'Now however,' the anchor said brightly, 'it seems that General Browning has managed to make the best of a bad situation with Operation Hammer Down. Taking advantage of the relatively short distance to target from the alternate landing sites, these two hundred hovers flew directly into the teeth of the most heavily defended Martian terrorist positions, destroying artillery sites, surface-to-air laser sites, portions of the Martian bases themselves, and many of the reinforced defensive positions that the suicide teams staged from in the first phase of the operation.
'General Browning, in a statement issued just twenty minutes ago, tells us that several of the hovers did go down during the engagement and that several pilots and gunners were forced to eject. As to whether these aircraft were shot down or brought down by friendly fire or collision is unknown. The fate of these crews are also unknown at this time although General Browning states there is a good possibility they might be recovered alive before the Martians can capture them.'
They cut to a scene from Browning's press conference after the operation. 'The crews that participated in this strike have only just returned to base,' he told the solar system, 'and we have not had a chance to debrief them just yet. We do have search and rescue hovers out at this minute heading for the areas where the aircraft went down. When we know more we'll release it immediately.'
Wilde yelled at the computer to change over to a music station. He was unable to stand another second of having their own propaganda thrown back in his face. He actually felt physically ill. His illness was made worse when Major Falon, head of the personnel department for the operation, commed him and told him the real news.
'The Martians worked pretty fast this time,' he told Wilde. 'They sent over four lists of names. Two were the captured list from Eden and New Pittsburgh. They've captured seventy-six crewmembers from Eden, nine of whom are injured; and sixty-four from New Pittsburgh, eleven of whom are injured. The other two were lists of KIAs from the raid. They've scanned and recovered twenty-six dead in Eden and thirty-eight in New Pittsburgh. The rest of the men from each city are unaccounted for but they put in a note that multiple aircraft near each target area were completely destroyed by the fixed SAL sites and that body identification is impossible without DNA sampling. They will do that after a cease fire is in place one way or the other.'
Wilde nodded. 'You gotta hand it to those greenies,' he said. 'At least they let us know.'
'Rubbing it in is more like it,' Falon said bitterly. He had, after all, received a lot of lists from the Martians over the past week.
'Call it what you want,' Wilde said. 'Send off the numbers and the names to command like usual and they'll bury it like usual.'
'They have to do that, Wilde,' Falon said. 'The public simply wouldn't understand if we told them how bad the losses have really been.'
'Yeah,' Wilde said, not bothering to argue. It would be pointless. 'I'll catch you later, Falon. Hopefully we won't have to talk that much in the future.'
'We won't, ' Falon said righteously. 'That new plan of General Browning's is going to bring those murdering terrorists to their knees.'
'I certainly hope so,' Wilde said. He signed off. He then put in a call to General Browning. He was put on hold for the better part of ten minutes before Browning's image graced his screen. The general looked upset, a state he confirmed with his first words.
'Those goddamned media reps are still calling every five minutes to bitch at me,' he yelled at Wilde. 'I told you this would happen if you changed one iota of that plan we submitted! Several of them are even threatening to do an expose on me!'
Wilde knew exactly what he was talking about. The big three reps, both here and on Earth, were very upset that the landing ships had come down more than two hundred kilometers closer to their respective cities than had been outlined in the briefing documents they'd been given. Though it was only a minor change, one made at the last minute so the air strikes could be launched without a refuel point and so the march time to engagement would be minimized, the media didn't like things to deviate from what they had reported as 'the plan'. They felt it made the public lose respect for their investigative powers. They had been in full-blown outrage mode in the first hours after the landings, some going so far as to call for Browning's resignation for using them as a disinformation vehicle. It was only after Browning fed them the bullshit about the Martians laying mines in the primary landing sites that they began to ease off a bit. True, they all knew the story was bullshit but at least it gave them something plausible (if not entirely realistic) to tell the public.
'It was a necessary operational change,' Wilde told Browning for perhaps the twentieth time.
'Yes, yes,' Browning said. 'So you say. It's what let us launch those air strikes... and by the way, they're pretty pissed off about the air strikes as well. They want to know why they weren't informed in advance and why they weren't allowed to video the hovers launching and returning.'
'Sir, it was a
'Surely you're not suggesting that is
'Sir, I planned those air strikes to be launched simultaneously the moment all of the landing ships were on the ground. You delayed the launch for more than two hours just so you could give the operation a catchy name and say that it was launched precisely at 1300.'
'It is somewhat traditional to have a nice, round starting time for any major military mission,' Browning said. 'You know that, Wilde.'
'And at what point did that start to take precedence over the element of surprise, General?' Wilde asked. 'Those hovers were supposed to launch and be on their targets before the Martians even knew they were in the air. Instead, you delayed the launch until 1300. That gave the Martians enough time to get some of their special forces teams on our perimeter to report the launch.'
Again Browning refused to take any sort of responsibility for this. 'You said those flat areas we landed in would prevent the greenies from sending special forces teams after us.'
'I said no such thing,' Wilde replied, no longer caring about the insubordination. 'I said the flat area would force them to drop their teams further out and prevent them from moving in too close. I never said their teams would be blinded to what we were doing. That's why I had the APCs shuttle crewmen to the tanks, remember? That's why I had the landing ships form a big perimeter of their own, so the armor could assemble in the center. We've known all along that the Martian special forces teams would get to within operation and observational range.'
Browning was shaking his head sadly. 'It sounds like you're backpedaling to me, Wilde,' he said. 'A marine is supposed to know when he's made a mistake.'
Wilde actually had to bite his lip to keep from screaming out an angry, blasphemous reply to this. He drew blood but the trick worked — just barely. After a moment he was able to compose himself. 'Listen, General,' he said. 'What's done is done. That won't be much comfort to those flight crews that are now in Martian POW holding or the families of those who were killed, but we have to put that behind us and move on to the next phase of the operation.'
'Well of course,' Browning said. 'My feelings exactly.'
'Very good,' Wilde said. 'Now the reason I commed is to make sure something similar doesn't happen to our ground forces. They're down there unloading their APCs and tanks and mobile guns as fast as they can. It is vital that the marches begin the moment enough armor and arty is ready to move. We have to reach the Martian first lines of defense before their reinforcements arrive in strength. As it stands now, that is going to be very close.'
'How close?'
'According to intel the first trains pulled out of Proctor and Libby at 1120 and 1150 this morning. That means the first train will arrive in Eden two and a half hours from now and in New Pittsburgh four hours from now. Eden is the critical one. The Martians could conceivably have reinforcements start trickling into the Jutfield Gap positions by 2200.'
