EDEN (The Union Series)

by Richards, Phillip

  Puppy and the rest of the section were nearby, waiting anxiously.

  ‘Is he alright?’ the section 2ic asked.

  Myers patted my back. ‘Yeah, he’s alright. He just took a bit of a bang on the head. He’ll need to see a medic.’

  ‘No m-medics,’ I argued, my speech slightly slurred. I couldn’t be left behind when the section deployed back into the Bosque with nothing but my own mind to do battle with - that and the troopers of the battalion.

  Puppy laughed. ‘Don’t worry, mate, it’s not the dark ages! They’ll have you on the road before our rest period is up!’

  I nodded slowly, the muscles in my neck beginning to protest as they recovered from the impact of my head butt. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Sticking up for me.’

  He smiled. ‘You’re recce, mate. We don’t leave one of our own behind.’

  ‘I can’t believe you went in like that,’ Myers commented in awe. ‘That was awesome!’

  I groaned. ‘It doesn’t feel awesome …’

  ‘Fair one,’ Puppy agreed, his face flashing concern. ‘We’d better get you away and looked at.’

  With that, they led me away from the bar and back to the barracks. Away from where I had sat alone with my desperate thoughts and the will to kill myself.

  Back to the contents page

  Intervention

  My head was still sore when we flew back to the patrol warren, even after a further day spent recovering in the barracks. The medics had carried out a fine job, closing and sealing the fracture on my skull, and repairing the wound so that nobody could tell I had been struck. It made little difference, though, the bruise on my forehead had already caused a couple of raised eyebrows, including from Mr Barkley who joined us on our return to the Bosque.

  ‘Don’t ask,’ I told him when he saw me at the shuttle port, and he simply shrugged. There were some things that platoon commanders didn’t need to know - like what their troopers got up to when they were out in town. As long as no charge was raised, then there was nothing to worry about.

  We unloaded into the Bosque a few kilometres away from the warren, trampling through the undergrowth to form a defensive formation around the two dropships as they hovered in a clearing.

  I stood beside the open ramp to my dropship, counting my men as they quickly dismounted, whilst the platoon commander did the same for his own. There were thirteen of us in total, including my section of seven, and Mr Barkley with various attachments he had brought back from Paraiso.

  I watched Mr Barkley’s dropship unload. Amongst its passengers were electronic warfare operators, signallers and medics - all attached personnel who had to return to the capital frequently.

  There was nothing out of the ordinary about our return flight, apart from the presence of the platoon commander. Mr Barkley shouldn’t have been in Paraiso at all. He wasn’t due any rest, and he hadn’t sneaked off to the city to enjoy the nightlife. He had received orders, of that I was certain, but for what for I didn’t know.

  The two of us exchanged thumbs-up to confirm that our dropships were clear of personnel, and then we both ran outward to join the circle of troopers forming in the trees around us. As we did so the two aircraft rose away from the ground and shot over the canopy with a sudden blast of air.

  ‘Myers, Wildgoose,’ I whispered over the net, as the sound of the dropships faded, ‘switch the scanners on.’

  The two troopers tapped a couple of times against their datapads, activating the scanners they carried in their daysacks. More advanced than anything carried by our battalion back in Paraiso, our scanners could detect nearby electronic activity, depending on how strong the reading was. Net transmissions could be detected from up to a kilometre, but smaller devices like datapads, magnetic weapons and other scanners needed to be much closer. Either way, they were priceless pieces of equipment that aided us in moving undetected through the Bosque, avoiding or following potential enemy patrols. They also complimented any OP, giving it the ability to scan and record any kind of electronic activity, which could then be deciphered by electronic warfare teams back in the warren.

  Myers and Wildgoose waved their arms in front of them, navigating through menus that their scanners superimposed onto their visor displays.

  ‘Anything?’ I asked.

  Myers shook his head. ‘No.’

  It didn’t necessarily mean that no one was nearby. A hostile patrol could have switched off their equipment to make themselves invisible to our scanners, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It was unlikely, though. Our drop-off points were random, following no obvious pattern. It would be impossible to accurately guess where we were going to land, or where we would go after that. Besides, Edo had ended its terrorist campaign against Paraiso; its attention had now turned to face the new threat from the north. They might hate the rich province and its Union masters, but the Loyalist army driving down from Europa was far more dangerous to them.

  The Bosque was silent, and not a sound was carried in the still air. A faint veil of mist hung just under the canopy, threatening to block out the light from the setting sun. With much of its surface covered by water; Eden was a very wet planet. It rained often, far more so than it did on New Earth, and the surface was often coated by a blanket of mist.

  There was something about the vast forest that spooked the hell of me. Nothing lived in the Bosque - no animals anyway. They couldn’t breathe the toxins carried in the air. Only the plants, genetically engineered and then introduced by mankind, could thrive on the planet surface - the legacy of a long-lost dream to turn Eden into a garden paradise. On New Earth I had accepted the absence of all life, but in the Bosque there was something unsettling about the silence, as though the world was holding its breath to see what happened next.

  Five minutes passed, and the boss signalled for me to close in to him by tapping on his helmet. I weaved through the trees and the undergrowth, finally taking a knee beside him.

  ‘Nothing on the scanners, Sir,’ I said quietly. ‘We’re on our own.’

  Mr Barkley nodded. ‘Good. Split your section in two, and I’ll sandwich my attachments in the middle. Lead the way back to the warren.’

  ‘No worries.’ I paused thoughtfully. ‘So can you tell me what’s going on now?’

  The platoon commander smiled mischievously. ‘Ah, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?’

  I stared back, looking him straight in the eye, and his smile faded.

  ‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ he said. ‘I’ll get the platoon together as soon as we arrive, then I’ll go through our orders.’

  ‘We’re going into Edo, aren’t we?’

  Mr Barkley regarded me for a second. ‘Yes … yes, we are.’

  Huddled around the platoon commander in the burrow briefing chamber, we listened as he described the situation that had unfolded across the continent.

  As we all suspected, the attack on the village was not an isolated incident. Reports of atrocities were flooding across the border into Paraiso, brought by hundreds of thousands of refugees. Entire battalions of conscripts had become committed to rounding them up as they poured through the Bosque and into the Union province, and millions of euros were being spent providing them with shelter and food. Refugee camps lined the border, and preventing the refugees from spilling over into the wealthy Union state was becoming almost impossible.

  ‘This is no longer a petty land dispute,’ Mr Barkley explained, his voice turning severe. ‘The Loyalist army is engaged in a full-on military campaign against the Edo province, with little sign of stopping their advance.’

  What madness, I thought. On New Earth the population could fight to the bloody death to break free of the Union, yet here an entire army was hell-bent on attacking a neighbouring province for no reason other than that they weren’t European. What exactly was European anyway, and what did it really mean to the people of Eden? The Union was a federation of over forty different countries, with more
languages spoken and more cultural backgrounds than any other colonial power. Not only that, but centuries of uncontrolled immigration and porous borders meant that no Eden province could truly call itself European, Russian, Indian or Japanese anyway.

  ‘Ignoring the rights and wrongs of the situation, there are many reasons why the Union has decided to act,’ Mr Barkley went on. ‘Firstly there is the local situation. Paraiso is dependent upon the other continental states for trade and resources. The local economy has nose-dived as a result of the military action in the Bosque, with supplies of raw materials, foodstuffs and goods being choked off. Several larger corporations have threatened to axe their operations in Paraiso if the Union can’t return stability to the region. Secondly, there is the far more serious threat posed by the Indo-Japanese Alliance. It is almost impossible for us to prevent news of the Loyalist offensive getting out to them, and anger is brewing.’

  After the war on Eden the Alliance was kept relatively happy by the Union and Russia’s decision to allow their states to run themselves, and even trade with their old masters within certain restrictions. They spouted the usual rhetoric about building their forces and never allowing Eden to remain in our hands, but behind the scenes they were happy to remain at a distance. Another war would be costly, and neither side could afford to take part in a planetary campaign, when China loomed on the horizon like a dark cloud, waiting for that moment of weakness.

  ‘Accusations are flying, amongst them the suggestion that the Union is orchestrating the Loyalists, allowing them to annex the Edo province. It’s a tall accusation, but not at all unbelievable to an outside observer. The Alliance fleet is stationed just on the outer fringes of the system, and their finger is hovering over the button to go to war. The Union must be seen to act, and soon, if it is to convince the Alliance not to start a bloody war that neither side stands a good chance of winning.’

  ‘So …’ Skelton summarised, ‘we need to go to war … to stop a war?’

  ‘What Eden Joint Command is proposing is an intervention operation, rather than a full blown war,’ the platoon commander corrected. ‘Our ultimate objective is to end hostilities between the two sides in order to return stability to the region. Clearly that will require a degree of force, most of which will be applied against the Loyalist side.’

  ‘And what about the Edo army?’ I asked dubiously. ‘What’s to stop them turning about and attacking us?’

  ‘Stability can only be restored by restoring Edo’s borders,’ the boss explained. ‘We are already in communication with the Free Edo Army, making our intentions clear. There is serious scope for this operation to be conducted alongside their forces, and in fact we are actually encouraging it.’

  ‘Well, that’s a new one,’ a trooper grumbled.

  A wave of murmurs passed over the platoon. There was once a time when the Union had been engaged in counter-insurgency campaigns against the Edo army. Edo, like the Loyalist province of Europa, was a rogue state that refused to obey the federal system imposed upon the planet by the Union and Russia. Unable to accept that the Alliance weren’t coming back to save them, they often attempted to grab land from neighbouring Paraiso, only to be beaten back shortly after.

  ‘We can’t simply drop bombs on Edo,’ the platoon commander argued, waving away the murmurs, ‘and there aren’t enough troops to commit into this operation. We still have the rest of the planet to secure, as well as several other localised conflicts across the globe. As I’m sure you know by now, Eden is a very messy conflict indeed.’

  I remembered on my last tour of New Earth, when we had faced a rebel uprising that threatened to consume an entire province, how only the minimum of resources were spared to combat the threat, at the risk of men’s lives. It was a standard scenario, I realised, where generals kept the bulk of their forces as a reserve to combat the unexpected, rather than committing everything to a single military action. I supposed it made sense, even though sometimes it could leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

  'EJOC has given the go ahead for a military intervention into Edo,’ the commander continued, ‘in order to return stability to the region. The most important thing to remember here is that we cannot be seen at the lead of any military campaign into Edo. This is a support operation, with the Union forces working to assist the Free Edo Army in repelling the Loyalists.'

  There was a murmur of surprise. Working hand in hand with the FEA? Had the Union lost its mind? Although Edo hadn’t attacked Paraiso for a while, it was hardly a secret that they would turn against us at the first sign of an Alliance invasion. The Union had starved them of trade, stunting their development, while their own province prospered. Like the Alliance themselves, they often accused the Union of working hand in hand with the Loyalists, even though that was far from the truth.

  The boss held up a hand for quiet. 'I understand and share the sentiment. But if you look at the situation then you can understand the logic. As I have said, we cannot be seen leading any campaign into Edo. It will appear to be a land-grab, which risks tipping the Alliance into war. But at the same time we must push the Loyalists back, or face a similar situation. Let’s be clear, here, the FEA are hardly our friends, but neither are the Loyalists.'

  It sort of made sense, I thought. Fight a miniature war alongside an unfriendly planetary province, or risk fighting a full-on fight to the death against a highly advanced enemy, with the capability to seize control of the entire planet. I knew well enough what a war of that scale looked like. I still had nightmares about it.

  'There are three component parts to the task force that is presently being assembled,' the boss continued. 'The first is a logistical and combat support element. This will take the form of a robust and well-defended supply chain running from Paraiso, to Edo, and then following the FEA on their advance. Its main task will be to provide the necessary rations, water and equipment to allow the FEA to advance back into the Bosque and maintain momentum.

  The second component is a strike force composed of numerous dropship battalions and gravtank squadrons, to be kept on standby in Paraiso. Tasked with providing the other two components with an effective quick reaction force if required, it is only to be used as a last resort. I seriously doubt that you will ever see this component in action.’

  I thought of Stevo, sat back in his barracks enjoying life in the luxurious capital city, without a care in the world. I hoped his head hurt, because I knew mine did.

  'The third component is where we come in. Direct, intimate support. The intention is for the brigade recce force to deploy in its entirety, embedding itself into FEA units with the task of providing close support, tactical advice and a liaison between the front line and EJOC itself. In addition, it will provide the means to integrate joint fires with the FEA, giving them access to close-air support and orbital strikes.'

  'Fucking hell …' I breathed.

  The boss heard me, and nodded. 'Indeed. Quite frankly, when this was briefed down to me, I actually thought somebody was playing a prank! The plan is for the brigade recce force to insert close to the front line, where each unit will be met by the FEA at pre-determined rendezvous points. From there, we will work closely with them as they go back on the offensive, providing the full suite of aerial, artillery and even orbital assets at our disposal.

  The situation for the FEA is pretty dire. They’ve been pushed back to the southern edge of the Bosque, having lost their stronghold around the city of Dakar. Now they’re trying to make their last stand along the Ghandi River in an effort to halt the Loyalist advance. As you can imagine, that’s not going very well. The Loyalists have a considerable advantage - their supply lines are stronger and their equipment is better - but most advantageous is their fire support assets and air defensive screen. The Loyalist artillery is quite literally pounding the FEA into submission, and their dropships can’t even get a few hundred metres forward of the front line without being shot down by volleys of missiles. The FEA have taken heavy losses already, and are asses
sed to be close to breaking point. If this final defensive screen fails, then there will be nothing between the Loyalists and the Edo capital of Wishtan. Remaining elements of the Presidential Guard have already been mobilised, which gives you an idea of how serious the situation is.’

  The platoon bristled at the platoon commander’s mention of the Guard. They were the remnants of the Alliance army, left behind when the colonial power withdrew from Eden. Reforming after Edo had been granted autonomy, their ranks swelled with fresh recruits, supposedly orphans taken from the Bosque. The Presidential Guard were infamous for their ruthlessness, answering directly to the ‘President’ - the self-appointed dictator who ruled over the province. Compared to the conscripted soldiers serving in the FEA, Guardsmen were highly-trained, well-equipped and utterly devoted to their cause. Normally they were used as the president’s private army, crushing dissent across the province, and recently they had been the force that terrorised the Paraiso border.

  ‘Our platoon will insert in two separate multiples,’ Mr Barkley continued unabated. ‘Blackjack-One-Zero under my command, and Blackjack-Two-Zero under the sergeant major. Each multiple will consist of two sections, plus a smaller command group so the sergeant major and I can move around independently with adequate protection.

  The sergeant major’s multiple, Two-Zero, will insert into the Bosque several hours before us. They will then move to the north of the river, conducting a river crossing under cover of darkness. From there they will insert behind the Loyalist lines and attempt to locate and destroy artillery and anti-aircraft emplacements - an action that will be mirrored by our sister platoon, Sixth Battalion Recce, in the east. Once having done so they will conduct their secondary mission, which is to conduct a recce onto the area surrounding Dakar.

  Concurrently, my multiple will meet with FEA guides to lead us to the front line, where we will attach ourselves to the Second Dropship Regiment of the FEA. This is a highly mobile dropship regiment, organised in a similar fashion to our own. From there we will split down into their companies, though still retaining our ability to reform as a multiple if the need arises. Each section needs to be prepared to work independently, with a Presidential Guard liaison officer embedded with them.’