors to the public temporarily and boarded the Patrol shuttle with his team of six, leaving only one man behind to keep an eye on things on Aykut. 

Connell and Nakamura were both ready and waiting when the shuttle landed and disgorged its passengers. 

Ser Flannery approached the patrol men, half wishing he would be called upon to help. Connell introduced him quickly to Rice and was startled to see the different way he greeted the older man. 

"Thank you for your help ser, I really appreciate it," he said warmly, shaking the other's hand. "I understand you were in the Patrol yourself?" 

"Yes Captain, I was stationed on Bast, in the office there for twenty years." Flannery announced proudly. He stared hard at Rice, he looked oddly familiar. Rice spoke again and he put the thought aside to think about later. 

"Excellent. I was hoping it wouldn't be too much of an imposition to ask you to monitor our communications while we're in action. It would mean I could take all seven men with me, eight with Nakamura." 

The other man nodded, although he would have liked to be in on the action, he knew he wasn't as young as he used to be. Besides, communications was an important task, it would be up to him to organise assistance if anything went wrong. 

Rice thanked him and delegated Kim to set up the communication device properly for the Resort manager and give him a quick refresher on how to operate it. 

While that was happening he outlined his strategy to the other men. It was a fairly simple plan. The two hovercars, carrying three men each would circle round behind the tents, far enough away that the noise wouldn't alarm the occupants and discharge their passengers to continue the approach on foot. Each man would toss a gas canister into a tent, ideally rendering everyone unconscious before they knew what was happening. The fact that one of the men was carrying a highly illegal laser gun was sufficient to justify the ambush. And in the unlikely event that the intruders were innocent campers, Rice could always apologise later. 

Meanwhile Connell, in charge of the shuttle, would approach the camp from the air as soon as he got the go ahead from Rice on the ground. He, and the two men with him, would then be in a position to either land and assist, or worst case, fire upon the tents from the shuttle.  

Everything went according to plan. The hovercars landed without any trouble, one to the north and the other to the west of the camp leaving the men about half a kilometre to travel by foot. The team kept in contact through visual signals on their wristcoms, the last thing they wanted was for anyone to hear voices coming from the forest. 

Rice signalled for everyone to halt about twenty metres from the camp. He checked that each man was ready and in position before giving the order to proceed. Stealthily, the six men crept forward through the forest. It was now late afternoon, almost evening and the light was already fading, the sun out of sight behind the mountains. Rice would have liked to make the assault at night, but the sound of the hovercars muted though it was, would have carried much further and been much more likely to attract unwanted attention. It would have meant a long detour around the camp for the approach and a long walk through the forest for the men. Even with night glasses, a forest was difficult to traverse in the dark. 

Passing several kilometres above them in the shuttle, Connell sent Rice the information that there were two men out in the open, and heat signatures for another ten inside the tents. Rice passed on the intelligence to his team and gave the go ahead. Still moving stealthily, they encircled the camp. Before they knew what hit them, Rice himself took out the two men standing outside with his stunner. In less than a minute, each tent filled with nerve gas as his officers swept through the small camp. After allowing a couple of minutes for the gas to do its work, the Patrol men entered and cleared each tent, checking for weapons and making sure any occupants were unconscious but still breathing. 

"Looks like they were packing up, sir," reported Grigoryan, eyeing the boxes stacked inside a tent. "We might have just caught them in time." 

"Make sure all the prisoners are secure, will you?" ordered Rice. He turned to Nakamura. "How many can you hold in Hathor, Corporal?" 

"Only one really sir, unless you want them to double up. It's only a small cell," Nakamura apologised. 

"That's fine. I'll ask Connell to ferry them back to Aykut," decided the Captain.  

"Sir? Can you come and look at this?" called Grigoryan, from inside the tent. "I think I've found silver ore in one of these boxes." 

Rice went across quickly to see for himself. "Yes that's silver all right, good work Grigoryan, now we have solid evidence. I think it's too dangerous to leave it here unprotected, we'll take everything up with us I think, sort it out properly later. Just make sure you all record everything as you go." Rice called the shuttle and told Connell what had happened. It would take several trips to transport prisoners and their gear up to Aykut and he sent another two men up with Connell to help with the unloading. 

Everyone worked hard and Rice, Gregoryan, Kim and Nakamura were packing up the last few items, waiting for the shuttle's final return, when three men burst out of the forest behind them, weapons drawn. 

"Don't shoot to kill, fuckhead! It's the Patrol!" shouted one of the men, just before Rice saw Kim take a laser to the leg and fall to the ground bleeding, then felt his own legs give way beneath him.  

Everything went dark.