Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2 (11 page)

“Some of the native
life,” said the Captain as he brought the air car down to buzz the creatures. 
They stared at it with small eyes.  A few of the larger bulls trumpeted
challenges to the nuisance while the rest continued on with feeding their
bulks.

“Not really
dinosauroids,” continued the officer as he pulled over the trees and continued
on his way.  “More mammalian.  Those were a herd of the mid ranged herbivores. 
Up to thirty tons on the hoof.”

“Thirty tons,” hissed
the Colonel.  “That seems pretty damned big to me.”

“Seemed that way to me
too.  Until I saw some of the real giants.  And you need to watch out for the
carnivores.  They can get up to twenty tons.”

“Do they look at us as
food?” asked the Colonel.  “Are we compatible proteins?”

“Yes and no,” answered
the Captain, aiming the car for a flat topped hill that loomed ahead.  “They
look at anything that moves that they are capable of bringing down as food. 
And we are not compatible.  Which won’t stop them from filling their bellies
with indigestible human meat and suffering indigestion later.”

“Right,” said Baggett,
watching a large biped moving through the trees, stalking a larger herbivore. 
“So go armed in the back country.”

“At all times,” said
the Captain.  “We’re always being scrambled out to the brush to rescue some
idiot who gets surrounded or stranded or some fool stunt.  Or to try and
recover the remains of said fool.”

The air car slowed as
it came over the hill, then stopped and dropped toward the flat top.  With a
slight thud the car touched down.  The Captain unstrapped and left the car, the
Colonel on his heels.  They headed for a ten meter diameter pad near the center
of the flattop.  As they reached the center the Captain whispered something
under his breath and the circle began to drop down into the hill.  After twenty
meters a thick piece of alloy slid closed overhead.

“This is the secondary
Planetary Defense HQ,” said the Captain as they continued down another hundred
meters.  “There are several other entrances in.  Place wouldn’t stand up to
much if it were targeted though, so primary is under one of the mountains in
the Cascades range, about three hundred klicks from here.”

The lift came to a stop
and the men stepped off.  It went back up as soon as they stepped away.

“It’s a central capsule
for a destroyer,” said the Captain as they walked down a corridor.  “Not much
protection, but all they really thought they needed when it was first put in.”

“Same companies as
built the shelters for all the cities on the core worlds I would guess,” said
Lt. Colonel Baggett.  Wall fixtures were the same as he had seen in his tour of
a shelter on New Brandenburg.

“The same,” agreed the Captain,
who had spent quite a bit of time in the heavily shielded crew compartments of
warships.  “They mass manufacture them, without some of the warship fixtures of
course, and dig them into the ground where needed.  That way the populace has
someplace to hide if the enemy brings the shit to the system.  I think even the
capital has several thousand battleship central capsules linked so they can
cram three billion people into emergency barracks if they need to.”

“More like tens of thousands
of shelters,” said the Colonel as they walked the corridor.  “Linked with
military shelters and a network of connections.  Like it will ever really be
used.  Anyone gets that far into the Empire through the Fleet and we’re truly
fucked.  They make sense out here though.  Any decent task force can take the
high ground on one of these worlds, and maybe the citizens can hold out for a
while underground until relief comes.”

“Here we are,” said the
Captain, stopping at a door that had a pair of Marine guards standing outside. 
He presented his eyes to a retinal scan in the wall and placed his thumb over a
plate below it that read his print and his DNA at the same time.  The panel
flashed green, indicating to the guards that he was cleared even as their
implants gave them the same information.  The Colonel repeated the process and
the door slid open.

It looked like any of a
hundred other briefing rooms the Colonel had seen in the past.  There was a
smattering of different uniforms, Imperial Army, Marines and Navy as well as
the brown of planetary militia.  Men and women were sitting around the table
discussing things they were looking at on their flat comps.  A couple of
officers sat with distant looks on their faces, probably communicating with
subordinates on implant com links.  Cigarettes and cigars sat smoking in
ashtrays next to steaming cups of coffee.

Baggett sneezed as a
whiff of smoke hit his nostrils.  He thought smoking was a filthy habit.  But
since cancer was a thing of the past, and even damage to the lung capacity of
smokers was corrected automatically by nanites, it was practiced widely.

“Over here, Colonel,”
said the Marine Captain, pointing to some seats that were set by the table,
directly in front of the holo tank that displayed the blue green marble of the
planet.  He followed the officer over, noting that the other battalion
commanders were already seated, and the regimental commander was sitting near
the head of the table, next to a naval commodore.  As soon as Baggett planted
seat to pad the senior naval officer cleared his throat.

“Welcome to Sestius IV,
men and women of the 789
^th
Infantry,” said the commodore, looking
around the table.  “I am Commodore Chung, the system commander, and I must say
we are glad to have you here.  We know that you and your troops are combat
veterans, and any system would prize such men and women.  I will command such
of the defense of the system as the navy can mount.  I can also assure you that
we will be able to call on aid from fleet bases.  I cannot assure you when such
aid will arrive.  Depending on whether the relief force is hyper VI or VII it
could be hours to days.  That is all I promise.  The defense of the planetary
surface from whatever gets by us will be your concern.  Therefore, I turn you
over to the planetary commander, Brigadier General Klein.”

Baggett turned his eyes
to the officer sitting beside the commodore.  The man he had thought of as
Colonel Klein, his regimental commander.  That worthy smiled at the commodore and
looked out over the table.  Another man, wearing the brown of planetary militia
with single stars on his collar, glowered at the regular army officer who he
probably thought was usurping his command.

“Purely a brevetted
rank,” said the soft spoken regimental commander, who looked more like a
college professor than an infantryman.  “It was decided by the commodore that
as we are the largest body of fully trained troops on the planet, and a veteran
unit, we would form the nucleus of the provision division we will assemble on
this world.  And since Brigadier Marquett found both a promotion and a transfer
awaiting him on arrival, I got tapped for the position.”

The man smiled at his
officers, and Baggett knew the man had to be appreciative of his rise.  He knew
he would be, and he trusted Klein much more than any part timers that would
otherwise be up for the position.  Klein was combat tested, and recent combat
at that.

“Basically, gentlemen
and lady,” said the Brigadier, nodding at the one woman of senior rank in the
room, a Lt. Colonel of Infantry that Baggett did not recognize, but whose name
flashed on his implant as he looked at her, “we will be dividing up the
regiment into three combat commands.  Each will consist of a battalion of light
infantry, a battery from the regimental artillery, and an engineer platoon,
along with part and parcel of the regiment’s air defense assets.”

Blinking lights
appeared on the holo globe of the world along with names.

“Willoughby, the
capital, will be the center of one defensive region.  Canton and Frederick,
both regional capitals, will be the center of the others.  Each combat command
will have attached a company of combat suited Marine heavy infantry and a mixed
company of medium and heavy armor.”

“What about the integration
of the militia?” asked one of the militia colonels seated at the table, his
face set in what looked like a permanent scowl.

“The militia will be
attached to the combat commands,” said the newly minted Brigadier.  “The
Willoughby command will have five battalions of militia plus an allotment of
their armor and vehicular units.  The other commands will have four battalions
of militia along with an allotment of armor and vehicular units.  Each combat
command will be commanded by the CO of the regular infantry battalion
assigned.”

One of the militia
colonels raised his hand and looked about ready to choke.

“Yes sir,” said the Brigadier,
nodding toward the man.

“Why not put the
militia commanders in charge of the combat commands?” asked the man, looking to
his fellow brown uniformed officers and getting nods of agreement.  “After all,
our commands are already regimental size.  And we outrank the regulars.”

A few of the Regular
Army officers made comments about damned amateurs under their breaths.  The
Militia Brigadier looked ready to open his mouth, took a glance at Commodore
Chung, and thought better of it.

“I do not mean to
disrespect you gentlemen,” said Brigadier Klein, looking around the table. 
“But all of my battalion commanders have just come from an occupation duty that
amounted to daily combat.  I know how they think and how they will react. 
Plus, they are being brevetted to the rank of Colonel for this operation.  So
they are of equal rank to the militia regiment commanders, and in charge due to
their Imperial Commissions.”

Damn
, thought Baggett, a
smile creeping across his face. 
From major to full bird in less than six
months
.  Even if the rank was temporary, it was still more than he had
hoped for many more years to come.

“What about my soldiers?”
asked Lt. Colonel Samantha Thomas, commander of the independent medium infantry
battalion that had helped to garrison the planet before the arrival of
reinforcements.  Her soldiers were not the one man tanks the Marine heavy
infantry was, but were still more heavily armored and weaponed than the newly
arrived light infantry.

“You, my dear, will be
a part of my reserves,” said the Brigadier.  “Along with the remaining company
of Marines, an armored company and the remaining two battalions of militia. 
You will also need to find a set of colonel insignia for your collar.”

Baggett raised his hand
and waited for the Brigadier to acknowledge him.  The man looked his way and
nodded.

“What about aviation
assets, the rest of the artillery and the planetary defense batteries, sir?” he
asked.  “Will we be assigned any of those assets?”

“No, Colonel,” said the
Brigadier.  “You will not, with the exception of a command and control bird and
a couple of sting ships.  We will keep a tight rein on the other aviation assets
and assign them temporarily as needed.  Planetary defense…”

“Let me answer that
question, Brigadier,” interrupted Commodore Chung, “if I may.  Planetary
defense will be tied into the orbital defense system.  We only have a couple of
batteries of emplaced lasers and some missiles.  A brigade of mobiles have been
assigned to us, but only the first battalion has arrived.  Does that answer you,
Colonel?”

“Yes sir.”

“Do you really think
anything is going to happen out here, commodore?” asked one of the militia
colonels without waiting to be acknowledged.

“Something can always
happen out here, Winton,” answered the commodore.  “This is the frontier.  If
you’re asking if it’s anything we can’t handle, I just say that any pirates
that attack us will be annihilated by my small system command.”

The assembled officers
chuckled at that pronouncement.

“But if we’re hit by a
large task force of fearsome aliens with capabilities beyond ours.  Let’s just
say we will die in the finest tradition of the Fleet.  And then you all will
die in the finest tradition of the ground forces.  After hopefully killing a
lot of the enemy and protecting the settlers until the cavalry can arrive from
other stars.”

“Not really what I
wanted to hear,” said Colonel Winton.

“This is the frontier,”
said the Commodore.  “If you wanted to be protected by armored corps, massive
planetary defensive batteries and battleship squadrons, you should have stayed
on the core worlds.  We run risks out here.  Hopefully this will amount to
nothing but some panic at the level of command over some snooping or exploring
aliens that just wandered into our neighborhood.  But we have to be ready in
case it is not.  That’s the smart way to bet, after all.  Instead of betting
that it’s just some harmless, peace loving newcomers to the region.

“Now gentlemen and
lady,” he continued.  “I leave you to figure out how to hold the land fort.”

The commodore rose to
leave, and all the assembled officers got to their feet.  The Militia officers
moved toward each other after the naval officer left, talking in soft tones and
glancing at the regulars.

Hope this doesn’t
devolve into a pissing contest
, thought Baggett, thinking that he would kind
of like to have an armored corps on the planet himself.  And realizing that he
would not get his wish.  He had what he had.