A Show of Force (33 page)

“Then another would take my place,” Commander Telles replied as he opened the door and stepped out into the light of day. He paused, turning back toward his friend and master sergeant. “I cannot lead these forces from a secure bunker in a safe zone, Jahal. You and I both know this. I must taste the battle, witness the skills of the enemy first hand. Only then can I develop an accurate understanding of the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“Or, you could listen to the reports of your platoon commanders,” Master Sergeant Jahal said.

“That is the way of fat, old generals,” Commander Telles retorted as he turned to continue toward the nearest landing spot as a newly returning combat jump shuttle came in for a landing in front of him. “I am not yet that man,” he insisted, “and I don’t plan on becoming him any time soon.”

Sergeant Torwell slid the starboard door open to allow the next group of five Ghatazhak soldiers to board. “Let’s go!” he yelled out at the soldiers standing just off the landing pad.

“Wait!” an officer yelled from behind the men.

Sergeant Torwell looked toward the officer, his eyes turning wide. “Oh, shit,” he said over his helmet comms.

“What?” Ensign Latfee wondered.

“Is that Telles?” the sergeant wondered.

Ensign Latfee turned and looked out the window to his right. “Uh, yeah, it is.”

“Why is he coming here?” the sergeant wondered. The men standing along the pad expecting to board stepped aside, making room for Commander Telles and Master Sergeant Jahal.

“Team Eight, stand down, join the third wave instead,” Commander Telles ordered. “I need this shuttle.” The commander jumped up into the open doorway, moving past Sergeant Torwell and leaning forward between the port and starboard forward engine bulkheads. “Lieutenant! Can you put me in the middle of the action?”

“Yes, sir!” lieutenant Kainan replied. “We’ll put you anywhere you like, Commander.”

“That’s what I want to hear,” Telles replied as he took his seat on the port, aft-facing seat. He waived at his master sergeant.

“Willem, Todd, Anwar!” the master sergeant bellowed. “Mount up!”

The three Ghatazhak soldiers climbed aboard the shuttle, taking their places along the aft bench seat, followed by the master sergeant.

Sergeant Torwell looked through the starboard window at Ensign Latfee sitting in the shuttle’s copilot seat, casting a wide-eyed look as if to ask,
What the hell is going on?
Ensign Latfee only shrugged.

Sergeant Torwell climbed aboard, sliding the door closed behind him before he climbed into the gunner’s chair suspended from the center of the compartment’s ceiling. Once in his seat, a tap of a button raised him up so that his head was again in the turret bubble. “Closed up, gunner ready,” he reported.

“Lifting off,” the pilot announced as the shuttle’s engines spun back up and pushed the ship back into the air. He pitched their nose upward and began to accelerate. “Get us into space,” he instructed his copilot.

“Jumping in three……two……one……jumping.”

Energy weapons fire streaked in all directions in the streets of Parando. Ghatazhak moved quickly about, ducking in and out of doorways, from behind parked vehicles, stone planters, and anything else they could find that would provide cover from whatever direction the enemy fire happened to be coming from at the moment.

“Fuck!” Corporal Ward exclaimed as he finished his sprint across the open street and slammed back-first against the building. The last two Ghatazhak in his squad were hot on his heels, arriving in similar fashion to join the previous three.

Sergeant Lazo continued providing cover fire until all four members of his team had made it safely across the street. Weapons fire was coming from all directions. Energy bolts of varying intensities and colors were raining down from the rooftops, as well as from either end of the street.

“What the hell is going on here?” one of the Ghatazhak soldiers asked as he fired at a combatant on the roof across and down the street. The combatant had made the fatal mistake of leaning out to find targets, and the soldier had made sure that it was the combatant’s last mistake. “These can’t all be Jung!”

“Red shit is Jung!” Corporal Ward explained. “Blue and green shit has got to be civilians, since they can’t seem to shoot worth fuck!”

A Jung soldier attempting to move down the street to get a better firing angle on the team of Ghatazhak was struck in the head and shoulders by blue energy weapons fire coming from the roof directly over them.

Corporal Ward saw the Jung soldier take the hit and fall to the ground. He immediately fired a shot into the fallen soldier’s body to ensure that he would not get back up. “What the fuck? Did you see that?”

“Yeah!” another Ghatazhak soldier replied. “I guess not everyone on this rock is a Jung-lover.”

“How the hell are we supposed to tell the difference?” another Ghatazhak wondered as several bolts of green energy struck another Jung soldier down the street.

“You know the drill,” Sergeant Lazo replied as he moved his weapon to his right and took out another armed civilian on the rooftops with a single shot. “If they have a gun and they’re not dressed like us, kill them.” Several more bolts of green and blue energy weapons fire slammed into the pavement and the walls around them. The sergeant fired several more times, dropping two more of the would-be snipers. “If they are on our side, they’ll wise up pretty quick.”

Jump flashes began appearing overhead, washing the streets with thunderous claps as the air was displaced by the arriving jump shuttles. Combat jumpers appearing overhead immediately began spraying the rooftops with their side-mounted energy weapons. Large troop shuttles slid in over the rooftops, their armored bellies taking hits from Jung energy weapons fired from the ground as the shuttles moved into position to drop their troops. Gunners in the open side doors of the troop shuttles returned fire, spraying the streets below with needle-like bolts of highly charged plasma.

One of the troop shuttles came to a hovering position directly in front of Sergeant Lazo and his men. Twenty Ghatazhak troops jumped from the open rear cargo ramp as two of the shuttle’s crew stood in the doorway and picked off the armed combatants on the rooftops. The soldiers dropped to the ground and immediately began firing toward either ends of the street.

A steady barrage of red energy weapons fire slammed into the nose of the shuttle, walking its way up and across the forward windshield. The flight deck of the shuttle came apart as the crew tried to initiate a climb. The shuttle pitched up sharply, but in so doing its left forward engine pod swung into the line of fire, exploding as its propellant was ignited by the red bolts of energy. The shuttle rolled to its right, struck the building, and fell to the ground, crushing at least half of the Ghatazhak that had jumped to the ground seconds earlier.

“Jump complete,” Ensign Latfee reported as the shuttle rocked violently from the sudden resistance of Weldon’s atmosphere.

“Holy shit!” Sergeant Torwell exclaimed from his weapons turret. Before them, on the street below and only a hundred meters ahead of them, a troop shuttle was breaking apart and exploding as it careened off the side of a building and hit the ground on its starboard side. The fireball flashed outward in all directions, hitting the sides of the buildings and washing up the walls.

Commander Telles turned to look forward down the narrow, meter and a half long passageway that connected the combat jump shuttle’s passenger compartment to its flight deck. He stood, slightly hunched over as he moved forward to get a better view out the front windshields. He was just in time to see the destruction, as well as the civilians firing from the rooftops and the heavier weapons being fired by the Jung from the far end of the street. He tapped the comm-set control button on the side of his helmet. “Telles to all forces. Everyone on the rooftops dies. All combat jumpers, put your troops on the rooftops. Troop jumpers, keep putting them in the streets. I want control of this area… now!” He switched back to the intercom channel. “Lieutenant,” he said, pointing at the next intersection where the greatest amount of energy weapons fire was coming from. “Get guns on that intersection! That’s where I want you to drop us!”

“On top of a strongpoint?” the lieutenant asked, not believing what he was hearing.

“They’ll never expect it,” the commander said. “Besides, they’ll be firing at you, not us. As low and slow as you can, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant replied as he exchanged glances with his copilot. “You heard him,” he said to Ensign Latfee. “Light ‘em up.”

The commander returned to his seat, reaching to open the port-side door.

“Sometimes I think you have a death wish, Commander,” Master Sergeant Jahal said as he opened the door on his side of the shuttle.

The twin barrels on either side of the shuttle angled slightly downward and began firing, sending bolts of red-orange plasma energy streaking past the opened side doors of the shuttle.

“We all die, Master Sergeant,” Commander Telles replied, a slight smile showing. “We Ghatazhak just choose to do so in grander fashion.”

The interior of the shuttle flashed repeatedly with red-orange light from the plasma bolts streaking past their side doors. Smaller bolts of blue or green energy flashed past as well, headed skyward, some of them slamming into the shielded underside of the shuttle as they dropped down low between the buildings.

Commander Telles stood again. “Ghatazhak! Stand ready!” He leaned out the open doorway and looked forward. “Lieutenant!” he called over the shuttle’s intercoms, “be ready to kick your tail to port on my command.”

“Aye, sir!” the pilot responded.

Telles turned to look back at his men. “Willem, Todd, starboard side with Jahal! Anwar, port side with me!”

The shuttle’s guns fell silent, no longer able to angle down sufficiently as they closed on the Jung strongpoint. Sergeant Torwell continued firing at the nearby rooftops, many of which the shuttle was now only slight below.

“Ten seconds,” Ensign Latfee reported from the copilot’s seat.

Commander Telles flipped the safety on his energy rifle off. Several bolts of energy slammed into the underside of the shuttle, causing it to shake violently.

“Kicking to port,” Lieutenant Kainan announced.

The combat jump shuttle rotated to starboard, causing them to approach the Jung strongpoint sideways. Commander Telles and Private Anwar began to open fire on the Jung below as they prepared to jump.

“We’re taking a lot of fire on our ventral armor plating,” Ensign Latfee warned. “It’s heating up awfully fast. I don’t know how much longer it will hold.”

“Be ready on that escape jump,” Lieutenant Kainan said.

“Ghatazhak,” the ensign began, “deploy in three……two……one……Go! Go! Go!”

As Ensign Latfee turned to look aft, the five Ghatazhak jumped from the open doors of the combat shuttle toward the Jung strongpoint passing ten meters below them… Commander Telles and Private Anwar from the left, and Master Sergeant Jahal and Privates Willem and Todd from the right.

“Troops are away!” Ensign Latfee reported as he turned to face forward again.

“Jump!” the lieutenant ordered as he increased power and pitched their nose slightly upward.

Ensign Latfee pressed the escape jump button without delay, causing a pre-programmed escape jump that would instantly transition the shuttle five kilometers ahead along their current trajectory. Their windows instantly became opaque, blocking out the outside view, but the blue-white flash of the jump was translated into the interior of the jump shuttle through its open side doors.

“Jesus, that’s bright!” Sergeant Torwell exclaimed.

Commander Telles felt the screech of the shuttle’s jump, and felt the air pulling at him like a vacuum as it rushed to fill in the void left by the disappearing shuttle. Although the flash of blue-white light was enough to turn the immediate area from night to day for a second, the Commander was not looking directly at the flash when it occurred, and thus was spared the momentary blindness.

The commander landed directly behind a Jung soldier holding an oversized energy rifle, facing away from him. The commander allowed himself to fall forward with the momentum imparted to him by the shuttle, tucking into a roll and coming back up to his feet two meters further down the street. He fired three shots directly ahead, taking out three Jung soldiers charging toward them from further down the street. He spun around to his left just in time to raise his rifle with both hands and block the first Jung soldier’s weapon from coming down onto the side of his head. Telles pushed the attacker’s weapon down and to his left as the commander let go of his own weapon with his right hand, and spun around to his right, driving his armored elbow into the right side of the Jung soldier’s jaw.

Another Jung soldier came at the commander from his left, his own weapon coming up to his shoulder to fire. The commander dropped to one knee, allowing the energy bolt to pass over him and slam into the Jung soldier behind him, who was still reeling from the blow to his jaw. Commander Telles then rolled to his left, striking the attacker in the shins, sending him tumbling forward. In a smooth motion, Telles rose to his feet again, fired two more shots to kill nearby targets, and then pivoted to put another in the man he had just sent tumbling. A quick lean to his right to avoid another shot, and then a jabbing motion with the butt of his rifle incapacitated another would-be attacker, after which the commander quickly drew his knife and drove it into the side of yet another Jung soldier charging toward him.

The commander paused for a moment, looking around for more targets of opportunity, as he twisted the knife and drew it upward, slicing open the man’s belly. All he saw was Master Sergeant Jahal, standing on top of the bodies of three dead soldiers, watching him.

“What are you doing?” Telles wondered.

“Just watching you try to go out in grand fashion,” the master sergeant replied with a grin.

“I trust this strongpoint is no longer?” Telles questioned as he withdrew his knife from the Jung soldier’s belly and allowed him to fall to the ground.

“Correct.”

“Then let us find another,” Commander Telles said as he placed his knife back in its hip-mounted sheath. “We have many more Jung to kill this day.”

Master Sergeant Jahal stepped down from the pile of bodies. “We are hearing calls from Ghatazhak squads all over the city. Civilians are joining in the fight. Some are shooting at us, and some are shooting at the Jung.”

“I care not who they are shooting at,” Commander Telles said as he started down the street toward the next intersection. “If they are not Ghatazhak and they are armed, they are targets to be eliminated.”

“Resistance is strong on this world, Commander. We have already lost more than one hundred men, and several squad leaders have called for precision orbital strikes.”

“Then why have they not commenced?”

“Such requests must come from an officer in the field,” the master sergeant reminded the commander.

The commander touched his helmet comms controls. “Aurora, Telles. Fire mission.”

“I’m still seeing a lot of shuttles attempting to flee the surface,” Luis reported from the Aurora’s tactical station.