Theodora smiled slightly. “That is our hope, Major,” she agreed. “For now, we have to evacuate as many of our people as we can.”
Andy nodded. “We are going to help you with that too. My detachment will be coming down shortly and will aid in the evacuation while we wait for our reinforcements and then prepare for the arrival of the Arkana.”
“Thank you, Major,” Hiram said, nodding to her and then to Wallace. “Captain.”
“We will see you shortly,” Andy went on.
The rest of the farewells passed and the channel was closed, the video of the regents winking off to show the planet once again. It was obviously too far away to see any of them, but Andy had the image of people scurrying around like ants, trying to figure out how best to get out of the way of the boot that was about to step on them.
Andy took a deep breath. “Captain,” she said, turning to Wallace. “With your permission, I’d like to get my people down there.”
“The sooner the better, Major.”
CHAPTER 8
EVERY SQUAD WAS KITTED out with their uniforms, armor, weaponry, and a pack of supplies just in case. Who knew what was going to happen once they were down there, or what would be available to them? It was better to be prepared, or at least as prepared as they could be.
Once outfitted, each squad loaded into their shuttle. They waited for clearance from the bridge, which came swiftly, and then each shuttle took off in sequence. As the leader of Alpha Squad, Andy’s shuttle was the one that took off first in a line of six vessels—like a mama duck leading her ducklings into the water. It was just a few minutes before they were ready to start their descent.
“Prepare for atmospheric descent,” the pilot announced.
Everyone was already in their seats and strapped in, so there wasn’t really much they could do except be aware.
The ship started its way to the surface, shaking as it pushed its way through layers of atmosphere. Andy tried to ignore it, but even with all the planetary landings she had under her belt, there was always an edge of nausea.
Sometimes, she envied the Arkana for their teleport systems. Although from what they knew, it couldn’t have put someone on a planet surface from space anyway...but it was a nice thought.
Soon—but not soon enough—each shuttle made landfall. They exited with caution, just in case, but there was no one around to greet them. The shuttles closed up and locked themselves shut, where they would remain until the squads returned...or it was clear that they never would. In that case, the pilots would make a judgment call and return to the ship.
Otherwise, they would wait. They would defend the shuttles, if needed.
Andy and her squad led the way from the large expanse of flat land where they had landed to the city. It took a few minutes from one to the other, close enough to not be difficult but far enough to be noticed. As they came up to the city’s further boundary, they found a small group waiting for them. One was Regent Theodora and the others wore uniforms that Andy would guess were some sort of security.
“Regent,” Andy greeted with a nod.
“Major,” she said. “I wanted to greet you personally and thank you, as well as present you with these.” She handed a pair of tablets to Andy, who took one and handed the other to Roxanna.
They turned them on and looked at a map of the city. She looked it over quickly, taking note of the highlights. She needed to go over them again in more detail, but she wanted to get started on the evacuation first.
“Our peacekeeping personnel have been working on the southern half of the city. It would help speed things along if your people could work the northern half. The northeast corner houses a large population of civilian families. We’d like you to start there and help assure the children and caretakers are put on transports to the safe zones we have been erecting away from the city. We started evacuating yesterday as soon as we had somewhere for everyone to go, but...” She sighed. “It’s a big city. And we never anticipated having to clear it all out.”
“You have no explanations to make to me, Regent,” Andy said. “You point and we’ll go.”
Theodora smiled faintly, and then started to detail what help they needed...
FOR THE NEXT THREE HOURS, Andy and her squad—along with the five other squads—worked on clearing upset, frightened people out of their homes and onto long transit vehicles that would take them to temporary shelters nearly an hour outside of the city. Andy made sure to receive updates every half-hour from the Star Chaser about the status of the incoming ships, both friendly and hostile.
Everything remained on schedule.
Andy saw the last seat on the transport filled then hopped off, signaling for the driver to take off. As soon as that long vehicle was on its way, there was another pulling up into its place. Andy turned and passed by Roxanna escorting another family out of one of the many multi-residence structures. This one was a Selerid family and she had a little girl on her hip. The little one was clearly more worried than the adults, since her skin was swirling rapidly.
Roxanna was talking with the girl as they walked. As they passed Andy, she could hear them speaking in the Selerid native tongue at a rate too fast for the translator to keep up. Behind them was a woman Andy assumed to be the mother, smiling feebly. She looked grateful for the help with the child, since she had another walking behind her. The little boy was holding his mother’s hand so tight that the purple skin was changing shades, but she never attempted to remove him.
Andy let them board the transport without stopping to say anything. She moved into the building and the next apartment that hadn’t been cleared out yet. Everyone had been asked to wait within their homes until someone came for them.
“ESS,” Andy announced, knocking on the door and stepping in.
There was an old man, human, sitting on a pale green sofa. He was old enough to need a cane, which he held between his legs while he waited patiently for someone to come for him.
“Sir, I’m Major Dolan,” she said as she strode in. “I’m here to take you to the transport.”
He looked up at her with a faint smile. “I’ve been waiting,” he said simply. “May we take possessions?” He gestured at a small bag that sat on the floor beside his feet. “They are just a few things I can’t risk being destroyed, like pictures of my daughter. She lives far away now, you know.”
Andy was surprised by the flash of emotion that rushed through her at seeing a father talking about his daughter.
“Yes, Sir,” she said, walking up beside him and taking the bag. “It’s small enough, but you’ll have to hold it on your lap or between your feet. There’s no storage and no seats are going to be empty. Every seat gets a butt in it.”
That made him smile, which somehow made her feel good. She put the bag over her shoulder and then helped him to his feet. Once he was up and had his cane, he didn’t move as slowly as she expected and she got him out of the building and into the line for the transport.
“Is it really going to be as bad as they say?” he asked with his grey brows knitting.
“It might be, Sir,” she answered honestly. “That’s why we have to get you on board this transport to make sure you can see your daughter again.”
He smiled and patted her arm. “Yes, Ma’am. You get on now. Get the rest of those people out of there so they can live to see their families too.”
Andy returned the smile with a small one of her own. “That’s the plan, Sir.”
CHAPTER 9
BY THE TIME the ESS Nebula arrived and deposited the 15th ESS Marine Detachment on the planet, the majority of the north side of the city was in the temporary dwellings, on a transport vehicle, or standing in line about to get on one. There were still a few groups that needed to be moved out, but they had hustled over those hours and had most of them seen to.
Andy split off from evacuation duty to meet Captain Valentine. She resisted the urge to make any quips about the name and after a few minutes in his presence, she knew that
had been a good call.
He wasn’t much taller than she was, with a shock of ink black hair but pale hazel eyes that stood out from the mid-tone tan of his face. She outranked him, but the look in his eyes suggested he was tempted to ignore that; and she knew almost immediately that this man could be a bit of trouble.
“Major Dolan,” he said. She waited a moment to see if there would be any commentary, but he was professional enough to keep his words out of it.
“Captain Valentine,” she returned with a single nod. “Have your squads speak with Sergeant Roxanna about aiding in the evacuation while you and I talk strategy for the defense of the city.”
“The evacuation isn’t done yet, Sir?” he asked. The words were polite, but she picked up on that edge.
“If it was, do you think I would be ordering your squads to assist, Captain?” she returned sharply. “It nears completion and will be done even more quickly with your people, so get to it.” She didn’t say anything, just kept a level dark-eyed gaze on him with only the rare blink. He held her gaze for a few moments before realizing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with that.
With a curt nod, he stepped away to speak to one of his Marines before he came back to her.
“We’re not going to have a problem, are we, Captain Valentine?” Andy was going to tackle the problem before it had a chance to blow up, potentially at the worst possible time.
His first expression said he wanted to contradict her, but thought better of it because she had so clearly seen through him. He was the leader of a Marine detachment and was privy to certain information that the corps on the whole would not be. She had encountered this reaction in others who weren’t on the Star Chaser and recognized it instantly.
They knew that she was half-Arkana; she was part of the enemy. They doubted her. But they didn’t know her.
“No, Major,” he finally replied flatly.
She just stared into his gaze for a few moments before giving a curt nod of her own and gesturing him to the side, so they would be out of the way of any potential evacuation actions taking place around them. She didn’t have a great deal of faith that Valentine wouldn’t give her some kind of grief, but she was going to take his word for it for the moment. They had a job to do, after all, and they were Marines.
“The Star Runner is still on schedule, but that means it will still be another three hours until the 21st arrives to help us. That gives us three detachments with six squads each,” Andy said, stating the obvious first. “That is clearly not enough to surround the entire city perimeter, but we shouldn’t have to.”
She brought out the tablet that Theodora had given her and brought up the map of the city. “Since we know they can’t use their teleportation equipment from ship to surface, that means they will be coming down via ships.”
Valentine interrupted, although his tone was improved. “What if they try shooting their ship’s weapons at the surface?”
Andy shook her head. “They won’t. They won’t care for any of the population, of course, but they will care about the production buildings, as well as any supplies and the centers for the communications and satellites. They want this planet functioning. No, they are going to come down here and they are going to try to take it over.”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself,” he said quickly, then lifted his pale eyes and added, “Sir.”
“I am,” she said. “The Arkana have so far proven to follow logical paths. They have a goal and they are doing what is best to achieve it. What I’ve said aligns with that logic.” She leveled him with a look before continuing. “They are going to want to bring down as many soldiers as possible, and that means the areas where they can land ships is limited.” She pointed out two primary locations. There were some where a single ship could land, but only two spots where multiple vessels could touch down. There was nowhere in the city itself that wouldn’t damage either building or ship.
Andy was gambling they wouldn’t want to risk damaging the buildings, just in case it was something important to them.
“Once on the ground, they have to get into the city,” she went on. “They will try to get to the center where they can take over all the key points which will allow them to control the entire planet. Once they have their hands on communications, power, weather...once they have everything, they will have the planet and will be able to control the populace. So, we have to keep them from getting that far.”
Valentine pointed at the map on the tablet. “These buildings,” he said, looking up at the city before them for a moment before going on, “form walls and canyons.”
Andy nodded. “Something that we’ll be counting on. It will help limit their points of entry.” Those she outlined with her finger hovering over the top of the screen. “We can set our squads just outside and then partially into the city,” she said. “Trying to defend it entirely from outside the buildings won’t give enough cover, but we can use the buildings and roads to our advantage.”
She looked over the map one more time, her brain spinning.
“I think the southeast corner and the side due west will be their main focus,” she said. “It is both of these areas that have the clearest, straightest paths to the most important buildings. We’ll assign one detachment to each one, and then split the final one amongst the other potential entry points on the northeast side. I expect that’ll see more trouble if they try to come through them all at once, which is a possibility depending on how many soldiers their ships can put on the ground.”
Valentine rubbed the back of his neck, nodding slowly. “We’re making a lot of assumptions, Major.”
Andy was aware of that. “It’s the best we can do right now, Captain.”
CHAPTER 10
OF COURSE, they weren’t going to leave everything up to chance and assumptions. In the time they had before the arrival of their final reinforcements and the enemy, they would set up what secondary defenses they could.
They had to play a delicate balance between setting defenses and not destroying the city they were trying to protect. Some damage was inevitable, and they were all aware of that, but they were going to try their best to minimize it when possible. Until this moment, and indeed not for another few hours, this planet had not experienced the ravages of war.
Andy hoped they would be able to leave it as close to that as possible.
“Try putting it closer to the wall,” Andy suggested, pointing to where they were running a line along the bottom of a building and across the street. Unlike in a forest environment, concealing things was a little more difficult in a city but they were doing their best. Anallin kneeled at one end while Jade checked the other.
Given that the Arkana were known to be resistant to a lot of high tech weapons, they were going a little old-fashioned. The “live” element to it, which Jade—as the group’s tech specialist—was in charge of setting up, would set off a line of short spikes. A delaying tactic at best, but it was something. This road was one of the few that wouldn’t have a Marine squad sitting right on it, after all, but it also didn’t lead anywhere “important.”
“I’ve heard this planet grows guonga fruit,” Dan commented as he took another length of physical line and ran it along a stretch that Roxanna pointed out. “I wonder if that’s why the Arkana really want it. I mean, who can resist that guonga candy?”
“I can,” Anallin commented.
Dan turned his head to look at the Hanara with a dry expression. “Really? I mean, come on, you can’t eat or drink any of the good stuff. No guonga fruit, no chocolate, no coffee, no alcohol... What do you Hanarans do for fun?”
This was the sort of question that would make anyone listening in think that they hadn’t, in fact, been in the same squad together for as long as they had. The other three in the squad knew, however, that it was not the first time this discussion had been had. The intermittent clicks from Anallin’s eyes showed its acknowledgements of this fact, too.
“Do you really require me to tel
l you again?” Anallin asked, standing up and looking at Dan.
“We don’t have that much else to talk about?” Dan offered.
Everyone else chuckled, except Anallin of course. Not for lack of amusement, in theory, but simply because Hanarans did not express emotion in the same way as other species.
“I’m not telling you again,” Anallin finally said, which made everyone chuckle again as they continued their efforts. They finished one section and moved to another, setting up a trap involving the dispersion of a gas that would possibly render the Arkana unconscious, at least for a short period of time.
Figuring out what worked and what didn’t against the Arkana was an ongoing process of trial and error. They knew that the original genetic engineering of the Arkana had been based on humans, so that was a starting place, but they had apparently spent a lot of time genetically engineering themselves over the last couple centuries.
ESS engineers continued to work on improving their own energy weapons using captured energy weapons from the enemy, but in the meantime, old-fashioned projectiles were still the name of the game. Other things had been brought out of the weapons closet, so to speak, and tinkered with and experimented with.
One of the more effective was stun gas, as they called it. Unless the ESS people were wearing gear, it couldn’t be used on ships, though, because what affected the Arkana affected them as well. Now seemed like a good time to bring that weapon out.
“When do you think we’re going to get leave again?” Dan asked as they worked on the next section after Andy had checked in with her other squads, as well as Valentine. If there was one in her own group that was going to work to fill the silence, it was Dan. When she had met his mother—who still, despite even more recent attempts to convince her, refused to believe that Dan and Andy weren’t dating—Andy had understood where his “gift of gab” had come from.
Earth Space Service Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3 (ESS Space Marines Omnibus) Page 17