The 18th Race: Book 02 - In All Directions

by David Sherman

  “I’ll be right there. Notify the Admiral.”

  Huse was on the Bridge before Buchanan could finish notifying TF 8’s commander.

  Admiral’s Bridge, NAUS Durango

  Rear Admiral James Avery took almost no time at all to understand import of the side-looking radar images he was sent.

  “Get me General Bauer,” he told Lieutenant Commander George Davis.

  “Get General Bauer, aye,” Davis said, and made contact with Headquarters, NAU Forces, Troy. “Sir, General Bauer’s office,” he said, and handed the comm to Avery.

  Avery waited a few seconds before he heard Lieutenant General Harold Bauer’s voice.

  “Jim, it’s good to hear your voice,” Bauer said.

  “And yours as well, General.” Avery used Bauer’s title to make it was clear this was an important call.

  “What do you have, Admiral?” Bauer asked, taking the hint.

  “Sir, the Dusters are moving on Eastern Shapland. We are tracking them, and will feed you our intelligence as we get it. Your G-2 can expect the first data burst in fifteen minutes.”

  “What about the Dusters on Shapland?”

  “We are checking on them now.”

  “How is your situation?”

  “The majority of the alien transports managed to get away, although many of them were damaged. We estimate eight hours before their warships return. Good hunting, General.”

  “Good hunting to you as well, Admiral. Bauer out.”

  Surveillance and Radar Section, NAUS Durango

  “Chief, I have movement,” Radarman 3 Michael McCormlck said in the quiet of the Durango’s Surveillance and Radar Section.

  “Show me,” Chief Densmore said. He leaned over McCormick’s shoulder to study his screen. “Sir, he called to Lieutenant Courts, “we’ve got them. I’m dialing you in.”

  Courts looked at the data and saw the alien army’s movement toward Millerton and the Army division surrounding it. He notified the Bridge, where Captain Huse was still in his command chair.

  Fifteen minutes later, Headquarters, NAU Forces, Troy had all the available information on Duster movement on both continents.

  The staff began to change the plans based on this new intelligence.

  Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division, near Millerton, Shapland, Troy

  Major General Noll, commanding general of the 9th Infantry Division, which he was beginning to think of as the Frankenstein Division, as it was pieced together from those elements of the 9th that had survived the missile attack and other units that had made planetfall, looked wonderingly at the situation board hanging on the wall behind him. Red smudges moved on it, showing the movement of the alien army as they moved at the white dots, rectangles, and circles that represented the NAU forces.

  They’ve got to be crazy, he thought. I don’t care how badly they have us outnumbered. This is insane, they won’t be able to concentrate their forces enough to break through our lines.

  His G-3, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Merriam, had worked closely with Brigadier General Shoup, the acting NAU G-3, to arrange defenses around Millerton and the McKinzie elevator station. But this?

  He looked from his sitboard to his assembled staff and major element commanders. “When they get in range, our artillery will begin to shred their formations. We have,” he said proudly, “the artillery with the greatest range and power of all human armies. So far the aliens haven’t shown that they have any artilllery other than dumb anti-air artillery. Don’t discount that, even dumb anti-air artillery can be highly effective against armor and hardened defensive positions. Past wars have clearly demonstrated that.

  “They’re going to hurt us badly, I have no doubt of that. But if we fight our best, I have absolute confidence that we will defeat the alien army.

  “You all know what to do. Now do it.”

  There was a clattering of chairs as the assembled generals and other senior officers rose to their feet. Someone, Noll didn’t see who, gave out a huzzah! In seconds, so did the rest of them. Some pumped their fists in the air.

  Camp Zion, 3rd Marine Regiment complex, near Jordan

  Major General Purvis, commanding general of 1st Marine Division, put the 6th Marine Regiment in a triangle of mutually supporting battalion firebases five kilometers northeast of Jordan, and the 7th Marine Regiment, also in mutually supporting firebases, an equal distance to the city’s west. The 1st Marine Regiment, similarly placed, went three kilometers north of Jordan. He divided his artillery regiment, the 12th Marines, among the three firebases. He based his headquarters battalion, along with the division’s armor, reconnaissance and other units, just outside the small city, adjacent to the 1st Marines.

  When the Navy’s latest intelligence reports were passed on to the regimental headquarters, and from there to the companies, platoons, and squads, it caused surprise, and not a little consternation among the junior officers and the enlisted men.

  “Say what?” Corporal Mackie yelped when he heard. “Are they out of their ever-loving minds?”

  “They’re aliens, Mackie,” Sergeant Martin said patiently. “Who knows what goes on in their minds? I sure don’t. And if anybody higher-higher knows, they aren’t telling me.”

  Mackie shook his head and looked at his men. They were staring at him and their squad leader as though they were crazy. Or at least like the Navy intel report was.

  “We’re Marines,” Martin said. “When we’re surrounded, all that means is, now we can shoot in all directions.” He left, headed for the platoon CP bunker. He hadn’t said it, but he agreed with Mackie; the aliens had to be out of their fucking minds.

  Not long after, the Dusters for the first time made a coordinated attack. Their combat fleet completed its circuit of Troy and fell on Task Force 8. At the same time, their ground forces, having completed their encirclement of the NAU forces on both Shapland and Eastern Shapland attacked.

  Combat Action Center, NAUS Durango

  “Chief,” Radarman 3 John Bickford said, “I’m picking up another anomaly from the same direction that Duster fleet came from.”

  Chief Petty Officer Verney rushed to Bickford’s station and looked over his shoulder.

  “Damn,” he swore, “they’ve got more coming!”

  Chapter 26

  NAUS Durango, Fleet Combat Action Center

  Lieutenant Commander Rufus Z. Johnston sat in his command chair, peering at the display on the big board, showing the warships of Task Force 8 maneuvering into position to take on the invaders. The display’s scale was small enough to show the slow approach of the wounded Fast Attack Carrier Kidd, and the far faster approach of the enemy fleet. It was clear that the enemy would arrive first. The display also showed the remnants of Amphibious Group 17 in its ongoing rescue and recovery operation for survivors—and the remains of those who didn’t survive—from the missile attack that had devastated the ARG.

  And there, on the far edge of the display, beyond ARG 17’s operation.,..

  Johnston toggled his headset to signal Rear Admiral Avery. “Sir,” he said after Avery’s gruff, “Speak,” acknowledged him, “Sir, someone else is coming into range from beyond ARG 17.”

  “Identification?” Avery demanded.

  “Not yet, sir.” Johnston’s fingers danced over the keypad on the right armrest of his chair, signaling the comm shack, ordering it to attempt to contact the newly detected spacecraft. “Comm is working on it.”

  Lieutenant Commander Davis’s excited voice intruded. “CAC, comm.”

  “Comm, go. The admiral is on,” Johnston answered.

  “Sir, we just received a message from Earth via drone. Task Force 7 is en route. It should reach the Troy wormhole terminus within a day.”

  Within a day. The new arrival CAC detected beyond ARG 17 must have been the lead elements of TF 7. At flank speed, the warships were still more than two days out.

  “Comm, attempt to contact TF 7 and extend my compliments on their timely arrival. Tell them I reque
st they come to Troy high orbit at flank speed. I will instruct Captain Anderson to prepare a brief for you to transmit to TF 7 so they will know what to expect when they get here. Do it.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Davis said, and dropped out of the communication link to obey Avery’s orders.

  “Avery out.”

  “CAC,” Avery said, sounding much stronger and more confident than he had at any time since the attack from Minnie Mouse, “I anticipate two days for TF 7 to reach us. Stand by for revised orders. Perhaps we will still be here to greet them when they arrive.” That last sentence was said so softly that Johnston wasn’t sure Avery intended him to hear it. He told Davis to contact the ground commander, so he could give him the news about the relief force.

  An hour later, The Admiral’s Bridge, NAUS Durango

  “Sir, a message,” Lieutenant Commander Davis said excitedly.

  “Speak.”

  “Sir, the unidentified starships are the van of TF 7 and ARG 28! The warships are the battleship Nebraska, cruisers Grandar Bay and Suvla Bay, the carrier Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, and the amphibious battle cruisers Enterprise, and Tripoli with the Second Marine Division on board.”

  “Outstanding!” Avery said. “If we survive the next day and a half, we may live through this war. Notify the commander, NAU Forces, Troy.”

  About the Author

  Once upon a time, David Sherman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and subsequently went to war in Vietnam. After serving as a fire team leader on combat operations with third platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, he spent the rest of his tour in a combat outpost-type Combined Action Platoon.

  In a way, he never came home from the war.

  After a too-short career as a sculptor (he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation’s premier fine art school), he began writing. His first novels were about Marines in Vietnam. His DemonTech series is about Marines in a fantasy world. He co-authored, with Dan Cragg, a long-running military science fiction series about Marines, Starfist and its spinoff series, Starfist: Force Recon. He is also the author of a vampire novel, The Hunt; a mystery novel, Dead Man’s Chest; and a collection of early short works, Sherman’s Shorts: the Beginnings. He and Cragg also wrote a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial. His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.

  He is currently working on the sequel to In All Directions, and has near-term plans to release a collection of short military-related works, fiction, science fiction, and non-fiction, not all of which have previously been published. All thirty-six of his books are currently in print both in paperback and ebook formats. Please visit his website, www.novelier.com.