Chapter 109: 108. Offloading

As soon as the ship came into view I could see they'd already begun unloading the cargo.

Rebecca and Jenny were standing a few meters in front and to the left of the main airlock, while a multi-wheeled vehicle drove up the ramp. It extended some articulated metal arms at the front, before backing away again with a loaded shipping container held by a pair of claws that made me think of mantis-like insects.

The loader was a squat ugly but solid-looking machine. It actually fit in with the Demeter's aesthetic in a way. Like it may have been painted at one time but that had long since faded, and the exposed metal was now decorated with a brown patina of rust and stains. It had six large black wheels with deep treads, and from the way they didn't bulge or deform under the added load of the containers I figured they were solid synthetic rubber.

The vehicle was about the same length as our grav-sled, a bit wider, and about half again as high. There was only one seat though, in the very middle. Driving it was the small quiet mechanic himself. Cam seemed to know what he was doing, there was a look of concentration on his face as he focused on the task. Especially when he was driving up the ramp to retrieve containers.

The only time his concentration broke was when Ella yelled instructions at him.

The loader itself was fairly noisy too which probably added to his stress. I knew my tail would be twitching if I had to sit ontop of the thing with the racket it was making. While it was carrying a container the motors were louder as if complaining about the weight, but when it wasn't under load the gripper arms rattled and clanged, so either way it had to be an unpleasant experience.

And it was easy to see that get even more unpleasant every time the mayor moved up closer to shout orders at him, about where to put the next container or telling him to get a move on. Even from a distance I could see the man was frazzled whenever Mrs. Wheeler opened her mouth. Then as soon as she was quiet his focus returned.

"I'll go distract mom," Jace said quietly. He'd obviously seen what sort of effect the woman was having on the mechanic.

I nodded and went to join my crewmates, and as I did so I spotted Sarah inside the hold with the hoist controls in hand.

"How's it going?" I asked Rebecca and Jenny as I moved to stand alongside them.

The boss responded, "It's going. I'm glad to finally start getting this stuff off our ship. At least that'll be one less headache to worry about."

"So Jenny, you were saying?" she added as she looked to our AI.

Apparently they were already in a conversation when I arrived, so I stayed quiet and listened as they picked up where they left off.

"The information security on this planet is even more lax than it was on Ecclestone's World," Jenny explained quietly. "I've already accessed their communications satellite network, and through those I have access to their information network. With your permission, I could access their defence satellites as well. That would allow me to monitor the entire surface for any threatening activity, rather than the six or seven kilometre range our sensors have right now."

I couldn't help be surprised at the idea of our AI calmly offering to infiltrate the planet's defence network. Part of me was worried how much trouble that might cause us, but then I remembered what Preston said about the government here. If they were was bad as he seemed to think, then maybe it wasn't any surprise that their computer security was so lax. Which might suggest the rest of their security was equally inadequate.

Rebecca was quiet for a few moments as she considered it, before finally nodding "If you can do it without getting caught, and I mean you're at least ninety-nine-percent confident, then very well. Otherwise I'd rather not take the chance. We've already got enough headaches, I don't want to trigger some kind of orbital strike on our ship or Ganvis Station."

Jenny tried not to sound too smug as she responded, "If they tried to issue such an order I could intercept it and shut down their communications network. And the defence satellites are unmanned, so without the communications network there's no way to control them."

"Just don't get over-confident ok?" the captain replied with a frown.

The AI nodded, "Understood. And I have satellite imagery of this entire continent. I've located an installation which matches the general description you and Mrs. Wheeler provided of the raider's base. It is one hundred and eighteen kilometres from the Demeter at a bearing of two-thirty-three degrees. There are twenty-one buildings, and I can see ten vehicles. Six appear to be grav-sleds of various designs, three are ground-craft, and the last one may be a shuttle."

"There is nothing currently en-route from there to here," she added. "I'll keep an eye on that site as I continue to monitor the ground and airspace around us."

"Thank you Jenny," Rebecca replied quietly as she continued watching Cam and Sarah work.

I watched the activity as well, and it seemed like things were going very smoothly. Sarah would pick up the next container from where it was stowed in the hold, then manoeuvre it to just inside the main airlock and set it gently on the deck. Then Cam would drive his loader up the ramp and pick up the container, back down the ramp with the big steel box in his loader's claws, then turn and drive it off to the right and set it down with the rest.

From the look of it the containers were being placed in a row along the north side of the landing area, between the ship and the buildings. There were already five containers out there and Cam was moving the sixth, while Sarah got the seventh prepared inside the hold.

"It looks like those two are working well together," I commented. "I figured they might get along."

Rebecca glanced over at Ella and Jace then looked back to me and replied quietly, "I don't think any of us have had much of a chance to speak with Cam, but so far he seems like one of the nicer ones here."

I hesitated slightly before responding just as quietly, "Are you doing ok? I was really tempted to say something in the mayor's office this morning..."

She grimaced, "I'm fine. Thanks for thinking of me Amanda. And thanks for not saying anything earlier."

"I've had to remind myself," she added with a sigh, "Neither of us has seen each other in almost thirty years. Being reunited after all this time... Let's just say both Ella and I have had to confront the unpleasant fact that reality has failed to live up to our memories and imaginations."

After another brief hesitation I commented, "You've started calling her Ella, rather than El?"

The captain responded quietly, "I realized it was disrespectful of me to keep calling her by the old name. And it's better for me as well. I need to get used to her as the woman she is now, rather than cling to the memory of the person I used to know. I just hope she'll do the same for me."

"Even if that means she doesn't want anything to do with you?" I asked softly.

"Yes," Rebecca nodded. "I'd rather she hates me for being myself than have her treat me as if I was still the man I used to be."

I moved a little closer and gave her a sympathetic look, "I'd like to hug you right now, but I don't want to give the locals any other reasons to hate us."

That put another grimace on my tall strong girlfriend's face. "I'm almost beyond caring what they think, but thanks for keeping that in mind Amanda. I'll cash in on the hug after the ship's unloaded and we can get the fuck away from here."

Jenny suddenly stated in a quiet calm voice, "The latest images from the alleged raider installation indicates they are on the move. All six grav-sleds and the possible-shuttlecraft appear to be en route to our current location. A very preliminary ETA is thirty minutes, but I should be able to refine that shortly."

You are reading story Daughters of Demeter at novel35.com

"Fuck," Rebecca sighed.

I looked from Jenny to the boss and asked quietly, "What do we do? We should warn Ella so she can get their militia ready, right?"

Rebecca frowned, then grimaced, then finally shook her head.

"Not yet," she stated softly. "I don't want to have to explain how we know they're coming. I don't want word to spread that Jenny was able to hijack the planetary networks."

With another sigh she added, "I've already told Ella too many of our secrets as it is."

"So what are we going to do?" I asked. "We can't just do nothing for twenty-five minutes then panic when they're almost ontop of us."

The captain frowned again as she thought it over, then decided "Let's head up to the cockpit. Jenny I trust you can get us a visual on what's coming? We can make preparations ourselves, then maybe when they're ten minutes out we'll let the locals know."

"Very well captain," Jenny agreed.

We waited till Cam and his loader were clear of the ramp, then the three of us headed up into the ship. Sarah was there with the hoist controls, moving the next container into position as we passed her.

The cute blonde teased, "What's the matter, you girls got bored watching us mechanics do all the hard work?"

"Just keep unloading the ship Sarah," the boss replied in a quiet serious tone. "Quick as you can, but no mistakes please."

Sarah's smile faded as she asked, "Is there a problem?"

Rebecca shook her head, "That's what we're looking into. I'll let you know if the situation changes. For now, get those containers off my ship."

"Aye-aye captain," our girlfriend replied, her tone and expression serious.

We left her to her work while the rest of us headed straight to the cockpit. The boss and I took our seats while Jenny routed the satellite images into our displays, and I found myself looking at a slightly fuzzy picture of six grey craft and one black craft moving above the yellow-brown landscape.

Our AI commented, "I'm really not programmed for this, but by comparing multiple images I can reduce some of the blur and sharpen the images slightly. I can't promise the details are accurate though, as opposed to artefacts I might be introducing as I try and improve the pictures. I've never done this before and don't have the software, so I'm literally winging it."

"Do your best Jenny," Rebecca replied. "And thank you."

A moment later the blurry images were replaced by an enlarged and sharpened picture. Three of the grav-sleds appeared to be large boxy things that were fully enclosed, while the other three looked like open-top sleds similar in design to our own. And two of those appeared to have mounted guns on them, possibly the same kind as the one we already faced. The black craft was about the same size as one of the bigger sleds, but didn't look like any grav-sled design I'd seen.

"Damn," the boss sighed. She pointed at the black craft, "That looks military. It might be a fighter, but we can assume it's hardened if not armour plated. That means the point-defence lasers won't be much help."

She continued, "The three big sleds look like APCs, they'll carry over a dozen troops in each one, plus the driver and any crew. And we have at least two mounted guns on those other sleds. The last sled might be their CO, or it might be full of gunmen like we saw yesterday."

I grimaced, "So what do we do? They're going to be here in less than half an hour, that's not enough time to evacuate is it? Sarah and Cam won't even finish unloading the cargo by then."

Rebecca frowned as she stared at the screen. She almost looked lost in thought, and I could easily imagine she was running through various scenarios in her mind. Maybe weighing pros and cons, or thinking about possible casualties or potential damage to the ship.

Half a minute passed before she finally seemed to come to a decision. She was still staring at the screen as she stated, "Amanda I'm going to leave you here in command of the Demeter. I'll take the fighter and go deal with them out there, rather than wait till they get here. If all goes well I'll shoot down all seven craft long before they're in a position to threaten anyone here."

"And if it doesn't go well?" I asked warily.

The captain replied, "Then keep yourself, the crew, and our ship safe."

"Jenny," she added. "I'll be in contact via secure comm channel. If any of the raiders get past me you notify Amanda. If that happens, you tell Ella so she can organize her defences. You and Sarah arm yourselves. Jenny you're authorized to use whatever means available, ship's weapons or defences. Worst case scenario I'll get back here as fast as I can to help out."

With the decision made she got up and headed aft, with both me and Jenny following. Rebecca still had her carbine with her, and her pistol on her belt. She shrugged the assault weapon off her shoulder but carried it with her as she headed for the port-side airlock.

"Wait what about those drugs you hid in there?" I frowned. "You don't want to be sitting next to that while flying into danger."

The boss shook her head, "I didn't just dump them on the pilot seat. They're sealed in a strongbox, and that's secured in an emergency locker. Right now that stuff's the least of my worries."

I sighed as she unsealed the hatch, "Rebecca I don't know about this. I'm not a leader, I'm not really a soldier. Maybe Sarah should be in charge..."

She stood in the airlock, the fighter's cockpit was visible behind her through the open hatch. She shook her head, "You'll do fine Amanda. I know you're anxious but you'll be fine. I'm not asking you to take command of Ella or the local people, just us. And there's only four simple rules to keep in mind. One, don't get shot. Two, don't let Sarah or Jenny get shot. Three, don't let the ship get shot. And four, shoot the other guys."

"It's going to take me a few minutes to get the fighter warmed up and run a pre-flight checklist," she added, "Unfortunately this thing hasn't been used in ages. While I'm doing that, you two go tell Sarah what's happening. Make sure she draws a weapon for herself. Carbine, shotgun, or rifle, her choice. You can take what you want too, you don't have to stick with the shotgun if you'd rather use something else. Now go. I'll see you both in forty-five minutes or less."

"Yes boss," I sighed. Jenny and I both watched as she stepped through into the fighter, then sealed the hatches behind her.