America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 3: Silent Invasion Read Online Free

without going to war.”
     
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Contents
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
    The Arthropodan Fleet commander and General
Kalipetsis agreed to face-to-face negotiations at Camp Alaska. The
Fleet commander landed with five shuttles and a thousand Special
Forces marines. They promptly freed about two hundred insurgents
held at the detention center, and set up a spider zone of control
dividing Camp Alaska.
    My battalion was ordered to Camp Alaska. I
sat in on the negotiations. Lieutenant Lopez joined us.
    “I strongly protest the landing of
Arthropodan marines,” announced General Kalipetsis. “Are you trying
to provoke a war?”
    “No,” replied the Arthropodan Fleet
Commander. “Quite the contrary. I am here to stop a war. The
marines are merely a needed precaution. You will remember the last
time I was here under a flag of truce, I was attacked and
injured.”
    “By occupying Camp Alaska and freeing
dangerous terrorists from prison, you hope to prevent a war?” asked
General Kalipetsis. “Excuse me if I doubt your credibility.”
    “It is you who lacks credibility,” argued the
Fleet Commander. “How many prisoners have died in your gulags? We
freed those prisoners to save them from certain death at the hands
of the Legion. If they did not die from your abuse, surely the
approach of winter would have killed them all.”
    “Your troops must leave,” said General
Kalipetsis. “They are a provocation and violate our
sovereignty.”
    “The marines are just temporary,” said the
Fleet Commander. “I propose they stay in place only during
negotiations. We can agree that both sides will not reinforce
existing troops or commit any aggressive acts.”
    “What about all the insurgents you just
freed?” asked General Kalipetsis.
    “I promise to control the locals while we
negotiate,” said the Fleet Commander. “That is the easy part.”
    I stepped outside and radioed the T.
Roosevelt Space Weapons Platform. “I want you to target the five
Arthropodan shuttles that landed in Camp Alaska,” I ordered.
    “We can’t do that,” replied the Commander of
the T. Roosevelt. “We are surrounded by the Arthropodan Fleet. They
have threatened to destroy us if we bomb any part of the planet, or
make any aggressive moves.”
    “That is a risk I am willing to take,” I
commented. “I am ordering you to destroy those shuttles. Don’t make
me come up there!”
    I walked back inside to join the
negotiations. “Do you really expect us to believe you will not land
more troops or make any more aggressive acts?” General Kalipetsis
was saying. “You have broken all your promises so far.”
    “Yes, I give my word,” said the Fleet
Commander. “The status quo is fine, for now.”
    The loud explosions from outside rocked the
building. We peered out the windows in time to see the destruction
of the spider shuttles.
    The Fleet Commander was furious. “What
treachery is this?” he fumed. “This is your doing, Czerinski!”
    “I am merely enforcing our agreement per
treaty not to land large amounts of troops,” I responded. “Be glad
I used restraint. I should have bombed much more. I will, the next
time you violate the peace treaty.”
    “You human pestilence show time after time
you cannot be trusted,” replied the Fleet Commander.
    “Now we have a new agreement on the table,”
said General Kalipetsis. “We accept the new agreement, but will not
tolerate more violations. Is that acceptable to you?”
    “I agree,” said the Fleet Commander. “It is
only my desire for peace that restrains me from avenging your
belligerence.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    The spiders quickly put up a fence dividing
Camp Alaska to establish their zone of control. A checkpoint
controlled traffic between the zones. Corporal Tonelli and Private
Wayne drew guard duty on the Legion side that night. Their
opposites on the spider side waved at them to come over and
talk.
    “Bring Spot,” said Private Wayne. The monitor
dragon had