Authors: Max Feinstein
“Sir!” The man called out as he sank down into a crouch as well.
“Private Nelikov, what can I do for you?”
“LT I saw something in the sky. Your nine o’clock high, sir.”
That caught Dextor’s attention, as this area was supposed to have been declared a no-fly-zone for the time being. He looked up and scanned the sky slowly, but the only thing he saw was a thick cloud front moving in, blacking out a good portion of the sky and stars above. There was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen, however.
“Private, maybe you just…” His words ceased as he saw something pierce a large cloud high above them, creating a wide gap.
His NVS zoomed in almost instantly on that area of the sky, just as more openings appeared within the cloud. Through them came what seemed like a dozen orbital descent pods. Dropping out of the sky like large rain drops before the coming storm. Dextor shifted his gaze to the south and the mountain range beyond. There, in the same fashion appeared more objects descending through the clouds.
Could just be the Angel’s training.
He thought to himself, but the horrible feeling he was getting would not be persuaded.
The corridor
was almost completely devoid of life, as had been the HTram station minutes ago when the general had arrived from the other side of the base. That was not surprising, however, since it was still the middle of the night on this side of the planet. Most people inside the sprawling underground facility were deep in sleep at this late hour, just like General Brinek Stelle had been a short while ago. Instead he and his two man security detail were walking through the base’s carved out corridors towards the Command and Control Center. The entire base had been constructed underneath a massive mountain range in order to hide its location and help shield it from attack in case of war.
General Stelle ran a hand through his short blonde hair as he willed himself awake. His fingers slowly traced the long lines of deep scars that ran all the way across his scalp, the products of a mistake years in the past. Over the sixty years of his career Brinek had collected his share of battle damage. Victories and defeats
had made him the man he was and he would never give up the experiences achieved alongside some of the most honorable and courageous men and women in the Federation for anything.
Perhaps the only real regret in his life was the time spent, or lack thereof, with his family. That family was long gone, however. They had left him many years ago and he
couldn’t really blame them as they never really understood the righteous duty that had been bestowed upon him. To train and lead soldiers in battle was what Olkander’s lived for and he was no different. His ancestors had colonized the harsh high gravity world long ago after a handful of them found it difficult to assimilate back to their homeworlds after decades spent in prison. They had all been reformed from their old ways, but it was tough convincing others of their changed ways. In order to escape persecution they founded their own planet and invited other former convicts to join them. The founders created their own set of laws unique to the planet, one of which required all citizens to give something of themselves back to the United Planets Federation for their previous wrongs. This something was service in any of the Federation’s Armed Services. Their bravery and heroism during the EnTech Crusades spread like wildfire throughout the planets and soon all knew about the warriors of Olkander.
It was
towards the end of this era of turmoil that Brinek Stelle began his service to the Federation, following the path his parents had taken before him. The war changed him from a young troublemaker to a damn fine soldier. A soldier that excelled at every challenge thrown at him and one that used his experience as wisely as possible. Before the war’s end Brinek knew what his calling in life was and that new found path led him to an Army Special Operations Unit. Within this branch of the Army there was no shortage of battles to be fought. Even with the Entechs finally contained, new conflicts continued to arise both within the Federation and throughout the Independent worlds. Conflicts in need of more surgical interventions, something the Army was not equipped or trained for, but SOUs were.
It was on one of these nonpublic interventions that Brinek received
his major head lacerations and got his first major chance to command a company sized Special Operations Group. The Group was made up of three different SOUs for that particular mission with the overall objective being the dismantling of large pirate organization on a long forgotten world. It turned out to be an elaborate ruse, however, created by the pirates to draw in UPF military forces. They were ambushed the moment their assault shuttles dropped into the atmosphere. In the midst of this initial attack their commanding officer was perished and the rest of the company crash landed on the barren planet. Without a second thought Brinek took command of the remaining operators and organized a defense that withstood almost a constant assault for two days until an extraction team arrived. In the end, under his direction, the nineteen remaining members of the group killed or wounded a hundred and twenty-six of the enemy. That was also the mission that propelled the then captain to a major and to the command of his own company.
It didn’t take long for Major Stelle’s experience and natural given talents to advance him all the way to Colonel and then finally Brigadier General.
As a Brigadier, Brinek was reassigned to the 4
th
Rapid Reaction Combat Brigade, 325
th
Infantry Division. The 325
th
ID and 4
th
2RCB, in particular, were exceptional warfighting elements of the UPF Army and had been around for centuries. Throughout his time as their commander they were involved in every major conflict having to do with the Federation, earning them all a distinctive reputation, a reputation that had started to be tarnished by the political appointment of the previous General in charge. His predecessor had been foremost a political officer with hardly any actual combat experience. Because of this the performance and readiness of the 2RCB declined steadily to the point where the actual battalion commanders petitioned for a replacement. Finally, after a dismal performance during a series of wargames, the Divisional Commander transferred General Stelle into the unit.
Brinek accepted the position with much gusto, even though he didn’t take getting transferred out of Special Operations lightly. Nonetheless, he was determined to make the brigade as great as possible. He challenged his men as well as himself to turn the 4
th
into the first rate unit it had always been and win the next wargame scenario. The things he learned during his stay with the SOU helped to develop an intense training program that took the almost last place finishers to first in only five short months.
It didn’t take long for the men and women of the 4
th
2RCB to grow respect and admiration for their commander. His accomplishments over the years spent with the brigade did not go unnoticed and when the divisional commander confirmed his retirement, General Stelle was promoted to his vacant position. Major General Brinek Stelle found it a new, but welcome challenge to command an entire elite division. As with the 4
th
he helped to bring in enhancements that made the brigades more effective and deadly. The division became one of the finest units within the UPF Army through hard work and exceptional leadership. Its readiness came not a moment too late during the Odyssian Crisis as the entire Federation military geared up for a full out war. Brinek knew that his division would be thrown into the frontline of any conflict because that is what they all trained so hard for.
The C
risis took hold not long after the destruction of the
Hand-in-Friendship
facility, when naval forces were dispatched to the region in order to hunt down those responsible or at least locate a planet from which the Odyssians, as they were now called, launched those unprovoked attacks. When none of those forces were heard from again a panic ensued through the civilian leadership and Federation population. In order to restore calm and confidence the government granted the military a temporary increase in powers to deal with the situation and granted all the funding they asked for.
F
rontiera, one of the Frontline Twins, as they were called, evolved out of this militarized era. It, along with the world of Kapricara, became the first planets to be taken in the Fringe Sector Expansion Phase. These were planets outside Federation territory and were meant to be a deliberate push into what was thought to be Odyssian territory, not only to test the enemy, but also to give the public a small victory. A delicate frontline was drawn across space at the very edge of the Fringe Sector with Frontiera at one end and Kapricara at the other. Other minor posts were also established across this line with monitoring stations and small bases, which could be reinforced from either of the Frontline Twins, which became the first garrison worlds in the United Planets Federation. These worlds were specifically developed for military purposes and run completely by the Federal Ministry of Defense. They were each settled by hundreds of thousands of military personnel and were guarded by Naval Fleets. In the event of war it was thought that these planets would act as buffer zones to draw the enemy in and fight them long enough to buy time for the rest of the Federation to gather its forces for a counterattack. Special facilities were also built to allow the worlds to function as jump off points for a planned full scale invasion of Odyssian space.
The invasion never happened, however, as
the civilian leadership slowly resumed more and more control over the military planning process. It was thought to be a better idea of leaving the Odyssians alone and preventing an escalation of war that could cause the deaths of many more Federation souls. While the government and military debated on the course of action, criminal elements within the UPF took the opportunity to expand their control and cause as many problems as they could. Pirate attacks against civilian and military targets increased, as did terrorist attacks. Some small colonies were even taken hostage before anything could be done.
With the military busy preparing for
a larger conflict, Brinek’s 325
th
ID was called on more than ever to response to these threats and attacks. The division deployed almost continuously and their years of intense training paid off many times over. Every brigade and battalion came out victorious even though they fought on foreign terrain in almost all engagements. The Major General could not have been more proud of his men and it was also because of their accomplishments that the military brass awarded Brinek his next promotion. Lieutenant General Stelle was finally given an entire Corp of his own.
As General Stelle walked down the corridor he let out a small smile in remembrance of the years he had spent in command of XXV Corps
. His military exploits helped to shape and define him as a soldier as well as a man. There had been a great many hardships over the years, but never a single shred of regret. Those tribulations had given him character and had taught him some very important lessons, which he could now pass on to the men and women under his command. Genernal Brinek Stelle was not about to make the same mistakes that the former commander of the Frontiera Garrison had made.
His changes took some soldiers by surprise and spurred a sort of unvoiced disdain for the general. These men and women had
become accustomed to simply going through the motions of being soldiers and enjoying long holidays in between. Because of this, they were getting soft and unit performance had dropped drastically over the years. Brinek was a fan of real-life training wargames and what he witnessed from the first one he conducted upon his arrival infuriated him, even if he kept the frustration in check. From that moment he instilled a complete retraining program on the entire planet. To help with the task he transferred elements of the 325
th
ID to Frontiera, along with his best instructors, so that they could lead by example.
It took a good deal of time to get the units stationed on the planet back into fighting shape, but in so doing the attitude of the soldiers began to change. As they got better and more proficient at the various training operations, they began to appreciate what General Stelle was all about. If war descended on them now they knew that they were much better prepared and their confidence in facing any threat increased proportionally.
The faces he saw in the hallway were different now. When he had first arrived to the garrison world they had been mere children playing war, now they were all men and women, having faced some of the toughest challenges he could throw at them. Everything about them was different now. They had a warrior swagger and you could see the maturity in their eyes. One of these soldiers, a young man in his early twenties, was kneeling beside the corridor wall, check some of his gear, when he noticed the General and quickly bolted up to stand at the ready with his arms behind his back.
“Carry on soldier.” Brinek smiled and nodded
in acknowledgement at the man as he passed by at his somewhat quickened pace.
As they closed on the
Tactical Command Center the number of visible personnel seemed to increase with each step. Of them were familiar faces that he had grown used to seeing over the years, while others were completely unknown to him. Simply thinking about the identity of these soldiers initiated a database search by his Neural Cognitive Implant. It seemed almost instant to General Stelle when the ID, along with a simplified profile, appeared within his visual field. He had been implanted with the NCI soon after his transfer to Frontiera, but he was still trying to get used to the idea that his thoughts were being constantly read, recorded, and in some cases acted upon. Brinek had to admit that the appeal and usefulness of such a technology was tremendous, but only the younger generation could really utilize it properly. To him it was simply an annoyance, probably because he had lived his whole life without it.
Another use for the NCI quickly presented itself as General Stelle and his two protectors approached the end of the corridor, where a solid metallic wall existed, surrounded on either side by a pair of security stations dug into the solid bedrock of the mountain. At a preset distance from the obstruction the automated security system registered the presence of an NCI and issued an identification challenge
. A red pulsing icon instantly appeared within Brinek’s vision before quickly changing to green as his neural implant automatically relayed his authorization code and an imprint of his neural pathways in response to the challenge. With each person having a different neural pathway pattern and the near impossibility of replicating one, it was one of the more secure methods of identifications. Along with all this information the NCI also transmitted its own distinctive serial number.