Authors: Evan Currie
“Outer hull is cooling to within tolerances, Captain.”
Alexi nodded, “very well. Lower the heat shields.”
“Aye Sir. Heat shields retracting.”
One by one the blank telemetry screens lit up, resetting as they were forced to recalibrate for the new information being fed from the previously shielded arrays. Alexi’s eyes were glued to his repeater screens, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that all the ships of the Column were still with him.
“Captain, transmission incoming on the military spread frequency channels,” Commander Ashley spoke up from his side of the bridge.
“Put it through.”
“Aye Sir.”
There was a brief instance of noise as the channel opened, then a woman’s voice was cleanly broadcast over the comm.
“- a Aida, calling Sol Fleet. Please acknowledge, Over.”
There was a pause, then Ashley spoke up, “It’s on repeat. Message starting over.”
“This is Sergeant Sorilla Aida, calling Sol Fleet. Please acknowledge, Over.”
Alexi keyed open the channel, “This is Captain Alexi Petronov, USV Socrates. Go ahead, Sergeant.”
“USV? No offense, Captain, but I was hoping to speak with a military officer.”
“The military portion of our task force is currently dealing with our visitors, unwelcome though they are.” Alexi said, “I am in command of the relief column.”
“I see,” Sorilla replied, “very well. I’m pleased to report that, barring a backup installation, you shouldn’t have to worry about the Hayden gravity valve. It’s been blown halfway back to Sol.”
Alexi smiled, relieved, “I’m very pleased to hear that, though I suspect that some of our scientists will be disappointed.”
“Yeah well, they can kiss my…” She paused, “They’ll have to do with the armor recordings I made of the facility. At any rate, you should be clear to dismount supplies on this end at least. The colonists are preparing to receive you at the following coordinates…”
“We have their position, Sergeant.” Alexi told her, “It was on the satellite we pulled data from before entry.”
“Alright. Good.”
Alexi frowned, hearing the fatigue in the woman’s voice. “I believe orders are being delivered for you, Sergeant. They’ll arrive with the relief supplies.”
“Right.” She sighed audibly, “I’ll meet them as I can. Aida Out.”
The channel went silent and Alexi pondered it for a moment before shrugging and returning his focus to the task at hand.
“Very well, the good Sergeant has cleared the road, let’s see our deliveries through then, shall we?” He said mildly, getting everyone’s attention. They stiffened immediately and began chattering over their comms, Alexi smiled at the sight. He knew that he didn’t have to give any orders there, his people knew their jobs.
That said, there were a few little things he could deal with.
“Miss Evans?”
Sheila Evans, the life sciences officer looked, surprised. “Sir?”
“I believe that Hayden is noted for its spectacularly clean air, no?” He asked mildly.
“Uh, yes sir.”
“Excellent, then let us vent this smoke, shall we?” He smiled at her.
“Yes Sir.” She nodded, tapping orders into her own board.
Air exchange wasn’t strictly necessary, but when it was possible it was done with alacrity. Long term exposure to recycled air was unpleasant, particularly when you did EVA work and breathed the pure stuff and had to come back aboard.
There were half a hundred other, similar, small items that had to be cleared through him before they could be done so Alexi turned to that while he waited for his people to finish with the larger and more important tasks.
“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Relief supplies are ready to launch.”
“Excellent, inform them that they may launch when ready. Please coordinate with the other ships, however.”
“Aye Sir.”
*****
Former Colony Plateau
Hayden
Sorrilla sighed as she popped her helm and let the clamshell hit the ground by her side, eyes focused up on the blazing streaks of fire cutting through the skies above. The relief column was shockingly low, and still moving fast. She was surprised that they’d risked flying in that low, actually, they weren’t even in low orbit now. By her eye they’d come under fifty thousand meters and were plowing through the air fast enough to ignite the higher hydrogen mixture at that altitude.
Not hot enough to threaten their sensitive gear, obviously, but they made an awe inspiring site as they blew over head like shooting stars flying in formation. Whoever was in charge was something of a lunatic, though she supposed having the Valve take a potshot or two at them had made him willing to take a few risks.
As she watched she could see objects launching off from them, dropping speed fast and maneuvering for the edge of the continent. The relief supplies, reinforcements hopefully, and whatever else Earth had seen fit to send along.
She sat there on the edge of the plateau, the dark jungle laid out below her, the stars above, and for a long moment Sorilla just let herself quietly enjoy the moment.
Then it was done.
She grabbed her helm and rose to her feet, snapping it back into place as the ships vanished over the horizon. The enemy base was destroyed, but until she heard otherwise their ships were still out there, and those that escaped the base couldn’t have gone far in escape pods.
Or at least she presumed they couldn’t.
So they had to be out there somewhere, and beyond Hayden lay their home worlds. So no matter what happened before dawn arrived, they had a great deal of work left to them.
No time like the present to get started,
She thought wryly as she leapt off the plateau, landing a few dozen meters below on an outcropping before jumping off that as well.
She hopped point to point until she landed at the bottom of the plateau, and then settled into an easy loping run in the direction of the coast.
Orders were orders.
*****
Coastal Survey Site
Sam, Silver, and their people had to scramble for cover as the drop boxes came down. They were guided systems, but no one wanted to chance that they’d miss and land on someone’s head.
General morale was higher than it had been since the start of the whole damned affair, however, so everyone was happy enough to be dodging thousand ton boxes falling from the sky. There was probably something to be said for both fear and elation being relative experiences to the human condition.
From as far back as they could manage the group of colonists watched as container followed container out of the sky, coming down on huge cargo parachutes since there was no point wasting fuel on a reaction system for such things. They slammed into the beach, the jungle, even the water where they bobbed in the waves until driven ashore.
A short while after the last one landed, a hissing roar caught the attention of the colonists as a large lifting body shuttle came into view, lights bathing the area in blinding rays before it came to a slow hover and settled down.
Even before it landed, several containers blew their doors on their own and the colonists were shocked to see armored soldiers hopping out and milling about.
Sam let out a long breath, “Looks like they sent the whole damned army.”
“A light division, Sam.” Silver corrected him, eyes roving over the troops as they jumped into action to clear away more of the brush than they’d been able to manage in the time they had. The soldiers blew some of the other containers open, and more Cougars rolled out onto Hayden soil along with enough gear and equipment for everyone twice over as far as they could tell.
The shuttle settled in for a landing next to the tether anchor they’d uncovered, settling in on huge landing struts that sunk into the soft soil.
“Best get out people helping out with the work, Sam.” Silver said, nodding to where the soldiers where working to get one of the big trucks ashore. “Get them clearing the shrubs back, leave the heavy work to the armored grunts and machines, k?”
“Right.” Sam nodded, forgetting that he and Silver didn’t really get along. He waved a few people over and directed them to the task.
While he was talking the shuttle lowered its boarding ramp, allowing men and women to begin streaming from it as well. Silver moved in that direction, catching the eye of a uniformed man who seemed to be in charge.
“We’ll be with you in a moment, Sir.” The man said, glancing his way. “Please be patient.”
“What’s your name, son?” Silver asked.
“Lt Commander Rivers, now I’m a little busy here. Give me a moment, Sir.”
Silver just stared at him until the Lt Commander finally turned back to him, “Now, you are?”
“Lt Colonel Alexander Silver.” Silver replied, “US Army, Retired.”
Silver ignored the surprised look Sam sent his way, focusing on the Commander.
“What are you orders here, Commander?” He asked.
“Resupply and reinforce, Sir.” Rivers told him, “Until we can get another tether manufactured and moved out here with a reasonable chance of holding the position we can’t hope to pull people out.”
“We’re aware of that, Son.” Silver told him, “Just wanted to be clear, you’re here to help us get back control of our home, right?”
“That’s an affirmative, Sir.”
“Well that’s just fine then. Tell us what you need,” He told the man, “and it’s yours.”
“Can you tell me where Sergeant Aida is?”
“She took the Pathfinders out when we heard you boys were in system,” Silver shook his head, “Haven’t heard from them since.”
“She talked to the Commodore in charge of the column before we launched,” Rivers said, “Told him she’d meet us here.”
“If she said it, it’ll happen, son.” Silver shrugged, “Could be a little while, though. We’re at least a hundred miles from any AO she was working.”
“Damn it.” Rivers shook his head, “We’re on a schedule here. We don’t know if Admiral Shepherd took out the last two bandits, we lost comms coming in and only got them back a few minutes ago.”
Silver just nodded, “Nothing to be done, son. If you need the sarge, you’ll just have to wait for her.”
“Alright, what about Bethany Connors, PHD?”
“Out with the Pathfinders.”
“Excuse me?” Rivers blinked.
“I don’t stutter, son.”
“You sent the daughter of Senator Raymond Connors out with a guerrilla force??”
“Son, she volunteered. We’ve been up against the wall here in case you missed it, able body is a body in the field.” Silver told him sharply.
“Bloody hell, I’m glad this is my new duty assignment and I don’t have to explain that one to the brass back home.”
Silver chuckled, “Connor must be a ballbuster if you’d take a warzone over that.”
“The senator isn’t the problem,” Rivers shook his head, “his wife, however, is an Admiral.”
“Ooch.” Silver winced.
“You have no idea, Sir. She’s still alive, I hope?”
“Hale and hearty last I heard, but she and the others were out on a bait and decoy run to give the sarge a fighting chance while she went after that valve thing you lot were so worried about.”
Rivers let out a strong of curses, though Silver smiled as he recognized a tone of admiration coloring many of them.
“Takes after her mother, I’m assuming,” Sil said idly.
“Not for about forty years, from what I hear,” Rivers sighed, “But yeah. Alright, I need the rest of the people on this list here ASAP.”
Silver accepted the list, looking them over quickly, “We got about half them here, the rest I couldn’t say. May not have gotten out of the colony the night of the attack, might be on another continent. Haven’t had any contact with any of the research facilities since that night.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Rivers sighed.
“We generally do.” Silver grinned, “I’ll get your names rounded up. Sarge will be in when she’s in, same goes for Beth.”
“Understood, Sir. Thanks for the help.”
“No problem, Son. Been on your side of things, didn’t like it much.” Sil smirked, waving as he turned off and started to head away. “Anything I can do to help out some other poor sucker in that situation is time well spent.”
As he walked off, Commander Rivers heard Samuel whispering to Silver.
“Lt Colonel??”
*****
Sorilla and the Pathfinders shambled into the military camp around twelve hours later, having met up about thirty miles from the coast. Most of them looked worse for wear, some carrying the wounded, though the nature of the weapons involved meant that injuries were uncommon. You walked out intact, or you simply didn’t walk out.
By the time they made it to the coast there were tents and shelters erected all along the river delta, the infantry brigade settling in for the short term while the brass decided where they were going to dig in for the duration.
She and the Pathfinders were waved through quickly, Sorilla directed specifically to the command tent. Most of the Pathfinders with her followed along out of curiosity.
Sorilla nodded to a private in stock augmentation armor, a setup a fair sight heavier than her own, “Sergeant Aida reporting as ordered.”
“Ma’am,” The kid nodded, “I’ll fetch the Commander.”
“Go on.”
The kid practically scrambled away, obviously barely out of armor training by the way he moved. She shook her head,
what the hell were they thinking? It’s not like we’re short of experienced manpower. At least we weren’t when I left.
She didn’t have time to follow that line of thought, though, before a man in a fleet Lt Commander’s uniform showed up. She stiffened to attention, throwing him a salute.
“Sir. Sergeant Aida, reporting as ordered.”
“As you were.” He said, extending his hand.
She glanced at it and accepted the chip he offered her.
“Orders from SOCOM, Sergeant.” He told her, “You’re being recalled for debriefing.”
She frowned, dumping the orders through a contact port, and confirmed them quickly. “Understood Sir. I’m ready to go.”
“Nothing to fetch?”
“Nothing of consequence.” She said, turning to Reed, “Tell Tara my kit is hers, she probably won’t need it with this lot here, but every little bit.”