Faith & Empire: Book One of The Holy Terran Empire

3. The Hard Nut

"The planet's atmosphere is composed of seventy-six percent hydrogen, fifteen percent helium and the rest is mostly methane which, the last three days of observations have shown us, can erupt in fiery geysers from beneath the planet's mantle at random," L'Amour began his description of Muvuru-3.

"Sounds highly unstable," Chaplain Prata said.

"It is, Padre," the colonel agreed. "The planet has a metastable liquid metal core of ultra-pressurized hydrogen. And planetary mantle instability and deterioration is being exacerbated by the mining operations. More on that in a minute.

"Gravity is eighty-eight percent of Earth's standard, so mobility should not be a problem. Lastly, we'll be touching down during the planet's deep winter. Surface temperature averages sit at a chilly minus 50 degrees Celsius."

The holographic orb ballooned again, enlarging to display a large swath of rugged terrain of dun and dull yellow faintly marbled with streaks of rust-red. A shoehorn-shaped protrusion of rock wedged between a large, deep crater and towering mountains was centered on the image.

"Our target is here," the colonel continued, highlighting the shoehorn. "Eleven degrees south of the equatorial line, dug a kilometer and a half deep into this mesa. We've detected three entrances, one at the top, another at the base of the mesa's north side and one on its east side about half way up at the end of this narrow land bridge. We will assault the base from each direction. Thus, Attack Group Delta will be subdivided into three forces.

"The Halberds, Santos Godfrey de Bouillon, Don Juan, Gonzalo Fernandez and King Louis will drop our 3rd Battalion and two squads of mechs in this valley just six klicks north of the mesa. The Hermann von Salza and the King Konrad will add Austros' 5th Battalion. Together, this northern force will be designated, Iron Arm. And it will lay low in this valley, safely out of the enemy's line of sight, until called forth by the King Alfred.

"The call will come as soon as the eastern force, designated Hammer Strike, climbs out of this sunken plain. Hammer Strike will consist of our 5th Battalion, two squads of mechs, Austros' 4th Battalion and Martel's Marauder's Tank Corps. The Santos Cortes, Andrea Doria, Colombo and Torquemada will drop our boys, and the King Andrew and Czar Nicholas will bring theirs.

"Dropping directly onto the sunken plain would expose the ships to overwhelming fire from the mesa's ground to orbit batteries. You will instead drop to the surface here, seventy-one kilometers south and fly as low as possible through these hills to the sunken plain. This course will greatly reduce your exposure to enemy fire.

"First Battalions, Austros and Imperial will be designated, force Thunderclap, and together, we will assault the mesa top once the King Alfred has silenced the enemy's surface-to-orbit guns. I will lead them down aboard El Cid with 1st Platoon. The Saints Charlemagne and Magnus will deliver the rest of the battalion. The Empress Catherine and the Vladimir Putin will drop Austros' 1st Battalion."

Colonel L'Amour clicked the remote. The hologram ballooned again, displaying a close-up of the mesa, sitting, it seemed at the center of a web of fissures.

"This base sits in the center of a vast network of tunnels that stretch more than halfway around the planet," the colonel continued. "Notice anything peculiar about these tunnels?"

I knew next to nothing about mining, but the web of squiggly lines radiating out from the underground base looked a lot more organic than I would have imagined they should for those produced by mining operations.

"Those tunnels were dug by ore wyrms," Barrel-chested Lieutenant, Breck Sheed said from a few rows ahead of me. I noticed several heads scattered throughout the deck nodding in agreement. Most of us however looked around with clueless expressions.