by Saxon Andrew
The four lieutenants moved out and Jon looked at the sergeants, “I want you to move among the lieutenants until you determine which one you are going to report to.” The sixteen sergeants moved out and began moving among the officers. Jon watched as they seemed to be listening for something. In less than five minutes, all of the sergeants were standing with a lieutenant.
Jon looked at the remaining Life Warriors and said, “Move out and find your platoon.”
A private said, “How do I do that?”
“Just move around until you feel you’re in the right place.”
Jon waited and in less than two minutes all the warriors were standing in a group. Jon looked at a private and said, “Why did you pick this unit?”
“The music was louder here.”
Jon looked around and saw everyone was surprised that someone else had the same experience. Jon said, “All of you have been chosen to be a part of a company that will be different from all the others in our regiment. You will gather your gear and report back here in an hour. Your training will then begin. Before we leave, I want the officers to organize their units into squads and assign the right warriors to each; dismissed.”
Dominick came over and said, “What’s going on? I’m not officer material.”
Jon smiled, “You just don’t realize it yet, Lieutenant. See me about this again in a couple of weeks. If you feel the same way, I’ll make a change.”
Dominick stared at Jon and then nodded, “We’ll see, Sir.” He turned and left to collect his gear.
Jon smiled, “I’m sure we will, Dominick.”
• • •
Zeta Company stood in a storage room in the main armory. The room housed all of the main auto-shoulder projectile cannons for Life Warrior’s armor and it extended more than eight hundred yards from end to end. The cannons were stored on pallets from the floor to a ceiling that was more than three hundred yards over their head. Jon looked at his company and said, “Fall out and stay behind me for this exercise. Lt. Calso, please step forward.” Dominick stepped out of the warriors and stood beside Jon. “Lieutenant, there is a shoulder cannon in this room that has your name on it. I want you to go find it.”
Dominick looked at the millions of weapons and said, “Just how do I do that?”
“Start walking and listen for it. You can start now.” The warriors in the company were as confused as Dominick. He shook his head and then started walking down the long rows of cannon.
General Steven Kim watched the proceedings wondering what was going on. He was not going to allow another sixty thousand mini-penetrators to disappear from his inventory and he was determined to watch everything that happened.
Dominick walked more than three hundred yards before he suddenly stopped. He moved to his right, stopped, and then walked to the left. He moved down a long aisle and then stopped again. He looked to the right and left and then moved down the right aisle between two tall racks. He walked fifty yards and then stopped. He looked around and then he looked up at the ceiling. The company had followed him and watched him wind his way through the vast storage units. Jon turned to General Kim, “Do you have a way for him to move up the racks?”
Steve smiled, “That’s not necessary.” He moved to a control unit and pressed a button. The tall racks began rotating toward the floor. After a few seconds Dominick said, “Stop!” Steve stopped the rotating racks. “Please bring the last one back up.” Steve pressed a switch and the rack that had moved under the floor moved up. Dominick moved on top of the cannons and lifted one out of the middle of the pallet. His smile was huge, “This is the one, Sir.”
Jon turned to the other members of Zeta Company, “I want you to find your auto-cannon.”
A private raised his arm in the back and said, “Sir, I think I heard mine a hundred yards back.”
Jon turned to General Kim and said, “Will you help the warriors find their weapons?”
Steve stared at Jon and said, “What is going on here?”
“I wish I could explain it, Sir. However, each of these warriors has particular auto-cannon for them. They need to find it.”
Steve stared at Jon and then called in fifty of the armory’s staff to assist the Life Warriors. He watched the two hundred warriors wander around the facility for three hours until all of them had selected an auto-cannon. Jon then said, “We need to go to the hand and arm blaster storage now.”
Steve shook his head and led them to the next room. Four days later, Zeta Company’s warriors were all armed and possessed new combat computers with new power packs. Then Jon asked Steve to take his company to the mini-penetrators. “Just what are you going to do, Captain?”
“I’m going to store four thousand penetrators in each of my warriors.”
“That’s more than eight hundred thousand!” Jon nodded. “I don’t know if you’re authorized to take starship inventory.”
Jon smiled, “Then why don’t you find out if we are, Sir.”
Steve took a deep breath and pushed his wrist unit; Admiral Mandel appeared, “Sir, I have a Captain Gee here who wants to take possession of more than eight hundred thousand mini-penetrators.”
“Do you have that many available?”
“Well, yes Sir, but these are for starship use.”
“If the Captain requests an entire starship you will provide it. Whatever he wants, you will do your best to make sure he has it.”
Steve stared at the Admiral and said, “Yes Sir.” The display went off and Steve looked at Jon and shrugged, “Follow me.”
• • •
Juliette stood in the reception line with James Dodd beside her. She was the highest ranking member of the Royalty present and had to endure the long introductions. She accepted the attendee’s bows and greetings with a smile and listened as many of the Royals offered their sympathy to James. “I’m sure your Father died defending the Realm.”
“Thank you. He did.”
Juliette wanted to scream that his father had attempted to kill a warrior of the Realm that held a higher position than anyone of them. She held her tongue, barely. After the receiving line was done she turned to James, “Just what was it that your father was doing?”
James looked at her and said, “He was attempting to protect the Realm from a being that is not part of this Creation. He is an abomination.”
“Are you talking about Duke Robbin’s son who was recognized as a hero of the Realm?”
James eyes narrowed and his sneer was instant, “I’m sure he didn’t do anything to deserve that award.”
Juliette looked James in the eye and said, “Perhaps you might want to take a look at the recording of that battle. It might change your opinion.”
James wanted to curse her but he gathered his wits and said, “I’ll do that. I certainly respect your council.”
Juliette moved to give her greetings to the host of the ball and left James rushing trying to keep up with her. James decided that he was going to have to bide his time. Once they were married, he’d straighten out this haughty princess. She’d learn to keep her mouth shut or there would be an unfortunate accident.
Juliette was going to have a discussion with her mother about her future attendance at Royal functions. She dreaded the time she was going to be around this nasty man.
• • •
Jon stood in front of a massive video screen. It was a hundred yards wide and seventy five yards tall. Everyone in the room recognized it from training. The training system was used to teach new Life Warriors how to select and use their armor. A battle scene would be displayed on the screen and would then start moving toward the warrior in front of it. The warrior would be faced with various challenges that he would have to overcome with his armor’s weapon mix. The weapons were all set to training mode and would only fire harmless beams or show a launch of a weapon that was selected. The process was easy at first but became increasingly difficult. Jon pointed to four warriors in the front rank of his company and said, “You four will
begin the session.” The four groaned and then stepped forward and evenly spaced themselves in front of the huge screen. Jon looked at the back and said, “Start the exercise at level five, group operations.”
The four warriors turned to the screen and a vast plain appeared on the screen. The scene started moving toward them, simulating their advance. Suddenly eight weapon transports came over a small rise and stared firing at them. Right behind the transports six attack craft moved in at high speed from the two sides of the transports firing their beams.
Jon watched as the four warriors called on their armors weapons to deal with the threat and they were making decent progress until the six hundred Megat warriors popped out of the ground from hidden bunkers. The four warriors were all killed within six seconds.
Jon stepped forward and said, “You did a commendable job of weapon selection. However, you lost this exercise.”
Private Zelet said, “There were just too many, Sir.”
Jon looked at the back of the room and yelled, “What was their accuracy?”
“Eighty two percent, Sir.”
Jon said, “Once again a commendable score.” Jon paused and said, “Did any of you hear the music?”
Zelet said, “I did initially, but I lost it once the exercise started.”
Jon smiled, “I want you to try something. This time I want you to focus on the music and forget everything else. Don’t worry about choosing weapons, don’t worry about what forces you’re facing, just keep the music in your focus. Do you understand?”
The four looked at each other and nodded. Jon said, “Step forward.” The four went back to their original positions and Jon said, “Start again, only this time at level eight.” One of the four turned back to say something but Jon said, “Keep your focus, private.” He turned back around and faced the screen.
This time the view was of a desert landscape with rolling dunes. The scene began moving and suddenly eight armored blasters appeared out of the sand as twenty heavy beam transports came rolling over the dune’s crest. Every blaster and transport was hit as soon as it appeared. Over the next ten minutes the four warriors faced an incredible array of forces attacking them. All of them were met and destroyed. Suddenly the screen went dark. Jon said, “Final level and accuracy rating?”
The system operator was shocked at the readings. He said, “They completed level twenty and had a hundred percent accuracy.”
The four privates turned around, turned off their armor, and everyone present saw their huge grins. Jon said, “What do you think, Private?”
Zelet said, “That was the most fun I’ve ever had, Sir. That was incredible.”
“How did you choose your weapons?”
“I didn’t. I just got out of the way and let it happen.”
Jon turned and faced the members of Zeta Company, “You will begin working on maintaining your focus during these exercises. We don’t have but another four days to get ready so make sure you use this time wisely. Officers, make sure your warriors are ready before we leave. Dominick said, “Company, Attennnshun!” Zeta Company came to attention and Dominick saluted Jon.
“Carry on.”
Jon left the room as the officers moved forward to start the exercise together. The Sergeants waited for the next round. The system operator contacted Colonel Debat and Admiral Mandel after the first day and informed them that the highest scores ever recorded were done by the members of Zeta Company.
Chapter Eleven
Jon sat with his company in the assembly room and looked at his assignment. He was dropping in with the third battalion of the third Regiment, Third Division. Colonel Debat assigned him to report to Major Trig-gee. The Major looked at Jon in his helmet display and said, “I think you should be in command of this portion of the mission.”
“Major, you have eight companies that I know nothing about. You’re learned their strengths and weaknesses and I would not be making good decisions without that knowledge. My company has the right end of the formation and I’ll make sure we hold up our end, but you are in command and I will not second guess your decisions. My company needs to learn how to work with different units. This will be our first lesson.”
The Glod Major nodded and said, “We will be teleporting in to the capital in ten minutes. The Grunct have dug in and are waiting for us to come in. Their fleet has been eliminated and they know there is no one coming to save them. They will try to kill as many as possible before they die.”
“What about the local population?”
“Most of them have been saved by a massive drop on the holding facilities. Once the Grunct determined they were facing a major action, they moved into the cities to fight us.”
“You can’t get ships in for coverage can you?”
“Sir, you know their beam weapons are the best we’ve faced and their warrior’s armor is just as good as ours. Their air defense is better.”
Jon shook his head, “I hope we don’t have to nuke the cities.”
“That’s why we’re going in first. If we can save the most important cities then the local population can rebuild the others.”
Jon smiled, “I’ll see you on the ground, Major.”
Jon knew the Grunct were more than a match for the Life Warriors. Even with armor that was basically equal in power, they had a decisive advantage being dug in and holding the high ground in the city’s tall buildings. The heavy beam weapons on the top of them prevented any air support and the only way to remove them safely was to beam them from space, which would destroy the city. The Grunct knew that the only place they could survive was in the major cities. They were betting the Realm would not nuke them. Jon looked at his display and said, “Teleport in two minutes. You know your responsibilities. Make it happen.” Jon wondered if his company was going to be the only one to arrive but put the thought away. Either way, he would learn a just how good his men were.
• • •
The Nine companies teleported in just outside the main avenue that went through the center of the city. Jon knew that a White Warrior regiment was teleporting in at the other end of the broad street. His group was going to fight their way forward and hopefully meet the White Warriors in the middle. Jon suspected the White Warriors would cover more ground than the Life Warriors; their armor was that much better that standard Life Warrior armor. Jon really wanted to see if the changes in his company’s armor were going to make a difference.
Zeta Company teleported in and immediately moved behind cover as massive incoming fire from the Grunct began hitting their location. Jon’s company went around the building on the right end of the street and blasted a door and then moved into it. Jon turned his attention to the building on the other side of the street and he saw a second company leave to attack it. Evidently, the first one had failed. His armor automatically teleported him ten feet to the right as it detected an incoming explosive round targeted on him. He ignored the incoming fire and allowed his armor’s systems to move him automatically. It did so at a speed that was far faster than normal armor.
He heard a loud explosion and looked up and saw the massive air defense laser’s force field disappear on top of the building and an expanding explosion blowing a huge cloud of smoke and debris into the atmosphere. The platoon that went into the building teleported out to their place in Zeta Company’s defense formation and added their fire to the other three platoons.
• • •
Major Tgir grimaced at the loss of two companies taking the end building. He glanced at his command display and saw the report that the other building was taken. He sent an instant query and was answered that a single platoon had taken it. He watched the laser explode on the second building and knew the really difficult part of the mission was about to start. They were going to have to start moving down the street to the next buildings while they were exposed to the entrenched defenders in the tall buildings lining the wide avenue. He ordered two companies to start moving down the street taking out the entrenched Grunct fir
ing from the tall skyscrapers. They had to clear a way into the next two buildings.
They couldn’t move forward with snipers and enemy still behind their advance, so every building had to be cleared before the advance could continue. A platoon from each company moved at high speed from around the two buildings that were taken and started firing at the Grunct detected by their armor.
Jon watched the two platoons get no further than the middle of the first two buildings before all of them were lying dead in the street. The incoming fire was massive and was coming from the next two buildings on each side of the street. He didn’t want to inject himself into the fight but he decided he had no choice when two more platoons were shot down faster than the first two. The Grunct had the range dialed in now.
Major Tgir knew it was hopeless but he ordered two companies to charge up the street together. The he heard, “Negative that, Major.”
Tgir said, “We can’t make any progress without committing larger units.”
Jon said, “My Company will lead the advance up the street. As we pass a building, have a following company move in and take out any Grunct still inside and on the roofs. Please have three companies following us on each side of the street.”
Tgir knew they were going to die but he issued the orders. The six surviving companies teleported behind the two platoons of Zeta Company that were gathered on each side of the street. Jon said, “Advance and take them out.”
Major Tgir watched as the two hundred warriors moved out into the middle of the street and formed a V formation as they moved forward with the open end leading the way. Their armor all looked like they were firing their weapons at an unbelievable rate. The six companies fell in behind them with three on each side of the street and as they passed the second building a company on each side of the street rushed in to take out any Grunct still inside. The thing that stunned Tgir was that there was no incoming fire on the advancing company. They moved forward firing their weapons and the Grunct were not firing back. He focused his scanner on the buildings the warriors were approaching and watched the windows and openings on the upper floors. The windows were being blown away just as a Grunct Warrior appeared. He focused in closer and saw that only the window openings were being hit. The walls of the building had no damage. That kind of accuracy from automatic weapons was impossible. The line cleared the third set of buildings and two more companies went in to remove the defenders. The fourth building was passed and the line paused continuing to fire at the buildings ahead. The first two companies came out of the buildings they cleared and fell in behind the line. The line advanced and another pair of buildings was taken.