by Charles Lamb
“I can see you are about to have your hands full again,” Sara stated as she struggled up out of her chair. By the time she was up, Jake was at her side again. Giving him a quick kiss, she excused herself and headed out to try and find her sister Becky. There had to be a way to make this delivery come sooner!
----*----
General KaLob was pleased with the reports covering the attack on the Wawobash shipyards. While he had hoped for a greater damage to the production facilities there, the positive results of the prototype cruiser were more than compensation.
Due to the scarcity of the required materials and the special processes required in construction, it would be some time before the NeHaw had a sufficient number of vessels equal to this one cruiser. Still, it was a step in the right direction and the rumors of the ship’s survivability were already making their way throughout the fleet.
He had ordered Commander GeSec back to the upgrade facility for a complete damage assessment and repairs. His hope was that they found it to be adequate for combat or possibly even over built. It they could reduce the amount of materials in its construction, that limited supply could be spread further. This was precisely a case of less is more.
----*----
Jake was back to juggling priorities as he sat in his office flipping through screen after screen of updates. With the departure of his earlier guests, he had the office all to himself, just the way he liked it. Between Jacob’s accelerated nuptials and the outbreak of violence in New York, he had almost missed the latest intel from the allied planets.
Before Sandy had nearly lost her mind after the Honk Kong incident, she had begun negotiations with the treaty planets and other alien races, to funnel relevant information of a military nature back to Earth. Jake laughed as it was just a politically correct way of saying spying.
After Sandy checked out, Patti had picked up the baton and run with things. The attack on the field base he led had been the result of information garnered from this network. What bothered Jake, though was the inability of the Earth to gather their own information.
After much consideration, he resurrected a combination of two concepts from his past. The first was the US Marine’s Scout/Sniper teams and the second was the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols or lurps.
By virtue of the interstellar distances involved, every action these units attempted was to be extremely long range, and as such they needed to be self-sufficient to a greater extent than ever experienced on Earth. In addition, the likelihood that they could survive detection was extremely low so it was a high risk unit.
For these reasons, Jake made the force 100% volunteer and the training curriculum primarily survival training combined with extreme escape and evade. You couldn’t even apply unless you were a top marksman to start.
To date, Jake was only aware of a dozen graduates, giving him three teams of four. All members had risen to at least lance corporal before acceptance and most were veterans of earlier engagements.
It was one of these teams that Jake was focusing on at the moment. A lead had come in on an advanced weapons facility in NeHaw held space. The team had been sent to recon and report, not to engage.
As the first attempt at this type of insertion, Jake was anxious to see that his people were able to get in, gather data, and return safely. So far, their reports only confirmed the presence of facilities with alien activity, but no confirmation of their intent. He flagged the source a priority one. Should anything more come from the team, he would be notified directly.
----*----
Sergeant Jason Hillestad was the leader of a four-person Marine Scout/Sniper team currently deployed on a hostile alien planet, noted in the NeHaw galactic maps as G-43578. He assumed what they were currently hunkered down in were bushes, but they were nothing like he had ever seen before on Earth.
His team was a split group of men and women, his spotter and the second shooter a female corporal. The two would trade off duties depending on the shot and the circumstances or both act as active shooters if the opportunity allowed. Both veterans of the Battle of Klinan, they had served together a long time. He considered her a hell of a Marine and an excellent shooter, almost as good as himself. Almost.
The other half of his team were newer additions to the Corps, recruited in the buildup after the losses on Klinan. Jason considered them good additions, a brother and sister raised in the woods of Maine and used to living off the land.
Not that it was an option here. While this planet had breathable air and the water could be safely filtered, most of the plant life was either poisonous to eat or had zero nutritional value. Water they could scrounge, but their concentrated food stuff had been humped in with them.
Earth had started using unmanned drones to scout the NeHaw held worlds suspected of supporting their cause. As intel came available leading them to target locations, drones would be sent to scout the planets in question. Unfortunately, they were not able to linger, as most were routinely discovered in orbit and destroyed.
Those efforts were not in vain, however as it became clear that the NeHaw monitoring and alerting technology was not immediately identifying the drones as a threat nor was it effective in dealing with them once discovered. It was not unusual to achieve several orbits of the target planet, transmitting information the entire time, before they would be blasted by the nearest combat vessel.
These successes led to a theory that they could place recon teams on planets undetected if they stayed powered down. Once in place, they would burst transmit their findings at irregularly scheduled intervals, using links to the NeHaw network. The hope was they would not be detected as the network traffic would appear as just another of many sources on the planet. Jason’s team was the first attempt at such an incursion.
Graduates of the Scout/Sniper school, they had been pulled from additional training, and the four had been placed on the Lanai Combat Patrol craft, P7, and shipped off to the new space station. Still under construction at the edge of the solar system, it had already begun operational activities. While in transit, they were briefed on the mission as well as provided two hovercycles for the insertion. Fortunately, they had four days to become familiar with their rides before they used them.
Once they had reached the space station, the team and their equipment had been transferred to a waiting destroyer, D23, where they were whisked in FTL to the drop point at the edge of this system. As the hovercycles had to stay in a stasis bubble while in FTL, they had little time to ready themselves before being pushed out of the destroyer hangar. Jason had a clear memory of watching the destroyer disappear as they sat floating in space before heading to the target world.
He shivered as he recalled the trip in from the edge of this solar system. They had to travel for 23 hours, 17 minutes in open space from the drop point to the edge of the planet’s atmosphere, and he remembered every minute of it. Their only means of survival had been their combat suits, sealed and enhanced for the trip. The hovercycles held the EVA packs necessary for each to endure the extended exposure to open space.
The trip in had been both terrifying and tedious, as all they could do was wait as they traveled. The entire time, the four watched for any indication they had been discovered and were about to die. Fortunately, the analysts had been correct and the two hovercycles had reached the LZ undetected, where they sat hidden, waiting for the recall order.
They had landed three days ago, Earth time, as this planet was on a roughly 20-hour cycle of day and night. Those three days had been occupied with trekking from point to point, watching and recording all they saw.
One of the cautions in the mission brief was to minimize their power signature by using as little powered equipment as possible. It was theorized that the alien monitoring systems used equipment that detected the telltale signs of those emissions. As such, they had been provided things like film cameras, pads with pencils for long hand notes and optical binoculars with no digital enhancements.
When taking digi
tal images for transmission, they were done quickly, with the images embedded in the report at transmission time. The associated reports were recorded in a version of verbal shorthand that provided for the smallest possible file size.
With breathable air, they had shut down most of their suits powered functions, using hand signals when necessary and filtering water at intervals. Only one person would perform the data upload, and the duty was rotated in case the aliens detected the transmission. The signature would then change for the next broadcast, confusing the issue.
From their current location, they were overlooking a vast complex, its purpose completely indiscernible to the team. The mission brief had suggested that there might be manufacturing plants in several locations near the LZ. Their objective was to locate each undetected and to collect as much information about each as possible.
“Sarge,” Jason heard softly as he felt a touch on his shoulder. Glancing to his left side, he could see his spotter pointing up in the opposite direction he had been looking. There, he could see a NeHaw cruiser approaching from high orbit and heading in their general direction.
Using the binoculars, he located the ship on approach just before it disappeared behind a hill covered in heavy vegetation. Pulling out the map they had with the target locations indicated, he found their hide and the manufacturing plant to his right. From all indications, the cruiser had landed at their second objective.
Glancing back to his right and seeing no interesting activity, he signaled for his team to gather their equipment had move out to Target 2.
Chapter 12
Daniel had been closely following the American Scout/Sniper reports as he worked on his own plans. While he admired the bravery and contribution the teams were providing, he envisioned his SAS to be more interactive in destroying the enemy rather than just observing. The joint strike force Colonel Thomas had led was a model for his thinking.
In his research, he had identified several such targets, places where a small group of determined men and women could strike a blow for the war effort. His biggest challenge was locating the right type of equipment to support his people on the alien worlds.
It was with this in mind that he was talking with the woman who had captured his heart. Patti had just returned from a quick trip to America, where he knew she had met with her great grandfather.
“Are you happy to be back luv?” Daniel asked as he and Patti settled down to a quiet dinner together.
“You have no idea. Things are really getting crazy, what with the disaster in New York during the art recovery, and now it looks like we will be hosting a hasty wedding as Jacob and Gemma are expecting,” she replied in exasperation before taking a bite.
“Gemma is pregnant?” he replied, surprised at the news.
“Yes, and her mom is pissed!” Patti replied with a mischievous laugh.
“Just so,” Daniel replied as he imagined the wrath of Nigel’s wife. It was well known that she was a woman of tradition. A child out of wedlock was not something she would likely entertain. After taking a few bites of his own meal, he decided to broach the subject on his mind.
“Speaking of Jacob and Gemma, have you had the opportunity to chat with either recently?” Daniel asked lightly.
“Not directly, Jacob and I have exchanged a few messages, but nothing personal, just business. Why?” she asked before taking another bite of her dinner.
“I was wondering if they might be persuaded to accept a little side endeavor. Just some tidbits for my mates in the troops,” he asked lightly.
“Daniel, what are you up to?” Patti asked directly as she stopped eating to stare at him.
“I’ve been doing a little research and find that the American off planet gear is not quite right for a proper SAS mission. I was wondering if your delightful engineer brother, and his brilliant soon to be engineer wife, could whip up some goodies for us,” he replied, applying all the charm he could muster.
Patti just stared at him for a moment, before she finally took another bite.
“OK, I need to hit the office early tomorrow. I will reach out to him right after and see if they have some bandwidth,” she said with a smile.
“Splendid!” Daniel replied as he attacked his plate.
----*----
After an unusually quiet night alone, Jake found himself the following morning in his small workshop, wrenching on the 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/C he had rescued with a 1966 Cobra Super Snake from Los Angeles. As the cars had been recovered from a museum, this one wasn’t in horrible shape, it was just losing all of the degradable parts that allowed it to run. It was Jake’s intention to see the thing completely restored.
That however was not why he came to work on it whenever he had a free moment. Jake found that the time he spent on the car, gave him the ability to think. As he removed rotted hoses and belts, replaced the bushings and removed the shocks to be rebuilt later, his mind was elsewhere. It also helped that he had his music blasting in the tiny space drowning out any outside noises.
Currently, he was dwelling on the conversation he had with Patti on the war objectives. In the beginning, it had been simply a matter of survival. It had been inevitable that the NeHaw would return as the Earth scratched its way back from oblivion.
With every effort he made in restoring the planet to its former glory, he was risking detection and he knew it. With the NeHaw return, it had been a mix of cleverness and sheer luck that had overcome the initial challenges. Compounded with the inherent corruption of the NeHaw leadership, Jake had succeeded in leading a revolution that had spread throughout the NeHaw Empire.
Now he was expected to come up with some grand vision for defeating the NeHaw and bringing peace to Earth. Compared to this, the Middle East conflict of his time was simple. As he ran option after option through his head, he continued to work on the Ferrari, occasionally noting on a pad the various parts he would need to make.
There was a budding idea at the back of his head that wasn’t quite formed. He recalled such issues in Earth’s past where the planet was faced with devastating wars and challenges that had humans on the brink of total annihilation. There was something there that he couldn’t put his finger on.
He was just in the middle of removing one of the front tires to gain access to the rotted brake line, when ALICE chimed in, muting the music to allow herself to be heard.
“Jake, I believe Patti is trying to find you. She said it was important,” ALICE announced.
“Crap, I lost it,” Jake said to himself as the thought dissipated.
“OK, tell her I’m on my way to my office now,” he added as he set his tools aside, and went to wash up.
Not bothering to change his clothes, Jake cleaned his hands and then brushed off the flakes of decayed rubber as he crossed the open hangar. Moving briskly, he made his way into the facility and on to his private office off the command center.
By now his reputation for unconventional attire had everyone simply shaking their heads as he passed by.
“OK, what’s up? Jake asked aloud as he entered his office and pulled a cold drink from the refrigerator by the small bar. Actually a stasis locker, it allowed for both hot and cold items to be placed together, while retaining their state.
“Check this out,” Jake heard Patti say, as a video clip appeared in the open area over his desk. In the image was a NeHaw cruiser, setting down in an open area surrounded by buildings Jake had never seen before. As he analyzed the image, he confirmed that the background wasn’t like anything on Earth.
“OK, so why am I looking at this?” Jake asked Patti, whom he assumed was still in London.
“Now check this out,” Patti replied. As he watched the image split, the one on the left showing the cruiser he had been watching and the one on the right displaying a cruiser in space. Next both images zoomed until only the cruiser was in the window, each filling the display.
“This cruiser is the one that attacked ALICE-3 in orbit around Wawobash,” Patti explained as t
he image of the ship in space highlighted momentarily. Next, he saw several red circles appear depicting areas on the ship’s hull.
“Here you can see where the ship was damaged in the engagement,” she explained.
Sure enough, Jake could see the discolorations where the ship’s plating had been compromised. In some areas, the breach was evident as the exposed internal structures were visible.
“Now look here,” Patti directed as she circled the same spots on the other ship.
“They are the same, that is the ship that attacked Wawobash,” Jake confirmed.
“This image was sent a few minutes ago from the Scout/Sniper team we sent to investigate a lead on a secret NeHaw weapons facility. We think this is where they are reinforcing their ships to withstand the railguns,” she finished.
Jake had her back the image out, removing the one used for comparison, and surveyed the area around the ship. He could see the skeletal structures being moved into place as the workers began repairing the damaged sections of the ship. The clip was short as he knew the team was under strict communications protocols.
“Pull a meeting together ASAP. I want to see our options on setting this place on fire,” Jake finally announced before he turned to his display to see what else his insertion team had provided.
----*----
Robert was working with Dallas on the Chinese heavy equipment upgrades. He and Colonel Bo had several ideas beyond swapping out the firepower and making them survivable in hostile environments. By replacing the traditional propellant driven munitions with railgun and charged particle weapons, they changed the entire dynamics of the vehicles.
Taking a page out of the hovercycle design book, they had proposed swapping out the treads and drive wheels on several of the vehicles and replacing them with repulser motors. They were not intending to make the tanks and fighting vehicles fly, they just needed to hover a respectable distance above the terrain.
