Guardian (War Angel Book 1) by David Hallquist (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

Eros Incident has been identified as Lieutenant Michael Vance of the Jovian Aerospatial Exo-Frame Force.”

My picture comes up. Honestly, it’s not my best look, but at least it’s an official picture.

“A warrant for his arrest has been issued by the Interplanetary Court for various war crimes, including mass murder, attacking a civilian craft, terrorism, violations of Articles XVII and…”

I turn it off.

You’d think I’d learn, but nooooo…

Well, if the IPC is serious about arresting me, I’ll probably have to get a lawyer…and possibly other backup.

The Interplanetary Court is well known to be a front set up by Saturn to manipulate other governments through interplanetary law and misuse of their own legal systems. In spite of its name, it doesn’t function like a regular court. The rules of evidence don’t allow defendants to examine evidence against them or provide their own evidence or witnesses, prosecutor witnesses cannot be cross-examined, and there’s no presumption of innocence on the part of the defendant. Basically, you either sign your confession and are guilty, disagree with the confession and perjure yourself, or refuse to confess and are in contempt of court.

While I seriously doubt anyone here in the task force is going to feed Angel pilots and Marines to a phony court, things could get exciting when we get back home. Still, I can’t wait to see the clouds of home again.

* * * * *

 

Chapter 7 The Tower

“I have some good news for you all,” Wing Commander Rackham begins the briefing.

Everyone in the room suppresses a groan. Not because it won’t be good news—it will be. We’re just wondering what will be coming next.

A hologram of Earth dominates the briefing room. Surprisingly, while much of it is the grim red of hostile territory, most of it is the yellow of possible threat, and a few spots are the green of friendly colors.

I’m not sure I believe what I’m seeing.

“There’s been a coup in the State of Terra—or rather a series of coups,” he explains. “A series of arcology towers—among them, Del Fuego, Gateway, Sunrise, and Destiny—have overthrown their Supreme Councilors and have declared independence from the State of Terra. At this very moment, they are engaged in ongoing combat with the other elements of the State of Terra.”

Cheers erupted in the room. Maybe we aren’t going to have to go down there after all…

“Yellow indicates the elements of the State of Terra that have declared a cease-fire with Luna and Jupiter. There are reports of ongoing fighting in many of these towers. It remains uncertain what side they will eventually come down on.”

He zooms the hologram in on the various bright red spots. I get a sinking feeling again. On Jupiter, a red spot is an exciting vacation spot—not so on Earth. Here, it means heavy enemy action.

“The regions in red indicate the remaining elements of the State of Terra still engaged in hostilities with Lunar and Jovian forces.” The globe splits up to show a number of close ups of each location. “The towers in green are engaged in active conflict with remaining red elements. Territories in yellow aren’t fighting anyone and could be waiting this whole thing out to see who wins. We’re going to see to it that the green side wins.

“All the locations in green have indicated they will actively engage our enemies here on Earth and then actively cooperate with Lunar forces and investigative and justice teams. They haven’t sent any terms or conditions first; they just did it.”

It seems unbelievable. Why would they do that so fast? Maybe they realize they’re beaten and don’t want to go down with their leadership. I don’t know. There’s something going on here I’m not seeing. Still, that’s very good news, indeed.

“Additionally, the buried nukes and other doomsday weapons have been interrupted. It turns out the towers needed to cooperate to begin the destruction of the whole world, and with the Council Supreme disbanded, they can only blow themselves up, and not their neighbors.

“The green towers have asked for our assistance in dealing with the remaining State of Terra forces. While most of the green Terran forces will be fighting various red targets, they need help from above. That’s where we come in.”

The hologram zooms in on one of the red towers, a flat-topped pyramid of windowless composites over ten kilometers high and two kilometers wide at the base. It’s surrounded by a ring of towns, and then a wider ring of agricultural fields. “This is Panex Tower. It lies across both major water and land transport routes and is ideally located for orbital launches. It’s a possible origin-point for a new Terran empire that could force its neighbors under its control and link that empire together through numerous access ways. It’s also quite distant from any green towers. We believe by taking this tower, we can influence the decisions of neighboring yellow towers for thousands of kilometers nearby. Lunar forces will be concentrating on other enemy towers. This one is ours.

“We’ll begin with precision strikes from our cruisers in orbit, targeting heavy beam cannon, launchers, and airfields located outside the tower itself. Invictus-class drones will provide additional fire-support from orbit during the operation. Pilum aerospace drones will descend into the atmosphere to engage airborne targets and degrade anti-air weapons systems.”

He paused, letting us soak in the overall map of moving dots and highlighted areas.

“Then, it’s our turn,” he says.

It looks like every squadron is going to have a different job. One is going to remain in reserve aboard the Weston. Another is staying up there to defend the fleet from whatever counterattack might come from below. Commander Rackham will be leading the squadron dedicated to defeating any remaining aircraft and will then be circling the tower, able to move in to help whoever gets into trouble.