War in the Galaxy
A Science Fiction Novel
Read Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32.
33
The training base in Kent was small. They spent a month there, drilling and marching. New men were added to their unit to replace those who had been killed. These were fresh-faced recruits and conscripts. They had spent six months in basic training and another six in specialized infantry training.
Gurney tolerated the new men, but made little effort to know them better. There had been too many new faces in the past three years. There wasn't much use in learning every name. He only learned the names of those on his fire team.
The weather was always hot at the training base, and though it wasn't as dry as Quinque, Gurney found himself longing for cold weather. His wish came true when they were sent back to the front. After enduring a heavy naval engagement from the deck of a troop transport, unable to do anything to affect the course of the battle and forced to watch its progress – all the while knowing that a direct hit to the transport might implode it – the marines were landed on a frigid world orbiting a dying star. There was a Coalition base on one side of the planet, which had its own shipyard. A third of the Coalition fleet passed through here for repairs, so it was amazing that the Merian navy had been able to fight through close enough to land troops on the opposite side of the planet.
With the naval battle still raging overhead and with the knowledge that fire might come from the sky at any time to destroy them, the Merian forces made their way across two continents to assault the Coalition base. This took more than a day.
They met with little resistance until they reached the smaller continent in the northern hemisphere where the base was situated. Another unnamed continent on an unknown world. Gurney wondered how the officers were naming these battles, or if they had some other way of keeping track.
Once they closed in on the base, sorties began hitting them from air and land and sea. They moved inland to stay away from the coast, but they knew they were being tracked by seaships, and if they ever strayed within range a barrage of missiles would rain down on them.