Spartan Valor

by Toby Neighbors

  “How exactly did they manage that when two are in the medical facilities at the Titan ship yards and two more are in the med bay of the Attila?”

  “Well, I’m sure I don’t know, but I stand by my actions,” Rigel said.

  “What actions?” Westmore continued. “Master Sergeant Eubanks led the team that built the road. Engineering Lieutenant Duffer gave a full report on the last two weeks, and the debacle when you led the entire battle group onto the jungle road. If it weren’t for the quick thinking of Sergeant Porter, Duffer’s engineers, and Corporal Keyes, you would have been slaughtered in the jungle. The officers on the transports report that you did nothing during the attack. The only clear order you gave, was the order not to stop and pick up the two wounded Marines who had cleared the road for your retreat.”

  “That’s a lie,” Rigel said. “We couldn’t take a chance of stopping. We were under heavy fire.”

  “From spears and arrows?” Westmore demanded. “Sir, you are a disgrace. Now shut your mouth. You will remain in charge of this Base Camp, but if you continue to fail at meeting your mission parameters, you will be removed from command.”

  I wanted to shout for joy, or at least jump up and down and cheer. Instead, I held my jubilation in check and waited while the Major turned back to me.

  “Sir, how is Master Sergeant Eubanks?” I asked.

  “He’s recovering. The medics removed the arrow, and they’re giving him a course of IV antibiotics. It’s antiquated, I know, but that’s the best we could do for him on the ground. I’ll be taking the both of you back up with me when my shuttle returns to the Attila. We’ll get him back in fighting shape there. In the meantime, I’ve got work to do here. Go ahead and gather your personal effects and report to my shuttle. This operation isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

  “Yes sir,” I said, standing and saluting.

  The Major returned my salute. I turned to leave the Command Post feeling accomplished and even vindicated. I didn’t notice Lieutenant Parks slip out behind me. I was looking around and wondering if I had any personal effects to gather, or if I should just look for my friends.

  “A word, Porter,” Lieutenant Parks said.

  I turned around, and he gestured for me to follow him between two buildings. A sense of dread filled my stomach. It felt like I had swallowed a medicine ball whole.

  “I won’t deny you have proven yourself to be extremely capable in a very short time,” Parks said in a soft voice. “But soon enough, my people will capture the aliens responsible for the attack on the Base Camp. And once we’ve questioned them and learned that your breech of military secrets ruined a week of covert operations to secure the vital IX gas, you’ll be charged with treason. Major Westmore can’t protect you forever.”

  “I stand by what I did for Private Wilkes,’ I said. “I think your policy of disavowing anyone who is captured is barbaric and dishonorable.”

  “You believe you did the right thing,” Parks said. “Unfortunately, I see your foolish actions as not only treasonous, but exceedingly dangerous. You gave up our strategy in exchange for your friend, who is still missing by the way. She didn’t survive the counter attack last night.”

  I felt as if he had stabbed me with knife. Aurora was out there, somewhere. I wanted to run to her rescue, but I had no way of knowing where she was. Nor was I at liberty to help her again.

  “In the end, Wilkes is still gone, the entire mission nearly ended in disaster, and the hostile forces are as strong as ever. All because you find our methods barbaric and dishonorable. Tell that to the families of the people who died under your leadership, Porter. Westmore may have promoted you, but he only weakened the Corps.”

  Lieutenant Parks turned and walked away. I was left feeling cold and empty in the shadows between the buildings. My elation was gone, ripped away by my fear and grief. I decided there was nothing for me to take back up into space. Instead, I stopped at tiny medical facility. It was another of the small structures. Money was the only patient, and several medics were getting ready to carry him to Major Westmore’s shuttle.

  “Congratulations are in order, from what I hear,” Money said in a shaky voice.

  “You shouldn’t try to talk, Master Sergeant,” said one of the medics.

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s fighting a strong infection,” the doctor said. “I’ll feel better when he’s in a proper sick bay.”

  “You’re coming up with us?” Money asked.

  “Yes, Master Sergeant.”

  “Good,” he said closing his eyes.

  I watched as they carried him away. I felt hollow, knowing that Aurora was missing. I wandered over to where the armored division was camped. A few of the Marines welcomed me, and I found Gloria in her transport.

  “Hey there, stranger,” she said. “Looks like they came to their senses.”

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” I said.

  “I’m better than okay. I’m Corporal okay.”

  “I heard. That’s great.”

  “Not as great as sergeant, but I can’t complain. At least one good thing came from listening to you.”

  “What?”

  “Look Orry, let’s not pretend here. I’m staying at the Base Camp, and you’re going back to the Attila. Who knows what you’ll end up doing, or when we’ll see each other again.”

  “Does that mean we aren’t friends anymore?” I was confused and flooded with guilt. It seemed all I managed to do was hurt the people I cared about.

  “Friends is all we can be,” she replied. “I’m not a fool. You love Aurora, and I have to face that fact.”

  “The fact is, I love you both,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter. Aurora is missing.”

  “It does matter,” she replied. “The heart wants what the heart wants. I can’t help but love you, and you can’t help but love her. It’s best that we go our separate ways. Maybe it’s the only way we’ll be able to move on.”

  I felt a bitterness creeping up inside me. Did she not care that Aurora was missing? Could she not fathom that I had feelings for two people who were dear to me?

  “Besides,” Gloria went on. “Don’t get too twisted up over Aurora. Just because she’s listed as MIA doesn’t make it true. You can’t believe anything from the MI, Orry. I have no doubt she’s out there somewhere. I just don’t believe that she was captured. The more likely scenario is that her CO sent her on another covert mission. We’re better off not knowing what’s she up to.”

  I was stunned. Money had said I was a natural born fighter, but in some ways I was just plain naive. I had bought Lieutenant Parks’ story, hook, line, and sinker. He had managed to rob me of any peace I felt, but the man was a professional liar.

  “You’re probably right,” I said. “I’ll miss our time together.”

  “Getting shot at, chased, or detained by the authorities?” Gloria asked with a smirk on her face.

  “You know what I mean. The only good thing about this planet is the view of the stars at night.”

  Gloria’s face twitched at the memory. It wasn’t a smile, but it was more than a frown, and I knew it was all I would get from her. She had raised her walls and was focused on the work at hand. It was an effective strategy to ward off her unreliable emotions, which I knew from first hand experience. My own feelings were as muddied as a swirling river at flood stage.

  “I’ll see you around, Corporal Keyes,” I said.

  “Stay safe, Sergeant Porter,” she replied.

  I got out of the transport and walked slowly across the open field toward Major Westmore’s shuttle. It felt like one chapter of my life was closing, and I couldn’t help but wish I was flying far away from Apex Venandi. But my fate was still entwined with the alien world, and my only option was to follow orders, wherever they took me.

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  COLONIAL SPACE FLEET

  DEPARTMENT OF THE MARINE CORPS

  HEADQUARTERS OF THE CANNIS ONE GARRISON

  CAMP NAPOLEON, SHEPHERD CITY,

  MEMORANDUM FOR FLEET STAFF OFFICERS

  SUBJECT: New species behavior, first contact

  Concerning alien race hereafter designated as “swarm,” first identified through satellite imagery six days ago.

  The swarm, which were first thought to be an insectile race much like honey bees on Earth, have now begun to move across the ground en masse. Our efforts to track the swarm have been ineffective. Without constant visual contact, the swarm disappears at night. Efforts to use infrared and thermal imagining to track the swarm have failed.

  The swarm are consuming planetary resources at an alarming rate. The closest we can come to describing their behavior is that it is similar to that of locusts. The swarm consume everything in their path: water, minerals, botanical and animal life, as well as manmade structures.

  First contact was made at the Stillwell outpost, nine hundred and seventy kilometers north of Shepherd City. The outpost, which consisted of two buildings, one residential domicile, one maintenance shed, was overrun. The crops were consumed, along with the buildings, vehicles, and farming implements. All attempts to halt the swarm or initiate communications failed.

  One soldier was KIA while trying to initiate contact with the swarm. His body is missing and believed to be consumed.

  Cannis One Garrison Unit designated Charlie Platoon was forced to retreat after engaging the swarm. All reports indicate that conventional weapons have failed. CSF forces are gearing up to help with evacuation protocol.

  Request further orders in dealing with what can only be classified as an alien threat. The swarm is growing and at this rate will overrun the entire colony in a matter of weeks. Suggestions from planetside include but are not limited to aerial bombardment, smart weapons, engineered ordinance, and increased troop presence to protect the larger settlements.

  1

  Fleet Operations Command Station

  Mars Orbit, Sol System

  “As you can see from this sat footage, the primary settlement was overrun,” Colonel Issak Jakobson said.

  “Damn, that’s over eighteen thousand colonists,” Fleet Admiral Basil Jennings said.

  He was a big man with a commanding presence. His naval uniform was spotless and the ribbons on his wide chest seemed strangely small on the broad expanse, despite the numerous recognitions he had earned in a career that spanned over three decades. His white hair was neatly combed in place. His face was lined with deep wrinkles that contrasted with his eyes, which were sharp and focused on the Marine colonel giving the intelligence report.

  “The planet is lost,” Jakobson continued. “We could recover the satellites but nothing on the ground.”

  “You’re telling me there’s nothing we can do to remove these interlopers,” Marine Corps Commandant Henrich Fuller said in a deep voice.

  “What I’m saying is the swarm adapts to whatever attacks we throw at them. The only weapons we haven’t tried are nuclear weapons, which would destroy the swarms and kill the queens, I suppose, but at what cost?”

  “Let’s not have that discussion again,” Admiral Jennings ordered. “We aren’t going to break every treaty of the past century by using nukes. We’ve lost Cannis One, that’s settled for now. What about the other colonies?”

  “We have reports of possible infestation on Neo Terra in the Tau Ceti system, although the swarms haven’t been located. There are also indications that Centauri Prime has been infected.”

  “What the hell!” Fuller rumbled. “That’s the damn Alpha Centauri system, less than five light years from Earth.”

  “We have to do something,” Marshal General Allison Sinclare said. “If we hit them before they swarm we could take the queen out.”

  “Only if we can find them,” Colonel Jakobson said. “So far we’ve been unsuccessful at discovering where they go once they make planet fall.”

  “So these creatures hit our colony planets and we can’t do anything? Is that what you’re telling me, Colonel?” Fleet Admiral Jennings said angrily.

  “Actually, sir, what I’m trying to say is that we haven’t found a successful tactic against the swarm. As you know the aliens are like locusts. They feed on a planet’s resources: water, minerals, plant life, you name it. Cities are no exception, they consume the manmade materials, concrete, glass, ceramics. They even consume the chemicals in the bombs we set as traps. Less than twenty-five percent of the engineered ordinance we set up actually detonated as planned.”

  “Tanks on the ground,” Commandant Fuller declared. “We can plow right through those bastards and take out their queen.”

  “Actually, that was tried on Cannis One,” Jakobson corrected the head of the Space Fleet’s Marine Corps. The tanks move too slowly, their ordinance is too easy to detect and evade. Drone strikes are the same. All our weapons are built to move in a straight line.”

  “The path of least resistance,” Marshal Sinclare said.

  “That’s correct. We have smart missiles that can track enemies who try to evade, but the swarm is, by all accounts, a hive mind. That means that all the creatures are controlled by a single source, which we believe to be the queen. When we shoot at the hive, no matter what the ordinance we use, they simply separate. Our bullets and missiles fly harmlessly past them. Then they reform into an organized group. When we target the center of the swarm, hoping to kill their queen, they form up around her and protect her with their lives.”

  “Everyone has a weakness,” Jennings said. “We just have to find it and exploit it.”

  “Give me the green light, Admiral,” Fuller said. “We’ll land enough men and weapons to stop these creatures.”

  “Weren’t you listening at all,” Marshal Sinclare said. She was head of the Fleet’s Air Forces, managing all manned fighter craft and drones. She had a PhD in aeronautical engineering, and more than ten thousand hours in various atmospheric and hard vacuum fighter jets. Her hair was tied back in a tight ponytail without a single strand out of place. No make-up, and a small mouth that rarely smiled, she was respected in all three branches of the Colonial Space Fleet. “Throwing more men and guns at the problem won’t change anything.”

  “I respectfully disagree,” Fuller said. “All we’ve ever done is utilize the small garrison on Cannis One. We didn’t hit these bastards with any real force.”

  “Overwhelming firepower would, we believe, have an effect on the swarms,” Colonel Jakobson said. “Unfortunately, it would be very costly and time consuming. And that doesn’t take into account the possibility of the swarm changing tactics. We don’t know if they are intelligent fighters. To this point, their straight forward attacks have proven successful. If we send in enough troops to stop their advance, they might simply retreat and choose a different target. Worse still, with their greater speed and continuity, they could flank our forces.”

  “The colonies on Neo Terra and Alpha Prime are much larger than Cannis One,” Sinclare added. “They have multiple cities with large populations. We don’t have the manpower to protect them all. You put troops on the ground in one location, the swarm could simply attack another. We can’t move all our people fast enough. We could build up drone companies and have them deploy from orbit at the first sign of the enemy. It won’t be cheap but it will be faster and less dangerous.”

  “Unfortunately, we don’t think drones will suffice,” Colonel Jakobson said. “Let me introduce Lieutenant Commander Hikari Sozu. She’s been working on finding a solution to the problem and has more knowledge of the swarm than I do.”

  “Hello,” Hikari Sozu said nervously, stepping toward the table where the three highest-ranking officers in the CSF sat waiting for her report. She could feel her hands trembling and her knee
s were weak. She didn’t like giving reports, or really even interacting with people she didn’t know well. As a scientist in the CSF Research & Development division, her job was to analyze problems and come up with creative solutions, which she normally did in a small office all alone. Her work had never been picked up by her superiors until recently, and she was sorely out of practice when it came to reporting to high-ranking officers. “We don’t think the drones would be successful because we can’t be sure that the swarm wouldn’t interfere with the remote controls.”

  “We don’t know how they communicate, do we?” Fuller said. “How the hell can we know they would disrupt the drone signals?”

  “We don’t know how they share information,” Sozu agreed. “But we know it isn’t through verbalizations. We have video footage of the swarms from Cannis One. We’ve analyzed it extensively. They don’t leave their dead behind, so we haven’t been able to dissect one of them to really know how they operate, but our drone operators have reported interference with their craft when engaging the swarm.”

  “Well, we can’t bet the lives of thousands of colonists on our drones working if they might have a way to interfere with the controls,” the fleet admiral said.

  “We should at least try,” Marshal Sinclare said. “We don’t know that the swarms can stop our birds.”

  “Yes, I agree,” Admiral Jennings said. “But we can’t count on the drones. We need a contingency plan, which is what I’m hoping we’re getting to, Colonel Jakobson.”

  “Yes, of course, Admiral,” the chief of intelligence nodded in agreement. “Lieutenant Commander Sozu has a very interesting theory on what might actually work.”

  “We’re all ears,” the admiral said.

  “Excellent, okay,” Sozu said, trying to calm her nerves. “The problem with our attacks is the linear nature of our weapons and the superior coherency of the hive mind. None of our traditional weapons or vehicles can move fast enough to be effective against them.”