The War Across the Stars

by Alex Pennington

  “Timer’s on, we have eight minutes.”

  I was completely exhausted, but I still ran as fast as I could. We ran across Vorga’s green fields for at least five minutes without resistance. Then we slid to a stop as we saw another encampment of Vorgian machine gunners.

  “Take aim, but hold your fire,” Ryan instructed.

  I peered through my Oracle Scope. I picked a machine gunner that had a position in a small hole in a cliff. I waited.

  “Everyone ready?” Ryan asked in a hushed tone.

  We nodded.

  “Now.”

  We all fired. My round missed and hit the rock cliff behind the gunner. Frantically, I fired again. This time I hit. If even one gunner noticed us, he would have had a powerful counterstrike.

  “Is it clear?” Sergeant Peterson of Second Squad asked.

  “Yeah,” Ryan answered as he stood back up.

  Then, with the way cleared, we proceeded to the outer perimeter of target Digamma.

  “There it is,” Sergeant Peterson murmured as it came fully into view.

  “Swap for your SMG,” Ryan ordered.

  We did so and begin closing in on the base. We moved closer to the door. We all leaned up against the wall.

  “Corporal Cooper!” Sergeant Peterson said, “Blow the door.”

  “Yes, sir,” A deep voice muttered as a large armored body moved to the front door and set up a charge.

  He backed away and five seconds after he placed the charge, flame irrupted into the building. Corporal Cooper was the first to enter the building. Suddenly, several machineguns opened fire, Corporal Cooper stood vibrating from hundreds of rounds impacting his armor. He fell to his knees, and then toppled over onto his face. At least five machinegun turrets were in sight from the doorway.

  “Fall back,” Peterson ordered.

  I stopped where I was. I hadn’t made my way inside yet by the time the order was given. But I had seen what happened to Cooper.

  “We have a problem!” Ryan said over the COM.

  One of the armored Marines backed out of the building firing his SMG-56 through the doorway. Bullets flew out past the soldier. One round hit the soldier’s arm and he stumbled. He waved his arm around a second and slipped to safety. Sergeant. Peterson peeked around the doorway and tossed a fragmentation grenade. A loud pop filled the air as it detonated. Peterson peeked back inside and quickly retracted his head.

  ”Two left,” he said.

  Then he signaled one of his troops to move in. Peterson and the other soldier entered the room. They each opened fire and took out the remaining gunners.

  “Clear!” he called.

  “Move in,” Ryan ordered.

  We all entered the room.

  “Phil, get to the data terminal,” Ryan said.

  “Roberts, Parker, escort him, the rest of my team will make sure to keep the entrance secure,” Ryan announced.

  “And I’ll take the rest of mine to clear the building, Sgt. Peterson said. Peterson and one other Marine left the room. The rest of his squad was either dead or guarding Phil.

  We waited and heard several bursts of gunfire over the next five minutes. Then, Phil and his Marine escorts entered the room.

  “Done!” Phil said.

  “Phil’s done and I have the Eupholium set up!” Ryan said over the COM.

  “Roger that,” Peterson responded, also over the COM. “We’re returning to your position now.”

  Sergeant Peterson was standing in the doorway moments later. Ryan then concluded the Eupholium set up process by configuring its detonation time.

  “Lets move!” Ryan said.

  We ran from the building on our way to the L.Z. In short time, we arrived at the L.Z. unopposed. We were at the evac site, but no dropships were there to extract us.

  “Uh-oh,” Nevin said as he noticed the same thing, “I guess we’ll wait.”

  We waited for several minutes before we heard a deep rumble in the distance. It grew louder and louder until Nevin asked, “What is that sound?”

  “If I’m not mistaken it sounds like a Preston-class Vorgian Assault tank,” Phil answered.

  “Get down!” Ryan ordered.

  We all hastily dropped to the ground.

  The tank rolled up to the clearing, crushing trees as it passed. The gun swiveled around. It was likely using its gun-mounted optics to scan for a target. It slowed as it reached where we were hiding. The tall grass was barely high enough to conceal us. The gun stopped. Then a man with a tattered desert camo uniform on leaped from a nearby tree. He landed atop the tank. He then pulled out two concussion grenades and activated them, and then placed them on top of the pilot’s hatch. Next, he jumped off. The tank and both grenades exploded. The man tumbled into the grass.

  Smoke rose from the burnt remains of the tank’s cockpit. I was the first to stand back up. I slowly approached the tank. The pilot’s hatch had been blown to pieces, though the tank was certainly still functional. Fortunately, it now lacked living Vorgian pilots. I looked down beside me and saw the man who attacked the tank. His shoulder was adorned with the three-stacked chevrons of a sergeant. His desert camo hat was on the ground beside him. He had short, curly, brown hair. I knew I recognized him.

  “Sergeant Johnston?” I asked.

  The man wiggled.

  “Yes?” he replied as he rolled over.

  He looked up at me as he lay there on his back. Then Ryan jogged over.

  “Dylan! Great timing. Couldn’t tell if the tank saw us or not, but it sure looked like it did,” Ryan said.

  “Dunkelman?” Dylan questioned.

  “Yeah, but how did you get here!”

  “Long story,” Johnston said as he sat up.

  The rest of the team wandered over to listen.

  “As we ran off back on Sontonos, I took a shot to the leg and fell over. When I managed to stand back up, everyone was gone, other than a few SAS. I took out all three with my AR. All the other SAS had already passed me and continued their pursuit of you. My arm still hurt from Robert shooting us there. I escaped and went further inland. I bandaged up my arm and leg and proceeded to keep fighting. I went around and neutralized several Vorgian patrols in the area. I used my last rounds on a Vorgian sniper. I grabbed the sniper’s gun and used it in place of my empty AR-27. I managed to snipe a truck driver through the windshield. The four troopers sitting in the back jumped out and looked around. They all met the same fate as the driver. I captured the vehicle and drove to the nearest town. From there I boarded a civilian transport craft. They simply let me on, way less secure than Elonian spaceports. I had enough money to go since I sold my H-81 to a civilian. It was a decent sized transport craft. It took off from the spaceport and went into orbit. They kicked in Ultradrive and were here within hours. Immediately, I ran out of there into the woods. There had been a lot of commotion in the Capital’s spaceport. Word of your arrival in orbit was all over, but they didn’t know about the insertion. I assumed that there would be one, so I went to see what I could find. And it looks like I found you,” Dylan Johnston explained.

  “Wow,” Ryan sighed. “Sounds a lot like what happened to me before I was placed on the Rangers.”

  His eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he was having memories of his experience alone and on the run. He lowered his head slowly, then jerked it back up when we finally heard the engines of a Corsair Heavy Assault Dropship approaching. It lowered itself into the clearing and opened the rear-boarding hatch. It was primarily atmospheric, but it was airtight and was capable of about an hour of space flight. We walked up the hatch and into the troop bay. We each sat down in one if the eighteen seats.

  The hatch closed again and sealed once we were all seated. The Corsair began to rise. The doorway that led to the cockpit was closed, unlike the newer transports that had no door separating the cockpit and transport areas. The Corsair sped up as it soared above the trees. My guess was since we were on the dropship Major Kohl must have secured a foothold.

>   After a six-minute ride, we arrived at the foothold, just as I had predicted. Several Corsairs were landed at the encampment, and two Paladin Tanks were positioned near the center of the base. Our Corsair lowered itself to the ground and stopped.

  “We’ve arrived,” the pilot said.

  We exited the Corsair and stepped onto the ground.

  Phil was first out and rushed the data to the major’s tent. It would be transferred from there, through the COM to Concordia in orbit. We waited there for about an hour as the rest of the bases were neutralized and the intel had been recovered. One by one, other Corsairs flew in and landed, deploying parts of Alpha and Sigma Companies.

  Then the COM’s in our suits activated, the voice of Major Kohl filling our ears.

  “Alpha and Sigma Companies, Rangers, listen up! Our reinforcements are in orbit and coming down on shuttles. You will be joining the attack force when we attack the capital city. Load up and board the Corsairs.”

  “Well… time to go,” Ryan said.

  “Part two?” Nevin asked.

  “Apparently…” Ryan sighed.

  We stood up and walked over to the line of dropships waiting to bring us into the city. We hopped on and strapped into the seats. The hatch sealed and we were on our way back to the action.

  We flew for quite a while, since the Vorgian capital city was rather far away from our foothold.

  “Alpha Thirty-Five to Command. We are about to land in the capital. Any more need picked up?” our pilot asked over the COM.

  “Negative, Alpha Thirty-Five. You wait nearby the city for when we are done. Over.”

  “Understood, Command. Out,” our pilot finished.

  Shortly afterward our Corsair touched down on a rooftop of a multistory Vorgian tower.

  “Clear the building and move on. The Vorgian troops have taken up positions throughout several of the city’s buildings. Just keep moving, and clear as much as you can,” Alpha Thirty-Five told us, having relayed the information from Command.

  The ramp opened, and we stormed out. I held my SMG-56 tightly in my hands. We arrived at the door, and Ryan opened it swiftly. We moved in and down the staircase. When we arrived at the bottom, Ryan kicked open the door and searched the room. Several Vorgians were standing around the room with their assault rifles hanging loosely at their sides. We opened fire and mowed the entire room full of soldiers down in seconds.

  “Clear!” Ryan said. “These guys obviously didn’t expect a rooftop entry.”

  We charged forward and opened the door to the staircase. We landed on the next level and burst through the door. Tons of red dots lit up on my motion tracker. But when I looked around the room, it appeared empty. But there were lines of desks that enemies could hide behind. We opened fire at the thick metal desks, hoping for a bit of penetration. Suddenly, several squads of Vorgians popped up and tossed grenades. I panicked and darted for the door to the staircase.

  “Fall back!” Ryan yelled.

  As we hurried back into the stairwell, I saw it. A grenade on the staircase. It was right in front of Phil.

  “Gren—” I started as it detonated.

  Phil spun into the air and smashed into the railing on the other side of the staircase. Then he slipped and fell down the shaft. He fell two stories and slammed onto another level.

  “Phil!” I called.

  He didn’t respond.

  “Max! Nevin! Go get him. James! You are with me,” Ryan said.

  Ryan and I went back in and shot as many of the troops that were still above the desks as we could. They too opened fire and bullets pinged off of my armor. Without my armor, I would for sure have been killed. We approached the line of desks as unstoppable juggernauts. We each climbed over a desk and finished off anyone who was left. Another step closer to ending this war. I looked back at the doorway and saw Nevin and Max carrying Phil.

  “Is he okay?” Ryan asked.

  “I dunno. He hasn’t moved…” Nevin said.

  The COM activated abruptly.

  “All forces, evac immediately. After inspection of information from the labs, we have found multiple nukes stationed throughout the city. We have a list of their locations and are sending EOD teams in to try to defuse them. We have confirmation that they have been activated on a timer. They are repeating what they did on Enphuerzo. Once again, evac immediately,” the Major ordered over the COM.

  “Oh prex!” Ryan exclaimed. He activated the COM. “Alpha Thirty-Five! Are you available for evacking us?”

  “Yessir. I’ll meet you on the rooftop. ETA is three minutes,” Alpha Thirty-Five responded.

  “Roger,” Ryan said. “Let’s get up there,” Ryan told us, after cutting the COM. “We don’t know how long we have before those things go off. Our best hope is that EOD gets them disarmed. But if they don’t… I would prefer we be a long ways from here.”

  We pulled back and moved back up the stairs. We arrived on the roof just in time to see Alpha Thirty-Five flying in. Our team hurried on to the Corsair, with Max and Nevin carrying Phil.

  “We have wounded!” Ryan told Alpha Thirty-Five. “Can you take us back to our Base of Operations?”

  “We are on our way there now. That is the rally point for everyone we evac,” our pilot answered.

  We rode quietly in the back of the Corsair as it sped closer to the base. Several frantic calls for help had come over the COM as we came closer to the base. Apparently, a lot of our forces had yet to be picked up. Then, we began to slow down as we neared the base. The rear hatch popped open and we exited rapidly. There were even more tents set up than the last time we were here. We found one with the red plus over the white banner that represented a medical station. Phil's armor had been damaged pretty badly, and overall, he just was not looking too good.

  “He’s been wounded by a grenade explosion, followed by a several story fall,” Ryan explained. “Do you guys know how to handle the armor?”

  “Uh… Yes. Yes we do. We will see what we can do,” a medic said.

  As I looked around the room, I noticed that some of the equipment wasn’t set up yet, but there weren’t many men in the beds that were in the tent. Most of the wounded were probably still on their way here.

  We exited the tent. Several more Corsairs came in from the city and landed in various locations. Then, the ground shook, and a huge plume appeared on the horizon. Then another, followed by yet another. Finally the sounds blasted across us. The thunderous roar of the nuclear warheads detonating shook the entire base.

  “What was that!?” a marine said as he jumped off a Corsair.

  “Curse it! Curse it all!” I heard the Major yell from his Command tent. “I need casualty reports… how many were still back there?” he started asking.

  “The EOD teams must have failed…” Ryan sighed. “Now they are all dead.”

  We walked over to the Command tent, hoping to get additional information.

  “We have more ships in orbit! Nelson’s fleet is here. Reinforcements are already en route,” someone said from within the tent.

  “Well… Bring ‘em down,” the Major said, frustration evident in his voice.

  “Sir! One of the EOD teams survived, they have disarmed the bomb. It was in the northern part of the city… District Four,” another officer said.

  “Acknowledged,” Major Kohl sighed.

  “We’ve lost communication with at least a quarter of our force. And we’re still looking for an estimation of casualties. But I’m afraid our loss of communication is just a preview of how many we’ve lost,” one officer pointed out.

  A soldier walked out of the command tent and approached us.

  “Rangers,” he began. “Your services are no longer necessary. You may remain here as an auxiliary force, should the need arise somewhere.”

  “10-4,” Ryan said.

  The officer walked back into the tent from which he had emerged.

  Chapter 9

  Pursuit

  “Rangers!” Major Kohl sai
d as he stepped from his command tent for the first time in hours. “We have a lock on Vorgian Commander-in-Chief, General Walt Lee. According to our sources, he left the capital shortly after our invasion. He is currently in an APC en route to the city of Ridgefield. We should be able to catch them by dropship, but it is important that you take him alive,” he explained. “Understood?”

  “Yes sir!” Ryan exclaimed.

  “But be careful, we don’t have much intel on enemy forces located in Ridgefield, so if he makes it you may be in a lot of trouble.”

  “Roger that, sir,” Ryan acknowledged.

  “Remember soldiers, taking him alive gives us exactly what we need to end this war. The highest Vorgian authority held in our custody will cause the rest to crumble. If we kill him, they’ll just heap command on someone else and view Lee as a martyr,” Kohl warned.

  It was time for more action, this time without Phil.

  “Let’s go guys,” Ryan ordered, running over to a nearby Corsair, whose engines moaned to life. We boarded it, and soon were soaring at maximum speed toward the Vorgian city of Ridgefield.

  “This is it guys… the end of the war,” Nevin said excitedly.

  “It’ll finally be over? We can stop risking our lives every other day?” Max asked, smiling.

  “No Max, not really. While the war may be over, we’re the Rangers. It’s up to us to take down pirate groups and anything else that Command feels is worth sending us too. Particularly with our new training… becoming all purpose soldiers is going to make us the single most important squad in the Elonian Empire,” Ryan murmured thoughtfully.

  After that, the only noises heard were the roar of the engines, and the occasional gunfire from somewhere below. Then, the dropship pilot spoke.

  “We’re closing in. Lee is on the road just ahead of us. We can’t risk firing on him, so it’ll be up to you to slow him down.”

  “Roger that,” Ryan stated.

  We soared over the APC carrying the general. The road was a thin concrete strip surrounded by trees. The dropship started to lower itself, and turn broadside toward the speeding APC.

  “Go! Go! Go!” the pilot ordered.

  Our team jumped free from the Corsair and into the grass. The APC had begun to slow down. There wasn’t enough room, even through the grass, to get past our dropship. Finally, it skidded to a stop. A lone Vorgian popped up and manned a machine gun on top of the APC. He opened fire on the Corsair. A single shot from Ryan’s rifle dropped him limply on the gun.