Casserine

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

“Okay, you can have your people get on their feet,” Jake directed Zaros, who quickly did as he was told.

  An hour later, after animated conversations took place between numerous members of the space station officer staff, Zaros completed his meetings. He walked back over to where Jake and Mercer were familiarizing themselves with the Passallion control station. The other Marines were at the ready, and did not lower their weapons at any time.

  “We have a consensus, General,” Zaros informed him. “The other leaders up here are willing to approach our planet’s high council with our plan. They understand we are only a step away from extinction.”

  “Can you do this without going to the surface?” Jake asked. “I’m not too crazy about you leaving the station. You and the rest of your people, who were held in captivity, are our only link to save the rest of your planet.”

  “We will try to contact the Council immediately from here at the station. I hope to have them on our side, and completely behind your magnanimous help within a very short time.”

  “It’s all yours then,” Jake agreed. “Go ahead and use your facilities here to speed this up. The first thing I want done is your cruisers recalled to the surface. I don’t want to have fully armed ships up here while I am conducting operations. Secondly, I want you put in charge, and I don’t mean as some fake puppet the rest of your military can ignore. When you give an order, I want it carried out.”

  “I will see to it, General,” Zaros replied. “If there is any trouble, I will tell you right away.”

  “I hope your leaders on the surface can understand how important it is not to delay their decisions.”

  “We will know soon, Sir,” Zaros said, turning back to his meeting.

  “What do you think, Jake,” Mercer asked.

  “Since it’s his people and not mine, I’d be willing to just leave him to it,” Jake answered with a shrug. “They’ll either go along with our plan, or the Bugs will eat them. I’m not saving anyone against their will. They’ll find out about their plight soon enough, when more of the horde break through their force fields. By then though, it may be too late.”

  “Zaros studied our tapes, and I know he’s going to do as hard a sell job as he can,” Mercer said. “I wish him well. I’m not too happy about abandoning anyone to the Bugs.”

  “We won’t be abandoning anyone,” Jake pointed out. “We can give them a few samples of our power if they like; but if the Bugs were at my door, I’d be taking any help I could get.”

  “You mean if they’re that dumb, maybe it’s natural selection?” Mercer chuckled, shaking his head.

  “Although they didn’t have anything to do with the Bug seeding, and there are probably millions down there who would take our help without a thought, I’m still reluctant to force it,” Jake admitted.

  “We could monitor the call, and do the same thing to the Passallion leaders as we did to the Saudi Royal Family,” Dougherty offered from the Alpha Drop Ship gun turret.

  “We haven’t even tested our weapons on their force fields, Tim,” Corey pointed out.

  “Tim has,” Colonel Peters put in, from the Bridge of the Intrepid. “He’s been tied in with the Intrepid’s scanners since you began this mission.”

  “Is that right?” Mercer asked happily. “Now that’s what I call initiative.”

  “Thanks, Charlie,” Dougherty replied. “In answer to your question, I could cut through their field like they forgot to turn it on.”

  “Go ahead, and give us the option, Tim,” Jake directed. “Thanks for your input. I’d rather do this the easy way, but a demonstration never hurts.”

  “I’m on it,” Dougherty acknowledged. “The Passallions are just hooking up now, so I’ll have them for you in no time. I’m using the Yorktown to help me triangulate quicker.”

  “You worrying about how far these folks could catch up, and then get to be dangerous, Jake?” Mercer asked.

  “I have to admit the thought has crossed my mind,” Jake admitted.

  “In other words, you’ve been considering the famous Wilcox solution?” Colonel Peters offered.

  “I heard that,” Colonel Wilcox broke in. “I just gave my opinion to my commander when asked, right General?”

  “Absolutely, along with anyone else who would listen, Doug,” Jake laughed. “I just figured we’d have to do very little convincing, considering the situation.”

  “I’ve got them, Jake,” Dougherty said, matter-of-factly. “Uh oh, the connection ended with Zaros still speaking. That can’t be a good sign.”

  “Shit,” Jake whispered, looking over towards where Zaros had now stood up from his seat in front of the space station communications panel. He talked quietly with the others surrounding him, and then walked dejectedly towards Jake and Mercer.

  “Our leaders are afraid, General,” Zaros admitted to Jake, when he stopped and looked up at the towering Marine.

  “More afraid of us than the Bugs?” Jake said incredulously. “Do they realize we could just obliterate their force fields and let the Tattallias horde eat them?”

  “They believe you will enslave us,” Zaros explained sadly. “They are idiots, but I cannot convince them of how nebulous their chances are.”

  Jake was silent for a moment, looking over at Mercer, who nodded his unspoken agreement. “Was the whole council present?”

  “Yes, they are all agreed to this stupidity,” Zaros replied. “Even their own officers up here can not get through to them.”

  “Are they in a single structure down there, and will they be there for a few more moments?” Mercer asked.

  “Yes, but it would be useless to talk again to them. They cut me off before I could continue with my arguments.”

  “You get all that, Tim?” Jake asked.

  “I heard, Jake,” Dougherty answered. “Shall I make an adjustment?”

  “I’m afraid we have no choice. By my command, Tim, do it now.”

  “Payload on its way, Sir,” Dougherty stated.

  Jake turned back to Zaros. “Can you take over down on the surface with a handpicked group from up here? We just created a command vacuum.”

  “I do not understand, General.”

  “The General means he just had our resident weapons psycho relieve your planet of its leadership council,” Mercer answered. “We triangulated your call down to the surface, and wiped out your reluctant leaders.”

  “You can do that?” Zaros asked incredulously. “What of the force field, and the structure shields?”

  “How about it, Tim?” Jake asked, holding up a hand to Zaros in a wait gesture.

  “Punched right through, and detonated inside the very spot their communications center used to occupy,” Dougherty answered. “This is not an exact science, however, as you know. My adjustment vaporized the building too.”

  “Thanks Tim, well done,” Jake replied. “The Passallions need leaders Zaros. Can you do what I asked?”

  “Yes, General, I will gather a team together immediately,” Zaros promised quietly. “I am sorry it came to this.”

  “I am too. Let me know when you have reestablished communication with the surface, and explained the situation to someone who will listen. I will have your team flown to the surface, and get you in a position to make sure our Bug operation does not get interfered with.”

  “We will begin contacting others on the planet surface right away,” Zaros nodded, and turned away to get started. He stopped, and turned back abruptly. “You humans truly are the scary people.”

  “And then some, ET,” Mercer replied quietly. “And then some.”

  “If ever something happens to Earth’s benevolent command structure, we Passallions could be in a lot of trouble.”

  “Not as much as if you keep negotiating with the Bugs any longer,” Mercer added.

  “We’ll have to make sure your people are still around to get into trouble, Zaros,” Jake offered sympathetically. “The Tattallias Horde will be exterminated with your people still alive, wi
th some of your people alive, or with none of your people alive. Your choice.”

  “I understand,” Zaros replied, and continued on to try and save hispeople.

  Chapter 40

  New ET Leadership

  The Passallion cruisers had been recalled to the surface as Jake and Mercer went over final plans for the extermination of the Bugs on the bridge of the Intrepid. Colonel Peters delivered the news, and then went back to his command chair. Jake, followed closely by his Chief of Staff, took their portable panels over to the communications section to await a call. They sat down together behind the communications officer, and sipped their tea, as they continued going over the operation.

  “Those pipes will take a lot of power to force in as we dig, Jake. We’ll have to have them joined quickly, and permanently. Any fold ups, or breaks will be disastrous.”

  “The ground’s pretty soft though,” Jake pointed out. “I’m more worried about the digging operation. It’ll be hotter than hell in the hole, and we’ll have to keep the troops fresh. The damn Queens probably have zillions of drones with this full scale attack going. If it wasn’t for the damn soft ground, we could punch a hole down from the top. Tim could use one of those loads that dissolve the Queen’s shield, and then blows the crap out of the place.”

  “Couldn’t we cauterize the hole as we punch down through? This ain’t like Omaha and Bougainville, with the damn rock structure dissipating the strikes, and heating up to blow,” Mercer commented.

  “We could try it,” Jake mused. “If it don’t work, we can always go to plan B. Let’s get Tim and.”

  “General?” The communications officer called out from his panel. “You have a call from the surface, Sir.”

  Zaros’ smiling face flashed on the vid panel. “It is done, General. I am temporarily in charge, and there will be no interference during your mission. My people are in a bad way here. They are running low on supplies, and although our cruisers keep the horde at bay, we are suffering more and more breakthroughs.”

  “I am glad for your people, they had sense enough to back you,” Jake replied. “As to your supply problems, we’ll help you out once the Bugs get taken care of. Keep your cruisers close to your population areas, and make your pilots aware of the fact if one shot gets fired in our direction, I will have your whole fleet dusted.”

  “I understand, and General, it is good to be home. Thank you.”

  “I bet it is. Let’s see what we can do about returning it to the way it was. We’ll begin operations immediately. Matthews out.”

  “What’s first, Jake?” Mercer asked, standing with Jake.

  “I thought we’d do some recon ourselves. Want to take Tim, and go on down to the surface? We’ll try out the idea you came up with.”

  “Not if you’re driving.”

  “Hey, I did real well the last time.”

  “You haven’t taken a Drop Ship down through a foreign atmosphere like this,” Mercer broke in. “We need a pro.”

  “Okay, we’ll get Sara to drive,” Jake relented, “but don’t think I’ll forget this insult to my piloting ability, Han.”

  “It ain’t working, Jake,” Dougherty said, as he worked the particle beam over the area pinpointed as one of the Queen’s nests. “We’ll never be able to cut down through that far. The bitch is dug in over a mile down.

  Their atmospheric ionization interferes with my beam density too. Radiation would get to be a problem pretty quick.”

  “How about something a little more powerful?” Mercer asked.

  “It’s okay with me,” Dougherty shrugged. “We could explode something here capable of making a crater big enough to fit a small moon in it, but that’s what it would take to reach her. We just can’t deliver the shield solution in a charge, without getting down near the chamber. If we blow half the planet up trying to reach her, and it doesn’t affect her shield, we’ll still be screwed.”

  “I’m convinced,” Jake commented. “Let’s lay the epoxy landing zone at the spot you figured we could start the tunneling operation at. We’ll need a big one, because we’ll have a full scale battle going on around us. Sara?”

  “I’m here, Jake,” Major Corey’s voice came through his headset.

  “Proceed to the landing zone area, and lay the epoxy. Call in a couple of more ships to help Tim keep the LZ Bug free while it’s drying. When you’re through, fly us back to the Intrepid, and we’ll get started on Plan B”

  “Aye, aye, Sir.”

  Their Alpha Drop Ship veered away from the area, as Dougherty killed thousands of swarming Bugs as they flew away. Corey flew to a spot about a mile from the center of the nest, and spread enough epoxy to form a solid surface three hundred yards in diameter. It took nearly an hour to form the landing zone into an evenly spread surface. With Dougherty working the front guns, any Bugs approaching the area were destroyed long before reaching the drying landing zone. Two more Drop Ships joined them, using scanners to detect Bug movements beneath the surface, heading towards their soon to be operations platform.

  “It’s bad for the Passallions that the Bugs have eaten away what Zaros told me was dense jungle like foliage, but it sure makes the job of clearing away the Bugs easier,” Mercer said.

  “From what we’ve seen on Omaha, the environment returns to normal at a pretty fast rate,” Jake replied. “It rains almost constantly here, during this time period of their season, so it’s going to be like working in wet sludge. The rain at least keeps the temp down in the low nineties though.”

  “This is going to be fun,” Mercer sighed. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t drown.”

  “We’ll have to keep the tunnel pumped out. The hovercraft removing the dug out sludge will have to take on the extra water too. The Bugs don’t breathe underwater, so I don’t think we’ll have to worry about drowning. Tim’s already scanned the path to the nest, and we won’t be running into any water pockets or underground lakes.”

  “The tunnels will at least be easier to walk in than those Bug tunnels on Omaha, and Bougainville.”

  “We ain’t staying long enough to worry about walking around, Charlie,” Jake pointed out. “Dig down to her, fry her, and fly on back out.”

  ‘Tea, but we still have to keep the tunnels clear of Bugs on the way, so we’ll be slip slidin’ around in there till the pipe gets laid to the nest.”

  Jake paused, considering Mercer’s words.

  “We can get a company on board the hovercraft, so we’ll just rotate them in and out using the hovercraft vacuuming out the tunnel. Even with the attached tanks they’ll have to come out at pretty frequent intervals. It will be a nightmare, but it will be a controlled one,” Jake said.

  Mercer nodded in agreement. ‘Tea, and Tim here says they’ve improved the lip seals on those pipes. If they’re within a couple of feet of each other, and you activate the seals, you better be clear, because those babies close up fast and hard.”

  “I still want a couple of Marines at every juncture,” Jake added. “I know the hovercraft have the whole perimeter around them under surveillance, but the pilots will be a little too busy to mess with surprises from the rear. I’d like you in with Tim, Charlie.”

  “No way, Jake. I know you’re planning on being out there in front from beginning to end. I ain’t letting you hog all the fun,” Mercer retorted.

  “You’ll have me on the monitor, not to mention my helmet cam. Tim needs someone in the cockpit to spell him on the guns or as pilot. Hell, I know you know how to drive a hovercraft.”

  Mercer sat silently, until he heard Dougherty’s voice in his ear.

  “C’mon Charlie, it’ll be fun. I’ll even let you take a turn on my special add-on gun.”

  “Don’t try to bribe me, you psycho twit,” Mercer replied condescendingly, drawing laughter from the others on the line. “Not all of us have to be obliterating life every second we’re on a mission.”

  “You’ll be able to watch Jake’s back a heck of a lot better from inside with me, than out
there in the tunnel,” Dougherty reasoned.

  “Okay,” Mercer relented. “I guess I can deal with it; but it should be you in the cockpit, Jake, and you know it.”

  “I have a few special things going for me you don’t, Charlie. Okay boys, and girls, I think we’ve let the LZ dry long enough. Let’s go back to the Intrepid, and give it a chance to cure properly while we load up for our little mining operation. Jas, Doug?”

  “I’m here, Jake,” Colonel Peters checked in.

  “Go ahead, General,” Colonel Wilcox acknowledged.

  “Release a squad of Command Wings from the Yorktown and Intrepid. Have the pilots lay waste to any extensions of the Bug’s line of communication. Wherever they’re too far underground, find out the shallowest place along the line they can reach, and break them up. Have two more squads ready to fly support when we get back down to the surface. No let up on the tops of the nests. I want the Queens shook right up till the time we come knocking at their chamber doors.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” Peters and Wilcox said tersely.

  “Let’s go load up, Sara.”

  “On our way, Jake,” Corey replied.

  As the Alpha Drop Ship turned upwards, Jake took off his headset, and leaned back. Dougherty came out of the deck gun turret, and sat down next to his two friends. He mopped the sweat from his face, and relaxed with a happy grin.

  “Man, I never get tired of killing those things. Nice warm up.”

  “We noticed,” Mercer said, giving Dougherty a push on the side of his head. He turned to Jake after pulling off his headset. “What did you mean special things, Jake?”

  “You already know I heal up faster than you’d expect, right?”

  ‘Tea, I know you developed something from the Bug Queen on Omaha the first time,” Mercer replied, interested. “You sure healed up quick after you were opened up again.”

  “Something else has been gradually developing too, having to do with my DNA,” Jake explained, baring one of his arms. “Squeeze my arm, Charlie.”

  “I don’t like you that much, General,” Mercer joked, as Dougherty reached around him and gripped Jake’s forearm, and then pulled back as if stung.