by Chris Hechtl
All in all, it was a better organized, better outfitted invasion force that had been fielded from Agnosta than any other. Certainly better than the scratch forces initially thrown at Protodon and Hidoshi's World! She shook her head. Her division would get to play with the toys even before Colonel Pendeckle did she thought with a slight coveted smirk. She was pretty sure the pirates on Destria wouldn't appreciate all the effort they were throwing their way on their behalf. Tough.
She'd scored the command over Valenko because her division had been stood up longer than his. That was pretty much the only reason she thought as her smirk faded. Despite getting a late start, that damn teddy bear had outclassed them all in short order. She wondered briefly what Jersey had in mind for him.
She shook her head. If she was getting the easy mission … she shuddered to think what he was going to be thrown at. Hopefully, they'd be blooded first!
"Ma'am, we're still not receiving anything from the planet," the ship's A.I. reported.
"Sensors get anything new?" she asked, looking up.
"No, ma'am. Actives are useless at this distance."
"Very well. Keep me posted."
"Aye aye, ma’am," the A.I. stated, cutting the circuit.
The colonel nodded. In a few days, they'd get their real test. SIMS, training—it was all over. Across her small convoy, the Marines were putting on their final preparations to go to war.
It was time she did so too she thought rising out of her chair.
<)>^<)>/
The northern continent had just entered mid-spring when General Drier received a radio report from radio listeners across the planet that something important was going on. He grimly listened in to a copy of the recording.
“This is the United Federation Naval Destroyer Duty and Honor to the people of Destria. We have returned. We are here to help. Please contact us on this channel so we can talk. To the Horathians on the planet, lower your weapons and prepare to surrender. This is your official warning. You may also contact us on this channel if you wish to talk terms. Any resistance to our landing will be met with lethal force. Duty and Honor out.” After a moment, the message began to repeat.
“It is being transmitted by multiple sources in space, sir.”
“So it has been confirmed. Time to orbit?” the general asked, looking at the star chart someone had ripped out of a native text book.
“They didn't say. The observatory doesn't have coverage for another two hours. We have a general bearing from the jump point. Given that it is multiple sources and this time they are calling on us to surrender, sir …” Captain Goddard said, eying him.
“I know. I appreciate the warning. Order our people to go to activate Omega 3,” the general said as he pulled up the playbook in his implants and checked the contents under the Omega 3 listing to be sure. After a moment, he nodded.
“Omega 3, sir? Go to ground?”
“And hit any native attempt to communicate with the incoming ships. We want them quiet so they can't pass on INTEL to the enemy and so the enemy will think they are all on our side for a while,” the general stated. “That goes double for Debois.”
“We've got a general location of his last transmission, sir. You ordered Lieutenant Lishman to hit him,” Goddard replied.
The general nodded. He'd frocked Lishman, technically given him a battlefield promotion to fill in some of the voids in his chain of command after he'd checked the man's files. He might have dropped out of the officer tract in college but he was a warm body he could use, the general mused.
“Tell Lishman to keep a low profile but listen for the bastard. Find the nearest transmitters to that last known location and stake them out or lay a trap in one. Cut the transmission towers and bury the equipment if he has to.”
“Understood, sir,” Goddard said as she looked up to the ceiling of the cave, then went to issue the new orders.
<)>^<)>/
Captain Zhukov heard the encrypted radio broadcast and grunted. Private Askdall looked up to him with concern written all over his expression. “And so it begins,” the captain said. He turned to the other assembled officers. “You heard. We go with Omega 3. Button it up. No one outside from now on. Run silent and run deep,” he ordered.
“We hear and obey, sir,” Gunny Brillo said with a curt nod. He turned and started issuing orders to the enlisted out in the corridor.
“We may or may not go down in the end,” the captain said as most of the enlisted and officers left to follow the plan. They'd already moved a great deal of their equipment and living spaces into the depths of the cave. There was a lot of rock and equipment between them and the surface. The engineers had been fiendishly clever to disguise the thermal vents as hot springs. As long as no one saw them outside coming and going it should be a nice place to hold up … at least for a while.
<)>^<)>/
Jean Claude woke up slowly, despite someone shaking him awake. When he opened his gummy eyes, he brushed the rough hands away. “What?” he demanded.
“We're getting reports on the radio of radio broadcasts from space!” Ned said as he let him go.
Jean Claude's eyes flared wide. He sat up and then abruptly regretted it as his head hit the wooden slat holding up the mattress above his bunk.
“Damn,” Ned said, shaking his head.
“Don't do that, Ned,” Jean Claude said as he rubbed his head and swung his legs out from under the blankets to the floor of the wagon.
“Sorry!” Ned drawled. “Shoot the messenger why don't you,” he growled.
“Tempting but no. I meant don't dump news on me while I'm in this thing,” he said, hands reaching out to the bunk. He felt where he'd hit; he was fairly certain he was going to have a knot there. He pulled himself erect then held onto the side of the bunk.
“Maybe that knock did some good. Knock some sense into you?” Wade asked from the top bunk. Jean Claude turned a baleful look at the chimera, then grimaced and looked away.
He'd hooked up with the Oberon traveling circus slash player group to keep moving. He'd set up the broadcasts to go off at random times in their travels, usually away from the towns and homes they visited.
“Has anyone tried to call back?” Jean Claude asked as his brother handed him a mug of something warm to help wake him. He took a sniff of the fragrant steam, then a tentative sip. The raspberry tea was indeed hot.
“No point,” Wade said. Both men turned to him. Wade tucked an arm under his head, then turned on his side to face them. “We can transmit only so far with the power we can get here. Into space is a different story,” he replied.
“Damn,” Jean Claude murmured.
“Double damn. We need to find someplace that has the power so we can respond,” Ned said.
“Well, are they in orbit yet?” Wade asked as he slipped his feet off the bunk, then jumped down beside Jean Claude. Ned backed halfway out the door to give them room.
“Will you three take it somewhere else?” Kadir demanded caustically from his bunk on the other side of the wagon.
“Sorry,” all three men muttered as they went outside.
“We need to go to where there is a hydroelectric site. But the equipment we have won't be able to handle the juice,” Wade said thoughtfully as they exited the wagon.
Jean Claude sat on the stairs and pulled his boots on, then got out of the way so Wade could do the same. Wade reached up behind him and shut the door to keep the heat in the wagon. There were muffled thanks from within.
“The major transmission sites were taken over by the invaders long ago,” Ned said, dispirited.
“Yes, but they pulled in their people when we, they, got bombed,” Wade pointed out. Come on. Let's find a map and see if there is one nearby we can access.”
“You think they'll have power?”
“There is only one way to find out, now isn't there?” Wade asked.
<)>^<)>/
Bordou picked up the broadcasts as well. He listened to two and verified where it
was coming from before he called Harambe in to hear the news.
“Chuck's setting another leg. What's up? Harambe sent me,” she said as she came in.
“He needs to hear this too,” Bordou said as he played with the tuning knob to get the best reception of the radio broadcast that he could.
“What?” the Neogorilla shook her head. “Will you just spill already?”
“Here,” The NeoBorder Collie said as he flipped a switch to turn the overhead speaker on.
Freya looked up to hear static then a voice. “This is the United Federation Naval Destroyer Duty and Honor to the people of Destria. We have returned. We are here to help. Please contact us on this channel so we can talk. To the Horathians on the planet, lower your weapons and prepare to surrender. This is your official warning. You may also contact us on this channel if you wish to talk terms. Any resistance to our landing will be met with lethal force. Duty and Honor out.” After a moment, the message began to repeat.
“Chuck! Someone find Chuck and Harambe!” Freya called over her shoulder before she took off at a trot.
Bordou snorted as he heard excited voices and footfalls leaving the cave. “Yeah, thought so,” he muttered as he flipped the switch to shut the speaker off.
It was a pity that they didn't have enough power nor the right equipment to talk back.
<)>^<)>/
Colonel Harley shook her head as she read the latest report the A.I. had dropped in her inbox for her. The ensign was a dumb A.I. One she wished was coming with her down to the planet, but unfortunately, he wasn't.
She didn't know why the divisions hadn't received their own A.I. support yet; heaven knows there were enough dumb canned ones out there! And someone had gotten cute lately with the ones on Chester Puller and General Murtough. Ensign Chesty was a Neobulldog, something to do with the corps mascot from long, long ago, but he acted goofy from time to time.
The same went for General Murtough's A.I. He had a blue Neolion avatar and tended to get a little goofy from time to time. The only thing she could think of was that someone had protested many of the A.I. being turned into humans, so they'd countered with these as a way to get back at the haters.
Whatever. Whatever worked she thought as she read the report. She had gotten used to the A.I. but sometimes forgot utilizing Ensign Snagglepuss tended to shortcut out some of her people from time to time. There had been some ill feelings over that but nothing directed at her. No matter. Once they were on the ground, it would sort itself out. She couldn't hold the convoy long.
She had no intention of emptying them out right away, however. Until she had a secure beachhead and was confident of the security on the ground, the government weenies would have to sit and sweat it out on their transport. Undoubtedly, they'd start whining and boohooing about being cooped up on board the moment they landed. So far, her staff was doing a good job at keeping them at bay … or they were behaving themselves.
Either way, it didn't matter as long as they weren't too much of a distraction and they stayed the hell out of her hair.
Once she was certain of the landing, she had to release one of the escorts to return most of the convoy back to B100 omega and then eventually to Pyrax. General Murtough would remain as her eyes in the sky with a series of satellites her crew were busy deploying at the moment.
But first things first, they had to land the landing force.
Since Major Zedeal had not identified any concentration of Horathians, nor any large targets of opportunity, there were, therefore, no KEW strikes this go around to further announce their landing. But the destroyers and General Murtough would remain on standby should they be needed on a moment's notice.
The naval commander ordered the deployment of the satellites and the ansible. It would take time for the ansible to be set up Colonel Harley knew.
Gunships were already en route to the ground. They'd gone through LOS and had cleared the plasma bubble only moments ago. Behind them were a series of assault shuttles. The larger transport shuttles would wait until there was a proper landing strip.
The assault shuttles went into a holding pattern of figure eights under the guiding hand of General Murtough's air traffic control as the gunships went in to do a full check of the LZ. They knew what to expect; a lone drone was orbiting the area and had kept wary watch of the thousand kilometers it could see from its high perch overhead.
Once the area was declared secured, the shuttles would move in with their first load of troops. Those troops would form the first crucial perimeter allowing more shuttles with troops and supplies to follow.
Until those shuttles arrived, they would have to rely on the gunships and drone for support.
Her senior staff had thought a bit out of the box in the planning of their first base. They had picked a flat piece of terrain far from the cities and towns with a river nearby. Alpha company of Battalion 1 had earned the honor of the first landing by virtue of their test scores.
Their initial beachhead on the rolling plains went off smoothly under the watchful eyes of the gunships and starships above.
<)>^<)>/
General Drier had set up observation posts and personnel near the likely places on the northern continent where the enemy was expected to land to establish their beachhead. He had planned to bloody their nose to stall their landing, but when the news came in that they had landed in grassy plains far from any habitation, he'd put the plan on hold. The enemy would see them coming easily.
Then the first observation reports of the Federation hardware came in. They had what seemed to be the full kit and caboodle. That made him think twice about the plan and then nix it all together.
He needed to test them though, to find out their TOE, ROE, and response time when a unit was pressed. He also needed to know how well they were trained and how they fought. How they responded to the civilians being in the way was also valuable intelligence for his people to gather for him.
<)>^<)>/
Colonel Harley transmitted a broadband broadcast to the planet's population as her second wave landed. It was a canned radio message; she had no intention of tying herself up with a speech and potentially flubbing it on that important occasion.
“This is Colonel Harley, United Federation Marines, to the citizens of Destria and the Horathian invaders listening in. I'd like to say we come in peace, but we all know differently. We're here to remove the Horathian invaders and make certain they face justice for their genocidal acts on this planet. War crimes tribunals will be held once we have the personnel in custody, but that is an event for another time. For now, I want to let you know we are here, and we're not going anywhere. We will be meeting your leaders and routing out the Horathians. We bring personnel and supplies to help you rebuild and to help transition you back into full Federation membership.
“To that end naval personnel are currently setting up an ansible to allow us to remain in contact with the rebuilding Federation. We will be transmitting you news from the Federation as well as any public addresses by President Irons.
“For the moment, we are instilling a dusk-to-dawn curfew in all areas. If you are outside after dark, we will see you. If you do not answer our hails, you will be fired upon. You have been warned.
“If you are approached by Marines, please be courteous. Do not ambush them with questions or requests for food or support. They have a job to do. If you have current information, please, by all means pass it on. They will then take it from there. Do not move quickly, and under no circumstances should you be armed or have your limbs out of view. Remember folks, until we've routed out all of the Horathians and their supporters, this is considered an active theater. The troops are armed and for their safety will fire if you do not immediately comply with their orders or come to them armed.
“Please render aid to your neighbors in this time of need. Once an area is secured, we will do what we can to help you during the rebuilding process. We have engineers and materials to help bootstrap you, not only to where your p
opulation was before the Horathians invaded but as close to full Federation standards of living as we can get with the gear we have on hand. That gear and the personnel we have with us are strictly limited so must be used for the maximum good.
“I or another officer will endeavor to provide you with radio broadcasts until your First Amendment rights and your own media can be restored. That is all. Long live the Federation.”
She blushed slightly when she heard the transmission, then shook her head. It covered only a few of the bases, but that was fine. It was a starting point. She didn't want to give too much away to the enemy right off. She'd kept the time tables out of it. The warning about approaching the troops was common practice. Hopefully, it would be heeded, though she feared it wouldn't be by all.
She turned her attention to the first landing. The perimeter had been secured by Battalion 1's Alpha Company. They'd spread and expanded the perimeter as Beta and Gamma had been landed and slotted into place. She could see engineers and groups landing on the dirt strip.
The ramps opened and vehicles, robots, and personnel filed out. They instantly went to work setting up and improving the landing strip and perimeter, then expanding on it all. She nodded in approval as she directed the remote she was watching the base through to spiral outward.
The fountaining of dirt and report of an explosion made her return her attention to the base however. It wasn't attack though; the engineers had let loose rockets with strips of explosives to blow trenches around the perimeter. Robotic mowers had been unleashed to clear the fire lanes. Apparently, one had wandered a bit too close to the explosion site; it had been knocked over and was spinning its wheels helplessly on its side. She shook her head.
She knew the explosives were a temporary thing, a quick means for the engineers to set up trenches, moats, and firebases for the personnel. As the drone spiraled out, robots and gear were moving in to clear the loose rubble and pack it into walls while other crews set up overhead cover and another crew worked on a zigzag for the perimeter.
