Starfist: Kingdom's Fury by David Sherman & Dan Cragg Read Free Book Online

platoon from 34th FIST first encountered the Skinks on Society 437. So far, nada." This was the first mention the officers from 26th FIST had heard of Society 437; they made notes to remind themselves to find out about it. "Even when planetside forces are in direct contact with the Skinks and the analysts know exactly where to look, they're damnably hard to detect unless they're using one of those long range weapons—those things kick out a clear enough signal so the string-of-pearls has no problem spotting them. Navy forensics wants us to capture one of those weapons. They haven't been able to figure out what it is from the scrap we captured after the fight in the Swamp of Perdition." He glanced at the navy officers in the back of the room to see if they had newer information. They didn't.
    "They always withdraw underwater," Daana went on. "So far they haven't returned to the surface anyplace we have surveillance devices. Which suggests they don't resurface, but enter underwater caves. Or at least, caves with underwater egress. The upshot is, we have no idea where they might be based."
    "Has the Grandar Bay searched for caves?" Sturgeon asked.
    "Yessir." Daana tapped a command on the lectern top. A color-coded topo map appeared on the wall display behind him. It showed the land around Haven and Interstellar City to a distance of a thousand kilometers. "As you see, sir, there are a lot of rivers, canals, and wetlands in the vicinity." Indeed, the map was riddled with the blue lines and blobs that represented rivers and lakes, along with the iconic green-fronds-on-blue that meant marshes and swamps. "Finding caves was easy."
    He tapped another command, and a dense spattering of deep red splotches and squiggles was overlaid on the map. "This region is absolutely riddled with cave systems. Navy estimates that if the army sent in an entire corps of cave specialists, it would take them five years to explore just the caves shown on this map." He looked back at the commanders. "Of course, sirs, the army doesn't have an entire corps of cave specialists."
    That elicited brief but appreciative laughter, as loud in the back of the room as the middle. No matter how frequently or severely the Marines and the navy were at odds with each other, they held a mutual disrespect for the army.
    Sturgeon hadn't laughed, though a slight crease that could have been a smile crossed his face. "Are we deploying more surveillance devices?" he asked.
    "Yessir. As fast as 26th's Four gets them in, I get them out." He tapped a third command. The map behind him morphed into a time lapse schematic of surveillance device deployment. It began when 34th FIST set defensive positions around Haven and Interstellar City, with merely a scattering of symbols for surveillance devices.
    The scattering slowly thickened until the arrival of 26th FIST, then rapidly became denser.
    "I have one other item, sirs. The assault against sector India Delta during the storm the other night may have left something we can use. In all previous contacts with the Skinks, they always either carried away their casualties or their casualties were vaporized. It is possible, though not yet certain, that a Skink was killed by fléchette fire in that action and its remains left behind. At any rate, a small amount of organic material was found after the storm let up. Neither the Confederation biologists in Interstellar City nor the navy med/sci people aboard the Grandar Bay have the proper equipment to fully analyze it. It has been sent back to Earth by courier for analysis."
    Sturgeon nodded, then stood. "Please continue. I have other matters to attend to."
    "Attention on deck!" Ramadan snapped as he stood and came to attention. There was a brief rattle of chairs as the other officers gained their feet and stood at attention.
    "As you were," Ramadan said when Sturgeon was gone. The officers resumed their seats, and the briefing, which was designed primarily for the benefit of the commanders