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Anax, twenty-five kilometers outside of Reborn
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On the eve of the Orion War, Anax had been a back rocket colony on the Bloodstripe Run. It had recently housed just under fifty thousand colonists, nearly all of them ex-Stormtroopers that had taken advantage of veteran land grant programs issued from the House of Yos following the Empire-Earth War. The planet's main claim to fame had been its proximity to more important planets. It and the frozen world of Kafrene Outpost formed the base of the Kuat Triangle which led into the Kuat Spur, one of the heaviest industrial and populated systems in the New Empire.
But nobody stopped at Anax. It wasn't important enough for many beings to even notice it. It lacked a proper spaceport and occupied a wide and easily traveled system. It's one hazard was the instability of its sun Anax Alpha, which had recently begun a cycle of coronal mass ejections, causing communication and electrical issues for any starships crossing the system.
The sole worth of Anax, besides its location, lay in its lumber production, which was unparalleled anywhere else in the young Empire. One of the veterans had seeded the planet with Wroshyr acorns like an Imperial version of Johnny Appleseed. The saplings had spread rapidly across the planet's continents until they covered nearly the entirety of the planet's landmasses. The Wroshyr trees came in a hundred varieties and ranged from a half kilometer high along the coastal beaches to just over three or four kilometers tall further inland.
Most of the population worked for Anax Buckethead Lumber and it was through their colossal efforts that they kept the growing forests back from their one settlement, Reborn; a town that was built atop and inside the trunk of the first tree ever planted on Anax, nearly seventeen years prior.
War arrived at Anax almost four months after the Nal Kuat Raid. The great Confederate Space Force drive down the Bloodstripe Run had slowed at Kafrene Outpost, not due to the Imperial Navy but because the Earthlings had nearly run their warships dry of fuel. Anax had been scouted and small Imperial ships had initially sparred and then been chased out of the Anax System as Fleet Admiral Gentis had consolidated his war fleet.
Anax was the next in line. That much was obvious to anyone who could read a star chart. Starting after the Nal Kuat Raid thousands of its veterans put the white armor back on and rejoined the military. Thousands of their youths, looking forward to work in the lumber industry, suddenly found themselves before draft boards and whisked away to far away Hsskhor where they would learn to fight like their parents had a generation before. When Kafrene Outpost fell, it quickly became obvious the enemy was going to push ahead again one day. The planet was ordered evacuated by the Empress herself, and in a matter of days HEEC transports had pulled nearly every being off the planet to refugee centers on Simal, Nal Moshen and Palpatine Prime.
A small group of caretakers, all of them veterans and volunteers, were left behind to secure Reborn. They numbered twenty-three and largely came from 3rd Platoon, Forn Company, 6th Battalion, 395th Legion, 2nd Martian Line Corps; their former Empire-Earth War unit. After the miraculous victory at New Thyfeeria, the enemy had picked up their reconnaissance of Anax with near daily spy recon flights. The caretakers knew they were going to get hit soon and hit hard. Reborn was no longer safe and they fled into the forests with several months' worth of ammo and provisions.
Thad Farless was one of those caretakers. His buddies from the Corps still called him HF-3105. He was assigned as part of a two-man team that protected the hyperwave radio that they had mounted on the back of the team's adopted crab droid; the one droid who could keep up with them as they climbed up and down tree trunks and moved through Anax's sprawling forest canopy. They reported the enemy flights back to Imperial Naval Headquarters on Nal Kuat and received curt orders to continue their observations in return.
Naval HQ called them 'Planet Watchers'. All of the caretakers were former troopers. There wasn't a single officer among them. Their leader, decided by vote among the caretakers, was a former trooper named Baobab, who had done her fighting on Mars during the last war. Her husband and eldest son had been left behind on Mars and she had sent the rest of her younglings coreward with the other refugees. She wanted to make the Confederacy pay a heavy price if they wanted Anax. So did the rest of the caretakers.
Every day they sent their reports and asked for help. Every day they were met with silence. The sole Legion left to the Empire, the 41st Elite, was insufficient to protect Anax as well as planets coreward.
Like most colony worlds of the Empire, Anax was large and almost entirely undeveloped. Roadways were unknown except around Reborn; inland travel was done by speeder bike and plodding lumber gravtrucks or by foot along muddy forest trails or along streambeds. Beyond Reborn lay a vast, unmapped, undulating forest landscape that ran five hundred kilometers to the Southern Ocean and three hundred kilometers to the Trooper Mountains, which were the only features of the landscape that pierced the continuous green of the forest canopy.
A being could hide almost anywhere, concealed in the lower forest or kilometers above in the branches of the Wroshyr Trees. A passing column of enemy troopers would never detect the presence of an entire Legion above them if they didn't want to be found.
There was much to do and little time to do it. Nearly every night pairs of enemy Y-Wings started coming over Anax. Perhaps they were trying to figure out if Reborn was abandoned or not, Thad thought. During the day, when the Coronal Mass Ejection chased away the enemy snoops the caretakers would rush back into Reborn and pack up and carry away supplies, provisions, weapons, tibanna and fuel cans to secret forest caches. Nothing should be left behind to the enemy that they might find valuable. Little did they know, the Earthlings didn't see any value in Reborn.
One morning a twelve ship Space Force convoy could be seen heading down from orbit and heading towards the Trooper Mountains. It took the caretakers two days to discover where they had landed. A broad sloping peak marked the foothills of the Trooper Mountains. It held no name. It flattened to a large mesa at the top and along one side a four-kilometer-long slope descended into the forest. The pointed peak was surrounded on three sides by a bend in the shallow Valance River.
A new landing port was being built up there by the enemy. Baobab could see it all from the surrounding forest. The peak was nearly five kilometers tall, and they could hear the Earthling workers and troopers living up there. Heavy construction equipment and wheeled landspeeders came down with several thousand more troops and laborers. That removed all doubt. The Confederacy was building a base on Anax, and if they were permitted to finish it, they would extend their bombing capabilities to perhaps hit New Thyfeeria again, or coreward towards Judicar, a system away from Anax.
That night, as the caretakers settled in for the evening nearly thirty kilometers from Reborn, a single B-Wing sailed quietly over the forest. He had flown in from Kafrene Outpost with President Harris's special gift for the abandoned town. The nuclear bomb whistled as it fell away from the B-Wing. The Space Force bomber hit his afterburners and raced for orbit. The impact lit up the night like an Empire Fete Week celebration.
All of the caretakers watched in disbelief as their former homes were consumed in a massive fireball. An ugly cloud of flame and smoke climbed into the night sky as the shockwave shook the upper trees. No one was lost that day, but some of their supplies were thrown loose and fell away to the forest floor, lost to the impact. For Thad the worst part was that the crab droid had been knocked offline by the bomb's EMP. Thereafter he and his partner were forced to carry the bulky thing. Luckily, Thad was equipped with a mechno-spine as a result from injuries sustained in the Empire-Earth War, which made it slightly easier to go long distances with a heavy pack, though he did rely on a walking cane most days.
They wouldn't have to worry about radiation, thankfully. Since the start of the war the former troopers of 3rd platoon had acquired a supply of anti-rad meds.
Within hours the Earthlings called into the forests with handheld reek-horns calling for Baobab and several other caretakers by name. They had evidently intercepted some of their transmissions. At the base of the peak, they brought out scent-tracking canine teams to search the nearby forest for the caretakers. Baobab ordered the hyperwaves deeper into the forest and turned them off except for short bursts of transmissions.
The next day, after the invaders had come, the Planet Watchers received news that reinforcements were on their way. An HEEC transport raced into the system during the brightness of day, when the Earthling's sensors were at their weakest. It came in atop the smoldering ruins of Reborn and deployed several dropships into the forest. Dozens of small figures jumped from the dropships and scrambled into the tree line. Moments later attack chopters appeared from the enemy base. The Earthlings had not yet brought in snubnose fighters and bombers to their unfinished base.
The chopters managed to chase off the HEEC transport as soon as it retrieved its dropships, and as far as Thad knew the transport had made it safely back out of the system again. He was more excited to see who they had dropped off. Any reinforcement would be a welcome relief. Baobab sent him and another trooper, EZ-6758 to make contact.
It took them several hours before they arrived in the area where the new troopers had been offloaded. Even before they found them, Thad and EZ-6758 felt they were being watched. EZ-6758 was a former scout sniper and suddenly held up a hand for Thad to stop. Thad had almost collided with his back at the sudden halt.
"What's up, Jack?" Thad asked his comrade.
"Don't pull out your blaster. They're all around us." EZ-6758 held up his hands. Thad couldn't see anything except the endless wall of green that made up Anax.
From the nearest bushes came the shrieking call of a horn. A few seconds later the horn was answered by another horn further away. With a burst of sudden energy several dozen squat figures emerged. They looked like short Wookiees and were armed with not only E-11s but also primitive bows and spears. They wore several pieces of leathercraft and assorted pieces of Stormtrooper armor painted in forest green and brown.
"Ewoks." EZ-6758 stated. Thad wondered where he had gained experience with the furry beings.
One of the Ewoks walked forward. He slung his bow over his back and gave a comedic salute to the two Troopers. He growled a rough, "I speak Basic. I learn at Academy on Mars."
Thad could just barely make out what the Ewok had growled. "That's pretty good. I'm Thad and this is Jack. You don't have to salute us. We're retired."
"Retired elders. Yes." The Ewok said something in its language to the others in the trees.
"Who are you?" Jack asked.
"Two-Two-Four Special Forest Militia. I am Loot-Chief Tarfang. I report to Big Loot-Chief Baobab." Tarfang said. Thad got the impression that Loot-Chief was something akin to Lieutenant.
Thad held out his hand to the short fighter. "Good to meet you, Tarfang. Troopers and Ewoks fighting side-by-side."
"This I've got to see." Jack chuckled.
Tarfang clasped Thad's outstretched hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "They took our home on Mars. We only Ewoks off world at start of Tribe-Fight. We loyal to Phasma."
"That's good enough for me, mate." Thad smiled. "You ready to make the Earthling scum pay?"
Tarfang raised his blaster in the air and shouted "Yub-yub!"
Three hundred voices, the entirety of 224 Special Forest Militia's force echoed from the woods. "Yub-yub!"
"What do you suppose that means?" Jack asked.
"I don't know. But I bet the Confed Troopers up on that peak are going to come to hate it."
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Magnificent class freighter Virtuoso, Convoy MA-AN-1, Confederate Hyperlane 1
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There had been a murder aboard their ship. That had been the reason the Legionnaires had been confined to their billets for the past three days. As far as Oliver Khulmano felt, the dead Guardian deserved it.
When they had first shipped out from Mars, everyone in the 34th Legion had been thrilled. Their Legion had been selected for a special mission and half an Earth year on occupation duty on Mars had been anything but exciting. There had been the widespread evictions from the 'Dala which had resulted in a few protests from the alien inhabitants, but those had been put down rather quickly; usually with the armored fist of the nearest Legionnaire.
There had also been rumors of partisan forces organizing out in the badlands of Mars, but every search for the insurgents had come up empty. Even the one big battle up on Olympus Mons had been mostly fought by the Army. The ten Legions stationed on the newly conquered neighbor of Earth were growing soft, Oliver feared. So, he welcomed the latest mission and the chance to push the Confederacy forward for the President.
The Virtuoso was less populated but just as crowded as the freighter that had landed the 34th on Mars last December. No longer were a single Legion's soldiers all crammed onto a single ship with their heavy equipment spread out on two other transports. Something had happened in the intervening months that had scared Space Force and high command in the Legions. Now a Legion was divvied out with each of its five brigades on a separate transport and mixed together with their vehicles, supplies and heavy gear. Oliver sneered when it had been explained to him. Most of their tanks and trucks had been left back on Mars. Now they were shepherding a massive amount of equipment and nearly three thousand civilian 3rd Classer construction workers.
Nobody would say where they were going. Legionnaires mostly had curiosity beat out of them during their training. The Space Force Guardians were a different matter. They were explorers and seemed to stick their nose into everything. They lorded themselves over the Legionnaires and chewed them out whenever they found one of Oliver's comrades somewhere aboard ship they felt was out of bounds for a Legionnaire. Even the civilian construction workers, though fearful of the big Legionnaires, tended to talk with them as if they were children, or worse, aliens.
So it had been over a week after their departure from Mars, when a Guardian had been spouting off with several of his mates in the enlisted galley. He was spreading rumors of defeatism about someplace called New Thyfeeria. A name completely unknown to any Legionnaire in the 788th Brigade. He spun a conspiracy theory of a defeat at the hands of the Imperial Navy so big it had cost their allies in the First Order four of their massive warships as well as Space Force's Lady Liberty, an Eiffel class heavy cruiser.
It sounded absurd to most of the Legionnaires in the mess and heated words had been exchanged with the Guardians squaring off against their Legionnaire passengers. Only the appearance of the officer of the deck had stopped the fight from breaking out.
Two days later the Guardian who had been spreading such lies had been found in the showers with his neck snapped. No one knew who did it, but the Legionnaires were punished as a brigade. The entire 788th was placed under billet arrest and their quarters were guarded around the clock by MPs. A crazy concept when one realized how heavily armed the Legionnaires were.
Oliver thought about the strange turn of circumstances from the past week as he did upside-down crunches alongside his friend Ethan Thompson. They dangled from the top of their stacked bunks among a crowd of lounging Legionnaires focused on their own workouts, or rutting each other or cleaning their weapons for the hundredth time since they had departed.
"You think it's true, ET?" Oliver asked.
"About that New Thyfeeria fight?"
"Yeah."
"Way I see it, Space Force was going to get a bloody nose somewhere, OK. It's not like they're the Legions after all. Besides, if the First Order really lost four ships, wouldn't that mean they were in the thick of it? Wouldn't be surprised if they lost the battle and that ship we lost was a result of their fumble." Ethan reasoned.
"That makes sense. They're aliens, right? Bet they fight as bad as aliens."
"Nobody fights as good as us bastards. Every dead Imperial from Mars to Kafrene Outpost knows that much." Ethan's justification got a hardy laugh out of Oliver.
"Maybe that's where we are going."
"What? New Thyfeeria? Wouldn't surprise me. Someone's got to show these Guardian pukes how to fight." ET grinned. "My bets on Kazoook though. President wants us to pay them back for what that bitch broadcast during the Roblin Raid."
"Bro, that was three months ago, and isn't Kazoook like in another galaxy or something."
"Another spur arm according to the nerds in the Legion Intel shop. I know it takes one of these slow-ass transports two weeks to get out to Kafrene Outpost. We left Mars just about that long ago." Ethan said.
"What's beyond Kafrene?" Oliver asked and then with a hopeful glint in his eye. "Palpatine fucking Prime?"
"I wish, but as far as I know the 34th is the only Legion in this convoy. They'll send the whole army in when they take that place down. Besides there's a hundred Imp worlds between us and the Empress. Kafrene Outpost is only the midway point on Confederate Hyper-Route 1."
"First time we've been placed in a convoy to travel down it." Oliver pointed out.
"Is it? Who pays attention to Space Force chumps?" Ethan stopped his crunches to digest the new idea.
"I watched transports over Mars. They used to take off in ones or twos. I saw this group gathering for days before we embarked on this stinkin' ship. Bunch of warships around, watching over us." Oliver relayed his casual observations from almost two weeks ago.
"Now that I think about it, they've got every off-duty Guardian watching the portholes or spare radars. Something out there has them spooked." Ethan said.
"Like one of those Cold-War submarine stories they used to tell us about in the Confederate Youth Corps. By the President, if the Empire has stealth space subs out here . . ." Oliver let his words hang in the air. What else are they keeping from the Legionnaires? Was not knowing about something going to get them killed one day?
When the actual announcement of their destination came down from on high, it was anything but climactic.
Captain Bygar had assembled all of Delta Company in the Virtuoso's mess hall. It was the only area not crammed with supplies and machinery, large enough to hold a company's one hundred and thirty Legionnaires. It was a tight fit.
After the First Sergeant got them settled down, Captain Bygar gave them the news. "Our target is Anax."
There was a ripple of murmurs through the mess. The gist of every one of them was what in the universe was an Anax?
The Captain continued. "It's an important job. We are tasked with protecting a CB section of the Confederate Corps of Engineers in constructing a planet-side orbital launch center. An airbase, for you fucks that don't savvy Admiral Hollander speak. This is all part of our new strategy of seizing the world of Judicar so that we can isolate the enemy's bases in the Kuat System."
One of the Lieutenants at the front table asked a question of their superior. "What are we to expect of enemy resistance at this Anax place, sir?"
"Space Force has been . . ." Bygar's issuing of their rival service's name received several groans from the Legionnaires. ". . . Conducting aerial reconnaissance of Anax from our bases on Kafrene Outpost. It's at the extreme range of our X,Y and B space fighters and bombers. Supposedly this place has one town, that Hollander is pretty sure has been abandoned. Some type of forest ranger types have taken to the jungle, oh and wait until you get a load of the trees in this place, these trumped-up park rangers number less than a hundred or so individuals."
More grumbling passed through the troops. This time filled with an underlying anger. Oliver felt it too. They were getting sidelined. They'd heard of the Kuat System. They knew it was the home of the Imperial Navy and was going to be a tough slog worthy of the Legions. Some of them had even heard of Judicar and learned it was a choke point to trap the Empire from moving rimward towards Earth. But Anax. Nobody knew a thing about the place, except that it had trees, really big trees. And the 34th was going to have guard a boring airbase while the rest of the Legions took all the glory elsewhere.
Since only officers were allowed to ask follow up questions, the briefing broke up after a few technical questions about communication protocols, unloading procedures and deployment instructions. Six hours later the Legionnaires were kitted out in their Mjolnir armor and full battle gear.
Oliver formed up with the rest of the Khans in 5th squad of 1st Platoon. Corporal Lockwood and Sergeant Rook gave them a cursory inspection and chewed out any Legionnaire who exhibited some defect or perceived weakness. The freighter shuddered as it made contact with the upper atmosphere of a planet, presumably Anax, signaling 5th Squad to prepare itself for a combat insertion.
They shouldn't have bothered. In the end the Virtuoso circled the landing site for the better part of the morning. A runner told them not to bother with a combat landing as the first troops to hit the ground had already secured the target LZ and there had been no sign of the Empire anywhere near the landing zone.
When they put down an hour before the planet's estimated noon, the entire 788th Battalion strolled down the freighter's loading ramps under a golden-blue sky. The local sun flared angrily in the sky above causing swirls of pyroclastic light clouds to ripple about the upper atmosphere. When Oliver asked about it later, someone told him that the local star was undergoing a period of coronal mass ejection and sending energized light particles into Anax's magnetosphere at nearly 60 million kilometers an hour. The light show had caused chaos with the convoy's communication gear, further delaying the organized landing time tables.
They emerged atop an elevated peak. It rose from the forest floor five kilometers below up a gentle slope to a flat, broad mesa that ended in a peak pointing at larger mountains inland. A shallow river edged three sides of the mountain, excluding the sloped side, and a jumble of rocky boulders and short cliffs led down to the waters from topside. The LZ had the sharp smell of fire and ash when the Khans landed. Oliver asked Corporal Lockwood about it when he noticed the odor piercing his mask's filters.
"Fleet napalmed the whole hill before sunrise. I heard they had some kind of man-sized grass covering the whole place." She kicked a pile of ash at her feet. "Whatever it was it's gone now."
There was some kind of bright light that lit up the Corporal as Oliver was talking with her. He spun around quickly to discover its source. When he did, his jaw dropped. "Would you look at that!"
The mushroom cloud rose steadily into the sky from the distant jungle. They were too far away to feel the shockwave or hear the blast but its effect was nonetheless stunning. A single cloudy toadstool rising above a sea of green. The war had become nuclear and none of the Legionnaires seemed to take any significance from the event other than to revel in their enemy's misfortune.
Private Rostoc whistled nearby. "Scratch Reborn."
"That was the town?" Private Casrich asked. "Hope those ET bastards get nice and tan."
Private Kappehl laughed. "Yeah, I bet those pricks are wishing they packed their suntan lotion."
Oliver hoped the town wasn't really abandoned. One way or another it was a ghost town now. Ultimately it didn't really matter to him. His suit would protect him from any residual radiation. Sergeant Rook barked at his squads. "Quit your gawking. You all act like you've never seen a nuke go off before. We've got positions to dig."
"Khans. On me." Lockwood called to her Legionnaires.
A small mountain of supplies was slowly building up in the center of the mesa as more transports hurriedly unloaded their supplies. Space Force was eager to leave the local system and nobody wanted to alert the Empire to their presence out here just yet. Two large cranes were being erected to deal with the heavy lifting, while a battalion of construction vehicles rolled off the transports. Oliver was relieved to see a flight line being thrown together with twelve Iroquois attack helicopters and 24 CH-55D Space Stallion transport helicopters. Six AMP-5 Walkers patrolled the perimeter while sixteen VPK Bumerang V APCs idled away in the makeshift motor pool. Four Leopard 5 heavy tanks dug in atop the slope and swept their guns back and forth to protect the approach to the mesa. A slimmed-down 34th Legion had arrived.
Not comfortable with a lot of Legionnaires milling about, orders were quickly passed down from the officers, who would likely do none of the work, to the NCOs whose barks and shouts would supervise the labor. A tent city was rapidly laid out along one edge of the mesa with large shelters for the civilian workers and officers. The lowly fighting men would have to be content with shelter halves until more permanent structures were built.
1st Platoon was ordered to dig in along one edge of the mesa. Since the sides weren't perfect 90 degree cliffs, they climbed down several hundred meters and began sighting positions over-looking the river, which they soon nicknamed Lizard Creek, after they spotted dozens of medium-sized Dragonsnakes sunbathing on the river's sandbars below. Several poorly aimed shots at the slumbering beasts sent them stampeding into the nearby forests, but for weeks afterwards they would return during the heat of the day or at night to fish in the waters.
The rock that made up the peaked mountain was flaky or easy to dig into and 5th Platoon soon bit several fighting positions into the sides of the mountains. Trenches were dug connecting foxholes and bunkers were carved out for the machine guns and beam tube emplacements. Atop the mesa more positions were dug out for the mortar teams and even larger ones for the Legion's artillery battalion. Their howitzers pointed in every direction as no one knew where the enemy would come from, if there were any of them left after Reborn got nuked.
Oliver and Casrich were digging a trench towards Thompson and Tonc who were digging an opposing trench in their direction when they were suddenly confronted by a man standing over them. He wore camouflaged BDUs and a fancy body armor vest of the type someone had fooled civilians back on Mars into thinking was phaser proof. Oliver had seen too many times that no one on either side had come up with armor that stopped a tibanna bolt.
The man was part of one of the surveyor teams scrambling all across the mountain before they lost the flashy light of the local sun on their first day. Unlike the 3rd class construction crews, the surveyors were typically higher ranked, and so the Legionnaires were forced to tolerate them more than they would other civilians. Oliver never got the man's name and afterwards they would refer to him as Mr. Rockhound. Mr. Rockhound peered down at them in their trench. "What are you guys finding down there?"
Oliver didn't fully understand the question. "You mean booby-traps or mines? As far as we can tell, sir, we're the first ones to ever step on this hill."
"We're calling it Pride Rock, since it's shaped exactly like the one in the Lion King." Mr. Rockhound declared. When he was met with nothing but blank stares from Casrich and Oliver he tried to explain. "You know, like the Disney movie. You guys really need to get out more."
"We watch what the President tells us to, sir." Casrich replied with the standard answer Legionnaires gave to any nosy civilian.
"Ah, I see. I'm not looking for mines or tripwires. Recon predicted this peak was unexplored before we got here. I just wish they dropped a survey team before we landed. We never would have picked this place."
"Sir?" Oliver was confused. The peak gave an excellent vantage point over what appeared to be an endless sea of green facing them. The nearest thick branches were just on the other side of the river a few hundred meters away.
"That stuff you're digging through. It's all sandstone and shale. Really bad stuff to build an airbase on top of. We've drilled down to bedrock up on the mesa but its five meters deep. We're going to have to remove most of it and dump it over the side before we can lay down some proper tarmac." Mr. Rockhound explained.
"Makes sense, sir. We'll probably need to bring in F-55s to protect the place once it's up and running. X1s and Y3s too." Oliver tried to follow along with the civilian's reasoning.
"We're going to drop vertical launch pits for the Starfighters. They can lift off from a single bay, but you're right; we are going to bring in atmospheric fighters at some point." Mr. Rockhound looked at the pile of dirt they had thrown in front of their trench and shook his head. "You guys and gals let us know if you run into anything tougher than what you've been digging through."
The Legionnaires agreed and went back to their work as the civilian left. They saw him again at nightfall leading a team dragging hoses down to Lizard Creek. They were going to pump water back up to the mesa where they had set up a water purification plant. Not only would they have potable water for cooking but hopefully the promise of showers in the near future. Nobody wanted to try bathing in Lizard Creek with those odd Dragonsnakes lurking about.
They climbed back up Pride Rock when they were relieved. Half of 5th Platoon, including Ethan, had to stay behind and protect their new positions while Oliver's half went and retrieved chow from the new field kitchen. Oliver was not surprised to find Privates Basteren and Calfor already standing in the chow line. Neither of the Brits had been anywhere to be found while the rest of the Khans dug in. Instead, and Oliver suspected Corporal Lockwood had looked the other way, the two sticky-fingered packrats had raided the large mountain of supplies brought in for the officers and civilians. Basteren greeted Oliver as he arrived. "Hey, OK. How's this for an invasion? Landing in the morning and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. And not a single KIA anywhere in the Legion."
"I hope you two have been busy. I've been shoveling for the past six hours." Oliver glared at the two miscreants.
"Oh, don't get your panties twisted, mate." Calfor smiled. "We've been plenty busy. We'll share our stash with the rest of the 5th after the sun's gone down."
There was a loud roar from the helicopter flight line as the ground crew launched a pair of drones to scan the nearby forests. Basteren sneered. "They won't find anything."
"Why's that. Trees too dense?" Oliver guessed.
"That too. But I heard some nerd tech boys talking about some drones they sent out earlier. Trees around here are brimming with life and are warmer than the flora back on Earth. It's washing out our life scanners and thermals. There could be a thousand ETs in the trees across the river and we'd never know it." Basteren explained.
"There's not a thousand ETs on the planet." Oliver replied.
"According to the officers. We all know how many times they've been proven right." Calfor said.
Oliver didn't love the officers. They were petty and took things from the Legionnaires as if it were their right. They were supposed to be the voice of the President in the Legion and their word was law, but they certainly never seemed to have the brains of the President. Harris was widely regarded as the wisest man on Earth by anyone who ever donned Mjolnir armor.
The night was filled with a crazy light display as solar winds turned the dark skies bright with waves of green and red-light ribbons. The fleet departed to avoid drawing the attention of the Imperial Navy, leaving the sky empty. Construction crews atop Pride Rock worked with night-vision googles. Helicopters kept up a steady patrol and moonlight reflected off of Lizard Creek below them.
The next morning it started to rain. The water poured down in sheets and most of the Legionnaires tore down their shelter halves and covered their fox holes and dugouts to protect themselves from the downpour. Trenches filled with ankle deep mud and the excavation work slowed atop Pride Rock.
Along the cliff, next to Delta Company's position a spillway was forming as earth movers and trucks dumped rocks and sand over the side, transforming the flow of Lizard Creek below. On the slope-side of Pride Rock they laid down a winding gravel road that led down to the forest floor. The entire 207th and 55th Battalions set up their position along the slope to protect the approach to the mesa. Despite the heavy rains each of the five battalions sent out patrols into the dark woods.
It was the third day when they discovered they were not alone and the 34th Legion took their first casualties. The storm was finally starting to let up and during a break in the clouds somebody was sniped in the 207th.
It took an hour for the news to reach the Khans. Supposedly a Legionnaire Captain, though that may have been exaggerated by the time it reached Oliver, had been directing a dump truck along the new road when the driver reported the soldier had suddenly grabbed his throat and fell over. Through the rain and thunder, nobody had seen the bolt that hit him, but when the driver of the truck had jumped out of his cab and checked on the stricken Legionnaire, he was already dead.
Nobody was sure if the story was true or not but they were placed on heightened alert and two hours after the first alert a Corporal overseeing some mortar teams atop the mesa was hit in the back of the head from a bolt that had flown from a tree two kilometers away. This time someone had seen where it had come from. Legion artillery was called down on the offending tree and for forty minutes the position was bombarded.
Two hours later a Legionnaire scout was hit in the chest and severely wounded as he ran messages between two company CPs on the eastern edge. The same story played out and again Legion artillery raked the newest suspected sniper position for the better part of an hour.
"I think it's one guy." Ethan theorized to Oliver later that day. "He's fucking good too."
"Wasn't it supposed to be nothing but Park Rangers out here?" Oliver joked, though he was serious, and he rarely stuck his head up out of the dugout when he didn't have too. "What makes you think it's one guy?"
"My guess is one of those rangers is a vet from the Earth-Empire War. He's not too happy we nuked his village. You think we got him this time?"
"Not a chance. I'm thinking those trees are just about the best sniper positions on any planet we've grabbed so far." Oliver supposed.
"What do you mean?"
Oliver pointed at the nearest tree. He had nothing to do for the last three days but study them and dig into Pride Rock. "Look at the branches. They sway in the wind nearly two or three hundred meters back and forth. You can really hop from one spot to the next atop them. Now if I was a sniper, I'd shoot from either the top or the bottom, especially with a visible phaser like the shitty Imps use. You try it more than once we're going to spot your position pretty quick."
"And then we fucking smother him in shells." ET argued.
"Nah, he's long gone. I'm betting he's hooked up to some kind of climbing rig or repelling gear. The second he shoots, he jumps off his branch and drops two klicks and he's out of there, or if he's popping at us from a lower spot, he has some counterweight that yanks him up two klicks the second after he shoots. We're left shelling a ghost whose laughing at us from the other side of the hill by the time the arty lets up."
"Fuck. I bet you're right." Ethan sighed.
Whoever the sniper was he seemed to be punctual, for he kept up his two-hour attacks throughout the day, taking out what seemed to be a random target list. He even dispatched one of the 788th's snipers set up to watch for him just after lunch. The artillery limited their counter strikes to five minutes by the end of the day
He left Pride Rock alone when night fell, but most of the Legionnaires felt he'd be back tomorrow. The officers must have felt the same for they ordered triple the amounts of patrols the next day.
Whomever the enemy sharpshooter was, the pest didn't show up at sunrise as Oliver had expected. Instead, the 788th received another shock when the guard relief went out. At one of Alpha Company's observation posts along Lizard Creek they found a sentry, or at least, what was left of a sentry. The poor Legionnaire had been impaled by a short spear through her chest. Whatever had killed her had gotten in close enough to get underneath the plates of her Mjolnir. By the blood splatter the Alpha Company captain figured her head must have been removed after she had died from the spear wound.
Stories flew through the ranks and nearly every Legionnaire had a new theory about what was inhabiting the woods. The officers promised their overlapping defenses would protect Pride Rock; the troopers just needed to strengthen them. Then the sniper returned.
His morning wake-up call caught the colonel in charge of the Legion's artillery in the face while he ate his breakfast in the officer's mess. Assassinating such a high-ranking officer was like kicking an ant hill. General Falltower sent hundreds of men into the woods to hunt down and eliminate the irritant. Killing Legionnaires was one thing, killing officers though was something that needed to be stopped immediately.
Delta Company maintained their positions on the cliff while other companies scoured the woods. The sniper didn't return that morning or into the afternoon when the rains finally came to a stop. The construction crews worked through the mud to clear the airfield. The anti-air defense missile batteries were finally emplaced and the concrete plant started up that morning. Most of the Legion tried to forget about the ghostly hunter in the woods, but Oliver watched the forbidding trees and wondered how the patrols were going.
They returned at nightfall. They looked exhausted as they waded across Lizard Creek or slogged up the muddy slope. Two patrols from the 55th reported they had gotten lost and would spend the night in the forest.
Oliver heard stories from Charlie Company which had gone out on patrol instead of them. They were angry and frustrated. They had lost a man who had fallen in a pit filled with sharpened stakes that had all had poison applied to them. The man died screaming and in an immense amount of agony. Another patrol had lost a pair of scouts on quad runners to neck level tripwires. Everyone reported the same thing though. Something or someone had been watching them from the trees. A few Legionnaires stated they had caught glimpses of small bear-like creatures high in the branches, but no one believed them. The oddest report had come from a platoon in 443th Battalion. They had sent out a ninety-man patrol and unlike the others had not come across any sort of booby-traps or felt as if they were being watched. Yet when they counted roll call after their patrol five Legionnaires from the patrol had completely vanished.
Oliver settled in that night deep in his foxhole. More men were on guard duty than normal. Around midnight a sound broke the darkness, startling every trooper to their firing positions. The noise was the call of a horn of some sort, hundreds of them, and from every direction. Whatever was out there, wanted the 34th to know it was surrounded.
A lone flash of light came from far to Oliver's left, atop a branch near the slope. It arced downwards and embedded itself in the ground at the bottom of the hill. It was too far for Oliver to see, but he heard about it in the morning. The flaming spear impaled itself in the ground and burned, illuminating half a dozen Legionnaire heads, still in their helmets, atop several poles facing Pride Rock.
Anger rippled through the Legion. The junior officers were sympathetic but there was little reaction, other than more ordered patrols, from the Battalions' or Legion's HQ. At least not until the sniper returned on the fifth day. At least Command told everyone it was one sharpshooter and they shouldn't worry so much. Oliver was no longer sure.
The way the Khans figured it as they discussed the problem was that there was one expert sharpshooter in the forest as well as at least one, maybe two, average teams. The evidence came that afternoon when one of the crane operators atop Pride Rock was killed with an amazing six-kilometer phaser shot. It was followed shortly afterwards when one of the earthmovers was lazed straight through its engine block. A truck moving down the slope with a load of sandstone had its front tire shot out and only the quick reaction of its driver prevented it from going off the road and tumbling down the hill. The bulldozer drivers reported several poorly aimed shots that glanced off their dozer blades throughout the day. But it was the expert's afternoon shot that really caught Command's attention.
The construction workers were not obligated to follow the same protocols as the Legion when it came to explosive storage. The Legion dug in bunkers to protect their ammo dumps and artillery shells. Their fuel tanks were buried on the first day of the invasion. The construction workers kept theirs in a portable shed where they could get at them readily. Their only concern was keeping their blasting caps and C-4 protected from the weather.
The expert put a single bolt into a storage barrel of Trinitrotoluene two hours after he had murdered the crane operator. The resulting blast shook Pride Rock like an earthquake. The blast and shockwave killed two dozen civilian workers and destroyed fourteen of the Legion's Chappie robots who were stationed nearby the explosive storage shed at the time. When Oliver looked back over his shoulder he saw the same mushroom-type cloud, as had appeared over Reborn, climbing steadily over the Confederate base.
That got the attention of General Falltower and his colonels. That night plans were laid out. They were going to make the park rangers, or whatever they were, pay. The Legionnaires of the 788th Battalion prepped their gear. They had enough of standing on the defense and getting picked off. They were going to advance.
Throughout the night flares were kept drifting above Pride Rock at all times. Heavy machine guns kept everyone awake as they raked the massive trees with fire at every perceived movement and shadow in the dark. The horns returned and made the Legionnaires' skin crawl as they echoed from all around the base.
The 443rd and the 120th Battalions were the first ones to move out in the morning. They were ordered to march five kilometers and set up a perimeter surrounding the camp. Oliver couldn't have guessed how the General expected four thousand Legionnaires to do such a thing in an area filled with tree trunks the size of an Eiffel Cruiser. In a multi-layer canopy forest they were going to need several hundred men just to occupy every tree, and at five kilometers there was no guarantee that Legion Artillery could even pierce the upper branches to give them support if they found themselves in trouble on the forest floor. When somebody asked Captain Bygar about it, he just replied they were only facing a couple dozen park rangers. The fallback argument of every officer in the Legion.
The 55th deployed next. They filed in neat lines aboard the large Space Stallion helicopters on the flight line. The drones flew ahead with their Hellfire V missiles and futilely scanned the forest for signs of life. Unfortunately, all they found was life and the flora of the planet quickly whited out their advanced scanners and radars. The Iroquois attack helicopters shepherded the transport craft away from Pride Rock. Artillery pieces and small wheeled transports hung from slings underneath the Space Stallions. The 55th was headed for Reborn. During the second day of the invasion a ship had been seen over Reborn deploying supplies and possible reinforcements. That needed to be cut off so they could hunt down the enemy insurgents at the Legion's leisure. They loaded up on Geiger counters and swallowed potassium iodide pills to stave off the effects of radiation at their target.
The 787th and the 788th were the last to roll out. Actually, the only ones to roll out. They climbed aboard the Legion's complement of Bumerang APCs and armored trucks. The four Leopard Vs led the advance with the six AMPs wobbly strolling behind them in an over watch position. The two battalions were to secure a two-hundred-kilometer supply route to Reborn and relieve the 55th Battalion. It would be tough work as there was nothing that even slightly resembled a road through the forest. They brought along the Legion's combat engineers and nearly all of the 34th's reconnaissance units.
As they moved out down the slope Oliver looked back one last time at Pride Rock. They had built a fortress atop her peak. Walls of sandbags and concrete protected the construction workers who still labored up there. The civilians were now required to carry weapons with them for protection and had been left under the meager security measures of the Legion's remaining artillery and anti-aircraft gunners, most of which had been split among the five battalions and sent along on their various missions. While the top may be lightly defended at the moment, the enemy would still have to fight through the perimeter battalions of the 443rd and the 120th to get to the mountain. It was as safe as it was ever going to be, Oliver thought. Above my pay grade, he dismissed his concerns.
If the enemy was watching from the forest, they would have no trouble keeping up with the 788th's progress. Twigs the size of logs blocked nearly every path and needed to be cleared. The sounds of chainsaws kept anyone watching the Confederate progress fully aware of their positions.
Rain hardly reached the forest floor but every day dew pooled from upper branches. With the rising of the sun a deluge of heavy droplets fell upon the Legionnaires, soaking their body gloves and turning the forest floor to mud.
The entire time Oliver felt as if he were being watched. Every shrub and bush looked suspicious. Other Legionnaires felt it too. Men blasted at strange shapes and ghostly shadows with every kilometer. Big bat-like creatures sailed through the woods drawing more fire. Men were growing tired with the constant alert. The trucks and APCs would move another hundred meters before encountering the next roadblock, causing the Legionnaires to dismount once again and prepare new fighting positions.
They only made fifteen kilometers that first day. And when they camped for the evening, they heard terrible crashes behind them. The Colonel dispatched scouts on repulsar quads back along their return route, only to have them report that dozens of branches had been felled and lay strewn across the road they had just built. Some of the branches stood as tall as an AMP and would require heavy explosives to remove again. The General must have been notified as new orders came almost immediately. They would continue to push onto Reborn the next day.
As Oliver attempted to sleep that night he was awakened by a heavy crash. As they scrambled for cover a massive acorn had fallen from the tree they were under and completely flattened one of the supply trucks. Its driver had been asleep in the cab and had been crushed in the accident. Most of the supplies, including the water tank he had been towing, were complete losses. Far away yips of excitement from high above suggested this was no accident.
Suddenly a man screamed. Oliver turned and faced him to see that he had an arrow sticking out of the chink in his shoulder armor. A storm of more arrows rained down on the campsite, hitting more Legionnaires. The Khans scrambled for cover underneath a large tree root as the small projectiles impacted around them. Legionnaires fired back in nearly every direction, but especially up into the tree tops. Oliver wasn't sure they hit anything, but the arrows stopped falling. Unfortunately, the Leopards had also fired high explosive rounds into the heights, causing another rain of debris to come crashing down. Leaves up to the size of a large tent fluttered across the camp. Massive twigs obliterated the scattered camps and smashed a pair of machine guns and crushed Captain Bygar's Oshkosh JLTV.
As quickly as it began the attack was over. Legionnaires were sent up the tree to see if they could find the enemy, but it was a tedious and slow ascent. When they finally made it up to the mid-level branches it was obvious the enemy had left the scene and they were recalled. They made it back down to the forest floor just as the sun rose. The relief convoy reformed and moved out again. The goal was another forty kilometers but Oliver doubted they'd make half of that.
The enemy became more aggressive as the day moved on. All along the perceived path were laid out net traps and pits full of poisoned stakes. Debris rained down on them all day long. Oliver came along a gruesome sight as they moved forward. A platoon from Bravo Company had fired into the branches of a large evergreen sending thousands of pine needles falling to the ground. Each of the projectiles was as tall as a Legionnaire and the entire area looked like a giant pin cushion. Most of the troopers had been pierced a dozen times and while their armor stopped most of the needles there were always gaps in every joint and juncture.
The Legionnaires were buried alongside the road. There was no room for them above the dwindling amount of supply trucks, which were a particularly attractive target to the hidden enemy's barrage attacks.
One of the AMPs was lost when it encountered a log avalanche trap, which displaced its gyro-balance system and sent it toppling over. Oliver wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen the destroyed machine's crew being tended by the medics when the Khans had passed by.
He did see the destruction of a second machine. The AMP V had been standing alongside the road providing cover for the combat engineers who were bridging a large stream. Suddenly a crash from their left turned everyone's attention to a single massive log, about the size of a double decker bus, swing down from another tree half a kilometer off the road. The enemy's aim had been true and the log impacted solidly with one side of the AMP's cockpit head. Oliver hoped the crew was killed instantly for the walker toppled over and exploded. It must have even impressed the forest saboteurs for there were no yips of celebration this time, just silence from the imposing, dark woods.
July turned to August in those woods as the 787th and 788th pressed on. Every Legionnaire claimed to have hit an enemy, though no Imp bodies were ever produced. There were rumors of small teddy bear-like aliens stalking them. The first few days everyone largely laughed at the rumors but by the time they reached the half way point of their journey every Legionnaire was a believer.
Legionnaires vanished in the forest. They were simply on watch and then never seen again. Defecating became a chore. Everyone pissed right on the road, even the female Legionnaires. But if you had to shit, your entire squad needed to stand guard over you, and it was never done more than a few meters away from the road.
During the night more crashes could always be heard. It was the teddy bears blocking their retreat, letting the two Battalions know their only way out of the forest was forward. One night a giant glob of tree sap fell from the sky and plopped across a Leopard V. A flaming arrow arced out of the night sky and set it alight, cooking the crew alive as the rest of the Legion, without any heavy firefighting gear, stood by and watched.
The 55th had taken several trips to get its entire Battalion into Reborn, and once that was complete had dispatched their helicopters to help the beleaguered armored column. But that had proven just as futile as anything else. The helicopters soon found dipping into the canopy was almost suicide for them. Leaves and vines were dropped into their rotors and three Iroquois and a Space Stallion were quickly lost. The two Battalions would have to make it out on their own.
It took them over twenty days to make it to Reborn. The town was a burnt wreck with toppled and scarred trees as far as the eye could see. Oliver felt good about that for he had come to hate the trees of Anax with a burning passion. The 55th reported that they had seen no signs of occupancy since they had taken the town and figured it must have been abandoned before the town was nuked.
The 787th and 788th reported 3512 Legionnaires present at roll call. They had set out with 3895 at the start of the campaign. No one was positive if the enemy suffered any casualties or not, though communication with Pride Rock reported that, while far behind the construction schedule, the mysterious sniper had left them alone ever since they had attacked Reborn.
Reborn and Pride Rock were both in Confederate hands. There was no other place to land troops that would threaten the Space Force air base. The enemy could have the fucking forest, Oliver swore. He didn't desire going back in there and facing them again.
As the Khans talked and set up camp on the edges of Reborn, they chatted about the hidden teddy bear aliens. Being the number one topic of concern, it fascinated them.
Couldn't the aliens see they had already lost? So what if they had the woods. The President didn't want those woods. He wanted Judicar. And Judicar would give him the Kuat System, and that would give them Palpatine Prime. And the war would be over. The teddy bears could hold the fucking woods, Oliver decided.
Cause in the end the Legions were going to take everything that really mattered.
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Time for the Review Wookiee to make a return. Arms are coming off for non-reviewers