Chapter 16: Retrieval

I glanced at the hatch as sergeant major Patricia Golden walked in, “something?”

She smiled, “looking for an excuse to flee the paperwork?”

I grinned and sat back, “Now that you mention it, yes.”

She laughed as she crossed to the desk and set a sealed packet on the desk, “a warning notice.”

I picked it up and broke the seal before opening it. I read it and looked at Patricia, “looks like the eighth is going to Antilla.”

She nodded, “Just us?”

I shook my head, “The sixth and third will be joining us. The emperor wants a reprisal raid on the queen’s nest.”

Patricia sucked in a breath, “that is going to get messy.”

The Quazel were an insect race and very aggressive. Two weeks before they had moved into a system we claimed and destroyed several stations and used kinetic strikes to take out the only city. I had been commanding the eighth regiment for almost fourth months and this was our first major action.

I leaned back, “let Beckman know and set up a briefing for the battalion commanders later tonight. I need to look this over before I have my lunch with Fleet Admiral Kreager.”

Patricia nodded, “I will get with supply too.”

I went back to reading as she left. The operation was simple, eighth dropped first with Sixth on our left flank and third on the right. We move straight for the queen’s nest and attempt to send a battalion down to kill the queen while sixth takes out the starport and third the warriors hive. The entire regiment was going in wearing the new fleet issue combat armor.

The three fleets jumped into the system and the destroyers and cruisers accelerated to meet the Quazel warships in the system with three battleships following. The carriers were behind the battleships but sent out waves of tach fighters. I watched most of the action on the bridge with admiral Kreager before checking the time and headed to the shuttles.

I walked aboard my shuttle and nodded to the crew chief, “button up and let the captain know we are ready for launch.”

She smiled and turned to the intercom as her other hand started closing the hatch. Patricia grinned as I began stripping and putting the new combat armor on. My helmet visor was like the new command glasses. I did a system check as I settled my swift and the Denta assault rifle. I had extra ammo just in case things went bad. I felt the shuttle launch as I started regiment status checks and moved to the battalions.

To protect the shuttles we were jumping in using capsules. I settled into mine as we headed towards the planet ahead of the other regiments. My visor flickered and admiral Kreager appeared, “all the ships have been destroyed and we still have a go.”

I smiled, “Your turn to buy the drinks when we get back.”

He grinned, “you can put them on my tab for all your boys and girls.”

I glanced at our position as he turned away, “looks like we are coming up on the ejection point.”

I flicked the regiment comm channel, “see you on the ground eighth.”

I saw the red light go green as the admiral turned back and opened his mouth. My capsule exploded down the drop shoot, “ABORT!”

I glanced at my readouts but no other capsules followed mine. I looked back at the white faced admiral, “status?”

His lips were thin, “plasma generators.”

I glanced at my heat shield status, command capsules had triple redundant heat shields. I switched to the regiment comm, “colonel Beckman you are in charge.”

He nodded as plasma surrounded my capsule and cut the comm signal. I bypassed the anti grav program to keep it from going active and armed the outer heat shield charges. When they fractured and began splintering I detonated the outer shell and the second began heating up. I dialed up the suit coolers as it started to get warm and watched the atmosphere altitude.

I detonated the second shell away as I passed through the plasma layer and activated the anti grav systems to slow me. My comm came alive as I rotated the capsule to look around, “Pendragon?”

I smiled as my capsule slowed enough for me to detonate the last heat shield, “still here colonel. Check with the admiral and try to use kinetic strikes on the plasma generators.”

I checked my altitude before detonating the capsule and stretching out, “I will see what I can do while you work on retrieval.”

I kicked up the scan image from below and started gliding to the north. I finally touched down and shut the anti gravs down and a platoon of Quazel rushed out of the thick underbrush. I lifted my rifle as I knelt and shot the first four through their thorax. I shifted my fire to one that had bright color on its body chiton. His head exploded and I went back to the closest warriors.

I stood after the last one died and started moving. I knew if I hit the queen’s hive every warrior on the planet would be focused on it. I killed several warriors as I moved and it was not long before I was using Thumper on groups of them. When they moved away I started moving faster, a minute later heavy weapon fire began ripping the brush and trees apart.