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Neu Haven: Chapter Six
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<madsh33p@netscape.net>
Date: 24 October 2004, 5:11 AM
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CHAPTER SIX
2045 hours, August 21, 2418 (EZT)Delta Jaguaris system, approx 50 klicks east of Firebase Charlie, Neu Haven planet.
Lieutenant Kent looked to the north. Large clouds of smoke were rising into the air.
"What the hell do you think that is?" One of his corporals asked.
"Hell if I know, get on the horn to command and report it." Kent replied.
"Aye aye sir." The corporal complied.
"Alpha Command this is Bravo Two-One we have smoke approximately thirty klicks north of our position. Are there any friendlies in that area?" The corporal said into the radio.
"Negative Corporal, we don't have any ground forces....wait a second." A voice replied, interrupted by a short pause.
"Yes corporal, Major Wilton and his wingman were there just an hour ago, they believe they hit the main enemy ground base."
Lieutenant Kent immediately took notice and grabbed the radio mic from the corporal.
"We are ready to move out sir, what do you want us to do?" Kent asked.
"Who is this?" The man on the radio asked.
"This is Bravo One-Zero." Kent replied, frustrated at having to answer to a sergeant.
"Roger that sir, Captain Shannon wants all units to hold position until morning, then we'll send out a recon team and move in." The sergeant answered.
"Affirmative, Bravo One-Zero out." Kent said, before attaching the mic back to the radio unit.
"I guess those fly-boys don't get paid the big bucks for nothing huh sir?" The corporal inquired.
"If I had a billion dollar machine I'd be able to blow up the whole goddam world, those guys are a bunch of pussies." Kent repied, with a smile on his face. The corporal laughed a little, but then added.
"Well I guess command better keep anything powerful away from us, or we'd blow up the whole galaxy."
Kent chuckled, but then quickly returned to a straight face.
"I need you to get the company sergeants assembled. We'll set up camp for the night and then wait until morning, be prepared to move out at 0500."
"Yes sir." The corporal replied. He saluted and jogged back towards his squad to inform the sergeant of the assembly.
Meanwhile, Kent walked over to a foxhole, and began cleaning his gear. He took off his Kevlar vest, which the marines had discovered to be almost totally ineffective against the enemy energy based weapons. The ceramic plate underneath had some resiliency towards the weapons, but only at large angles and against the weaker weapons. The tall enemy soldiers, the marines had discovered, were not to be messed with. Their armor was not very thick, but the creatures themselves were extremely strong, and very agile. The only sure way to kill them was a headshot or shot in the neck. Several shots to the chest might bring one down, but chances are it would only wound the creature and anger it.
Several of the smaller creatures they had encountered weren't so tough. The smallest were very unusual; they were used as shock troops for the much larger and obviously higher ranking soldiers that followed them. Most of the time however, a few shots would frighten them into running away. Other times, the mere sight of the humans would scare them. But that was very rare.
The third type was extremely easy to bring down, but they were excellent marksmen. Usually they stayed behind the enemy shock troops and picked off the marines at a distance. Unfortunately for them, they only got off a few shots before the marines identified them and blasted their weak bodies apart.
What scared Kent the most however, is none of the enemy soldiers had been taken prisoner, and none had been found wounded. They were all either dead, or had fallen back.
"Lieutenant!" A sergeant yelled, interrupting Kent's thoughts.
"What is it sergeant?" Kent asked.
"I've got an MIA; I'd like permission to get someone out to search for him before we leave." The sergeant asked.
"Negative sergeant, I don't want to take even the smallest chances of losing more men. Your soldier will have to use his training and find his way back here. Besides, he should have his comm. set with him." Kent replied.
"Yes sir." The sergeant said reluctantly as he walked back towards his unit.
Kent hated to leave a man MIA, but there really was no choice. The soldier was more than likely dead anyways. Although that was a shit excuse to allow a possible survivor to die, Kent didn't have any sympathy for anyone in war time.
Kent's officers formed around him, and he explained the situation. Within ten minutes they had returned to their units and begun preparations for the next day's battle.
2118 hours, August 21, 2418 (EZT)Delta Jaguaris system, ONI Prowler "Eagle", in orbit over Neu Haven.
Staff Sergeant Holden looked at the gauge on the O2 tanks. They were dangerously low, as they had been stuck on their stricken ship for nearly 3 days now, orbiting over Neu Haven as their orbit slowly disintegrated. Within a day, they'd be dead, either by vaporizing in the atmosphere of Neu Haven, or from suffocation as their O2 supply depleted.
Zimmerman was on the other side of the command deck sleeping, since they needed to conserve air; although now it appeared absolutely useless. They had hoped maybe they would be picked up, but it seemed any remnants of the human forces had been wiped out, as all that had appeared in the system since the battle were a few more alien warships. Since most of the electronics on the "Eagle" had been knocked out, the aliens apparently had not noticed it, and never bothered to recover it or investigate to see if it was anything more than space junk. Holden didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing.
Zimmerman grunted, and Holden looked over to see his comrade awake.
"I miss anything?" Zimmerman asked.
"Unfortunately not." Holden replied.
"You want to wait any longer, or just get it over with now?"
Holden sighed. "Fuck it. Let's just do it."
Zimmerman stood up and walked over to the control panel. Holden also got up, and walked to a panel on the other side of the command deck.
Both pressed their hands to identification panels, and then said their names aloud. A message flashed up on the screens in front of them.
IDENTIFICATION CONFIRMED
ENTER COUNTDOWN SEQUENCE PASSWORD
Both men entered in different passwords.
PASSWORD VERIFIED, ENTER COUNTDOWN SEQUENCE TIME
Holden and Zimmerman both looked at each other.
"One?" Zimmerman asked.
"Your choice." Holden replied.
Zimmerman nodded.
COUNTDOWN SEQUENCE TIME ENTERED 00:00:01, PRESS ENTER TO ACCEPT
Both men paused, and then pressed enter. The screen before them displayed a countdown which quickly changed to DETONATION Instantaneously everything within a five hundred kilometer radius was vaporized by a massive nuclear explosion. The blast sent shockwaves into the atmosphere causing massive lightning storms, and rendering any electronic devices on that side of the planet useless.
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