The Juireans dominated a section of Hi’Jea called Kri, with the main headquarters building presenting an unmistakable target, standing over 40 stories tall, pyramidal and shimmering with a bronze glass exterior. Intelligence reports had indicated that the Juireans had recently added a considerable number of their own kind to their normally anemic numbers in the Sector, with estimates running as high as two to three thousand Juirean Guards. Add to this the number of native Melforeans fighting alongside the Juireans, and Taggert’s force would be greatly outnumbered.
But he had Marines on his side — Human Marines — and from all indicators each one of his men was worth a hundred aliens, even counting the Juireans.
His ships dropped to the surface under gravity drives and landed to the north of the Juirean compound in a large field next to a towering parabolic dish covered with scaffolding. This would be the main communications dish for the Sector, the one Adam Cain and his Raiders had toppled a few months earlier. The Juireans were in the process of repairing the damage and had erected a tall, temporary communications tower next to the large dish in the interim. Taggert smiled. Looks like they’ll never get it fixed, not if I have anything to do about it.
Gravity landings tend to be very destruction affairs, with the wells drawing up dirt, trees, structures — and even people who happen to get in the way — to the focal point several kilometers above the surface. Twenty-five ships landing all at once sent such a cloud of dust and debris over the entire administration compound as to form a very effective smokescreen for the landing. Through long range binoculars, Taggert and his men could barely see the thousands of defenders covering their faces and running for cover from the onslaught of the dust cloud. By the time it cleared, the Marines were down and already offloading their assault vehicles.
Taggert’s men had prepared for an AWL — Alien World Landing — utilizing Mars as a training ground, so they were ready for the sudden feeling of vertigo when their ship’s gravity was replaced by that of Melfora Lum. This planet’s surface gravity was about two-thirds that of Earth’s, so a solid two-hundred pound Marine now weighed one-hundred thirty-two. Even Taggert’s wiry one-hundred sixty-two pound build was suddenly down to one-oh-seven. And without the bulky spacesuits they had to wear during the maneuvers on Mars, General Taggert felt as if he could take on Zeus himself — and win.
Within minutes, Taggert’s Marines had offloaded twenty M113 Armored Personnel Carriers and ten M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Each of the M113’s was equipped with an M2 Browning machine gun and the Bradley’s carried 25-mm M243 chain guns, as well 7.62mm M24 °C machine guns. Both vehicles had also been fitted with K-92 Klin flash rifles, even though the Marines seldom used them, even in training. Instead, they preferred the sound, reliability and sheer penetrating power of the Browning’s over the pussy-poof — as they called it — of the bolt launchers. Some even called the flash rifles queefers.
Taggert joined his men, riding in a command Humvee driven by a staff sergeant. As the vehicles bounced across the rocky field, made even rougher by the gravity landings of the ships, Taggert had very little time to take in the significance of this moment. He was on an alien world, and unlike Mars, breathing alien air and about to engage in a battle with flesh-and-blood beings other than Human. Taggert had never met any of the rare Klin while on Earth, nor had he during the journey here, so this would be his first face-to-face encounter with aliens.
Like the old saying went: Join the Service, travel to exotic lands, meet new people — and kill them! No truer words could be spoken on a day like this.
And even though Taggert’s perspective on aliens and their societies had been altered somewhat, at least in this war, he wasn’t fighting against any of his own kind.
The dust from the landing had drifted away in a strong breeze, so as Taggert and his forces drew closer to the massive Juirean headquarters building he could clearly make out a line of defenders in trenches and behind dirt berms about two hundred meters this side of the building. Through the binoculars, Taggert could vaguely make out tall, slender beings with angular heads and narrow eyes. They were all dressed in what appeared to be body armor, and many held rifle-like weapons which Taggert knew to be bolt launchers, weapons with an effective range of about a hundred meters. That was another thing about the flash rifles — their limited range. By utilizing concentrated balls of electricity as ammunition, it was nearly impossible for the balls to maintain intensity and integrity over long distances, especially within an atmosphere. Taggert and his Marines would soon open up with their own deadly projectile weapons, long before the aliens could counter with bolts from their rifles.
As if on queue, the M2’s began to blast away with the 25-mils. Most of the initial rounds, however, overshot the line of defenders, with some even impacting the building itself. The computers onboard the vehicles were attuned to Earth’s gravity, rotation and atmospheric density; in the lighter gravity of Melfora Lum, the programmed trajectories were too steep and the projectiles traveled too far. But moments later, the professional gunners had made their adjustments. The next barrage sent a rain of fire and destruction into the ranks of the alien defenders, sending prodigious amounts of dirt and body parts flying into the thin air, and it wasn’t long before the aliens abandoned their static defense lines and retreated toward the building.
In minutes, the main battle was fully engaged. Marines flowed from the rear of the Bradley’s and the M113’s, spitting fire from the barrels of their M4’s, M16’s and BAR’s. Taggert watched from the rear of the action as hundreds of aliens were blasted to bits by the force of the rounds. Even as their comrades died, many of the aliens fired in panicked desperation with the flash rifles, sending bolts of fire into the ranks of his Marines. Some were hit; he was taking casualties, but nothing like the aliens were suffering.
And then they were at the building. It was pyramidal in shape, with the main entrance surrounded by a large courtyard of walkways, manicured lawns, statures and fountains. But now the impressive courtyard was overrun with panicked aliens, some seeking cover in whatever manner could be found, while hundreds of others ran though the half-dozen double doorways and into the building itself, turning occasionally to let loose a few shots from their flash rifles.
But still the Marines advanced.
Off to his right, Taggert heard a massive explosion; he turned in time to see the huge communication dish begin to topple over, a target of his secondary force. There had been a line of defenders there, too, but they had been quickly overrun by the Marines. The ground trembled deeply as the dish crashed to the surface in an explosion of dust and sound.
Taggert’s Marines were firing RPG’s through the entrances to the building now, eliminating the last traces of resistance near the doorways. Most of the sensible aliens had been absorbed deeper into the structure, looking to hide rather than fight. Even though the bulk of the fighting was over, Taggert knew they had to be careful as they cleared the building. This was where they would take the bulk of their casualties.
Taggert’s orders were to secure the building and allow for the intel pros to scour the Juirean records for anything useful. He dismounted the Humvee — and pulling his trusty.45 from the holster on his hip — followed a shield unit into the building.