Issue In Doubt - By David Sherman Page 0,6
panic. Your job in this, Madam Secretary, is to keep the rest of the world in the dark about NAU’s upcoming offworld troop movements.”
“You’re going to send our soldiers into, into that?” she asked, appalled.
Mills curled his lip at her. “As you would know if you hadn’t been so tardy getting here, we’re sending Force Recon to gather intelligence. Then we’ll send a counter-invasion force in to clear out those. . .those creatures.” He turned to Hobson and Welborn. “I want you to stand up a counter-invasion force, and ready Navy shipping to get them there once we know what we’re up against.”
“Right away, sir,” Hobson said.
“Aye aye, sir.” Welborn grinned. What was the point of having a Navy that traveled the stars, and command of one of the largest and most powerful militaries in all of human history if he never got to give the orders to attack an entire world?
“I’ll notify Congress once the counter-invasion force is on its way,” Mills said. “Now get everything moving.”
De Castro didn’t say anything, but he wondered how the President was going to justify taking military action without an Act of Congress authorizing it, or without even consulting with the Congressional leadership.
Chapter Two
Launch Bay, NAUS Monticello, in Semi-Autonomous World Troy space
First Lieutenant Mitchell Paige gave the twenty Marines of his section a final look over—he’d already inspected them—before saying a few words prior to them entering their landing craft. His Marines weren’t exactly invisible, but he’d have had a hard time picking them out in the dim light if they hadn’t had their helmets and gloves off. The patterning of the utilities worn by Force Recon tricked the eye into looking beyond them instead of registering on them.
“Marines, we don’t know what you’re going to find on Troy.” Paige ignored the quiet chuckles that statement brought from the Marines. “That’s why Force Recon is going in, to find out.”
Some of the Marines exchanged glances: No shit Sherlock. That’s what Force Recon does; we go in to find out when nobody knows dick.
“The Monticello been listening on all frequencies since exiting the wormhole, but as of—” Paige checked his watch. “—three minutes ago, no transmissions have been picked up, nor has anything registered on any of the ship’s sensors. So we know no more than we did when we left Earth.” He gave a wolfish grin. “That’s why the Union called on us. We’re going to find out, and then some alien ass is going to get kicked!”
“OOH-RAH!” the twenty Marines roared. None of them said, or even thought, anything about the fact that their commander wasn’t going planetside with them. Everyone understood an officer going along with a Force Recon squad on a mission would only be in the way.
“Mount up!” Paige bellowed over the cheers. The Force Recon Marines pulled on their helmets and gloves as they filed into the landing craft and the waiting Squad Pods. One Marine in each squad carried a rifle. The other Marines were armed only with sidearms and knives—purely defensive weapons.
Paige watched until the landing craft’s ramp closed, then gruffly said, “Let’s go,” and ducked through the hatch from the launch bay. Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard, the first section chief, followed. The two Marines headed for the Command and Communications Center, where Captain Jefferson J. DeBlanc, 2nd Force Recon Company’s executive officer, and the company’s First Sergeant John H. Leims waited for them. Along the way, they had to press against the side of the narrow passageway to let the platoon’s second section pass on its way to the launch bay.
It wasn’t long before the officers, senior non-commissioned officers, and communications men of 2nd Force Recon Company (B) were gathered in C&C, and eight Force Recon squads were on their way to the surface of Troy.
The Cayuga Class frigate Monticello was a stealth vessel, specially configured to support Marine Force Recon and small raiding parties. To that end, she had a compartment equipped with comm gear to allow a command element to communicate with its planetside elements via burst microwaves, and give it directions as needed. Her external shape had odd, unexpected angles designed to reflect radar signals in directions other than back at a radar receiver. A coating over the entire hull except for the exhausts was designed to absorb and/or deflect other detection methods. Strategically placed vanes and trailing stringers dispersed heat from the exhausts, giving the starship a faint, easily overlooked heat signature. She was not designed for offensive fighting; her