When Galaxies Collide Ch. 1

"This is an aerial reconn photo from yesterday. See here?" He pointed to a square structure.

"This is where you're going. This is where Larks is go-ing." Andy pointed to the photo.

"You'll be about five klicks apart. Set out points to secure your lines of communications with Larks. You hit this building, and return with him. Any questions?" Andy asked.

"Only one sir. Why in daylight?" Lt. Cohen asked.

"We want to send the rebels a message. We know what they have, and where they have it hidden, and we can destroy it. Also Battalion wants daylight photo surveys of the damage to the supply dump. We also need line of sight to maintain contact with Larks and his men. I'll have the remainder of your second platoon standing by with Sergeant Day in case you get into any trouble. Good hunting Ted." Andy said, and held out his hand. Lt. Cohen shook it and then saluted as he left the Command A.P.C.

*****

Colonel Hawke reported to Commandant Alpha.

"Sir!" He snapped a stiff salute, and stood at attention until it was returned.

The man that reported before the Commandant, was a tall man. The Commandant knew his reputation well. Colonel Hawke was a free-lance, hired out to the highest bidder. He was ruthless, but he was effective. He was also very expensive.

The Colonel, in his mid-thirties, stood six foot five inches. His short-cropped black hair showed a large thin scar that ran from the top of his head to his right eye. The waited for the Commandant to speak.

"Ah, Colonel. How good to see you. I suppose you read the report about last nights' little raid on my supply depot?" The Commandant asked.

"No sir. I have been inspecting the air defense systems in the 'killing ground' corridor." The Colonel said.

The "killing ground' corridor that the Colonel referred to, was a name that the Federation pilots called the area from their base east of Metrodelphia to the city itself. All Federation aircraft that were lost were lost in this small corridor of three miles wide by twenty miles long.

"And how did your inspection go?" The Commandant asked.

"Just fine sir." The Colonel replied.

"Good. Now I guess I'll have to fill you in on this raid, and your mission." The Commandant said.

*****

Andy went to sleep for a few hours. He had given orders that he was to be wakened at 1500.

A sentry woke him. "Sir, I had orders to wake you at 1500." The young man said.

Andy opened his eyes. He saw the sentry's face. It was Private Olsen.

"Thanks Private. I'm awake." He said, and sat up.

Andy went into the small toilet, and washed his face. He looked in the mirror. His face still was blackened from the greasepaint he had worn on last night's patrol. He washed it off, and dried himself.

Andy went to one of the ration cabinets, and got a meal package. He hadn't eaten since they had been dropped.

He chose the baked chicken and rices meal, and went out-side to eat it.

*****

The area that they had chosen for their area of operations was a small ravine. The ravine had several trees around it. The whole ravine had been covered with camo-nets. From the air, they would be impossible to detect. From the ground, it was just as hard to find. The whole area around them was hills and light forest. This had been a park of several thousand acres of land that had been set aside for public use. The rebels had decided to use this land as their staging area for their assault on the capi-tal.

Andy sat on an empty ammunition crate as he ate his meal. 1st Lt. Adams, the second section commander came over to him.

"Sir. Lt. Cohen just reported in. He said his objective had been eliminated. He's returning now."

Andy nodded, and finished his food. He remained seated for a few moments, as he let the meal settle, and then he went into the communications area.

The Communications area was at the rear of the command A.P.C. It was a small maze of sandbags, shoulder high. A sentry stood by the entrance. Andy sat down next to the radio operator.

"Turn on the speaker." Said.

The operator turned on the external speaker. There was static.

'Intruder three to base. We've hit a snag. Larks was ambushed. I'm sending in an extraction team. Request Day to move up to just behind our position. I'll go help Larks withdraw. Over."

The radio operator looked at Andy.

"Tell him to execute it." Andy said. He jumped up, and found Lt. Adams.

"Get your section ready. Now. Cohen has been ambushed. I'll brief you over at comm." Andy said. He returned to the communication area.

"Intruder three to base. We're in trouble here. They've pinned us down. Larks and his men are being hit with mortar fire. We're pinned by small arms fire. Our objective is destroyed. They were waiting for us." Cohen was excited, but not losing his control of the situation.

Andy picked up the headset. He keyed it.

"Intruder three. Understand. I'm sending in Intruder two. Watch your east. Repeat, watch your east." Andy spoke ur-gently.

Lt. Adams stood next to Andy now.

"Sam. Cohen has been ambushed. He's pinned down, here." Andy showed Adams the position on the map.

"I want you to circle around from the east. It should take you twenty minutes to reach this point. Set up two mortars, and zero in on these positions here and here." Andy pointed on the map.

"I'll have more information for you when you reach your jumping off point. Move out."

*****

Commandant Alpha outlined the mission to Colonel Hawke. Waverton was a logical choice. It was not a large city, but a noticeable one. If they could pull this off, then the Federation could be made to look very bad indeed.

"Sir. I only have one reservation. We could use a much smaller weapon to make our point."

"Yes. But we will use the twenty-megaton that's a standard size for Star Fleet Command. Besides, there is a whole battalion of Feds in Waverton, I want them eliminated. If the Federation loses a whole city in addition to a battalion of crack troops, well, the possibility of their accepting our terms has just increased."

*****

Andy waited. He had given Sam Adams the exact location of the rebels. Adams and his section of fifty men would attack in two minutes. Cohen and his men were still alive and fighting back. That was good.

"Intruder Leader to Intruder two. Execute plan Tango." Andy spoke into the headset.

He waited.

*****

Colonel Hawke and five men had taken a commercial plane to Waverton. At the Aerodrome two women had met him. They were his field contacts.

The Colonel and his men split up. They would rendezvous at a safe house. The weapon was already there, waiting.

The first woman came over to the Colonel. She had been given papers identifying herself as Mrs. Westerly. His own forged papers had identified him as Thomas Westerly. The woman, Mrs. Westerly, kissed him warmly.

"How was your flight, honey?" She said in a sweet voice.

"Hello. Just fine." He said, and returned her kiss.

She took his arm as he led her to the baggage claim area. As they passed a security guard, they looked a typical married couple. The guard barely noticed them as they passed.

She led him out to a private vehicle, a rented car. He piled his bags into the back of the vehicle, as she got into the driver’s seat.

When he got into the car she started the engine and drove to the Waverton Arms Hotel. They booked a room for three days.

*****

The counter attack had been flawless. They had lost only two men, Larks and one of his men. Cohen and his group had been lucky. They had been able to dig in and fight back. Larks and Julius weren't. They had been hit from behind as they began to transmit the pictures. Larks' other five men were pinned immediately. They could offer no help. The point guards had tried to help, but were also pinned.

Adams and his section took the rebels by complete sur-prise. Adams had reported that the rebel body count had been over two hundred.

Andy knew that they had been lucky. He mentally kicked himself for the loss of Larks and Julius. But Battalion needed photo data in the daylight, and Larks and Julius had provided that data with their lives. He would see that Battalion was aware of the cost, and recommend the two of them for the Medal of Valor. Posthumously it didn't mean much, but Larks and Julius had wives and children. At least they would know that their husbands and fathers had died valiantly trying to keep their small party safe at the cost of their own lives.

*****

Mr. and Mrs. Westerly had immediately gone to their room. Mr. Westerly had unpacked a satellite relay phone. He di-aled a number. The other line picked up.

"In place. Start the timetable." He ended the call.

To Mrs. Westerly he said, "We will meet tonight to discuss the operation. You'll leave ahead of me. Be there at 1600. Make sure you're not followed. I'll be right behind you. I'm going to get some sleep now. You pick up that skirt at the drop point and come back here to put it on. I want Erika to wear it she's shorter, than you are. It will fit her."

He turned, and went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed. Mrs. Westerly left the hotel.

*****

The bodies of Larks and Julius had been carried back by some of Adams' men. The Lieutenant reported to Andy.

"Sir. I've got some bad news. Larks and Julius were killed by glass-frags. Their body armor was pierced in the chest. There's no doubt." The lieutenant was angry. His face was screwed with anger.

Andy was shocked.

"Are you sure, Sam?" Andy asked.

"No doubt. The rounds went right through their armor. What's left of their chests, isn't pretty." He said.

Andy went over to the bodies. Sam Adams was right. The rebels had crossed the line.

*****

Glass fragmented bullets had been outlawed for some fifty years. They were a highly explosive round intended only to kill. These rounds would tear through body armor, and ex-ploded after impact. The survival rate from being hit by a glass-frag was next to zero. If the victim was hit in the arm or leg, they lost that limb. The glass-frag was unique. The core of the round had a small tempered carbide shank. It could pierce through two inched of dura-steel. The jacket of the bullet was wound in a glass-like fiber resin, which was designed to shatter. As it shattered, the explo-sion was funneled inward with the carbide shank piercing through, rendering personnel body armor useless. Glass-frags had been known to tear a human body in half.

The message was clear, if you were a Federation soldier, you would die. The rebels had sent the message, now Andy would send one in return.

"Get the Section Leaders here; I need to break the news to the Company." Andy said.

He scribbled a message on his paper pad.

"Send this to Battalion, immediately." He said.

The soldier he handed the message to, read the message, paled, and ran to the communications area.

*****

Colonel Watts, Battalion commander for the 3012th Infantry Battalion, and Captain Seah's Commanding Officer, had been very impressed with the work of the Captain. In thirty-six hours his Reconn Company had destroyed a major supply dump, and the air-defense communications networking center. Federation aircraft now controlled the skies, and could carry the ground war on from the air. The rebels had no central location from which to aim their air defense missiles. Now they could only depend upon line of sight. Metrodelphia had been spared another massive artillery bom-bardment because of the work of Captain Seah and his men. The rebel artillery had been without ammunition for the last day. Supply trucks had been destroyed on the roads as they ventured out. The losses had been tremendous.

This latest news from the Captain had really alarmed the Colonel. If Captain Seah was right, the Federation would lose a lot more men, something the Colonel didn't want to see.

Colonel Watts immediately notified Brigade of the latest news, and forwarded the latest photo data that he had re-ceived from Captain Seah on the destroyed supply dump.

Captain Seah had also sent a coded message. The Colonel studied the Captain's plan. It was very bold, too bold. It just might break the rebels' resolve. He contacted Brigade, and forwarded the plan to General Starks.

*****

Colonel Hawke awoke. He left the hotel, and made his way to the safe house. He would meet his operatives there. He would arm the nuclear weapon. Once armed, the weapon would be set to detonate in forty-eight hours. That would give him and his aide long enough to get away from ground zero. The plan was simple. The Federation had been moving in massive amounts of material. The rebels had planned on making a full-scale attack on the Aerodrome, and at pre-cisely the right time; the nuclear weapon would go off. Of course, the leaders of the raid didn't know this, and Colo-nel Hawke would be at headquarters when the weapon deto-nated. But the S.I.O. would milk this incident for all it was worth.

The propaganda line would be: The Federation had been bringing in weapons of mass destruction to stop the rebellion. One of them had detonated when the rebels, having learned of the presence of these weapons, attempted to destroy the weapons. A Federation Officer, seeing that the rebels had the upper hand, detonated one of the weapons to keep the rebels from capturing the Aerodrome, and the ma-terial.

Colonel Hawke had not been hired to worry about ethics; he had been hired to produce results.

*****

Federation Intelligence was 99% certain that they knew the location of the rebel commander, Commandant Alpha. Ra-dio traffic had been pinpointed to five separate locations. Each in turn would be taken out, one at a time.

They also had a face for the mysterious leader, and they had his service record. Colonel William Shepherd, a.k.a. Commandant Alpha, had been dismissed from the Federation Army when it was discovered that he had been instrumental in the disappearance of weaponry. Agents of various rebel groups throughout the Twelfth Sector had begun to show up with weapons having recent serial numbers of weapons that had been missing. The search eventually let to the Colonel, who was in charge of armaments for the 10th Division. He escaped from military prison before he could be brought to justice. The array of weaponry included everything from assault rifles, to artillery pieces; it even included one thermo-nuclear device. As General Starks read this infor-mation, a chill went down his spine.

'This bastard has to be stopped.' He said to himself. He studied that attack proposal from Colonel Watts again, he wanted to see if it could be done with such a small force.

*****

Colonel Hawke entered the safe house. He was certain that no one had followed him. This particular house was next to the Aerodrome's perimeter fence. On the other side of the fence were warehouses, and supplies were stored there, including weapons.

The Colonel looked at the other field operatives. He knew his men could be trusted, he wasn't so sure about these two women. Women were always a weak link in the chain, he knew from experience. Yet, he had his orders.

Mrs. Westerly came foreword. She was a tall woman, with long black hair. She had a mean look about her. Even her smile contorted her face.

"Did Erika arrive yet?' He asked.

"Yes." She turned her head, "Erika!" She shouted.

A younger woman stepped foreword. She was young and pretty. The Colonel smiled.

'He would have fun with her tonight,' he thought.

"Erika, come with me," he said. They walked into the kitchen.

"Take off your skirt." He ordered.

"You wait just a minute!" She protested.

He grabbed her by the throat, and reached around to the snap on the back, by her bottom. He pulled hard, the mate-rial ripped.

"Now!" He hissed.

Erika nodded, and removed the garment. She stepped out of it.

" Give me the skirt." He said, and grabbed it. He left the kitchen.

Back with the others he pulled a small pocketknife out, and ripped the bottom seam out with the blade.

Inside of the hem of the skirt was a small computer circuit board. He handed it to one of his men, a tall blonde man.

"You know what to do with this." He whispered. The blonde man nodded.

The Colonel returned to the kitchen to get Erika.

The blonde man went down to arm the weapon.

*****

Andy's unit had packed up, and by night had moved some thirty kilometers, to their new jumping off point. They had been careful to circumvent known rebel positions.

By dawn, they had set up their new base camp. The A.P.C.'s all hidden under trees, and covered with camouflage net-ting. They would post sentries, and wait for Battalion to make the first move.

Andy called his Section Leaders to join him in the command A.P.C. He gave them the latest news he had.

"Morning men," he began, "Tonight we will put an end to the S.I.A. leadership. As you know, the Federation has been bringing in units into Metrodelphia. They now have twelve battalions. Our Second Brigade is to the west. They spent the night redeploying like we did. So with the 3012th Bat-talion to our immediate west, the Brigade still further west, and twelve battalions to our north, we will move from the south, and we will locate, mark and, if we have to, destroy any rebel artillery, or air defenses. Our radio frequency will be the Tactical 3 band, and air ops will be on Tach 5. If any of you need air cover, go to Tach 5. Tar-get identification will be with orange smoke, and use your target lasers to paint the target. All right? Here are our objectives. First section. Lieutenant Samuels, you and your boys will be the lead group, on foot. The rest of the com-pany will follow you in the A.P.C.'s. Your first objective is here, the town of Brigham. We believe that the rebels have used the center of this town to store the majority of their remaining artillery stocks. You will approach from the south. When you have reached the outskirts of the town, you will find defensive positions. Second section will move in, and secure the center of town. Third section will be held in reserve, along with my H.Q. platoon. I want the ammo stores captured intact; we will be getting some reinforcements from battalion by air. Two batteries of howit-zers will be air dropped, along with the crews. When we have gotten our new friends, Third section will remain here, and the remainder of the Company will move five kilo-meters up the road. The rebel headquarters is there. We now have one-hundred men, two howitzer batteries, and three of the A.P.C.'s to support our attack on the rebel H.Q. In-telligence tells us that the rebels have about one-hundred men there. We'll attack using the A.P.C.'s as tanks. The twenty-millimeter cannons will come in handy when dealing with the rebels. I'll remain with the command track, to co-ordinate with First and Second sections, as well as with Battalion, and Brigade. Any questions?" Andy looked at his three section leaders.

"No.? Good hunting men. Remember, as we move in towards the rebel H.Q., locate and mark any strong points, artil-lery pieces, or anti-aircraft defenses. I would prefer that our air cover dealt with them, but if you must, do it quickly. All right, have your men ready to move out at 0001 hrs." Andy said, and his section leaders saluted and left the command A.P.C.

*****

Erika was still white, when Colonel Hawke walked into the kitchen. He threw her a long coat to wear.

"Put this on, and join us in the front. Erika, you must understand that when I give you an order, you will comply immediately. In this case, that skirt you were wearing was given to you by High Command. In it was a map that is es-sential to us carrying out our mission." The Colonel lied, he had a fatherly smile on his face.

Erika put on the over coat. She wiped her eyes, and smiled in return to him.