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A Broken Alliance
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A Broken Alliance Copyright © 2021 by Variant Publications
Book design and layout copyright © 2021 by JN Chaney
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from JN Chaney.
www.jnchaney.com
www.jonathanbrazee.com
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Contents
Glossary
Previously in Sentenced to War . . .
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Epilogue
Cast of Characters
Acknowledgments
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About the Authors
Glossary
AGMS: Anti-G Straining Maneuvers
AIW: Association of Independent Worlds
ASAP: As Soon As Possible
BC: the digital currency for most nations
BOCT: Benevolent Order of Crystal Technicians
Bronze Nova: the third-highest medal in the Union military
CASEVAC: Casualty Evacuation
CCR-32 Didactic Interface: the AI implanted into the Marines’ heads.
Cerrocrete: a very strong futuristic concrete
CG: Commanding General
CO: Commanding Officer
COH: Congress of Humanity, the highest authority of mankind
CST: Combat Simulation Trainer
D-5 Cord: an explosive-saturated cord
Camp Seong-Matris: One of the three camps on Eceladus housing the Home Guard’s Second Brigade
D-5 Cord: an explosive-saturated cord
DC/Direct Combat: Marines such as infantry, recon mech combat engineers, who will face the enemy in direct combat.
DI: Drill Instructor
Dykstra: a heavy sniper rifle
E-Club: Enlisted Club where the lowest three ranks can hang out, drink, and eat.
ECR: Effective Casualty Radius. The radius from a detonation within which will produce 50% casualties
EMP: Electro-magnetic Pulse. Will shut down all electronics within range
EOE: End of Enlistment
EVA: Extravehicular Activity
FEPM-K: A combined electromagnetic pulse shell that is followed by a kinetic missile.
FSCL: Fire Support Coordination Line. A control measure beyond which fires into the area must be coordinated.
FTL: Faster Than Light, a starship drive
Gold Nova: the second highest medal in the Union military forces
G-Loc: G-force induced loss of consciousness
Goundpounders: slang for infantry
HE: High Explosive
Host: the military arm of the Frisian Mantle, a sometime ally/enemy of the Perseus Union
Karnan: Nickname for the hyper-augmented soldiers from the MDS
KIA: Killed in Action
Leaches: Military slang for civilians
LOD: Line of Departure
M49 Assault Rifle: the standard weapon of the Union Marines. It fires a 2mm high-velocity dart.
M-102 Nellis: the Marine Corps’ main sniper rifle
M-133: a heavy weapon fired by mech Marines
MF-30: a standard issue handgun
MDS: Manifest Destiny Sphere
MilDes: Military Designator
MilDes Ninety-nine/Ninety-nine: essentially indentured servants in uniform
MMCS: Marine Mechanical Combat Suit
MoV: Medal of Valor, a Home Guard award. Runs from third class to first class.
MP: Military Police
MPT: Military Placement Test
NCO: Non-commissioned Officer. The middle two ranks of enlisted Marines
NCOIC: Non-commissioned Officer in Charge
NM: Neuro-mapping
NVD: Night Vision Device
Omega Division/OD: the secret police and spy agency of the Union
Optisight: a flexible optical tube
PAL-3: Personal Armor, Light 3: the standard body armor for an infantry Marine
PAL-5: Personal Armor, Light 5. The standard body armor of recon Marines and Raiders.
Paladin: a large Centaur heavy mech unit, similar to a light tank
PFC: Private First Class
Phoenix MG-3 Incendiary Mine: a small grenade that can burn through most substances
Plastiderm: a synthetic skin that is used in medical procedures
PN: Platinum Nova the highest military award in the Perseus Union military
Poolee: someone who is committed to the Corps but who is not yet been sworn in as a recruit
PQ: Personality Quotient. Used to determine the human characteristics of some AIs
PUNS: Perseus Union Naval Ship
Raider: part of Recon, but with more combat-focused missions instead of surveillance
Recon: Reconnaissance Marine
Riever: a smaller Centaur mech unit, similar to a Marine Raider or reconnaissance Marine.
Secdrones: Security drones used by the police
SFC: Sergeant First Class
SNCO: Staff Non-commissioned Officer. The highest three ranks among enlisted Marines.
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure
Syksky: a deep-fried bread stuffed with spiced meat and vegetables
Torinth Accords: a treaty governing the rules of war
VGW: Veterans of Galaxal Wars
WIA: Wounded in Action
Weislen’s Syndrome: A cancer-like disease affecting those who have had their bodies augmented. Known as the “rot.”
XM-554: a more powerful missile designed to have more punch
XO: Executive Officer, the #2 person in the unit.
Yellowjacket: a shoulder-launched missile
Yellowshirt: a Navy sailor charged with moving people and goods around a flight line.
Previously in Sentenced to War . . .
Despite seemingly long odds, the war with the Centaurs, the first intelligent race known to humanity, has been won. An era of peace settles over humanity . . . or has it?
Staff Sergeant Reverent Pelletier, who has been heavily augmented for service in the Perseus Union Marine Corps, and now with his IBHU (Integrated Hoplological Bionic Unit), a massive integrated weapons system that replaced a lost arm, has now been assigned to the Congress of Humanity’s Home Guard. The Guard is the CoH’s military arm and is made up from military personnel from all of the member nations of the congress.
During the war, the dregs of society took advantage of the situation to pursue their criminal enterprises. Now with the war over, the attention of the rest of humanity can be placed squarely upon these criminals, and in an effort to show that humankind can work together, the CoH’s Counsel General sends the Home Guard out from the home system as the tip of the spear.
But not everyone is singing kumbaya within the Guard. National pride and partisan politics are reflected within the Home Guard troopers. Although they are all on the same side and fighting together, signs of tension are evident.
The question is if this new pax hominibus can survive.
1
Staff Sergeant Reverent Pelletier, Perseus Union Marine Corps and attached to the Congress of Humanity’s Home Guard, leaned back in his web seat and closed his eyes. As usual, when the Home Guard was called out, it
was a mad rush of activity, and he hadn’t had any sleep for going on thirty hours.
If he thought he’d be able to catch a few quick Zs, however, he was sorely mistaken. The Millsap combat shuttle looked a couple of centuries old, and it was jumping around like a cat on a leash. Rev had been lucky so far during his time in the Home Guard—he’d been deployed aboard the Mezame Concordat Navy Takagahara, a ship that pushed the technical and comfort boundaries beyond even those of the Hégémonie Liberté Navy.
The MS Red Dragon did not, and that was putting it lightly. The transit had been crowded and uncomfortable, the air conditioning hit and miss. With so many bodies in the confined spaces the temperatures skyrocketed. Couple that with food fabricators that kept breaking down and heads not flushing, well, as Bob—Staff Sergeant Tjivyrtzlin of the Frisian Mantle Host—said, the conditions were so bad that everyone welcomed getting off the pile of junk and reaching the planet’s surface, no matter what the situation was down there.
Rev gave up and opened his eyes. He looked to his left where Corporal Charles Akkeke was sitting and glared at him, as if the trooper was responsible for his nation’s ships. Akkeke was a good trooper, and he excelled in Zero-G operations.
It suddenly clicked with Rev.
Of course, he’s good in Zero-G. He has to be. I bet they don’t know from one hour to the other if their ships are going to fall apart around them!
The shuttle suddenly dropped as if in free fall, then a moment later, heavier G’s pushed Rev into his seat, causing his famously delicate stomach to lurch up his throat. He had to swallow down the bile and fight losing it right then and there.
“Antiemetics, now.”
This wasn’t the first time Rev had heard that. But there was a stubborn streak that kept him from giving in so easily. He was heavily augmented, one of the deadliest humans alive, and he couldn’t keep his lunch down?
He knew Punch was right, though. And as his medinanos flooded his body with the drugs, his stomach began to feel normal. He barely hiccupped as the shuttle bounced even harder.
“Five minutes until we land. Look sharp. Appearances matter,” Second Lieutenant Bundy, the first platoon commander—and one of Rev’s long-time friends—passed over the platoon net.
Rev frowned, but he knew Bundy was right. The situation on the ground was tense, ready to ignite again at the slightest provocation. The hope was that the arrival of Home Guard troops would throw some water on the burning embers.
These were the kinds of missions that every soldier hated, where danger was ever-present, but the Rules of Engagement were such that they were limited in what they could do, firing only if fired upon. Fox Company’s last mission, the one on Cat Scratch, had been just such a mission, and as a result, two troopers in Second Squad had been killed, one of them past resurrection.
Burdened by Pashu’s bulk, Rev was in his customary position as the last seat on the starboard side so he wasn’t banging into his fellow troopers. In this case, that put him closest to the tiny window just aft of the last seat. He took advantage of that to look out as they descended. The planet, a lush blueish-green, was looming large. He couldn’t see the LZ yet, from where the Home Guard was supposed to establish a presence, but soon enough they’d land at what would be their home for the next month at a minimum.
The blue in the jungle was a sure sign that Tian-X4 had retained far more native vegetation and wildlife than planets like Rev’s own Safe Harbor. The planet’s sun was an F-type star, so the native vegetation and vegetation analogs tended to reflect more blue light. While the planet was terraformed to support human life, most of those efforts were around the mines in the geographical far north where the sun’s output was less per meter-squared. Out here, closer to the equator, where the planet was largely uninhabited until the recent discovery of valuable heavy element deposits, the native land had remained fallow. This was the first time Rev was going to experience a real alien world—sort of, at least. If peace broke out and they weren’t needed, at least he’d be seeing something new.
He’d just started to turn back around when a flash filled the sky and the interior of the shuttle. There was a jerk, then they banked hard to the left. Rev’s stomach jumped into his throat as he latched Pashu on the edge of his seat. He was harnessed in, but by locking his IBHU in, he might as well have been a part of the seat.
“We’re receiving incoming. Prepare yourself for a rough ride,” a voice announced over the cargo bay loudspeakers.
Rev turned his head to look out the tiny window again. There was another explosion, possibly three hundred meters off and above them—right where they might have been had the pilot not changed their course. This time, the glow of the shielding wasn’t quite as intense. Two more explosions detonated in rapid succession, for all the world looking like the ancient films of flak over Germany during WWII, except that the explosions were bursts of light rather than black smoke.
“What are those?”
It took a moment for Rev to dredge them up from their operations order. Focused Electromagnetic Pulse-Kinetic shells were an oldish tech that aimed, for lack of a better term, the bulk of its energy output at the nearest shielded target and followed almost instantaneously with a small kinetic projectile. In this case, that nearest target would be them.
“Can they knock us out with that?”
Rev would have rolled his eyes if they weren’t bouncing around so much. He’d have liked a little more of an explanation, but Punch was playing his subdued persona to the hilt.
They were still in the air, however, so the ancient shuttle’s shields were holding. Hopefully, the Red Dragon’s orbit-to-ground target acquisition and engagement systems were up to the task. Those last misses were only because the pilot or the AI evasion protocols took them out of the line of fire.
Down below, the gunners would be tracking them for another volley. The question was who was firing at them? Gossarians or Pinks? Both had access to FEPM-Ks.
No, that isn’t the question. The question is if we can keep from getting blown out of the sky. Then we can figure out who is trying to do the blowing.
“Some fun, huh?” Bob passed on the P2P a moment before another flash lit up the cargo bay and the entire back ramp disappeared in a maelstrom.
The aft struts of Rev’s web seat collapsed, and with his harness now slipping free of where they’d been anchored, he started to tilt over. Flailing Pashu and his right arm, he managed to lock Pashu’s tentacle-like fingers onto a support rail running the length of the fuselage as the wind threatened to suck him out. Next to him, PFC Jeb Gingham grabbed Rev’s dead man’s handle.
Something banged hard into Rev’s right knee before it was swept out of the shuttle. Rev tried to brace himself, but there was nothing below his left leg to push against. The shuttle started spinning, and now centrifugal force joined the wind in trying to eject him. Loose gear was flying around like clothes in a dryer. All Rev could do was tighten down his fingers, hoping that they were strong enough to keep him inside.
“Rev, what’s your status?” Bundy asked over the net from the front of the cargo bay.