Chapter 12
Richard Wiseman sat on the bridge of the Cainth Transport Four Swords and watched as the Empire Ships fired their beams into a section of land just north of one of the Plants concentrations. He flexed the arms of his new battle armor and marveled at how he really didn’t even notice it any more. It was like a second skin but what a skin it was. It allowed him to run ninety six kilometers an hour and jump more than forty feet straight up. It had a built in pulse rifle in one arm and another hand blaster for his other hand. It could also be put in camo mode and assume the color of its surroundings. When the developer had introduced it to him, Richard walked into the room for the presentation and when told about the suits ability to blend in with the background, Richard laughed and said, “Nothing blends completely.” At that moment the developer said, show yourselves and eight suits of armor suddenly appeared in the room along the wall. Richard nearly fell over backwards in his seat. “I take back what I said; I didn’t see any of them. How did they stay so still?”
“They didn’t. The suit compensates for movement. You just won’t see any breaking of the surrounding colors as it moves by. Whatever is behind the suit is shown on the front.”
Richard was impressed. “I notice that the skin on the armor looks like clear plastic; what is it?”
“It’s the same clear coating we put on our Megaships to protect the Coronado Power Cells. It is actually the strongest substance we currently manufacture. It can withstand most weapon floater’s guns and it would take many hits to break its integrity. One of the things you’ll like is the visor incorporates a heads up display of the terrain around you 360 degrees and can track multiple targets in that terrain. The hornets in the back launcher can be targeted from the display or fired to use their own targeting systems.”
“How many hornets can the back pack carry?” Richard asked.
“Seventy five of the new ones; we want to call them wasps because they are smaller, faster, and carry a bigger punch than the original hornets you used on Ross.”
“How much time in combat will the armor have at full power?”
“Ten days if the blasters are fired constantly. Two weeks if used more sparingly. They also can be recharged in sixty seconds from one of the mobile black hole reactors. The reactors can charge more than 3,000 suits using the cables that attach to it. We hope to shorten the time but that’s where we are with the current technology. We’ve also added a high intensity laser to the helmet that will cut thru most substances out to a hundred yards. It won’t damage the armor on the suits so it won’t be dangerous to use in close in fighting. The suits will just shrug it off.”
Richard was amazed at his new suit but knew it was going to be tried to its fullest against the horde of plant soldiers. “I hope it’s enough,” he thought.
Richard looked on his console and saw that the asteroid forts had finally gotten into position so that they could engage the screen. The Algean fleet was still ten hours out and was looking larger every time he looked at it. The Captain of the transport announced over the ships com that fleet control had set drop to begin in ten minutes. Richard keyed his general com and said, “All Division Commanders, prepare your forces for drop. Get the mobile fort up quickly and charge your weapons. The transports will unload your heavy weapons as soon as they ground; make sure the perimeter around the fort’s site is secure and your troops ready to hold off mass attacks by the plants.” The 16 huge Cainth transports began their decent and Richard could see the bright clouds below made stark by the dark landscape where the Plants has stripped all life and sent it to one of their harvesting ships.
Lt. Colonel Jeremy Watson also watched the clouds thru his viewport and thought about his last decent on Ross. He flexed his arm in his armor and thought that if the new armor were available when they had landed on Ross then Al would probably still be alive today. He loved Maria who was Al’s wife before he died but he would gladly give up his happiness just to see him again. He owed Al his best effort in this campaign. The Solar Star he won for the battle on Ross led to promotions faster than he thought possible. The reality was that so many were killed on Ross that officers with actual combat experience were rare among Humans. Now he was responsible for a battalion of Naval Marines. He looked deep inside himself and saw that he had no fear of dying; Maria and the children were taken care of for life because of the benefits of him receiving Humanity’s highest award for bravery. He thought about his troops and made a vow to himself that he would do his best for them. He also saw the stark barren landscape they were dropping on and thought, “We should have no trouble seeing them coming.”
Lt. Colonel Huseen was working hard to get his forts on line. He had finally managed to move them into the correct positions around the planet and was talking with his fort commanders to check their systems. “No, I don’t want the screen turned on yet. I want each fort to fire a laser at each other’s emitters to make sure they are lined up properly.”
“But Sir, we need to make sure the system is working,” Captain Donaldson said.
“Why would you want to wait to turn it on, Sir?” Captain Paulo asked.
Huseen took a deep breath and said, “Our forts are no longer just defensive constructs. With the focused primaries and penetrators we can be formidable offensive platforms. What would happen if we turn the screen on as soon as that fleet gets in system?” He paused a moment and said, “They will send a few ships in to test a situation they have never seen before. Otherwise they will approach us just as they would any other ship and launch missiles at us from close range. I want them close. We can do a terrible amount of damage to them if we can get them close enough. Here’s what we’ll do, align your emitters and turn them on at 1/10,000 power for 1/10 of a second. The screen should be invisible at that level and their sensors may pick it up but assume it was from weapons used on the planet. We’ll also have the empires fire into the surface at the moment we run our trial.”
The eight captains nodded and thought about what he was saying. Donaldson asked, “What time will we run the trial?”
“In exactly thirty minutes, set your timers, from rightttttt now.”
The display went dark and Huseen turned to his communications officer and said, “Lieutenant, get the commander of the Naval ships on a channel.”
Thirty minutes later Huseen counted down the seconds. Just before the test he saw on his sensors that all the Empire ships above the planet fired their primaries at the planet’s surface. Then the countdown hit zero and his readings showed the screen was active and then off. “What was the reading?” he asked his sensor officer.
“Ninety nine point nine, Sir; everything was aligned perfectly except for fort six. It needs to be moved forty meters closer to the planet.”
“Get Captain Green on the com.”
Suddenly Captain Green appeared on his display and said, “I know, my position is forty meters too high. I’ll move immediately.”
Huseen nodded and thought, “I’ve got a great group of officers here. Now let’s show the Plants what we can do.”
The SR drop troops headed in toward the planet and 10,000 feet above the surface the transports opened all of its troop ports and 160,000 troops dropped from the transports and fell toward a beacon already on the planet’s surface. The eight divisions separated while falling and moved toward the assigned positions on each side of the beacon. General Dorg’s and Richard Wiseman’s divisions were assigned the northern line with the two Glod and Vgrig divisions taking the east and west fronts. The remaining Vgrig and Cainth divisions took the southern line. Once the troops landed they organized and dug in along their lines. The sixteen huge transports landed in the center of their formations and began disgorging their weapons platforms and floaters. Right behind them the engineers were unloading the materials to construct the fort along with its screens. The troops waited nervously while their equipment was being off loaded. So far the Plants had not shown up but they knew from the recordings that they would come in mass and fast once they began moving.