LANCEJACK (The Union Series) (3 page)

2

Situation Enemy Forces

A
great deal had changed on New Earth. When I left the planet two years ago it
had been ravaged by war and plagued by pockets of Chinese resistance. The
infrastructure had been in ruins and the economy non-existent. The people were
unfriendly and blamed us as much as the Chinese for their suffering, but they had
relied upon the Union to keep them alive with rations, water and shelter.

The
people of New Earth were tough. They had lived for centuries on a planet where
the atmosphere could kill a man breathing unaided in under a minute. They were
well-educated, with a strong work ethic. Indeed New Earth was a leader in the
manufacture of high-tech electronic equipment and nanotechnology, which was why
the Union, Russia and China valued it so highly.

It
hadn’t taken them long to get back onto their feet. Within those two years the
planet infrastructure had been rebuilt, maglev railways reconnected, shuttle
ports resurfaced, farmland re-cultivated and power restored. Cities like Jersey
Island, which had been bombarded by battleships in orbit and fought for house-by-house,
had been returned to their former glory.

I
gaped in awe as I soared across the virtual New Earth landscape from the
comfort of the warren simulators. I flew past cities built entirely of marble-plated
concrete and others that glittered with a million panels of glass. Endless rows
of wind turbines turned lazily upon horizons chequered green by farmland; a
colour that dazzled the eye as it contrasted against the red surface, as did
the brilliant turquoise sky.

New
Earth was dead. Nothing could survive the poisonous atmosphere outside the
domes, and even crops were contained within rows upon rows of airtight
greenhouses. Some people had said that New Earth could be terraformed and
turned into a green world like Earth or Eden, but the idea had long been
discarded as an impossible dream. The planet was said to be completely hostile
to all forms of life. Yet still it was beautiful.

‘Wow,’
one of the new troopers exclaimed, though I couldn’t see him. To me it was as
though I were flying on my own in the sky, with the voices of the others in my
head.

‘Mad,
right?’ Another disembodied voice agreed. I recognised it as that of the
conscripted intelligence sergeant who had taken us into the simulators that
morning for our guided tour, ‘There are a total of 79 provinces on the surface
of New Earth, and each one is different to look at. For instance Jersey Island
favours traditional European buildings built out of local stone beneath glass
domes, whereas the Nieuwe Poort province - where you will mostly be operating -
has a real thing for marble plated concrete.’

As
we soared into the city of Nieuwe Poort I saw straight away that it was nothing
like Jersey Island. It looked as though it had been designed and built by a
single architect, an architect with a love for classical Roman buildings. Vast
marble plated pillars and massive white arches held glass domes and ceilings
high above our heads, to protect the inhabitants from the toxic New Earth
atmosphere. The buildings themselves were grand, with tens of steps running up
to entranceways large enough to fit a dropship. We sped along streets paved in
an assortment of patterns and colours, often with maglev rails running through
their middle. Sculptures and flower arrangements decorated the streets in an
explosion of colour that I had never seen on the red planet before. At the
city’s centre immense skyscrapers towered high into the sky, one of which
dwarfed the others and tapered to a needle sharp tip, looking down upon the
city like the turret of some massive castle.

Finally
we soared high into the sky to look back down upon the province from just below
the clouds. From our vantage point we could see how thinly spread the Union
forces were. Regimental headquarters were located in a town called Archer’s
Post, which was thirty kilometres from the provincial capital. The nearest
company base to Lash was well over a hundred kilometres away, and even the
conscript forces were few and far between. A planet like New Earth was far too
massive for one army to hold onto securely, no matter how large it was.

‘Nieuwe
Poort looks pretty,’ the sergeant said, ‘But don’t let it fool you. The
provincial capital is a major manufacturer of military equipment. The prettiest
buildings are often factories that extend deep underground. Over a quarter of
all the inhabitants are in some way connected to the defence industry, and it
is cities like this that are the reason behind the recent conflict between us
and China.’

New
Earth had been transformed over the years into an enormous factory, with the
sole purpose of producing weapons of war. The training grounds of Uralis
produced the troops for the Union, but New Earth built the kit - from the wafer-thin
wristpads (or datapads) we wore on our wrists - to the component parts of the
warships that looked down upon us from orbit. The red planet was considered
vital to any future military campaign against the enemies of the Union, and
Europe had many enemies, some of whom had empires that included tens of worlds
across the known galaxy. War was never far away in the colonial era.

‘NELA
sits in the perfect environment to wage an insurgency,’ the sergeant explained,
‘They have access to trillions of euros worth of military hardware - so long as
they can steal it - and they live on one of the most technologically advanced
planets in the known galaxy. If you thought we were hot on electronic warfare,
you need to see these boys at work.’

‘They
can hack into things?’ I asked.

‘Everything
and anything. The planetary network is so advanced and dynamic that we simply
can’t fully police it. They can do anything from switching off security cameras
and cutting communications, right through to knocking our unmanned aircraft out
of the sky. Apparently the Russians even had an attempt made at hacking into
one of their orbital weapons platforms.’

One
of the new troopers gasped quietly, ‘Shit the bed!’

I
agreed with the sentiment, that was quite a dangerous situation. An orbital
weapons platform was a satellite with enough firepower to flatten several grid
squares with a single salvo of depleted uranium. If NELA had succeeded, they
would have given the Russians a terrible headache.

‘Obviously
they failed,’ he reassured us, ‘The Union Navy is impossible to hack, even with
the most advanced supercomputers. Simply trying is impressive though.’

After
our tour, we were led into another briefing room where a drops intelligence
officer gave us an insight into the history of the escalating insurgency
situation on New Earth.

‘It
would seem that the increasing hostility between China, the Union and its Russian
allies has caused the civilian population to become increasingly unfriendly
toward ‘
Earthlings’.’
the officer explained.

One
of the recruits must have smiled at the word, because the officer smiled back
grimly, ‘You may find the term amusing, but on New Earth, that is what we are.
The dangerous situation we find ourselves in is that the people of New Earth no
longer think in terms of Chinese or European or Russian. To them it is simply
Earthling
,
or
New Earther.
Us and them.

Upon
our recapture of the planet we had discovered evidence of an insurgency that
had been fought against the Chinese by a group known as the New Earth
Liberation Army. But what alarmed us was that this group had been fighting in
both the Union and Chinese provinces, which meant that Chinese nationals were
fighting against their own country. NELA has not stopped its campaign, if
anything it has intensified its efforts, using the fallout of the war to
generate support from the population.

NELA
is not a Chinese terrorist organisation, nor is it European. It is a terrorist
organisation determined to bring about independence to New Earth using any
means necessary. The organisation has no global command structure, instead it
is composed of smaller regional groups that co-operate and co-ordinate their
actions toward a common goal. Rather than an army like the Chinese, NELA has no
head that we can simply cut off. It is about an idea, rather than a fixed
global strategy, and you must remember that these people believe in their cause
so passionately that many are prepared to throw their lives away for it. The
rebels are surprisingly well-equipped, with an impressive electronic warfare
capability, but their greatest strength and their greatest weakness is public
support. With the locals supporting their cause, NELA fighters can move
undetected and have unlimited resources. Without that support, however, they are
forced into hiding. This is a new war, gentlemen. It is a war for the hearts
and minds of the people of New Earth.’

Finishing
on that note, the officer looked down at a datapad and read out a briefing on
the enemies actions in Nieuwe Poort.

‘Situation
enemy, NELA, are believed to have infiltrated into the Nieuwe Poort province as
part of a wider campaign to spread their influence south. The enemy strength is
not known, however, they are thought to operate in small teams of four to eight
men who can rapidly come together to form larger platoons or even company
formations under a central hierarchy. Very little is known about that
hierarchy, other than that there is at least one and possibly several high
level commanders actually living in Nieuwe Poort city itself.

NELA
are believed to be well-equipped with a mixture of Chinese and Union equipment,
most of which had been left behind after the war. They may also be in
possession of equipment stolen from factories either in Nieuwe Poort or
elsewhere. We expect them to have anything from magnetic rifles up to smart
missiles and beyond.

NELAs
intent is to infiltrate and destabilise the region in order to make it
impossible for us to control. Once they have successfully infiltrated the area,
we expect a sudden and dramatic increase in enemy activity, similar to that
currently being experienced by the northern provinces, such as ambushes, raids
and electronic attacks.

Electronic
warfare is by far our enemies most effective weapon against us. The entire
planet has an interconnected network of staggering complexity, and he knows his
way around that network like the back of his hand. Control of the network allows
NELA fighters to move around freely without being detected, and in the worst of
cases it has allowed them to turn our own equipment upon us. I think you will
agree, that is not a good position for anybody to be in.’

Whilst
the officer continued with his sobering brief I shook my head sadly. The people
of New Earth had seen so much war, surely they would have had enough of it?
They were free from the Chinese, so why did they still want more fighting, more
bloodshed? It was said that the soil of New Earth was red with the blood all
the thousands that had died there. Perhaps it was about to receive a fresh
coat.

#

I
met Westy later that day in the warren gymnasium. Shared by drop troopers,
conscripted soldiers and dropship crew alike, it was busy despite being one of
the largest underground gymnasiums that I had ever been in; at least two
hundred metres across.

We
found our own corner out of the way, and I listened whilst Westy explained his new
workout as if it was the best routine ever invented. He was as muscular as
ever, despite his less than average height, and I could see that he lived for
the gym when he wasn’t at work.

‘You’ve
filled out since I last saw you, mate,’ Westy said when I stripped down to my
shorts and vest, ‘You were skinny as a lamp post before!’

‘I’ve
been doing a bit of stuff in the gym now and then,’ I lied. I had actually been
smashing myself ever since my Junior Leaders course, training myself to be the
fittest NCO that I could be. I didn’t want Westy to know that, just in case he
showed me up!

Westy
smiled knowingly, ‘Well, then,’ he said, ‘Let’s see what you’re made of then,
eh? Try this one…’

For
a whole hour Westy took me through his workout routine and my God it was hard.
No
wonder he had got so big
, I thought, because the man sure knew how to
thrash himself on the weights. Nevertheless I managed to complete every
exercise he did, only not always with the same weight!

To
finish the workout off we went onto the gym mats and practiced mixed martial
arts, and after twenty gruelling minutes using the pads and punch bags, Westy
finally nodded his head respectfully.

‘You’re
pretty good, mate,’ he puffed, ‘You should join the company team.’

‘I
thought it would be good for my cardio,’ I told him a half- truth. Sure, it had
been, but that wasn’t the real reason for me spending almost every night
practicing on the pads during my voyage back to New Earth. The last time I had
been there I had been tormented by the senior privates of my platoon. I wasn’t
going to allow it to happen again.

‘Well,
you’ve certainly learned how to handle yourself, mate,’ he said, wiping sweat
from his brow. We were both soaked. ‘Old Woody wouldn’t want to mess with you
now, would he?’

I
felt my cheeks redden as I sensed that Westy had seen through my lies. I hated
Woody, and I would have loved to see him again so that I could put him in his
place. Unfortunately he had left the service, as had many drop troopers who had
survived the invasion. For the sane amongst us, one war was enough.