In recent days it had been rebuilt and strengthened to house an entirely new type of prisoner. At the moment the center housed only one such prisoner, one that Dexter knew almost too well. It was the very enemy soldier that had tried to kill him and his men only a few days before, the same alien that he now constantly saw just before awakening. The Teddy, a nickname coined for the bear like alien warriors by a private from the 248th Regiment, had been under constant watch and interrogation since its capture. Military Intelligence officers had relished the chance to study one of the invaders up close, but they still had to decipher its language in order to get any real hard data locked away in the his or her brain. In the meantime they had settled for a full medical body scan of the creature in order to learn more about their physiology.
Dexter still remembered the Teddy vividly, being helpless against the charging creature, with his arm and weapon incapacitated. The soldier would have killed him outright, without much trouble, but instead it came to a stop just a meter from him. That was when the enemy’s eyes had grown wide and every strand of fur on its massive bulk stood on end just before it went completely limp and tumbled to the ground. Its momentum carried the soldier skidding across the pavement before coming to a stop just in front of Dexter’s feet. It was at that moment that he met Major Benjamin Hofens, coming out of the darkness from a large pile of rubble behind the fallen alien with a small fire team of heavily armed infantrymen around him. The large and imposing man strode up to the creature, placed an armored boot to the alien’s back, and fired another stunner bolt into the back of its head.
He later found out that Colonel Nikita Delouraunt, the commander of 23rd Infantry Regiment, had perished in the initial orbital strike on Hamilton. Major Hofens had been second in command at the time and had stepped in to fill the gap left in the unit’s leadership. He had quickly organized the surviving men and women into an effective resistance force made up of small, highly mobile, fire teams. These teams of between four and six soldiers had managed to hold the enemy off for long enough for reinforcements, like Alpha Company, to reach the base and assist in the evacuation. They had fought the alien menace all across the Hamilton facility from building to building before mounting a large counter attack once Alpha commenced its own attack. It also helped that the company’s artillery destroyed half a dozen of the enemy’s walking tanks, the same ones that had probably launched the attack against Dexter’s platoon and disabled its shields.
The soft whine of a passing Centaur IFV stopped Dexter’s reminiscing. He looked around one last time before continuing on his way through the base towards the field command center. Along the way he passed a number of other soldiers moving around the base as well as a group of them practicing their weapons skills inside a covered shooting range. Without stopping further Dexter continued on his way until reaching one of the multiple security posts scattered throughout the base. At the post were four heavily armed soldiers and automated weapons systems inside a pair of pillboxs built from thick reinforced blastdoors creating a fantastic defensive position. Making his way between the two pillboxs Dexter ended up inside the base’s medical center.
The center consisted of a single pentagonal shaped building with inward slanted outer walls and was completely opened on one of the sides pointing into a small courtyard area. Dexter walked through this opened courtyard, which had been carved out from the thick surrounding forest, and approached the opened section of the medical facility. Immediately upon crossing the entrance he saw patient beds along the walls where injured soldiers completed their recovery before their discharge. The enemy assault on Frontiera had provided no shortage of wounded men and women for the army medical personnel to treat. Among these soldiers were a dozen members of Dexter’s own 2nd Platoon, of which two were still in recovery. It was these troopers that he was here to see this morning.
Walking in the middle of the large recovery ward Dexter felt all eyes on him as every soldier in the room acknowledged his rank. He smiled at the women and men laying or sitting on their beds and took time to make small talk with as many of them as possible. A good number of them were actually from Alpha platoon, wounded during the fierce battle at Hamilton Army Base. After a few jokes and seeing that they were all doing well, Dexter bid them farewell and continued onward until he found Sergeant Ibrami and PFC Fellerman. The Sergeant had lost a hand and sustained internal injuries during a Teddy grenade attack on his squad, but was now recovering nicely. A new hand had quickly been grown for the man and surgically attached at the base’s medical facility. Private Fellerman’s injuries were less extensive with only a pair of fractures in his right leg sustained while in unarmed combat with one of the enemy special operations soldiers.
Dexter looked down at the soldier’s uncovered leg and noted two bluish bio-infuser patches stuck to his thigh in two separate locations. These infusers painlessly parted the skin layers beneath while slowly releasing nanites into the damaged areas. The nanites surrounded the broken sections of bone and quickly repaired the fractures, healing in a single day what would have taken the body months. Both men saw Dexter approaching and tried to stand to attention as best they could in their beds, sitting up straighter.
“Sir!” both called out in perfect unison.
“At ease gentlemen,” he said with a smile and pulled up a nearby chair to sit down beside his men, “any word from the doc?”
“Says we still have another day, LT, but we are ready to get back into it now,” Fellerman replied with confidence before the sergeant could answer.
“Don’t worry, we’ll all be in the thick of it once more soon enough I think. Get as much rest as you can in the meantime.”
Together they sat for a few moments just chatting and laughing about nothing particularly important, sharing small anecdotes from each other’s lives. It was good to have a small mental break from thinking about the ongoing war and everything sinister that’s happened during the past few days. Each man tried hard to keep the thoughts of their families at bay. None of them had any idea of when or if they would ever see their loved ones again. All they knew was that for the moment all of their closest brethren were the men and women that fought by their sides.
In the midst of their conversation Dexter saw an Asiatic man in aqua colored fatigues emerge into the main hallway from one of the further rooms lining it. The man was of somewhat shorter stature than most within the military, but his build and demeanor left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he belonged among them. His size also made him easy to recognize and so Dexter immediately knew who this person was. It was a man he would have probably never known had it not been for his injury at the hands of the Teddys. Since that time they had both become rather good friends.
Wishing both of his men a quick recovery, Dexter stood up and walked towards Colonel Akida Dekusaw with a big smile. Along the way he passed a number of closed rooms on either side of him and couldn’t help but look into some of them through their small windows. The first seemed to a laboratory of some kind in which the walls were covered in cloning vats, each one containing body parts in various stages of completion. These were all for transplant into wounded warriors of which one was already in surgery in the adjacent room. Looking into that next room Dexter saw a female soldier lying on medical table with an ASU-42 surgical robot hovering over her and attaching a newly grown arm to her shoulder. She had apparently sustained a number of serious battle injuries because the bot was also performing abdominal surgery on her at the same time. He wished her a speedy recovery and turned away from the door just in time to come face to face with Akida.
“Good morning sir,” Dexter said in greeting as he came to attention.
“Morning lieutenant and at easy,” the higher ranking officer ordered with a quick laugh as he studied Dexter, “how are you feeling?”
“Healed up nicely, doc, you did a great job on it, but still feels a little weird,” he answered while raising his injured hand and showing it off to the doctor, all the while knowing that
wasn’t the subject of his query.
“Give it another week. Your body should get used to the regrown neural network. You know that isn’t what I meant, though,” Akida stated in a slightly more stern tone, almost father-like to the much younger officer.
Dexter knew there was no use lying to the man since all of his mental patterns were constantly monitored during his sleep, “I’m still having those dreams, but every time there seem to be more details coming through.”
“That’s great Dexter. It means your mind is slowly recovering and unlocking more suppressed memories of the incident. As soon as you unravel all of them your stress levels should begin to drop. Your mind should hold no more secrets from you at that point. We can always accelerate the process, if you wish,” the doctor added with a slightly grin.
“No, I think I’ll deal with it the natural way. Thank you, though. It’s good to have someone to talk to though,” Dexter said truthfully just as he noticed what time it was, “well it was great seeing you Colonel, but I have to run.”
“Roger that, you take care of yourself son,” Akida ordered the other man with a smile and a reassuring squeeze of the shoulder, “I’m here to talk anytime you need me, copy?”
“Loud and clear, sir.” Dexter exclaimed as he cordially snapped his feet together and quickly turned on his heels before finally walking back down the corridor towards the open courtyard outside.
The base’s command center was only a short jog through the surrounding woods from the medical building and it was instantly clear when he approached it. The inner checkpoints, some hidden among the thick tree trunks, increased as he got closer and every building surrounding it had sniper teams on the rooftops. At the same time there was a number of Panther SecBots walking around the jagged dirt roads. These automated security robots patrolled the CC’s perimeter on their six legs armed with light particle beam cannons, missiles, and an extensive senor suite, all situated within a heavily armored and shielded body. They gave him no trouble as their sensors quickly scanned him and confirmed his identity.
Running past all these defenses Dexter finally ended up at his intended destination. The building itself was nestled inside a small cleared area and sunken completely into the ground, making it almost unnoticeable to anyone passing by or scanning the area. What gave away its strategic nature were the four Centaur IFVs and two Chimera tanks surrounding the facility. However, even these were hard to detect in the early morning thanks to their engaged adaptive camouflage. Dexter saw them shimmering slightly like a distant mirage as he changed angles during his approach towards the command center.
Slowing down to a brisk walk he slipped in between two of the guarding Centaurs and stepped down the dugout stairs to gain access to the blacked out TacOps rooms. The Tactical Operations room seemed to only be lit by the light coming from the rows of monitors lining the inner walls of the bunker as well as the holographic Tactical Information Display table. This large eight sided table was located in the center of the room and dominated the surrounding space. It wasn’t just the TID’s sheer size, but also the fact that around it stood the top commanding officers from every military unit in the surrounding area.
Normally Dexter would have been out of place in such a high profiled operations meeting, but General Stelle encouraged junior officers to participate whenever possible. It was the general himself that stood at the head of the table, leaning forward with both hands on its edge as he studied the map displayed there. Beside him stood newly promoted Colonel Benjamin Hofens and Lieutenant Colonel Markus Carbera. Dexter knew the Lt.
Colonel by reputation only and was glad to see that the officer had survived the initial alien assault. News had spread, however, that Markus’s regiment, the 98th Armored Cavalry, had not been so luckily spared. The Reapers had supposedly suffered an atrocious casualty rate of almost 40% in both men and equipment when their base was bombarded from orbit during one of the enemy’s opening salvos. Being one of the only half dozen such units in existence throughout the Federation, the ACR’s reduced strength was a sever detriment to the war effort on Frontiera.
Taking a further look at the other individuals around the TID his eyes settled on the tall, large, and statuesque like figure standing closest to him on the left side of the holographic display. The man stood with his arms crossed over his chest, resting on top of a rather thick armored chest plate. Unlike the other officers at the table he wore a full armored suit, one that seemed to have seen better days, with dents and scrapes all over its outer casing. Dexter did not recognize the armors design, but did notice the Federation Naval insignia on its right shoulder and wondered what an officer from the navy was doing here.
“…completed the pull-out from Destona and the surrounding area. Colonel Hallsworth has taken command of all sector forces and conducted a strategic evacuation to Bastion. Civilians left behind have been seen being rounded up into what seem to be containment areas. At the same time the enemy presence within the city is being reinforced through SP Mironia as well as another makeshift landing area within the city proper, located here,” Captain Karina Paitel reported and pointed on the map, which caused it to zoom in on the capital city.
The floating holographic representation of her report rotated and zoomed in on each area discussed. This allowed Dexter to, for the first time since the start of the war, witness the horrible destruction that had been unleashed on the once beautiful city of Destona. Being the commander of the specialized Tactical Reconnaissance unit, Delta Company, 2nd Infantry Battalion, 23rd Brigade Combat Team, her unit was now a more precious commodity than ever before. With the loss of most other surveillance assets on Frontiera, Captain Paitel’s company had the pressing task of scouting out and locating enemy movement throughout the entire continental region. At the moment, as Karen explained, their main focus was the occupation and subjugation of Destona and its civilian population.
Dexter guessed immediately, from the subject matter, that General Stelle was thinking about launching a counter-attack against Destona to free as many people as possible from the capital. Standing in the way of this task were two concentrations of enemy forces. One was the city’s large spaceport and the other was in Elton Field, a large grass clearing just outside the city. It was this location that Captain Paitel reported on at the moment and on which the holographic display finally focused on. It revealed a large circular formation of vessels of unknown designs sitting high on the ground. Below each one was a cargo lift that seemed to lower from each ship’s midsection to unload equipment and soldiers. Every tonnage of cargo was then assembled at an expansive depot still under construction nearby. From what it seemed, the enemy was trying hard to establish a beachhead on the planet and at the same time within the Federation.
She continued to explain the observed operations at each site before the image enlarged further to show the surrounding area more clearly, “each site is heavily defended with multiple gun batteries and battalion sized security units, along with heavy armor units. They have constant air patrols, which increase whenever a dropship comes down.”
“Any luck locating more units or contacting Lokra?” General Stelle inquired, wondering about the status of the planet’s other equatorial continent, Westera.
“Negative sir, every attempt to reach Lokra’s mainland has failed. None of the units dispatched have returned.”
“That’s most unfortunate, we knew the risks beforehand,” Brinek said as he let out a breath and stared at the floating map, “please captain, go on with your report.”
“Well sir, we have been following an increase in the number of enemy scouting parties. They seem to be scouring the entire continent for any remaining military units. It appears that they are trying to clear all opposition from…” her voice trailed off as one of the private’s manning a communications station yelled out.
“New contacts coming in fast from orbit!”
“Enemy?!” General Stelle questioned immediately.
“Negative, system auth
enticates friendly IFF challenge…” the private paused slightly, “incoming transmission! Naval frequency.”
DUNTAN Slaige was studying a copy of Lieutenant Iorns’s military profile within his visual field while at the same time listening to Captain Paitel and was slightly more than surprised when he heard the news of the naval transmission. He made sure to keep his face expressionless, but at the same time a wave of hope swelled up within him. The Colonel began to imagine that perhaps some of Frontiera’s naval assets survived the planetary assault. He quickly triggered his internal comm and wordlessly connected to the base’s data network to send the update to the rest of his team.
Just as quickly, Duntan’s hope shattered when the TacOps speakers let out an alarmed and unfamiliar voice, “this is Razor One to any friendly unit, repeat this is Razor One to any friendly units! We are escorting Federation CTG dropships and are being pursued by multiple enemy fighters. Request immediate assistance.”
From that last word the entire operations room burst into frenzied, but coordinated activity. Razor One’s identity was immediately double checked against the military database and quickly confirmed to be Captain Serti Alokow of the Federation Carrier Group. No one knew why the captain and his fighters were in the vicinity of Frontiera, but many guessed that FRINGCOM had dispatched the group. Whether they had done it in response to the launched courier drones or simply to investigate the planet’s disappearance from the Federal Communications Network, it didn’t really matter. The only thing that did matter was the fact that the Federation knew of their plight and would hopefully send reinforcements.
“Razor One, this is FRONCOM Actual. We are transmitting a new flight plan for you,” the General relayed as new icons began to appear on the TID to signify the four new Cyclone class interceptors and two Albatross class dropships that just descended through the atmosphere, “follow the plan and we’ll provide as much support as we can.”
Con-Red: Recourse Page 25