Standish

by Donald B McFarlane

  “Jun, use your best judgement when planning the strike on the underground complex. If you think it best to allow some non-combatants to flee via the tube network, it will be your call. Beyond that, we are not to engage or harm the non-combatants. Someone picks up a weapon, they’re dead. Otherwise, let them be. If some old local whacks you with his cane, use your better judgement and realise he can’t hurt you in your armour and let him be. Command does not want to find a city of one point four million filled with dead inhabitants when they arrive.” Ankjari put the remote control down on the table. “There will be additional briefs for each team to work out area specifics before launch. Jun, you’ll run the brief for the underground attack, so I’ll need you to study up on all the available plans and schematics and give me a briefing when you’re set.”

  Jun nodded.

  Ankjari looked around the room one more time. “Good. You’ll all receive notice when the next briefing is. You need to spend the time between then and now studying maps of Curzon. Learn the terrain. If you drop into the wrong sector, you’ll need to know the lay of the land.” He pointed at the map and the park in the centre of it. “If you drop into the park, well, there’s fifty square kilometres of green, woods, rivers, lakes and all sorts of obstacles in there. You’ll need to know how to get to AO Throne as best as possible to help the attack.” He looked up and nodded gently. “That will be all. Keep your comm units close.”

  It didn’t take long for everyone to file out of the room. Jun led the team back to the billets where they all took time to digest the briefing they had just heard, and after thirty minutes, Jun took the team to a planning room that had been reserved for groups that were involved in planning various parts of the strike. It was their turn to put their personal touch on the mission, and while several members of the team felt a little dejected by the prospect of having to lock-down a transportation hub, they knew it was still critical to the mission.

  Gathering around the large planning table, Cryne went through the motions of uploading all the schematics and specifications that Jun had been given at the briefing. Once all the data was in the planning table, a three-dimensional model was presented.

  In addition to the operators from Beta One-One, the team leaders from the two other teams that were part of the assault package were also present, representing Beta Five-Zero and Four-Three.

  “Let’s see what we’ve got.” Cryne said with a sense of excitement in his voice.

  Everyone looked at the image. It was much less detailed than the schematics that they had received on the mines in the AB 79 system, but this was all they had to work with.

  “Let’s start at the top.” Jun said, and pointed at the ground level of the station. “The only elements above the surface appear to be this lift shaft, which runs all the way down to sub-level three, and these two escalators that run parallel down to sub-one.”

  Standish looked at the rather dull looking entrance. There was nothing more than a canopy built over the ends of the escalators that ran in and out of the station, and a rather unimpressive looking lift twenty metres from the canopy. There was zero cover or concealment anywhere near the entrance of the station which appeared to be covered in paving stones or short cut grass running in all directions. It was not ideal that the three barracks all had elevated firing positions looking at the station entrance. Standish knew that the rest of the Bronze team would have to deal with any hostiles there before Beta One-One and the rest of the station teams had a clean and secured surface above them.

  “I plan to send team Four-Three to the lift on the surface.” He looked at the team’s leader, a clone from the planet Sey, Clone Gen 17 G56. “Leave two personnel on the surface and send the rest of your team down to sub-level 1. Once you’re there, disable the lift, then help secure the remainder of the level.” Jun scanned the faces of those in attendance. “Sub-level one is a leisure area, cafes, stores, galleries.” He looked back to Gen 17 G56. “Once the lifts are out of action, bring your duo on the surface down.”

  “My team and Five-Zero will assault down the escalators from the surface.” He looked at Ro, the Bravo Five-Zero leader. “Once we hit sub-level one, I want your team to secure the escalator access point to sub-level two as fast as possible. We want to drive all the civilians in the station to the lowest level, sub-three, and get them on the next available transport outbound.” He paused again and scanned the room. “I want to corral all the non-combatants and drive them down the operational escalators. Anyone that gives you trouble, stun them, secure them with safety ties, and put them on an outbound transport. I do not need a bunch of dead corpses filling up this station.”

  Jun manipulated the image until it was zoomed out. “Once the first level is secured, we will move to sub-two, leaving a pair of operators at the top of the escalator when we go down. I have been informed that we do not need to leave a security element on the surface. The teams securing the rest of AO Bronze will provide us with top-side security. By the time we have secured sub one, we should expect that there is a team positioned above the station to ensure we don’t have any contacts from our rear as we continue to clear down.”

  “Now, on sub-two, we’re going to have our first heavy work. This is where the inbound trains pull in, and I want to collapse the tunnel here.” He pointed at a spot twenty metres inside the inbound tunnel. “We don’t know what the tunnel is lined with, probably some composite panelling.” He looked up at Standish. “That will be a task for you and Mils when we hit sub-two.”

  Standish nodded.

  “Once the inbound trains and access from that tunnel are blocked, we will continue to drive the civilians down to sub-three.” Jun focused the three-dimensional image on the lowest level. “When we get everyone down, we need to herd them onto whatever trains are available, or along the access pathway that runs the length of the tunnel.”

  “Are we certain that there will be an access pathway next to the tracks?” Ro asked.

  Jun shook his head. “I am not, but I want everyone evacuated from the station as a precautionary measure, and we’ll need to do our best to drive them down the tunnel, on either a train or on foot.” He zoomed the image out again. “Once we’ve secured the station, my team and Four-Three will remain on sub-three and secure the outbound platform, Ro.” He shot a glance at the team leader standing next to him. “You’ll take your team back to sub one and secure the bottom of the escalator to the surface.”

  Jun took a step back from the command table. “Make sure you spend time checking the schematics and other details of this installation before we deploy. Also, be sure to check all the information on AO Silver, Gold and Diamond. If your insertion pod goes down in the wrong sector, be ready to join the fight there.” Jun looked around at the two team leaders. “Questions?” He didn’t wait very long. “Good. G56 and Ro, you’re released, One-One, stand-by.”

  Standish and the rest of the team waited for the two other team leaders to leave the room, then looked to Jun.

  “Thoughts?” He asked, his hands on his hips.

  No one said anything for a moment, then Cryne, as usual, spoke up. “It will be interesting to see how many civilians are in the facility. If it’s full, we’ll have a stampede on our hands.” He shook his head. “Could be very tricky.”

  Jun nodded and put his hands on the table. “I don’t know what time we’re supposed to be landing on Qera so there could be huge fluctuations in the number of people moving in and out of the station when we drop, but we need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, which could be a large volume.” He shook his head. “Not much we can control about that. We get in, move swiftly, do what needs to be done, lock the facility down, and wait for further orders.”

  “Has Ankjari issued any reserve orders in the event of things going side-ways?” Systa K asked.

  Jun shook his head. “As of right now, the only orders and instructions I have are for us to assault the underground facility inside AO Throne. There are no other instructions.”
Jun finally switched off the three-dimensional image. “Take some time when you get back to your bunks to check the information on the mission some more. Feel free to review information on all the areas of Throne, and make sure you’re familiar with the overall layout of Curzon. If something goes wrong with your drop, and you end up in a different sector of the city, you need to know how to link up with friendly forces.” Jun looked at the faces of his team, then stopped on Cryne. “Any other thoughts?”

  Cryne rocked his head from side to side. “Like you said, study the map and know it back to front. Curzon might look like a silly city shaped like a triangle, but make sure you know it well enough to find your bearings should you need to.”

  56

  The Past

  Mella II

  The next day teams were finally introduced to the stealth pods that were going to be fired through the Trans-Dimensional Sub-Space Gateway, and they didn’t disappoint. Beta One-One was brought to one of the stations massive hangars first thing in the morning, without a word on the purpose of their visit, and been greeted by a pair of Sentinels at the hangar entrance. Only once they were inside, did they understand why.

  Ankjari took them through the fitting session for the pods, which came in three sizes, Mils requiring the largest, while no one on the team needed the smallest. Standing at just over four and a half metres tall, the tear-drop shaped pods were painted in what was called a radar and detection proof matte black colouring and were smooth to the touch. At the top of each pod was a single-engine, capable of producing enough thrust to push the pod at over three-thousand kilometres an hour through an atmosphere. The operator compartment was the same size as those found on conventional drop-pods and offered a fully integrated navigation and flight-control system that could be synched up with the operator's armour. While no one was expected to pilot the pods down to the surface, course corrections were possible.

  In addition to getting fitted to the pods, all the operators were given a briefing on how to affect in-flight repairs if the pod suffered a technical fault while still in space. The fact that the subject was even mentioned didn’t fill hearts with promise. Everyone on the team noted that there were only a handful of pods in the hangar, and Ankjari replied that the rest were on Mechcharga, where the TDSSG gate was located, and to where they’d deploy from.

  When the fittings, flight systems orientation and briefing on in-flight repairs were complete, Beta One-One, along with the other teams that had attended the presentation returned to the billets for downtime. It gave Standish a chance to log into her fleet communications account which she hadn’t checked in some time. For someone who grew up on a back-water like Nadolo Prime, Standish had never been used to advanced communications systems like electronic messaging. It was something that she had to learn at her basic training. Her father didn’t have a data-terminal or a transmitter to bounce a message to the nearest relay station on Nadolo, so he had to trek into Port Sunlight if he wanted to send a message to her, and she knew with the current state of affairs on the planet and the system, that the status quo was no longer in place.

  Much to her satisfaction, a message was waiting for her when she logged into her account, in fact, there were two. One from her father and another from her former chief instructor from basic, Senior Instructor Marvax. Shocked, more than anything to have a message from Marvax, she opened it first and listened to the recording.

  “Val Standish.” It was a voice-only transmission. “If you’re receiving this message, then I am dead.”

  That hit Standish like a punch to the gut.

  “I asked my spouse to send this to you at her earliest convenience if the need arose, and if you’re listening to this message, then the worst has come to pass. I want to give you a small piece of advice. You can do with it what you wish, but understand this, the advice I am about to give you is a piece of advice that I probably should have heeded many years ago.” There was a pause. Standish could hear the Senior Instructor breathing slowly in the background. “If you haven’t noticed already, this war will end up destroying everything of the old Empire. It will tear down in years what it took centuries to build. Do not let it take you down with it. I’m not telling you to abandon your duties, but when you know the time is right, walk away. I didn’t. You still have a chance.” There was another long pause. “If you ever get back to Bern 36, find my wife. She’s heard many tales of your exploits and would welcome you in. Good luck Val Standish, and never forget the Rescue Technician motto, no matter where you are: To Serve, To Save, To Sacrifice.

  The message ended in an audible click, and a tear appeared on Standish’s cheek, followed by another until there was a stream running down her cheek. Without thinking, she quickly accessed the fleet personnel database and searched for the Senior Instructor. It didn’t take long to find his name on a very long list of Killed in Action from the previous six months. Checking the details, she realised that his place of death had been Bern 36, where the basic course she had attended was. Reading further, Standish discovered that the base had come under a massive Coalition attack. The station in orbit destroyed while the basic course under Marvax’s supervision had been on a training exercise in orbit. According to the file, the Senior Instructor had single-handedly boarded a Coalition destroyer, taking control of it by means still unknown, and then rammed it into the command ship of the attack fleet, and forced the tide of the battle for the system. That brought a small smile to her face. The senior instructor had been the consummate warrior and teacher. Standish knew that he wasn’t going to die without some form of fireworks. According to the final entry at the bottom of the page, he had been awarded the highest decoration in the Alliance fleet the Imperial Cross.

  Closing the file, Standish lay back on her bunk and thought about what he had said in the transmission. Get out when you feel the time is right. It was probably a sage piece of advice. Bringing up the data-pad, she opened the file from her father. The news wasn’t promising from home.

  “My dear daughter, I hope this message finds you, and it finds you well. Since your visit home, there have been changes on the surface, and the rest of the system. The Blacks have suffered several setbacks, and now they are battling for control of Port Sunlight with the Yellows. I typically would have sent one of your brothers into town to send this message, but it isn’t safe for military-aged males to move about at the moment, as they might be considered fighters, even though none of the Blacks or Yellows are from Nadolo. It’s such a sad time, I am almost relieved that you are the on the other side of the universe, being fed and sheltered.

  “On a good note, we have had an excellent harvest, which we can hopefully sell at a reasonable price. You can’t tell with these bandits. Some of the other farms have had their entire crop stolen without compensation. We hope that we do not meet the same fate.

  “I wish I could see you again, soon, but things here are too dangerous at the moment. It wouldn’t be safe for you to visit. We have enough food and water to survive. The solar generators are running well, and we’re far enough from any major settlement to stay out of the line of fire.”

  As Standish continued to listen, she thought she could hear her youngest brother crying softly in the background. More news followed about other relations on Nadolo. It seems that everyone had survived the pirate wars that were being wagged so far from the Core, but there was an uneasy feeling in the air.

  “Well, that sums it up, my dear. Keep safe and send us a message when you can. As long as I am able, I will be heading into Port Sunlight once a month to check for correspondence. All my love. Your father.”

  The message ended. Standish checked the file, it was two weeks old. If she sent a reply, it should be available the next time her father was able to get to a transmitter. She didn’t know what to say that wasn’t a lie to reassure her family. The war was going to be the war that would end all wars. There was never going to be anything like it again, and with the realities of the raid on Qera setting in, she knew that there
was a viable chance that this next mission would be her last.

  The jump to Mechcharga went by in a flash, the three-hundred-odd light-years were covered in the blink of an eye, and when Standish looked out of the window of the troop carrier, her first thought wasn’t directed towards the massive green planetoid that was hanging in the air above the ship, but the enormous ring that was floating nearby, grey and without any discernible features. It was gargantuan and without a doubt, the Trans-Dimensional Sub-Space Gateway.

  “Big.” Mils was sat next to her, still strapped into the seat restraints, but the expression on his face was probably the same as everyone else’s that was on the ship, one of disbelief.

  The TDSSG was larger than Standish had expected. In fact, it was the largest structure that she had ever seen. With just enough of the gateway in view, she ran some rough calculations in her head that she had been taught at Rescue Tech school, and estimated that the ring was roughly one thousand kilometres in radius and five hundred kilometres in diameter. The ring itself was rather thin and fragile-looking from her vantage point, appearing to just hang in space without any form of propulsion or support.

  “This is the Ship Master, we are docking at Mechcharga station. Ready all operators for off-loading. The hangar has been divided into holding areas for AO Throne, Law and Sky.” The intercom went dead.

  Standish unbuckled herself from her seat and got to her feet and joined the queue of operators that were moving towards the hatch. The rest of her team was close by, along with a mixture of other Beta groups. The troop transport could ferry five hundred troops at one go, and while the entire strike package numbered just over two-thousand, the Dynamic Operations leadership had decided to send the teams in ten groups of two hundred, just in case disaster hit one of the jumps, a prudent move.