Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (14 page)

Adams looked at General Williamson and said, “What do you think?”

“We sent our forces in and lost a lot of them in the past. You won’t know what you’re up against without taking a look.” He turned to Mike, “How long will it be before the support forces are ready?”

“At least six months.”

Williamson nodded and shrugged, “I say we go. They have their carriers and can make an escape if necessary.”

Mike looked around the table, “Let’s take a vote and see where we are. How many of you say to do this?” Twenty hands went up. Mike looked at Tilly and Jeanette, “You’re against this?”

Tilly frowned and shook her head, “I know it has to be done but I just can’t bring myself to vote to do it.”

Jeanette nodded, “I just don’t feel right about this.”

Adams nodded, “None of us do.”

Mike said, “The majority support doing this.” Mike looked at Adams and Alex, “Who should we send in?”

Alex looked at Adams as he said, “Colonel Halley Briggs regiment is the furthest in their training.”

Adams shrugged, “None of my units have matched her scores.”

Mike nodded and said, “Alex, Notify General Daniels that we’ll be dropping her regiment on Fippen in two weeks.” Alex nodded and Mike closed the meeting.

Two hours later, Alex contacted Mike, “Sir, General Daniels says he is going in with her regiment.”

“I hope you told him we’d not allow him to do it.”

“Unfortunately, I did not.”

“Why not!?!”

“I told him that the drop would be pulled out at the first sign of trouble. He says that he has to see firsthand what his forces were going to have to face to be effective. If he’s not allowed to go he insists that a senior officer must go in to witness the drop. I couldn’t tell him it was too dangerous. At least not in good faith.” Mike stared at Alex and his anger was clear. “Mike, I think he loves Halley. Would you send Tilly in and not go yourself?”

Mike’s anger evaporated. “Who replaces him if things go wrong?”

“His XO, Brandon Hail.”

Mike nodded and shook his head, “I’m like Tilly; I don’t feel good about this. Derek is too valuable to lose.”

Alex tilted his head, “Even so, we have to do this now. We can’t wait.” Mike looked at him and Alex said, “You made a good argument. I think you’re right. We need to know what we’ll be facing when we go in force to remove them.” Mike nodded and ended the connection.

• • •

“Janet.”

“Yes.”

“I keep second guessing myself about mixing all the different nationalities here on Sparta. I worry about the bad blood between the Americans and Russians not to mention the Israelis and Middle Eastern populations. Everyone is armed now, did I make a mistake?”

Janet shrugged, “I guess time will tell but the initial results look promising.”

“How is that?”

Janet looked at Tilly and smiled, “The main problem between the ones sent here were nationalistic feelings for their home country. Americans and Russians looked at each other as enemies. The same can be said for numerous other communities.”

“Doesn’t that still exist?”

Janet shrugged, “It’s hard to maintain positive feelings for a country that forced you to leave at the end of a weapon and also forced your children to leave as well. The Americans and Russians both have choice things to say about their former countries. It is that commonality that brings them together. Everyone here, except those that chose to come, sees themselves as rejected by Earth. They are embracing this new world.”

“How are they getting along with each other?”

“No one has died yet. There have been some fights but nothing got out of hand. I think we need to choose a language to teach our children.”

Tilly smiled, “It appears the majority of the population is starting to learn Russian.”

“They are quite impressive. Perhaps we should issue a directive that all of our directives will be done in Russian.”

Tilly smiled, “I suspect most think English will be chosen as the official language.” Janet nodded. Tilly stood up and walked over and looked out of the window at the city that was growing around the Government Center. “English is not a good choice. There are just too many problems.”

Janet lowered her head, “Such as?”

“There, their; it’s, its; i before e except after c; do I need to go on?”

“Not really.”

Tilly thought a moment and said, “Send the directive and see what kind of push back we get.”

Janet smiled and turned to her board, “I’ll get Eric to write it and send it out. He’s much better than I am on that sort of thing.”

Tilly nodded, “Goose, Geese; Moose, Moose.”

Janet laughed, “Mouse, mice; house; hice?”

Tilly countered, “The bandage was wound around the wound.”

“Oh yeah; he was too close to the door to close it.”

Tilly thought a moment and said, “The farm was used to produce produce.”

Thirty minutes later Eric walked in the control room and found them roaring out their laughter. “The Assembly is sending computers to download Russian into our inhabitant’s minds. The learning process should be easy to accomplish.”

Tilly stifled her laughter and said, “Well, at last something that’s not impossible.”

• • •

Derek watched Halley’s ten companies move into the training city and start taking out targets scattered among the buildings. He stood with his hands on his hips and shook his head, “I don’t like this, Halley.”

Halley looked at him, “I think they’re doing great. Did you see how fast they got out of the open and moved out into the buildings?”

“I’m not talking about them; I don’t like this mission.”

“You really shouldn’t be going, Derek.”

Derek looked at Halley and shook his head, “This will be our first combat mission. If I go on any, this is the one I should be on. You know that.” Halley looked back at her troops and nodded.

“What is it you don’t like? If things go bad, we’ll board our carriers and get out.”

Derek’s mouth tilted down on one side and he shook his head, “I just don’t think it will be that easy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t have anything to support that feeling…but you never know what will happen in a barroom fight or a military land battle. You just don’t know what, or who, might pile on.”

Halley smiled, “Wouldn’t you feel this way no matter what?”

The corner of Derek’s mouth went up and after a moment he blew out a breath, “I suppose you’re right. Let’s do this again. We have another ten days and I want the troops accustomed to using the heat sensors in their combat helmets.”

Halley nodded and pressed her communicator.

• • •

Three days later the drop was delayed another seven days. Halley called Derek to see what was going on. “Derek, why the delay?”

“It appears one of the Alliance scientists developed a program that links the combat helmets to the personal force fields. It allows the field to be modulated and shaped.”

“It does what?”

Derek sighed, “The field can be modulated into a foil. The troops can be dropped from the transport in orbit.”

“SAY WHAT?!?”

“I’ve watched the initial trial and it really works. The field spreads out and once the warrior reaches denser air, it slows the descent. As he falls further into the atmosphere, the field can be shaped into an airfoil and the trooper can glide into a target area.”

“Is it possible to learn this process in the time remaining?”

“We’re about to see.”

“What do you mean, we?”

“You and I are going to make a drop in three hours. You should report to Planetary Headquarters immediately to be briefed on how to do it.”

“I’m not going to do this.”

“Halley, we have to do it. Our men’s safety depends on the reliability of this new system and I won’t trust anyone else to make that determination. I also tend to think that this is a safer way to get our forces to the ground.”

Halley thought a moment and begrudgingly nodded, “If a carrier is shot down, hundreds of warriors could be killed.”

“Exactly; if the troops are scattered in the atmosphere and all come in from different directions, they’ll be hard to see or hit at night. The initial drop units can clear out a place for the tank’s carriers to land. I think this might be a good idea…if it works.”

“I’ll meet you in thirty minutes.”

• • •

Mike, Alex, and Adams stood on the ground and watched the carrier lift and move high into the sky. “Is this a good idea, Mike?”

“Alex, they refused to allow anyone else to trial this before they approved the technology. I think they were hoping we would call it off and not risk losing them.”

Adams mumbled, “You should have.”

Mike scowled and said, “There are six Heavy Gracken Blasters in that city that can warm up and open fire on the carriers dropping out of orbit. We have to take them out before we can drop the heavy artillery.”

Adams shrugged and Alex said, “I’ve seen the trials and the system is really simple. You designate a spot on your combat helmet’s GPS and jump. The new chip will control the fall and take you to that exact spot.”

Adams looked at the ten foot wide red X painted on the ground in front of them and said, “And this is their landing coordinates?” Alex nodded. Adams began moving away from the huge X and after a moment, Alex and Mike moved with him. Adams smiled, “You’re not that sure are you?” Mike shrugged. They walked over to the console fifty feet from the X and saw the carrier on the display, “How high are they?”

The technician adjusted a dial and said, “They’re going to jump three miles up on this one.”

Adams quickly looked at the tech, “And the next one?”

“They’ll be jumping from a Q ship in orbit.”

Adams shook his head, “This should be interesting.” Mike scowled at him and looked back at the display just in time to see two armored bodies jump off the carrier.

• • •

Derek began falling at high speed and after ten seconds he felt something jerk him as he started gliding toward the landing coordinates. However, the glide was at an incredible speed. He wanted to yell to Halley to punch the failsafe on her system but he couldn’t catch his breath. He was flying in at the target at more than a hundred miles an hour and it was getting bigger by the moment. Suddenly, he saw it rushing toward him and he was slowed by something that brought him to a stop and deposit him in the middle of the X. He felt his feet touch and he sprinted ahead. Halley landed right behind him and she ran up beside him laughing, “That was fun. Let’s do it again.” Derek looked at her with shock on his face and, after a moment, smiled.

Mike ran up to the two officers and said, “What do you think?”

Derek looked at Mike and shook his head, “Let’s make the long drop and then we’ll let you know. This one was easier than I expected and we arrived much faster than I thought.”

The technician walked up and read from a small hand unit, “Your approach speed was close to a hundred and fifty miles an hour. The drop from space can be done over the horizon from your target with the speed you’ll have acquired from the fall through vacuum.”

Derek looked at the technician and then looked at Mike, “The city we’ve selected is next to an ocean. Could we be dropped over the ocean and come in from that direction?”

“Our trials have shown that you could be dropped more than three hundred miles from the target and still have more than enough momentum to make the target coordinates.”

Derek’s eyes narrowed as he thought about the idea and said, “How long can one of these foils stay in the air?”

Halley turned to him, “What are you thinking?”

“If we have several hundred of our sharpshooters flying overhead, they could pick off any Gracken that are moving on the surface.”

Halley tilted her head and nodded as the technician said, “I’m not sure. I believe we could have the foils flex and keep the warrior flying but we’d need to trial it to see if it would work.”

Derek looked at Mike and he said, “Start the trial. If we have to delay another week, we’ll do it.” The carrier landed and Mike said, “Good luck.”

Halley smiled, “We didn’t have to do anything but just go along for the ride. The new chip handled everything and all we have to focus on is getting ready to fire when we land.”

Derek nodded, “Drop us three hundred miles from the X. I want to see how fast we can arrive from space.”

The carrier pilot looked at Mike, who nodded. Derek and Halley boarded the carrier and Mike watched it rise and head toward the Q ship waiting in low orbit.

J
esse looked at Adams and Jeanette on his display, “Ten hours until we launch; are you ready?”

“The cannons are active and we’ve lined up the warship we’ve been assigned. We’ll see if these guns are all they’re advertised shortly. What about the Raptors?”

“They’ll come in on the transport as soon as we open fire on the two warships. This is going to be a learning experience for all of us.”

Adams pressed his collar, “Mike, is the Regiment ready to drop?”

“They are on board the transport but will be held until you’ve cleared the Gracken Starships from around the planet. You need to let us know as soon as you’ve achieved that goal.”

Adams looked at Jeanette, “You were at the trials; do you think these guns will do the job?”

Jeanette tilted her head, “The shells do make a big impression on anything they hit. If the Gracken follow their normal pattern of moving out to fire on us, we should be able to hit them before they could start jumping.”

Adams looked at the huge dark brown starship on his monitor and shook his head, “That thing is a monster.”

“Yeah, but about every inch of it is critical to its ability to function. If one of the 120 Sliver Shells hits it, I suspect it will suffer massive damage.”

Adams nodded and then shook his head, “Tuffy, get the guns trained on it as quickly as possible.”

“I suspect we could hit it at ten miles out but we’ve been instructed to wait until it’s four miles from us.”

“WHAT!!”

“I’ll be safe for a minute until they move inside two miles. At that range, my field will be blown away by the multiple blasters on the enemy’s hull. However, I do think we can get some shots off before it comes that close.”