Chapter 89

We waited twenty-four hours and then went in. I had Hope plop my people down on another mountain a few miles away from Mendon and a few hundred feet higher than the castle where the technicians and the equipment were being held. That gave us a quiet place to stand and look at the stone fortress through our binoculars. Dork stood on one side of me and Nimue the other. The rest of our people were in the woods and out of sight. We didn't stand around long but the time we used to look at the place proved to be valuable.

"So now that you've seen it," I said to Dork and Nimue once we were back into the woods and cover, "what do you think of it?"

"I think we brought too many troops with us," Dork grunted in reply.

"Oh?" I said questioningly. "How do you figure that?"

"It's easy," Dork replied cracking a toothy smile. "Between Hope and her teleportation system and me with my assault shotgun here, I can't see anyone else getting into the fray."

In a way Dork was right. The castle below us and off in the distance while guarded by armed troops, the truth was that with Hope's assistance we really did have too many troops with us. Still I preferred having too many rather than too few.

The castle wasn't much too look at. It was built on a hill that over looked the village of Mendon. The hill had been stripped of vegetation at some time or other and there was no approaching it without being seen. That really wasn't a problem though since I intended to have Hope drop us off on the fortifications front courtyard.

The fortification had been upgraded at some time or other. While it still had a dry moat about it and a drawbridge that spanned it, the front gate had been replaced with a swinging gate made of iron bars. In total there were two gates and both the inner gate and the outer gate were kept closed at all times except when someone on official business needed to enter or leave. The gate alone was guarded by section of grenadiers armed with assault rifles. In addition to the iron gates at the entrance to the castle there was a watchtower that was manned around the clock. In it were two grenadiers. They manned a searchlight and a pintle mounted light machine gun. In total there were six similar towers spaced around the curtain wall that surrounded the castle proper. All of the towers were fully manned day and night. In addition to the guards standing watch at the gate and in the tower there were other sentries inside the curtain wall that we needed to eliminate. There were two armed grenadiers standing at the top of the steps that led up from the courtyard and into the main building and there was another one standing guard at the back door. As well there were two guards standing watch over the building that served as the barracks for the technicians from Teutonic Network. Those not employed were kept under lock and key.

The courtyard of the castle was massive. I could easily form up a company of men on it and drill them for a while if I had wanted. Personally I didn't. I did however want to put my troops down there so we could start our raid. First I needed Hope to clear the way so that we didn't take any unnecessary casualties. Quickly I called her up on my communicator. Thankfully the two probes orbiting the planet boosted my signal and within a second Hope came on line.

"Hello Charles," Hope said in greeting when communications was established. "Are you ready to party?"

"I am indeed," I told the sentient computer in a cheerful manner. "Are your probes on line and ready to go?"

"They are Charles," Hope replied. "Both probes have dispersed micro-cameras into the castle ground and they have identified each and every hostile within it. On your command they will start plucking them out of there and disposing of them."

"Okay then," I responded, "make it so. I suggest picking off the men guarding the entrance of the building first and then the men in the watchtowers. That should take them by surprise and prevent any alarm from being raised. Then the probes can pick off the guards at the gate and at the barracks. Once they've finished getting rid of the bad guys, you can order them to start teleporting my people into the castle courtyard. They can start with me and my command team first."

Hope quickly acknowledged my instructions and then the probes got to it. Quickly they grabbed the first pair of sentries and they blinked them out of existence. Then they moved on and blinked another pair away. That was the cold reality of this operation. While the probes weren't simply grabbing the men and dumping them in the ocean like I had done with robots on Game World and the alternative Earth, they were plopping them down far from any assistance. Out of spite and a sick sense of humour I had asked Hope to drop the soldiers off in the northern wastes of Siberia. I figured that if the cold didn't kill them that the few surviving former Russian soldiers in the region would. I know it was mean but these people were the so called 'master race' and that kind of attitude didn't encourage me to treat them kindly.

Within a couple of minutes all the guards had been grabbed and disposed of. When that happened the probes turned their attention to me and my troops. In a blink of an eye the two probes grabbed Dork, Nimue, and me from the hill we were standing on and they teleported us to the inner courtyard of the castle. Naturally we came in with our weapons up and at the ready. A second later the probes dropped in a fire team beside us and then over the next five minutes teleported the rest of my people in.

The second I had a handful of soldiers available to me I started issuing orders and dispersing them about the courtyard with instructions to secure the area. There were several outbuildings inside the curtain wall besides the barracks containing the technicians and they needed to be swept for any hostiles that we present. While I stood in the centre of the courtyard and did this, Dork gathered a section of men about him and he went off to storm the main building. The big guy went to it with a smile on his face and his weapon at the ready.

It didn't take long for a few shots to ring out around us. One of the outbuildings had been a shed-style garage that had been used as a motor pool. It had been staffed by a pair of transport soldiers and the men chose to resist my people rather than opting to surrender. Their deaths heralded a brief and very bloody episode where my people were forced to kill all who tried to repel us. This included a hundred odd grenadiers who had been off duty and either in their barracks or at breakfast. While caught off guard they still tried to stop us although their effort was in vain. The same proved true with Dork and his men. They stormed the keep and took down any and all staff that crossed their path while they moved from one room to another and from one floor to another. Here and there a soldier tried to stop Dork's progress but it was always a futile attempt. Our body armour gave us an edge over the local garrison and the surprise of our arrival put them at a disadvantage. Within ten minutes of us entering the courtyard the grounds and the castle proper had been secured. Of course there were subterranean levels that still needed to be breached where the equipment that we were looking for was being kept. That was a job I gave my little elf to take care of. Like Dork she went at it with a smile on her face.

It turned out that there were only a dozen or so guards located in the dungeons and cellars of the main building. Of course access to that level was controlled by stout wooden doors that were barred and locked but Nimue and her assault team really had no problems breaching them. A burst of ten-millimetre HEAP ammunition from fifty feet away worked well at opening up the doors and dispersing anyone waiting behind them. The guards did try to oppose Nimue and her people but once again the body armour we were wearing and the weapons we were using allowed us to press forward without hesitation. A grenade tossed down the main corridor of the subterranean level helped clear the initial resistance and after that the guards were forced back continuously until the handful of resisters were forced back into one room. After that a few more HEAP rounds fired into the close confines of the room by Nimue's point man brought everything to a halt.

In all, out of the two hundred or so grenadiers guarding the place, we captured a hundred and thirty of them including all the wounded. Of the staff and technical personnel representing the Reich in the castle, we captured eighteen. There rest of the personnel were either dead or they had been teleported out by the probes. Our own casualties were light and none were permanent. A couple of men took a round in a leg thus putting them out of action for the time being and five men took grazes to their arms. The men shot in the legs were immediately teleported back to the resort for medical treatment and the men with the grazes were either quickly stitched up or just bandaged up. To me that made it a good day. Regrettably we didn't have things all our way. Three technicians from Teutonic Network became collateral damage in the course of the subterranean raid and all three ended up dead.

My first task was posting sentries. I had Dork get some men up in the towers and on the gate. While I'm certain that the locals down the hill were accustomed to hearing the occasional gunshot coming from the castle grounds, I was also certain that they weren't familiar with hearing the explosions caused by the HEAP rounds and the grenades that we'd used against the garrison. I was certain that somebody would either show up to find out what was going on or they would alert the nearby Brandenburger regiment that there was trouble at the castle. Once that job had been dealt with I turned my attention to the prisoners that we'd taken.

I had no love for the soldiers that we were holding under guard in the courtyard of the castle, but on the same hand I didn't hate them. They were however a problem that needed dealing with as I had no desire whatsoever of standing guard over them while I sent the technicians to Game World and then concentrated on figuring out where the rest of the technicians had been sent off to here in the heart of the Reich. Because of this I did the same thing I had done to the other grenadiers that the probes had teleported out. I sent the lot of them to Siberia except for a handful of clerical staff that I wanted to converse with.

There were four of them; three young women and one older man. All of them wore uniforms but it was clear just from looking at them that only the man was really in the military. The women were obviously some sort of auxiliary service, who might dress the part and salute when necessary, but weren't really part of the hard-core military machine that dominated the Reich. Personally I had no problems with that. In fact I was hoping that their lack of training and experience would make questioning them easier. Once the probes had teleported the other soldiers away, I had them marched back into the main building to be held under guard until I could get to them.

It was then I got to speak to the technicians that we had rescued. Of the two hundred or so men and women from Teutonic Network only forty of them were at the castle. Most of them looked thin and tired and afraid as I looked over them where my guards had assembled them. Interestingly, not one of the technicians was a woman. I noted this and then went over and introduced myself to them. You can imagine how surprised they were to find out that I was the one they had fled from back on their own world.

"Good morning," I said to them in a loud voice. "I know you have a thousand questions however I do not have the time to listen to them or the patience. I request you keep quiet while I speak to you and I insist that you only speak when I ask you a direct question. Do you understand?"

Amazingly all of them responded with a resounding yes. It was clear from their stance and their behaviour that the couple of months that had passed since their time here within the boundaries of the Reich had been educational. They had obviously learned what it meant to be told not to open your mouth unless spoken to and all of them had taken the lesson to heart. I saw immediately that my task was going to be easier than I had expected.

"Good," I told everyone before continuing on. "Now before I send you all off to the resort on Game World I need a few questions answered in regards to the other technicians that had been here with you who are no longer here. I've got four people standing over on the side of the courtyard. I want anyone with any information on the where about of the other technicians to line up and provide that information to my people. If you know a persons name I want you to be in the line up as well. We have access to Teutonic Network's employee databank and if you can give us a name of anyone who was here with you, our people will be able to match the name to a picture and then we can send out cameras to look for them. Once you've provided the information we're looking for you will be sent to the resort where you will be seen by doctors and then provided for. Is that understood?"

Again I received a resounding yes from all who were there. Satisfied with their response I let them go. Within a couple of seconds all of them were lined up before one of the four soldiers that I had standing off to the side with tablets. With four people taking information it didn't take long to process each and every one of the technicians. As they finished telling my people what they knew, they simply stepped out of line and then vanished in a blink of light. The first time it happened it startled the next person in line but after that everything went smoothly. Once my people had gathered the information I had asked for, I left one of my squad leaders in charge of the men on the gate and I headed into the main building with Dork and Nimue trailing me.

I found the three female clerks and the older male administrator sitting in what looked like to me as an orderly room. They weren't looking too happy but I really didn't care about that. Two of my soldiers were standing watch over them and from their stance and distance away from the prisoners I could tell that someone had tried something and it hadn't worked. Since no one was lying dead on the floor I decided not to worry about it.

"All right," I said to the four people, speaking to them in German, "I want information and you four are going to provide it. If you cooperate I will let you live. If you don't cooperate I will teleport you to Siberia with the rest of the troops who were here. If the cold doesn't kill you and the wild animals don't eat you then I'm certain that the remnants of the Red Army will enjoy doing the job once they've located you. Is that understood?"

I got a grudging response from the three women and a grunt of acknowledgement from the older man. I didn't like that and I made it clear that I expected something else out of them. When I asked the question a second time I received a more energetic response. I decided that was good enough.

"Very well," I said glancing about once they had fallen silent, "I want information. You people had almost two hundred men and women being held here as prisoners and most of them are no longer here. I want to know where they were sent. You four are the administrative support of this facility and one of you knows where the paper work is. Now I could look for it but that would take me time and energy that I have no desire to expend so I'm asking you four to speak up and tell me where the paperwork is. Better yet, one of you will show me where it is so we can move matters along."

The four looked at each other for a moment or two as if silently asking each other what they should do in response to my request. The man glared sternly at each of the women as if to tell them that they should not cooperate with me. One of the women behaved in a similar manner while two of the women appeared hesitant in what they wanted to do. I waited only a second or two to see how they responded and then I started on them once again.

"You're all stupid," I told them bluntly. "Do you really think that you can oppose me? I've just stormed this facility and seized it from under the noses of two hundred and some trained and armed soldiers. They are gone and I am here. Now I will ask again for a little cooperation. The one who cooperates will be spared the fate of the others, however if no one cooperates, I will be forced to treat you harshly. My men are all experts at torture and I assure you that before I send you off to the wastes of Siberia I will have you stripped and tortured and perhaps even abused. Now I will ask only one more time; where is the paperwork dealing with the prisoners who were here that have been sent elsewhere? Speak up or suffer the consequences."