Tag left the bridge and went to the hold that was housing the escape pods. He closed his eyes and saw where Rossville was located and entered the coordinates into the pod’s computer. He closed the door and pressed the activate button on his console. The pod shot through Washington’s screen and headed toward the planet.
“What was that?” Kosiev asked.
“Sir, an escape pod has been activated and is heading toward the planet,” Lieutenant Kelley said.
“Who was it?”
“Sir, it was Thomas Gardner.”
“Get that pod on the speaker now!”
“Go ahead, Admiral,” Tag said.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m going to help a friend.”
“Tag, you’re more important to this war than all of us combined. You can’t risk yourself.”
“Admiral, make sure no one escapes. I’m going to help down there. Do not come for me until all Alliance ships are eliminated. That’s a direct order.” Then Tag turned off his radio.
The Alliance regiment was advancing through the valley. It was heavily massed and was moving fast. The regiment could sense the end for the human defenders was near, and they wanted this to be over. Suddenly, both sides of the valley erupted into flame and blasts as the naval marine heavy weapon platforms finally opened fire together. Fully half of the advancing forces were wiped out immediately. The survivors returned fire and slowly eliminated the weapon platforms. Then the Alliance survivors continued on an eight-hundred-yard front toward the remaining human defenders.
Richard looked at his remaining soldiers and waited until the Alliance force was seven hundred yards from them and opened fire. The Alliance troops were falling, but so were the marines. Richard could see that there were just too many. They were 150 yards from his troop’s position when an escape pod dropped from the sky between his lines and the Alliance advance and landed with a blue-green strobe flashing. The Alliance and human forces stopped firing and a human stepped out of the escape pod and waited for the Alliance representative to approach. A regimental command officer approached the human and began talking. “What’s going on sir?”
“I don’t know,” Richard said.
Tag waited for the Cainth officer to approach him and then said, “Sir, I’m going to request that you withdraw your men and return to your positions at the head of this valley. Your fleet has been destroyed and we are currently finishing with the last ten Alliance ships. If you withdraw, I’ll guarantee the safety of your men and ensure they are treated fairly as prisoners of war.”
The Alliance officer said, “Look around you, human. We are going to finish your ground troops, then take those civilians hostage, and make sure you behave yourself or we’ll execute every one of them. We may kill some just for fun, to let you know we mean business. You may have won the space battle, but we will win on the ground.”
“Sir, I ask you to please consider the lives of your men. You have lost three thousand troops today. I don’t want the rest of them killed needlessly.”
“And just how are you going to do that?” The Alliance officer sneered.
“I’m going to do it, alone. You will not harm another one of our troops. If you choose not to listen and continue this attack, then fire a blue and green flare when you’ve had enough and I’ll stop killing your men.”
The Alliance officer looked at Tag and said, “You will be the first to die.” He then went back to his lines and ordered every soldier on the front line to fire at the human on his command. Tag turned off the strobe and hoped that Atlas had given him adequate protection. The whole Alliance front line fired on him.
Tag stood in the middle of that hellish fire and felt nothing. Even the sound was muted. Heavy weapons fired at him: primary laser platforms and heavy slug throwers emptied their magazines into his force field, and he was untouched. The marines watched the firepower being directed at the single human and knew he should have been dead. He didn’t even have on battle armor, but there he stood, unmoving, at the center of what should have been instant death. Then Richard heard, “You’ve done well here, Rich. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here earlier, but perhaps I can take part now. Please have your men ready to take some prisoners.”
“Tag, get out of there. You’re too important. Men, prepare to charge. We have to rescue him.”
“Richard, it’s a little late to charge; besides, if I were in danger, I’d already be dead. Get down behind your screens and prepare for mop-up operations.”
The Alliance forces began to advance, and Richard saw Tag raise his arm and point it toward the advancing forces. Suddenly, an incredibly bright blue beam was fired and run across the front of the advancing Alliance formation. Twelve rows of Alliance troops and all their equipment disintegrated. Then that hellish beam crossed the formation again and one-third of the remaining Alliance forces were blown away. There was a pause while Tag held the blue beam slightly over the heads of the remaining alliance forces; immediately a blue and white flare was launched from the rear of the Alliance formation and they began laying down their arms.
“Tag, you never cease to amaze me. Round up the prisoners and put them in the camp. Assign some of the civilians to guard them, and then please get my wounded and me to a hospital.” With that Richard passed out, his job complete.
Chapter 29
Admiral Kosiev stood on ground that looked like blasted glass and stared at the young man in front of him. He had no answer for what had happened during the final battle. Once the general commanding the ground forces was captured, all the remaining conflicts around the planet ceased, and the Alliance ground forces surrendered. The Earth fleet was in the process of loading the prisoners onto transports taking them to a cavern prepared for them on one of Jupiter’s moons. Earth central command had sent heavy transports to Ross to take the population and relocate them to another colony. There were only one hundred forty thousand of them, as this was a young colony. There was no way they would be safe once the Alliance main fleet arrived. “We might not be safe, either,” Kosiev reflected as he stood outside the destroyed marine base camp at Rossville. All around him was the wreckage of marine and Alliance weapons. He felt he had to come down and see the site of mankind’s first land battle in four hundred years. It was important that he understand the price he would be asking the marines to pay. Some of the heavy weapon platforms were still smoking, and the remaining marines were looking for the bodies of their fallen comrades. Then he turned and said, “Would you mind explaining how and what you did down here?”
Tag had to force himself to break away from the scene of carnage all around him and said to Kosiev, “I tried to prevent some of this bloodshed, but I didn’t, Admiral, and I can’t answer your question.” Kosiev started to protest, but Tag held up his hand and said, “This is something that falls into Special Force proprietary information. I honestly can’t tell you. I am also going to request that any record or recording of what happened be sent to Special Forces Center on Earth. All of our personnel are also to be told to never mention it.”
Kosiev stared at Tag, looked around at the site of the bloodiest fighting, and finally said, “You know you saved thousands of lives down there. I don’t understand how you did it, but it ended the conflict. Thanks.”
Tag continued to stare at the ground around the Marine camp that had been hit with so many blaster beams that the surface looked like glass. There was no vegetation in sight and the entire valley looked like the surface of the moon. He heard that Richard was on board a hospital ship and was severely wounded. He prayed that his friend would make it. He continued to stare and ponder the destructiveness of war. “Did any of the Alliance ships surrender?” he asked Kosiev.
“Actually, their flagship War Weapon did. We also forced the crew to leave the ship individually in spacesuits. We picked them up with one of our freighters and moved them away from the dreadnought. I had their senior officer put one of their lifeboats in a launching tube and set it for remote control. You were right; the Alliance officer launched the lifeboat and the dreadnought self-destructed, taking the lifeboat with it. Those Alliance sailors have a different point of view now about their leaders on good ol’ Cainth. If they are ever sent back, they are going to cause the clan leaders some problems. They are also being transported to Jupiter’s moon. I believe it’s Europa.”
Kosiev’s com buzzed and a voice said, “Sir, you have a call from someone named Danielle Gardner asking to speak to our hero of the month.”
