Different Paths by A. E. McCullough Read Free Book Online

Kristopher said in a quiet voice, “The end of
the war kid.” 
    Special Agent Johnson explained, “Gilese Delta is
basically an M-Class exo-planet, nearly twice as large as Earth but with a
similar climate. It was the first planet settled by the UNCF outside our solar
system. During the war it was the home base of the Confederacy. What we didn’t
realize at the time was it was also one of the homeworlds of the bugs.”
    Lt. Kristopher picked up the story.
    “It was thought that a major strike at the heart
of the Confederacy would break their spirit, sort of like the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII or the decision to use neutron bombs on
Baghdad and Tehran during the Arabic Wars. Following a massive bombardment from
space, the commanding General ordered all the troops to land at a single staging
point before beginning the final assault. He chose a small beachhead on
Gilese’s western coast which is surrounded on two sides by mountains with only
one pass to guard. The fool General thought he and his men were safe. At least until
the call came in that the Fleet armada was under attack by Confederate warships
and an army of bugs were heading toward the landing. The General sent Omega
Squadron to hold the pass until the regulars could be organized.”
    Lt. Kristopher paused before continuing, his voice
seemed far away as if he was lost in the memories.
    “There were so many bugs, you couldn’t see the
horizon. There must’ve been a million or more charging down on us. I know there
were Confederate Regulars in there somewhere but there were so many bugs that it
didn’t matter.”
    Special Agent Johnson said, “Landing craft were
pulling troops out as fast as they could but it takes time to evacuate a
quarter million troops with only five operational landing pads. As far as I
know, no troops were ever sent to support Omega but if they hadn’t held the
pass the whole assault force would’ve been engulfed and destroyed.”
    Agent Smith asked, “How...how long did they hold?”
    “Eight hours,” replied Lt. Kristopher. “It was the
longest eight hours of my life. We were out of ammunition after the first two
hours. By then the bodies were stacked so tall and the ground yellow with bug
blood, that only ten or twelve bugs could attack us at any one time. The
Confederates had fallen back to try to snipe us during the fighting, they
weren’t very effective but they did cause some difficulties. We stood in ranks
of ten against the bugs’ onslaught, when one soldier fell; another would step
in to fill the hole. We fought them blade to mandible. No mercy asked and none
given. It was barbaric. It was medieval. It was bloody. We fought that way for
what seemed to be an eternity. Logically I know it was only a few hours but it
didn’t seem that way at the time. We fought and we died. Knowing our duty. Knowing
we would hold the pass until the last man fell.”
    “How did you survive?” asked the young agent.
    Lt. Kristopher shrugged his shoulders. “We
would’ve died if not for the airstrike.”
    “The Yorktown executed the airstrike,” Special
Agent Johnson added. “If I remember correctly, it was to be a three stage
bombardment. We were to blanket the area with firebombs followed by a tactical
nuke to finish off those that fled and then a full spread of nukes on every
suspected Confederate stronghold and fortification.”
    “How did you guys survive the airstrikes?” asked
Agent Smith.
    “Luck mostly. Outside of that it was the
determination of one man, Iaido Achilles Spartan. We’d lost communications
sometime during the fight, so we didn’t know the airstrikes were inbound. By
that time, we had been pushed back into the pass about a hundred feet. We were
down to our last fifteen men and were fighting in shifts, ten on the line with
the other five resting or binding wounds. Of those that were on the line, only
Master Chief Kirk survived and he lost his legs to the firebombs…they were
burned