Since I know a lot of my readers are vets, I thought I'd post a second chapter of CW9 today. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Admiral’s Workroom
AS Pershing
Orbiting Columbia, Eta Cassiopeiae II
Augustus Garret sat at his desk, staring across at General
Catherine Gilson, acting Commandant of the Alliance Marine Corps. It had been more than half a year, but it was
still a shock to look at that chair and not see Elias Holm sitting there. Garret and Holm had forged a highly effective
partnership over their years in command of the respective services, and a close
friendship as well. Now Holm was gone,
another friend and comrade lost to the endless wars that seemed to plague man
wherever he went.
Garret had seen so many killed in his years of battle there
was nothing left inside but an aching numbness.
He’d witnessed more death and suffering than any man was intended to
endure, but duty owned his soul, and it commanded him ever onward, wherever the
call of battle echoed out to him.
The struggle against Gavin Stark’s Shadow Legions was his
fourth war. He’d been blooded in the
Second Frontier War, and he’d gotten his first taste of true sacrifice in that
conflict. He’d survived that struggle,
and the pain and loss it had caused him, to become a hero leading the massively
expanded fleets of the Third Frontier War.
But it wasn’t until the First Imperium War that he became a true legend,
the most feared and celebrated warrior in human space, and perhaps in all
history itself.
His list of victories had grown, one great battle after
another won, but no triumph, no matter how swift or complete, ever seemed to
achieve peace. Now he was at war again,
not facing the robotic legions of long-dead aliens, but against a human
monster, a psychopathic genius bent on total domination of mankind. It never ended, he thought grimly, the
constant sacrifice, the endless bloodshed.
Now he would lead his people into the fight again, but would victory
this time bring a lasting peace or just more suffering and death?
Gilson was fidgeting nervously, clearly uncomfortable to be
sitting on the fleet flagship while her Marines were preparing to hit the
ground. Indeed, she had fully intended
to go down with the first wave, ignoring all objections from her officers. Finally, Garret had prevailed on her that her
duty was to coordinate the entire attack, not to get herself killed in some
pointless gesture. She owed it to her
Marines, he had said. She owed it to
them to stay alive and give them the leadership they needed to win and survive
this new battle.
Gilson had been ready to argue, but she, like the rest of
her fellow officers, considered Garret to be the overall Alliance commander,
though officially he only led the navy.
Unable to ignore Garret’s wishes, she reluctantly agreed to manage the
invasion from the flagship. Augustus
Garret was famous throughout occupied space, the man who had stopped the First
Imperium and saved mankind from total destruction. Elias Holm, Erik Cain – and Gilson herself –
had all won their own share of fame and glory in that terrible conflict, but
Fleet Admiral Garret had received the largest share of acclaim, even from his
own peers, though he wanted none of it.
Garret hated the hero worship, the senseless acclaim he
received wherever he went. His own
people were the worst offenders, and he’d come to dread that starry eyed look
they gave him, the awestruck silence in the ranks as he passed by. He’d long ago lost his taste for glory, far
too familiar with its often heartrending price.
The victory against the First Imperium had saved humanity, but it had
cost Garret his soul. In his own mind he
wasn’t a hero; he was a butcher, leading thousands to their deaths and
worse. The fact that those sacrifices
were necessary, that they had saved millions, was enough reason to do what he
had done, but not to forgive himself for the cost. He’d sacrificed friendship, even love, to
achieve his victories, and the taste was bitter in his mouth.
He’d never forgive himself for what he had done in that
final battle on the frontier, how he’d left his best friend and 40,000 Marines
and naval personnel behind, trapped at the mercy of a massive fleet of First
Imperium vessels. His friends and
comrades had told him again and again he’d had no choice, and Garret himself
knew that was true. But no one else
seemed to understand it just didn’t matter.
Some acts were so horrifying, so soul-killing, no amount of
justification could make a difference.
Some things you did killed the part of you that made you human.
“The first waves will be launching in three minutes.” Ali Khaled sat next to Gilson. The former Caliphate commander, now a
fugitive from his nation along with all his men, sat next to Gilson, staring at
a bank of monitors along the wall. Some
showed live shots of the activities in the assault bays, while others displayed
lists of stats and projected launch times.
“Yes.” Gilson nodded,
her own eyes fixed on the monitors.
“General Heath is in command of the lead elements.” Then-Colonel Heath had served well on
Arcadia, when Gilson’s forces returned from the frontier and reinforced the
battered Marines James Teller and Elias Holm had led to the aid of the locals. She’d given him his star for it, and now he
was commanding the advance elements of the invasion force, proof she thought
grimly, that no good deed goes unpunished.
Heath’s people would be landing in the teeth of the enemy defenses, and
they’d be outnumbered and under constant fire as they clawed to carve a
foothold for the rest of the forces to land.
James Teller would have been her first choice to command the
vanguard, but he was off with Erik Cain, hunting down Gavin Stark. Teller was Cain’s protégé, much as Cain had
been Holm’s. When Erik decided to hunt
down Gavin Stark, Teller had followed him without a second thought. She had both men’s stars in her desk, waiting
for them to return and claim them. She’d
wished more than once that they were with her, helping to lead the Corps into
this new fight, but she understood why they had made the choices they had. And, if they were successful in finding and
killing Stark, perhaps they would do more to end this war than the entire
strike force about to invade Columbia.
Maybe they could wear those stars again in peacetime, helping her
rebuild the shattered Corps.
Nevertheless, Gilson had tried to convince Cain to stay, and
Garret had thrown his own efforts behind hers.
But Erik Cain was as stubborn as any human being who’d ever lived, and
he respectfully declined both their entreaties.
Killing Stark was not only vengeance for General Holm, he’d declared,
but the best way to defeat the Shadow Legions.
Stark had been their enemy for years, secretly plotting against them
before he declared openly and launched his Shadow Legions to conquer occupied
space. He’d been a cancer consuming the
body of the navy and the Corps, even as they struggled against the robot
legions of the First Imperium. Stark had
worked against them as far back as the Third Frontier War and the rebellions,
engineering Rafael Samuels’ treachery that had almost destroyed the Corps.
Lop the head off, Cain had said simply, and the body will
die. There could be no peace while Stark
lived. He was too capable, too
intelligent – too evil. He would never
stop, and no victory could be final while he still lived.
Garret and Gilson had argued, but they both knew Cain was
right. If he and Teller succeeded, if
they found and killed Gavin Stark, maybe this war could be stopped before the
last veterans of the Corps and their Janissary allies were gone. Thousands were already dead, lost in the
endless, brutal battles. Perhaps Cain’s
pursuit of vengeance could save the few who remained, and the Corps itself with
them.
The three officers stared at the monitors, waiting for the
launches to begin. There was an eerie
quiet in the room, an absence that each of them felt keenly. They all knew Elias Holm was dead, of course,
yet it seemed every time one of them turned around, they expected to see him
standing there, calmly directing the invasion force. It had been six months, but the loss was
still fresh, a wound that wouldn’t heal.
Gilson’s emotions were volatile. Despite her understanding of his motives and
the potential rewards of his success, she was angry at Cain for leaving her to
fill Holm’s shoes by herself. Worse, she
envied him. She wanted to hunt Stark
down herself, to kill the psychopathic bastard with her own hands. Her feelings had been confusing at first,
threatening to tear her apart, but she’d made peace with the whole thing. Cain was the right one to pursue Stark. She had been close to Holm, a loyal officer
and a comrade through decades of brutal fighting, but Erik Cain had been like a
son to the fallen Commandant. It was his
right to go after Stark, even more than hers, and she’d come to realize and
accept that.
Besides, Cain was the right man for the job. The grim Marine had a dark side, a coldness
and a relentless determination Gilson knew she couldn’t match. Cain would follow every lead, and he would do
whatever had to be done to track his prey.
Whatever had to be done - those were dangerous words, ones she wasn’t
sure she could back up with the brutal ferocity she knew Cain would.
“Admiral Garret, General Heath requests permission to
commence his launch, sir.” Tara Rourke’s
voice was clear and confident on the comlink.
She’d been Garret’s flag tactical officer for several years now, and
he’d declared more than once that she was the best junior officer who’d ever
served under him.
Garret glanced across the desk at Gilson. “It’s your order, General.” He flipped a button. “Your link is live.”
Gilson nodded softly.
“Attention all Marines, this is General Catherine Gilson.” The Marines had liberated a number of smaller
worlds over the past six months, but this was the first major planetary assault
since Arcadia and Armstrong, and she could feel the tension in her gut. “You are about to liberate one of the oldest
and most populated colony worlds in human-occupied space, a planet that has
seen more than its share of war and destruction in its century of human
habitation.” She hoped it was still one
of the most populated. The enemy had
been there for 18 months, and the Columbians were well-known for their
willingness to resist, whatever the cost.
She was deathly afraid they had paid that cost in blood.
“As always, you have my utmost confidence. You are battered and tired. We have all suffered terrible losses and
grief. You have fought without rest,
struggled from one end of human space to the other and even into the First
Imperium itself. No men and women could
be expected to do what you have done, let alone more. But you are Marines first, and men and women
second. In the final accounting, that is
all that matters. Marines are always
ready to do the job, to fight whatever battles must be fought.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “And there are struggles yet to be won.”
She hesitated, pushing back the tears she could feel welling
up in her eyes. “I know that General
Holm would be proud to see you all today, ready to fight another battle for
freedom. Know as you go forward into the
fight once again that he is with you, as he will be forever. You are the Marines he helped to make you,
and I know you will live up to that standard.”
She glanced over at Khaled.
“In this fight, as in our last one, we have allies, men who once fought
against us, but now stand at our sides as friends. They are honorable warriors who march to the
fire alongside us, and they have earned our trust and our respect. We are grateful for their aid and proud to
fight at their sides.”
She swallowed hard and sucked in another breath. “Go now, and fight with the valor all have
come to expect from you. Go and free our
people on Columbia and destroy the Shadow Legion invaders. Show the enemy just what Marines can do. Forward, to victory.” She cut the line and turned toward Garret and
nodded. “Commence the landing.”
All around Columbia, men and women sprang into action at
Gilson’s order. Transports fired their
thrusters, moving into low orbits, positioning themselves to launch their
Marine and Janissary contingents into Columbia’s upper atmosphere. Escort ships maneuvered to cover their
movements, providing protection and close support. Farther out, the battlefleets and logistical
trains were moved into position.
Columbia was surrounded by almost all the military might
Garret and Gilson could muster. The
combined fleet was divided into three task forces plus the former Caliphate
ships under Admiral Abbas. It was an
awesome display of naval power, and Garret was practically daring Stark to come
out of hiding with his fleet and offer battle.
Taskforce One was commanded by Elizabeth Arlington, and it
was in close orbit, protecting the transport armada. The troopships themselves were in a long line,
ready to begin launching dropships into the upper atmosphere. The Marines and Janissaries onboard were
suited up and loaded onto their landing craft, waiting for the final
order. Arlington’s warships were in high
orbit, covering the transports from any enemy that might slip past the heavier
fleet units on station farther out.
Taskforce Two, under Admiral Michael Jacobs, had been the
first units to approach the planet.
They’d conducted a pre-invasion bombardment, blasting any enemy
positions they could identify and target without undue danger to civilian
populations. Jacob’s ships were on the
move now, half pulling away from the planet to rearm, the rest taking position
to provide support to the Marines on the ground.
Taskforce Three, under Camille Harmon, was the largest, with
most of the heavy capital ships.
Harmon’s force was organized for one mission, and one mission only, to
blast the hell out of any enemy ships that tried to interfere with the invasion
force. Her units were posted about three
light minutes from the planet, along with Abbas’ Caliphate ships. They hadn’t detected any enemy naval
presence, but they were on full alert anyway.
Garret and Harmon were aware of Stark’s unpredictability, and they
weren’t taking any chances. Harmon had
scoutships patrolling the entire system, and her combat elements were ready to
destroy any naval force than entered the system without authorization.
Garret stared at his screen, though he’d committed every
detail of the fleet and operation to memory.
He knew every ship under his command, and its position and its
orders. His people were ready for
whatever had to be done, and Gilson’s as well.
That wasn’t what worried him. But
the supply situation was becoming dire.
He was watching numbers scroll slowly across the screen, and his frown
deepened.
Provisioning Gilson’s Marines for the invasion had almost
depleted the fleet’s stores, and many of his own ships carried half-loads of
missiles and other ordnance. He’d tried
to contact the high command on Earth a dozen times, but he’d been unable to get
through. There were no shipments of
supplies coming through, no orders, no news.
He’d tried to focus on the crises at hand, but now he was really
worried.
What was happening on Earth?
“Good luck, Marines!”
Captain Harlow’s voice echoed loudly in the helmets of the Marines of A
and B companies of the 3rd Battalion.
They were the leading edge of the first wave, the first 350 men and
women scheduled to hit the ground on Columbia.
The tradition of the ship’s captain wishing the strike force
luck had come down from the earliest days of the spaceborne Corps, and it had
endured through three Frontier Wars, the struggle against the First Imperium,
and now the battle to defeat Gavin Stark’s Shadow Legions.
Lieutenant Callahan gritted his teeth. He knew the captain’s address was the final
thing he’d hear before the catapults fired and launched the heavy Liggett
10-man landers out into the edge of space above Columbia. Callahan was a veteran who’d fought in the
rebellions as a private and the First Imperium War as a non-com. He’d received a battlefield promotion during
the fighting on Armstrong, a reward bestowed on him by none other than the
legendary Erik Cain himself.
He exhaled hard as the magnetic cannon accelerated his
lander down the rails and through the open outer doors. His armor absorbed some of the g-forces, but
he was still slammed back hard inside his suit, losing his breath for a few
seconds before he adjusted. It was the
same with every assault landing, but it was something you never got completely
used to, no matter how many drops you made.
Callahan had no illusions about what he and his people faced
down on Columbia’s surface. They were
all veterans, and they would do what had to be done. But the honor of leading the advance guard
carried a heavy price. He knew
casualties would be high, very high. And
if the first Marines down failed to secure a perimeter, they could all be
overwhelmed before the fleet could send down enough units to strengthen the
landing zone. If the invasion of
Columbia failed, if the enemy put up too strong of a defense and General Gilson
called off the rest of the landings, Callahan knew his people would all be
KIA. He knew that because he was damned
sure none of them would surrender.
Callahan glanced at his display, watching the five landers
carrying his platoon descend into Columbia’s atmosphere. The formation looked good, and they seemed to
be right on schedule. If everything went
according to plan, they’d be on the ground and in action in less than ten
minutes.
He felt the lander bounce hard to one side, as it tore
through the thickening air. The Liggett
landing craft was an improvement on the old Gordons, carrying ten armored
Marines and a large cargo of ammunition and equipment. With four heavy duty laser turrets and enough
ordnance to keep a squad supplied for hours, the Liggett was designed to land
right in the teeth of an enemy position, blasting away in close support as its
squad jumped right into battle.
“Projected landing in six minutes.” The voice was female, calm and pleasant,
typical for a fleet AI. Callahan knew
everyone in the first wave had gotten the same announcement. He took a deep breath, preparing himself once
again for battle. He knew his people
were ready, that all the Corps was prepared to do what had to be done. His heart had swelled with pride when General
Gilson addressed them, when she had invoked the name of Elias Holm. The Commandant had been beloved by every
Marine in the Corps, and Callahan and his people were ready to lash out at the
enemy that had taken their leader from them.
The Corps would fight on Columbia with its usual tenacity and
professionalism, but there would be something else here too, a ferocity driven
by their pain of loss. The Marines was
here to do battle for Elias Holm, and God help any who stood in their way.
“Four minutes until projected landing. All Marines, complete final diagnostic check
on weapons system.”
Callahan’s visor plate opened, and he could see the bright
blue sky above Columbia. He was held
rigidly in place, but he managed to glance down toward the ground as he checked
his weapons. There was water below,
nothing but a seemingly endless sea stretching as far as he could see. He knew his people were still thousands of
kilometers from the inhabited areas of the planet, tearing through the
atmosphere at 40,000 kph heading for the LZ just outside the capital city of
Weston.
He could feel the lander’s maneuvering thrusters kick in,
and the small craft begin to zigzag wildly.
They were entering the inner defensive perimeter, and the Liggett’s AI
was conducting evasive maneuvers, trying to avoid the incoming AA fire. He could see the laser turrets whipping
around, and he caught the barely perceptible flash of one of them firing. He knew that had probably been a
surface-to-air missile heading for his lander and, in the back of his mind, he
suspected that laser blast had saved his life.
His and those of the other nine Marines bolted in next to him.
There was land below the Liggett now, and he could see they
were much closer to the ground. He could
make out terrain features ahead, and he tried to match them with the maps he
studied in the pre-mission briefing.
“Two minutes to landing.”
His own com unit activated, allowing him to contact the men
and women of his platoon. He was about to
speak when he saw a bright flash off to the extreme right. His eyes snapped back to his display, and he
felt his stomach in his throat. There
were only four Liggett’s displayed.
Lander 4 was gone. Just gone.
The shock of battle hit him hard. He’d understood they were going back into the
fight, but it never seemed real until somebody got hit. Now it was official. They were back in the shit.
“Alright, Marines.
Stay focused. We’ve got a job to
do.” But all he could think about was
the crew of ship four. Hiller, Haggerty,
Ash – Ash had saved his life on Armstrong.
Now they were all gone.
“Thirty seconds to landing.”
The AI snapped him back to the present. He had a job to do, and that came first,
before everything. Ten of his people
were dead, but the rest were counting on him.
It was time to make these sons of bitches pay. And now the men and women of A Company had
one more reason to waste these motherfuckers.
He felt the Liggett’s braking rockets fire and then the
slow, sickening drop as the lander floated down the last 30 meters, settling
hard in the soft ground. There was fire
ripping all around them, the enemy already moving on the LZ determined to pinch
it out before a second wave could get down.
“Let’s go!” he shouted into the com, leaping from the lander
and whipping around his assault rifle.
“Company A…attack!”
The Marines were back on Columbia.
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