Greenies

with all things being equal. Just because you have a three to one advantage or a four to one advantage doesn't mean you will take your objective. We started out with an almost four to one advantage on the first stage at all fronts, remember? And look what happened there.'

'That was because of that incompetent boob Wrath,' Browning scoffed. 'Now those four to one ratios will be under my command and you can bet that little leaf on your shoulder I will plan this campaign to win and we will sweep into those cities quickly and painlessly.'

Jesus, thought Wilde, he's spouting off to me like he's talking to the press. He really believes that just because he says it it's true. God help us. 'Sir,' he said, 'the only way we're going to sweep into anything down there is by maintaining the highest attack to defender ratio as possible. The Martians have air superiority and have denied us the use of our artillery guns. Our companies, platoons, and squads are disjointed from the first phase, with poor morale, inexperienced leaders, and lots of green troops who used to be cooks and maintenance men and computer programmers — guys who haven't held a gun since basic training. The Martians we'll be facing are now battle-hardened veterans with high morale and a lot to fight for. With the situation as it is the only way we're sure to take our objective is with that eight to one ratio. With four to one... well... things aren't all that certain anymore. There's a good chance we could be repelled again on one or both fronts.'

'Look, Wilde,' Browning said condescendingly, 'I know it's your job to try to anticipate the worse that can happen and to be conservative in your military recommendations but I think you're carrying that a bit too far here — almost to the point of being overdramatic. Give us some credit here. We know the mistakes that were made by General Wrath. We know how the greenies fight now. Between the two of us we should be able to come up with a lightening-fast landing ship to city campaign that will take the targets with minimal casualties.'

'We can come up with a plan, yes,' Wilde said, 'but as for a plan that guarantees success in our objectives...' He shook his head. 'No, we can't do that. Not with the numbers we have against an enemy as well- trained, disciplined, and, most of all, motivated as the Martians.'

'Guarantee?' Browning scoffed. 'Who can guarantee anything in this life? Now why don't you go let Admiral Spears and Admiral Haybecker know that they'll need to start planning to isolate New Pittsburgh and Eden by rail now. That will mean two separate alpha strikes, I'm sure, so I'll give them another eighteen hours to develop a plan and get the crew to launch.'

'They're not going to like that, sir,' Wilde said. 'It they can't take out the Martian recon-sats it's possible they won't have enough spacecraft to pull off two missions.'

'They're not paid to like their orders,' Browning said. 'They're paid to carry them out and you're paid to deliver them. Once you get done with that you can compose this latest press release. After that, get to my office and we'll start planning our two campaigns.'

Wilde sighed. 'Yes, sir,' he said.

Six hours later the big three were still going on about this latest modification of the Martian attack plan. All three were of the opinion that it was a bold endeavor, showing the aggressive nature of General Browning in his task.

'At the completion of this two-pronged strike,' said one of the more popular military analysts on InfoServe, 'WestHem forces will hold the two most important cities on the surface. After that, the terrorist insurgency will most likely collapse for lack of leadership, therefore allowing the Martian populace being held hostage in the other cities to simply resume rudimentary control from the state of lawlessness and despair that currently exists. Though a second force of marines will still have to be sent out to Mars — it is quite obvious, after all, that the Martian people need a stabilizing force to oversee them — it is quite possible these marines will not have to do much other than occupation duties and restoration of basic infrastructure.'

Wilde wasn't amused by the analyst's statement. He wished Browning, who was working at another desk across the room, would just shut the damn screen off so he could concentrate on formulating this fabled 'two- pronged attack' in a manner that would allow success on both fronts. This was something that could be done, he instinctively knew. And he suspected that if it were done right it could even be done without horrible losses. The trick would be to examine the failures of the first attempt with a realistic eye, learn from them, and try to correct them. He looked at what he had put on his screen so far, reviewing it, hoping for some sort of inspiration.

Problem 1 — LZ's are too far out from target. This gives enemy special forces units, mortar teams, and, most significantly, air crews, far too much time to cause attrition of our armor and men which, in turn, causes degradation of morale, breakdown of command/control at small unit level due to deliberate targeting of officers and NCOs. Solution: Land closer in?? This does violate doctrine but why twice the distance of nearest artillery range? Why not just outside nearest artillery range? True, this puts units in range of enemy tanks if they choose to advance on the LZ but the Martians don't have that many tanks, certainly not enough to challenge a well-defended LZ as long as we get our own tanks out as quick as possible and stationed on the perimeter.

Problem 2 — Martian special forces units attempt to draw us outside our LZ perimeter so they can engage us, slowing us down further, causing further attrition and further degradation of morale. Solution: tight perimeter manned primarily by tanks dug into hull-down positions. Keep these positions within 500 meters of the landing ships, keep exposed troops to a minimum. Do NOT go beyond this perimeter no matter what the provocation.

Problem 3 — Martian air superiority. Solution: None. Not in this conflict. Hovers cannot stand up to fast- moving fixed wing aircraft with the ability to hug the ground and pop out at will. Any attacks made by hovers must be fast, short, and able to withdraw back to the perimeter before Martian aircraft can respond.

Wilde stared at this last paragraph for a few minutes, feeling like there was something significant there but not quite able to grasp what it was. 'Fast, short, and able to withdraw...' he said to himself. 'Hmmm.'

His eyes flitted back up to Problem 1, to the line that read, Solution: Land closer in?? He then looked down at the bottom of the screen, to Problem 4, which read: Martian heavy guns have the ability to neutralize our 150mm mobile guns, therefore eliminating our ability to support ground forces with artillery — a staple of any ground campaign. Solution: Must find a way to take out these Martian fixed 250s. They are too small of targets for AA-71s to hit with accuracy and accuracy is mandatory to destroy large guns in thick, concrete bunkers. Hovers are the ideal attack platform for this task as they can close and make a direct shot with their high intensity lasers but the Martian air superiority precludes this.

'Or does it?' he whispered, looking back up to the solution for Problem 1. Land closer in?? The Martians had ripped through their hovers as they'd tried to move them up to the forward refuel point so they could undertake the mission against the heavy guns. But what if there were no forward refuel point?

He quickly opened another window in the planning software, this one a map of the Eden vicinity. He began to look at the terrain, his eyes searching for the perfect place. It wasn't long until he found it. He made a few notations and then looked up at Browning, who was reviewing something on is own computer screen.

'General,' he called, 'would you mind coming over here for a minute?'

Browning frowned but trudged his way over. 'Yes? Did you come up with something?'

'I think I have,' Wilde said. 'I think maybe I've found a way to negate some of the problems we encountered in phase one.'

'Good,' Browning said. 'Write them up and we'll go with them.'

'Uh... but, sir,' he said carefully. 'Don't you want a preliminary review?'

'I'm sure whatever you come up with is fine,' he said. 'We have the numerical advantage after all. There is one other minor thing that has just cropped up.'

Wilde winced at these words — he'd heard them far too many times now. 'And what might that be?'

Browning told him. Wilde shouldn't have been surprised at this point, but he was. 'Sir... Jesus. In light of this... minor change, we're going to need to get our people down on the surface as soon as possible if this is going to work.'

'How soon are we talking?' Browning asked.

'Yesterday if we could,' Wilde said, still trying to come to grips with what he'd just been told. 'It's imperative we get our landing ships down before the Martians have a chance to start reinforcing.'

'But you don't even have a plan for deployment yet.'

'I know,' Wilde groaned in frustration. 'I was counting on at least a week after the space strikes isolated those cities, but now...' He shook his head. 'Jesus Christ, sir. I need to get to work and go into hyperdrive. If I stay up all night I might be able to have preliminary landing and targeting areas complete. That will at least give us a