by Gary Beller
Exfiltration wasn’t nearly as smooth as hoped. The Banor sent out patrols during the attacks to try and find the culprits. A company sized unit of Banor troops did just that. During the brief but intense firefight, the Banor company was repelled, but the combat was intense. Ashlie had been tending to Evans, who was again wounded during the firefight, as two Banor soldiers closed in on her. She loaded a canister round into her grenade launcher and fired at less than thirty feet. The two enemy soldiers were ripped apart violently by the spray of projectiles, several of which carried on to either wound or kill troops advancing behind them.
Both Special Missions Units returned to the Narcanian encampment, bloodied but successful. A team of Narcanian and Human doctors set about patching up the wounded.
***
Meeting with the leadership group after the raid, Ben learned that, although Evans would live, he was out of the fight. Doctors had been unable to save his left leg, and his spinal cord had been severed in the mid-lumbar region.
CHAPTER 16
On Starbase Leatherneck, Lieutenant General Praxis Hardfighter called together the senior officers of Expeditionary Corps Lima. He briefed them on the operation, and ran through all available intelligence and Praxis’ basic plan. He was counting on his Division and Brigade commanders, as well as their subordinates, to take the initiative when it presented itself to achieve not only local goals, but the overall strategic mission.
Although uncommon, the General’s strategy had worked time and time again. His officers were competent, intelligent, and creative, and he would rely on that to achieve the objectives assigned to his Corps rather than micro-managing the movements of companies and Battalions. It was his own belief that a Corps Commander meddling in the affairs of smaller subordinate commands led to serious blunders, since the Battalion Commanders and Company Commanders often had a clearer picture of what was directly in front of them than he did, even if he had a much better big picture view of the battle.
With the basic outline done, Praxis stopped and looked at his Marines. “I know every officer in this Corps is already highly motivated and dedicated, and willing to lay down his or her own life to achieve this mission’s success. But just in case I am wrong, I have further motivation.” He said, and began a slideshow of the atrocities the Banor had committed. Praxis, having reviewed the images over and over, focused instead on the faces of his officers. They started with looks of shock, and disgust, but quickly that faded, replaced by looks of anger, and of determination. As the slideshow concluded, he stood up again.
“We, As Marines, are the protectors. The leading edge of the Coalition’s defense, these atrocities happened in spite of our best efforts, and now we will be avengers. We will punish those who dare commit such heinous acts of violence against innocent men, women and children. When you meet the enemy, remember what you saw here. Remember the murder of infants, the slaughter of children, and fight for them, for their memory, and for the billions of innocent civilians the enemy would do the same to on other worlds.”
***
The officers returned to their units, each being given copies of the same slideshow, and briefed their units. From there, the Marines began preparing to embark. There was a sense of urgency about it, but not a careless rush. The Marines prepared diligently, cleaning weapons, sharpening blades, stocking up on grenades.
The next morning, Expeditionary Corps Lima loaded the transports and set off. Escorting the transports were four battlegroups, centered around the fleet carrier Majestic, the battleships Fearless and New Jersey, and the battlecruiser Vasa. Teufelhund, Atlantis, and Chancellorsville served as the escort force for the troop ships. Embarking from their base on Sidara IV, Expeditionary Corps Mike’s transport group formed up six hours out. With the intelligence that Banor strength was increased, the Valderans and the Kntarians both scrambled together forces. All told, there were sixty warships, more than two hundred troop transports, and three hundred thousand ground troops, with tanks, light armored vehicles, and artillery, all heading for Chiodrick III.
The invasion date and time, set in advance, was coordinated with Admiral Sam Beech’s fleet command. She dispatched three battleship strike groups and two carrier strike groups to attack enemy warships the day before. The Banor, having received word of increased resistance, had dispatched two battleships and six cruisers to the area. They had little idea of the force about to be unleashed upon them.
Admiral Beech’s fleet forces hit the system hard, and forced a running fight with the enemy’s battlegroup in space. On the ground, the Banor moved to ready themselves for the ground assault they thought was imminent.
Ben monitored the radio traffic from the orbital fight, and knew it was going well, although it was a bloody fight. Banor battleships were large, powerful, and durable, and their duels with Coalition Battleships were always ugly. Ben ordered all of his units into their secondary goal: Preparing the field for invasion.
Around the battle area; soon to be filled with hundreds of thousands of fighting men and women; Ben’s small units set to work harassing the Banor troops. 1st and 2nd Raider Battalions formed together and managed to cut the communications lines with orbiting warships. The Special Missions Units conducted quick raids during the day, harassing enemy command posts from the rear, confusing the enemy as to where the landings would occur. Even the Narcanian troops got in on the mix, forcing the Banor to commit two divisions to rear guard, including heavy armor, away from Praxis’ intended landing zones.
Through the night before the landings, the mission profile again shifted. Each of the Special Operations units fell back from their raids, and launched their drones. They mapped out enemy fortifications, artillery batteries, and armored concentrations. Also ongoing throughout the night, fighters from Admiral Beech’s two carriers, Oriskany and Ark Royal, made fighter sweeps, either strafing enemy ground troops or on “Wild Weasel” missions, drawing the enemy into activating their air defense systems, only to be destroyed by either orbital fire or strike fighters.
Ben was impressed watching the orbital strikes. It looked and sounded much like a strong thunderstorm: Particle beams from the heavy guns of battleships lit up the night sky, ionizing the air and causing massive rumbles of thunder. The solid projectiles from gauss rifles looked at first to be shooting stars, but were followed by double sonic booms. On impact, both weapons’ types released energy violently, destroying anything they hit.
***
The Invasion fleet arrived during the night. Enemy warships had been cleared out by the Navy’s strike package, establishing space superiority. Aboard the troop ship UCSS Guadalcanal, Brigadier General Tom Westover looked at his Marines, preparing to board their landing craft. “You all saw what those bastards did to our people down there. Your orders are simple: Get to the ground, find the enemy, and kill each and every one of those sons of bitches that has the misfortune of crossing your gunsights. May their god take mercy on them, because I expect you to have none! The battle awaits, Marines. Follow me.” He said, donning his helmet, grabbing his rifle, and boarding the foreword most landing craft on the deck. He would be riding in with elements of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.
Sitting alongside the General, Captain Muhammad Hussein looked at his brigade commander. “Sir, when they drop the ramp, stick with the rear of my platoon,” He began, but was cut off.
“Negative, Captain. I intend to be first man off this barge.” Westover said. Westover was well known for his ferocity on the battlefield, and his propensity for leading from the front. Westover cued his comm to the rest of the brigade, scattered over dozens of landing craft. “1st Brigade, fix bayonets.” He ordered.
***
“136 Actual, this is control, first wave is inbound.” Ben’s comm crackled.
“136 Actual acknowledges.” He said, and then switched channels. “All callsigns this net, commence attacks on nearest enemy force.”
***
Westover’s landing craft was th
e first to touch down, at the grass line of a sandy beach. Landing on the beach meant the landing force could not be assaulted from the rear, although jumpers carrying members of three special operations brigades flew overhead to airdrop Operators behind the enemy’s lines. Westover stepped off the bow ramp of the landing craft, its twin forward particle guns laying down suppressive fire, and moved forward. Landing craft were parking both alongside and behind the General’s ship, deploying the 7th Marine Regiment in his vicinity. The landing craft fired as they took off, heading back to the transports to bring in the second wave of troops.
Three miles inland, Danny Hardfighter was the first man out of his jumper, followed closely by 120 other Operators. Once on the ground, Danny got his troops together, and moved them forward. They linked up with three other units, as well as 1st and 2nd Raiders, forming a regimental-sized unit of skilled light infantry. While the 7th Marines were fighting for control of the beachhead, Danny’s Regiment pushed against the enemy’s rear. They cut off a column of tanks moving forward, and took them out with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons.
“Chaos 6 to Phantom 6, where the actual fuck are you?” Danny said, expecting to link up with 1SMU.
“You’d see us already if you weren’t so busy burning tanks.” Ben said, dodging rapid fire from a pair of super-rapid firing light particle cannons firing on 1SMU. “Got an arty battery over here firing on the beach.” John and Dani switched from dueling the guns directly to focusing on one at a time, finally silencing them. Ahead of Ben, Wilkie jumped into the trench running through the battery, and loaded a canister round in his grenade launcher. Three enemy soldiers attempted to set up another light cannon, but were cut down by the canister round. Ben slung his carbine and drew the shotgun he carried with him. “Wilkie, back.” Ben said, stepping around a corner, with half the team following behind him. Ben fired the semi-automatic weapon three times, removing the gun crew of one of the cannons. “Blow this fucker.”
***
Back on the beach, Westover was barking orders for his Marines to push forward, despite the heavy fire coming from the fortifications in front of them. “Move forward damnit!” He yelled. “Why die on the beaches when we can die on that hill?”
Westover’s seemingly crazy rantings got the point across, and the Marines rose up and charged forward, although after thirty yards or so the attack was bogged down again. Heavy cannon fire flew overhead once again, as the 5th Marine Regiment was brought in on landing craft. An artillery piece fired somewhere along the line, clipping Landing Craft 79986, sending it into a spiral, and crashing into a tall concrete fortification. The explosion resulting from the impact destroyed both the landing craft and the fortification, including the artillery piece, but killed 60 Marines in the process. Colonel Williams, commanding 7th Marine Regiment, radioed Westover. “Sir, Recommend you move to the rear! You are making one hell of a target up there!”
Westover turned and saw Williams, fifty yards from him, but similarly leading from the front. “Like hell, Billy.” Tom said with a smile. The 5th Marines landed and rushed in along with the 7th Marines. “Who the fuck is on our left?” Westover asked into the comm.
“1 Bravo Actual, you have 3rd Valderan Marine Brigade on your left. 2nd Coalition Marine Brigade is on your right.”
“3rd Valderan Marines, push forward hard!” He yelled.
“We’re trying, but you damned fools keep drawing enemy fire!” came back the Valderan Commander’s reply.
“That’s the point, my friend. We draw the fire, you move forward. You draw fire, we move forward.” Westover said.
“Yeah yeah yeah.” The Valderan officer said.
Tom changed channels again, firing his weapon at a Banor soldier running to reinforce someone, taking the soldier down.
“1 Bravo Actual, Move forward fifty meters, heavy units landing to your rear.” The Controller ordered.
“I can move forward, Control, but those heavy units aren’t going anywhere fast.” Westover said. “The enemy has anti-vehicular obstacles about halfway between my position and theirs. No way that armor can get past it.”
“Can you get demolitions teams to remove them?” Came Praxis’ voice, from a circling landing craft.
“I can send them forward, but you’ll be sending them back in body bags.” Tom said bluntly.
There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Praxis came back. “Armored units will hold in orbit until we can get some gear down there to eliminate those obstacles.”
“Works for me,” Tom said, “Moving forward to make room.”
“Acknowledged.” Praxis said.
“Push forward, 1st Brigade!” Westover ordered. He pulled a grenade off his bandolier, stood up and threw it. “Frag out! Go!” All together, the surviving Marines from Westover’s brigade stood and ran forward, firing as they went. Westover’s brigade moved forward fifty meters, then another fifty until they were using the heavy bollards as cover. Behind the bollards was a series of pits, designed to trap any vehicle powerful enough to crash through the barrier.
Back on the beach, heavy landing barges disembarked combat construction vehicles from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133’s Heavy Equipment Company. The vehicles were essentially large bulldozers, with reinforced blades at the front and an armored, two man cabin. Atop the cabin was a remote weapons station, mounting a light autocannon.
Rushing forward ahead of the vehicles, a naval officer in combat gear slid in next to Westover. “Commander Michael Bones, NMCB-133. You want us to just plow this crap under?”
“Gotta make lanes for incoming armor, Commander.” Tom said.
“That we can do.”
Bones ran back and started giving orders to his tractor drivers. The tractors split into two groups, and made runs around the end of the line towards 1st Brigade’s flanks. The lead tractor set his blade low and angled it towards the pits, and gunned it, pushing over the obstacles and throwing debris to the side. Tractors behind the lead unit pushed it further into the pits. The trailing vehicles used their blades to dig shallow trenches for the Marines to use as additional cover.
The Marines of the brigade fell back to give the heavy equipment room to work, then occupied the trenches they had been kind enough to dig. The Construction vehicles, at General Allie Grant’s request, continued moving along the line, clearing lanes in front of 2nd Brigade.
With the way forward being cleared, third brigade’s armor began landing, first the heavy armored tanks, then the lighter armored vehicles. A platoon of tanks was landed close enough to provide running cover fire for Commander Bones’ heavy equipment.
“Brigade Commanders, Lima Actual is on deck.” The controller said. Over the comm, the sounds of battle could be heard.
“Lima Actual, 1 Bravo Actual, welcome to the fun!”
“Shut the fuck up Tom.” Praxis said from his command post on the beach. “Why aren’t you over those works yet?”
“I’m working on it, I’m working on it!” He yelled back into his radio.
***
Danny pushed his regiment forward, chalking a Company to help 1SMU take down the artillery battery.
“Chaos Six, we have more armor coming up behind us.” One of the Company commanders said.
CHAPTER 17
Ben heard Danny’s radio call as he got to the last gun in the battery. “Wait wait, don’t blow this one!” He said. “Troy, Geoff, grab some shells, let’s get this gun working for us.” He said, cranking the gun around. Having now caught up, John took over the training gear, while Rob lowered the elevation of the gun. “Lead tank, elevation three degrees, traverse two right, load!”
Troy and Geoff pushed a shell into the chamber, and closed the breach. The capacitor charged, and Ben gave it one final look. “Fire and reload!”
The gun roared as it fired, sending its sixty pound shell out at five times the speed of sound, impacting the nearest tank broadside. The impact detonated the tank’s power core, causing it to explode. “Two l
eft!” Ben ordered. “Fire and reload!”
The gun fired again, while 1SMU Operators took up security positions around the gun.
“Phantom Six, that’s some nice shooting, but I think our boys on the beach need help more than we do.” Danny said into the Comm, as two dozen anti-tank rockets launched from where Danny’s unit was positioned.
“1 Bravo Actual, Phantom Six, give me your position.”
Westover smiled and relayed his coordinates. “Enemy works are one five zero meters dead ahead, extending north and south several miles. Can’t miss ‘em.”
Ben used his command tablet to calculate where Westover wanted shells. “Alright, 120 degrees right, elevation 25, set discharge at 35.”
The gun swung back around towards the beach and raised up. Geoff loaded the next round and set the capacitor. “Fire and reload.”
Westover heard the whistle of the round, and watched it fall between him and the enemy. “Over, adjust fire two five meters.”
Ben ordered the adjustments and ordered the gun fired. The round landed right on a heavily protected pillbox, destroying it and breaching the wall. “Good hit!” Westover said. “Thirty meters north and repeat.” Tom said, as one of the tanks behind him engaged the same pillbox he was targeting. The tank’s large-bore particle cannon wasn’t breaching the concrete and steel bunker. Ben ordered the gun adjustments and fired again. The artillery shells were being lobbed from behind the bunkers, into their relatively exposed rear. The effect was impressive.
