Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  “My battle orders have set the battalion strength at two hundred and ten.”

  “That is disappointing. It is unlikely that you will succeed in your mission or survive it. If you cannot persuade your Colonel to make more troops available, you will need a strategy that allows for your shortfall.”

  “Colonel Ssar Bess Dassur will not agree to making more troops available to me, but even if he did, we don’t have any more competent soldiers left on base that I would choose to add to the battalion. There are already soldiers in the battalion who are barely adequate as it is.”

  “We are committed to our action on Forness Two, Sah Lee. We are depending on you to lead your battalion in support.”

  “We will fight alongside you Ti’rrk. I need to think about how we can plan to succeed.”

  “I can assure you that we will give you any assistance in our power.”

  “That is good to know. I have a lot to think about. I was told that the Ants are master strategists. I would appreciate any input you can give.”

  “I will consult with the army leaders, but if you have no more questions, we both have much to do.”

  Sah Lee stood, “It was good to meet you Ti’rrk. I look forward to fighting alongside your army.”

  “It was a pleasure to meet you too Major. Before you leave, I have a favor to ask. I am not of the soldier caste, but as part of my training as interspecies liaison, I have had full military training. I cannot fight with our soldiers, I do not get the fighting frenzy that they experience and therefore I risk being injured by my own troops, but I would be honored to take a place in your army when the attack takes place.”

  “It would be my honor to have you fight with us Ti’rrk. Consider it done. Uh, how do I get back to the lander?”

  Ti’rrk gave a throaty chuckle. “Tell your AI to take there. It will have no problem negotiating with the crafts main AI.”

  Chapter Ninety Six

  Preparations

  Sah Lee sat at the head of the conference table. Lieutenant Brog Dant, Sergeant Dorsh Ab Morg, Captain Auross Trowd Arben Sergeant Si’ir Monnen Dak sat looking expectantly at her.

  “I want an update from all of you, staring with you, Brog.”

  “I don’t know why I’m here.” he replied.

  Sah Lee’s head dropped, and she stared at the table for a few seconds. She looked up. “You’re here because I told you to be here! I want your opinion and advice based on previous actions of this type. Any previous examples of mixed species armies fighting alongside Ants.”

  “Oh, right. All recorded examples of mixed species forces fighting with Ants were successful, in that they achieved their military objectives. Several had high casualty rates among the non-Ant soldiers when they got in the way of the Ants. This led to instances of the non-Ant troops attacking the Ants. These skirmishes were short lived, as were the non-Ant troops. As long as your soldiers don’t get in the way of the Ants, all should be well.”

  “Thank you.” She looked round the table. “Bear that in mind and make absolutely certain that everyone is ordered to keep out of the way of the Ants and make damn sure they know why. The penalty for disobeying that order is death by Ant. Auross, are you happy with the Ant battle plan?”

  “Yes Major. The Ants have a fearsome reputation in battle, but Brog’s comments reinforce the dangers of fighting with them. I don't doubt they will succeed, I do have concerns we may not survive the victory.”

  ” Si’ir Mon", what do you think?”

  “The Ants will succeed. If all our troops have got the sense to keep out of their way, we don’t have a problem.”

  “Dorsh,” Sah Lee asked, “have you got any reservations about the battle plan?”

  “No Major. I’m with Si’ir Monn. We could do with more troops, but Colonel Ssar Bess Dassur won't agree to that.”

  “OK, we are all agreed, despite Captain Auross’s concern, that the battle plan is viable. Si’ir Monn, Dorsh, have we got the troops we need?”

  “Yeah,” Si’ir Monn answered, “but we’ve had to scrape the barrel. We’ve got a few who I don’t trust to commit themselves fully, and one or two I wouldn’t want to stand behind me with a weapon. One of those is Fauren Ess.”

  “That name is familiar.” Sah Lee said. “Where have I heard it before?”

  “Do you remember the soldier who pushed you around on your first mission, on Orn?”

  “The one I punched in the eye?”

  “That’s the one. He has been boasting to his friends that he will kill you the first time he goes in to action with you, and he’s likely to try it too.”

  “I don’t think he’ll be a problem.” Sah Lee said. “I’ll use my new officer skills and speak to him when we land.”

  “You’re kidding yourself if you think talking to him will make any difference.”

  “I can be very persuasive.” she said with a sweet smile. “We have an additional asset. The Ant liaison, Ti’rrk, wants to fight with us. She says she doesn’t get what she called the ‘fighting frenzy’ that the soldier Ants have.”

  “I still don’t want her near me.” Captain Auross said.

  “Don’t worry, I plan for her to be next to me. Si’ir Monn, are Kar Fen and Bynor in our complement?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “They will be in my unit too. We will be in the center of the line and will be strong enough that I can send up to three of us to reinforce anywhere that needs it. Have you got four good Corporals?”

  Dorsh answered, “Corporals Ren Deel, Touren Ud Sen and Bekkreshan an Errett. You know them. I have also got Corporal Raddet Baal who you haven’t fought with, but I can vouch for her.”

  “That’s good. Given how stretched out we will be, I want them in on the main command group on the mission comm link. We haven't got much time to get all this together, so we have no time to waste. Brog, do you want to join us on the ground on this mission?”

  “By the twin stars of Omish! You must be joking. I am an academic, not a soldier. I would like to observe from the People’s ship though.”

  “Noted. Auross, arrange for as many hospital and support personnel and specialist landers as we need, and six troop landers for the battalion. Make sure they’re all in full working order, we haven't any slack in our numbers, so we can’t have any equipment failures. Although, if we are so short of troops, do we have enough support for the mission?”

  “We should be OK Major, but if we need it, you could use your connection with Ker Din Ser Forn to get him to provide transport and medical facilities.”

  “You are right Auross, I've got a ‘connection’ with him, but I have my reasons for not wanting to tread that path. Get back to me as soon as you confirm our status on the support equipment please. Brog, Dorsh, Auross, you’re all dismissed, you’ve got plenty to do between now and midday tomorrow. Si’ir Monn, I need to speak to you.”

  After the others had left Si’ir Monn said: “This is a record. I’ve never been given a bollocking by a newly promoted officer this quickly before. What have I done?”

  “Nothing yet. I need your help. What have I forgotten? What have I got wrong? What else do I need to do?”

  “You’ll get all the help you need from me. I like you Sah Lee and I think you’ll make a great officer. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten anything, I don’t know what else you’ve arranged. You need Auross making sure we’ve got enough weaponry and munitions, and that all the troops have crates in the dock with anything they need over and above what they’ll already have. Ideally, she’ll communicate that to me and Dorsh and we’ll tell the Corporals. Colonel B’Erren Tek controls logistics and she will arrange for everything to be in place, as long as she’s got enough notice. Auross will know that and she’s pretty good. It would be a good idea for you to meet with B’Erren Tek late today or first thing tomorrow. What part is Colonel fuck-head taking in this?”

  “If you mean Colonel Ssar Bess Dassur, I don’t know, he hasn’t told me.”

  “We’d
be better off without him, but he’ll probably turn up on the field of battle, far enough away to be safe and if things go wrong, he can distance himself from blame, but close enough that if it goes well, he can take the glory. And what are you going to do about Fauren Ess? He’s a bloody liability and don’t think any of your fancy officer techniques will make any difference to him.”

  “No, I don’t either. I was thinking along the lines of him going missing in action before the action starts.”

  “Sounds like a good idea, but for fucks sake don’t get caught. In fact, don’t do it. I’ll handle him. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened in the field, but it’s best to do it in thick jungle where no one can see and it’s easy to hide a body. I’ve seen the report on Forness Two. There is sparse vegetation and the ground is dry, rocky and what soil is there is mostly frozen. It might be best to put him in one of the flank units.”

  “That’s the sort of advice I need. That’s not in the officer training manuals.”

  “I’d better get a move on. I want to get all the troops together so me and Dorsh can brief them. You could do worse than get the Corporals together and talk to them. They are all good, capable people but usually overlooked by commissioned officers. If you boost their morale, it will rub off on the troops. If you’ve got time, you might suggest meeting their squads with them. Privates rarely get to talk to commissioned officers before a mission.”

  He stood up. “You’ll do fine Sah Lee. This isn’t going to be easy with the number of troops you’ve got, but as long as we let the Ants do the heavy lifting and we stick to mopping up behind them we’ll be OK until we enter the buildings. It could get tough in there and having just four Corporals in there with fifty soldiers in a squad is not the best way to clear out buildings.”

  “Sit down a moment, please. I’ve been thinking about that. I’d rather have squads of ten or twelve, but we haven't got that many Corporals. With Auross, you and Dorsh, four Corporals and me there are eight officers. When we get to the buildings, how would it be if we split the troops into eight squads of twenty five and all the officers took command of one?”

  “Auross has been a Captain for a long time, and a lieutenant before that. You’d better speak to her first. But think about this. A Corporal will usually nominate a private in their squad to take over command if necessary. You know that, you’ve done it yourself. If you tell them to pick out two capable privates each, that could give us another eight squad leaders. I’ve seen it done before and it worked well. If you put each of those in charge of a squad of ten, that’s eighty troops and assuming we don’t get any casualties you can divide the other hundred and twenty among the eight officers so they each lead a squad of fifteen. The squad leaders report on the mission comms to their Corporals. Allocate an officer to each of the Corporals to communicate with them, the officers communicate as peers on the comm link. That keeps comms traffic down to a manageable level.”

  Sah Lee grinned. “That’s brilliant. You can tell the others at the status meeting this evening.”

  “No Sah Lee, you tell them. It’s your idea, you are the commanding officer. I’m just two levels up from a grunt. Your team must see the ideas and command coming from you. You can ask anyone for advice, but you take the decisions, the blame and the glory. That’s the burden and benefit of being in command. Dorsh and I have got a briefing session with the Corporals to go to, so I’ll leave you to take the decision.”

  Chapter Ninety Seven

  Logistics

  As Sah Lee approached the door it slid open. Colonel B’Erren Tek called out “Enter.” She stood as Sah Lee walked in. “It’s good to see you Major. Please, take a seat.”

  “It’s good to see you Colonel. I think I speak for everyone when I say, we miss you on the front line.”

  The Colonel smiled. “Please, call me B’Erren. I only called you Major as I am so pleased to see you in the position. You deserve it, though you know the why the Generals promoted you so quickly?”

  “Yes, we lost a Major on Forness Two, along with another three hundred and sixty-four soldiers and they need more officers.”

  “That doesn’t mean that you didn’t earn it or deserve it. There were others that they could have chosen to promote who were higher ranking than you, but the Generals recognized your abilities, so don’t think you got it by default.”

  “Thank you B’Erren.” Sah Lee smiled. “That was something that worried me. But I didn’t realize the army had so few people in it.”

  “If we resourced every mission with the number of troops we really needed, we would have fewer casualties and more soldiers. Most of the galaxy is peaceful. There are millions of civilizations, all with billions of citizens. Virtually all of those trillions want nothing to do with fighting. Even those that might consider it, when they see the armies they could join, decide not to. You might think this army could be better led from the top, but believe me, our Council of Generals are infinitely better than most of the other army leaders, who can really only be described as totally insane. Anyway, what I am trying to say is, we would have more soldiers if we didn’t kill so many, and if we had a better survival rate, we would get more volunteers.”

  “But I wasn’t wanted when I came here, I was told you weren’t recruiting.”

  “We weren’t, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t need to.” B’Erren sighed. “Not everything we do as an army is rational.” She smiled. “You didn’t come here to talk about the organization and leadership of the army, I’m guessing you are here about your mission.”

  “Yes. My orders are that I can have half the numbers the Ants asked for, although there aren't as many soldiers available as they asked for. I need to make sure we've got all the equipment and supplies we need to give us any chance of completing the mission. Captain Auross is putting together a list of requirements, has she got everything we need? And more importantly, can you get it all together for us on time?”

  “Captain Auross is very competent. She has put together a list of mortars, grenades and shoulder launched surface-to-surface missiles and lots of drones. The only thing she has missed is battle fog countermeasures. They’re not usually on a mission list, but I believe the hostiles used it in the first mission to Forness Two.”

  “You’re right, it was, but the Ants are planning to deal with that.”

  “I’ve added a crate of mortar canisters with dispersant which I’ll ship anyway. Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. Would you send a broadcast to your troops to make sure they have full uniform, body armor and helmet as well as water and two days ration packs? It will make everything run more smoothly. Oh, and bring their weapons! I have got forty crates of FKE42 rounds and magazines, so they will be OK for ammunition. If they’re using anything else, they’ll need to bring their own ammunition. I’ve sent one lander with supplies across to Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship, two fully crewed hospital landers will be leaving within an hour. The other supplies landers will be ready to go shortly. We’ve only got four troop carriers left but Ker Din Ser Forn is making two more available to us, the carriers will all be assembled in Dock 1 in two hours. Bots are filling individual soldier’s crates now. They will be laid out in four rows - two of fifty, two rows of fifty-two. There will be a separate group of eight for officers. All will have tags with the individuals name, so their AI’s can find them. They will be ready two hours before liftoff.”

  Sah Lee smiled. “You are really good at this.”

  “To be honest, it’s simple. The Logistics AI does all the work. I just monitor it.” B’Erren sighed. “I’m bored out of my mind doing this.”

  “I wish there was something I could do to get you back into field operations.”

  “The rate you’re getting promoted, it won’t be long before you can - if you manage not to get yourself killed first.” B’erren said with a smile.

  Sah Lee stood to leave. “I’ll do my best. Thanks, B’Erren. Maybe we can have a drink together when I get
back.”

  B’Erren sighed as Sah Lee left. “If you get back.” she said quietly.

  Chapter Ninety Eight

  Landfall On Forness Two

  The six troop landers sat in an enormous dock in Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship behind the massive hexagonal shaped Ant landers. At an altitude of forty-two thousand kilometers above Forness Two, the Ant weapons platform was leaving the ship from a separate dock. A screen on the bulkhead at the front of each of the army landers showed it maneuvering out. There was a noticeable absence of the usual chatter and banter on the troop landers. Everyone knew what had happened to the last mission here. They were all tense, strapped in, weapons ready and anticipating the hard landing and fast exit as soon as they hit the ground.

  The view on the screen split in two, half showing the weapons platform as it released its first payload of tungsten rods, the other half of the screen had a magnified view of the target area. The ground looked still and peaceful as sparse fern-like trees waved gently in the breeze and small dust devils swirled across the open ground. Signs of a few bunkers could be seen through the camouflage covering them. Nothing happened for several minutes as the rods plummeted to the surface. Then the scene changed instantly to an image of boiling dust clouds bursting up into the sky. The picture pulled back to show the target area within the wider landscape. The dust obscured part of the buildings and was expanding to cover them. It was unclear whether the Strike had damaged any of them. While they watched, the weapons platform unleashed a second drop of tungsten rods and after three minutes a third and final drop was sent plunging to the surface before the second had impacted.

  The weapons platform returned to Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship. While it was entering the dock, the second swarm of tungsten rods hit the ground and fresh clouds of dust boiled up into the atmosphere. As soon as the massive dock doors closed on the weapons platform, the ship blinked down into the lower atmosphere. It hung there, motionless, while they watched the final impact from the orbital bombardment throw up yet more dust.