Gettysburg: A Tale of the Second War for Pennsylvanian Independence Read Online Free

They’ve proven they
have jammers. We’d be fighting blind.”
    Stug shrugged.
    In truth, he’d just confirmed a strategy she might’ve come
up with on her own after studying the map closer. Bold, risky, with the promise
of great reward. But it would be more of an even fight by daylight.
    “One other thing, Captain,” he said hesitantly.
    “Yes?”
    “We should send those drones out. Course them around the
town’s perimeter. Map the interior. Bring us back the picture, load it up in
the BICEs, set them to LAN access only. Keep them off the Internet. That way,
at least, every soldier out there will have a tactically accurate situation to
start with.”
    She grunted. “To start with. What’s the old axiom from von
Moltke? ‘No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.’”
    Stug shrugged a second time. “Better than nothing.”
    The captain smiled. “Ever practical, eh Stug?”
    “Practical is my job.” He stood up a little straighter
still. “I’m a sergeant, ma’am.”
    The best I’ve got , she thought. “How’s your
lieutenant?”
    “Hatch? Oh, he’ll be fine,” scoffed Stug. “Just got a little
sunburned.”
    “Uh-huh. Can he walk?”
    “As straight as he ever could,” the big man said playfully.
He was being familiar now, a bold move with his lieutenant’s superior officer.
She took it as a good sign of Hatch’s health, so she let it pass. “The laser
singed his panties—um, trousers, ma’am—but the leg burn is superficial. I’m not
even sure why he passed out, really.” He said this last in a teasing tone, one
that promised Hatch wouldn’t live down having fainted anytime soon.
    “Good to hear.” Nodding at the tent flap, she said, “You’re
dismissed, Sergeant.”
    Stug saluted and turned to go.
    “Oh, and Sergeant?”
    “Ma’am?”
    “Send Trick back in.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” He opened the tent flap, then halted, asking
no one in particular, “When did it start to get dark?”
    As he exited, the QB returned to the map. The short
warehouse first. That would be the conduit to the second, larger storehouse it
was connected to. They needed that okcillium. Badly. And if they could hold
both buildings and the surrounding area long enough to load up the converted
airships they were using to move the cargo, they’d have it.
    She glanced over at her projectile-firing weapon. It had
served TRACE well when no other option was available, but it was a relic to be
sure. To compete with Transport, they needed better. They needed laser
weaponry, and lots of it.
    Or more to the point, they needed power .
Manufacturing the laser weapons was easy—all you needed was a couple of 3-D printers.
But you could print weapons all day and it would get you nowhere if you didn’t
have the okcillium to power them. And that’s why these warehouses were so
important.
    There is an opportunity here , she thought.
    Of course, even a warehouse full of okcillium wouldn’t completely
level the playing field. She knew that. Transport had always had more
resources, more dropships, more drones, more everything—and it always would. Only
in the area of BICE technology—thanks to the SOMA and his technological prowess—had
TRACE been able to keep pace.
    No, they couldn’t match Transport’s resources. But with that
much okcillium, and the weapons it could power . . . they could come close.
    Yes.
    Lieutenant Mason entered the tent. Before he even announced
himself, she motioned at the map.
    “Stug thinks we should go in. The sooner the better.”
    The young lieutenant was silent for a moment.
    “A bit blind, ma’am.”
    She nodded. “That’s why I want you to send our drones out.
Circumnavigate the town, stay to the woods and mountains as much as possible. I
want a complete survey by morning.”
    Trick opened his mouth, then thought better of it.
    “Speak, Lieutenant. No time for egos here.”
    He stared at the map. “We have half a dozen drones pieced
together and programmed from how many