The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War)

by Edmond Barrett

  “There goes the first one. We had a guy pitched twenty metres a while back when he got too close to the launcher,” the marine continued conversationally.

  “That’s going to be me tomorrow,” she replied

  “Well I hope not those particular ones. I heard there was a stowaway on one of them a couple of years back. I think he was six months in traction. Well hope you enjoy your flight more than he did.”

  ___________________________

  Rear Admiral Alfred Eulenburg checked his diary before closing down the terminal for the day. On the other side of his desk, Brigadier Sebastian Chevalier, the commander of the base’s marine contingent, was also closing down his computer pad. The sheer amount of paperwork the base generated on a day-to-day basis still amazed him, even after two years in the posting. Supplies in and out, promotions, disciplinary proceedings, training courses… it never stopped.

  “Oh thank you God,” Eulenburg muttered to himself as he stood and stretched. A native of Nuremburg and now nearly sixty years old, the comparative comfort of a ground command over one in space had seen him develop a bit of padding around his middle. In spite of this the Admiral was, at least in his own opinion, in reasonably good shape for his age. His hair was completely white, but there was still a good covering, which in Eulenburg’s opinion, was what really counted.

  “Any plans for the evening, sir?” Chevalier asked.

  “Yes, our new xenobiologist arrived on the San Francisco Star this afternoon, a Doctor Rose Delcasse. Hopefully this one will be more useful than the last.” Eulenburg’s comment was a reference to Doctor Delcasse’s predecessor, who had turned out to be severely allergic to something in Landfall’s atmosphere, necessitating his evacuation to one of the orbital habitations to await a ship to take him back to Earth. “Anyway, I have to meet and greet. What about you?”

  “I need to do some video message recordings if the Star is to take them. I meant to do it last week but didn’t get to it.”

  “Any news from home?”

  “I’ve only had a chance to glance across it so far. Margaret hasn’t defended her thesis yet, or at least hadn’t when Monica recorded her letter. Some sort of delay, those people never seem to be able to do anything on time. She should be doing it any day now.”

  Eulenburg had known Chevalier for over twenty years. The two men had served together several times. With little family of his own, the Admiral was a frequent visitor Chevalier’s home when he was back on Earth and he knew the Brigadier’s wife and daughter well.

  “I’m sure she’ll get it. She’s put in a lot of effort,” Eulenburg replied encouragingly.

  “Oh, I am confident she will. It’s what she’ll do after that I am less certain about,” Chevalier said. “It’s a very obscure topic. I’d feel better if she’d ever been able to explain to me how she’ll earn a living. But…” he shrugged.

  “You never know where these things will take someone. I’m sure she’ll land on her feet. She always has.”

  “That’s true,” he replied as he stood up. “With your permission, sir.”

  “Granted. I’ll see you in the morning, Sebastian.”

  Eulenburg left a few minutes after the Brigadier. His secretary and his chief of staff, Captain Gillum, were also closing down their terminals for the night. Both looked up expectantly as he came into the outer office, likely hoping he didn’t have some kind of late request. Wishing them a good night he stepped out of the outer office, through the waiting room, past the saluting marine guard and into the tunnels of Douglas.

  The tunnel was illuminated by variable light bulbs, which were currently shifting from the white light of daytime to the blue of evening. With some personnel not going topside for weeks at a time, the changing lights helped to keep body clocks in step with Landfall’s twenty-eight and a half hour day. The base had been constructed to take advantage of a quirk of Landfall’s geology. Mount Hurtado had once been a volcano. It had gone extinct tens of thousands of years ago, leaving the former magma chambers as a series of interlocking voids that could be inhabited by humans, all surrounded by hard volcanic rock. The likes of it had never been seen on Earth, but on Landfall nearly a dozen mountains like Hurtado had been identified.

  With kilometres of caverns ranging from three hundred to fourteen hundred metres below the plateau, Douglas could house nearly one and a half million people and protect them against anything up to a major orbital strike. Administration along with almost everything of importance was housed well below ground. The only exceptions to this were the fighter bases and missile silos.

  As no single lift went all the way from the command levels to the surface, it took about half an hour for Eulenburg to reach the plateau. It was a fresh crisp night on the surface and the still unnamed constellations of Landfall were very clear. There wasn’t much activity visible. There were a few lights from the bars, pubs and other facilities of the complex, known locally as Fun Town. A kilometre further down the same road was a cluster of buildings that housed the base’s assorted civilian experts and contractors. Off to his left there was a roar as a pair of Pegasus drop fighters accelerated for take-off, only their afterburners really visible in the dark. As they cleared the runway, the next pair started their run. A kilometre south of where Eulenburg stood was the main entrance into the caverns, while almost in the dead centre of the base was one of the silos that housed the planetary defence missiles, which was one of the primary reasons for the existence of Douglas Base. It was all pretty impressive considering that only fifteen years previously there had been nothing, while less than five years before that no human had even laid eyes on this entire world.

  Landfall was first discovered in 2048 by the Japanese exploration ship, the Ise. Its value was immediately apparent to its captain, since unlike the barely habitable planet Dryad Two, Landfall was a veritable new Eden, capable of supporting unprotected human life from the very outset. For this reason the Japanese government attempted to keep this information to itself, until Japan was ready to settle the planet. Somehow though, the information got out and the result was a land rush to rival those of the nineteenth century. Although the Japanese complained bitterly, within a year a dozen plus nations, including some that couldn’t really afford space programmes, had landed settlers. But even on an Eden some parts were more desirable than others, resulting in several new colonies ending up uncomfortably close together. Countries that on Earth were separated from each other by oceans and seas suddenly found themselves with land borders, and poorly defined ones at that. There were a number of incidents and while the first wave of settlers had been civilians, the second brought soldiers. For a few tense months it looked like humanity might bring war to its new Eden but instead, there was an outbreak of sanity.

  In a series of UN sponsored talks a compromise was hammered out, taking the form of the Landfall Partitionment Treaty. At its heart was a complicated equation for working out the land area of each colony. Effectively each colony claimed a circle of land around itself. Each year that circle would expand a little for each new colonist. Once this expanding border hit that of another nation it would stop. The detail was far more complicated but at its core, the treaty rewarded those nations that could bring and sustain a civilian population. It was projected that in sixty to seventy years the partition of Landfall would be complete.

  With that question answered the next was to look to the protection of the human population from non-humans. When the hollow mountains like Mount Hurtado were discovered, it was realised that these vast natural dugouts could be used to house the population in safety. But merely sending people underground wouldn’t work. The shelters had to be converted into a home for hundreds of thousands, which would also protect them from whatever a hostile species might threaten. The Americans and the Chinese could afford to ship in and station battalions of troops on Landfall, and to build defensive missile batteries on top of their shelters, capable of firing on orbiting starships. Other nations couldn’t justify that kind of
expenditure but most of the industrial nations had troops. But without missile defence, none of these forces would be capable of protecting their citizens from orbital assault.

  Those closest to the American and Chinese colonies made arrangements to share their refuges. Those further away needed another solution. Mount Hurtado was carved off from the Spanish colony. A set of missile silos would in turn shield the base from orbital bombardment.

  Finally ownership of the base was handed over to Battle Fleet. That point proved controversial at the time and even now was still raised occasionally. Battle Fleet didn’t own any of its bases on Earth and even its headquarter buildings were essentially loaned from the Irish Government. Plus the missiles of Earth’s planetary defence were run by an entirely separate organisation. There were still people who didn’t like the idea of an independent military force like Battle Fleet and felt that a limit on ground bases was necessary for control.

  A foolish line of thought in Eulenburg’s opinion, but there you were. Sitting into his waiting staff car, the Admiral drove off into the night.

  ___________________________

  Landfall Colony, 23rd July 2066,

  There were it seemed, some rules in life that held true no matter where you were. One them was that the day you finished a holiday and headed back to work was always the day with the best weather. Alice knew she didn’t have too much cause for complaint, as the weather for the majority of her stay on Landfall had been very pleasant. But outside the temporary accommodation she’d been assigned, it was now shaping up to be a particularly beautiful day. Spending a couple of hours sitting in the launch terminal seemed like a particularly bad idea, but that was the way of things.

  “Did you hear me?” her room mate, Leah Moir said behind her.

  “Hmm?” Alice responded as she looked up from her bag.

  “Well that answers that one,” Leah said with a slight shake of her head. “I said are you ready for a bit of breakfast?”

  Alice shook her head and made a face.

  “I don’t know how you can eat ahead of a launch,” she said in response.

  “I need some ballast,” Leah replied patting her stomach. “You should eat something.”

  “I did, ahead of the first time I went into space. The three people I threw up on weren’t very happy.”

  “Were any of them hot?”

  “They were all women and I don’t swing that way.”

  “No loss then.”

  The bright and bubbly Leah hadn’t changed since Alice had first known her at Cambridge University.

  “Okay so if I have something to eat, are you volunteering to sit next to me?”

  There was a polite tap at the door of their room before she could reply. When Leah opened it Professor Bhaile, the head of the civilian delegation on Harbinger, was standing outside.

  “Good morning to you both,” he said. “If you’re packed, a bus is waiting to take us all to the terminal.”

  Leah looked at her watch, which wasn’t much use since it was a twenty-four hour terrestrial watch.

  “Seems a bit early,” she complained.

  “Yes, but that’s the fleet for you,” Bhaile replied. “I do have one bit of good news though. Our beloved Commander Willis has been reassigned off the ship.”

  “Buddha! God! Allah! Whichever one of you guys is responsible. Thank you!” Leah burst out. A typically exuberant way of putting things but on this occasion, Alice couldn’t help but agree. Commander Willis was, or at least had been, the second-in-command aboard Harbinger. She had made little secret of her dislike of the ship’s civilian complement, few of who had not had some kind of clash with Willis on her first tour. Leah and Willis in particular rubbed one another up the wrong way. It was certainly a good start to their next tour.

  Outside the fifteen who’d be going up to Harbinger were waiting with their baggage. A petty officer with a computer pad was ticking people off as they appeared.

  “This seems very early,” Bhaile complained. “Our shuttle is not scheduled to leave for another four hours.”

  “Yep, you’re right, it is very early,” the PO agreed, barely glancing up. “But if we’ve learned any damn thing, it’s to corral you people early to make sure you don’t wander off.”

  Bhaile looked irritated by the PO’s dismissive tone, but knew better than to remonstrate with the man. As far as any fleet NCO was concerned, there were fleet personnel and then there were people that didn’t matter. That was another thing Alice wouldn’t miss once she finished her contract with the fleet: the tendency for fleet personnel to treat civilians like idiots.

  Once everyone had turned up, they were herded onto the bus. It was a short trip to the spaceport and soon they were all in the waiting lounge. Theirs was the only group there. Douglas’s spaceport was the most active on the planet but even so, a hundred people passing through was enough to be classed as a busy day and this wasn’t a busy day. The PO hadn’t been kidding about corralling them. Once they were in the lounge, a polite but firm marine wasn’t letting them back out. But for the most part people weren’t complaining as, not having seen much of each other since landing, it was a chance to catch up. After months cooped up onboard Harbinger, the civilians had scattered to the four winds. Some people had gone hill walking, some rock climbing and one intrepid spirit had even managed to get hold of a hand glider, which apparently had been amazing in Landfall’s point nine six gravity. Leah had hooked up with a square-jawed mining engineer, who was working in the caves of the base. With all the talk, the time before their flight passed quickly and soon they were being herded onto the orbital lifter.

  The lifter was a passenger version of the one Alice had seen taking off the day before. The maglev runway would accelerate the lifter up to the speed at which its scramjet engines could function. They in turn, would get the lifter up as far as the edge of space where the plasma engines would carry them up and into orbit. There they’d dock at the Gatehouse space station and transfer to an in-system jump ship for the final leg to Baden, where Harbinger was docked.

  There was a jolt as a tow truck started to pull the lifter towards the end of the maglev. They slowed again as the tug carefully positioned the lifter. When the maglev activated the craft lifted fractionally off its wheels. The undercarriage retracted ready for take off, while simultaneously all the seats in the passenger compartment rotated to make the G-forces that were about to be exerted as comfortable as possible.

  “This is your captain,” said a voice from the PA. “We’re now in position ready for takeoff. We’re just waiting for ground control clearance. There seems to be a slight delay but I anticipate we should be off the ground within the next five minutes.”

  Ten minutes later they were still sitting, or rather lying in their seat harnesses. Professor Bhaile kept looking at his watch. People were uncomfortable and starting to get agitated. Then there was a series of clunks, as the undercarriage redeployed and the maglev dropped the lifter back onto its wheels. Seats rotated back to the upright. There was a groan from the passengers. Their ‘short’ delay was clearly going to be a long one. Then something happened none of them expected. The escape hatch blew and with a whoosh, the emergency slide deployed.

  “Passengers, this is your captain. We have just received order from control to evacuate the lifter! Everyone please exit as quickly as possible!”

  The evacuation was calm and orderly, without any overexcitement. When Alice slid down the emergency slide and hit the ground, she glanced over her shoulder back at the lifter. She expected to see smoke belching from the machine, but it looked completely inert. The lifter was evacuated within a few minutes but once they were out, everyone stood around in confusion. The two members of the flight crew seemed just as baffled, but tried to answer the barrage of questions that came their way. Then a truck raced over from the control tower towards them. It didn’t stop but slowed long enough for a rating and a petty officer to jump out of the back, before accelerating away. Alice noticed t
here was another lifter stopped on the taxiway, a hundred meters behind them. Even at a distance, she could see people tumbling out. The two fleet personnel who had jumped out of the truck now came rushing over.

  “Everyone! Your attention!” the petty officer bellowed before anyone got a chance to ask him anything. “We are moving you all to the underground shelters. I want everyone to form up and follow me!” He then turned and started to briskly walk away. After a moment’s hesitation, people started to follow him.

  “What’s happened?” someone asked the rating in a bewildered voice.

  “It’s Baden,” the rating replied in a shaking voice. “It’s been attacked…”

  “Aldiss,” the petty officer screamed over his shoulder. “Stop pricking around with those civvies and get them moving!”

  ___________________________

  The glass of water rang as Eulenburg stirred a painkiller into it. He winced slightly as his intercom buzzed.

  “Sir, the Brigadier is here to see you.”

  “Thank you, send him in,” Eulenburg replied, before knocking back the water in a single swallow. Chevalier walked in, his uniform as immaculate as usual.

  “Morning, Sebastian.”

  “Morning sir. What kind of evening did you have?” he asked, motioning toward the packet of painkillers.

  “A couple of the new people brought bottles of wine with them, to celebrate their arrival,” Eulenburg replied. “Good vintages too. I just had a couple of glasses.”

  “Just to be polite, sir?”

  “Of course. It’s a terrible thing when two are enough to leave you feeling mildly hung-over. Anyway what have you got for me?”

  “Not a great deal, sir. The drop fighters from Illustrious should be operational by the end of tomorrow. Also I wanted to remind you, the artillery is scheduled to conduct live-fire excises this afternoon. We’re firing over the Sulter River into Area B. Just want to make sure that your office and the Spanish authorities are aware of it.”