Recovery Mission

Prologue

Lieutenant Zoey Bryant

October 2121

Monrovia, Liberia

Born in New York City in 2096, Zoey Bryant was a 5'10" All-State volleyball player as a senior and at the top of her class in high school. Zoey was recruited by the US Army to attend the Military Academy at West Point where she was captain of the women's volleyball team while rising to the cadet rank of Executive Officer of the Second Regiment. She graduated 4th in her class in 2118, and after completing Ranger school she joined the 4th Ranger Battalion as a platoon leader in C Company in December of 2119.

In March of 2121, C Company was sent to the Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan for four mostly uneventful months then was withdrawn and redeployed to Liberia in West Africa. The country was once again on the verge of civil war and the government, one friendly to the US, had asked for assistance. Two Ranger companies were sent to discourage the rebels from trying to take over the Liberian capital of Monrovia. The 478 men and women of Companies C and D and their supporting units made themselves at home in three large empty hangars. Hangars 7, 8 and 9 were grouped close together off the secondary runway on the west side of the main airport, located on the northern outskirts of the city. The two companies were supported by a heavy platoon of 25 armored fighting vehicles, a team of medical personnel, and 2 armored anti-grav combat shuttles.

###

The new commander of C Company Captain Marvin Stanton Lewis was sitting in the makeshift dining area in the hangar having lunch with Lieutenants Zoey Bryant, Cal Hoffman, Desmond Chow, Carlos Armendariz and Beth Bormann, eating fried chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. The atmosphere was relaxed and he was making an effort to get to know his four platoon leaders - Bryant, Hoffman, Chow and Armendariz. Beth Bormann was one of the shuttle pilots. The five junior officers were talking about their families and where they came from and Captain Lewis told them about his time as a platoon leader in D Company, then as XO in A Company. He had taken command of C Company just a week earlier, a month after his soldiers had arrived in Monrovia. Lewis had been a Ranger for seven years and he had seen combat in Northern Pakistan and Nigeria. He had just come from the staff of the Joint Operations Command. The mission commander Major Jeff Bledsoe was in Lagos, Nigeria for a meeting with senior leadership at the US Operations African Area Command HQ.

Captain Ashton Tanner’s D Company had gone out to the east side of the city where most of the various embassy compounds were concentrated. There had been sporadic fighting a few miles further east of the city between government forces and the rebels. Tanner and his company were tasked with making themselves a visible presence the rebels would hesitate to take on. Lewis’s C Company would relieve them the next morning, if needed.

Second Lieutenant Armendariz, the newest platoon leader in C Company asked, The rebels are making noise on the east side. How long before they make an appearance somewhere else?

Captain Lewis replied, Intelligence reports say there were several hundred rebels somewhere about fifty miles north of here a few days ago but they’ve lost track of them. They’re also not sure where they’re going if anywhere. They could be the same ones making noise on the east side of town or they could be a whole different group. The jungle is pretty thick and its easy hide from overhead observation.

Is that all based on satellite and drone searches or is there some human intel backing that up? asked Bormann.

Zoey Bryant said, I wouldn’t count on any human intel we get around here. They’re really good at feeding us false info. I wouldn’t trust the government sources either. There are a lot of people wondering if the rebels are really the good guys. For decades, Liberia had one of the most stable governments in all of Africa but things had gone steadily downhill since the viral pandemic of 2103, and now corruption had spread everywhere.

Lewis and the others looked at the very attractive dark-skinned, almond-eyed First Lieutenant and Cal Hoffman said, That’s not what we’ve been hearing, Zoey. Everything I’ve heard says the opposite, that the government has the full support of the population.

Captain Lewis regarded Bryant speculatively, All the official briefings I’ve had before coming out here say pretty much the same thing. What makes you say that, Zoey?

With a hint of a smile on her lips, Zoey Bryant replied, Unlike my lighter-skinned friends here I’ve been able to walk around town in civilian clothes without drawing any unwanted attention. Not much anyway. I’ve also studied the local language a bit. The people on the street that I’ve talked to say they don’t know who to be more afraid of, the rebels or the government. The government is going broke and a lot of people aren’t getting paid on time so more and more of them are demanding a little extra on the side from people needing government services. They also told me that people the government suspects of supporting the rebels have disappeared. Whether that means the police or the army has been picking them up or they’ve just left town or if they’re just rumors without basis nobody knows.

Marvin Lewis nodded his head, Well, that squares with what the American Military Liaison told me when I stopped by the embassy on the way here. Off the record and not yet corroborated, but he told me some of what you just said, Zoey. The government has requested some financial support from us but congress has been saying no.

Sounds like typical short-sighted stupidity, Desmond Chow said as he sat back in his chair. "You know I noticed that one of the things we haven’t seen in the intel reports we’ve been given are attacks by the rebels on civilians. They sometimes get in the way but they haven’t been targeted. At least none were mentioned."

Lewis agreed, Yes, I noticed that, and that’s a smart approach. Whoever is behind them has created the current instability, or exploited it anyway. Enough to cause the conditions where the government and civil society starts to deteriorate. If they claim to be fighting against a corrupt government on behalf of the people they’ll garner more support.

"Could they be the good guys? Bormann asked. The lesser evil, I should say."

Lewis shook his head, No, not even close. We know they get at least some of their financial support from Hassan Gul and whenever he’s involved it can’t be good. He and his sons are pure poison. I doubt he even cares who comes out ahead here; he just wants to create chaos everywhere. He’s not stupid though. And he may have a bigger following than anyone thinks.

The on-duty communications tech Corporal Ward Rollins called over, Captain Lewis! Captain Tanner is calling, Sir. Says it’s urgent!

Okay, put him through, Rollins. His comm badge chirped and Lewis answered, Captain Lewis here.

"Marv, we’re under heavy attack! There are at least three hundred heavily armed insurgents. My Rangers are fully involved. I’ve got a dozen casualties who need immediate medevac!"

Understood, Ash! I’m sending a med team on one of the shuttles. Beth Bormann was already moving towards the aircraft parked outside and calling for the other aircrew to get moving as she went. Lewis gave a little wave to Zoey Bryant who nodded and took off to alert the medical team under their unit’s senior Medical officer, Major Lucinda Ramos. Are you in need of reinforcement?

"Get your people ready but standby till I can tell you where to send them." Just then, there was a loud boom outside. Lewis and the four lieutenants ran out the hangar entrance and looked east where several Rangers were pointing at a huge fireball rising several hundred feet into the morning sky.

Ash, what was that? Lewis asked Tanner.

"Oil storage tank further east. Shit! Take cover!" Bryant and the others heard the sounds of explosions coming from the captain’s comm. We’ve got mortar rounds coming in! Can’t tell where they’re coming from! We need air support ASAP!

Bormann’s aircraft was already lifting off, the second shuttle would follow as soon as the med team boarded. On their way, Ash. Keep your heads down! We’ll be ready to move in five!

"Copy that."

The company commander turned to his platoon leaders, Cal, Des, Carlos, get your people ready to go. The three hurried off calling for their platoon sergeants. When Bryant returned he said, Zoey, you’ve got the reserve platoon. They’re going to need help with the injured when they get back here!

Yes, Captain! Bryant went back inside the hangar and called for her platoon sergeant and squad leaders. The reserve platoon would provide stretcher-bearers, and any other assistance they could when the casualties started coming in, the rest would set up a defensive perimeter in case of trouble. They would be called, if they were needed on the other side of town.

It was quiet in the immediate area of the airport when Tanner called for reinforcements a few minutes later. Captain Lewis led the three platoons from C Company to the northeast towards where the US Embassy was located. Lieutenant Bryant and her platoon sergeant Master Sergeant Kyle Brenner went around checking on the platoon’s 43 Rangers, who were supported by just four large armored personnel carriers with their onboard weapons systems, the rest were with Tanner and Lewis.

It was not long before the shuttle with D Company’s casualties returned. Major Ramos and the rest of her team had been busy getting the mobile surgical unit in the rear of Hangar 8 ready for business. Bryant and Master Sergeant Brenner were waiting when the shuttle’s rear cargo ramp was lowered. Captain Kellin Fontaine waved them over. Medics began bringing out the wounded Rangers.

Doctor Fontaine said, Lieutenant, we’ve got three in med pods in here who need surgery ASAP. The rest are less serious. We brought back two dead but there are more out there we couldn’t get to.

Bryant waved to a squad of her Rangers who had been standing by, Let’s get them inside then, Sir. Major Ramos and Lieutenant Sutherland have everything ready. Lieutenant Angie Sutherland was one of the two nurses with the team; the other, Lieutenant Nate Bridger was coming out of the shuttle with the first of the medical pods containing the most seriously wounded.

We’re going back as soon as these are inside, Fontaine said.

"How are things over there?"

Busy. Our guys are being hit from the east and south. There must be at least several hundred rebels with heavy weapons over there.

Captain, we’re ready to go, called one of the medics a few moments later from inside the shuttle.

Coming! Fontaine put his helmet back on and trotted up the ramp followed by Bridger and three other medics. A moment later, the shuttle lifted off and headed east again.

The shuttle was out of sight when Zoey heard her name shouted from the next hangar over. Lieutenant Bryant! Staff Sergeant Coombs was coming out of Hangar 8 and ran up to her. Lieutenant, all our comms are down. I think we’re being jammed!

The departure of most of C Company and the twelve armored vehicles carrying them, then the medical shuttle, was the signal for the rebels to attack the Rangers’ compound at the airport. The attack began 15 minutes after Lewis left to reinforce Tanner’s company, and began when a cry was heard from a Ranger on watch atop one of the armored vehicles. We’ve got incoming! There’s eight, nine, no ten vehicles headed this way from the other side of the airfield. Lieutenant! Technicals! Technicals were improvised fighting vehicles, which might be armed with machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars or a combination of all three. I think there’s more behind them!

Bryant looked towards the north and saw the vehicles moving towards them on the runway tarmac. She could see that they had makeshift armor plates welded all around them. Zoey shouted to her platoon sergeant, Master Sergeant Brenner! We’ve got no comms, take charge of squads 3 and 4 and Hangar 9, I’ll take 1 and 2 and Hangar 7. We’ve got to keep them away from Hangar 8 and the med team!

I’m on it, L.T.!

Bryant ran over to Hangar 7 where the four APCs were parked, their drivers were getting them moving. The crews were manning the machine guns on top, and the rocket launchers controlled from a panel inside each vehicle. Staff Sergeant Sarah Miller, the ranking NCO among them was waiting for Bryant’s orders.

Miller! I want two of your APCs over by Hangar 9, one at the far corner, one at the corner by Hangar 8. The other two do the same on this side!

Right, Lieutenant! Miller ran over to the waiting vehicles and passed on Bryant’s orders. The attacking rebels had closed with range and began firing on the Americans. The Rangers returned fire.

Hold your fire! Wait ‘til they get closer! Don’t waste your ammo! Bryant dived behind a mound of sandbags as bullets passed close by and penetrated the thin hangar walls. An explosion behind her blew a hole in the north side of the hangar.

Mortars! Where’re they coming from? cried Corporal Straitham.

Heads down! yelled another Ranger just as another mortar round landed about ten yards to the west of the hangar. A third fell closer still.

Counter-mortar fire immediately began to go out from the three mortar teams set up by Hangar 8. Let’s move people! Bryant ordered. Move to the other side of the hangar! The three 3-man fire teams who were spread out nearby ran for the cover of the opposite side of the hangar while the two APCs gave them covering fire. One launched a rocket that blew a technical up into the air, its occupants torn to pieces. Zoey Bryant grabbed Private Nguyen, who had tripped and fallen, and pulled him to his feet. The wide-eyed private gave her a little grin of gratitude and hurried after the rest of his section. When she reached a safer spot away from the mortar rounds, which continued to fall close to Hangar 7, she called over to the nearest fire team, Sergeant Lucchesi!

L.T.?

Send one of your guys to the rear of the hangar and take a look back there. I want to make sure no one’s trying to come at us from that direction!

Okay! The fire team leader spoke to one of his teammates who ran back towards the rear of the hangar to take a look. A marsh ran all along that side of the airport, which should make it difficult for anyone to approach from that direction. The marsh was likely their greatest advantage at the moment. Unless the rebels had some way to cross the swamp undetected, the Rangers could not be surrounded. If worst came to worst Bryant could load all her people in the armored vehicles which had some amphibious capability but that would be a last resort, not all of the wounded would make it out if they had to do that. In the meantime, with their communications jammed Bryant could not call for assistance; she and her platoon were on their own.

Bryant watched as another rocket took out one of the closest technicals, which had closed to within a hundred yards of the hangar line. Four of the first ten technicals had been destroyed and two others had stopped moving although their guns were still firing. Looking behind them, the young lieutenant could see at least two dozen more vehicles headed their way. She glanced around her platoon’s perimeter, they had suffered several casualties already, and she concluded that if even half of those incoming technicals got close enough they would be able to shred all three hangars and her platoon and the surgical unit with them.

Lucchesi! The Ranger NCO looked back as she hurried over to him, We have to protect the surgical unit! Move over to Hangar 8! Take the other fire teams with you!

Yes, Lieutenant!

As soon as he acknowledged she took off for the nearest APC and climbed in the open rear hatch, Shift over to Hangar 8! We’re too spread out! The driver nodded and the armored vehicle began moving towards the next hangar. She called the NCO in charge of the vehicle, who was at the rocket launcher control station, Sergeant Hadid!

Yes, Lieutenant? he replied just as the APC rocked from the blast of a mortar rounded just yards away.

There are a lot more technicals coming after this bunch. If we just sit here, they’ll overwhelm us. We have to go at them!

Lock and load?

Lock and load! Cover me while I pass the word!

You got it, L.T.! Hadid replied with a feral grin.

Bryant dashed out and ran over to the platoon sergeant, and told him what she wanted them to do. She had every other fire team board the APCs, the rest of the platoon under Brenner would concentrate around Hangar 8, where the wounded, including several from her platoon, were being treated inside. The mortar teams stayed with Brenner. Two members of the fire teams boarding each APC manned the two Gatling guns, which fired 8-inch-long armor piercing explosive rounds at a rate of 10 per second. These weapons had not been brought into play yet. The speeding armored technicals were staying back out of range and having turned right or left, they were making themselves more difficult targets while they waited for the 30 or so vehicles coming up behind them rapidly. The fire team’s third member manned the secondary heavy machine gun at the rear of the APC. The other fire team would man the now open firing ports on either side with their assault rifles and look for any targets the main guns might have missed.

Bryant had moved over to Staff Sergeant Miller’s vehicle and told her, Let’s go! Lead the way, Miller!

Yes, Sir!

With Miller’s fighting vehicle in the lead, the four APCs spread out and charged towards the rebel trucks. The rebels were slow to realize what was happening and the Rangers were on them before they could evade their fire. The APCs quickly closed the distance between them and the Gatling guns tore into the technicals, easily penetrating their thin steel side plates. Five of the six rebel vehicles remaining from the rebels’ first wave were destroyed in less than a minute. The sixth, its gun now unmanned, retreated rapidly.

The second wave was now close and seeing what had just happened some of them peeled off to the right, others to the left, trying to get around the Americans’ flanks, with most continuing straight on. Bryant had foreseen this response and one APC went after each set of flankers. Mortar rounds then began to fall in front of the flanking technicals causing them to veer off course haphazardly. The Ranger mortar teams were good at what they did and they had quickly silenced the rebel mortars hiding in the field on the opposite side of the runway and now turned their attention to the oncoming enemy. The Americans in the APCs were firing all their weapons relentlessly, the rockets, the Gatlings, and the machine guns each concentrating on different targets. Bryant and the fire teams were taking out rebel fighters on foot who had jumped off the backs of the technicals before the APCs had come out.

There! Those two heaps together! Drop us there! The APC came to a fast stop, Lieutenant Bryant and Sergeant Dan Dryer’s fire team jumped out and they took cover by two of the rebel vehicles that were smoldering almost side by side. In an age when virtually every road vehicle was electrically-powered, burning fuel was rarely a problem. The oil tank that they’d seen go up earlier contained heating and cooking oil for the poorer neighborhoods which still had limited or no access to solar power or to the city’s electrical grid. All four APCs had dropped off their fire teams and they were taking a terrible toll among the rebels on foot who were out on the open runway while the Americans used the damaged rebel vehicles for protection.

Things were happening too quickly for the poorly trained rebel fighters who had expected to surround the small group of Americans at the hangars while the majority of their comrades were over on the east side of the city. Their leaders planned to overwhelm the single platoon of Rangers with over three hundred fighters and some forty of the homemade armored vehicles, but the technicals were being destroyed by the superior firepower of the APCs, which were not only heavily armed and armored, they were also very fast and maneuverable. Only three of the rebel vehicles got past the APCs and Master Sergeant Brenner and his fire teams were ready for them. The gunners on the three charging vehicles were unable to aim effectively at the Rangers who were concentrating all their weapons on them while ignoring the handful on foot who were now running away. This gave the mortar teams a chance to switch weapons and bring out their short-range but very deadly shoulder-launched rockets, which made quick work of the approaching enemy trucks.

Smoldering vehicles littered the runway and the surviving technicals turned around then retreated rapidly, leaving the fighters on foot to their own devices. Bryant heard a chirp on her helmet comm telling her that the rebel jamming had stopped. She called a halt and had the APCs circle the area looking for any stray rebels who could pose a danger.

Satisfied that the battle was over Lieutenant Zoey Bryant surveyed her Rangers. One APC was moving slowly, its main power pack damaged by a rebel rocket but the Rangers inside were unharmed. Two Rangers had to be helped from the APCs. They’d been hit in their armored vests and had the wind knocked out of them. Eight of her Rangers had received wounds back by the hangars but only two were serious but non-life-threatening as the medical team was able to tend to them almost immediately. More than 30 enemy vehicles were now smoldering wrecks and nearly 200 hundred rebel bodies were strewn around the runway tarmac. A fair return she thought grimly.

"Lewis to Lieutenant Bryant," she heard over the comm link.

She replied, Bryant here, Sir.

"Things have calmed down over here. The rebels broke off all of a sudden and took off and we got our comms back up. The med shuttle is just about to head back to the airport; they’ve got a dozen or so of Captain Tanner’s people and two of Cal’s onboard."

I’ll let Major Ramos know.

"Everything quiet there, Zoey?"

Things are calm at the moment, Captain, she said trying to keep her voice casual, No sense having them rush back here now she thought.

Chapter 1

Captain Zoey Bryant

October 3, 2126

Day 21

New Hope Town

Colonial Ranger Captain Zoey Bryant was feeling frustrated as she watched her troopers oversee the civilian volunteers through their morning training evolutions. Her command, Delta Company, had been charged with training the hundreds of civilian volunteers who had stepped forward after the aliens invaded. Everyone understood that the colony would be on its own for at least a year even though there were some Rangers enroute to the colony. Those Rangers had no idea what awaited them.

The cargo supply ship Asia was due to arrive in a little over a month and it was carrying 4 field detachments plus some support personnel, over 450 Rangers altogether. The colony transport ship Marco Polo would be bringing another 2,200 Rangers about two months after that. All of those contingents were regular detachments armed with the same weapons the Ranger Regiment had. Some of the detachments were scheduled to increase the size of the Regiment in anticipation of expanded exploration operations while others were replacements for units due to rotate home. No one was going home now though, unless they were among the wounded or those caring for them, and the dead, of course.

Zoey was not just frustrated; she was grieving and angry. She had lost her two closest friends at the colony. Captain Jing Woo had been killed in battle north of New St. Louis on day 5, while Molly Pickford had disappeared along with her good friend Rick Cassidy and the cargo transport lander Cairo on the first day of the invasion. The Cairo had been attacked in the opening moments of the invasion and was thought to have come down somewhere in the mountains north of Southport but no one knew just where. She prayed that Molly and Rick were both alive and well, those transports were tough and if they had made it to some refuge in the mountains under power, they could very well all be alive and safe along with all those kids from the New Hope Academy. They might be unable to take off and without the comsats they would not be able to communicate with anyone to tell them where they were. There was nothing anyone could do but hope and think positive.

Unlike most of the Regiment’s detachments and companies, Delta Company had not met the aliens in battle yet and that was the real source of her frustration. A decorated US Army Ranger before she joined the Colonial Rangers, Zoey Bryant had almost four years of experience at the colony and she felt that she should be doing more than she was. Despite her protestations, First Battalion’s commander Colonel Angus McTeague had made it clear that the training cadre the company of experienced American and French Rangers represented was more valuable right there at the Ranger Base in the colonial capital of New Hope Town, helping get the civilians as ready as possible before they met the alien enemy. They were also the primary defensive force should the aliens show up in the immediate neighborhood.

Zoey understood the argument but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Some of her other longtime friends like French Captain Melissa Rossi, Ukrainian Captain Oksana Belenko and Chinese Captain Eva Zhang had all had their turn in the grinder and their companies had suffered terrible losses. Rossi and Belenko had