The Tetra War

by Michael Ryan

  “She’s right,” someone else interjected. “There’s little chance something else isn’t coming to break up our–”

  My system lit up with warnings.

  “Incoming!”

  The boat was going to touch down in two minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Seven enemy missiles were headed our way. A mecha was moving toward us about four clicks out, and a handful of armored infantry were marching behind it.

  “I knew this was too good to be true,” a third Gurt said.

  “I’ve got antimissile up,” another reported. “But I’m out now.”

  “I’ve got shit.”

  “I’ve got one down.”

  “I’ve got a headache.”

  “End the chatter and take care of that last missile,” a voice commanded. “This is Master Sergeant Veaphore. Listen up. I’m attaching you two for the duration of this engagement. You’re released once on the boat, or if you’re dead.”

  “Roger that, Sergeant Veaphore,” I said. There was no point in arguing. We weren’t going anywhere. “I’ve got two rounds of–”

  “I see what you’re carrying,” he said, and sent me a pic with a coordinate marked. “I want you here, and your partner on the B point.” Callie was cc’d on everything, but protocol required a lead, and I was it. “That’s it. Move out. And, Sergeants?”

  “Yes,” we both answered.

  “Direct those M rounds at the mecha. Leave the troops to my people.”

  “Will do.”

  “Hold one,” he said. “Sergeant Ford, private channel, immediately.”

  “Switching,” I said on the shared comm. “Here,” I said into the private one.

  “I just got a packet. Mission status has changed. You’re to get on that boat first, and everyone else is expendable. Don’t fuck up, Sergeant. Out.” He ended the private channel and went back to instructing his troops, who were setting up a defensive perimeter around the LZ.

  “What was that?” Callie asked.

  “I have boat priority,” I said. “Must be somebody up there wants to talk to us real bad.”

  “Not us. You,” she corrected.

  “Okay, but it’s the same. You’re with me. I’m not leaving you.”

  “They force you to follow orders, Avery. Do what you have to do.”

  “I’m not abandoning you. Now stop talking,” I said. I couldn’t defy orders, but there was no way I was losing another partner.

  ~~~

  I set up in a tree to secure the best advantage. Below and to my left stretched a barren field containing the beacon, roughly in the center of the LZ. The retrieval boat was an EL-Recon-Rescue, Vertimaint-class craft that would be carrying resupplies and a squad of combat engineers. Setting up a rail for relaunch was going to take a bit of time, and given the width of the clearing, the engineers were going to have to take out some trees.

  If the mecha showed up unhindered, it wouldn’t matter what the engineers accomplished – everyone in the LZ would be dead meat, and the entire odyssey to reach the beacon would have been in vain.

  “Master Sergeant, if you can spare them, I’d like–”

  “Negative,” he said.

  “How about M rounds?”

  “If they brought any,” he said, “I’ll split them between you and your partner.”

  I would have felt better if I’d had a few missiles, but the troops from the Fifth were obviously good at their jobs or they wouldn’t have lasted this long.

  The boat showed as the mecha reached a position one click out.

  Each fired and counterfired, and the combat troops hit the ground.

  Command had sent a squad of infantry with the boat, which was unexpected, but welcome. They set up a defensive cordon and fired mortars and missiles. The next five minutes passed like the opening of a chess game. Pawns were sacrificed by both sides as the major pieces moved into strategic positions. I kept the mecha in the center of my fire control system sighting and waited. The mecha wasn’t much different than an armored soldier in general purpose, but it had heavier armor, bigger weapons, and carried more ammunition.

  The negative of the unit was its lack of nimbleness compared to a TCI-Armored infantry trooper.

  With my puny rifle, I felt like I was facing a cobra with a plastic fork.

  “You got any recommendations?” I asked Callie.

  “Don’t waste your ammo,” she said.

  “I have two rounds.”

  “I’ve got six. Someone should be headed–”

  “Hold one,” I interrupted. Sure enough, one of the privates from the Fifth appeared and delivered three rounds to me.

  “Okay, I’ve got five,” I said. “I can take on an entire army by myself.”

  “Sarcasm is so sexy.”

  “Especially when we’re minutes from destroying the enemy, getting on that boat, and going home for a shower and a pizza.”

  “Where’d it go? You see it?”

  The mecha, which had dropped from visual moments before, disappeared from my DS. The icon was gone.

  “That’s weird,” I said.

  “Destroyed?”

  “I can’t see how.”

  “Maybe it ran out of power,” she said.

  “Exactly at the most opportune time for us?”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t believe in lucky coincidences.”

  “Smart way to live, but still, it’s possible to get–”

  “Incoming!”

  The mecha had masked itself and moved into position 250 meters from Callie. It launched four missiles at her and another four at the combat engineers.

  The shock waves from the detonations buffeted the trees around the clearing. I didn’t have time to check whether Callie was alive, but I could see that her icon was still up. The engineers launched an attack on the mecha, and I squeezed off a head shot. My first round was deflected, and I prepared to fire again.

  Callie interrupted with a message. “Avery,” she said, “I’m hurt, and you’re wasting ammo.”

  “How bad? Don’t die on me,” I said.

  “I’ll live.” A pause. “You’ve got to aim for the lower quadrant in the mecha’s equipment and supply. It’s got a weak spot.”

  “You know this how?”

  “I saw it when it turned,” she said.

  “Okay,” I said.

  In order to hit that area, I’d have to circle around to the rear of the unit. Mechas carried their ordnance in a back-mounted configuration that changed depending on a unit’s specialty. If there was a damaged panel of armor and I could place an M round into it, I could hit the explosives it carried. But the unit operator obviously had enhanced field awareness and was competent at protecting its rear.

  <>

  I left my perch and jogged to our flank. “Lay down a little covering fire,” I ordered the troopers at the edge of the battlefield.

  “You’re insane,” one said.

  “Sergeant Ford, get back here,” the master sergeant ordered.

  I ignored him.

  The only chance we had to get off-planet alive was to take out the mecha, so that became my sole focus. I ran so far from the engagement it probably appeared I was deserting. Once beyond the middle of the firefight, I rushed the enemy line. Fifth Platoon, as crazy as they might have thought me, still backed me up, and they concentrated all their firepower on the defensive grouping I was running toward.

  The Teds had to momentarily ignore me with the renewed assault from the platoon. I triggered my jet assist as I approached and practically flew over the felled logs they were using for cover. I fired into the chest of a surprised enemy. His partner, who’d been launching grenades, lunged at me and grabbed my rifle arm.

  We struggled to the ground.

  Because I was on top of him, he couldn’t use his grenades or missiles, and a standard Gauss round wouldn’t hurt me.

  I couldn’t get my sniper rifle barrel aimed at him, so we grappled in a kind of sumo wrestling clinch, li
ke dinosaurs fighting to the death in some prehistoric tar pit.

  My boots slipped in the mud. The Ted sensed vulnerability and shoved me as hard as he could. I felt myself falling backward and pulled him with all my might, using my momentum to throw him past me in a variation of a judo hold.

  His grip broke from my arms, and his back slammed against the muddy ground. I rolled and fired the sniper rifle at point-blank range, and the M round drilled through his abdominal plate. A fountain of blue fluid shot from the hole, driven by the suit decompressing in a rush as the bolt shredded through him, killing him instantly.

  I set my weapon down, picked up the first soldier I’d shot, and threw his corpse over the logs. I did the same with the second soldier, who was still oozing fluid now stained with blood and tissue from his chest. After getting rid of the potential self-destructing units, I settled into the Ted nest and took in the situation in the clearing.

  The mecha was closing on the retrieval boat. I sighted on the mecha’s back and attempted to focus at high magnitude, but the ground was too soft and muddy. I needed a more stable platform to fire with any hope of accuracy at a moving target.

  One of the dead soldiers behind me exploded.

  Scraps of armor and flesh rained down on me, but the felled trees shielded me from shrapnel.

  The mecha was devastating the defenders from the Fifth while continuing to relentlessly close on the retrieval craft.

  I moved to the opposite side of the logs and took a bearing – I had a clear line of fire now that the mecha had progressed halfway across the clearing. I raised the sniper rifle, wedged the stock against one of the logs, extruded the stabilizing rods, and waited. The mecha had eviscerated half of the Fifth, and I turned off my notifications for deceased soldiers so as not to be distracted.

  The mecha turned away from the surviving Fifth soldiers. I had a clear shot at its rear. The damaged panel was right where Callie had described it. I focused and fired.

  High and left. The round bounced off the mecha’s armor without denting it.

  I counted backward in my head to steady my frayed nerves. I felt my pulse slow, and I focused on the plate again.

  Because the mecha was still moving, I calculated where it would be in a fraction of a second and fired again.

  This time, slightly to the right.

  I cursed. The mecha had hesitated after the last bolt struck it, no doubt while its operator performed a lightning threat assessment to locate my position. It would take only an instant to get a fix on me, which meant that if my next shot went wide, I’d never live to fire again.

  The rifle spat another M round at the monstrosity. The bolt streaked across the battlefield and struck the panel, scoring a direct hit. The initial explosion stopped time for a fraction of a second, but the secondary explosion started the clock again, and I was in motion before the flash faded from my screen.

  The mecha blew into several chunks, and its frame and control electronics flared neon orange. I shifted the sniper rifle’s sights to the right and sniped at the Ted field commanders with my remaining rounds. The few surviving Fifth Platoon soldiers made short work of the remaining Teds, who’d begun a ragged retreat when the mecha exploded at their point, taking a dozen of them with it.

  I bolted to Callie, my heart jackhammering in my chest in spite of the chemical countermeasures my suit was releasing to calm the adrenaline storming through my body.

  The master sergeant roared over the comm line. “Goddamnit! Ford, get on the boat. Now. That’s a direct order!”

  I ignored the command.

  Callie was still alive, but just barely.

  Sergeant Veaphore’s next order surprised me. “Burkoski, get your ass over there and give Ford an assist.”

  Burkoski was at my side in a flash and helped me carry Callie to the boat.

  She almost didn’t survive the trip to the Amphoterus.

  To my surprise, Veaphore didn’t submit a negative report. Rather, he filed a letter of commendation and requested that I be transferred to his platoon.

  His request was denied.

  But I did receive a medal.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  One mark of a great soldier is that he fights as he will or refuses the glory of battle.

  ~ Prime Minister Coj Falnzte

  After seven years, a mind can garble details, but those are the facts to the best of my recollection. Callie and I finished our tour of mandatory drops without incident, and we were granted permanent leave to the colony planet affectionately known to its residents as Garden.

  Its official name is something Guritain that humans can barely pronounce.

  We have two sons, and a girl is on the way. I can’t imagine she’ll be more beautiful than her mother, but I wouldn’t dare tell Callie that. The change will be a welcome one for me – I’m ready for another female to balance the testosterone-laced energy on our little farm.

  Besides our children, we raise chickens and ducks. We also have a small gaggle of geese, three mutts, and an ill-tempered tomcat named Maximus.

  Life is good.

  ~~~

  The war between the Gurts and the Teds ended less than a year after our jungle mission.

  All official records were either sealed or destroyed, and I was ordered to never reveal what I’d brought back from Purvas. Because I wanted to shield Callie from what I’d chosen to do, I kept my mouth shut.

  This account breaks that silence.

  ~~~

  Over a billion purvasts, mostly Tedesconians, died as a result of the kifo-ukufa virus. But the war ended shortly after the plague devastated the purvasts on both planets. The survival rate turned out to be twenty percent rather than three, but that was slim comfort to me.

  Sometimes I torture myself with the knowledge that I’m personally responsible for close to a billion deaths. The compromise position I’ve come to in order to live with myself is that I played a role, but only to the extent that I did my duty.

  That might be a tortured rationalization by a desperately self-deluded mind, or it might be the only truth that matters. Callie questioned me, suspicious that I’d been instrumental in the virus’s appearance, and I deflected by pointing out that there was no way to know whether all of our labs, which had been working on the same virus, had been destroyed – a plausible scenario she accepted.

  If she suspected otherwise, she never mentioned it.

  Did I kill a billion so billions more could live in peace? I certainly played a part, but those responsible for the ultimate decision possessed the authority to do so, whereas I had no such authority.

  I had orders.

  Which I followed.

  Because I was a soldier.

  SDI: Specialized Drop Infantry.

  Blue Squad, Fourth Platoon, Delta Company of the Seventeenth Regiment.

  Guritain Armed Forces.

  ~~~

  “Dad!” my son Milo calls to me from the front yard on a warm fall day.

  “Hold one,” I say.

  “Dad! Come here! Now!”

  “Can it wait a few minutes? I’m trying to finish my breakfast.”

  “Avery,” Callie says softly, her voice tight.

  The skin on the back of my neck prickles, and a burn of anxiety I haven’t felt for years twists in my gut. “What is it, Callie?”

  “You need to come. Now.”

  Something about her tone chills me in spite of the temperate weather. I get up from the table and join her on the porch. I look up. The sky is dark with fighter aircraft, heli-jets, and support boats flying in loose formation.

  Garden doesn’t have a military presence. It’s neutral and always has been, its neutrality guaranteed by every treaty on the books.

  I have a bad feeling as I tell my family to go inside.

  <<<<>>>>

  Get Volume 2 — Fractured Peace — from Amazon!

  The Tetra War — Fractured Peace

  (Volume 2 of The Tetra War Saga)

  Can a tranquil
life on a sheltered colony planet become a reality for Avery Ford, or will his past in the Guritain Special Drop Infantry overshadow his desire for lasting peace?

  Will the warring factions responsible for the death of billions put aside their differences, or is bloodshed the only possible future for the galaxy?

  In Fractured Peace, the second volume of The Tetra War, after a shocking act of brutality Avery must face new enemies more ruthless and savage than any before, with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance.

  Get Volume 2 — Fractured Peace — from Amazon!

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE