by Darold Higa
Peering around the corner of a nearby building, the front of the base HQ was visible. As she looked at the entrance, she saw the base commander, Colonel Kim and some other command officers being escorted into a Military Police ground vehicle. Patricia paused. It looked as if the base commander was being taken into custody. Something was clearly not right. Patricia wondered if she should act. Looking at the pistol in her hand she knew there was very little she could do. The base commander and her command staff look like they had been disarmed.
Apparently the disappearance of the two MPs she had knocked out was being noticed. The commander of the military police began barking out orders and the military police began fanning out. Patricia got ready to run when a loud noise came from the direction of the main gate. At that moment, a platoon of hovertanks and hover infantry fighting vehicles crashed through the main gate, which was now manned by more military police. The tanks sped towards the military police convoy. There were confused shouts as a platoon of New Marine Army troops disembarked from the transports and approached the military police with weapons drawn.
“Good Gaia,” Patricia muttered to herself, “I’m in the middle of a damn coup d’état.”
The two groups faced each other down. One of the soldiers must have panicked, because the shouting match turned into a full-fledged firefight. A few shots were exchanged before commanders on both sides managed to regain control of the situation. Outgunned, the Military Police commander surrendered to the tank platoon. Once the military police surrendered, medics from the army unit began fanning out treating the wounded. The earlier scene had now reversed, with Army infantry now escorting disarmed military police into ground vehicles. Colonel Kim, freed from her captors, began a rapidfire discussion with the army commander.
Sensing that the situation had changed, Patricia holstered her pistol. Stepping around the edge of the building, she approached the tank convoy and the base commander.
“Captain Wainwright! Thank Gaia!” Despite just being freed from captivity herself, Colonel Kim looked relieved to see her. “Lieutenant Takahashi, this is Captain Wainwright, Spincoran Royal Navy.”
Captain Takahashi, the commander of the tank unit, snapped a sharp salute, which Patricia returned.
“Captain Wainwright, I apologize for the, uh, unfortunate incident. Please come with me, General Kobayashi dispatched me to retrieve you.” Although Captain Takahashi worded the statement as a request, the method of delivery suggested an order. Eyeing the tank and IFV e-mags, Patricia decided the only thing to do was to comply. Unfortunately the situation was no clearer than before. Patricia sighed and got into the back of the IFV. In less than a minute, they were speeding on the highway towards the capital of New Marine, Shin-Akiba.
Chapter 4
Buying Time
4563 July 05
Newport City Skyhook Ground Terminus
Newport
Renspa Federal Republic
Wynne Chu swore as she ducked behind a skyscraper to reload her e-mag assault rifle. Whoever that Renspan pilot is, she is damn good. She had already picked off Sergeant Lee’s and Sergeant Yu’s Templars. Darting between the tall buildings surrounding the skyhook terminal it was obvious that the Renspans had organized an assault force to attempt to take back the terminal facility before too many Narthians had been brought into the city. Orbital recon and RPVs were giving spotty intel as Renspan infowarriors kept trying to hack into the remote drones and satellites. Captain Leong guessed that the 1st and 2nd platoons were holding off two understrength companies of Renspan power armors. The streets of Newport City were clogged with the streams of civilians trying to get out of the central city, but Wynne knew that worked to her advantage. In 5 minutes the 3rd platoon would arrive, and 5 minutes after that the 4th platoon would arrive. More units would continue to arrive in the elevators rapidly descending from orbit. It would take a lot longer for Renspan reinforcements to arrive.
“Henry, hold this position, I think she is trying to flank left.”
Wynne gingerly navigated her Templar past Sergeant Wang, who was crouched behind the roadblock, rifle braced and ready to fire. Using abandoned civilian vehicles, they had created the roadblock along Broadway Avenue, a multi-laned street that ran to the main entrance of the skyhook terminus. Sergeant Yu and Sergeant Lee’s Templars were still slumped over the barricade. Both pilots were alive and well, but until combat recovery units made their way down the elevator, they would have to remain in their current locations. It was far too dangerous for the two remaining Templars to break contact with the enemy to move them someplace safe. As long as the Renspan AI tagged them as combat ineffective, it was doubtful that anyone would waste the time attacking them.
Wynne cut to the left of their current position, moving a block north along the tree-lined Skyhook Lane. Earlier, the 2nd Platoon had also erected a roadblock along Clarke Avenue. Using a remote camera, she peered over the roadblock down the abandoned street. As she had guessed, the M3E2 that had taken out two of her Templars was reloading her M14 Emag assault rifle. She could tell it was the same M3 because of all of the extra communications gear it carried. Communications gear not unlike her own, she observed. The M14 that the M3 was reloading was a 56mm round e-mag rifle that, despite its size packed a lot of punch and sported a large magazine. The tradeoff was a rather cumbersome reloading mechanism. Her own Broadsword e-mag Asssault Rifle had the tried and true 76mm e-mag round, but with a smaller number of rounds per magazine, she had to be much more careful about running out of ammunition. Her shots also required a lot more power, and power meant heat. But in these short but violent urban street battles, heat was the least of her concerns.
Wasting no time, Wynne spun into position behind the roadblock and fired a rapid burst at the M3. Glass and concrete shattered as 76mm e-mag rounds pulverized the area around the Renspan power armor. Caught in the open, the M3 took one hit in the torso before ducking behind a nearby building. Another M3, which Wynne had not spotted, attempted to cover their commander and opened fire from the intersection opposite the command M3. This M3 wasn’t nearly as skilled as her commander and held down the trigger. The barricade and nearby buildings shuddered as glass and concrete debris flew everywhere. Using the cloud of smoke, dust and debris stirred up by the barrage to cover her movements, Wynne dashed across the street and took up position from the opposite corner. Lining up her shot, she fired a short burst into the M3 that was slowly turning to face her. Her rounds made contact with the M3 before the line of fire flaring from its rifle reached her position. Three rounds hit their mark. A round hit the head, another hit the power armor’s right arm and a third round hit the torso. The head exploded, destroying most of the complex sensor array. The shot to the arm damaged a servo, and the rifle was silenced. The torso round did not appear to penetrate the cockpit armor. Wynne’s AI core took less than a millisecond to judge the M3 as combat ineffective, changing its icon on her status indicator to yellow.
Hoping to exploit the distraction, the original M3 lined up Wynne’s Templar and took a single shot. Wynne caught the motion of the M3 preparing to fire in the corner of her eye and swung around just in time to catch the round in her Templar’s left arm. While her accuracy would be impaired, she knew she could still fight. Wasting no time, she swung around her rifle single handed and fired a rapid burst back at the M3.
The commanding M3 shielded itself with both arms. Emag rounds smashed into armor plates on the arms, destroying the M3’s right hand. The M14 assault rifle fell to the ground. Undeterred, the M3 commander advanced forward, pulling out a pistol from an auxiliary weapons holster.
Wynne pulled the trigger on her Broadsword, only to see a “MAGAZINE EMPTY” indicator flash on her HUD. Cursing again, she realized that the M3 pilot had counted the number of rounds she had fired. Knowing she was empty, the M3 was going to charge her while she reloaded. She threw down her Broadsword and reached for her own auxiliary weapon, a macromolecule monofilament dagger and jumped over the barricade to
wards the M3. Most units rarely trained in hand-to-hand power armor combat, but it was something that she had practiced often. In a simulator back on Luna she had been embarrassed when she had run out of ammunition and was unable to stop a single power armor from wiping out most of her unit. After that humiliation, and since she expected her unit to have to fight in rugged wilderness without adequate logistical support, she always emphasized that her troops know how to fight with knives. Being one to lead by example, she had spent hours in the simulators of Luna practicing using a knife in close combat with power armors. As a result, she had become quite proficient at it.
The M3 seemed surprised by the bold move, and at first she didn’t fire her pistol at the charging Templar. That was the opening Wynne needed. By the time the M3 got her first shot off, Wynne was close enough to anticipate her firing arc and dodged the shot. Wynne struck rapidly with the knife, cleaving the left arm of the M3 in two, sending the wrist and hand still gripping the pistol to the ground. The M3 had an auxiliary torso mounted machine gun, which the pilot was now firing, hoping to stave off the Templar’s vicious knife attacks. Sizing up the best angle, Wynne thrust forward again delivering a final blow with her knife to the head. Narthian training focused on the destruction of the mechs more than the killing of enemy pilots. The rationale was that with the large cost and time associated with the construction of each power armor, it made more sense to make sure that the power armor was rendered combat ineffective. Killing of enemy pilots was not considered a priority. Sticking to doctrine, Wynne resisted the temptation to drive the knife into the enemy cockpit, and simply withdrew back to the barricade.
Sergeant Wang, reliable as ever, relayed back combat telemetry. During her fight against the two M3E2s, he had used his sniper rifle to take out another Renspan power armor. The prospect of charging down the street without a commander and into the sights of a sniper had caused the Renspan attack to lose steam. Wynne grunted approvingly and retrieved her Broadsword rifle. More reports streamed into her datatank, The 1st Platoon had managed to beat off the attackers in their area as well. Sergeant Yu had managed to get out of her power armor through a service hatch. Apparently her assessment was that the damage to her Templar could be repaired in the field, and she might even restore partial operation in a few minutes. Unfortunately Sergeant Lee’s Templar was more severely damaged, and it would take a recovery crew to get him out of the cockpit. Still, Wynne was feeling a lot better. All told, they had managed to destroy or incapacitate 7 M3s, while only losing two power armors and no pilots. They had held off the first wave. In minutes the next platoon would arrive, and minutes after that the next. By the time the Renspans could regroup for a counterattack they would be firmly in control of the area. Unless the Renspans decide to fusion bomb their own cities, it looked like they would hold the terminus.
4563 July 05
Federal Hall
Newport
Renspa Federal Republic
President Lindsey Devon looked at the command datatank and shook her head. A few hours ago she had been the Secretary of Agriculture. In her stint as agricultural secretary, most of her decisions were about farm policies, biotechnology research and environmental policy. Now she was president of the 271 worlds of the Renspan Federal Republic. She now had to make life and death military decisions that decided the fate of billions. Years ago, earlier in her political career she had harbored an abstract desire for the presidency. Experiencing real power had changed her mind. As she rose in responsibility and moved up from local to planetary then to national politics, she realized that there were limits to the amounts of responsibility she desired. She was trained as a scientist, and felt confident making decisions based on researched facts. The further up the ladder of responsibility she moved, the more she was called upon to make quick decisions based on very little real information. Everything she acted upon had been interpreted and reinterpreted many times in a long ladder of people. She longed for the time when she could actually look directly at the data. At that point she realized that she would never seek anything more political than an appointed technical position. It was a happy medium between the intoxication of power and the frustration of responsibility.
She had a love of agricultural policy ever since her youth as a graduate student studying sustainable polyculture at Aurora State University. It was there that she befriended a young politician named Peter Hamilton. Now Peter was gone. Sometimes, when she was particularly frustrated with a problem, she would call up Peter on his personal communicator. Despite being the busiest person in Renspa, Peter had always made time to give her a few words of advice or encouragement. Now he was gone. How should she act? Who could she call?
Admiral Raleigh cleared her throat. “I’m sorry Madame President. We have to decide now. The counterattack against the Skyhook facility has failed at Newport and at Safe Harbor. With all of the refugees streaming out of the city, reinforcing the assault teams can only be done by air, and the fleet in orbit has destroyed everything we have sent up so far. Our last remaining option is to fire missiles armed with fusion warheads at the skyhook facilities. As you can see, the civilian casualties will be high. However, even with both skyhooks destroyed, Narthia owns the top of the gravity well. They can simply bombard our military facilities and then stage landings via landing craft. It will extract a lot more Narthian casualties, but civilian casualties will still be very high.”
At that moment, the path forward became clear to Lindsey. All of those years of endless tedium spent interpreting how to execute the letter of the law as Secretary of Agriculture might very well serve a purpose, she thought to herself. “We should surrender.” Lindsey surprised herself with the forcefulness of delivery. Confidence of delivery inversely proportional to the confidence in the idea, she thought to herself. Exactly the kind of thing Peter would say that leaders did.
“Madame President, may I remind you that we still have 9 operational fleets scattered about the republic. We still have considerable ground forces at our disposal here on Newport as well.”
Lindsey mustered every bit of confidence she could. “Admiral, with all due respect, we have been caught totally by surprise.” She wanted to take time to think things through but she knew there was no time. It was as if someone had taken over and she was watching herself speak. The sensation surprised her. Her other self continued. “Our military response would be piecemeal and disorganized. Right now we can minimize civilian casualties by surrendering.”
Admiral Raleigh began to speak, but Lindsey continued.
“Please listen to my words very carefully Virginia. I want you to understand what I mean by them. I am ordering you to surrender. I understand that by issuing that order you cannot guarantee the loyalty of the military to the commander in chief under these circumstances. I issue these orders with the understanding that elements of our military may not adhere to orders from what they might view as a provisional president without proper authority. Despite this, I expect the Narthians to respect the terms of surrender.”
Admiral Virginia Raleigh was quite shocked and looked at Lindsey Devon with new respect. “I understand your orders, Madame President. Do you understand that if I do as you have just ordered, you may be branded a traitor?”
President Lindsey looked at the admiral. Only a few hours into her Presidency and her face was already visibly tired. “Well Virginia, I guess that means I won’t plan on running for re-election. Right now I want to save as many lives as possible and buy as much time for our military as I can. I may be branded a traitor, but if I can buy us some time, then so be it. This is the only political solution I can think of at the moment. Virginia, I think it wisest if you were one of those that ignored my orders, they will need a good leader.”
Admiral Raleigh snapped to attention and saluted. “With all due respect, Madame President, I will remain by your side.”
“Very well. Please word the orders to lay down our arms very carefully, Virginia. If it isn’t legally correct, the Narthian
s might choose to not respect it and we will have gained nothing.” It isn’t what Peter would do, but Peter isn’t here, I have to do this my way, she thought to herself. “Please open a communications channel to the Narthian fleet. I have to negotiate the terms of our surrender.”
4563 July 05
New Marine Unified Command Headquarters
New Marine
Ladera Marginals
Patricia was shocked as she got out of the IFV and walked up the stairs to the New Marine Republican Army Unified Command headquarters. The tranquility of Shin-Akiba was replaced with the sounds of gunfire and plumes of smoke rising from fires burning across the city. The Unified Command HQ itself was surrounded by roadblocks and tanks. Soldiers had weapons slung, and a thick tension filled the air. Lieutenant Takahashi escorted Patricia down hallways filled with soldiers frantically running about. Through a doorway to one office, she saw an officer cry “fire in the hole” and toss a grenade into a safe filled with datacrystals. As she walked past she could hear a muffled explosion.