Space Fleet Sagas Foundation Trilogy: Books One, Two, and Three in the Space Fleet Sagas

by Don Foxe

  “There are 20,000 in the Southern Crown,” he continued as the red number changed to 220,000. “These support the plasma cannon installation and are attempting to breach the tech lab located there.”

  “Finally, we have located six divisions of 5,000 soldiers each. These are dispersed on the three major continents, and appear to be in pursuit of resistance parties.” The number reached 250,000.

  “I have been rounding off to make it easier, but the exact final number of Zenge on Fell is 248,932. However,” Sonoritsch waited a moment for everyone’s attention, “Fell has some very dense rain forests, and some deep valleys in the Crowns. If there are Zenge in those areas, we may not be able to see them, even with deep penetration scans. Because of their cold-blood, if they have polar bases that are not emitting heat sources, or have hidden heat signatures, we could be missing some in those areas as well.”

  “Mischene?” Col. Gregory asked.

  “I cannot give you an exact number. We see warm-blooded heat signatures mixed in with the Zenge. Analysis of activity has tried to separate those we believe are captives. It leaves a total of 12,122 mixed around the planet. Most located at the space ports, but at least a few with each Zenge troop.”

  “261,054 enemy combatants,” Gregory said aloud. “Phase 1 removed the majority of their space support, and a majority of their air cover. With the surface-mounted installations destroyed, and the mothership with 50,000 Zenge on board, we estimate nearly 130,000 enemy combatants were eliminated. Otherwise we would be facing 400,000.”

  Mags spoke. “We have 50,000 ground assault personnel, and another 50,000 support personnel.”

  “Plus two billion Fellen willing to fight and die to save their home,” Sky added.

  “Makes you feel sorry for the Zenge,” Mags joked. “Maybe we should send some guys home so it’s a fair fight.”

  “Enemy aircraft?” Elie asked.

  “They haven’t put anything high in the air since their spaceships were taken out,” the Bosine officer replied. “We have visual on several hover craft being used to transport troops and supplies. From the report on the one Angel 5 shot down when covering for Demon, they have a single small laser cannon and a chemical-fire multiple-projectile weapon.”

  “A machine gun,” Shah translated.

  “We’ve counted a total of twenty-three, with each major encampment having two each, with only one at the Northern Crown.” Twenty-three dark blue dots peppered the map.

  “They have a half-dozen surface-to-space launches used to shuttle small numbers of personnel. They have a single laser cannon and are capable of creating an electro-magnetic force field for defense. One at each former space port.” Six blue dots with yellow rings appeared.

  “And, of course, they have the Parrian cargo vessels. Currently all off line and used as ground storage for supplies and captives, but could be activated. Unless they’ve added weapons since your last encounter, they are simple haulers with wormhole capability.” That completed Sonoritsch’s overview.

  “Sparks, how are they communicating?” Gregory asked.

  “They are linked into the satellites over Fell,” the communications engineer said. “They had been using their spacecraft to bounce signals to relay orders and information as well. Now they only have access to the satellites Fell already had in orbit. On the ground they use line-of-horizon communications among the separate groups. Depending on terrain or atmospheric interference, they might have an effective range of two to three thousand miles. As little as line of sight in the mountains, or deep in the forests.”

  “Can I assume that you have the ability to prevent them from using Fell satellite for world-wide communications?” Elie asked.

  Sparks smiled and replied, “You can so assume. When you give the order we can kick them out of the link leaving them unable to communicate between their locations on the planet beyond their surface systems.”

  “Did they recover the cargo ships we hijacked from that initial raid when we recovered Sky’s sisters?” Mags asked Sonoritsch.

  “Yes. Those eight are back at the CHangoria 2 and again used to hold captured Fellen. We show heat signals from every cargo ship on the surface,” the LCMD responded. “On average they keep a half-dozen Zenge guards aboard each ship, rotation is every six hours, so they are running three shifts per Fell day. Bases use multiple roving guards in teams of two, and fixed guard locations every 500 yards around the entire camp. We assume they have motion detection and artificial automatic defenses installed as well, but we cannot locate those until they come online.”

  “Captain Shah,” Gregory said. “First orders of the day?”

  “We need to place crew-served communication teams with every resistance group we currently have contact with. The ion-based channels kept us in the loop without warning the Mischene, but depending on the weather is dangerous. After we set up world-wide connections, we disable the satellites and force the enemy to act as separate units.”

  “Our first target after that will be that base,” Gregory said, highlighting CHangoria 2. “We’ll insert eight nine-man kill and recover squads. Each squad enters and takes over a cargo ship. Elie as operation leader. Hiro, Sindy, and Noa will be assigned to those squads. I want Space Rangers on the ground, inside the perimeter of that camp. Sky will join them. Rachelle and Fitz will handle air cover.” The display wall morphed from the planet, to a diagram of the CHangoria 2 space port. Icons represented enemy, structures, ships, and good guys.

  “Capt. Shah will be direct ground commander for the remaining troops to be stationed outside of the target. Sparks will run communications from the Star Gazer. Storm will be with Shah as her coms control.”

  “When the squads are ready to be dropped, Mags and Folly will fly one of the hover-launches we brought. It’s designed for low altitude insertions, but only thirty-six special operators at a time. For all seventy-two squad members plus add-ons, they will need to make two trips, and squeeze a couple extra bodies onto each load. Insertion via LALO [Low Altitude - Low Opening parachute drop]. Everybody in their METS.

  “When the first team boards the hover-launch, Sparks will kill access to satellite communications. No other locations will know of the attack. The hover-launch will pick up three additional teams, twenty-seven operators, in case they need to be delivered somewhere fast.”

  “Fox and Huard will have Demon 2 on the ground outside the furtherest line of Zenge troops. Be prepared to respond to any threat, ground or air,” he told them.

  Gregory turned to Shah and said, “Captain, you will need to position your troops to handle the 15,000 Zenge on the outskirts, and have a division set to enter the port directly. You’ll be fighting two fronts; one out and one in. Once Elie gives us the go, Rachelle and Fitz will strafe the space port with extreme prejudice.”

  Cindy Shah took the lead. “We’ll have Star Gazer land on the surface beyond the 1,000 mile mark east of the port. Sparks tells me he can mask the ship from their scans, even though it’s the size of a mountain. We have the best and brightest from Earth on board, Skip. 20,000 soldiers will insert between their outer forces and the base camp without them realizing we’re in the neighborhood. I’ll place another 20,000 on the outside of their external line. After you hit the camp from the air, I’ll detail several companies to mop up and protect the cargo ships. We’ll hammer and anvil the outer ring of Zenge troops between ours.”

  “That’s a lot of people and firepower within a very small field of operation,” Fitz said.

  “Better for us, worse for them,” Gregory said. “We have fire discipline and the best communications gear in the universe, thanks to our Fellen allies. Besides communicators, every trooper’s METS has night-vision with head’s-up. Good guys will light up as blue. Everybody else is a target, so make sure any Fellen resistance fighters are kept clear, and captives stay on board the cargo ships. For us this is just target practice. For them it will be hell on Fell.”

  Casalobos turned to his friend and said, “
You’ve been wanting to say that for weeks, haven’t you?”

  “Hell on Fell,” Gregory repeated straight-faced. “I think that’s what I’ll title the after action report”

  “The Zenge and the Mischene are fanatics,” Gregory reminded the people in the room. “They will fight to the death, and do not put suicide past them. If they carry explosives they might try to take your people out with no thought to blowing themselves up. Make sure the troops know who they are fighting. They may not be sophisticated, but their weapons will kill you. They will most likely not retreat nor surrender. Once you engage, you are engaged to the end. We have several more locations to hit before this war is over, and we cannot afford a war of attrition. We need as many of our people alive at the end of this battle as possible.”

  He displayed the globe once more. “This first mission is a test for the overall strategy to divide the enemy forces into bite-size pieces. They vastly outnumber us in total, but we can change those odds dramatically with the right plan as long as we implement perfectly. You let every man and woman going down there know if they get killed I will personally, and severely punish their lazy ass.”

  “Speaking of,” Elie interrupted, “make sure we have transport vehicles and on-site triage ready. Dr. Singh and Dr. Coptonitsch will have the medical facilities aboard ship ready.”

  “And Captain Hollisvey will have Morgan ready to resupply and support anyone in need,” Gregory added.

  To Sparks and Storm he ordered, “Contact resistance groups. When you have locations, verify who they are, that they can be trusted. Assess their capability of assisting. We will drop communication crews and have Captain Hollisvey deliver arms and supplies from Morgan in the next few days. Advisors and specialists will be sent with the weapons.

  “Once we complete a successful operation, the next one will be where we have the greatest number of Fellen resistance fighters available to assist. I want the people of Fell to have as much to do with reclaiming their world as us. Questions?”

  Clear on their responsibilities and expectations, everyone rose to handle their business. Phase 2 had begun.

  CHAPTER 50

  Night on Fell, with persistent clouds, light rain and a cool breeze to help cover the first ground actions of Operation Crossroads. The sister moons were dropping off the far horizon, and Travus had yet to rise. It was the fifth hour of the guard shift. Zenge aboard the cargo ship would be thinking about getting off the ships and replacements would be trying to get that last thirty-minutes of sleep.

  Ex-Ethiopian special operator and Space Ranger, Senait Kebede led the first group off the hover-launch and into a short free-fall. In less time than it took for Mags to retreat and pick-up the second group, the double-taps started coming in to confirm the teams had successfully landed on top of their designated target ships. Hiro Kimura, Space Ranger and everyone’s favorite ninja, led the second group out of the rear hatch. Twenty-minutes into the last hour of the Zenge guards’ shift, seventy-two special operators with silenced assault weapons, one ninja with a very sharp wakizash (short sword), and three exo-metahumans, and one angry Fell female needed a total of twenty minutes to clear the cargo ships of enemy combatants.

  When the replacement guards arrived, they were quickly dispatched, bodies piled to the sides. Each team repeated their double-taps to indicate success. No SOS needed. No alarms sounded.

  Hours before the SO’s jumped from the hover craft, Shah had her troops exit the Star Gazer under orders of complete silence. While still on board, 40,000 soldiers completed hands-on checks with buddies on either side to assure no one carried anything that might rattle or scrape.

  The Star Gazer’s silhouette rose high into the new night sky, but not a single light shone to mark her position. She was an eerie monster with a gaping maw. Every trooper and support person used the advanced optics and night-vision fitted within the METS helmets, showing the nocturnal world in a pale sunlight.

  20,000 soldiers from more than one-hundred military and para-military forces on Earth, behind the lead of their current officers and NCO’s, mounted shielded and silenced transport vehicles that had been rolled out of the cruise ship’s hangar.

  These transports would take them to positions beyond the lines of the enemy surrounding the space port.

  Following the destruction of their space support ships, commanders pulled the exterior Zenge troops to within two-hundred miles of the base camp. The compacted area of operations made Shah’s deployment of external assets simpler and quicker.

  The land on either side of their encampments was hilly and forested. Several streams cut through the topography. The 15,000 enemy now compressed made insertion between them and the encampment more difficult. You get lucky, and you get shit. Those are the facts of war.

  While the first division was transported to surround the outer ring of operations, the second group of 20,000 were being divided and delivered to staging areas around and beyond the outer perimeters of the space port now being used as a basecamp and prison for captive Fellen. These operators, the best at silent insertion techniques, would hot-foot it to the middle, while using every bit of electronic and personal stealth capability they possessed. Once on site, they would regroup and establish positions that set them between the basecamp’s 5,000 Zenge troops and the 15,000 deployed in the surrounding forests. Shah led this division herself.

  It took hours of hard work and a massive amount of skill to get 40,000 soldiers into place without alarming the enemy. But this army consisted of 40,000 of the best Earth had to offer. They used technology that made night into day, communications safe and secure, and carried weapons and equipment that could do the job, but still light enough to carry over long distances.

  They also lucked out. No one bothered to investigate why the guards at the cargo ships did not return after their shift.

  Sindy and her Special Operators restarted the engines and computers aboard the eight cargo ships in order to seal all exterior doors, ramps and hatches. They initiated the low-level electro-magnetic force fields to help protect them from small arms fire.

  On Elie’s signal, Rain and Fitz descended on the Zenge basecamp from east to west. The two ships laid waste to the ex-space port, leveling the Fell village that had grown up around the spaceport when it had been an active trading location. They scorched the surface of the camp from the cargo ships to the far western perimeter.

  Completing that run, they returned in a north to south sortie, cutting down soldiers and staff, Zenge and Mischene, who had ventured out to see what was happening.

  Mags and Folly deposited the three additional SO teams near the eastern perimeter fence, behind the cargo ships. They joined Hiro, Noa, and Elie to remove the roving guards and those at stationary guard huts. This allowed Angels 4 and 5 free fire on everything west of the prison ships.

  When a group of one-hundred Zenge, led by two white-haired Mischene, advanced toward the cargo ships, firing lasers and planning on setting up plasma mortars, Mags swooped in and Folly delivered a message with two mini-railguns set on either side of the launch. The smaller projectiles traveling at incredible speed ripped through the enemy, sending flumes of blood and scraps of uniform cloth into the air. Before anyone on the ground could react, the launch disappeared into the morning mist.

  Gregory’s prediction of no retreat did not exactly come true. While many of the Zenge who survived the initial attacks did stay and fight, getting picked off by a combination of air and ground forces, a couple hundred Zenge escaped into the surrounding woods.

  It was nearly impossible for Sparks to track the cold-blooded fighters once they disappeared beneath the dense canopy of tree limbs and foliage. But they were the ones taken by surprise when they ran into Earth military units instead of the outer ring of Zenge. They fought hard and the special operators took casualties, but the fewer, and in disarray Zenge soldiers were soon completely wiped out.

  The major firefight occurred when the outer force of Zenge, led by Mischene office
rs, came into contact with the hidden and dug in United Earth ground forces.

  Outnumbered and outgunned, suffering from surprise and overwhelmed for the first time in a surface battle, Zenge dropped by the hundreds. The dark-skinned and white-haired officers were easy targets for snipers, and soon the Zenge were leaderless.

  They did fight like fanatics, never considering a retreat or a surrender. As individuals and in small groups they battled, even getting close enough a few times for close-quarter combat. More than a few wore satchel explosives and literally threw themselves at their enemy, killing and wounding anyone they could in their suicidal last act.

  Two companies of Earth fighters found themselves caught at the bottom of a ravine created by a deep stream. On the upper banks on both sides, Zenge fighters fired down onto soldiers desperately trying to find cover behind small boulders and downed tree trunks. A call for help resulted in Rain’s arrival. She laid down laser fire along the tops of the ravine, killing most of the Zenge, clearing two whole sections of the forest of trees. This allowed the two companies to regroup and attack the remaining Zenge.

  Then the second circle of 20,000 troops closed in. While Shah and her division played the part of the anvil, the outer ring became the hammer. The operation removed every enemy soldier between the two armies. Wounded Zenge fought to the death or set off personal satchel explosives. By the end of the morning, the first action of Phase Two in Coop’s mission plan had been successfully completed.

  Over 20,000 Zenge ground assault troops were eliminated. Earth support teams were in the process of burning their bodies with high-yield thermite sprayers, both personal and transport sized, to prevent disease from the decaying Zenge in the hot, moist Fell weather.

  Good guys’ casualties numbered less four hundred twenty-seven KIA and another 1,283 injured, from minor sprains to major surgery required. Triage was up and running at the basecamp, and critical cases transported to Star Gazer medical facilities by ground, or by hover-launch.