Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon (10 page)

“Or,” Alan said, “we could do like the uh,
private
here suggested and they can stay with us. Private Connors having passed away from his injuries, and the other ran off into the desert in his grief. I think it should be their choice. I would like you both to be there to witness that decision.”

“We should get Doc Adams in on it too, for independent verification. But what do we do about their bodies? We will want the remains returned to us for proper burial.” The Major was warming to the idea.

“The bodies can be replicated. Since they won’t be alive, it won’t matter. They will be identical to the originals in every sense except they won’t be alive, and they will have the injuries consistent with their supposed cause of death. Even genetic testing won’t be able to tell the fakes from the originals,” Alan suggested.

“Let’s do this now, before the brass gets here and wants to see the body. I’ll run and get the medic and send my second out here to meet the General. You two should run straight in, make it look like an emergency,” Dentin suggested.

Alan looked at the agent for agreement and received a nod. Alan raised his hand to the communicator in his ear. “Andreya, can you wake Connors up? We need to talk to him and the other soldier.”

“He’s already awake and eating his breakfast with his friend. Is something wrong?” was the reply.

“Yeah, you could say that. We will be running back to the ship as if Connors is dying. Don’t do anything that will counter that. We’re on our way.” Alan turned to the other two men; “Are you ready?” They both nodded; “Let’s go!” He turned and broke into a run for the
Poseidon
.

The Major turned sharply for the pavilion calling for the medic and his second in command, Captain Hansen.

They stayed in the cargo area of the ship waiting for the Major and Chief Adams. Very shortly both men came pounding around the corner and up the ramp into the ship. Alan nodded to them and led the way into the living area.

There, they found Privates Connors and Lieken eating breakfast with the rest of the Raptor team. Doc Adams was immediately confused and was about to start asking questions when Alan explained what was going on to the two young men.

Lieken turned white but Connors just sighed; “I was afraid of something like this. Commander, I… we appreciate your offer and considering the alternatives, I think we should accept.” He looked at Lieken who nodded his agreement. “Though I’m not very keen on the idea of remaining in here for the next two days.” He smiled and took his friend’s hand. “If time permits, I would like to know what options are available to us in your society.”

“We’ll have to discuss those later, I’m afraid. We have to get the ball rolling on finishing your… deaths. We’ll send a small holo-drone with the image of Private Lieken running off into the desert. Later, we’ll ‘retrieve’ his body as a favor to the Army. Private Connors, we will of course surrender your mortal remains immediately. Since Private Connors is still on bed rest, we can obscure our preparations from him; however, there is only room for one in there. Lieken, you will have to go up to the cockpit with Stacy for a while.” Alan got a small earpiece communicator from the replicator for each of the young men. “Place one of these in your ear so we can call you when the ruse is finished.”

Stacy offered the young man her hand and Connors climbed slowly back into the autodoc unit.

The ruse went as planned. General Arlen Irons arrived while Alan and Major Dentin were handling the 'emergency'. The Captain Major Dentin sant out to greet the General explained the situation to the new arrivals while escorting them back to the pavilion.

When Alan, the medic and Major Dentin returned to the Pavilion, the NSA agent posing as a solder and Kevin carried the body of Private Connors on the stretcher followed them.

"What happened to him, Doc?" the General asked of Chief Adams.

"He suffered internal injuries as a result of an ill considered attack on these people. I would have sent him back on the helicopters, but the damn spooks grounded them! By the time we figured out he needed more help than we could give him, it was too late for even the Terrans to save him. They did try, Sir. If we could have gotten him to them even ten minutes sooner I think he might have made it," the man replied.

"I'd heard about the attack, but not the casualties. Damn NSA over-stepping authority again! I'll make sure the right people know this happened, Chief." He turned to Alan. "Thank you for trying to save him. It never should have happened and I apologize for that, Colonel."

Alan nodded to the man. "We did try to warn them. Hell, Major Dentin did the best he could, but the spooks forced him into it. By the by Sir, while my rank is that of a colonel,  I'm addressed as 'Commander' since I am the commander of a base. Welcome to Williams Fighter Base General."

"I would have wished for better circumstances for my arrival, Commander, but thank you." He gestured in the direction the dead soldier had been taken. "Since we're all here, there have been some new orders issued for you and your unit, Major Dentin. Due to classified circumstances which I will brief you on later, Lieutenant Colonel Hewes has been transferred to another unit. You have been promoted to the rank of full Colonel and this unit is to become an advanced combined arms regiment stationed here. We will be getting more people, but half the unit will be Terran Marines and we will be using Terran equipment. You're Executive Officer will also be Terran."

"Sir, how did I get promoted two ranks?" Dentin asked.

"Honestly, I think it was a combination of things, but mostly it was a case of being in the right place at the right time as well as having the right attitude for what we need. I'm also led to understand that Admiral Williams asked for you," the General replied.

"Admiral Williams? How does he even know my name?" Dentin asked.

"That might be my fault, Colonel. In my incident report I credited you with minimizing casualties during that attack and trying to control the stupidity of the intelligence agents," Alan replied.

The General nodded. "You did very good work here Dentin. Now, in addition to the new unit, you will also be functioning as my second. This base is going to be permanent, Colonel. Our people as well as their families are being moved here as we speak. Our combat teams will be the only part of this base dedicated to ground defense. There will also be a full squadron of Air Force personnel assigned here as well."

"This sounds like a pretty major restructuring, Sir," Dentin said.

"It is, what we are doing here is completely new, for us it'll be an experiment in force deployment. We'll be learning the ropes from the Terrans who are already structured like this. The other fighter bases around the world will be doing something similar. For now, we will be considered a UN force under the command of Terran Defense. Eventually, we will probably become a fully Terran unit," the General explained.

Alan shrugged. "With respect Sir, almost half of our forces are from this planet. We consider all of you to be Terrans already. It's one of the primary reasons we never engaged your forces; we considered it firing on friendly forces."

"I think we're starting to figure that out, Commander. That's the reason for these changes," the General said.

"Well, if you gentlemen will follow me, I'll show you to your quarters. The base is mostly complete, with only a few things left to finish. As you can see the Command and Administration building is finished. Below that are the command staff living areas.

"Because of the nature of this base, most of the residential and commercial facilities have been built underground as well. All the residential areas are connected by a long, wide hallway that also services the commercial facilities. Although there are many emergency escape routes out of the warren, it will be possible to live indefinitely down there without ever stepping foot on the surface."

"I think that's going to be pretty hard on a lot of folks Commander, especially our civilians. The kids as well as the adults will need to come out and play in the sun every now and then," the General said.

Alan smiled. "We used 'hostile planet' design methods for the base General. I think you'll see what I mean once we get down there. What your talking about isn't new, over the centuries there have been a great many psychological enhancements made for underground living. Not the least of which was the liberal application of holographic technology."

"Excuse me Sirs," Andreya spoke for the first time. "Commander, the Admiral is calling for you."

"Thank you, Andreya," Alan replied. "Gentlemen, Officer Andreya will show you to the residential area. If you'll excuse me,  I'll see what the Admiral needs and catch up to you."

When the men agreed, Andreya led the group into the building. Alan watched them go, then leaned back against the wall and accepted the call.

"Sorry to bother you again, Alan, but there have been some changes," Ian said by way of greeting.

"I gathered that much from listening to General Irons, Sir," Alan replied smiling. "I take it we're basically recruiting everyone here?"

Ian nodded. "And then some. Everyone coming to that base is to be treated as if they have been recruited; soldiers and their families alike. If we survive this shit intact, they will all be joining us."

"I don't mean to complain Sir, but there are six of us down here and we need to get other facilities built before the battle. I'm already two days behind schedule with the additions to the base," Alan explained.

"I figured as much, that's why I've arranged some help," Ian said grinning like a shark. "You're AI's last report had you at ninety one percent complete for the base. So, the new command staff and a battalion of Marines are departing Atlas as we speak. I've already sent the alert to the fighter wings and they should begin arriving late this evening. Between the base command staff and the Marines, they should be able to handle the processing of the rest of the people. With any luck at all, you should be out of there as soon as the fighters arrive."

"That is good news Sir, I've gotten a few reports that there have been some gang problems with the west coast installations," Alan replied. "It would appear that they are not happy with our giving the police better weapons and armor."

"You think that's bad? The ACLU and several other groups are already trying to block that based on the whole police brutality issue. We've countered with the fact that every action made by police while on duty is recorded for later review; if anything like those shootings happens again, it'll all be on record. Add to that the fact that the police are not going to have lethal weapons anymore and it pretty much takes all the wind out of their sails," Ian explained. "I'm sure the gang issue will take care of itself."

"Okay, I better catch up to the General and Andreya. So the base commander and his staff should be getting here in about five hours?" Alan asked.

"Yeah, by the way, the new commander is Benesian. So are about half the Marines coming down. Officially, the base is going to be the home of the 18th Regimental Strike Group. The whole unit will share that designation. Incidentally, after it all shakes down, they will have the same compliment as the carrier-class ship
Tiamat
and her future sister ships."

"I had no idea it was going to be that big. Are the other bases going to be the same?" Alan asked.

"Yeah, once they get used to the new system, we'll start shifting personnel around to help them lose more of their ingrained nationism. If we survive the fight, two of the units will be reassigned to ships, and the base decommissioned. Ah, okay, Alex just told me that Commander T'dran and staff just left Atlas. They'll be there in four hours. That means I'll make sure the fighters arrive in six hours. With any luck at all, you should be clear of that base in eight hours," Ian said. "If you ignore the gangs, where are you scheduled to go next?"

"Northern Patagonia; a village called General Roca in Argentina. They're letting us take have their airport provided we still allow civilian flights. I'm led to understand their troops are already there and waiting for us to arrive," Alan replied.

"Ah, yeah, Argentina was one of the first countries to accept us. They should be helpful and friendly, but I wouldn't take any chances. Now that I know where your going, I'll make sure the fighters and troops are ready to go. Three days?" Ian asked.

"That should be right, Sir. After that we'll need to check on some of the other installations on the continent before we head out to the next fighter base. I'll make sure Alex is kept in the loop," Alan replied.

"Which reminds me, how are the Pacific defenses coming? I don't remember seeing mention of them in the reports," Ian asked.

The three platforms in the south Pacific are almost complete. Kwajalien and Hawaii are finished, but Midway Island got delayed by weather. It should be online by the end of the week though.

"Excellent, thanks a lot and keep up the great work Alan. Every installation you get finished means more people will survive," Ian said, praising Alan's efforts.

"Thank you Sir," Alan replied, smiling.

Alan found Andreya with General Irons and Colonel Dentin in the General's quarters. The rest of the group had been dropped off at their quarters with holograms of Andreya explaining how to use the different amenities in the living quarters.