EDEN (The Union Series) (26 page)

‘I know that, Sir.’ I
had watched Union bombs dropped onto a city from orbit during the New Earth
invasion, so I had seen first-hand what we as an army were capable of. Any
civilians caught up in the battle were seen as collateral damage, but I had
never seen a human tragedy like the butchered people of Aasha village. ‘But we
don’t actually aim at them,’ I added.

‘No. Just make sure you
keep a check of your section morale. We will still be working with the FEA -
and the Guard - despite the information you’ve provided. You do realise that?’

I realised that the
sergeant major wasn’t just checking to see if my men were OK, he was more concerned
about me. I looked down at the ground. ‘I know,’ I said sadly.

‘The Union doesn’t
care about Dakar,’ he continued, ‘it’s just another town in a rogue state. You
must try to think about the bigger picture. Our objective is to end this war
before another much larger war begins.’

I sighed deeply
before lifting my head again. ‘I know. It just seems that we’re getting involved
in something very dirty just to appease a fleet hanging around in space
somewhere.’

He stared at me for a
while. ‘The world we live in is cold, hard and cruel.’ He turned his head up to
the sky. ‘Sometimes I look around me and I wonder, with a universe of unlimited
bounty, what it is that we are fighting each other for?’

He reached for his
rifle and patted his bayonet. ‘Look at this blade. It hasn’t changed for
hundreds of years. It might be made of lighter materials, but the functions are
the same - the blood channels prevent suction from making it stick, and the
curve on the end parts the ribs. It’s an evil-looking weapon, but it serves a
purpose - it’s designed to kill. You have a purpose, Corporal Moralee, but
killing is such a small part of your job. You are a leader, placed in this
platoon to lead those men - your men - in their most difficult hour.’

I studied the blade
on my rifle, its surface glinting in the shafts of sunlight that broke through
the canopy. ‘My men think I’m mad,’ I said quietly.

He laughed as if what
I had said was absurd. ‘Your men worship you like a hero. Lance Corporal
Moralee, Union Star, they’ve all heard your citation.’

‘What about Gritt?’

‘He’d probably be
dead if it wasn’t for you.’

I looked at the
sergeant major. ‘I thought you disagreed with my decision to extract?’

‘Maybe I do, but I
wasn’t there. Only you can say that you made the right decision.’ He paused,
‘Did you?’

I thought about it, and
then finally nodded.

The sergeant major
held up his hands. ‘Then there is your answer. It doesn’t matter what I think.
The point is you made a call, and you got everyone out alive. Do you know why I
gave you a section right away?’

I shook my head. ‘Why?’

‘Your report from New
Earth. I read it - ‘Tough, intelligent, a natural leader with the courage of a
lion’ - it was me who put you in charge of your section. I choose who commands
the sections in my platoon, and if I thought you weren’t up for the job, even
for a second, I’d sack you on the spot.’ He studied me for a minute, before he
continued, ‘I sense so much pain in you, Moralee, like you carry the weight of
the world upon your shoulders. But now I sense that pain has turned into
despair. I’m worried about you.’

‘I’m alright, Sir.’

He didn’t look
convinced. ‘The world is full of suffering, Andy. It’s up to you to find a
meaning within the suffering.’

Our conversation was
cut short by the boss, walking over to us with a face like thunder. ‘I’ve just
had our answer back from brigade: no change to the plan. Close in the
commanders, we’re going into Dakar.’

We crowded around the
holographic image of Dakar that hovered above the platoon signaller’s portable
projector, just as Mr Barkley prepared to deliver his orders. He had gathered
us while the rest of the platoon slept, including Yulia and the other liaison
officers. They had found somewhere to rest away from us - and probably to
discuss their plans in secret. We used the opportunity to do the same.

There was an
exchanged look of alarm when Mr Barkley explained what had happened during my
patrol, and about how one of our liaison officers had picked up a group of guardsmen
to track down and kill my section.

‘Dakar is a city
built inside a particularly large asteroid crater,’ he began, ‘and is one of
the oldest cities on the planet. By building inside the crater, the original
settlers created a large breathable atmosphere, stretching a sheet of plastic
across it, and installing large filters similar to those used in our own
respirators. Since then the city has evolved, and now the roof is suspended by
a series of metal struts, which are the connected to a central hub.’

The rotating city
took the appearance of a gigantic wheel, with four large white spokes that
spanned the crater, connecting to the hub at its centre. The hub itself was a
wide circular structure, held aloft by a single metal spire that pierced
through the roof and towered several hundred metres above the city. A wide road
encircled the crater, and a network of roads and maglev rails entered the
crater through tunnels cut into the ground. To the south of the city, a wide
river cut through the hills, headed southeast as it made its way to join onto
the Ghandi tens of kilometres away. Several bridges had been built over the
river, designed to carry vehicles, trains and pedestrians. Beside one of the
maglev bridges, a large train depot stored hundreds of carriages, ready to
transport people and supplies across the Bosque. The surrounding hills were
dotted by windmills, factories and farms that supplied its inhabitants with all
they needed to survive. It was an impressive sight - a modern, advanced city
that had been built long before the population of Eden had turned upon one
another, somehow surviving the endless war that had raged across the planet
ever since. I wondered if it would survive the coming battle.

‘As we know, the
Loyalists took control of the city during the first few weeks of the conflict,
and have since turned it into a key staging point for their operations into
Edo. It is strategically placed to enable their artillery to strike at targets
all the way up to the Ghandi River, as well as providing anti-aircraft defence
to deny FEA freedom of movement. The city also provides a logistical hub, and
it is believed that tonnes of ammunition and equipment pass through it every
day.’

He stopped the image
from rotating with an outstretched finger, then pointed at several locations within
the hills surrounding it. ‘There are a number of defensive positions outside of
the city, taking advantage of the high ground surrounding it. Of particular
interest are three anti-aircraft batteries, here, here, and here. Each battery
is comprised of four to five Russian-built missile systems, dug into burrows of
unknown depth. It is these batteries in particular that render the area around
Dakar almost impossible to approach by dropship, denying the FEA their
mobility. Normally we would simply call in bombs, saucers, or our own
artillery, but clearly we can’t do that here.

The city itself
contains a railgun battery, firing out of the roof which has been removed. The
battery is ideally placed within the city, since unlike the missile launchers
it needs to be moved around to align onto different targets and therefore
cannot be dug into a burrow. In addition, the city is garrisoned by at least a
company of Loyalist soldiers, equipped with robotic Light Support Vehicles, and
powered suits.

The complicating
factor here is the FEA, and most notably the Presidential Guard - who appear to
be preparing a separate assault onto Dakar. We believe that the Guard plan to
beat the FEA to the prize, and punish the population for co-operating with the
Loyalists. Eden Joint Command is worried that such an act might be
misinterpreted by the Alliance. They want the war ended quickly and with as few
civilian casualties as possible, so that they can keep their hands clean. It’s
believed that if the FEA take the city first, it will create a stalemate from
which the Guard will be forced to back down. The Guard represent the will of
the President and the government of Edo, but the FEA generals and political
supporters are also powerful.

Our mission remains
the same - to assist the FEA in recapturing Dakar and restoring the border -
but we now we have the added time pressure. What we need to do is provide the
lubrication to speed up their assault, thereby clearing the city before the
Guard arrive to do their dirty work. Dakar will be a tough nut to crack. On
their own, the FEA will manage to take it, but at the expense of many lives,
both civilian and military. We will minimise that by striking at key areas
where the nut is weakest, leaving them to split it open.

Initially the
anti-aircraft systems must be destroyed, providing the FEA free use of their
dropships without restriction. That will be achieved by a simultaneous assault
by us and our sister platoon from six battalion, with us striking at the single
battery to the west, and them taking the two to the east. Concurrently to this,
several companies of dismounted FEA infantry will seize the high ground around
the city. As soon as we have destroyed all three anti-aircraft batteries, we
will report to brigade that the dropship battalions are clear to move in,
encircling the city with a ring of steel, and cutting it off from
re-enforcement. Brigade will contact the FEA command directly to ensure that
the message is passed. Clearly our liaison officers should be passing the
information, but as you know, they are all of the Presidential Guard
themselves, so we cannot trust their loyalty. They might choose not to pass the
information straight away, purposefully scuppering their own operation so that
the secret army can move in instead.’

‘Would they do that
to their own soldiers?’ Corporal Abdi asked. ‘If they don’t block off the city
then they’re at risk of counter attack.’

The boss nodded. ‘I
agree, that is a risk, but clearly the Presidential Guard is pursuing its own
agenda. They will be happy to let us destroy the anti-aircraft systems, and
move in with their own dropships afterwards. They want Dakar first. Be under no
illusion here, the Guard have happily wiped out entire villages that have
co-operated with the Loyalists, so I doubt they care how many soldiers die in a
botched attack on Dakar.’

The small command
group was silent as we all absorbed the information and what it meant for us.
We were fighting against a brutal enemy - the Loyalists - but at the same time
our allies were divided into two groups, one of which was as brutal, if not
worse than the enemy we were fighting. The worst part was that members of that
organisation were embedded into our platoon, one of whom had been working
alongside me.

It angered me that
Yulia might be somehow connected to the killing in Aasha, as though both she
and the other liaison officers were a face that I could put onto the evil that
swept across the west. I felt betrayed by her. We might not have got on, but I
had felt as though we had developed an uneasy respect for one another. Now that
was lost, and I found myself wondering if Yulia knew that Makito had been sent
to kill me and my men. Did she send him herself? And what would she do when the
fighting started - would she try to kill me again?

‘It’s messy,’ Mr
Barkley said, as if reading my mind. He pointed off to the north. ‘You need to
understand that there is an enemy out there, but also possibly one from within
as well. While the FEA encircle the city we will move into a position from
which we can provide assistance to their assault. We will do that by taking the
high ground, namely the roof …’

He pointed at the
four spokes of the wheel. ‘These supporting structures are designed to allow
service vehicles to cross over the roof and perform maintenance tasks. They’re
wide enough to allow us to move onto them under cover, taking up positions from
which we can fire down into the streets below, engaging key targets that might
slow the FEA advance. We’re looking for heavy weapons, communication equipment
and command centres.’

We listened as the
platoon commander laid out his plan, detailing how the two multiples that made
up the platoon would split from one another immediately after the attack onto
the battery, heading toward the two southerly spokes. There they would drop off
a single section, tasked with creating an initial fire support group, whilst
the remaining sections moved toward the hub, selecting a position to drop off
snipers and smart launchers to rain fire down onto the city. Once we felt that
we had no more to add from the roof, we would drop off our snipers and then
fast rope down into Dakar to continue our assistance if required.

‘Having taken the
city,’ he concluded, ‘it’s assessed that the FEA command will responsibility
for it, and that the Guard will leave them alone. Just like we can’t afford to
face a war with the Alliance with China breathing down our necks, neither can
Edo afford a civil war with the threat of the Loyalists. That’s the plan,
anyway ....’

‘And if they don’t
leave them alone?’ I interrupted.

Mr Barkley regarded
me gravely. ‘We can’t take on the Presidential Guard. We withdraw, watch from a
distance, and wait for the fall out.’