Chapter 16

The Raptors escorted Carson's dropship through the debris field where it was met by a Dreadnought class sister ship to the Archangel. The Raptors circled over hull number 07933, the Kitchener, as Carson was greeted by the captain and shown to his VIP quarters for the trip back to Broder Prime. Raptor flight 668 made a final orientation circle before forming up and heading back through the field to the Archangel.

General Beckett laid on his bunk, hands behind his head, eyes closed and for all appearances, asleep. His mind was racing over the recent turn of events and he was formulating a course of action when he heard Grunther tell the Chancellor that he still had his comm unit. It was a newer design and very small. About the size of an ID bob found on a key chain. Beckett opened his eyes and sat up.

"You have your comm?" he asked incredulously as Grunther had produced it and was showing to Harrington.

"Like it would do us a bit of good in here, the walls are shielded." Grunther said in reply. Beckett stood and walked over to the formed table that the other two men were sitting at.

"May I see it?" he asked as he extended his hand. Grunther shrugged his shoulders and passed it over. Beckett looked at it and then using his fingernail, pried the little tab apart to expose the inner workings. He carefully placed the two small halves on the table then took a seat and removed his right boot. Grunther and Harrington both looked at him curiously. Beckett removed the insole of the boot and pulled out a small strip. He then replaced the insole, re-laced his boot and put the small item on the table next to the ID tab.

"General, what are you doing?" Harrington finally asked.

"Sir, several months ago, General Lee authorized a tracking strip to be installed somewhere on a general officer's clothing. It was a means to keep track of soldiers in the field, and anyone above the rank of colonel. Totally a test project to determine if it would be useful. Because Lee and I went through the academy together, he contacted me to be a test subject. I gave him three complete sets of uniforms, boots, belt, everything I would normally wear during the course of a day. When I got them back, I looked for hours to see where he might have put that little tracker and it wasn't until two months ago that I finally found this one." To emphasize his point, he held up the little strip.

"Well, that's all fine and good general, but how does that help our current situation?" Grunther asked.

"Its like this. The power supply combined with your comm unit might be enough to engage the locking mechanism on this cell from the inside. These cells are designed for the non-violent, VIP prisoners." Becket stood and walked over to the wall beside the door.

"The doors are not as shielded as they would be if we were in the lower detention cells. They're more for a house arrest scenario."

To prove his point, Beckett put one half of the comm unit against the wall and then touched the strip from his boot to it. A small spark jumped and there was a barely audible click sound. Beckett quickly dropped the two pieces as they were smoking and blew on his fingers.

"Damn that smarts!" he said mostly to himself.

He motioned Grunther and Harrington to the door and quietly told them to stand against the wall. He squatted down; to lower his profile, retied his boots and pushed against the door. It swung open a short distance before Beckett stopped it. He looked over at the two men and nodded before opening the door the rest of the way. He stuck his head out and looked both ways. The hallway was empty. He motioned the other men to follow him and stay quiet. The little group crept along the hall until they reached the intersection at the far end.

An IS trooper, non-armored, was seated behind the desk that was part of the security checkpoint when leaving or entering this level. The trooper was relaxed and had his feet on the desk and reading a magazine. Beckett motioned the two men to stay and then straightened himself up, tugging his uniform shirt a little before stepping around the corner and into the corridor towards the trooper.

The measured footsteps that the trooper heard brought him out of his reading and he glanced up. The subdued stars on Beckett's shoulder forced him to drop his reading material and snap into a formal seating position. Beckett strode right up to the trooper and stopped in front of the desk.

"Trooper. Do you normally sit when a superior office approaches you?" he asked in his command voice. The trooper snapped to a full standing attention.

"No sir!"

Beckett looked him up and down as the young trooper nervously tried to figure out why this general was here. Maybe some kind of unofficial inspection. He swallowed as Beckett stepped around the desk and continued his cold appraisal.

"Soldier. This is an undeclared readiness inspection simulating an insurgent assault on this complex. Your unit is failing miserably. If you are any example of what this unit has to offer, then I can arrange for you to spend some time cleaning out the solid waste ducts in the shipyards." Beckett paused before adding.

"You disgust me trooper. This workspace is a disgrace. How do you ever expect to get to the fleet? What is your name trooper?"

"Henshaw sir." The trooper replied as sweat began to form on his forehead.

"How long have you been here Henshaw?" Beckett asked.

"Just transferred in today sir." Beckett looked around, knowing his time was running short on this little charade.

"Tell you what trooper Henshaw, today's your lucky day. I'm not going to report you, but I will take your access card and passkey. If this had been a real assault, you would be dead and the insurgents would take them off your worthless carcass. I'll leave them with the duty officer on the first floor." Beckett held out his hand. Henshaw nervously pulled out his card and passkey and placed them in Beckett's hand.

"Now Henshaw, turn and face the wall. Play dead. After I leave here, you will count to one million aloud before logging that you are going to the duty officer. This never happened and I won't report your ineptness to command"

The nervous trooper quickly turned to face the wall, squeezed his eyes tightly closed and began counting. Beckett motioned to Grunther and Harrington who quickly joined Beckett as he summoned the lift. They got inside and Beckett used the trooper's access card to send them to the subbasement.

Lieutenant Waters was slogging through the knee-deep mud amid the constant downpour, his mind numb from the monotonous activity, when Sgt. Wilkes yelled out.

"Cover!"

Instantly the squad spread out and went to ground. Waters slowly lifted his head and looked around. Sgt. Wilkes was low crawling to the front of the formation. Waters keyed his HUD and took a scan of the troopers. They had made good use of the natural cover and concealment. Waters switched channels and whispered to Wilkes.

"Sergeant, what do you have?" he almost sub-vocalized over the secure inter-team comm net. Wilkes was now next to the point element and slowly raising his head to look over the top of the small berm that the lead scout had dropped behind.

"Not quite sure sir. Scouts reported activity ahead of us. Unknown type. At this point, I figured it would be safer to go to ground."

"Roger that Top." Waters responded as he shifted his position and used hand motions to direct the squad to watch their sectors and secure the rear, before starting to crawl forward.

"Sir. You better see this." Wilkes reported as Waters reached the berm. He crawled up to the military crest and eased himself up to look over the top.

In the small valley below them, several Newson soldiers, shuttle, fighter and support vessels were arranged. The Newson conscripts were covering the craft with pattern dispersing netting and several were setting up primitive jamming devices along the perimeter. A crude command structure was in the center, obvious by the four heavily armed mercs who were wearing the most complete uniforms. Waters slowly panned along the valley making sure his helmet camera recorded it all, before sliding back down to the bottom, Wilkes following him.

"Top, it looks like a tactical command post." Wilkes sat quietly and checked his weapon.

"Roger that sir. Without our long range commo, we can't radio this in or get support." Waters turned and looked back up the hill, contemplating the situation.

"How many you figure there are Top?" he asked. The question was enough to cause Wilkes to stop his equipment check.

"Sir, you don't really mean to engage them? We only have a small recon squad, limited ammunition, and they have at least a company strength unit."

"I know that Top. But they aren't expecting it. They're still setting up and don't know we're here. We have surprise and training on our side." He paused before adding, "What other chance will we have to get our hands on Newson technology or prisoners?"

Wilkes silently agreed that the lieutenant had a point. Damn this kid was good. He had the tactical position down and if he could pull it off, a major intelligence coup.

"OK Sir. But lets do this right and by the numbers. We disperse the squad and divide the remaining ammo. I'll have Valdez try Alpha base one more time with his comm unit."

Wilkes motioned to Valdez, and then the two conversed on a secure sideband channel. Waters moved crouched over to the rest of the squad. He motioned for them to stay in position and began to brief them on the plan.

Beckett pressed himself to the side of the lift compartment when the doors opened into the subbasement.

He quickly looked left and right then motioned for Harrington and Grunther to follow him. The trio moved through the service area, squeezing around pipes, conduits and ducking under catwalks. Beckett led them to the area that contained the interior communications circuits for the Chancellor building. He quickly took one last look around then opened the service panel. Grunther and Harrington kept a wary eye out for any personnel, although this level was heavily automated, the occasional maintenance worker was known to wander around checking the various systems.

Beckett used the diagram on the inside of the panel to find the comm circuit he wanted. He connected the service handset and then punched the code in. Several tense seconds crept by before the connection was made.

"Captain Biehn."

"Biehn, this is General Beckett. Don't say a word just listen." Biehn slowly looked around the Ops Center before he responded.

"Right. Go ahead."

"Biehn, there has been a coup. Admiral Kirby is attempting to overthrow the chancellor. I know it sounds incredible, but I have Chancellor Harrington and his aid with me right now." Beckett went on before Biehn could voice his disbelief.

"OK sir, I got it." Biehn replied as a fine sheen of sweat broke out on his brow. He used the corner of his eyes to scan the room as he typed on his workstation.

"I need you to access file 1072-54-8. The password is Oblivion. Got that?" Beckett asked. Biehn quickly brought up the file; his eyes grew big when he saw the security warning flash that he was accessing a secure, command officer's file only.

"Sir, will any alerts go out when I access this file?" he nervously asked. Beckett thought about that.

"No. It's an eyes only file and no record of it will be made." Beckett assured the junior officer. Biehn took one last look around the center, everyone was busy with his or her tasks, and then he typed in the proper code. The screen went blank and Biehn thought that the system crashed before a small cursor appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Sir, I'm in." he reported.

"Very well. Now type exactly what I tell you." Beckett went on to tell the young captain what was to be inputted. Biehn was dripping sweat by now and had to pause several times to wipe his brow and make furtive glances around the center. When he finished, he shut down his system like the general instructed him to do, removed his headset and logged out with the duty officer. He walked out of the center and went down the hall to the security station. He signed out under personal reasons and once outside, hailed a hover cab.

Commander Bauer was reviewing sensor logs in his room when his comm unit beeped. He checked who it was before answering.

"Commander Bauer, this is Major hunter." Bauer was silent as he recalled the face that matched the name.

"Go ahead Major."