“But it will be at a significant distance from our primary objective. We will need to make a second camp site before meeting with the rest of the teams for the defense base. It is the one place we can’t let go, and we must investigate it as soon as possible. If what Aria said is true it might be the key to winning the battle and even to holding this world.”
Rivers nodded.
“You are right, but that is a mission for later we have other priorities for now. Go now take some rest.”
He got a nod from Anderson who turned and headed towards a tree on the opposite side of Rivers and sat down.
The four hours passed quickly. The watch was rotated every hour and no one reported anything strange. The group broke camp quickly erasing any marks that would give away their presence and continued towards their next chosen location. The hills were a perfect location for their first base camp. They offered the higher easily defendable ground, and also a great view of the surrounding jungle and ravines. The small group moved fast with two men always separated to watch the rear and in front of them for any danger. They covered the distance towards the hills in the next seven hours. The main obstacle was a large river that was almost half a mile wide and fast flowing. It took them almost an hour to find a shallow ford that they could cross. After that they took another short break, and then headed quickly towards their chosen location. One hour later Rivers used his binoculars to watch the surroundings as the soldiers started creating their main camp site. The camp site was well hidden from view by air and land by the dense jungle. It was a small clearing under the tall trees. The trees were a strange mixture of pines, bamboos and other trees he had seen in many forests and jungles on Earth. But there were also some trees that were completely new. And they were tall, a lot taller than their distant cousins on Earth. Some rose as high as two hundred meters in to the air. The animal life was a strange mixture of reptiles, mammals and large insects. There were no Dino creatures like on Pandora and he was happy about that. Most of the creatures he saw were mentioned by Aria. They didn’t notice any of the large carnivores she warned them about and he was just as happy with that. There were enough dangers in their mission even without the large beasts.
He turned as he heard footsteps behind him. By the sound he knew that it was Anderson. The African-American smiled as his commander turned.
“Is the camp ready?”
“Yes and we have contact with the rest of the teams. They are all accounted for and in position.”
Rivers smiled as he heard the news. He trusted in the abilities of his men but he feared that there might be problems during the insertion. Now that everyone was down and accounted for he finally relaxed a little.
“That’s good. I guess it is time for us to do our job. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before our friends arrive.”
With that he turned again and he started planning. At the same time on seven other locations seven other commanders were making similar plans. And the next morning on all five continents all teams started heading towards their objectives.
CHAPTER THREE
Sol System May 1 2020
Earth - Pentagon Headquarters
Washington DC 15:00
Taylor looked in to the face of his longtime friend and fellow marine General Dominic P. Barrett. As Barrett looked in to the report his face only darkened.
Barrett looked at Taylor and raised the file.
“Jack this is a cluster fuck, nothing more nothing less. This is a recipe for a disaster. These units, from so many countries, with so many different training standards, tactics…hell even the beliefs. This army will never be able to work together. I wonder what you and the rest of the brass was thinking, what Christian was thinking when you created this.”
Taylor smiled but his smile was stone cold.
“You know as well as me what we were thinking Dom. We need the manpower, you know as well as me that this has to be a joint operation. This is something we can’t do alone.”
Barrett exhaled.
“I wish I could ask you why but yes I do. But for god sake Jack this will be hell. You, we are sending our best out there, but this plan, this mission…we are not murderers and executioners Jack. We are not mindless machines that can be sent to eradicate every living being on that world.”
Taylor stood up and went to the window. He looked at the beautiful day outside. May was not as hot as before this year. The climate on Earth was still shaky at best, thanks to the fallout from the kinetic bombardment. The planet was recovering, but the process was slow and it needed time. A mini ice age was occurring. He knew that it would be over soon but deep inside he was hoping that it would last, because it was healing the planet.
He knew that Barrett was right, and deep inside he always asked those same questions, they all did. Some even proposed to send not the very best, but average units on this mission, but the suggestions were without heart. They all knew what was at stake, just as the space battle this was a must do.
“I know the feeling Dom. Hell we argued the same thing when the plan was proposed. But you know that it is a must. For us to live that world has to die. Not a trace that will point to Earth must remain. If I knew that an average or a bad unit could do this I would vote for the Middle East and African units to be sent instead. They are good at killing just for the sake of it. But we need intelligence here not just butchery.”
Barrett exhaled.
”And as we both know we don’t know what is out there. Even if everything goes according to plan and the fleet smashes the Dacarian cities and bases to dust there will be survivors and they will fight.”
“Yes Dom and we will need our best to fight them and kill them. We already have sixty of them there preparing the terrain even now.”
They both smiled as they thought about the SF teams. The smile was predatory. There was a silent rivalry between the marines and the SF teams. Hell there was a rivalry between all US military units and it was the same in all the military units all across the globe. The federation united humanity but that process was just beginning and it was a process that would need time. The military was the same. Longtime rivals and enemies, they were now friends, with units that often fought each other in the past and now trained and would fight side by side. The animosity, the hatred, the wounds would need time to heal.
Taylor was still looking outside and Barrett rose from his chair and joined him. He too looked outside.
“It is beautiful isn’t it?”
“Yes it is, it always was, and when I remember how it looks from up there…”
They both smiled at the memory of Earth from space. It was privileged memory, a rare beauty to see the blue shimmering ball in the blackness of space, something that just a few years back was reserved for a small number of people, a selected few. Now millions had seen it in person and it was really special just as the astronauts said. It made you grasp the beauty and rarity of life.
Not even the knowing of other worlds out there changed that. Earth was a rare jewel, made even more special because it was humanity’s jewel, humanity’s birth place.
“We might have to do something that we swore we never will, we might break some promises but this is what we fight for Dom. Admiral Levin said once that in order to beat this enemy we might have to become something we all hate. And he was right. If we want our civilization, all of this to survive, for all we have to remain and grow, we have to be merciless just as the Dacarians are, just as we know we can all be.”
Barrett looked at his friend.
“The marines will do their duty Jack, and so will the others, even if by doing it we forsake our humanity. The units that will step on that world will be the harbingers of hell we need them to be, but by god almighty as I look at the mission I can’t shake the feeling that we are bringing our own demons in the open again.”
Taylor exhaled.
“Yes we do. For a mission like these we need the SS and the Wehrmacht, the Japanese samurai and our own soldiers f
rom the world wars, from Nam. We need soldiers that are prepared to lose their soul.”
They both looked outside.
“Yes we do but no price is too high to pay for what we are fighting to protect.”
Sol System
Battleship Argus
Admiral Johnson looked at the magnificent sight from the observation deck of the Argus at the gathering fleet. The same look could be seen on the faces of the other two men, Admiral Simonson and Admiral Levin. The three men that together with Jennings were the commanders of the fleets that managed to stop the Dacarian invasion fleet. Even now they knew that soon they would face the same enemies again. The ships that were now moving into formation outside in the cold expanse between Earth and Mars were going to be the instrument of that attack. In the battle that had happened almost a year ago Home Fleet, composed of First and Second Fleet and Third Fleet managed to completely annihilate the Dacarian invasion fleet but they had paid a huge price. The three fleets were ravaged with almost half the ships being destroyed and another third heavily damaged. But the biggest loss was the personal. Eighty four thousand nine hundred and three people, both navy and marine personal lost their lives that day. They were the most experienced personal that the navy had. In some ways they were irreplaceable. And millions more died on the ground when the enemy missiles hit the planet.
But humanity didn’t give up. Now not even a year later two hundred and three new ships were arranged outside. They were led by the two Alteran cruisers. And hundreds more were being constructed both on Earth and in the orbital shipyards above Earth and on Ceres.
Most of the ships were from the three already proved classes, the Essex and the Orion class of cruisers and Seahawk corvettes. They represented the hulls that were already in production before the enemy attacked. And they looked small when compared with the far smaller number of bigger ships that were placed in the middle of the formation.
Thirty two Daedalus class cruisers, four Eisenhower Carriers and seven Iowa class battleships…
They were the first of the next generation of ships. Together with the corvettes they represented the future of the fleet. And compared with the far smaller ships they had a lot more firepower and far stronger hulls and shields. That especially went for the carriers and the battleships.
As Simonson remembered the scans of the Dacarian carriers he smiled. They were good ships but they just as the carrier’s humanity had on Earth had depended on their escorts for protection. The first four space carriers that humanity built were far different. He smiled as he remembered their nick name “Battlestar”. But as he looked at them he knew that the name fit. They were three thousand four hundred and fifty feet long, nine hundred and eighty five feet wide at the back with the two launch decks, and three hundred and ninety four feet wide at the nose. And four hundred feet high from top to bottom. Each carrier was consisted of a main super structure that was seventy five meters wide and housed the living quarters and CIC. Just as in the Orion the two hangars were placed in the wider rear area and went along half the ship. The main super structure had separate internal armor protection from the two hangar decks on its side that in theory should allow the ship to continue to function even if the hangars were destroyed. The ship had a lot more armor than any ship built before with twenty nine meter thick steel plates, ten meters titanium and five meters of composite armor plates of ceramics, carbon nanotubes, and titanium diboride and boron nitrides. Above them was placed the first line of defense the one meter thick electrical armor. The ship was powered by thirty mark two fusion reactors that were the second generation of fusion reactors with 30% greater energy output and far safer than the first generation. That gave the ships energy shielding a far greater output than the first polarization shields could provide. It also gave the ship a far greater power output for its weapons systems.
The Eisenhower Class had two main MAC guns placed on its ventral hull that went the entire length of the ship. They could fire fifty ton projectiles at a speed of four hundred miles per second and it could fire three times in a row before it would need to recharge. It also had twenty two primary kinetic energy guns and Twenty four M-100 plasma cannons placed on all four sides of the ship. Hundred and twelve rail guns placed on all sides of the hull formed its third offensive weapon. Eighty four missile launch platforms capable of launching both conventional and atomic missiles were positioned all over the ship. Four hundred and eighty dual kinetic weapons and sixty laser rings combined with the advanced Aegis system formed its point defense. That combined with an air wing of three hundred vipers, twenty raptors and ten pelican drop ships represented an awesome amount of firepower. As Anaya pointed out they were ships that could even give the Argus a fight for its money. The carrier had a crew of two thousand men. But it could also carry additional five thousand men and that was needed for the mission that lay ahead.
The Daedalus class of battle cruisers was the next third generation of cruisers. Fifteen hundred and ten feet long it had an air wing of sixty fighters, four pelican drop ships, one MAC gun that could fire a fifty ton projectile and it could fire three in a row, twelve plasma cannons, and thirty six missile launchers. An advanced Aegis system, four main rail guns placed on the front, forty eight placed on other parts of the hull and eighty four dual kinetic point defense weapons. It was impressive and it was powered by sixteen fusion reactors.
And the last group of ships was the Iowa class of battleships. The name was easy to choose considering their counterparts back on Earth.
They were not as big as the carriers but had just about the same amount of firepower.
Two thousand eight hundred and fifty five feet long, three hundred and sixty feet wide and hundred an eighty feet high with a main super structure that was fifty meters wide, armor that was consisted of thirty meter thick steel plates, fifteen meters of titanium, seven meters of composite armor plates of ceramics, carbon nanotubes, and titanium diboride and boron nitrides and the first line of defense the three meters thick electrical armor. Four MAC guns two on the ventral hull two on the sides that could fire fifty and twenty five ton projectiles at a speed of four hundred miles per second, twenty plasma canons, twenty primary kinetic energy weapons and eighty six rail guns placed all over the hull and ninety missile launch platforms represented its offensive weapons. The battleship had no air wing but it had the most impressive point defense system that combined the most advanced Aegis system, four hundred and sixty dual kinetic weapons and fifty five defensive lasers.
It was powered by thirty Mark two fusion reactors just as the carrier.
It had a crew of one thousand four hundred and sixty men.
“If we had them during the battle a lot of people would have survived.”
Johnson turned towards Simonson.
“Yes but the important thing is that we have them now and by the time the fleet leaves we will have twenty more ships of those classes. They can handle anything those bastards can throw at them.”
“The Excelsior should be there by now.”
“Yes William. I hope that they made it safely. But there is no way to know for sure. I wish we had a way of communicating with them but the drones that we have that can make the trip are too few and they only carry three. And we gave Jennings strict orders that he is to use them only in dire emergency.”
The older admiral who was in fact their commander in chief just nodded. The fleet would have a good number of drones with it in order to make contact with Earth after the invasion. But the Excelsior was on scouting and reconnaissance mission deep in to enemy territory. That’s why they didn’t use any drones.
The drones were another technology that was left from the Alterans, every ship of the refugee fleet had them and the three military ships had hundreds. A large number of them were sent to the newly formed colonies as a way of faster communication with the home system. They were a valuable asset and one that was rare considering that they represented a piece of technology that was far more advanced than anything
humanity was capable of reverse engineering. With the new fusion reactors the scientists were confident that they would be able to create new drones but they would be far slower than their counterparts. But that was something that was expected and it was a project that was supported both by the military and the civilian government.
“Let us pray that he and his men will succeed in their mission.”
Simonson looked out of the window towards the fleet that was exercising.
“I know admiral Jennings. If there is a man who can carry out a mission like that it would be him. One way or another we will know in a year.”
Levin looked at his younger subordinate and smiled. He knew what Simonson meant. The younger admiral and he were the commanders of the task force that would go to Arcadia. Simonson would have command of Second Fleet that would destroy the planetary defenses and land the first troops on the planet. That honor belonged to the marines and several units from other nations. After the beach head and the orbitals were secured the rest of the task force including the ships that would be carrying the First Expeditionary Army would enter the system. That was the original plan. The planning was still in progress and so was the organization but both Simonson and Levin knew that the fleet plan would suffer minor changes. Most of the planning would go to the ground troops and their commanders.
“Our mission will be the hammer, but the ground troops would do the real fighting on that world. If what Anaya said was true there might be some other Alteran artifacts and pieces of technology that we might use.”
“Yes Eliot and that is the main reason why they will be on this mission. In a way I really hoped that we could just blast the damn world to pieces and not land any troops on it, but we all know that that is not possible. That remains an option if everything else fails but the army will have to kill every damn Dacarian on that world and destroy every piece of technology that we might miss so that every trace that points to Earth and Sol is gone. We need that time and even if we have to commit genocide on a large scale it is something that we have to do.”
The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) Page 46
