It took them a week to get back to EFFECT headquarters on Vargonroth, the capital world of the UN. They hitched a ride on board the UNS Phoenix, Corradino’s ship. The war was only a few weeks old and tactical doctrine was changing by the hour, but one thing that was becoming increasingly clear was the critical need for low-orbit artillery support. The Phoenix was making a brief stop at Vargonroth to pick up some men and materiel, before making a beeline for Cobalta and the huge Fleet docks there for a refit. In its absence, the UNS Sword of Gemini, Commodore Minad’s ship, took up residence over Iepthae to see off any opportunistic attacks from the Ascendancy.
Akiya, Kgosi and Jarle all underwent emergency procedures in the UN’s medical facilities outside Espa, and then spent two days in regen before taking their V14 to orbit. Almeida was dumped into cold storage to await specialist treatment at the Fleet Medical Station in the capital of Vargonroth, Arrengate. In two months’ time the place would be full to capacity and turning patients away.
Akiya was given a cybernetic eye while she awaited a superior vat-grown replacement, as well as some new teeth. Jarle and Kgosi were treated for multiple gunshot wounds and severe burns, and were walking wounded inside a day. Vasco himself had his shoulder debrided and sutured, and would get a new pair of lungs, in time; for now it was a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have, and he was not taken off active duty. Drugs and constant IHD monitoring would keep them clear of fluid and scarring.
They landed at Whiteport, Arrengate’s massive interstellar port, and took a civilian transport to the EFFECT headquarters, a large, glossy black cube on the north corner of Trillian Square, in view of the UN Assembly Building two kilometres away. Above, the sky was black and foreboding with early spring snow clouds, and the air was bitingly cold.
They were cleared by both unseen security hardware and men with guns, and shown into a waiting area. Vasco felt strangely self-conscious in temperate fatigues and glossy black boots, surrounded as he was by civilians in suits. EFFECT, the UN’s counter-terrorism arm, was staffed by a mixture of civilians and military personnel, latterly seconded from the UN’s other black ops agencies—Fleet Intelligence Division, UNIS, and Special Reconnaissance Command—but they had all been called away to war, and it was the civs who were left.
‘Captain Vasco,’ a young woman said, approaching them. She wore an immaculate, severe black suit and white shirt, but she had a friendly-enough bearing.
Vasco stood and took her proffered hand. His IHD identified her as Katharine Chadwick, Deputy Head of the VIPER initiative. She was Fiona Tavistock’s second-in-command, though Tavistock herself was responsible for the whole of EFFECT, answerable directly to the President, meaning that it was Chadwick who was really his boss.
‘Ms Chadwick,’ he replied, smiling. ‘This is my team.’ There was no need for verbal introductions; everyone’s IHD was functioning, and listed names in blue above everyone’s heads.
‘If you’d all like to follow me, we’re debriefing upstairs.’
They followed her into one of the maglev elevators at the end of the reception area, and then up to the top floor. It was strange, being in the EFFECT HQ on Vargonroth. VIPER had no base, no barracks or military-style headquarters of its own. Until they got dedicated facilities, they had to brief, debrief and prepare in what was essentially an office block. It was difficult to dissociate the violence of the battlefield from the week before to what was essentially comfortable civilian life.
Tavistock was waiting for them in her office. It was a large, square-shaped room, well-appointed with antique furniture and with a stunning view of Arrengate. The air smelled of stim smoke and coffee. Tavistock looked stressed.
‘Please, sit, all of you,’ she said, indicating the chairs at the back of the room. She remained standing behind her large Trafalgar desk, and cancelled the array of holos hovering thirty centimetres above it. Chadwick moved across the room and stood next to her.
‘Well, first of all: well done,’ Tavistock said. Her manner was harried, business-like. The debrief would not be long. ‘The medics at the FMS tell me Mr Almeida will require an entirely new body, given the damage, and some psychotherapy. But he’s alive, in the VR sync, and that’s the important thing. We can chalk it up as a success.’
Vasco said nothing. It certainly didn’t feel like a success.
‘You lost one man, Alexander Burnett. I’m sorry. The circumstances? I have all the recordings, so no need to go into detail.’
Vasco cleared his throat. He was aware of everyone’s attention focussing on him. ‘I ordered Burnett to scout west to the N5T, a road that ran to sector designate Epsilon. I wanted to see if it was clear of enemies.’ He paused. ‘It wasn’t.’
‘No. An Ascendancy ALR-50,’ Tavistock said. From her eyes it was clear she was getting the information from her IHD. ‘He was killed during an attempt at recovery.’
Vasco nodded. ‘He was.’
Tavistock nodded. She was irritated, but sympathetic—two emotions that did not sit well together. ‘I’ll have the tacticians work it over. I’m surprised the ’50 wasn’t picked up more readily, to be honest. Perhaps that was Mr Burnett’s oversight. Sloppy, but the man is dead, so we won’t berate him too harshly. The best lesson is the one hard-learned, so they say. Incidentally, Mr Severine, Captain Vasco has cited you for a commendation. Your bravery in taking on a tank singlehandedly is quite extraordinary. There will be a ceremony tomorrow evening, details to follow.’
Sev looked briefly stunned, too stunned to respond. The rest of the room offered sad smiles. They were pleased for Sev, but it would be a while before they were able to accept the guilt of Range’s death.
Tavistock ploughed on like an icebreaker. She was clearly on the clock. ‘I see that the extraction went more or less to plan, in the circumstances. I am loath to comment on your subsequent decisions, Mr Vasco, given that I am not an operational, boots-on-the-ground commander, but tactical doctrine dictates a mobile defence is an effective defence, and static installations are to be avoided at most costs. The decision to take up position in the warehouse in the industrial zone seemed… misguided. Is there an explanation?’
Vasco felt his face redden slightly. Despite the fact that Tavistock was being as even-handed as she could in the circumstances, he still felt as though he had a lot to prove, and some of that insecurity manifested itself as embarrassment.
His discomfort was obvious, because Tavistock’s features softened. ‘This is not a criticism, Mr Vasco, we are here to learn. There is no blame: only lessons.’
He nodded, got a grip. ‘Akiya was hit and CI; we lost the APR once it overheated—’
‘That was my fault, Ma’am; I went too hard on the trigger and blew the sucker. CO can’t be blamed for that.’
‘Thank you, Sergeant Jarle; as I explained, there is no blame, but I am sure that Captain Vasco appreciates your candour. Captain?’
Vasco did indeed appreciate Jarle’s candour. The man was, and would be, loyal to the end. He was lucky to have been assigned such an NCO. ‘With Almeida slowing us down, I took the decision to hole up in cover and wait for 6 Battalion to come from the west. I was informed that it would have been a matter of minutes.’
‘I was the one in contact with Cap Milovan’s CC,’ Kgosi said, unable, like Jarle, to allow Vasco to be rebuked. Or what they perceived to be a rebuke. ‘Those calls were mine; Cap Vasco was just acting on what I told him.’
The shadow of a smile played across Tavistock’s lips. Vasco felt emotion threaten to overwhelm him. The team had only been together for a fortnight, and already they had formed strong, family-like bonds. That they sought to defend him in such a way was deeply moving, if unnecessary.
‘All right, I’ll have the VIs review the footage and see if there is anything we can apply going forward,’ Tavistock said. She referred to her IHD again. ‘The other thing I should mention is Mr Almeida’s physiology. The med techs at the FMS tell me that his entire lymph system was swimming with some kind of toxin. They?
??re trying to work out what it is, but they think it was an organic liquid bomb—or an attempt at one. EOD are of the opinion that it wasn’t viable.’
Vasco suddenly remembered Almeida screaming about having been injected with something, over and over again. Their scanners had picked up nothing at all.
‘Shit,’ he said out loud. The rest of VIPER issued similar sentiments.
‘Quite,’ Tavistock said. ‘What concerns me is that it was undetectable. At no stage did anyone’s Mantix pick up that Mr Almeida was, for all intents and purposes, a walking suicide bomb. In fact, had he not yammered on about being injected, we might never have even bothered to look for it.’
‘Got nothing on the scanners,’ Kgosi said, his features creased in confusion. ‘Nothing at all. Shit. Ma’am,’ he added.
Vasco felt his guts turn to ice. The ingenuity of the provar was well known, and their psychological warfare capabilities were the best in the galaxy. But it was still chilling to hear of these schemes, these appallingly cunning plots. What made it worse was how close he and his team had come to being the target themselves. Had the bomb been viable, it could easily have liquidated them, or brought down their Manticore a few klicks above the surface of Iepthae.
Tavistock clacked her tongue for a few seconds. The news had clearly disturbed her too. ‘The point is, be vigilant,’ she said after a short while. ‘The provar are clearly trying to develop this into a viable weapon going forward, and I see no reason why they won’t eventually succeed. Given our—that is, your—line of work, VIPER is much more likely to be exposed to it. Imagine; recovering a Presidential aide, only to have them unwittingly assassinate the President a week after they’re deemed to be out of harm’s way.’
The thought chilled Vasco, and brought his skin out in gooseflesh. ‘We need to develop a way of detecting it,’ Vasco said.
‘With respect, Captain, that order was put through yesterday,’ Tavistock replied, deadpan, offended that anyone would think they weren’t already on it.
‘Right,’ Vasco said, feeling foolish.
‘We have our technicians working on it. Detection of organic compounds such as these, which are, in and of themselves, harmless, will be incredibly difficult. One solution going forwards may be to simply sequester and quarantine recovered targets for a number of months before reintroducing them into the general population. After all, organic compounds such as these must only be viable for days, weeks max.’
Vasco nodded. Sometimes the simplest solutions were the best: isolate their rescued targets in a cell somewhere and wait to see if they exploded. It was horrifying, but necessary—and in such controlled circumstances, pre-emptive corrective action could be taken too. If someone looked as if they were about to detonate, a drone could easily behead the target and preserve their mindstate in seconds. It would undoubtedly be psychologically damaging, but it was better than being dead. Almeida was a case-in-point.
He made a note to alter their tactical doctrine accordingly, and realised that such grim choices were going to become a routine part of his work.
‘I don’t like it, Ma’am,’ Jarle said. Vasco looked over to him. The man’s features were a picture of distaste. ‘Rescue them and then abandon them to their fate? Seems to go against everything we stand for.’
Tavistock all but shrugged. ‘There isn’t much to like, Sergeant,’ she replied, and she was right. Vasco didn’t like it either, but he knew that the longer the war went on, the more of their humanity they were going to have to abandon. There were going to be tough decisions ahead, decisions that would cost a lot of lives. They were going to have to be strong enough to make the tough calls, to sacrifice the few for the many. He was going to have to be strong enough.
Tavistock drew herself up, and suppressed a shiver. The meeting was about to conclude. ‘Ladies, gentlemen; the UN and the Ascendancy are digging their heels in. Whether we like it or not—and frankly, we don’t—this war is here to stay. As far as I am concerned, we have proved VIPER can work. My recommendation to JIC is that we proceed with the formation of this new unit under the auspices of EFFECT and begin training new squads post haste. Agent Chadwick here will be your direct liaison going forward; any questions, she’ll be your first POC. Understood?’
‘Yes Ma’am,’ came the response.
‘You’re here in Arrengate for two days. Get yourselves cleaned up, fixed, whatever; liaise with the EFFECT quartermaster and get whatever fresh kit you need. You’ll need a new marksman; Chadwick is already making enquiries with JIC to see if we can pull a replacement before your next mission. I’ll also speak to Fleet Marshal Ellisburg and see if we can get a dedicated ship from the Fleet. No more hitchhiking around the galaxy: we’re supposed to be a rapid-response unit, and rapid-response units get dedicated interstellar assets. That’s the way it’s always been.’
Vasco nodded, and felt a thrill of adrenaline at the thought of getting their own ship. Not only did it mean they could be scrambled to anywhere in the UN at a moment’s notice without relying on the Fleet, it also meant dedicated LOAS—critical for any successful mission.
Tavistock studied them for a moment. They sat in silence, dejected about Range, but grim, quietly resolved, confident in their abilities. However they felt, there were people out there, people who had been abducted, who were terrified and lightyears from home, who needed their help. People who would be killed in horrible, violent ways, for little more than propaganda purposes. People who were not even combatants, but civilian civil servants and policy makers. VIPER, a name that would become famous throughout the UN and infamous throughout the Ascendancy, was ready to save them. Battle-tested. Hungry for action. Standing by.
‘Are there any questions?’ Tavistock asked.
Silence ensued. There were no questions. They were ready.
Tavistock nodded. ‘Good work VIPER. Get ready for a lot more of this. Dismissed.’
***
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