A Show of Force Read Online Free

necessarily the same as ours.”
    “I’m detecting all three Scouts are now at the rally point, Captain,” Mister Navashee reported.
    “Mister Giles, move us into high orbit around Copora and hold position over Gastien,” Nathan ordered. “Comms, notify all Scouts to move into position around Copora to prevent escape. If any Jung shuttles attempt to flee Copora, take them out.”
    “Yes, sir,” Naralena acknowledged.
    “Contact Telles while you’re at it,” he added.
    “Message, sir?” Naralena inquired.
    Nathan looked at Jessica and smiled. “Tell him we now own the 61 Cygni system.”
     
     
    Commander Telles stood in the middle of the command post, his eyes scanning the various view screens in precise and practiced fashion. The screens displayed the feeds from cameras installed in the helmets of each Ghatazhak soldier. The images changed from time to time as technicians, monitoring the hundreds of camera feeds, selected those they felt at any given moment needed to be seen by their commander.
    No ordinary person could keep track of which combatant’s point of view they were seeing at any one moment, nor where that combatant was located in relation to the overall battle. However, for Commander Telles, it was a simple task of matching IDs in the upper corner of each display to their corresponding icons on the current tactical map.
    “It looks like we’ve pretty much got this area under control,” Master Sergeant Jahal stated.
    “Indeed,” Commander Telles agreed. “Have we uplinked to the Aurora?”
    “A few minutes ago,” the master sergeant replied. “They should be broadcasting globally as soon as the Scout ships get into position.”
    “Transfer tactical control for this area to Bunker Two.” Telles looked at the lead monitoring technician. “Show me the feeds from Strike Group Two,” he ordered, “squad leaders only.”
    The images on the view screen changed. Although it was obvious that the combatants were in an entirely different location, as evidenced by the lack of tall buildings in the background, the images they displayed were similar. Jung weapons fire was flying about, seemingly in all directions. The Jung resistance at their base outside of Gastien was considerable.
    Commander Telles noticed a look of concern on the senior monitoring technician’s face. “Problem?”
    “We’re only receiving two hundred feeds,” the senior controller reported.
    Commander Telles tapped his comm set. “Two Leader, Command. Sit-rep.”
    “ Command, Two Leader, ” the commanding officer of Strike Group Two replied over comms. The sound of weapons fire, explosions, and screams of agony could be heard in the background. “ Resistance is heavy, sir. The Jung have armored gun emplacements along the wall, positioned every ten meters, with multiple turrets at each corner. In addition, the perimeter is seeded with antipersonnel mines. Estimate force strength to be greater than five thousand within. ”
    “Containment?”
    “ Confirmed. We may not be able to get in, but they sure as hell can’t get out, either. ”
    “Losses?” the commander asked dispassionately.
    “ Estimate two hundred and twelve still combat effective. ”
    “That’s nearly half their force,” Master Sergeant Jahal said under his breath.
    “What about the insertion teams?” the commander inquired, ignoring the master sergeant. “Did any of them make it in?”
    “ Affirmative, but they didn’t last long. There are too many Jung troops inside the walls. We can keep jumping teams in and try to thin the bastards out, but we’re going to lose a few hundred of our own doing it, not to mention a few combat jumpers. So far, we’ve been lucky. ”
    Commander Telles took a moment studying the tactical map.
    “Incoming message from the Aurora, Commander,” the comm officer reported. “Message reads, ‘We now own the 61 Cygni system.’”
    “Own?” the master sergeant looked at his commander.