Victory at Sython
#23 of The Odds Against
Alrighty, here we go again, last chapter in the set. I hope you enjoy it.
As always, comments are appreciated and requested.
Continued from "The Battle Continues..."
11-16-3015
Time Index; 0922 hours GST
Tare Pharmaceuticals space port
Sython system, Merxian space
Moving up behind the cover of the wall that separated the research complex from the spaceport, Tyr went down on one knee, looking around at the circle of officers and senior NCOs that surrounded him. It hadn't taken all that long after the headquarters had been secured for the Rangers to assemble outside the Black Claw fortress and make ready to continue the battle. Most of that time had actually been spent securing the wounded in the terminal building, and then commandeering enough vehicles to ferry the battalion to their next objective. Now, the battalion was set to begin its sweep, the facility eerily quiet around them, except for the occasional fighter or bomber flying by overhead.
"We have a lot of ground to cover here." Tyr began, looking around at the company officers that had assembled around him. "We are going to sweep the complex building by building. Two platoons per building, one to breach and secure, the other to act as external security and reserves. There will be a lot of civilian workers in here, so tell your troops to be sure of their targets before they fire. The last thing we need is a bunch of panicked civilians running everywhere." The soldiers nodded their assent to his order, platoon leaders already pairing off. "And one more thing. Keep in mind that this facility is full of potentially volatile chemicals. One spark in the wrong place and an entire building could go up, and your men with it. Minimum collateral damage is what we are after. Get me?"
"Yes sir." They chorused and Tyr nodded.
"Move out." he ordered and the soldiers scattered back to their units, groups breaking off to assault each building as they passed the wall. What he had just ordered was a pretty standard arrangement for a battalion in urban combat. Half companies of Rangers would spread out almost in a line, clearing each building in turn, with Tyr and his command group staying back, out of the fighting, to act as an emergency reserve, ready to support any half company that got into trouble. Of course, what complicated matters was that the battalion had already taken casualties, and possessed a limited supply of munitions, a supply that had already been taxed by storming a fortress. If the Rangers ran into determined resistance in every building, then they would run out well before they secured the whole complex, and every second counted. The Colonel was just standing up to move his command group in after the last half company when his comm. crackled once more.
"Turlion Zero-one, this is Redhawk leader, come in." Katy's voice said, sounding almost eager to his ears. "Tyr, do you read?"
"I read you loud and clear, Redhawk Lead, what do you have for me?" He asked, watching as the nearest half company breached the doors leading into a lab building, moving in from all entry points.
"How about two regiments of infantry support?" Katy asked almost casually and Tyr's eyes went wide in surprise.
"Say that again, General?" He asked, looking over to find Larn's face frozen with the same look on it beneath the face plate of his armor. "Did you say two regiments?"
"That I did Colonel." Katy laughed, her squadron of fighters soaring overhead in a wedge. "A little present from Planetary Command. The first battalion is inbound now. Five more are gearing up and should be ready to go in an hour or so."
"That is wonderful news General." Tyr replied, grinning broadly at his XO, "Have them set down near my position, we have more than enough work for them to do." The coyote officer could hear the dropships coming even as he finished his thought, looking up as the sleek ships came into view in the distance.
"Copy that, I will relay your request. Redhawk Leader out." Katy replied, her transmission clicking off. A few moments later, one of the dropships went into a hover almost right above Tyr, the drop doors opening before the ship had even settled down, an officer wearing the silver four pointed star of a Lieutenant Colonel on his forest camo-painted armor stepping out onto the tarmac, heading for where Tyr stood. When the officer was within a few paces, his faceplate went transparent, revealing that he was a fellow coyote.
"Nice of you to drop by." Tyr said, holding out a hand.
"Well, we were in the neighborhood and we didn't want to miss the party." The infantry officer stated, swarms of forest camo armored soldiers disembarking from the dropships behind him. "Lieutenant Colonel Per'alt, 1st battalion, 389th. What's the situation?"
"Colonel Asanderin, Turlion Rangers." Tyr said, shaking hands with his counterpart. "Its sort of a long story, but the short version is that the Black Claws attacked us with no warning, and I have a hunch it was on the orders of the CEO of Tare Pharmaceuticals. We took the mercenaries' headquarters a few minutes ago, and we are just starting a sweep of the research complex."
"Alright," The other officer said, tapping a command into his wrist mounted computer. In a moment, a prompt came up on Tyr's screen, offering a system link. When the Ranger accepted, an overhead view of the research complex appeared on his HUD, the nearest buildings rendering in yellow, and the next row in orange. "My battalion will tackle the next row of buildings, and we can leapfrog from there. I'll leave the mechanized company as fire support."
"Sounds like a plan." Tyr said, flashing a grin to the other officer. "Let's get to work." As the infantry officer began issuing orders to his subordinates, Tyr tapped the battalion wide circuit on his comm system. "All Ranger callsigns, be advised. Watch your fire, we have friendlies moving up in support." Even as he heard a chorus of acknowledgments come over his helmet's speakers, another voice, almost obscured by the sound of plasma and assault weapons firing broke in.
"This is Turlion Three-three." The voice said, "Heavy resistance encountered, building northeast four. Requesting support."
"Copy Three-three. Zero-one on the way." Tyr said, waving his command group to follow him around the corner of the wall and into the research complex...
***
11-16-3015
Time Index; 1342 hours GST
Tare Pharmaceuticals Research Complex
Sython system, Merxian space
Major Larn stood at the edge of the last lab building, looking out towards the admin tower, pulling the nearly empty ammo drum from his machine gun, his hand automatically taking another from where it hung on his belt. Shaking his head as he slid the end of the ammo belt into the receiver, Larn pulled back on the bolt, chambering the first round, the familiar action endlessly comforting. And that was something he needed right this second, despite the confidant façade he put up. Considering how the battle had started, everything had been going spectacularly well, the Rangers and the supporting infantry clearing the first four rows of buildings in the complex inside a half hour, the Black Claws having been stationed in only a few of the structures, and even then, not many, a couple of platoons at most. Most of their time had actually been spent escorting groups of civilians back towards the space port and out of harm's way. And then...
It had started with a few snipers hidden on perches in the upper floors of several buildings, snipers that had to be wrinkled out and eliminated, a process which had held up the two battalions for over an hour, time that the Black Claws had used wisely. When the stalled advance had picked back up, the Marines had found that the Black Claws had turned the buildings surrounding the admin tower into mazes of ambushes and booby traps, and the advance had ground back down to a crawl. Every room, corridor and doorway took long minutes to clear, and the casualties began to mount higher and higher. It was only after the other Marine battalions had landed that the battle had swung back towards the Marines, the massive influx of fresh troops finally overwhelming the Black Claws defenders. Now, just the admin tower was left, the building surrounded by Marine units on all sides, but that might be as far as it could go, even with air support.
The tower had been built in the midst of what must have been a very picturesque park, a wide open space that had probably taken quite a lot of work to maintain. It would have actually been a nice place to be, with sprawling gardens and ponds everywhere, pathways shaded by trees providing a pleasant place for the workers to walk. And every square centimeter of it was in full view of the tower. Worse, from the looks of things, the Black Claws had laid in enough ordinance in the tower that even the assault vehicles the infantry battalions had brought with them wouldn't be able to survive long crossing the open space to do much damage.
"That is going to be one tough nut to crack." Tyr commented from behind him, the Ranger Colonel acting as a temporary brigade commander, leaving Larn in charge of the Rangers in his absence. Shaking his head, the huge wolf walked back to where the rest of the ranking officers were standing, clustered around the back of the command vehicle the 340thhad brought with them.
"Sir," Larn began, the other officers making room for the giant in the crescent. "It doesn't look like there is any way across, not without getting shredded."
"That is about what our air support said." The coyote officer replied, stroking his chin contemplatively as he looked at the displays that surrounded his seat. Wire frame schematics of the tower and the area around it were displayed from many angles, thermal overlays showing the mercenaries positions, at least the ones that were fighting without sealed armor. And the displays showed much the same thing as the Major had reported. The tower was heavily fortified, and air strikes to reduce its fearsome power were out of the question. Three fighters and a bomber had been shot down already by SAM batteries that were concealed on the upper floors, and twice that number damaged by autocannon fire. "Thank you major."
"So what do you want to do Colonel?" One of the battalion commanders asked, laying his assault rifle on his shoulder. "Take it all sides at once?"
"No." Tyr finally said, getting out of the assault carrier and looking up at the tower. "That isn't going to get us anywhere. They are locked down tight all the way around the perimeter." Larn held his silence, watching as his CO stared at the building in the distance for a few moments, speaking softly to himself as he used a pair of binoculars to look up and down the imposing structure. "Even if we could fight our way inside the building, it would take way too long to make it up to the top. And those missile batteries are murder. Thermal imaging shows they have men on every floor, except..." For a moment, the officer continued scanning, then he suddenly paused, cocking his head in the classic canine fashion. For a few seconds, he stared, then the coyote's look changed, a broad, almost evil grin appearing on his face. "The key to this whole thing is Arn Soran, and I have a feeling he is the sort that would keep the Black Claw commander nearby. If we can't get to them going from the bottom up, and a dropship would never survive the landing at the top, we are going to have to go straight in." Turning back to the cluster of officers, Tyr's grin got wider.
"What do you mean Colonel?" The Tiger Colonel who commanded the 340th asked, looking up at the top of the building. "From what I understand, the target is midway up the tower. There is nowhere to land anywhere close by."
"Who said anything about landing?" Tyr asked and Larn felt his stomach drop down towards his toes with the same speed as if it was trying to burrow into the planet's core, understanding at once what Tyr was suggesting as the coyote looked at him expectantly.
"Ooooh no. No, no, no. You can't be suggesting we pull an Operation Blackblade?" Larn asked incredulously and the Colonel nodded. Shaking his head vigorously, the Major continued. "Uh uh. I'm not doing that again. No way." When Tyr gave him an insistent look, the wolf heaved a heavy sigh, the major hanging his head, looking down at the ground, one hand to his forehead. "Besides, there are only what... twenty of us left in the unit? That's not even a full team."
"It will have to be enough." Tyr said, looking back at the tower once more. "How long would you need to get ready?"
"A half hour, maybe." The big wolf said, letting out another heavy sigh. "But are you sure? The success rate isn't exactly stellar, Colonel."
"It's the only way." He said and Larn swore, shaking his head, slinging the machine gun onto his shoulder and crossing his arms across his chest, obviously deeply troubled.
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Lieutenant Colonel Per'alt asked, looking between them with a confused look on his face.
"A few years ago, some genius at Command came up with the theory that there was a way to extract targets from urban environments, without a landing zone." Tyr explained. "They hand-picked a company of Rangers to run the test on the idea. It was surprisingly effective too."
"Yeah, about a third of the time." Larn broke in angrily, obviously still fuming. "The rest of the time, it killed the entire team and more often than not, the dropship crew as well. Command ultimately deemed it too risky and the idea was abandoned. The Rangers that survived the program went back to their original units."
"I assume this 'Operation Blackblade' thing requires a dropship." Per'alt said, looking at the angry wolf in surprise. When he nodded in confirmation, he shook his head. "Well that idea is out then. Those missile batteries would rip you apart, not to mention the autocannon emplacements on the upper balconies."
"Not if you approach at extreme low altitude while we put on a little show to keep them occupied." Tyr said. "All of their batteries are angled up, otherwise we could pick them off from here. What is more, there is a gap in the coverage of the autocannons." Raising an eyebrow, Larn looked at the tower skeptically. Pointing at the nearside corner of the irregularly shaped building, Tyr explained. "With the way that building is shaped, the nearest cannons can't cover that corner."
"Maybe..." Larn replied, looking at it thoughtfully. "It could work. I guess I'll go round up the others and see if there is a dropship pilot left in the unit capable of pulling this nonsense off."
"Good luck major." Tyr said, clapping him on the shoulder as the huge wolf walked off. "Alright, while Larn is doing his thing, the rest of us are going to make it look like we are making an all out attack. We will lead off with what will look like an alpha strike involving the whole air group, then the assault carriers will go in, followed by Rangers and infantry. The rest of the dropships will act as if they are providing close air support for us. If all goes well, by the time they figure out it's a ruse, Soran and the Black Claw leader will be in custody."
***
11-16-3015
Time Index; 1432 hours GST
Tare Pharmaceuticals Research Complex
Sython system, Merxian space
Larn stood at the top of the dropship's rear facing ramp, looking down at the assembled forces arrayed below his feet. He had to admit, it certainly looked like a full scale assault was underway. All around the tower, assault vehicles surged forward like a wave, platoons of infantry following behind them at a run, using the vehicles as cover from the Black Claw defenses. Filling the air around the wolf's dropship, almost a hundred others maneuvered forward slowly, looking all the world as if they were ready to swoop in with rockets and cannons blazing on any enemy that dared to resist the onslaught. Somewhere out of sight behind the ground forces, and well out of range of the missile batteries, Larn knew that all of Tyr's friends' remaining fighters were massed in strike groups, the wings of small craft formed to attack one after the other in rapid succession, pounding the structure and its defenses into submission.
It all made for an impressive show, and it doubtless worried the mercenaries protecting the admin building, no matter how much firepower they possessed. Moments later, just as the huge lupine Major was wondering when the attack would begin, the alpha strike soared overhead at full speed, the lowest fighters almost splitting the dropship formation in half with their wings. Leading the way were the interceptors, then three waves of fighters, the faster craft meant to draw fire away from the bombers that made up the last wave, missiles and plasma cannons already surging out from the formation as it passed the dropships, hammering the building's defenses. But Larn wasn't concerned by the fusillade of death hammering the tower. The huge wolf was actually counting to himself, counting the seconds so the timing of their maneuver would be perfect. The moment the last bomber flew past his view, Larn tapped into the intercom.
"Break in thirty seconds Captain." He ordered and the pilot acknowledged the command. This whole idea depended on the second in command of the Esardis dropship wing, who had turned out to be the only one in the entire star system who had been trained to pull this particular maneuver off, and he had been as reluctant as the Rangers to try it again. The pilot had taken a lot of convincing to make this attempt, raising the very good point that they were asking him to try and perform a precision maneuver he hadn't even thought about in years, with no time to practice it beforehand. Finally, the slim wolf had only agreed to try it without his copilot and crew chief on board, and still he had seemed nervous when he had climbed into the cockpit. Looking around at the nineteen other Rangers in the hold, Larn saw similar reticence on their faces. Not one of them was under the rank of senior sergeant and almost a third were officers like him. All the same, regardless of rank, they had voiced objections to the plan, often loudly and vehemently. One of the other officers, a young vixen lieutenant who was standing beside the huge wolf, was giving him a rather stern look and Larn sighed, rolling his eyes. "What is it lieutenant?"
"Sir, I would just like to say, again," she began, her hand clenching tight on the netting above her in anticipation as the dropship began to maneuver, "That this is a stupid idea. This was a stupid idea when they came up with it, and a worse idea when they made us do it over and over again. I still have nightmares about those flights."
"I know lieutenant." Larn replied, holding tight as well as the dropship accelerated upward suddenly. "I don't like it much either. But we are the only ones who can pull this off, so we have to suck it up." Glancing at the clock on his HUD, he shook his head once more, resigned to the effort. "Alright, here we go, get ready."
"I really hate this, sir." The vixen said, shaking her head as she moved back towards the cockpit door with the others. The entire group moved back as close to the bulkhead as they could, forming into three rough ranks. Nodding in agreement with the vixen's sentiments, Larn activated the magnetic soles of his boots, bracing himself as if he was about to start a race.
"Captain, we are ready back here." Larn said and a moments later, the dropship pilot's voice came back, sounding nervous.
"Engaging, hold tight." The pilot said and Larn closed his eyes, trying to steady his racing heart. The last time he had done this had been almost four years ago, and every time he had had to go through it, it had taken every ounce of control he had to even get started. A few seconds later, the huge wolf felt the shudder of the cannons mounted under the dropship's wing opening fire. A moment later, right on time, the dropship began a tight, nearly horizontal turn, the sudden change in momentum putting immense pressure on his ankles, making him wince. But, the moment he felt the floor start to shift, Larn started to run, pushing off as hard as he could, sprinting for the end of the ramp, his powerful legs pumping hard. As he ran, he forced himself not to think about the fact that he was quickly running out of space to run, tried to think about how insane what he was about to do was. Instead, he focused on running as hard and as fast as he could, moving in a dead sprint, forcing himself to move in a straight line despite the force of the flat turn.
Larn reached the end of the ramp just as the spinning view began to slow down and despite the fact that all he could see was the sheer glass side of the admin tower, the wolf leapt out into thin air, pushing off as hard as he could. As his feet left the ramp, everything seemed to slow down for him, the adrenaline rush of jumping into nothing making his head spin. Ahead of him, he could see the huge plate glass windows that made up his target disintegrating under the onslaught of cannon rounds and he braced himself for the impact. For a few heart stopping moments, Larn was in thin air, hundreds of feet up, his only hope of survival the thought that the pilot knew what he was doing, and more, possessed the skill to make it work. Then, bare moments later, he was through the shattering glass, pieces bouncing off his armor as he flew into the building, his boots landing on the soft carpeting of the waiting room beyond, the wolf tucking forward onto his shoulder, rolling to dissipate his momentum.
As he came out of the roll, Larn could hear the rest of the Rangers landing behind him, but the big Major had a more immediate concern. A small team of Black Claws in full armor had been posted to the room, but most of them had taken cover when the dropship had strafed the windows. Only one was on his feet, and Larn wasn't about to let him recover his composure. Coming up out of the roll and onto his feet, the wolf took off running, sprinting hard once more. Lowering his shoulder, Major Larn slammed into the standing mercenary like a battering ram, his bullrush lifting the armored mercenary off his feet. Not slowing down one iota, the wolf major continued his rush, right into the far wall. With a loud crunch that made Larn cringe, the mercenary made a crater in the smooth surface of the wall as he hit. Backing up, Major Larn grinned with grim satisfaction, leaving the soldier stuck a foot off the ground. Turning back, the Major found that the other Rangers were already disarming the mercenaries, not one of the soldiers for hire having been able to so much as raise their weapons before the Rangers were on them. All of them looked stunned, shocked by the insanity of the Ranger platoon. Of course, Larn couldn't blame them much for that; Operation Blackblade was one of the most audacious and outright idiotic ideas ever to come out of the Special Ops Command.
Taking a deep breath, Larn looked around the room with satisfaction, his grim smile becoming broader and warmer. Every single one of the Rangers that had been in his dropship had made it in the window, the dropship pilot having executed the slewing, lateral drift at precisely the right altitude and distance from the building. All too often, the dropship pilots who attempted it misjudged the distance and either left the jumpers far too far away from the building to make the jump, or had crashed right into the building, destroying their ship. In either case, the mistake had killed everyone involved. Then, as he stared around, the huge black wolf's attention was caught by movement behind the well appointed desk across the room. Crossing the distance to it in three great strides, the major took aim on the good-looking tiger who had been occupying the chair behind it, the young man trying to grab the submachine gun that was concealed under the desk. He just about had the pistol grip in hand when the barrel of Larn's machine gun touched his head.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The major rumbled, his deep bass voice shaking the table top. The tiger slowly took his hand away from the weapon, holding both arms above his head, his eyes wide at the size of his visitor. "Lieutenant, secure this man."
"Yes sir." The vixen replied from behind him, coming up to take possession of the prisoner while Larn walked up to the closed office door. It looked like plain wood and was probably expensive, judging from the exotic swirls of color within its surface, but when he tugged on the handle, the door didn't budge, meaning it was probably also magnetically sealed. Frowning, Larn turned back to the stunned receptionist, the tiger looking sullen at having been so easily disarmed.
"Unseal this door." Larn commanded and the tiger stayed silent, not even looking at him. Growling, the vixen lieutenant grabbed the tiger by the left ear and twisted the sensitive appendage until he looked up at the major. "Thank you lieutenant. Now, open the door."
"Ow!! I can't!!" The tiger finally cried as she twisted it even more sharply, swatting at the lieutenant's armored glove until she released his ear. "The door is controlled from the other side."
"Is there any other way out of there?" Larn asked and the man paused, responding only when the lieutenant reached for his ear again.
"No. The elevator is the only way in or out." He said, eyeing the vixen warily. "Its meant to control access."
"Which is why we came in through the window." Larn told him, turning back to the door and muttering to himself. "Of all the times I forget to pack a breaching charge."
One of the biggest problems with Operation Blackblade, setting aside the difficulty with pulling off the jump in the first place, was that the amount of equipment each soldier could carry was extremely limited, since, in order to build enough speed to jump the gap, they couldn't have a lot of extra weight. Often, all a soldier could carry was their weapon and armor, and a few reloads if it was an assault weapon. Still, Larn had a significant advantage over most soldiers, an advantage that was all biological. Tapping a knuckle against the door, Larn grinned. It might have had magnetic sealing tech in its edge, but the door was mostly solid wood, meant, it seemed, not for security, but for luxury. Taking hold of the door handle, the giant wolf braced himself against the floor, then drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes as he prepared for the effort.
Tightening his grip, the wolf began to pull, his huge muscles bulging beneath his armor as they tensed. For a few moments, nothing happened, the solid wood resisting his strength, the wolf starting to tremble as he strained. Then, to the surprise of the mercenaries in the room, the door gave a long, low creak, beginning to shudder in his grip, visibly shaking as he strained against it. Gritting his teeth, his armor's environmental system going full blast to compensate for the heat the strain was producing, Larn forced himself to pull even harder, the door giving a second, louder creak, setting the teeth of more than a few soldiers on end. A moment later, with a sharp crack that startled even some of the Rangers, the door gave way in the grasp of the giant officer, the frame splintering as it ripped free, leaving the magnetic locking system still locked tight, but with nothing attached to it.
Almost casually pushing the collection of broken wood aside, the huge wolf shouldered his way into the office, revealing the amusing sight of the CEO in a very nice suit standing behind his desk, jaw open in stunned disbelief, a stylus hanging limply from his fingers. A lynx dressed in black combat armor with Black Claw insignia was standing beside him, but he made no move to raise the carbine he carried on a sling. Instead, he opened his free hand in a warding gesture, raising the weapon above his head in his other hand before setting it down at his feet. As the soldier put his hands behind his head in gesture of submission, the CEO seemed to recover himself, growling as he glared daggers at the lynx.
"Traitor!" He snarled and the mercenary regarded him with contempt.
"Soran, my ships are destroyed, half my men are casualties and the Marines are making an assault on our last positions." The lynx replied calmly as Larn and three other Marines entered the office. "Forgive me for seeing how this is going to end." Turning his attention to the mike that he wore, the lynx continued. "Attention all callsigns, this is Commander Cor'ick. Stand down, I repeat, stand down. Auto defenses to standby."
"I bought your contract!!" Soran snarled as the Marines came closer, their weapons up and ready. "I paid you twice your asking price, and now you are just going to surrender?!"
"Yeah, you paid well." Cor'ick said as a Ranger bound his hands behind his back with a pair of stun cuffs. "But I can't very well spend it if I am dead, can I? And there is not enough money in the galaxy to make me die for the likes of you." Larn cut off the leopard's angry reply a moment later, his deep voice seeming to startle the man into silence.
"Dr. Arn Soran, you are under arrest, charged with committing acts of treason against the Interplanetary Alliance of Merxia and its Colonies." The Major said, roughly trapping the man's arms behind his back, snapping a pair of stuncuffs onto his wrists. "Further, you have openly attacked members of the Alliance Armed Forces during the course of their lawful duties and therefore are subject to military law. As such, you have waived all rights to civilian representation and will remain in military custody until the conclusion of your trial. Do you understand?" The CEO winced when the cuffs sealed themselves closed around his wrists, the angle of his arms not exactly comfortable, but he nodded, his posture slumping as he understood what was happening.
The stuncuffs the marines were using were a miracle of science, automatically producing a plasma pulse at the precise frequency and intensity of a standard stun round if the minicomputer built into them detected the wearer trying to escape or damage the cuffs. Privately, the Major hoped that the pompous bureaucrat would try it. He deserved a good shock to his system after all this, but he seemed wholly defeated. As his soldiers marched their prisoners towards the lift leading down, Major Larn tapped his comm unit. "Turlion Zero-two to Zero-one."
"Go ahead Zero-two." Tyr's voice replied, a slight echo showing he was still in the command vehicle. "What is the situation up there?"
"Mission accomplished. Mercenary forces are standing down." Larn said, walking into the elevator at the end of the line of prisoners. Down below, the big wolf could see the Marine infantry moving in on the mercenary positions to take them captive. The battle was finally over...
***
11-16-3015
Time Index; 2016 hours GST
Tare Pharmaceuticals space port
Sython system, Merxian space
Tyr stood on the soot dusted tarmac of the space port once more, watching a dropship being loaded with the last of the wounded Marines. The clean up after the fighting was in full swing, the space port having become a center point for the efforts, though his Rangers were not participating in most of it. Once the Black Claws had been disarmed, the battered Ranger battalion had turned over control of the situation to the infantry of the planetary garrison and the long process of clearing away the detritus of battle began. On the heels of the infantry had come a medical unit that had commandeered one of the hangers, setting up a combat support hospital to begin the treatment of the wounded. With each trip out, the dropships returned with even more support personal, from engineers with heavy equipment to registration teams, those individuals with the unenviable task of identifying the dead Marines. The many prisoners, including those from the capital ships in orbit, had been herded into a holding area at one end of the tarmac under heavy guard, officers and psychics already beginning the process of rooting out any mercenaries that had decided to hide among the civilian workers as opposed to fighting.
The coyote officer shook his head and tried not to think about casualties. The Turlion Rangers were down to less than half strength, their numbers worn down by the campaign they had fought on Arctni, and even more during the battle here. All told, counting the crew of the Adaron, hundreds were dead, and half again that number were wounded. On the plus side, the Black Claws had lost far more, almost a thousand of them sitting as prisoners and easily that many dead or wounded. Grinning slightly to himself, Tyr looked at the distant huddle of prisoners sitting disconsolately on the tarmac. The fallout from this whole incident was going to have far-reaching consequences for the Black Claws.
There would be no sweeping this under the rug, especially since the data center they had captured had contained vast amounts of data on the Black Claws' illegal operations. But, unknown to the other officers, Tyr knew that it contained far more than that; even the brief glimpse that he had gotten when the engineer had finally tapped the core after hours of work in bypassing the door had revealed thousands of files that made reference to a vast network of contacts and companies. Tyr had a hunch that it could only be talking about the Conclave, which raised serious questions about Dr. Soran's loyalties.
Thinking about dealing with the Conclave brought to mind his friend Katy, the vixen that had saved his troops several times today. Off to the right a ways, the interceptors of Redhawk squadron had landed in neat rows and Tyr watched the pilots go over their machines for a few moments. The vixen general was helping to coordinate things with the garrison commanders in the terminal building, and though he probably should have gone as well, since he had actually been the one to command the ground battle, Tyr had had about enough of dealing with this place. Turning back towards the hangers, trying to find somewhere quiet where he could think, Tyr saw a huge, grey armored soldier that could only be one person standing alone by the crashed dropship they had taken cover behind during the opening minutes of the engagement. Smiling slightly, the coyote found himself heading in that direction, preferring Larn's company to just about anyone else's right then.
When the Colonel got to the crashed ship a few minutes later, the large wolf nodded to him in greeting and the two officers stood side by side, looking at the carcass of the ship that had saved them. The coming days were going to be hell, and that was without dealing with the data about the Conclave and Tyr knew it. With a weary sigh, the coyote sat down on an engine cowling, unclipping his damaged helmet and setting it beside him on the metal housing as he looked out over the spaceport. After a moment, the huge wolf sat down on his other side, likewise doffing his headgear and the pair were silent for a few moments. Finally, as another pair of dropships landed over by the terminal building, dropping off even more support troops, Tyr spoke.
"Larn, do you hate the Terrans?" Tyr asked, knowing that the odd question would probably catch his XO off guard, but he was going to need all the help he could get against the Conclave, and he needed to know where Larn stood. The huge wolf was silent for a few moments, and Tyr looked over in surprise to find the usually jovial wolf looking thoughtful and withdrawn, almost wistful. He seemed intensely interested in his gloves, the grey nanofibers stained almost black with the soot.
"No, I don't hate them." the Major finally replied softly, looking at the distant activity like his CO. "I know most of us do, but I can't, especially on days like today, when our own kind turn against us." As he was talking, the black wolf twisted the locking ring around his wrists, the nano-fibers retracting back into his forearm plates, flexing his black furred fingers as they were uncovered. "Way before I joined the Rangers, I was assigned to a Diplomatic Protection detail; just before the war, when things were still friendly between us and the Terrans. I ended up posted to the Terran embassy on Ginamite. I actually got to know some of my counterparts on the Terran side pretty well." The wolf smiled a little, as if remembering a pleasant moment from his past. "I thought I was going to find them strange at first, but they are just like us, in so many ways."
Looking at his friend in surprise, Tyr noticed that the wolf was toying with the ring of silver that he wore on his right hand, the band of metal standing out in bright contrast to the black fur around it. It was just a simple braid of metal, inset with a small blue stone, obviously not a precious gem, but it was lovely enough. And though the silver was scratched in places, indicating years and years of wear, it had obviously been well cared for. The giant wolf didn't seem to be doing it consciously, but his finger and thumb kept twisting it slowly, occasionally brushing the stone inset into it.
"No matter what anyone says they have done, I always remember the friends I had and I can't bring myself to hate them." Larn said, finally looking over at the coyote beside him. "Doubtless, some are just evil, and they are the sort that commit all the atrocities that make the war worse. Of course, the same can obviously be said about us. Look at the Black Claws and what they tried to do here to their own kind."
"I never thought you would say that, considering everything you have done." Tyr remarked, and his XO grinned ruefully.
"I do what I do, the way I do it, to keep our Rangers alive." Larn stated, his jovial nature seeming to return a bit. "Honestly sir, I think that if that Terran colony hadn't been wiped out, our two countries would be the best of friends. Instead, here we are, fighting each other to the death. I wish there was another way."
"Heh." Tyr chuckled, looking out at the busy space port, marveling at his friend's offhand comment. "Larn, there is something you and I need to talk about."