Desperado (Murphy's Lawless: Watch the Skies Book 2) by Kevin Ikenberry (any book recommendations txt) 📕

years in the future, he didn’t like it any better. When he’d learned mortars were part of the Lost Soldiers’ inventory, he’d volunteered for them. But Lieutenant Colonel Murphy and Major Moorefield decided he was better used with the cavalry. He never thought to ask them why. Being on the front line unsettled him. Having to move through potentially hostile alien plants didn’t do much to assuage his fears. Yet he could focus on the mission at hand by reminding himself that not only was he still alive, far away from Earth, but he was riding an alien creature…or “being,” or whatever the hell it was. No matter how good the stories of his peers had been in Vietnam, none of them would have believed what he was doing now. Moreover, he realized he was good at it.

Stewart kept the patrol to the south side of the plateau. Their goal was to drop off the communications post, Sergeant Fahey and Specialist Wright, at an abandoned observation post that the J’Stull—or maybe the roving militia of the week—had once occupied. It was obvious their enemy had moved the actual observation post closer to the city itself some time before. Major Moorefield believed the local militias were complacent regarding security. His observers had seen soldiers atop the plateau but never moving from the city to those posts. Finding how the enemy did so was a critical requirement, particularly without access to aerial reconnaissance. It was crucial that Stewart drop off the communications team at the abandoned position and move forward quickly to attack and seize the two tucked-in observation posts spotted during the leader’s reconnaissance.

As the patrol leader, Stewart set himself in the middle of the formation. His Alpha Team, seven whinnies and their indig riders, took the point. Soon, they would break away from the formation and travel to the far eastern observation post near the escarpment. Stewart would take Bravo Team and move on the first observation post. Stealth and caution were critical for the attack to launch on time and achieve the element of surprise.

About twenty minutes after passing the line of the departure, Alpha Team elements split away for their attack. Stewart led the others forward for another hour before arriving at the abandoned listening post. Without words or ceremony, Fahey and Wright dismounted their whinnies and set up the radio inside the rock-walled lean-to. Wright gestured to their indig support, and the six robed figures spread out into the night and laid down in hasty defensive positions. Stewart climbed down from Olympia and whispered to the others, “Don’t be heroes if something goes wrong. You’re here to maintain communications between us and Major Moorefield. Unless you’re hit, you stay here. Got it?”

Wright’s cherubic face bobbed up and down, wearing a nervous grin. Fahey merely nodded once. “We got it, sir. We’ll stay in touch.”

“You do that, Fahey. We’ll see you guys when this is over.”

Stewart climbed back atop Olympia, and they set off to the east. Forty-five minutes later, they took a position to envelop and encircle the listening post. The whinnies, and the soldiers riding them, were absolutely silent. The J’Stull soldiers, or whoever they were, weren’t just bad at security; they didn’t even bother with it. Three of them were asleep around the remains of a small fire. Stewart watched for several minutes, looking and listening for another guard, someone with enough discipline to actually remain awake. It became apparent there was no one on watch.

Stewart raised his right hand and pointed at the Bravo Team leader, Sergeant Morton, and then to the three sleeping soldiers. Morton’s team dismounted their whinnies and crept forward. With uncanny ease, they subdued the guards. The captured soldiers said nothing; all three hung their heads in shame at being caught unaware.

Stewart stayed back and let Morton lead his forces. The young black soldier from Chicago was on top of the situation, and there was no reason to step in and change the rhythms. Morton ensured the prisoners were gagged, hands bound behind their backs, before allowing his forces to search the objective.

It wasn’t long before Morton called to him in a harsh whisper. “Lieutenant? Over here.”

Stewart made his way through the darkness and immediately saw what Morton’s men had found. Cut into the rock, a staircase descended into the plateau itself. Most likely it connected with the tunnel complex behind the city.

“Now we know how they get up here,” Stewart said. “All we gotta be worried about is how often they change the guard.”

Morton grinned. “I’ve got that, sir. We’ll sit here and capture anybody who comes up through it.”

Stewart nodded. “Quietly.”

As they finished securing the objective, Stewart’s radio crackled to life. “Bravo, this is Alpha. We’ve taken down the target. No casualties. No alerts.”

Stewart breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you find any type of entrance from the plateau? A way they get up there to relieve the guards?”

“Roger, sir. There are two towers over here with guidelines for airships. Looks like a hidden landing site. There’s also a worn trail between us and you. We’re betting it’s a straight shot used by the patrols. We found another area where the trail just ends at an unsecured trap door. These guys were amateurs.”

Stewart agreed and realized he needed to decide on a course of action. The plan originally called for the whinnies under Alpha Team to remain in place at the listening post for extra security. But unless they were missing something, the J’Stull soldiers’ lax approach to maintaining watches and failure to change their routes indicated only rudimentary security protocols. They’d relied on the plants to do their dirty work for them, expecting that no one in their right mind would patrol, let alone attack, at night.

Damn, when did we start acting like Charlie?

Stewart snorted and repressed the smile that threatened to appear on his face. If his