Ice Station

(100/1105, Aki/Glisten)

On the way back, Dliiavrnt transferred the money to a simple duffel-bag, and dumped the case. After returning the hired air/rafts and retrieving their deposits, the team gathered again at the Baranduin.

Lasnus checked over the money, and found it to be real, unforged local currency, KCr180 of it as promised. The team made a mental note to change it into Imperial currency, and went to bed.

The next day, Lasnus and Oscar Blackwood hit the sensor suite and started hunting for the neutrino "pippers" built into the rifles. A series of sweeps revealed two of the weapons were in or around Bilstein's house in Second City, while the bulk of them were on the coast, near a bay, well into the antarctic circle and well away from any of the megacities.

Meanwhile, Fred Nose was dredging his memory for ideas for a training syllabus. Drawing on his memories of the Imperial Marine Academy, he put together a half-day course, comprising a session at the bench learning the hardware, and a session on the range learning to actually shoot the things. This done, he tested it on Lasnus, who, despite being untrained with the weapons in question, picked up the basics and managed to mug up enough of the course to be able to teach it.

Nose then contacted Sterling Hughes, and arranged another meeting. Hughes was affable - he bought lunch - and complimentary on the progress so far, but warned Nose quite clearly that it would be much better for everyone if the affair were wrapped up before the rifles started being used in earnest. He made no secret of the fact that he'd exceeded his authority setting this plan up, and cautioned Nose that if there was a scandal because of civilian deaths and he (Hughes) was removed, his successor might well revoke the deal. Nose argued that there was little point picking up the holders of the rifles while they were all in one place; better to wait until they were dispersed one to a cell, and use them to track down and eliminate all the cells in one go. Hughes agreed in principle, but re-iterated that significant loss of civilian life would jeopardise the whole deal. They agreed to try and compromise, and parted.

The next day, 102/1105, Bilstein was back in touch. He gave a set of map co-ordinates as a rendezvous, and signed off again. After some discussion, Nose and Lasnus flew the gig to the designated point, accompanied by Doug Eagle. Nose, fired up by the prospect of some action, put the lighter through some gut-wrenching manoeuvres en route, clinging to the earth to try and minimize sensor detection.

On arrival, the pair thought they'd made a mistake at first, as the designated spot turned out to be a bleak, empty spot on a vast, empty plain. However, they waited, and eventually spotted a tiny speck moving towards them. Eventually, this revealed itself to be a ground vehicle, a closed truck fitted for hostile weather travel. PRIS observation showed that it was not fusion, fuel-cell or IC powered, but running on batteries. It arrived, stopped and two men got out. Giving the recognition phrases Bilstein had set up, Lasnus and Nose identified themselves to the men.

Boarding the vehicle, the two settled into the rear compartment and endured four days of bouncing and jolting as the truck drove into the steppelands. Finally it emerged on the coast, and halted where the land met the antarctic packice. Waiting for them was another vehicle.

While both were familiar with ground vehicles from various places, neither had ever seen a craft like this before. A sleek, pointed hull rested on four flat skids, and a huge two-bladed propeller dominated the rear of the craft. A wraparound control cabin filled the front, there was a middle section with seating for 20 and some cargo space, and a drive section aft with a huge motor for the prop and a large array of hyperbatteries.

It was called an Ice Skimmer.

With some misgivings, the two boarded, and the vehicle moved off. As it settled into a fairly comfortable cruise, the battlecomputers of both men's combat armour pinged for attention. Their Inertial Navigators, which had cheerfully been plotting their excat position, had just lost their place; the vessel had inertial compensators fitted.

The skimmer shot across the ice for two days, and finally slowed before pulling around the headland of a small bay. Between the edge of the seaice and the mountainous cliff of the glacier behind, on the flat snow-covered land, was a base.

The skimmer was parked in a concealed hanger with three others. Waiting there to greet the two were several people. One of them was Deborah Kerr, the leader of the branch of cells containing Nate Bilstein's.

Partial Structure, Red Action terrorist group

Kerr greeted the pair, and introduced one of her companions as Duncan Venn, the range master for the Dallon Island training camp. Venn would clear them for authority to use the ranges; the guards at the camp being authorized to shoot first and ask questions later, it was a good idea to make sure they knew why they could hear gunfire. Nose questioned Venn as to what weapons were in use on the base, and was told that autofifles were the best available before the arrival of the gaussrifles.

Nose and Lasnus were shown to a two-berth hut as their accommodation, and, after settling in - and a quick check over the range - went to eat. The personnel of the base gathered for meals in the main hut, a larger construction in the centre of the base. Once the fact emerged that these were the people responsible for the improved weapons, their "street cred" with the terrorists increased noticably. Talking to the various band members, Nose and Lasnus were struck by the wide variety of personalities; fanatic revolutionaries, calm activists, gonzo bomb throwers - and at how united in their cause they seemed to be. Odd.

Next day - despite a poor showing from Lasnus in an early practice strip of a rifle - the training began. For four days the pair drilled the terrorists with the new weapons, encountering a variety of ability levels from barely competent to planetary militia quality. As they trained, they noted the strengths and weaknesses of each student - and also quietly collected as much identification detail as they could. These secret records were collated on a data slug and hidden carefully in case of a search. During the week, they casually explored the camp. Most areas were free to them, but in some places - the power plant, stores and the three rear-most accommodation huts - polite but firm guards turned them away. Their curiosity was naturally piqued.

At the end of the week, Deborah Kerr requested Nose to present his report in the main hut at 21:00. Arming himself with the facts, he went; and Lasnus went to work.

A bedsheet made an impromptu camouflage poncho, and he moved stealthily through the campsite towards the three forbidden huts. The first had lit windows and was obviously inhabited; he left that alone. The second was guarded, of course, but Lasnus managed to sneak past and peered in.

Inside he saw communications consoles. It was the radio shack. Cautiously, he unpacked his lockpick kit and opened the door. All the equipment inside was powered down, just small idiot-lights showing their standby mode. Lasnus looked over the few books and papers out on the tables, but the bulky safe in the corner was probably where the most important codebooks were and he didn't feel happy about trying to crack that quietly. He slipped back out of the door.

As he did so, he heard a door open to his right. The first hut, the one he'd avoided, opened and a man stepped out. Heart in his mouth, Lasnus ducked back inside and hid. The man closed his door, and walked off in the direction of the main hut. Lasnus, breathing again, closed his door and moved on to hut number 3.

Back in the main hut, Nose and Kerr were going over the week's notes, selecting the eighteen best trainees to be entrusted with the precious weapons. The door opened, and a man entered, to be greeted by Kerr with some deference. He shed his winter clothes to reveal a burly figure, with an unruly thatch of black hair and grey eyes. Kerr introduced him as Callum O'Rourke, the overall leader of Red Action.

O'Rourke read through the results of the meeting so far, commenting and amending in places. This was a deeply competent man, it emerged, a good planner who knew people and war well.

Lasnus approached the third hut. Once again, the hut was darkened, but inside he could see the unmistakable bulk of a fairly sophisticated computer system. Aha! Opening the door, he entered, and settled into a safe corner where he couldn't be seen from outside. To his delight, he discovered that the computer system had all its' external data ports enabled and unsecured. Powering up his hand computer with its' specialist computer-intrusion software, he hooked in with some cables and prepared to hack in. The initial username/password screen came up, and he paused with his hands frozen over the keys.

The system was running in Zhodani...