Authors: Max Feinstein
“If we install a series of TLaRs in these specific areas,” multiple flashing dots appeared along the rim of the ridge
, “we should have most of our units covered.”
“I’ll get a squad from the 152st to take care of that.”
“They will need some support, just in case and as backup. Do we have any units in the area?”
Again, as soon as General Stelle’s mind thought about the units within that area the map zoomed out and a popup screen appeared at the edge of the map. Unit designations and icons appeared scattered around the map from their last known locations a written list of those units and their capabilities was displayed within the popup.
“I’ll never get used to this implant,” the General grumbled as he ran this hand through his hair, getting slightly frustrated with his lack of mental control on the neural chip in his brain. The younger officers that got them probably had everything squared tight within days, the general thought. His kind had no need for such devices. He was an old fashioned warrior and couldn’t for the life of him understand why the higher authority would order him to get the implant. What the General was never told, however, was that during Condition Red, the sensitivity of readers within a facility increased in order to help speed up the process of gathering information and issuing orders.
As he surveyed the map, another icon flashed to life just above the Kalka Mountain Ridge. While the other icons were greenish, this one was in fact a dark blue.
“That’s SOU Echo, from the 603
rd
Marine Special Operations Battalion. The Navy boys came down last week, before the
Fredriksburg
took off, to conduct mountain exercises. I completely forgot about them with all the fun we’ve been having.” Gustauf spoke quickly and turned towards the general with a small smile.
Without warning and to the surprise of everyone nearby, a soldier manning the nearness communications station turned towards the two commanding officers
, “you aren’t going to believe this sirs, but it’s Colonel Slaige of the 2-603 MSOR. He was planet-side overseeing Echo Team training. He’s requesting a sitrep and orders from FRONTCOM. Echo has been monitoring our TLDL transmissions and knows about Con Red.”
“Those
MarSpec boys must have a TL-35…figures,” the colonel stated with a roll of his eyes and a smile at the thought of them having better equipment than his own soldiers.
“I don’t care what they have, you tell them we got a mission for them.”
Vapor
expanded in all directions as the large CT-76 Buzzard transport slowed to a hover and slid sideways onto the snow covered outcropping at the edge of the mountain ridge. The transports thrusters, four in total, swung down and out to help maneuver the heavy craft into place. They wavered slightly from one direction to another as they fought against the heavy winds coming down the mountainside to keep the transport as stable as possible. The outcropping was too small and unstable to occupy a Buzzard transport craft so the pilots had to keep her in a hover only a few meters off the ground.
Both pilots were already aware of how difficult that job could be with the unpredictability of the wind gusts. They had almost lost their transport and her precious cargo on more than one occasion during this mission.
If it hadn’t been for the always present automatic recovery system they would have never made it to their final destination in one piece. The ARS constantly monitored the craft with a hands-off approach until it sensed that living pilots could no longer react or physically regain control of the transport, at which point it would simply take over and attempt to save the ship. Once recovered, the pilots could simply turn the system back to standby and keep it running in the background.
As the transport’s rear end swung over the outcropped and stabilized, two things quickly happened
in unison. Firstly two rectangular portals, one on each side of the craft, appeared to melt open and from each one a pair of soldiers leapt out. Each pair of these warriors had weapons at the ready and ran to predesignated position. 1
st
Lieutenant Charles ‘Jade’ Aldrish, Corporal Faiad ‘Mule’ Walid, Lance Corporal Martinez ‘Joker’ Liandro, and Lance Corporal Candan ‘Sweets’ Restok each crouched down at their destinations and proceeded to scan the entire horizon for signs of enemy activity.
Even before their armored bodies hit the snow covered rocks
a vertical impression formed along the rounded rear of the craft. It quickly grew deeper and wider just before the entire rear opened up in either direction, as the alloy structure dematerialized. Once the opening was large enough a ramp extended out and from this ramp jumped down two other soldiers, Gunnery Sergeant Katherine ‘Cat’ Questok and Sergeant Hovnik ‘Broke’ Zawelak, followed by a large cargo container. The container dropped almost a meter before slowing itself down and softly settling onto the snow covered ground.
Behind the drop container hurried
four army combat engineers, following the two heavily armed Marines that preceded the container. All of the marines seemed to carry themselves noticeably different than the engineers and even though one could not see their faces behind the helmets they wore, an aura of experience and confidence filled the air. One of these marines was different from the others, however. This particular marine commanded the full respect and loyalty of the others. He also had a small hatchet etched into the side of his combat helmet.
Lt. Colonel Duntan “Chief”
Slaige landed in the packed snow with a half crouch just behind the four combat engineers. He quickly moved out of the way and made room for the rest of his team to drop in behind him. With his sophisticated heads up display, Chief didn’t even have to look around to make sure Echo team was where they were supposed to be. Having done this many times before the entire team deployed throughout the immediate area without a single word from Captain Malory ‘Stripes’ Porter, their actual CO. She jumped down closely beside him and quickly moved off through the snow to oversee her team.
With the help of the
overlaid map of the outcropping being projected in from of his eyes, Duntan was able to monitor every member of the team. With just a quick thought he was able to change the entire HUD to display whatever he wished. Another thought and the map disappeared just as soon as he got the information he needed. As he expected from these elite troopers, everyone was where they should be, a testament to the fact that they had been doing this repetitive task for almost five hours now. At this point he had actually been with Echo Team for over two weeks, ever since choosing to participate with them in their mountain exercises. It had actually started off as a personal outing to get away from the rather mundane life as the Commanding Officer of 2
nd
Battalion, 603
rd
Marine Special Operations Regiment and now he was cut off from his entire Battalion by some sort of planetary communications blackout.
To Duntan Slaige, a man of over
thirty years within the Corp, this was just another challenge. He had learned long ago that one should not obsess over the things that could not be fully control controlled, but instead to focus on those that he could, such as the current mission at hand. Even seemingly routine missions such as this had tremendous purpose and posed certain risks in wartime conditions, such as they all found themselves in now. Every member of the team knew that without completion of this task, fighting whoever had attacked them would be almost impossible as the United Planets Federation military forces were spread throughout this continent of Telfor and relied on a solid communication network to function properly. Without communications, each unit was on their own and could no longer coordinate any defensive or offense operations. It was not to say that each unit was not a competent fighting force by themselves, but they were much more effective when cooperating with other support units such as artillery and air support.
The Colonel noted the difference between his Marine Corp and the UPF Army forces with a hint of smugness. Marines were a completely different breed of soldier and had been for centuries now. They all trained to fight on their own
from the start because their missions often found them cut off from any support for long periods of time. Every marine knew that they would be the first in and sometimes the last out and this reality afforded marines a sense of brassiness. Chief would never downplay the importance of the Army; it was just that the two services usually had different tactical objectives.
Thinking about the Marine Corp brought Duntan back to reality, a reality where there was a high probability that the UPF was now in an armed conflict with unknown forces.
He also thought about the other Marines that had been stationed in orbit, attached to the Frontiera Defense Fleet and wondered if any of them were still alive. Taking a slow breath inside his insulated helmet, he pushed those types of thoughts from his mind and focused back to the mission at hand. Standing there in the thick snow he continued to monitor Captain Porter as she coordinated Echo Team and the Army engineers they were escorting.
He
was proud of how she was handling herself during this tense situation. She already had two of the engineers standing beside the container entering a security unlock code to open it. Duntan knew the Captain well and had full confidence in her leadership ability; after all he had chosen her for the position over a year ago. He let her lead for the most part, only offering advice when need be. For moment there was no real need for him to take command of the unit.
Scanning the rest of the ridge he noticed
two other engineers off to the side prepping a piece of real estate on which the new Tactical Laser Data Relay system would sit. The TLaR, as it was referred to, was able to absorb tremendous amounts of data and relay them almost in real-time to other laser datalink receivers across the battlefield. While not a new technology it had been improved upon over the years to be a very effective backup system in case wireless data systems went offline, such as was the case now. The only limitation was that, as a laser, it worked only by line of site.
To help allevi
ate this limitation General Stelle had launched a squadron of drones fitted with full communications payloads. These would receive laser signals from all over Telfor and relay them to the closest units or relay stations. This was also why they were all now working on this mountain ridge, installing the relays at the highest point possible to make it easier for incoming signals to be received. The mission was already proving to be successful as the five relays they installed hours ago were already transmitting and receiving messages. The TLaR they were working on now would be the last and would help cover Destona, the capital city of the planet, and the land surrounding it; finally reestablishing some contact with the city.
Destona was a city of almost two million inhabitants, which made it the most populous area on the planet and in the event of war the civilians living there must be protected at all costs. It was the military’s job to defend the city by all possible means and in the event such was not possible, those civilians had to be evacuated.
The city was also home to the majority of military families living on planet. Since the unit rotations lasted a minimum of two years, most soldiers brought their families with them, making adjusting to the new living arrangement easier. This fact made Colonel Slaige cringe a little inside. The soldiers on the ground had enough to worry about in times of war without having to worry about the safety of their family as well. It would make some of them crazy and perhaps reckless when the realization of the situation set in.
The Colonel remembered when the policy changed for forward deployed soldiers. With many years having gone by without wars, the la
w makers felt it was alright for deployed soldiers on duty have their families join them if they so wished, it didn’t hurt to raise their popularity either. The decision for the individual soldier was a simple choice, however, much to the frustration of most commanding officers. The veterans knew what would happen if a conflict started and it was proving true at this instant, so many years later.
A large bright flash in the sky above drew the attention of Colonel Slaige and a few others who happened to be looking in that direction. Within seconds, however, every helmet on the outcropping looked up into the heavens just in time to see the light dim slowly and disappear. The colonel quickly
willed his suit to display an internal reference map, which automatically calculated and predicted what orbital objects were above them at this instant. Without access to the planet-wide military sensor network the suit’s computer could only give projections and not hard data, however, since most things in orbit rarely changed their position without warning, the guess was most likely closer to fact.
That fact was also the Chief’s suspicion and something he wished to be completely wrong about. The flash of light had seemed to occur from the same coordinates as the
NS Stanton
Orbital Naval Station. Had he not witnessed or been part of deaths before Duntan might have reacted differently, but the murder of two thousand or more souls only solidified his resolve and affirmed to all that they were indeed at war. Internally he pledged to avenge every single one of those who had died in space at that instant.
Duntan tightened one hand into a fist as he looked back down and over the soldiers under his command. He triggered a status ping from his suit and almost immediately a tight laser beam transmission shot out from a transmitter on his shoulder into the clouds to his west.
“Echo, Avenger One. Onboard sensors confirm large detonation in mid orbit within the vicinity of NS Stanton.” There was a pause from the pilot as he collected himself. “No other activity noted at this time. I suggest you boys hurry up, though.”
“Roger that Avenger One
. Thank you for the update. Keep us posted.” Duntan replied as his mind took in the name of the Dragonfire flight above them and thought it most appropriate for how he was feeling at the moment.
His people were already back to work, however, without any hesitation.
Duntan had no doubts whatsoever about his unit, but the combat engineers he had never worked with and therefore could not have gauged their reaction when they had their lives on the line. Their professionalism, however, had been instilled into them from the moment they had entered boot camp. The soldiers had been trained that the mission came first and everything else second, but one never really knew how they would react under the threat of real combat and the stresses brought upon them from the knowledge that their lives could be ended at any moment. These army combat engineers seemed be holding up just fine, though, with the TLaR out of the container and two of them were carefully maneuvering it into its proper location.
Having conducted this same procedure five times in a row, the engineers had gotten faster and faster at setting up the relay stations. This last one they managed to install in just over twenty minutes even in the harsh environment. The wind had picked up considerably since their arrival and even threatened to sweep some of the team members off the ridge and down the almost twenty kilometer tall mountain. Hazards were a way of life, however, for both the Marine Special Operations Unit as well as the Combat Engineers, and neither group was slowed or discouraged in their work. Too many people w
ere counting on them to complete this mission and they would all be damned if they let any of them down.
Just then one of the engineers turned towards the Colonel and held up thumbs up. “Almost online sir. We’re running through the last of the diagnostics and should start receiving the ACAV feed momentarily.”
Colonel Slaige nodded slowly towards the soldier and folded his hands across his armored chest, resting them on top of the fully retracted rifle that hung there in its own compartment, which was actually more like an indentation inside the armor plate. As the wind picked up once more, Duntan was glad he was fully enclosed inside the confines of his combat armor. The armor, which was actually more like a uniform because of its custom tight fit, was impenetrable to all elements and featured an internal environmental control system. The wearer could set any temperature and humidity they wanted and the suit would keep it as such. The combat armor itself could even manufacture its own air and water as long as the proper molecules were present in the surrounding atmosphere.