Somewhere To Run To

By Mike Adams

Book 22 of Fierce Girls At War ‘Somewhere To Run To’ finds Commander Rick Cassidy and Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford with Jacks Company in Winter Cove, their hoped-for refuge for the coming winter, along with the nearly 500 Rangers and civilians they rescued from the downed transport Moscow. They know it’s only a matter of time before the aliens pay a visit to find out why the Winter Cove garrison hasn’t answered but with the comm equipment taken from the Moscow they hope to be able to call for pickup before that happens. In the West the aliens are closing in on New Hope Town by sea and ground while efforts continued to evacuate the thousands of inhabitants to the volcano bastions and to the Gamma continent but those bastions aren’t ready to accept so many people yet.

An alien fleet is on its way here and my detachment will be front and center waiting for them to show up. My mom’s coming in on the Antarctica with the Advanced Relief Expeditionary Force. She’ll kill me all over again if I get myself killed before she gets here.
-Lieutenant Nicole O’Brien, platoon leader in the American detachment of Blade Company

Commander Rick Cassidy and Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford’s Jacks Company has rescued the Rangers and civilians who’d been on the besieged transport Moscow and brought them back to the temporary safety of Winter Cove. Their time there could be short however. They know that the aliens would be coming to check on its Winter Cove garrison sooner or later. In the East, alien forces are closing in on the colonial capital New Hope Town and the evacuation of its population begins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Adams
• Release date: Jul 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005797959

Mike Adams

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, NY. Mike has a BS in Business Admin from Wagner College and an MBA from SDSU. A retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander, Supply Corps (Logistics), a former small business owner, and part-time substitute teacher. he's visited 6 continents and 36 countries, speak Spanish, some German, a little Italian and a little less French. He currently lives in Chula Vista, CA with his wife Chris.

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Chapter 1

Paola Bertalucci

June 22, 2127

Day 262

Winter Cove

Second-year New Hope Academy student Paula Bertalucci and her twin brother Paolo were in born in Bolzano, Italy on April 18, 2111. Their parents, Giancarlo and Bambi Bertalucci, were both physicians at a hospital in the city that was on the edge of the Tyrolian Alps in the northeastern corner of the country. The brother and sister were both extremely intelligent and ultra-competitive kids, especially with each other. By the time she was 13, the dark-haired, brown-eyed Paola stood 5 foot 9 inches tall while Paolo hadn’t yet had his teenaged growth spurt and was still barely 5 foot 6 inches, a source of great amusement for Paola and great frustration for Paolo.

The brother and sister were best friends and they always pushed each other to do better; it was rare when one or the other wasn’t the top student in any of the subjects they studied. Paola was slightly better at mathematics and biology while Polo was slightly better at history and physics. They studied English and German in school and were fluent in both by age 13. They not only excelled academically but athletically as well. Everyone in the family was an avid skier and both kids liked to move fast, often trading in their skis for snowboards so they could do daredevil tricks that sometimes scared their parents when they caught them at it.

When their parents announced in June of 2124 that they had applied for and been offered physician positions at the New Hope Colony the two children were ecstatic. They had dreamed of going there ever since early 2121 when a friend of their mother, another doctor, had returned from the colony after spending a year and a half there. She’d told them amazing stories about living on another planet, the fourth planet in the Tau Ceti system, 8 light-years and a six-month voyage from Earth. They learned that its gravity was a little higher and that the oxygen content of the atmosphere was a light higher as well.

They were fascinated by the fact that Tau Ceti 4’s year was almost exactly half that of Earth. Although its day was longer, about 26 Earth hours, the colony used a 24-hour clock with each hour equal to 65 minutes. The short year made for drastic seasonal changes with short 60-day summer and fall seasons separated by even shorter 24-day spring and fall seasons. They heard about the native plants and wildlife, and about the vast mountain ranges on Alpha, the largest landmass and the only one of the three continents being explored and developed so far, and they were told what was planned for the colony in the future.

All of those things were of great interest to the twins but none equaled the news that there was a school at colony, the New Hope Academy. The Academy accepted only students who met the very rigorous academic standards that were set for prospective students who also had to pass the same rigorous required medical, physical and psychological exams and qualification tests that all civilians going to the colony were required to pass. The school only accepted high school-aged students, the minimum age was 14, but it was run more like a small college and its standard curriculum was much more advanced than in any high school on Earth.

Everyone in the Bertalucci family passed all the exams easily but they had to wait until spaces opened up on one of the starships going to the colony when the kids could meet the requirement that they turn 14 before the ship they were on made its jump out of Earth’s system. Starships first had to travel through normal space for 60 to 80 days, depending on where the Earth was in its path around the sun. Starships needed to travel beyond the gravity pull of the sun or any planets before they could activate their jump engines and enter jump space, where they crossed the more or less empty space between star systems. The ship would spend two weeks in jump space before coming out in the Tau Ceti system then it would spend between 70 and 85 days in normal space while it caught up with the colony planet as it made its own rotation around the local sun.

The family was scheduled to leave for the colony on the cargo supply ship Australia in June of 2125, two months after the twins turned 14, when in May, less than a month before they were supposed to leave, near-disaster struck the family that threw a wrench in their plans. Paolo had been out with some of his friends hiking in the hills not far from the family home when a misstep sent him tumbling down a steep hill, breaking both legs and causing some internal injuries. Fortunately, medical assistance was called for right away and was on the scene within minutes. Paolo would completely recover from all of his injuries but there was no possibility of his being fit enough to board the Australia in just three weeks. He would need several weeks to heal even with the assistance of medical nano-bots followed by extensive physical therapy.

This accident created a major dilemma for the family. Not only had they moved out of their home and listed it with a rental management company that had found new tenants who’d already moved in making their housing situation difficult, it created an employment dilemma for the two doctors who had both given up their positions at a local hospital. The Bertalucci doctors had very well-paying jobs waiting for them at the colony but there was a waiting list of people applying for those same positions. At least one of them needed to go on the Australia or they both risked losing their postings and there was no telling when, or even if, they would be able to go later. There were only so many slots allotted to Italy to fill skilled positions at the colony and it might be many months, or even years before another opportunity arose for both parents. Developing the New Hope Colony was an extraordinarily expense undertaking that required a consortium of over 50 countries to fund it with more joining every month; skilled positions at the colony were applied for by people from all of those countries.

When the Australia lifted off from Earth Control Terminal Number Three outside of Paris, France, only Paola and her mother were aboard. After some tearful goodbyes, Giancarlo had stayed behind with Paolo and they would follow once the boy was fully healed. They could have gone three months later on the cargo supply ship Antarctica but it was carrying over 400 Colonial Rangers who filled the majority of the 500 berths available on that class of starship. They would have to wait until February 2126 to board the colony transport ship Amundsen, a gigantic starship capable of carrying 5000 passengers that was only three-quarters full when it left for the colony.

Aboard the Australia there were just two 110-man national detachments of Rangers headed for the colony, the rest of the berths were filled by civilians including many families with kids who would be attending the New Hope Academy. There were 28 of the youngsters aboard between the ages of 13 (almost 14) and 16, and Paola became good friends with many of them. Among those friends were Americans River Jacobs and Montana Hernandez, Japanese student Fuka Hayakawa and Indonesian student Min Li.

Like Paola, most of them had already begun working on their academics before boarding the starship and were either able to receive credit for course work already completed or complete those classes once the voyage began. Every starship’s crew included academic instructors to teach or supervise the courses the students would take during the six-month transit to the colony. The students studied advanced subjects including different aspects of starship engineering systems, the starship’s onboard farming operation that provided fresh fruits and vegetables to the passengers and crew, the ship’s water and material recycling system, New Hope planetary biology, as well as world history, biology, physics and chemistry. The starship also offered ways to stay physically fit including climbing walls, a running track, a well-equipped fitness center, a VR game room, a pool, and a zero-gravity gym where they could practice body control and tumbling as well as play games such as zero-g tag.

While attending their regular school in Italy, Paola and her brother had begun working on their basic Academy requirements six-months before they were slated to leave on the Australia. Because of this head start Paola was close to finishing her first year requirements by the time they arrived at New Hope. All students lived on campus in the dormitories and Paola’s roommate was another friend from the Australia, Chinese student Bailin Chow. Both Bailin and Paola were gymnasts and dancers, and they both earned spots in the school’s performance group that put on shows with music, dance and tumbling for the entertainment-starved colonists.

Nine of the girls who came in on the Australia, including Paola, Bailin, Fuka, Min, Montana and River were selected for the girls’ spring internship tour of the eastern settlements in September of 2126. The boys had their own internship trips that went to the western settlements while the girls were in the East and went East when the girls were in the West. Spots on the internship tours were highly coveted with selection based on both academic achievement and athletic performance.

The girls’ spring tour departed from New Hope Town just a month after Giancarlo and Paolo Bertalucci arrived on the Amundsen. After the standard week in quarantine and acclimation upon arrival, the two were able to spend few days with Paola before Giancarlo departed for Winter Haven to join Bambi and begin working at the growing settlement clinic where she was now in charge of the emergency department. After a brief visit with his mother in Winter Haven, Paolo moved into a dorm on campus and began getting to know some of the other students before the two-month summer semester started in a few weeks.

The first stop for the internship was in New St Louis, a settlement of 5,000 people on the Clearwater River. The students spent their days in government and private company offices where they saw first-hand how the colony was being run and developed. They also put on two very well attended concerts open to the public at the new band shell that was down the hill from the settlement by the river on successive nights. The next stop was Southport with its 6,000 inhabitants on the southern coast. The evening before they were to leave for the southeastern coastal settlement of New Cancun the group learned that the transport they were scheduled to leave on had been diverted and they would have to wait until another came through Southport with enough seats available. There were 46 female students, aged 14 to 18, and 4 female interns who were all recent graduates but for one reason or another they weren’t ready to return to Earth to attend university. There were also 11 staff members accompanying the group, led by the school’s Assistant Director of Student Travel and Transportation, Veronika Tchachenko. Forced to move out of the hostel in town, where the rooms they occupied were already reserved for some people expected to arrive from New Hope Town the following day, most of them stayed in some cottages along the beach for the next two days while a few stayed with their families who lived in the town.

Late the second afternoon of their forced layover, they were told to board the cargo transport lander Cairo. It had come in that afternoon and would be leaving before dawn in the morning. Paola was still asleep in her crash couch in the forward main deck passenger when the 850-foot long passenger and cargo anti-grav transport lifted off before dawn for the two-hour flight to New Cancun. Besides the internship group there were just five other passengers onboard plus the 27-man crew. The other passengers were Commander Rick Cassidy, the Director of Logistics for the colony, and his deputy Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford, and medical officer Major Maya Scott and two medics, Staff Sergeant Ian Ferguson and Sergeant Heidi Kampf. Cassidy and Pickford were escorting a large shipment of weapons, ammunition and other material for the Ranger Base in New Cancun and the Ranger posts in Southport, Winter Haven and New St Louis. Scott was to be the senior medical officer for Second Battalion and the medics would be re-joining the Canadian and German detachments they’d arrived with on the Amundsen.

Just twenty minutes later, the Cairo flew over a fleet of alien ships headed for the southern coast east of Southport. Blasts of white-hot plasma from alien energy weapons on those ships pummeled the huge transport, badly damaging its starboard grav cells and causing the Cairo to roll over onto its side while still over 20,000 feet above the sea below.

Paula had gotten up shortly after lift-off to use the restroom and had nearly reached her crash couch when the ship began to vibrate then bucked hard enough to knock people off their feet. Girls were screaming and the emergency alarm was sounding then the floor dropped out from under them as the passenger compartment turned on its side. Terrified, Paola tried reach her crash couch but it was too late to enter it and get strapped in, all she could do was hang onto one of the stanchions that secured it to the deck. She spent the next 40 minutes there holding on, not wanting to fall 60-feet to the now lower starboard bulkhead.

Just before crashing into a mountain valley 500 miles north of Southport the flight crew was able to level out the transport long enough for the handful of Rangers and teachers still able to move to help the remaining students into crash couches. Within seconds of the transport leveling out, Gunnery Sergeant Pickford was at Paola’s side. The Marine plucked the 15-year off the deck, shoved her into the crash couch then jumped in after her, hitting the emergency activation button which caused the couch canopy to drop and lock into place. Pickford had already put the injured Athena Milonos and Chloe Capps into crash couches before time ran out. A few seconds later the transport hit the ground hard then skidded for a mile before ramming into a wall of granite that stopped the transport cold and killed 20 of the 27 members of the crew. All of the girls survived but four of the teachers died in the crash.

Over the next two months Rick Cassidy and Molly Pickford, with the help of the handful of surviving Ranger NCOs in the ship’s crew, trained the students and teachers to fight aliens and demon wolves, the deadly predators that lived in the mountains and would be coming down into the valley once the lake at its south end froze over. Near the end of the summer the aliens came in three of their transports with some 900 Raagaas, the semi-primitive giant mercenaries that had been hired by the smaller, more technologically advanced Jammies, so-called because of the one-piece footed coverall-like garment they wore that reminded the Rangers of toddlers’ pajamas.

Paula was assigned to squad Five, a group of six girls aged 14-18. Trained by Cassidy and Pickford to be an excellent marksman, she was also trained by Major Scott and the other medical personnel to be the squad’s medic. During the Battle of the Valley her squad manned a sniper post on the western ridge 200 feet above the valley floor where it overlooked the crashed transport. When a spiked iron ball thrown by one of the inhumanly strong giants hit the squad’s NCO Corporal Gert Hammer, it ripped a chunk of flesh out of his shoulder and opened an artery. Wasting no time and at great risk to herself, Paula immediately sprang into action and went to work on the profusely bleeding German even as Raagaa spears flew just over her head and more spiked iron balls whizzed by. She saved his life then helped get Hammer down off the ridge when the battle was over. Soon after, the group adopted the name Jacks Company, short for ‘Jacks the Giant Killers’, a name that had been suggested by River Sleight, a 15-year-old American student killed instantly when she was hit by a Raagaa war hammer during the battle.

During the winter, Paola fought with her squad again, this time against the packs of ferocious 800-1200 pound demon wolves that had descended into the valley hoping to make a meal of the humans. When the spring came and the warming weather melted the snow in the valley, it was time for most of Jacks Company to leave the valley and try to reach safety before the next winter closed in. Before the company departed the valley though, Paola had suggested an idea that might protect the valley and those staying behind from a second attack by the aliens. Using one of the shuttles to lift them high four towlines designed to pull a disabled transport were hung above the valley from one side to the other. A few weeks later, an alien airship ran into one of those towlines. It was swatted out of the sky when an iron-pine tree attached to one end of the line was pulled out of the thin soil of the valley and smashed into the airship causing it to crash into the granite wall on the east side of the valley where it exploded.

After being ferried out of the mountains by anti-grav shuttles that had been in cargo, and which had only small maintenance power cells with a very limited flight endurance, the company had to cross hundreds of miles of alien-occupied countryside. They rescued several groups of Rangers and civilians from the aliens before they had to fight for the ferry terminals at the Clearwater River. Paola’s squad went with Captain Gabriella Tomei, the only one of Cairo’s flight officers to survive the crash, across the river to its western bank in two inflatable boats. The small group took the ferry house and the 120-foot long ferry inside it from the eight Raagaas stationed there then wiped out an alien scouting party returning to the ferry the next afternoon without suffering any casualties.

Two weeks after crossing the Clearwater Jacks Company reached alien-occupied Winter Cove. Squad Five helped capture the facility’s admin building before the assault on the west barracks building. Paola’s squad was with Molly Pickford when they entered the central lounge on the first floor of the barracks where dozens of the giant aliens were camped out. The firefight was brief but not without casualties. Paola was firing at the giants when out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the Raagaas launch a spiked iron ball in her direction. She had no time to move out of the way and it hammered into the armored vest that protected her chest. Without the vest, the blow would have killed her. Instead, it broke three of her ribs and knocked her unconscious. Bleeding internally, she was carried to the clinic in the admin building where Major Scott had set up to treat any wounded. The doctor had to operate to stop the bleeding and seal the nicked artery then Paola, who was now 16, still in serious condition, was put into one of the medical pods that had been left behind when the Rangers had hurriedly evacuated Winter Cove to escape the approaching aliens the previous spring. Paola wasn’t the only serious casualty, but at least no one had been killed and Jacks Company had settled in to stay for at least a little while.

Chapter 2

Staff meeting

New Hope Town

The morning staff meeting at Colonial Ranger HQ in the Administrative Center onboard the converted exploration starship Seeker was scheduled to start at 0900 but when General Jamison entered to take a seat he noticed that his Communications officer Lieutenant Commander Remy Baysic was missing. She was called down to the communications center a moment ago, General, said his Chief of Staff Colonel Raymond Cassel.

I see. Major Leclerc, what is the latest on enemy troop movements?

The staff Intelligence officer replied, The aliens are continuing to move more troops from the East and from the camps further north. Most appear to be going to the encampments between 100 and 150 miles north and northwest of our first line of defense. Our current estimate is about 35 to 40,000 so far. More are moving this way from their encampments between here and Novo Napoli although we haven’t seen them bring in anymore troops beyond what were delivered there a week ago. They have also moved their encampments closer as well. Our scouts have counted three separate camps between 80 and 100 miles east of here along the coast road with a minimum of 4 to 5,000 at each. We’ve also spotted over 50 of their ground and air vehicles with most of them to the north of us; only a dozen or so have been seen near the coast road.

What kind of air vehicles are they? Any idea? asked Colonel Alex Martinez, the Air Operations officer.

The French officer gave a half-shrug as he replied, We think they are some type of air-cushioned vehicles. It looks like the ground vehicles have four large wheels on each side. They are longer than any of our standard cargo trucks, or our APCs, and they are wider as well; more the size of a heavy earthmover. The air-cushioned vehicles have no tires or wings. As best we can tell, they don’t go more than six to ten feet off the ground.

Just then Remy Baysic entered the conference room and with a nod to the General she took her seat then said, "Sir, we’ve just heard from the Oslo. They’re inbound from the scouting mission to New Cancun, Southport and Rocky Point. They spotted 50 alien vessels heading south from Novo Napoli. Another 50 or so of their vessels have arrived at Rocky Point from the East but there’s no sign yet that they are getting ready to load their troops, most arrived over the last 48 hours. There are more still on the way from Southport."

You say they’re headed south? asked Cassel.

Yes, sir. They were about 40 miles south of Novo Napoli and headed due south.

They were carrying troops? asked Jamison.

"Yes, General. The Oslo had to stay out of range of their plasma cannons so they weren’t able to get a look at all of them but the ones they could see were full of Raagaas."

If they’re headed south, they may be headed for the Gamma continent, noted the recently promoted staff Operations officer Colonel Lars Rasmussen.

"If so that would mean they’ve detected our transports or the Australia landing at the Gamma I or Gamma II sites, perhaps both," said the First Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Cheung Lee.

It may be difficult to keep track of them if they go far enough south, said Alex Martinez. They’ll be hard to spot on the open ocean.

Just because they’re going south now doesn’t mean they’re headed for Gamma, Cassel pointed out. They could turn west at some point.

If they do head for Gamma, how much of a danger will they be to the bastions there? asked Lieutenant Colonel Rebecca Wheeler, the Regiment’s senior Administrative officer.

Hopefully not much of a danger, said Jamison. Those valleys were chosen because of their inaccessibility. I doubt the aliens can get anywhere near them overland. Site I is just 50 miles from the northern coast but the terrain is more than difficult, it’s treacherous with multiple large chasms and sheer hills to get past. Site II is 400 miles from the coast and most of that is desert with little or no water. The bastion is in a valley at over 3000 feet and getting up there is near impossible except by air.

Why go to Gamma then? asked Gunderson.

They may not realize how difficult the terrain will be or it may be a diversion meant to cause us to weaken our defenses around New Hope Town in order to reinforce Gamma, Cheung Lee suggested.

Perhaps, said the General, "but they may not be going there at all. Remy, do you think the Australia will be able to track them from orbit?"

Baysic had been the senior Communications officer on the Marco Polo before swapping jobs with Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Stafford who also took charge of the nearly 1,000 injured Rangers and civilian volunteers headed back to Earth, She replied, "Yes and no, General. First, they’d have to locate them and that’s unlikely