Though the Stars Fall (United Humanity Marine Corps Book 1)

by Bill Roberts

  The Synti ship heading for Encinitas crosses the coastline about thirty kilometers to my south at an altitude of about ten thousand feet. The Synti intentions become all too clear as the ship begins firing rapidly at the mass of humanity below. I am too far away to tell what damage it is doing, but I feel horror anyway. They have yet to land and already they are callously murdering civilians. I open up TACNET: “Inchon Six, Iron Six. The enemy ship heading for Encinitas is firing on civilians as it comes in.”

  I come in for my second landing and take position on the east side of the Five behind Bravo as we begin running our Kodiaks south. Colonel Smith responds: “I see your position. We are about ten klicks behind you and moving as fast as we can. I want you to push south at max speed and gain contact with this ship. We need to draw their fire off of the civilians as quickly as possible.” I acknowledge his orders and pass them on to my battalion. My commanders quickly roger up.

  Ahead of me Bravo picks up speed down the Five. We cover ground rapidly at first, but as we clear the southern edge of Pendleton the urban sprawl begins to impede our progress. We pick our way around and through as best we can, but we constantly have to make small bounds on our jump jets to clear buildings and traffic. This slows us down a great deal. There is also a constant series of ridgelines as we parallel the coast from small rivers, creeks and inlets that connect to the Pacific. They are easier to navigate than the sprawl, but they too slow us down. I open up a channel on TACNET: “Inchon Six, Iron Six. We are moving as fast as we can, but we have a lot of civilians in our way.” I do not expect a decision from this, I am just letting him know.

  “Roger, Iron Six. Just do the best you can,” Smith replies and cuts the connection.

  As the kilometers pass smoke begins to rise in huge billowing clouds to our south. Even more ominously the traffic on the Five thins and soon disappears entirely. Without waiting for orders Bravo moves onto the Five and picks up speed. TACNET: “Alpha, Charlie forget the wedge formation and fall in behind Bravo. We need to move as fast as possible.” They roger up and jump for the freeway. I check my display. The battalion is shaking out into its new formation. Bravo stretches out for almost a kilometer in front of me. The Three and the XO are right behind me as my wingmen and behind them Alpha and Charlie stretch for a couple of kilometers. The column is great for movement but can cause tactical problems when we make contact with the enemy. Nothing for it. People are dying. We will just have to do the best we can.

  I zoom out further and see that 1st Marines has its own movement issues. They are now almost fifteen kilometers behind us and falling further behind as I watch. MCS’s are fast, but nothing can keep up with Kodiaks at speed. Looks like we will be fighting alone. At least at first. On the TACNET: “Six, Three. We have a section of rotors,” those will be Marine gunship helicopters, “that just called in. They are heading down the five and will pass us in a few minutes. I am sending them ahead to scout the area. I have cleared them to engage any enemy they make contact with.” I acknowledge Fischer’s transmission and close the channel. While we continue charging south a pair of AH-1 Cobras thunder past us at maximum speed. They quickly disappear over a ridgeline in front of us.

  The kilometers start to fly by. We begin to see burning buildings. A surge of warmth spreads through me as I see police and firefighters doing the best they can to deal with the blazes. The courage that must take. They have to know that we are under attack. They also have to know that they cannot possibly defend themselves should the enemy arrive. Yet, despite this, they continue to do their duty. I will not let that courage be in vain.

  Fischer’s face appears on my screen. He looks slightly shaken as he reports: “Six, Three. The rotors reported contact with the enemy. When I asked for clarification they reported taking fire and went silent. I believe they have been shot down.”

  Good God. While the Cobra predates Watcher technology they are still powerful fighting machines. To be dispatched so quickly. No. Perhaps they are still fighting and are just too busy to call us. I reply: “We don’t know that. Keep trying to raise …” Ahead of me a lone Cobra comes thundering back over the ridgeline.

  I hear the pilot report to Fischer: “Iron Three, this is Gunrunner Four Two. Lead is down. We spotted too many enemy, uh, things to count. We engaged with rockets and killed a few, I think, but they quickly returned fire with some sort of energy weapons.” Ahead of me the Cobra turns and comes into a hover behind the ridgeline. “I still have plenty of Hellfire missiles and twenty millimeter cannon ammunition left.” The Cobra slowly rises till it peaks over the ridgeline and I soon see a missile come off the aircraft heading south. “I will continue to engage until I go Winchester,” Marine speak for out of ammunition, “You will make contact as soon as you ...” A line of light intersects the Cobra and it explodes and crashes to the ground in a whirl of disintegrating rotor blades.

  Fischer looks at me grimly through TACNET. We have just lost our air support. Not only that, but the enemy killed them far too easily. What will they do to us? No sense in worrying about it. Right. The icy ball in my stomach feels leaden as I open up a channel to my companies: “Guidons, Six. We just lost our air support. Expect contact somewhere on the far side of the ridge in front of us.” My company commanders acknowledge my transmission and I cut the channel.

  We cross over the ridgeline and see devastation in front of us. Everywhere there are burning and smashed buildings as far as we can see. Above us the sky is black with smoke and ahead of us the Five is littered with destroyed cars and trucks. Suddenly I see and hear the lead elements of Bravo open fire with their main guns. TACNET: “Iron Six, Bravo Six. Contact front. Multiple enemy … things. Engaging.”

  Bravo begins slowing down and spreading out in front of me and I slow my Kodiak down rapidly in response. On the battalion tactical channel I say: “Roger, Bravo Six. Alpha push left, Charlie right. I do not want us on line. Keep a wedge formation. We are going to push through,” more firing to my front and strange beams of light begin whipping by my Kodiak as the enemy returns fire, “and continue on to their ships. I do not want them to flank us.” My commanders roger up. “Three, XO, I am going to be busy, I need you to coordinate with Inchon.” They roger up as well.

  Ahead of me a beam of light crashes into one of Bravo’s Kodiaks. I see images of the shattered Cobra in my mind as I hold my breath. The Kodiak shrugs off the hit and continues forward firing away. The Bravo Company commander comes over the channel again: “Iron Six, we have hit multiple enemy, uh, troops and destroyed them,” I can hear the confidence in his voice, “continuing south.” I knew it. I knew the Watchers had given us what we needed. A sudden wave of relief crashes through me. It washes away the icy ball of fear that had rested in my stomach since I saw the balls of light falling from the sky. With the fear go my doubts. Doubts I had not ever willingly admitted to myself. Doubts about whether what we had done would be enough. Doubts about the real strength of the new weapons against the Synti. With the doubts and fear gone hope springs forth in all of its glory. With it comes other bright emotions: confidence and courage. These Synti bastards are fucked. Time to bring the pain.

  Ahead of me Bravo continues to hammer its way forward. I push my Kodiak forward towards a gap between First Platoon Bravo and Second Platoon Bravo. I want to get my sensors on the enemy. As my Kodiak moves into the gap I see three of them skitter out from behind a burning building. One of the Bravo Kodaiks nails one with a burst from its medium gun, scattering it into pieces. The other two enemy things stop their movement and turn towards me. They shine dully in the dim light of the smoke obscured Sun. The shine gives the appearance of the things being made of metal. Their shape reminds me of an insect. They have a thin body broken about two and a half meters long into three sections of equal size with nothing that looks like a head. Each section has a pair of legs? Arms? Coming out of it. They had been running on all six of their appendages but when they stopped they raised themse
lves on the back four legs and point their front two at me. I have time to notice that there are bulges along the front two appendages when they flash with light as the Synti fire at me.

  A couple of beams of light slam into my Kodiak. I hear a popping sound and then nothing. I move my reticle towards a Synti and vaporize itwith a main gun round. To my right one of the Bravo Kodiaks blows the third and final Synti of the group to pieces. Having personally seen and dealt with the enemy I now better understand them. That done there is no need to stay on the front lines any longer. I slow my Kodiak and check my readouts. Everything in the green. Ha!

  All around me the Kodiaks of 2nd Heavy Armored are smashing the Synti. Showing no fear more continue to appear amongst the burned and mangled wreckage of the town of Encinitas. As soon as the Kodiaks have a clear shot my Marines vaporize them ruthlessly. While the hyper-velocity electromagnetic guns crack away I take the time to zoom out my tactical display. The tactical display shows scattered red icons all around us as the sensors pick up incoming Synti forces. 1st Marines’ blue icons are now about ten kilometers behind me. About ten kilometers to my southeast lies the projected landing site of the northernmost Synti ship. I hit TACNET: “Guidons, Six. We need to get the Synti to focus on us instead of the local populace. We need to push for their ship harder. Their weapons seem to have a hard time damaging us so we are going to start pushing on jump jets.” I use my computer to designate the landing site as objective Comanche. “Bravo start pushing direct for objective Comanche. Alpha and Charlie maintain the wedge.” A quick acknowledgement from everyone and the battalion changes direction.

  The platoons of the company alternate jumps and soon the sky is full of Kodiaks taking short jumps on the arctic flare of their jump jets. I press down on my foot pedals and soar into the air behind one of the platoons in Bravo. The destruction looks even worse from up here. I see smashed homes and out of control fires all over the place. But, that is not the worst of it. Bodies lie strewn about everywhere. Most of them are hideously burned by the Synti energy weapons. However, some look like they were simply torn apart. My Kodiak lands in an intersection. Next to me there is a car that appears to have been ripped open. Inside I see nothing but … pieces. The sight is horrific, but when I notice mangled remains in an infant’s car seat I feel no horror at all. Rage. Rage like I have never felt before burns through me. I slam down on the foot pedals and start my next hop. Please let me see some of the bastards. There. Five of them. I shift my trajectory towards them. I line up my main gun reticle and squeeze the trigger, vaporizing one. I put a burst from the medium gun into another one. The remaining three skitter about shooting at me. I ignore their fire and blast another one with the main gun. Close now. The fourth one goes down to my medium gun. My Kodiak lands as the fifth puts two shots into me. They do nothing and I jam the joysticks forward and crush the thing like a bug underneath my Kodiak’s right foot. The Synti does not bleed or wail, but lightning arcs away from it as I smash it. My lights dim for a moment as the electricity shoots through my Kodiak. Fortunately, it causes no damage, but the jolt slaps some sense in to me. I push back the rage. I must maintain my focus. I must not let this get personal. I have Marines to lead and they need their commander to command, not run around killing shit just because he is pissed off.

  I pause as the battalion continues to bound forward around me, blasting the Synti into pieces as they go. I make a quick check of the portion of the TACNET display that shows the Kodiaks of my battalion as little icons. They are all apparently still operational. That is not the main reason I am checking, however. There are a lot of Synti. Encinitas is crawling with them. I check their ammunition status and see that everyone still has at least eighty percent of their ammunition. Good. If we run out it will take a long time to get back to Pendleton and get more. Time we do not have.

  That done I check our location. We are now well into the hills that run along California’s Pacific coastline. The projected landing site of the ship is about five kilometers ahead of us. We should hopefully see it soon. I push down on my pedals and start making a short hop. As I arc into the air I see one of Bravo’s Kodiaks explode in a ball of flame and smoke. What the hell.

  “Iron Six, Bravo Six. We have made contact with,” Captain Hutch pauses for a moment as he fires his weapon, “new Synti troops. They look like the other ones, but are much bigger. They nailed Bravo Blue Two. We have destroyed the ones we see, but I recommend we move more cautiously.”

  “Roger, Bravo Six,” I reply. “We don’t have time. You just have to keep pushing.” I hate giving that order, but needs must when the Devil drives. Too many civilians are dying.

  Hutch responds with a determined “Aye Aye, Sir,” and cuts the connection. I am sure he is not happy, but I am also sure he understands.

  The new Synti troops begin appearing everywhere. I see one on my next hop. It looks exactly like the other ones, but is about nine meters long. It raises its front arms towards me as I nail it with my main gun. It may hit harder but it is just as vulnerable to my weapons as the smaller Synti. It disintegrates nicely as my main gun round hits it at fifty thousand kilometers an hour. The larger Synti will complicate things. The battalion has already lost two Kodiaks. However, we focus our fires on them as soon as they appear and do the best we can. Another Kodiak goes down. However, in the cold calculus of war this is manageable. Although the fighting has intensified, we are still making steady progress towards the enemy ship.

  Despite the fact that we can manage our losses to the new larger Synti their appearance does cause me another concern. When we were easily slaughtering the light Synti troops I imagined that the enemy’s ship would not be so hard to destroy. Now. Now things look much more dire. We need something to even the odds. The terrain around me gives me an idea. TACNET: “Guidons, this is Six. Do not clear the next ridgeline. I want you to set on the military crest on this side of it. We will use the crest as a hasty battle position to engage the enemy ship. From left to right I want Alpha, then Bravo, then Charlie Alpha I want you to have one of your platoons cover our rear and left flank. Charlie I want you to have one of your platoons cover our rear and right flank. Report when set.” They acknowledge my orders and begin walking their Kodiaks through the burning and smashed buildings around us up the ridgeline in front of us to the southeast. I follow behind and as they come to a halt I work my way into the middle of Bravo Company.

  Once there I pause a moment to let the battalion take up its new position. As I do so I open a channel to the Three: “Three, Six. Anything new from Inchon?”

  “Negative, Six,” Fischer replies. They are still pushing to link up with us, but are still well behind us. Their Three is telling us to keep pushing and take out the ship on our own if we can.” He pauses a moment, listening. He then says: “They just made contact with their first Synti. The MCS’s are working fine against them.” He smiles wolfishly. “If we can nail that ship, these bastards are screwed.”

  “Roger, Three.” I open up a new channel: “Guidons, Six. I am going to get eyes on real quick. Stand by for orders after that.” I push my Kodiak forward just enough for the sensors on top to see over the ridgeline. The Synti ship lies a couple of kilometers away down in a small valley in front of me. It too glints dully in the smoke obscured sunlight. The ship looks like a bloated slug. It towers nearly forty meters tall, and looks to be about a kilometer long. I spot nothing that looks like weapons sprouting from it, but along its length large hatches are open and ramps lead to the ground. I see both the small and large Synti troops entering and exiting the ship in a constant stream. Around it is nothing but utter destruction. None of the buildings within sight are still standing. Fires run rampant through the wreckage of what used to be the city of Encinitas. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We must destroy this monstrosity.

  Using my tactical display I break the ship into three sections and mark them. I send the graphics I have just done to everyone in the battalion and back my K
odiak down to join them on the military crest. TACNET: “Guidons, Six. I have broken the ship into three sections. Alpha take the left, Bravo the center, and Charlie the right. We will all push up and hit it at once. Remember your berm drills. Three I want you to contact 12th Marines. I want artillery pounding that ship as we commence our attack. Say when ready.” After a few moments the company commanders report ready having passed on my orders, adding whatever they need to for their platoons.

  Fischer takes a bit longer. Coordinating artillery fire usually takes time. If only Division had gotten around to getting me my fire support officer. Stupid, idiotic, bumbling, self-important G-1 bastard. After a few long moments I am finally rewarded with Fischer’s face in my TACNET. “Six, Three. The new artillery is all firing in support of 5th Marines right now. But I managed to get several batteries of rockets. I have set a TOT of one eight.”

  That is six minutes from now. Good enough. I roger Fischer’s transmission and open up a new channel. “Guidons, Six. TOT for the artillery is one eight. It will be a barrage of rockets. I will give the order to assault as they impact.” The HIMARS rocket system used by the Marine Corps predates Watcher technology. But they have tremendous range and hitting power in spite of that. As we can only rearm with Watcher derived weapons slowly, the rockets are maintained while we concentrate on replacing our old howitzers with the new self-propelled electro-magnetic guns. Those guns are all firing in support of our comrades to the north. I would have liked to have them, but dozens of HIMARS rockets will be far better than nothing.

  My commanders roger my transmission and I cut the channel. The minutes tick by slowly as we continue to engage Synti forces attacking us from all directions. Fischer: “Shot, target number alpha bravo one one two five.” They have a time of flight of two and a half minutes. Almost time.