by Rod Carstens
“Sir, can I ask you something?”
“It depends,” Dasan said with a smile.
“Why did you join up?”
Dasan hesitated then said, “To prove to my family I was more than our business.” he paused then said, “They even had a mock funeral when I joined the Legion.”
Borges smiled and said, “For me it was a boy. His family said I would never amount to anything. I joined to show them. They were Sols. Now I’m going to save them.”
“Well, it looks like we both got our wish. We are about to show everyone in the Confederation something.”
Borges shook her head with a smile and said, “Yeah, but I never thought about no aliens. That’s all I’ve got to say.” Borges paused then said, “Sir.”
They both laughed as she left Dasan’s quarters. Dasan lay back down on his bunk and let the nanos do their magic. He had come a long way from being a term Legion lieutenant on an old destroyer. Much had happened and much had changed. He had changed, and at times he wasn’t sure if it were for the better. Making decisions that sent men and women to their deaths, even if they were the right ones, had gotten easier. He knew what he was doing, but apparently his body was reminding him of the price he was paying.
It had been years since he had heard from his family. They had disowned him when he went career and that had been it. The Marine Corps was his life now. Defeating the Xotoli was the only thing that mattered to him. It was his career goal and his personal mission and had been for over twenty-five years. He had lost the woman he loved when he left Aijuba behind on 703. Now he was about to try and save Kat Von Fleet begun to love from the Xotoli. As he lay there, he realized that he didn’t want those personal connections anymore. It was hard enough to make the military decisions he had to without the extra burden of loving someone who would be affected by those decisions.
He pulled out the little girl’s handkerchief that he was never without. It had been given to him by one of the children he had saved from the Xotoli back on Gaxola. No, this is what it was all about—protecting the billions of children in the Confederation. He didn’t have it in him to care about someone and do what he was driven to do. It was the only way he was going to survive the coming battle and those in the future. He would break if he cared too much. He could not break. He owed that to the men and women he had left behind and to those under his command now. He was a Marine general and that was all he ever could be. He was a warrior.
Chapter 3
Asteroid Fortifications Command
Quadrant Four
Headquarters
Vesta
Chief Gunner’s Mate Jakob Petrussen walked quickly down the passageway. He was running late for the daily briefing. He had been disappointed when there had been no openings in the fleet on a ship of the line. When you got promoted, there were not always openings for your rating. He was high on the list for the next commissioned vessel, but he was more than pleased with his new assignment. He had not expected to enjoy life on an asteroid out in the middle of the belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was a brand-new Forward Operating Base and it had only been fully operational for a few weeks. These morning briefings were as much about working out the bugs in the systems as they were about the Xotoli.
The FOB was on Vesta, a planetoid with an old Von Fleet Corporation operations center that the navy converted to meet their needs. The facilities were deep under the surface in large and comfortable quarters. Hardly the standard navy Spartan ones on board a ship of the line. Jakob had his own cabin, something he could not hope to have as an enlisted man on even the largest of the navy ships. He was in charge of a shift that controlled hundreds of weapons systems scattered on asteroids throughout their quadrant. He had even helped in the development of the tactics they would use.
He was a combat veteran. He had been on the Capella at Rift. So he had a combat stripe on his sleeve, as well as the abandon-ship badge on his left breast pocket. A secretary general’s unit citation awarded to the Capella crew was pinned on his blouse. The Capella was famous as one of the destroyers that had taken on the Xotoli fleet by themselves. Outgunned and outnumbered, the two little destroyers had bought time for the rest of the fleet. Their actions had helped save Rift. Here all of that experience was being put to use in his new job, so he didn't miss being out with the fleet at all.
He entered the briefing room with the other officers and senior enlisted men and women. He was sitting down when two new men and one woman strode into the room. They wore black uniforms with a patch on their shoulders that read DAP, with a skull and crossbones as its emblem. They were all former Legionnaires. You could always tell a former Legionnaire by the service tattoos, a cascade of small blue and red tears from the corner of their left eye.
These three were real old-timers. Their cascades reached their jaws, and one even went down to the guy’s throat. Each one had the lean, muscular build of Legionnaires—still considered some of the fiercest fighters in the Confederation even after the Legion's dissolution. What struck Jakob about them was that they actually showed their age. They must have been brought out of retirement. He had heard that even with the need for experienced fighters, the Confederation had not been willing to pay for a rejuvenation for them. Things must be getting desperate.
They sat down without a word of explanation. Jakob touched the table with his thumb and the controls for his part of the briefing were projected into a holo in front of him. There was an uneasy silence in the room as the two groups sat across from one another. Jakob felt someone’s gaze on him, and he looked up. It was the female Legionnaire. She was a striking woman with a grey-and-white crew cut. She had the blanched, clear pupils of someone who had spent many hours in the plasma flying those tiny ships the Legion had used for so long. When he glanced up their eyes met, and she smirked. The man next to her elbowed her and she laughed and turned toward the front of the room. Before Jakob could say anything Commander Tepuruan strode into the room.
“Attention on deck.”
Jakob, with the rest of the men and women, stood at attention.
“As you were,” Tepuruan said.
Tepuruan walked to the front of the room. Which was unusual for him. Normally he sat at the rear of the compartment and listened to briefings from his command. He had a serious look on his face.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see we have some new members to my command. I will get to their jobs in a moment, but it will be better if I explain our new situation first. I just received a flash communication from fleet headquarters. The Xotoli are collapsing the wormhole to Sui-Ren. That forced the emergency withdrawal of the Chika task force. They had to leave thousands of Marines on Chika or be trapped there with no way to return to the Sol system.”
Before he could stop himself Jakob said, “Fuck me.”
Tepuruan looked at Jakob and said, “I couldn’t agree more, Petty Officer. But there is much more. They were withdrawn because Admiral Raurk believes that the Xotoli were attempting to cut the task force off so they could then attack Earth. We don’t know how many of the ships of the task force were able to escape before the wormhole closed. The survivors will be arriving soon, but so could the Xotoli. The admiral feels that the Xotoli’s arrival is eminent.”
Jakob shifted in his chair. The room filled with murmuring as the men and women tried to absorb the meaning of these events. He was not in a quiet post working out the bugs in the FOB’s systems. Instead he was at the forefront of the system’s defenses with Xotoli on the way.
“Quiet. As you know, all the Von Fleet ships in the system have been confiscated by the Confederation after the corporation was nationalized. Well, a large part of the Chika task force is made up of Von Fleet military and logistical vessels. Each of these vessels will be boarded, searched, and their crews detained until we can determine if there are any hybrids on board. That is where our new members of the command come in. They are a direct action platoon. They will board and search these vessels. There are three converte
d swift boats in the hangar bay now. They will use them for their operations.”
Jakob and the others turned to glance at the Legionnaires. The woman was staring at Jakob with a small smile.
“Before we get into the specifics of their operations I want to address the changes in the watches. We will go to twelve hours on and off until further notice. We will increase our sensor flights, and I want a full systems test on all weapons and targeting systems. Next...”
The room light began flashing red. The electronic support measures crew who monitored the drones and long-range sensors had declared a red alert.
“Sir!” A holo of the crew chief appeared at the front of the room.
“Go ahead,” Tepuruan said.
“We have detected a change in the dark matter. It has all the characteristics we recorded at Rift when the Xotoli opened their wormhole.”
“Very well. Go to general quarters.”
Tepuruan turned to the room and said, “Well, I don’t have time to do a detailed briefing. You’ve all been training for this. Report to your stations and stand by for orders. We are the first line of defense for Earth, and I expect each one of you to be up to that responsibility. Petrussen, it’s your watch. Get your ass moving.”
“General quarters, general quarters! All hands man to battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.”
Jakob jumped out of his chair and ran down the passageway to the combat information center. As he ran, the passageway was filling with men and women were sprinting to their general-quarters stations. Images from the battle on the Capella flashed through his mind: the violence of the explosions inside the ship and the chaos after as the wounded were rescued and the dead moved away. Jakob and his mount crew struggling through it all to stay in the fight until only he and Nicole were left. Then the most violent of all the explosions destroying their gun mount and knocking Jakob unconscious. Waking up to see Nicole dead, her half-open eyes staring at him from the wreckage of the mount. His desperate leap for a lifeboat as he abandoned ship in an evac suit. General quarters had brought all of that back as if it had happened yesterday instead of over a year before.
All his dead shipmates, and now the Xotoli were back. But he wasn’t on a small destroyer this time. He was inside of a fortified asteroid in charge of hundreds of the most sophisticated weapons the Confederation had, and this time they were ready. The Xotoli would pay for what they had done to him, the Cappella, and his shipmates.
“General quarters! All hands are to man your battle stations. This is not a drill.”
Chapter 4
Sol System
Earth
City-State of New York
Operations Center of the Secretary General
The Secretary General of the Confederation of United Worlds strode into his operations center. The assembled admirals, generals, and other high ranking officials of the Confederation stood as one. Andean Fallen Monnetal was not a large man but the moment he entered, his presence commanded the room effortlessly. He had been elected after Rift and had been leading the fight against the Xotoli ever since. He was revered by the public and even some of the politicians, which said much about his ability to lead.
“Be seated. How is everyone this fine morning?” he said as he sat down at the head of the long table.
There were a few mumbled 'fines' from the men and women, but everyone knew he did not really expect a comment. Monnetal looked to his right, where Admiral of the Navy Usiche Raurk was seated.
“Let’s begin with the latest military update, Admiral.”
“Yes, sir. Rear Admiral Yasuji Kitmura, my Chief of Intelligence, will do the brief, sir.”
Kitmura stood at the other end of the room in front of a wall-sized display.
“I will begin with the latest that we know. We still have not heard from Admiral Grogen and her task force. We do not know how many ships and troops she was able to extract from Chika. We do know she entered the wormhole because she sent a drone through just before entering. We expect to hear from her at any time now. There has been no sign of the Xotoli in our system yet. We have no idea when or even if they will attempt an attack. But we are assuming they will take advantage of the closing. With the wormhole to Chika gone, we now have no direct route to Ceti, Ross, Groom Bridge, or the other systems in that quadrant.”
“Has there been any progress in the development of our own artificially created wormhole?” Monnetal asked.
Dr. Darryon Moses, Chief Scientist for the Navy, stood. He looked more like a professional rugby player, which was his hobby, than a lead scientist. There was a bandage on his nose.
“Doctor. If you don’t stop running into people in your off time, I’m going to have to chain you to your desk. We need you in one piece,” Monnetal said with a laugh.
“Mr. Secretary, it is the first time I’ve been away from the office in a week. I needed to get rid of a few frustrations.”
“Did you win?”
“Yes, sir, we did.”
Monnetal laughed and motioned for him to continue. Monnetal’s relaxed and confident demeanor had a calming influence on everyone in the room. Usiche could feel some of the tension go out of those present just from him asking a simple question about Moses’s hobby. He was a real marvel to watch work. With the human race in danger he exuded a relaxed confidence that was contagious.
“To answer your question, we have made progress, but we are still a long way from being able to produce enough energy to build a Krasnikov tube. Luckily the crystals that the Marines brought back from 703 are giving us hints. The Xotoli may be using a different set of angles in cutting the crystals and using them in series. They appear to be able to produce enough power to construct a Krasnikov-like tube. I wish I could tell you we are close, but we’re not sure yet. None of the crystals they brought back had been completed. It appeared they were in the first stages of their production so we don't know what else they did to them to change the crystal enough to produce the power needed.”
The big doctor sat down.
“Okay. Admiral Kitmura, what do we know about the Xotoli’s intentions?” the secretary general said.
“Sir, we have been interrogating Senator Carroll around the clock. He is being very cooperative, and we’ve learned some things that I think give us a hint at their strategy. It seems that the senator was on a Von Fleet ship controlled by hybrids when he was evacuated from Rift just before their attack. They took him to Ceti, where he witnessed the tactics they used. He is the only human we know of who actually saw the Xotoli attack Ceti.
“From his descriptions I think I can give you an idea of what their strategies may be. He said they began the invasion by destroying selected cities all over Ceti. They didn’t use nuclear weapons. Instead they used conventional ordnance, kinetic bombardment, and kinetic energy weapons. As they were destroying the selected cities, they began invading other cities with troops. From what Carroll said and our conversations with our hybrid Netis, we know their god tells them that all the universe’s resources are theirs. Anyone using them is a defiler of what is sacred. So we don’t think they will use nukes. They don’t want to destroy those resources. They want to occupy a useful planet, not a radioactive mess. It is also my opinion, given what Netis has told me in our briefings, that they want the population for enslavement in addition to our resources.”
“Why would they want to manage that many people?” Monnetal asked.
“Unknown, sir. But my guess would be using them for slave labor. As I said, they see people who are using resources their god has given to them as evil that must be punished.”
The secretary general turned to his right. ”Admiral, how is our hybrid doing?”
“Sir, she is doing well. She is cooperating with the medical and intelligence personnel. They still have not been able to figure out why the genetic alterations did not work on her the way they did on the other hybrids. She sees herself as human even though she has been genetically altered. She
has been examined, drugged, and put through every conceivable psychological and physical test the doctors can come up with, and they lead to the same conclusion. She is not embedded on a deep-cover mission. She is telling the truth. Somehow, despite all the genetic engineering done by the Xotoli, she is more human than Xotoli.”
“Do we have any idea how many more Netis-like hybrids there may be out there?” Monnetal asked.
“No, sir. Not at this time,” Usiche replied. “Netis is the only known hybrid to act this way. She may be an outlier, or there could be a certain percentage. We just don’t know.”
The secretary general turned back to Kitmura and asked, “Admiral, have we got any idea how many hybrids we still have embedded in the Confederation?”
“No, sir. Interrogating Carroll we learned that his wife was very busy running the hybrids, but we have no idea how many or where they were. They practiced very good tradecraft according to Netis. She only knew one other hybrid—the one who tried to kill Admiral Raurk on Rift. After that she was only contacted digitally over the years. The only reason she knew Carroll’s wife was Netis met her on Breon, the Xotoli’s home planet.”
“Too bad we couldn’t have captured her and had the opportunity to question her,” Monnetal said.
“Sir, there was no way she was going to be taken alive,” Usiche said. “I was there, as you know, and saw what it took to kill her. Without Netis we would have had to shoot her, and she might have killed several of us before that happened. She was quite formidable.”
“Do we have any idea where this Breon is located?” Monnetal asked.
“No, sir. Not yet.”
Monnetal turned to Salim Balan, the head of his Office of Legal Affairs.
“Salim, how are we doing with the nationalization of Von Fleet?”
“Sir, it is done. It sailed through the senate’s legal-affairs committee and the vote on the floor yesterday. With Carroll’s testimony and the fact he was married to a hybrid that was sharing state secrets with the Xotoli, there was little argument. Oh, some of the other corporations grumbled about the nationalization, but they were smart enough not to make a case about it. The legal part is easy. I have teams going through their records on all the planets that have major Von Fleet facilities.”