“Sorry, right you are. Let’s move it.”
Trusting Çağlar to keep an eye out for any Klethos that might break through the defenses, Ryck focused on his displays, only taking the time to respond to General Sergovich’s demand for an update. The general’s voice bordered on panic, Ryck thought disgustedly, but that might just be his style. Still, he was Ryck’s commanding general now, and he pushed any misgivings out of his head.
The defensive frontage for a PICS-mounted brigade was about 30 km per SOP. However, the entire valley was only 42 km wide, and their defense was predicated on how the Klethos advanced, so it was only about four km from the hill to the boundary with Third Brigade. The scattered trees and the one small stream were no impediments to the PICS, and his new reaction force reached the brigade’s flank in less than six minutes—and were immediately thrown into the fight. Jorge and 3/5 had created a gap between the two brigades, but 3/14 was heavily engaged. Twenty or so Marines, led by Gunny Larry Williams and Sergeant Bergstrøm, who had been mightily upset at being separated from his Davis and assigned to the remote-gunner crews, flew into contact with Marines from Fox Company as they surrounded two Klethos, fighting back-to-back. Ryck had a quick glance of a Marine going down to one of the Klethos’ sidearm as a flurry of rockets hit the creatures before he rushed past the small group. Major Freebottom, who Ryck had pulled onto his staff, led the assault on the next Klethos, where five Marines were trying to isolate it with their staffs. The bodies of three Marines, two pistoleers and a pikeman, were underfoot as the big Klethos swiped at the pikes.
This was Ryck’s first eyewitness look at the new tactics. He’d watched on slaved cams, but when 15 meters away, the action took on a far greater urgency, and Ryck’s tactics, which had seemed so reasonable and logical in the simulations and training session, looked a little less certain in reality.
Six Marines, all pikemen, had the Klethos surrounded. The Klethos looked at them in what Ryck assumed to be a wary manner. The Klethos suddenly darted forward to swipe at a pike with its sword, knocking it aside, but the two Marines adjacent stepped in, jamming their pikes into the chest of the creatures, bringing it to a stop and almost knocking it off its feet while the first pikeman recovered. On the other side of the Klethos, one of the Marines had out his mameluke and was holding it alongside his pike.
The pikes were holding against the Klethos, but not penetrating its armor, and the debilitating current was not proving effective (something already reported to Ryck). Ryck knew the mameluke would slice through that armor, but a Marine had to close in to use it, and from the looks of one of the bodies, unsheathed mameluke at his side, that had cost a Marine his life.
As the Marines in the Ryck’s headquarters ran up, the Klethos snapped off a shot with its sidearm, a blue haze enveloping Çağlar. The sergeant kept advancing, though. The Brotherhood scientists, after examining the captured Klethos weapons, had come up with a tweak to shielding that they had shared with the rest of humanity. It had really been a fairly simple thing to make the adjustments in the PICS to provide added protection.
Shielding aside, going against an alien in today’s age with weapons more akin to a thousand years ago was still surreal to Ryck, but as the remote guns indicated, for whatever reason, more advanced weaponry was not accepted without a huge reaction. The Klethos were willing to forgo technology to fight, however, and as their technology seemed more advanced than humanity’s, that was fortuitous. Their warrior ethos was giving the humans a chance.
The rocket pistols didn’t seem to cross that magic line where the Klethos would retaliate with either berserker fury or more advanced weaponry, though. Çağlar tried to step in front of him, but Ryck sidestepped the sergeant and joined several other Marines in drawing his pistol and firing between the pikeman at the Klethos.
The pistol had been in reaction to the less-than-refined aiming of the PICS 7.5mm shoulder rockets, which had proven on Tri-30 to have some effect on the Klethos. It took quite a few to take down one of the creatures, but enough would do the trick. But several Marines had been killed by friendly fire given the salvo method of launching the rockets. R & D had come up with a simple solution—taking a Navy signaling gun and modifying it to fire a rocket. The rocket itself was modified to fly slower, as counterintuitive as that might sound, and the warhead was refined, and so far, the pistol had proven to be a valuable addition to the Marines’ armory.
Ryck fired his pistol from 15 meters away. He could see it arch despite the short distance, but it hit the Klethos high in the chest. Whether it was Ryck’s shot or any of the other four or five that affected it, the Klethos staggered, only stopping its fall by extending its arm and using the muzzle of its sidearm against the ground to keep it upright. From behind it, the Marine who had unsheathed his mameluke lunged forward, dropping his pike and swinging at the extended left leg of the Klethos, nearly severing it at the knee.
Unbelievably fast, the Klethos bent back on itself, swinging its own sword and cutting through the juncture of the Marine’s shoulder and neck. Blood fountained up through the PICS.
That move was its undoing. Its sword stuck for a moment, embedded in the PICS’ armor. That was all the time the Marines needed. Ryck joined five others in drawing their mamelukes and lunging to swing their swords down as the Klethos struggled to dart out of the way.
It was fast, but not that fast. Three blades, including Ryck’s hit the creature, one taking off an arm, but two almost cutting the thing in half.
Ryck was breathing hard, not from exertion, but from adrenaline. He’d never been a proponent of the mameluke and had resented it being forced on them, but there had been something visceral, something that resonated deep in his psyche and reveled in the feel of metal slicing through flesh. He knew they could have stood off and poured more rockets into the wounded Klethos, and the mad rush had resulted in a self-inflicted gash in the thigh of one of the other Marines, but the kill had been somehow more fulfilling.
Doc Lewis was already in action, hitting the emergency molt on PFC Ermine Roary’s PICS, pulling out the Marine who’d scored the first hit on the Klethos leg. It looked like the Marine had almost been cut in two from shoulder to belly, but he was surprisingly conscious and even bragging, if in obvious shock, about what he’d done. Ryck made a note to commend Roary, punching it into the ethersphere should something befall him before he could act on it. Doc was already deploying a zipperbag as Ryck turned away to continue the fight.
He knew he should step back a moment and look at the big picture, but with a greatly diminished reaction force, he knew every swinging dick mattered. He could command the brigade and still fight if needed. That was what he told himself, at least, and almost convinced himself as to its veracity.
Sandy and 2/3 eliminated the last Klethos in their AO, and Ryck ordered them to start working down 3/14’s defensive line. More and more Klethos were being eliminated. Ryck joined in two more fights. Çağlar physically kept him from drawing his mameluke again and getting in close, but he did fire his rocket pistol, scoring a hit on one.
With each Klethos killed, the surviving Marines facing it were freed to swarm to the next one. Before too long, 30 or even 40 Marines faced each of the creatures. Ryck kept half-expecting the remaining Klethos to revert to their more powerful weapons to stem the tide, but they didn’t. Ryck didn’t understand why, but he was not going to argue with them about it.
The tide of Marines was just too much, and one by one, the Klethos was swarmed over. Within 20 minutes, there was not a living Klethos in the brigade’s AO.
Even before the last one fell, Ryck let Çağlar pull him out of the fight, and he focused his attention back on the rest of the task force.
Jorge was a maniac, rallying the beaten Third Brigade into a killing frenzy. With Colonel Snæbjörnsson killed, Jorge had taken command not only of the reaction force, but of the entire brigade. Ryck knew this was Jorge’s first experience in combat, and it seemed that he had 18 years of pent up plans up
on plans that were suddenly released. Within a few moments of review, Ryck was surprised and mightily impressed with how Jorge was changing plans on the fly and meeting the threat with what was a seriously depleted force.
Brilliant or not, Third Brigade was still undermanned, so Ryck asked General Sergovich permission to abandon their AO and move to shore up Third. The general didn’t even hesitate but granted permission. Ryck would be leaving his AO undefended, but the Klethos had never shown any indication of subterfuge, so that was a pretty safe bet. At this stage of the battle, the mission was to kill the enemy, not protect territory.
Leaving behind only enough Marines and sailors to recover the dead and wounded, Ryck swung around his brigade, at only 55% of its initial fighting strength, but still a pretty powerful force, and crossed the boundary into Third’s AO and essentially put the brigade under Jorge’s tactical control. It was Jorge’s fight now, and Ryck didn’t want to interrupt the genius at work. He asked Jorge what he wanted First Brigade to do, then he followed those orders.
With General Sergovich rallying Second Brigade and Ryck’s First Brigade supporting Third, slowly but surely, the Klethos were worn down and killed. They had to have known what was happening, but they never broke from their mano-y-mano style of fighting.
Almost three hours after the first shot fired, the last Klethos fell. Something like 700 of them had died, but at the cost of over 6,000 Marines. At half strength, Ryck’s First Brigade was the largest Marine unit left on the planet. Third Brigade was down to less than 1,000 Marines.
The “Berserker” Klethos, the ones facing the Confeds some 4,500 kms away were still on their rampage, using unknown and more powerful weaponry, and most of the Confederation units and a good portion of the planetary militia had been wiped out by them. One militia regiment had yet to engage and was nervously asking for reinforcements.
Just 50 km to the north, the Combined Ground Force, made up of some of the forces of the smaller planets and governments, had held off some 300 Klethos, but at a steep cost. The New Budapest Ranger company that had served with Ryck on Tri-30 without a single casualty had been wiped out to the man, and as a whole, the force was down to 30% effective.
The Joint Ground Task Force had prevailed in two out of three theaters, but it was beaten and battered, its Commanding General killed along with much of the leadership. The remainder of the ground task force just about to arrive in-system was now to land where the rampaging Klethos were heading, with command shifting to the Brotherhood forces. That gave command of both the naval and the ground forces to the Brotherhood, but there wasn’t much the battered Federation forces could reasonably do about it, and to Ryck’s surprise, the Federation government ignored politics to go with common sense.
Ryck met with General Sergovich, who confirmed command of Third Brigade to Jorge and then ordered a stand-down to evacuate the wounded and dead and replenish ammunition, exchange coldpacks, and consolidate forces. No one knew what would be coming down the pike, but he wanted the Marines to be ready. Then, leaving Colonel Tyrell Smith, the former chief of staff and now assistant commander, in charge, he took off in a shuttle to meet with the Combined Ground Force.
Ryck returned to the brigade to assess the unit. Nine-hundred and sixty-three Marines and sailors had been killed in the fight. Many of those would be resurrected, but that number wouldn’t be known for some time yet. Six-hundred and two were wounded, with five-hundred and seventy eight of those needing evacuation.
Ryck was out two commanding officers: Bryce Fukoka was KIA and Clarance Lu Wan was already ziplocked and in stasis. Sandy’s sergeant major had been killed. Six company commanders and seven first sergeants were KIA or WIA. Joab Ling, who had managed to get a company in 3/14 only four months previous (over the objections to the PA folks who feared that two of the Marine Nova holders could be lost on the same mission) had been hurt with a gash that had shattered his PICS face shield and cut off a good chunk of his nose, was one of the walking wounded.
With Jorge reassigned, Ryck gave Lieutenant Colonel Story Hanh-de Friese the additional duty as his chief of staff. With Hecs and Sams, the four of them came up with a plan for getting all the cold-packs exchanged and the PICS recharged. Ryck sent Hecs and Sams off to get it done, then sat down with Story and Justice Freebottom to start discussing how to reallocate the weapons. The trident had proven to be pretty useless, and the remotely-controlled snapguns had been slagged somehow by the Klethos. That left the pikes and rocket pistols as their most effective weapons. Several toads had been used as well, with only one hitting and sticking long enough to burn through the Klethos’ shielding or armor.
With so many killed or wounded, there were more than enough weapons to reconfigure the remaining men of the brigade, Ryck realized soberly.
The three officers hashed things out before Sams had come to insist they recharge and exchange coldpacks as well. Ryck was surprised that five hours had passed, and it would soon be dark. He dutifully ate his ghost shit, something he’d really never learned to like despite years of his life inside a PICS.
He and Story had just got back to planning when Çağlar interrupted him with, “Sir, you need to look at this.”
Ryck looked up, noticing that all the Marines around him were staring at the sky. Ryck elevated his gaze as a meteor streaked through the sky. Then another, and another.
Are we in some sort of meteor belt? he wondered.
Then two more, then five, then ten. Before long, hundreds of meteors were falling through the sky, all in a pattern too organized to be natural. Not meteors, though. Meteorites. It was evident they were reaching the ground out there, maybe 50 or 100 km away.
The circuits became abuzz with chatter. The orbiting ships could see the meteorites, but nothing was registering on any of their instruments. A Navy Experion flew into investigate and was destroyed in a burst of flames.
Ryck knew what they were. More Klethos. This is how they landed. They didn’t use ships but rather some sort of personal containment bubbles or vessels. And even though the Klethos didn’t use any cloaking while on the ground, they evidently had pretty effective cloaking while in space. Ryck’s assertion was confirmed when other Navy instruments picked up the telltale readings of Klethos fighters where the “meteorites” had landed.
Ryck watched for two minutes in which his AI counted 1,212 incoming Klethos—if it was one Klethos per entry. And more were coming.
Seven hundred Klethos has fought 10,000 Marines almost to a standstill. The Marines had carried the day, but while losing over half of their forces. Now, over a thousand and probably many more Klethos were landing.
Ryck immediately called in his commanders and staff. If the Klethos were landing only 50 km away, they didn’t have much time. Ryck didn’t know how the Marines could withstand a couple thousand or more of the creatures, but he wasn’t going to stand there with his thumb up his ass in defeat.
If the Klethos wanted to wipe out the Marines, it was going to cost them, and cost them dearly.
Chapter 28
Ryck watched on his display as the avatars for the ten Marines who had voluntarily and on their own formed a rear guard went gray one after the other. Led by Gunny Miller, the men had been fighting a delaying battle, trying to give the rest of the Marine Ground Force a chance to get to the evacuation sites. Ryck had been about to order someone to fall back, but Gunny Miller and the others took that difficult decision out of his hands, and he just hoped their sacrifice would not be in vain.
“Semper fi,” he whispered, out of breath as he ran with several Marines of his command party through the almost-deserted streets of Knoferee, the Roggeri’s World capital.
Navy surveillance had confirmed over 7,000 Klethos had landed about 70 km to the east of the Marine positions. With about twice that many human forces to confront them, the top brass dithered as to the response until word reached them of similar passage traces that the Klethos had made in landing—just analyzed and now recognized by the fleet’s AIs
—had just been picked up outside of Yakima 4, a Federation world. The Federation immediately gave the recall order, and the Brotherhood-led remainder of the ground task force was turned back, never landing on the planet.
Despite half-hearted protests from the Confederation, Ruggeri’s World was essentially being ceded to the Klethos. The Marines and the Combined Ground Task Force were ordered to evacuate, the Marines to the harbor at the capital and the rest to the mouth of the Rugged Flow River.
As the most robust of the Federation forces left, First Brigade held its position while First and Third started their mad dash to the capital and transport off the planet. The delay in receiving the evacuation order meant that the Klethos were within kilometers by the time First Brigade started their withdrawal.
The Klethos were ungodly fast, though, so what started as an orderly, bounding overwatch—the by-the-book method of a retreat where one unit covered the movement of the other two until one of those stopped and covered first unit’s retreat, each unit taking a turn in covering as the entire force hopscotched back—quickly changed to an all-out race as Ryck ordered speed over security. Second Brigade was already boarding the shuttles and other atmospheric vessels when the first of the Klethos reached the rear of Ryck’s Marines. Several localized fights broke out, and each fight resulted in slowing down the Marines involved as more Klethos reached them. Over a hundred Marines had fallen to only a few Klethos.
Ryck’s instincts were to turn the brigade and fight to recover those Marines, but with so many of the Klethos in pursuit, he knew that would only result in the total destruction of the brigade, with every Marine and sailor lost. Instead, he urged his men on, telling them to ignore redlining PICS as each Marine pushed the combat suits past the max sustained pace and into sprint mode, which was supposed to be limited to five minutes or less.
Colonel (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 7) Page 17