The hovers turned and began heading back towards their LZ, screaming as low as possible. They didn't make it far. The recharged SALs exploded another eight before they could get out of range. The freshly launched Mosquitoes from the MPG base caught the rest before they could even make it back to the Jutfield Gap, dropping them one by one. Not a single hover survived the attack but the damage had been done. The Eden area of operation was left with only five heavy guns to stave off the WestHem artillery in the coming attack.
At New Pittsburgh the damage was not quite as severe. Because of logistical problems the New Pittsburgh strike had launched fifteen minutes after the Eden strike. New Pittsburgh had, by this point, already been alerted to the possibility that they might be attacked from the air. Fully fueled Mosquitoes had been launched in advance and were waiting for them. Though no one in New Pittsburgh had been quite brave or stupid enough to try Brian and Matt's technique of going high to locate them, one of the flights found them when they were still fifty kilometers out. They'd been whittled down and then subsequently massacred by the fixed SAL sites when they reached their target. As a result only four of the New Pittsburgh area heavy guns fell to the air strike but, like at Eden, every single one of the hovers was eventually taken down.
Chapter 22
Aboard the WSS Nebraska, Mars orbit
September 13, 2146
1718 hours
Major Wilde sat at his desk, watching the InfoServe main news channel that was being beamed over from Earth. It was the top of the hour news summary, although, since it had taken it eighteen minutes to travel to Mars it was no longer the top of the hour. He was shaking his head in disgust and disbelief with every word the grinning newscaster spoke.
"At precisely 1300 hours, Eden and New Pittsburgh time, today, WestHem marines kicked off the second phase of Operation Martian Hammer by launching a massive air strike at military installations controlled by the rogue terrorist members of the Martian Planetary Guard that have been holding the planet hostage. This strike involved upwards of two hundred VTOL extra-terrestrial hovers armed with high-intensity lasers. The name given to this two-pronged strike was 'Operation Hammer Down' according to General Browning in his latest press release."
Wilde made a particularly sour face at the mention of the name. Yes, it was a hammer down operation all right, he thought. Only it was us who got hammered. One hundred percent losses! The worst disaster in extra-terrestrial aviation since... well, since phase one of Martian Hammer. Once again they took a foolproof plan and fucked it all up.
"As we reported earlier," the news anchor went on, "things did not look like they were getting off to a good start on the surface for this second phase. At both cities the landing ships launched from orbit were forced to land at alternate sites, closer in to their targets than doctrine dictates and than was reported yesterday to us. The reason for this was because of reports to marine intelligence that the Martian terrorists had planted powerful improvised mines in the selected landing areas."
"Mines," Wilde muttered. Does anyone really believe that crap? I mean back on Earth, in the ghettos, in the factories, in the upper-end housing buildings? Do they really?
"Now however," the anchor said brightly, "it seems that General Browning has managed to make the best of a bad situation with Operation Hammer Down. Taking advantage of the relatively short distance to target from the alternate landing sites, these two hundred hovers flew directly into the teeth of the most heavily defended Martian terrorist positions, destroying artillery sites, surface-to-air laser sites, portions of the Martian bases themselves, and many of the reinforced defensive positions that the suicide teams staged from in the first phase of the operation.
"General Browning, in a statement issued just twenty minutes ago, tells us that several of the hovers did go down during the engagement and that several pilots and gunners were forced to eject. As to whether these aircraft were shot down or brought down by friendly fire or collision is unknown. The fate of these crews are also unknown at this time although General Browning states there is a good possibility they might be recovered alive before the Martians can capture them."
They cut to a scene from Browning's press conference after the operation. "The crews that participated in this strike have only just returned to base," he told the solar system, "and we have not had a chance to debrief them just yet. We do have search and rescue hovers out at this minute heading for the areas where the aircraft went down. When we know more we'll release it immediately."
Wilde yelled at the computer to change over to a music station. He was unable to stand another second of having their own propaganda thrown back in his face. He actually felt physically ill. His illness was made worse when Major Falon, head of the personnel department for the operation, commed him and told him the real news.
"The Martians worked pretty fast this time," he told Wilde. "They sent over four lists of names. Two were the captured list from Eden and New Pittsburgh. They've captured seventy-six crewmembers from Eden, nine of whom are injured; and sixty-four from New Pittsburgh, eleven of whom are injured. The other two were lists of KIAs from the raid. They've scanned and recovered twenty-six dead in Eden and thirty-eight in New Pittsburgh. The rest of the men from each city are unaccounted for but they put in a note that multiple aircraft near each target area were completely destroyed by the fixed SAL sites and that body identification is impossible without DNA sampling. They will do that after a cease fire is in place one way or the other."
Wilde nodded. "You gotta hand it to those greenies," he said. "At least they let us know."
"Rubbing it in is more like it," Falon said bitterly. He had, after all, received a lot of lists from the Martians over the past week.
"Call it what you want," Wilde said. "Send off the numbers and the names to command like usual and they'll bury it like usual."
"They have to do that, Wilde," Falon said. "The public simply wouldn't understand if we told them how bad the losses have really been."
"Yeah," Wilde said, not bothering to argue. It would be pointless. "I'll catch you later, Falon. Hopefully we won't have to talk that much in the future."
"We won't, ' Falon said righteously. "That new plan of General Browning's is going to bring those murdering terrorists to their knees."
"I certainly hope so," Wilde said. He signed off. He then put in a call to General Browning. He was put on hold for the better part of ten minutes before Browning's image graced his screen. The general looked upset, a state he confirmed with his first words.
"Those goddamned media reps are still calling every five minutes to bitch at me," he yelled at Wilde. "I told you this would happen if you changed one iota of that plan we submitted! Several of them are even threatening to do an expose on me!"
Wilde knew exactly what he was talking about. The big three reps, both here and on Earth, were very upset that the landing ships had come down more than two hundred kilometers closer to their respective cities than had been outlined in the briefing documents they'd been given. Though it was only a minor change, one made at the last minute so the air strikes could be launched without a refuel point and so the march time to engagement would be minimized, the media didn't like things to deviate from what they had reported as "the plan". They felt it made the public lose respect for their investigative powers. They had been in full-blown outrage mode in the first hours after the landings, some going so far as to call for Browning's resignation for using them as a disinformation vehicle. It was only after Browning fed them the bullshit about the Martians laying mines in the primary landing sites that they began to ease off a bit. True, they all knew the story was bullshit but at least it gave them something plausible (if not entirely realistic) to tell the public.