Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance by Ben Winston Page A

“Grave Digger is online. Go ahead Guardian.”
    “Grave Digger, this is Guardian. I hate to ask you this, but we need to isolate and identify the person with the implant, without being detected yourselves. If you’re not already, cloak, and head in the direction you detected it. Use passive scanners to locate the antimatter implant. Do what you need to do to remove that threat, but try not to destroy too much, and try to minimize collateral casualties. If that fucker detonates, it will take out the entire city, and Pakistan will be blamed for it,” Ian ordered.
    “We kinda thought you might feel that way, Guardian. The target appears to be an aide to one of the officials. All of them are currently in the Central Secretariat Building. Computer says the entire Indian Government is also in attendance. Any way we go about this, it’s gonna get messy."
    “What’s your favorite scenario?” Ian asked.
    “We send the drone in cloaked, and it isolates the bad guy in a containment field. We’ll make entry as the drone turns the field dark. We’ll protect the drone while it decons the area, and I’ll try to explain our actions while it works,” Grave Digger replied. “That’s our best case, and probably the easiest to make happen. However, I can tell you that our entry will be resisted. We’re going to have a lot of stunned guards.”
    “Stunned isn’t dead. I agree, that beats the hell out of blasting your way in through the roof. How long do you think it’ll take to make entry?" Ian asked.
    “That’s the rub. The place is a damn maze. It’ll take us at least five minutes to get to the meeting chamber, and I can promise you that it won't be silent.” Grave Digger replied. “They’ll know we’re coming long before we get there. There is another, much faster way, but I don’t think you’re gonna like it.”
    “Tell me,” Ian ordered.
    “We drop into a small plaza inside the walls, and make entrance through the windows on the east side. Those windows look to be one level up from the floor of the meeting chamber, so we’re gonna do some smashing making an entrance," Grave Digger explained. The part you’re not gonna like it that those windows look to be fuckin’ antiques. They’ll smash real good, but I sure as hell don’t want to pay for them!”
    “You wouldn’t be Marines if something didn’t get broken. Do it. Highest priority on threat elimination, secondary priority to protecting the government officials." Ian ordered. “But make sure you don’t accidentally kill any of the officials. That’ll be harder to apologize for."
    “Understood, Guardian. We’re sending in the drone now,” Grave Digger reported.
    “Good hunting, Grave Digger. Guardian out,” Ian said. “How is the rest of the mission going, Chloe?”
    “The Pakistanis have chemical weapons deployed in addition to their nukes. Idiots don’t seem to realize that the winds in that area will blow it right back into their faces, along with the nuclear fallout,” Chloe said.
    “This kind of thing never makes sense to those not involved, Chloe. Keep up the good work, we’ll be back in a few minutes,” Ian said. "Guardian out.”
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    TMAS Shuttle 'Grave Digger'
    New Dehli, India
    Mid-East Continent
    Earth, Sol System
    Sol Sector
    ––––––––
    T he Marines of the ‘Grave Digger’ unit overheard the Lieutenant (or Ell-tee) talking to the Commander. None of them were looking forward to getting anywhere near the asshole carrying that bomb, but they knew that if they didn’t, most of the people in New Delhi would be killed when it finally detonated. The computer set up the program for the drone, and it shot out the back of the shuttle to get busy.
    What surprised the Marines was that their pilot actually put down on the roof of the building very close to the edge of the plaza the team was going to use for entrance.
    “You’re supposed to clear out after dropping us, Digger. What ya doing?”