Galen looked around. No blank stares, no challenging looks. Good.
“Now,” Galen pointed at the Flight commander, “I’m going to piss you off. I already know your feelings about this but I had to make a decision based on the best interest of the task force as a whole. I’m telling you this here and now so that your peers can understand and appreciate the sacrifice you are making on their behalf.”
The Flight Leader took a deep breath and held it, balled his left fist and tapped it on the table once, breathed out slowly. “Yessir.”
Galen said, “We will take on some indig volunteers and they will be assigned to the ground crews of our Interceptor and Helo units. After a reasonable amount of time, where the Indig volunteers are trained to perform ground crew duties, half of the regular flight crew troops will be transferred to the replacement battalion and trained to fill various duty positions across the brigade.”
Silence. Galen said, “Enough of this talk. This evening, all Field Grade officers are mandatorily invited to join me at my lake house at 1800 hours for a cookout to bid farewell to the lovely Jasmine Panzer Brigade Compound. It is my intention for us all to eat too much, drink too much and then pass out on the lawn. Dismissed.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lance Corporal Stone stood on the flat roof of the home his squad had occupied and scanned the horizon beyond the river to the west. Chong-gok op was a storybook little town nestled on the East Bank of the Gang-nam River. It overlooked a wide suspension bridge with three levels for traffic. There were rail lines on the lowest level, heavy transport vehicle lanes above that and on top was an open, flat surface suited for pedestrian, bicycle and light vehicle traffic. It led into an industrial town on the other side, low-rent housing tenements and mega-sized shopping areas, with factories and their high stacks and collectors visible in the distance during clear days.
But it was halfway through Lance Corporal Stone’s guard shift, the midnight to 0400 shift. Dark all around, with only an occasional muffled sound. The civilians were all gone from this town. Some still lived and worked across the river. The factories were still operating but had taken measures to blank out their detectible energy transmissions. Under the watchful eye of the Mandarin regular army units on the other side of the river, that town stayed dark at night, and quiet.
At first it had been hard for Stone to stay alert for his entire shift but after nearly two months he’d gotten used to it and now stayed up no problem. He looked to the north and saw a tiny blink in the sky, a glint. Sunlight touching something in space, perhaps. He lifted his binos and peered at the piece of sky where the glint had come from, saw shadow blanking the stars that should have been there. He keyed comms and reported the vector to the Sergeant of the Guard. Stone watched, zoomed in on the anomaly. It shimmered now, a great blob, wide and oval-shaped, tiny gaps in its surface allowing starlight to shine through as though it were a sieve.
Then Stone realized it was a mass of aircraft approaching in a formation, countermeasures making them indistinct objects. He keyed comms again and sent the image. The message came back, “Take Cover.”
Stone sat in his sandbag shelter and continued to watch the approaching aircraft. Soon he had the resolution to see that they were not bombers but cargo planes. Air defense units near the skyline fired, sent up missiles and laser beams. Some aircraft were hit but not nearly as many as one would think, against all that ground fire. They turned west and Stone saw strings of objects fall from the planes, Mosh warriors equipped with jet packs. Thousands of little points of white light, the thrusters of the jet packs, lit the sky to the north. The planes hurried away to the west, their speed increased, eager to leave once they had dropped their cargo of Mosh warriors.
Stone left his bunker and looked around. Little jet pack trails were visible all around to the north, more to the south and southwest but farther away, and to the west more planes came and dropped more Mosh warriors. Air defense units, flak guns included, fired at the descending Mosh. There were plenty of hits but there was an overwhelming number of Mosh. Stone shouldered his rifle and took aim, pressed for data: target out of range. The closest, more than eight kilometers out. He sent that data up to the SOG. No response, then stand by. Then, continue your mission.
He looked to the north and saw a gap in the band of descending Mosh warriors. Ground fire had been more effective there, those flak guns able to sweep their sector clear. But it wasn’t much, a sliver compared to the rest. Other than that, it was still fairly quiet around Lance Corporal Stone’s guard post. It was near the beginning of autumn, getting a little chilly, so he sat in his sandbag bunker and waited for his shift to end.
Nearly an hour later the loud booms of aerospacecraft entering the atmosphere made Stone step out of his bunker and look toward the north. Ground fire erupted for a few minutes then stopped in an instant. He saw the bright fiery glow of a large group of drop boats burning in from space, diving to get low to the ground. Two dozen Interceptors met them at the moment they leveled off. The Interceptors followed the drop boats and took out what looked like at least a hundred of them. Disabled, some crash-landed. Others blew apart. However, the majority landed safely.
Moments later, Mosh fighter aircraft came in from the west and tried to engage the Interceptors. The Interceptors left the area, none of them lost. Stone noticed that they no longer fired their rail guns and guessed they were out of ammo. Their laser still worked, but the Mosh aircraft were swarming the Interceptors with their greater numbers. The Interceptors sped away, off to the east. The Mosh aircraft that pursued the Interceptors fell prey to anti-aircraft fire from the ground. The remainder chose to retreat to the west.
Stone noticed that Mosh drop boats lifted back into the air and blasted back up into space, tracking to the west. Not as many as before. He swung around with his weapon at the ready as the door opened behind him. It was Private First Class Hastings, there to relieve him. 0400 hours. Stone went inside, sat on his bunk and waited for stand-to. He looked at his powered armor battle suit, checked the charge. It was full. Probably have to put it on pretty soon. Should be a pretty good briefing today, he thought.
The task force was headquartered in the Town Hall building and Galen slept in the mayor’s office. The jail in the basement provided decent hygiene and chow facilities, and the bunk space was more than adequate for the HQ Team detachment. Tad knocked on his door. Galen sat up on the couch and said, “What?”
“We have action. Brief in an hour.”
Galen stood and stretched, sat back down, reached for his boots. “How bad?”
Tad said, “No immediate threat to us. But it’s big.”
“You need a decision from me right now?”
“Nope.”
“Good.” Galen slid his boots on, fastened the straps. “I’ll see you at the brief.”
Tad left. Galen heard footsteps in the hallway, lots of footsteps. He visited the office’s private powder room, shaved, did some pushups and sit-ups, sat at the desk and ate a field ration, dressed in full combat gear, checked himself in the mirror, checked the time. He left the office and went down the stairs and entered the old courtroom. Tad was seated in the judges’ chair and stood when Galen entered and said, “All rise!”
Galen said, “Take your seats.” He walked up the middle aisle past the collection of about fifty key leaders seated in the courtroom. He made his way to the front and sat at the lawyer table to the right, with Spike and Koa to his left.