by Jack Hunt
They walked for what seemed like half an hour before they reached a section of the encampment that overlooked those who were loyal to them. Below them was a valley, a vast landscape that curved and angled inward. Down the middle for as far as the eye could see were the dead. Powers tried to divert her eyes away from the horrific display of Echobis impaled on sharp wooden spikes but Draskan pulled her face towards the massacre. The spike went through the rectum, and came out of the mouth. Black blood dripped down and trailed off down into the valley. There was so much blood that it looked like a small stream.
“I keep them there so I don’t have to remind people why they are fighting.”
“It’s barbaric.”
“Barbaric?” He snorted. “You humans are weak.”
She sneered. “What do you hope to achieve by holding me?”
He turned and a grin spread on his face. “Why do you kill a fly?” he paused and came close to the ambassador. “Earth is an infestation that is polluting the minds of species in the solar system. Many have become pacifists believing that war is unjustifiable.”
“It is.”
He snorted. “And yet you work for the UEDF.”
“I don’t speak on behalf of the defense force, I speak on behalf of Earth.”
“Right. Earth, who only wants peace. Why is it, Ambassador, that a planet that seeks to cooperate is colonizing other planets, and yet your kind will not allow other species to inhabit Earth?”
“That’s not accurate.”
“Oh no? Then where are the refugees that have left this planet?”
The ambassador stared at him blankly. They had extracted many from the Echobi population, until war had made it virtually impossible to get in and out without being seen as hostile. There were many cooperating with Earth until Draskan and the rebels.
“They have a right to be protected.”
He walked away considering all that was around him.
“Where is the chancellor’s family?”
“Safe.”
The ambassador’s work with the Echobi people had been going on for close to four years. It had taken her and Benja, along with others, many years to convince those in power that Earth was not a threat. When civil unrest occurred due to numerous statements released to the Echobi people about a treaty they had signed, it was determined that they would extract those who had helped Earth. They would be taken to a command post in Territory 1 in preparation for integration with Earth. Earth wasn’t against allowing in different species but there was procedure to ensure the health and safety of humanity.
He chuckled.
“You know, I used to think highly of my people. We were a race who understood war, who understood the cost of going to war even when there was none but now that’s all changed. You have polluted their minds long enough.”
“So you think killing your own kind is going to help?”
“Sometimes a strong message must be sent to those who oppose. Sometimes that’s all they understand.”
“But it’s your own people.”
“My people are warriors not cowards. If they won’t fight, then they are better off dead. But you can make it easier. Just tell me where they are.”
“That’s what this is about? You think by getting your hands on the chancellor you will be able to convince the others?”
“I won’t need to convince them, the chancellor will.”
“Kenji won’t go back on his agreement.”
“You underestimate what he will do for his people.”
Powers looked back out at the Echobi impaled on spikes. He wasn’t just looking to make a statement to the people who might have second thoughts about being part of the militia; this was a strong message he was hoping to send to the chancellor of the Echobi. Kenji had left to check on the conditions where the refugees were being held on his home planet. His concern for the people was first and foremost.
The sight of what Powers was seeing would have crippled him.
She shook her head.
“Where are they?”
She didn’t respond.
“Put her back with the others.”
Draskan gripped the railing as his men dragged her away. “You’ll tell me soon enough.”
Chapter Fourteen
After he informed the team that they were going to be inserted into Drozleon under the cover of night, they were naturally full of questions. He answered them to the best of his abilities but he knew that no matter what he said, it wouldn’t be able to quell the anxiety they would feel.
Though he would leave the bulk of answering questions to Captain Kane, he suggested they contact their families before they left. In no uncertain words, he made it clear there was a strong chance that none of them including himself would be coming back.
He expected them to react, to give him reasons why they shouldn’t be placed in the situation and yet none of them did. Perhaps it was the marine in them. They already understood the danger when they signed on the dotted line to work for Uncle Sam.
Later that day, as they made their way to the shuttle bay to board the warship known as the UEDF Liberator, his mind was a whirlwind. Between thinking about the lives that might be lost, the death of his old team members and the one that mattered most to him — his daughter, he was already going in at a disadvantage.
As an SOSR, he knew the risks. Every member of his team did but somehow they were able to push aside the worry. Instead they focused on the operation, doing what they were trained to do. But this time is would be different in every way.
Captain Kane was already there to meet them as they showed up in full exoskeleton combat suits, ready for action. Reid glanced at Kane on the way in, and he called him aside. Reid told the others to head in and he would join them.
“I just wanted to say good job on the work you have done with them.”
“What work? It was like touching their toes in a vat of acid. Now they’re about to be thrown into it.”
“If it’s any consolation, if they make it out alive they are free to go.”
Reid scoffed. “Some days I have to wonder about you, Kane.”
He turned and trudged on to join the others.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Reid didn’t respond.
Once on board, they were informed that several warships would be joining them. The fleet would engage with the Echobi once they made it to the outer perimeter of their world. Reid was glad that they were sending in warships but it wasn’t anything that hadn’t been done before with other hostile worlds. But in this case, it was meant to be a distraction. How the Echobi would respond was to be seen. He didn’t expect their entry to go unnoticed. The Liberator was a beast of a ship capable of carrying more than enough helitanks and Phoenix fighters to give any species a hard time.
Unlike other ships, small adjustments made as it took off or landed couldn’t be felt. The burners kicked in as it took off at warp speed. All that could be heard was the quiet hum of the ship as Reid made his way down the narrow corridors.
He ducked through a hatch into a mess area where the team was currently getting some chow. He wanted to give them the heads-up that Captain Kane would be by in ten minutes to brief them on the specifics of the mission. Up until now he had only given them generalities.
They were all sitting around a large table laughing and acting like this was going to be an easy operation. Despite their failure on the simulation, the harsh reality of what they were about to jump into hadn’t quite hit home yet.
“Hey fellas,” Reid looked at Viper, “and ladies. Stomachs full?”
“Lt. The food on here is way better than the crap they were feeding us back in the brig.”
“Anything is better than the brig,” Bulldog said.
Reid went over and took a seat on the counter; he brought up a photo of his daughter on the minicomputer of his arm and took a moment to remember why he was going in. If she wasn’t in there, he might have been brash enough to tell the UE
DF where to stick it. Now all he could think about was how she was coping.
She’d always had her eyes on the military, it was never something he had to nurture and being a marine certainly wasn’t something he encouraged. Although everyone had to help with the UEDF in one facet or another, he always imagined his girl would be safe behind a desk, under the cover of Earth’s defenses rather than out there rubbing shoulders with dangerous species. His mind went back to the day she went off to the academy. It was both a moment of feeling extreme pride, and extreme fear. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she could get through boot camp, it was the fact that he knew she could. In nearly everything she had put her mind to do while growing up she had excelled — the marines was just one more thing standing in the way of becoming an SOSR.
In many ways, Reid believed it played a role in why his marriage failed. Katherine wouldn’t admit to it but she had a clear disdain for seeing her daughter fighting. What she didn’t realize was that by vocalizing her displeasure she was only motivating Sophie that much more.
“Lt. Can you please confirm for this asshole that the reason there are three warships heading to Drozleon is because the UEDF changed their mind on sending a small unit inside? This is our backup?” Phantom asked.
“I can’t confirm that,” he replied still lost in thought.
Bulldog broke into laughter. “I told you. You mug!”
“Lt. What did the admiral have to say about our score on the simulation?”
“You didn’t get one. Not much to say,” he replied.
“It doesn’t matter, simulations aren’t an accurate portrayal of war,” Woodpecker said.
Reid looked up and glanced over at them. The others chuckled but he could see the facade beginning to crack. He wasn’t one for lying but right now they needed to know that it was going to be okay, even if it wasn’t.
“As long as you do what you are told, and don’t lose your shit we might make it out alive.”
“Might? I’ll take those odds,” Skinner muttered.
“Attention on deck!” A soldier accompanying Captain Kane entered the mess.
Everyone jumped up from their seat, spoons clattered and Priest knocked over his drink.
“As you were,” Captain Kane said, walking in with a clean shirt and pressed pants. Everything about the way he dressed reeked of a need to impress. Reid walked over with a cloth and wiped down the table before Kane saw it and chewed the guy out.
“Take your seats.”
He went up to the front and tapped a white pad on the wall, in front of them appeared a blue hologram of the planet Drozleon. Kane walked over to it and spun it with his finger, then stopped near the outskirts of the main city of Trillium. Large sections of it were highlighted in green, and key points were pulsating blips of red.
“Intel has determined there are close to two thousand Echobi warriors dispersed throughout this sector. Key areas that once belonged to government have been overtaken. As you are probably aware from Lieutenant Reid, the militants have been killing anyone who sides with Earth.”
He zoomed in on an area, tapped twice and played a video of the valley full of impaled Echobi. Reid glanced over at the team who looked on with wide eyes.
“Your primary objective on this mission is to locate and extract Ambassador Powers and those from her protective division. Currently it’s believed only two of them survived. Daniel Thompson and the lieutenant’s daughter, Sophie Reid.”
The faces of the captives appeared before them. Now it was the team looking at Reid.
Kane zoomed out and turned the globe ever so slightly before zooming and adjusting to a position deep in the thick of what was for a time a sector belonging to Earth’s allies.
“You will be diving into Drozleon. You cannot enter in this area because it’s a hot zone that has already been overtaken. Since the ambassador was taken hostage, they have taken down a helitank trying to land. So…” he moved the position further west. “You will HALO jump into Sector D, near Brackel, then haul ass to here.” As he swiped across the globe, his finger created a trail of blue that indicated the journey they would need to take. “This is by far the safest way to get close. From there you are on your own. You will need to get in, extract the package and then meet back here.” He pointed to a new position fifteen klicks away. “You will have exactly sixteen hours in which to meet at the extract point. Though we are trying to avoid a war, we fully expect them to go on the offensive to our presence, so we are going to lay down some serious heat from the warships on the east side, in the hopes of drawing away the bulk of the Echobi militia, but there is no telling how long we are going to hold them at bay…” he trailed off looking over at Reid. “No matter what we do, you are still going to be up against at least a hundred, but expect more.”
“That’s comforting,” Viper muttered, snapping gum in her mouth.
“Any questions?”
“Who is in charge of these assholes?”
“We believe an Echobi by the name of Draskan. Draskan is considered highly dangerous. This isn’t the first time he has attempted to incite a civil war. The Echobis’ involvement in the Lawanda massacre was headed up by Draskan. Not long after Earth got involved in treaty talks with the Drozleon people, he was discharged from the Echobi infantry. It’s believed that he went rogue and formed the militia that is in operation today.”
Reid stared at Kane, his frown forming tight lines on his forehead. He wasn’t aware of who was heading up the military. Though it didn’t change anything about the mission from a tactical point of view, he knew that if word reached him that Sophie was his daughter or that Reid was on Drozleon, the shit was really going to hit the fan.
“Captain, a moment please.” Reid made a gesture and was the first one to step through the hatch. He walked a distance down the corridor so they would be out of earshot. The look on Kane’s face made it pretty damn clear that he knew what Reid was pissed about.
“First Sophie, now Draskan? Anything else you want to tell me before I go in and stick my neck on the line? And don’t say you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“Bullshit!”
“Don’t forget who you…’
“Cut the crap with the rank shit.”
“Everything to do with this mission has been on a need to know basis.”
“Well, don’t you think I needed to know that my team had been sent in there, without me? I mean, how fucking stupid do you think I am?”
“Your team was not meant to go in, Reid. They just happened to be the closest SOSR’s when the ambassador was ambushed. Tell me…” he paused getting real close to Reid, “would you have wanted Sophie to wait for an extraction team that wouldn’t have reached her for at least an hour? The fact is the ambassador wasn’t meant to be leaving for three days. The original helitank that dropped them off was in Territory 31 when this happened. Gage and the others were en route. It’s what made sense at the time. We had no idea they were going to be taken down. This has been the first attack on UEDF since Lawanda. Hell, we weren’t even meant to be there but oh no, Earth has to fucking help everyone.”
Reid ran both hands through his hair then hit the corridor wall. “Fuck! You know what will happen if he finds out?”
“Yeah, yeah I do.” Kane leaned up against the wall. “I’m sorry, Reid, my hands are tied. They have been drip feeding me information and I’m simply passing it down to you.”
Lawanda hadn’t begun as a war. As with other planets, Earth was in talks with the people of Lawanda, a species that were closely connected to the Echobi. They were one of several planets that had supported them through times of war, as Earth had done for others.
Reid, along with Kane had been part of the SOSR’s that had provided protection for the ambassador who was meeting with officials on the planet. What began as a peaceful meeting was soon interrupted by the presence of Draskan and an army that was under his command. From what they learned later through Benja, Draskan had been sent in a
fter seeing a fleet from Earth arrive in the territory. When they discovered that Earth’s people were not there to fight but to extend a hand of cooperation, they reacted and killed fourteen of those in attendance.
Chaos erupted and Reid killed one of the Echobi in the process. What he didn’t know until later was that Echobi was Draskan’s son. Within days a war began, a battle that would go down in history. Thousands of lives were lost on both sides. Though there were many that died that day, their deaths were not in vain because it made the chancellor’s family reconsider the role they were playing in the solar system. Conqueror of worlds or peacemaker?
It wasn’t just the death of his son that caused Draskan to despise humanity, it was the belief that Earth had polluted the minds of his own people. That they had made the Echobi weak. But Earth had done nothing more than they did with all worlds they tried to colonize. They simply extended a hand in unity.
The more allies Earth had, the better the defense system would be. It was a political game, but a smart one. Earth’s defenses were only as strong as those whom they were allies with. Everyone was playing a planetary game of chess. Draskan knew that. Planets such as Earth were only afraid of those who had strength, and strength was found in numbers. Forming alliances and coming to an agreement whereby Earth would extend help if and when any of the ally worlds came under attack just made sense.
“You better hope he doesn’t find out.”
“I’m on your side, Lieutenant, and don’t forget it,” Kane muttered before returning to where the others were.
Chapter Fifteen
“Well it’s been swell knowing you all,” Priest said as they made final preparations for the drop. They were all geared up with the latest BO34 jump exoskeleton combat gear. A booster pack on their backs would provide flight stability and allow them to dive with ease. All of them had training in the marines on how to use them, and yet this would probably be the first time they had since leaving the academy.
