The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (7 page)

Those closest to the American and Chinese colonies made arrangements to share their refuges. Those further away needed another solution. Mount Hurtado was carved off from the Spanish colony. A set of missile silos would in turn shield the base from orbital bombardment.

Finally ownership of the base was handed over to Battle Fleet. That point proved controversial at the time and even now was still raised occasionally. Battle Fleet didn’t own any of its bases on Earth and even its headquarter buildings were essentially loaned from the Irish Government. Plus the missiles of Earth’s planetary defence were run by an entirely separate organisation. There were still people who didn’t like the idea of an independent military force like Battle Fleet and felt that a limit on ground bases was necessary for control.

A foolish line of thought in Eulenburg’s opinion, but there you were. Sitting into his waiting staff car, the Admiral drove off into the night.

___________________________

Landfall Colony, 23
rd
July 2066,

There were it seemed, some rules in life that held true no matter where you were. One them was that the day you finished a holiday and headed back to work was always the day with the best weather. Alice knew she didn’t have too much cause for complaint, as the weather for the majority of her stay on Landfall had been very pleasant. But outside the temporary accommodation she’d been assigned, it was now shaping up to be a particularly beautiful day. Spending a couple of hours sitting in the launch terminal seemed like a particularly bad idea, but that was the way of things.

“
Did you hear me?
”
her room mate, Leah Moir said behind her.

“
Hmm?
”
Alice responded as she looked up from her bag.

“
Well that answers that one,
”
Leah said with a slight shake of her head.
“
I said are you ready for a bit of breakfast?
”

Alice shook her head and made a face.

“
I don’t know how you can eat ahead of a launch,
”
she said in response.

“
I need some ballast,
”
Leah replied patting her stomach.
“
You should eat something.
”

“
I did, ahead of the first time I went into space. The three people I threw up on weren’t very happy.
”

“
Were any of them hot?
”

“
They were all women and I don’t swing that way.
”

“
No loss then.
”

The bright and bubbly Leah hadn’t changed since Alice had first known her at Cambridge University.

“
Okay so if I have something to eat, are you volunteering to sit next to me?
”

There was a polite tap at the door of their room before she could reply. When Leah opened it Professor Bhaile, the head of the civilian delegation on
Harbinger
, was standing outside.

“
Good morning to you both,
”
he said.
“
If you
’
re packed, a bus is waiting to take us all to the terminal.
”

Leah looked at her watch, which wasn’t much use since it was a twenty-four hour terrestrial watch.

“
Seems a bit early,
”
she complained.

“
Yes, but that’s the fleet for you,
”
Bhaile replied.
“
I do have one bit of good news though. Our beloved Commander Willis has been reassigned off the ship.
”

“
Buddha! God! Allah! Whichever one of you guys is responsible. Thank you!
”
Leah burst out. A typically exuberant way of putting things but on this occasion, Alice couldn’t help but agree. Commander Willis was, or at least had been, the second-in-command aboard
Harbinger
. She had made little secret of her dislike of the ship’s civilian complement, few of who had not had some kind of clash with Willis on her first tour. Leah and Willis in particular rubbed one another up the wrong way. It was certainly a good start to their next tour.

Outside the fifteen who’d be going up to
Harbinger
were waiting with their baggage. A petty officer with a computer pad was ticking people off as they appeared.

“
This seems very early,
”
Bhaile complained.
“
Our shuttle is not scheduled to leave for another four hours.
”

“
Yep, you
’
re right, it is very early,
”
the PO agreed, barely glancing up.
“
But if we’ve learned any damn thing, it’s to corral you people early to make sure you don’t wander off.
”

Bhaile looked irritated by the PO
’
s dismissive tone, but knew better than to remonstrate with the man. As far as any fleet NCO was concerned, there were fleet personnel and then there were people that didn’t matter. That was another thing Alice wouldn’t miss once she finished her contract with the fleet: the tendency for fleet personnel to treat civilians like idiots.

Once everyone had turned up, they were herded onto the bus. It was a short trip to the spaceport and soon they were all in the waiting lounge. Theirs was the only group there. Douglas’s spaceport was the most active on the planet but even so, a hundred people passing through was enough to be classed as a busy day and this wasn’t a busy day. The PO hadn’t been kidding about corralling them. Once they were in the lounge, a polite but firm marine wasn’t letting them back out. But for the most part people weren’t complaining as, not having seen much of each other since landing, it was a chance to catch up. After months cooped up onboard
Harbinger
, the civilians had scattered to the four winds. Some people had gone hill walking, some rock climbing and one intrepid spirit had even managed to get hold of a hand glider, which apparently had been amazing in Landfall’s point nine six gravity. Leah had hooked up with a square-jawed mining engineer, who was working in the caves of the base. With all the talk, the time before their flight passed quickly and soon they were being herded onto the orbital lifter.

The lifter was a passenger version of the one Alice had seen taking off the day before. The maglev runway would accelerate the lifter up to the speed at which its scramjet engines could function. They in turn, would get the lifter up as far as the edge of space where the plasma engines would carry them up and into orbit. There they’d dock at the Gatehouse space station and transfer to an in-system jump ship for the final leg to Baden, where
Harbinger
was docked.

There was a jolt as a tow truck started to pull the lifter towards the end of the maglev. They slowed again as the tug carefully positioned the lifter. When the maglev activated the craft lifted fractionally off its wheels. The undercarriage retracted ready for take off, while simultaneously all the seats in the passenger compartment rotated to make the G-forces that were about to be exerted as comfortable as possible. 

“
This is your captain,
”
said a voice from the PA.
“
We’re now in position ready for takeoff. We’re just waiting for ground control clearance. There seems to be a slight delay but I anticipate we should be off the ground within the next five minutes.
”

Ten minutes later they were still sitting, or rather lying in their seat harnesses. Professor Bhaile kept looking at his watch. People were uncomfortable and starting to get agitated. Then there was a series of clunks, as the undercarriage redeployed and the maglev dropped the lifter back onto its wheels. Seats rotated back to the upright. There was a groan from the passengers. Their
‘
short’ delay was clearly going to be a long one. Then something happened none of them expected. The escape hatch blew and with a whoosh, the emergency slide deployed.

“
Passengers, this is your captain. We have just received order from control to evacuate the lifter! Everyone please exit as quickly as possible!
”

The evacuation was calm and orderly, without any overexcitement. When Alice slid down the emergency slide and hit the ground, she glanced over her shoulder back at the lifter. She expected to see smoke belching from the machine, but it looked completely inert. The lifter was evacuated within a few minutes but once they were out, everyone stood around in confusion. The two members of the flight crew seemed just as baffled, but tried to answer the barrage of questions that came their way. Then a truck raced over from the control tower towards them. It didn’t stop but slowed long enough for a rating and a petty officer to jump out of the back, before accelerating away. Alice noticed there was another lifter stopped on the taxiway, a hundred meters behind them. Even at a distance, she could see people tumbling out. The two fleet personnel who had jumped out of the truck now came rushing over.

“
Everyone! Your attention!
”
the petty officer bellowed before anyone got a chance to ask him anything.
“
We are moving you all to the underground shelters. I want everyone to form up and follow me!
”
He then turned and started to briskly walk away. After a moment’s hesitation, people started to follow him.

“
What’s happened?
”
someone asked the rating in a bewildered voice.

“
It’s Baden,
”
the rating replied in a shaking voice.
“
It
’
s been attacked
…”

“
Aldiss,
”
the petty officer screamed over his shoulder.
“
Stop pricking around with those civvies and get them moving!
”

___________________________

The glass of water rang as Eulenburg stirred a painkiller into it. He winced slightly as his intercom buzzed.

“
Sir, the Brigadier is here to see you.
”

“
Thank you, send him in,
”
Eulenburg replied, before knocking back the water in a single swallow. Chevalier walked in, his uniform as immaculate as usual.

“
Morning, Sebastian.
”

“
Morning sir. What kind of evening did you have?
”
he asked, motioning toward the packet of painkillers.

“
A couple of the new people brought bottles of wine with them, to celebrate their arrival,
”
Eulenburg replied.
“
Good vintages too. I just had a couple of glasses.
”

“
Just to be polite, sir?
”

“
Of course. It
’
s a terrible thing when two are enough to leave you feeling mildly hung-over. Anyway what have you got for me?
”

“
Not a great deal, sir. The drop fighters from
Illustrious
should be operational by the end of tomorrow. Also I wanted to remind you, the artillery is scheduled to conduct live-fire excises this afternoon. We’re firing over the Sulter River into Area B. Just want to make sure that your office and the Spanish authorities are aware of it.
”

“
Yes, we sent the message and they’ve acknowledged receipt. Are you planning on running things from down here?
”

“
No, I’m going to go out into the field. Get close enough to see the results with the Mark One Eyeball.
”

“
I will see you later then in at the command centre,
”
Eulenburg said as he stood up and stepped round his desk. Chevalier followed as he walked through the outer office and into the corridor.
“
If you have any late requisition requests for the
San Francisco Star
to take back, can you have them in my office by sixteen
…”

The scream of the base alarm cut him off in mid-sentence. The two officers stared in shock at the speaker, then Eulenburg’s hand automatically went for his personal intercom, only to realise the damn thing was on his desk. Chevalier had reacted almost as quickly but unlike the Admiral, did have his intercom. He shouted a query and paused to listen to the reply.

“
It’s an FTL transmission from Baden: they
’
re under attack!
”
There was disbelief in his voice.