AL:ICE-9 (27 page)

----*----

Stopping to check his tactical display, Jake was rolling through the unit status when he was slammed from behind. Knocked to the ground, there were at least two men on his back. As a third came around and started kicking Jake in the head, he was able to get his hands under him and gave a solid shove.

Both Jake, and the two on top of him, cleared the ground by about four feet, before Jake got his feet under himself. While the first two fell to the ground in surprise, the kicker took a swing at Jake with the pipe he held.

Taking the pipe blow to the left arm, it knocked Jake sideways, but he was able to keep on his feet. Spinning away from the kicker, he kicked back violently, sending the man flying across the street. Impacting the wall of the building there, he dropped like a sack, and lay there motionless.

By now, the other two had risen, and as one, they both charged Jake. Stepping to the outside, Jake drove a fist into the nearest man, crushing his ribcage and dropping him in place. He then spun and with a leap, brought the last man down with a blow to the middle of his back, taking them both down to the ground. Only Jake got up.

Turning slowly, he found four marines standing there, watching him.

“Are you done sir?” the team leader calmly asked, “Lt. Colonel Sullivan sent us to escort you back.”

----*----

Jake was standing with Patti and Sara, watching the real time video from LA. The marines were currently working cleanup, collecting loose weapons and assisting the wounded where possible. Earlier they had gathered all the survivors, classifying them as either threat or victim. Victims were all processed and given several options for a new start.

They divided threats into two categories, prisoners and criminals. He ordered prisoners given one-way trips to various locations south of the border. While Jake couldn’t bring himself to enforce a capital punishment rule, he instead turned the criminals over to their victims for judgment. So far, none had survived the experience.

“Colonel, we have the final casualty report,” one of the analysts announced.

Jake sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to like what he heard, “Let me have it.”

“We lost four Marines, all crushed to death. Seven more are in the infirmary with fractures. Three arms, two legs and two with rib injuries.”

Jake knew he should be thrilled with the report. He just took 130 newly trained Marines up against 600-armed men and lost only four. However, he wasn’t.

“I want a full, detailed report on how every one of them lost their lives,” Jake replied.

Chapter 27

Brian had been following all the LA reports from orbit. ALICE provided video of the entire event, allowing all the facilities to observe, should anyone choose too. Attendance to any of the viewing areas was voluntary, and all locations were packed to capacity.

Per Jake’s instruction, Brian had been overseeing the upgrades to the battleship from
Revenge
. They were supporting ALICE, acting as the shuttle for all the necessary materials. The one new aspect of this was the battleship was large enough to take
Revenge
into its hangar. With each supply run back to earth, they returned and parking inside the massive hangar to offload and support. There was a Lanai transport assisting as well and both fit comfortably.

While they constantly wandered through the larger ship, they still lived aboard
Revenge
. Not yet provisioned, the battleship only contained those things the Wawobash had included in its rebuild. The more Brian and his crew explored, the more surprises they encountered. The biggest surprise so far was the bedding.

All the bunks were recesses in the wall of each crew cabin. With a ship this large, there was enough space for each crewmember to get their own room, which included a small table for two or three and a working desk. However, none of the crew bunks had mattresses, everyone assuming they would need to be added later.

One of the crew tried the bunk on for size, accidently activating it. They next thing she knew, she was floating about five inches above the bed, suspended in a hover. Climate controlled, no blankets were required, and the space was large enough for two. Rumor had it that two of Brian’s crewmembers had secretly availed themselves of one, for purely experimental purposes, he was sure.

----*----

Jake was going over all of the after action reports from the LA encounter. It had been several days since the battle and he had been pushing everyone for answers. He had ordered all reports forwarded to him as soon as they were completed, not wanting to wait for the total package at once. As he expected, there was room for improvement on all fronts.

Troop deployment, movement, communications, and command and control all showed areas for refinement. The four dead all represented a failure to coordinate cross team support properly. Each one had been a member of a fire team whose position was overrun. The only saving grace being the entire team wasn’t lost in the process.

The day after the battle, they had gathered everyone in the hangar. They had decided that as Space Marines, a burial wasn’t appropriate. Instead, they mimicked Sara’s ceremony in Maine and had four fighters ferry the bodies into orbit. The entire ceremony projected in the hangar locally and elsewhere for all to attend.

As for the effects of their effort, Chris reported a significant change in the LA population as well. He was getting information that small pockets of people in residence were coming out of hiding and establishing communities. They were mostly along the coast, Manhattan, Redondo and Santa Monica Beaches, but all had people living out in the open.

There was still the occasional shootout between factions, but ALICE had started flying the supply helicopter in wider circles, giving the impression of a security patrol. That usually sent the shooters fleeing. It also suggested they needed to establish a security patrol in earnest.

On a personal note, Jake had detected an undertone of discontent with Sara lately. While she and Patti were getting along better than ever, she had a bit of an edge with both Linda and Kathy. It wasn’t something he could put his finger on, but it was definitely there.

Every time he visited either of them, mostly around getting his daddy time with the children, Sara’s attitude the next day would be less than friendly to them. Not a complete cold-shoulder, mind you, more of a distracted, disinterested attitude.

Moreover, her interactions with the other women were kept short and to the point. If she needed anything from either of them, she would message or send a surrogate rather than ask herself. So far, it hadn’t impacted operations, but Jake wasn’t sure how much longer he could let her continue before he needed to intercede.

His other challenge had been Becky. Having last seen her on the flight to Texas, just prior to the trip to reunite ALICE-9 with her sisters, she had been hounding him for another visit. Definitely his high maintenance relationship, she reminded him constantly about his agreement regarding a child. With Kathy pregnant, they had all agreed that having both the senior medical staff with child was a bad idea. Now that Tracy was born, in her mind, Becky was free to pursue having Jake’s baby.

Jake personally felt she wasn’t mature enough to be a mother. His opinion was she was also a bit too self-centered, and this was more about her wanting the additional attention that pregnancy brings. While she had the ability to focus on her medical duties, excelling in that area, the relationship part of her had tended to be shallow and extremely physical.

As the beneficiary of that, Jake hadn’t objected, but at this point, he was working with ALICE to delay any more pregnancies. He knew who really controlled that issue and was fortunate that ALICE had tended to agree with him on this subject.

Flipping over to the troop status, he had given everyone a few days off after LA. Once the weapons from the battlefield were recovered and stored, and the bodies were removed, they all got a 3-day pass. ALICE handled the collecting of bodies by using specialty bots, letting them do the majority of the recoveries.

He was happy to see a large portion of the SMEF had opted to hop a transport to San Nicolas. As the force was almost 50/50 men to women, he was sure the beach parties were about to get very interesting.

----*----

Sara left all the after action analysis for Patti and her crew, as that was their specialty and she would just be in the way. She had spent the first night after the battle with Jake, but they only slept and he was up early the next morning with only a few hours’ sleep.

She knew he was both saddened and upset at the casualties, making a big production over the burials. He had insisted they be sent off in dress uniforms, ALICE providing four that Jake considered proper. He had wanted something called a 21-gun salute, so ALICE generated a virtual holograph to perform the ceremony. The audio was deafening in the hangar.

Jake’s mood had improved slightly after that, and the R&R reports positively delighted him. Sara had always appreciated Jake’s commitment to his troops, but this last battle gave her a new perspective on what that really meant. Fighting side-by-side created bonds that you couldn’t put words too, she understood that now.

She also found that she had no patience with either Linda or Kathy making demands on Jake’s time so soon after the fighting. As non-combatants, they didn’t understand what Jake was going through, as she did. She tried to deflect or dissuade them from monopolizing his free moments.

Without being rude, she attempted to use herself as a roadblock to Jake, inserting herself between Jake and all the others. The one thing she wasn’t able to interfere with was his time with his children, and that frustrated her. She knew it was wrong, but it still irked her that she wasn’t pregnant. She wanted to bring it up with Jake but as she was keeping the others personal issues at bay, it would be improper to insert her issues in their place.

Currently she was working on the advanced training schedule Jake had requested. As marines were coming off R&R, he wanted them all in either jump school or heavy weapons. Neither course was very long, so she had them split between the two for better management. Once they completed their training cycles, she would flip the groups.

----*----

LeSoc had just completed their pickup on the Netite home world. All things considered, it went smoother than expected. They had alerted the planetary leadership they required 3,000 troops for the assignment, standard compensation rules applied.

For the Netites, that meant anything they could plunder from the victims in question, they could keep. As such, over 5,000 appeared at the designated LZ for pickup. LeSoc was able to reduce the number to just over 4,000 by requiring their weapons to be first stored on the destroyers. Several fights broke out at that point, reducing the numbers.

Once the transport was loaded, they immediately departed for the Klinan home world. The trip would require several cycles to complete, so he had suggested the transport captain consider gassing the transport bay to sedate the beasts.

----*----

It had been a few weeks since the big LA battle. All the marines had been able to get both their R&R time as well as complete the jump and weapons schools. Jake had also learned that a second boot camp had been started for a smaller number of recruits. Even with a smaller number of graduates, after graduation, he might actually have a complete company. The thought made him smile.

In addition, his overall mood had improved as well. He had known he was in a bit of a funk after losing the four marines. It wasn’t the first time he had lost someone under his command. But, other than the two pilots in the battle for the battleship, it was his first time the plan was his. In the past, his orders had come from above, now he was the above.

The post review of each and every death had been analyzed in detail, all information pointing to changing battle conditions. The massing of the enemy forces that created the situations had been purely random events. The only thing they could have done differently was add more marines, which they didn’t have.

On a different note, Sara’s mood seemed to have brightened as well. He wasn’t exactly sure why, as all of his free time had been tied up in work. He hadn’t had a free moment for anyone, let alone her, but that didn’t seem to matter to her.

He had been debating taking some time and doing a short R&R himself to Sandy’s new Australian retreat. He had taken the liberty of having ALICE transport two more housing units and one filled with the toys he saw in San Nicolas. Some time away with her, now that he was healthy, might be a good thing.

He had done a little research and discovered the Australians called the place Border Island and it was a popular spot for snorkeling and relaxing. Boaters would anchor in Cateran Bay and snorkel in the shallows, while the whole area was a diver’s heaven. Jake was anxious to test out the dive units ALICE had provided in California, he could teach Sara to dive there.

Those plans would have to wait though, as he waded through the last batch of reports. ALICE-9 was improving enough that ALICE recommended a larger staff presence. Jake still talked to her regularly, as he was almost like a father to her. Her child like connection to him was surprising to even the other ALICEs.

Since completing all the necessary repairs, they were beginning to evaluate the surrounding communities. Due to the nature of the facility itself, Jake had been hesitant to assign just anyone as commander there. It had something to do with the planet busting bombs in storage there that had him over cautious.

He was also unsure of the security team there. As they were all former Prosperity patrol, they weren’t total newbies. However, ALICE-9 had made some comments that had Jake wondering. They needed vetting before he increased their responsibilities.

The juvenile ALICE-9 and the WMD facility made an unsettling combination as it is. He decided to do a follow up trip to evaluate things himself before making any rash decisions on future expansion. The one thing he did impose was a recruiting ban at the facility, insisting that any new additions from Georgia be recruited by the other facilities.

He also decided to keep this visit low key, not wanting to deal with any of the visiting dignitary issues. Since his promotion to colonel, he had found people treating him less like Jake and more like visiting brass. With the limited number of staff there and the lack of a facility commander, he logged his flight in as a fighter transfer. Checking the staff roster, which included pictures, he didn’t see any names or faces he recognized.

After checking in with ALICE and ALICE-9, explaining his plans to visit incognito, he left a message for Sara and headed to the ready room. He grabbed a plain flight suit, one without name or rank and suited up. In the hangar were several unassigned fighters, most waiting final assignments to destroyers, whose crews were still in training.

In a sequence that was all too familiar, he jumped in the fighter, and within minutes was in the air and headed to Georgia and ALICE-9.

----*----

Brian was on the bridge of the battleship, reviewing upgrade status with ALICE. They were more than half finished overall, with most of the combat systems operational. The big challenge was reworking the hangar deck to Jake’s new specifications. Rather than having the entire space captured in stasis, he had requested they create parking pads of various configurations.

The thought had been that requiring the entire hangar bay to be in stasis was a horrible waste. This locked out other potential activities in that configuration. With the new design, parking pads for the fighters were actually individual stasis beds, similar but larger than the one Jake had been trapped in for so many years. Each fighter was encapsulated during FTL travel, but the rest of the bay was available for use.