Embracing Oblivion: Wolfpack Book 3

by Toby Neighbors

  “Hi Dean, let me introduce you to Captains Jean Marchand and Kerry Nelson.”

  “Hello,” Dean said, shaking the hands of the other two officers.

  Dean felt a little out of place. All of the other Recon officers were older than he was. Marchand had gray hair at his temples, and a puckered scar at the side of his jaw. Nelson’s hair was short, and her eyes were stern. She didn’t smile when he shook her hand, and her grip was as strong as any man Dean had ever shaken hands with.

  “Won’t be long now,” Parker said with a knowing grin. “I’ll bet you’re happy to be out of the hot seat.”

  “You mean my debriefs are over?” he asked.

  “I believe so. There are plenty of people still analyzing the record of your encounter with the Kroll, but no one has mentioned misconduct. You acquitted yourself well in the field.”

  “And on Rome Three,” Marchand said, his French accent barely noticeable. “I read the official report. You should have gotten a commendation.”

  “They’ll be sorting that shit storm out for months,” Nelson said in surprisingly deep voice. “We ended up with egg on our face there.”

  “What has happened with the negotiations?” Dean asked.

  “The reached a peace agreement,” Captain Parker said, “but it’s flimsy at best. The colonists don’t want us there so there’s no way to ensure that either side holds up their end of the deal. My guess is we slowed the fighting a little, nothing more.”

  “And nearly lost over a dozen Recon platoons in the process,” Nelson said. “Major McDowell relied too heavily on the size of his insertion force. One platoon did all the work. One platoon was all that was needed.”

  Dean didn’t agree with Captain Nelson, but he recognized the compliment. And he couldn’t argue that one platoon going in quietly could have avoided many of the casualties that resulted from the shuttles crashing due to the overload of interference being thrown up by the colonists.

  “This one must be living right,” Captain Marchand said patting Dean on the shoulder. “God loves him.”

  “I just did what I was trained to do,” Dean replied, feeling his face flush red.

  “No drones could have done it,” Marchand went on. “The other platoons failed to do it. You found a way to complete the mission. And you saved it again when the Swiss Guard rallied. I would say you earned a place at the table, Captain.”

  “What were the Kroll like?” Nelson asked.

  “I only encountered them once,” Dean said. “We didn’t have regular munitions. They were smart enough to stay out of range.”

  “But were they fighters?” Nelson pressed Dean.

  “I’d say they were strong, smart, and dangerous, but not fighters in the traditional sense. They preferred to incapacitate from a distance and used underlings to do most of their fighting.”

  “Cowards,” Nelson declared.

  “No,” Marchand insisted. “They have different creatures for different jobs. We have drones to fight from the air and Recon to fight on the ground. It has always been so; army, navy, air force, even infantry, cavalry, and artillery.”

  “Here comes the brass,” Captain Parker said.

  Everyone in the room stood as six of the highest ranking commanders in EsDef entered the room. Dean recognized Fleet Admiral Cummings and Colonel Davis. He looked to the placards at the various spots around the table and saw the names of the others.

  “Rear Admiral Ivan Weskovic,” Captain Parker whispered to Dean. “He’s in charge of logistics for every ship and space base in the fleet. The woman is O&A Colonel Cathy Paulson. She’s the political liaison between EsDef and the various governmental leaders. General Alvin Price is the Administrator in charge of personnel and the man with the gold stars is Major General Gerrard Fulton. He’s the commander in charge of Operations.”

  The ranking officers sat, then the small groups of support staff sat in the chairs arranged behind each person at the table. Dean felt both nervous and excited. He was honored to be in the room, but at the same time he felt a sense of tension among the commanders.

  “Let’s get started,” said Fulton. “Rear Admiral Weskovic, where are we with the new propulsion systems?”

  “We have the new models in production, General. Every ship yard we have is busy building new ships, but so far we only have one that is operational. The E.S.D.F. Apache.”

  “It has the gravity drive and our new cloaking tech?” Fulton asked.

  “Aye sir, she’s in shakedown as we speak.”

  “Well, that’s one ship ready. One ship between us and an empire of militant creatures that will be knocking on our door, sooner rather than later. I’m convinced of that.”

  “General,” Paulson spoke up. “We should use the Apache to begin talks with the Kroll.”

  “We don’t even know if they can talk,” Colonel Davis growled.

  “Of course they can,” Paulson said, sounding as if she were talking to a child. “Every intelligent species communicates in some way.”

  “The intelligence from the Urgglatta, if it can be trusted, is vague on that,” Fleet Admiral Cummings said.

  “We all know your point of view, Colonel Paulson,” Major General Fulton said.

  “It is the point of view of every civilized country and colony from Earth to Omega Seven,” she declared. “The fact that we know so little about the Kroll is the very reason we should not be hasty in declaring war with them.”

  “We need more intelligence,” Colonel Davis said. “Project Chameleon will give us the answers we need.”

  “Or plunge us into a war we may not be able to win,” Paulson said calmly.

  “I want to know if we’re ready to defend ourselves,” Fulton said. “Can we have at least one ship in every system where we have a colony?”

  “Yes sir,” RA Weskovic said, “but we don’t have the resources to protect every space station. Not to mention if the reports from Alrakis are correct, none of our ships can keep up with the Kroll. We can’t outrun or outmaneuver them. It would be like trying to defend an island from stealth bombers using wooden sailing ships from the seventeenth century.”

  “So we have one ship that can keep up, just one?” Fulton said.

  “One ship, sir,” Davis interjected. “But any one of our ships with a platoon of Recon soldiers is more than a match for the Kroll, sir.”

  “Don’t piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining, Colonel. The Roosevelt had a Recon platoon and they were wiped out. Besides, I’m not in favor of having every ship in our fleet destroyed by these bird people.”

  “General, we can spare one ship,” Paulson argued. “I’ll staff it with the best diplomats and linguistics specialists we have. What can it hurt to try for peace.”

  “It could mean the genocide of the Urgglatta,” Cummings said.

  “And if I may, General,” Davis said. “If Captain Blaze is correct in his assessment of the Kroll, they are just as anxious to capture one of us alive as we are to capture one of them. His success on the alien vessel could have been a ploy meant to lure us into their clutches. Sending an envoy might be giving them exactly what they want.”

  “Sir, if I may,” General Price spoke up for the first time. “We don’t even know if they would honor a diplomatic envoy. We can’t be sure they think the way that we do. The Urgglatta had no success in negotiating.”

  Major General Fulton rubbed his chin and stared down at the tabletop for a moment. When his eyes rose they met Dean’s. He stared hard at Dean, who couldn’t tear his eyes away from the commander.

  “Captain Blaze,” Fulton said. “What’s your gut tell you about the Kroll.”

  The room was silent as Dean got to his feet. He felt as if he were going to be sick. He didn’t want the responsibility of deciding if EsDef went to war with the Kroll. But he couldn’t deny the fact that he felt that they were a dangerous threat to humanity. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry as everyone stared at him.

  “They’re dangerous,” he said.
“They’ll adapt to our tactics. We can’t trust that they won’t attack us.”

  The major general nodded, while the groups of support staff whispered and Dean sat down. He had been honest, but he wasn’t sure what he had actually done. Had his words tipped the scales and pitched humanity toward an interstellar war? He didn’t know, but he felt a sense of trepidation, the way a child on a bicycle might approach a steep descent. He wasn’t sure he was strong enough to back up what he’d said. If the commanders decided to fight, he would be the one leading a platoon into battle, and he was afraid that he might not be up to the task.

  Chapter 21

  Dean’s wrist link buzzed just as he finished shaving the next morning. He was being summoned to Colonel Davis’ office. Over the past week Dean had learned more about the space base, such as where the EsDef brass had their offices. Unlike most space facilities, Grooms Lake wasn’t built for efficiency. There were a multitude of meeting rooms, vid conferencing spaces, guest quarters for visiting officers and public officials. The offices of the six top positions in EsDef reflected just how streamlined the military had become. The need for millions of soldiers was gone. Bases on the various colonies were filled with drones that never needed leave, or to be rotated home to families, or even much in the way of logistics. Unlike the juggernaut of traditional military forces, EsDef utilized a much leaner command structure. But the offices of the commanders were large, even a little showy.

  Colonel Davis had a huge, wooden desk with recessed vid screens. Sitting behind it the Recon commander could monitor a dozen different issues while any visitors were completely unaware. But the Colonel wasn’t just an administrator, he had served as an Off World Force Recon platoon leader for nearly two decades before rising through the ranks to command the elite fighting force of the Extra Solar Defense Force. He was tall and fit, making it hard to nail down his age exactly. Still, Dean felt comfortable around the colonel and had been proud to be with him during the commanders meeting just days before. That meeting had dragged on for hours, with arguments bouncing back and forth between the two prevailing ideas. Eventually, the major general had decided that diplomacy had to be given a chance, despite his own reservations.

  “Dean, take a seat,” Colonel Davis said.

  There were thick, leather tufted chairs in front of the massive desk. Dean couldn’t help but look over at the far wall which looked like a window. It was probably a high resolution vid screen, but it took up the entire surface. On the wall Dean could see out into space. There were several ships nearby, moving slowly toward or away from the space base. Dean sank into one of the thick chairs and waited for his superior to speak.

  “Well, we won’t be following my plan, at least not yet,” Davis said. “We’re going to go wave a white flag and hope the Kroll don’t wipe out our envoy.”

  “Yes sir,” Dean replied, not sure what else to say.

  “Have you ever heard of Dwayne Butler or Sloan Fanning?”

  Dean shook his head.

  “They’re negotiators, diplomats, whatever you want to call them,” Davis continued. “Dwayne is from the U.S., Sloan is Swiss, they’ve been tasked with making contact with the Kroll on our behalf.”

  “That sounds like an important task,” Dean said. “May I ask how they plan to reach out to the Kroll.”

  “You may indeed,” Davis said. “They will be taken to the Urgglatta home world. It’s the one place we can be reasonably sure the Kroll will be.”

  “What if their ship is captured, boarded, and everyone slaughtered?” Dean asked.

  Colonel Davis chuckled. “My thoughts exactly, Captain. It’s a suicide mission. But diplomacy must be given a chance, even I can see the wisdom of that. How does one negotiate with a predator? I don’t know. Makes me think of the old story about the brave warrior who climbed a mountain. You’ve heard the story?”

  “No sir,” Dean said.

  “The warrior climbs the mountain and at the summit he finds a snake, trembling and weak from the cold at such a high altitude. The snake asks the warrior to carry it down the mountain before it dies of cold and exhaustion. The brave warrior refuses, knowing the snake will bite and kill him. But the snake is very persuasive, convincing the warrior that it will be to his advantage to carry the snake down. So the warrior picks up the snake and places it inside his shirt to warm it with his body heat as he descends from the mountain top. When he finally reaches the valley far below, he takes the snake from his shirt, warm and rested. But as he gently sets the snake on the ground, it strikes him on the hand. The brave warrior stumbles backward, frightened and hurting from the snake’s betrayal, knowing he will die from the serpent’s deadly venom. ‘Why did you do that?’ he cries out. ‘Why strike me after I carried you all the way down the mountain?’ The snake hisses its reply, ‘It is my nature to bite,’ it says as it slithers away.”

  “You think the nature of the Kroll is to capture and kill?” Dean asked.

  “Don’t you? They certainly didn’t try to make contact with the Alrakis Ship Yard before capturing everyone on board and trying to steal the station. They didn’t offer peace to the Roosevelt or the Charlemagne before they attacked. We shouldn’t ignore those facts.”

  “So why try for a peaceful resolution at all?”

  “Because there are still too many unknowns,” Davis said with a smile. “Not to mention the fact that we have to keep up appearances with civilian leaders. And taking the diplomatic route gives us the opportunity to test our new technology and gain some much needed intelligence in the process.”

  “Well, it sounds like Command has it all figured out. I’m more concerned about my platoon, if I’m being honest.”

  “Ready to get back into action I see.”

  “To be honest sir, I feel a little out of place here.”

  “Spoken like a true Recon grunt if ever I heard one. Polishing a seat with your ass isn’t what we’re built for. Sometimes this job feels like a slow, torturous death by endless meetings. I understand your desire, Captain. But we have a special assignment for you. Command wants you to lead a special platoon that will accompany Butler and Fanning.”

  “Sir? Are you serious? I’m not sure whether to feel honored or horrified.”

  “You’ve proven to be a resourceful leader, Captain. Improvisation in the field, recognizing opportunities, resiliency in the face of overwhelming odds. And perhaps most importantly, you know when to get the hell out of the way. Not to mention you’re the only Recon officer with experience in the field against our new enemy.”

  “Sir, there are much more experienced platoons,” Dean said. “Several were with us in the Alrakis system.”

  “True, but none actually made contact with the enemy. You did, more than once. That’s why you were chosen, Captain. Now, let’s talk logistics. You’ll be assigned to the E.S.D.F. Apache which is one hell of a ship. I’ve spent my share of time off world, and the new ship is state of the art. It’s got an artificial gravity system. No more centrifugal force, no more transitioning through zero gravity. It’s also got a gravity drive engine that’s damn fast. Hopefully as quick as anything the Kroll have in the field.”

  “Sir, I’m honored, but should we be sending our newest ship into enemy territory? If we get captured we’ll lose the ship.”

  “We’ve made some upgrades to the Urgglatta tech the ship was built around,” Colonel Davis went on. “The Apache has a cloaking device that should give you an edge over the Kroll. Our R&D gear heads are saying you’ll be in system without being detected.”

  “That’s hard to imagine, sir,” Dean replied.

  “I know it, but that’s why the ship was built. We named her Apache for a reason. The Apache nation was known for stealth in the harshest conditions. The new ship should emulate her namesake well.”

  “So what are we supposed to do, sir?”

  “Hopefully nothing,” Davis replied. “Although I want you monitoring the enemy at all times. Learn as much as you can and come home safe. Butler an
d Fanning will take a shuttle from the Apache and hopefully meet with the Kroll. Your platoon will be their escort.”

  Dean felt a sense of dread looming over him. He didn’t want to willingly place himself or anyone under his command in danger. And if there was one thing he was certain of, it was that the Kroll were dangerous. They might have fallen to Dean’s tactics once, but he had no illusions that one platoon would be a match for an entire Kroll vessel, and if they were going to the Urgglatta system, the chances were very high that they would be facing multiple enemy ships. It was a suicide mission, but it was his mission and he couldn’t refuse.

  “I don’t like it, sir,” Dean admitted. “But I’ll do everything in my power to ensure the mission is a success.”

  “I never doubted that, Captain. You’re a damn fine officer. Hell, we wouldn’t know shit about the Kroll if it weren’t for you getting control of the Urgglatta cruiser. You deserved the Planetary Medal of Honor for that, if for no other reason than it propelled our technology forward by decades, perhaps even centuries. And you’ve shown courage in battle. I can’t think of anyone else I would trust to do a better job.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Dean said.

  “Well, don’t thank me until you’re home again. We might be sending you right into the heart of the enemy and if they aren’t open to negotiations you’ll have a hell of a fight on your hands. Luckily, we have some new toys for you to play with. Ready for some fun, Captain?”

  Dean wasn’t sure what Colonel Davis meant by new toys, but his curiosity was certainly piqued.

  “Yes sir,” he replied.

  “Excellent. Let me show you our latest weapons,” the colonel said with a smile.

  Chapter 22

  “You’ll get a chance to get your hands on some of these onboard the Apache,” Davis said as he swiped his fingers across the top of his desk and brought up an image of a sleek-looking rifle on the wall where the view of space had been a moment before. The image rotated slowly as Dean stared at it. “This is an EMR rifle, electro-magnetic rail gun. You’re familiar with rail guns?”