by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright March 2022
The men and women of the team file into the briefing room -- their robotic associates are connecting virtually. Colonel Looney stands at the front. When the last person is seated he begins.
"Folks, I'm sad to say we are here because things are going wrong on the planet. We need to get things back in good order -- good law and order.
The Healers Without Boundaries who are based out of the Zoomic ship have been raided. A bunch have been taken hostage by that group that calls themselves The Insurgents. We need to rescue them or somebody will have to pay a hefty ransom to free them.
Any questions before I continue?"
SP5 Andy Dugar raises his hand, "Are those the idiots that landed by Paldar Lake?"
Looney nods his head, "I guess they figured that being charity workers would make them immune to hostage-takers." he sighs "Sadly, they are discovering they are part of the real world.
The good news is: their bosses are giving us their support in trying to solve this mess quickly, quietly and without a ransom being paid."
He looks around, "That's all I have to say. I'll turn this over to your mission commander, Lt. Kilgar." He steps down, leaves the room and team member Lt. Kilgar takes his place.
Lt. Kilgar says, "Our mission is to infiltrate the camp The Insurgents have assembled near the ship, rescue the charity folk and the ship's crew, and then get fuck out of there with minimal loses... on our side.
Assemble what you need and meet at Shuttle Bravo. We are leaving in two hours." He checks his watch, "Get your stuff ready and be in Shuttle Bravo at 1350 hours. We will launch ten minutes after that."
<<<o>>>
The team assembles at Shuttle Bravo. There are five humans and an assortment of robots and drones. A couple of the robots go with humans into the crew area, the rest of the equipment goes into the cargo area. Those in the crew area are human-assistant types -- robot butler/maid types who have a lot of skill in stroking humans. The others are competent warrior types -- they shoot, scout and supply with great efficiency.
Lt. Kilgar announces, "We will land at the ship first. We will do some first-hand scouting to better assess the situation. That done, we will head from there to the village where the hostages and treasures are being held. Once those are recovered we will quickly head home, we aren't there to make any sort of statement to the natives or the media. Any questions?"
Dugar asks, "Any concerns with native fatalities?"
"Don't produce any more than you need to. We are there to get in and out fast with hostages and equipment rescued. If the fatality count gets newsworthy we haven't done our job well."
<<<o>>>
They take the shuttle down and land at the Zoomic. It is being monitored by drones and there are some repair bots working it over. They will fix it enough that it can fly back up to the orbiting station, and repairs will be finished there.
Dugar and Edwards go inside. They report, "The interior has been looted and trashed. It's a mess and there's no reason for us to spend more time here."
"Anything we can learn about the insurgents?"
"This is pretty much standard native trashing. The only thing noteworthy is what they took with them. They, or whoever is working with them on this, know what our folks will find valuable to recover, as in, pay nice ransom for. They also took stuff that is cutesy for primitives. We are dealing mostly with backwoods folk."
They come out and the party heads quietly and carefully towards the village where the hostages and loot are being held. Two hostile villager drones wander near the party. They are disabled before they spot any signs of the group.
<<<o>>>
The party starts scouting the village. It is a collection of tents located by a stream at the edge of a thick jungle-style forest. They sneak a well-camouflaged probe into the village and scout it out. The scouting doesn't take long.
Dugar and Edwards report again, "The docs and the crew still have their personal ID's so we know where they are. But they are now also wearing 'boom rings'. These are hostage necklaces -- explosive devices that will decapitate them if The Insurgents set them off. They are also being accompanied by traditional guards who can shoot them, or stab them, or whatever."
"Where are they?"
"All except one are in a big tent, I guess it's their prison tent. The last one is in a nearby tent. I'm guessing he's being questioned."
"How do we get them out?"
"Well, we have to deal with the guards and the 'boom rings'. Dealing with the guards is pretty conventional -- we distract who we can and disable who we can't. The boom rings are probably pretty primitive, we should be able to just cut them off... before someone sends a detonate signal. To confirm that, we should locate a spare one and examine it to confirm it will be as simple as I'm guessing it will be. They are likely to be stored nearby. Oh, and we may be able to find keys for them. If we can, that's a lot simpler. The other possibility is these are something their space pirate buddies are providing, in which case they will be more sophisticated, and what we need to do is locate the disable code. That shouldn't be too hard to find, these people are expecting to take them off after the ransom is paid."
"That sounds like part of our next wave of scouting."
John nods.
"We may be able to kidnap one of their leaders who has access to the boom ring and prisoner info. We get what we need to know, we get our people and treasures, and we get out."
"Have you spotted him?"
"Yes."
<<<o>>>
Glox, deputy jailer, heads for the latrine bush near his tent. Halfway through relieving himself he gets what feels like a mosquito bite, but a few seconds later he falls to his knees, legs paralyzed. Jim and Jane come out of hiding and haul him a little deeper into the woods. They inject him with a "mellow out" drug and question him. They find out that the boom rings have a key, all use the same key, and Glox is carrying one.
"Now you get to stay here and enjoy the view for a bit longer." says Jim to Glox. He then injects him with an amnesia drug that knocks him out for thirty minutes and erases his memory for the last two hours. He will wake up feeling like he has had quite the hangover. With a grin, Jim leaves an empty liquor bottle beside him.
The party heads for the questioner tent first. They send in a quiet little drone who fills tent with knockout gas. When all inside are quiet the team comes in and revives Julius, the person being questioned, and removes his boom ring. They inject the others with the amnesia drug and then head for the prisoner tent.
The prisoner tent is bigger, but they follow a similar routine. They quickly amnesia the jailers and revive the hostages. Lt. Kilgar stops the team from gathering ship treasures. She says, "If they have some scraps to offer they can save some face, and they won't want some kind of revenge so badly."
The human team and the rescued hostages sneak out of the tent. They and the robots sneak back to Shuttle Bravo. They do so successfully, launch, and get safely back to the headquarters ship.
<<<o>>>
The team is back in the briefing room with Colonel Looney. He is standing at the front with a happy look on his face.
"Congrats to you all, that mission went well. The crew and docs of the Zoomic have all been rescued, the ship itself is up here and being repaired, and the gossip on the planet surface is that The Insurgents have lost a lot of face with the local natives -- they are now seen as bumblers, not hotshots with important off-world connections.
All-in-all, lots of success."
The team members smile at each other, and Dugar raises his hand. "Are those space pirates going to be sticking around?"
"This is a setback for them. They got involved in this because they were looking for some quick cash. The ransom our people paid was a tenth of what they were hoping for. Unless they see some other golden opportunity, it's likely they will be moving on."
The team likes hearing this -- mission accomplished in a most meaningful way.
--The End--