Chapter 3

We got our orders. The lizards had shown up at Ridal 5 and the Army there was having trouble holding them back. They had made planet fall and had disabled the orbital defenses. Their next step would be to secure a foothold and send in the tunnelers followed by the breeders. In about a year there would be a new generation of little razor toothed, scaly, sharp clawed lizards running around looking for human meals. Within twenty years they would be busy building the next generation of invasion craft and looking for the next system to conquer.

So far they had not gotten to the older more developed systems, but it was only a matter of time I was guessing. We just seemed to lack the will to crush them. Our missions were holding missions and lacked drive I felt, but nobody asked a lifer opinion on anything. I knew why we had yet to invade one of their established systems. They had countless space craft in the systems. They were small and easily produced. While they were clearly outmatched by our space fighters they had numbers. With a small maser cannon one, or even fifty, they were no danger to a ship like the Deimos. It was when there were hundreds and thousands that our fleet ships ran into trouble.

The masers were not even the most dangerous element to them. They were piloted by small insect like beings that had eggheads baffled. The theory was that they were some kind of hive mind and that is how they kept from colliding with each other while flying close together in swarms. It was not known where they came from, but was guessed that they were a subservient species that was conquered long ago. The ships themselves were simple with a small fuselage, a chemical thruster and fuel tank, cockpit, and weapons system. There is little armor on them, just enough to shield the pilot from radiation. The little fighters double as bombs and are often used as such. That is what makes them so deadly.

We fought them by not letting them get close if we could help it. Fleet preferred to deal with them by firing missiles into them and detonating fission bombs. When they got close our ships' point defense systems were the best option. They were computer controlled and had a 99 percent accuracy rate firing slugs and small ion cannons. The point defense systems also had the task of dealing with the debris from the destruction of the fighters which often got propelled at dangerous velocities towards the ship.

Swanson told me pretty much everything she knew about our mission. I'm pretty sure she should not have told anybody some of the stuff she told me. I doubt she was supposed to know it either, but being the Colonel's assistant she was privy to lots of classified information.

Fleet was going in to set up a new orbital defense. They were setting up a new type of defense platform. It was in twenty four parts spaced about the planet with orbital elevators for power and supplies. There was little staff on them as they were essentially weapons platforms designed for the Lizards. On them were arrays of large and small ion cannons and supersized coilguns along with missile batteries.

Fleet was bringing in two battleships, the Sol and Cali, four cruisers, four raiders (including the Deimos) and twenty six destroyers followed by the new orbital defense station once the Lizards had been removed.

The excitement Swanson had was almost infectious. I guess it would have been considered infectious if everybody felt it. I did not. Not wanting to throw a monkey wrench into the morale works, I kept my mouth shut. The operation might succeed, it sounded like it had a good chance. I knew that the dirty work though would be up to us poor grunts in Armor. It was not the first time we had tried to take back a colony and I was there for that cluster fuck.

It was about a three week acceleration and deceleration under the Greenburg-Sondergaard effect which took about five weeks real time. Every member of fleet had a second clock that kept track of subjective time.

We were the last ones to make it to the party. Two cruisers and five destroyers were gone and half the other ships were in need of serious repairs, but the Lizard mother ship was destroyed. The space defense platform was in system and being brought online. The raiders were getting ready to go down to the surface.

The populace had mostly evacuated a continent and the Lizards were holding onto a million square kilometer sized area. The local army was in a fighting retreat and had been, mostly, since the Lizards had landed. If they had lasted that long then, they were uncommonly effective.

Now you might wonder why we just don't bomb them out. Simple, humans are living on the planet and a scorched earth approach does not get you very far when the enemy has fortifications underground, far underground. Creating a crater the size of a small moon on a planet's surface, which we could do with some ease I'm told, renders a planet uninhabitable for a long time. We did not chase them underground very much though. We enticed them up to the surface. There were ingenious little devices, tunnel busters, that we could send down the tunnels and they would seek out and explode when they found Lizards. An explosion underground is a very destructive thing, due to over pressure. They also learned that they could not seal everything up and wait us out. We could dig too. Another useful version of the tunnel buster was self tunneling. So the Lizards knew they had to get us off the surface or their tunnels turned into pre-dug graves.

The Ospreys performed the move that got them their names, accelerated straight down, dropped us during the breaking maneuver and screamed back out again before the Wasps could get them. Wasps are what kept us out of the skies on Lizard raids. The skies would be filled with thousands upon thousands of insectoid flying things with 8 meter wing spans and corrosive goo for poison that would weaken and dissolve any aircraft when they collided with them in numbers, which is what the Wasps did in effect. They tried to sting, but the speed of our aircraft made such collisions fatal to the Wasps and they went just like a bug on a windshield. Once again the eggheads did not understand the relationship between the Lizards and the insects, but the Wasps were aggressive and attacked anything in the sky that was bigger than a large bird.

Four Battalions from the Deimos dropped with one in reserve for rotations. The other three raiders dropped similar compliments putting a total of 16244 Marines on the ground. We all had similar missions but different sectors of responsibility. The Colonel was tagging along with Whiskey but was focused on the whole Battalion so Capt. Simmons was still calling the shots. 2nd Lt. Swanson, almost like an eager puppy, was doing whatever she does for the Colonel.

Our job was to cause chaos as usual. We skipped over to the front lines right away and before the Lizards really knew what was happening we were on them and then through them waving at the planetary army as we leaped by. There was no way I would have signed up for that. Sitting in that mechanized armor waiting for a ball of super heated plasma to land on me and cook me inside of it was worse than a penal mining colony. We then turned back around and picked up any stragglers that we missed the first time around.

Next we were off to a tunnel for a weapons platoon to send tunnel busters down. Their scans showed it was a large tunnel so it got four. They went in at 5 tic intervals. Each weapons platoon Marine had a controller unit on his back. It interfaced with his helmet and battle comp. The logic of the TBs was good, but human intuition was more valuable in deciding which way to go first.

1st and 3rd platoons were sent out to form a perimeter. I got sent forward as OP as usual. Soon after the tunnel busters detonated there would be Gators and we needed to know which way and get eyes on them.

At the start of the war we used small lighter than air drones to give us an aerial view, but the Lizards caught on and knocked anything out of the sky that we put up. Orbital surveillance was useful and we used it extensively. The Lizards knew we did and did their best to remain undetected by it. Gators did not have a snowball's chance in hell of remaining unseen. Chameleons though were a different matter.

As a rule we generally kept moving, but as everybody knows rules get broken. When we stopped for any length of time and looked like we might be stopped for a while the Lizards would send Chameleons, especially if we had orbital dominance. Chameleons could mimic their surrounding and even the texture of what they were next to. Their infra-red signature was indistinct, unlike Gators, Chameleons ran cold so were close to ambient temperature.

They favored the dart throwers which would light up like a flare on infra-red when fired. The best time to spot them was when they exited a tunnel and their body temp differed from the surrounding environment. Tunnels were always warmer it seemed. Chameleons were about as tall as Gators at about two meters and skinny though, weighing around a hundred kilos. They had shorter snouts with small very sharp teeth and sharp claws. Their eyes were large and when dead their skin was finely scaled and grayish green with lighter bellies.

A tunnel that did not show up on orbital surveillance opened up, once again showing the need for OPs. Out popped a pod of Chameleons. They were about a click away.

"LT, I need rounds at grid 238.471. A pod of Chameleons popped out of a hidey hole."

"Incoming. Call in corrections," he replied then called out, "eyes open people! Chameleons."

I took aim and fired at the ones I could see making sure they were dead, putting a slug in each one. As I was another OP called out for mortar fire on Chameleons. When my battle comps registered the first tunnel buster detonating I knew the party was just getting started. Soon another TB went, then another.

Then out of a tunnel nearby came Skinks. Hundreds started to pour out, then another tunnel as well and they all were headed towards us.

"Tunnel at 238.472 and 239.469 Skinks," I said highlighting them on my battle comp.

"Watch for a little longer then fall back Sweeney."

"Aye, Aye Sir."

I watched as the hundreds swelled to thousands. Each wearing basic body armor, not powered, and carrying plasma rifles. When the Skinks thinned out some and snailed up Gators started to come out I called that in too.

"All OP's fall back. Time to move people."

I skipped back at my best pace and we left as soon as the others caught up. We moved off to a rise and set up a little ambush. We had a whole series of way points marked. Standing toe to toe and slugging it out with the Lizards was stupid. They had vastly greater numbers.

The first three way points worked like text book Lizard fighting tactics. The fourth one went sideways a little. Chameleons flanked us. Luckily they opened up as we were leaving that spot and had not had time to get into position. They were at the outer limit of their effective weapon range. A couple Marines got hit but suffered only minor damage.

First platoon got Chameleon duty. We skipped out to the flanks and looked for them as the rest of Whiskey played cat and mouse with the swelling horde of Lizards behind us. Most of the time you did not so much look for them, but as flushed them out. A Chameleon was a pretty good shot, but if you kept moving and kept low they exposed themselves. Their weapons were always hot and that heat was what you ended up spotting most of the time. Ultraviolet yielded better results on Chameleons, but it just took a practiced eye mostly.

They were out in force. My battle comp just marked the positions I found them in and I never broke stride. I did surprise one and myself a little, landing right beside one. It whirled on me but I whirled my ax a little faster and skipped on. Sgt. Gregs gave me two sectors to patrol and I was at the point. As usual the fucker did not acknowledge that I got the more dangerous assignment.

When the Lizards stopped chasing us, we stopped at another tunnel and the weapons Marines had their fun. We also got resupplied with dropped, maybe launched is the better term as they came down like missiles and braked at the last minute, supplies of ammo, food, and power packs. We were all carrying extra slug packs, but we always resupplied when there was a pause.

Things more or less went like any other operation like this one except better. We had been recalled once and got some rest and repairs and were back down dirtside. Our KIA rate was pretty good so far at 2% and causality rate of 10% needed major medicals. As usual, just when I get to feeling things are going well it goes sideways on us.

First there were reports of Lizards on the other continent which was supposedly untouched and secure. Second our CO Lt. Simmons got himself recalled with four others with a Lizards version of an anti personnel mine. It did not look good for them, major medicals at best. Bright eyed and eager to prove herself 2nd Lt. Swanson got Whiskey Company and I got a private meeting with Colonel Santiago.

"Sweeney. Normally Gunny Kapoor would be Swanson's advisor but he is with Lt. Simmons on their way back to the Deimos. I can't promote you but you are going to act as her advisor. Understand?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good. I hope you don't have to contact me for anything. Understand?"

"Yes Sir," I replied and did. He was telling me that she knew she needed to heed my advice and if she ignored it and chose something that was down right stupid to contact him privately.

"Good luck."

"Thank you Sir."

"Okay people. It looks like we are getting picked up and re-dropped but this time on the other continent. We will have aerial recon as there are no Wasps there yet. This is a search and destroy. Avoid civilian causalities but our primary goal is wiping out the Lizards. The Army and planetary authorities know to stay out of the way, if they don't, go through them."

"Oorah," we all replied.

"Sweeny. You ever done this before?" Swanson asked me privately.

"Yes. It is going to be messy."

"How?"

"They will have captured people. We can't use tunnel busters freely as they will be in sewer and storm systems. The longer it takes the worse it will be."

"Thanks."

When we were airborn Swanson briefed the company.

"Anybody done this before? Nobody. Sweeney has. No surprise there. He tells me this will not be fun. It will be ugly and civilians will die by our hands and the Lizards. It can't be avoided. Do your best to avoid civilian causalities, but if a Lizard is hiding behind a civilian, shoot the civilian and the Lizard if you have to. Lizards do not let humans go alive. We can't use tunnel busters freely. I'm told they will have moved to populated areas and will be in the sewer and storm systems and into tunnels below of their own making. We have to find the new brood mother and kill her and hope there is only one. The Lizards will go berserk if so and head straight for us when we kill the bitch. It will be a disorganized rush, which if you remember your training will be a cake walk."

I thought it was typical. The first time I was on civilian ground with civilians present in over twenty years there were lizards as well. It had been a very long time since I was this close to civilization. Everything was the same and different. The store fronts had clothes displayed I had not seen before, the private civilian vehicles were unfamiliar, and there was a dead dog in the street. I really missed my dog.

Intel said that lizards had been seen raiding here. There was some evidence of it, smashed buildings, the dog, and blood trails. It reminded us what we were fighting for.

"We go in on the highlighted access on your display. No plasma grenades without approval. I don't want the paint ruined on my suit," Lt. Swanson said in her pleasant voice.

It got a few chuckles.

"Send Minsk and Sunjab at point," I sent to her privately.

"Minks and Sunjab on point. Let's do this. We are looking for the entrance to their underground. If its deep and ugly I've got some bunkerbusters and we let them come to us and they can send me the bill for the real estate damage."

Swanson had two, and Jinks from heavy weapons had three. She also had a grenade launcher. The Class VI was good for carrying toys.

Sgt. Gomez took charge at that point and down we went. They were a bit surprised I was not on point. It's more or less my designated spot. We were a professional outfit so not a word was said. The private channel is disabled except within a meter of each other for us enlisted grunts. They used to record what was said on the private channel but had faced a mutiny way back when they tried to court martial some dumb Marine for making comments about an even dumber butter bars lieutenant and changed policy. Private channel was just that now, totally private. Gomez must have gotten the message about me and Swanson because he did not tell me what to do and Gomez loved telling me what to do.

It was odd to be back in the middle of the pack. If I was honest with myself I really did not like the view and I was honest with myself. I wasn't always, but I am now.