by PP Corcoran
“How long till we’re ready to move, Louis? We’re an awfully big target just sitting here.”
“The last Gigant flight is five minutes out, so say fifteen minutes till the last company is loaded up and rolling.”
“Good work, Louis. I’m heading over to A Company if you would meet me there when the command Kanga is offloaded.” Karen cut the link. Things were going smoothly so far, she just hoped they’d stay that way.
#
The inside of the command Kanga was cramped with Karen, Louis, the two signalers, and the bank of displays arrayed along one wall. Karen leaned forward and stared intently at the feed the Kanga was receiving from the Scorpions of the scout platoon. Louis sat silently beside her but she had worked with him long enough to know that he was thinking the same as she was... Damn those walls looked big!
“What do you think, Louis?”
“I’m thinking I should’ve listened to my mother and joined my father working on the vineyard.”
Without turning from the displays, Karen gave Louis a friendly punch on his armored shoulder.
“And miss the opportunity to lead a charge against a fifty meter high wall topped by laser turrets. Hah! If only she knew the fun you were about to have.”
Louis gave the grinning colonel a side-long glance as a small grin broke his own studied features. “Yeah, imagine! So – we go with a full-frontal then?”
The moment of levity passed as Karen’s face hardened once more. “I honestly don’t see another option, Louis. The scouts are telling us that the Others have cleared an area around the base out as far as a kilometer. The minute we leave these canyons they’ll pick us up on any surveillance radar they have. We have eyes on those laser turrets that are spaced every 200 meters along the perimeter wall, God only knows what else they have that they can throw at us.” Not for the first time that day, Karen cursed the tech weenies who had promised but failed to deliver surveillance equipment with genuine stealth properties that could have given her a better look beyond those imposing walls of the Others’ base.
Louis wrung his armored hands. “I don’t like it, but you’re right.”
“Decision made then. As soon as the shooting starts I want the Dragonfly surveillance drones up. We need to know ASAP where their heavy weapons and anti-air sites are.” Karen highlighted a point on the wall directly below one of the laser turrets. “The Rattlers will concentrate their fire at this point. I want them to punch a hole big enough to get a battleship through, then move their fire east and west and expand the breach. Reapers are to engage the remaining laser turrets moving outward from that point or any targets of opportunity. As soon as the Rattlers take the wall under fire, the Kangas will race for the wall. Troops will remain mounted until the last possible moment. Alfa Company will take point with Bravo and Charlie taking up flanking positions. I want you to remain here with Delta as my ready reserve. Whistle up the Naval Gunfire Support Team, I’ll take them with me.”
Karen reached for her helmet, but a hand on her arm stopped her and she looked into the questioning eyes of Louis.
“And where will you be?”
Karen gave him the same smile that she had bestowed on General Pak. “With Alfa Company, of course. Now stop being such an old woman!”
Karen punched the control that released the rear hatch of the Kanga, she bent low and sealed her helmet before exiting the AFV and setting off at a steady jog toward Alfa Company.
#
“Advance!” That single word of command brought six Rattler Main Battle Tanks over the lip of the canyon in line. As soon as each Rattler’s five centimeter grazer cleared the canyon, they began to fire on the designated point on the wall surrounding the Others’ base. Each grazer had an output of three terawatts, when all six Rattlers fired on the same point not even spaceship battle armor could withstand the impact. With the sound of rolling thunder, a ten meter section of the wall blew inward, bringing the laser turret mounted above it crashing down.
The Kangas of Alfa Company raced forward at their top speed of 120 kilometers per hour, firing their plasma cannon at the remaining laser turrets as they went. Bravo and Charlie Company spread out to the flanks, taking more laser turrets under fire as the Rattlers settled into a steady barrage, gradually increasing the size of the breach in the defensive wall.
In increasing volume, the marines began taking return fire from the enemy positions atop the wall. The plasma cannon of the Kangas was simply not powerful enough to penetrate the laser turret’s armor. A flight of Reapers screamed in low over the battlefield and HVMs streaked away from under their wings. A fraction of a second later, three laser turrets exploded as the HVMs struck home. The Reapers switched to guns and their plasma cannon stitched the tops of the wall, killing anything that was in the open. As the Reapers pulled up, all three were suddenly swatted from the sky as if by a giant hand, pieces of wreckage falling onto the buildings beyond the wall.
Karen Mills, in the lead Alfa Company AFV, witnessed the destruction of the Reapers as she sped toward the breach in the wall. She brought up the feed from the scout’s Scorpions. The Scorpions’ sophisticated detection systems quickly triangulated the source of the fire that had brought down the Reapers. From the data it looked like a heavy laser area denial system – similar to that used by the navy to stop incoming missiles. Karen opened a link to the Naval Gunfire Support Team who was traveling in one of the other Alfa Company Kangas.
“I’m sending you a set of coordinates and I want you to put metal down on it ASAP.” Without waiting for a reply she cut the link and initiated another to Louis in the command carrier. “Louis, are the Dragonflies up yet?”
“You should be getting something in a few seconds. I’ve prioritized the area from which that anti-air came from to see if we can identify whether it’s a fixed position or mobile. If they have one site, I have no doubt they have others.”
“Good thinking, Louis, the navy should be targeting the source of the laser fire now…”
With a bright flash of light and a thunderclap, something, moving faster than the human eye could follow, slammed into the area from which the laser had fired with seemingly pinpoint precision. Debris rose far into the air and coalesced into a large mushroom cloud. But this was no nuclear strike.
As soon as the marines had begun their assault, the battleship TDF Bloodhound moved into low orbit above the Others’ base. When the call for naval gunfire support came, the Bloodhound launched a Kinetic Energy Missile or KEM. The KEM was a six meter long missile made of tungsten alloy. Each KEM was, basically, a long pole of metal with a small guidance computer in its tail section and a powerful chemical rocket motor that accelerated the missile to a speed of 11,000 meters per second. The impact of a KEM on target is the equivalent of 120 tons of TNT.
The site of the laser defense system was now just a large, smoking crater.
Karen’s Kanga reached the breach and slowed to a halt, plasma cannon firing at enemy soldiers beyond the wall. A second Kanga began to climb over the rubble of what had once been a fifty meter high wall. As it reached the top of the pile, it exposed its underside: from within the base a high-intensity laser stabbed out, striking the Kanga’s vulnerable belly, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter and lancing into the interior troop bay. The Kanga’s turret blew off as the laser exploded through the vehicle. The rear troop doors burst open and badly injured marines piled out; only to be cut down by withering enemy fire as they desperately sought cover.
“Everybody out! We need to clear those buildings or the attack will stall!” Karen shouted over her link. She followed the last of the marines out and bounded over the rubble, keeping low to avoid enemy fire as the marines clambered over the mass of broken concrete and steel. As Karen reached the top of the rubble pile, she showed no hesitation, she carried her momentum forward and fired at enemy soldiers as they appeared at windows and doorways.
The marines of Alfa Company began the long and arduous task of clearing one build
ing at a time. They were soon joined by their fellow marines of Bravo and Charlie Companies. Slowly and surely they pushed the enemy out of their positions. As they pushed deeper into the base, Louis Mesnard kept a steady rain of KEMs falling as he used the Dragonflies to identify more of the laser aerial defense sites and any enemy strong points.
Sheltering in a doorway, Karen took time to assess the situation. Her whole battalion was now invested within the enemy base. They had formed a good strong pocket that she felt she could hold for the time being. Louis assured her that the KEMs had taken out the enemy anti-air sites and the marines had control of the skies above the base. OK! Time to get some reinforcements down here and finish the job! Karen activated her link to Louis.
“Go for Mesnard.”
“Louis. Contact General Pak, inform him that I’m satisfied we have a sufficiently secure area for him to begin his drop. I’d recommend…” Karen caught movement out of the corner of her eye and as she turned she saw an enemy soldier lob a small metal can toward her. Instinctively, she spun away, seeking the cover of the wall as she fired two shots from the hip and caught the enemy in the chest. The plasma grenade exploded just short of the doorway where Karen had been standing a moment earlier.
The green blue plasma boiled out of the doorway, catching Karen’s lower left leg. She screamed in pain. 10,000 degree heat melted her Wraith armor and burned her flesh and bone.
The Wraith suit’s onboard computer reacted instantly; sealing off her lower limb and pumping a massive amount of pain suppressors into her system. Thankfully, Karen was unconscious before she hit the ground. The onboard computer quickly assessed Karen’s injuries, calculating that the suit alone could not deal with them. It initiated a distress beacon on the medical channel, calling for immediate medevac.
Louis saw the beacon on his display. Shit! He cursed before assuming command of the battalion and ordering his AFV forward into the battle. An unconscious Karen was recovered by corpsmen who quickly placed her in an AFV headed for the Aid Station. Around her the battle raged on as two more battalions of marines dropped from orbit to join the fray. The marines’ victory was only a matter of time now.
#
TDF FURIOUS – ORBITING OPHIUCHI 70
“White Spot! White Spot! I have multiple nuclear detonations on the planetary surface.”
Analisa Chavez bolted from her seat and pushed the tactical officer to one side, running her eyes over his read-outs. As she scanned the instruments, the flare of another nuclear detonation registered on the display. The detonations were located in or around the enemy surface base. Everyone on the bridge knew the marines were not equipped with nuclear weapons.
“Communications, get me General Pak on the surface. I want to know what the hell is going on down there!”
Hands flew over controls as the lieutenant at communications raced to comply. After a few moments, she slowly moved her hands away from her console and turned to Analisa, her face deathly pale. “Admiral. I’m unable to raise General Pak or anybody on his staff. The links are a complete mess. The only response I’m getting is from the 24th Marines Aid Post who are reporting multiple nuclear detonations from the direction of the Others’ base and that they are receiving automated distress calls from hundreds of Wraith suits. They are requesting urgent additional medical personnel and equipment.”
Analisa blanked out the horrified looks from the bridge crew as her mind reeled from the shock. The 24th Marines Aid Post was located at their original Landing Zone, twenty kilometers from the enemy base. They must have been outside of the blast radius of the nukes, but three whole battalions of marines hadn’t. Had the Others been so desperate that they had used nuclear weapons to not only kill the attacking marines but destroy themselves and their base as well? Analisa became aware that the bridge crew were still staring at her, awaiting her orders.
“Communications. Contact the hospital ship Nightingale and tell them to expect mass casualties.” Analisa summoned her Operations Officer with a quick wave of her hand. Commander Patrick Malloy was the man who made Analisa’s plans reality.
“Patrick, I want you to personally coordinate with each of the marine assault ships. Find out what surviving shuttles we have that are capable of lifting the wounded. Redeploy medical personnel to whatever sick bay the Chief Medical Officer on the Nightingale deems appropriate…” Analisa stopped and looked up into Patrick’s eyes. “This isn’t going to be pretty. I suspect the marines have taken an awful lot of casualties today so don’t be surprised if they are very angry. I need you to keep it together and get this done. Anything or anyone gets in your way you refer them directly to me but try not to step on too many toes.”
“Understood, Admiral.”
Analisa gave him a brief smile. “And find out who the surviving senior officer is, will you?”
With an affirmative nod, Malloy headed towards the communications officer to begin his mammoth task of making some sense out of the chaos.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Counting the Cost
CENTRAL COMMAND – MONT SALÈVE – EARTH – SOL SYSTEM
The mood within Central Command was one of dumbfounded shock. Keyton Joyce stared, without seeing, at the latest casualty figures from the assault on the Others’ base in 70 Ophiuchi, which now reached over 11,000 dead and wounded. Three quarters of those were from the marine landing element. The 21st Marine Battalion had been wiped out to a man.
The battalion had been aboard its assault shuttles, only a few seconds out from landing, when the Others began detonating their nuclear demolition charges. Not even an armored assault shuttle could survive in such close proximity to a nuclear blast.
How there were any survivors from those marines on the ground was a mystery. Some were lucky enough to have been in the shadow of a substantial building which protected them from the initial blast and their Wraith suits had done the rest. Even then, not one marine came out of the enemy base unscathed. And despite the herculean efforts of the combat medics, doctors, and nurses aboard the orbiting hospital ships, many a marine had succumbed to his injuries.
The surviving senior officer was seriously injured herself but Colonel Karen Mills, despite losing a leg to a plasma grenade, discharged herself from the small field aid post on the planet’s surface and, along with the fleet Operations Officer, she coordinated the recovery of every last one of her marines before allowing herself to be transported to a fleet ship for treatment. The story went that Mills had actually threatened two naval officers with a plasma rifle if they attempted to relieve her before she saw the final marine to safety. From what Keyton heard on the grapevine that particular story was true, although he noted in Admiral Chavez’s citation for the Navy Cross that that particular incident was missing.
Keyton forced himself to return his attention to the document currently displayed before him. His various aides had worked overtime to prepare him for his appearance before an emergency meeting of the Armed Services Oversight Committee. Its chairman, Senator Katria Dikul, had been most vocal in her criticism of the Combined Joint Chiefs’ decision to launch the attack on 70 Ophiuchi, taking great pains to point out that it had been an all-human affair with no elements of either the Persai or Garundan military taking part. Keyton was getting whiffs of xenophobia and was determined to stamp them out before they could endanger the integrity of the joint Commonwealth forces. This was going to be a long war and each of the Commonwealth planets needed to have complete faith in the other if they were going to survive it.
Well, whatever the politicians thought of Earth’s allies, Keyton, for one, had complete faith in them or he wouldn’t have dispatched Admiral Razna Holan to Zarmina. His role was to find the promised technical innovations that may have reduced the casualty figures he kept running through his head and, he feared, would haunt him for some time to come.
A soft knock on the door reminded Keyton that it was time to head for the Senate building. Damn, he hated politicians.
#
GLI
ESE 581G – 20.3 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH
Gliese 581G circled its red dwarf star in a slow and steady orbit. With the star producing only some 0.2 percent the visible light of Earth’s own sun, Gliese was virtually undetectable in the night sky, even though it was only 20.3 light years from Earth.
The argument that Gliese may have habitable planets had been raging amongst the various astronomical groups since the early 21st century and it hadn’t been settled until the TDF sent a destroyer to visit the system. What it found hadn’t entirely settled the argument as the findings were immediately classified.
The Combined Joint Chiefs had been looking for somewhere to establish a top-secret weapons research facility, well away from prying eyes, and Gliese 581G (or Zarmina as a scientist in the past had once labeled it) was ideal. With a mass approximately three times that of Earth it orbited its star every thirty-seven days and found itself well within the habitable zone which, for a red dwarf, was a lot closer to its star, hence Zarmina found itself tidally locked with one half of the planet forever in darkness.
Of the remaining six planets in the system, Gliese C and D both lay within the habitable zone, but C appeared to have formed beyond the frost line before moving into a closer orbit of its star, due to planetary migration, and it was composed mainly of ice, similar to Sol’s own Ganymede. Planet D, on the other hand, suffered from a runaway greenhouse effect much like Venus and although on the outer edge of the habitable zone, surface temperatures were recorded as high as four hundred degrees Celsius.
