Target Rich Environment 2 Read online

  Table of Contents

  TOKYO RAIDER

  THE TESTIMONY OF THE TRAITOR RATUL

  SHOOTER READY

  THREE SPARKS

  RECKONING DAY

  WEAPONIZED HELL

  SON OF FIRE, SON OF THUNDER

  EPISODE 22

  V-WARS: ABSENCE OF LIGHT

  PSYCH EVAL

  MUSINGS OF A HERMIT

  INSTRUMENTS OF WAR

  A MURDER OF MANATEES

  Target Rich Environment, Volume 2

  Larry Correia

  Hard-hitting Stories from the Creator of Monster Hunter International. The second volume of short stories from nationally best-selling author Larry Correia.

  More stories from the creator of Monster Hunter International, The Grimnoir Chronicles, and the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior. The second volume collecting all of best-selling author Larry Correia's short stories, novelettes, and novellas. Correia's novels are known for their hard-hitting, no-holds-barred action sequences, in-depth worldbuilding, and vivid characterization. Now, Correia turns to the short form to deliver short stories that take no prisoner.

  BAEN BOOKS by Larry Correia

  Saga of The Forgotten Warrior

  Son of the Black Sword

  House of Assassins

  Destroyer of Worlds (forthcoming)

  The Grimnoir Chronicles

  Hard Magic

  Spellbound

  Warbound

  Monster Hunter International

  Monster Hunter International

  Monster Hunter Vendetta

  Monster Hunter Alpha

  Monster Hunter Legion

  Monster Hunter Nemesis

  Monster Hunter Siege

  Monster Hunter Memoirs: GRUNGE (with John Ringo)

  Monster Hunter Memoirs: SINNERS (with John Ringo)

  Monster Hunter Memoirs: SAINTS (with John Ringo)

  Monster Hunter Guardian (with Sarah A. Hoyt)

  Dead Six (with Mike Kupari)

  Dead Six

  Swords of Exodus

  Alliance of Shadows

  Invisible Wars: The Collected Dead Six (forthcoming omnibus edition)

  Target Rich Environment: Volume 2

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Larry Correia

  A Baen Books Original

  Baen Publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  www.baen.com

  ISBN 13: 978-1-9821-2422-9

  eISBN: 978-1-62579-746-9

  Cover art by Kurt Miller

  First printing, December 2019

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018023358

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Additional Copyright Acknowledgements:

  “Tokyo Raider” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2014 by Larry Correia. First appeared in The Baen Big Book of Monsters, published by Baen Books.

  “Testimony of the Traitor Ratul” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2019 by Larry Correia. First appeared on www.baen.com.

  “Shooter Ready” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2016 by Larry Correia. First appeared in Galactic Games, published by Baen Books.

  “Three Sparks” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. First appeared in Predator: If It Bleeds.

  “Reckoning Day” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2013 by Larry Correia. First appeared in The Monster Hunter International Employee’s Handbook and Roleplaying Game, published by Hero Games.

  “Weaponized Hell” by Larry Correia & Jonathan Maberry. Copyright © 2016 by Larry Correia and Jonathan Maberry. First appeared in Urban Allies: Ten Brand-New Collaborative Stories.

  “Son of Fire, Son of Thunder” by Larry Correia & Steve Diamond. Copyright © 2011 by Larry Correia and Steve Diamond. First appeared in The Crimson Pact: Volume 2.

  “Episode 22” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. First appeared in Aliens: Bug Hunt.

  “Absence of Light” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2016 by Larry Correia. First appeared in V Wars: Night Terrors.

  “Psych Eval” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2017 by Larry Correia and Jonathan Maberry. First appeared in Joe Ledger: Unstoppable.

  “Musings of a Hermit” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2017 by Larry Correia. First appeared in Forged in Blood, published by Baen Books.

  “Instruments of War” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2013 by Larry Correia. First appeared in Instruments of War, published by Skull Island Expeditions.

  “Murder of Manatees” by Larry Correia. Copyright © 2018 by Larry Correia. First appeared as an audiobook produced by Audible Studios.

  Electronic Version by Baen Books

  www.baen.com

  ACKKNOWLEGEMENTS

  We had a contest on my blog, Monster Hunter Nation, to come up with a name for this collection. I want to thank Logan Guthmiller for suggesting Target Rich Environment. It was a great idea, and it hearkened back to the opening quote used in my first novel.

  I also want to acknowledge all of the editors from the various anthologies these stories were originally published in. Gathering a bunch of authors together for an anthology is like herding cats, and editors often have a thankless job.

  TOKYO RAIDER

  “Tokyo Raider” originally appeared in The Baen Big Book of Monsters, edited by Hank Davis, published by Baen Books in 2014.

  This story is set in my Grimnoir universe, where magic appeared in the 1850s and our timeline diverged from there. “Tokyo Raider” takes place about twenty years after the novel Warbound, so if you’ve not read that trilogy yet you might want to skip this one because there are a few spoilers . . . and a whole lot of giant robot fights.

  Adak, Alaska

  1954

  “YOU WANTED TO SEE ME, sir?”

  The colonel of the 2nd Raider Battalion was pouring himself a cup of coffee and looking a bit more surly than usual. He returned the salute and gestured at the chair on the other side of his desk. “Take a seat, Lieutenant.”

  The building was quiet. The office walls around them were covered in maps of the Imperium. If—or more likely, when—there was war with the Japanese, this place was going to be hopping, but until then the Marines on the island of Adak had to watch and wait, train, freeze, and shoo caribou out of the barracks. The colonel was normally in a rotten mood before he had his coffee, so Joe got ready for another ass-chewing. He was the new guy, and he didn’t fit in. Those made for a bad combination.

  Luckily, the colonel got right down to business. “We got a priority magical transmission. Since everybody forgets about us stationed out here on the ass end of nowhere, the commo boys get excited when their window actually starts talking to them. They woke me up, telling me that the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet himself had special orders for one of my butter bars.”

  So much for keeping his head down.

  “Turns out my new junior platoon leader is some big shot back in the states. I knew you were a Heavy. File says you’re really good at manipulating gravity, and you’re qualified on a Heavy Suit, but nobody told me you were supposed to be some sort of genius wizard.”

  “I wouldn’t say genius. It’s all in my file. I have a degree in
magical engineering from MIT and a master’s from the Otis Institute.”

  “You went to college at what, twelve?”

  “I graduated when I was nineteen, then I joined the Marine Corps, sir.”

  “Why the hell you ended up . . . Never mind. Whatever you’ve done impressed somebody. Congratulations, Lieutenant, you’re going to Japan.”

  That was certainly unexpected. “Japan, sir?”

  “Tokyo, to be exact. You’ll be leaving immediately. An airship is being prepped now.”

  Joe took a deep breath. The ceasefire had held for a few years. There’d been some skirmishes and the usual saber rattling, but the Japanese had been too busy fighting the Soviets to cause any trouble for the American forces in the Pacific. The peace process must have broken down. If they were sending Raiders to Tokyo, that meant a full-blown war. A Marine Raider’s job was to be dropped behind enemy lines to cause as much chaos as possible. Tokyo wasn’t just behind their lines: it was the enemy heart. Joe wasn’t sure if he was scared, eager, or a combination of both, but he’d signed up, so he’d do whatever needed to be done. “Are we jumping in?”

  “I believe you’ll just be landing at the air station.”

  Now he was really confused, but Raiders were trained to be flexible. “My platoon is ready for anything.”

  “No, Lieutenant, they’re not. Your platoon is made up of Marines who are still trying to decide if they trust their newly assigned half-Jap officer to fight the Japanese. Frankly, I’m not sure if they’d follow you or frag you. Can you blame them? You speak the enemy’s language, know their culture, and you even kind of look like one of them. I’ve heard of black Irish, but never yellow Irish.”

  “The men don’t know if they should stick with rice or potato jokes, sir, but I carry on.”

  “Don’t be a wiseass. Hell, I’ve been told you’ve got kanji brands on your body like one of their Iron Guards.”

  “No, sir. Those spells are a family recipe. They were inspected and approved by the War Department when I joined.”

  “I’ve been trying to decide what to do with you.”

  Joe appreciated the colonel’s honesty. “My mother was born in the Imperium, but she was a slave. I may have been too young to make the last war, but I hate the Imperium as much as any man who’s fought them, and I’ll be here for the next.”

  The colonel sighed. “I believe you, but I’m not some dumb private who’s going to be tempted to roll a grenade into your tent while you’re sleeping because he’s thinking he’s doing his country a favor. I’ve no doubt you’ll prove yourself to them eventually, but luckily, this assignment is just you.”

  There were limits to a Raider’s flexibility, and Joe wasn’t feeling up to invading the Imperium by himself. “I’m kind of hazy on the nature of my orders.”

  “Me, too. Per the peace treaty, you’re to be a military observer. I neglected to mention that the radio man was mistaken. Turns out it wasn’t the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet calling, but the Commander in Chief.”

  “The president?”

  “Yeah. I even voted for the man. I’ll tell you, that was an unexpected way to start my day. I was a little concerned about being told to send one of my junior officers off by himself to the Imperium capital with orders to help those bastards, but the president spoke rather highly of your aptitude. How come you never told anybody you’re buddies with President Stuyvesant?”

  “Our families are acquainted.”

  “He said that you would be too humble, but that you were the best man for the job. That sounds fairly acquainted to me.”

  “Well, the First Lady does insist I call her Aunt Faye.”

  “Uh-huh . . .” The colonel took a drink of his coffee. “He said your presence as an observer was requested by the high commander of the entire Imperium military, General Toru Tokugawa. You know, the man in charge of our enemies, who rules over an evil empire with an iron fist. You’re supposed to do him a favor for diplomacy’s sake. I take it you’re acquainted with him, too?”

  He shrugged. “He and my father once worked together. It’s complicated.”

  “Well, then, I can’t imagine why your men don’t have complete faith in you. Good luck in Japan, Lieutenant Sullivan.”

  Tokyo, Japan

  IMMEDIATELY AFTER LANDING, Joe Sullivan had been met with a lot of ceremony by the Imperium Diplomatic Corps and then picked up by an armored car and some Iron Guard who didn’t seem nearly so big on polite conversation. The Imperium elites had driven him directly to an ancient palace surrounded by cherry trees. The trip confirmed that Japan really was as pretty as Mom had made it out to be. They’d escorted him through the castle, to an ultramodern military command bunker beneath it. Then he’d stood there, waiting in his dress uniform, being eyeballed by a bunch of Japanese soldiers as they talked all sorts of shit about the gaijin, until somebody who’d been briefed told those idiots that he spoke Japanese, and they’d shut up.

  The Imperium didn’t seem to be hiding anything. The red markings on the wall maps told him that the Russians were pushing back against the Imperium in Asia. The unit markers were either true, or it was an elaborate setup for his benefit. Either way he memorized every unit and location so he could put it all in his report when he got home and let the intel types decide.

  There was only one marker he didn’t understand. It was shaped like a dragon, was red like the rest of the communist forces, and it had to represent something naval because it was tracking up the east coast of the island, heading for Tokyo Bay, and several Japanese naval units had been destroyed along its path, including an entire carrier battle group. Several submarines were marked as missing. The kanji on the marker identified it with the code name: Gorilla Whale.

  The Imperium were big on treating guests with respect, so the lack of respect had to be meant as an insult. After half an hour of waiting, without being offered so much as a chair, there was some shouting in the hall. Several military aides fled as a big, stocky, thickset Japanese man stomped into the bunker. He’d heard a lot about Toru Tokugawa growing up. Even though they’d been opponents, his dad had held more respect for this Imperium warrior than he did for most of the men supposedly on their side. The recent war had proven him to be one of best tacticians in the world, and in his youth he’d been one of the strongest Brutes to ever live.

  Toru Tokugawa didn’t disappoint in person.

  “Damn those wretched Soviet pig dogs!” the general shouted as he stormed across the command center. The rest of the Imperium army staff remained quiet and polite as expected, as Tokugawa, on the other hand, was not. “Stalin has no honor!” He punched one of the bunker’s walls, cracking the concrete. Tokugawa may have been in his fifties, but he still possessed an impressive connection to burn Power like that. “They fight like cowards!”

  As their supreme commander flipped over a map table, the Japanese officers exchanged nervous glances. Having a visitor witness their leader acting in such a passionate manner was a loss of face. Tokugawa stood there, seething and glowering at the shower of falling papers, until one of the staffers broke the awkward silence. “Pardon me, General, the American observer you requested has arrived.”

  “Already? That was fast . . .” He composed himself, adjusted his uniform, then turned around and switched to English. “Present our guest.”

  “Second Lieutenant Joseph Sullivan of the United States Marine Corps,” announced one of the Iron Guard.

  “General Tokugawa.” Sullivan bowed, careful to keep the gesture to the appropriate respectful level of a visiting dignitary of equal stature.

  Tokugawa snorted. “You look more like your father than I expected. American Heavies are all so blocky and . . . corn fed . . . You’re not quite so doughy as most of your fat countrymen. You could almost pass for a proper Imperium soldier, if you’d been lucky and taken a bit more after your mother, that is.”

  “I’d suggest leaving my parents out of this,” Joe stated.

  “Why woul
d I do that? Your parents are the reason I asked for you. If I were to inadvertently insult them, what would you do about it?”

  “I know you changed a lot of the Imperium’s laws after the Chairman died, especially the ones about torture, slavery, and experimenting on prisoners, which all reasonable men can appreciate, but you’ve still got that thing where you can duel over insults, right?”

  The Iron Guards shared nervous glances, but Tokugawa smiled. “Ha! Excellent. That is the defiant attitude I was hoping for. You will do. I was hoping you’d inherited your father’s fearlessness, not to mention his sense of diplomacy. This will save time.” Toru glanced at the assembled command staff. “All of you, leave us.” They complied, rapidly shuffling out the door. The two Iron Guard escorts remained standing behind Sullivan. “You may leave as well.”

  “Our Finder believes he bears seven kanji, General. The Grimnoir knight is dangerous.”

  “They’re not kanji,” Joe said, as if he’d stoop to copying the spells of Imperium butchers. “And I’m not Grimnoir.”

  “I’m not worried,” Toru stated. “Go.” The Iron Guards bowed and left without another word. Toru waited for the bunker’s door to be closed. “Not Grimnoir . . . Curious. You do not wish to follow in your father’s footsteps?”