Exodus: Machine War: Book 1: Supernova. by Dandridge Doug

Author:Dandridge, Doug [Dandridge, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Cat Brother Publishing
Published: 2015-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

You think war is hell. I’ll give you hell, and keep giving it until you fear me more than the devil.

Lt. General Kwan, First Lasharan War.

“We’ll be ready to strike again within twenty-four hours,” reported Colonel Tom Margolis, his holo image looking at the holo image of Lt. Colonel Mary Isaiah, his second in command.

“I concur,” said the light colonel, nodding her head. “We should have all suits and vehicles serviced and prepped well before then, but we can definitely use some down time before the next operation.”

Nguyen looked back and forth between the two holos of his senior Marine officers, his mind still dwelling on the last operation. As far as they knew, Honish now had neither nuclear warheads nor the means to deliver them. There might be a submarine or three still in hiding, parked under an icecap, or deep in an oceanic trench somewhere, though the latter could only be very deep diving vessels. His force had seeded the ocean with probes that were currently on the lookout for such submersibles. There also could be some mobile launchers still hidden. Both atmospheric and space based sensors were searching for any trace of radioactivity that might tell of hidden weapons, but had yet to find any. We figure they shot their bolt in that last attack. Why hold anything back? But we have to remember that these are aliens, and their decision trees might be different from the ones we would pursue.

The Honish navy had also ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. Again, there might be some smaller craft hidden here and there, but nothing large enough to be a threat. And the terrorist and guerilla cells were all but destroyed. Maybe some survived, but they were unlikely to strike in the near future, not after the beating they had taken.

That beating had much to do with not committing his Marine and Naval landing forces to another battle without some rest. Intelligence had estimated that they had killed over fifty thousand of the Klassekians, including sailors and pilots. And collateral deaths must have reached near a hundred thousand, despite the caution the humans had used in strikes in and close to cities. But the Imperial Marines and Spacers committed to that battle now had to live with what they had seen and heard, and for some of them that would take months to reconcile.

The actual physical damage to his own forces were light. Forty-seven dead, twenty-one in one incident where a modern antiair missile, one of the few remaining in the hands of the terrorists, had knocked a transport out of the air by penetrating its underhull weapons bay. Two sting ships and six fighters downed, one shuttle disabled, and mostly light damage to one hundred and seventy-eight battle armor suits.

“We’re picking up ships in hyper VII, sir,” came a call over the com.

Probably what they were already expecting, though it never hurt to be cautious. He looked back at his Marine commanders. “Go ahead and get everything set up for a provisional launch in twenty-four hours.

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