The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (60 page)

Governor Reynolds was waiting for him when he got to his office.

“
The transport managed to make jump out,
”
he said as Reynolds seated herself,
“
but only by the thinnest of margins.
”

“
It received your message though?
”
she asked.

“
Yes, we received confirmation that the upload was successful.
”
Eulenburg sat down heavily.
“
We won
’
t get an answer by the time the next runner arrives, maybe in a month
’
s time.
”

Before he could say any more his intercom buzzed. If Reynolds noticed the way he startled at the sudden noise, she gave no indication.

“
Admiral sir. The other Governors have arrived. They
’
re waiting in the Number One Meeting Room,
”
said his secretary across the link.

“
We
’
ll be there in a moment.
”

“
Have you any idea what was dropped?
”
Reynolds asked as she stood up.

“
Not yet. The pods are still being collected, so I don
’
t know whether Earth took your suggestion.
”

“
I understand military necessity, but it would help morale.
”

“
Down here maybe, Madam Governor. But we ask a lot of blockade-runners already. Asking them to take the risks they do, for the sake of chocolate bars
…”
Eulenburg trailed with a shrug.

___________________

“
If there is a God,
”
Alice Peats muttered as she looked up,
“
he, she or it has a vindictive sense of humour.
”

Months of on-off artillery strikes had reduced most of the trees in and around Douglas to little more than splintered stumps. The majority of those that had survived were situated around priority sites like the artillery bunkers. The rest of the surface of Douglas was a muddy, cratered moonscape. One tree though had survived and one cargo pod had managed to find it and get stuck in it.

“
We could cut down, I suppose,
”
Damien said in a dubious voice.

“
Bugger that! There
’
s little enough colour round here as it is. I
’
m not going to be the one to destroy this bit.
”

“
Very environmental of you.
”

“
No need to be offensive, Lance Corporal,
”
she replied.

“
Sorry, Corporal,
”
he replied with a smile.

Both of them turned sharply as in the distance they heard a whistling noise followed by the boom of an explosion. Twenty metres away her squad was busy opening other pods and breaking the cargo inside down into man portable packages. At the sound of the explosion half of them hit the deck, while the other half stood up and tried to figure out where the noise had come from.

As members of the auxiliaries since the early days, both of them had learned the difference between an incoming missile that was going to be your problem, and one that was going to land far enough away to be someone else
’
s. As the siege deepened and volunteers were sent from the shelters far below, it was clear that people were needed to lead them. The trained soldiers were now far too precious to be wasted on non-combat roles, so the surviving members of the original auxiliaries like Alice and Damien found themselves being promoted into squad leaders and sub-leaders. 

Alice hadn
’
t been at all certain about the stripe the military had stuck on her sleeve. In her heart she still thought of herself as an academic, someone who belonged in a comfortable research or teaching institute somewhere. Not here amidst muddy shell craters. Then they showed her those she was to command and her first thought had been how desperately young they all looked, with their faces pale from months underground and eyes unused the natural light. Even those older than her still looked young and vulnerable. 

In the distance there was another series of booms, all from the direction of the northern frontline. The squad was now all largely ignoring the sounds. Old hands like Alice and Damien had learned to always keep half an ear open for dangers.

“
Babes in the woods,
”
Damien murmured.
“
I
’
d better go keep an eye on them in case the bastards get tricky and lob out a few random shots again.
”

“
Yeah, better get an axe I guess. I don
’
t want us standing out here for too long. If we chop away a few branches we can probably get it down.
”

___________________

The rest of the colony governors were waiting patiently when Eulenburg and Reynolds came in. They all looked up expectantly and the Admiral didn
’
t waste his breath.

“
As you will all be aware the British blockade runner
Endurance
made a successful drop earlier today. A short time ago we were able to observe her make a safe jump out.
”
He started to walk slowly around the room.
“
I can report that while she was in orbit we successfully uploaded all the messages that were waiting to be sent. This includes the messages to your individual governments.
”

“
Are we certain, that the whole upload was received?
”
the Argentinian Governor asked.

“
Yes sir. We received a confirmation on the file size received. It matched what we sent up to the megabyte. So provided
Endurance
doesn
’
t meet with disaster on route to the Junction Line, Earth should receive our messages in about fifteen days time.

“
You did impress upon your superiors the seriousness of our situation,
”
the governor persisted.
“
Battle Fleet will send help won
’
t it?
”

“
The Admiral made his dispatch available to us all,
”
Reynolds cut in.
“
As to how Earth will respond, he can
’
t answer that.
”

“
All we can do is wait for Headquarters
’
reply,
”
Eulenburg added.
“
In the meantime I wish to reopen certain matters. I need more troops.
”

“
You want to organise a draft. This suggestion has been raised before,
”
said Reynolds in a chilly tone.

“
And I
’
m going to have to keep raising it,
”
Eulenburg replied bluntly as he came to a halt at the head of the room.
“
To date there has been no repeat of the major ground assaults the Nameless mounted in May, for which we should give thanks. If they had maintained anything like that level of pressure, we would have been swept away by now. But even the low levels of actual combat and shelling since then have been inflicting steady casualties.
”

“
We could ask for volunteers again,
”
Governor Woods of New Zealand said.

“
The last time we did we got barely a hundred and nearly half were individuals with law enforcement backgrounds that I have to keep down here. The marines have lost nearly a third of their numbers and some of the national contingents are now reduced to half strength,
”
Eulenburg replied bluntly.
“
I am sorry to say this, but a few dozen volunteers isn
’
t adequate. Now that the frontlines are relatively quiet, this is the time to introduce green troops.
”

“
Conscription isn
’
t going to be popular,
”
someone said.

“
It never is,
”
Eulenburg replied.
“
I don
’
t ask because it is an easy choice. I ask because we don
’
t have enough professional soldiers and if the Nameless do get in, there will be no non combatants here.
”

There was an uncomfortable silence around the conference table. It was wearing, it was farcical and under different circumstances it might have even been funny, Eulenburg thought to himself, but after months of siege national interest was still of vital importance. None of the national colonies wanted to be the first to reinforce their troops with civilians from the shelters in case others used that as an excuse to keep their own people in safety.

“
Regardless of any reinforcements I won
’
t change the amount of frontage each national contingent has to man,
”
Eulenburg said eventually,
“
so units that receive more reinforcements should have better troop density. The Nameless have tended to hit weaker parts of the line, so units that don
’
t receive more troops are more likely to suffer further casualties.
”

“
Your marines will have to manage with whatever volunteers present themselves Admiral,
”
Reynolds said eventually.
“
The fruits of any conscription will have to be aimed at reinforcing the national contingents. It is the only way people are going to stomach it.
”

Eulenburg nodded his consent.

“
Admiral, did we hear anything from the Chinese?
”
asked the French Governor.

“
No. The Americans bounced a brief transmission off
Endurance
but we got nothing from Anshan Base. We did send a transmission but we have no indication that it was received.
”

Or that anyone was there to receive it
was the unspoken thought. The last transmission from Anshan had been six weeks ago. Exactly what that meant was anyone
’
s guess. All of Landfall
’
s communications and observation satellites were either jammed into uselessness or smashed. The last transmission from Anshan stated they were under heavy assault but were holding, then nothing. They were still intermittently hearing from the Americans and they had received nothing either. As the weeks went by there was a growing view that the Chinese shelter was gone.

“
Could we ask the next blockade-runner to orbit over Anshan, to see what
’
s happened?
”

“
No. I never speak to those captains. They
’
re all busy and I won
’
t interrupt them.
”
Eulenburg shook his head,
“
No, we must accept that this is another matter where there is nothing we can currently do.
”

“
We seem to end up saying that a lot,
”
replied the New Zealand Governor in a disgusted voice.

___________________

When Alice led her section down through the massive blast doors into the upper levels of the shelters she was shocked to see a young man shackled, arms outstretched to a metal frame. He was stripped from the waist up, the rest of his gear piled untidily beside him. There were a lot of other groups of auxiliaries milling around the chamber.

“
What the hell?
”
she muttered as she took the scene in. The military was usually pretty fussy about having more people than was strictly necessary in the entrance chamber, but the officers she could see didn
’
t seem to be trying to move people either out or down. Turning she started to shoulder her way through the crowd towards where the packages from the cargo pod were being collected and sorted.

“
What
’
s going on over there?
”
she asked the lieutenant in charge of the collections.

“
Oh that
…”
a look of disgust crossed his face,
“…
that arsehole was caught breaking into cargo
…
looking for chocolate, either for himself or the black market.
”