Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (7 page)

She had heard it said that any single viper was worth ten unenhanced soldiers, but that should only be a consideration in force level planning, never for justifying who should live or die. She didn’t hold with people who considered one life more worthy than another. She had never felt that way. The death of a Shan warrior, an unenhanced Human soldier, or a viper, were all equally tragic to her. It surprised her that Hiller of all people didn’t feel the same, and it made her wonder who else agreed with him. Had he always felt that way, or was it battle fatigue?

They had been in contact with the enemy one way or the other every day for well over a year, closer to two. They were all tired. She was, God knew, but it wasn’t a physical tiredness. Physically, vipers were in top shape when not actively repairing combat damage, their enhancements saw to that, but mentally was another matter. She had seen it before becoming a viper. Constant combat dulled the senses. They started taking chances without regard for the consequences. She had seen it in combat as a marine, and vipers were not immune to it. Gordon came to mind, though he seemed a lot better since they had left Child of Harmony behind. Mental toughness was a defining attribute the regiment looked for in its recruits, and every viper was tough, but there had to be a limit even for them.

They had all seen friends killed true dead, but Gina had to wonder if it was the wounded that hurt them the most. Vipers could take hideous damage and survive due to their enhancements. Survival was a good thing, but seeing the same faces “killed” and then awake only to be killed again over and over was hard. More than hard; it numbed the mind until death became nothing to them. If death had no meaning, could life have any?

She had seen for herself how different the veteran vipers like the General or Captain Penleigh were to her and the other new units. They—and others like Sergeants Stone and Rutledge—had made the Alliance and the regiment a kind of surrogate for life. They had nothing else to live for, and Gina feared she and the other new vipers were already well on the way to the same destination. Certainly they were on the same path. Was there any alternative?

She didn’t think so, and hoped to God her duty would be enough to comfort her in the years to come as it had up until now. She didn’t have any family. Previously she’d considered her fellow marines all the family she needed and had transferred that feeling to her fellow vipers since. It was a comfortable feeling for her, something that had not changed in her life when everything else, even her body, had.

She frowned as she thought of her eggs in cryo back on Snakeholme. All vipers were sterile, but she had opted to have her eggs harvested before enhancement. She had never planned to have children, and ticking the option on her medical release had been a spur of the moment decision, but now she wondered if perhaps she had unconsciously wanted to leave something of herself behind when she died true dead. Something other than disembodied memories in the regiment’s archive.

Gina shook her head and forced the morbid thoughts away. She was a soldier, and that is all she had ever wanted to be. That had not changed, and she had never wavered from her determination to be the best that she could be. The Merkiaari were Humanity’s ultimate enemy. What better test could she ask for?

Jung’s plan was a simple one as far as Gina and the rest of the regiment was concerned. They were to sit tight and wait for an invitation to join the party. Gina would have preferred getting the party started herself, waiting was the worst part about soldiering, but orders were orders. The General had decided to allow Jung her moment in the limelight by backing her up as a ready reserve. Vipers were always ready for mayhem, but holding back in a reserve position had to be a first for him. Maybe not too. Burgton had been around for centuries after all.

“Faragut-actual, Swordsman-three-niner. The armoury is secured, Colonel.”

“Swordsman-three-niner, Faragut-actual copies. Good work. Hold until relieved,” Colonel Jung replied.

Gina was pleased to hear that. The armoury was one of three priority targets: the command centre, the armoury, and engineering. Other areas of the ship had various degrees of importance assigned to them, but those three were the most dangerous in enemy hands. Engineering was the most dangerous. The ship was probably unable to fly due to damage, and taking control of engineering would ensure that it stayed put regardless, but there was one more thing that a dedicated Merkiaari trooper could do in engineering—overload the power plant. The ship would become a fusion bomb. Not something anyone wanted to see happen. Scuttling the ship could also be achieved via the command centre, but required engineering to accomplish, so it was considered less important. It was flagged as a priority target for two reasons. The Merki commander was probably there directing his troops, and if there was any intelligence to be gained, the ship’s computers were likely to be the best source.

“Faragut-actual, Swordsman-one-one. Engineering is ours. I have all access ways covered, Colonel, but they aren’t giving up. They’re pushing us hard. I’m not certain we can hold for long. Any word on how long to take the command centre, sir?”

“Swordsman-one-one, Faragut-actual. The word is fifteen minutes. Can you hold?”

“Not confident, Colonel. Any help you can send would be appreciated.”

Gina perked up. If Jung sent reinforcements it would be supplied by her and the others. She listened intently as Jung debated and delayed the inevitable until all her people had reported in. Finally, Jung requested aid. Burgton replied and assigned the vipers their targets, but Gina’s command was ordered to hold position.

“Gold-one, Alpha-leader,” Gina began, but the General interrupted.

“Alpha-leader, Gold-one. I know what you’re going to say. Permission denied. Hold position as ordered. This will be over soon and I have something I need you to do for me.”

“Gold-one, Alpha-leader copies. Holding position,” Gina replied, and if she sounded just a little sullen, Burgton did not comment. “Alpha-leader out.”

Hiller was giving her the evil eye. Gina glared back. “What?”

“You know what.”

Gina shrugged uncomfortably.

“Since when do you volunteer for every dangerous job? It’s not like you. What gives?”

“Is that an insult?” Gina said feeling the sting. “I don’t hide from danger.”

“And that’s your problem right there, Gina. Sensible people take precautions and if that means hiding then that’s what they do, but you’ve been sticking your neck out at every opportunity lately. More to the point, you’re sticking my neck out. I don’t like that.”

Gina would have exploded at that accusation if she couldn’t see the worry on his face and hear it in his voice. She always busted her butt to keep her people safe, and then have it thrown back in face... she sighed. Hiller was worried for her, that’s all. Hadn’t she been feeling the same for Cragg, for Gordon, and the others? Yeah, she had.

“Sorry, Ian, it’s just that our people are going into danger and we can’t protect them.
I
can’t protect them.”

“They’re not children, they’re soldiers. They don’t need your protection. Don’t dishonour them or yourself by treating them as less than they are, Gina. They’re good at what they do, we all are. They’ll look after each other... they’ll be fine.”

“Right, you’re right,” Gina said and she had no choice anyway. The General had ordered her to hold here, so she would hold. “I wonder what he meant about a job later.”

“Dunno,” Hiller said and turned back to his observation of the ship.

Gina kept watch and listened to the comm, but it was all as routine as it was possible to be in a combat situation. The vipers engaged the enemy hitting them at multiple locations in the rear. They took very few injuries, no casualties at all, and Gina had to put up with Hiller’s
I told you so
look. She was happy to do it.

“All units, Faragut-actual. Ship secured. Well done people,” Colonel Jung said.

Gina sighed and rolled her head on her neck to ease tension. Job done. As far as the regiment was concerned, the Merki incursion of the Shan system had been successfully repulsed. There was nothing more to do but clean up. The Shan would handle that, while the Alliance went to phase two—defence of the outer system while reconstruction got underway. No one had brought Gina into the loop regarding the regiment’s next step, but her guess was that it would board
Grafton
and jump outsystem back to base.

Aboard shuttle victor-one, on route to Zuleika spaceport.

Gina was right regarding the regiment, but she had one more mission to perform before they all left for home. At the end of the Child of Harmony campaign, Gina had made a very special promise to a friend. She hadn’t been able to make good on that promise at the time, but she had brought it to the General’s attention soon after she had obligated herself and the regiment, in case she didn’t survive to make good. The General had remembered, and now she was on her way by his side to Child of Harmony aboard a shuttle—a loner from
Victorious
. Captain Fernandez had agreed to be their taxi and had given them a day trip aboard
Victorious
to Child of Harmony orbit while
Grafton
used her shuttles and dropships to retrieve the regiment and its gear from Harmony.

“... with us to Snakeholme. Do you think she’ll agree?” Burgton said.

Gina frowned. “Has she given us reason to think she won’t?”

Burgton cocked his head and pursed his lips. “Noooo, but I don’t think it’s been explained to her yet. Professor Wilder has visited a time or two, and he contacted me about her. He tells me that she’s not coping well.”

Gina nodded in understanding. “You remember her, sir? She was the one who planted the transmitter on the Merkiaari heading for our base at Charlie Epsilon. That’s how she was blinded. When the nukes went off, she was too close. Flash blinded.”

Burgton nodded.

“All her life she’s known that she would go blind. Her mother was in an accident and it did something bad to her insides. Her cubs were born dead except two. Chailen is fine, but Shima had weak eyes. The visor she used to wear helped, but it was just a stop gap.”

“So she has feared blindness her entire life. Is she phobic?”

“I’m no medic, sir, but I would say yes.”

“Hmmm. This might be a problem,” Burgton said. “If she’s given up, she’s of no use to me. Don’t look at me like that!” Burgton snapped and Gina’s face cleared. “I don’t mean to abandon her. You promised and I will honour that promise, but there are more ways to skin a cat... forgive the pun. Shima could go to any core world for treatment. She doesn’t need me for that.”

“But... okay, I can see that. Are we to be just a taxi then?”

“That remains to be seen. I’m expecting quite a reception committee when we make planet fall at Zuleika, but I doubt any of them will see Shima purely as a friend. I want you to be that friend and advise her, but in the end, this is about more than a promise to one Shan female, Gina. It’s the true beginning of our dealings with the Shan.”

“By ours you mean the Alliance?” Gina asked, but she had a feeling he meant something more personal.

“The Alliance certainly. The regiment is part of the Alliance, but I was thinking more along the lines of the regiment and by extension Snakeholme. I’m hoping to turn your personal promise to one needy person into something more substantial and official. To be blunt, I need Shima on Snakeholme, or Shan at least.”

“Need her. Need her why, for what?”

“Study.”

Gina didn’t like the sound of that. “She has fought for us—”

Burgton stopped her with a raised hand. “Nothing invasive. To fix her eyes we’ll need to do a full medical work up. Regen needs data at the DNA level, but even if we can’t use regen, there are other options.

“Gina, you’ve heard how infallible I am? How I’m always right, how I predict events?”

She blinked at the seeming subject change. “Well, yes sir, but—”

“But you’re not a believer. Good for you. You’re right of course. I make mistakes, hopefully not too many, but there is some truth to the stories. I run constant simulations and programs, trying to predict events. Some in my head, some under the mountain on Snakeholme. They’ve kept the regiment ahead of the game until recently.”

“But now there are new factors, sir? Like the Shan,” Gina said finally catching on. “You need to understand how they’ll change things.”

“Correct. I predicted a fresh Merki incursion to hit the Alliance within five years, but here we are fighting them years early. Not only that, errors have been slipping into my calculations for a few years now. Nothing disastrous yet, but my ability to predict matters is being seriously tested. Too many variables.”

The regiment had relied upon the General to know what to do for centuries. Its numbers had been kept low by Council edict, and because of that, Burgton couldn’t simply station vipers on every world that might need them. He’d had to keep the regiment consolidated and ready to move out from Snakeholme, and to do that, he’d had to be right about where to send them and what to do when they got there.

“I’m assuming this isn’t to become general knowledge,” Gina said.

“Correct again. I might bring Shima into our confidence later. It depends. For now, we’re meeting Professor Wilder and whoever is with him at Zuleika for a conference. From there we visit Shima to see what her plans are.”