“Delta 3-1, this is Delta 3-4. Second squad in position and holding for orders.” Sergeant Michael Griffon’s voice spoke into Kovar Alcorn’s ear.
“Copy 3-4, hold position and go silent until the lights go out. We’ll lose comms, so remember Mike, thirty seconds then breach.” Kovar responded, wishing he could have kept his team together. It had taken them over a week to infiltrate the Orlesian capital, and nearly three days to get into the council chambers. Moving at a snail’s pace and only in darkness, the team had managed to avoid detection and find positions on opposite sides of the chamber. Kovar decided that splitting into two teams and breaching both doors simultaneously would give them the best advantage. If the Chancellor and his cabinet were there, and every piece of intelligence he had read had told Kovar they would be, the war could be over in hours.
“Got it, Kov. Relax, we are all ready. 20 minutes to the event, instituting radio silence,” Griffon said, and the comms went quiet.
Kovar sighed and checked on his squad. The eight soldiers were crammed into a small alcove that also seemed to serve as a maintenance closet, judging by the cleaning supplies littering the shelves. Walking quietly to the back of the alcove, Kovar found lieutenant Sarah Haskins sitting with her back against a wall and methodically sharpening a long knife. Kovar crouched next to her and cocked his head, the question obvious.
“It was my dad’s. Well, I guess it was really my, like, fifteen-time-great-grandpa’s. But it was handed down for generations from father to son. Everyone in my family has served in the military, and when a son was commissioned, he would get the knife as a reminder of our family history. But my dad didn’t have sons, just me and my sister. So, she became a marine biologist and I commissioned. At my ceremony he gave me this, and I never knew I wanted anything so bad as I wanted this bayonet until he handed it to me. He said he was glad he didn’t have sons, because he didn’t have to worry that he was giving it to a hothead who’d end up on some special mission,” Haskins said.
“Well, I bet he’s pissed off then. You’re a hothead on a special mission,” Kovar said, and Haskin’s laughed.
“Yeah, when I told him I was going to Selection, and I wanted to be on Charlie Team, he didn’t talk to me for a month. He cried at my graduation and told me he knew I’d be the best operator on the team.”
“Your dad is a smart man. We have about seventeen minutes before the event, and I want to go over the plan for exfil.”
Haskins smirked, “We get an exfil? I figured we would all just die for the glory of the One Earth. If we get out of here alive, I’ll never be a statue.”
“Seriously, Sarah. We need to plan for success and failure. We know what happens if we succeed, but if we fail, we need a plan to get as many of us back alive as possible.”
“There is a tunnel,” Haskins pulled up a holo-projection of the chambers, “It looks like maintenance access. If we blow the floor here and here,” she gestured to two points about five meters apart, “We can use the tunnel to get to the city power station. It should be deserted while they prep for the event to end.”
Kovar smiled, “I told you your dad was a smart man. I had the same thought; I’ll have Vickers prep charges. You know, Sarah, Jensen might be my XO, but you should be. Why do you keep telling me no?”
“That, Kov, is an Earth conversation. I’ll tell you what, if we get back to Earth, I’ll buy you a drink and tell you all about why I don’t want to be Kovar Alcorn’s executive officer.”
Kovar shook his head, “I have a pretty good idea, I just hope I’m wrong.”
Haskins glared at him, “You are. And, honestly, I’m offended you’d think that.”
Kovar laughed, “Oh good, because I’m not really ready for a relationship. I mean, you’re really nice, but...” he trailed off.
Sarah hit him on the shoulder, “Shut-up, Kovar Alcorn, you know what I meant. It might matter to assholes like Jensen and Little, but I’ve been fighting this war with you for two years. So, your skin shimmers a bit, and you blush a little pinker. So what?”
Kovar flushed a bright pink, “Thanks, Sarah,” he said, an embarrassed look on his face, “I knew it wasn’t that. Well, I hoped. Jensen has no issue telling anyone who will listen that having an Orlesian mother makes me a liability. Anyway, you’re on, but I’ll buy the drinks.”
Kovar stood and walked to the front of the alcove, looking at his chrono. Fifteen minutes until the event. Kovar looked over at Jensen, crouched near the alcove door. He tapped Jensen on the shoulder and nodded. Time to go to work. Kovar closed his eyes and went over the mission briefing one last time.
***
Kovar was sitting in the common area reading a letter from his mother, when the door opened and three men in dress uniforms walked in. They walked over and stopped in front of him, and Kovar stood.
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“Sir, Colonel Baxter has asked to see you immediately,” the tallest of the three, a young lieutenant with a heavy shock of bright blond hair, said.
“Tell him I’ll be there right away,” Kovar said, moving toward his quarters.
“Actually, sir, he is on his way here. He sent us to tell you to, uh, ‘be decent, or at least put a towel on,’ sir.”
Kovar laughed, “Duly warned, lieutenant.”
The door to the common area slid open and Colonel Baxter walked in, his uniform a crumpled mess. He walked up to the four of them, and looked at the three messengers, “Get out.”
“Yes, sir,” the three said in almost comical unison.
When the door closed, Baxter turned to him, “Damn it, Kovar, I need a drink. And so do you, trust me.”
“Okay, Cal, whisky or brandy?” Kovar said, walking to his door, “Come in, I have plenty of both.”
“I hope you and I have the same ideas about plenty, Kov, because we’re gonna get drunk.”
Kovar frowned, Colonel Calvin Baxter was his father’s oldest friend and Kovar’s godfather. The last time he told Kovar they were getting drunk, he handed him his command orders for Charlie Team. He had said then that real drinking is reserved for bad news, and commanding Charlie Team was bad news. “What’s up, Cal? Are you alright?”
“We’re celebrating, kiddo. You are about to win this damn war.”
Twenty minutes later, Kovar drained his third glass of whisky and set it down, “God, Cal. Is that even a plan? If we know about the solar flare, they do, too. What makes you think they don’t see this coming?”
“That’s the thing, Kov, they have to see it coming. You know how they are, all logic and no creativity. They’ll see the possibility, realize it’s a suicide mission, and dismiss it as illogical. The flare is going to produce an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to disrupt half the solar system. Who cares if the whole Elite Guard is there? They can’t call reinforcements. Breach the chamber, kill Ecthelion and his thugs, and get out. War ends, we win, and New Orlesia becomes the 73rd commonwealth.”
Kovar poured them both another whisky, “And Charlie Team has to figure out how to get in and out and hopefully not get splattered in the process.”
“I told you commanding Charlie was bad news. You wanted to be the tip of the spear, kid. Time to get sharp.”
“When can I brief them?”
“Tomorrow, first thing. For now, crack that other bottle open.”
***
Kovar sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his pulse thudding in his ears and sending needles into the back of his eyes. Charlie Team stood in a loose formation in the briefing area, absorbing what Kovar had just told them. Kovar opened his eyes and looked around, regretting the third bottle of whisky.
“What are your questions?” Kovar asked, “Ask them now, because there won’t be time later.”
Haskins stepped forward, “Okay, so the solar flare event EMPs the moon, and the Earth, and we just expect the Orlesians to leave huge gaps in their security? They know the event is coming, they will be ready for an assault.”
“Maybe, but the Orlesians will think it’s an illogical attack because we’d have the same disadvantages. And besides, it’s a small team strike. Just us, no reinforcements and no one to pick us up if we don’t make the exfil point. We have to get in before the event, stage ourselves somewhere, and assault basically blind when the lights go out. It’s stupid, reckless, and has all the makings of a one-way trip. So, Charlie Team gets the job no one wants, and Charlie Team will execute. I need options for entry and egress, and squad leaders need to get with me on assignments. We have four days to put this plan together, and the margin of error is zero. We do this right, or we don’t come back. Break into squads and give me, at least, four entry options and four egress options,” Kovar said, motioning toward the large meeting table at the opposite end of the briefing area.
Haskins frowned, hanging back as the squads broke off, “Sir, I don’t like this. I don’t doubt that we can pull this off, but I can’t shake the feeling that if we do, someone will have let us.”
“Hmm. I hadn’t thought of it that way. Ecthelion is a genius tactician, we need to take that into account. Our window is going to be impossibly small, barely more than a few minutes. We can’t afford to overlook anything Ecthelion might come up with.”
“Sure, that should be easy. Just have a plan for literally anything. Sounds simple,” Haskins rolled her eyes.
“I never said it would be easy, Sarah. I said it would be necessary. You think I don’t know he’s better than anyone we’ve got?” Kovar said.
“He’s not better than you.”
“He could write field manuals just on how much more he knows about warfare than I do. The guy was a general at my age.”
“And you’re a colonel. You’re no slouch, Kov. Just think about everything you would do, then figure out how you’d stop it. Then we’ll do something even you wouldn’t expect you to do,” Haskins put her hand on his forearm, “The whole team knows you’re the only chance we have at coming home.”
Kovar blushed, his skin flushing a deep pink, “Stop. This team is the best there is. That is why we are going to come home.”
“Maybe, but our odds are definitely better with you.”
***
Kovar sat in the chair opposite Colonel Baxter and stared at his fingernails. Baxter sat behind his desk, an expression of shock on his face.
“And, you really think that will work? When was the last time you spoke to her?” Baxter asked.
“It’s been about a year since I’ve actually spoken to her, but we write regularly. She’s never supported Ecthelion, or the war. She might be willing to help us end it.”
“Kovar, your mother is a lot of things, but a political dissident is hardly one of them. Her father was an ambassador for god’s sake. And I knew her pretty well, you know.”
“An ambassador for an overthrown regime. And he was executed. That changes people, Cal.”
“Alright, you work that out. Assuming she gets you to the surface and into the capital, how do you move through the city and to the council chamber? Safe houses you don’t even know are there? It’s risky, Kov.”
“It’s unexpected. Even I wouldn’t have thought of it if I hadn’t defeated every one of my other plans already.”
“What do you mean, defeated them?”
“I had to come up with something Ecthelion wouldn’t expect. So, I countered every plan I made, and my original plan lost every time. Then I had an idea. If I can work out the details, it could give us a real shot at this,” Kovar said.
“God damnit, kiddo. I knew when they gave you Charlie it was because you were a risk-taker. But damn, I didn’t think it was because you were batshit crazy. Shit,” Baxter sighed, “Make it work.”
“Yes, sir,” Kovar stood up and walked out.