PRI 3 Snippet 5

  Watch out for rip off artists out there, especially shipping! I went to purchase something for $19 and they wanted "$18.99 for 'Expedited' shipping to guarantee it gets here by Christmas."

I went with the free shipping (Dec 14-21) and low and behold they shipped it within 20 minutes of my order. Funny that!

Anyway, moving on...

Chapter 4

 

On the road between the capital and Pryor City

 

For safety's sake, the team was split up with one driver, one soldier, one of the diplomats. and one of the gaijin in each vehicle. Legatus Zane took the middle one. They chattered over the local radio excitedly during the day but lapsed into silence as the road wore on.

They caught up over pauses to stretch their legs, but there was just one every six hours. Selene got them into discussing the mission.

In order to pass the time during the long drive, the passengers either slept or held briefings on Caliope. What little they knew about the nation was old. The players were mentioned, but again, all of their data was old or third hand.

The detailed information they had was centered on the spy caravans. The images of the spies were loaded on their phones. The three Terrans had smart phones with all of their information. Each of the devices were locked by a thumbprint and pin.

Selene and Jim entered a healthy debate about the clothing the natives had worn, their language, and even the design of their vehicles. Sydney listened for a bit but eventually tuned it out when it got boring.

They took one rest break outside a village at the halfway mark between the capital and Pryor to refuel and unload their abused bladders. It was nearly dawn. The mechanic checked the vehicles and did some minor adjustments before they hit the road again.

Legatus Zane, the military leader, made certain to report in about their progress through the radio.

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Legatus Zane did his duty to report in as instructed. He wasn't keen about the mission, but he knew his duty and intended to follow the mission to the best of his ability.

He was a veteran of the Duluth war as well as the commando unit, the Flying Legion. He had taken Alpha Platoon into Duluth to rescue Princess Zara. He'd been on track to be promoted to princeps, captain, but this mission had come up.

He'd initially resented being tapped until he'd been told in a backhanded way that it was something of a compliment. That the command authority trusted his discretion and leadership and his ability to see the mission through and protect the group.

It was a lot of responsibility though. Sergeant Waters had said something about protecting bumbling DPs in deep injun country was a thankless job. He hadn't been certain as to what that had meant.

He was cross-trained in security though, and he had medicus training to boot. He had his formal uniform packed away with him as did all of his troops. Of the troops, he had only been able to bring Shane with him as a familiar face.

All of the miles were fully trained but only four were veterans like Shane and himself. The drivers were all Flying Legion cross-trained in security, which was something of a relief to him. He did occasionally wonder how long he'd been on tap for this particular mission and why no one had dropped a hint as to it coming up. Perhaps because they thought he might try to avoid it?

Such questions could wait until later he thought as introductions began.

^^^^^^

Caliopean Gate

 

Erbecus was briefed on the acceptance of the request and that the convoy had moved out a day later. He was surprised at how fast they had moved.

He was even more surprised that evening when he was informed that the convoy had Pryor just before bed. “How? Didn't they leave yesterday?”

“Yes. They are traveling on our new roads with new vehicles,” the legatus replied with an indifferent shrug.

When he repeated the news to his team, Quintus was excited. The others were skeptical, but when he repeated that they would be seeing the convoy sometime tomorrow, they had a mixture of quiet alarm and excitement.

“Isn't that rather fast?” Hadrien asked.

“Very.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that they can move troops around very fast or goods,” Quintus replied absently. The others looked at each other in concern. “Trade must be very fast. Does anyone know the distance between the capital and Pryor? Sorry, I don't know. I'd like to calculate how fast they are traveling. Do we know the exact time they left?”

Erbecus shook his head. “I don't know either of those things,” he said. Quintus looked frustrated but then shrugged his question aside.

^^^^^^