The War Across the Stars

by Alex Pennington

“Yeah he’s old and fat. A hero of the past,” Nevin agreed, much to my surprise.

  I, like Ryan, considered protest, but I decided to follow the lead of my commanding officer and friend. So I sat silently, minutes dragging by before our return to Euphola.

  Finally after what seemed like hours, Cpl. Gorman approached us.

  “It’s time”, he announced, “If you would come with me, sir,” Gorman continued to Ryan specifically.

  “Absolutely, Corporal,” Ryan accepted as we rose to our feet.

  He then followed Cpl. Gorman back through the halls. We returned down the flight of stairs and into the hangar. We boarded the waiting Carrier Shuttle. Several other members of the crew joined us on board the shuttle. The last to board were two marines armed with AR-27D Carbines, which were shorter close quarter versions of the AR-27A.

  However the AR-27A is often simply called the AR-27. The B model was recalled shortly after its issue by the military, after seemingly good test runs, they were soon found too prone to jamming in intense combat situations. The C model proved as an effective carbine but was soon bested by the current D model.

  The shuttle door closed as the marines proceeded to the cockpit. They turned around and stood guard at the cockpit door.

  “Commander… Carrier One, prepared for departure,” the pilot’s voice could be heard over the shuttle’s COM.

  “Carrier One you’re cleared to go,” a voice replied.

  Our shuttle soon departed from the LRM frigate. It would take about ten minutes to get to the surface of Euphola from orbit. Carrier Shuttles were slower than the transports we had used before. They also required a parent ship to travel between planets due to its lack of Ultradrive or a Warp Drive. The Carrier did have high capacity; it could comfortably seat twenty-four people plus the pilot. Most large ships had Marines on board, the number depending on the class. An LRM Frigate like the Griffin probably only had about fifty marines on board, whereas a dreadnaught like the Concordia may have well over one thousand. No combat specific ships had sufficient troops for a full-scale invasion force. That role was specifically given to assault cruisers and heavy transport ships.

  “We are coming in for landing,” the pilot announced.

  I assumed we’d be landing in Gibraltar, the capital of Euphola. As the shuttle door opened I knew I was right. Directly behind the loading ramp was a sign that said “GMC Landing Pad C5.” The GMC, standing for Gibraltar Military Complex, was all I needed to place where we were. This was the largest military complex on Euphola. In fact, it was the largest in the Elonian Empire. We stood and exited the shuttle. The crewmen were right behind us. A pair of Marines left a nearby building and approached us.

  “Sergeant Dunkelman?” the taller one asked.

  “Yup and you?” Ryan answered.

  “Sergeant Paulson,” the marine responded.

  The rank insignia patch on Paulson’s shirt was the same as Ryan’s, identifying them as equal rank.

  “I’ll be your escort to your flight. Once you take off, you should be at the Rangers’ Complex within a few minutes,” Paulson explained.

  “Then let’s get moving,” Ryan suggested.

  We followed Sgt. Paulson across the field and into a building. We walked straight down a hall despite multiple paths branching off. Military personnel bustled about the hallways. At the far end of the hall was another exit door. We continued down the hall and Sgt. Paulson opened the door. We went through the opening and saw the atmospheric transport that we would take.

  “That’s your ride,” Paulson informed us.

  “Thank you, Sergeant,” Ryan said.

  We approached the transport and climbed into our seats. Before long we were soaring well over Euphola’s surface. I looked through the window, I could see for kilometers from the height. The ride was quiet, as most of the team was probably reflecting on the mission. I certainly did, as I spent nearly the entire trip replaying parts of it. My first kill… Roland’s death… Robert’s betrayal. It all seemed to be too much. But in the end, I knew I was a soldier now.

  “Well we’re here,” the pilot announced over the transport’s COM. As we came to a complete stop we stood and left the transport.

  “Ahhh…” Nevin sighed. “A familiar building.”

  “It’s a good sight, isn’t it?” I agreed.

  “Not here again!” Max exclaimed.” “Fatso lives here!”

  “Welcome boys—” Miller started to say from the door to the complex. “WHAT!” he bellowed. “Did you say ‘Fatso’!?” he exclaimed.

  “Oh prex, I hate this place,” Max muttered as Colonel Frank Miller waddled toward him. Miller used to be in shape… ten revolutions ago. The original war, called the Vorgian War of Independence, was fought around three thousand days, or ten revolutions, ago. I was still a teenager then. The war lasted two hundred and seventy-five days, making it just under a revolution in length. The Vorgian colonies Vorga, Enphuerzo, Hothonos, and Sontonos decided to break away from the Elonian Empire, which at that time was the Elonian Republic. Despite the fact that our form of government didn’t change, most Elonians began referring to the Republic as the Empire to instill fear into the Vorgians. Obviously it didn’t do much, but the name stuck. Somehow, possibly because both sides had the same weapons and they had more determination, the Vorgian Rebels won the war. Over ten revolutions however, former top-of-the-line equipment became severely outdated. In fact, some Elonian pirate groups are better armed than present-day Vorgians. And this time, like last time, we have numbers. Our Capital Planet and homeworld, Eli, has nearly four billion people. Vorga, the Vorgian Capital, has just one billion. In addition, many of their colonies have less then four hundred million people.

  “I might not be as trim as I used to be back in the day, but Pippin… I! Am! Not! Fat!” Miller barked loud and slow.

  “Hehehe..,” Max chuckled, “You’re right, you’re not just fat….. you’re obese!”

  “Oh c’mon Max!” Ryan blurted, “Just be quiet.”

  “Thank you Dunkelman. Now Pippin I’m not done with you. Fifteen laps around the complex, yes, with the laser counter on. I’ll know if you try to slip away. And as a side note, if you keep this up, I’ll have you removed from the program,” Miller said almost calmly.

  It was strange for Miller, but I guess it’s not every day that someone stood up for him while he’s present. Yet, normal people aren’t dumb enough to do stuff like that to his face, but Max isn’t normal.

  He ran off to start his laps, soon to regret his little stunt here. The complex was a fairly sizable building. Halls, rooms, and storage were the primary takers of space, but most of it was storage. There were at least a hundred SR-4’s at the complex and well over five thousand rounds of sniper ammo. Then there were also targets, like balloons, dummies, and bull’s-eyes. Then there were large fans for mimicking extreme weather conditions.

  “As for you boys…” Miller said gently, “We’ll debrief in my office.”

  Ryan, Nevin, Phil, and myself all jogged behind Miller as we entered the building. Colonel Miller took very long steps for his size.

  Inside the building the halls were nice and warm. Constructed of Cecrete 10, the building itself was rather new. We moved into Miller’s spacious office. We sat in the row of chairs facing Miller’s desk. Behind his desk were two chairs, one of them already occupied.

  “This is Colonel Terry McVane of the Intelligence Branch. He’s gonna be listening in on our debriefing. “So… Let’s begin,” Miller instructed.

  Ryan explained the events of the mission calmly. Miller’s face became gradually solemn.

  “Then we found out that Robert Washington was a Vorgian spy,” Ryan told Miller.

  “Ah-ha” Colonel McVane yelled, “Once again these bumbling recruits have failed. First they failed to effectively coordinate with the professionals at their disposal, then one of them turns out to be a spy!” McVane blurted.

  “Colonel, settle down,” Miller said gruffly.


  “I have no need! My point is right there! So the Rangers, the finest snipers around are killed in a shuttle accident. We think we should just pull some civvies straight off the street to take their place!? Nonsense! Hosting a shooting contest was the best the Senate could do? Send some morons and tell the winners that they are to be the new Rangers! That’s simply preposterous! They should have pulled our top men from the Marine Recon branch and put them there!”

  “Now Terry…” Miller protested, “We tried, Recon wanted to keep their guys, and they have that right…especially in times of war.”

  “Oh… Is that so, Frank?!” McVane shouted again. “All about rights and regulations, huh? Well Frank… with this evidence I’ll have those civvies back home within a day! Except Dunkelman… he’s actually a soldier,” McVane added.

  “Terry… I would like to request that…” Colonel Miller began.

  “Frank, don’t even ask. I’m leaving. I was here by my own request, not assignment.”

  He then stood up, strode to the door, and left the room. The office fell silent.

  Finally, Miller spoke, “Sorry ‘bout that boys. You’ve trained for nearly half a revolution. I’ll do what I can to stop him from having you recalled,” Miller said in an uncharacteristically soft tone.

  “Thank you sir,” Ryan and I said in unison. “You may proceed with the debriefing, Sergeant.”

  “Yes sir,” Ryan accepted.

  He resumed his explanation on our rescue by the Comanche.

  “Well then… that wasn’t good,” Miller stated, “However… good job down there, Ross, we’ll get your corporal insignia on by tomorrow.”

  “Thank you sir,” I responded. The room once again filled with silence.

  Then Miller looked at the floor, “Dismissed.”

  Chapter 8

  Redeployment

  Fifteen days slowly passed since Colonel McVane’s outburst. Training had resumed… twice as hard as before. Colonel Miller had personally flown to Eli to protest McVane’s claims to the Senate. He was back within a day and told us the Senate was undecided, yet they appear to want to keeps us… after all, it was their idea to host a sniping contest and have the winners fill the Ranger’s place. I had tried out, hoping to achieve something. Then I ended up getting lucky and scored in the top five. Nevin had tried out with me. He was actually good, not just lucky. The Senate says they did it to start up a morale campaign; saying even common people can rise to extraordinary ranks. And just as they had hoped… they received over one hundred thousand new recruits Empire-wide within three days of the competition. People who wanted to “start ordinary, become extraordinary.” My family was so proud when they learned that I was accepted. In fact, we even had a going away party with Nevin’s family the day before we left for the training complex.

  Now, I sat beside Ryan and Nevin in the briefing chambers.

  “Vorga, we all know what it represents. It is the symbol that drives the Vorgians, their capital planet. Now… we must destroy it.” Miller growled.

  “We know that they’re desperate, on Enphuerzo, one thousand Vorgian soldiers and nearly ten thousand civilians died in a series of nuclear suicide charges in the capitol buildings. They took with them forty-five hundred of our soldiers. The building had additional intel on defense and research labs on Vorga. Without that intel, this mission will be a bit more complicated. We want to keep as many labs intact as we can. Who knows what they may contain. Dixon will be taking forty-five ships, including the Enforcer, and for Pippin…. the Enforcer is the Juggernaut-class Super Weapons Platform,” Colonel Miller explained.

  “Finally,” Max chuckled.

  “You’ll be aboard the assault cruiser, Euphola’s Sentinel. You’ll be going with Sigma Company and Alpha Company. Two hundred fifty marines each. These guys are good. For this mission, you’ll be using specially crafted powered battle armor. Twenty-five of the top soldiers in each company will also wear powered armor. The armor will increase your speed, strength, and give you a tactical HUD to monitor your situation that includes who the ranking officer is, where your teammates are, and a twenty-meter motion tracker. It also can show marked objectives. There are neural interface programs being researched, but they have proved… uh, unsuccessful to say the least. So for this op you’ll have to use the manual controls on the helmet. The techs will tell us things in detail later,” Miller told us. “Now, the sub-machine guns you’ve been training with will be your secondary weapons. You’ll still have your sidearm as well. The SMG will be equipped with a silencer. More top-of-the-line technology that suppresses the sound made by your weapon… also, very expensive,” Miller pointed out.

  You’ll be going in using drop pods. There are about ten landing zones for the teams. Captain O’Connell’s Sigma Company will be striking targets Alpha through Delta. You and his Second Squad, led by Sergeant Peterson, will hit targets Epsilon and Digamma. Captain Morrow and Alpha Company will take targets Iota through Zeta. You will be transferring the intel to this data chip,” Miller said, holding up a small chip. “Fergensen, since I doubt anyone else in this group even knows how to translate encrypted data, I’ll put you in charge of that.”

  “Yes sir!” Phil’s deep voice bellowed.

  “Dunkelman!” Miller said.

  “Yes, sir?” Ryan responded, “I know you’re good with Eupholium, blow the place as soon as you have the intel on the chip.”

  “Understood sir!” Ryan acknowledged.

  “Once both objectives are secured and you’ve destroyed both labs you need to fall back to the L.Z. and several Corsair Heavy Assault Dropships will pick you up and transport you to our planetary foothold. Major Kohl’s 2 Battalion should have captured an area and established a base by then. If he doesn’t… well we’ll have a problem. However, I trust that he will. You boys have to do great to show Colonel McVane, and more importantly, the Senate, that you can handle the challenge of being the Rangers. To help prove that, we’ve decided to turn you into an all-purpose unit. Within a revolution you will be using SR’s, AR’s, SMG’s, LMG’s, heavy weapons, and more,” Miller informed us.

  “Wow, curve ball…” Nevin sighed.

  “Yup,” Phil agreed.

  “You’ll get on the shuttle for your ride to Euphola’s Sentinel in half an hour. There you will get acquainted with 2 Squad. So… good luck. Dismissed,” Miller concluded.

  The thirty minutes passed rapidly due to our anxiety of this raid to Vorga itself, the capital of the Vorgian Empire. Soon the base’s COM announced that it was time. We grabbed our items; I had my SR-4, SMG-56, and H-81 with me. We ran out to the shuttle and hopped on. The Carrier-Class shuttle’s engines fired up and soon we were on our way to the assault cruiser.

  Ten minutes after our departure from Euphola, I could see Euphola’s Sentinel in orbit. It was large for a cruiser, yet shorter than a battleship. I only saw two weapon batteries. There was also tons of small Elonium-Jericonium alloy plated circles, likely covering the drop tubes. There were hundreds of them lining the hull.

  It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the massive hangar bay of Euphola’s Sentinel. It had several Magnum Squadrons inside. In addition, there were five Carrier-Class Shuttles not counting ours, and seven Cavalier Heavy Lift Shuttles. Lining a far wall were nine Paladin Main Battle Tanks. They weren’t very long, but they were fairly tall in design. A fusion cannon was positioned above the driver’s cockpit. Its controls were simple allowing one well-trained person to aim the dual 100-millimeter cannons and drive. In the back was an armored compartment that could comfortably transport three people.

  We walked for about a minute to get access to the door from our shuttle. Then a Marine armed with an AR‑27D escorted us to a briefing room. There were several officers in the room. From the name patches it looked like Captain O’Connell and Captain Morrow were both present. The highest rank I could identify was a Major. One was called Kohl, while the other was Powell. Major Powell was a tall, thin man with dark hair. I assumed he was i
n charge of the battalion that Alpha and Sigma Companies belonged to.

  We were then instructed to sit, so I sat down beside Ryan. Major Powell soon started the meeting. It ended up taking around twenty minutes, basically turning into a more detailed version of Miller’s explanation. As we rose from our chairs I knew I was ready for this.

  Our next stop was the techs in the armory. They would introduce us to our powered armor. We arrived in the armory minutes later.

  “Hey!” a cheery man in a white uniform said. “You must be the Rangers.”

  “Yep,” Ryan replied.

  “Welcome, I’m Specialist Wheaton. I’m in charge of prepping your armor.”

  “All right,” Ryan said.

  “You will each be paired with me or one of my team. You will get some one-on-one time with one of us so you can get used to the armor and learn its systems. So… let’s begin,” Spc. Wheaton said happily.

  As he said, we each were paired with one of his men. I was paired with Wheaton himself.

  The armor was an onyx black with a clear, though partially tinted, visor. The face of the wearer was partially obscured, but you could still make out most of their features.

  “You see,” Wheaton said. ”You could look at a grenade explosion without any blinding effects. That also works for other bright things, sunlight, normal lights, flood lights, you know.”

  “Yeah…” I said.

  The visor was essentially a large square that wrapped around the front of my face. It stretched from just in front of one ear to just in front of the other. This served to reduce visibility obstructions. It spanned six centimeters above my eyes and four centimeters below.

  “Now the armor is rather heavy, but with the extra strength provided by the suit’s systems, you should be just fine,” Wheaton said confidently.

  The armor was mostly metal alloy, except at key joints where it was a softer flexible material. These parts were also a deep black, likely to avoid becoming perfect targets. It also had a pair of gauntlets. Most of the gauntlet was made of the flexible material. Only the back of the hand had the hard metal alloy plating.