are late is we had trouble getting the big boy settled enough to load. The handlers had to feed the monster two whole steers to quiet him.”
“Point taken,” he acknowledged. “Still, in certain cases the Red might be just what is needed to put the scare in these crooks.”
“The Browns are enough,” she countered. “Let’s face it, big is big. Four tons of beast is quite frightening enough.”
“Perhaps. See you at the briefing at 1400 hours,” this time he did salute. Yoria watched him walk back to the makeshift tent at the perimeter of the newly erected army base. She’d always enjoyed his backside; his broad shoulders and tight ass. After being his sleep partner for almost eight months, she had taken command of the beast unit. The two of them had unfortunately drifted apart after that. Since he was in charge of the inclusion operations, she saw him every once in awhile when their paths crossed on assignments. Each time her emotions filled her with regret.
Behind her the riders were disembarking, coming down the ramp slowly. Every one of them was frowning, one never got used to the heat of these worlds. Some were shaking off sleep having grabbed a nap during the Jump flight. It had taken fifteen hours to take the Jump from the Castine’s moon station. The flight had taken another two hours of regular spaceflight to get here. Her squad was trained, however, to recover quickly and had medication to help with the symptoms.
“Fall in,” she yelled when they had all made it to the bottom of the ramp. The eight men and four women were an unruly bunch. The Beast Squad had a ruthless reputation. It really stemmed from their actions on shore leave. Wild drunken rowdy parties were a norm. The crazy merrymaking on their time off was a much-needed safety valve. The job of belonging to the Beast Contingent was not only demanding, the operations were extremely dangerous. Most of the army recognized this fact and left the monster teams, as they were known, alone to police themselves. Many took a wide berth of the team. The riders and handlers were unique individuals, not everyone could handle a four-ton animal. Recruits were always welcomed but few made it past the training period. The three squads were always looking for more soldiers to join them. It didn’t successfully happen very often.
She glanced at her crew of misfits. All were brawny, including the women, and scruffy looking. Many of the men had beards and long hair. The women, on the other hand, had short crew cuts or spiked multi colored hair. Her soldiers looked like what they were - tough, rugged and definitely not to be toyed with. The Beast Contingent group had to be able to handle the constant rigors of controlling the enormous lizards. Large biceps and huge leg muscles were prevalent in both the men and women.
Yoria herself worked out everyday. But it wasn’t just the physical aspect the job demanded, it also was the psychological temperament. Despite their sizes, the beasts were sensitive violent animals. They quickly responded to fear, taking advantage of any panicky situation. Too many riders had become “beast food”. A rider had to be constantly aware of the nature of the big lizards; constantly aware of how the animal was going to react. It meant their lives.
“As you are all aware, we are under time restraints so let’s not dilly dally.” They all nodded, following her to the hastily assembled barracks. Inside was a mess hall and off to the side were the locker rooms. Each rider had a shower stall and dressing area with secure personal storage. These transitory buildings followed the beast riders wherever they were scheduled to work. The advanced team, as usual, had done its job. The prep team had left each rider with local outfits to wear and native weaponry to chose from.
“Let’s shower and meet in the mess hall,” Yoria ordered her team. She then headed into the shower stall. She let the hot water wash over her tired well-muscled body. Taking the strong soap, her hands scrubbed hard as the smell of the beasts stuck to her from being enclosed with them on the long Jump. Her soldiers would be doing the same. There was no getting away from the smelly lizards when traveling as it took everyone to watch their cargo up close.
Dressed in shorts and a tight t-shirt, she got herself something to eat. The riders who were seated at a long table were taking advantage of eating the good hearty fare. Once out in this planet’s wilderness, familiar food would be scarce and most likely what was available locally would have an awful taste.
“Hey, Captain,” Mitch, her second in command informed her, “they had to separate the Red in the holding pen. That huge monstrosity was not getting along with the Browns.”
She wasn’t surprised but it still disturbed her. “Shit. We’ll have to feed him extra to keep him cooperative.” Yoria pointed out.
“Is the Red that much more aggressive?” came from the end of the table. General Martin was standing, listening.
“Sometimes, Sir,” her body automatically stood with the rest of her squad and saluted him.
“Please sit down,” he demanded with his hands waving at them.
“Is there something we can do for you?” Yoria asked him.
A man stepped from behind the general and was introduced. “This is Sergeant Craig Polt,” Martin offered the group. “He will be traveling with you as far as the local village of Ponstria. He will serve as your interface with the locals. He’ll give you some good advice so listen to him. The villagers think he’s a trader from a nearby village. He’s managed to blend himself in and gain their trust.”
“Yes, Sir,” they all said in unison. Every rider on her team respected the General. Unlike how they treated some others, there were no sassy remarks for the four star officer.
As the General left, Sergeant Polt sat down with his tray of food. “It’ll take about a day to reach the village. You can’t avoid it as your team will need to go through the valley’s pass to reach the open plains on your way to Hellgate plateau.”
“Wow, sounds like a wonderful place,” Margo, the team’s right flank rider remarked. “How do we get stuck with these assignments?”
“Because we’re the best squad,” remarked Mitch.
It is so true, Yoria thought, her team was the best. “Are the natives friendly? How are we being explained,” she asked the native intermediary.
“Well, friendly? Yes and no,” he said between bites. “They war between the several nearby tribes but they’ll be obviously wary of you. They will think you’re messengers of their gods. Based on what I’ve observed here over the last several months, you will fit in very well with their local witch doctor’s tales. As long as we stay within the Federation rules we should be fine.”
“We’re all trained to keep to the rules,” Yoria informed him rather sharply. Most regular soldiers only saw the primitive beasts and gave the same attributes to their riders. It was a sore point with her.
“Yes, so I’ve been told but a quick warning,” he sat back taking them all in. “We hope that the trouble makers are all on Hellgate plateau and haven’t reached the local society yet. I haven’t seen any sign of them but let’s hope I’m right. In truth, they will be focusing on the populated areas that begin just after the plateau. There are a multitude of villages on the other side that will be the interlopers’ target. The populations are more concentrated past Hellgate plateau, easier to introduce technology there.”
She knew what he meant. If the local tribe had been corrupted in anyway by the damn outside criminals, the army would have the obligation of destroying the entire contaminated area - every man, woman and child. She’d seen it happen before and it stayed in her nightmares.
“That’s your department,” Yoria shook her head. “We can only do what we were sent here for. Be assured we will do nothing but stick to the script.”
“Fine. Then I will meet you at the 1400 briefing,” Polk said and left.
“Something tells me this is not going to be an easy assignment,” Clarot, her leading scout, remarked. “Hope they are being honest with us about this. I don’t like riding into an uncertain situation.”
“The planners never tell us everything,” Mitch spoke up. “But we always handle whatever they throw at us, don?
??t we?”
Everyone at the table gave him a thumbs up. Yoria shook her head. “Let’s get ready. No one is to be late!”
She left the table going over to another full table. These benches contained the beast handlers. Being their Commander, she had tried to get the two groups, the riders and handlers, to mix. It was a fruitless task. Both groups were extremely close knit, each clinging to each other for support and having little time for anyone else. So she had given up and treated each as separate entities. All twenty handlers stood up saluting her. She waved them down. Turning her attention to the lead handler, Makebee McFernstin, she said, “Make sure you are at the 1400 briefing. You’ll need to know the particulars of this deployment.”
He nodded, “I’ll be there. I’ll also bring Lina with me. We’ll need everyone else in the pens watching the animals. They are restless for some reason. The beasts are argumentative, giving us a hard time. Could be the influence of the Red, he’s a handful.”
“Fine,” Yoria answered him. “From the early reports I’ve scanned we will need harness saddles and if I’m right, also make sure our bags have enough food for any extra expenditure of energy the beasts might have to make. The riders are taking them into some pretty rigorous terrain. I am particularly worried about the Red.”
“Yeah, so am I. We had to separate him from the Browns. He was causing too much disruption.”
“Great,” Yoria sputtered. “I’ll warn Calston.”
Back in her dressing stall, she picked out a skimpy bra-type halter-top and an even skimpier bottom. To her dismay the bottoms had a loincloth front but the back was nothing but a thong. She could understand the minimal clothing as this was a hot climate but why the uncomfortable thong? On every one of these damn planets the savages wear these! she moaned. Damn! Her hands grabbed the native garb. Of course it looked crudely made of animal skins and covered very little of her body. Yoria never understood why any civilization would choose to wear such uncomfortable attire. Well, she wasn’t an anthropologist, just a soldier doing her job.
Picking up her rawhide boots and roughly made leather armbands, she headed out to the central room where all the riders were just finishing preparing the last of their accessories. Of course, there were catcalls. There always was and she didn’t discourage them either. This job was thankless enough; the reactions reflected their natural human feelings. Heaven knows that out on the job they had little leeway on how they acted.
Everyone was complaining about the thong backings. The men were trying to adjust them while the woman were snapping them in place. “Damn, Captain, not again!” Margo complained.
“Stop whining, you bunch of babies,” Yoria chided her team.
Still, they were soldiers. To catcall was one thing, misbehaving something else. They knew the boundaries, but their commander was not beyond having some fun with them. She bent over taking her time lacing up her elk skin boots, giving a good view of her ample breasts to her male soldiers. More catcalls, then laughter. “You’re pigs!” she laughed with them.
Yoria pointed to the armory room, “Choose your poison.” They all chose different types of weapons depending on their training. Some had excelled in spear, some in archery, some in axes. She chose a wide long handled battle-ax, a spear and a crude hammered-out shield that strapped to her back. She also included a bow and arrow set to keep in her saddle strap.
At 1400 she entered the briefing conference room where General Cal Martin along with several of his aides were already standing around the maps. Those that had been with the group before nonchalantly glanced up at the soldiers disguised as natives. The GIs that were new to working with the Beast Squadron just kind of gawked. Yoria tried to remember the first time she had been in skimpy animal skin clothing and the feeling of being so different. Now it was a normal routine. The primitive methanilum worlds varied little; just in the fine details.
As the riders and the two handlers took their seats, General Martin focused the local map projected before him. He pointed to a ridge of cliffs and then to one in particular; a large plateau that was positioned atop a ridge right in the middle of the range. “This is your objective. It will take you almost two days to reach the base of Hellgate. It is here that our intelligence has the interlopers located.”
“Who are they, Sir?” Mitch pointedly asked.
“Good question, but we aren’t sure. They are good at masking themselves. No satellites have gotten any shots of them. We are only going by our spies that say perhaps it is the Rolles.”
A large murmur filled the room. “Rolles? They are not usually involved in the methanilum trade,” Yoria spoke up. “They are also allies of ours.”
“Yes, we agree but if it is the Rolles than they are fronting for someone else. The Rolles are human and can disguise themselves as natives. Someone is paying them big bucks to corrupt this world. We need to capture whoever is doing this alive so we can find out who the actual perpetrators are. You have to be careful not to kill the Hellgate culprits and be sure no evidence gets destroyed.”
“Great,” it was Moria, a left flank rider. “We’ll have to keep the beasts under strict control.”
The General nodded. “The Galactic Congress is not convinced that there is a problem here, so we are on precarious ground. If we find nothing, we not only have egg on our faces but a huge penalty will be imposed on the Federation. Not only that, but it will give the anti-beast people more ammunition to put stricter rules on us. So be on your toes, people!”
Yoria cringed. As if their job wasn’t hard enough. They were expected to walk on eggs with four-ton beasts in tow. Some days, she thought, I wonder why the hell I do this? But she knew; if the beasts were in your blood, they were in your soul. It was a calling and every rider knew it.
“How steep is Hellgate’s cliff?” Moria posed the question that was on every rider’s mind, “We heard it was rough going?”
“That’s an understatement,” the General shook his head, “Let’s put it this way Corporal, you’ll find it challenging.”
“Just how challenging?” Mitch’s concern was written all over his face. Her second in command was an experienced Beast rider. His Beast was Calypso, one of the largest Browns.
“Captain Monse, report please.” Martin looked over at the Captain that Yoria had encountered at the bottom of the cargo ramp.
Clipboard in hand, the pompous idiot answered, “The cliff itself is very steep, Sir. None of the locals can climb it. The only way to the top is one trail on the far side and the culprits have that heavily protected. Despite our scouts’ attempts, they can’t get past the Hellgate defenses; the trail has high protective walls which they can shoot from. Of course, we can only use their primitive weapons. So far our troops can’t find a way to breech it.”
“That’s not what I asked!” Mitch, standing up, sarcastically asked him, “We know the Fed’s rules, Captain, and the difficulties in getting up the trail. I asked how steep was the cliff at Hellgate? What is the angle?”
“I told you steep!” The distain on the Captain’s face was so annoying Yoria was afraid Mitch would go up and punch him.
“For god’s sake,” Yoria snapped also standing up, “what is the percentage grade? We aren’t idiots! We need specific details.”
General Martin angrily glaring at his aide grabbed the damn clipboard, flipping some of the pages. “It is an 87 percent grade.”
“Holy shit,” Mitch sat back down.
Yoria glanced over at the head handler, Makebee. The man’s eyes were wide with astonishment.
“Can the beasts do it?” the General turned to the riders.
“Well yes, but it is us that is the problem,” Yoria answered. “Mac, can you adjust the harnesses to accommodate the steep ride?”
“Yeah, but it’ll will be rough,” her head handler shook his head. “The saddle bags will also have to be very secure. You sure you want to do this? Isn’t there any other way up, how about the back trail?” Mac gave her an incredulous look.
“Unfortunately,” Martin spoke up, “we need the element of surprise. The perpetrators will not expect you to come up by the cliff, giving us the chance to get them and the evidence before they can run. That’s why we brought in the Beast Squad.”
Yoria knew there was no arguing. “My squadron will do fine Sir. Give us the particulars, all of them including your own team’s role.”
Martin nodded to another aide, who stepped up and said. “You’ll be leaving here as soon as you can. Sergeant Polk will go with you as far as Ponstria Village. We have routed you around all the small local villages except this one. It is the main trading village for the area this side of Hellgate. Caravans use this route as the village is unavoidable, being at the only entrance into the Hellgate Plains.”
“Can Polk keep up with us?” Yoria asked. Many weren’t aware that the beasts traveled fast and for a long periods time.
“Yes,” the aide went to answer her but Polk interrupted.
“I’ll be riding one of the local mounts which can travel at a constant high speed. I’ll also have a second mount with me just in case. Don’t worry, I’ll keep up with you.”
“Fine,” Yoria acknowledged.
The aide continued his report. “We have arranged for the local Chieftain to have enough cattle at your disposal to feed your animals once you reach his village. Polk has taken care of all the arrangements. There is no guarantee the Chief will hold to his word so make sure the handlers feed the beasts well here at the base before you leave.”
“Yup,” was all she answered. Did they think she was on her first expedition?
“Then you’ll sleep one night on the Plains and then reach the cliffs late the following morning.”
The General took over, “We will be following half a day behind you, disguised as a trading caravan. My team will wait until I get the one message from Captain Yoria Tripe that will let me know you’ve secured the back trail. We’ll take it from there.”
“Yes, remember only one message!” the clipboard idiot put in. “Federation rules only allow one long range transmission.”
She just glared at him but the dope kept going. “Remember only you, Captain Tripe, will have a communicator. Be careful, the Federation rules are very strict on its limited use.”
She’d had enough and started to step forward to kick his ass but the General interceded. “Captain Monse, they are well aware of their jobs. Please sit down.” Martin looked at Yoria giving her a warning to calm down. She did.
Martin continued. “You’ll then head back. As you can see, there is a lake on the other side of the village. The far side is deserted and will be closer to the base. It will be a good place to settle the beasts