by Saxon Andrew
• • •
William Dodd was starting to get frustrated. He was reluctant to contact Cassandra on an open video. Those could be recorded and manipulated by the sender to trap him into a compromising position. He decided to allow for some more time. He stood and left the room thinking, “But not much more.”
• • •
Juliette was lying in bed holding two small, round devices in her hands. Her mother was standing over her as she shivered and moaned. Cassandra said, “Julie, you’re supposed to attend the ball tonight on Havadore. James is taking you and he’s on the way.”
Juliette moaned and closed her eyes. Cassandra put her hand on Juliette’s forehead and felt the heat. She looked at the doctor and he shook his head. She pressed her com and James appeared on the display, “James, Juliette is really sick.” James looked at Juliette behind Cassandra and frowned, “Is she just faking it to not go?”
“James how can you say that?”
James sneered at her until Cassandra said, “Would you like to come and be with her until she gets better.”
The doctor said, “This might be contagious.”
James heard him and said, “No, that’s all right. I’ll take someone else.”
Cassandra immediately saw how much he cared about Juliette. This was just a political thing to him. She said, “You’re welcome to come. We can provide a gown to keep you safe.”
James snapped, “I said no. Tell her I hope she feels better soon.”
Cassandra smiled and said, “I will.” Cassandra moved forward and kissed Juliette on her face. The doctor raised his hand but Cassandra said, “I don’t care.” She turned and left the room.
Juliette opened one eye and the doctor nodded. She handed him the two heat globes and said, “Thank you so much.”
The doctor smiled, “I’ve taken care of you since the day you were born.” Juliette jumped up in bed and kissed him on the cheek.
• • •
Three months passed and the three battalions had been involved in a fleet operation. All of them performed at a high level and emerged confident and competent. Amet received a fleet priority message and punched his board, “Admiral, we have a priority communication from Fleet Control that there has been an attack on a civilization launched in a universe not far from ours by the Grunct. Their fleet has defeated the home fleet and they are currently dropping troops to the surface and moving in on the major cities. Fleet has ordered an attack on the Grunct Fleet and we are being teleported in to handle their drop troops.”
“How many units are going in?”
“Three divisions are being given their drop coordinates now. They are being sent to fight in fifty cities. We are going in alone to fight one of the largest concentrations of Grunct Warriors that have already started killing the civilians in the largest city. We have a landing zone around the central government buildings.”
“How long do we have to collect data on the enemy forces from fleet on their positions?”
“Fleet asks us to hit dirt in fifteen minutes. They say they’ll download the data as quickly as possible.”
“Sound assembly and send the assembly coordinates to the other ships.” Jon hit his general frequency, “We will be hitting dirt in less than fifteen minutes. We don’t have any data on the enemy’s location yet so we’ll be going in blind. First battalion will take the center of the landing zone, spread out, and move forward. Second battalion will take the right wing and third the left. We will spread out, link our armor, and avoid giving them a large concentration to hit. Depend on your armor and don’t remain in one spot too long. We’ll organize once we receive the data from fleet. Until that happens all warriors are free to hit any target of opportunity.” Jon paused and then said, “Spread out and start moving in the direction of the approaching enemy. Good luck and we’ll see you on the ground.”
Jon looked at Amet, “Has fleet begun hitting their ships?”
“The main battleships have just arrived and the battle has begun.”
Jon ran the check list on his armor and finished just before the countdown completed. He looked at the scans being made by the Realm’s Fleet and saw that the numbers of Grunct units moving into the city were staggering. He hit the general frequency and said, “We are changing our operational plans. We are outnumbered in a major way. We will not be fighting in teams. Every warrior will move out and hit the enemy across our front. If we try to mass against them we will be overrun. Get in among them and keep moving.”
Jon hit the fleet frequency and said, “Admiral, we have close to three hundred thousand Grunct warriors moving in toward the center of the city I’ve been assigned. We only have four thousand Life Warriors and we’re going to need support to hold them off.”
Mandel said, “We’ve called up two more divisions but they won’t be here soon. Keep track of the fleet action and I’ll send some ships to support you from space if we can win this fight.”
Jon stared at the Admiral and said, “We’re going to be so intermixed with their forces that fleet support won’t help. We need more Warriors on the ground.”
“Then hold out for an hour. That’s the earliest I can get you some help.”
Jon cut the connection and said, “All Warriors, as soon as you teleport in, jump into the oncoming enemy formations and do as much damage as possible. Trust your armor and weapons to keep you alive and don’t stop teleporting. Good luck.”
Dern thought to Jon, “Is it that bad?”
“Worse. There are more than three hundred thousand enemy warriors, all their heavy weapons along with their mobile armor moving into the city. The only chance we have is to just send our warriors out to do as much damage as possible and keep fighting until we can get reinforced. If we try to work in units we’ll be overwhelmed.”
“We’ve not trained for this, Jon.”
“I don’t know anyone who has, Teg. Do you have a better solution, Dern?”
“No, this is exactly what I’d do. We can do a lot of damage in a very short time. We’ll join in the fun and if things change, I’ll send you a different plan on the fly.”
“Ten seconds to teleport. Give em hell.”
The four thousand Life Warriors disappeared from their assembly rooms and reappeared on the planet into a vision from hell.
• • •
Sargent Zelet arrived on the planet and kept the melody in his consciousness. He looked at the tactical display in his armor’s display and saw a massive number of enemy warriors moving down the streets toward his location and his armor immediately teleported him into the middle of their ranks. He smiled as the Grunct around him were shocked by his appearance. He sprayed the troops surrounding him with cannon projectiles and launched six hornets at heavy beam transports traveling with the advancing enemy. He turned his chest toward the middle of the street and launched a mini-penetrator up the street toward a distant troop transport that had landed just outside the city. His armor teleported him out just as the Grunct Warriors raised their weapons. The penetrator extended its force field and killed every Grunct Warrior that was within the hundred foot wide force field between it and the distant troop transport. It hit the transport and the explosion blew forward and destroyed three more transports that were beginning to unload Warriors.
Zelet teleported into another street before the explosion and sprayed a company of advancing warriors with his auto-cannon and launched four hornets at four attack craft coming in from the right. He disappeared before the survivors could bring their beams to bear. The attack craft were hit and fell into the street at a high velocity, killing two hundred Grunct Warriors in their path.
A family of six huddled in their room in one of the buildings when a Grunct Warrior kicked in the door and raised his beam. Zelet appeared and shot the Grunct through his helmet with a high velocity slug. The Warrior fell backwards and Zelet moved forward and shot eighteen more Grunct that were moving up the stairs. Everyone in the lower floors had been killed, but the ones above Zele
t were now safe. The Grunct intruder team had been eliminated and none were slated to follow them in. Zelet disappeared again. Zelet had a huge smile as he appeared behind twenty mobile shock cannons and blew them into rubble with hornets before he teleported away. He wasn’t thinking about what to do. He just allowed his armor to do what it was designed to do; destroy the enemies of the Realm. Four teleports later, he appeared in a huge fire fight and launched forty hornets at a mobile armor unit. Before he could teleport away, he was hit by six blaster beams and died in the resulting explosion of his armor.
Zelet’s example was being followed by every warrior in the regiment. Throughout the advancing Grunct forces, Life Warriors were appearing and sowing destruction before they disappeared. One Life Warrior teleported into the middle of a company of Grunct Warriors and immediately teleported away as they all turned their weapons and fired on each other. More than eighty of them were killed by their own weapons. The Warrior reappeared and killed the remainder of the company before teleporting away.
A Life Warrior teleported in behind a company of armored weapon platforms that had cornered more than three hundred civilians in a courtyard and exploded all of them before they could fire on the civilians. Eighty Warriors raised their blasters to hit the Life Warrior but another one appeared behind them and killed all eighty with his auto-cannon. The two immediately teleported out, leaving the civilians to move into the surrounding buildings to seek cover from the deadly fire fight. No one in the city was safe from the blasts and explosions erupting in the streets.
Dern teleported in to the cleared area outside the city and arrived just as fifty landing transports began landing to unload their compliment of Grunct Warriors. The ships saw the small warrior in white armor and opened fire but Dern teleported before he was hit and launched hornets at the fifty landing craft as he teleported among their ranks. He destroyed all fifty and teleported into the city. He arrived in a huge mass of advancing Grunct and he pulled his four swords. The blades extended more than fifty meters in length and he swung them quickly from side to side and teleported out. The entire center of the advancing enemy was disintegrated when the four blades hit them. Three more warriors in white armor appeared around them and barraged the survivors with their auto-cannons and immediately disappeared.
Jon’s armor sent him an image of four giant troop transports descending from orbit toward the city. He saw their force fields were lowered to allow their drop warriors to jump out of their ports and fall into the city. Jon teleported and arrived on top of the highest transport as he pulled his sword. He launched three mini-penetrators at the other three ships and raised the sword over his head. The blade extended to an incredible length and he struck the ship between his feet and cut it in half. The two pieces fell and crashed into a forested area just outside the city. Jon teleported into a building and killed the Grunct intruder team. He looked at his display and teleported to the top of the building to fire hornets at enemy air units roaring into the fight.
• • •
All over the city, Grunct Warriors were being killed at an incredible rate. An hour after the battle started, a division of Life Warriors arrived to relieve Jon’s regiment and discovered they didn’t have much to do. More than two hundred and fifty thousand Grunct Warriors as well as their mobile weapons had been destroyed.
Jon sounded recall and the three battalions teleported in to the central plaza they had originally arrived in an hour earlier. They reformed their units and moved out with the reinforcing division and wiped out the remaining Grunct forces still operating. Jon pulled up his roster and saw that he had lost more than six hundred warriors in the three battalions. He saw that Zelet was one of them. He took a deep breath and moved forward with the first battalion. There would be time to mourn after this was over. He checked his feed from fleet and notified the Admiral that he was teleporting to the city on the southern continent where the enemy was making progress. He sent the arrival coordinates to his units and they disappeared.
• • •
Admiral Mandel looked at Victoria on his display. “How did our new regiment perform, Admiral?”
“They were dropped in on more than three hundred thousand Grunct Warriors, Your Majesty. They were outnumbered by more than seventy five to one.”
“And?”
“They killed more than two hundred and seventy thousand before the relieving division arrived. They lost six hundred and thirty two warriors.”
“I thought the Grunct are evenly matched with our warriors?”
“They are. I’ve collected the recordings from their armor’s scanners and what they did is impossible.”
“Are they that good?”
“We don’t have any unit in the Realm that can match their speed and destructiveness. They should have been wiped out.”
“Why weren’t more forces assigned with them?”
“It appears there are still some issues with the assignment system.”
“Admiral, get that cleared up. I’m holding you personally responsible for making it happen. I will not have this magnificent unit destroyed.”
“I’ll get it done, Your Majesty.”
“Make sure you do.”
• • •
Molly Masters sat in her quarters and wept for the death of Jeremy Archer. She had made plans to marry Jeremy after their career was done in the Navy but those plans had died with him on the planet. She listened to the last recording he had sent her and her heart broke into tiny fragments. She just couldn’t endure the loss of the man she loved so much. She held his picture and pulled it to her chest. She fell back on her bed, closed her eyes, and cried. After thirty minutes she began to hear the melody of her armor. She fought her sorrow and tried to focus on the beautiful music. She felt it enter her broken heart and after a moment she found peace. Jeremy died doing what he loved and they should have known that making plans during this endless war was not something they should have done. She closed her eyes and somehow sensed that Jeremy was ok. She pulled his picture tighter and looked at her wrist com. She had just been promoted to Lieutenant over first platoon. She closed her eyes and listened as her heart healed and her despair was washed away by the music. She was not going to make the mistake of falling in love again. She fell asleep and the creases on her forehead slowly disappeared.
• • •
Jon sat back in his chair and stared at the casualty figures. Dern said, “We actually lost more warriors percentage wise when we fought in units.”
Jon looked up and said, “I see that. Did either of you have a warrior teleport in and save you?”
They both nodded and Teg said, “It seemed that one was always there to assist whenever I needed help.”
Jon nodded, “It happened to me as well. What do you make of that, Teg?”
“It’s clear to me that our armor is all linked in a much more efficient fashion than when we’re fighting as a unit.”
Jon stared at the figures again and then looked at Dern, “We need to start finding replacements for those we lost.”
Dern said, “I’m ahead of you on that. I found more than two thousand that can join us. We just didn’t have room for them.”
“Who’s going to handle the training?”
“Captain Calso.”
Jon looked back at the figures and said, “He’s a good choice. Are we scheduled for another rescue?”
Teg looked at his wrist unit and said, “Not at this moment. I suspect it will happen like it did this time and we’ll have to leave on short notice. Incidentally, our inventory of weapons has been replaced. I also took the liberty of ordering more hornets.”
Jon nodded and said, “You need to get some of the super hornets as well. There were some rather large warships dropping in on us and we could have used them.”
“I’ve specified they be included in the rearming.”
Jon looked up and sat back again, “I know I’m getting bogged down in details that I know both of you can handle. I just hate we
lost so many warriors. I can never get used to seeing them die.”
Dern looked at Teg and then said to Jon, “It appears the assignment computer acted up again and the forces designated to teleport in with us were rerouted elsewhere.”
Jon slammed his fist down on the table and snapped, “Why can’t they get that corrected!?”
Teg looked at his two brothers and said, “I’m not at all certain that the computer did this.”
Dern and Jon looked at Teg and he continued, “I suspect the other unit was sent elsewhere so we could discover the new tactics we used.”
“Come on, Teg. Where do you get that?”
“Think about it, Jon. What circumstances would cause us to release all our Warriors to fight individually? We would have to be heavily outnumbered in order for us to make that decision. Do you disagree that this new battle pattern is more effective than when we’re operating in units?”
Jon looked at Dern, “What do you sense?”
“I don’t know if Teg is right but this much I can say with certainty. If we had fought in units we would not have teleported away and left our fellow Warriors. If that had happened, we would have lost the majority of our forces.”
Jon thought about what he heard and his eyes narrowed, “Who says the assignment computer caused this?”
“Admiral Mandel suggested it; he had no other way to explain how the other units were sent elsewhere.” Dern paused and said, “Jon, one of the Algean Elders went in the system and repaired the damage done by the one that was after you. He pronounced the system clean. I find it hard to believe that one of their adolescents could have done anything an elder wouldn’t have found.”
Jon looked at his brothers and said, “If what you say is true, that leads to another conclusion.”
Teg looked at Dern and saw his puzzlement, “I’m not sure what you mean, Jon.”
“The force that created us is growing stronger in this Creation. It’s expanding and making things happen.”