Disembarking the colonists was going better this time for the practice. As before, Lisa's strong will, and organizing skills made sure people stayed together and left the ship in good order. Reb approached me on the bridge while I watched the returnees pool outside. She took the opportunity to sling an arm around me. “Well,that's th' easy part. John's of a mind t' plunder a depot in Hawaii. With most everbody gone from there, save some hardy souls what have greenhouses, its mostly vacated, he guesses.”

I turned hoping to dislodge her embrace in the process, but just ended up facing her with the arm now on my shoulder, while her eyes sparkled into mine. Piqued at her fair-weather attitude,I tried to stay even tempered. “He's got the whole militia back aboard, locked and loaded. Doesn't look like he expects a Sunday stroll to me.”

“Oh now, John knows his business, Tomas. You need to unbend a little. Ain't nobody what expected this to be a walk in the park, but we have what we need, to get what we need, if you get me. You're here to see everybody stays on task, an gets on with what's next.”

That's a long way from our winning through this.”

Her eyes took on a more sober mein.

“Yes it is,” she frowned, “but it's me, and John, and Clacks, an' Oh jus every one else who need to get it done. We each bear our own loads, Tomas. Speak'in of which, thah's a few things Ah Need to pick up while the colonists march off. Ah'll be tryin' to save the planet, next up on this little cruise, an ah do not have a shovel-full a help neither. Its all on me, really. You ain't help'in by gassing around chattering your teeth. When things are going as they should, you oughta be smiling and patting backs an easing people minds, not us having to calm you out, in addition to wrestlin' our own fears an problems. You relax and go on and handle yer own part in this.”

Chagrined, I nodded and took a breath. Getting underfoot was not my job, and I had to stop doing it. Reb was right. “Thanks Rebbeca.”

“Ah know you and Lisa are tight, Tomas. I'm just letting off steam, best I know how. Now, there's something to worry over”, she laughed.

***

Hawaii spread out below us. John marked a site, not surprisingly, near naval docks and museums. Everything looked brown, not the green oasis the few picture books I'd come across showed. Looking down, there was rubble piled on the roadways. Untended hulls of archaic battleships wallowed rusted, half sunken in their moorings. Otherwise the area seemed vacated, a good thing, in my perspective, as it promised little resistance to treasure hunting. But we passed all this and kept moving.

John ambled my way and waved. “Short meeting before we go. Need to bring you up to speed on the mission. Now.”

I gulped and nodded. A few folding chairs and a collapsible table we'd brought aboard served for the conference site. Clacks, barely able to fit through the door, hunkered his bulk to one side of what was formerly a small stores room. Only myself, John, and Jack Peterson, who was John's second in command for this mission, attended the meeting.

“We don't know if this armory is completely shut, or if it is, what might be left. Scuttlebutt has it the Marines were pulled off Oahu. All depends on if the base was sealed, abandoned or temporarily closed.” John drummed his fingers on the table. “So, this will be a recon, first off, to access it. We land offsite, and watch it for a while. No heavy arms. If it looks good, and spot no guards or movement, we will go for the dump, packing some of the det chord and shaped charges we picked up before, just enough to open the building up. Then wait for a response. This place is on a peninsula with only two surface roads across it, so Klacks will be monitoring those, and any activity from the ship If there is one, we bug out. If not, we chance going in with the full, armed squad, and sweep it. If there's anything to raid, and it's clear, we'll call the shuttle into the compound, and get out what we can. All in all, this should take from about twenty minutes to three hours, depending on how things go. The more ideal the conditions, the longer. Or we could be backing out under fire in phase-two. Tomas, you need to be watching for that. I don't know what all the base kept on hand, but any skeleton crew left could have access to SAMs, GGMs and other defenses 'sides small arms. So you and Clacks will have to be ready 'ta come down and make our bug-out a quick one. We won't want to be airborne in the shuttle under that sort of assault.”

John shook a finger at me. “Watch for the phases, and use your head. Clacks will need to be at the ship's helm for the whole thing, So the shuttle is you, me, and one of Klax's pilots. I'd have you stay out of it, up here, but my boots will be on the ground, and need somebody in the shuttle to C&C. Understood?”

“Yeah, I got it. When do you start?”

“Right now. Get up to the bridge. Do a close first look, let me know if any thing suggests an abort. Things like people moving about, armor, or launch trailers, such like. Then give me a go no-go, and settle in.”

****

I was in mind of Pear Harbor, but the destination turned out to be someplace called Kaneohe Bay on Ohahu island. John called it K-Bay. Evidently a Marine base. There were a couple hills on the north end of it, one, a crescent-shaped old volcanic mound, half crumbled away. John said the munitions storage cache was cut into that. We spiraled around it, but didn't see anyone moving. I didn't see any heavy vehicles out in the open, and the airstrips were bare. I noted some radar posts, but Klax said they weren't pinging. As our intrusion hadn't spawned a flurry of radio chatter, or missile launches, whatever, I assumed It was as deserted as could be visually determined. Clicking the field radio on, I advised John of this, then headed down to the shuttle bay.

We set down just beyond the crater hill. When the ramp whirred down, John and a few others banged out the back and up slope. I left the speaker on for the shuttle transceiver, so the rest of his men could hear. The Kreeb pilot skewed its head toward me. “We rise now?”

“Not till I get word from John. Wait.”

I pointed up. “When we go, pull up high enough to see the other side of this,” I motioned at the hill,” without crossing over it.” I figured that would take us up a couple hundred meters or more.

After a bit, the radio hissed, and John's hoarse whisper came out of it. “Seems quiet close by: Let the rest out, then You can dust off.”

I gave a go-ahead to the rest of his troop, and them got the bug to elevate the skiff. The volcanic slope eased by the view port, and at its rim, the base came into view. It stayed a still-life for the first few minutes while John's team broke for the door. Two of the guys squatted down and rummaged their rucksacks. A bunch of what appeared to be rope started decorating the armory entrance, then they withdrew, and a boom sounded.

Suddenly, dust kicked up from one of the central buildings, and and a pair of trucks emerged hell bent for the armory.

I keyed the transmitter. “You go company coming! Two trucks in a hurry heading your way. Want us to come down?”

The radio crackled. “What kind of trucks? How many men?”

“Ah pickups, I think. Cant really tell how many. Eight, ten each in the backs?”

“Civilians then, said John. Wait, we're inside. I'm making back to the entrance now. O.K, I see 'em. Place is loaded for bear. Ain't leaving all this behind for the hoy-poloy.” Gonna give those guys something to think on, while my men move stuff to the front. Stand by.” A spatter of small caliber auto fire sprayed in front of the trucks, then a pair of plumes exploded before them. Both swerved from their bee line off to the left.

“Amateurs,” snorted John. “They both broke the same direction instead of flanking the center of fire. We got this.”

Both trucks swerved sideways and skidded to a stop. Men tumbled from the backs putting the trucks between them and the armory. John's crew sent a couple more grenades towards the trucks, which went off with a great deal of noise and smoke. A rattle of small arms fire from the trucks ensued, and was returned, but one of the trucks, whose driver had ducked in the cab instead of bailing out, fired the thing back up and left, rushing off to the distant buildings. The men who had came with it had been left behind, and a pell-mell began toward the cover of the remaining vehicle. A white hankie appeared tied to what looked like a tire iron. One of the men waved it vigorously over the truck's bed, and three brave souls stood hands raised next to him. I didn't note any military headgear, just baseball caps and mussed hair.

The radio crackled. “ I think they've shot their bolt,” John's voice announced. “Hold on though.” For troopers lined up outside the armory doors, rifles aimed to the ground. Hesitantly, a group of the truckers rounded the vehicle and slowly approached the armory, hands still raised. After a short conference, the bunch beckoned the remaining men still hunched behind the truck-bed. About fifteen in all by my count, plus my troopers now stood before the armory. The radio fired back up. “Yeah, so these guys are just locals looking to make a buck. Surly bunch, though. The islanders as are left here ain't doing so hot, and freshwater is almost gone. I gave 'em some idea about where we are coming from, and the consensus is 'get us off this rock', I think they want to become colonists, though a couple who don't will help us clean out the armory if we move their families to the mainland. Either way, sounds like a win. What do you think?”

I though on the last armory we raided, and the little surprise party that ended up being. “I'm not real happy. Tie them all up, guard them, and do what we came to do. Tell them we'll consider it, but not until we are loaded. They attacked you, John. I'll send down the shuttle.”

“Aw, but many hands..”

“Can break your necks, given a chance. We'll sort these guys out later. I'll get a room cleared out aboard for holding them meantime, but they stay put until we've done what we came to do, and can spare the time to sort them out.”

“Okay, okay! You're right. Just feeling sorry for these duffs. Thought that would be your take on it.”

More likely, he figured to take advantage of a little conscripted labor. But I wouldn't risk it. Good as Johns men had proven to be, stuff happens, and I'd already had a bellyfull of costly errors.

A lot of ammo boxes, crates, and other hardware got shuttled up over the next three hours, then finally, the prisoners were crowded aboard, zip-tied and under guard, and piled into a makeshift lockup.