Angeleyes - eARC Read Online Free PDF Page A

attack. They’d gone in with ten drop landers, and pretty much lost a chunk to Orbital Defense. Then the rest had been captured and held for repatriation.
    The troops here were because the UN had planned on a larger mission, with these guys staged to be support.
    I’d invited what were basically two enemy soldiers into my bed last night.
    That took some of the buzz off.
    I saw troops everywhere. Doc, clubs, shopping. I think they were billeted in pods in a load bay.
    I wasn’t able to catch back up with that amazing couple. I was at Ice Palace all three nights, and nothing.
    But I still had most of my funds in my pocket when we boosted out, and I’d been very well spread. I’d look in the same club if I legged back soon.
    I didn’t see any troops in Caledonia, and two days after docking, I pulled out doing intra-gate work from their JP2 to JP4 to get around the bottleneck going through the Freehold, on a volatiles hauler, the Wheezer . Instead of attached pods and a towed train, they had a fixed tanker frame. I had to monitor Temps and Press, and keep the crew fed around the clock. It was twelve days transit, with lots of routine and nothing else.
    That put me close to Ramadan, of course, and I had to juggle to avoid Arabish ships. Some of them are really pushy and abusive of female crew, and you won’t find a court to help. There’s no clubs, either. Or, there is, but the dress code makes dancing pointless.
    There were troops there. I took a count. They’d arrived just after the ones at NovRos, which made sense, given transit time.
    It matched up with that botched assault.
    Three jumps and a month later, I was back in Caledonia. No troops there. They were pretty close to independent, and I thought that mattered.
    Interesting.
    It was then that the real attack took place. The UN used kinetic weapons to smash our ground bases, which was odd. Space assets are a lot more important. I had no idea why they’d chosen that approach. I never studied tactical or strategic calculus. I couldn’t figure it out then, and I can’t now. I’ve had people tell me it’s an institutional mindset that can’t adapt, but it’s so ridiculous I can’t see it even with that.
    They landed and started moving in, and then spread back to some of the habitats. I didn’t know that then, though. Just that they’d landed and occupied and called our government a “junta.” I had to look that word up. They lied outrageously that our government was a military government, and they claimed to be liberating our residents.
    People believed it, even in Caledonia. Apparently, on Earth they ate it up. It was complete vent waste, but people would believe it for years or ever.
    The biggest thing I noticed about the War was shipping stopped dead for a week.
    The news from the Freehold was limited. At the time, I could tell the UN had moved in and had control of media, but all that means is they controlled the Jump Points, or at least some Jump Points, since news has to go through shipboard and be recast on the far side.
    I was glad I had Caledonian ID. I might not be going home for a while. I sat around the station, and there were ships to Earth, a few back to Govannon, some going through-system for Novaja Rossia. Nothing was going to Grainne.
    Then flights resumed, with stringent examinations.
    The good news there was that the backed-up ships had lost some crew to other transits or routes, and wanted to unload in a hurry when they got there. There were support materials for the war they wanted to haul.
    I got on a large tramp—the Ronson , 500K tonnes, with a crew of fifty. We loaded in a hurry, then spent the trip tetrising stuff around in the holds, so it could be unloaded in proper order. That saved time on loading, would save time on unloading, and kept us busy meantime. It meant they were short on mass, but I guess the time saved made it worthwhile. That’s a purser problem, not a cargo handler problem. I got paid Freehold Cr5000 for the trip,