by James Rosone
The lieutenant walked over at this point to join their platoon sergeant. He added, “We’re going to move out on foot and link up with Charlie Company on the outskirts of the city. Tomorrow at 1200 hours, a Prim unit is going to be airlifted in to join us. They’ll liberate the city while we patrol the foothills nearby and go Zodark hunting.”
Many of the soldiers who hadn’t fought the Zodarks yet nodded their heads excitedly. They were eager to get in the fight. The veterans like Pauli knew better.
Fourteen kilometers later, Pauli’s dogs were killing him. He’d learned long ago that an infantryman had to take care of his feet. Pauli realized he wasn’t doing a very good job of that, and his feet were letting him down as a consequence.
He hated ruck marches. Long treks across uneven terrain hauling a hundred pounds of gear and weapons weren’t exactly his idea of a fun time. Throw in an unknown number of Zodark soldiers somewhere out there in the dark on a foreign planet more than a hundred light-years from home, and Pauli was really hating life right now.
He tried to recall what that Delta operator had told him back on New Eden. Embrace the suck, soldier, he remembered. Well, this sucks—no two ways about it.
Gazing into the sky, Pauli lost himself in the beauty of the two moons. One was a little more than halfway into the sky, the other appeared to be a little further away, just above and behind the first. The largest one had a bluish-purple tint to it, while the smaller one that was further away was more reddish in color. It was a strange contrast. He wished he could snap a picture of it and send it to his folks back home.
Pauli found himself wondering if humans would ever be allowed to settle down on Intus after the war. This place is really beautiful, he thought.
“Everyone down!” came an urgent voice over their helmet communication system.
Pauli didn’t hesitate. He hit the dirt just in time to see dozens of red laser bolts reach right out for him. The bright flashes of light zipped over his head and body, right where he had been just seconds earlier.
“Contact, eleven o’clock!” shouted someone a little further ahead of Pauli.
Pauli flicked his selector switch off safety, then fired a handful of blaster shots at whoever was firing at them. Meanwhile, one of his friends crawled up to his right with their M90 squad automatic weapon. He set up the SAW and opened up where the enemy fire was coming from.
As the two of them were shooting, their HUDs displayed threats to their front and to their left side. Pauli searched for his battle buddy, Private Amy Boyles.
“Boyles! Get the hell up here,” he yelled to be heard over the growing roar of the battle.
A few seconds later, when she hadn’t joined him, Pauli turned around to see what the problem was. He found her curled up in a fetal position, screaming and crying as laser bolts flew over her head. Pauli stopped shooting and crawled over to her. He pulled her face up close to hers. “Amy, snap out of it,” he said calmly but forcefully. “I need you to remember your training and help return fire.”
Amy opened her eyes when she heard his familiar voice. She seemed to calm down a bit, and she finally relented and nodded her head.
“Amy, it’s OK to be scared, but I need you to follow my lead,” Pauli said. “I need you to grab your rifle and crawl over there with the rest of our fire team. The enemy is a few hundred meters away from us in that tree line over there.” Pauli pointed to where he wanted her to fire.
When she nodded again, he turned around and crawled back to the rest of the fire team.
When Pauli reached the firing line, Corporal Yogi Sanders grunted. “Pauli, when Amy gets over here, we need to bound forward and take up a flanking position in that cluster of trees over there,” he directed, pointing to a position a hundred meters to the left.
“We’re on it,” Pauli responded.
Private Rob Anders, who was operating the SAW, sustained a near-constant barrage of fire on the enemy positions. The SAW sliced through small trees and ripped the area apart. As Rob laid into the enemy, Amy crawled over to Pauli and tried to explain her sudden breakdown.
Pauli waved it off. “I need you to stay low and follow me while Rob continues to keep their heads down,” he directed.
Pauli and the three others ran while keeping their heads low to the edge of the tree line. While they were making their move, the squad nearest the Zodarks continued to lay down suppressive fire at the enemy while another squad flanked the Zodarks on the opposite side. If the squads positioned themselves correctly, they’d form an L-shaped formation enclosing the Zodarks. Then they’d be able to cut them apart with the crossfire.
As they moved closer to the tree line, Pauli’s HUD showed more and more of the enemy markers winking out. By the time his fire team had gotten in position, there were only two Zodarks left shooting at them. They broke contact and ran deeper into the woods.
“Everyone, stand down,” the lieutenant ordered. “Stay where you are and stay frosty. We’re going to get some drones up and see if that’s all of them or if there are more in the area we haven’t accounted for.”
Crouching next to a tree, Pauli scanned the area around them. The little radar unit built into their smart helmets and HUDs was good at identifying threats as far out as two thousand meters, depending on how thick the vegetation was. When the AI was able to link and share its own image and data with the rest of the platoon, it really created a good picture of their surroundings.
Pauli turned to his battle buddy. “You all right, Amy?” he asked.
She didn’t say anything at first, her eyes hidden behind her HUD. Her voice quivered. “I think so.”
Five minutes later, their lieutenant told them the drones showed the area was clear. The two Zodarks appeared to have gotten away. The lieutenant didn’t have their drones pursue them. He ordered them to set up a perimeter around their positions for the time being.
As they walked back to where the rest of the platoon was, Pauli confronted Yogi. “Hey, what the heck? Why didn’t the LT have our scout drones up earlier? They should have spotted that ambush before it happened.”
Yogi shrugged his shoulders. “Probably because most of our scout drones got zapped with the captain and half of the Fourth Platoon. You know that platoon carries our heavy weapons and scout drones. He probably wanted to conserve the few we had left for the Prim city.”
That…is actually a good reason, Pauli realized. He hadn’t considered that. Master Sergeant Atkins had probably told the LT to conserve the drones.
Atkins was one of the veterans from New Eden. Pauli didn’t particularly like the guy, not since Atkins had passed him up for corporal, but Atkins was a solid NCO. He knew his stuff.
By the time they got back to the platoon area, they could see the sun rising. Third Platoon had moved to their position, and so had First Platoon. Their platoon was now going to pull rear security for the company.
A group of soldiers ahead stood in the two-lane road, staring down at a body. Pauli went over to see who it was. As he got closer, he saw a pool of blood had formed on the road. When he saw the dead soldier’s face, Pauli recognized him as one of the cherries. He’d joined their platoon fresh from basic training a few weeks before they’d headed to Intus.
Pauli shook his head. The poor cherry hadn’t had a chance. The blaster shot had hit him in the neck and torn a big chunk out of it. Pauli hoped he had died from the shot and not drowned in his own blood.
Walking back to his fire team, he found Amy and motioned for her to follow him. When they got closer to the dead soldier, Amy slowed down. He reached over and grabbed her arm, giving her a good yank, pulling her to him so she could see the body.
He leaned in close so only the two of them could hear. “This is what happens when you freeze up, Amy,” he said strongly. “This could have been me, or anyone else in our fire team. You can’t freeze up like that; you can’t start crying and go into the fetal position either. People die because of mistakes. People die because they’re in the wrong pl
ace at the wrong time. You need to stick to your training and listen. Do as you’re told and kill the enemy as soon as you see them. Got it?”
Shock and terror covered Amy’s face. She nodded silently. The lesson had been learned, and she wouldn’t soon forget it.
*******
Hatteng City, Intus
Third Army – Second Expeditionary Group
The greenish waters along the edge of the city glimmered in the morning light. It was a beautiful contrast to the glass skyscrapers and the emerald-green tree-covered mountains to the west of Hatteng City, the capital of Intus.
Before the capture of the planet by the Zodarks, it had boasted a population of thirty-two million residents. The Prims estimated the population to be closer to half of that after the occupation.
The Prims and the Earthers had liberated the city on the second day of the campaign. It was a big day for the Prims and the remaining residents. Millions of people had come out to greet their liberators and celebrate the end of the Zodark reign of terror.
The Prims and Earthers had also lucked out when the Zodarks opted to retreat into the mountains and densely forested areas nearby and not take the fight to the streets. They were thankful for no civilian casualties in any of the cities they’d liberated. Instead, the Zodarks had methodically retreated into the countryside, areas of the planet that were a lot more defensible than the cities. It was going to make rooting them out a lot tougher.
General Ross McGinnis gazed out the floor-to-ceiling windows on the eighty-seventh floor of his army headquarters. It gave him an excellent view of the city and the mountains off in the distance. He knew the Prims were moving a large ground force into those mountains to dig the Zodarks out. This was the part of war that was always the hardest, searching for an enemy that decided to fade away into the countryside rather than stand and fight.
“General, you really shouldn’t be up here,” said one of McGinnis’s aides. “At least not until the Prims have made sure the city is fully under our control.”
General McGinnis turned to the young captain and nodded. “I know, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to see the mountains with my own eyes.” He sighed. “Let’s head back to the bunker.”
The two of them made their way to the basement of the building, which had been turned into a temporary command center. As they entered, General McGinnis scanned the cavernous space, impressed with how quickly his staff had turned the place into a fully functional command center. They’d had only captured the city a day ago. In the short time they’d occupied the basement of this massive building, his staff had already tricked out the place with computer screens, cabling, and operators manning the various terminals.
The general spotted the large map table and walked over to it. In the center of the table sat a large holographic terminal, which currently displayed a floating image of the planet surrounded by an enormous fleet of starships in orbit. Hundreds of smaller ships headed down to the surface, while others were flying back to the fleet.
It was a massive undertaking, capturing a planet. Once the fleet had cleared the area of enemy warships, the Primords had begun the painstaking process of retaking what had been a colonial world of theirs for the past three hundred years. The Prims were offloading more than a million ground soldiers to help fight the remaining Zodarks scattered throughout the planet.
“General, Brigadier General Lucia said to inform you that his entire division has deployed to the surface along with their equipment,” said one of McGinnis’s staff officers. “He’s asking for orders. What would you like me to tell him?”
“Pull up a map of the area where they are,” General McGinnis ordered.
A map display of the Prim district Oteren appeared. Eighty kilometers from the district capital stood one of the ion cannon fortresses. The area surrounding the orbital defense weapon had been turned into a gigantic military encampment now. A battalion of engineers had built a large airbase to support the hundreds of Ospreys and Orion starfighters brought down from the heavy transports in orbit.
Further away from the military encampment and closer to the Prim district capital, a string of red icons was displayed along the foothills and in the forested area a few kilometers west of the city, representing the known enemy positions.
McGinnis turned to his operations officer. “Tell General Lucia to deploy his battalions as he sees fit to secure the district and support the Prim operations.”
The operations officer nodded. “Should we provide him with any special instructions on how to use the C100 battalions that are arriving?”
McGinnis paused for a second as he thought about that. During the first few days of the invasion, they had taken a lot of casualties. At this point in the operation, he wanted to find a way to prevent further losses if at all possible.
“Instruct him to use his C100s as often as possible when carrying out direct attacks on a large Zodark force to reduce the casualties in the campaign,” McGinnis directed. “I want him to integrate the C100s into the fight a lot more than they have been.”
The operations officer nodded in acknowledgment He instructed his staff to disseminate the new instructions to the various division commanders. At this point, they were four days into the campaign, and they’d already offloaded four of the ten divisions they’d brought to Intus.
*******
Oteren, Intus
1st Orbital Assault Battalion
Pauli reviewed the contents of his MRE #17: beefsteak with gravy and mushroom sauce. Amy walked over and dropped down next to him. “Hey, you want to swap meals?” she asked. “I got cheese tortellini.”
Pauli raised an eyebrow at the suggestion and proceeded to open up the freshly warmed beefsteak packet. After a long night of marching, he was particularly hungry. He had opted to eat one of his large MREs as opposed to the smaller squeeze pouches he ate to tide him over when he was hungry.
“You know, Amy, the tortellini isn’t so bad if you heat it up,” Pauli replied. “It comes with a disposable heater.”
“I know it does, I just don’t like the smell it makes when it’s heating up the food,” Amy remarked.
“Damn, girl. Beggars can’t be choosy,” Pauli said with a chuckle. “You should count yourself lucky we can use the heaters. When we first landed on New Eden, we didn’t know much about the Zodarks or the equipment they used at the time. For all we knew, the heaters could have shown up on some thermal equipment, so we had to eat these things cold when we were out on patrol.”
Amy stuffed a forkful of cold tortellini in her mouth, trying to hide her obvious disdain for the dish. “Pauli, what did you think of those C100s?” she asked. “I thought they were a myth until I saw them with my own eyes.”
“Why would you think that?” Pauli asked, left eyebrow raised skeptically. “You’ve been in the battalion for nearly two years. We’ve been using C100s for a while now.”
“Duh, they don’t exactly talk about that stuff back on Earth,” Amy said, defending herself. “I hadn’t even seen a photo of one of them until a week ago during the briefing before we landed here.”
Pauli shook his head. “Wow, Ames. Sorry, I really thought people from back home would know a bit more about what’s going on out here.”
Amy snickered. “How long have you been gone from Earth, Pauli?” she pressed.
Holding the last of his beefsteak in front of his mouth, Pauli answered, “Um…four years, I think.”
“Damn, that’s a while. How much time do you have left on your enlistment?” Amy prodded.
“How long do you have?” Pauli countered.
“You know that’s a sore subject with us draftees,” Amy remarked.
Pauli knew the answer. He just liked to poke fun at the draftees. If someone got drafted, they were selected for the duration of the war—just like back in World War II, one hundred and fifty years ago. When it had been learned that this space war Earth now found itself a part of never really ended, the draft board had put a ten-year servic
e requirement on all draftees. Since space was so infinitely vast and it could take a long time to move from one battle to another, a shorter term didn’t really make sense.
Pauli chuckled. “I’ve got one year and one month left,” he answered. “Then my six-year enlistment is done.”
“Are you going to reenlist or get out?” Amy was eyeing him inquisitively as she finished off her MRE.
Pauli just shrugged his shoulders and pursed his lips. “I honestly hadn’t thought about it much. I’ve been just trying to make it one day at a time. I figure when I get closer to that time, I’ll make a decision.”
“What’s to think about Pauli?” Amy asked. “If I were you, I’d get out. You got a Bronze Star with V device on New Eden. You’ve done your part. Go back to the real world and live your life. Find a woman, get married, have kids—you know, like regular people.”
Pauli finished his beefsteak and stuffed the empty pouch into the main MRE bag. He grabbed his packet of jalapeño cheese spread and put a generous gob of the mixture on several crackers before replying. “Amy, I know you may not see it yet, but what we’re doing matters. If we don’t fight these Zodarks out here,” Pauli said as he waved his crackers and cheese about, “then we’ll end up fighting them at home. Besides, by being in the Army, I’ve now seen two alien worlds and a couple of moons.
“I’m twenty-three years old, Amy. I’ve seen more in my nearly five years with the Army than most people will ever get to see in their entire lives. I don’t know if I’m ready to go back home to Texas. I may just reenlist or see if I can try out for Delta and make the military a career.”
Amy shook her head in disbelief. “If we survive the next year, Pauli, you should get out. I know we’re doing good work out here, but you’ll have done your time. There are millions of people like me, drafted to serve a ten-year hitch. Heck, you should see if you could get a residency card to live on New Eden or Alpha—start fresh on a new planet and live out the rest of your days in peace.”
“Hey, listen up, everyone!” barked their platoon sergeant, Master Sergeant Atkins, as he signaled for everyone to form a half-circle around him. The man had a thick Georgian accent that sometimes made it hard for those from the Northeastern US, Great Britain or Canada to understand.