Greenies

them from the command center of the WHSS Nebraska. Instead of the class A uniform that he had given all of his previous briefings in, he was now dressed in red Martian camouflage fatigues, as if he were going to be going down to the planet with his men instead of staying nice and safe up in the flagship.

'First of all,' Wrath said, his voice tough and gravelly, 'let me thank Ms. Nguyen and her people for having enough sense to allow me this statement. I know that there are a lot of good people left on Mars, people that do not agree with what the rogue groups that have taken over your planet are doing, and...'

'Uh... General Wrath, if you'll excuse me for a moment?' interrupted Nguyen, who was personally handling the press conference. As the camera panned over her the audience was able to see that General Jackson, who was wearing his standard uniform of shorts and T-shirt, was sitting next to her, his face neutral.

'Yes, Ms. Nguyen,' Wrath said, stammering a little since this was not part of his prepared speech.

'My company is fully in support of the revolution that has occurred on this planet,' she said. 'I just want that on the record right now. I agreed to air this conference at the insistence of Governor Whiting and General Jackson here. It is their thought, and I completely agree, that the Martian people have a right to hear your final threats before they meet you on the battlefield.'

'I... I see,' said Wrath, fighting the urge to wipe his forehead. 'That is an interesting point of view. In any case, if I may now say what I need to say?'

'Of course, General,' she said. 'Please continue.'

'Thank you,' he said. 'The reason that I've asked to address the people of Mars this evening is to offer a final plea for your surrender. As you have seen from our previous news reports, we have a whole lot of men and machines up here that will be landing on your planet tomorrow with the intention of liberating it from the terrorist elements that are holding it hostage. We have four tanks for every one tank that you have down there. We have almost four men under arms for every one that you have. We have three artillery pieces for each one of yours. We have twenty times as many hovers. I know that a lot of the men down there that are planning to fight us are simply misguided youths that have fallen for the drivel that Laura Whiting has been spouting. You probably don't know exactly what you're in for. Well let me explain it to you in very simple terms. If you do not unconditionally surrender in the next twelve hours, my marines are going to come down there and take that planet by force. A lot of you people are going to die if that happens. I will not have my men hold back or try to be gentle because we are fighting WestHem citizens. We will fight this conflict as we would a full-scale battle against EastHem invaders and we will prevail quickly and decisively. You are outnumbered, outgunned, and out-equipped. We have superior training and discipline. You cannot win this battle so I ask you, in the interests of avoiding needless deaths, please give it up right now. Send me a surrender message, turn over Laura Whiting and General Jackson to us, and this will all be over without further bloodshed.'

Wrath continued to speak his impassioned plea to the Martian people for another fifteen minutes, stating and restating this same theme in several different ways. At times he seemed almost to grovel. At other times he was blatantly threatening. Finally, when it wound up, Dianne Nguyen, who had looked bored throughout the entire presentation, sat up a little straighter in her seat.

'Is that all you wanted to say?' she asked Wrath.

'I have said my piece,' Wrath told her. 'I only hope that the Martian people have enough sense to take this final chance I'm offering you and give up this hopeless fight.'

'Okay, General,' Nguyen said. 'I thank you for your time and I'm sure the Martian people have been quite enlightened by your words as well.' She turned to Jackson. 'General? Do you have anything you wish to say?'

'I do,' Jackson said. He leaned forward and stared intently into the camera. 'I think, Mr. Wrath,' he told him, 'that I speak for the vast majority of the Martian people when I tell you, respectfully and sincerely, to take a flying fuck at Phobos. If you think you can beat us, come on down and give it a try. We'll be waiting for you.'

Wrath actually turned red with rage as he heard these words. 'Your people are going to die if you fight us,' he told Jackson. 'They're going to die and you're going to be executed for high treason!'

'Like I said, Wrath,' Jackson said. 'If you think you got what it takes, come on down.'

And with that, the press conference was effectively over. Wrath made one more mumbled threat and then shut down his transmitting equipment, effectively killing the feed. He stood and turned to his aids, who were just as shocked by Jackson's words as he was.

'It's on,' he told them. 'We start our landings in twelve hours. Twelve hours!'

Chapter 12

Aboard the WHSS Mammoth, Mars Orbit

August 16, 2146

Lieutenant Callahan came into the berthing area to find his platoon lying listless on their bunks, just as they normally did. As always the smell in the room was of stale sweat and dirty laundry, although after nearly ten weeks he hardly noticed it anymore.

'On your feet, marines,' he barked at them. 'Assemble immediately for a briefing.'

Nobody got to his feet. During the course of the chaotic trip across space, discipline among the men had slipped rather sharply. Where once the men had snapped to obey his every command, they were now quite openly disrespectful, not just to him but to every officer of every rank.

'I got your briefing right here,' said Private Stinson as he grabbed his crotch a few times.

'Do you have to yell, LT?' asked Corporal Jones. 'I was sleeping.'

Callahan sighed, knowing he had helped create this environment he was now living in. He had created it with complacency in the name of soothing the morale problem that had cropped up. Now, however, it was time to start reversing that complacency. Soon they would be going to battle.

'I said on your feet!' Callahan yelled, striding further into the room. 'And the next person who throws a smart-ass remark in my direction is going to have my foot up his ass! Assemble for a briefing right now!'

Slowly the men climbed out of their bunks and ambled across the room to assemble before him. It wasn't exactly the military precision that had been the norm in Salta, but at least they were obeying him. And no one threw a smart-ass remark in his direction either. At least not one that he was able to hear, which was, in truth, the best he could hope for.

When they were all more or less lined up he walked to the front, looking them up and down. 'I've just come from a meeting with Captain Ayers and Major Wild,' he told them. 'As you are undoubtedly aware, the 298^th ACR was slated to be first down on the planetary surface today and was to establish the initial beachhead of the Eden attack. Well, as you were probably not aware, the bulk of the 298^th were aboard Pacaderm, the ship that was destroyed in the so-called suicide attack.'

'Suicide attack my ass,' Stinson was unable to help saying. There were some grumbles from the rest of the men along this line as well.

'Whatever the cause,' Callahan interjected, 'the fact is that there really is no more 298^th ACR. Someone else needs to secure the Eden beachhead. That someone else is us.'

'Us?' asked Sergeant Mallory. 'We haven't trained for that! We've been training for armored assault on the city.'

And even that training, everyone knew, had been woefully brief. Getting the men to the simulators each day had been a chore that had been just a little too much most of the time.

'We will still be performing assault duty on Eden if that becomes necessary,' Callahan said. 'But that is after we secure the beachhead itself and facilitate the landing of all of our equipment. This is an upper level decision directly from General Wrath himself. Given the greenie resistance that was encountered during the trip here, it is felt that a combat experienced regiment should be first down in this area of operation. The 314^th is the most combat experienced regiment in the task force. We've been dealing with rebel elements in Argentina for years and so General Wrath feels that if there are any greenies down there waiting for us at the LZ, we'll be the unit that is able to most effectively deal with them.'

'And they're just springing this on us now?' Mallory asked. 'Christ, when are we supposed to make this landing?'

'In three hours, not including travel time,' Callahan said, allowing a hint of his own trepidation to leak into his