Earth (Harmony War Book 5)

  Chapter 1

  EMFC Fearless

  Fernix System Moving to Sol System

  5/3296

  Mark looked over his three Regiments. He had come far since he’d joined the EMF. The rank tabs on his shoulder marked him as a major. The scars that lined his body and the rack of medals stuffed in the bottom of his locker were a testament to the battlefields he had survived.

  He had fought alongside most of his Regiment for the better part of two years on Fernix. Some he had fought with since Masoul, two wars and over a century in the past.

  To him it had been just a matter of years. Cryostasis had held him in limbo for hundreds of years, only awoken to fight the next enemy of the corporations that ruled Earth and Her Colonies.

  He had fought on Sacremon, one of the bloodiest uprisings in the EHC’s history. That was before the war with Harmony had started. He had been on every planet, and in the middle of some of the worst battles against the politico-religious group that called themselves Harmony’s Chosen.

  The nightmares and the missing faces from those battles plagued his memories every night. He looked at his second in command, Force Sergeant Major Dominguez, who had been beside him since Masoul. They had started off as master corporal and corporal.

  Now they were leading an entire force of two Regiments.

  “They look like shit,” Mark said, his voice gruff as his hard eyes swept over them. Captains Alexis and Ko were standing at attention in front of their companies.

  “Sure you aren’t looking in the mirror?” Dominguez replied, looking over at her commanding officer.

  Mark snorted, a rare smile spreading across his face.

  They had been pulled off Fernix in a hurry, just as they had on Osdal. Mark was getting pissed off with not finishing what he’d started. He wanted to follow through and destroy the Harmony fighters that called themselves ‘Chosen’.

  They had been given the best of the best, as their carrier and three others were travelling as fast as they could for Sol. Harmony had roped in the EMF to fight the systems that had openly rebelled and they were now heading straight for Earth.

  It was the job of the Troopers to get to Earth, create a plan for defense, and destroy Harmony’s forces before they got a foothold on Earth.

  If they didn’t, then the EHC could fall. If it did, then Mark knew the first order of Harmony would be to hunt down the Troopers.

  “Alright you lazy bastards, my name is Mark,” he said, hearing whispers and mutterings of Diablo and Triple Twos in the ranks. They were quickly silent.

  “We’re not here to look pretty or parade around like those fucks in Mega City. We’ve been given the honor of crushing what remains of Harmony,” Mark growled, seeing more than one hard face look at him in anticipation. They had all lost someone to Harmony and they were eager to pay the bastards back in kind.

  “We will take the lessons learned from fighting all across the EHC, and I will turn you into the killers that you can be. You are going to fucking hate me. You’re going to wonder why I’m such a prick for training you this hard. You’ve proved yourselves on Fernix, right? You may have, you may not, I don’t give a flying fuck. You are now my Force. Some of you may have heard of my brother Tyler,” there were a few nods and eyes flicking in interest at him. “Well, seems that he’s got a Force too, and it seems that he wants to challenge us. He says that his people are better than you. I want to prove him wrong. I want to show Every. Single. Trooper. That Force Three is not to be fucked with. You do your best, you push yourselves, and I will do everything in my power to deliver you right into the heart of those Harmony bastards. Till then, we train, we learn. You thought you knew your Powered Armor before? I’m going to make you forget how to walk without Powered Armor. You will be Powered Armor. Do we have an agreement?” Mark asked, looking at those ranks, holding the eyes of those that looked back at him.

  “Yes, sir!” they yelled.

  “Holy fuck, is there a pair of ovaries and balls between the lot of you?” he demanded, in the kind of voice that he had learned from training Troopers as a sergeant.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “I thought you got me Troopers, not fucking cleaners,” Mark said to Dominguez.

  “Alright you lazy sacks of wasted air!” Dominguez bellowed, her voice even outdoing Mark’s. “Use your fucking lungs like the Chosen are coming at you! Do you agree to the major’s offer?”

  “YES, SIR!” They barked.

  Mark looked them over, veterans to a person, all trained killers. He would take their skills and add to them, form them from their various units into a single cohesive force.

  He smiled; it was a dark thing.

  “I think I felt something tingle, might just have been a breeze,” Mark said. Like the men and women that had come before them, he would make them his own and he would become theirs.

  “Leave is over, time to get back to work. Stand at ease!” The Troopers moved from their stiff positions to one where they could move more freely. “Captains, see to your Regiments,” Mark said, turning and leaving with Dominguez.

  Alexis and Ko, Mark’s two captains, took over, pulling their people into a semi-circle. They all hated standing around doing parade shit.

  “What do you think?” Dominguez asked, looking at Mark.

  “They’ll make fine killers,” Mark said.

  “That they will,” Dominguez said, a wicked expression spreading across her face.

  Chapter 2

  Tower

  Earth, Sol System

  5/3296

  “The fleet from Fernix is on their way back to Earth, and they have begun training as well as outfitting their carriers,” said Dalia, Nivad’s second in command, sitting in one of the two seats that rested in front of his desk.

  He was the head of Earth and Her Colonies, a good cover for the corporations that warred with one another behind closed doors and through the stock markets. He knew more secrets than any other man, and he used them and his position in the ministry of intelligence to accrue his own power. He was also the leader of Earth’s Military Forces.

  Though he didn’t hold the position, everyone knew the truth. If you had a partnership that had a colony uprising, you requested a meeting with Nivad and hoped that he was lenient with his terms to reclaim your property.

  Recently that had happened less and less, as Nivad dictated what partnerships would pay as he cleared their system of the rot that was called Harmony.

  “Good, Fernix itself?” Nivad asked, smoking a cigarette from behind his desk.

  “The fleet is holding position over the Blue Moon, and they are hitting targets of opportunity as they can. Half of the fleet and most of the Troopers are mining and working on making more ammunition so that they can assault the moon once again. Captain Hall has expressed to our Masoul agent that the fleet can hold in orbit and pummel the Blue Moon from there. More wreckage for the Fernix partnership to clean up, but it will mean lower Trooper expenses,” Dalia said.

  “Use the forces that are moving to support. Those Troopers are better fighters and will be better in any future battles we might have. I heard that there was some trouble in Housapel?” Nivad took a drag of his cigarette.

  “It seems that a decent force was able to hide from us for a number of months. It looks like there are a number of bases that are made out of the underground cryo-bunkers. Our intelligence people have picked it up and are building a proposal to remove them from the planet,” Dalia said.

  “Good, we don’t want the new colonists running into any of the old when they arrive,” Nivad said. “I heard that the shipyards are finally working to make freighters, even without incentives.”

  “That is correct, with The Yard p
roducing their freighters, the other companies are now realizing that either they get into the game or they’ll be left by the wayside. The Yard is also changing its name to the Victor Corporation. Seems that they are enamored with the Victor brothers.”

  “Those two have raised popular opinion in the EHC and EMF considerably. We will have to do something with them when they arrive on Earth… flash them around to the different corporations, make them feel at ease or something,” Nivad waved it away. It was another fifty years off. Nivad and Dalia didn’t even think of that period of time as considerable. Augments, anti-aging treatments, and power had kept them alive for much longer than many other heads of corporations.

  “The colonists are on their way and the corporations are interested in the proposal to drop Troopers off at the planets they are at. Once the battles are complete, it would be best to offer them a discharge, and employment at the worlds that they have cleared of Harmony,” Dalia recommended.

  “I agree, see to it. The battle for Earth; has our agent told us what our Troopers are thinking?” Nivad asked, stubbing out his cigarette.

  “Right now they are only training, and groups of them are getting together and gaming out both how they would take the system and then how to defend against the attacks,” Dalia said, frowning.

  “Upset that they are thinking of ways to take Earth?” Nivad asked, a small smile on his lips.

  “It is concerning,” she admitted.

  “They have no interest in controlling the EHC, they just want to get the war over with. I have been studying them for the same reasons, and I think that it might be an opportune time to offer some of them retirement. It will make them look forward to getting clear of war and any thoughts of taking Earth.” After years of studying people and coming to understand the ways in which emotions affected them, Nivad had become a master of reading others.

  Dalia pursed her lips in thought, nodding as she agreed with Nivad’s plan.

  “That should work nicely,” she said with a smile.

  Nivad returned it, a twitch of muscles to console his second. “I want to know what they need immediately. We need to hold Earth at all costs and it will do good to add defenses that we might not need but will serve as warning to any others that might challenge our power.”

  “Yes, Nivad, I will have all of that to you as soon as possible. Our agent has informed me that it will be another few months until the Troopers are finished training, and then they start focusing on their ships and working to defend Earth.”

  “Once they have arrived in system I would like to meet them, discreetly. They have been of great service to us and I would like to see about them becoming advisors,” Nivad said.

  “It will be done. I have also been surprised by their abilities.”

  “Now, the biggest challenge we have is securing our position, both before the attack and then after it. We need to make sure that we come out on top. To do that, I think that it would be best if we move ahead with the plans to remove some restrictions on smaller companies entering the workspace. Competition will serve to throw the larger companies off balance, and also give a big boost to the economy.”

  “Certainly, the small companies in Osdal have started producing, and are already selling products to the Victor Corporation. The Victor Corporation is buying all their materials, setting themselves up for rapid growth. They send one of their larger freighters that way every five or so years, the rest are going to Masoul. It looks like they will become the leading freighting company in the area. Fernix has a number of freighters in their system, but they have been pulled apart for the most part. Once the colonists get there, then they can start trying to get them back online. In the meantime, they will have less than a third of what was moving through the sphere,” Dalia said.

  “I saw that it has already started to hit the markets.”

  “Goods are down across the board, as are materials. It was easier for many companies to ship the materials to Earth than mine it themselves. Everything that was imported from the sphere is now making openings for more companies to explore and produce goods here on Earth. We have the people, so, if done right, Earth can become a large exporter of goods to the other systems that relied on the sphere,” Dalia was talking about the relatively close systems with habitable planets. They had supplied the EHC with raw materials, ships, and household electronics and parts.

  “Good, that will leave plenty of room for small companies to start rising up.”

  There was a knock at the door and Nivad and Dalia looked up. It took a few moments before a Powered Armor-wearing security guard walked in.

  “I am sorry to interrupt, sir, ma’am.” the security officer looked from Nivad to Dalia. “You have an appointment.”

  “Very well, we shall wrap this up later. I think that it should be a relatively interesting half-century.” Nivad stood and buttoned up his suit jacket.

  Dalia smiled in agreement as he walked her to the door.

  Chapter 3

  EMFC Fearless

  In Transit to Sol System

  5/3296

  “Do you even try to eat with your mouth closed? You sound like a pig that doesn’t know whether to breathe or choke,” Dominguez complained.

  Dashtund looked at her with a glare as he swallowed.

  Tyler smiled to himself as he ate his beef brisket and gravy. He felt a hand squeeze his leg, and looked over at Alexis to see her eyes sparkling in amusement.

  He put his tongue out at her, her eyes thinning as she squeezed his side, and he shifted suddenly, ticklish as hell, bumping into Mark.

  “I swear, since meeting you lot I haven’t been able to have a meal in peace,” Mark growled.

  “Makes things more interesting, big bro. You know, like making nukes when you’re just supposed to kill one guy,” Tyler said.

  “You blow up a reactor once for a distraction and suddenly you’re the world’s biggest disaster waiting to happen,” Mark sighed.

  “That and no one will ever volunteer you to distract the enemy, ever again,” Jerome said, pointing with the ribs he was tucking into.

  “There is that,” Mark said with a grin.

  “The truth comes out,” Alexis shook her head.

  Mark let out a rumbling laugh.

  The five new people at the table were still getting a feel for the group.

  Tyler and Mark were both majors, with Dominguez and Jerome as their divisions’ sergeant majors.

  Dashtund, Alexis, Ko, and Essa filled out the captain slots, with Whyte, Kim, Liu, and Nguyen as their regimental sergeant majors. All of the regimental sergeant majors and Essa were new to the party. The rest of them had been together, or known of one another, since Masoul.

  “Hey there, knuckle draggers, move down a bit,” Bobbie arrived at the table, a bulky-looking man with the symbol of a Combat Shuttle Cargo Master on his shoulder.

  “Hey, you ugly bastard. You in for tonight’s card game?” Ko shifted down the bench to make room for Bobbie.

  “Ah, I think that I can swing by,” Bobbie said. “Ready to lose all of that combat pay already?”

  “I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Dashtund said with a grin.

  “If he’s playing I’m out,” Young took her seat.

  Tyler watched her out of the corner of his eye. Their old regimental leader, Captain Haas, had had a thing going on with her since Masoul. He hadn’t survived the Blue Moon, and she’d taken it as badly as anyone would.

  Tyler thought her as much his family as the others around the table. He didn’t want to make his worry apparent, that would just make her angry.

  “Don’t think you can play a real card player?” Dashtund taunted.

  “I didn’t know a real card player was such a good cheat,” Jerome countered.

  “Never any credit with you lot,” Dashtund grumbled, shaking his head in sorrow.

  “Heard you lot are now true shuttle herders,” Alexis said.

  Tyler watched her almost as much as Young
. There had been a tense time after a bad injury that had left her sterile, but they had passed through that. Now, he was just happy to see that she was smiling, joking, and seemed to have left most of that shadow behind.

  “Herders, fits,” Yu, the captain of the three crew Combat Shuttle said. “I swear, after having them trying to work in formations and get an understanding of how to fight fighters… I have no idea how the hell they survived. At least the ground crews are finally getting up to standard. Chief Masal is whipping them into shape. They’ve forgotten more than they remember and it’s going to take months to retrain them.”

  “Well if you ever need someone to give them a push, let us know. We’re the ones riding in the damned things and I’m sure as hell going to make sure it all works before my boys and girls load into them,” Mark said.

  “Thanks Mark, I’ll pass the word to Masal. I might need a few of your people to beat some sense into the Combat Shuttle pilots that feel they can take fighters on while loaded with Troopers.” Yu shook his head in frustration.

  “You going to introduce us to your friends, or do I have to do the guessing game?” Bobbie asked, nodding to the new people at the end of the table.

  “Don’t worry, they don’t bite, though they do smell bad and like to blow the shit out of things,” Tyler said.

  “Makes me think of Tal and that fucking ride to Masoul. I swear, that guy and Taco night…” Ko reminisced.

  A silence settled over the table as they remembered those who had gone with them to Masoul but had died there, or on one of the other planets that they had fought their way across.

  It wasn’t as bad as it had been a few weeks ago, they’d had some time to mourn. It wasn’t enough but they needed to prepare for Earth, and the EMF wasn’t going to let them sit back and sort themselves out on their dime. Once they had a plan and were trained up, it was back into cryo.

  The new people had the sense to wait before talking. They were all veterans too, with recommendations from people that the others knew and trusted. They wouldn’t be in their positions if they hadn’t earned them.

  “I’m Essa, came from the EMFC Constitution.” Essa was a well-built woman who might have smiled at one point. She was more handsome than beautiful, simply due to her attitude and her demeanor. She was an officer and she would do her duty, but it was a duty that had worn on her heavily.