“I just can’t sleep, sir,” Jade replied with a sheepish expression.
“Me neither,” Andy said, even though that wasn’t exactly the case.
The pair stood in a somewhat awkward silence for a moment. Andy had never had problems being friendly with the people in her squad. They were friends, of a sort, even if she was their commander. She considered her Marines her family. The crew on the Star Chaser were her family too…
“We’ve missed you, Major Dolan,” Jade finally said. “Anath said you haven’t been feeling well. After what happened to the ship… Well. No one can blame you.”
I can blame me, Andy thought darkly, but the earnestness in Jade’s eyes made her stop short. She felt very sober suddenly, and things looked clearer.
Andy nodded a little. “It’s been hard on all of us,” she said quietly.
“Yes, sir.”
With that, Andy managed a small smile. “Try to get some sleep, Marine. I’ll see everyone in the morning.”
5
Once she got back to sleep, Andy didn’t dream anymore.
When she woke in the morning, she planned to go see her squad, but first things first—she wanted to clean up the disaster that was her living quarters. Clothing was strewn everywhere, living on top of empty bottles. The clothes were put into the hamper to be cleaned, and the bottles were sent off to be recycled. There weren’t many dishes, because she hadn’t been eating enough.
After that, she showered and dressed in clean clothes—what few she had left. It wasn’t a uniform because she was technically still on downtime.
She left her quarters, prepared to head to the rec room where she expected to find the others. Before she got very far, however, a young Marine she didn’t recognize came jogging down the corridor. The direction of his eyes made it clear he was there for her, so she stopped and waited with a small sense of growing dread.
“Major Andrea Dolan?”
She nodded.
“We’ve been trying to contact you, but you didn’t answer the calls.” He smiled almost apologetically.
“I was in the shower. I didn’t hear it,” she replied blankly. Was this when she was finally going to get called out on the carpet? “What do you need, Corporal?”
“You’ve been summoned to a meeting with General Halifax.”
Andy felt every cell in her blood freeze in place. She was being summoned to meet with Brigadier General Walter Halifax, the Commandant of the ESS Marine Corps. There was literally nothing good in that statement, and she swallowed hard against a dry throat.
“Should I change into a uniform?” she asked, a touch hoarsely.
“I don’t believe so,” the nameless corporal said. “I was just told to bring you immediately.”
Oh, that wasn’t good. She nodded shakily and gestured for him to lead the way, since she didn’t trust her voice to respond any further. He turned smartly on his heel, still young and fresh enough to not trudge, and strode off. She followed him, feeling like every step forward was harder than the last.
She knew she’d messed up the past weeks, but surely that wasn’t enough for…this?
When they arrived at the meeting room, the corporal pressed the panel to open the door, and then gestured her inside. She swallowed hard again and stepped inside, almost faltering when she saw all the officers arrayed before her.
Andy came to attention and saluted. “Major Andrea Dolan, reporting as ordered, sir,” she said tautly.
“At ease, Major,” the general said. “Have a seat.”
Anxiously doing as she was directed, she took a quick look around the room and recognized not only the general, but the four colonels in command of the Marine battalions that were still alive, and the various lieutenant colonels that commanded the companies beneath them.
Were this many commanders really necessary to reprimand one drunken, traumatized platoon commander?
“I would like there to be more pomp and circumstance, but time has become limited, I’m afraid,” Halifax said, jumping right into things. “Major, your successes during the Arkana War so far have been immeasurable, as has been your assistance to the overall effort with your half-brother’s conversion and the captured ship. The loss of the Star Chaser was terrible for us all, and for your detachment, and we’re all saddened by it, but the war rages on.”
“Yes, sir,” she said uncertainly.
“As such, you are hereby promoted to lieutenant colonel and put in command of Second Company. That’s why you’re here.” He gestured to the other company commanders. “We are preparing for our next offensive. What we plan to be the last offensive.”
Lieutenant Colonel Andrea Dolan suddenly felt like she was going to pass out.
The room started spinning, but she kept herself sitting upright and focused on the general, blinking rapidly to clear her mind. This wasn’t a reprimand…but a promotion? And a planning meeting? Last offensive? It was too much, but if she wanted any time to take it all in, she certainly wasn’t going to get it right then.
“This, ladies, gentlemen, and others,” the general began, pointing to the screen on the wall behind him, “is the Planet Breaker.” On the screen came the image of a ship. It was the biggest ship that Andy had ever seen, and her awe of that drew away some of her overwhelmed confusion.
“We are losing this war,” Halifax continued somberly. “Our losses continue to mount, and the Arkana continue to advance. However, with the help of Colonel Dolan’s half-brother and the captured ship that her detachment brought in, we have made great strides in R and D. Together, we have created this ship, which is capable of launching a full offensive against a planet. Furthermore, we have learned the location of the Arkana home world.”
There was a collective gasp in the room, but Andy just stared.
The Planet Breaker… The name sunk in even deeper. This was a ship meant to attack the Arkana home world. They were doing it. They were taking the fight to the Arkana to cut the head off the snake.
“A small forward force is going to go ahead of the main force, which will consist of the Planet Breaker and many of our remaining vessels. On the Planet Breaker will be First, Second, and Third Battalions. Fourth will remain on Earth…” Here, even the general’s voice seemed to waver. “…in case we fail.
“Army infantry and multiple wings of the ESS Aerospace Corps will be going alongside us. We have information on the planetary defenses from Mr. Anath as well as the captured ship’s computers, once we were able to decode parts of it. Unfortunately, there are some gaps. The ship’s systems began to deteriorate after a certain amount of time, undoubtedly as a failsafe. We got what we could, and we know that there will be space and air fighter craft, ground troops, as well as surface-to-air and space weapons. We are well into the plan to counter all of these and reach the capital city to capture the Arkana leader, which we are certain will bring the rest of the forces to heel.”
Andy had strong doubts that her father would be taken alive, but it didn’t matter. They were going there, and one way or another, this war would be over.
6
Andy was getting ready to brief the 33rd for the last time as their commander alone.
After this, the 33rd was moving from a ship’s detachment to a platoon that was part of its company. She would command the company, although when deployed, it would still be her on the ground with the members of her specific squad. There were too few Marines left for any able-bodied Marine to not put their boots to the ground now.
She would lead from the front, and she would have her squad with her.
For now, though, leading meant informing all of them of her new rank and position, as well as their new orders.
The longer it took everyone to arrive, however, the more time it gave her to think, and thinking had been her biggest problem over the past few weeks. The drinking had stopped that, but now she had stopped the drinking. Memories of being on that planet’s surface while the Star Chaser, and every crewmember she’d known on board, were b
lown apart over her head came back…
Rationally, she knew that she couldn’t have done anything to prevent the destruction of the ship. It hadn’t been destroyed by invaders, but by an attack from another ship. All she could have done, had she and her Marines been on board, would have been to die with them. And as it was, their presence on the surface held the line until reinforcements showed up to chase off the Arkana and keep control of the planet.
None of that shook the feelings of guilt and sorrow that clung to her, though.
It was a relief when the Marines began to file in and take their place in the lecture hall style briefing room.
In the sea of color that was the faces of the Marines before her, the giant patch of snow white was hard to miss.
Anath stayed seated after everyone left once she’d dismissed them, and really, she shouldn’t have been surprised. For someone who hadn’t been in her life for nearly thirty years, he had sure taken to the brother role fast. Neither of them spoke while everyone left, which told her this was going to be a personal chat more than a professional one.
“The Planet Breaker, huh?” he asked dryly.
“Yep,” she said, leaving the podium and walking up the steps to sit beside him.
“I want this war over,” he said, “but I kind of hope it doesn’t break the whole planet. There are people there who are innocent in this.”
Andy sighed. “It’s not our plan to actually blow up the planet,” she said. “But you know how important morale is. A hyperbolic name like ‘the Planet Breaker’ is enough to rally and inspire and…all that crap.”
Anath snorted. “Spoken like a true cynic,” he said.
She made a petulant expression. “Give me a break. I’m hung over.”
“It didn’t show.”
“Thanks.”
“So, when was the last drink?”
She blew out a breath, squinted one eye, and stared at the ceiling while she thought, which took no small amount of effort. “Dinnertime last night,” she said.
Anath arched one pure white brow. “And you’re still hung over? Damn, you really were living in the bottle.”
“It was my semi-permanent address,” she agreed, “but I’m sotally tober now.” She smirked at him.
He poked her in the shoulder.
They sat like that for a few moments, and then sighed simultaneously.
“Seriously, though…” he started again. “Do you really think this new ship and this plan is going to work?”
“Honestly?” she asked. He nodded. “I have no idea. I hope it does, because I know that we can’t continue like this. And if the brass is planning something like this… Well, then the situation is even worse than I thought. And I thought it was pretty freaking bad, but this is…” She paused, frowning. “What’s that old Earth term… a Hail Mary? This is a last chance, a desperate winner-takes-all move.”
He frowned. “That’s not encouraging.”
She eyed him sideways. “You didn’t ask for encouraging. You asked for honesty.”
“That was stupid of me, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
Anath shrugged and sighed wearily. “I guess we have to try something, don’t we?”
“We do.”
He shifted his body and put an arm around Andy’s shoulders. She sighed then, too, and put her head against his shoulder, since there was no one around to see them being brother and sister rather than fellow soldiers.
“Do you think we’re going to survive?” he asked.
The dream she’d had just the night before, the literally and figuratively sobering dream, returned to her thoughts as they sat there, and she contemplated the question. It was a hard question, and she didn’t know the answer. The dream filled her with a sort of dread that the answer wasn’t a good one.
“I wish I knew,” she answered honestly. That wasn’t the answer she would give any of her Marines if they asked, because she would be optimistic and encouraging for them, and she had some time to make up for in that area now. With her brother—well, she would be honest. “But we’re going to give them a fight they’ll never forget.”
7
The ESS Planet Breaker was the first ship of its kind, not just in the ESS currently, but in the entirety of ESS history. It was nearly the size of a colony vessel with a capacity to hold thousands of people, in addition to secondary smaller craft and cargo.
She was armed to the teeth, like a shark’s mouth with multiple rows of teeth.
Unlike all recent generations of ships, energy and pulse weapons were secondary to the mounted projectile-launching weapons. They were set on the hull for a full three-hundred-and-sixty firing range, as well as set into the hull and firing through openings controlled from within the ship to protect this second layer of weapons from being shot or knocked off by enemy ships.
The hull was comprised of an alloy created since the start of the war that had proven effective against the energy weapons of the Arkana. Its hardened nature would provide some protection against physical attacks as well, since some smaller Arkana craft had, in recent weeks, begun suicide runs by way of attack.
‘Kamikaze snowflakes,’ they were being called.
The Planet Breaker project—code named Apocalypse—had been one of the most intensive ones in the history of the ESS, as well as one of the most rushed. Every after-action report from the army, the Marines, and the aerospace corps had gone into developing every defense and offense that they could. Some of them were tested on the various ships and centers of planetary defense throughout ESS and Allied space. Some of them had worked well. Some of them, like those used by the 33rd on Lycos, hadn’t.
“That is the biggest damned ship I’ve ever seen in my life,” Dan said as the members of Andy’s squad stood at a viewport and watched the massive vessel halt itself near the station. It was too big to dock in anyway, even by a connector, so shuttles would ferry crew and cargo between Eclipse and the Planet Breaker.
“I saw a colony ship once, heading for Nautilus IV,” Jade said. “It was massive, but I think this one is even bigger. Every other ship looks like a bug next to it.”
“Just about,” Dan agreed, unusually sedate.
Andy didn’t look at anyone as she quietly said, “She needs to be. We are literally going to war against a planet.”
Anallin’s eyes clicked a few times. “Have we not already been at war against a planet?”
She smiled wryly and looked at her blue-skinned, blue-eyed comrade. “We have, although not against the planet itself. We’ve been against soldiers from it. That’s what I meant.”
The Hanaran nodded slowly. It wasn’t a gesture that was native to its people, but it had picked it up as a growing habit while serving in the Marines that were still predominantly human.
The enormity of both the ship and the task was sinking into Andy’s bones as she stood and watched it holding position out there in the black. It seemed to blot out all the stars around it, and the full size of it couldn’t even be seen from the viewport. The window was too small.
This was make-or-break time for the entire ESS, and maybe even all of humanity and the Allied races, even the un-allied races. The Arkana were anti-everyone but themselves and the xenophobic humans that they likened to their creators. There had even been some reports in the news of humans going over to the Arkana side. This war had raised the specters of old hatreds that had been unacceptable in modern society.
Andy couldn’t, for the very life of her, understand humans like that…but she didn’t have to. That wasn’t her job.
She took a long, deep, slow breath, held it for a moment, then blew it out. “Alright, guys, go pack out your trash. We board that big thing over there in an hour.”
“Yes, sir,” was the general reply as everyone left—everyone but her brother.
“The Arkana don’t even have ships that size,” he commented as he shifted to stand next to her.
Andy turned away from the viewport and leaned back against t
he wall, folding her arms across her chest. “That you know of,” she pointed out wryly. “After all, you haven’t been among your people in a long time now. They don’t exactly like you anymore.”
He snorted, turning and leaning beside her. “My people… I barely think of them that way now. I feel…human, you know? At least until I look in the mirror. That’s when I realize I look like a really skinny snowman.”
“A snowman?” Andy repeated, barking a laugh. “I doubt you ever built snowmen on the Arkana home world.”
“We don’t have snow on the Arkana home world,” he said with a wry, sidelong smile.
She shook her head. “That sounds depressing,” she said. Pushing off the wall, she started walking back toward the guest quarters on Eclipse. “Earth’s weather is regulated by atmospheric systems, of course, but it still snows in the winter. Some of my best memories from the foster home were when it snowed.”
Anath smiled and walked with her. “Did you build snowmen?”
“I did!” she laughed, feeling one of the first genuine smiles she’d had in…a long time. She thought back to those winters, and the other kids in the group foster home where she’d spent the most time in her life before the Marines. “There was this one girl there. She was a year younger than I was, but a little spitfire of a creature—”
“A what?” Anath interrupted. “I don’t recognize that phrase. Spitfire?”
Andy paused and thought about how to explain it. “She was really feisty, took no crap from anyone, tough little thing, like that?”
He nodded.
She continued, “Her name was Marta. She ended up going to the group home at an older age, so she remembered growing up in one of the hot places. She loved the snow. We made snowmen armies. Like, dwarf snowmen armies.” She saw her brother’s uncertain look. “How do you not know what a dwarf is? The snowmen were short and burly-looking. No beards, though.”
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