Chapter 2
Saw Tooth Gorge
Red Mountains
Northern Territories, Far Concordia
Arcadia – Wolf 359 III
“Let’s go. I want the
first column moving out in ten minutes.”
Kara’s voice was raw, determined.
She glared at her second in command, a cold determination behind her
sparkling blue eyes. “No arguments,
Ed. Ten minutes.”
Calvin opened his mouth to argue, but he closed it again
without speaking. “Whatever you say,
Kara,” he muttered grudgingly. He turned
and walked away, still limping from his injuries and waving his arms as he
shouted out commands along the way.
Kara watched him go.
She knew he didn’t agree with her decision, but he’d go along with
it…she was sure of that much. Even
Captain Mandrake thought she was jumping the gun. The Marine officer had agreed with Ed,
advising her to wait until more information was available. But she didn’t need to wait. She knew they were coming. She knew.
It had been just over an Arcadian month since Admiral
Garret’s fleet had burst into the system, driving away the enemy naval
contingent and landing a Marine expeditionary force on the planet. The navy also made contact with Kara’s
Arcadian army and resupplied her. They
replaced the planet’s destroyed satellite grid too, and for the first time, she
and her refugees understood why the enemy had never committed the strength to
wipe them out once and for all. They’d
been fighting another Marine force all along.
James Teller and his Marines had landed shortly after the
native army was driven deep into the Arcadian wilderness, and the enemy had
been compelled to pull forces from the pursuit to face the new threat. With the planet’s satellite network destroyed
and all ground-based communication severed, Kara and her soldiers were
completely cut off from their Marine allies, entirely unaware they weren’t
fighting their battle alone.
Teller’s Marines were massively outnumbered from the
beginning; they’d never had a real chance to liberate the planet. But they fought hard and held out, week after
week, just as Kara’s people were doing in the mountains. Teller was just about at the end of his
resources when the fleet blasted into the system and landed General Holm and
his old vets, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight.
The fleet was gone now, off pursuing the enemy naval forces,
but the ground troops remained. The
Marines were still heavily outnumbered, but now they had fresh reserves and a
complete resupply…and with it the ability to hold out for a while longer. Perhaps a long while.
For a month that is just what both forces had done. The enemy controlled Arcadia City and most of
the developed areas, but the Marines and the native forces remained in the
field…and as long as they did, the fight would go on. In the occupied cities, opposition was growing. Scattered acts of sabotage were morphing into
organized resistance movements, tying down ever larger numbers of the invaders
to maintain control of the areas they occupied.
Kara and her commanders had even been considering staging a breakout
from their positions, taking the fight to the enemy. Then the signal came.
It was brief, spotty.
A fleeting alarm from the warp gate scanner, lasting only a few seconds
before the thing stopped transmitting entirely.
Something had transited through the gate…that much was certain. But what?
Her people had argued ever since, and multiple theories were bouncing
around. Was it a malfunction? Could it be friendly ships
inbound…reinforcements? The arguments
went on all night, but Kara just sat silently.
She had no doubts. She knew it
was the enemy.
She let them argue all evening, but her mind was made
up. Enemy reinforcements were coming,
and when they landed, their adversaries would have overpowering strength. The waiting game was over…standing in place and
playing for time was a losing strategy.
In a few days the enemy would be here.
They’d destroy the satellite network Garret had left, cutting Kara’s
army off again from the Marines thousands of kilometers away. Then they would land fresh troops and hunt
down the Marines, her people, the nascent rebel movements…anyone left in arms
on Arcadia.
But if they wanted her world, she resolved that they would
have to take it from her. They would
have to follow her forces into hell itself.
The Army of Arcadia was moving out.
She’d considered attacking the troops masking her position, hitting them
before they were reinforced. It was a
tempting idea, but the mathematics hadn’t changed. Attacking across the gorge between the armies
was suicidal, at least without overwhelming superiority that neither side yet
possessed.
No, her people wouldn’t be moving south into the teeth of
the enemy. They would be marching north,
cutting across the planet’s brutal arctic region and out into the largely
unexplored wilderness beyond. If they
made it far enough, through the bitter cold and titanic storms of the arctic
and across the virtually uncharted areas beyond, they’d force the enemy to
divert massive forces to pursue them.
Eventually, they’d hunt her down, but she would buy time.
They thought she was crazy…all of them. The army would suffer enormous hardships on
so difficult a march. Calvin had argued
for caution. Mandrake agreed. The Marine captain’s platoon was
fully-armored, and his 50 men and women would be zipped up, protected from the
brutality of Arcadia’s savage arctic winter.
But the native forces had no powered armor. Her troops would march through waist-deep
snow and frigid temperatures. They would
traverse icy mountain passes and make their way across the frozen sea. At night they would huddle in their portable
shelters, absorbing whatever warmth their heaters and field generators could
produce.
She would lose people; she knew that. Dozens would die on the march…maybe
hundreds. But as long as she kept her
force in the field, the Arcadian cause would endure. And that was all that mattered. She wouldn’t let Will’s army die, no matter
what the cost…no matter how many of the dedicated men and women who formed its
ranks froze in the arctic wilderness or died under the guns of their
enemies. As long as the army itself survived,
the cause remained alive and, in a way, Will’s spirit did too.
“I’d kill for some decent ground defenses.” Elias Holm was pacing back and forth in his
makeshift HQ, his armored boots scraping along the gravely floor. There was a small table in the center of the
room, a shabby makeshift construction put together mostly from scrap
metal. It wasn’t very plush for the
office of the Commandant, but the Marine expeditionary force on Arcadia had to
make do with what it could get. Elias
Holm had led the largest forces the Corps ever deployed, tens of thousands of
crack Marines, supported by Admiral Garret’s massive fleets. But that was another time, one that felt very
long ago. Most of those veterans were
gone now, lost over the years as the Corps faced one savage battle after
another. Now Holm led less than 2,000
Marines, half of them battered and exhausted from weeks of fighting against overwhelming
odds and the rest a hastily-assembled force of retirees, called back to the
flag decades after their service had ended.
It wasn’t even a tithe of the strength he’d once had at his disposal,
just a tattered remnant of one of the greatest fighting forces mankind had ever
put into the field.
Holm hadn’t given it a second thought. He didn’t miss luxuries…he didn’t need a huge
headquarters or a cluster of aides following him around. He was on the front lines again, giving all
he had to a desperate battle. He felt
alive, in a way he hadn’t for a long time.
This is where a general should be, he thought…not behind some desk
echelons above the actual fighting. His
mind drifted back through the years, from one world to another…to the planet
Columbia, where Colonel Holm and his Marines had held that crucial world against
an overwhelming CAC invasion force so many years ago. It was a situation similar to the current
one, though he faced far longer odds now than he had then.
It was Columbia that earned Holm his stars, in a battle
where he first met then-Sergeant Erik Cain.
It was a desperate struggle, waged at the nadir of the Alliance’s
fortunes in the war…and the victory was the start of the turning point.
“We might as well just sit here and let them land.” Holm’s voice was grim, lifeless. “It’s not like we can do anything about it. Throw rocks maybe.”
“It’s not as bad as all that, Elias.” Sam Thomas was sitting on the end of the
table, looking up at Holm’s agitated expression. “We’ve got a good supply of the
handhelds. We’ll take out a decent
number of landers if they come down anywhere near our positions.” Thomas knew it wasn’t really the lack of
ground-to-air defenses bothering Holm.
It didn’t matter how many enemy landers they managed to shoot down. The Marine forces on Arcadia were hopelessly
outnumbered already…any enemy reinforcements
that made it to the surface were too many.
Holm glanced back at Thomas and felt a sudden pang of
guilt. He’d gone to Tranquility…he’d
rallied the old veterans and led them here.
Had he done it just to drag them to Arcadia to die? To prolong a pointless defense a month or two
and change nothing? Was that all their
lives were worth…all they’d earned after lifetimes of service? To die for a purpose was one thing, but to waste
your life for nothing?
“God damn, you’ve turned into a gloomy SOB, Elias.” Thomas slapped his armored hand down on the
metal table. He knew exactly what Holm
was thinking. He could read it in his
friend’s eyes. “Stop wallowing in guilt,
my old friend. Every man and woman who
came with us did so because they chose to …and I wager not one of them would
change his or her mind now. Not if a
million enemy troops land on this God forsaken planet.” Thomas sighed before he continued. “I’m older than you, Elias, but I never had
the weight on my shoulders you’ve borne these last ten years. I knew you had a bright future back in the
day, but you’ve gone beyond anything I imagined. You remember…when I talked you out of
resigning after that debacle on Persis?
But my God…Commandant!” Thomas’
eyes stared out of his open helmet, locking on Holm’s. “I’m damned proud of you, kid.” He paused a few seconds, his eyes focusing
briefly on the wisps of mostly-gray hair visible inside Holm’s helmet. “And you’re running out of people who can
call you ‘kid’ so enjoy it while you still can.”
Holm smiled. “You
better be careful. People hear you
talking like that you’re gonna lose your rep as a crusty old grouch.” Holm walked back to the desk and sat down,
looking back into the older man’s eyes as he did. “Thanks, Sam,” he added softly, following it
with a gentle nod.
Thomas returned the gesture.
“So,” he added after a few seconds of silence, “I guess we should get
back to how we’re going to deal with these uninvited guests. Don’t you think?”
Holm nodded and looked down at the large ‘pad sitting on the
desk. “Well…” – he paused as he stared
at the map – “…if I were them, I’d bring my main force down right here…”
It was time. Time for
the vengeance he had so long been denied.
At last, he would put an end to those meddlesome Marines. They had interfered with his plans for the
last time.
Gavin Stark sat quietly, looking at the hazy blue disk of
Arcadia displayed on his screen. In a
few minutes his forces would begin landing, reinforcing the troops already
deployed on the surface. His Shadow
Legions were the equal of the Marines, at least nearly so. They had the same training, equipment,
doctrine. Perhaps, he allowed, they were
missing something the Marines had, a spirit, a pride passed to them from those
who had come before. But they were close
enough, and their numbers would tell, making up for any minor quality gap. And they were his, conditioned to follow
orders without question, utterly loyal, from the lowliest private to the
highest-ranked general. Nothing like the
cantankerous Marines. And now his
soldiers would destroy those troublesome Marines on the surface…and Arcadia and
its resources would become part of Stark’s new empire.
His plans had been in the works for years. Indeed, he had intended to launch Shadow much
sooner, but he’d had to postpone things when the First Imperium burst into
human space and started a war. A war of
survival for mankind. He’d even
considered releasing the Shadow Legions at the nadir of that conflict and
sending them against the invaders. It
would have destroyed his plans for his own dominance, but his clone armies
would have done him no good if he was dead along with the rest of mankind at
the hands of the robotic enemy. But he’d
kept his resolve, betting that the brilliant Augustus Garret would manage a
victory somehow. And his bet paid
off. Garret did win the war…and at a
deliciously high cost. Not only was the
First Imperium out of the picture, but the Powers had all suffered crippling
losses in the fight. It would be all
that much easier to sweep away the opposition.
Mankind would enter a new age…and leave behind its
inefficient wars and the wasted productivity and needless destruction that came
with them. They would be unified,
together, moving forward in lockstep under the absolute rule of one man. Gavin Stark.
It had taken some fancy footwork to keep his secrets. His schemes required enormous financial
resources, and he’d met the need by turning the Alliance economy into one giant
illusion…a juggling act that was impossible to maintain indefinitely. It had taken no small part of his undeniable
genius to keep shuffling things around to maintain the secret…but he’d seen it
done. That charade would shatter any day
now, and it would cast the world into economic chaos, a useful side effect of
Project Shadow.
Yes, the First Imperium threatened his plans but, in the
end, the ancient aliens had done him a favor.
The price the Powers had paid to win their victory served him well. Stark had been worried about fighting the
Marines on a dozen key colony worlds, but the Corps had been so decimated in
the war they struggled to put significant forces on just two planets. And even on Arcadia and Armstrong their
forces were pathetic, inadequate. His
legions would sweep them away…and into the dustbin of history.
“Number One, Anderson-02 reporting.” The comlink pulled him from his
thoughts. He’d ordered his staff to
identify themselves by name and number in all communications. He’d been assured they would all develop on
their own paths after leaving the creche, as each faced a different set of
experiences. But he still found them to
be relentlessly alike, even the ones who’d been out the longest. The clones made dependable and capable
soldiers, but they all sounded the same to him, even ones from different
lines. The cadence of their speech was
the same, droning, with an unnatural monotone.
“Yes, what is it, general?”
“All systems are ready to go, sir. Request permission to begin the
landings.” Anderson-2 was the highest
ranking of all the clones, Anderson-1 having been expended in an earlier test. Stark had insisted from the beginning of the
project on using clones to fill his entire chain of command. He’d seen enough treachery – he’d encouraged
enough - to destroy his ability to trust any other officers. Rafael Samuels was the only non-clone in his
ground forces, and he was the one man in all of human space who could never
defect to the other side. Stark couldn’t
imagine what the Marines would do to the greatest traitor in their history if
he fell into their hands, but he knew the ex-Commandant had as much reason as
he did to want the Marines destroyed.
Samuels was a temporary tool, anyway, far too untrustworthy
to be allowed to survive the war. He
would serve his purpose, and then he would be eliminated. Gavin Stark did not leave loose ends.
“Permission granted, general.” Stark smiled grimly. “By all means, let us begin the final act.”
He imagined a similar scene over Armstrong. Erik Cain had managed to defend the Marine’s
home base, somehow fighting the first invasion force to a standstill. There was a stalemate there now, neither side
strong enough to launch an offensive against the other. But that was about to change. The reinforcements should be landing on
Armstrong any time now…and General Erik Cain would at last face his final
battle.
Stark tried to keep his mind clear and focused, but the
thought of Cain stirred a rage deep within him.
He hated the accursed Marine…detested him with a fiery passion only
another psychopath truly could understand.
No one had interfered with his plans more disastrously than Erik
Cain. No one except for Augustus
Garret. And it had been Cain who rescued
Garret from Stark’s clutches when the hated admiral had been his prisoner
during the rebellions.
The reserves he’d sent to Armstrong were more than enough to
overwhelm the battered Marines defending the planet, but Stark wasn’t taking
any chances. Erik Cain was a tactician
without equal, and the sooner he was gone the better. He’d hoped to be rid of Cain already, a shot
to the head or knife in the dark ridding him of his hated adversary. But Alex still hadn’t done the job he sent
her – twice – to do. Fucking bitch, he
thought, thinking bitterly of his former protégé. Alex Linden was breathtakingly beautiful, and
a sexual dynamo the likes of which he’d never experienced elsewhere. But that’s no excuse for letting her get to
you, he thought. He’d never allowed a
lay to get into his head…not until Alex.
He’d known he should have killed her when he had her captive…but instead
he gave her another chance and sent her back to Armstrong to assassinate Cain. It was a stupid, weak thing to do. Stark wasn’t one who normally gave second
chances, and it would be a long time before he gave another.
He would have the last laugh though. He wasn’t about to let her get away with
betraying him twice. He had another
assassin on Armstrong, one every bit as talented as sexy little Alex. He already had his orders. He wouldn’t falter as she had, distracted
with emotional baggage and confused feelings.
He would carry out his orders to the letter, coldly,
dispassionately. He would assassinate
Erik Cain. And then he would kill Alex
too.
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