Night in the trenches.
“Here.” At the sound of the voice, Captain Jensen looked up from his light sleep, nodding at Sergeant Callum as he handed him a ration pack.
Callum was Jensen’s deputy officer in Jensen’s squad of twelve people, and was about fifteen years Jensen’s senior.
“Tough day today.” Callum said, taking a seat next to Jensen.
Jensen nodded, biting into the ration pack, which was just nutrients packed into a tight, cold square. The taste of the stuff always reminded Jensen of dirt and grass, mixed together. He had been told in basic training all those years ago that it had everything the body needed.
“Yeah…tough day.” Jensen muttered.
“You know, I always thought that this kind of warfare was outdated. You ever think that, cap?” Callum asked thoughtfully.
“Yeah.”
“All this technology we have these days… it shouldn’t be like this.” Callum said.
“You would rather an orbital bombardment?” Jensen asked.
”No… I would rather we weren’t here.”
“War is necessary, though.” Jensen said, “The people of the galaxy need it.”
“It might be necessary, but with all this advancement we have gone through… it should be easier.” Callum replied.
“It is easier. At least to those back home.” Jensen replied.
Callum thought for a moment, his old, leathery face unreadable. It was times like hat, Jensen knew, that Callum was trying to find a way to say a certain thought, “I wonder what the people back home think about all of this. If they even know what’s going on. Some people can go through their entire lives oblivious to what really goes on in places like these. Some people have no idea what soldiers have to go through.”
Jensen was silent, biting into his ration bar again, “Perhaps all these advancements in technology were never supposed to make things easier for us, but easier for those who never see that technology do what it was meant to do…”
Callum shrugged, finishing his own ration bar, with more than a grimace, “You know… why do those pukes in the R&D department have to make new types of blasters that sometimes never see action when they could spend their time making better-tasting food for us. After all these years…I still hate this crap.” He said.
”If you close your eyes, and try hard enough, you can almost make it taste like fried dewback.” Jensen replied.
“Sir!” One of their squad members, a mere Private 1st Class, Cal Suthers, suddenly turned around to face the two men, motioning for them to come look at something. Jensen and Callum both responded, “What is it, Cal?” Jensen asked.
“I thought I saw something move out there, and I thought I heard something…” Suthers said hurriedly.
Another private next to Suthers turned to them, “I didn’t see anything. Probably hearing things again, Cal.” He said.
“I swear I saw something move!” Suthers replied.
“Enough.” Callum said, as Jensen reached for his commlink, speaking quietly into it.
“I need illumination on sector three-zero-five-zero-seven.”
A
pop resounded in the darkness, and with a flash and no other sound, the area in front of them was fully exposed in bright light.
Revealing the surprised faces of about fifty Liberty Sect foot soldiers.
Jensen signaled, and blaster fire erupted into the night again, with twenty of the Liberty soldiers falling in the first few seconds of the battle. The remaining surged forward, with half of that number cut down, leaving about fifteen alive, who managed to get into the Sovereignty trench.
One landed near Jensen, a boy of eighteen carrying a blaster rifle with a bayonet on the business end. Both men froze, and time seemed to stand still. This was not the first time Jensen had looked into the eyes of his enemy. Most of those in the past matched him for age, and had that calm, professional look in their eyes.
But this was different. This boy was the same age as Jensen’s son, and if that weren’t worse, he looked like Jensen’s son as well.
The boy seemed indecisive for one split second, which was his final mistake. Jensen was already moving left as the boy finally came to his senses and stabbed forward with the bayonet. His thrust missed Jensen by a good six inches, who then slashed out his his right fist, catching the boy on the chin, and sending him to the ground, unconscious.
Jensen then looked around; soldiers of his squad were engaged in hand-to-hand combat along the trench. Time seemed to move slower. Jensen watched as his well trained soldiers did what they were supposed to do.
Kill.
“I just don’t get it.” Jensen said, looking around, the next morning, at the various bodies that now littered the Sovereignty trench on Anoat, “They attack us with fifty men, we kill them all… and it achieves nothing!”
Callum regarded him carefully, “This is a war, Cap, what do you expect? These guys are not used to this kind of war. They’re still putting out feelers, still finding their way.”
“And in the meantime we are making no headway. We haven’t moved from this spot in two weeks. We need to start advancing.” Jensen replied angrily.
He had just learned that one of the young soldiers in his squad, Private Stransk, had been killed in the raid the night before. He hadn’t really known the kid, and that is what irked him the most.
Callum came to stand by Jensen, so he was able to speak to the Captain in some measure of privacy, “I know that you blame yourself for the loss of Stransk. Don’t.”
“I didn’t even know where he was from. What kind of leader am I if I don’t give a damn about my men?” Jensen asked.
“Would it have been easier for you if you did know where he was from? Would it have been easier if you knew if he had a family? A wife? A lover?” Callum asked.
Jensen has to relent. He nodded to Callum solemnly, “Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
The four, seated men in the Tactics Room looked up as Jensen and Sergeant Callum stepped into the briefing. Both men saluted the ranking officer, General Garen as he motioned for them to be seated, “You are a little late, Captain Jensen.” Garen said, not looking up from the holomap of Anoat.
“We experienced a raid last night sir… I was engaging in cleanup.” Jensen replied.
Garen nodded, “I heard you lost one. I’m sorry…”
“He knew his duty.” Was all Jensen could say.
“Yes indeed. Well… I am glad you have arrived, let’s get down to business. We have finally received reinforcements from Hoth, but we only got about half of what we were expecting. Most were diverted to Ison and other hotspots, so we didn’t get as many as I requested.” Garen said, pointing to the three new divisions that were now prominently displayed.
The map showed the large area with two blue lines, Garen pointed to this first, “The trenches are eighty meters apart, with a massive kill zone in between. They have artillery, and it is accurate, the Sect uses it effectively as a shield, and it has stopped all of our previous attacks. We have four new divisions, each with three thousand men, two artillery divisions, and three armored divisions. The air force I have held back for this moment, now is the time to strike.
“But first we need to see what we’re up against.” Garen pointed to the area beyond the Sect trench, to one large red blip, “Past their positions, this is our last major obsticle from reaching the capital. They have the here, about fifteen thousand strong, if we can get through that, all we have left if the capital – Anoat City.”
Jensen spoke up, “How are we supposed to break out of the trenches? We advanced all this way, until they stopped us cold, about five thousand of us. We’ve been held up for weeks.”
Callum also spoke, “They have downed all of our aircraft, just as we have downed theirs, and we have fended them off, just as they have stopped our advance.”
“I requested special forces along with regular army troops. They have arrived and are formulating a plan. If we can knock out the eight anti-air sites along their entrenched positions, we can bomb them to hell.” Garen replied, “Jensen, I am giving you command of six more squads, which will bring your total to a hundred men. You will be at the spearhead of the attack, once the defenses have been destroyed.”
Sergeant Callum leaned back in his seat, “So the Spec Forces go behind the Liberty lines, destroy the defenses without any problems. The Air Force then flies in, bombs the anay position, and then after all that, we waltz in and take the trench? And all of this is supposed to go off without a hitch?”
Garen stared at Callum, “Yes.” He said.
Callum and Garen stared at each other for a long time, almost to the point where Jensen was beginning to feel tension building in the air. Since the start of this campaign, Callum had complained nonstop about what he viewed as ‘military mistakes’ made by Garen.
Just when he thought the tension was going to burst, Callum smiled slightly, “Okay.” He said.
Forty-eight hours later – Trenches of Anoat
Darkness had yet again fallen on the world of Anoat, plunging everything into darkness. But it was not total darkness, with the reinforcements, supplies had been brought in, along with night vision equipment. No more sneak raids by the enemy. But the troops hidden in the Sovereignty trenches did not seem very comforted. Word of the coming ORS offensive had spread throughout the troops like a wildfire.
“This smell like an ambush to you?” Callum asked, placing his well-chewed cigar in his mouth as he looked out at the blackness.
“They know we are planning something. They know we don’t just intend to sit here forever.” Jensen replied in a hushed voice.
Callum, cigar in mouth, stared out into the blackness, where somewhere, lay two thousand enemy troops, hidden in a ditch in the ground, much like the Sovereignty forces, “They know. If it were I over there, I would be ready for the attack. The last attack, that will decide whether we live or die. The fate of a world is soon going to be decided, as is the fate of this region of space.”
Jensen nodded, doing as his comlink suddenly beeped once, then twice in quick succession, then once more before going silent, “The Special Forces are in position. That was the command post signaling that we should get ready. The air raid is on the way…” Jensen said, stepping up and peering out into the darkness as Callum motioned to the individual squad commanders, who readied their men for the attack.
Suddenly, three great explosions shook the ground, and lit up the night sky. Jensen counted, he knew that there were eight main anti-aircraft emplacements that needed to be removed before the air strike could commence. He waited in quiet anticipation of more explosions.
But none came.
Callum looked out again, the explosions that signified success for the special forces mission still not visible. Finally, he turned back to Jensen, “Something’s wrong.”
Jensen nodded, pulling his comlink out and requesting an update from the command center, which promptly responded, “Special forces are reporting only nominal success, they are unable to complete the final phases of the mission, and they are withdrawing.” Was the answer. Upon hearing this, Jensen sighed, the plan had failed.
Suddenly in the air, a whining was heard, starting from far away, but gradually getting closer. Callum turned from his view of the field and looked back at Jensen, ”Those are our aircraft.” He said quietly.
“Command?” Jensen asked. As he did so, comm. chatter suddenly went haywire, like a small explosion as someone realized that the air strike had never been called off.
Screams of “Pull up!” and “Abort!” resounded from the comm. link… but it was much too late. The aircraft screamed over the ORS trench positions, almost too fast too see. Small streaks of light were then seen over the enemy trench as the automated anti-aircraft weapons did what they were built to do.
The ORS bombers were doomed, and they were all, one by one, shot down.
The aircraft – Mostly K-wing bombers and X-wing fighters – were downed before they reached the enemy positions, and therefore crashed in the kill zone between the two armies. Already, Jensen could hear the alarms ringing as hundreds of enemy soldiers – lit by the flames of the three downed anti-aircraft weapons – poured over the lip of the trench, trying to reach the multiple crash sites.
It was in this single moment of chaos that Jensen saw his chance. His one and only chance to make good out of this terrible situation.
He looked to Callum, who was watching him, “Your orders sir?”
“Get everyone up. Take squads four, six, ten, eight, nine, and five, secure the crash sites and keep them busy. The rest are to come with me for a flank. Get a call to command, have them bring up reserves.” Jensen said, snapping a new power pack into his blaster pistol.
Two hundred men were under his command, as close to a thousand moved out of the trench to engage the Liberty troops already on the field. The two hundred that were with him followed closely, divided into squads of ten each. They moved to as far east as the trench went, and discreetly climbed out, moving along the flanks of the oblivious Sect troops, who were now exchanging blaster fire on the open field with ORS forces – led by Callum.
He turned to his nearest subordinate, “Take ten squads, get into position in their flank, and open fire. Everyone else, follow me. Move!” Jensen said.
A hundred ORS forces, among those following Jensen, all moved back to the west, where the main fighting was going on. Jensen and the remaining hundred soldiers broke into a dead run, trying to blend in with the darkness as they approached the enemy trenches. As they approached, he spoke into his commlink, “Command, you guys had better have some air cover ready for me when I give you the signal. We’re going to take down those defenses.” He said, and then switched it off as they reached the near-empty enemy trench.
It was a lot like it’s Sovereignty counterpart, but it was more hastily built, and did not have any of the ‘comforts’ the Sovereignty one had. A few dozen or so soldiers still occupied it. Jensen knew from intelligence reports that the Sect communications was very poor, so he knew it would be at least half an hour before they could get their reserves into the battle.
With a signal, the Sovereignty forces opened fire on their outnumbered opponents, who turned, surprised. As the blaster war broke out in the Liberty trench, Jensen, followed by a dozen or so soldiers moved down the trench to the first anti-aircraft emplacement. The soldiers with him quickly placed thermal detonators, destroying the emplacement.
At this time the Liberty soldiers fighting Callum’s group noticed something was wrong and some attempted a retreat to protect the anti-aircraft defenses. Callum pressed on, urging his men to fight harder as Jensen and his team moved down the line to the next anti-aircraft emplacement, destroying it and then moving down to the next… and then the next…
Afterwards, Jensen barely heard the bombers sweep over the field, past the Liberty trenches, where the Liberty reserves were struggling to make their way to the battle.
After a few passes, and the falling of concussion missiles, it was all over.
