A Hymn for the Dying by Doty J. L

A Hymn for the Dying by Doty J. L

Author:Doty, J. L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Military, Space Battles, Space Marines
ISBN: 978-1-951744-19-9
Publisher: Telemachus Press LLC
Published: 2020-07-01T00:00:00+00:00


18

Doesn’t Add Up

NIKAELA’S SUPERIORS GAVE her command of a full platoon, one of four assigned to the First Liaison Company under the command of Senior Command Superior Thordahl, a small man with a pleasant smile. She noticed that her platoon had quite a number of experienced veterans, and as a newly commissioned Command Boss, Junior Rank, that surprised her. She had failed to graduate at the top of her class, and had feared there might be other repercussions from the Novalis III tragedy. But if so, they had apparently forgiven her, or possibly they simply absolved her of any responsibility. Then again, perhaps this was all a reward for keeping her mouth shut, or maybe it was part of the lesson they wanted to teach her. All the possibilities made her head spin, so she stopped trying to speculate and decided to simply be grateful for her good fortune.

When she reviewed the records of the men and woman under her command, she noticed that with the exception of a few rookies, many of them appeared to have blank little gaps in their files that could be interpreted in any number of ways. Nikaela suspected that the benign name of First Liaison Company did not represent its true responsibilities.

Her platoon also included a very senior noncom, Oberseergent Beksalla Geltkarl, an imposing woman of both physical stature and commanding demeanor. Nikaela wanted to make a good impression with her.

When they first met, Nikaela said, “Oberseergent Geltkarl, I am honored to have such an experienced NCO working with me. I hope you will help me avoid any obvious mistakes.”

The woman had served the Supremacy for more than fifteen years. She smiled pleasantly. “I will help wherever I can. But you would not be in charge of this platoon if you hadn’t demonstrated to our superiors that you are a capable officer, and know how to lead . . . with discretion. First Liaison Company often performs . . . unusual duties for the Larscom.”

That statement confirmed Nikaela’s suspicions about her new assignment. The next morning First Liaison Company boarded a destroyer on Viktorkinde Prime, and spent fifteen days in transit to a remote outpost near the edge of Supremacy space. From there they boarded Reguskalde, a fast heavy cruiser with reasonably good stealth capabilities. They transited to the Vischas system, where the cruiser parked in an orbit around the planet Reisenar while its boats shuttled First Liaison Company down to the surface. Since there were no enemy units in the neighborhood, they didn’t have to exercise the stealth capabilities of the cruiser. But at the request of their hosts, they did heavily stealth the boats as they descended to Helmanport, Reisenar’s capital city. They landed quietly under the cover of darkness with no fanfare or press coverage. Once they unloaded their gear, the boats returned to Reguskalde, and by prior agreement with the planetary government, the large cruiser up-transited out of the system and returned to the Supremacy.

In fact, known only to Thordahl, his officers, and a select few of their NCOs, Reguskalde did not leave the system.



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