The Vanguard

by Jeffrey Ellis

  “This pleases me. Boudicca showed me her hat I would very much like one,” replied Nefertiti.

  “It’s all about the hats,” said Trish doing her best to mimic Sebastian as she, Boudicca and Chelsea laughed.

  “I do not understand. What is the jest?” asked Nefertiti.

  “I’ll explain as we eat,” said Trish.

  #

  General Adamson stood in the large command center at Tokyo Base on the south end of Tokyo Bay. It was built on the ruins of Yokosuka after the peninsula was decimated at the end of the last world war. The base was massive, covering most of the peninsula and housed the Unification Army’s primary strike force for holding the Pacific Rim. Most of that force was deployed to the Korean offensive in the effort to retake the west half of Asia. He was staring up at the screen when the alarms started going off. He rushed towards the communication panel and hit a button.

  "Report,” he said calmly into the speaker.

  “General, we have seditionist forces on our south seawall. They’ve breached the seawall and gained a foothold. We have amphibious assault craft entering through the breach and infantry offloading. Numbers unable to ascertain currently. Our submarine and surface craft are not reporting in. Air cover is still engaged in the firefight at Seoul. Our base troops are moving to intercept,” came a female voice over the intercom.

  “Send the RATS. Seal that breach and push them back. We’ve almost got this war won and I will NOT lose this command base,” he yelled at the intercom.

  “Yes, sir. RATS deployed,” came the reply.

  In a hangar near the command building, a few troops ran towards large mechanized sets of body armor and climbed into them. As they sealed them and activated, rocket boosters on them fired propelling the mechanized units towards the seawall where the seditionists broke through and were storming the base.

  The fighting had spilled out onto the main base as the RATS and heavy infantry engaged. The battle was too chaotic to use artillery due to the risk of hitting their own people. Their heavy guns fired towards the amphibious craft that had breached the wall to cut off any possible retreat and stymie reinforcements.

  “It’s an act of desperation. They want you, General,” said the woman next to him.

  “Let them come, Major. Let them come. They might kill me, but they’ll never get my command codes,” the General replied. He took off the keycard on the chain around his neck and pulled out his energy pistol. He fired two shots into the card, turning what remained of it into a mass of molten metal and plastic. He then turned to the woman next to him. "If they take me, with the key destroyed they might try to force me to reveal the codes. I won’t break but they might have neural probes. If you think they’re going to get take me and I can’t do it myself, you need to kill me if you get the chance. They cannot get my launch codes.”

  “Neural probes are illegal after the treaty of…” she started to say but he stopped her.

  “These people haven’t given a damn about rules of engagement so far and they won’t start now,” he snapped with disgust at the idea of their enemy’s tactics.

  “RATS being pushed back. Command center breached. We have hostiles inbound,” yelled a young officer standing at one of the consoles.

  “You heard the man, they’re bringing the fight to us. Remember, we aren’t fighting for ourselves. We’re fighting for everyone. You’ve heard these speeches from the UN and the President numerous times and I’m not going to bore you with another. We’re not politicians. We’re not soldiers. Our job...no, not our job...our duty...is to fight and possibly die so we can end this war and all wars. If we win this, we win it all. The Pacific front is the only one left in this war and we’re it’s salvation. If we lose it, that will free up their forces for other fronts. Ready your sidearms, remember your training and fight for your world because whether you fight or not, the people coming will fight. It’s their lives or the lives of everyone if they take this command center. FOR UNIFICATION!” said the General as he moved to cover behind a console and faced the main door and cheers could be heard throughout the room.

  “Sir, we have to evacuate you. You’re the commander for the Pacific front. We need you,” she said.

  “Cut the rank shit,” he said then grabbed her and embraced her. The two kissed for a long moment. As he held her close he whispered, “You and I both know this isn’t about me. This is about our charge. We are the guardians of this planet and I am not running. For the Wardens.”

  She leaned in and spoke softly. “You know we aren’t really Wardens anymore”

  He smiled and told her, “We’ll always be Wardens whether they acknowledge us or not.”

  “For the Wardens,” she whispered back, and they kissed again. As they entwined, a tattoo could be seen on the side of each of their necks. It was the tattoo showing the Unified Army’s symbol and in the center of it was Solomon’s Knot.

  They heard several shots in the hallway outside the door.

  “This is it, let’s do this,” the General yelled.

  The heavy security door blew off the hinges from a shape charge and people started pouring through. They were met with crisscrossing energy weapon fire. There were a lot of them and even though many fell, more got through, some using their fallen comrades for shields.

  As they came into the room, they hid behind consoles, returning fire to the defenders in the room. The fighting was brutal, and a lot of the General’s people died. When the smoke cleared, and the firing stopped, less than a dozen of the nearly one hundred people remained alive, but the seditionists were all dead.

  “Get me a report on the fight outside,” the General ordered.

  “Report incoming,” replied the Major.

  “Sir. We can’t get accurate numbers yet. The firefight is still going on,” she told him.

  “Okay everyone, gear up and form up. We’re going to help our brothers and sisters dying out there,” he ordered.

  He went over to a munitions locker and pulled out a belt with grenades on it, grabbed an energy rifle and started handing out rifles to the remaining soldiers.

  “You have a grenade belt in the munitions locker of a secure command center? Really?” the Major asked him.

  “You never know when you're going to need it,” he replied with a smile.

  The group headed through the corridors towards the exit. The General was in the lead and the Major on his heels. It had been a long time since either of them were in a fight but they both knew this base must not fall.

  As they exited the compound and out onto the base, the battle was raging. The seditionists had gotten a large force onto the base and those seditionists were met by a small but determined base force with terrain advantage. Security bots were activated, and a few RATS were still standing. A group of the enemy had taken a fortified tower and were targeting the RATS, bots and anyone else they could hit with rocket launchers and the turret and were doing significant damage.

  “There,” said the General pointing. "We need to take out that tower.”

  He led the group cautiously towards it, staying to cover and taking targets of opportunity as they went. They reached the edge of their cover and from that point on it was about a hundred meters in the open to the tower.

  “I’m going to need cover fire,” he said.

  “No,” replied the Major.

  “No? I might take orders from you in the bedroom but I’m in charge here,” he replied.

  Several of the soldiers laughed.

  “No, sir. You don’t need cover fire. We need cover fire. I’ll be damned if you’re going to do this alone,” he said.

  “I’m not alone. I have a dozen of the finest officers this military has ever seen covering me,” he told her.

  “And you’ll have me on your six. You know you’re not going to win this debate, so you might as well give in,” she told him.

  “We don’t have time to argue. Cover us,” he told the group.

  The rest of them started firing cove
r as the General and Major sprinted across the gap. They had to duck and roll a few times but managed to cover the distance and got to the entrance at the base of the security tower, flanking the door.

  He took a grenade and pulled the pin then dropped it at the base of the door. They ducked around the sides as the grenade went off then quickly entered the room. The blast of the grenade had taken out the only two people on the ground floor of the tower.

  “Now the Wardens take over,” said the General as he drew his blade, shifting his pistol to his off hand.

  The Major smiled at him and did the same then nodded at him and then the door.

  “Point or six?” he asked her.

  “Six,” she replied.

  They worked their way quickly through the ground floor towards the emergency stairs in the back deciding the elevator too much of a risk. They encountered and eliminated several seditionists, but it didn’t appear they had a large force in the tower.

  As they worked their way up the stairwell, a few more showed up and they dispatched them rather easily.

  They got to the top of the tower and stopped.

  “Last door to the observation deck. They know we’re coming,” she told him.

  “That makes it more fun,” he said smiling.

  He pulled out an unusual looking grenade. "Been saving this one for last,” he told her.

  She smiled again. "Is that a Crowd Controller? I thought we ran out of those not long after the factories were bombed,” she said.

  “I have a friend in the armory. I stashed one of them in the command center munitions locker just in case,” he told her.

  “Just in case of what?” she asked.

  He looked at her and gave her a look. "Seriously? Just in case of something like this,” he said.

  “You couldn’t possibly know this would happen,” she replied.

  “It’s my job to plan for every contingency,” he told her.

  “You just wanted one to play with,” she replied.

  “Can we argue about this later? We have bad guys to defeat in case you forgot,” he said.

  “Fine, cowboy, let’s do it,” she told him.

  “Cowboy...you haven’t called me that in years, not since…” but she cut him off.

  “We have people dying,” she said.

  He pulled the pin, opened the door and tossed the grenade inside. They quickly retreated down the stairs avoiding the energy fire coming from inside and ducked around a corner then plugged their ears.

  The grenade clicked and whirred then exploded. Immediately following was a deafening roar. Once that subsided a blinding light pulsed.

  They went back up the stairs and cautiously entered the security tower’s control room. Everyone that was still alive was writhing on the floor.

  “Concussion to stun. ULF for the ears and nerves. High-intensity light for the eyes. That was fun,” he said.

  They walked around the room shooting anyone still alive. The ones who survived were not in good shape. The Crowd Controller basically overloaded their nervous system.

  As they were finishing, she noticed a fire flash and a smoke trail coming at them and grabbed the General then pulled them both behind a security locker. A large explosion hit the roof of the building blowing the roof off and knocking them both hard to the floor.

  “Fuck, they got their hands on a RATS,” said the general as the armored soldier fired again. "We need to up the security measures on those things.”

  They ran towards the edge and leaped out of the building, a good twenty-foot drop. The Major grabbed a rocket launcher as she jumped. They hit the ground and managed to roll out of any serious injuries. The RATS turned and headed towards them.

  The Major dropped to one knee and prepped a rocket. "There’s only one left. It’s not enough to take it out but if I can hit its rocket launcher I can take out that heavy ordinance,” she said.

  He started firing his pistol at its view panel trying to momentarily distract it to give her a shot.

  “Anytime now,” he said.

  “Patience, love. I only get one shot, so I need to make it count. Keep firing at it, cowboy,” she told him.

  The RATS’ rocket launcher whirred as another rocket slid into the chamber. The Major fired and hit just near the barrel. The RATS’ rocket launcher exploded and blew off the unit but didn’t do any other serious damage.

  “Good shot, cowgirl. Now we just have a heavily armored mech suit with dual pulse cannons and a pissed off pilot,” he said.

  “Better odds than against those rockets,” she said.

  “Do you remember Rio and the ogre?” he asked as he started running towards the RATS, ducking and dodging its pulse cannons.

  “You’re insane!” she yelled then started running behind him.

  He stopped just before reaching it, turned and kneeled. He cupped his hands together and she jumped, put one foot in his hands and he launched her. Her blade was ready as she flipped through the air and used the momentum to drive the blade through the view panel and into the pilot's skull.

  “How did you know the blade would penetrate the screen and not shatter on it? That’s a reinforced polymer alloy,” she said.

  “Simple. Based on the tensile strength of the view panel, your speed and momentum, the PSI at the point of the blade, it was a given,” he said confidently.

  “You don’t even know what half of those words mean. You just guessed, didn’t you?” she asked him.

  “It was a good guess,” he said laughing.

  The fight was winding down. The base was safe, and seditionists were trying to retreat but had nowhere to go. Several had been taken prisoner, but most were killed in the battle. The General and what was left of his command staff returned to the C&C.

  “General Adamson, this is Colonel Williams. Seoul has been liberated and the seditionists are in full retreat. We’re dispatching a wing to help with your base defense,” said the voice over the comm.

  The General kissed the Major again and both started laughing.

  #

  The group awoke just before 8 AM local time. The assault on Tokyo base would begin in less than two and a half hours putting them arriving just after midnight local time. The airfield at the base was filled with frog transports. The aircraft would not be launched until the frogs were in position. The frogs would be going in low, just above sea level and keeping their speed slow to avoid detection as long as possible.

  Everyone was assigned a transport and loaded. The members of the strike teams were all in PEMES waiting patiently. The first waves of the assault force were going in the frogs. The hydro skimmers, a type of stealth hydrofoil with rail guns would be following them in. The strike forces would be in transport shuttles. The long shuttles were heavily armored and armed, but their bulk hurt their speed and agility, making them clumsy. They were lined with bays to allow the jumpers a quick exit. Dragonflies, fast and agile attack craft armed with energy weapons, were escorting the shuttles.

  “The last time we fought a major battle together was the defense of the Great Henge,” said Field Marshal Boudicca over the group's private channel.

  “I recall fragments of it. I believe we joined late after you had already beaten most of the dark fey and helped win that fight, didn’t we?” asked Lord Marshal Sebastian.

  “You did. My command to you was no blood must be spilled on the henge and you followed that order well,” she replied. "Now the roles are reversed. What is your order for me?”

  “Make them pay for every life that has suffered at their hands. Show them the world is not theirs to abuse,” he said.

  “Revenge is a dangerous motivator,” said Field Marshal Nefertiti.

  Field Marshal Sebastian’s eyes flashed yellow with small slits for pupils. Beside him, Field Marshal Chelsea took his hand and squeezed it as her eyes did the same. The goggles on the PEMES suits hid their eyes from observation.

  “It’s not revenge. It’s justice,” he replied as the shuttle rocked slightly
during its launch. “The world has been wronged and as its guardians, we will right those wrongs and extract justice upon those responsible.”

  The spent the next half hour listening to reports from breaching efforts and doing final weapon and gear checks. The breach was successful, and they had several footholds that GloCom was keeping secured while infantry advanced on the base. The hydro craft were doing their jobs to keep the towers busy. The two-minute warning came.

  “Switch to heads-up optical display. Prepare for the drop in sixty. Make for your target zones,” he said over the comm to all of the squads as the shuttles and dragonflies split into three squadrons. "Squadron leaders, you have your orders,” Lord Marshal Sebastian said as he switched to his squadron channel.

  “Okay everyone, you know what to do. We’re all professionals here. We’re trained by the best to be the best, drop in fifteen,” he said as the bay doors opened, and the roar of the air could be heard.

  Aboard the three shuttles, everyone put on their breathers and prepared to jump.

  The dragonflies were firing at the turrets to distract the remaining laser batteries. Occasionally silhouetted against the flashes of the lasers, the skydivers could be seen heading towards the base.

  Below them, the signs of fighting could be seen everywhere. The flashes of laser weapons, fire and other magical energy and small explosions like grenades were chaotic but the breach teams were doing their job well. The fighting was concentrated in areas away from their drop zones.

  Field Marshal Anna’s voice came over the general comm. "Motor pool strike force on the ground. All accounted for.”

  Field Marshal Bruce’s voice came over next. "Armory team on the ground. All accounted for and moving out.”

  Lord Marshal Sebastian’s voice came on. "C&C team on the ground. All accounted for and moving out. Keep the general channel clear from this point on for emergency use only. Team leaders, you have your objectives."

  #

  Field Marshal Anna’s Team moved slowly in the direction of the motor pool. As they moved, groups of ALF and various fey engaged them repeatedly. They managed to fight their way through them without casualty until they were at the edge of the outer perimeter of their objective. Across the lot were scattered numerous military vehicles in various states of repair or salvage.