Invasion of Kzarch (3 page)

It wasn’t the most comfortable way of controlling the suits; certainly the surgery to get the implant in hadn’t been! And even after a Marine got used to the sensation, the ‘itch’ the comp caused whenever it was used was quite annoying.

All the various types of battlesuits were also designed to simulate camouflage, the battlesuits covered with a special plastic that could change color with a simple command to the battlesuit’s comp. The plastic was able to manifest any type of camouflage required, whether for snow, city, forest, desert or other.

While using the camouflage systems did create a small power drain, as it was usually not particularly significant, regs stated that when in a combat zone, camouflage was to be maintained at all times.

When not in actual combat, however, the battlesuits simulated a basic black with brown, blue and white highlights, signifying all four areas where Marines operated. In addition, they also displayed rank markers, regardless of the various different camo simulations.

But the main defense of the battlesuit wasn’t its camouflage or even its armor, but rather, its energy shield ‘bubble’. The battlesuit’s shield system allowed the creation of two meters or so wide shield-spheres that were basically uni-directional, which allowed a Marine to fire out of it while being under its protection. As the shields drained a considerable amount power from the battlesuits, as well as making the Marine fairly easy to detect, they were usually only used in open combat.

A further problem with the shields were the way they hampered mobility. While a Marine could still move with his shield active, doing so was difficult and slow, due to the heavy drain on a Marine’s power; which meant that his battlesuit’s ability to function, including the battlesuit’s powered ‘muscles’, were greatly curtailed. And further, the shield had to be ‘pushed’ forward as the Marine proceeded, as the shield’s surface would attempt to refract the air it was touching and being forced against.

One final issue with the shield was the ‘ripple’ it made where it touched the ground. While these at least provided a place for air to enter, they also provided a way for weapons to target the battlesuit’s user without having to penetrate the shield.

Indeed, it was that same ‘ripple’ which had gotten Frank’s foot shot in the second of the only two, now three, engagements he had ever fought. He had to spend a week in physical recovery afterwards, much to his embarrassment and annoyance.

Wincing from the memory, Frank was glad of the distraction his sergeant provided, who was just then comming him.

“Sir?”

“Yes, sergeant?”

“I’ve been thinking… those Blastfires ran too easily.”

“Oh?” Frank’s tone invited the sergeant to continue.

“We only destroyed one of them; then they ran like rabbits.”

“Maybe, but on the other hand,” pointed out the lieutenant, “They didn’t even get one of ours until after they had already turned away. Besides, they’re pirates; and pirates don’t take well to losses. It’s quite likely they didn’t even have large missiles loads; it wouldn’t surprise me if they left simply because they were running low.”

“Maybe, sir.” But the sergeant’s voice was doubtful. Frank suppressed a sigh. Then he was struck by a thought.

“McKain, have the heavies re-supplied themselves?”

“Yes, sir. I instructed them to do so once everyone was back in formation.” The sergeant’s tone held a bit of reproach, making Frank wince.
He
should have remembered to give the order, not simply let his sergeant attend to it.

“I see. Thank you, sergeant.”

“You’re welcome, sir.” With that, McKain closed the channel. Sighing to himself, Frank once more turned to the planet.

Chapter Two

Forty minutes later, and the platoon was making atmospheric entry. The original plan had called for them to pause before doing so, and attempt to contact the planetary authorities. With that accomplished, the Marines would ask them for a landing location, and perform a soft, slow re-entry.

But after the Blastfire attack, the plan required…
modification
.

Frank attempted to hail the planet several times, just in case, but had, at the same time, ordered his platoon to prepare for a hot entry.

Basically, the entire platoon would fling itself at full speed through the atmosphere, and to a landing of the
lieutenant’s
choosing, irregardless of what the planetary authorities might say. After all, they may have been compromised.

That
particular contingency didn’t matter, however, as, in the end, they couldn’t contact anyone at all… Which was odd, to say the least.

“All right, people,” the lieutenant said grimly, after waiting for a moment past his last, final attempt to hail Kzarch. “We’re going in hot. And, metaphorically speaking, blind. We have
no
idea what’s going on down there. Keep your eyes open and your wits about you! I want to know the
instant
we find out something.” He paused a moment.

“Begin entry in thirty-two, thirty-one…” Frank keyed in the automatic counter to take over for him, and waited the remaining seconds impatiently.

Leaning forward, as the count hit ten, Frank commanded his battlesuit through his comp implant to prepare to generate a large thrust. At zero, it did so.

The impact made him feel as if an elephant had smashed him against the back of his battlesuit, but he managed to shove off the feeling, and concentrate on controlling his steadily accelerating fall. The battlesuit would take care of most of it, but some things required a more human touch.

The platoon had spread out into a much more scattered formation, in order to give more room in-between each member, to prevent accidents, as well as lowering the chance of a missile managing to take out a large number of them. It also made themselves less noticeable to sensors than they would as a close group, which should hopefully prevent missiles from being a problem in the first place.

Getting steadily deeper into the atmosphere, Frank shut down the visual in his helmet in favor of a computer generated plot. With the flames that had begun to gather around his battlesuit blocking off his view, he was better off without it.

The next few minutes, though boring in a way, were also filled with tension. Although there was little to see or do, there was a definite chance they’d be attacked mid-fall, which could be a disaster. Descending the way they were, at high speed, dealing with intense friction heat, and with sensors confused by both the former, they were hardly capable of putting up a real defense.

Fortunately, the planetary entry was completed without incident, taking only just over two minutes and a half to accomplish. A mile above the ground, the platoon engaged their battlesuits’ ‘brakes’ (Frank was smashed against the
front
of his this time.), and reformed into a closer unit moments before hitting the ground.

All was quiet. For a moment, anyway. Then Sergeant McKain began bawling into the troops.

“Javer, get your scouts moving! I want this area secured
ten minutes
ago! Everyone, activate your camouflage and ECM! Move it, before you get a shot up yer ass! Kate, have your squad ready to shoot down any incoming!
Move
it, people! Abe, I want your squad taking point behind the scouts! We’re heading north to the city! Move out!”

The whole platoon was in motion, in a seeming mess of confusion. Within seconds though, they had steadied out, and were moving forward.

Over the com, Frank said dryly, “Thank you, sergeant.”

“Just anticipating your orders, sir!”

The lieutenant gave a snort, and shut the channel. After all, what else could he say?

Running swiftly, Frank mentally reviewed the situation. He had chosen a landing spot near one of the planet’s few cities, more of a town to be truthful. While he could have tried to set the platoon down near the planet’s main city, which also contained their one and only spaceport, the lieutenant had felt such a move would be… ill-advised. If there was any city on the planet the pirates would’ve wanted to take, and
must’ve
taken, that would’ve been the one.

The thing about the current situation though, was that they had no intel. Had the pirates taken over the planet? Were they still hiding? Had they perhaps been attacking the population? What forces did the pirates have, aside from five Blastfires, and a deceased sixth one?

Well, hopefully the town ahead, apparently named High Cliff, would give some answers.

***

“Well, McKain?”

“I…
think
its clear, sir.” The sergeant was obviously somewhat reluctant. “The town’s suffered some damage, yes, but it’s not recent. Well, within the last week, anyway. While I imagine the town’s population was… decimated, there should still be some people left.”

‘Decimated’ is perhaps a bit much,
thought the lieutenant, looking over the town, which, yes, had been built on top of a cliff. While the town showed the black circles of a missile attack, there weren’t
that
many of them. At any rate, the town seemed fairly quiet.

“Okay. Let’s move in. I want s-squad split, and checking out the town as we go.”

“If I may suggest…” Javer broke in. “Perhaps into teams, sir? We’ll be more effective in smaller groups, and we shouldn’t need more than one back-up.”

Frank considered a moment, then mentally shrugged.

“Works for me. See to it, sergeant.”

“Yes, sir!”

Moving cautiously, their scout squad leading, the platoon moved into town.

***

I don’t deserve this.

That was Mayor Tho’mas’s constant refrain to herself. To be fair, it wasn’t like she did. She had led a blameless life –well, aside from a few minor items here and there- and had been quite proud of her mayorship. Indeed, she had been looking forward to the next election, where she confidently expected to defeat her opponent by an even greater margin than before.

Then the pirates came.

They had strafed her beloved city, and had threatened to destroy it completely unless she complied with their demands… which she had, if reluctantly.

She had hoped that once they had what they wanted, the pirates would
leave;
but no, they remained on the planet like spiders on a web, occasionally jiggling a strand of it to provide what they wanted.

Every day, Mayor Tho’mas had to wonder if it was going to be her last. To wonder if she could provide whatever new thing it was the pirates wanted. If she could survive
disappointing
them.

I don’t deserve this,
the mayor thought again, tiredly, turning to her secretary.

“Tina, could you get me another cup?”

“What? What? Coffee? Right. Right. Wait… Wait a second.”

The mayor suppressed a shake of her head, as her assistant left the office that served as the center of the city’s operations. Tina had been one of those who hadn’t taken the pirates’ arrival well.

It won’t take much to send the poor girl into hysterics again,
the mayor thought, conveniently forgetting that the ‘girl’ was older than she was.

Mayor Tho’mas was rustling through the papers on her desk, looking for nothing in specific, when she heard a sudden outcry.

“WHA-! P-P
-PIIRAATES
! PI-
RATESSS!
AAAAAAH!”

Oh dear, what set her off
this
time?
The mayor was heading to the door, when a figure appeared in it.

The over six-foot figure, wearing a battlesuit camouflaged in city colors, was holding a weapon, which, the mayor noticed in sudden relief, was
not
pointed at her.

“Who- who are you?” Despite her secretary’s outcry, Mayor Tho’mas highly doubted that whoever-this-was was a pirate. Few pirates could afford or use battlesuits, and the pirates had always commed before, whenever they had come.

The figure cocked its head slightly, then its helmet split. A visor popped out, and slid up, revealing a slightly hard face, younger than it’d prefer to look.

“I’m Lieutenant Harsmith of the United Federation Marines. Do I have the honor of addressing the, ah, mayor of this town?”

Mayor Tho’mas went limp in relief.

“You’ve finally come!”

“Ah. So you knew we were coming?”

“Knew? No. Hoped, yes. I am Mayor Tho’mas.” The mayor slid into her chair, as much as out of the release of tension as anything else.

“Of course, after the planet’s governor sent the distress message aboard the
Spacewind
we knew that the military would respond eventually, but-”

“Wait,
Spacewind
?” The lieutenant’s puzzlement was obvious.

“What? You mean you didn’t get the message?”

“There was no specific message, as far as I’m aware. We received a report from a merchant ship, the
Trudger
, that they had heard pirates had been seen landing and hiding themselves on the planet. My platoon was sent to secure the situation.”

“The…
Trudger
? Wait, yes, there
was
such a ship here two months ago… And it was about then that the pirates arrived…” Then the mayor was suddenly struck by something.

In a fearful tone, she asked, “Ah, you said… that you had a platoon? How… How many soldiers is that?”

“Sixty-two, ma’am. Although we did lose a Marine on our way in, to a Blastfire.”

“Sixty? Just
sixty
?” Mayor Tho’mas’s voice sank into a whisper.

“Is there something
wrong
, mayor?” The lieutenant’s voice was slightly chilly. Behind him, another battlesuited figure appeared; Sergeant McKain.

“Captain-”

“Lieutenant.”

Ignoring him, the mayor continued, “-the pirates have three spaceships, over a dozen gunboats and several thousand men.
You
have a mere sixty.”

For a second, the lieutenant was nearly as shocked as she was. From what little his briefing had said, the implication had been of only
one
ship; which had meant he had been assuming that the pirates would only have several hundred or so men. A thousand at most. The Blastfire attack as they headed in system had convinced him his numbers were on the low side, but nothing like
this
.

Then he rallied. Or tried to at least. After all, he had already expected to be outnumbered, so, really, it didn’t matter much one way or the other. At least, that’s what he tried to persuade himself of.

“Be that as it may, Ms. Mayor, I have my duty to perform. If possible, I ask that you share any possible information on and of the pirate scourge.” Frank heard a snort over the com from his sergeant, and gave a mental wince. He always tended to get overly stilted when nervous.

“What? You can’t
seriously
expect to-”

“I can, and
do
, Mayor Tho’mas. I know my duty.” She stared at him.

“…As you will,” the mayor said in tired defeat. Mayor Tho’mas then proceeded to tell them of what she knew. It wasn’t much.

After landing, and with the care that they had taken in doing so keeping all but one ship from being detected, the pirates had remained hidden for a time, the quiet lulling the planet into thinking it had just been a false alarm. So it had been nearly a complete surprise, when, six days after they were first detected, the pirates had abruptly swarmed the planet’s capital city over.

Admittedly, it hadn’t been difficult. Kzarch barely had any defenses, and certainly none up to the job of taking on a powerful pirate force.

Once they had seized the capital city, Newholm, they had killed the governor and anyone who had attempted to resist. Then, they had proceeded to every other city, town and village on the planet, systematically making sure the Kzarchians knew who the new people in charge were. As they did so, they had also destroyed anything they felt could cause them problems, including any communication towers.

Which meant that any town knew little about what was happening in any other one.

***

“…And so that’s about the size of it,” Frank concluded to his sergeants. He had called a meeting as soon as he had finished talking with the mayor, wanting to discuss the platoon’s next action.

“However, she did say that she thought there was a, ah, ‘guerrilla’ encampment, in the mountains near Newholm.” There wasn’t even a moment of silence, Sergeant Lovel immediately speaking up.