by Jay Allan
Cain was focusing all his strength where he could hurt the enemy. The western approaches were covered by the Iron Hills, a low range of mountains that were extremely rocky and virtually impassable. “How are they going to move a significant force through there?” Cain was annoyed. He knew Jax was upset with him over the PRC troops, and now he felt his XO was venting his frustration by picking at his decisions. His head pounded, despite the two doses of analgesics Hector had administered, and he was in no mood for pointless debate. “We need those troops elsewhere, Jax. It’s that simple.” He’d normally never disregard Jax’s opinions, but he was tired and frustrated and his temper was short.
Jax sighed softly. Erik is being reckless, he thought. He’s so focused on lashing out at the enemy he’s taking chances he shouldn’t be. “Don’t you think we should post something there just in case? The Janissaries are still unengaged.”
Cain snapped his head around toward Jax. “Do you really want them loose right now out of our sight?” He paused, trying unsuccessfully to take the annoyed tone out of his voice. “I’m sorry, Jax. I just don’t trust them. How many of our friends and comrades have they killed?”
Jax didn’t answer. He’d been worried about Cain for some time. He knew his friend was troubled…they all were after recent events. The bloodbaths of the Third Frontier War had been closely followed by the cataclysm of the Rebellions. The schemes of Alliance Intelligence and the treachery of General Samuels had been too much. It had worn them all down. Cain still handled troops in the field brilliantly, but his paranoia and anger were starting to get the better of him, clouding his decisions. He was taking gambles he’d never have considered a few years earlier.
“I’m going to send out the air assets against the enemy fighting the PRC troops. They’re out in the open right now, totally exposed.” Cain was looking down at a large ‘pad laying on a small folding table. He had two small air-attack squadrons, but he’d kept them hidden, waiting for the right opportunity to inflict some damage. Admiral West had deployed atmospheric fighters to cover the evacuation of Teller’s troops on Cornwall, and she’d found that the enemy’s anti-aircraft fire was devastating. Her wings had managed to hold back the enemy while 1 st Brigade was evac’d, but they’d been virtually wiped out in the process. Barely one in five returned.
Now, Cain was launching his own squadrons, and he didn’t expect them to fare any better. But they were armed with one of Sparks’ new weapons, and this would be its first deployment. If it lived up to expectations, it could inflict massive damage on the enemy forces. It was more cold math – 24 two-man aircraft against the damage they could inflict.
Jax nodded, a pointless gesture in battle armor. He knew the pilots would take heavy losses, but he had to agree…Cain had created an ideal opportunity for the air strike.
“You’re all set. Launch when ready.”
Captain Jacoby could barely hear the gravelly voice of his crew chief over the noise of the engines. He looked down from the cockpit and returned the chief’s thumbs up gesture. He could feel the shaking as the reactor in the VTOL craft fed power to the engines.
The strike fighters of the 11 th squadron rose slowly, in perfect formation. They were all veterans of the Third Frontier War, the pick of the Corps’ air wings. The normally lithe fighters handled sluggishly – they’d been stripped of their usual armaments and loaded with Sparks’ new weapon. The plasma bombardment system was huge, almost too big to cram into a fighter.
Jacoby swore under his breath as his fighter pulled to the right and he had to compensate. These first-generation PBS devices had been rushed into use – they weren’t properly balanced, and it took considerable effort to fly with a payload heavily weighted to one side. Jacoby was glad all his crews were veterans.
Despite the difficulties, his fighters fell swiftly into attack formation and blasted toward the enemy positions, with Captain Crill’s squadron alongside. They were deployed in three successive lines, formed up to bombard the enemy forces now counter-attacking the PRC troops.
The strike fighters dove at the enemy formations, evading the heavy anti-aircraft fire as well as they could carrying their massive payloads. Jacoby was senior to Crill, so he took command of the entire strike. His fighter was in the lead, and he bore down on a heavy concentration of enemy ‘bots. He was going to drop the PBS directly on top of them. “All pilots, follow my mark. We’re going right down their throats. I know the AA fire is heavy, but I want these things dumped right on top of those SOBs.”
It only took the fighters a few seconds to complete their attack run, but the enemy hyper-velocity rounds tore into them, taking down almost half their number before they reached the drop points. Jacoby managed to avoid the incoming fire, but Crill’s plane was hit and erupted into a fireball.
“Damn.” Jacoby saw Crill’s plane destroyed on his scanner. The two had served together several times, and they’d always gotten along well. He didn’t have time to brood, though…he was over the drop point. “Release.” He’d chosen to eyeball the drop rather than have the plane’s AI handle it. As soon as the PBS was away he arced into a steep climb, trying to clear the fire from the ground.
The PBS units split into half a dozen sections, each one a nuclear reactor that instantly superheated a large volume of condensed gas. The resulting plasma struck ground targets over a wide area. The effect was similar to ancient weapons like napalm or fuel air explosives, but the PBS was orders of magnitude more powerful. It was the strongest non-atomic weapon ever deployed by man, and it swept huge sections of the field clear of the enemy. Even the Reapers were obliterated when they were caught in the intensely hot clouds of plasma.
Jacoby circled his fighter around, giving himself a view of the field as he headed back to base. It was a vision of hell; for a few seconds it looked like a miniature sun had crashed to the ground.
The surviving fighters formed up behind Jacoby, and the nine of them, all that remained of two veteran squadrons, made their way back, leaving the wreckage of the enemy line behind them.
Cain had planned the strike perfectly. Yoshi’s troops suffered grievous casualties, but the strike fighters had caught the main enemy force out in the open, and Spark’s new plasma weapon had been a total success and had inflicted massive losses. Cain fed in reserves and ordered the previously wavering third line to attack the now totally disordered enemy. The Marines were able to engage small, scattered survivors at favorable odds, inflicting more casualties and splitting the enemy line in three places.
For the first time in the war, the surviving enemy units pulled back to regroup. The battle was far from over, and Cain knew the enemy would land more troops and renew the attack. His assaulting forces were exhausted, and he had no reserves to pour into pressing his advantage…at least none he would use. The Janissaries were still unengaged, and Commander Farooq had requested permission to advance. But Cain steadfastly refused, and the enemy retreated and temporarily broke off the engagement.
Cain knew it wouldn’t last, but he savored it anyway. Even a fleeting victory was a victory. Throughout the lines, the Marines’ sagging morale soared. The enemy could be beaten back after all.
Chapter 27
Battle of Farpoint Phase 3 – The Breathrough Iron Hills, Northwest of Landing Farpoint - Epsilon Fornacis III
“We’ve got something coming.” Lys Daniels was crouched behind a large rock outcropping looking out at a massive wall of granite. “I have intermittent readings from the other side of this formation.” Daniels and her squad were scouts. General Cain had decided the small mountains northwest of the capital were impassible to a major force, but General Jax had sent her people anyway…just to be sure. Maybe that caution was paying off.
“I’m getting it too, sergeant.” Corporal Farnum was a little farther forward, at the base of the rock face. It was 100 meters of sheer granite…almost perfectly vertical. “But how could any unit hope to get over this. It’s at least 30 klicks to get around.”
Daniels tried to recalibrate her scanners. It was no use…there was some mineral in these rocks that was interfering with her readings. She took a deep breath and thought quietly…how am I going to scout out the other side of this thing? Finally, she flipped on the squad-wide com. “Alright everybody, listen to me. We’ve got to get someone over this cliff and see what is on the other side.” She paused, thinking she could almost hear the groans of her troopers. “Farnum, Varick…I need you to scale this thing and report.” The choices weren’t random. She’d quickly reviewed her unit roster…Farnum and Varick were the most experienced with this type of terrain. Both had served on Granicus during the war, and that planet was one giant mountain range.
“Yes, sergeant.” Farnum looked up at the cliff. The scout armor had some functionality for traversing rugged terrain, but this was really a job for specialized climbing gear…which they didn’t have.
Farnum stared up the cliff as she began slowly climbing. This is something I might have done for fun, she thought…under much different circumstances. Farnum was a climber, at least when she was able to wrangle a leave long enough to indulge her hobby. But scaling a cliff in battle armor was a different matter, one with advantages and disadvantages. She was certainly stronger in her fighting suit, but she was heavier as well. And she didn’t have the touch and the dexterity that was so essential to climbing.
The scout armor had some useful tools, even if it lacked a full suite of specialized gear, and she found it wasn’t as difficult to reach the top as she thought it would be. She climbed up over the lip and reported back to Daniels. “Sergeant, I’m…ah…we’re up top.” She saw Varick pull himself up onto to the rocky ledge just as she started to speak. “Scouting the other side now.”
“Excellent, corporal.” Daniel’s was looking up, but she lost sight of them as soon as they stepped away from the ledge. “Report anything…even if it’s just a feelin…”
“Sergeant!” It was Farnum, and the veteran Marine sounded almost panicked. “There are enemy bots on the other side of this spur. Hundreds of them…thousands. About 7-8 klicks to the west.”
Daniels could feel the breath sucked from her body. She couldn’t understand why the enemy was massing so much strength on the other side of a huge wall of rock, but she knew it couldn’t be good. She knew she had to report this immediately. “1 st Division HQ, this is Sergeant Daniels, 3 rd Scouting Section.” She paused, almost amused at the audacity of what she was about to say. “I need to speak directly with General Jax immediately.”
The battle was raging again. Cain had launched a series of sledgehammer blows, first with the PRC flank attack, then the air strike, and finally with the advance of the entire line. For the first time in the war, an enemy force retreated, leaving the field to the Marines.
But the respite didn’t last, and neither did the morale boost. The enemy set up a defensive perimeter, one Cain’s troops dared not attack, and they started landing reinforcements. The ships came in for days, bringing thousands of battle robots to the surface. The scouts had reported entire units of the feared Reapers, as well as several other types of larger bots.
Cain’s fleeting victory had clearly triggered some type of tactical re-evaluation by whomever – or whatever - was commanding this force. The enemy responded to the elevated threat level by landing an army far more powerful than the original invasion force. Cain sat and grimly read reports detailing larger and larger enemy forces massing against his lines. He knew it was over…and so did his troops. Unexpectedly, as the prospects of survival vanished, the Marines’ faltering morale stiffened again, morphing into an odd acceptance and a grim determination to sell their lives dearly. The pride of the Corps surged through the psyche of the battered and exhausted men and women in the trenches. One by one and in groups they swore silently…they would not give in to the fear…they would face these things and show them what Marines were made of.
It began with a report from Hector. “General Cain, I am receiving reports from the front line scouts.” The AI’s voice was calm and even. “The enemy is advancing.”
So it begins, Cain thought. He knew the enemy wouldn’t stop once the assault had commenced. The robots didn’t get tired, they didn’t feel the pain of wounds…they would just keep coming until all of Cain’s people were dead.
That had been two days before. Now they’d been fighting nonstop for 48 hours. The Marines held grimly, but human endurance has its limits, and exhaustion was taking its toll. Cain knew it wouldn’t be long now…when the enemy broke through somewhere, things would collapse quickly.
He was just about to move forward and get a closer look at the front when Jax broke in on his com.
“Erik, we’ve got trouble.”
Cain sighed. There was always trouble. But Jax sounded shaken up, and that made Cain’s stomach clench.
Daniels scrambled up the rocky terrain, trying to work her way around the massive wall of stone. Generals Cain and Jax had sent her 3 more sections of scouts, along with orders to inspect every centimeter of the mountain range. The enemy was massing on the other side, and they wanted to know why. If there was a tunnel or pass through the mountains they’d missed, they had to find it.
She was over ten klicks from where she’d left Farnum and Varick, but she hadn’t seen a thing. Not a crack in the massive rock wall nor a serviceable path leading up and over. She couldn’t imagine how the enemy forces massing on the other side expected to pass through. But they weren’t there for nothing, and it was her job to find out how they planned to attack.
She extended an arm, steadying herself as she climbed up and over a large, jagged rock. She turned to look back and see how the rest of the squad was managing when a blinding light flashed across the sky. An instant later the ground shook violently and a shock wave took her and slammed her into the face of the mountain.
She wasn’t badly hurt, but she was dazed and had trouble trying to get up. Her visor had gone dark, minimizing the damage to her eyes, but she still couldn’t see anything but spots. Her suit was damaged but still functional. She could feel the med system giving her multiple injections. One, at least, must have been for the radiation…her detector was showing a nearly lethal exposure to gamma rays.
She pulled herself up enough to sit against the rock wall. To the south the sky was obscured by a massive cloud of dust and debris. “Scout sections, report.” There was a long silence, at least half a minute, but then she started to get a few responses. They all reported the same thing, a massive detonation of some sort. Some of them were wounded and all were dazed. But most of her units failed to report. “Corporal Farnum? Report.” Nothing. “First Section? Corporal Farnum? Private Varrick. Report immediately.” But there was nothing on the com…just silence.
“What the hell was that?” Cain snapped at Hector as he pulled himself back to his feet. He’d hit the ground when he heard the blast, but the area around HQ was only showered with dirt and small rocks.
“Based on observable data, I would hypothesize that a matter-antimatter annihilation event occurred.” The AI paused for an instant as it collected additional data. “Preliminary radiation readings support this conclusion.”
“Location of ground zero?” Cain was panning his head around, confirming there was no significant damage around the headquarters area. “Display on my visor.”
Hector activated Cain’s visor projection system, displaying a tactical map of the surrounding area. A flashing red dot marked the best estimate of the blast location. “This is a projection only, general. More data will be required for a precise determination.”
Cain stared at the map and froze. The flashing dot was in the center of the Iron Hills…the mountains he’d called impassable. “Hector, get me General Ja…” He didn’t get any further before he was interrupted by Jax’s incoming communication.
“Erik, we’ve got a big problem.” Jax sounded shaken up. “I’ve got Sergeant Daniels on the line. Sergeant, I need you to tell General Cain what you just repo
rted to me”
“Yes sir.” Cain didn’t know Daniels personally. She was one of the scouts, a good one by all accounts, but he’d never spoken with her before. “General Cain, sir…it looks like the enemy mined the rockwall with some kind of extremely powerful explosive.” Daniels’ voice was hoarse, and she was breathing heavily as she spoke. She sounded like she was in pain. “Sir, the entire formation is gone, and there’s a 300 meter gap through. There are enemy troops marching toward the opening.”
“Jax, we’ve got to get that gap plugged.” Cain remembered Daniels was still on the line. “Thank you, sergeant. Maintain your position and await further orders.”
“Yes, si…” Cain cut the line before she could finish.
“I’m going to scrape up what reserves I can, Jax, and take them over there.” Cain was making a mental list of the unengaged troops he had available…a very short list. “We need to block that gap before they get through and out in the open.”
“Erik, that’s crazy.” Jax’s voice was firm. He was going to dig his heels in on this one. “You’re the commander in chief…you can’t go running up into the mountains. I’ll do it.”
Cain opened his mouth to argue, but he knew Jax was right. He also knew that Jax had warned him about an attack from the mountains days ago. This emergency was his fault…it was his own carelessness, and he hated to send his friend and second in command to clean up his mess. “Ok, Jax.” His voice was downcast, defeated. His duty wouldn’t allow him to abandon the rest of the corps. He would have to let Jax do his dirty work.
“Hector, I want every unit not currently engaged to report to General Jax immediately.” It wasn’t going to be more than 1,500 troops, maybe 1,800.
