The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (59 page)

“Do I have your permeation to make the necessary changes to the plan Sir?”

“Yes Major. I won’t meddle with your mission and plan. You know how to plan it best and what is needed for your mission to succeed. Will you be able to make those alterations in the next eight hours?”

“Yes Sir. We won’t miss our launching period. The alterations won’t be big. It is just one more place to investigate and gather information’s about.”

Jennings nodded. He knew that Rivers was more than capable of planning and executing the mission. He and the rest of the SF teams onboard the Excelsior were among the best in their branch. They were involved in the boarding parties after the battle in Sol and knew their enemy well.

“Ok than that will be all. I will expect your mission plan in the next couple of hours Major.”

“Yes sir.”

After this everyone started leaving the room. As was usual Aria was the first one gone, her holographic projection disappearing immediately. Jennings turned and went on the bridge. There was a lot of work in front of them. He could see the tension on everyone’s faces and he knew that his face showed the same. He felt the tension inside him as well. He felt it even more being the commander of this mission, a mission that was probably more important than anything else he ever had. Yes, he was the first commander of the first ever built space ship, the Daedalus, he was the commander of the first ship to travel to another star or land a mission to another world, a smile appeared on his face as he remembered those days the moment when the results of the sensor readings showed that there are habitable worlds in Proxima Centaury, and his face then turned serious again as he remembered the battle for Proxima and all the people that died that day. But all those missions were nothing compared with this one, a mission that had enormous value considering that the information that the SF teams and the Excelsior would gather could mean the success of the battle that was coming, a battle that would give Humanity a chance to prepare and then take the battle to its nemesis, and yes the Dacarians were that. Humanity once roamed the stars, protected the young races and had a flourishing culture but the Dacarians took all that away and murdered untold billions and enslaved trillions. The time for them to pay for their atrocities was coming and deep inside him he could feel that if this mission is successful humanity would be the civilization that would collect that debt.

As he entered the bridge he noticed everyone was working. Thomson saluted and he saluted back. He nodded and went to his seat. As he sat down Thomson took his own position on his left side. He didn’t get any salute from the rest of the bridge crew and officers but he didn’t care. In the past months he managed to make them relax in his presence. He knew that they all had important jobs and needed to concentrate on them.

The bridge of the Excelsior was very much like the bridges of the other human ships, much smaller than the main bridge of the Alteran Battleships. The bridge was different in another way as well. It was placed deep in the ship protected and fortified against any kind of strikes. The CIC was the same. They were all deep inside the ship’s hull in the most armored section. Humanity was far behind the Alterans in regards of technology. Yes he knew that they could understand almost every piece of technology (well not all but most) that Aria and Anaya had mentioned, most of it was still in the area of Science Fiction. Before the discovery of the refugees fleet humanity tested and created lasers, plasma and Rail Guns but they were weak compared with the weapons systems that the Alteran Battleship and Cruisers had. The Rail guns were fairly advanced and with the help from the AI’s they became the most advanced weapons systems together with the coil guns that humanity had. The shield tech was especially important in this kind of warfare and it was the technology in which humanity was far behind any space faring race especially the Dacarians and the Alterans. It was a piece of technology that although understood,  was really difficult to reverse engineer, so instead of trying to create advance shields they created advanced armor, it was something that was a known quality and a fairly advanced technology. The battles in Proxima and Sol proved that human armor was capable of withstanding enemy fire, and the new generation of ships had even more advanced and far ticker armor compared with the old Essex class. The Excelsior was the first ship of that generation but hundreds more were already in production when Excelsior left on its mission. As he thought of those ships he looked at the screen that showed the system and the second planet, the world they knew as Arcadia. It was a beautiful world and he felt a shiver as he thought about the destruction that those ships will cause on it and on the system. He knew that in order for the secret to remain hidden this world and the Dacarians on it will have to die. He knew that millions of the slaves they had with them, innocent races will die as well. He looked once again at the young faces of his crew. They were still young most of them were new recruits considering that most of the old navy people were dead after the battle in Sol. And after this mission, this operation he knew that their souls would be tainted with a death toll that will number in the millions. And with the information that Anaya gave them about the Dacarians he knew that many of them would not be soldiers but ordinary people. Aliens, but civilians as well, people who had no fault except that they lived in a society that taught them that they were the master race. And the worst part of it all is that every human knew that it was not their fault but the fault of another alien race that long ago enslaved them and made them what they were. They became what they are thanks to that fear and hatred towards that race, towards the Farsians.

He noticed the small hologram of Aria on the middle console.

“Aria I want all the information we have about this system that you’ve managed to gather so far to be forwarded to my station. And send them to the insertion teams as well. They will need them, especially the scans of the planet.”

“Yes Sir.”

A minute later all the information’s were on his console and he knew that Major Rivers has them as well. He nodded towards the AI and started reading them.

                                                  CHAPTER TWO

Rivers looked at the information that Aria sent him. Most of it was information he already knew and the new parts were about the original race that inhabited this world and about their settlements and the base that had the control system for the orbital platforms. He already knew that he would have to make some small alterations to the original plan so the inclusion of the old Alteran defense base came easy. He looked at the image of the alien creatures that Aria said inhabited this world.

“They risked everything for your ancestors”… Aria’s words came to his thoughts as he looked at the Ksand. A part of him wanted to know the strange creature’s name. It was a silly thought but he asked Aria to give him the data for the Ksand language. He knew that it was farfetched but considering that every member had to learn several old earth languages for the past year and they were all fluent now in ancient Latin and pretty good in ancient Greek there might be a chance to learn this language as well. Aria mentioned that in ancient times translators were used but those machines were still far away. Several were discovered on the refugee ships. Four were on this ship just in case but his teams won’t be taking any on the surface. The risk of the Dacarians getting their hands on one of those things was too great and the danger from it was enormous. Armed humans might pass as nothing more than escaped slaves, but humans with Alteran equipment…he shuddered at the thought. He uploaded the latest information’s to his data pad and then sent them to every member of his teams. Sixty soldiers were under his command. Twelve of them were form the British contingent of SAS and he was glad to have them. The rest were Seals. Humanity’s best soldiers were now here. He knew that not all of the men he wanted on this mission were here but he knew that he had a band of heroes…men who fought in all types of environments around the globe before the first contact and who each and every one had firsthand experience with the enemy they would be facing. He was the commander of the small unit comprised of three SAS teams and twelve SEAL teams. That was the starting designation back on Earth but for this mission each seal team will have double the number of bodies. The twelve SEAL teams were combined in to six eight men strong teams. The plan was to land teams on each of the five continents establish bases and then start infiltrating and gathering information about the enemy numbers, troop movements and base locations everything that was going to be vital for the day when the fleet and the invasion force would arrive in the system. The plan seemed crazy considering that his seven teams, under the command of Major Davis operating as one team would need to research an entire planet. The Dacarian cities were not that numerous, consisting of several cities on each continent, the biggest ones placed on the largest. They still hadn’t named the continents but he knew that each one already had a designation among the soldiers. Seven teams that on need could become three times that were more than enough to gather enough data about the Dacarian troops in the system and on the planet. And considering the number of slave camps he was sure that there would be a chance for rescuing some prisoners and even for some escaped slaves. The scans of the planet showed a lot of small communities hidden in the vast deep jungles far from the Dacarian cities and bases. He had a plan to investigate those settlements and try and see if he could organize a local resistance.

The planet was a little larger than Earth but it had a smaller land mass. The largest continent was the size of Asia, a little bit larger with a land mass of twenty three million square miles with another one comprising of sixteen million square miles. The other three were ranging from seven to ten million. The two largest continents were connected with land bridges similar to the way Asia and Africa used to be in the past. A third one was also connected but the scans showed that the land bridge was destroyed not long ago so that the inland ocean could be connected with the other far larger one. He noticed that Aria pointed to the destruction as a possible orbital bombardment and even an accidental hit during the taking of the world. It was certainly possible considering that it was lying beneath the destroyed orbital platforms. He shuddered at the thought of the power released during the hit and the devastation it would have brought.

The three smallest continents each had one team assigned to them. They had far less enemy settlements. The smallest one had just one and the other had three. The third one would have the SAS while the other two would each have two SEAL teams. Alpha and Bravo will have one, delta and Gamma two, Sigma (SAS) will have three, Epsilon will have four, and Theta will have five.  The insertion process was going to happen with the meteor shower they noticed going towards the planet. The retrofitted insertion capsules were designed to look like meteors, their hull compromising of all the common materials that a meteor would hold. The outer shell of each pod was designed to explode outward at a specially designated height so not to arouse suspicion. The insertion was to be done in water close to the shore. Each team had enough supplies for the next year. The Excelsior was supposed to send supplies regularly but he knew that that was a long shot considering the enemy presence in the system, so he planned accordingly. Better safe than sorry. According to Aria the local flora and fauna was eatable by humans so he hoped that they won’t have to stay on emergency rations all the time.

It took him several minutes to compose the new plan with the defense base as the most important target for Alpha and Bravo teams.

He sent the report to the admiral and then turned towards the men that set with him in the small room looking at the new plan.

One major and seven lieutenants, each in command of one team, each an old friend with whom he had a long history, many of them were people he had recruited. The only outsider if it could be said was the SAS commander major Davis. They held the same rank but for this mission Davis submitted under his authority considering the bigger number of US units. Rivers had known Davis for a long time and he knew that he was part of the team that had boarded the cruiser in the Aegean Sea and also had been in command of the British contingents that boarded the destroyed enemy ships after the battle in Sol. He was a good man and a good representative of what many still believed to be the best Special Forces unit in the world. He was a man in his late thirties with short blonde hair, six feet tall and with a strong build and muscular body. A large scar disfigured the left side of his face. Rivers knew that Davis received the scar on board the cruiser several years back. He had the option of removing it, but chose to leave it there as a memory, a reminder of both the men he lost and the power of the enemy they faced. He was one of the rare few who took out a Dacarian legionary in single combat. As he thought of that Rivers smiled. He and everyone else knew who the best in that regard was, a far younger soldier that belonged to a unit that among the SF teams was highly regarded, the Macedonian Wolfs. He and everyone else wished that Fillip was here. And he wouldn’t mind having some of his teammates as well. They had all before the start of the mission spent some time under his tutorship, listening to his report about how he managed to eliminate eleven legionaries single handedly armed with only a gun and even managed to kill the biggest bastard he had ever seen among them with his bare hands. He remembered the report about all the broken bones in the body of the Dacarian that the autopsy revealed later. He also knew Fillip from before; most of them did from his mission with the Macedonian contingent attached to NATO. He was a soldier and a man, a friend that everyone wanted by his side, a man who could make you see the bright side in any situation and fight to the very end if the need arose. He hoped that he, and as he looked at his men, all of them would have a chance to see him and all the others that were coming soon again. He noticed Davis and the other men looking at him. Besides Davis the others present were Atkins, Rhodes, Kelley, Blake, Morrison, Harrison and Fields. They were all experienced men with years of active service and with the scars to show for them. And so were the others that weren’t here but would be joining them on the planet below.