MissionSRX: Confessions of the First War

by Matthew D. White

  Word of my arrival spread around the ship quickly and it wasn’t long before I had visitors. For the first hour or so it had just been the medic and I alone. He insisted on running an extensive battery of tests, but stepped aside when three figures entered. Captain Brooks was the first through the door, followed by the lead intelligence officer, judging by the insignia, and finally the ship’s commander.

  The two junior officers took flanking positions to either side of the bench on which I was seated and the commander stood straight in front of me. “Captain Grant, it is with some great fortune that our paths would cross. I have already had the chance to read the account of your adventure and escape. It’s quite the tale.” The older man seemed pleased with my performance and wore a welcoming, yet still not very warm expression.

  “Thank you, sir.” I replied, nodding slightly.

  “How in the hell were you able to fly their ship out of there? I’ve never heard of such a thing occurring throughout the entire duration of the war.”

  “I’m not real sure.” I responded, trying to think back on the events leading up to my escape. “I didn’t really have a choice, it was either figure it out on the go or stand my ground and die back there. I read a bunch of material on our fleet so that gave me a bit of background. Plus things just seemed logically placed in it. Have you heard anything from the supply mission that I left behind?”

  The commander’s expression grew colder. “I’m afraid not. We have been in radio blackout for a number of days so we haven’t been able to actively gather information from the fleet. All we know is that your battle group never arrived, nor did the supplies you were escorting. The mission has been counted as a total loss.”

  “Dammit, not again.” I muttered shaking my head. “In that case, would you be able to spare me a ride back to the fleet? I’ll need to report this to command and get myself back on the grid.” The room fell silent for a moment.

  “I’m afraid we won’t be able to do that. At least, not just yet.” The commander answered. “We’ve got a mission of our own to see through before we can risk sending you back.”

  “How so? I would have thought it would be a priority to get me back. The information I’ve gathered would no doubt be of use to the Corps.”

  “I suppose you are wondering why you ran into us.” The commander stated, ignoring my accusation.

  “That crossed my mind”

  “We are actually on our way to destroy the planet you just came from. That is part of the reason why we are not sending you back to the fleet. Since you are the only one of us who has been on the ground there, you will be reviewing the attack plan and giving my staff your input on it. ”

  He was a step ahead of what I had been thinking all along. “If you think I can be a help, I’ll do it.” I answered. “So far I’ve just been making things up as I go, and I haven’t officially been in charge of anything bigger than a squad.”

  “That’s true, but you also lead a massive assault to victory when there was no one else to do the job. I don’t know what your reasons are for stepping up when the rest step down, but there are few things more selfless than that.”

  He turned to Captain Brooks, who passed over a thin, brushed metal briefcase. “Is this everything?” He asked.

  Brooks nodded. “Yes sir.”

  “Excellent.” The commander turned back and placed the case down on the bench beside me. “Everything you will need to analyze is in here. You’ve got 3 hours until I’m calling my command staff together for our final review.”

  I made no response to any of them. The commander stepped back away from me and the Captain came forward. “I’ve got a rack reserved for you. If you’re done here, I can take you over to it.”

  “Definitely.” I took the chance to pull the various sensors and probes off my arms and head, tossing them back to the medic. I stood up while rolling my thick armored sleeves back down and picked up my rifle, helmet and other bits of equipment I had been drug in with.

  Brooks led me to one of the vacant officer’s quarters, opened the door but remained outside. “You really think you can plan this better than the rest of the staff?”

  “Without a doubt.” I lied, not wanting to back down from Brooks’ challenge. “But, I could always find room for a victim of friendly fire.”

  “Funny,” he smiled dryly. “Just remember shots can go two ways, and one day you might piss on the wrong person.” I glared back at him, hoping he’d give me the reason to break his neck. “I’ll post one of my men out here to take you to the briefing room when you’re ready,” he stated as he walked off, instantly diffusing the situation before it went critical.

  I set the case down on an oak library table and dropped my weapons beside it. The armor came off next. The reduced weight on my shoulders was like a breath of fresh air that I had not felt since leaving earth.

  Inside the metal case was a package of papers, marked Top Secret all over. I tore it open and began to scan through the battle plan.

  Their scans of the system were mostly accurate, but some of their assessments I disagreed with. At the bottom of the case was a separate package filled with strengths and statistics of the human force. When I felt I had a good feeling of the scenario, I started forming my own plan.

  It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before I was woken up by the guard shaking my shoulder. I had barely finished writing down my recommendations before falling asleep. The documents were still spread under my head, all over the desk. “Sir,” the guard stated, “the briefing will be starting in ten minutes, you need to get over to it.”

  I nodded in comprehension as my brain took back over and I remembered where I was. I stood up, took a deep breath and began putting my armor back on.

  24

  A few short minutes later I was standing in front of a dozen men who outranked me. I’m sure it might have been intimidating to many of my contemporaries but I didn’t care in the least. I knew I fought for their survival. Plus, I knew that if I wanted I could kill everyone in the room without a second thought.

  “Gentlemen,” I began, “In theory I believe your strategy is sound. However, from the intelligence that I gathered on the surface, I think some of the forces need to be redeployed to accomplish the mission. Map.” A massive map of the planet appeared on the screen behind me. Several sites were marked on the surface, as well as the paths of several key satellites and their orbits.

  “With the thick atmosphere blocking most of the surface from a space invasion, there are several ports that have the shielding required to allow for uninhibited launches. Two days ago I destroyed one of those sites by detonating a nuke I found in the main shipyard. The crew here were able to recover multiple pictures and sensor scans of the detonation and subsequent destruction of the area, all stored on the alien fighter. As I escaped into orbit, the shield was taken down and as we can see, the entrance shaft collapsed back into thick clouds. Right now we don’t know exactly which site it was, but it was one of the three along the equator. That leaves us with two more bases along the equator, two in each of the northern and southern hemispheres, 3 geosynchronous satellites and one odd site twenty degrees north of the equator.” I checked my audience. They looked to be following along.

  “I believe the odd one is the key.” I stated, pointing to the site on the chart. “Given the scenario on the last planet I invaded, I think it is probable that all of the sites are tied to that one. Therein lies the problem. There is no doubt in my mind that it is also the most heavily guarded base on the planet.”

  “Right now we have the resources to attack every site at once, but we will only have one shot at it. When we drop into orbit, every ship will need to be prepared to launch. Every site will be attacked by a pair of fighter/bomber wings. As soon as we come in range, we will launch cruise missiles at each satellite as we launch the rest of the ships. The main base will be hit first, by four wings, since it will be the key to destroying the rest of them. There will be intense anti-aircraft
fire from the surface, but if it can be neutralized the rest of the forces will have a much easier time. Once the first base is gone, the rest of the wings will dive in for their respectable attack runs.”

  “At each base the targets will be the main power stations and the shield generators.” Pictures from my previous adventure appeared on the screen. “These are what we will be shooting for. Once they are disabled, we will only have a few minutes to escape to orbit. Otherwise, we will get trapped on the surface. After the planet is cut off, it will only require two or three small ships in orbit to keep them out of the war.” I looked back at my audience. “With that we have one more planet under our control.”

  The commander stood. “Captain, were you planning on deploying with the rest of the forces, or do you plan on staying back on the command ship?”

  “Sir, I would gladly go along, but right now I’m not trained on any of the fighters. I’ve only read the field manuals. Unless you want to send me in the alien ship I arrived in, which I guessed my way through, I think it would be best for me to remain here.”

  “I concur. That being the situation, I want you in the war room to direct our pilots. You have more practical knowledge than any of us so I think you are up to the challenge.”

  “Do you realize the disasters I’ve caused so far in this war?”

  “This is not up for discussion. We only have a few hours to go. I want you to update the pilots on the plan and be back here as soon as you’re done.”

  “Yes, sir.” I answered. “By the way, what happened to the alien ship I flew here on?”

  “Right now it’s sitting in the landing bay, about where you left it. The deck crew cleaned it up a bit, but we will be waiting until we get back to the fleet before we reverse-engineer it. We cannot risk something going awry on this mission.” I thanked them all for their time and attention and went off to find the pilots.

  When I had everyone assembled, I brought them all up to speed on the mission and my proposed plan of attack. They realized, as I did, that it was the only way to have a reasonable chance of success. When they had their questions answered I dismissed them to their ships to prepare for the launch. It occurred to me that two of the other pilots seemed simultaneously focused yet oddly distant. Not wanting to have a problem later on once we commenced the assault, I held them back to talk it over.

  “Lt. Johnson, Lt. Fortune, do either of you have a problem with this?” I asked once the rest had left.

  “No, it won’t be a problem.” one said. “I can’t imagine anything I want more,” he stared straight into my eyes, as did the other.

  “Same with you?” I asked the other. He nodded. I looked back and forth between them for a moment. “What brings you here?” I threw the question between them.

  “We were in flight school together.” The first started. “Our home city was destroyed by the Deep Strike a year ago. Our lives, our families are gone. This is the only life we have left. We’re here to kill as many of them as we can.”

  It was as if I was standing in a mirror. “What is your experience?” I asked.

  “Right now about four hundred hours for each of us in training, one hundred eighty in convoy, and twelve hours in combat.” The second stated.

  “Does it bother that I might get you all killed, that you’ll never see earth again?”

  “I’ve gotten over it.” the first said again. “It’s my purpose to be here. I don’t have a life back on earth. I would rather give my life up for something now that will outlast me rather than rot at home, living for nothing at all. To be honest, I never planned to return alive.”

  I confided in the two men as to the parallels of our journeys. “If that’s the case, I know what you’ve gone through; it’s been the same trip for me. If you really don’t want to live, there are plenty of ways to take your life but I don’t want you jeopardizing the mission. If you really have a death wish I am certain I can help you out. If vengeance is your focus I’ll tell you right now: Every battle plan that I have written was designed to inflict the maximum number of casualties. Stay with me and I’ll make sure you get the opportunity to kill as many of them as you can along the way. I will eliminate them down to the very last man. ”

  They smiled in a way that is normally reserved for overworked men who have finally been given a chance to sleep. “That’s all I’ve got. Go load up your ships and I’ll see you before we launch.” The two of them nodded slightly in gratitude, turned and left without another word. I stayed back for a moment to think over what I had just witnessed.

  I took the opportunity to check out my alien fighter in the light of day, seeing as we had a few minutes to spare. Size-wise, it was comparable to the SR-1 fighters we had been flying for the last few years. That was where the comparison ended. While I was able to engage the engines and fly her off the planet, I could only guess as to the functions of the other ninety-five percent of the craft. Antennas protruded from multiple locations across the skin. There was a single hollow pike off the nose, which I figured was some heavy weapon. Small slits dotted the upper fuselage and the entire rear surface was taken up by the engine’s outlet.

  I stepped up onto the wing and the cockpit screen swung open as it had before. It did not make a sound, not even a hiss, as if it was operated not by an electrical or pneumatic system, but a tightening muscle. Once more I sat down in the pilot’s seat and attempted to make some sense out of the rest of the controls. I was able to bring up the weapons screen on the main display and confirmed my hypothesis regarding the pike and slits. I made a mental note of the locations of all the commands I thought were useful, closed my eyes and felt my way through them.

  Even for someone like me, who wasn’t a trained fighter pilot and a different species for that matter, the entire deck was laid out in a very logical fashion and I had no trouble bringing up any of the ancillary tools and functions. I didn’t have a clue as to the language or mathematical system, but most of the screens relayed enough information through symbols and pictures that I was able to get a grasp of the system.

  I only spent a few more minutes on the ship. After that, I took some time to clean my personal gear, rearm and resupply before reporting to the bridge.

  The command bridge on the ship was situated on a massive spire overlooking the entire bulk of the frigate. Above our heads sat an extensive sensor suite as well as a full battery of defensive weapons. Far below us sprawled the main hull which housed hundreds of additional cannons as well as the main landing bay.

  The full commissioned staff of the ship encircled another holographic map of the planet. The three dimensional sphere was again marked with the locations of the targets, estimated paths of satellites and was surrounded with higher-resolution pictures of some of the sites. We still did not have any zero-age intel, but we were in our final jump so there wouldn’t be long to wait. A separate screen showed the status of our resources. All of the munitions were ready, and the fighters were all green for launch. The seconds ticked down on our jump and in the last moment I felt myself holding a deep breath. As we slipped back into real space, the bridge exploded with activity.

  We picked up all of the satellites in the first sensor sweep and I directed the deployment of the cruise missiles. Our ship took a tight orbit around the planet, closing in on our main target. In front of me the map tracked our path and plotted the estimated course of the deploying ships. I looked away from the display and into the front window, watching the gaseous planet slowly rotate beneath us. For a moment the scale of what I was seeing gave me a sweeping sense of vertigo but I pushed it aside and focused on the mission. “First wave, launch.” I commanded as we passed our first checkpoint. In a moment I felt a slight shutter in the floor as the pilots accelerated out of the bay and roared out into space. The map tracked them as well and we were able to catch a glimpse of them as they descended through the clouds.

  Notifications began to pop up on the map, documenting targets that were taken out by our earlier shots. There was no
backing out. The first wave would be engaging within moments. “All forces launch” I ordered again.

  The vibrations came back louder this time, as all of the remaining ships fired up their engines and blasted out, each flight carving their own trail through the vacuum. I could see each trail of exhaust being drawn above the swirling storms high in the planet’s atmosphere. All of the ships were still in the green and my heart rate began to stabilize.

  The battleship slowed down in its orbit as we passed closer to the main target. The first wave was only moments from engagement. I along with the rest of the leadership on the bridge looked intently at the monitors which relayed the flight’s video feed. At once we heard a blast of feedback through the system and two of the screens flipped to static.

  The communication link lit up in a flurry of activity as they came under heavy fire.

  “Incoming fire from three sites overlooking the base!” The fighter squadron’s commander announced. I looked over at his monitor. The feed was spinning wildly, showing how he was weaving to avoid the shots. “Fighters are splitting to engage defenses. Beginning ten second RF jam.” Static again overtook the signal as the fighters started up their defensive jammers and pushed out several megawatts of power to overwhelm any sensors on the surface. Even from our post in high orbit every system showed signs of increased stress from the fighter’s pods.

  He came back after the maneuver. “One defensive battery remains. Going in low to take out the power plant. Flight is switching to engage the shield generators.” I looked back out the main window as we approached the site. I could now see the vacant shaft in the clouds which led all the way to the surface. Even from this altitude I could see brief flashes of light from the explosions far below. On all sides of the shaft clouds spun violently and lightning cracked all over, illuminating their deep orange hues with spikes of white.

  At once the commander’s voice rang out “I’m hit, I’m hit! One battery, command center remain!! Shield down….” We looked in horror as the video spun as he lost control of the ship. A second later the commander’s ship slammed into the ground, showing us a frame of kicked-up dirt followed by static. One more ship remained. The pilot’s panicked shouts over the comm. channel fell on our deaf ears. There was nothing left we could do for him. He lasted a few more seconds before flickering out as well.