Patriots Chapter 7

Date – The next morning

Perdy sighed and rubbed her muzzle as she and Oliver stared at the holographic rendering of the city of Lousiville. The lack of sleep from the night before was dragging on her as the planning began to get into high gear.

<”So I’m thinking we should just make the strike at the Walker household. We know that Bailey is there.”> Oliver suggested as the holographic outline of the building lit up.

<”No.”> Perdy shook her head. <”I know you don’t care about humans, but look at it from a practical perspective. It’s a relatively enclosed space which means there’s a high risk of collateral casualties. And these humans are high-profile and important. Not to mention all the extra security that surrounds the building.”>

A flick of a finger on one of her hands color coded the building in red to designate it’s unsuitability. <”Too much risk of triggering a major interstellar incident.”>

Oliver sighed. <”Then what would you suggest?”>

Perdy rubbed her face a bit more and once again wished for a few more hours of sleep, but Oliver had been insistent that they get the planning done right now. <”Mmmph…I wish you had let me try some of that ‘coffee’ that the hotel front desk puts out.”>

<”Focus on the mission, this isn’t the first time you’ve had to work on little sleep. Besides it’s your own fault for staying out with that human.”> The derisive tone made Perdy’s hackles raise but she fought back the urge to say anything.

<”Fine…we need an open space to take action, one where we have a reduced risk of accidentally involving a human in the operation.”> She peered at the map and nodded. <”The park is the only logical place to make the strike.”> Her words making the outline of the civic greenspace highlight on the projection.

<”That’s still not good.”> Oliver responded. <”We need a good position to set up and if you factor in the additional security and typical response times we loose any good observational positions.”> As he spoke a radius of two city blocks highlighted in red around the park. <”If we try to operate in that zone we have an incredibly high chance of being detected and neutralized before we can take action.”>

Perdy had to admit, her partner might be hard to deal with but when he was right he was right. <”True, we can’t operate from there but…”> She took a few steps around the map and looked over the topography of the skyline. <”There!”> She pointed and a construction site for a new tower was highlighted at least five blocks away from the park. <”That’s where we can set up.”>

<”Are you sure? That is not a good platform. It does have a view of the park but it’s highly restricted.”> A few motions with his hand and the computer extrapolated a cone of vision from the site to show a relatively narrow section of the park was actually visible.

<”It’s the best we’re going to get I think and we can make it work.”> Perdy peered at it some more. <”We’ll have to use the smart round function on the rifle. Feed it telemetry from somewhere.”> She pondered some more. <”How many of those micro-drones do we have?”>

<”Two, but you know their loiter time is measured in earth-minutes. How do you expect them to be able to set up since we won’t get much warning?”> Oliver said with obvious skepticism.

<”They don’t have to be in the air, if we park them on a rooftop their solar cells can keep their sensors running for months. Hmm…here and here.”> Two rooftops highlighted in the secure zone. <”The drones are small, as small as insects. If we fly them in at night, and land them in preparation they should go unnoticed while observing the whole park. The scope on the rifle will designate the target and then the drones can feed the smart round with the data it needs to course correct and hit the target even if it passes out of our view at the tower.”>

As she spoke the software began plotting out the details. The rudimentary AI adding elements to the diagram as their plan got laid down. The visual making Oliver nod in approval. <”It has a high chance of success that’s for sure. And it gives us a good probability of being able to exfiltrate back to the spaceport. With just a quick stop by the hotel to pack up or decom any of our equipment we just have to get to the spaceport and wait for the next transport back to Dlamias.”> The extraction route now visible on the map as he nodded.

<”Yes we use our backdoor into the Embassy systems to track the movement plans for the Walker’s security team so we’ll know when they plan to set up at the park. We’ll have to do it on a ‘weekend’ when the workers at the construction site are gone, but our tech will let us override any security system the construction company has on site. It’s really our best option.”> Perdy sighed and stretched a bit yawning as she struggled to stay awake.

<”If you want to submit the plan, I’m going to go get some breakfast.”> The amazon of a Dlamisan said as she made her way to the door but was cut short by a cough from Oliver.

<”There’s one more thing we have to discuss.”>

<”And what would that be?”>

<”The human you’re spending time with.”> Oliver walked over to Perdy and looked up at the female his voice cold when he continued. <”That ends now, you have to focus on the mission. Next time you see him make an excuse, I don’t care what, and end it. If you don’t I’ll be forced to report your behavior to our superiors when we return to Dlamias and you’ll end up ‘assisting’ our geneticists with their research into novel mutations.”>

Perdy’s hackles went up and all eight of her ears went flat at Oliver’s words and tone. <”You wouldn’t dare!”>

<”Yes I would, the security of Dlamias is more important than either of our lives. So if you continue in this compromised behavior adjustments will be made. I can get used to a new partner if I must.”>

”Oliver, this is unnecessary…” Perdy began to protest but was cut off.

<”That’s not my name! Use Enkanti when you’re addressing me.”> The male growled before an ugly smirk ended up on his muzzle. <”Fine, if you won’t do it for the mission, you should cut off contact with that human for its own sake. It wouldn’t take much to leak the details of the human that conspired to assassinate Bailey Walker to the Earth government. Do I make myself clear?”>

Perdy swallowed as her tail sagged and ice gripped her chest. <”Crystal clear.”>