The Fall: Crimson Worlds IX

by Jay Allan

  “Good luck, Marines!” Captain Harlow’s voice echoed loudly in the helmets of the Marines of A and B companies of the 3rd Battalion. They were the leading edge of the first wave, the first 350 men and women scheduled to hit the ground on Columbia.

  The tradition of the ship’s captain wishing the strike force luck had come down from the earliest days of the spaceborne Corps, and it had endured through three Frontier Wars, the struggle against the First Imperium, and now the battle to defeat Gavin Stark’s Shadow Legions.

  Lieutenant Callahan gritted his teeth. He knew the captain’s address was the final thing he’d hear before the catapults fired and launched the heavy Liggett 10-man landers out into the edge of space above Columbia. Callahan was a veteran who’d fought in the rebellions as a private and the First Imperium War as a non-com. He’d received a battlefield promotion during the fighting on Armstrong, a reward bestowed on him by none other than the legendary Erik Cain himself.

  He exhaled hard as the magnetic cannon accelerated his lander down the rails and through the open outer doors. His armor absorbed some of the g-forces, but he was still slammed back hard inside his suit, losing his breath for a few seconds before he adjusted. It was the same with every assault landing, but it was something you never got completely used to, no matter how many drops you made.

  Callahan had no illusions about what he and his people faced down on Columbia’s surface. They were all veterans, and they would do what had to be done. But the honor of leading the advance guard carried a heavy price. He knew casualties would be high, very high. And if the first Marines down failed to secure a perimeter, they could all be overwhelmed before the fleet could send down enough units to strengthen the landing zone. If the invasion of Columbia failed, if the enemy put up too strong a defense and General Gilson called off the rest of the landings, Callahan knew his people would all be KIA. He knew that because he was damned sure none of them would surrender.

  Callahan glanced at his display, watching the five landers carrying his platoon descend into Columbia’s atmosphere. The formation looked good, and they seemed to be right on schedule. If everything went according to plan, they’d be on the ground and in action in less than ten minutes.

  He felt the lander bounce hard to one side as it tore through the thickening air. The Liggett landing craft was an improvement on the old Gordon, carrying ten armored Marines and a large cargo of ammunition and equipment. With four heavy duty laser turrets and enough ordnance to keep a squad supplied for hours, the Liggett was designed to land right in the teeth of an enemy position, blasting away in close support as its squad jumped right into battle.

  “Projected landing in six minutes.” The voice was female, calm and pleasant, typical for a fleet AI. Callahan knew everyone in the first wave had gotten the same announcement. He took a deep breath, preparing himself once again for battle. He knew his people were ready, that all the Corps was prepared to do what had to be done. His heart had swelled with pride when General Gilson addressed them, when she had invoked the name of Elias Holm. The Commandant had been beloved by every Marine in the Corps, and Callahan and his people were ready to lash out at the enemy that had taken their leader from them. The Corps would fight on Columbia with its usual tenacity and professionalism, but there would be something else here too, a ferocity driven by their pain of loss. The Marines was here to do battle for Elias Holm, and God help any who stood in their way.

  “Four minutes until projected landing. All Marines, complete final diagnostic check on weapons systems.”

  Callahan’s visor plate opened, and he could see the bright blue sky above Columbia. He was held rigidly in place, but he managed to glance down toward the ground as he checked his weapons. There was water below, nothing but a seemingly endless sea stretching as far as he could see. He knew his people were still thousands of kilometers from the inhabited areas of the planet, tearing through the atmosphere at 40,000 kph heading for the LZ just outside the capital city of Weston.

  He could feel the lander’s maneuvering thrusters kick in, and the small craft began to zigzag wildly. They were entering the inner defensive perimeter, and the Liggett’s AI was conducting evasive maneuvers, trying to avoid the incoming AA fire. He could see the laser turrets whipping around, and he caught the barely perceptible flash of one of them firing. He knew that had probably been a surface-to-air missile heading for his lander and, in the back of his mind, he suspected that laser blast had saved his life. His and those of the other nine Marines bolted in next to him.

  There was land below the Liggett now, and he could see they were much closer to the ground. He could make out terrain features ahead, and he tried to match them with the maps he’d studied in the pre-mission briefing.

  “Two minutes to landing.”

  His own com unit activated, allowing him to contact the men and women of his platoon. He was about to speak when he saw a bright flash off to the extreme right. His eyes snapped back to his display, and he felt his stomach in his throat. There were only four Liggett’s displayed. Lander 4 was gone. Just gone.

  The shock of loss hit him hard. He’d understood they were going back into the fight, but it never seemed real until somebody got hit. Now it was official. They were back in the shit.

  “Alright, Marines. Stay focused. We’ve got a job to do.” But all he could think about was the crew of ship four. Hiller, Haggerty, Ash – Ash had saved his life on Armstrong. Now they were all gone.

  “Thirty seconds to landing.”

  The AI snapped him back to the present. He had a job to do, and that came first, before everything. Ten of his people were dead, but the rest were counting on him. It was time to make these sons of bitches pay. And now the men and women of A Company had one more reason to waste these motherfuckers.

  He felt the Liggett’s braking rockets fire and then the slow, sickening drop as the lander floated down the last 30 meters, settling hard on the rocky ground. There was fire ripping all around them, the enemy already moving on the LZ determined to pinch it out before a second wave could get down.

  “Let’s go!” he shouted into the com, leaping from the lander and whipping around his assault rifle. “Company A…attack!”

  The Marines were back on Columbia.

  Chapter 3

  Front Lines

  120 Kilometers East of Paris

  French Zone, Europa Federalis

  Hans Werner peered out over the trench at the blackened and shattered ground in front of his position. The stretch of rolling hills had once been covered with rich vineyards, but now it was a blasted hell where nothing lived. The civilians who’d survived the initial battles had long since fled, and the ruin of war was everywhere.

  Werner couldn’t see the Europan positions from where he stood, but he knew they were there, a mere 3 kilometers ahead, a network of trenches as formidable as his, hidden by the low ridgeline. He’d assaulted that defensive position three times. Each of his meticulously planned attacks drove through the enemy defenses, only to bog down and falter for lack of supplies and reinforcements. The enemy had thrown themselves at his line as well, and each time his carefully positioned batteries and autocannons shredded the advancing formations, sending them back in disarray.

  The casualties along the stalemated line had been almost too many to count. Werner had lost two million men in just the last six months, and he was certain the Europans had suffered even greater casualties. The CEL forces had seemed unstoppable on their initial drive toward Paris, but then the RIC allied with Europa Federalis and invaded the CEL’s eastern provinces, draining away the resources that sustained Werner’s offensive.

  The Europan diplomatic victory was as effective as any battlefield success, and Werner lost almost a million men without a battle, legions of his veterans sent to the eastern front to meet the new threat. His supplies and reinforcements trickled to almost nothing as well, and he’d been compelled to halt his advance and reorganize. The CEL’s chance at a quick victory was lost, the vic
tim of enemy diplomacy and the need to fight a 2-front war.

  Werner had gained his fourth star during the early fighting along the Reims-Troyes Line, and he now commanded the four armies of 1st Army Group. He was the greatest hero of the war, at least in Europe, and the only CEL commander who had distinguished himself in the disastrous early battles. His steadfast defense along the southern edge of the front had likely saved the League from an ignominious defeat in the early months of the fighting, when the Europan forces surged forward shouting their battle cry, “Venger le sang de Marseille.”

  The still-unnamed world war had begun in Europe, between Europa Federalis and the Central European League, ignited by the nuclear destruction of Marseilles, an act of terrorism in which the CEL still denied any involvement. Repeated statements to that effect from Neu-Brandenberg had fallen on deaf ears, and the Paris government repudiated the century-long prohibition against terrestrial warfare and launched a massive invasion of their hated neighbors. That war had been raging for more than a year now, and both Powers, already prostrate from the worldwide economic depression, were on the verge of total collapse.

  The conflict may have started along the banks of the Rhine, but once open war broke out between Superpowers, the conflagration spread, and now there was fighting in every corner of the globe. The Tokyo-based Pacific Rim Coalition joined their longtime Western Alliance allies in the conflict with the Chinese-dominated Central Asian Combine. The Caliphate honored its treaty obligations to their CAC partners, and the Alliance and PRC were soon fighting their two greatest rivals. That struggle had raged across the seas, where the Alliance and PRC had been largely victorious, and in southern Asia and Africa, where the CAC-Caliphate armies had crushed most of their enemies.

  The CAC and the Caliphate had won the diplomatic war as well, winning over both the RIC and the South American Empire as well as Europa Federalis. Hong Kong and New Medina had assembled their great power bloc with a combination of threats and promises, edging out the diplomats from Washbalt with the help of an extraordinary effort by Li An and her C1 operatives.

  The Russian-Indian offensive against the CEL had been the price of bringing Europa Federalis into their league, and now five of Earth’s Superpowers were aligned against the other three. Werner’s attentions had been focused primarily on the theater where he commanded, but he knew the effects of the wider war would trickle down and affect his own armies. Already, his forces had been stripped of manpower and resources to support the tenuous defensive lines on the eastern front. He knew that would only get worse, as the Russians continued to mobilize and pour more troops into the combat zone. Eventually, he realized, if his forces became any weaker, even the battered Europans would reorganize and launch their own offensive.

  He stared down at the orders he held in his hand. He’d read them three times already, but he found his eyes panning across the small ‘pad again. He understood the reality behind the directive, but he still couldn’t bring himself to believe what he was reading. He was to launch an immediate offensive to take the Europan capital of Paris, and he was authorized to use unlimited tactical and intermediate ranged nuclear weapons against any military targets, without consideration to civilian casualties.

  Both sides had used nukes in the war, but they had been targeted and sporadic. Werner’s orders called for a massive pre-attack bombardment, one that shattered the Europan defensive positions and their logistical centers behind the front. There would be millions of civilian casualties, no matter how carefully he targeted the strikes. He could only guess at the probable response, and how it would affect his advancing armies…and the rest of the world.

  He felt a flush of anger toward the high command in Neu-Brandenburg, but he realized they had no choice. The CEL couldn’t fight the Europans and the RIC at the same time, and the Alliance wasn’t in a position to offer anything beyond minimal support. Taking out Europa Federalis was the only way the CEL could survive. If they knocked out their western enemy, they could consolidate their forces on the eastern front and hold out against the growing RIC pressure. It was a desperate plan, one he wanted to oppose. But he couldn’t think of an alternative.

  “Come here, Major.” He shouted to his longtime aide.

  Potsdorf had been with him since his days as a battalion commander. Then a lieutenant, he had followed Werner through his meteoric rise in rank, continuing to serve as his aide at each level of command.

  “Yes, General.” Potsdorf was running over, moving as quickly as he could in the deep muck of the trench. The aide was a tall man, with close-cropped blonde hair and a grim face. He stopped in front of the theater commander and stood at attention.

  “Read this, Potsdorf.” He handed the ‘pad to his surprised aide.

  “My God, sir.” Potsdorf was still reading, but he’d gotten the gist of the order in the first few seconds. “This is a massive escalation.”

  “Indeed it is, Major.” There was a sadness in Werner’s voice. He was a soldier, and he would carry out his orders, but he couldn’t help but think he was committing suicide as well. For him and for his soldiers, and possibly for the civilians back home too. The Europans would almost certainly respond in kind, and a battlefield that was already a nightmare would become a blasted, radioactive hell. What happened next rested with the politicians, but that was cold comfort to Werner. “But those are our orders, so we’d better do everything we can to make sure the troops are ready.” He took a deep breath. “Because we’re about to unleash hell.”

  Ryan Warren’s head was pounding. He reached around and massaged the back of his neck, feeling the hard tightness of the knotted muscles under his fingers. He glanced at the chronometer. He’d been at his desk for almost 15 hours, but he wasn’t even close to done. There was a half-eaten sandwich sitting off to the side of workstation, the only food he’d touched all day. It had been there for hours, and the edges were dried out and stale. A stone cold cup of coffee, missing only a few sips, sat next to the plate, equally forgotten.

  Warren had lost 10 kilos since he had taken over Gavin Stark’s job, and he wondered how that master spy had seemed to handle his myriad responsibilities with such effortless grace. He suspected now that had been at least somewhat of a façade, that Stark’s brilliant leadership had come at its own cost. Still, it had been weeks since he’d managed to sleep all night, and he wondered how any man could do this job for as long as Stark had.

  For years Warren had dreamed about being Number One, a goal that had seemed unattainable from his mid-level position in the massive spy agency. Now that circumstance had made his wild ambition a reality, he longed only to flee from the crushing responsibility, to go back to his small office and his old manageable portfolio of work. He’d once ached for the power he imagined Stark wielded, but now, with war raging across the globe and revolution and disorder at home, he saw nothing but endless obligation. No matter what he managed to accomplish, another ten problems were waiting for his attention.

  Things were going downhill. Fast. He’d been Number One for ten months now, but he was still trying to rebuild an Alliance Intelligence ravaged by the nuclear destruction of its headquarters. The personnel losses had been severe, and key agents were missing, even those who shouldn’t have been in Washbalt when HQ was destroyed. There was something wrong, something he couldn’t explain fully. He was sure of that. But he couldn’t figure out what it was.

  The devastated and massively shrunken Alliance Intelligence had only a fraction of its earlier resources, and more problems than ever to address. There was war raging across the globe, and the Alliance had suffered some key defeats, making its position ever more precarious. Warren wouldn’t characterize the war to date as a disaster, but he couldn’t say things were going well either.

  The navy had gained control of the seas, largely as a result of Admiral Young’s extraordinary leadership, but the naval victories had been costly, and losses had been high. The remaining fleets were strong enough to control the oceans themselves, but
too weak to project force close to land, where the enemy’s ground batteries and missiles could come into play.

  The Cog pacification program had begun to achieve some sporadic successes. The initial implementation had been nothing short of a disaster, the Cog enlisted men disobeying their officers and refusing to execute their kill orders. Warren had overestimated the discipline of the armed forces, assuming the Cog soldiers would do as they were told, out of sheer self-preservation if nothing else. They’d all known the price of disobedience, but many of them had mutinied anyway, and the initial attacks against the rioting Cogs had been a stunning failure.

  Warren’s people had since reestablished control over the kill units, transferring in more crew from the middle classes and the lowest ranks of the political class. His people had taken charge of the captured mutineers from the military authorities, executing them with extreme brutality in front of their fellow soldiers. He knew there was a limit to what such harsh measures could accomplish, that if he pushed too hard, he would only feed rebellion. But time wasn’t on his side, and if he couldn’t scare the soldiers into submission, all would be lost. He’d actually had contingency plans to nuke several cities where the Cog rebellions were the most severe, but President Oliver had put those on hold.

  Oliver had a reputation for strength and intelligence, one Warren now realized was entirely undeserved. The Alliance’s longtime president was a bully with some instinctive political skill, but nothing more. He had maintained power for so many years through momentum and threats, and he’d been lucky not to encounter a capable adversary in that time. The current crisis had entirely overwhelmed him, and he’d lost his nerve more than once when risky actions were called for. Warren had thought about making a move to unseat Oliver, but he hadn’t pulled the trigger. He had no doubt it was the move Gavin Stark would have made, but the last thing Alliance Intelligence’s new chief wanted was more responsibility.