Having heard Song Chen's plan out,
Zhao Chen turned it over a moment.
"It will do. But the hands are to be of my own choosing," said Zhao Chen.
"They may be." Song Chen nodded.
"And I want every one of their files," Zhao Chen added.
Song Chen looked at the three squad leaders behind him. "Call up the file of every man of yours for Zhao Chen. Quickly!"
For time was of weight now.
And their having taken this shuttle might be found out at any moment.
And the three squad leaders, though there was doubt in their hearts, very soon had the whole of their squads' files laid before Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen ran his eye over them.
And tapped lightly upon several of the names.
"These men come with me," said Zhao Chen.
Song Chen glanced at them and called the names outright.
"Zhao Jie. Shen Jiangzhe. Zhang Wenze. Wu Zhenyu. Liu Haodong."
Of whom Zhao Jie was moreover the leader of one of the squads, and above Zhao Chen in rank, being a senior colonel.
"All those whose names are called, fall out," Song Chen said gravely.
And the five of them stood out together.
Among them Zhao Jie hesitated a moment, but stood before Song Chen all the same.
"Which of you can fly a shuttle?" Zhao Chen asked the rest from the cockpit.
"I can." One man raised his hand.
"You take her over. Hold this course, and fly at an even speed." Zhao Chen gave up his own seat, and left the handling to this man.
Whereby Zhao Chen had his hands free to look at the five before him.
And these five were not men Zhao Chen had picked at random.
But chosen with care, for Zhao Chen knew very well that the task to come was one of great weight.
And that even Zhao Chen was not wholly sure of it.
And that he would need companions working with him if it were to be done.
"You five men are hereafter to take your orders wholly from Zhao Chen. He is at this moment the same as myself! Is that understood." Song Chen, at the very outset, gave Zhao Chen a standing and an authority very great indeed.
Not a man there had looked for that.
How should a colonel, a mere colonel, hold an authority as great as that?
But at this Zhao Chen broke in upon Song Chen's words, and fixed his eyes keenly upon the five. "The task to come carries a very great risk. It may even be that all five of you will die upon it. So whether you are willing to go upon this task is wholly as you please. Withdraw now, and I shall not hinder you. I can promise you nothing. Mm… the one promise I can make, perhaps, is that once we are back, should you have fallen. You will receive death benefits at the highest grade there is."
And having said it, Zhao Chen looked at Song Chen.
And the meaning of that look was plain enough.
Song Chen threw Zhao Chen a look of exasperation; not that he had any objection to an arrangement of the kind.
But could you not have given me a word of warning beforehand?
"It is so, and not for you five only. Every man present here, should he fall in the action to come. So long as I get back, I shall give every man of you who falls the highest death benefits there are. Upon my word as the Star Alliance's Leader!"
Hearing Song Chen say it, every heart there gave a jolt.
For by this,
even should they truly die,
their households would at the least have nothing to fear for their living hereafter.
"I am willing to go upon this task!" Senior Colonel Zhao Jie was the first to stand out and set the example.
And the other four said it with one voice after him.
For as matters stood now, they were bad enough already.
If these plans did not succeed, these men would die here in any case.
And if a man saved his own skin and Song Chen died, there would be no sweet fruit for him when he got back either.
Rather than that, better to take a chance at it now.
Zhao Chen looked at the five of them.
And the reason he had picked these five out was simple enough.
It was that they all had real experience of fighting upon the ground.
Whereas of the others, many were interstellar crewmen merely; skilled enough at working an interstellar warship, but with no experience of truly coming to close quarters with an enemy in the flesh,
who in the ordinary way, in their training, shoot at a simulated enemy with a laser pistol.
But practice of that kind is practice after all, and no match for real experience of war.
And Zhao Jie among them had once been the leader of an interstellar marine unit, and had come to his post upon the bridge by solid merit in the field.
"Put together for these five men one plain suit of armor apiece, and two laser pistols and ten energy magazines each, and five grenades to every man," Zhao Chen gave out.
An outfitting of this sort,
amounted to giving the whole of a third of the weapons and ammunition in their hands to these five men under Zhao Chen.
"And if any of you is skilled with a light-blade, you may choose for yourselves. Say how many you want and so many will be found for you," Zhao Chen added.
There were no personal exoskeleton combat suits here, but there was some simple armored gear.
And the five of them were soon dressed and ready.
And at this Song Chen held out to Zhao Chen a light-blade whose hilt was red.
Zhao Chen looked at him, not understanding.
Song Chen explained: "This is a light-blade of special make; it will call up the greatest force at the least spending of spirit-strength. You are skilled with the light-blade; take it."
Zhao Chen did not stand on ceremony; a little more fighting power at such a time would make his plan go the more smoothly by that much.
"Then from here we go by the plan." Zhao Chen looked at Song Chen.
Song Chen nodded.
"Understood."
And thereupon this shuttle, as directed, flew quietly toward one corner of the city that was their mark.
And being a shuttle of their own side, the city's garrison had no suspicion of it, and only sent a query.
Zhao Chen had the pilot answer that they were searching this stretch of country for the Alliance's fugitives, as ordered.
And having that answer, the city's garrison asked nothing further.
"We are above the place we were bound for. Below us is the station of the enemy's mecha force," the pilot reported. "Are we to land?"
"Do not land. Landing will do nothing but rouse the enemy's suspicion. Fly to a place fifty meters above the ground.[1] We go straight down from there."
"Go down? From a hundred meters above the ground? We have no parachutes!" said one of the five, in some alarm.
And another soldier, armed at every point, knit his brows and said: "We have no personal exoskeleton combat suits upon us, only plain protective gear; and to jump straight down from a height of a hundred meters. Though we do not die of it, our bodies will take hurt in one degree or another, and bones may well be broken. Which will make the fighting plan that follows very hard to carry through."
Zhao Chen knit his brows and looked at Senior Colonel Zhao Jie beside him. "You were every one of you interstellar marines to begin with. Is this the whole of what you are good for?"
This was in truth Zhao Chen's way of stinging them into it.
But with men it answers very well.
Senior Colonel Zhao Jie looked at the other four soldiers, and said coldly: "At the military academy. One of the requirements was a jump of twenty meters without gear. Which is the requirement for a bare pass. Here there are a hundred meters. But there are a great many ways of slowing our speed as we go down. Have you all of you forgotten those skills and tactics?"
Hearing Senior Colonel Zhao Jie's rebuke,
these four soldiers all fell silent, and thereafter stood meekly, one after another, at the hatchway.
"Open the hatch, and make ready to wait upon my signal, and go down together."