AL:ICE-9 (26 page)

At that point, Patti interjected, “Jake, the transports are back from their runs to Dallas and Kola. They have everything you requested, but we can’t bring them in, as they are too damn big to fit though the hangar doors. We had to land them just outside the lift. We will have the troops load one platoon at a time via the vehicle lift.”

Jake had to admit they didn’t think that one through very well. When they were selecting designs for the transports and patrol ships, it never occurred to Jake they would want to be bringing them inside anywhere other than Lanai.

“Where is everyone now?” Jake asked. He knew they were getting close to mustering time.

“Everyone is to assemble in the main hangar in a few hours, their gear is already pre-staged,” Patti replied, “For now they are all attending to personal matters. Alcohol is strictly off limits."

Jake considered that for a moment. The core element of the attack plan was the actual time of the attack. As all of his troops had night vision, the element of darkness was a huge advantage to them. It would allow them to make troop drops from the whisper quiet transports without the risk of being spotted. He could potentially pre-stage his entire force without the enemy ever getting wind of their presence.

If the marauders had assembled all the hostages at night in a single place, they might have had a chance to drop in a few special troops to protect them. Unfortunately, they were spread all throughout the mass of men, so they would have to fend for themselves once the shooting started.

So long as everyone was ready to go by dusk, he didn’t see a need to keep them in the hangar.

----*----

LeSoc did not understand his orders at all. He understood they came from the High Council directly, and he understood that to disobey them would mean his immediate death. However, that was where it ended.

As directed, he was to take his destroyer and another under his direction, escort a transport full of those mindless blue beasts from Netite to an unarmed planet. There, they were to release the beasts on the planet’s surface and retreat to a location slightly behind the planet. Should anyone arrive to intercede on the planet's behalf, they were not to engage them.

The transport captain was already complaining, as the last time he performed this function, they were tearing his ship apart before he ever delivered them. He was afraid this time they would breach the hull before they reached their destination, due to the distance. LeSoc had suggested he drop their entire ration allotment into the hold and hope for the best.

They would pick up 3,000 of the animals, with the hope of arriving with a minimum of 2,000 to perform the assigned task. Thank the stars they would disarm them prior to loading. He would drop the weapons, safely stored on his destroyer, upon arrival. Better to keep them separated from the horde during the trip.

Chapter 26

Jake was in the hangar reviewing the troops prior to loading aboard the transports, currently parked above their heads. As was everyone in formation, he was completely decked out in his combat suit, minus the helmet. Everyone else was in formation, at attention, waiting on Jake’s go order.

The 1
st
Space Marine Expeditionary Force currently consisted of 126 Space Marines in three platoons. Identified as Alpha company, they were first, second and third platoon. Internal to each was first, second and third squad. Per Jake’s orders, they were to act in groups of four marines, to minimize the likelihood of anyone being overrun. That meant, as an example, any one fire team would be identified as Alpha company, 2
nd
platoon, 1
st
squad, fire team 3 and so on. They had taken third platoon and pulled 3
rd
squad out for special assignments.

For now, Jake was their company commander, a position he was very familiar with given his previous experiences in the Middle East.

With Sara at his side, Jake reviewed the assembled men and women, impressed with what he saw. 10 weeks ago, these same people were a loose gaggle of raw talent. He was preparing to test what they had learned. This test was pass or fail, where failing meant a possible death.

“Jake, shouldn’t you say something, you know, inspiring?” Sara whispered in his ear.

Jake thought about it for a moment, and then, with every eye in the hangar on him, he said, “Marines, today is your graduation. From this day forth, you are no longer boots! Today you earn the title Marine. You will carry that tittle with you for the rest of your lives. Carry it with pride,”

After a pause, he continued, “Tonight, you will show the evil of the world why they fear a Marine. We are about to descend on an unsuspecting foe, who has no concept of what one marine, with their rifle, is capable of. We are not one, we are many. Protect yourself, protect that man or woman next to you and protect the innocent. Semper Fi!”

The “OOH RAH” Jake received in reply was deafening in the enclosed hangar.

“Let’s mount up!” Jake ordered.

With that command, the platoon and squad leaders started preparing their units to move. There were several support personnel directing traffic to the vehicle lift, where each platoon would rise to the dessert floor above. There they would be loaded into one of the two transports waiting for them.

Sara was to stay with Patti in the combat management center. The two, with their support staff, were responsible for helping direct the troops according to the battle plan. They were also to keep Jake up to date on all the changing battle conditions.

Kissing Sara and then pointing her in the direction of the main doors, Jake turned with rifle in hand, and mounted the lift with the last of the troops. As the lift cleared the hangar roof, the support staff directed the squads to their appointed transport. Jake veered off to where the 10
th
sat patiently waiting, hover cycles all lined up in a nice orderly row.

“You never gave us a pretty speech like that,” Abby commented sarcastically.

“You wouldn’t appreciate it!” Jake replied in return.

After stowing his rifle, Jake mounted his cycle, and with the transports leading the way, he and the 10
th
lifted off the desert floor.

----*----

Sara was in the combat management center, tracking the movement of the entire force. Jake and the 10
th
had been assigned a more direct route, while the transports were to circle wide and approach from opposite directions.

The enemy had been roughly following the path of the old I-5 freeway. Their current location was in the area once called La Mirada. They had estimated that the force would continue on this path until they reached the old 710 freeway and then head north and straight into Chris’ compound. At the current rate of travel, that was no more than 3 or 4 days away.

The plan was to use I-5 in the south and Whittier Blvd in the north as landing zones for the two transports. They were far enough out from the horde to allow a reasonably safe drop and then give their forces time to disperse before the attack.

As adverse as Jake had been in making this a Search and Destroy mission, Sara didn’t really see them just giving up once confronted. Unfortunately, they had been unsuccessful in locating the leadership of this group. The presumption was they were either in the center of the mass or in front of the group, which is why Jake had chosen that area for his involvement.

As for the 10
th
, Jake had A Troop working as a quick reaction force, while B Troop was to snipe from above, taking out any that showed leadership. With no tall structures to work from, they were going to have to shoot from their cycles. Thank goodness for another pleasant evening.

With the clock approaching midnight, both she and Patti watched the transports converge on the target area, while Jake and the 10
th
positioned themselves about 150 feet above their designated starting points. The mass of bodies below them, centered on the intersection of the Imperial Highway and La Mirada Blvd, spread out for several blocks in all directions.

----*----

Jake watched on his helmets tactical display as both transports arrived simultaneously, hitting their LZ’s and started off loading their troops. There was actually a mixture of troops on foot, with several open jeeps sporting mounted machine guns. There were also two heavy personnel carriers, similar to the one Bonnie used in Texas, per air transport.

The heavy personnel carriers each held a fire team, and once disembarked from the transport, they sped off in opposite directions. Their mission was to disperse their passengers at the east and west ends of the circle, expanding the encirclement to be nearly total. Jake had no delusions about these people simply giving up, but he would like to keep the death toll down if possible. Moreover, certainly the captive civilian deaths to zero, which he doubted was possible.

The battle plan had 1
st
platoons three squads spread across the northern half of the circle and 2
nd
platoons was across the bottom. The two remaining squads from 3
rd
platoon had its fire teams in the heavy transports, filling the gaps where the 1
st
and 2
nd
meet. All the jeeps and carriers were manned by 3
rd
platoons third squad.

Once all the troops were deployed, both air transports took positions directly above the target area, hovering silently at about 1,000 feet above ground level. Jake took that as his cue to land, his designated jump-off point at the northern most part of the encirclement.

Setting down behind the line, he climbed off his cycle and then retrieved his rifle from the box. He then linked up with the fire team that was assigned as his security. He was a bit put off at the concept, but Patti and Sara had insisted on the assignment. At that point, all was ready to go.

“Ok ALICE, light em up!” Jake ordered.

On the order, both of the transports hovering over the target area lit up the entire area for blocks with external lighting. Getting the video feed from ALICE, Jake could see several of the men below the transports stirring from their bedrolls. As they did, he saw a few women escape the constraints of their captors and scurry for cover.

Jake then broadcast, the transports relaying the audio, “This is Colonel Thomas of the 1
st
Marines. Drop your weapons and return south. Any resistance will be met by lethal force.”

As expected, the area erupted in gunfire, all directed at the transports 1,000 feet overhead. Again, all part of the plan, the lights were cut and all 1
st
Marines were given the green light to advance. Rules of engagement were any armed combatants were fair game, should anyone disarm themselves under fire, they were to be spared. Anyone encountered that was unarmed and non-aggressive were to be spared.

----*----

Patti had set up the combat management center with a great deal of attention to detail. Spread out all along one wall were her analysts. Assigned as one analyst per squad, they monitored each fire team and squad leader, their video feed quaded out in their displays. The audio feed for the fire teams and squads were on a different frequency than the command net.

With this layout, both she and Sara could see all the displays from behind the analysts plus the main feeds overhead, provided by ALICE and a second set of analysts handling the overall situation. With the night vision enabled, they were seeing everything as if in full daylight, with only a very slight graininess to the images. To the untrained eye, it looked to be total chaos.

As they watched the Marines advance, they fed the teams’ continuous information on enemy concentrations and movement. Several times, they prevented a team from being overrun by redirecting their movement or calling a 10
th
Calvary trooper in for air cover.

Suddenly one of the secondary analysts announced, “Patti, we have a large group pushing north for a break out. They are heading straight for the Colonel!”

----*----

Jake was working with his fire team, wading into the mayhem that erupted after the lights went out. He could make out gunfire from all directions, taking several hits himself that felt little more than a punch. Several times, he fired on a group, they themselves shooting in all directions and killing several of their own people.

He could hear the analysts on the command net, instructing various team leaders on threats in their areas. So far, he hadn’t heard one call for medical assistance. He did find several of the female hostages, huddling in fear as the surrounding gunfire all around them continued. Jake pointed them to the north, and sent them running.

As they cleared one area and moved on to the next, Jake found several more of the female hostages huddled in a doorway on the street. Grabbing the nearest, he instructed the others to follow and led them to a stairway he had just passed. The first woman followed Jake’s instructions, leading the others down and out of harm’s way.

Turning, he saw a wall of armed men enveloping his fire team, as he heard on the command net, “Jake, there are a large number of men coming your way!”

“No shit,” was all he could say as he raised his rifle and started shooting.

Rushing into the fray, he went full auto in an effort to clear a space around his men. Suddenly everything went bright white, as two of the 10
th
let loose with their cannons, taking out the largest portion of the group, while knocking Jake and everyone near him to the ground.

Recovering quickly, he scrambled to his feet, checking on his teammates.

“Patti, we have two men down. Suits report full containment. I think they may have broken limbs.”

While the combat suits had many fine qualities, unlike the training pads, you could hyper extend joints or break limbs if hit a certain way. He was sure it was the tradeoff between flexibility vs protection.

These two had been trampled by the mob, and probably shot several times. He was sure they were also knocked around by the cannon blast, but they would survive.

Leaving his other two fire team members to watch over the wounded, Jake moved on cautiously.

“Jake, what are you doing?” He heard Sara ask as he continued up the street, taking out three more armed men.

“My job,” was all he said in return.

Jake continued to check his tactical display, directing units around him to targets nearby.

Everywhere he looked there were dead and dying, most still clutching the weapons that had condemned them to their fates. To his amazement, he hardly saw any female casualties. The few exceptions were usually buried in a pile of armed bodies. They were most likely the victims of mistaken identity or simply not visible to the shooter.

----*----

Patti and Sara watched Jake moved up the street from where he had called in the medical evac. Both constantly scanned the overhead imagery, checking for threats that might present a challenge to him. They had wanted to assign a 10
th
trooper for air cover, but had to relent to higher priority requests. Should Jake find out someone died due to his personal needs, there would be hell to pay.

Jake was busy directing a fire team to a large group, ignoring his own risks.

“Colonel, there is a group of five coming in on your 10 o’clock,” one of the analysts transmitted.

As they watch, Jake paused and then the five dropped, almost as one.

“Thanks,” they heard Jake reply.

Checking the large overhead display, they could see that the number of combatants was nearing zero. All across the target area, they were getting reports of surrenders.

“Jake, they are giving up,” Sara announced.

“Copy that, pulling back,” Jake replied while pausing in his current position.