by Saxon Andrew
“Al, there must be seven hundred troops that passed us.”
“At least seven hundred. Remember, we fire all eight of our hornets and program them for heavy weapons. Then you take the right, I’ll take the left, and let’s clear us a hole in their lines and haul it back to A company.” A loud tone came through their coms and Alonso said, “Time to go. Power your armor and fire hornets on three: one, two, three, go.”
The twelve marines of A company sprung from their lairs and launched all their hornets. Forty-eight of the small missiles went ninety feet vertical and then targeted the Alliance heavy weapon platforms. They then turned and leveled their blast rifles and began sprinting at forty-five miles per hour in their powered armor back toward their lines. The defensive lines in front of them were firing at the soldiers on the left and right of the marines, sprinting back to their lines. The trap door squads were firing into the back of the Alliance soldiers in front of them, and they were falling in big numbers. The Alliance foot soldiers expected the human line to be pinned down by their heavy weapons, but the hornets had done their part. Fifty of the seventy platforms were totally destroyed, and the remaining twenty had turned around to avoid destruction.
“What are they doing turning from the battle?” General Dorg yelled. “Turn them around immediately and commence firing.”
Jeremy and Alonso were approaching their lines when one of the Alliance weapon platforms fired a barrage of heavy slugs at the marines’ lines. One of the slugs went through Jeremy’s armor and out his shoulder. He fell and rolled. Alonso stopped and grabbed Jeremy’s back harness and ran, pulling him toward safety while firing his rifle single-handed. Alonso dropped eight Alliance soldiers before the weapons platform fired eight rounds through his armor. He died on the spot. Jeremy began crawling and pulled Alonso with him. The weapons platform that had hit them was killed by three high-speed rocket power cells that Alpha company artillery targeted on it. Three of Alpha company’s troops ran out and pulled the two to safety behind their built-up positions.
“Al, Al, answer me,” Jeremy pleaded.
The medic looked at Jeremy and said, “He won’t hear you, son. He’s gone.” Jeremy pulled himself up to Alonso’s body and pulled the letter out of his harness. He placed it in his armored glove and passed out from the pain.
“Colonel, there’s just too many,” Lieutenant Dunn said. “We’re close to losing Charlie company. There are only twenty effectives left, and the Alliance is sending troops there to breech our lines.”
“Gentlemen, we’re into the thick of it,” Richard said. “Everyone grab a rifle and let’s go join Charlie company.” The ten members of Richard’s staff grabbed weapons, and they sprinted through the screen and then dove behind Charlie company’s burned-out weapon platforms. Richard noticed a wounded marine, Jeremy, running with them. Jeremy said on the com, “It’s only a scratch, Colonel. Can’t let you have all the fun, sir.” The twelve marines joined the survivors of Charlie Company and started delivering devastating blaster fire into the Alliance’s advance. The whole perimeter around the Rossville camp looked like a scene from hell. The marines were being hit with constant missile and blaster fire. The entire front looked on fire. Yet they still continued to fire at the Alliance advance. Richard was hit by a rocket that hit close to where he was laying, and it broke his leg and threw him thirty feet off the line. He crawled back and continued firing. Then, slowly at first, then faster, the remaining Alliance ground troops began withdrawing. They disappeared down the valley and Richard commanded, “Cease fire.” Then there was silence.
A medic turned Richard over and said, “Sir, we’ve stopped the bleeding, but we need to move you out to set that leg.”
Richard said, “I will not leave my men. Go help someone who’s really hurt, I’m not moving.” All of Richard’s command heard the exchange. His radio was damaged and stuck on transmit on the general frequency. They heard the medic say, “Sir, your leg is broken in four places, you have shrapnel in your left arm, and your armor has lost its screen.”
“Medic, I’m not accustomed to repeating myself,” Richard replied. “Help my men that really need it. Now leave.” The medic left with a heavy heart, and Richard’s remaining marines felt something in them grow into hardened resolve; they vowed vengeance on the Alliance for what they had done to their commander. “Company commanders report,” Richard ordered.
“Sir, five of our six commanders are either dead or too wounded to fight,” Lieutenant Dunn said.
“How many men are still combat effective?” Richard asked.
“Three hundred seventy-five, sir.”
“We’ve lost 625 men,” Richard thought with a heavy heart. Then he asked, “Have we heard anything from surveillance?”
“Yes sir. The first regiment the Alliance sent against us was pretty much destroyed. They are massing the second regiment to attack in force through the valley. I think they feel that attacking the whole perimeter stretches them too thin. It appears that the entire regiment is approaching en masse down the valley.”
“Are our weapon platforms still hidden?”
“Yes sir, but they won’t be enough to stop them all.”
“Then we’ll just take as many of them as we can. Have all units move to the front, and then please inform the men I’m proud of them. They held up to the finest tradition.” Richard’s com was still set on transmit, and his men could hear his pride of their actions. They looked at each other and reached out and shook armored gloves. The Alliance was going to pay a high price, and they were going to sell their lives at a high premium.
Tag was watching as the final Alliance ships were being chased. Then he heard communications say, “Sir, the marines at Rossville are taking a beating. They’ve lost two-thirds of their troops and the Alliance is massing another regiment against them. All of the other marine units are tied down and are unable to relieve them.”
Kosiev said, “All our forces are chasing Alliance ships that are trying to escape. We’re the only ship here, and we have to be ready to go after any ship that drives toward the sun to escape. They’ll have to hold out another forty minutes.”
The communications officer looked at Tag and shook his head.
Tag left the bridge and went to the hold that was housing the escape pods. He closed his eyes and saw where Rossville was located and entered the coordinates into the pod’s computer. He closed the door and pressed the activate button on his console. The pod shot through Washington’s screen and headed toward the planet.
“What was that?” Kosiev asked.
“Sir, an escape pod has been activated and is heading toward the planet,” Lieutenant Kelley said.
“Who was it?”
“Sir, it was Thomas Gardner.”
“Get that pod on the speaker now!”
“Go ahead, Admiral,” Tag said.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to help a friend.”
“Tag, you’re more important to this war than all of us combined. You can’t risk yourself.”
“Admiral, make sure no one escapes. I’m going to help down there. Do not come for me until all Alliance ships are eliminated. That’s a direct order.” Then Tag turned off his radio.
The Alliance regiment was advancing through the valley. It was heavily massed and was moving fast. The regiment could sense the end for the human defenders was near, and they wanted this to be over. Suddenly, both sides of the valley erupted into flame and blasts as the naval marine heavy weapon platforms finally opened fire together. Fully half of the advancing forces were wiped out immediately. The survivors returned fire and slowly eliminated the weapon platforms. Then the Alliance survivors continued on an eight-hundred-yard front toward the remaining human defenders.
Richard looked at his remaining soldiers and waited until the Alliance force was seven hundred yards from them and opened fire. The Alliance troops were falling, but so were the marines. Richard could see that there were jus
t too many. They were 150 yards from his troop’s position when an escape pod dropped from the sky between his lines and the Alliance advance and landed with a blue-green strobe flashing. The Alliance and human forces stopped firing and a human stepped out of the escape pod and waited for the Alliance representative to approach. A regimental command officer approached the human and began talking. “What’s going on sir?”
“I don’t know,” Richard said.
Tag waited for the Cainth officer to approach him and then said, “Sir, I’m going to request that you withdraw your men and return to your positions at the head of this valley. Your fleet has been destroyed and we are currently finishing with the last ten Alliance ships. If you withdraw, I’ll guarantee the safety of your men and ensure they are treated fairly as prisoners of war.”
The Alliance officer said, “Look around you, human. We are going to finish your ground troops, then take those civilians hostage, and make sure you behave yourself or we’ll execute every one of them. We may kill some just for fun, to let you know we mean business. You may have won the space battle, but we will win on the ground.”
“Sir, I ask you to please consider the lives of your men. You have lost three thousand troops today. I don’t want the rest of them killed needlessly.”
“And just how are you going to do that?” The Alliance officer sneered.
“I’m going to do it, alone. You will not harm another one of our troops. If you choose not to listen and continue this attack, then fire a blue and green flare when you’ve had enough and I’ll stop killing your men.”
The Alliance officer looked at Tag and said, “You will be the first to die.” He then went back to his lines and ordered every soldier on the front line to fire at the human on his command. Tag turned off the strobe and hoped that Atlas had given him adequate protection. The whole Alliance front line fired on him.
Tag stood in the middle of that hellish fire and felt nothing. Even the sound was muted. Heavy weapons fired at him: primary laser platforms and heavy slug throwers emptied their magazines into his force field, and he was untouched. The marines watched the firepower being directed at the single human and knew he should have been dead. He didn’t even have on battle armor, but there he stood, unmoving, at the center of what should have been instant death. Then Richard heard, “You’ve done well here, Rich. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here earlier, but perhaps I can take part now. Please have your men ready to take some prisoners.”
“Tag, get out of there. You’re too important. Men, prepare to charge. We have to rescue him.”
“Richard, it’s a little late to charge; besides, if I were in danger, I’d already be dead. Get down behind your screens and prepare for mop-up operations.”
The Alliance forces began to advance, and Richard saw Tag raise his arm and point it toward the advancing forces. Suddenly, an incredibly bright blue beam was fired and run across the front of the advancing Alliance formation. Twelve rows of Alliance troops and all their equipment disintegrated. Then that hellish beam crossed the formation again and one-third of the remaining Alliance forces were blown away. There was a pause while Tag held the blue beam slightly over the heads of the remaining alliance forces; immediately a blue and white flare was launched from the rear of the Alliance formation and they began laying down their arms.
“Tag, you never cease to amaze me. Round up the prisoners and put them in the camp. Assign some of the civilians to guard them, and then please get my wounded and me to a hospital.” With that Richard passed out, his job complete.
Chapter 29
Admiral Kosiev stood on ground that looked like blasted glass and stared at the young man in front of him. He had no answer for what had happened during the final battle. Once the general commanding the ground forces was captured, all the remaining conflicts around the planet ceased, and the Alliance ground forces surrendered. The Earth fleet was in the process of loading the prisoners onto transports taking them to a cavern prepared for them on one of Jupiter’s moons. Earth central command had sent heavy transports to Ross to take the population and relocate them to another colony. There were only one hundred forty thousand of them, as this was a young colony. There was no way they would be safe once the Alliance main fleet arrived. “We might not be safe, either,” Kosiev reflected as he stood outside the destroyed marine base camp at Rossville. All around him was the wreckage of marine and Alliance weapons. He felt he had to come down and see the site of mankind’s first land battle in four hundred years. It was important that he understand the price he would be asking the marines to pay. Some of the heavy weapon platforms were still smoking, and the remaining marines were looking for the bodies of their fallen comrades. Then he turned and said, “Would you mind explaining how and what you did down here?”
Tag had to force himself to break away from the scene of carnage all around him and said to Kosiev, “I tried to prevent some of this bloodshed, but I didn’t, Admiral, and I can’t answer your question.” Kosiev started to protest, but Tag held up his hand and said, “This is something that falls into Special Force proprietary information. I honestly can’t tell you. I am also going to request that any record or recording of what happened be sent to Special Forces Center on Earth. All of our personnel are also to be told to never mention it.”
Kosiev stared at Tag, looked around at the site of the bloodiest fighting, and finally said, “You know you saved thousands of lives down there. I don’t understand how you did it, but it ended the conflict. Thanks.”
Tag continued to stare at the ground around the Marine camp that had been hit with so many blaster beams that the surface looked like glass. There was no vegetation in sight and the entire valley looked like the surface of the moon. He heard that Richard was on board a hospital ship and was severely wounded. He prayed that his friend would make it. He continued to stare and ponder the destructiveness of war. “Did any of the Alliance ships surrender?” he asked Kosiev.
“Actually, their flagship War Weapon did. We also forced the crew to leave the ship individually in spacesuits. We picked them up with one of our freighters and moved them away from the dreadnought. I had their senior officer put one of their lifeboats in a launching tube and set it for remote control. You were right; the Alliance officer launched the lifeboat and the dreadnought self-destructed, taking the lifeboat with it. Those Alliance sailors have a different point of view now about their leaders on good ol’ Cainth. If they are ever sent back, they are going to cause the clan leaders some problems. They are also being transported to Jupiter’s moon. I believe it’s Europa.”
Kosiev’s com buzzed and a voice said, “Sir, you have a call from someone named Danielle Gardner asking to speak to our hero of the month.”
Tag was snatched out of his reverie and said, “Uh oh, does she know what happened?”
“When you took the escape pod down and ordered me not to go after you, I called the Director to ask for instructions. Your wife was there at the time, and they both demanded a video feed on what was taking place groundside. They also ordered me to disregard your instructions and to send whatever force was necessary to withdraw you from danger. You, however, handled it before I could organize any kind of response. But to answer your question, they saw everything you did during that final battle.”
The button was flashing on Kosiev’s com and Tag only stared at it. “Admiral, could you please tell my wife I’m indisposed, that I’ll call her later?”
“You forget, Tag. She can see the truth,” Kosiev said, smiling at Tag’s discomfort. Here was a man who took on an Alliance regiment without flinching, and now he was frightened to face his wife. Kosiev transferred the call to Tag’s com and smiled.
Tag picked up the com and said, “Hello, dear.” He then moved the com a foot away from his ear, and even Kosiev could hear Danielle yelling at him.
“Ahh, there is always payment for the risks we take,” Kosiev thought. He then laughed out loud at the expression on Tag’s face. The voice on the other end o
f the com doubled in volume, and Tag said, “That wasn’t me! No, I don’t think this is funny.” Kosiev left whistling, leaving Tag to the chewing-out he so richly deserved.
Richard Wiseman was asleep in a hospital bed onboard the Saint Theresa hospital ship. He had lost a lot of blood and was developing an infection in his leg. He and his wounded marines were being jumped back to Earth for emergency care. Doctor Chen had tried to treat some of the marines, but none of them would accept it until their commander was taken care of. Doctor Chen finally had to beam a video to their beds showing Richard asleep. “He’s being kept asleep until we arrive at Central Medical,” Doctor Chen said. “There’s nothing we can do now but keep him stable. Now you soldiers lie still and let us help those we can.” When he tried to turn off the video, the marines threatened to show the doctor what hand-to-hand was really like. So Chen left it on. “What did this man do to get such loyalty?” he asked one of the marines.
“He kept the faith, he kept his word, he fought for us, and he kept the civilians safe. He showed us the meaning of semper fi, doctor. Don’t let him die.”
Chen looked at the marine and said, “He won’t, not on my watch.”
General Dorg sat on the human transport and thought about the week’s events. He along with all the sailors watched as the dreadnought self-destructed as the lifeboat was leaving. It was a sight he couldn’t get out of his mind. He didn’t know the Cainth war ships were programmed to self-destruct and take the crew with them. He wondered if his transports were programmed the same way. The humans had addressed him and his men once they were onboard and told them what was going to happen. “You are going to be transported to a moon circling one of our planets called Jupiter. The moon is named Europa. We have carved a cavern and have put environmental systems in place to maintain its atmosphere and temperature. We have stocked it with enough provisions to clothe and feed you. There are living facilities for you also. We will not be guarding you. You will set up your own form of government and rule yourselves. If this conflict between us and the Alliance ends peacefully, we will transport you home. Obviously, we can’t do that now. We’ll be fired on even if we tell them you’re on board. There will be a com set up for you to contact us if you have any needs. Are there any questions?”