by James Rosone
“I thought so too. Right now, since it appears there may be some sentient life on New Eden, this is going to be a first contact diplomatic mission,” Miles explained. “My ship is your muscle in case things go south. If they don’t, then I’m to expand our footprint in the system and the nearby constellation to look for new worlds we can settle and any possible signs of life beyond what we’ve already seen on the planet. Since we’re going to be alone on New Eden, Space Command wants us to be able to defend ourselves while we get a more permanent outpost established and additional ships deployed to the region, provided we’re given a warm welcome by whoever’s currently there.”
Looking down at the tablet, Halsey found the distance to New Eden: twelve light-years away. It would take six months to arrive there with current FTL travel, and it was two months further away than Alpha Centauri.
“So when do we leave?” she asked coyly.
Miles smiled. “As soon as your ship is repaired.”
Chapter Nine
Lunar Assault
Lunar Orbit – Training Range X-Ray
Bravo Company, 2nd Delta Battalion
1st Special Forces Group
Standing on the flight deck of the RNS Voyager, Master Sergeant Brian Royce looked at the soldiers in his platoon. Half of them were green cherries, fresh from the schoolhouse. Hell, he remembered training them at Fort Benning. Now, they were preparing for their last training exercise before they shipped out.
One of the squad leaders walked up to him. “Master Sergeant, the men are ready.”
Royce looked at Staff Sergeant Perry. “All right, tell ’em to load up. Oh, and Perry—keep an eye on those new M90s. This is the first time we’ll be using them in a live-fire exercise.”
The M90 was the newest Special Forces weapon. It was a squad automatic weapon, or SAW. Instead of shooting projectiles like a railgun or a propellant-powered projectile like the older military weapons, the M90 was a blaster. It fired electrically charged blaster bolts at an incredible rate of speed. Each squad had a single soldier equipped with the rifle. If the Deltas liked using them and they proved to be effective, then Big Army would look to integrate them into all the Republic Army battalions to beef up the firepower of the ground forces.
Perry nodded and turned around to order his squad to load up. Once his squad started heading toward the Osprey, the rest of the platoon followed suit.
“Master Sergeant, I’m going to ride with Third and Fourth Squad,” called out Lieutenant Crocker.
“Sounds good, LT. See you down on the surface,” Master Sergeant Royce replied before following the last of the soldiers into the back of the Osprey.
Once he climbed in, the crew chief closed the door, allowing it to seal and pressurize the cabin. Sitting on the last seat next to the door, Royce attached the five-point harness to himself, pulling it tight, then looked at the others. They all appeared to be fastened in and ready.
A couple of minutes later, the Osprey started to get in position. It was being moved into one of the launch tubes near the front of the hangar deck and the ship. This process didn’t take too long, especially since the ship had been positioned near the launch tubes before being loaded with its human cargo.
As the ship was moved into place, Royce heard a series of clicking noises. Then the Osprey levitated inside the magnetic launch tube as it prepared to be shot out of the mothership.
“Prepare to launch,” came a voice inside their helmets from the pilot.
Master Sergeant Brian Royce craned his neck to the left and looked at the row of troopers. The tension inside the troop compartment was almost palpable. He fixed each trooper with his eyes and gave them a short nod, and they did the same, letting him know they were ready.
The lights inside the ship suddenly turned from an ambient white to a soft blue as the ship jerked.
“Launching!” announced the pilot, excitement in his voice.
Royce heard a loud swooshing noise as the shuttle was forcefully pushed out of the magnetic launch tube. The lights illuminating the runway whipped past them at an alarming rate. Seconds later, they were shot out of the Voyager and into the darkness of space. The artificial gravity of the mothership was gone in an instant, and the Deltas felt the weightlessness of zero g return. The pilots applied more power to the thrusters, angling the Osprey toward the lunar surface.
The tight turn and the increase in speed meant their bodies were now being slammed with seven g-forces. A few of the soldiers grunted audibly at the increased pressure on their bodies. Their mechanical combat suits kicked in, applying pressure to their legs and waist, pushing more blood up to their heart and their heads to keep them from passing out.
“Hang on, guys. We’re seven minutes out from the DZ. I’m going to angle us into a couple of canyons and craters to evade the base’s radar systems,” the pilot informed them.
The Osprey angled steeper for the lunar surface as it picked up in speed. The g-force monitor in the soldiers’ HUD was now showing nine g’s. A few jarring minutes later, the Osprey pulled up hard, leveling them out just a few meters above the surface. Then it popped up briefly before it dove down into a large crater. The ship did this a few more times as the pilot deftly maneuvered them, staying close to the surface. This type of nap-of-the-ground flying was what pilots lived for. It also caused some soldiers to vomit in their helmets if they weren’t prepared.
“Five minutes!” barked the pilot, tension and stress in his voice.
Royce used his neurolink to communicate with his platoon. Listen up, Deltas. The opposition for this training mission may be synthetics, but they’ve been programmed to fight and defend this position hard. They’ll be using blasters set to stun, so if you get hit, it’s going to hurt like hell, but it won’t kill you. This is about as real a scenario as we’re going to get. Don’t think of these defenders as Synths. Think of them as the Asian Alliance or some alien race.
Sensing their excitement rising in anticipation of what was about to happen, Royce reiterated their primary objectives.
The RASs will be hitting Objective Yellow twenty mikes after we drop. That means we’ll have minimal time to disable the point defense weapons. If we fail, their landing craft won’t make it to the surface. Once we take those guns out, we need to storm the command center below the surface next. Hooah!
Hooah, came the reply from his troopers.
He continued, I want First Squad to lay down suppressive fire while Second Squad bounds forward. The lieutenant and Third and Fourth Squads are on the other bird. They’ll flank to the left and right.
Staff Sergeant Perry will be in command of First and Second Squads once the action starts. I’ll be with Third Squad while the LT is with Fourth Squad.
Remember, use your magrails for the assault. When we reach the structure, switch to blasters. If I see one of you guys fire a magrail inside the facility, I’ll have you pulling guard duty in the Belt for the next year! Understood?
Hooah! came the reply.
“Three minutes!” shouted the pilot in their helmets.
The Osprey darted from one side to the other as the pilot did his best to evade simulated enemy ground fire from the surface. This would be their last real training exercise before the Voyager left for a completely new planet. Royce wanted to make the most of this exercise for his men.
The Deltas carrying out this initial assault were coming in from a different angle than the regular Army grunts. Their objective was simple: take out the lunar defenses and the command-and-control bunker so the main body of infantry soldiers could land and assault the base itself.
“Two minutes!”
Readying himself, Royce looked at his rifle, making sure he had it on the right settings. Magrail…
The M85 assault rifle was a real beauty. It was the standard infantry assault rifle of the regular Army and Special Forces. The rifle had three weapon capabilities built into a single frame. The first was the magnetic railgun, or magrail. It fired a standard 5.56mm project
ile with a three-hundred-round magazine. The magazine had a nifty counter on either side that let the soldiers know how many rounds they had left—an important thing to know in a gunfight. They primarily used the magrail setting when they wanted to shoot at something over a great distance or needed to punch through heavy armor or another solid defense.
The rifle also incorporated a newly miniaturized laser blaster. This was a new weapon that hadn’t been in military service for more than a few years when it had been integrated into this new assault rifle. The blaster had a powerpack that could provide two hundred shots before it needed to be swapped out with a new one, so it had some limitations. It also wasn’t very effective beyond a thousand meters. The Deltas typically carried three magazines each for the blaster and the magrail.
To top it off as the ultimate infantry combat assault rifle, the new system integrated a third weapon that fired a 20mm high-explosive smart munition. It was kind of like the older M203 and M320 40mm grenade launcher on the infantry rifles the military had used in the past. The 20mm grenade gun used a six-round magazine. The AI targeting computer on the rifle could preprogram the smart munition to explode on impact or as an airburst over a cluster of enemy soldiers. It was a truly badass weapon and beloved by the infantry and Special Forces alike.
The M85 truly was the ultimate multipurpose rifle for both planetary and space operations. When it had come out five years ago, it had quickly become the primary weapon of the Republic Army and the Delta battalions.
The Osprey leveled out in one of the shallow trenches on the moon as it slowed down. Then the rear hatch opened up to the blackness of space, allowing the Deltas to see out. The light inside the shuttle had shifted from a soft blue to a dull red.
Unlatching himself from the seat, Royce felt his body start to float momentarily. He activated the magnets in his boots, which instantly attached themselves to the floor of the bay. He waved for the others to do the same.
Royce walked toward the rear of the ramp, the metallic clicking from his boots the only noise in the cargo bay. Moments later, the rest of the platoon did likewise. If they didn’t use magnetized boots, they’d have a hard time trying to stay upright or move about in a coordinated manner in the cargo hold. The specially designed space boots allowed them to walk normally in zero g.
The crew chief for the Osprey stood near the ramp. When he saw they were lined up and ready, he sent a quick message to the pilots. The shuttle turned briefly and then rose in altitude. They were no longer skimming the surface. They’d risen just high enough to allow them to safely jump, given the speeds they were moving at.
Looking at his own map, Royce saw they were approaching the drop zone. He needed to get ready to go. Moving toward the edge of the ramp, he saw the lunar surface whipping past below them at a decent clip. Taking a deep breath, he took a couple of steps forward and jumped. His body, encased in his exoskeleton combat suit, began a rapid descent to the lunar surface not more than thirty meters from the ship.
In a matter of seconds, he was on the ground, landing in a controlled fall that would be impossible on Earth. His combat suit absorbed much of the impact. Once on the ground, he had his rifle at the low ready, barking out orders to his platoon to get a move on.
Looking toward where their objective was, he spotted a slight rise in the terrain, just like the recon photos had shown. He took off at a quick trot with his squads following behind him. It was hard to keep from bouncing on the lunar surface given the lower gravitational pull.
“Master Sergeant, I’m going to get our heavy weapons set up on that crest,” called out Staff Sergeant Perry.
Royce turned to look at the crest he was pointing to and nodded. “Good call. Get it done, Staff Sergeant.”
As Royce approached the rise in the terrain, his AI-assisted heads-up display, or HUD, began to compose a three-dimensional map and lay of the ground around and in front of him. It also populated with every person in his platoon. When he reached the rise in the terrain, he poked his head above it, allowing the HUD’s sensors to locate their objective and the enemy soldiers defending it.
Moments later, dozens of red marks appeared on the map, letting him know where the enemy soldiers were in relation to him and his soldiers. Through his neurolink, he started passing out assignments to his squad leaders, making sure they knew where the enemy was and how they needed to carry out their assault.
Within a few minutes of landing on the surface, his four squads had reached their assault positions. Staff Sergeant Perry had their heavy weapons set up and sighted in on the base. The crews had just sent him a quick note letting him know the .50-caliber magrail guns and the 20mm pulse beam blasters were ready to open up when Royce or the lieutenant gave the order.
Royce looked over to where the lieutenant was. Through their neurolink, he said, The platoon’s ready, sir.
Lieutenant Crocker, their platoon leader, was new to their platoon. He’d just transferred to their company a month ago, and this was his first live-fire training exercise with them.
Lead the way, Sergeant. Let’s do this, Lieutenant Crocker replied, clearly excited and ready to start.
All squads—attack now! Royce shouted over the neurolink, giving them all a good kick in the butt to move.
The platoon’s two heavy magrails and two heavy blaster guns opened up on the unsuspecting guard towers and perimeter of the base. The .50-caliber slugs tore right through the towers, ripping them to shreds. The blue flickers of light from the blasters hit the fortified bunkers and sentry positions with lightning speed and precision, blowing them to pieces. Royce had designed this part of the assault to be the distraction. The goal was to focus the enemy’s attention on his heavy guns while his other two squads advanced on the flanks.
With the covering fire initiated, Second Squad charged forward, bounding from one covered position to another as they carried out a direct frontal assault. This was again part of the distraction. Racing from one covered position to another, firing as they went, Second Squad kept the defenders firmly focused on them. Meanwhile, Sergeant Royce moved with Third Squad on the left flank while Lieutenant Crocker advanced with Fourth Squad on the right.
They bounced ever so slightly on the surface as they ran, with Royce doing his best to keep up with his squad. The younger Deltas were fully exploiting their youth and the abilities of their exoskeleton combat suits. As they approached the enemy’s exposed flank, Royce’s HUD spotted a Synth defender in a bunker, turning to shoot at them with one of the heavy weapons.
Seeing the threat before anyone else, Royce raised his rifle to engage it. The HUD placed a targeting reticle over the Synth, waiting for Royce to pull the trigger. The enemy Synth must have spotted his targeting laser because it ducked, probably moving to another position somewhere along the trench line.
Royce kept his rifle pointed in that general direction, letting the targeting radar on the helmet work to locate the Synth when he inevitably popped up again. A couple of seconds later, he was rewarded with a target to shoot. The Synth had popped up twenty meters further away with that same heavy-caliber weapon. Just as it was gearing up to fire on his guys, Royce’s targeting reticle turned green, letting him know his HUD had synced with his rifle and he had a lock. He squeezed the trigger a couple of times, sending several magrail projectiles at the Synth’s position. Seconds later, it was ripped apart by his slugs.
Planting his foot on the porous lunar surface, Royce pushed off hard, using the reduced gravity to hurl himself forward at a quick pace, closing the distance to the enemy lines. His squadmates were running with their rifles raised, using the AI-assisted HUD to help them neutralize the defenders as quickly as they could be identified. In moments, the squad had overrun the enemy positions and were inside their perimeter.
One of his soldiers ran toward the base of the enormous orbital defensive weapon and attached two large high-explosive charges to the side of it. The man set a detonator on the devices and then ran to join his comrades further aw
ay as they focused on fighting the reinforcements that continued to arrive from the hidden parts of the base.
A Synth defender surprised Royce and a couple of his squadmates by suddenly popping out of a fighting hole covered in loose dust and gravel from the moon’s surface. It managed to shoot two of his guys before they took it out. Royce scolded himself for letting two of his guys get taken out of the exercise like that.
I’ll have to look back at the video and figure out who missed that defender…
The squad leader on the right flank sent him a quick NL message, letting him know they had attached their own explosives to the orbital gun and were ready to detonate. Royce sent a fast reply to do it, then told his own squad to blow their charges as well.
Moments later, there was a bright flash as the charges went off. In that instant, both the orbital defensive weapons for the base were taken offline. Once the flash subsided, Royce looked up just in time to see several dozen landing craft descending rapidly on the base from orbit, right on time.
When the first wave of two hundred Republic Army soldiers landed, the newly arrived infantry went to work capturing the parts of the base that were above ground. Royce’s Delta platoon had moved in on the building that would lead them down to the subterranean levels of the facility, where the command-and-control bunker was located. As they prepared to breach, the second wave of infantry arrived, bringing with them several of their Mechs and a few tanks. The heavy weapons would make short work of the remaining enemy defenses.
Royce’s team had lined themselves up against the side of the building they needed to get inside. Once Royce saw they were ready, he signaled for them to breach.
A bright flash erupted along the edges of the airlock door, and then a violent depressurization occurred as the door blew out into space along with a couple of Synths and other contents from the room. They shot the Synths that flew out of the room, making sure they were neutralized.