Saxon Andrew - Love conquers all

“Tag, you never cease to amaze me. Round up the prisoners and put them in the camp. Assign some of the civilians to guard them, and then please get my wounded and me to a hospital.” With that Richard passed out, his job complete.

Admiral Kosiev stood on ground that looked like blasted glass and stared at the young man in front of him. He had no answer for what had happened during the final battle. Once the general commanding the ground forces was captured, all the remaining conflicts around the planet ceased, and the Alliance ground forces surrendered. The Earth fleet was in the process of loading the prisoners onto transports taking them to a cavern prepared for them on one of Jupiter’s moons. Earth central command had sent heavy transports to Ross to take the population and relocate them to another colony. There were only one hundred forty thousand of them, as this was a young colony. There was no way they would be safe once the Alliance main fleet arrived. “We might not be safe, either,” Kosiev reflected as he stood outside the destroyed marine base camp at Rossville. All around him was the wreckage of marine and Alliance weapons. He felt he had to come down and see the site of mankind’s first land battle in four hundred years. It was important that he understand the price he would be asking the marines to pay. Some of the heavy weapon platforms were still smoking, and the remaining marines were looking for the bodies of their fallen comrades. Then he turned and said, “Would you mind explaining how and what you did down here?”

Tag had to force himself to break away from the scene of carnage all around him and said to Kosiev, “I tried to prevent some of this bloodshed, but I didn’t, Admiral, and I can’t answer your question.” Kosiev started to protest, but Tag held up his hand and said, “This is something that falls into Special Force proprietary information. I honestly can’t tell you. I am also going to request that any record or recording of what happened be sent to Special Forces Center on Earth. All of our personnel are also to be told to never mention it.”

Kosiev stared at Tag, looked around at the site of the bloodiest fighting, and finally said, “You know you saved thousands of lives down there. I don’t understand how you did it, but it ended the conflict. Thanks.”

Tag continued to stare at the ground around the Marine camp that had been hit with so many blaster beams that the surface looked like glass. There was no vegetation in sight and the entire valley looked like the surface of the moon. He heard that Richard was on board a hospital ship and was severely wounded. He prayed that his friend would make it. He continued to stare and ponder the destructiveness of war. “Did any of the Alliance ships surrender?” he asked Kosiev.

“Actually, their flagship War Weapon did. We also forced the crew to leave the ship individually in spacesuits. We picked them up with one of our freighters and moved them away from the dreadnought. I had their senior officer put one of their lifeboats in a launching tube and set it for remote control. You were right; the Alliance officer launched the lifeboat and the dreadnought self-destructed, taking the lifeboat with it. Those Alliance sailors have a different point of view now about their leaders on good ol’ Cainth. If they are ever sent back, they are going to cause the clan leaders some problems. They are also being transported to Jupiter’s moon. I believe it’s Europa.”

Kosiev’s com buzzed and a voice said, “Sir, you have a call from someone named Danielle Gardner asking to speak to our hero of the month.”

Tag was snatched out of his reverie and said, “Uh oh, does she know what happened?”

“When you took the escape pod down and ordered me not to go after you, I called the Director to ask for instructions. Your wife was there at the time, and they both demanded a video feed on what was taking place groundside. They also ordered me to disregard your instructions and to send whatever force was necessary to withdraw you from danger. You, however, handled it before I could organize any kind of response. But to answer your question, they saw everything you did during that final battle.”

The button was flashing on Kosiev’s com and Tag only stared at it. “Admiral, could you please tell my wife I’m indisposed, that I’ll call her later?”

“You forget, Tag. She can see the truth,” Kosiev said, smiling at Tag’s discomfort. Here was a man who took on an Alliance regiment without flinching, and now he was frightened to face his wife. Kosiev transferred the call to Tag’s com and smiled.

Tag picked up the com and said, “Hello, dear.” He then moved the com a foot away from his ear, and even Kosiev could hear Danielle yelling at him.

“Ahh, there is always payment for the risks we take,” Kosiev thought. He then laughed out loud at the expression on Tag’s face. The voice on the other end of the com doubled in volume, and Tag said, “That wasn’t me! No, I don’t think this is funny.” Kosiev left whistling, leaving Tag to the chewing-out he so richly deserved.

Richard Wiseman was asleep in a hospital bed onboard the Saint Theresa hospital ship. He had lost a lot of blood and was developing an infection in his leg. He and his wounded marines were being jumped back to Earth for emergency care. Doctor Chen had tried to treat some of the marines, but none of them would accept it until their commander was taken care of. Doctor Chen finally had to beam a video to their beds showing Richard asleep. “He’s being kept asleep until we arrive at Central Medical,” Doctor Chen said. “There’s nothing we can do now but keep him stable. Now you soldiers lie still and let us help those we can.” When he tried to turn off the video, the marines threatened to show the doctor what hand-to-hand was really like. So Chen left it on. “What did this man do to get such loyalty?” he asked one of the marines.

“He kept the faith, he kept his word, he fought for us, and he kept the civilians safe. He showed us the meaning of semper fi, doctor. Don’t let him die.”

Chen looked at the marine and said, “He won’t, not on my watch.”

General Dorg sat on the human transport and thought about the week’s events. He along with all the sailors watched as the dreadnought self-destructed as the lifeboat was leaving. It was a sight he couldn’t get out of his mind. He didn’t know the Cainth war ships were programmed to self-destruct and take the crew with them. He wondered if his transports were programmed the same way. The humans had addressed him and his men once they were onboard and told them what was going to happen. “You are going to be transported to a moon circling one of our planets called Jupiter. The moon is named Europa. We have carved a cavern and have put environmental systems in place to maintain its atmosphere and temperature. We have stocked it with enough provisions to clothe and feed you. There are living facilities for you also. We will not be guarding you. You will set up your own form of government and rule yourselves. If this conflict between us and the Alliance ends peacefully, we will transport you home. Obviously, we can’t do that now. We’ll be fired on even if we tell them you’re on board. There will be a com set up for you to contact us if you have any needs. Are there any questions?”

“What are you going to do with the ones that executed the prisoners?” one of the soldiers asked.

“If one of our commanders ordered that, he would be summarily shot. However, you come from a different culture that places no value on any race but your own. We understand that orders given you are inviolate. You carry them out or you’re killed. Our anger is directed to the leaders that gave the order. Not the ones that carried it out. We do not kill our captives nor do we cause them unnecessary discomfort. Settle in, gentlemen. We’ll have you at your new home shortly.”