Chapter III

Chapter 3

Colony Siri, Moon

July 31, 4035

The war room is large and desolate. A single computer at the far end of the room is on; while dozens stay dormant in front of red leathered chairs; waiting for the day to be functionable again.

Only a single light is in the room; that of a large circular sphere that sits in the ceiling above a large interactive glass screen table. Two war hardened soldiers stand silent; staring at the blue three-dimensional map that hovers above the glass table.

Believe it or not, at one point in time, the war room was the busiest room on the Colossus Class ship. A room that required twenty-four-hour manning with dozens of officers; each tasked with important jobs from dropping supply runs to the established forward operating bases at the southern, eastern, and northern parts of Australia, to receiving and sending radio intercoms. That was a time when the United Universe, under the guidance of General Letty and Colonel Cord, where on the verge of total control at the southern point of Australia. It was at a point in the war where anything seemed possible—including wiping out the enemy forces from the entire Australian continent.

And then it all came crashing down.

Letty swipe across the blue three-dimensional map hovering a foot above the table; manipulating the uploaded map data along with satellite imaging. She pinches her fingers and slides it across the table; touching the four corners of the map, the three-dimensional image turns flat. The terrain changes from green, yellow, and red, highlighting terrain differentials. Green being shallow, red the steepest. The perfect tool for commanders. Letty swipes her hands across the table and pinches her index finger and thumb.

The map blows up, to reveal a large city. In the direct center is a tower that appears to be a dagger shooting out of the ground. Letty leans forward into the light; her medals on her chest shimmer—her excitement is oozing off her skin.

"Operation Achilles will commence on the first of August at 1200 hours. My plan is a Hot Zone assault. Our intelligence from the last two Operations: Medusa and Thor, have shown multiple bunker locations beneath the city of Lexus, hidden in the city's infrastructure. Thus, We will drop ten thousand troops on Lexus. Their primary objective will be the beacon right there."

Letty points and circles the beacon at the center of the city. It's here, she slides the satellite image across the table, pulling up another satellite image of what looks at first glance, to be an abandoned airfield.

Letty circles the abandoned airfield buildings.

"While the assault is in progress, we will divert a tenth of our forces south, towards our true objective, here."

The number thirty-three appears; a measurement in kilometers, indicating the distance between two targets.

"This tactical objective is an abandoned E.O.S. Factory—"

Cord raises his hand, his face as red as a cherry. He leans forward, swiping his hand left, throwing the satellite image back to the city of Lexus.

"You make it sound so easy," he begins, opening his palm, turning the three-dimensional city into a bird's eye view. One by one, he starts to highlight possible impact zones in yellow, red, and orange.

"This will not be easy," he continues; drawing many circles and straight lines in blue; highlighting possible areas of entrapment and cut-offs.

"This city is a decayed maze and you want to drop ten thousand troops?"

Letty clasps her hands together and nods.

"I know some won't survive the impact, nor will they survive the assault. But it's a necessary sacrifice."

"A necessary sacrifice?"

His posture tightens, he slams both hands down on the table—the images shake.

"This city is a rat trap! How do you expect to get nine thousand troops to the center of the city? How will they get out and regroup with the remaining forces? What do we do once we capture this facility? What do our logistic lines look like?"

Letty shakes her head. She can hear her own teeth grinding in her skull.

"Please. Let me speak." She says in that controlling, calming tone that at one time, soothed his soul under fire in the thick of many firefights. It was the tone she used when, against all the odds, a plan no matter how crazy—needed to be done. He inhales deeply, and as always, he finds a strange trust in her. After all, how many times during the Colony wars was that voice there to save him?

"The reason we can't have ten thousand troops dropping on the E.O. S. factory is because our intelligence tells us there is another machine there."

"What? Another Halcyon?"

Letty smiles. "No. Much better."

Letty pinches her thumb and swipes up. A bold, red tinted word Classified appears. Letty inputs digits on a physical numpad at the base of the table. Hundreds of files fill the screen. Operation Thor stands out in green. Letty taps it.

"While Operation Medusa opened up the can of worms of a worldwide network; Operation Thor confirmed two possible locations of the ancient machines.

Cord raises a brow.

"And you couldn't tell me before hand, that there is in fact another machine out there like the Halcyon?"

Letty sighs, and yet her eyes continue to trace through the files.

"It's nothing against you. It's honestly because I couldn't believe the intelligence operations myself. I need to cross reference and confirm with that data recovered. . . it's almost exactly as described."

Letty swipes her hands across the screen again, bringing up a comparison of the Halcyon and the unknown machine side by side.

She steps back, her eyes falling to her best friend Cord.

"It's. . . so much bigger," Cord says, nearly choking on his tongue.

"Yeah. The database we recovered from Operation Thor, tells us it stands at seventy feet tall, and weighs 85 tons. That's thirteen feet taller and twenty tons heavier than the Halcyon. This machine is nothing to fuck with."

"But what about our Pilots?"

"They will be ready, even if the machine kills them. They know the risk."

"And the enemies Machine, the M Series 10?"

"What about the Mech X?"

"The size comparison of course."

"Oh, the Mech X is half the size, and way lighter. . .you know this."

Letty licks her lips, zooming in on the Eos Factory.

"And it gets even better. Our Intel revealed that beneath the Eos Corporation Factory is a large-abandoned bunker. Also, it's said to be attached to an underground spring. And to add, the whole bunker, from the recovered black box. Appears operational. From what we gathered it was a post-nuclear fallout bunker, but what's more—on the south wing of the bunker, there is reason to believe beneath the surface already exists an underground space elevator just waiting to be finished."

Cord shakes his head. He's feeling the pain of slaughter attach to him like a weed. He can't help but wonder if this is how his Generals felt during the Colony Wars on Mars. But at the same time, a wave of relief washes over him.

Twenty-two million dead, and for the first time, he can say it may have been worth it. But then again, at the time he thought Australia would be worth it too.

Letty highlights the beacon again.

"This is the break we needed. An insurgency style drop where our forces scatter into the city like rats in a maze; trapping the large machines, and drawing enough attention and time for our small force to secure the E.O.S. Factory. From there, we can reestablish a constant stream of reinforcements, especially once we connect the space elevator to the Megladon. Then we can start dropping tanks safely. It will change the landscape, Colonel. I can taste the lessons we learned from Australia. . . a time to rise from the flames into a Phoenix once again."

"And who will lead our soldiers to fight against the enemy? The dreaded M Series 10?"

"Well, I've already established the upload grid coordinates of the Eos Corporation to Captain Ealy. I'm leaving him to choose his subordinates."

"I'm talking about the soldiers who are attacking the Beacon."

"Major Ace will be leading that assault."

"He's still alive?" Cord sighs, as his looks down at his old, aching feet, and walks towards the closest chair. He pulls the chair up to the table and sits down.

"He is, and he isn't the misfit of a commander any longer, so please—"

"Yes. I understand. Professionalism, until he dies at the hand of those wretched machines."

"Please, Colonel." Letty licks her lips, feeling her age as well now.

She presses a few buttons on the screen. All of a sudden, numerous red triangles appear on the map, alongside blue squares and black circles, a simulated battlespace.

"What our intelligence has gathered, is the standing beacon is believed to transmit communication between the machines. Thus, through our battle simulations, nine thousand troops under Major Ace's command should be enough to stall for six to eight hours of insurgency-based fighting. This will give the other eight hundred soldiers under Captain Ealy's guidance the cover to sneak out under fire and head south. To accomplish this, we will wait until the initial assault is underway. Once that has commenced, our Command team here will push out two sets of given coordinates. One for the beacon, and the other for the factory."

"And if the group finds the inconsistency?"

"Then they will make a tactical decision based in the moment, of which will determine their fate."

The first set of coordinates will be the closet bunker based on the orbiting satellite.

The second group of coordinates, will be to Rendezvous Alpha."

Letty draws a circle a rough twenty kilometers outside the city by a small lake.

She taps her nail on the satellite image.

"This initial group will be our Colonizers, establishing control of the underground bunker and capturing that machine. The Founders of the Eos Corporation Factory. And while I know this will be tough since we haven't dropped soldiers into a hot zone since the era of Thomas and The Halcyon; I need you to approve of this. We need to approve of this. Together."

Cord rolls back on his lip, biting down. He looks unsure.

"Sending out two different grid coordinates—I don't like it Letty, I don't like the high odds of our betrayal being known."

"Again, I've left it to Captain Ealy. And if anything gets out—it will be dealt with appropriately. He's always been reliable."

Cord raises his head to Letty

"And those in the city? What if they survive the fight against the Machines?"

Letty looks down at the simulation in front of them; all her soldiers have died.

"Those enemies stand at thirty feet tall and weigh twenty-two tons. A twenty four hour resupply, and only double frontlines worth of ammunition, less for the rockets and rods needed to take down a machine. You and I both know there will be no survivors."

* * *

Cord looks up at the screen, watching as the final Hawkeye opens its hatch and starts to unload the last batch of soldiers. He closes his eyes and pulls out a bottle of old scotch. A little gift from Thomas.

He opens the bottle and watches the small red flare of the pods that fire into the Earth's atmosphere. He takes a swig. He raises his free hand, and as the final drop pod descends, he salutes.

To those valiant soldiers who refuse to give up hope