Post by Floyd Looney on Jun 4, 2009 2:57:32 GMT -5
Margaret waved goodbye to her son as he entered the train to the Space Port where he would join tens of thousands of other young soldiers. This would be his first assignment in his stark green uniform of the ‘ground pounders’. She was worried about his attitude and hoped it would not get him into trouble out there, wherever those worlds were.
Soon the doors closed on the young men and the train zipped off almost before you noticed it was even moving. It was like a whoosh of air and then it was long gone unlike the trains of the old Earth past. Her husband had been a train engineer in the old days of the Magnetic Induction and Pulse Levitation. He retired when the new technologies had passed him by.
One moment he was waving at his mother as the doors closed and before he knew it they were opening right on the grounds of the Space Port. Joshua McMillan shouldered his small bag and followed the other young soldiers of the 1st Star Division. They formed up on the open tarmac near the huge spacecraft that would take them to the Carrier ships and then back down on the world they were attacking.
Soon six thousand young men were forming a perfect square and standing at attention as the Generals inspected them. Then the Commanding General Antonio Rush Hall addressed them. Joshua McMillan learned the world they would assault would be the first of the three hostile worlds. It was called Lysander and it had refused to negotiate with the United Earth Alliance so that peace could prevail.
The six thousand men of the 1st Star Division and the six thousand men of the 1st Planetary Pioneers would both be tasked to pacify the hostile world. When the job was done they would occupy it long enough for the new government with a Viceroy and Governor-General to be fully installed.
The Planetary Pioneers were already being launched to Carrier Roosevelt on the far side of the Earth. They would be uploaded to Carrier Mandela within the hour and within days the ground troops would be completely ready to move with the fleet.
As soon as the six thousand troops were loaded aboard the sixty landing ships and every other person had left the launching area the signal was sent. Underground the massive super-magnets were activated while the magnetic repulse fields of the ships were active. The sixty large vessels were fired upward at a shocking velocity all of them ignited boosters at twelve thousand feet and were soon hyper-sonic and then orbital.
Inside all six thousand soldiers were just returning to the real world when the vessels were pulled in and docked by the Carrier. Joshua had done that three times in basic training and once on an exercise and he still was not used to it. He was as slow in getting up as most of the others were.
Joshua had been born to a normal middle-class family although his father was just a bit older than most people his age. Even with the extra years of his parents they had still gotten permission to bear a child. Joshua began his sixteen years of guaranteed education at age two and by four he had been designated into the “masculine” category and by six the authorities had him tracked into the armed forces.
After five years in the force he could choose to train for a job in a starship or even move into something like engineering or civil service. The move would have to be approved by the authorities of course, but he thought of it as his choice nonetheless. He could be a Governor-General of a planet someday if he worked hard at it and the authorities approved- of course.
Joshua checked his equipment before locking them back up and moving towards the cafeteria where lunch was being served.
Lysander
The Central Committee was holding another meeting on the crisis and the alarmed citizens were demanding that something be done. They feared the impending invasion would ruin their world and lead to massive death and destruction. A few argued for capitulation but the members of the Central Committee rejected the notion out of hand.
Whatever it was that they decided would be transmitted to the Regional Committees and then down to the Local Committees. While the order had not yet come it was obvious to all that since surrender was not an option that every able-bodied man and boys older than 15 would be armed and prepared to meet the invaders.
“The Imperialists will not saddle us with their colonialism as they have on so many other worlds. We shall stop them as a movement of the people and we shall refuse to surrender to the last man” one of the members of the Central Committee bellowed. This brought rousing applause from all but a few.
A plaintive middle age woman addressed the council asking “If you all die for naught what shall we do then? The invaders shall have their way with the women and children who are left behind or will we also have to die for this cause?”
The response came from the senior member of the Central Committee. He sadly told her that “we have no choice. If it is either slavery or it is death then we choose death, I would rather fight for what is right than live as a slave knowing I made the choice”.
Soon the doors closed on the young men and the train zipped off almost before you noticed it was even moving. It was like a whoosh of air and then it was long gone unlike the trains of the old Earth past. Her husband had been a train engineer in the old days of the Magnetic Induction and Pulse Levitation. He retired when the new technologies had passed him by.
One moment he was waving at his mother as the doors closed and before he knew it they were opening right on the grounds of the Space Port. Joshua McMillan shouldered his small bag and followed the other young soldiers of the 1st Star Division. They formed up on the open tarmac near the huge spacecraft that would take them to the Carrier ships and then back down on the world they were attacking.
Soon six thousand young men were forming a perfect square and standing at attention as the Generals inspected them. Then the Commanding General Antonio Rush Hall addressed them. Joshua McMillan learned the world they would assault would be the first of the three hostile worlds. It was called Lysander and it had refused to negotiate with the United Earth Alliance so that peace could prevail.
The six thousand men of the 1st Star Division and the six thousand men of the 1st Planetary Pioneers would both be tasked to pacify the hostile world. When the job was done they would occupy it long enough for the new government with a Viceroy and Governor-General to be fully installed.
The Planetary Pioneers were already being launched to Carrier Roosevelt on the far side of the Earth. They would be uploaded to Carrier Mandela within the hour and within days the ground troops would be completely ready to move with the fleet.
As soon as the six thousand troops were loaded aboard the sixty landing ships and every other person had left the launching area the signal was sent. Underground the massive super-magnets were activated while the magnetic repulse fields of the ships were active. The sixty large vessels were fired upward at a shocking velocity all of them ignited boosters at twelve thousand feet and were soon hyper-sonic and then orbital.
Inside all six thousand soldiers were just returning to the real world when the vessels were pulled in and docked by the Carrier. Joshua had done that three times in basic training and once on an exercise and he still was not used to it. He was as slow in getting up as most of the others were.
Joshua had been born to a normal middle-class family although his father was just a bit older than most people his age. Even with the extra years of his parents they had still gotten permission to bear a child. Joshua began his sixteen years of guaranteed education at age two and by four he had been designated into the “masculine” category and by six the authorities had him tracked into the armed forces.
After five years in the force he could choose to train for a job in a starship or even move into something like engineering or civil service. The move would have to be approved by the authorities of course, but he thought of it as his choice nonetheless. He could be a Governor-General of a planet someday if he worked hard at it and the authorities approved- of course.
Joshua checked his equipment before locking them back up and moving towards the cafeteria where lunch was being served.
Lysander
The Central Committee was holding another meeting on the crisis and the alarmed citizens were demanding that something be done. They feared the impending invasion would ruin their world and lead to massive death and destruction. A few argued for capitulation but the members of the Central Committee rejected the notion out of hand.
Whatever it was that they decided would be transmitted to the Regional Committees and then down to the Local Committees. While the order had not yet come it was obvious to all that since surrender was not an option that every able-bodied man and boys older than 15 would be armed and prepared to meet the invaders.
“The Imperialists will not saddle us with their colonialism as they have on so many other worlds. We shall stop them as a movement of the people and we shall refuse to surrender to the last man” one of the members of the Central Committee bellowed. This brought rousing applause from all but a few.
A plaintive middle age woman addressed the council asking “If you all die for naught what shall we do then? The invaders shall have their way with the women and children who are left behind or will we also have to die for this cause?”
The response came from the senior member of the Central Committee. He sadly told her that “we have no choice. If it is either slavery or it is death then we choose death, I would rather fight for what is right than live as a slave knowing I made the choice”.
