Princess Rescue Inc (62 page)

“Napalm?”
Ryans asked. He hadn't been involved in the planning of the commando raid.

“Well,
a mix of stuff. Witches brew I guess you could say,” Max said. “Some of that
phoenix plant oil, some regular oil and a thickener I got Wanda to whip up.
Also some stuff from a Greek fire recipe the natives had if you can believe it.
I tested it, its nasty shit. Guess it worked like a charm,” he said, all
smiles.

The
Gunny told them that they managed to kill a few of the engineers, a dozen
soldiers, and set fire to some of their supplies, but couldn't get close enough
to the lords tents to do anything there. “They're smart; all of them are smack
dab in the center of camp. If we'd captured a few of their soldiers we might
have walked in like we owned the place, but it would have been a suicide
mission,” the Gunny said, reading the report.

“Newman’s
nuts,” Waters said with a snort. “Trust him to try a cockamamie scheme like
that.” Perry shook his head at that.

The
raiders returned by LAVs with three dead and seven wounded two days later. Doc
took charge of the wounded immediately. Perry added new trainees to the group
and then had them rest and train for two days before sending them out again. He
had a third and fourth thirty man team ready by the time they left. These went
out as well but at different times from the first two teams. For security
reasons each of the teams would know other teams were active, but wouldn't know
where they were or their plans unless they had to.

Each
team was mounted, each rider had two spare animals, one was heavily loaded with
supporting materials, and the other was only lightly loaded. By shifting the
rider to another mount, varying the trot and possibly picking up spares they
would hopefully make good time. Hopefully. If the weather held out. Ryans
turned a disgusted eye skyward to the clouds overhead. They were probably due
for rain any time. It was just as well the teams had gotten out before hand.

As
they left Charlie asked about the riders nearby wearing royal livery. Ryans
explained that the monarchy had set up a pony express mail system and a semaphore
system decades ago. “The Queen is sending out word of what is going on, and
ordering additional armies to be formed and defenses to be set up.”

“And
that?” Charlie asked, seeing each had a package. “Oh, I'm sending out
blueprints to their blacksmiths and scribes. Terran John Deere plows, and other
things,” he explained. She nodded. “Max made a couple of prototypes but not
enough to really make a dent,” he said with a grimace of annoyance. Sure they
made some difference here in the fields feeding the capital but not much.

“Ah.
Will it help? Perry asked.

Ryan
shrugged. “Logistics. If they can be more efficient farming then there is more
food for less work... Which means the men and women not farming can work on
other things.” He waved to indicate the growing army, then to the city beyond
and the factory smoke stacks. Another factory was currently under construction
off in the distance. “We're going to need a boost in production since we're
losing so many farm hands from the field to fight. They're barely subsistence
farmers even in a
good
year,” he said, wrinkling his nose at such a
concept.

Perry
nodded. “Ah. Gotcha. The signal mirror thing too?” he asked.

Ryans
nodded. “There are also food preservation techniques, first aid courses for
healers, and some basic ideas.”

Perry
smiled. “Good. Disseminating knowledge,” he said. He left with a wave. They
turned to see the riders ride off in different directions.

“Where
are the other two teams going?” Charlie asked following him. He looked around
to make sure they weren't being overheard.

He
frowned and then sighed. It wasn't like she'd blab. “Ordinarily I'd tell you to
keep your nose short Charlie but in this case,” he pulled his earpiece off and
shut it off. She blinked and then followed his example. When she had pocketed
it like he did he nodded. “One of the Silent Knight teams is going the long
southern route to get around the Duluth raiders to check the pass. If possible
they will retake the defenses for as long as possible, cutting off the raider
army. The other team will pass through the pass if possible, scout the area,
and use explosives to cause an avalanche or two blocking the main road through
the valley pass, making it harder to get through, and then reinforce the ones
holding the defenses. They all have muskets too,” he said quietly. He smiled.
What he didn't tell her was that each of the thirty men team may have two spare
mounts, each loaded with gear, but they were going to be cut off with
only
those supplies. They might well be on a suicide mission.

She
nodded. “But not much ammo or powder. Not enough to hold out for long if they
are attacked,” she murmured.

He
sighed so much for her not guessing. “No, they need to move fast so they have
to travel light. Hopefully they'll do some good. Sniping from the walls should
discourage anyone from trying to get too close to the wall.” He nodded as they
passed a courtier. He waited till they were out of earshot.

“We're
already working on a relief mission. We need that smokeless gunpowder sorted
out so we can start producing modern rounds in quantity though. I've got the
town copper smiths making more molds as well as the lead and brass parts now.
We've got thousands of rounds and casings but your chemistry project is holding
up the works.”

Charlie
whistled. “Impressive, you don't want much do you?” she asked wryly. She wasn't
at all happy about making gun cotton in quantity. That damn shit was dangerous.
He smiled and spread his hands.

“You're
going to bottleneck when we run out of raw material you know that right?” she
asked dubious.

He
frowned. “Yeah,” he sighed leaning against a wall. He waited for a pair of
giggling maids to pass. “Yeah, that's a problem. The Queen has a volunteer
drive going to donate materials, but it's a drop in the bucket. We've got to
get more advanced mining tools in the hands of the miners, and more advanced
transports out... not to mention roads... Gah!” He threw his hands up in the
air. “We’ve got a better cement plant now, but we don't have accelerants, so it
takes forever to dry! We've got some roman style roads, but none leading to the
mines... it's so frustrating.”

Charlie
patted his arm. “We'll deal with it, one thing at a time.”

<==={}------------>

“Three
to Six can you come here?” the Master Sergeant called over the team net.

Ryans
looked up and then down to the ear piece in his pocket. The call repeated
itself. He pulled the earpiece out and put it on. “Sure as soon as I know where
here is,” Ryans answered. He was annoyed with himself for forgetting to put the
earpiece back on. He wondered if Charlie had remembered to put hers back on. Of
course it had made for a quiet day. He'd gotten better at understanding the
natives and fortunately he'd been immured in his quarters for the past hour
going over paperwork.

“Garage.
Or where it used to be,” Waters said turning a glower at the back of Max.

“Sure
thing. Just let me put on my rain gear and get my rubber ducky,” Ryans said.
Waters eyed the rain storm outside and then shook his head.

“Ah
hell,” he sighed then waited patiently.

“What's
up Sarge?” Ryans asked coming up behind him twenty minutes later.

“How...
I thought...” The Sergeant said looking over to him.

“Oh
I came through the back door,” He waved to indicate the door at the end of the
long narrow warehouse.

“They're
certainly progressing,” Ryans observed. He turned to view the workers
assembling various pieces of a building. Two teams were working on what looked
like truss segments while another was working on sections of wall. A fourth
team was working on what looked like work benches. Another team was making
carriages for artillery.

The
men and women were natives, all using Terran tools or Terran designed tools and
equipment to assemble the parts they were working on. A couple of teams had
blocks and tackle set up to move lumber. A few just used their backs.

“Now
that we've got the hang of things it's moving a lot quicker and smoother,” Max
said with pride. “Never thought they'd take to this so quickly. It's using a
lot less material, half what a building its size would usually need. Wish we
could make more plywood, it'd be a big dent too.” He scowled. “We've used up
all the plywood in the area and the other projects suck up the new stuff as
soon as it's dried. Hang on a sec, back in a minute,” he said holding up a
finger and going off to a native who was waving to him. From the red hat the
guy had on he was some sort of foreman.

“This
the problem I take it?” Ryans asked turning to Waters who scowled and nodded.
“I take it you’re not happy about this for some reason?”

“The
vehicles seem to have been evicted,” Waters growled. “We need to get them
secure.” He waved to indicate the warehouse. Ryans looked around and nodded.

“I
realize that,” Max said coming up behind them. They turned to him. “But your
team was out on maneuvers and the LAVs are out on raids or running convoy
escort for the trucks. Since it's raining cats and dogs out there...” he
pointed to the rain outside, “or the local equivalent critters, I brought the
team in to do what they can so the schedule doesn't slip any more than it
already has. We've been making good time. Shouldn't take much longer.”

“Ah,”
Ryans nodded. That was true, three quarters of the vehicles were now out and
about, and only the civilian vehicles were here in the city. The camper and
science vehicle and one hummer were stationed at the keep. That left the other
hummer, the Strykers, the EMT hummer, the engineering hummer, the deuces not
out running supplies, and the tractor trailer trucks here. “Did you get the
fuel system set up?”

Max
nodded. “Yup. Even got the new tanks in the ground. Tank one is filling now.
Bladders too, and we've even got some sealed barrels and a couple of brick
cisterns if we get overflow,” Max said sounding smug.

“Good,”
Waters nodded grudgingly. “We're low.”

“Yeah,
I didn't like traveling on fumes either. We only had a couple of gallons for
each vehicle when we got here. Now we're fully restocked and we've even got a
surplus,” Max said grinning.

“So
what's all this?” Ryans asked indicating the work. Max and Waters turned.

“Well,
those two trusses are the last bits for the factory down the street. The
carriages I think you can figure out. Their roof was leaking so I shifted them
here.” He pointed to each group in turn and then finally to the last. “That
group there is working on the walls to the new barracks,” Max said. He turned
to Waters. “You know, the new ones you've been harping about?”

“Ah,”
Ryans said nodding. “And the others?” He indicated the group working on the
work benches and what looked like a chute.

“For
the new machine shop, lumberyard, and factory.”

“What's
the factory for by the way? Ball bearings?” Water's asked sounding disgusted.

“No,
believe it or not it's a giant complex to build other buildings,” Max replied
looking a little sheepish. He grimaced as a water droplet dribbled near the
wall. “This here isn't exactly waterproof; none of the buildings in town are
for that matter.” He grimaced again as a guy with a screw gun started working
on a piece near them. “Let’s just say tar paper made its way onto my list,” he
said.

“See,
I remember from home that when you build stuff, like buildings say...“ he
jerked his thumb to the work around them, “in a factory you've got a lot less
wastage, it goes together ten times faster, and it's easier to set up.”

“Ah,”
Ryans nodded. He knew what Max was talking about. The big machinist had a
point. “So you’re building a place so you won’t be in here.”

“And
the warehouse next door,” Max nodded. “Your vehicles can sit out in the
courtyard Sergeant, they won’t melt. The windows are all rolled up and the
doors locked. Get someone to ride herd on them till we're done. Won’t be more
than a couple of days I promise,” he said hands up.

“We
need to check Stryker four, her tranny is slipping,” the Sergeant said.

Max
nodded and pulled out his tablet. “Okay, got it. It's on my to do list. I'll
work on a pit somewhere so we can get easier access to her undercarriage. In
the meantime have the driver pull her computer diagnostic file and squirt a
copy to me,” he said.

“You
can do that?” Water's asked surprised.

“Sure,
these things are state of the art,” Max grinned. “We can check it and adjust it
with a couple of taps of a mouse even from here,” he held up his tablet. “Damn
things are so horridly complex it's the only way to do it. Makes life a lot
easier when something goes buggy... unless it's the computer itself,” he said
shaking his head.

“All
right,” Waters nodded. “I'll get Scooter on the tranny and see if we can scare
up a guard force,” he said grudgingly. He turned in a perfect about face and
moved off into the rain. Ryans watched him go.

“Don't
worry about marines, they love the water. They're like ducks in it as long as
it ain't cold. Ain't no biggy,” Max said watching him. Ryans turned to him.