Major Jas-Marchal cursed as another “parcel” announced itself with a “whizzz” as it passed through the compound’s deflector screen followed by a “thunk”.
“Sobody please locate that stone launcher!” He shouted.
All of Raylesh was “restless” today. He had been led to believe, thanks to a welco few days respite, that the proclamation of martial law had cowed the humans into obedience but today they were back to their old tricks.
It was as if the impending arrival of the expeditionary force spurred them into one final act of defiance before several hundred thousand troops would descend upon them forever crushing them into submission.
“whizzz”…. “THWAP”
He flinched despite himself. That one squarely impacted his armored field command vehicle hard enough to make it shake.
He turned upon the sensor operator.
“FIND. IT!” he bellowed.
“I’m trying, Sir,” the technician whined. “It’s an assembly of tal, masonry, and wood in a city comprised of tal, masonry, and wood. Based on the trajectory of the projectile I have a good idea where it is but I do not have its exact location,” the technician said miserably. “If we could just-”
“whizzz”… “THWAP”
“Damn it all!” the major shouted.
“If we could just launch a drone,” the technician continued, “I would be able to quickly-”
“We don’t have any drones left!” the major snapped. “Between their snipers and those accursed drone-hunting drones of theirs one of our sensor drones doesn’t last a minute out there! Use the ballistic calculator and give us a target!”
“The program provided to us by the SDF doesn’t seem to be accurate enough,” the technician replied wincing as he unintentionally said the dreaded acronym.
“Do you an the System Defense Force?” the major hissed. “Proper nonclature is necessary for any successful organization. Just because the local defense forces use such bastardized nonclature is no justification for us to-”
“whizz”… “splsh”
“Activate chemical filtration!” the major yelled (even though the interior was always filtered) as there were shouts outside. “What in the hells was that?!?”
“Ammonia, Sir,” the technician replied. The major snarled. Humans had made the discovery that while they most certainly did not like ammonia, they were much more resistant to it than a lot of Federation species. What was irritated eyes and a coughing fit flavored with barbaric obscenities for them was a trip to ergency dical services for many others. What’s worse, since it had comrcial and industrial uses on this primitive backwater and wasn’t “sufficiently lethal” it could only be classified as a “nuisance” attack instead of the chemical weapon that it absolutely was. He had several n in the hospital thanks to that “nuisance”. He had several more that had been permanently reassigned due to damage to their respiratory organs or eyes.
The major hissed as the yells and screams of his troops as they were donning their protective equipnt could be heard through the armor plating. He didn’t like the humans before this posting. Now, he hated them with every fiber of his being. They had the right idea. Let them all go extinct. It couldn’t happen fast enough in his book.
“Sir, a convoy is approaching,” the technician announced. “It’s SD… It’s the System Defense Force, sir… Um...” the technician said with a wince. “… It’s Captain Devereux, Sir. She is asking to be let in.”
“As if this day couldn’t get more annoying,” the major grumbled. “Let her in. Maybe one of those rocks will hit her.”
The major, wearing a gas mask, exited his vehicle and approached the two ground transports that pulled into his compound. He sneered at them under his mask. Wheels. Their System Defense Force used wheeled vehicles with chanical drivetrains, the primitives.
Captain Devereux hopped out of the lead “five-ton”. The major disliked the na. It was nowhere near specific enough for a military vehicle, even a support transport like those primitive things. He disliked Captain Devereux even more. It was if all the negative stereotypes pertaining to humans had been distilled down into an extract and then poured into a pair of boots. She was crass. She was boorish. She was vile. Everything she said and did scread “human”.
“Phew!” she said holding her nose and saluting. “What is that sll?”
“You know perfectly well what it is, Captain,” he said with great annoyance as he returned her salute. At least she saluted this ti. Normally she didn’t. When he confronted her about it she would always say it was because they were in the “field”. Maybe the approaching fleet was making them at least try to appear the slightest bit professional before they found themselves just directing traffic and hauling supplies in their archaic transports.
There was sothing shiny on her uniform. That was unusual. Normally their uniforms were completely drab and without any of the adornnt that any self-respecting military force would demand. It was as if they took pains to hide any signs of rank or importance. It was very inconvenient. You had little idea who you were dealing with until you were almost close enough to touch them.
“Have you been promoted?” he asked eyeing the large golden pin. It was, like all things human, inherently annoying. It was in the form of a serpent with wings holding a spiral in its teeth. It was laughably inaccurate. No creature could exist with those physical traits. Even if it did exist flight would be impossible. It was no doubt another of their fanciful creations.
“Nah,” she snorted. “Oh you an this,” she said fondly stroking the pin. “It’s just a little sothing I put on for today. It’s the wyrm!”
“A worm?” the major asked with annoyance. “It bears no resemblance to-”
“Not a worm, a wyrm!” she exclaid as strangely dressed people climbed out of the transports. “It’s a tribal emblem. I’m a mber of the Dragons! I just wanted to be sure people knew that today, that’s all.”
“I wasn’t aware that such things were allowed on military uniforms, Captain,” he said with great disapproval.
“Not officially,” she said with a big smile revealing a golden canine tooth, sothing that he absolutely detested. Why would they do that? Don’t they have appropriately hued dental implants? She no doubt lost her natural tooth due to poor hygiene or so drunken brawl, no doubt. “I just felt like showing a little tribal pride today!” she exclaid.
The major made a disapproving snort. He would definitely be informing her superiors, for all the good that would do. He finally looked at the people who were forming up behind her. If her pin and gold tooth were annoying it was nothing compared to the others.
They weren’t wearing anything close to a regulation uniform! They were wearing long white garnts with a large violet cross on the front…
And was that power armor? That was absolutely not allowed for system defense forces, especially human ones! Their charter was quite clear! Human power armor was absolutely forbidden!
“Who are they?” the major demanded.
“Oh, don’t worry about them,” the captain smiled. “I’m just showing the new guys around.”
“Oh worry about them I shall!” the major exclaid. “That is undoubtedly power armor! That is against your charter! I will inform the Federation of this!”
“What do you an?” the captain grinned. “We don’t have power armor in the SDF.”
“Do you dare lie to my face?” the major asked becoming more angry by the second. “That is clearly-”
“Oh those guys? They aren’t SDF,” the captain replied.
“Then who are they?”
“They are the Chos… Oops, sorry,” she grinned. “They are the Penitent, a civilian religious order who have graciously offered to help out today!”
“They must be disard at once!” the major exclaid. “Dangerous equipnt like that should not be in the hands of civilians! And those weapons! Those are clearly military ordnance!”
“Relax, dude,” the captain said with a patronizing laugh, “There isn’t a single thing in this planet’s law books prohibiting civilians from owning power armor, Major, and the weapons are just for religious purposes. That’s old Earth-tech bullshit. They have received special permission to lug around that old obsolete crap for religious reasons. Feel free to check if you want, not that the old stuff poses that much of a threat to a modern Federation security force. Your average Fed trooper packs more firepower, I promise.”
“Oh I will!” the major exclaid with great annoyance and then paused for a mont. “Wait. What, exactly, are you doing here in the first place?”
“Oh I am embedded with these lovely people and we were out distributing als and religious pamphlets when we received orders to seek shelter since the invasion fleet is about to jump in. We figured since this was a major communications center and supply depot that we would be safe here.”
“You an the Federation Expeditionary Force that has been sent to restore order to this creators abandoned system?”
“Yeah, the invasion fleet,” she grinned.
The major snarled but refused to comnt further. It was clear that the captain was baiting him. It was one more thing he was going to add to a long and very strongly worded email to her commander.
“Well, just stay out of the way,” he grumbled and returned to his command vehicle.
“I cannot believe that this actually worked,” one of the Penitent said quietly to Captain Devereux.
“Chaplain,” the captain snickered, “One thing about the Federation is that they just love their goddamn... (sorry)... lists. The Penitent, thanks to your friends on the SDF, just happen to be on the ‘good guy’ list. He’ll check the list, grumble, and then go right back to pulling his pud. Go ahead and take your positions. You will be able to get your Deus Vult on in just a few.”
“And you shall behold the cleansing power of THE LORD, you filthy Void worshiping heathen,” the chaplain said with a chuckle, gently laying his armored hand on Captain Devereux shoulder.
“Looking forward to it you fucking nutcase,” the captain said grinning back at him.
***
The Major stord into his command vehicle and fired up his data interface. It was as the foul captain said. The Penitent were a monastic order devoted to charity and the protection of the innocent and fully cleared by the SDF to operate under their mandate as an “approved auxiliary force”.
The Major curled his mouthparts in distaste. That sounded like a private militia, sothing that was clearly not allowed. He decided to forgo the usual email.
“Technician!” he snapped. “Get in touch with SDF command!”
“Yes, sir… Um, sir, I can’t seem to get through.”
“What do you an you can’t get through?”
“All frequencies seem to be jamd,” he said bracing for an outburst from the major. “It seems to be so sort of music.”
“Well try the secondary channels!”
“Um… they are jamd as well, sir.”
“Technician,” the major said with annoyance. “Your tendency to use the phrase ‘um’ with every breath is very vexing and horribly inefficient. Simply convey the necessary information and then fall silent.”
“Um… Sorry, sir,” the technician winced. “I will do that, sir.”
“See that you do,” the major replied. “What about electromagnetic communication, the ergency communications protocols?”
“U-… they have those jamd as well. Every signal frequency, modulation, or protocol that we have is currently engaged with high-powered transmissions. I can’t get through!”
“Humans...” the major snarled. “They simply must be troubleso to the end. No matter, once the fleet arrives we-”
The door to his vehicle opened and Captain Devereux stepped in.
“Ooo!” she exclaid. “Very nice! I’m going to love having one of these!”
“I don’t recall admitting you into my command post,” the major said with disdain.
“It slls like Mr. Clean jerked off out there,” she replied plopping down in a chair next to the major. “Your guards let in,” she said thumbing the rank on her collar. “I love you Feds! So obedient!”
“I will make a point to properly brief my guardsn,” the major said in annoyance. “Since you are here you can have the privilege of watching order return to your system,” the major said haughtily as he activated his holo display.
The screen was dead.
The captain just snickered.
The major could feel his pulse throbbing in his secondary blood vessels.
“Technician!”
“Um (sorry) sir, as I have said before all frequencies have been jamd. That includes-”
“Well fix it!”
“I can’t...” the technician trailed off under the withering stare of the major. “Yes, sir,” he said miserably. “I’m working on it.”
“Maybe I can help!” the captain said whipping out her tablet. “Here,” she said as she tapped an icon and the system-wide tactical display popped up.
“How?” the major spluttered.
“Oh, we have a little experience dealing with this shit,” she chuckled. “Every two-bit thug has a signal jamr over here.”
The major just hissed. Getting one upped by that poor excuse for an officer was just one more indignity the day had inflicted upon him!
“Oh! Here they co!” the captain said brightly as she idly disengaged the latch on her holster. The major, transfixed by the fleet jumping into the system didn’t notice.
“Damn!” the captain said brightly. “That’s a lot of ships!”
The screen started pulsing rhythmically in a series of long and short pulses. Then, it paused and a few monts later, it started flashing again.
“What’s that flashing?” the major asked.
“Oh, that’s just so interference from all that jamming that’s going on. Don’t worry about it.”
The major was slightly gratified that at least they were having so difficulties. It made the failure of his equipnt slightly less painful.
“Wow!” the captain exclaid. “Four battleships! You guys went all out!”
“It was determined that overwhelming force was called for,” the major said smugly as the captain casually laid her hand on her pistol. “Even you troubleso humans won’t be able to withstand the full force of-”
“Ooo!” the captain exclaid cutting him off. “You want to see this!” she exclaid snatching the tablet and changing the channel.
An image of Jessica Morgan appeared on the screen…
“Of all the insanity!” the major spluttered after her address. “She actually intends to fight? It will be complete and total defeat, a massacre!”
“You got that right,” the captain said smoothly drawing her pistol.
The major’s mouth widened in mute stunned surprise as he looked down the barrel of the captain’s gauss needler.
Zzipzip… Zzipzipzipzipzip… Zipzipzip
The captain calmly and efficiently fired bursts of gauss flechettes into the heads of all of the vehicle’s occupants before they could even react.
The captain pushed the major’s body onto the floor and eased herself into the command chair of her new command vehicle as explosions and screams rocked the compound. She switched to the external caras.
“Daaamnnn...” she grinned. “Deus motherfucking Vult!”
***
In Capital City police Captain Josiah Lossburg stepped out of a mobile tactical center at the edge of the barricades now surrounding the largest of the human enclaves.
He was imdiately mobbed by a throng of riot-gear clad officers.
“Where are the troops?” one of them yelled.
Captain Lossburg, one of the few humans remaining on the force at this point, took a deep breath.
“Guys, the invasion of the human district has been put on hold for now.”
“What?” soone yelled. “They are just going to leave us to those fucking porkies?”
“I know you are just a little stressed so this fucking porkie,” the captain said pointing at himself, “is going to let that one slide this ti. Nobody is getting left to anyone. It’s just that after what has happened elsewhere it has been decided that just marching into human held areas isn’t exactly a good idea, and I happen to agree! We don’t want what’s happened on Raylesh, Zaran or any of a dozen other places re-enacted on our city’s streets do we?”
“So what in the black abyss are we supposed to do?” another police officer yelled.
“We stick to the plan,” the captain replied. “We man the barricades. We turn away all traffic until the area is confird safe. If anyone from inside approaches, we disarm them, scan them, and then either transport them to a diseased or an unexposed containnt area, just like we were briefed.”
“We’re just going to let them run riot in there?”
“Yes,” the captain replied with a sigh. “That’s exactly what we are going to do. As far as the city is concerned this barricade is the town limits. Our jurisdiction ends here until those neighborhoods are made safe again and that’s going to take Federation ground forces, not cops. Personally, I think we got the better end of the deal for once. If you don’t like it I’m sure that you will be able to find a trooper that would love to trade places with you.”
“So the Feds are just hiding like a bunch of nursing pups?” another officer demanded.
“No, the Feds are being smart for once,” the captain replied with a sigh. “All of our caras and sensor posts were ripped down last night and we can’t keep a drone in the air for more than a few seconds before sothing takes it out but we have seen weaponry of all sorts including Terran military hardware moving around in there. Heavy weapons have been spotted, stuff powerful enough to take down a fucking grav-tank. And they do have nukes people! Nukes were used in Raylesh and Zaran as well as in several other systems today. What if they have so of those warheads on the ground, hmm? No. Nobody’s going in there until the whole fucking planet is swept for hidden warheads and we get so solid intel from orbit.”
“So we just stand here with targets on our rectums?”
“If their strategy holds they are only interested in the Feds. They seem to be leaving cops alone if we let them. They aren’t going to reveal a firing position to shoot a cop… probably. Reinforced plating is on the way. Just stay behind it and keep your heads down. They say we will be relieved by Fed forces by the end of the day… hopefully.”
“You think that’s actually going to happen?”
“(Sigh) Does it really matter what I think?” the captain replied wearily. “It won’t change the taste of the shit sandwich one bit. Just… just keep your heads down, do your jobs, and help the citizens if you can. That’s all we can do right now.”
“This sucks!” soone shouted.
“A very sound tactical assessnt,” the captain chuckled. “but look on the bright side. They aren’t sending us in there! Now go and relieve the other poor fuckers stuck with this bullshit… and good luck.”
They cursed and they grumbled but they manned their positions, the captain observed with pride. They were good n and won. He just hoped that they would all be there by this evening.
***
“Hey!” the colonel shouted to everyone in the Zaran Ergency Command Center, “Snap out of it! We are about to have hell itself descend upon us and we are all DEAD if you don’t all pull your heads out of your asses!”
Everyone just looked at him in a stunned haze.
“You!” he shouted at the Kreneel sensor operator. “Get a report! Sothing besides ‘they are all gone’! Soone has to have survived! Escape pods if nothing else! Find them!...”
The Kreneel just looked at him, shaking.
“I SAID MOVE!!!” he shouted.
“Y-yes sir!” she stamred and returned to her station.
“Communications! Get in touch with our field commanders!”
“I can’t” another officer said miserably. “All frequencies are jamd. Our communications procedures-”
“THEN FIGURE SOTHING OUT!” he yelled. “Fucking think! You have a brain! Use it!”
He turned to address the whole room.
“We have to stop following fucking procedures! They know our procedures! That’s been their greatest weapon so far!” he yelled. “Stop being FEDS and start being SMART! We have over a thousand people depending on us! THINK! They WILL be coming for us and I will be DAMD if I just sit here and let them wipe us out without a fight! We have billions of years of evolution in this room! Stop being Feds and start being animals!”
“Drones!” a Reeln shouted. “We use the drones!”
“What? How?” soone else demanded.
“In our ancient history we would use trained venn to carry ssages! We would attach a small pouch to them and they would fly from location to location! We do the sa thing but with the drones! We have a few here in the shop! We load ssages into them and then program them to fly to our troops!” he yelled excitedly.
“Do it!” the colonel exclaid. “I’ll prepare the orders. Get them ready to fly!”
“Yes sir!”
“Hey!” a normally quiet technician piped up. “Call IT! I rember there is sothing ‘weird’ about how this planet’s internet is done… sothing about glass wires or sothing!”
“Glass wires?” soone else asked. “How does that even work?”
“I have no clue!” the technician exclaid, “That weird guy in IT, you know the one, he knows all about it! I went on a date with him one ti and-”
“You went on a date with him?!?”
“Exactly how many males of my species have you seen on this planet, Xora? Anyway, it was all he talked about… the whole ti! Call him!”
“Why don’t you call him? You were the one who went on a date with him!”
“That’s why I’m NOT calling him! You call him!...”
As the colonel started typing a realization dawned upon him.
The general wasn’t surprised when they attacked, he thought with a chill. and when she hung up she said “goodbye”. She has never used that phrase before… Does it have so significance other than a standard verbal courtesy?
She is involved. Sohow she is involved in all this.
He shook himself to clear his head and focused on the orders he was sending to his forces. He had to get his forces ready as best as he could. He quickly finished his statent to his commanders and then rose.
If Zaran system defense is part of this then we are truly alone, a thousand n against the focused rage of an entire planet. We are dood.
“My orders are on this crystal,” he said placing a data crystal on his desk. “I am going to my office for a few minutes.” he shouted as he rushed from the room.
***
General Gej-Reehe-Kelgja, commander of the Zaran System Defense Force watched her still functional displays with a pained expression on her face.
It was a nightmare. There was no other word to describe it. Tens of thousands of people… gone.
And now they were boarding the transports...
Wincing, she switched off the audio feeds. She just didn’t want to hear any more screaming. Yeah, the Feds were the “enemy”… sort of... but damn... She closed her eyes and reminded herself that her primary responsibility was to the Zaran system and to her n. Those Feds? They decided to “invade”. They could have just backed off. She and the rest of the system governnt could have managed the situation but no.
They just had to “send a clear signal to other potential dissidents.” Well, dude, consider that ssage sent.
She opened her eyes and imdiately regretted it.
“Goddammit!” she shouted, “You agreed not to go after the escape pods! You fucking promised!” she yelled as she watched one pod after another disappear from the screen. It was a goddamn shooting gallery!
She slamd her fist onto her desk. Using escape pods for target practice? Torture, murder, and gods knows what else on the transports?
Fucking animals!, she thought bitterly to herself. She checked the planetary feeds. At least they were holding true to their word down here. No wholesale slaughter of non-humans…
And the pol-ka were completely unhard, just as they agreed. She looked over at the stream of carefully scripted transmissions that they were sending back and forth. It was a simple enough deception. With the Federation completely wiped out what could she do but try to protect her positions and the helpless civilians of the planet?
They were caught completely by surprise, just like everyone else, right? As far as the bulk of the System Defense Force knew, that’s exactly what happened. Only a few of them knew that they had cut a deal, their neutrality and so assistance moving troops and materials around the system undetected in exchange for their survival.
What else could they do? Besides, she agreed with the Devil one hundred percent… or she thought she did until she saw what they were doing up there... What was going on in those transports... She never did quite believe the stories. She thought that they were exaggerating, you know, playing up the whole “savage human” bit…
Nope… Every one of those stories was playing out this very mont, not that it would ever see the light of day. The news crews were down on the surface watching them hand out scanners and dical supplies with little fucking halos on their heads, not up on those transports where… Jesus…
And you helped them, flashed unbidden across her mind. She squeezed her ping-pong ball eyes closed and turned away from the feed.
What else could I have done? Die, nobly? I had to look after my system, my civilians, and my troops. It’s the only thing I could have done. I had to do this, right?
“Excuse , General,” her aide announced as he opened the door. “The commander of the Federation Response Force is on the line. He says it’s urgent.”
“What?” she said in confusion. That shouldn’t be possible. “Put him through.”
The colonel’s face appeared on her screen.
“How the hell are you getting through the jamming?” she asked.
“Not everyone on the Federation payroll is an idiot,” the colonel replied. “As it turns out a lot of the planet’s surface communications are via a very strange, quite archaic but completely signal-proof fiber-optic network, but I don’t have to tell you that, do I?”
“I’m not sure what you are implying but the communications network of this planet is far from classified, colonel.”
“You cut a deal with the humans, didn’t you?”
“Colonel!” the general said with as much outrage as she could muster. “How dare you! I-”
“I don’t bla you,” the colonel continued. “In fact, I would have done the exact sa thing in your position. There was no other move you could make. The system will need its defense forces intact after all of this in order to protect its civilian population. You fall and anarchy follows. Besides, we made our bed didn’t we? Did I get that right? ‘Made our bed’ is a saying, yes?”
“What do you want, Colonel,” the general said with a weary voice. “I doubt you called just to level unfounded allegations.”
“I want you to get in touch with the General,” the colonel replied.
“You’re talking to her,” she replied.
“You know who I’m talking about, ‘The Devil of Sol’, that general.”
“And just what makes you think I know how to do that?” the general replied. “I don’t make it a habit to have terrorists on speed-dial.”
“We are all going to die aren’t we?” the colonel said quietly.
General Gej-Reehe-Kelgja’s face twitched.
“We are going to die and it’s not going to be pretty, is it?” the colonel continued. “I am doing what I can and my troops are standing ready but it’s all for nothing, isn’t it? They are going to sweep over us like drill mites, leaving nothing but our bones. I can’t say this to my n but I will level with you, commander to commander, we are dood. There is absolutely no way we can win. No, there is absolutely no way we can survive. They will kill us to the man. One thousand n, that’s what I have under , at least I hope I still do. They are just kids, Reehe… kids… Please… Get in touch with her.”
The general just looked at him for a mont and then sighed.
“Fuck it,” she muttered. “Look, I haven’t made a deal, alright?”
“Whatever you say,” the colonel replied.
“But… I might have so intel… Intel that we didn’t necessarily share… I’m sending you a file with a phone number on it. They might hang up on you. They might laugh in your face. But, maybe, they can get you in touch with who you want to get in touch with.”
“Thank you, general.”
“Don’t fucking thank ! I didn’t send you a goddamn thing! This conversation never happened!”
She terminated the call.
“Well there goes my plausible deniability...” she muttered.
***
Colonel Kale Reese, forrly of the United States Army and General Morgan’s appointed commander for the Zaran operation sat in a hidden command bunker on the surface of Zaran-7 along with a dozen other individuals reviewing the latest reports from the system and on the surface. So far things were going according to plan.
It was going almost too well. Then again, they hadn’t started the final assault on the Feds yet. Once they wrapped up all of the boarding actions they were going to pull the old conventionally ard gunships back to the planet and use them to soften up those Fed positions before they went in for the kill.
Even so, there was nothing worse than a cornered rat, and they sohow managed to set up so decent defensive positions despite knocking out their communications. Even with gunships floating overhead, it was going to be a fight to dig them out.
Suddenly, his personal communicator rang.
“What the fuck?” he muttered as he answered it.
His eyes widened as he saw who was on the other end of the call.
“Hello, my na is Colonel Xx’vkk, commander of the remaining Federation forces on Zaran-7. I wish to negotiate our surrender.”
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